46: Chapter 46 Goodbye

Lin Yan stood on the ruins, his gaze falling into the deepest part of the Tyrant's Lair.

A pale gold rune stone was embedded beneath a cracked concrete slab. Most of the runic patterns were covered by dust and rubble, yet light still shone through the crevices, pulsing in and out as if it were breathing.

"Resource Point Discovered: Tyrant's Lair · BOSS Level"

Lin Yan bent down to brush away the debris and pressed his hand against the rune stone. Warm energy surged in through his fingertips, and the rune stone's light bloomed instantly, illuminating the surrounding ruins as if it were broad daylight.

Accompanied by a faint mechanical sound, a metal chest half a person's height slowly rose from the ground. The surface of the chest was covered in a layer of dark red rust, but the runic patterns along the edges remained intact, emitting intense spatial fluctuations.

He lifted the lid.

Six hundred low-rank dimensional crystals were neatly stacked, glimmering with a dim light at the bottom of the chest. There were three bottles of potion; the bottles were dark red, and the liquid inside flowed slowly, as if it were alive.

"Item Obtained: Berserk Potion × 3"

"Effect: After use, Physical Attack + 50% and Movement Speed + 30% for 30 seconds, but lose 2% of Max HP per second. Cannot be stacked. Cooldown: 10 minutes."

There was a dark blue boot, its surface covered in fine, scale-like patterns. The sole was twice as thick as a normal boot, yet it felt surprisingly light in his hand. A ring of pale gold runes lined the edge of the boot, glowing faintly in the dim light.

"Equipment Obtained: Tyrant's Boots · Level 15"

"Quality: Blue Rare"

"Effect: Max HP + 3500, Physical Defense + 180, Magical Defense + 180, Movement Speed + 35%."

"Equip Requirement: Level ≥ 15, Agility ≥ 30"

There was also a pair of leg guards with dark green patterns.

"Equipment Obtained: Rotten Skin Leg Guards · Level 10"

"Quality: Green Fine"

"Effect: Max HP + 1400, Physical Defense + 60, Magical Defense + 70, Movement Speed + 15%"

"Equip Requirement: Level ≥ 10"

The Tyrant's Boots required Level 15 to equip, but he could swap into the Rotten Skin Leg Guards immediately. His current leg guards were only Level 5; it was high time to replace them.

Lin Yan took off his old leg guards on the spot and put on the Level 10 green ones. A surge of warm power flowed into his legs, and the HP and defense on his panel jumped up a notch.

He stood up, stretched his legs, and then looked around.

Zombies were still wandering around the ruins. The Tyrant was dead, but they remained. Tens of thousands of gray-white figures moved slowly in the twilight, like dead fish left on the beach after the tide had receded.

Lin Yan wasn't in a hurry to leave; he began to use the remaining time to hunt zombies.

He walked toward the nearest zombie and smashed its head with one punch. Then came the second, the third, the fourth. Shen Bing leaned against a broken wall, quietly watching him weave through the ruins alone, harvesting zombies.

"Kill Count: 1403 / 500"

"Attribute Forger Triggered — Constitution + 1"

"Kill Count: 1417 / 500"

"Attribute Forger Triggered — Strength + 1"

"Kill Count: 1435 / 500"

"Attribute Forger Triggered — Constitution + 1"

Time passed amidst the slaughter. Lin Yan didn't count how many he had killed, nor did he look at the changing numbers on his panel. He simply punched, one blow after another, as if performing a task that required no thought.

The Tyrant was dead, and the hidden BOSS had been killed, but the Dungeon wasn't over yet. As long as he hadn't evacuated, every single zombie here was an Attribute Forger, and every punch was an opportunity to grow stronger.

...

"Ding! Two hours remaining until Dungeon evacuation. Please proceed to the Evacuation Point as soon as possible."

When the system prompt sounded in his mind, Lin Yan's fist froze in mid-air. He snapped back to reality and glanced at the panel.

"Kill Count: 1870 / 500"

"Attribute Forger Cumulative: 94 Silver Tier, 6 Gold Tier"

"Level Up: 13 → 14!"

"Current EXP: 2200 / 25000"

There were two hours left. He withdrew his fist; he had been too engrossed in the killing and had almost forgotten the time.

"It's time to go," Lin Yan said.

Shen Bing straightened up from the broken wall and brushed the dust off her body, not asking why he had suddenly stopped.

She had been following Lin Yan for the past few days and had grown accustomed to this man suddenly making decisions, changing his mind, or rushing out to slaughter a pile of zombies only to walk back as if nothing had happened.

The two of them stepped over the rubble and walked in the direction of the Evacuation Point.

The sky had begun to darken, and the wind had picked up, carrying fine grit and the stench of decay, making it hard to keep one's eyes open. But Shen Bing didn't lower her head; she kept her eyes fixed on Lin Yan's back.

His stride was steady, and his shoulders and back were straight. Even after walking through the ruins for an entire day, covered in the Tyrant's bodily fluids and zombie gore, his silhouette still gave people a sense of reliability.

It was a sense of security—the feeling that "as long as he is here, it's safe"—along with something deeper and indescribable, as if no matter how terrible the world became, he would never be changed by it.

Shen Bing remembered the first time she saw him at the alley entrance. He had been surrounded and devoured by a horde of zombies, yet he didn't have a single scratch on him. Shen Bing had only thought he was a monster.

Later, inside the safe house, he pushed over four hundred crystal cores to her and said indifferently, "Absorb them all," as casually as if he were just telling her to eat a meal. She then felt this person was incredibly foolish, as if he didn't know the value of these crystals.

Even later, at the Sewage Treatment Plant, his speed was faster than a Licker, killing one with two punches. When he looked down with disdain at the fallen Licker, Shen Bing suddenly felt that this man was like a god.

"Lin Yan," she called out to him.

Lin Yan stopped and turned around.

Shen Bing stood two steps behind him, the twilight light shining from behind her, hiding her face in shadows and making her expression unclear.

But he could see her eyes; in them was something very gentle—a kind of soft light that shouldn't exist in the apocalypse, so soft it made one's heart ache.

"Where did you come from?" she asked. "You, and those people like you."

Lin Yan was silent for a second.

"A very distant place."

Shen Bing didn't press him; she knew he wouldn't tell the truth, or that even if he did, she wouldn't understand.

She lowered her head and looked at her hands. There were still traces of frost on her fingers and scars from frostbite on her knuckles. Before meeting him, these hands would only tremble in front of powerful zombies.

"No matter where you come from," she said, "thank you."

Lin Yan looked at her without speaking.

Shen Bing looked up and smiled.

"Are you leaving now?" she asked.

She didn't ask him to stay; she just asked a question she already knew the answer to, but still wanted to ask.

Lin Yan nodded.

"Yes."

Shen Bing didn't speak again. She took one step, two steps, until she was in front of Lin Yan. Then she turned around, facing away from him, pressing the back of her head against his chest. Her hair fluttered in the twilight, a few strands blown by the wind onto his clothes.

Just as Lin Yan was about to speak, Shen Bing suddenly turned around and hugged him from the front.

Her arms wrapped around his waist, her ten fingers locked tight against his back, her face buried in his chest.

Her forehead pressed against his collarbone, her nose tip against his collar, her breath hitting his skin—warm, rapid, and with a hint of trembling.

Lin Yan's body stiffened for a moment.

He could feel her fingers trembling. She was holding him so tightly that he could feel her ribs pressing against his chest, so tightly that he could feel her heartbeat... it was fast, like a frightened rabbit.

"Shen Bing," Lin Yan said.

She didn't respond, just buried her face deeper into his embrace.

Lin Yan didn't speak again.

The wind blew through the ruins, carrying grit and the stench of decay, making their clothes flap noisily. In the distance, the zombies let out intermittent roars in the twilight, like an elegy that would never end.

He stood there with his hands hanging at his sides, neither pushing her away nor hugging her back.

Shen Bing hugged him for a long time.

Long enough for the twilight to turn into night, long enough for the golden beam of light at the distant Evacuation Point to light up in the darkness like a rope hanging down from the sky. Long enough until she finally let go, stepped back, and looked up at him.

Her eyes were red, but she wasn't crying. Her lips were curved in a smile, a smile filled with an indescribable bitterness.

"Go," she said. "Aren't you leaving?"

Lin Yan looked at her, silent for two seconds.

"I'm going."

He turned around and walked toward the Evacuation Point.

"Will you come back in the future?" she asked, her voice broken by the wind.

Lin Yan didn't answer.

But his pace neither quickened nor slowed.

Shen Bing withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, and curled her lips.

It was enough.

Being able to meet you and walk this stretch of the road side-by-side was enough.

Shen Bing just watched him silently as he disappeared down the road.

"Goodbye..."

She stared blankly at the spot where Lin Yan had disappeared, where a dark red crystal core had dropped. She bent down to pick it up, held it gently with both hands, and pressed it tightly to her chest.

"Lin Yan... thank you. I will definitely work hard to become stronger, just like you," Shen Bing whispered softly.