PSW - Chapter 95
Chapter 95
The return journey was far less eventful than the trip out. Zombies and mutated animals were still nowhere to be found. As for survivors… whether it was due to their route or something else, Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan didn't encounter many people.
They didn't encounter any bases, shelters, or even small camps.
It took them two days to get from Chuanyang to Qingye, and only one day to travel from Qingye to Lingxu. On the road from Lingxu to Fengxi, however, they ran into a squad of ability users. They appeared to be a wandering wasteland squad—seven people in total, driving two vans that held all their food, clothing, and supplies.
This encounter was no friendly meeting. They deliberately forced Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan's car to a stop in a brazen robbery attempt. They had their eyes on Zheng Yi's modified vehicle.
What surprised Yu Yinan was that there were actually two women among the squad members.
"Well now, two beauties. Why don't you hand over your car and supplies? After an assessment, we might even consider letting you join us." To her surprise, one of the female ability users chimed in with a smile. After sizing up Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan, she exchanged suggestive glances with the men beside her, and they all burst into a cheerful but malicious laugh. "Didn't Brother Liu say yesterday he wanted to try something fresh? Well, here you go! And there's even a tender little sister, too."
In the wasteland, ability users who robbed for both wealth and pleasure rarely stopped at just that. Especially when their targets were also ability users, they wouldn't risk leaving witnesses behind.
This group of people laughed wantonly, but Yu Yinan was fuming. Just as she condensed flames, ready to teach them a lesson, one of the male ability users actually pulled out a handgun.
"Don't move now. I wouldn't want this gun to go off by accident."
A gun.
Just one handgun? Zheng Yi glanced at their parked vans and raised a hand to press down on Yu Yinan's shoulder.
The scorching sun was high in the sky, but in that instant, a sun shower abruptly began to fall.
"Why is it raining?"
"Don't waste time. Hand over the car keys and surrender."
The group was clearly a bit confused, but when they saw Zheng Yi walk forward with a smile, the man with the gun felt his heart skip a beat for some reason. He jerked the muzzle toward Zheng Yi. "Don't move! Move again and I'll shoot!"
But Zheng Yi paid him no mind. She continued to approach them, her face still bearing a friendly, exceedingly gentle smile. Amid the silence and the pointed gun, under the unusual sun shower, the whole scene felt incredibly bizarre.
"Fuck!" the man suddenly cursed, as if he couldn't take it anymore. "Trying to play games with me?"
With a bang, the gun fired. The bullet perfectly missed Zheng Yi's body, only creating a divot in the ground. He had thought this would frighten her, but Zheng Yi was completely unaffected.
"Stop staring, use your abilities! Subdue them first!" The others dropped their smiles and went straight into combat mode. But the gunman, as if offended and provoked, lost his temper and pulled the trigger repeatedly at Zheng Yi.
Bang, bang, bang.
A series of bullets shot out. An ice wall instantly rose from the ground, and the bullets pierced through it in a flash…
…and clattered to the ground.
With a casual flick of her wrist, Zheng Yi sent out a high-pressure water blade. The moment the five bullets passed through the ice wall, the blade precisely sliced them in two, and the pieces clattered to the ground.
The man was stunned for a moment. He stared at the bullet-riddled ice wall, then at Zheng Yi's sweet smile after the wall dissipated. He looked into her dark eyes and saw her stretch her body slightly, her expression growing even more gentle and friendly.
"Well then~ Now, it's my turn, isn't it?"
Wherever the raindrops fell, Zheng Yi had complete control.
The "salvation" that followed need not be detailed. But as Yu Yinan meticulously controlled her flames to sear the skin off their helpless bodies, one of them, far from being moved by Zheng Yi's "salvation," roared in bitter indignation: "If we don't steal and rob, how the fuck are we supposed to survive! In this goddamn apocalypse, if we didn't do this, we'd have fucking died long ago!"
"We weren't as strong as you, we fucked up, I admit it. If you've got the guts, kill us with one blow and make it quick!"
"What fucking Saint? You're a fucking lunatic! A pervert! A demon!"
"Fucking ridiculous. You awaken an ability and you really think you're a god?"
"Just two people driving such a nice armored car, weren't you just deliberately baiting us to attack! Fucking hell!" As that person spoke, one of the female ability users also started cursing loudly. It was as if they could vent their pain through these curses, or perhaps they hoped to provoke Zheng Yi into giving them a quick end.
The moment she heard this, rage surged through Yu Yinan. The flames in her hand flared, and the intense heat instantly cauterized the wound on the person's severed arm.
"Oh yes~ How did you know?" Zheng Yi was completely unfazed. She even looked at them with delight, as if she'd found kindred spirits. Her smile grew even sweeter, her eyes curving into crescents, revealing two small dimples. "Such an obviously modified car is for fishing, of course~ It was specifically meant to hunt idiots like you~"
"Hee hee, I am a lunatic, a demon~ I don't care one bit how you survive. All I care about is… that you came to bring me some fun. That's just wonderful~"
"Let me think, I haven't had any fun for a whole week. If it weren't for you, I would have been bo~red~ to~ death~"
Her voice was sweet and soft, and she spoke these words as if she were pouting playfully. If you only looked at Zheng Yi's expression—her slightly shy and joyful smile as she spoke—you would never be able to connect those words to her.
"Come now~ my dear brothers and sisters~ Don't you want to live? You can't do that without eating~ Let me make you a dish of fresh intestine sashimi, shall I? Would you like it from a man's belly, or a woman's?"
"Ah~ I'll just make one of each then~ After all, there are so many of you, you can eat a little more~ This jiejie here, you're looking quite pale. Don't worry, after I'm done with the sashimi, I'll get you some kidneys to replenish your strength. I bet this guy's kidney function is pretty good. Eating them will surely be very nourishing for you."
"You two, you must be a couple, right? Aren't you curious what's really in each other's hearts? It's okay, I'll help you open them up and take a look."
Zheng Yi, the 【First-Class Chef】, 【Expert Anatomist】, 【Helpful Person】, and 【Beautiful and Kind-hearted Soul】, loved watching their expressions shift from resentment and cursing to terror, disgust, and fear. The sight of them losing themselves in extreme agony always made Zheng Yi recall the smug looks on their faces at the very beginning.
"Don't worry, you can live without intestines and kidneys. And even though I've taken out your hearts, I'm still healing you, aren't I? You should be able to stay alive to watch~" As if afraid they wouldn't have a good experience, Zheng Yi even took the time to soothe their emotions while she worked, assuring them that the upcoming experience would be absolutely perfect.
Death? What a beautiful thing.
Arriving in Fengxi, Yu Yinan sat in the passenger seat, toying with the silver handgun, taking the bullets out one by one and loading them back in. Just thinking about that group from the other day filled Yu Yinan with a sense of helplessness. Perhaps it was because all the women they had met on this trip had been particularly friendly, so the memory of the two female ability users in that squad always left her with a sense of disappointment.
Doing anything to survive? In the current wasteland, laws have collapsed, morals have crumbled…
"Jiejie, you don't need to overthink it," Zheng Yi said, completely unaffected. In any case, she had enjoyed herself that day and had also learned the limits of high-level healing.
Anyway, after digging out a heart, if you put it back in time, you could keep a person breathing with the help of healing. But if you crushed it and didn't put it back, even with constant healing, they would still die.
The brain was the same. With healing, you could perform a perfect craniotomy, but damage to the lobes was permanent; healing couldn't restore it. As for other, more detailed methods of "play"… we won't go into them here. After all, Zheng Yi is a gentle and kind person, and such overly bloody methods are not suitable for discussion.
"They ran into us, had malicious intentions, weren't strong enough, and died. It's that simple," Zheng Yi said with a smile. "It doesn't matter what they did to survive. What they did got in my way… so in that sense, they brought it on themselves~"
"As for the girls you're concerned about, Jiejie…" Zheng Yi looked at her. "Bad people don't have a gender."
"…Yes, I know." Yu Yinan pinched a bullet, skillfully disassembled the magazine, and then chambered a round. She had been playing with it the whole way, and although she hadn't fired it much, she was now completely familiar with loading it.
Perhaps it was because she always saw girls through a certain filter. When a girl did something wrong or went down the wrong path, she would always wonder if there were some hidden difficulties or extenuating circumstances behind it.
…Right. Bad people don't have a gender.
She stopped thinking about it and glanced at a street sign in Fengxi City. After a moment of thought, she said, "The apocalypse… it's been over five months."
Time really flies. It's almost been half a year in the blink of an eye. And she had spent most of that half-year with Zheng Yi. Before the apocalypse, it had been early summer.
Now…
"It's almost the New Year, isn't it?" Yu Yinan said softly. She couldn't even remember when the New Year was this year. True, it was the apocalypse; who had a calendar anymore? But the New Year… a new year, a new beginning, always held a beautiful meaning.
"Yeah, about that?" Zheng Yi replied. She thought for a moment before adding, "The New Year is early this year. By my calculations, it should be next month."
The seasons were in complete disarray. Extreme cold and high heat came and went in a flash. The temperature changes that should have taken a year were now experienced in less than six months.
"Next month?" Yu Yinan turned to look at Zheng Yi, who was still driving slowly through Fengxi City. "Actually, when I think about it, this year has been pretty good."
"I have you to spend the New Year with me." She was no longer alone, no longer working overtime during the holiday. She wouldn't be sitting by herself in an empty room, playing the New Year's Gala on a tablet without watching it, just to fill the silence and soak in a bit of the festive atmosphere.
Nor would she have to stay up alone past midnight, watching the countless lights, watching other families set off fireworks to mark the first moments of the New Year.
"…" Zheng Yi looked at her, thought for a moment about the atmosphere of the New Year in this world and what needed to be done… "Okay."
She promised.
Comments
Post a Comment