"We met at the entrance of Ruihua District. My brother even gave you a..." The young man looked around Xie Ning. "Hey, where’s the Heavenly Blade?"

"Oh." The moment Xie Ning met the Thunder Ability User’s smiling, almond-shaped eyes, she instantly remembered.

’It was them?’

The ones who helped her at the entrance of Ruihua District, tossing a car to crush zombies and even giving her an incredibly powerful weapon.

At that time, she was burning up with a fever, and her vision was so blurry she couldn’t make out their faces at all.

She only vaguely recalled a pair of striking, almond-shaped eyes, sparkling and bright.

Looking at them up close now, the beauty of a starry ocean seemed to pale in comparison.

"Miss, what are you doing here? Did you awaken a Gold Ability? It looks so powerful!"

"Um, my name is Zhai Ruobai. Are you just passing through? Do you want to come with us to the safe zone? Let me tell you..." The baby-faced young man chattered incessantly in her ear.

"Hello, I’m Gu Chen." A magnetic, pleasant voice gently interrupted the boy’s endless chatter.

Xie Ning’s gaze shifted to the Thunder Ability User who had walked up to her, and she apologized earnestly, "I’m sorry. When I ran into you at Ruihua District, I was burning up and my vision was blurry, so I didn’t recognize you right away."

"Thank you so much for the weapon you gave me." ’If it weren’t for that black blade... Heavenly Blade, was it? Slaying zombies on my journey wouldn’t have been nearly as easy.’

"Don’t mention it, don’t mention it." The baby-faced Zhai Ruobai grinned so widely his eyes narrowed to slits. "The moment we saw you, we knew you were someone special."

Gu Chen placed a hand on the chatty Zhai Ruobai’s head and pushed him aside. "Go check how Fengzi’s doing with the car. If there are no issues, lead them into the village first."

"Bro, I wasn’t finished talking to her yet!" Zhai Ruobai’s baby face scrunched into a pout.

"Go." Gu Chen shot him a sidelong glance. The latter grumbled under his breath, turned, and stomped away with his cheeks puffed out in a huff.

Gu Chen turned back to Xie Ning with a smile. "That kid loves to talk endlessly. He wasn’t bothering you, was he?"

Xie Ning shook her head.

"You’re a resident of Song Family Pavilion? Heading out somewhere?"

Xie Ning had just begun to nod when Annie started screaming hysterically.

She turned her head to see Xiao Huang Mao grabbing Annie’s arm, dragging her back to stop her from running.

"Let go of me! Let me go!" Annie looked wildly toward two nearby soldiers. "I’ve been kidnapped! Save me, save me!"

Unfazed, Xie Ning pulled out her phone, opened a video, and played it for Gu Chen and his men.

"These people formed the Song Family Pavilion Rescue Alliance. Under the guise of a rescue mission, they went door-to-door extorting supplies as ’protection fees.’"

"Wow, so shameless. The zombie outbreak was barely two days ago and they’ve already figured out how to extort people." The baby-faced young man, who had snuck back at some point, poked his head out from behind his brother and exclaimed.

"I need to go to Su City for a mission that’ll take about one or two days round-trip. I can’t rest easy leaving these ticking time bombs near my home, so I have to take them with me."

"I’ll only feel at ease if I can keep them under my own watch."

"Mm." Gu Chen nodded. "Perfectly reasonable."

’Reasonable??’

Annie stared at Gu Chen and his men, her face a mask of disbelief. She grabbed a nearby soldier’s arm and shrieked, "You? Aren’t you soldiers supposed to protect civilians? Why are you siding with a kidnapper?"

The man she was grabbing was the very same soldier she had just pushed out to block a zombie.