74: Meeting old acquaintances doesn't necessarily mean reminiscing.

Qin Ya's body visibly stiffened.

Even through the protective suit covered in sour, foul-smelling mucus, Su Chen could still feel the beautiful Class Teacher shudder the moment she heard that 'Xiao Ya'.

She subconsciously took a step back, like a startled quail, instinctively hiding behind Su Chen.

At that moment, she even forgot that she was the teacher and Su Chen was just her student.

"Zhao Meng..." Qin Ya's voice was as low as a sleep-talker's, carrying a hint of disbelief. "Are you that PE teacher from No. 3 Middle School?"

"It's rare that the great beauty Qin still remembers a piece of trash like me."

The one-eyed man gave a chuckle. There was no warmth of a long-awaited reunion in his remaining good eye, only a naked, unsettling sense of possessiveness.

He didn't even look directly at Su Chen standing in front, as if he were just a stumbling block by the side of the road. "When I was chasing you back then, you had this same high-and-mighty look. What, now to survive, you've learned to hide behind a pretty boy?"

Zhao Meng waved his large hand, and the roar of the three heavy truck engines behind him suddenly surged.

The tarps on the truck beds were pulled back, and over a dozen burly men holding steel pipes, watermelon knives, and even modified crossbows jumped down. They fanned out in a formation that clearly showed they had no intention of letting things end peacefully.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes slightly.

In his vision, a faint red light surfaced on Zhao Meng's body—the sign of a Rank 2 Awakened One.

While not exactly strong, he was still a moderate amount of trouble in this wilderness.

Especially since the other side had numbers, while his own 'Palace' had just undergone a stomach acid baptism, leaving the defense system in an overloaded cooling state.

"Don't move."

Su Chen's palm pressed down on Lin Mengyao's wrist just as she was about to draw her blade.

The campus belle's wrist was very slender; her skin was somewhat cold from tension, and her pulse was racing.

"But..." Lin Mengyao grew anxious, trying to argue in a low voice.

"Save your strength." Su Chen didn't look at her, his gaze still locked on the approaching Zhao Meng. His lips moved slightly as he barked orders to Qin Ya behind him at high speed, "Get back in the vehicle and lock the rear hatch tight. That woman Ye Hongyu is too calculating; it'll be a hassle if she causes trouble now. Remember, engage the internal locks. Unless I knock the agreed-upon code, don't open the door even if the King of Heaven himself shows up."

Qin Ya bit her lip, took one last look at Zhao Meng's hideous face, and decisively turned to slip back inside the deformed vehicle door.

With the soft click of the hydraulic locks engaging, Su Chen finally took his time pulling a cigarette—unsure if it was damp—from his pocket and placed it in his mouth, though he didn't light it.

He lifted his foot and tapped the ground, where the asphalt was covered in a layer of yellow mucus dripping from the vehicle's body.

Sizzle—

As his sole made contact with the mucus, several wisps of blue smoke rose.

Su Chen glanced down; the soles of his newly changed hiking boots had already been corroded into a layer of foam.

The acidity of this monster's digestive juices was even stronger than expected, capable of softening even rubber instantly.

"Brother, you're a new face."

Zhao Meng dragged his machete to a stop five meters away from Su Chen. He pointed the tip of the blade at the convoy behind him. "Since you're Qin Ya's student, I won't waste words. The women stay, and whatever's edible or useful on the vehicle stays. As for you..."

He sized up Su Chen's clearly tempered physique and grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth. "The camp just happens to be short a laborer for logging. Since you're still breathing, I'll grant you a bite to eat. In this world, being someone's dog is better than feeding the dogs, don't you think?"

Su Chen smiled.

He took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth, twirled it between his fingertips, and put on an expression of perfect panic and distress.

"Big brother, the women and the supplies are negotiable. After all, you only get one life."

As Su Chen spoke, he seemingly yielded by stepping to the side, revealing the bus behind him that was still steaming with acidic fumes.

He pointed his finger at an uneven metal cover on the side of the vehicle that had been corroded by acid, beneath which a faint blue glow could be seen.

"But this vehicle just broke down. It looks like a major problem with the power system. Look at that Crystal Interface; it's been leaking electricity. I'm afraid..."

"Cut the crap!" Zhao Meng interrupted impatiently, but his greedy eyes couldn't help but follow Su Chen's finger.

In this apocalypse, a vehicle with an independent power system and armor was worth more than ten beauties.

Though Zhao Meng sounded fierce, his body honestly leaned forward a couple of steps, wanting to see exactly what kind of treasure this so-called 'Crystal Interface' was.

The moment he greedily poked his head forward and the distance closed to two meters.

The submissive look in Su Chen's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a coldness as deep as a stagnant pool.

His right foot seemingly idly scraped the ground, and with extreme stealth, his toe hooked a palm-sized piece of scrap metal that had just peeled off the vehicle.

That metal scrap was covered in high-concentration, highly acidic mucus that was still steaming.

"Go!"

There were no fancy moves, just the simplest, most underhanded Crotch Kick.

There was a dull thud as the metal scrap tore through the air.

The acid-soaked metal scrap acted like a boomerang, drawing a far from graceful but extremely lethal arc through the air, hitting Zhao Meng's defenseless crotch dead center.

Sizzle—!!!

This sound was a hundred times louder than the corrosion of the boot sole earlier.

"AHHHH—!!!"

Zhao Meng's blood-curdling scream instantly tore through the night sky. The sheer shrillness of it made one wonder if he was about to scream his lungs out.