Chapter 22: Disaster—How the Strong Are Forged

Bian Changxi nodded, but in her heart she was thinking: tomorrow, the poisonous zombies will make their appearance. If they act tomorrow, a single misstep could mean heavy casualties. But if they don’t leave tomorrow, the number of zombies will explode exponentially, and their chances will become even slimmer.

So many people missed their chance and ended up trapped and dying in this city. In her previous life, she managed to escape against all odds—no powers, no physical strength, and with teammates who made things difficult for her. Chen Yisha’s loyalty was one reason, but she had to admit, luck was also on her side.

Her gaze flickered, but she stayed silent.

Cheng Haijun saw she wasn’t moved and sighed. “Forget it. I can tell you have your own resources. Our team is just a bunch of classmates who happened to run into each other and formed a group—nothing but a ragtag bunch. Honestly, you might be in more danger sticking with us. Just be careful out there. Don’t worry about the car and weapons—I’ll have them returned to you right away. They weren’t always so aggressive, but the situation changed too suddenly and everyone panicked. Don’t take it to heart.”

Bian Changxi was a little surprised. Seeing the sincerity on Cheng Haijun’s face, she couldn’t help but think better of him. She smiled. “I know. It was mostly Zhang Yuwen and Wang Yan stirring things up, and I didn’t handle it well either.”

She pointed to her watch-like communicator. “Since Gu Xu gave you this as payment, and you’re just fulfilling your duty, you deserve to keep it. But I’m really interested in these two communicators. Could you let me have them? I don’t have anything to trade right now, but if you trust me, consider it a favor I owe you. How about that?”

“If you want them, take them. No need to talk about favors.” Cheng Haijun quickly handed her the remaining communicator, then held his pistol and bullets, hesitating for a moment before saying, somewhat troubled, “About Zhang Yuwen and Wang Yan… We ran into them while escaping from University Town. We’d met a few times at school events. They said the students from S University were spoiled and rude, couldn’t handle hardship, and liked to boss people around without knowing what they were doing. That’s why they asked to join us. I guess they thought we were worth teaming up with, even if they don’t always cooperate…”

Bian Changxi looked as if she’d heard a tall tale. “So what, they think they’re underappreciated geniuses?” She shook her head in disbelief. “With their backgrounds and brains, they’re bottom of the barrel at S University. Who are they to look down on others?”

So Zhang and Wang were actually pushed out by the S University crowd, not the other way around? Cheng Haijun was surprised. “But isn’t S University full of spoiled rich kids…?”

Realizing he’d put his foot in his mouth, he trailed off awkwardly. After all, Bian Changxi was from S University too.

“What’s wrong with being a ‘spoiled rich kid’?” Bian Changxi said indifferently. “Captain Cheng, you should know—there are a lot of students at school, but not that many turned into monsters. For the first two days, things were relatively safe. The ones who led the escape early on all had a strong sense of crisis—they predicted that a densely populated campus would be a disaster zone. How many people like that does your A University have? S University had dozens.”

She wasn’t talking about those who just followed along, but the ones who took charge and organized the first escape. They needed both leadership and foresight. As far as Bian Changxi knew, the senior who led her group out in her previous life was truly remarkable—she later heard he held a high position at the Su City base. And he’d been a notorious slacker before the apocalypse.

People always said S University was full of rich, useless kids, but in reality, among the heirs of family businesses and conglomerates, even if only one in ten was truly capable, their vision and intelligence far surpassed ordinary people. That’s why S University had the highest survival rate among the universities in University Town, and at the Su City base, they even formed a sizable organization. But that’s a story for another time.

Ten minutes later, Bian Changxi was riding her knockoff Yamaha out of the warehouse lot, under the watchful eyes of Zhang Yuwen’s cold glare, Wang Yan’s resentment, and the mixed looks of ridicule, worry, and longing from the others. She sped off into the blood-red sunset.

She raced past bloodstained bus stops, abandoned vehicles, smashed-up shops, and mangled corpses. Occasionally, she glimpsed people hurrying by or brushed past groups of zombies lurking in the shadows, but she didn’t slow down for a second. She sped toward Xinfeng Community, finally parking steadily beneath Building 5 just before the sun set completely.

Luckily, the warehouse wasn’t too far, and she was familiar with the area—otherwise, traveling at night would have been risky.

She got off the bike, took off her helmet, and ran her fingers through her messy hair while scanning her surroundings.

There were some changes in the neighborhood. First, there were more zombie corpses on the ground, with clear signs of human casualties. The green spaces were badly damaged, and some vehicles had been moved, their bodies dented and bloodstained.

It seemed some residents had ventured out during this time. Those who dared to go out first had gained experience, toughened themselves, and gathered information. They now had a firsthand understanding of the world’s brutality—an irreplaceable asset for their future. Those who kept hesitating and watching from the sidelines would only fall further behind. In the apocalypse, there are reasons why the strong become strong.

She looked up at the surrounding buildings. All the windows were tightly shut, curtains drawn so tightly that not a sliver of light escaped. But if you looked closely, you could see silhouettes standing behind many of the windows.

She pushed her bike slowly into the building, heading for a blind spot out of sight of windows and cameras. Glancing around, she placed her left hand on the bike’s front, and with a thought, her jade bracelet flashed with a barely noticeable cold light—the bike vanished into thin air.

Bian Changxi blinked, a satisfied smile curving her lips. She stowed her backpack into the jade bracelet as well, drew her straight blade, and cautiously climbed the stairs.

Luck was on her side—she made it from the first to the third floor without incident. Once inside apartment 303, she checked the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Finding nothing amiss, she finally let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the sofa.

The power had long since gone out, and the room was dark and silent. Bian Changxi, so hungry she could eat a horse, ignored her growling stomach and quickly took out the watch communicator, tuning it to the “Gu Team” contact and decisively sent a call request.

As the dial tone beeped, her heart started to race.

Putting everything else aside, standing at the forefront of the strong today, holding a key that could change his fate—this feeling was impossible to describe unless you’d lived it yourself.

After about three seconds, the call connected. A voice came through the watch: “Hello?”

Bian Changxi lowered her voice and asked, “Gu Xu?”

There was a brief silence on the other end, faintly punctuated by gunfire and zombie howls. Someone with a booming voice was shouting for cover—the situation sounded urgent. Bian Changxi frowned. Fighting with night falling—they must be in trouble. As she considered this, Gu Xu’s deep, powerful voice came through: “Yes, this is Gu Xu. Are you the girl from yesterday?”

His voice was just as she remembered—rich, resolute, with a hint of coldness. Memories from two timelines seemed to merge, creating a strange sense of impact.

She steadied herself, drawing on the confidence of someone who’d held power in her previous life, and said clearly, “That’s right. Captain Gu, your time is precious, so I’ll get straight to the point. I don’t like owing favors. You saved my life, so I’ll repay you. I have an interesting piece of intel that might be useful to you, but I want you to promise me first: no matter what happens, don’t investigate the source of this information, and don’t tell anyone it came from me.”

She made her intentions clear up front, afraid Gu Xu would hang up if he lost patience, and asked for a promise—this was the best way to make him take her words seriously.

With Gu Xu, beating around the bush would only get you shut down. Trying to be clever or ingratiating would leave a bad impression. Being direct and open would earn his respect.

Unlike her subtle warning to Cheng Haijun, telling Gu Xu about the poisonous zombies was a risk. If they ever met again, he’d definitely pay extra attention to her. Since that was the case, it was better to leave a good impression with the strongest than end up on his blacklist.

She held her breath, waiting for Gu Xu’s reply."