As long as nothing had actually happened, Guan Qian could still cling to a sliver of hope.
Although the male lead had the luck of a protagonist, in some respects the major villain was also favored by fate.
In the original work, Gong Ran had never exactly been unlucky. And now that the villain was gone, what could possibly restrain the male lead, given the structure of the original plot?
Guan Qian had transmigrated into a novel, after all, and she still firmly believed in something called plot inertia.
The irony was that she was willing to believe in it when it came to things that worked against her. But when her own goal was to break the plot, she preferred to think optimistically.
In any case, after the two men went upstairs, Guan Qian prayed nonstop. Either those two bastards were merely making empty threats—after all, with the original male and female leads being such morally bankrupt, twisted, and perverse creatures, how could the story possibly continue?
Or perhaps some accident would occur, allowing Gong Ran to escape quickly.
Gong Ran’s abilities were still trustworthy, and no one knew how many trump cards he had up his sleeve. He would definitely be able to escape the clutches of those two perverts.
That was what Guan Qian told herself—until Chu Yebai came downstairs, fastening his belt.
It was obvious that he had taken his pants off.
The last of Guan Qian’s fantasies was finally shattered. She began to sob miserably. What, exactly, had she transmigrated here for?
Everyone’s heads began to ache from her crying. Guan Tian bellowed at her, “What the hell are you bawling about?”
Then, wearing a malicious grin, he threatened Guan Qian. “How long has it been? Boss Pei only let that kid serve as an appetizer, and you’re already crying?”
“Let me tell you, the main course is only just beginning. Anyone who comes down from Boss Pei’s bed with half his life intact can consider himself a real man!”
At those words, Guan Qian looked toward Chu Yebai—
Someone like him was only an appetizer?
In the original plot, the male lead had been an invincible, overpowered hero—invincible in every sense of the word.
Guan Qian cried even more bitterly. Even the prisoners around them couldn’t help sighing.
Some of them even said guiltily, “Actually, we shouldn’t have betrayed Gong Ran so decisively.”
“Yeah. We should at least have pretended to be polite.”
“Thinking about it carefully, as perverted as he is, where else could anyone live in these times? He helped us settle down here, and now we have food, clothing, and safety.”
“Alas! Come to think of it, as long as we follow his orders, we’re safe. Even if he occasionally wants to conduct an experiment, it doesn’t hurt much as long as you don’t resist.”
For a moment, everyone began remembering Gong Ran’s good points.
Then they sighed even more deeply.
“Poor guy. He’d never even had to pick up soap in prison. How could he have known this would happen—”
He had only made it halfway through his sentence when someone slapped a strip of tape over his mouth.
The appraiser frowned. “That should have been done sooner.”
Guan Tian shrugged, took back the tape, and then muttered to the people around him, “Boss was a little quick this time, though.”
“I thought so too. When he came down just now, I didn’t say anything because he looked embarrassed. It wasn’t even twenty minutes, including taking his pants off and putting them back on.”
“Boss…” Guan Tian said in a world-weary tone. “He really has been worn out lately.”
“Tell me about it. How could anyone forget Boss’s stamina back in the day? Now look at him—what a tragedy.”
“Are you people ever going to stop? Being someone’s kept pretty boy is hard work to begin with, and Boss Pei is so depraved and extreme that it’s practically a life-for-benefits arrangement. Who’s he doing it for? Us, a bunch of deadweight!”
“Boss’s health is being ruined, and instead of thinking about how to nourish him back to health, you’re standing here gossiping?”
“Yes, yes, we know! We’re just discussing countermeasures. Haven’t the plants and animals mutated too? From now on, when we go out on missions, we should keep an eye out for aphrodisiac herbs. The effects will be immediate.”
“Shh! Stop talking. Boss is looking over here.”
Under Chu Yebai’s sinister gaze, everyone stiffened and hurriedly shouted their praises.
“As expected of Boss! Boss is incredible!”
“That pervert must be crying by now after what Boss did to him.”
Chu Yebai: “…”
Damn it. Should he just wipe out this bunch of idiots and work alone?
Upstairs, Gong Ran was lying on the bed. The effects of two consecutive doses of suppressant had placed a considerable strain on his body.
His whole body felt even weaker than before, and he could barely summon any strength.
Still, Chu Yebai’s departure made things considerably easier for him. He disliked letting that man see him in such a disheveled state.
However, the way Pei Liang and Chu Yebai interacted had also allowed Gong Ran to discern quite a few things.
Looking at Pei Liang with a faint, knowing smile, he said, “So your relationship isn’t nearly as stable as you make it seem.”
When he had seen the two of them working together on the ship, Gong Ran had assumed that their trust in each other was absolute.
But now it seemed he had been mistaken. Their coordination was indeed exceptionally smooth when it came to strength and action, but it was based not on trust—only on the tacit understanding shared by intelligent people.
So even that telekinetic was harboring ulterior motives.
Gong Ran calmly attempted to drive a wedge between them. “Do you really think that’s fine? You’ve kept someone with ulterior motives at your side, and you still intend to recruit someone as dangerous as me.”
Pei Liang smiled and sat down beside the bed. “Oh? You mean Chu Yebai? Isn’t that interesting?”
“…”
The smile disappeared from Gong Ran’s face. He stared at Pei Liang as though he wanted to find a flower growing on her face, just to confirm that there wasn’t even the slightest hint of joking in her words.
There wasn’t.
She genuinely enjoyed it.
It wasn’t that she lacked the strength to deal with him and had no choice but to tolerate that ambitious wolf. Nor was she desperately suppressing his arrogance and disloyalty.
She truly regarded his ambition and mischief as an amusing diversion, and enjoyed having them around.
This woman…
Pei Liang continued, “Besides, I don’t think you’re dangerous at all. In fact, you have no reason to refuse me.”
“And how do you figure that?” Gong Ran raised an eyebrow.
“Before the apocalypse, your goal was to bring about the overall evolution of humanity,” Pei Liang said. “That goal has already been achieved without your involvement.”
“Tsk!”
Displeasure appeared on Gong Ran’s face at those words.
This was also why, compared with the endless stream of mutated individuals, he placed greater importance on the superiority of original genes.
The evolution caused by radiation involved a great deal of luck and was only partial in nature. That was entirely different from his philosophy of evolution.
Pei Liang continued, “But you won’t be satisfied with that. And the more ability users you encounter in the future, the more disappointed you’ll become after tracing their abilities back to their original genes.”
“Then you’ll once again deny the rationality of this world and try to change it. Of course, even in the apocalypse, your philosophy remains dangerous.”
“But I don’t believe that, given the current conditions of survival, humanity could still preserve the calm and freedom of the pre-apocalyptic world if everyone were allowed to choose for themselves.”
The risks of evolution might have been condemned in an era of peace, but the entire Earth had now entered a new age.
There were far more plants and animals than human beings, and no one knew where fate would lead humanity’s future.
During the struggle for supremacy at the top of the food chain, all humanity could do was make every possible effort to reclaim the high ground.
To put it more bluntly, there was no longer any luxury of hesitating over minor risks. Everyone had already seen the benefits brought by radiation; it was simply that the time to verify the risks had not yet arrived.
So Pei Liang said directly to Gong Ran, “There will be more and more people at the base. When that happens, how about letting everyone choose freely?”
Gong Ran thought about it. That would indeed be convenient. He smiled. “That would be convenient.”
“Take mutants, for example. The genetic similarity between mutants and ordinary humans is now less than forty percent. Even dogs share ninety-six percent of their genes with humans, and bananas share fifty percent.”
“If a mutant and an ordinary human had a child, theoretically, nothing they produced would be surprising. The risk theories from before the apocalypse have truly become nothing more than useless scraps of paper.”
Gong Ran wore an expression suggesting that he had come to terms with it. “The evolution of a minority will eventually tear society’s hierarchy apart completely. Even if our common enemy can temporarily divert those conflicts for now…”
“No. Perhaps before the external enemy is even dealt with, humanity will already have begun tearing itself apart. Those who failed to evolve under the radiation will do whatever it takes to avoid becoming discarded genes. By then, the so-called genetic-disease risks and ethical standards from before the apocalypse will be nothing but a load of crap.”
“By then, plenty of people will be willing to cooperate with my experiments, and I won’t have to hide anymore.”
“I’ll also have the full support of the base. I won’t have to worry about equipment or resources ever again. To be honest, relying solely on the supplies at the harbor, I can barely maintain control over those idiots right now, but in about a month, I’ll be stretched to the limit. I really do need stronger resource support.”
“The price you’re offering is high. It’s certainly tempting.”
As Gong Ran spoke, he suddenly moved closer to Pei Liang. The expression on his face instantly became dangerous and deranged.
“But what if I told you that all of those things rank second in my heart?”
“Test subjects? I don’t need anyone’s cooperation at all. Wherever I am is a laboratory.”
“Compared to those things, what I truly want most urgently right now—you should understand that, shouldn’t you? You want to trade something dispensable for my abilities.”
A trace of mockery flashed through his eyes. “You think too highly of yourself. In reality, you haven’t prepared yourself to obtain me at any cost.”
Pei Liang looked at him and smiled. “What do you want most right now?”
“Your body.”
“My body actually ranks ahead of all those conditions? What an honor.”
The smile at the corner of Gong Ran’s mouth held a hint of malice. “If you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for the future of humanity, give me your heart right now. I can make my pledge immediately and swear allegiance to you from this moment onward.”
Someone who had yet to awaken an ability would die without a heart. Given this woman’s ambitions, Gong Ran was certain that, despite her desire to benefit the world, she was absolutely not the sort of person who would sacrifice herself for others.
But the instant he finished speaking, he saw Pei Liang raise her right hand and plunge all five fingers directly into her chest.
His pupils contracted sharply.
The next second, a bright-red heart, still beating, appeared before his eyes.
Pei Liang looked at him and smiled. “Here you go!”
Gong Ran was completely stunned. His mind went blank. For the first time in his life, something had robbed him of the ability to think.
Pei Liang urged him, “Didn’t you want it? Take it.”
The sample he had longed for was right before him, yet Gong Ran did not spare it a glance. His eyes fell instead on Pei Liang’s chest.
There was a fist-sized hole in it, but Pei Liang had not died. Nor had her body begun rapidly repairing itself, as though she had awakened an ability for accelerated regeneration.
“What exactly did you do?” Gong Ran asked with difficulty.
Blood trickled from the corner of Pei Liang’s mouth. “What I had to do. I’m merely doing everything I can to win over a valuable talent.”
“Still, you were right about one thing just now. I wouldn’t sacrifice myself for all of humanity.”
“What I’m doing is no different from what you’re doing. I’m simply creating the ideal world I want according to my own wishes. The only thing I rely on is having one or two more measures of composure than ordinary people.”
That composure came from the accumulation of experience across several lifetimes, as well as the compensation granted to her by the system after its bug. There was nothing shameful about making use of her advantages.
Seeing the complicated expression on Gong Ran’s face as he continued to hesitate over taking the heart, Pei Liang urged him again. “Take it. Holding it up like this isn’t very practical.”
“You made such a big deal of praising me just now, saying how precious my body was. If you refuse to take it now, it’ll look as though I actually believed all those polite words of yours. That’s rather awkward.”
Gong Ran stared at the blood vessels attached to Pei Liang’s heart. They were completely intact. Despite the seemingly brutal manner in which she had removed it, the heart had retained its perfect shape, and none of the blood vessels had been severed. It was even still functioning.
And somehow, despite all this, she had not died.
Gong Ran laughed. First he covered his eyes, then he burst into loud laughter.
“I really have to hand it to you. Even at a time like this, you’re still provoking my curiosity. Even if I obtained your heart and you died, I still wouldn’t be able to uncover your greatest secret, would I? That would be a terrible loss.”
With that, Gong Ran reached into the pocket of Pei Liang’s clothes and unexpectedly pulled out a small syringe.
Pei Liang raised an eyebrow. This man really couldn’t let his guard down for even a moment.
He must have slipped the thing into his own pocket before he was captured. The most dangerous place was indeed the safest. Pei Liang and the others would search him thoroughly, but they would never search her.
He had been unable to act while the three of them were in the room. Now that only the two of them remained, if he took the syringe back while she was distracted, there was a good chance he could escape.
Sure enough, Gong Ran injected himself with it. A moment later, his hand turned into liquid.
He took Pei Liang’s heart and used his fluid hand to perform a simple surgical procedure on her. Every step was precise and masterful, and Pei Liang barely felt a thing.
At last, when Gong Ran withdrew his hand from her chest, his expression turned thoughtful. “As expected, it’s protected by a layer of energy. Incredible.”
He asked Pei Liang again, “Have you studied medicine? No—that can’t be. I know your background very well.”
“Then how did you do it?”
When he had operated on Pei Liang just now, he had discovered that her cooperation had been extraordinarily precise. In terms of operational accuracy alone, she might even surpass him.
No wonder someone with such skill and confidence had dared to remove her own heart.
Pei Liang stood up and smiled. “If you want to know, come back with me.”
“I never intended to conceal the secret behind my power.”
Gong Ran smiled again, suddenly feeling that all the preparations he had made earlier had been rather foolish.
He could have simply asked her directly.
At last, Gong Ran looked at Pei Liang and said solemnly, “Fine. I’ll go back with you.”
Pei Liang was delighted, though she felt somewhat disappointed about something else. She had already formed a few guesses about the original host’s ability and had just been planning to test them.
But this was hardly the time to discuss such things. Pei Liang got out of bed, opened the wardrobe in the suite, and casually took down a bathrobe from the top shelf.
He tossed it to Gong Ran.
Gong Ran caught it and put it on. The bathrobe was stained with the blood on Pei Liang’s hands, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Although the antidote had restored his abilities, the muscle relaxant’s effects would not wear off so quickly.
So Pei Liang helped him downstairs.
By then, everyone below had more or less finished packing up. When they saw Gong Ran being supported down the stairs by Pei Liang, his face pale and his legs limp, they also noticed that he was no longer wearing the clothes he’d had on when he went upstairs. He was dressed only in a bathrobe, looking both alluring and pitiful, as if he had been thoroughly ravaged.
More importantly, the snow-white bathrobe was stained with blood from the waist down.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how brutal Gong Ran’s earlier experience must have been.
The people on Gong Ran’s side could no longer hold back. Several of them even let out choked sobs.
Guan Qian, whose mouth was still gagged, was crying so hard that tears streamed down her face.
Gong Ran looked at this group of idiots, completely baffled.
Then something even more baffling happened. Two of the bandits came forward and carefully took him from Pei Liang.
They moved with extreme gentleness, as if they were afraid of hurting him, their eyes filled with humanitarian concern.
One big, loud-mouthed idiot even had a mist of tears in his eyes. In a low, hoarse voice, he advised Gong Ran, “Brother, try to look on the bright side.”
“We’ve all been through it.”
Guan Tian had actually been referring to their boss. Chu Yebai, feeling that the idiot was making him look bad, kicked him.
But Gong Ran’s reaction was utterly incomprehensible.
Frowning, Gong Ran looked at the burly men. “All of you? You have? Hah!”
He looked them up and down. In terms of combat ability, they were naturally far stronger than the prisoners they had dragged along to make up the numbers.
But in Gong Ran’s eyes, aside from the telekinetic and the younger man, who had some irreplaceable qualities, the rest were more or less the same.
He gave a cold laugh. “As if you could ever receive treatment like this. Don’t put on that sympathetic act in front of me. It lowers my standards and makes me sick.”
“Do you understand what I’m saying? I mean that you’re not worthy.”
Guan Tian: “……”
The bandits: “……”
The prisoners: “……”
Guan Qian: “……”
After being insulted and looked down on like that, Guan Tian’s usual temper would have had him rolling up his sleeves and picking a fight by now.
His fellow brothers hurried over to restrain him. “Brother, brother! Don’t get angry. The kid’s been traumatized. Don’t stoop to his level.”
“Exactly. It’s understandable. Even when the boss went through it, didn’t he make up excuses to save face and hide it from us?”
Guan Tian pushed everyone away and sighed. “Tch! Why are you all so tense? I know.”
“The boss got off lightly. At most, he made up some excuses to preserve his dignity. This one’s already been driven crazy. He’s twisted his experience into some kind of special treatment, convincing himself that it was preferential treatment just so he won’t fall apart.”
As he spoke, everyone looked at Chu Yebai, then at Gong Ran. They shook their heads with the weary air of people who had seen too much.
“Another one’s been played into madness.”
Gong Ran: “……Can I kill these idiots?” He pointed at the bandits and asked Pei Liang.
Chu Yebai actually said, “I wouldn’t object.”
Pei Liang said, “Stop joking around. They’re important.”
The bandits were startled. They stared at Pei Liang, flattered and overwhelmed by the honor.
Pei Liang continued, “If they all die, are you going to move all the bricks yourselves?”
The bandits: “……”
With Gong Ran cooperating, the rest of the work naturally went much more smoothly. They even found quite a few valuable items that the appraiser had failed to detect.
The appraiser clicked his tongue. “Is this guy a hamster in human form? How does he hide things so well?”
Chu Yebai looked at Gong Ran, his expression far from pleasant.
It was obvious that Pei Liang had already persuaded Gong Ran. Chu Yebai had not anticipated this. He had thought Gong Ran would remain difficult and drag things out for a long time, constantly draining Pei Liang’s energy and perhaps even causing trouble for the base.
It seemed that he had underestimated that man once again.
With Gong Ran joining them, Pei Liang would naturally be like a tiger with wings. Turning the situation around would become even more difficult for Chu Yebai, even if Gong Ran’s motives might not be entirely pure.
The others, however, did not think nearly so deeply. They simply assumed that Gong Ran had been screwed senseless and no longer dared to disobey.
Guan Qian kept crying nonstop, lamenting Gong Ran’s misfortune and railing against the unfairness of fate.
When they were about to leave, Gong Ran suddenly said, “Give all the supplies to her. She awakened a spatial ability. Her storage capacity isn’t small, so she can carry them with room to spare.”
Guan Qian stared at Gong Ran in disbelief, as if silently asking, What happened to you?
But the next moment, she dismissed the idea that he had sold himself out to curry favor with the male and female leads. Gong Ran was such a proud person. If he had been willing to compromise, he could have latched onto the male lead in the original story.
After all, even on the verge of death, the male lead had still regretted wasting Gong Ran’s talents and had given him several chances.
Gong Ran definitely had his own plans.
Thinking this, Guan Qian’s resolve instantly returned.
As long as Gong Ran did not give up, there was still a chance to turn things around. Until then, she would cooperate unconditionally.
When they left the hotel, they could be said to have returned with a full haul. However, there was no need to abandon the hotel.
To begin with, Pei Liang had thought it would make an excellent research base, so he told Gong Ran, “Here’s what we’ll do. Tomorrow, I’ll have someone design defensive fortifications for the exterior.”
“From now on, the researchers can simply work here.”
With the whiz kid and the appraiser working together, they would surely be able to transform the hotel into a research base that was genuinely difficult to infiltrate.
Gong Ran didn’t mind. He wasn’t socially withdrawn, nor did he dislike working with others.
On the contrary, having capable people handle the support work would make things more efficient—at least far more so than having Guan Qian, who had trained as a nurse, do it.
“But tomorrow, I’m going into the city with you. The zombies we burned this afternoon haven’t been cleared away yet, have they? I want the mutants.”
“Alive or dead, I’ll take them all.”
Pei Liang naturally had no reason to refuse.
With that, the two sides reached an agreement, and the atmosphere became almost harmonious.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, in a city somewhere inland—
Several figures suddenly appeared out of thin air in the middle of a street, immediately drawing the attention of the zombies.
But these people were clearly no ordinary survivors. Instead of panicking, they drew their weapons or activated their abilities to fight back.
The zombies continued to swarm them, and mutated specimens were mixed among them. It had been less than a day since the first few people had awakened their supernatural abilities, so ordinary humans would normally have been utterly incapable of holding their own.
Yet these people cut through the zombies as easily as chopping vegetables. In less than ten minutes, they had wiped out several hundred of them.
The zombies on the entire, relatively narrow street had been completely cleared out.
“Damn it, I hate end-of-the-world missions,” one of them complained.
He then asked, “Boss, what’s our mission this time?”
The man he called Boss was actually quite young. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with clean-cut, handsome features and a somewhat stern, unsmiling air.
He glanced at the mission bracelet on his wrist. A task appeared on its display:
“Main mission: Eliminate the greatest villain of the apocalypse—Pei Liang!”
