Chapter 25: Carelessness, Captured by Zhang Hu

There were four or five zombie corpses lying on the ground, and another five or six zombies wandering around further down the road. They must have chased after Liu Meng and the others and then stopped there. Judging by this, aside from herself, there shouldn’t be any other living people left in the gas station.

The zombies’ heads were still intact. Her eyes lit up as she quietly approached, chopped off the heads with her axe, and then used a small knife to dig into the foramen magnum, extracting four white cores and one blue water-element crystal core.

A pretty decent haul!

She tossed all the white cores to the farm for processing and stored the blue core in her warehouse. Glancing around, she saw quite a few abandoned cars. It would be a waste not to take one, but only the Sagitar was in good condition. She went over and found the key still in the ignition.

Murmuring an apology, she pulled the owner—still in a tattered suit and attached to his head—out of the car. Suddenly, her hand touched something hard. She fished it out and found a black remote key. Seeing there was already a key in the ignition, she pocketed the remote, removed the seat cushion, cleaned up a bit, expertly filled the tank, and got in.

She started the car, practiced driving forward and backward a bit, and as the engine noise attracted some zombies, she was just about to step on the gas when her expression suddenly froze as if she’d seen a ghost.

Two men opened the car doors and climbed in. The one in the passenger seat pressed a cold pistol to her temple and swept her small knife aside. “Drive!”

Bian Changxi glanced sideways at him.

Zhang Hu!

He hadn’t left after all. Lying in wait?

She pressed her lips together. The zombies were closing in, so she stepped on the gas, pulled the handbrake, did a drifting turn, knocked down two zombies that were flanking her, and sped onto the road.

“Head for the old city,” Zhang Hu ordered.

He was surprised by this girl’s driving skills—she clearly knew what she was doing.

He kept an eye on her, then tossed her hiking backpack from the passenger seat to his companion in the back. “Check it.”

The underling quickly rummaged through it. “Just food.”

Zhang Hu was a bit surprised. No weapons at all?

He glanced over, grabbed a carton of milk, had his man open it, and gulped down a big mouthful. He hadn’t drunk milk so freely since the apocalypse began. Liu Meng was always strict with food, but who knew how much he secretly kept for himself.

He asked, “You came out of the convenience store, but I searched it several times before and never saw you.”

Bian Changxi focused on driving.

The gun pressed harder against her temple, making the car swerve. She quickly steadied the wheel and said expressionlessly, “My ability is invisibility.”

Zhang Hu’s eyes lit up. “An ability? You have a power? Invisibility? You can really turn invisible?”

Bian Changxi looked at him with disdain.

Zhang Hu seemed to realize he was acting like an idiot and cleared his throat. “Why were you hiding?”

“You had a lot of people and didn’t look friendly. I just wanted to find some food and avoid trouble.”

“I saw someone on a motorcycle rush into the gas station earlier. Was that you? Where’s your bike? And what happened to the two missing fuel trucks?”

“That wasn’t me. I was in the convenience store the whole time. I saw someone come down from the road, but they disappeared in a flash. As for the fuel trucks, I have no idea. Why would I care about something you can’t eat?”

“What did that person look like?”

“I didn’t see clearly—the bike was too fast.”

Zhang Hu looked through the backpack again, then suddenly sneered and pressed the gun hard under Bian Changxi’s chin. “If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable! When did you enter the store? Why didn’t the zombies eat you? And if you were in there, why do you have so little food in your bag?”

Forced to tilt her head back painfully, Bian Changxi kept her eyes on the road as the car wobbled. “I’m driving!”

“Stop the car!”

She stopped. Zhang Hu’s underling got out, dragged her into the back seat, and took over driving. Zhang Hu yanked Bian Changxi’s short hair, pulled her close, and pressed the gun to her temple again. “Tell the truth. If you lie again, I’ll blow your brains out!”

Blow your brains out, my ass!

Bian Changxi was furious and also blamed herself for being careless.

Stealing the fuel truck was one mistake; walking out of the convenience store so rashly was another. She had underestimated her opponents’ patience, attention to detail, and cunning, and overestimated herself just because she was reborn.

She was also glad she hadn’t taken anything out of the farm in front of Zhang Hu—otherwise, the farm would be exposed… Well, maybe not. She could always claim to have a spatial ability, but then the fuel truck and motorcycle would be at risk.

She gritted her teeth and said, “I got to the store just a step ahead of the person on the motorcycle, snuck in while invisible. Zombies can’t sense me when I’m invisible. Why didn’t I get more food? Because you guys showed up right after. I didn’t have time.”

Zhang Hu seemed to accept this explanation. He asked, “What were you digging out of the zombies’ heads?”

Bian Changxi swallowed. Having to keep her head tilted back was really uncomfortable. “I saw someone dig something out of a zombie’s head once, so I wanted to try it myself.”

“What did you find?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Where is it?”

Bian Changxi reached for her jacket pocket.

“Don’t move, I’ll get it!” Zhang Hu barked.

Get it, my ass! I already put it in the farm.

Items could only be moved in and out through her left hand, and she couldn’t retrieve things out of thin air. She turned her left palm behind her and, with a thought, dropped three plain white crystal cores onto the seat. Zhang Hu found nothing in her pocket and snapped, “Where is it?”

Bian Changxi put on a surprised, nervous look. “How could that be? Maybe it fell out somewhere—my pockets are shallow.”

Zhang Hu eyed her. “Move aside.”

The three crystal cores were now visible.

Zhang Hu stared at them. He’d never seen anything like this before. Zombies actually grew these things in their heads? They looked like gemstones—must be valuable. “Quick! Hand them over!”

He let go of Bian Changxi and examined the crystals carefully, turning them in the light. Then he shot her a suspicious look. “Five zombies, but only three of these?”

“Two of them didn’t have any.”

Zhang Hu’s underling craned his neck to look. “Tiger, what are those things?”

“Just drive and mind your own business!” Zhang Hu pocketed the crystals. “We’ll show these to Meng-ge and see what he thinks.”

As if Liu Meng were some kind of elemental analyzer, Bian Changxi thought. But she knew Zhang Hu would just keep them for himself. Rubbing her bruised temple, she hid the cold glint in her eyes.

Should she take these two out?

Neither of them seemed to have powers. She could use her vines to grab the gun first, tie them up, and finish them off—shouldn’t be hard. The only risk was if they struggled and caused a crash.

She flexed her fingers, but just then a truck appeared around the corner ahead. Two men were in the cab. The Sagitar stopped, and the two men got out and walked over. “Tiger, you’re here.” They glanced at Bian Changxi. “You waited all this time just for this chick?”

She didn’t look like anything special. Well, she was pretty, but she looked like she barely weighed a hundred pounds.

Zhang Hu grinned at Bian Changxi. “Don’t underestimate her—she’s got powers.”

“A power user? Really? Like Meng-ge, who can make earth walls?” They looked at her with awe and excitement.

Zhang Hu felt a pang of jealousy. Just a few earth walls and they’re this impressed? Someday I’ll be even stronger.

He said, “She’s not an earth wall type—she can turn invisible. Right, uh… what’s your name?”

“My surname’s Li. Li Xin,” Bian Changxi lied.

“Oh, Miss Li.” Zhang Hu turned to his three underlings. “We’ll need her help when we go looking for supplies. Miss Li, you’ll help us out, right?”

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