What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH106-108

Chapter 106 | Chapter 107 | Chapter 108

Chapter 106: Your Brother-in-Law’s Secret

The scavengers shamelessly eyed Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting’s gear. Their greed was palpable, especially when they spotted Xiao Yue’s high-tier equipment and the handful of premium crystal cores tucked into his backpack.

Every single piece of gear on him was top-of-the-line, easily worth a small fortune. His tactical bulletproof vest alone was an absolute treasure. They hadn’t expected these two to be carrying such incredibly valuable loot.

This was a fat sheep just waiting to be slaughtered at the final moment.

Combined with the massive haul they had just plundered from the base, they wouldn’t have to worry about food, water, or ammunition for at least a year—maybe even the next ten!

The thugs exchanged knowing, sinister glances. They were just about to make their move.

Unexpectedly, a bloodcurdling scream echoed from behind them.

“Ah! Something’s wrong! There’s a problem!!!”

The leader of the group spun around, scowling in absolute annoyance. “Damn it, what are you screaming about? Keep your voice down before you draw the zombies over…”

But when he looked back, he froze. The crates of equipment and weapons they had just transported out of Base Three were suddenly emitting thick, toxic black smoke.

One of his men was already rolling on the muddy ground in agony, frantically clawing at his eyes.

The leader stared in disbelief for a few seconds before violently kicking the screaming man aside. “What the hell is going on? Did one of you trigger something? If I find out you idiots messed with the stash, I’ll kill you myself!”

“We didn’t do anything! I swear!” another thug panicked. “When we hauled it out of the base, we wrapped it up tight with tarps. Nobody has touched it since!”

“Fuck, move out of the way. Let me look.”

The leader pushed past them, ripping the heavy tarp back to inspect the stuffed crates and duffel bags. He scanned the pile and growled, “What the hell is wrong with it? If you’re just making a fuss over nothing, I’m going to beat the life out of you.”

The man writhing on the ground finally managed to gasp, pointing a trembling finger at the bags. “Boss! There’s really something wrong! There’s something inside… there’s something inside!”

In the very next second, the looted supplies violently exploded.

It happened in a split second—so fast that no one had time to react.

A column of crimson, supernatural fire erupted nearly ten meters into the air, instantly igniting the surrounding tree canopy. The heavy rain was utterly useless against the raging inferno.

Xiao Yue violently shoved Pei Yanting and the rest of his team back. Since they were standing at a distance, they were only hit by the residual shockwave and the intense heat of the blast. Furthermore, Xiao Yue’s reflexes were razor-sharp; the moment he saw the black smoke, he knew a trap had been sprung and braced for impact. Thanks to his quick thinking, none of the S1 operatives were injured.

The scavengers harboring bad intentions, however, weren’t so lucky. Standing right inside the blast radius, they were instantly incinerated.

The lone survivor desperately tried to crawl out of the inferno, but the flames seemed almost sentient. The fire clung to him like a living entity, refusing to be extinguished no matter how hard he thrashed in the mud.

Pei Yanting quickly analyzed the scene. “This is a fire-element ability. And based on the sheer intensity, it’s from a top-tier user.”

Xiao Yue frowned deeply. “Who inside that base commands an ability like that?”

Pei Yanting mentally filtered through her intelligence reports. Slowly, she raised her head, her face pale.

“He’s also a dual-ability user.”

“What?” Xiao Yue asked.

The horrifying realization finally dawned on her. Her lips trembled, reluctant to admit the truth, but she forced the words out. “Xiao Yue, I think… we’ve all been played.”

Ten kilometers away, standing atop the central command tower of Base Three, Duan Xiaolin stepped calmly to the edge of the roof. He was dressed in an immaculate, cold suit, carrying a sleek black briefcase in his hand.

Beside him, Ling Lang finally lowered his hands, having remotely manipulated his fire ability until the very last scavenger in the distant woods was reduced to a charred corpse.

Turning around, Ling Lang smirked. “Brother, nobody escaped. You predicted it perfectly. They headed straight into the woods to group up with Xiao Yue and that woman.”

Anyone who dared to steal from their base was simply signing their own death warrant.

Duan Xiaolin placed the briefcase flat on a table. He quickly entered the passcode, and the locks clicked open.

If Pei Xiqing had been present, she would have instantly recognized this case—it was the exact same one Duan Xiaolin and Ling Lang had exchanged during their very first meeting in the wasteland.

Inside the briefcase was a concentrated viral strain.

Ling Lang stared at the contents. “All essential personnel have been successfully evacuated. The only people remaining inside the base are those already infected with the virus.”

“Roughly how many?” Duan Xiaolin asked.

“Ten thousand.”

The man’s cold expression didn’t shift in the slightest. He calmly averted his gaze. “Leave no loose ends.”

“Understood.”

Ling Lang nodded. He looked down over the edge, watching the chaos unfold below as the zombie virus ravaged the base. Countless infected broke free from their containment cages, viciously turning on their former captors in a bloody wave of retaliation. Ling Lang gripped a vial of anti-virus serum tightly in his hand, his eyes slowly locking onto Xia Jingyu, who was lying wounded amidst the approaching horde.

“No one escapes.”

From a distance, Pei Xiqing watched as the base’s absolute defense system unexpectedly shut down. While she couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer power of the male protagonist’s plot armor, a deep knot of worry for Duan Xiaolin and Ling Lang tightened in her chest.

It seemed that the rest of their forces had evacuated in an orderly fashion, but there was still no word from those two.

Inside the off-road vehicle, Long Yan finished barking orders into her comms unit. She stepped out of the car, looking perplexed. “The defense grid has been completely disarmed. How did you pull that off?”

“I didn’t do it,” Pei Xiqing said, shaking her head. “Someone else had the means to bypass it.”

“Who?”

“Xiao Yue.”

“Him?” Long Yan looked genuinely surprised. She hadn’t pegged Xiao Yue as someone capable of such a ruthless, wide-scale maneuver. He always carried himself with a sickeningly righteous aura, but underneath it all, he was clearly brimming with sinister schemes. Sometimes, the people who appeared the most normal on the surface were actually the most twisted.

“I remember hearing that one of his relatives was a lead architect for the fortress,” Pei Xiqing explained. “He must have had access to the original blueprints, maybe even backdoors that no one else knew about.”

Long Yan chuckled. “No wonder you know so much about the base’s vulnerabilities. It seems you dug up quite a bit of your brother-in-law’s dirty laundry during your time with S1.”

“Brother-in-law?” Pei Xiqing let out a dry laugh, her tone perfectly calm. “He doesn’t count.”

Pei Yanting had probably severed their sisterly ties a long time ago anyway.

A few moments later, more zombies began to shamble into the area. Prioritizing their safety, Long Yan quickly got back into the driver’s seat and sped off into the night.

The moment she settled into the passenger seat, Pei Xiqing felt a sudden, sharp spasm in her chest. She subconsciously covered her mouth, twisting around to look back at the fortress.

The raging fires in the distance had dimmed significantly, replaced by a heavy, unsettling silence.

Long Yan glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just… the Qiong Snake feels incredibly anxious,” Pei Xiqing murmured. “It keeps trying to break free from my body, but its energy is too weak to actually leave.”

“The Qiong Snake? Brother Duan’s ability?”

“Yeah.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “It was acting completely restless just now. It feels like it’s desperately trying to return to its original host.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.” She continued staring out at the fading silhouette of the base.

Xiao Yue couldn’t die. She didn’t know if he had infiltrated the fortress by now, or what would happen if his invincible protagonist aura clashed directly with Duan Xiaolin.

Chapter 107: Where Is Your Superpower?

The deadly virus was injected straight into the air, spreading with terrifying velocity.

It swept across the base with the unstoppable force of a biblical plague, reducing everything in its path to ashes. Those infected by the specialized strain ran through the streets, screaming in agony before rapidly mutating into something far more horrifying than ordinary zombies—mindless, walking corpses that instantly turned on each other, devouring their own kind.

Xiao Yue clenched his fists tightly. His knuckles were bruised and stained with blood. It belonged to the man standing calmly in front of him—the high and mighty Chief Judge.

The man simply stood there, bathed in the flickering orange light of the distant fires, and raised a hand to casually wipe a thin trail of blood from the corner of his mouth.

Staring at Xiao Yue, a faint, chilling smile curled his lips.

“You aren’t even human!” Xiao Yue roared.

During his brutal captivity at Base Three, Xiao Yue had been treated as little more than a disposable lab rat for their research. He had been exposed to the dark, horrifying experiments conducted in the fortress’s underbelly and had recently uncovered the existence of the sprawling underground black market.

There was a mastermind behind all of it, and every single scrap of evidence he had managed to piece together pointed directly at this man.

Ten minutes ago, as the siege began, Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting had realized the horrifying truth: this man’s ultimate objective had always been the complete eradication of Base Three.

Despite holding a supreme position of power, Duan Xiaolin had never cared about this peripheral fortress. He merely intended to use Xiao Yue and his insurgent forces to trigger the destruction of the base, neatly shifting the blame onto them while he directed the entire massacre from the shadows.

They had all been played.

This man was actively aiding and abetting the apocalypse. He had allowed the mutant horde to be smuggled into the base, using both the infected and his fellow humans as test subjects for his own selfish, twisted agenda. Every single atrocity had been carried out with his silent approval.

The moment Xiao Yue breached this command sector, he watched in horror as Duan Xiaolin ordered his operatives to disperse the synthetic virus, ruthlessly destroying all remaining corpses and evidence throughout the base without a shred of hesitation.

Xiao Yue’s eyes were bloodshot with fury.

Driven by sheer rage, he had gathered every ounce of his strength and launched a desperate, ferocious attack, managing to land a solid punch directly on the Chief Judge’s face.

He had assumed a man of Duan Xiaolin’s caliber would easily dodge the strike, but to his absolute shock, the man hadn’t even tried. He genuinely possessed zero combat abilities.

“You are a heinous, unforgivable bastard!” Xiao Yue spat, though landing the punch offered him no relief. He kept his fists raised, glaring at the man with righteous indignation.

Duan Xiaolin didn’t look the least bit surprised by his sudden appearance.

He calmly raised a hand, stopping Ling Lang from launching a lethal counter-attack. Adjusting his suit jacket, he simply asked, “Who fed you that specific narrative?”

Xiao Yue scoffed coldly. “Did you really think I’d just sit around waiting to be tortured in your labs the entire time I was a prisoner?”

“The church?”

Xiao Yue’s eyes widened slightly. “You…!”

Duan Xiaolin’s tone remained perfectly flat. “That encounter at the church wasn’t a coincidence. You didn’t just ‘happen’ to run into Pei Xiqing. You orchestrated the intersection, deliberately caused a scene, and spouted a bunch of inexplicable nonsense solely to divert my attention.”

Xiao Yue fell completely silent.

He didn’t offer a single word of denial.

The moment he locked eyes with Duan Xiaolin, he felt a terrifying, paralyzing sensation—the absolute certainty that this man could see straight through his soul, dissecting his every thought.

Those deep green eyes remained unsettlingly calm and composed.

Duan Xiaolin continued to systematically dismantle him. “Xiao Yue. According to your home city’s population registry, you were officially recorded as deceased—torn apart by a zombie horde. Yet, somehow, you miraculously awakened an elemental ability and survived. For reasons unknown to the general public, you abandoned your original survivor camp and were later rescued by your uncle. He just so happened to grant you access to the top-secret architectural blueprints of Base Three, alongside the classified methods for crafting high-tier tactical gear.”

He took a slow step forward. “Along your journey, you effortlessly slaughtered high-tier mutants, securing premium crystal cores to forge a set of god-tier equipment for yourself. Then, you ‘coincidentally’ reunited with Pei Yanting on the road. With the help of such a capable lieutenant, you possess the sheer firepower to single-handedly exterminate an entire city of the infected. You command divine-tier weapons and possess the incredibly rare talent of dual elemental abilities. Yet, you chose to play the fool, hiding your strength while infiltrating this base as a nameless, disposable pawn.”

He pinned Xiao Yue with a freezing stare, piercing straight through the protagonist’s plot armor. “What is your ultimate objective?”

“Don’t tell me you harbor some grand delusion of rebuilding this apocalypse and crowning yourself king?” Duan Xiaolin mocked, his voice dripping with icy disdain.

Xiao Yue felt as though he had been vivisected in public. His facial expression completely fractured, unable to maintain its righteous facade for several agonizing seconds.

Suddenly, he threw his head back, his eyes burning. “What right does the Chief Judge have to criticize my ambitions?! Anyone who laughs at another man’s dream will inevitably pay the price!”

“Dream.” The man repeated the word with a lethal sneer.

He stared at Xiao Yue with suffocating aggression. “How does a coward who abandoned a defenseless girl to a zombie horde—fleeing with his entire team to save his own skin—possess the moral high ground to preach to me about ‘dreams’?”

Xiao Yue immediately realized what he meant. “You’re talking about Pei Xiqing? She was already bitten! If we hadn’t left her behind, were we supposed to just sit there and let her infect the rest of the squad?!”

“You clearly understand the cold logic of survival,” Duan Xiaolin murmured. “So why are you playing the hypocrite now?”

Xiao Yue choked on his own defense. He looked back at the burning base, entirely speechless for a moment.

While he hesitated, Duan Xiaolin closed the distance, grabbed Xiao Yue by the collar, and delivered a brutal, punishing punch straight to his jaw.

Duan Xiaolin’s expression turned violently dark. “I’ve heard about your ‘legendary’ exploits for a long time.”

He stared down at Xiao Yue’s bruised, bleeding face with quiet intensity.

In a normal timeline, an ordinary survivor would never be able to secure those specific assets in a single lifetime. So how the hell did Xiao Yue acquire them so effortlessly?

The sheer volume of premium crystal cores and god-tier weapons he possessed was a glaring anomaly that defied all logic.

“Where exactly were you deployed five days ago?” Duan Xiaolin demanded softly.

“…Five days ago?” Xiao Yue stammered, wiping blood from his chin. “Why are you asking? What does that have to do with you? Back then, I had barely awakened my abilities! I was just trying to contribute whatever small strength I had to the fortress.”

“Really?” Duan Xiaolin sneered. “Because the tactical logs from that specific battle indicate a vanguard captain deserted his post.”

Xiao Yue’s eyes widened in sheer panic, but he quickly scrambled to cover it up. “I… I don’t understand what you mean.”

“That coward’s desertion instantly broke the defensive line, trapping his entire unit and leaving an entire settlement stranded, waiting to be slaughtered.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Xiao Yue yelled.

Duan Xiaolin’s eyes narrowed into lethal slits, locking onto him like a venomous snake preparing to strike. “Are you aware that after that deserter fled the field, the final perimeter fell? That entire city was overrun. It was filled entirely with the elderly, the sick, women, and children.”

Xiao Yue violently shook off Duan Xiaolin’s grip. Enraged and cornered, he clenched his fist and swung hard.

His fist crackled with raw, untamed lightning. Both of his dual supernatural abilities erupted simultaneously, hurtling with devastating force straight toward Duan Xiaolin’s chest.

Ling Lang moved in a blur, intercepting the strike just in time. His own dual abilities flared to life, violently clashing against Xiao Yue’s energy.

The two men engaged in a blistering, high-speed brawl.

Blow for blow. Strike for strike.

Pushed to the absolute brink in this life-or-death struggle, Xiao Yue’s latent potential seemed to explode. Bolstered by the immense power of his god-tier equipment, he actually managed to fight the elite Ling Lang to a standstill.

After several brutal exchanges, Xiao Yue slipped through Ling Lang’s guard, landing a crushing punch directly on his chest. Ling Lang staggered back several steps, a deep frown creasing his face.

This bastard is getting stronger as the fight drags on, Ling Lang realized, feeling himself gradually being pushed into a disadvantage.

Who the hell is backing him? How does his combat comprehension scale this fast?

With every clash, Xiao Yue’s supernatural energy reserves seemed to multiply.

Duan Xiaolin stood silently behind Ling Lang. He slowly clenched his hands into tight fists behind his back.

He applied pressure, feeling the dormant energy thrum, before slowly releasing it.

Some things in this universe are simply destined to be mathematically impossible to override.

He reached out, pulling Ling Lang back from the engagement. “Stand down. His biological architecture is fundamentally different from a standard ability user.”

Ling Lang had already calculated that fact.

Ordinary ability users relied entirely on their natural awakening to generate power; crystal cores only provided a meager ten percent boost to their overall output.

But Xiao Yue’s supernatural talent was completely maxed out, and the absorption rate of the high-tier crystal cores he possessed was heavily exaggerated by his plot armor. Half of his output was raw talent; the other half was fueled entirely by those auxiliary cores. He was a disgustingly rare, impossibly lucky genius.

But Ling Lang wasn’t afraid in the slightest. He wiped a streak of blood from his cheek, straightened his posture, and aggressively raised his middle finger at the protagonist. “You think I’m scared of a glowing freak?”

Xiao Yue was practically vibrating with adrenaline, his god-tier equipment emitting a blinding, brilliant golden aura. “Come on then! Who’s afraid of who?!”

Compared to a hardened veteran like Ling Lang, Xiao Yue fought exactly like an indestructible cockroach—the more damage he took, the more absurdly courageous and powerful he became.

Ling Lang surged forward, and the two clashed again in a chaotic flurry of elemental blasts and brutal physical strikes.

Xiao Yue could feel the raw supernatural power flooding his veins, growing more abundant by the second. Under the intense pressure of the battle, his two distinct elemental abilities were rapidly merging, inching closer and closer to absolute perfection.

With a deafening crack of energy, Xiao Yue delivered a supernaturally charged roundhouse kick, sending Ling Lang crashing heavily to the ground.

Ling Lang sprang back to his feet in an instant, shaking out his numb, tingling hands.

He spat a curse into the mud. “What a complete waste of energy. Damn it, there’s a serious glitch with this kid’s baseline. His luck is just too freakishly good.”

During that last exchange, Xiao Yue had actually managed to perfectly conceal a surge of his supernatural power.

Ling Lang’s final counter-strike had missed by a fraction of an inch.

Xiao Yue stood frozen for a few seconds, seemingly stunned by his own success, before a triumphant smirk spread across his face. He stared down at his glowing hands.

His abilities had officially broken through to the next tier.

He was stronger than ever.

Brimming with arrogance, he turned his glowing eyes toward Duan Xiaolin. “Well, Chief Judge? Where are your grand supernatural powers? Are you too terrified to fight me yourself?”

Chapter 108: She Knows How to Love Herself

Ling Lang figured Xiao Yue was just spouting too much arrogant nonsense. He stood up straight, rolling his shoulders and stretching his sore muscles. Then, he surged forward, delivering a brutal, heavy punch straight into Xiao Yue’s armored chest.

Seeing the protagonist stagger back two steps, Ling Lang sneered. “I’m your opponent right now. Why are you running your mouth so much? What, lacking confidence in your own abilities?”

Xiao Yue wiped a smear of blood from his armor and stared at him. “Captain Ling Lang, if you turn back from this path of mistakes now, there is still a chance for you.”

His eyes shifted, clearly referring to Duan Xiaolin. “You have completely failed to realize that the man you are following is not the righteous leader you imagine him to be.”

“If you want to fight, fight. Stop spewing garbage.” Ling Lang was completely out of patience.

Xiao Yue clenched his fists, locking eyes with him. “Captain Ling Lang, you are no match for me. I don’t want to hurt you. My only goal is to settle the score with the Chief Judge.”

“Settle the score?” Ling Lang barked a harsh laugh. “Do you even have the qualifications to try?”

“You—!”

Xiao Yue took a deep breath, forcing down the surging anger in his chest. Throughout his life in the apocalypse, he had grown accustomed to being looked down upon and mocked. He could tolerate Ling Lang’s sarcastic remarks.

But Ling Lang was absolutely not an opponent he could take lightly. Not only was he ruthlessly sharp-tongued, but his mastery over dual elemental abilities made him the first opponent in a very long time capable of fighting Xiao Yue to a complete standstill.

Accepting the reality of the situation, Xiao Yue threw himself back into the fray, clashing violently with Ling Lang.

During a brutal exchange, Ling Lang took a heavy hit. He stumbled back two steps, clutching his chest. Just as he was gathering his energy to lunge forward again, a firm hand clamped down on his shoulder.

He turned his head. “Brother.”

“You need to evacuate first,” Duan Xiaolin ordered softly.

“If we’re leaving, we leave together.”

Duan Xiaolin’s voice remained perfectly calm. “There are countless infected lurking in the perimeter shadows. If we don’t break through and link up with the main extraction force immediately, neither of us will escape.”

A single sentence was enough to snap someone awake from a fever dream.

Xiao Yue was also suddenly jolted out of his haze of hatred and resentment.

He quickly scanned the perimeter. Even without visual confirmation, his heightened senses could easily detect the presence of a massive, terrifying horde of infected waiting silently in the darkness. There was no sound of breathing, but the sheer, suffocating pressure of countless monstrous entities closing in was undeniable.

Xiao Yue immediately drew a heavy tactical weapon from his backpack and opened fire on the encroaching zombies.

In just a few rapid, controlled bursts, he had shredded the immediate vanguard of the infected pushing toward him.

Ling Lang and Duan Xiaolin moved just as quickly.

Although Duan Xiaolin possessed zero active elemental abilities, his raw physical combat proficiency was terrifyingly high. Xiao Yue watched in grudging awe as the man moved with fluid, lethal precision through the chaotic swarm, gripping a tactical blade and smoothly slicing his way through the rotting mass.

Because Xiao Yue was completely decked out in god-tier armor and wielding high-end weaponry, many of the lower-tier zombies instinctively registered him as an impenetrable threat and detoured around him.

As a direct result, the vast majority of the surging horde bypassed Xiao Yue entirely, swarming fiercely around Duan Xiaolin and Ling Lang instead.

Suddenly, Ling Lang violently spat out a mouthful of dark blood. He dropped to one knee, gripping his assault rifle tightly, his bloodshot eyes glaring at the endless tide of infected pouring toward them like a colony of man-eating ants.

With a dark sneer, he surged back to his feet, rushing to Duan Xiaolin’s flank to obliterate a cluster of mutants. “Brother, hurry up and break through! I’ll hold the line here!”

The rest of Franlun’s elite operatives had already deployed toward the capital headquarters, their sole priority being the protection and safe transport of Pei Xiqing and Long Yan. Duan Xiaolin and Ling Lang’s original extraction route had been completely severed by the idiot Xiao Yue’s interference.

If everything had gone according to the original tactical plan, they would have already evacuated the sector safely and reunited with the convoy.

Duan Xiaolin smoothly tossed a fresh sidearm to Ling Lang. “You cannot handle this density of infected alone. Right now, you are the only one with the raw elemental output capable of blasting a hole through this encirclement.”

“Brother!”

“Go.” Without a shred of hesitation, the man shoved Ling Lang forcefully toward the weakest point in the horde’s perimeter.

Ling Lang stumbled backward from the violent push. By the time he regained his balance, he had already been shoved clear of the most dangerous concentration of the horde. Boiling blood bubbled in the back of his throat. He looked over and saw Xiao Yue practically escaping unscathed, thanks to his absurd plot armor. A vein throbbed violently in Ling Lang’s forehead.

This bastard’s gear is genuinely a cheat code.

Xiao Yue, carrying his heavy weapons, had already retreated to a relatively secure elevation. Seeing Ling Lang covered in blood and struggling, he hesitated for exactly two seconds before calling out. “Captain Ling Lang, if you abandon that corrupt judge right now and join my vanguard, I might consider providing cover fire to save you.”

His S1 team was desperately in need of elite talent. Ling Lang was a combat genius with overwhelming supernatural power. If he joined their ranks, he could easily command a full division.

Ling Lang cleanly decapitated three approaching zombies, viciously kicked their twisting bodies aside, and looked up at the elevated ruins.

“Xiao Yue,” he spat, his voice dripping with pure disgust, “you… are such a fucking idiot.”

Xiao Yue’s lips pressed into a tight line. “I was genuinely offering to save your life, but you refuse to recognize what’s good for you. I gave you a chance.”

“A chance?” Ling Lang smiled darkly. “Alright. Come down here, then.”

Incredibly, Xiao Yue believed him.

He took a single step forward.

Before his boot even hit the ground, the muzzle of Ling Lang’s rifle was aimed dead at his forehead. In the next microsecond, Xiao Yue’s body was violently yanked backward by a sudden, invisible force, sending him tumbling right back into the peripheral tide of zombies.

“You—!” Xiao Yue roared.

Ling Lang smirked coldly. “I’m not letting you walk away cleanly, especially not after you have the nerve to threaten me.”

If the bastard didn’t want to save him, he shouldn’t have offered. Playing the self-righteous savior mid-battle was nauseating. Ling Lang would rather watch Xiao Yue scramble for his life like a cowardly grandson. Asking for his loyalty in the middle of a warzone was just begging for a bullet.

Scrambling out of the mud, Xiao Yue fired wildly into the horde, managing to climb atop a ruined structure. The zombies swarming at the base of the concrete pillar didn’t dare climb toward him due to the heavy suppressing fire he was raining down, so they turned their attention back to the main targets in the courtyard.

Ling Lang fought with everything he had. The brutal duel with Xiao Yue moments earlier had severely depleted his elemental reserves. After holding the line against the relentless swarm for several agonizing minutes, his exhausted body finally gave out. He began to pitch forward, falling heavily toward the blood-soaked ground.

But just before he collapsed, a powerful, unyielding grip caught his arm and hauled him back up.

“Brother… I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect your flank,” Ling Lang rasped. His striking white hair was matted dark red with gore, and fresh blood continuously trickled from the corners of his mouth.

Duan Xiaolin’s expression was incredibly dark. He hoisted Ling Lang up by the tactical vest. “I gave you a direct order to leave.”

“I’m not leaving,” Ling Lang replied, his voice unwavering. “You were the one who pulled me out of the dirt years ago. I’m not abandoning you, even if I die here.”

Duan Xiaolin’s jaw tightened. “You have your own timeline to live. You don’t need to throw everything away for my sake.”

“If you die here,” Ling Lang countered, “what the hell happens to Pei Xiqing?”

Duan Xiaolin’s body went completely rigid. He tightened his grip, forcefully dragging Ling Lang forward through the encroaching dead. “Even if my timeline ends today, she will continue to live on perfectly fine. She knows exactly how to love and prioritize herself. You should learn from her example.”

“Does she actually love you?” Ling Lang asked bluntly.

Duan Xiaolin’s voice was perfectly calm. “I love her.”

That is enough.

Ling Lang suddenly burst into a loud, bloody laugh.

He pulled his arm free from Duan Xiaolin’s grip and straightened his spine. “Neither of us wants to abandon the other, and neither of us is willing to admit defeat. Why don’t we just carve our way out together?”

Duan Xiaolin understood the deeper implication behind his words. He replied expressionlessly, “Your statistical probability of surviving this is zero.”

Ling Lang shrugged carelessly. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

The man turned his head, smoothly executing three infected with precise shots, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his lips. “If you actually make it out of this alive, I’ll officially admit you still have potential.”

“Are you serious?”

“You’re acting somewhat like a real man today.”

“Brother, is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?”

Ling Lang forced a fresh surge of elemental power through his chest to stabilize his wounds. He raised his weapon. “Brother, since you’re operating without elemental powers, focus on clearing the immediate perimeter. Leave the distant swarm to me.”

“There are too many.”

They positioned themselves back-to-back.

A massive, endless tide of zombies continued to pour out of the darkness from every direction. The rot could never be completely eradicated.

“Compared to the war you commanded five years ago, this is just a minor skirmish, right?” Ling Lang joked grimly.

“It’s a pity my current system cannot execute the same maneuvers I deployed five years ago,” the man replied calmly.

“I’ll do my best to cover the gap.”

“Likewise.”

But the moment the words left his mouth, reality struck. Without an active elemental shield to protect his flanks, Duan Xiaolin was vulnerable. After flawlessly dispatching over a dozen infected charging from the right, a mutated stalker suddenly lunged from his blind spot.

Its razor-sharp, rotting nails slashed brutally across Duan Xiaolin’s arm, spraying a violent arc of blood into the air.

“Brother!”

The zombies surged forward in relentless waves, denying them even a microsecond to breathe.

Right as Ling Lang screamed, he was violently swallowed by a crushing tide of infected bodies. Pinning him to the ground, the horde completely isolated him. He could only watch in helpless, agonizing horror as Duan Xiaolin was gradually engulfed by the swarm, fresh, bloody wounds tearing across the man’s suit one after another.

In the distance, standing safely atop the ruined building, Xiao Yue watched the massacre unfold with cold indifference. After Ling Lang’s treacherous stunt, he had completely abandoned any thought of intervention, simply watching the horde tear the two men apart.

Deep within the swarm, a dark, sickly green light suddenly flared in the palm of Duan Xiaolin’s hand.

It flashed brilliantly for exactly one second before completely extinguishing.

Through the chaos, Duan Xiaolin met Ling Lang’s eyes. He mouthed a single word—“Go!”—as he violently gathered the absolute last, agonizing scrap of his dormant, mutated energy.

The dark green poison erupted outward like a spectral spider web. The moment even a single strand of the toxic energy touched the surrounding zombies, their movements became terrifyingly sluggish, rendering the ferocious mutants as slow and stiff as rusted machinery.

With his final action, he had forcibly carved out a microscopic, fleeting window—leaving Ling Lang one last, desperate chance to survive.

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