Chapter 9#

Gathering#

Zhao Wanzhi drove the off-road vehicle, quickly merging into the darkness of the night.

She didn’t need to look back to know that several cars were following behind her.

Most of the vehicles in the parking lot were military cars. People like Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei, who had started gathering new humans early on and were clearly thoughtful and prepared, must have managed to get a few car keys. Sure enough, they were soon in their cars as well.

The “survivor base” that had turned into hell was gradually left behind. The devourers feasted happily, while screams and cries became the eerie, horrifying background noise of that graveyard-like campus.

Even Gu Cheng hadn’t expected this so-called survivor base to come to an end in such a way. That ambitious Commander Sang had no idea what he had done.

In this uncertain early stage of the apocalypse, he had delivered a fresh, tender feast to the devourers.

By now, the city’s night sky had lost the bright lights and neon signs of modern society. In the pitch-black darkness, the only things wandering the streets were devourers with glowing green eyes. Birds and flying insects occasionally crashed into the front windshield of their car. Ever since the radiation, these flying creatures had become much more aggressive.

The annoying part was that the glass beside the driver’s seat had been shattered, so Zhao Wanzhi had to use a panel to block it. The panel kept making “bang bang” sounds as things collided with it.

“Let’s find a place to rest first,” Zhao Yanzhi said, frowning.

In the pitch-black night, even with basic night vision, it was impossible to see clearly. The street ahead looked like it was covered in a thick black veil; everything appeared hazy.

Without caring about who was following behind, Zhao Wanzhi drove toward the city center. After all, they had spent over a week driving around this city, so they had some understanding of it. Soon, they found a hotel that looked dazzling on the outside.

The hotel lobby was empty. Gu Cheng walked in, felt around, and found the box containing room cards. One card was missing, meaning it was with a guest—though who knew if that guest was still alive now. The remaining white card was likely a master key card that could open all the doors. He only took that master key, then picked up room cards for a few rooms where the cards weren’t missing. Finally, he headed toward the stairs.

The elevator had long been out of power and unusable. The hotel had thirty-six floors in total. They climbed up floor by floor, clearing out a few wandering devourers along the way, but encountered no other danger.

“Go to the top?” Zhao Yanzhi asked.

Gu Cheng checked the cards. “3517, 3515… I noticed the top two floors seem to be suites.”

“Let’s first check if someone’s already taken them over,” Zhao Wanzhi said indifferently.

If this were before the time travel, climbing over thirty floors would have been quite exhausting—someone without good stamina probably wouldn’t have made it.

But now, the three of them had no such problem. The physical attributes generated by the game system gave them almost endless stamina, and after the radiation, new humans had naturally enhanced physical abilities anyway. They reached the top in no time.

“I hear footsteps,” Zhao Yanzhi said, glancing down.

Gu Cheng didn’t even look. “Must be Feng Nanyun and Yang Junfei.”

“What are they following us for?” Zhao Wanzhi frowned.

Zhao Yanzhi smirked. “Probably because they fell in love with you at first sight.”

Zhao Wanzhi: “…”

No thanks.

The group following below were almost all new humans, except for Feng Nanyun, who had one burden to carry. But since these soldiers originally had better physical fitness than ordinary people and had become even stronger after evolution, carrying someone up thirty floors was easy. So they, too, kept climbing the stairs.

Perhaps because they were still shocked by the horrific scene at the school earlier, no one spoke. Gu Cheng and his group only heard faint footsteps.

Gu Cheng opened the door—sure enough, on the thirty-fifth floor were suites. It was a family suite model with two bedrooms and a living room. Fortunately, this particular suite had no devourers inside, nor any other creature occupying the space. Since there was nothing in the rooms and the height was considerable, they probably hadn’t been bothered by birds or flying insects these past days. However, because the room hadn’t been opened for over a week, a musty smell rushed at them as they entered, and a thin layer of dust had settled everywhere.

Zhao Yanzhi frowned in disgust. He opened a window to let in some fresh air, barely tolerating the environment.

Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. He was trying hard to adapt and could already endure it.

“You two take that room; I’ll take this one.” Zhao Wanzhi chose a bedroom, munched an apple she took from her backpack, and waved her hand. “I’m going to sleep first.”

Gu Cheng went into the room first, glanced at the large bed, hesitated for a moment, and decided not to pull out the sleeping bag.

Over the past many days, they had basically just found any random house and slept in sleeping bags, in order to help Zhao Yanzhi and Zhao Wanzhi get used to such an environment. Today, after all the commotion, they were all a bit tired, so they found a hotel to rest properly. Although the room hadn’t been cleaned in over a week, the bed sheets could be shaken off and still be usable. Sleeping in a sleeping bag every night wasn’t exactly comfortable anyway.

Gu Cheng lay down fully clothed and looked at the hesitant Zhao Yanzhi. Suppressing a smile, he said, “If you think it’s not clean enough, just use the sleeping bag.”

“The sleeping bag has been on the floor before; it’s not clean either,” Zhao Yanzhi said grumpily. Besides, having a chance to “share a bed” with Gu Cheng was too rare an opportunity to give up.

So, he lifted the covers and lay down beside Gu Cheng.

At first, he stared at the ceiling, lying very properly. Then, after a while, he suddenly spoke. “Gu Cheng.”

“Mm.” Gu Cheng was almost asleep and answered vaguely.

“Did we… have sex before?”

Gu Cheng: “………………”

The tone of the question was too serious, and Gu Cheng instantly woke up.

It felt like a long time passed before Gu Cheng softly “mm-hmm’d” in confirmation.

Then, he sensed that the person lying beside him suddenly became gloomy. That depressive feeling was so obvious he could feel it without any words.

Not counting the time spent together before the time travel, Gu Cheng and Zhao Yanzhi had been together day and night for over ten years. He knew this person inside out—any change in him, Gu Cheng could keenly detect.

…Even if facing the version of him from ten years ago was the same.

So, why did Zhao Yanzhi get angry upon hearing the answer? Gu Cheng couldn’t figure it out.

Then, Zhao Yanzhi suddenly turned toward him, wrapped his arms around Gu Cheng’s waist, and buried his face into Gu Cheng’s clothes.

His voice was muffled. “Don’t move. Let me hold you for a while.”

Gu Cheng didn’t move. In fact, he was very relaxed. He was quite used to this kind of physical contact and didn’t mind it at all.

Besides, he could tell that Zhao Yanzhi didn’t actually intend to do anything. Even though his arms were wrapped tightly around his waist—almost too tight.

Soon, Gu Cheng felt drowsy again and gradually fell asleep.

With Zhao Yanzhi by his side, he slept very soundly.

Zhao Yanzhi wasn’t just the person he loved, his intimate lover; he was also the comrade and partner he trusted the most. Gu Cheng had long been accustomed to falling asleep in Zhao Yanzhi’s arms.

He slept, leaving Zhao Yanzhi fuming silently on the side, unable to sleep even at midnight.

The air still carried the smell of dust, making Zhao Yanzhi’s nose feel uncomfortable.

The sleeping Gu Cheng beside him felt both familiar and strange in his attitude. He liked Gu Cheng so much, yet right now he was so angry at him that he couldn’t sleep.

He spent the whole night stewing in his anger, so when he got up the next morning, his expression was far from pleasant.

At the doorway, he ran into Zhao Wanzhi, who had slept wonderfully and looked refreshed. She glanced at her cousin’s face and gave a knowing smirk. “What’s this? I specially gave you the opportunity, and you look like this? Unfulfilled desire?”

Zhao Yanzhi snorted. “I really appreciate it, thanks.”

It was really hard to put into words. To Gu Cheng, everything he had with Zhao Yanzhi before his rebirth felt real. But from Zhao Yanzhi’s perspective, it felt like Gu Cheng had fallen in love with a stranger who happened to share his name.

He could hardly describe the feeling.

It was as if the moment he first realized Gu Cheng seemed to be looking at someone else through him, a faint pang of jealousy and hurt had already taken root.

Zhao Yanzhi deftly pulled out a small gas canister from his backpack and boiled some water. In the morning, he still wanted to eat something normal—yesterday had been too chaotic for that.

By the time a fragrant smell wafted from the small clay pot, Gu Cheng had already finished washing up. Luckily, the hotel had a water tank on the roof with a filtration system, and since they were on a high floor, opening the faucet still produced a thin stream of water.

He had just stepped out when the three of them heard knocking on the door.

Zhao Wanzhi found it hard to believe. “Do they have no shame?”

She didn’t believe Yang Junfei or Feng Nanyun hadn’t noticed they weren’t welcome. It was already annoying enough that they had followed them without permission. Now they had the nerve to come knocking in the morning?

Gu Cheng laughed. “At a time like this, what is shame worth?”

He could roughly guess why they had come. Yesterday’s hurried escape from the school made him certain that they hadn’t brought any food with them.

Even if there was food in the hotel kitchen, given the power outage for over a week, there probably wasn’t much left to eat. There were a few small shops nearby that could be scavenged, but for a big haul, they’d have to go farther away. Meanwhile, the aroma of their food was too tempting—new humans had heightened senses, and walls couldn’t block the transmission of smell.

Of course, there might also be an emergency—like the injured person not receiving treatment and his wound possibly infected. But Feng Nanyun didn’t seem like someone who would panic and come to them for help.

“Don’t open the door. Let them knock,” Zhao Yanzhi said sarcastically, then unhurriedly ladled out the porridge and handed it to Gu Cheng.

They had no obligation to help the “needy.”

Gu Cheng walked to the window and looked outside. The sight made him freeze. The weather today was bad—dark clouds were pressing down over the city. Since they were on a high floor, they could see everything below clearly. Slowly converging figures were stumbling toward this area, looking like something out of a disaster movie.

Seeing him standing still, Zhao Yanzhi and Zhao Wanzhi both came over and looked down; they, too, were stunned.

“Are these… devourers?” Zhao Yanzhi frowned.

Zhao Wanzhi was confused. “Why are the devourers gathering here?”

Gu Cheng sneered without hesitation. “Yang Junfei.”

It was rare to find someone so good at stirring up trouble. That madman would even risk his own life to cause chaos.

So, Gu Cheng wasn’t surprised at all.