Apocalypse Survival Guide for a Beta [GB] - Chapter 24

After completing a simple resupply at the factory, the eight members of the team decided to scout Xihai City while it was still daylight. If the situation was too dangerous, they would consider taking an extra day to circle around the outskirts before heading to Tongtian Port.

They split into three groups with Zhou Yu and Song Yan forming one team, Zhu Liang, Wen Xiaxia, and Lu Jia forming another, while Lou Tiannan paired up with Lin Bai and Xi Ya.

Each group was equipped with a radio communicator.

After finalizing their plan, they headed off in three different directions, agreeing to meet back in an hour.

The city was filled with towering buildings, but not a single blade of grass grew. The streets were littered with the wreckage of aircraft and cars.

Dressed in durable combat suits and wearing specialized goggles equipped with thermal imaging and motion detection, they cautiously navigated the ruins.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Lin Bai’s eyes, hidden behind her goggles, were like high-precision scanners, recording everything in her field of vision.

Before the apocalypse, she had visited Xihai City a few times. Although the city had changed drastically from the bustling scene she remembered, the iconic buildings, signposts, and roads hadn’t changed much. The streets and structures quickly matched the scenes from her memory.

She followed Lou Tiannan closely, gradually completing the map of Xihai City in her mind.

After training her body for some time, Xi Ya was now able to keep up with the pace of the two adults. She was small, light on her feet, and very agile.

Surprisingly, there weren’t as many zombies in Xihai City as they had imagined. After entering, they barely saw anything moving for a long time, but they soon discovered the reason.

At a landmark square in Xihai City, piles of dead bodies were stacked up limbless, with their faces twisted and their flesh mangled, emitting a strong stench under the scorching sun. On closer inspection, unknown insects could be seen crawling over the mountain of corpses.

Lou Tiannan frowned at the sight. He turned and didn’t walk directly through the square but instead took a small path beside it. Not only was the pile of corpses revolting, but the square had no other cover, making it extremely unsafe for them. Furthermore, no one could guarantee whether the pile of corpses still harbored traces of the zombie virus.

After carefully bypassing the square, they had barely left the small path when Lou Tiannan stopped, pressing his hand on Xi Ya and signaling with his finger to indicate movement ahead.

Lin Bai reacted quickly, immediately retreating and pointing behind them.

The small path they had just walked through had a spiral-shaped seashell as a landmark, which they could use to hide.

The three of them quickly withdrew to the seashell, with Lin Bai slipping in first. As soon as she entered, she came face to face with a corpse. Before she could alert anyone, Xi Ya was pushed in by Lou Tiannan, and then Lou Tiannan followed quickly.

Xi Ya raised her head and saw a corpse with blood oozing from its seven orifices. She couldn’t help but open her mouth in surprise but was quickly silenced by Lou Tiannan’s palm, not making a sound.

After her initial shock, Xi Ya calmed down quickly, understanding that they must remain silent.

While the three of them were ‘getting along’ with the corpse, footsteps could be heard outside the seashell.

Lin Bai drew her black blade at her side and made two quick cuts on the seashell, leaving a small slit.

Through the slit, they saw four people walking past the square. Lou Tiannan immediately recognized one of the slightly muscular men as a murderer who had escaped before the apocalypse.

The rough voices of the four men talking seeped through the cracks and reached the ears of the three inside, “All the zombies in Xihai City were taken down and offered to Boss Qiu Tu. We’ve gone three days empty-handed. How are we supposed to report back to him?!”

“Keep searching. If we can’t find zombies, we can look for people instead. Zombies have crystal cores, but humans have meat. Boss Qiu Tu will be pleased either way!”

“Those people are all skin and bones, nothing but tough gristle. Boss Qiu Tu even said a few days ago not to bring him that garbage.”

“Then we do what Chang Ping did. Feed them human meat for a couple of days, fatten them up, and then slaughter them. Boss Qiu Tu will love it.”

“Good idea! Let’s keep an eye out these next few days. Someone might try to run toward the New City Safe Zone.”

One man scoffed, “Safe zone? What a joke. Sooner or later, Boss Qiu Tu will lead us to take down New City, and then the whole place will be our food supply!”

“Exactly! Hahaha!” Their laughter was wild and unrestrained.

Lou Tiannan’s eyes darkened.

All three of them were focused on the four men speaking outside. No one noticed that the long-dead corpse inside the seashell shell was beginning to sway. Likely due to its age, brittle bones, and lack of support, it teetered on the edge of collapse. Lin Bai was the first to notice and quickly reached out to grab its collar. Lou Tiannan also lifted a leg to brace against the corpse’s shoulder.

And then—

The corpse’s head fell off.

Thud.

Silence filled the seashell.

“What was that?”

The four men outside, who were about to leave, suddenly halted. Their sharp eyes turned toward the seashell.

They exchanged glances, uncertainty flickering in their eyes. But confident in their abilities, one of them took the lead. “Let’s check it out.”

Seeing the four approaching, Lin Bai acted quickly. She ran a hand over the seashell’s inner wall, covering her fingers in black grime, then smeared it across Xi Ya’s face. The little girl’s fair skin instantly looked dirty. Lin Bai gave her a push and whispered, “Go outside.”

Xi Ya ran out without hesitation.

“A kid!” One of the men sounded excited.

“Where did a kid come from? You don’t see many of those these days.”

As they curiously approached Xi Ya, Lin Bai quickly murmured to Lou Tiannan, “Find an opening inside.”

Then, without waiting for a response, she stripped off her black combat uniform, revealing only a gray tank top underneath. She grabbed the tattered coat from the dead body, wrapped herself in it, rubbed her fingers on her face, and ran out, ‘panicked,’ shouting, “Xi Ya, come back!”

Lou Tiannan hadn’t expected her to react so fast.

“Well, well! A bonus. There’s a woman too.” The four men were clearly even more delighted now.

“Be careful,” one of them cautioned, still somewhat wary. “A woman and a kid appearing here out of nowhere? Something’s off.”

Lin Bai had already grabbed Xi Ya and was running forward without looking back.

But their escape was quickly blocked by a wooden barrier in their path.

“Stay back!” Lin Bai shielded Xi Ya behind her, eyes darting ‘fearfully’ over the four men. She drew a knife from her thigh and held it up unsteadily, her expression filled with helplessness.

To Lou Tiannan, her ‘acting’ was painfully unconvincing.

But the four men seemed completely blind to it. Seeing Lin Bai’s panicked and disheveled state, along with the dirt on their bodies, they let their guards down completely. Instead, they eagerly began discussing how to divide up their ‘prizes.’

“The kid looks fresh. Let’s bring her back for Boss Qiu Tu. As for the woman… hehehe…” One man laughed lewdly, his meaning clear.

His suggestion was quickly met with agreement. “Boss Qiu Tu won’t want her. He already has plenty of women. But the four of us? We could have some fun!”

“Come on, don’t be scared, little beauty.”

As they spoke, one of them cracked his knuckles and stepped toward Lin Bai with a sinister grin.

“Stay back!!!” Lin Bai’s hands ‘trembled violently.’

It only seemed to excite them even more.

The four men were entirely focused on Lin Bai and Xi Ya, advancing step by step toward them, completely unaware that they had exposed their backs to Lou Tiannan inside the seashell.

They never even considered the possibility that someone else was hiding inside.

One of them was already very close to Lin Bai. Though her face was unremarkable, her slender, flexible waist and fair skin, barely concealed by the dust and grime, caught his attention. She might not be particularly pretty, but her figure wasn’t bad at all…

Lust flickered in his eyes, almost tangible as it poured onto Lin Bai. He couldn’t wait any longer and reached out to grab her. Just as his hand was about to touch her shoulder, he felt a sudden gust of wind sweep past him. Almost instantly, an unbearable heat flared up across his back.

Before he could say a word, his body burned into charred remains on the spot.

Lin Bai’s eyes flickered. His power seemed to have grown stronger.

The remaining three barely had time to react. As they spun around to face their attacker, they quickly raised their defenses until layers of wooden planks and earthen walls were stacked up around them. They thought they were safe.

But then, a burst of black flames tore through their barriers effortlessly. The scorching heat flared right before their eyes, leaving them stunned.

At the same time, they finally got a clear look at their attacker. Beneath sharply defined brows, a pair of gray eyes gleamed with an intimidating light. His gaze was piercing, his eyelids lifted just enough to reveal an icy sharpness. In his hand, a black fireball pulsed, ready to strike.

One of them, a slightly overweight man, saw his face and his expression shifted. In shock, he blurted out, “Lou Tiannan!”

“What?! That’s Lou Tiannan?”

“He got here this fast?!”

“Hurry, inform Boss Qiu Tu—Ahhh!”

No one expected that the helpless, panicked woman from moments ago would suddenly launch an ambush. A black blade stabbed straight through the speaker’s heart from behind and fresh blood dripped down the groove of the blade, pooling onto the ground.

The remaining two reacted instantly, unleashing their abilities on Lin Bai. Stone shards and wooden arrows rained toward her in a relentless attack.

Lou Tiannan’s gaze sharpened. He immediately moved to step in front of Lin Bai, but just as he was about to rush forward, he halted, his eyes lifting slightly to track a flickering shadow in the air.

The moment the stone and wooden arrows shot toward her, Lin Bai leaped into the air. She swung the tattered coat she had taken from the dead body, sending it spinning around her. The gray, form-fitting tank top accentuated the strength in her slender waist. The sweeping motion of the coat deflected several of the incoming projectiles. Using one of the airborne stones as a foothold, she propelled herself higher, twisting nimbly midair to evade the rest of the attack.

Amid the dense barrage of attacks, her movements remained calm, precise, and swift, something even most ability users would struggle to achieve. Yet she had no abilities. She was just an ordinary person.

But in the next moment, Lou Tiannan paid the price for his distraction.

A black blade flew toward him, accompanied by Lin Bai’s incredulous words, “Are you spacing out?”

Lou Tiannan tilted his head to dodge the blade, snapping back to his senses. They had only fought together once before, yet even after days apart, their coordination remained effortlessly in sync.

Within minutes, the two of them had taken down the other two members of Blood Bone, one dead, one injured.

The survivor happened to be the first one who had recognized Lou Tiannan. Lin Bai searched him thoroughly, removing a hidden radio and tracker from his clothes.

Lou Tiannan asked, “Where is Qiu Tu?”

“You actually dare to go after him?” The fugitive spat out a mouthful of blood, showing no hesitation as he revealed Qiu Tu’s location. “Morda City, Southern District Three. If you want to die, go right ahead!”

To him, Lou Tiannan was strong, but there was no way he could be stronger than Qiu Tu. In fact, he was sure that if Lou Tiannan dared to step into Morda City, he wouldn’t even make it past the Blood Bone elites before being killed.

If Lou Tiannan wanted to throw his life away, he was more than happy to see it happen.