Chapter 37: Volume 1, Chapter 37: Scheming x Arrogant (1)

Scorching heat swept across the entire land, vegetation withered, and moisture drastically decreased.

A virus suddenly broke out now, highly contagious, sweeping the globe at breakneck speed.

Once infected, one becomes a painless, soulless monster that bites anyone on sight, with an insatiable appetite.

Such monsters are called zombies by the government.

How are you anyway? Can you hurry up! Everyone's waiting for you!

Nagging, you aristocratic temper, not even looking at the situation—who else would indulge you!

As soon as Jiang Zhi opened her eyes, those two sentences reached her ears, lacking kindness, making her feel very uncomfortable.

Her vision gradually widened and cleared, she saw clearly the few people standing before her.

There were five in total; the speaking young man looked youthful, handsome, his eyes filled with disdain and hatred toward her.

The remaining four consisted of one woman and three men.

The woman's expression was calm; she gave her a neutral glance, tinged with dislike.

Among the five, four disliked her, and the last one didn't even glance at her.

Jiang Zhi got out of the car as the young man said, a wave of heat hit her, covering her skin, and she instantly began to sweat.

Seeing her get out, the young man said nothing more, walked over to chat with the soldier in uniform ahead.

Jiang Zhi, who was last, began to receive the plot.

This is the world formed by an apocalyptic novel; a month ago, the virus raged, infecting over half the global population, turning them into beast-like monsters.

The national government established a base, summoning all survivors to enter.

Over the past week, ability users began to appear among humans, their powers like superheroes in sci-fi movies, varied, able to greatly hinder the zombies' spread.

This is a novel, naturally with a male lead; like all male-oriented novels, it revolves around the male lead's gratifying plot.

The male lead is a retired soldier, with good physique and strength surpassing ordinary people; even without abilities at first, killing zombies is a breeze.

Besides the male lead, there is also an antagonist.

The antagonist has extremely high IQ, devoid of human emotion, antisocial personality, a true lunatic.

What's most terrifying is that the antagonist is a reborn; knowing the ending, he toys with the male lead like a cat with a mouse, gradually stripping away his self-esteem and confidence.

Later plot even tortures the male lead into an inhuman state, worse than death.

In the end, the antagonist twists the ending, utterly destroying the world.

All humanity becomes infected with the virus.

The character Jiang Zhi transmigrated into does not live past two chapters; having been spoiled since childhood, she is arrogant and willful. After the apocalypse arrived, her parents both died for her.

At that time she happened to encounter the male lead's team; after joining, due to her aristocratic temperament, everyone came to dislike her greatly.

Just today, while they were searching the department store, when the original host encountered danger, she shoved the female lead aside.

Of course the female lead comes to no harm, but the original host, because of this action, was abandoned by the male lead and ultimately died in the zombies' mouths.

Jiang Zhi lifted her gaze, looking at the few people walking ahead.

The soldier in uniform is the male lead Luo Heng; besides her, the only female is the female lead Wen Shuangshuang.

The handsome young man who spoke rudely to her upon waking is the male lead's loyal lackey in the novel, Yu Xiaochun.

The remaining two: one is the female lead's sycophant, the novel's male supporting character Song Xuefeng.

As for the other, he is her mission target, the world's antagonist Xie Wuchen.

Coming to the department store to scavenge supplies, they encountered a huge zombie tide; it was then that the male lead Luo Heng awakened his ability.

The male and female leads deepened their feelings.

As the instigator of the zombie tide, the antagonist Xie Wuchen was not discovered by them at all.

Jiang Zhi looked toward the black-haired man walking ahead not far off; he was taller than the male lead, with a slender model-like figure.

His slightly long black hair fell over his brows and eyes; his features were deep, his nose bridge high, his eye sockets slightly sunken, flawless as if God's finest masterpiece, his posture extremely elegant, his profile gilded with a golden afterglow, adding a touch of the warmth of a mountain spring.

It seemed he sensed her gaze; his deep black eyes locked with hers for a few seconds, then shifted away with a hint of a smile.

A most gentlemanly greeting.

Jiang Zhi, fully aware of how dark his heart was, awkwardly averted her gaze and let out a cold snort.

Their group arrived before the department store; the building stood tall in the wide, prosperous street, its special glass reflecting the glaring sunlight into iridescent hues, brilliant and colorful.

The male lead Luo Heng began organizing and assigning tasks; after finishing, his gaze fell on Jiang Zhi's face at the rear, his stern brows slightly furrowed, and after a moment he said to Wen Shuangshuang beside him: "Take care of her."

The reason they brought the original host was merely because she had an ability—very useless and inconvenient.

——Brick.

But it is still an ability; in the apocalypse, ability users are extremely scarce.

Wen Shuangshuang didn't even glance her way, just replied with an acknowledgment.

The supporting male character Song Xuefeng's ability is storage; he has a medium-sized stagnant space that can hold a lot of supplies.

Wen Shuangshuang's ability is a bow; she can conjure a bow, though its ammunition is limited, it can still be of some help.

Jiang Zhi unwillingly walked over to Wen Shuangshuang, fully expressing the original host's personality.

Upon entering the mall doors, three zombies lunged at them, claws bared.

Luo Heng raised his silenced pistol and took them out with three shots.

His aim was enviable.

Jiang Zhi followed Wen Shuangshuang to the second floor, where daily necessities were stocked.

All they needed to do was gather everything together, making it easy for Song Xuefeng to store them in his space.

Wen Shuangshuang didn't expect her to do anything; she only hoped she wouldn't hold them back, her voice icy: "Guard the elevator entrance; tell me if any zombies come."

Jiang Zhi uttered an "oh" and walked to the elevator entrance.

She lifted the brick in hand, turning it over to examine it.

The ability to summon bricks is something people would laugh at, but Jiang Zhi didn't think it was useless.

Every ability can be upgraded, and after upgrading it becomes much stronger.

As for how to upgrade, it's simply by killing more zombies.

A zombie's head was stuck in the elevator entrance, desperately trying to rush out but couldn't, only able to rage helplessly.

Jiang Zhi raised the brick and slammed it hard onto the zombie's head.

"Pa-da."

It was the sound of a skull breaking.

The zombie's eyes rolled back, it fell to the ground and stopped moving.

The brick that smashed the zombie remained intact, clean and unstained, with no blood from the zombie's head sticking to it.

"It's still quite useful."

She muttered to herself.

"Zombies are coming." A voice came from before her, a man's voice like fine rain moistening the air, clear and melodious.

Jiang Zhi, crouching beside the elevator, heard the voice, looked up, and saw Xie Wuchen standing ahead.

He didn't know how long he had been there, his deep, bottomless black eyes calmly gazing at the brick in her hand.

Jiang Zhi rose from the ground, her black hair tied with silk hanging at her shoulders, making her pale face look a bit frightened.

"How many, how many zombies?" she asked softly, blinking her trembling, crow-feather-like long lashes.

Xie Wuchen's glance swept over the half-hanging hair on her shoulder, his expression flickered, he paused, then said, "Over ten thousand."

"Over ten thousand?"

"That's basically a zombie tide, right?"

Jiang Zhi's face drained of color, her pale fingers tightly gripping the brick in her hand.

Xie Wuchen raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth twitching, he lowered his voice slightly: "Scared?"

Jiang Zhi lifted her brows, glared at him angrily, and said involuntarily, "What am I afraid of! I'm not afraid!"

Having said that, she strode away from his side.

After meeting up with the team, Luo Heng heard Xie Wuchen's words and immediately told them to leave at once.

Xie Wuchen's ability is perception, allowing him to sense situations within a kilometer around him.

So Luo Heng trusted his words completely.

But they retreated too late; the zombie tide advanced toward them with a surrounding tendency.

Looking through the binoculars, a black mass stretched out, very frightening.

Everyone's faces were grim, yet Luo Heng, after looking through the binoculars, remained calm, showing no trace of panic.

"Charge out!"

Yu Xiaochun's ability is earth wall; it can block a wave of zombies, but only temporarily, and it consumes a great deal of mental power.

Using abilities consumes mental power; compared to item-type abilities (Jiang Zhi's brick summoning, Wen Shuangshuang's bow summoning), mental power consumption, elemental and perception etc abilities that are mentally oriented also consume a lot of mental power.

Because they feared stopping at the building entrance would awaken the zombies inside, the off‑road vehicle was parked on a street isolated one block from the department store.

They hurried toward the off‑road vehicle, and the scattered few zombies were all killed by Luo Heng.

Jiang Zhi's stamina was inferior to theirs; the original host had been pampered and raised in luxury.

, and she had never trained; as she ran, she fell behind.

The situation was urgent; they each ran on their own, with no capacity to look after her.

Jiang Zhi really couldn't run anymore; she stopped, half‑crouching on the ground, panting.

But at that moment, Xie Wuchen, who had been running ahead, suddenly stopped, turned, and came to her front.

"I'll carry you on my back!"

Jiang Zhi lifted her gaze.

Xie Wuchen stood with his back to the sunset's afterglow, his long legs tall as a mountain, reaching out his hand to her; his fingers were slender, fingertips glowing white.