"Host! Mingyuan's favorability rating has skyrocketed, and his romance rating is currently fluctuating between 90% and 100%."

"You're amazing! I'm so excited I'm speechless..."

Ye Nianzhen had mixed feelings and coldly retorted to the system, "If you really have nothing to say, then don't say anything."

The system chuckled, "Hehe, don't be so serious. We're getting another reward, isn't that great?"

Ye Nianzhen didn't want to deal with this ignorant system.

That was a living, breathing person, whose vibrant and passionate love weighed more than a thousand pounds.

Although no underhanded methods were used, and there was no deception or concealment.

Even so, Yeh Nien-chen still felt a strange sense of indebtedness because she couldn't reciprocate these sincere feelings.

Suddenly, the system uttered a chilling voice: "Can love that has already been born be put back in...?"

Veins bulged on Ye Nianzhen's forehead.

But on second thought, it does make some sense.

The human heart is complex and uncontrollable; Ye Nianzhen wouldn't be so arrogant as to presume to control other people's emotions.

Since I have a clear conscience, I can only accept it gladly.

Although Yip Nim-jen will not reciprocate in matters of love, they can be teammates who can rely on each other for support.

Hmm, thinking about it this way makes me feel much better!

That's right, what's the point of all this lovey-dovey stuff? Nothing beats the camaraderie of soldiers!

The system detected Ye Nianzhen's thoughts and shook its electronic head.

"They're hopeless."

*

The base is thriving.

To the south, separated by a jungle, in the wilderness, Hongxiao lay on the ground waiting to die.

A day and a night had passed, and the sandstorm had buried half of his body.

Perhaps the energy that escaped scared away the monsters around him, which is why he has survived to this day.

But it won't be long. The monsters will soon discover that the human on the ground, barely clinging to life, is a useless piece of trash without any superpowers.

As night fell, Hongxiao half-opened her eyes and watched the moon quietly rise into the night sky.

A rustling crawling sound came from all around; there were many of them, and they quickly surrounded us.

A rotting, ugly face appeared above, obscuring the moon.

Hongxiao felt inexplicably irritable. If he was going to be eaten by a zombie, he hoped it would be one that looked more pleasing to the eye.

Female zombies are preferred.

He could barely lift a finger now, and could only move his lips to spit the sand in his mouth onto the zombie's face.

"Hahahaha." A clear, bell-like laugh rang out, standing out starkly against the desolate desert landscape.

"Brother Mo, look at him, he seems to still be breathing!"

A man stretched out his leg, kicked the zombie above his head away, and pinched Hongxiao's face to examine it.

"The crystal core is broken; it's useless now."

The man threw the saltpeter back into the sandpit and dusted off his hands.

The woman who had spoken leaned closer and, mimicking the man's gesture, pinched Hongxiao's cheek.

Her gaze lingered in the air for a moment, as if she were examining some text.

Then she turned to the man and said in a coquettish tone, "It's been so long since I've found a toy I like. Shall we take it home?"

The man glanced at the person on the ground with some disdain, but couldn't resist the woman's pleas and relented, saying, "Okay, you can't get on the bus."

"Don't get on the bus, just let those ugly things hold it up!"

Hongxiao lay on the ground, listening to the two people talking back and forth, seemingly discussing something.

After a while, several more zombies appeared and reached out their withered, rotting hands to him.

...So they're just going to use him to feed the zombies for amusement after all, why all the fuss?

He knew that some superhumans were psychologically twisted and liked to feed ordinary people to zombies; one of his deputy squad members had done just that.

But he never bothered with such things; if he was going to kill, he would just kill directly, as it was simply a waste of time.

However, unexpectedly, the zombies did not attack him. Although they were drooling over him, they simply lifted him up.

Hongxiao: "..."

In my lifetime, I actually rode in a zombie sedan chair.

The man waved his hand, and the zombies followed his instructions and walked in one direction.

Hongxiao then realized that this man could control zombies.

This was a truly terrifying force, especially considering the size of the zombie horde that Red Nitrate had witnessed.

It's a massive horde of zombies. What are they trying to do?

The king of zombies?

What's strange is that they also kidnapped a lot of living people, and were surrounded by zombies, forced to move forward.

It's unclear whether they were intended as food reserves for zombies or as reserves for zombies.

It can't be to gather the surviving humans and build the largest base in the apocalypse, can it?

These people look like they've suffered terribly; they were probably captured by men who used the zombie horde to overthrow numerous bases, large and small.

The medium-sized base we passed earlier must also have been this man's doing.

The energy of the red salt dissipated almost completely, and his consciousness began to waver.

He was lifted up to shoulder height by the zombies, and he came face to face with the woman who had saved him.

The woman smiled charmingly, her eyes crinkling as she looked him over with amusement.

Suddenly, she poked at the wound on his severed arm: "Huh? Where's your arm?"

A sharp pain shot through him, and the image of the huge black beast tearing at his arm flashed before his eyes once more.

Hongxiao gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse and strained as he asked, "Who... are you?"

The woman stopped examining the wound and wiped her fingers on the fabric of Hongxiao's chest.

"Me?" she smiled playfully.

"Guess! Hahahaha."

She laughed again, and although it was inexplicable, her appearance was so beautiful that it was hard to look away from her unrestrained laughter.

But Hongxiao simply turned his head and closed his eyes.

I silently thought to myself: Crazy.

However, it's not bad if it wasn't eaten by a female zombie and was picked up by a real woman.

Even if it might be divided up by a horde of zombies later.

*

The saltpeter was not divided up.

He also received a new arm.

The man had two companions in the car, one of whom had dark circles under his eyes and wore a black hood, looking like a necromancer.

Necromancers are special ability users who can manipulate non-natural forces—that is, ghosts in the common sense.

He took the right arm from a humanoid monster and attached it to Red Nitrate.

The new arm contained the soul of a monster, and Hongxiao felt as if something was talking to her.

Moreover, the arm sometimes has its own consciousness; for example, when eating, it tends to pick up fish meat.

Hongxiao was a little scared, afraid that this thing might strangle him while he was asleep.

The probability of one's own right hand killing oneself is not high, but it is not zero either.

The woman often came to see him, with a look of curiosity.

But he always felt that the woman was looking at something else through him.

Could she also be a psychic?

Okay, probably not.

She must have an emotional influence-type ability, because every time Hongxiao sees her, she can't help but feel a sense of goodwill towards her.

Although this goodwill is slight, it will indeed reduce the other party's vigilance, and perhaps make one more popular in the base?