RIACMET chapter 211

 

“…”

The plan had been set, and although the sun was setting, it was still hot and blinding.

The legion retreated beyond the gate as ordered by Chu Yi. After the team arrived at a pile of rubble, Zhao Lei used his superpower to force open the sealed, reinforced iron door. They saw a staircase leading downward that was dark and murky.

It wasn’t an illusion. Chu Yi led the way, followed by Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing, then Tang Ji. The others followed in order behind them.

Jiang Nian put away his gun and gripped a thick steel pipe—something he’d picked up after losing the last fight.

Tang Ji looked at him curiously.

“Brother Nian, you seem to have a thing for long, stick-shaped weapons.”

Jiang Nian held the steel pipe firmly and replied:

“Yeah, not only is it easy for me to use as a medium for my superpower, but this kind of weapon is also the most satisfying to swing around in a fight. You should try it, too.”

He was practical; if it hit hard and worked well, that was all he needed.

Tang Ji gave him a thumbs-up.

“Alright, I’ll go find one later.”

“…”

They descended the staircase and came to another iron-reinforced door.

Zhao Lei deftly opened it, and a wave of intense supernatural energy hit them head-on. A long corridor packed tight with zombies lay ahead.

Jiang Nian and Tang Ji used the steel pipe as a medium to release their superpowers.

However, as the purifying energy spread, the zombies didn’t go berserk; instead, they simply vanished.

The terrifying sight turned out to be an illusion!

Once the illusion shattered, an ordinary, dark, grimy basement hallway appeared before them, with rooms on both sides, all shrouded in darkness.

Only a faint light shone from a room at the end of the hall.

It was entirely different from what they had imagined. Although they could sense multiple supernatural fluctuations in the basement, they hadn’t seen a single superpowered zombie.

It was only when the purification spread into the rooms on either side of the corridor that they finally detected thick black smoke rising from the four rooms ahead.

The team went on high alert, but aside from the smoke, there was no other movement inside the rooms.

Something was clearly off. As they carefully approached, they found no active zombies inside, only piles of zombie “corpses” with their crystal cores seemingly dug out.

Cheng Jing burned the “corpses” in the rooms, and sure enough, not a single crystal core remained.

The teammates quietly counted the corpses and found over 200, almost exactly the number that Qi Lao’er had mentioned.

In other words, if Qi Lao’er hadn’t lied, then Gao Xuyang must have killed all the mutant zombies in the basement!

After all, zombie kings feed on crystal cores, so it made sense.

The sudden “surprise” had made everyone so tense that, once they finally relaxed, they burst into laughter.

They had only considered the worst-case scenario, never expecting something good to come of it.

“As expected of him, a real zombie king. I bet he had the zombies dig out their own crystal cores for him to eat…”

Huang Qian exclaimed in shock, then looked at Yang Kai.

“Brother Kai, your husband is amazing!”

Yang Kai answered with a dead-serious expression.

“Sister Qian, you’re mistaken. He’s my wife!”

Everyone laughed and teased him, congratulating him and saying that not everyone could get a zombie king for a husband. Then, suddenly, someone remembered something.

Jian Cheng, known for his bad habit of speaking faster than he thinks, blurted out at the perfect moment:

“So, Brother Kai, you and Brother Cheng had the same number? Then why were you chasing after him back then?”

Teammates: “…” Good kid, great question!!

“At the time, I just wanted to warm up to Brother Cheng and ease the pain of not getting what I wanted. I didn’t expect…”

He trailed off and looked at Jiang Nian.

The latter took over the conversation with a smile.

“You didn’t expect the statue Brother Jing lost to rise from the dead, huh?”

Over time, through indirect questions and the lure of snacks, the teammates had figured out everything Brother Jing had done in the two years after he broke up with them.

This included how he’d changed his social profile to say he was a widower out of anger for being dumped. Admittedly, it was a petty move, but surprisingly effective.

Cheng Jing looked a bit embarrassed and glared at Jian Cheng.

“That was a great question. Don’t ask it again next time.”

“Hahaha…”

Lu Ningzhou burst into laughter.

“If you ask me, you’re all the same. The resurrected statue always turns out stronger than before.”

Yang Kai raised an eyebrow.

“Exactly.”

Everyone started talking at once.

“By the way, Brother Kai, how far have things gone between you and Teacher Gao?”

“We were just pretending to be partners for a mission.”

“Just pretending?”

“You tell me.”

“Brother Kai is so powerful that it probably stopped being fake a long time ago…”

“Hahaha…”

“… ”

While the others were joking around, Cheng Jing quietly pulled out his phone and sent Jiang Nian a message. After that, he turned and whispered, ”

“Check your phone.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Nian felt his phone vibrate twice. He pulled it out and clicked on the screen.

[I only wrote that because I felt wronged and angry back then. After you came to see me, I changed my status to ‘married.’ Don’t be mad.]

His face looked calm and cold, but the tone of the message screamed “spoiled husband,” which almost made Jiang Nian burst out laughing. After reading it twice, he kept a straight face and replied with four simple words:

[I’m not mad. I love you.]

If he hadn’t been around others, he would have rushed up and kissed Brother Jing.

After sending the message, he put his phone away and continued walking with his teammates. When it came to controlling his expressions, no one could beat him.

Cheng Jing kept a straight face, but inside, he felt at ease. That long-standing grudge was finally over. He regretted it so much that he’d become a “widower.”

“…”

The group headed straight for the last room at the end of the corridor and stopped. The door was half open, light spilled out, and the smell of food lingered in the air.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Gao Xuyang stepped out wearing a striped hospital gown.

He was tall and slender. His features weren’t the kind of handsome that took your breath away at first glance; rather, they were gentle and refined with a touch of elegance. His hair was slightly long and messy.

Though his whole body emitted an aura of coldness that didn’t belong to the living, he had an approachable temperament.

His eyes were slightly cloudy and unfocused, but he could see when he looked around. His muscles were stiff, giving him a blank expression, and his nails were grayish black.

However, his body didn’t emit a foul stench, and his exposed skin had no corpse spots or signs of decay—just a pale color that made the veins in his neck stand out clearly.

In short, everything pointed to Gao Xuyang being a zombie—or rather, half zombie, half human, half corpse.

“Teacher Gao.”

Yang Kai was the first to call out, finally seeing him again. His voice was hesitant as he stared hard at the “man” who had filled his thoughts day and night.

Gao Xuyang pulled off his protective mask and helmet, revealing his face. His voice was calm, but his fingers—and heart—trembled.

The unexpected reunion made the joy of getting something back a thousand times stronger. It overflowed in an instant, filling his entire chest.