The moment Pei Liang said that, even Yu Cheng—who had already reached an agreement to cooperate with her—found himself unable to tell for a moment whether she was human or some kind of ghost.
It was the way she moved, the look in her eyes, and the aura radiating from her entire being. Everything about her gave him the ominous feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Yu Cheng had nearly activated his teleportation skill on instinct. He only managed to force himself not to because it would have been too embarrassing—and far too cowardly.
Even so, he still edged backward, the corner of his mouth twitching. “W-what are you doing?”
Pei Liang gave him a mischievous grin. “Relax. I’ll be very gentle.”
No, something was definitely wrong. This woman was even more suspicious now.
Fortunately, at that very moment, Chu Yebai and Gong Ran both reached out and put a hand on her shoulders.
“Wait.”
The strange atmosphere surrounding Pei Liang came to an abrupt halt, and Yu Cheng subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
He thought to himself that although neither of these two men was any good, at least they wouldn’t go too far over something like this.
So he had misunderstood them earlier after all.
That was what he was thinking when the two men spoke almost simultaneously:
“Why should you go first?”
Yu Cheng: “...”
Wait. What do you mean?
He understood soon enough.
Chu Yebai stared darkly at Pei Liang. “You supported me all this time. Of course I should be of some use to you. If you have to handle even this little matter yourself, that wouldn’t look right, would it?”
“Otherwise, people might think I’m shamelessly living off you without even knowing my place.”
As he spoke, he smiled again. “Don’t look at me like that. I know you’re a good person, upright at heart, and fully aware of your responsibilities. You certainly wouldn’t get any funny ideas just because you saw a handsome man. Of course I trust you.”
Bullshit! If he really trusted her, he wouldn’t be guarding her day and night—especially after what had happened with Gong Ran earlier that day.
That had been nothing less than this shameless woman openly slapping him in the face. And what did that prove? It proved that she simply couldn’t resist temptation.
Chu Yebai’s smile became increasingly difficult for Pei Liang to withstand.
“But I also know that you’re more curious about beautiful things than most people.”
“I’m not going to stop you, of course. But to keep you from making a mistake—or from being conflicted about it afterward—I’ll take care of this for you.”
As he spoke, Chu Yebai rolled his wrist. The smile on his face sent an even colder shiver down Yu Cheng’s spine.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take a good look at every mole on his body and give you a detailed report later.”
Pei Liang was devastated. She knew it—there was no such thing as having the best of both worlds.
The pretty boys she’d kept before had all been awkward and slow on the uptake, but they were easy to handle.
Chu Yebai was different. He knew how to read the situation, and whenever he needed to lower himself, he did so without the slightest hesitation. Keeping him was effortless; he had practically delivered himself right to her door.
But this guy was smart. The moment Pei Liang so much as raised her tail, he knew exactly what she was plotting. That made it much harder for her to take advantage of him.
And on top of that, he had no shame. Forget the upright and innocent Yu Cheng—even the perverted Gong Ran had to admit defeat in that regard.
In a certain sense, Chu Yebai was simply invincible.
Sure enough, Yu Cheng’s expression now looked as if he had swallowed shards of glass. The way he looked at Chu Yebai had changed completely.
And it turned out that Chu Yebai wasn’t the only pervert there.
Gong Ran continued from where Chu Yebai had left off. “You’re both amateurs.”
“I’m very interested in Captain Yu’s body. The structure of his body—and those of his companions—is quite intriguing.”
“You can’t see much by looking at Captain Yu alone, but the other four are much more obvious. Especially the one with Glasses and the older one. With body-fat percentages that high and bellies that large, they still possess an astonishing level of strength. It doesn’t conform to the laws of evolution, and it’s different even from Pei Liang.”
“Captain Yu comes from the same place as the others, so his characteristics should be similar. Let me go first.”
At some point, Gong Ran had put on a pair of gloves. He tugged them snugly into place, and the reflection in his glasses revealed a sinister, malicious chill.
“I’ll study Captain Yu’s body thoroughly. As for the matters Mr. Chu mentioned, I can understand them in far greater detail—from the inside out.”
“All right. You two can get out of the vehicle now.”
As expected of a mad doctor. If this had been happening to himself or Pei Liang, Chu Yebai would have been displeased. But with someone else as the target, it was somehow exciting.
Chu Yebai even put on a regretful, troubled expression, as though he were reluctantly supporting scientific research for the sake of the greater good, and nodded.
“Dr. Gong does make a good point—”
“Get the hell out, all of you!” Yu Cheng finally lost his temper.
A hilt-like object suddenly appeared in his hand, and a beam of silver laser light shot out from it.
Yu Cheng glared coldly at the two perverts. “Anyone who dares lay a hand on me is dead.”
But the eyes of all three of them lit up at once.
“That’s a lightsaber?”
“Like the one in Star Wars? Let me see it.”
Before Yu Cheng could react, the weapon had already been snatched away by Pei Liang. She moved so quickly that even with his enhanced body, he was certain he couldn’t have matched her speed.
Chu Yebai looked eager for it too. This thing was practically the very definition of a man’s romance.
He pressed up against Pei Liang and asked her for it. “Give it to me!”
He didn’t care in the slightest that it belonged to someone else. Once it reached Pei Liang’s hands, it was as good as hers—and then he had a chance of coaxing it away from her.
Gong Ran shoved him aside. “Giving it to you would be a waste. Let me study it.”
“Hah! Your expertise is biomedicine. What use would it be to you? You might as well give it to the kid.”
He was referring to the physics whiz kid.
Yu Cheng: “...”
What, exactly, were these three people’s brains made of? They jumped from one thought to the next without the slightest awareness that they were in the middle of doing something outrageous.
In the end, it was Pei Liang who pushed the two men away, put the lightsaber away, and returned it to Yu Cheng.
“Keep it for now. But if this technology can be developed, it really could completely transform humanity’s situation.”
“For example, if we had tools that could build walls like this, we could speed up the plan to reclaim Earth.”
After all, not every base possessed the military strength and scientific capabilities of Pei Liang’s base. Almost all the other bases still relied on fortifications.
Some took advantage of natural terrain. Others built walls, keeping the zombies and mutated plants and animals outside.
If they had a laser wall, human territory could gradually expand while the space available to zombies and mutated plants and animals was steadily compressed.
Pei Liang continued, “Of course, we’ll have to see what the research says about the difficulty of development and the manufacturing costs. It would be nice if reality were as ideal as that.”
Yu Cheng took the lightsaber back and glanced at Pei Liang, his expression softening.
This woman...
A warm current was just beginning to flow through Yu Cheng’s heart when Pei Liang said, “All right, it’s late enough. We’ll discuss the other details later.”
“You two, shut up. I’m going first after all.”
Yu Cheng: “...”
This woman was genuinely skilled at giving people a good impression of her, only to shatter it with her own hands. How many times had she done this already?
Yu Cheng’s face reddened slightly. He held back his irritation and said, “Don’t joke around with me like that. I know you’re—”
Before he could finish, Pei Liang placed one hand around his neck.
Yu Cheng felt half his body go numb. At first, he assumed it was because he was too tense, making his senses unusually sensitive.
But the next second, something forcefully pushed its way into his body. He immediately felt like a small boat cast adrift at sea, tossed back and forth by raging winds and towering waves. Overwhelming pleasure swept through his entire body like a wave that threatened to drown him.
His mind grew hazy. He seemed to hear someone making a shamefully blissful sound, but when he came back to himself, he realized it had been him.
Meanwhile, Chu Yebai and Gong Ran simply watched, looking like two accomplices whose faces were twisted with jealousy.
Chu Yebai’s expression clearly said: “You’re getting a bargain.”
He had taken every precaution to keep other men from tasting Pei Liang’s sweetness. Otherwise, he would have to guard against them exploiting any opening in the future.
Gong Ran’s expression conveyed a different message just as clearly: “Why are you allowed to do this out in the open?”
By the time it was over, Yu Cheng was completely limp. His cheeks were flushed, and his breathing was uneven, but he felt unbelievably good.
He could even clearly feel that his energy channels were flowing smoothly and his body had become lighter. This was obviously something beneficial.
Even so, Yu Cheng didn’t dare look at Pei Liang. Covering his eyes with one hand, he asked, “W-why did it have to be like this?”
There was a hint of grievance in his ragged breath, as though he had been bullied.
The moment Yu Cheng heard his own voice, he was startled. Was that really him?
Pei Liang smiled. “You’ll have to bear with it. If it were those two shameless idiots, we wouldn’t need to go this far. They could put on an act themselves.”
“But I can tell at a glance that you’re bad at lying and acting.”
“Expecting you to suddenly develop superb acting skills is a little unrealistic. So we’ll just make it look convincing enough to be misunderstood.”
“Bai Rou and the others only just left, and the moles in that base certainly haven’t all withdrawn. You need to create a plausible explanation for their defection. Of course, this is also for their safety.”
That did make sense, but—
Chu Yebai and Gong Ran, ever eager to stir up trouble, drawled, “Exactly. This concerns the lives of your teammates. It’s no time to be squeamish.”
“Still, the way he looks now is missing something. He looks like he’s just been through something, but there’s no pain or misery.”
“Nothing we can do about it. Some people are biased and insist on letting him enjoy himself without suffering at all. The old favorite really can’t compare to the new one.”
Pei Liang: “…”
Yu Cheng: “…You two have been through this kind of thing before?”
For some reason, his expression darkened.
Chu Yebai and Gong Ran nearly laughed themselves to death. You were the last one to be dragged into the car. What right did you have to question them?
The malice on their faces practically overflowed.
“So you should leave some marks on him too.”
“You said it yourself: if you’re putting on an act, you have to do it properly.”
*
When the car drove into the harbor base and the four of them got out, Pei Liang and the other two looked completely refreshed.
Yu Cheng was the last to emerge. His face was flushed, and his expression was strange—a mixture of shame, indignation, humiliation, and pain.
His body was limp, and he staggered as he walked. Anyone could tell what had happened.
The people around them looked over with indescribably complicated expressions, especially at Chu Yebai and Gong Ran.
So the two of you had finally gone from victims to perpetrators.
The moment Pei Liang got out of the car, someone came over to report, “Boss, Miss Pei Ning, Guan Qian, and the four people who were brought back this afternoon have all—”
Pei Liang raised a hand. “I already know. Gather everyone in the conference room first.”
Then she gave Gong Ran an order. “Take him back to the research base. Bring him back once he knows how to behave.”
Everyone nearby tensed when they heard that. What could Gong Ran do? Anyone who fell into his hands wouldn’t even be able to die. No matter how unyielding a man was, he wouldn’t last long under Gong Ran’s care.
And this man had already been used. He was surely exhausted in both body and mind.
The people who had followed Pei Liang naturally knew that although her methods could be extreme, she always had her reasons. But the people hiding in the shadows finally relaxed.
Everything lined up. It seemed the four people could safely be used by their base after all.
However, this base was filled with talented people and ability users. The cleanup of the zombies had now largely concluded, and plenty of ability users had time to spare.
To prevent them from discovering too soon which base had poached their key members—and to keep the base from confronting the strongest base in every respect before the time was right—they naturally had to do more than recruit ability users of strategic importance. They also needed to sow discord from within.
Thus, the next day, news spread among the thousands of people who had come with Yu Cheng: Yu Cheng had been imprisoned and placed under control, while the other four had fought their way out of the base under his protection.
These people had only just settled into the base. Although they had always held hopes for it, they had not yet developed any true sense of belonging.
Aside from a small minority, most of them remembered most clearly how Captain Yu had protected them with all his strength over the past few days.
They had assumed that with Captain Yu’s abilities, he would certainly become a highly valued member of the base once he arrived. No one had expected things to turn out like this.
For a time, all kinds of conspiracy theories spread everywhere: that the base was eliminating rivals, that those in power were jealous of talented people, and so on.
Rumors also circulated that the base only accepted survivors to obtain blood for extraction, and that anyone who discovered their schemes, refused to go along with them, and possessed the ability to resist would inevitably be ruthlessly eliminated.
As the rumors threatened to spiral out of control and began to affect peace and stability throughout the base, the people spreading them were arrested.
Those responsible for disseminating the rumors were dumbfounded when they were caught. Wasn’t the base currently distracted by the loss of important ability users and sensitive information?
They had acted with extreme secrecy. Without expending enormous manpower and resources, there was no way anyone could have followed the trail back to them.
Moreover, the situation had not yet escalated to a serious level. Given the crisis at hand, it was nowhere near the top of the list of priorities. Any single piece of the information Guan Qian had taken away was more important than the mere doubts of the base’s residents.
After all, doubts were only doubts. Even if the base’s core was truly dark, few people would dare to leave outright and venture into the unprotected world beyond.
Aside from the immediate impact on public opinion, this move was essentially just the planting of a long-term threat.
Only after the moles were exposed did they discover that far more people had been caught than they had imagined. Among them was even a high-level mole who had concealed himself so perfectly that he had taken no part in the operation at all.
Then Yu Cheng appeared in front of the convoy members who had arrived with him. He stated that he was being treated well, while the other four had each been assigned classified missions.
The rumors were instantly quelled.
The captured moles hesitated. What exactly was the truth behind this scheme?
In the end, however, they chose to trust what they had seen with their own eyes. Yu Cheng must have been unable to withstand the torture and had surrendered.
Meanwhile, the four who had supposedly defected were instead accused of carrying out missions, casting doubt on the faction that had taken them in.
Given Pei Liang’s treacherous nature, she was absolutely capable of such a thing.
Sure enough, the methods the base used to deal with the crisis afterward were vicious.
Having lost Pei Ning as a source of pheromones, they simply announced the pheromone formula to bases across the country—and even around the world.
They also shared their combat experience in using the pheromones, the weapons suited to them, and the different tactics they had developed for different terrain. They held nothing back.
The bases that received the information were greatly encouraged. Although many of them still lacked the strength to actively hunt zombies, once they had the pheromones, they had the means to lure them. In the worst-case scenario, when facing a zombie siege, they could temporarily break free by paying only a small price—or, if their technology was sufficiently advanced, without making any sacrifices at all.
At first glance, this seemed like a decision that would “injure the enemy by eight hundred while damaging oneself by a thousand.” In reality, it completely offset the losses caused by the defectors.
Pei Ning was a weapon of strategic importance. But if everyone possessed a substitute, then her existence was no longer anything special.
At the same time, countless bases seemed to have caught a glimpse of the Port Base’s secret to its strength and stability. Those with even a little ambition began to see the possibility of catching up with—or even surpassing—them.
As a result, the bases across the country abruptly shifted from a defensive approach to a proactive one in dealing with the zombies, and the results were gratifying.
This also caused the enthusiasm of the entire nation to surge to an unprecedented level as people reclaimed their homeland and cleared out the zombies.
Watching the thriving scene through the Sky Eye surveillance system, Pei Liang was deeply gratified.
“See? When you share things for free, people accuse you of having ulterior motives. But once they’re given the chance to realize their ambitions, their initiative is immediately awakened.”
Yu Cheng frowned as he watched several of the screens. “The combat strength of this base is still too weak.”
Pei Liang sneered. “Weakness is one thing. There’s another reason, too.”
“This isn’t an isolated case. There are countless bases across the country, and the people who established them are all kinds of people. Some didn’t build their bases because they were especially capable, held strong convictions, or possessed excellent management skills. They simply got lucky and happened to occupy a position with favorable timing and geography.”
“Under the threat of death from the outside world, a sealed-off space becomes a kingdom unto itself. Ruling makes people addicted to power—especially those with enough self-awareness to know that maintaining the status quo is their best option.”
They had no ability to contribute to saving humanity from the apocalypse, yet they still wanted to enjoy authority and the thrill of ruling—privileges far beyond their capabilities.
Knowing they were no match for the other bases, they naturally refused to participate in the process of expanding and eventually merging the bases.
Put simply, they were greedy for the pleasure of being petty emperors in their own little corners, wanting to enjoy it for as long as possible.
Disgust appeared on Yu Cheng’s face. “Then these bases—”
“The boss has already issued the policy. If they refuse to do their jobs, then replace the officials.”
Yu Cheng looked at her, feeling both exasperated and amused. She was treating those incompetent people clinging to power in their bases like village cadres.
Afterward, Pei Liang entered an office.
Dozens of ability users were already seated inside. Before the apocalypse, they had held all kinds of positions.
Now, however, they shared one thing in common: after enduring countless trials, they possessed the composure and strength of true elites.
Pei Liang took the seat at the head of the table and got straight to the point.
“You are the Port Base’s finest corps of ability users.”
“Although the base’s living conditions have now stabilized, countless of our fellow countrymen across the nation are still suffering.”
“Some are fleeing and wandering outside, constantly threatened by zombies. Others are trapped in dangerous and brutal bases, enduring abuse and oppression.”
None of this was a secret. Among the survivors who had sought refuge at the Port Base, many had escaped from other bases. Some had been forced to continue wandering after their bases were overrun by zombies.
Quite a few of the ability users had also spent brief periods in other bases. As ability users, they had been treated reasonably well; wherever they went, people needed those with powerful combat abilities.
But life was far harsher for ordinary people in the apocalypse.
Back then, they had been able to accept the law of the jungle. After all, base resources could never be sufficient, and it seemed only natural that those who worked more should receive more, while the strong should obtain a greater share of the resources.
But after arriving at the Port Base, they discovered that no matter how reasonable an explanation they used to make themselves indifferent, they still could not ignore the suffering of their fellow human beings.
A bright and hopeful environment awakened the light of humanity within them. In the end, they still preferred the peaceful, warm world before the apocalypse, where everyone could live and work in peace, rather than a bleak, oppressive wasteland beneath skies filled with yellow dust.
Pei Liang continued, “Since certain base administrators are incompetent—unable to guarantee even the basic living conditions and dignity of their people, let alone contribute to clearing out habitable territory—then there is no reason for them to continue serving as base leaders.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up.
They had been able to develop their abilities far beyond ordinary people in such a short time. Besides having an evolutionary advantage, most of them were naturally ambitious and proactive.
Now that the base was becoming more and more secure, their missions had grown dull and simple. It was time to go out and conquer new territory.
Some of them had even escaped from other bases themselves and still worried about people they had once known who remained trapped there. They naturally volunteered to lead the expeditions.
Once the assignments were made, everyone was equipped with embedded chips developed by the whiz kid, allowing them to contact the base headquarters at any time.
They could receive orders and deployments from headquarters, as well as enjoy the convenience provided by the headquarters’ Sky Eye system.
And with Yu Cheng joining the operation, its efficiency soared to an entirely new level.
His landing point was thousands of kilometers from the Port Base. On his journey there, he had taken a winding route that practically crossed the entire country.
With him present, the time needed to travel could be shortened to an instant, catching those bases completely off guard.
If anything unexpected happened, reinforcements could also be dispatched within minutes.
Just as Pei Liang had expected, that guy had indeed concealed the number of times he could activate his ability. He had claimed that he could use it ten times a day, but in reality, the number was far higher.
With the resources, technology, and logistical support of the base behind them, the takeover plans proceeded smoothly.
Meanwhile, Guan Qian and Pei Ning found themselves in a rather delicate situation at another base.
Guan Qian knew this base well. It was called the “Proud Dragon” Base. The name sounded imposing, but it had the tacky air of a little internet café on a street corner.
It was also one of the bases that would eventually emerge as one of the seven strongest in the country, alongside Chu Yebai’s base and five others, according to the original novel.
During the first few days after their arrival, Zhang Long, the base leader, and several others were ecstatic. They treated the newcomers as honored guests.
Guan Qian and the others cooperated as well. Guan Qian was not stupid enough to hand over everything she had brought all at once. But since Pei Liang had asked her to bring those things, she obviously wasn’t afraid of—or, rather, was more than happy to see—them being leaked.
So Guan Qian kept the others in suspense, dangling the information just beyond their reach. As a result, she enjoyed an extraordinary status at the Proud Dragon Base for the time being.
Pei Ning, of course, needed no further explanation. After cooperating in a single mission, they discovered just how useful she was. With Pei Ning on their side, the Proud Dragon Base’s strength was enough to determine the outcome of a battle outright.
They would gather the zombies together and bombard them with overwhelming firepower. Even when their firepower wasn’t sufficient, they could simply use a helicopter to carry Pei Ning and draw the zombie horde far away. Once Pei Ning suppressed her pheromones, the area around their homes would be peaceful again.
Naturally, greed and desire began to grow in the hearts of these people.
“This woman is good for far more than just that.”
The logic of bad people was actually easy enough to understand. Since Pei Ning’s pheromones could be used as a weapon to wipe out zombies, they could naturally also be used as a tool to eliminate rivals.
Zhang Long rubbed his chin. “What did that brother-and-sister pair from the small base say before? Weren’t they claiming to have ‘iron bones’?”
“Let’s see how long they can hold out beneath an endless tide of zombies.”
Several dozen miles from Aolong Base stood a small base. Given Aolong’s domineering nature, they naturally wanted to swallow it up.
However, the terrain around that base offered a huge advantage, and its managers—a brother-and-sister pair—were both capable, with extremely strong defenses.
They had tried to contact them, but the siblings disliked Aolong Base’s way of doing things and rejected them outright.
They had also tried a few underhanded tactics, but the siblings had managed to defuse every one of them without incident.
The two bases were obviously nowhere near equal in strength, but if Aolong launched a forced assault, its own losses would not be insignificant. Given the current circumstances, it simply wasn’t worth the cost, so they had no choice but to leave the base alone for the time being.
Now that Pei Ning had arrived, however, they could achieve their goal without lifting a finger.
Just as the people at Aolong Base were making their plans, news suddenly arrived: Harbor Base had publicly released the pheromone formula.
The ingredients weren’t difficult to find. In fact, they had provided several different formulas, taking the resources available in various regions into consideration.
That meant that if Aolong dared to use this method against other bases, those bases could naturally retaliate in kind.
Pei Ning seemed to lose her uniqueness overnight, becoming commonplace everywhere.
Guan Qian had also released a large portion of the information she had stolen, seemingly determined to do everything she could to help people and, more importantly, to prevent Aolong Base from gaining this advantage.
As a result, the situation of Guan Qian and Pei Ning within the base became rather delicate.
Pei Ning had no idea what her sister was doing, but since Pei Liang had told her not to worry about her safety and said that someone was secretly protecting her, Pei Ning remained fairly carefree.
Guan Qian, however, couldn’t bring herself to trust Pei Liang that much. She sneered. “In our previous life, Zhong An swore eternal love to you at first too. And what happened in the end?”
“She’s clearly disregarding your safety by releasing the pheromone formula now, yet you actually expect her to protect you?”
Pei Ning waved a hand. “Just how insecure are you, to compare men with my sister?”
“Even if you don’t trust my sister, you should at least trust your own value.” As she spoke, Pei Ning glanced at the people from Aolong in the distance.
“Don’t lower yourself to the level of idiots like them.”
