25: Su Chen! Save me! I'll do anything to save me!

"Su Chen! Save me! As long as you save me, I'll do anything!"

The air was filled with a mixture of rust, damp mold, and the smell of sweat from the recent panic.

That dirty hand, like a white worm crawling out of a sewer, trembled as it reached toward the half-open box of antibiotics.

Greed was truly a terminal illness harder to cure than the zombie virus.

Su Chen didn't move; he simply took a bite of the hard compressed biscuit in his hand. The crisp "crunch" sound was exceptionally jarring in the deathly silent carriage.

Just as Zhao Wanting's fingertips touched the aluminum foil blister pack, an anomaly suddenly occurred.

"Ah——!"

A shrill scream instantly tore through the air.

Zhao Wanting jerked her hand back as if electrocuted, her whole body springing up from the floor before falling heavily again.

Her right arm, which had been frantically licking Su Chen's boots just yesterday, was now glowing with an eerie red light.

That was the residual Yang Energy from Su Chen.

The energy that was originally a great tonic for "allies" like Lin Mengyao had now, within the body of a traitor harboring malicious intent, turned into a maggot boring into the bone.

The blood vessels under her skin were like red-hot iron wires, writhing and burning frantically, emitting a sizzling sound similar to roasting meat.

The excruciating pain twisted Zhao Wanting's features, and the life-saving box of amoxicillin was knocked to the floor, with white pills rolling everywhere.

She lunged forward like a madwoman, trying to snatch the pills on the floor with her mouth.

A mud-stained Martin boot ruthlessly stepped on the back of her hand.

"Su Chen said that a traitor's pain threshold needs to be turned up to the maximum."

Li Sisi adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose, her lenses reflecting a cold light.

This study committee member, who once only knew how to drill practice questions, now stomped on people with the standard form of a seasoned jailer.

She ground her toe down, and Zhao Wanting's hand bones emitted a teeth-grinding friction sound.

"Don't... please... it's so hot... my hand is going to break..."

Zhao Wanting was covered in tears and snot. In this apocalypse where there were no doctors and even anesthesia was a luxury, this direct burning at the neurological level was simply a torture from hell.

Qin Ya walked over quickly carrying a first-aid kit, but she didn't help Zhao Wanting up. Instead, she crouched down and used her rubber-gloved fingers to peel back the festering flesh on Zhao Wanting's arm.

"The rate of cell necrosis is ten times that of a normal person, and it's not just physical thermal damage."

Qin Ya frowned, looking with complex eyes at Su Chen, who was leisurely eating a biscuit.

"Your energy is rejecting her. This doesn't conform to medical common sense; it's more like... some kind of biometric lock. Involuntary contact is judged as an intrusion."

Yang Energy even has an anti-theft function?

Su Chen raised an eyebrow; this was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

It seems this "Extreme Yang Sacred Body" is even smarter than what the manual stated, specialized in curing all kinds of defiance and sticky fingers.

"Since it's a poison, then fight poison with poison!"

Zhao Wanting was clearly in so much pain that she had lost her mind. With a burst of strength she didn't know she possessed, she shoved Li Sisi's foot away.

Like a dog with a broken spine, she dragged her smoking arm and crawled toward Su Chen's bunk.

"Su Chen! Save me! I have value! As long as you give me medicine, I'll do anything!"

Before she could crawl half a meter, a slender figure blocked her path.

Lin Mengyao stood with her arms crossed, looking down at the humanoid creature on the ground. There was no trace of her usual aloofness in her eyes, only naked disgust.

"Take one more step closer, and I'll cripple your good hand too and throw you out to feed the Rotten-faced Dogs; it would save us the trouble of taking out the trash."

Su Chen swallowed the last bite of the biscuit, brushed the crumbs off his hands, and finally decided to sit up from the bunk.

He casually picked up half a pill from the pile of scattered medicine and toyed with it between his fingertips.

"Want to live?"

Zhao Wanting nodded frantically, her eyes locked onto that half-pill as if it were her only lifeline.

"I'll give you a chance."

Su Chen flicked his wrist, and the half-pill traced a parabola in the air, flying toward Zhao Wanting.

"Catch it, and it can let you live for three more days."

Joy exploded in Zhao Wanting's eyes. Ignoring the excruciating pain in her arm, she opened her mouth to catch it.

Just as the pill was about to fall into her mouth, Su Chen's gaze sharpened, and a surge of heat from his Dantian shot out from his fingertips.

"Burst."

He parted his lips slightly and spat out the word.

The half-pill was hit by an invisible bullet, exploding into a cloud of powder in mid-air without warning.

It was then instantly carbonized by that scorching airflow, turning into a wisp of black ash that drifted into Zhao Wanting's wide-open mouth.

Bitter, charred, with the taste of despair.

The carriage was deathly silent.

All the girls covered their mouths in terror.

This wasn't magic; this was absolute control over material structure.

If Su Chen had wanted to, what he blew up just now could have been Zhao Wanting's head.

"My things—feeding them to dogs is fine, but giving them to you? No."

Su Chen leaned lazily against the doorframe, his eyes playful.

Her last shred of dignity trampled into dust, Zhao Wanting finally broke down.

"Su Chen! You can't treat me like this!"

She shrieked, her voice becoming sharp due to extreme fear.

"My dad is a Major General! He's in the Western Theater! As long as I survive to see him, you commoners will all have to answer to me! I'll make you regret this!"

Relying on her father?

In this wasteland where order has collapsed, this was probably the coldest joke.

Su Chen couldn't help it and laughed out loud.

He jumped down from the bunk, walked a few steps to Zhao Wanting, grabbed her collar like he was lifting a chick, and brought his face close to her ear.

"Since you're a top student, you should usually listen more to the noise behind the news."

Su Chen's voice was very soft, but it hit Zhao Wanting's heart like a heavy hammer.

"Yesterday, on the radio in that broken-down car of Class Two, the intelligence dealer they took to feed the mutant dogs was codenamed 'Grey Hawk'."

Zhao Wanting's pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks, and her whole body stiffened.

That was her father's only confidant, and her last hope for contact.

"When the people from Class Two chopped him up, they livestreamed the whole process."

Su Chen let go, letting her collapse onto the ground like a pile of mud.

"The reason they kept you alive instead of killing you isn't because your dad is a Major General, but because you are stupid enough to be perfect for use as cannon fodder to scout the way. Understand? Major General's daughter."

Hope was completely extinguished.

The light in Zhao Wanting's eyes was completely extinguished, leaving only hollow grayness.

The first ray of morning sunlight pierced through the thick clouds, shining on the devastated road.

The water collector on the roof of the bus was working with a dripping sound, and Su Chen sat in the driver's seat, spinning that dark blue dagger in his hand.

On the side of the bus, Zhao Wanting knelt beside a bucket of dirty water, mechanically scrubbing the bloody clothes and bandages left from last night.

Blood was seeping from under her fingernails, and that burned arm was swollen like a steamed bun, but she didn't dare to stop.

Li Sisi stood at the bus door, holding a list in her hand, her tone cold.

"Today's task: polish all the collected cold weapons until they achieve a mirror finish."

"If one is missing, or if any rust is found, I'll break one of your fingers. Su Chen doesn't keep idlers."

Zhao Wanting nodded woodenly, not even daring to show a hateful gaze anymore.

Su Chen glanced through the rearview mirror and then withdrew his gaze.

This was the proper order for the apocalypse.

The engine roared, and the bus started again, crushing over the gravel road and heading toward the red marker on the map.

However, as the vehicle traveled less than ten kilometers, the view, which had previously been clear enough to vaguely identify the road, began to blur.

The world outside the window was undergoing eerie changes.

The air no longer smelled of dry dust, but of a pungent, acidic odor.

Layers upon layers of thick, milk-like white fog surged from nowhere, rapidly swallowing the surrounding ruins.

"Szz... Szz..."

A fine, corrosive sound came from the bus's outer shell, as if countless termites were gnawing on the metal.

Qin Ya, who was sitting in the passenger seat responsible for observing road conditions, turned pale.

She suddenly looked at the radiation needle on the dashboard, which was jumping wildly, her voice distorted by extreme tension.

"Everyone, alert! In front is..."