Chapter Sixty: Pursuit

In the apocalypse, survival was already nearly impossible for humans, let alone for women. It was rumored that in the first three days after the world ended, the crime rate soared to a staggering one thousand percent. No one cared for the law anymore—people did as they pleased, abandoning all sense of principle and morality. In the days to come, women would become little more than commodities, possessions to be traded at will, forced to pay any price for even a scrap of food or resource.

It was even more so for beautiful women now. There was one such woman—her boots blazed scarlet, a matching red whip hung at her waist, and her entire outfit was the color of flame. Her long hair, equally fiery, radiated a wild and violent aura, half veiling her face and leaving only her finely chiseled features exposed. The motorcycle beneath her roared, its engine echoing her presence.

“That’s the Jeet Kune Do senior…” Suddenly, Fu Gaobin muttered beside him.

“You know her?” Through his zombie’s eye, Yang Fan saw that this woman was, surprisingly, a level five professional, and no weakling at that. If they could bring her into their team, she’d be a formidable ally.

“I do. She was on my school team—a Jeet Kune Do senior. I heard she’s incredibly strong. Someone once tried something on her, and she broke three of his bones. She’s not someone to mess with,” Fu Gaobin replied.

“Do you think we could recruit her?”

“Better not… With someone like her around, we’d be hard-pressed to do half the things we want.” Fu Gaobin waved his hands in immediate refusal.

“Alright then.” Hearing this, Yang Fan didn’t press the matter. He let the curtain fall, watching as the woman rode away with her roaring machine. Once the sound had faded, Fu Gaobin finally let out a breath, muttering, “That woman’s savage. If we managed to find a few girls on the road to warm our beds and she found out, she’d beat us for sure.”

Yang Fan was speechless at Fu Gaobin’s words. The man was truly incorrigible.

Once she’d left, Yang Fan and Fu Gaobin continued eating, each lost in their thoughts. Since starting over from his last save, Yang Fan had already changed his fate. He’d waited seven days, hiding all the women inside the Ladies' Portrait, which had also swallowed up many of his resources. Then he’d run into the Tiger Gang, and soon after, the Baisheng Supermarket incident had triggered a monstrous beast tide.

Everything—absolutely everything—had shifted because of his actions.

Now, on the afternoon of the tenth day since the end began, he’d reunited with an old friend. Next, they’d head to Clear Jade Lake to escape Nancheng City and make for Tiannan City...

Their route mapped out, Yang Fan finished eating. After a contented cigarette with Fu Gaobin, the two of them set off.

—

The moment they stepped outside, the cold grew sharper. Luckily, both were dressed warmly, and with their strength, Yang Fan barely felt the chill. Fu Gaobin, however, shivered slightly.

“We’d better find a motorbike or something. Otherwise, walking is out of the question—not to mention the snow, and what if we run into one of those terrifying beasts or zombies?” Fu Gaobin pointed out.

“Do you know where we could find one?” Yang Fan asked. He didn’t know the area, and Fu Gaobin shook his head. Thus, the two trudged on, hoping to stumble across a vehicle—otherwise, Fu Gaobin’s fears would soon become reality.

Corpses littered the ground here and there. Zombies were attracted by sound and scent, but the howling wind covered theirs, sparing them from being surrounded most of the time. If a stray zombie did appear, Fu Gaobin dispatched it in a few swift spear thrusts.

“You should aim for the head—that’s how you guarantee a kill,” Yang Fan advised. He noticed Fu Gaobin’s attacks were mostly to the limbs or torso, only disabling the zombies rather than truly finishing them.

“The head, huh?” Fu Gaobin scratched his own. Just then, as Yang Fan finished speaking, a zombie staggered from the shadows—slow, filthy, a chunk of flesh torn from its chest, its once-red blood now coal-black.

With a burst of speed, Fu Gaobin lunged, his spear glimmering with energy as it punctured the zombie’s skull. The creature collapsed instantly.

“Damn, it really works!” Fu Gaobin crowed with delight. Until now, he’d simply hacked away at zombies until they dropped. This clean, effortless kill thrilled him.

Watching Fu Gaobin caper in glee, Yang Fan could only sigh. After the apocalypse began, most people’s fear of zombies came from the unknown. By the time humanity figured out how to fight back, mutant beasts and the insect horde had already descended, plunging people into constant peril.

Safely traversing the street under Fu Gaobin’s self-proclaimed “protection,” they soon encountered a group of refugees. Two men led the way, running hard with snow piled high on their shoulders, followed by three women dressed stylishly but now frantic with fear. Behind them thundered a rampaging demon rat.

“Run!” Fu Gaobin immediately grabbed Yang Fan and sprinted away. The ground trembled with each pounding step of the demon rat, its massive, black-furred body the size of a car. Roaring, it seized one of the women with a swipe of its claws.

“Help me! Ah! Help!” she screamed, terror etched across her face—until the demon rat crushed her body. Bones cracked audibly, blood bubbled from her lips, and her skull was devoured in a single bite.

The remaining survivors were petrified, not daring to look back. It was like the old joke—the tiger only catches the slowest. Their only thought was to run, to run for their lives, ignoring the cold in their all-consuming panic.

If you didn’t run, you died.

Fu Gaobin dragged Yang Fan onward, cursing those behind them. There was no way he could fight the demon rat—it meant certain death. He’d seen too many people die at the beast’s jaws to even contemplate resistance. The mere sight of the demon rat’s corpse had once made him tremble uncontrollably.

He harbored a deep, instinctive terror of the demon rat.

Everyone ran for their lives. Fu Gaobin dove into a corner, and several others followed.

“Get lost! Why are you following me?” Fu Gaobin swore at them. The demon rat was after them—if they kept dragging him along, they’d only get him killed.

But the others didn’t care. They just wanted to survive.

The demon rat roared, charging into the narrow alleyway—only to get stuck.

(After watching the S3 tournament all day… Well, from the start it looked like the Royals wouldn’t win, and in the end, the upset didn’t happen. Still, hats off to our team—next year, we’ll fight again! Go China!)