Chu Yebai gritted his teeth and sat up, leaning against the nearest wall.
Generally speaking, if the entire group had been captured but was still being held together, that counted as a blessing in disguise.
At least they could confirm one another’s safety, exchange information, and, most importantly, work out a way to save themselves.
Under normal circumstances, with all his brothers gathered around him, Chu Yebai would have felt somewhat at ease even if he was temporarily at someone else’s mercy.
But right now, all he wanted was to be locked up alone, as far away from those idiots as possible.
Chu Yebai looked toward the appraiser, hoping to find one clearheaded, intelligent person among the crowd of fools.
This guy could tell at a glance when jewelry, antiques, and works of art had been forged so perfectly that they looked genuine. Surely he wouldn’t blindly echo the others like those idiots, right?
Yet when the appraiser noticed his leader looking over, his face filled with unbearable guilt and misery. He seemed almost afraid to meet Chu Yebai’s eyes, and a faint sob escaped through his nose.
He abruptly turned his head away, as though he had no face with which to confront his leader.
The appraiser clenched his fists, his eyes filled with self-reproach. He was consumed by regret. A few hours earlier, when that woman had offered to take him instead, he should have agreed without hesitation.
Even if he couldn’t take the leader’s place, at least one more person would have meant half the burden for Chu Yebai to bear.
He had been far too idealistic and optimistic, thinking that with his leader’s ability and charisma, even if he didn’t seize the opportunity to turn the tables, he could still charm that woman until she was completely infatuated with him.
The others were all rough, brawny men. That woman would never take an interest in them. But he was different—
He had clearly had the chance to suffer in the leader’s place.
That was why, compared with the others, the appraiser was visibly more wracked with guilt.
Especially now that their domineering, arrogant leader could barely even sit up. Every movement revealed the shocking bruises covering his body. The appraiser lowered his head as well and silently shed tears.
Chu Yebai: “…”
He had forgotten. No matter how clever this kid was, he was still just a kid—barely old enough to have started university.
The boy had been a genius since childhood, but all his abilities and expertise required an extremely broad base of knowledge and experience to support them.
In other words, he spent all day buried in his work and had no practical experience with this sort of thing, only a mechanical understanding based on theory.
He wasn’t interested in the related topics the brothers discussed among themselves, either. His ears would automatically filter them out.
Chu Yebai cursed himself for being an idiot. Why had he expected a virgin who knew nothing about this sort of thing to understand his situation?
Forget it. Let them think whatever they wanted. As long as they knew to keep their mouths shut, that was enough.
Chu Yebai then began asking everyone what had happened after he passed out, leaving no detail unexplored.
The broad outline was more or less what he had guessed. But when it came to the two dead guests—
“She shot them herself?”
“Yeah! That woman’s absolutely ruthless,” Guan Tian said in his booming voice. “The old woman was acting strange too, like she’d gone mad with rabies.”
“But we didn’t expect her to shoot her outright. Not only did she shoot the old woman, which could be said to have prevented a chain reaction among the guests, but that pretty boy wasn’t sick, was he?”
“She turned around and shot him in the head. That’s also why we were even more afraid to act rashly. That woman seems like she doesn’t care at all that she might face murder charges or public condemnation once she gets off the ship. It’s extremely suspicious.”
Chu Yebai frowned. So that was how it was. In that case, it wasn’t strange that the woman had interrogated him and forced him to reveal the location of the arms dealers’ hideout.
“Oh, right. She also had everyone on the ship’s temperature checked. Anyone with a fever was sent to a separate cabin and locked inside. We were checked too.”
“Yeah, yeah! Sixth Brother’s temperature was a little high, so he was locked up. Just like quarantine.”
“What did you say?” Something stirred in Chu Yebai’s heart. He felt as though he had caught the tip of a thread.
“Quarantine?” Guan Tian asked blankly, then hurriedly reassured him. “But don’t worry, boss. Aside from being locked in a cabin, nothing else happened. Sixth Brother hasn’t suffered.”
Chu Yebai didn’t answer. He fell silent in thought.
It seemed there was a single thread connecting all the clues.
For instance, why would a glamorous and successful dancer care so little about the attacks and condemnation she might face after disembarking?
Why had she decisively shot Xu the Third first, clearly in order to prevent the guests from being injured, yet then turned around and shot both a sick guest and one who showed no signs of illness? Her actions were contradictory.
And after the hijackers had been subdued, even though a small number of them were still at large and the threat had not been completely eliminated, she had chosen to prioritize the seemingly unnecessary task of checking everyone’s temperature.
It was as though she were preparing for some major event.
Chu Yebai had a vague sense that he had grasped something, but he was still constrained by common sense and couldn’t determine the answer outright.
After all, what normal person would believe that while they were in the middle of a perfectly ordinary hijacking, the outside world had already come to an end?
Chu Yebai pondered for a moment longer before asking, “Is the security department maintaining order on the ship now?”
Everyone nodded. That much wasn’t difficult to guess.
No matter how capable that woman was, she was still only one person.
In the hour or so since he had been dragged into the room, there had been more than enough time for the people in the captain’s quarters to come out, rescue everyone, and retake control of the main hall.
But the people in the captain’s quarters had not emerged. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to. They simply couldn’t.
Chu Yebai had no idea what method that woman had used to make the security personnel disregard the law and cooperate in controlling the hostages.
He had been on the ship for several days and knew the background of the security team. They were employees of what was considered one of the top security companies in the country.
Most of them were retired soldiers or former armed police officers, and they were no amateurs.
It was only because domestic law prevented them from carrying guns that they were at a disadvantage. Otherwise, how could they possibly have been a match for his people?
Chu Yebai then asked them how many members of the security team had defected and obeyed that woman after he left, how the weapons had been distributed, and what the team’s patterns of movement and temporary positions had been before the hijackers were locked up.
Although all of that could change at any moment, the security department had been working on the ship for several days and naturally had its own established procedures.
The appraiser quickly said, “I remember. There were…”
At last, Chu Yebai recovered some of the reassuring sense that his team could still be counted on, along with the familiar understanding that he and his brothers worked well together.
Based on the clues provided by the appraiser, he could more or less deduce several major directions in which the firepower was concentrated.
What was more, they possessed their greatest advantage: the captain’s quarters were still under their control.
That woman had been overconfident. As long as they left the room, subdued the nearest security guards, and reclaimed a few weapons, they would have their chance to turn the situation around.
With that thought, Chu Yebai smiled and said a sentence in code, “Release the ropes for now. We move in two hours.”
The moment he finished speaking, another fine needle appeared in his hand. It wasn’t just him. Most of the other hijackers also produced blades, slivers of metal, and other sharp implements.
Before locking them up, the guards had certainly searched them thoroughly. Yet they had still managed to smuggle these items inside without being discovered, proving just how well prepared this group was.
Even if all he had was a single needle, the tough nylon ropes tied around him in impossibly difficult knots would no longer pose much of a threat.
But just as Chu Yebai was about to make his move, a voice suddenly came from somewhere in the room.
“Hey? I stripped you completely bare, so how did you still manage to hide a needle on yourself?”
The moment Chu Yebai heard that voice, his whole body stiffened, and his expression turned almost horrified.
He hurriedly looked around the room. His first suspicion was that hidden cameras had been installed inside.
A luxury cruise ship of this caliber had to respect its guests’ privacy. Other than the public areas, rooms and private suites could not possibly have surveillance cameras. It would have been far too difficult to install one in such a short time—and with the appraiser’s sharp instincts, he should have noticed it long ago if there had been a camera in the room.
Then could it be a listening device? But all the instructions he had given were in coded language created within their own team. There was no way an outsider could have deciphered it in such a short time.
Chu Yebai searched the room and confirmed that there were neither cameras nor listening devices.
Yet the expression on his face now looked as though he had seen a ghost.
Because someone had stepped out of the dim corner of the room.
The person was wearing their tactical uniform.
And who else could it be but Pei Liang?
The room where they were being held was fairly spacious—a large private suite beside the bar.
The lighting in the suite had always been dim and suggestive, and only a single lamp in the center had been left on for them. They could see well enough, but certainly not as clearly as they would have under ordinary lighting.
Even so, they could not possibly have been stupid enough to fail to notice a woman infiltrating their group.
It was not only Chu Yebai. Every one of the surrounding robbers was dumbfounded.
The appraiser in particular wore an expression of utter shock. “How did you get in here?”
“No, I personally checked everyone. There’s no way I could have made a mistake.” His professional skills had clearly been challenged, and he looked utterly incredulous. “How did you fool my eyes?”
The ropes around Pei Liang’s body suddenly came loose and fell neatly to the floor. She walked to the center of the room.
“I knew I couldn’t let my guard down around you people for even a moment.”
“If I’d gone to sleep just like that, everyone on this ship would probably have been taken hostage again by the time I woke up, and I’d have had to play hide-and-seek with you all over again.”
By then, no matter how capable she was, there would have been no way to resolve the situation without casualties.
The security personnel currently maintaining order outside were no match for these cunning robbers. Even if they had guns in their hands, all the robbers needed to do was seize one or two of them and join forces with their people in the control room. That would have been enough to turn the tables.
Pei Liang sighed. “Can’t you young people show a little sportsmanship? You lost, so lie down and behave. You can’t use the excuse that you just didn’t have time to dodge, can you?”
“It’s the middle of the night. Keeping a woman from sleeping isn’t something a gentleman would do.”
The robbers remained silent for a long while.
Then Guan Tian suddenly bellowed, his voice as shrill as a duck being strangled. “When did you sneak in, you thief?”
As he spoke, he looked at Chu Yebai in horror.
“So it turns out you’re not the only one who’s slept with the boss?”
The needle in Chu Yebai’s hand nearly pierced his own flesh, but he had no time to argue with the idiot.
He immediately understood. “Did someone come in here before I returned?”
“…Yes,” the appraiser replied with difficulty.
They had not been shoved in all at once. In a way, their captors had treated them rather humanely.
First, they had searched every inch of their bodies for any weapons or blades they might have concealed. Then they had replaced their restraints with ropes and tied them up again.
They had even given them food.
The group had not actually been very hungry at the time, since they were all worried about their boss. But in order to preserve their strength and make it easier to act that night, they had obediently eaten.
After all that, the last person had been locked inside only shortly before their boss returned.
Who had that last person been again?
“It was Eighth Brother!” The appraiser stared at Pei Liang. “Eighth Brother is thin and about the same height as you. You changed into his clothes and fooled us.”
But that still did not make sense. The appraiser did not consider himself blind enough to mistake a man for a woman merely because the lighting was somewhat dim.
He clearly remembered that the person who entered had been Eighth Brother.
Yet now, although the woman was wearing the same clothes as them, no one could possibly mistake her for Eighth Brother.
How had she done it?
The appraiser exchanged a glance with Chu Yebai, and the two of them quickly considered what to do next.
If everyone attacked her at once—
Pei Liang suddenly said, “If I were you, I’d put down the blades hidden in your ropes.”
“After all, if you lose the ropes, then for the sake of getting a peaceful night’s sleep, I’ll have no choice but to beat all of you until you’re unable to move.”
As she spoke, she looked at Chu Yebai.
“You should understand better than anyone that you have no advantage if you attack now.”
“Why not obediently conserve your strength for the night?”
Chu Yebai was sensible enough to recognize the situation. He stared at Pei Liang with a grim expression for a long moment. Then he revealed the needle in his hand and flicked it onto the floor.
Once he had made his position clear, the other men had no choice but to throw down the blades, broken glass, and other weapons they had been holding as well.
Pei Liang called toward the hallway, “Put the guns away. Send someone in to clean the floor.”
Chu Yebai’s heart jolted, and his spine instantly turned cold.
Never before had he felt so grateful that they had not yet made their move.
Judging from Pei Liang’s last sentence, it seemed that her preparations from the very beginning had gone far beyond anything they had imagined.
Sure enough, the door opened, and two security guards came in carrying a vacuum cleaner and a broom.
As they entered, the men could see that high up across from the suite, two security guards were holding automatic weapons and aiming them in their direction.
The moment the door was opened from inside, they would have been met with indiscriminate gunfire.
Perhaps they might ultimately have been able to regain control of the situation by using their brothers’ lives as cover—but at the very least, half the people in the room would have been sacrificed first.
It was not a risk worth taking.
The group of robbers finally settled down for the night, and Pei Liang returned to her room and slept soundly.
The guests aboard the ship had already gone back to their rooms, and most of them were extremely uneasy.
It was not only the situation on the ship. Earlier, when they had been forced to call and demand ransom, some of the guests had clearly sensed that something was happening outside.
However, after only a few calls, Pei Liang had brought the situation under control, followed by one shocking development after another.
Now that they had calmed down and thought back on it, some of them remembered that when their calls had connected, they had heard suspicious noises on the other end. Others had not even had time to say anything before being told to stay where they were and not return to the ship.
At that moment, the signal across the entire cruise ship had been blocked, turning it into an isolated island. No matter how worried a few people might have been, there was nothing they could do.
Early the next morning, the captain’s quarters broadcast an announcement calling everyone on the ship to wake up and have breakfast.
Quite a few people wanted to hide in their rooms until the end of time, but they were afraid that someone might come in with a gun and drag them out.
With no choice, they trudged miserably to the dining hall.
That was when they discovered just how shabby breakfast was that day.
Normally, breakfast was an extravagant buffet. Guests staying in the luxury suites could even order individually. Expensive pastries, fresh fruit, caviar, freshly sliced ham—everything was available.
But breakfast that morning was just like the cafeteria food back in middle school. The few ordinary options of congee, rice noodles, and noodles were gone in no time.
Quite a few people turned around and were about to go back to their rooms, and no one stopped them.
Most of the others were dissatisfied too, but after going hungry for so long since the previous night, they could make do with what was available.
Pei Ning, on the other hand, had long since grown used to the scarcity of food and supplies in the apocalypse. She grabbed a steamed bun and ate it with relish.
Seeing this, she shook her head. They could still afford to be picky at a time like this. Before long, these ordinary foods would teach them just how extravagant such a meal really was.
Early that morning, she had been woken by her “sister” and started taking inventory of the supplies on board alongside the ship’s staff.
The main concerns were food, fresh water, and medical supplies.
The ship’s reserves were actually quite substantial, but they still had to support more than a thousand people.
Normally, a cruise ship’s route would include several stops where it could replenish its supplies.
The problem was that these locations were usually densely populated cargo terminals or tourist attractions. Docking at one of them under the current circumstances would be no different from courting death.
Unless they were an armed mercenary organization like Chu Yebai’s, but with their current numbers and firepower, all they could realistically do was stay alive.
Replenishing supplies for more than a thousand people? They were better off conserving what they had.
Fortunately, the ship was equipped with a desalination system. For the time being, that meant the living conditions aboard were practically luxurious by apocalyptic standards.
Before the apocalypse, Pei Ning had been utterly useless. After it began, she had been forced to learn all sorts of skills she had never even dared imagine.
Even as Zhong An’s subordinate, every person in the base had to contribute through labor.
Drawing on her experience, she knew exactly how everything should be distributed and which supplies took priority.
Pei Liang trusted her completely on this matter. She handed the people over to Pei Ning and disappeared.
As Pei Ning muttered inwardly, she also felt something strange.
Throughout both of her lives, almost everyone had denied her. Not a single person had believed she was capable of anything.
Yet now, relying on the experience she had gained in her previous life, she had organized everything in a few swift moves. The improvement in efficiency was obvious. Supplies could be accessed quickly and conveniently, and losses could be minimized even when unexpected situations arose.
At first, the people around her had blindly followed her instructions simply because Pei Liang had assigned them to her. Now, however, they genuinely believed she was highly capable.
One of the workers said, “You’re really efficient. Were you a senior executive at a major company?”
“No wonder Miss Pei handed everything over to you. At first, I thought you were a college student who hadn’t even graduated yet.”
“I thought, ‘It’s just taking inventory, organizing things, and redistributing them. We know how to do that too. Don’t start giving us random orders and get in the way of our work.’”
“She really is a professional. No wonder she can manage people.”
Pei Ning smiled and glossed over the remarks, but she could not help feeling a little excited inside.
It was a feeling she had never experienced in her previous life. Even knowing that they were facing the apocalypse could not completely suppress the joy it brought her.
While everyone aboard the ship was busy, Pei Liang had already finished breakfast and arrived at the detention room.
When she opened the door, the bandits looked to be in decent spirits.
Apparently, after giving up on their plans the previous night, they had simply settled down to rest and recover their strength.
Pei Liang entered and once again made to drag Chu Yebai away.
The men in the room were instantly alarmed.
“Stop! What are you doing?”
“Our boss is already in that state, and you still won’t let him off?” Guan Tian stared at Pei Liang as if she were some kind of monster.
Then, with a look of heroic self-sacrifice, he said, “Stop tormenting our boss. Let me take his place.”
“Me too. I’m tough and can withstand it.”
“Me as well. I’ve got a nice butt. I guarantee I’ll be more fun than our boss. Let him go and take me instead.”
“I’ve had hemorrhoids before. If I’m going to get treated once, I might as well get treated twice. Come at me!”
Even the appraiser gritted his teeth and said, his face flushed with humiliation, “I... I’m willing too.”
“I’m young. Let me take the boss’s place.”
Chu Yebai: “...”
“I’ve told you people, I was only being interrogated!”
The men stared at him with tears in their eyes.
“Yes, yes! We’re all volunteering to be interrogated in the boss’s place.”
“We know everything our boss knows. Come at us with whatever you’ve got.”
“Our boss... our boss really can’t take any more of your playing around~~”
Chu Yebai: “...”
Maybe he should just abandon them. Once he escaped, he could recruit a new batch of subordinates. This time, he would choose smarter ones.
Pei Liang, however, seemed rather tempted by their proposal.
She said, “I actually do have something you can help with.”
“If all of you obey me from now on, I’ll give your boss the most favorable treatment available to a prisoner. How does that sound?”
The bandits fell silent, their eyes turning toward Chu Yebai.
Chu Yebai let out a mocking laugh. “Your appetite is impressive. You think you can simply take control of a well-trained mercenary unit?”
“Still, I’ve more or less figured out what you’re after. It seems the famous dancer’s ambitions don’t lie in the glittering world of fame and fortune. Instead, you’re deeply drawn to smoke, bloodshed, and gunfire. That’s certainly unusual.”
“But you have no team, no connections, and no idea how to get into the business. In the end, it won’t be easy.”
“Why not do this? You have the strength, and I have the manpower. We can make peace and become allies. From then on, we can rob people and commit crimes together, spend money like there’s no tomorrow, and play all those incompetent idiots for fools. What do you say?”
The moment he finished speaking, a slap landed on his head. Chu Yebai staggered from the blow.
Before his body could pitch forward from the momentum, Pei Liang grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back.
Leaning close to his ear, she said, “I was only being polite. Don’t get carried away.”
“Was I asking for your opinion? I was giving you a multiple-choice question.”
Then she turned to the bandits and said, “Give me your answer before I come back today.”
With that, she dragged their boss away once more.
None of the bandits had expected this woman to turn on them even faster than they did.
They cried out in anguish, “Boss!!!!”
Chu Yebai wished he could kick the door shut himself and block out the voices of those idiots.
He assumed Pei Liang intended to torment him the way she had the previous night. No matter how hard he tried to appear calm and composed, an expression of shame and humiliation still surfaced on his face.
He said, “What else do you want to ask? I already told you everything yesterday.”
Pei Liang flicked a small knife into her hand and easily cut through his bindings. She was not worried that he would misbehave.
Then she said, “Exactly. So now we’re going to retrieve the goods.”
Chu Yebai was stunned. “Are you insane?”
“Do you know what kind of place that is? Do you know how many obstacles and defensive measures there are? Do you think you’re the only one who’s ever had your eye on it? You’ll be riddled with bullets before you even reach the gate.”
Pei Liang nodded. “That’s why I’m bringing you.”
Chu Yebai immediately understood. He was the smuggling ring’s biggest client, and his face was a natural pass.
She intended to use him to get inside, then rely on the fact that no one would suspect a woman to launch a surprise attack.
After all, even his own men had fallen into that trap. Who would have expected a woman to possess such terrifying strength and such meticulous tactical thinking?
The two of them boarded the speedboat the bandits had arrived in. Pei Liang ordered Chu Yebai to steer while she sat to the side, studying the layout map drawn according to the information he had provided.
The arms dealer’s base wasn’t far from here. After obtaining the address last night, Pei Liang had already instructed the captain’s cabin to sail in that direction. They were now only a few dozen nautical miles away.
The place was situated in a secluded bay that did not appear on any maps. Calling it a base was not entirely accurate.
Strictly speaking, the bay was a trading site. And since it was a trading site, there was naturally no shortage of goods being transferred through it.
According to Chu Yebai, an organization from a small war-torn country had recently placed a huge order there. If they were lucky, the shipment might not have been sent out yet.
A little over an hour later, the speedboat stopped at a hidden port.
The moment Chu Yebai reached the shore, his brows furrowed. It was far too quiet.
Normally, the instant they docked, people armed with live ammunition would have come out to meet them.
But today, although quite a few ships were moored nearby, the silence was unnaturally oppressive.
“According to the instincts of a professional,” Chu Yebai said, “we should leave immediately.”
“According to the instincts of someone who beat up a professional,” Pei Liang replied, “I’d say my luck is excellent.”
She pushed Chu Yebai off the boat and linked her arm through his, signaling for him to walk forward naturally.
Chu Yebai’s steps were somewhat stiff, and his entire body was tense to the limit. Pei Liang, on the other hand, moved with graceful, elegant poise.
She was even wearing a long dress that was both sexy and alluring.
She looked exactly like the mistress accompanying a crime lord, with not the slightest hint of suspicion about her.
The two of them walked ashore and continued several hundred meters inland, yet they did not see a single person. It was as though everyone there had vanished overnight.
But Pei Liang immediately noticed a pile of diesel barrels in one spot.
“Damn, I should have brought the cruise ship directly here,” she said regretfully.
Chu Yebai looked over at the barrels. Diesel was the cruise ship’s source of power. Was this woman planning to drag more than a thousand people out to sea and become pirates?
There were far too many things about her that he found incomprehensible, so he simply asked, “You don’t seem concerned at all about what might happen after we get off the boat.”
“Or rather, you didn’t seem in any hurry to disembark. Why?”
Pei Liang glanced at him and raised her gun.
Chu Yebai instinctively started to raise his own gun in response, but a split-second judgment made him force himself to stop.
Sure enough, a bullet grazed his cheek and struck the ground behind him. Chu Yebai turned around, and his expression immediately changed.
It was a person whose entire body was covered in decay. There were wounds everywhere, some from tearing and biting, others from rot. Most of his face had decomposed, and one of his arms was missing.
Besides blood, a foul-smelling, blackish-yellow slime was constantly dripping from his body.
Before Chu Yebai turned around, he had even thought someone was trying to attack him with a rotten fish.
There was a fresh bullet hole in the person’s forehead. Pei Liang had just fired it.
But that was the only shot she had taken. In other words, before Pei Liang blew his head off, that thing had been moving around in a form that clearly could not possibly belong to a living human.
“What is that?” Chu Yebai’s heart began to pound.
He recognized the uniform the man was wearing. It belonged to the smuggling organization.
He no longer needed Pei Liang to tell him the answer, because countless people had now appeared throughout the previously silent dock.
They emerged like ghosts—from the water, from ship cabins, and from behind cargo crates.
Every one of them was covered in blood, with yellowing whites of the eyes. Most still had blood smeared around their mouths, and their bodies were in various stages of decay.
Even Chu Yebai, who had witnessed countless scenes resembling hell on earth, could not help drawing in a sharp breath.
In that instant, he seemed to understand something.
He turned around and saw Pei Liang smiling at him.
“Welcome to the apocalypse!”
As she spoke, she began firing shot after shot.
Her aim was exceptionally precise. She did not rely on automatic fire to improve her hit rate. Calm and unhurried, she put a bullet through the head of every target.
There were many zombies, but Pei Liang killed them all before they could get close.
The most important thing about a dock used for illicit dealings was its secrecy. It could not be as crowded as a marketplace, so the total number of zombies was limited.
Working together, Pei Liang and Chu Yebai quickly cleared the area. Chu Yebai followed her example. Once he realized that bullets to the body did not hinder the zombies’ movements, he began aiming for their heads.
At last, he understood everything.
“That’s it?” Chu Yebai asked incredulously, pointing at the nearest zombie he had just shot in the head.
“These slow-moving pieces of trash were enough to bring down the entire dock?”
“Even if there had only been a dozen normal people here, they should have been able to control the situation with ease, right?”
Even if they had not initially known that the head was the weak point, they could have figured it out through trial and error under sustained fire.
Pei Liang shrugged. “That’s because the world has to fall apart this way.”
After passing through several worlds, Pei Liang had already summarized a set of operating principles for novel worlds.
If an apocalyptic world followed realistic logic, then even if a zombie virus capable of spreading rapidly truly appeared, it would not lead to the entire world falling overnight into a state of anarchy, as it did in novels.
But the basic premise of the setting was absolute. It was even independent of the characters within it.
Reality would therefore automatically fill in the logical gaps necessary to bring about that result.
As a result, places with overwhelming firepower—such as military bases, battlefields, and arms-dealing docks like this one—would naturally become the hardest-hit areas.
In a sense, Chu Yebai could also be considered one of the chosen ones. According to the chain of events that had brought about the apocalypse, if his bandits had not gone out to rob people yesterday and had instead stayed at their base drinking and carousing, Pei Liang was certain that at least sixty percent of his team would have turned into zombies immediately.
However, he had boarded a passenger ship with more than a thousand people and stayed among them. That diluted the influence of the weapons under his group’s control and placed them in the ordinary population category.
As a result, the number of infected people and the scale of the outbreak on the cruise ship remained within the normal range.
Chu Yebai looked at Pei Liang. “So that’s why the security team chose to follow your orders?”
Pei Liang nodded. “I showed them some videos and news reports from outside at the time. I also used the satellite phone to have them contact people outside.”
Even if they still hoped that order beyond the ship would eventually be restored, they were no longer opposed to Pei Liang shooting Ms. Zhu and her lover. They also understood the reasoning behind everything she had done.
For the sake of the safety and stability of the entire ship, it was best not to tell them the truth at this point. But it was also best to keep them under control in an orderly manner.
Pei Liang continued walking forward, with Chu Yebai following silently behind her.
Then he suddenly realized something.
“Your younger sister. She’s the key, isn’t she?”
Pei Liang turned around. His eyes were fixed intently on her.
“You only realized it during yesterday’s banquet.”
“So you tested her. She already knew in advance that we were going to launch this operation.”
“She has an ability? The power to foresee the future?”
Pei Liang smiled. “You’re not qualified to share my secrets yet.”
She turned her head and prepared to continue walking, but a hand suddenly seized hers.
Chu Yebai was well aware of the enormous opportunity before him, and the humiliation he had felt in front of Pei Liang was gone.
His voice took on a seductive note, and his gaze grew suggestive.
“How would I qualify?” he asked Pei Liang. “Could you tell me?”
“Last night, when you were tormenting my body, it seemed you were holding back, too.” He moved closer and closer. “Afterward, I thought that if I’d known the outcome from the beginning, I definitely would have behaved and cooperated, letting you do whatever you wanted with me.”
“I’ve fully accepted the situation now. I want to—”
His final words seemed to brush against her ear.
“Become one of your own.”
Pei Liang raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. This was actually the easiest pretty boy to handle so far.
Just look at how self-aware he was. How ambitious.
Then compare him with the three troublesome idiots before him—Pei Liang suddenly felt quite healed.
She grabbed him by the hair, pulled him toward her, and covered his lips with a deep kiss.
He cooperated wholeheartedly. Their lips met and parted, tongues entwined as they savored the moment.
When the kiss ended, Pei Liang said, “Fine. From now on, you’re with me. I won’t treat you badly.”
Although raising a pretty boy who knew exactly what he wanted, could bend with the circumstances, cared nothing for his dignity, and would drag you down with him at the first opportunity was rather difficult…
There was also a certain pleasure in watching him twist and turn obediently in the palm of her hand.
The two of them broke into the arms-dealing stronghold, where a few scattered survivors still remained.
They had realized someone had broken in upon hearing the commotion outside and had hidden themselves, preparing to launch a sneak attack. However, they were all dealt with first.
Sure enough, the shipment ordered by that certain country’s organization had yet to be delivered. The warehouse was well stocked, and there was diesel here as well, so they would not have to worry about fuel consumption for the time being.
Pei Liang immediately used the satellite phone to tell the cruise ship to come over.
The small harbor was too narrow for the cruise ship to dock, so they had to use the little boats at the pier to transport everything back and forth.
The security personnel disembarked to handle the loading. Seeing the ground covered in zombies, they finally caught a glimpse of what the apocalypse truly looked like.
Pei Liang and Chu Yebai returned to the ship. The first thing they did, naturally, was release the bandits locked in that room.
The bandits had spent the entire morning feeling as if their hearts were being cut with knives, imagining one horrifying torture after another that their boss might be enduring.
Their boss had returned the previous night without a single patch of uninjured skin left. Would he come back today barely clinging to life?
Instead, when the door opened, they saw their boss standing before them with the woman’s arm wrapped around his waist.
The two looked intimate, the atmosphere between them suggestive—in other words, they were clearly a couple of shameless lovers who had already hooked up.
A smile curved Chu Yebai’s lips. When he saw the stunned expressions on the faces of the idiots, a distinct hint of smugness appeared in his eyes.
“Come on out,” he said. “From now on, you’ll work with the brothers from the ship’s security department to maintain order. You’re free to move around now.”
The meaning behind Chu Yebai’s words was obvious:
See that, you idiots? This is what your boss is capable of.
But several of them clapped their hands over their mouths, desperately trying to hold back their choked sobs.
“Our boss… for our sake, he’s been reduced to becoming someone’s kept man…”
