TPAE chapter 5.2

Wei Xicheng gradually adjusted to the darkness in the supermarket and saw a man climbing over a shelf, running in his direction. As he ran, the man occasionally turned around to kick down a zombie or two but hadn’t noticed another living person standing by the restroom door.

According to the plot Wei Xicheng had received, these two people should be the siblings from the small group that the original host later joined.

The older brother, Lin Lei, was an ordinary person who hadn’t awakened any special abilities. However, with his strength and agility, he was outstanding among regular humans and served as a leader with some authority within the group.

The younger sister, Lin Huan, was bold and meticulous. In this chaotic world, despite being a woman, she wasn’t intimidated by the upheaval. She bravely followed her brother into life-and-death situations without a trace of a princess complex.

Originally, Lin Lei was tasked with luring away the zombies and happened to encounter the original host fighting zombies in the restroom. He had conveniently saved the host, and the three formed a bond.

Now, even though Wei Xicheng had dealt with the zombies ahead of time, the plot still unfolded as expected, with Lin Lei leading a few zombies in this direction.

Just a few steps away from Wei Xicheng, Lin Lei finally noticed someone standing there. From the posture alone, it was clear that this was a living person and not a zombie. He shouted, “Hey, buddy, run forward!”

Wei Xicheng glanced at the zombies trailing behind Lin Lei, expressionlessly opened the door behind him, stepped inside, and shut the door.

Zombies were capable of evolving, but during their initial transformation, their intelligence was extremely low. They only blindly followed their target, and their speed wasn’t fast. It was obvious that Lin Lei could easily handle those zombies but still chose to run circles around the supermarket with them, likely intending to conceal his true strength.

At first glance, it seemed Lin Lei might not have missed seeing him intentionally, perhaps he just wanted to test him.

Lin Lei paused slightly, though his suspicions about the young boy who had been standing by the door earlier remained. He hadn’t expected him to remain so calm in the face of the zombies. Without being able to stop, Lin Lei had to keep running around the shelves, keeping all the zombies behind him to buy Lin Huan more time.

In truth, Wei Xicheng had slightly misunderstood him. Lin Lei didn’t want to deal with the zombies simply because he feared that, during the fight, any stray zombies might harm Lin Huan. So, he had no choice but to keep running while occasionally shouting to draw the zombies’ attention. Running around the shelves also gave him a chance to check for any useful items that might have been overlooked.

Wei Xicheng didn’t know any of this. He waited until the sounds outside the door gradually faded before pulling the door open and heading in Lin Huan’s direction.

“Who’s there?” A girl’s voice, almost a whisper, carried a mix of caution and vigilance.

“I was here first,” the boy replied, pursing his lips, implying that he had a claim to the food here as well.

Lin Huan glanced at him, then silently turned back to packing food and water from the shelves. She had clearly tacitly agreed to let him take some supplies.

Though she’d agreed to share, she kept a close watch on the boy’s movements, wary of any unexpected trouble. She noticed him only grabbing a few packets of compressed biscuits and bread from the shelf and stuffing them into his backpack, along with two bottles of water.

“Wait.” Lin Huan called out softly. In the dark, she could only see the boy’s eyes, which seemed to glimmer faintly. Judging by his behavior, she hesitated before saying, “You’re taking too little. There aren’t any other supply points nearby—they’ve all been cleaned out.”

“Hmm. Thanks.” Wei Xicheng turned, took two more bottles of water from the shelf, put them in his bag, and left without further ado.

“What a strange person,” Lin Huan muttered as she continued stuffing the large bag in her hands to the brim. This time, she and her brother had made quite the haul and wouldn’t have to worry about being criticized when they returned.

“Brother!” Lin Huan called out, and Lin Lei responded, running over. He quickly slung the large bag onto his back, and the two of them headed toward the exit together. The boy who had left earlier was already nowhere to be seen.

The streets outside were even more dangerous. Most of the zombies in the supermarket were still in the early stages of transformation, but outside, some zombies had already evolved to the next stage. They had become faster and stronger, making them even more troublesome for ordinary people to deal with.

Wei Xicheng carried his small bag, a piece of compressed biscuit clamped between his teeth, and pulled up the hood of his jacket. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to take more supplies, it was simply because of the weight. Even though he could carry more, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t feel the strain.

He didn’t strike up a conversation with the Lin siblings because he wanted to search the city for his lover first. If he joined the small group now, his actions might become heavily restricted. If he couldn’t find his lover here, then he could team up with the siblings and head to the base, searching along the way. At least that would provide some direction instead of aimlessly wandering.

Wei Xicheng opened his system interface. Ever since he had his lover, the system would often retain plenty of energy after each traversal. He gently pulled out the additional energy bar, which had changed significantly, and used it to search for similar energy bodies.

Unlike before, this time, a prompt appeared almost immediately.

A 100% match to a similar energy body has been found.

Below this message was a small map showing Wei Xicheng’s position and the location of the target energy body. The map also marked countless small dots in various colors, representing the locations of humans and zombies, while calculating the optimal route forward.

Wei Xicheng suppressed his curiosity. Previously, his system could only indicate whether it had found someone or not, but it couldn’t pinpoint their location, nor did it have such a large search range. The person it had found this time was almost on the other side of the city.

This level of coverage was something Wei Xicheng had never even dared to imagine. Without dwelling on what had gone wrong with his system, he headed toward the red triangle on the map.

Thanks to the system’s new, godlike functionality, Wei Xicheng encountered no significant obstacles along the way, not even any evolved zombies, before arriving at the entrance of an underground warehouse.

The warehouse door had been thoroughly destroyed, seemingly by human hands. Bloodstains were scattered across the ground. Wei Xicheng’s heart tightened. His lover should be inside this warehouse—but whose blood was this?

Various sacks and cardboard boxes were stacked together, cleverly concealing the view inside. Holding his breath, Wei Xicheng quietly made his way in.

There was no one there.

Wei Xicheng pulled up the system interface to check again, only to find that the red dot representing his location had already overlapped with the red triangle marking the target. Before he could look around, a shadow descended from above, pinning him to the ground. A hand gripped his throat tightly.

His arm hurt, his waist hurt, and the force on his neck was so strong that Wei Xicheng felt his head was starting to lose blood flow. He swallowed hard and said in a low voice, “I mean no harm.”

Unexpectedly, after he said this, the grip on his neck tightened, making it impossible for him to speak further.

Damn it. Wei Xicheng really wanted to curse. He felt like such an idiot. In his heart, his lover would never hurt him, so he never put up any guard against him.

But the awkward reality was that in every world, his lover didn’t remember him.

The man behind him pressed a knee into Wei Xicheng’s back, pinning both his arms with one hand. The other hand wrapped around his neck and clamped down under his jaw.

A trace of confusion flickered through the man’s eyes. The moment they made contact, he had felt a brief numbing sensation, akin to anesthesia, but with an additional component he couldn’t quite understand. He didn’t know what “pleasure” meant, but he wanted to experience it again.

For this reason, when he gripped the neck of the person beneath him, he subconsciously reduced his strength, keeping him alive for now. Something brushed past his palm, making him want to grab hold of it, so he squeezed harder.

Wei Xicheng’s face turned red from lack of oxygen, and his brain felt increasingly deprived. What the hell was this? He had come here with good intentions, only to be treated like this on their first meeting.

“Loosen… up a bit,” he managed to gasp out with great effort. The man behind him seemed to hesitate for a moment before slowly easing his grip.

“Who… are you?” The man’s voice was low and halting, as if he wasn’t used to speaking. Each word was slow and unfamiliar.

“Just passing through. Passing through,” Wei Xicheng muttered internally, you moron.

The man thought for a moment and gradually released him. Based on his observations, the person in front of him posed no real threat. He also didn’t want him to die.

This was a novel feeling-his first time experiencing an emotion other than the urge to kill or escape.

He let go entirely and stood up, towering over Wei Xicheng, who was still lying on the ground. Wei Xicheng, sensing the man’s gaze, slowly lifted his head to meet it, then sat up gradually.

As he was released, Wei Xicheng saw a pair of polished black leather shoes before him. Looking up, he saw long legs wrapped in neatly pressed trousers.

Further up was a mature and composed dark suit paired with a perfectly coordinated tie. At the very top, a strikingly handsome face adorned with a flawless, fashionable hairstyle completed the look.

What the hell?

Wei Xicheng realized that, for now, the man posed no threat to him. He climbed to his feet and studied the man. Seeing no bloodstains on his body, Wei Xicheng relaxed a little. Pointing at the man’s clothes, he said, “There’s some dirt on you. Aren’t you going to brush it off?”

“Brush?” The man’s eyes filled with confusion and uncertainty.

An idiot? Wei Xicheng glanced at the man again. Despite surviving a week in the apocalypse, this top-tier man didn’t look the part. Idiots like him were rare.

“Oh.”

Just as Wei Xicheng was about to confirm his suspicions, he saw the man seem to come to his senses. Raising his arm gracefully, the man lightly dusted the dirty spots on his clothes, sweeping from top to bottom.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Wei Xicheng felt something was a bit off but couldn’t pinpoint it. He decided to change the subject. “What’s your name?”

“Number One.”

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Author’s Note:

Wei Xicheng: My hubby’s a dummy, hehe.

Mr. Perfect Number One: Hmm.