Chapter 186 The Original Female Lead Who Was Used as Cannon Fodder 36

Zhou Shihhan felt a chill run through her body. The handsome yet sinister face before her perfectly matched the nightmare in her memory.

Her teeth chattered uncontrollably as flashbacks of that blood-red sunset from her previous life kept replaying in her mind.

At that time, she was just a humble ordinary person who was forced to go on missions with Ruan Yunzhen's team.

After getting separated from her, she miraculously escaped the zombies' pursuit, but then encountered an even more nightmarish scene.

She hid behind the rubble and witnessed the man's brutality firsthand.

He surrounded more than ten people with superpowers with eerie black smoke and slowly chopped them down with a knife.

The cries for mercy, wails, and the whistling of blades intertwined to create a living hell, and the name "Lin Wuque" echoed repeatedly in the desperate cries of the dying.

While doing all this, his expression was unusually calm, as if he were not torturing living people, but a few insignificant ants.

What chilled Zhou Shih-han even more was the meaningful glance the man gave her before he left.

From then on, "Lin Wuque" was firmly imprinted in her heart, becoming her eternal nightmare.

Since that incident, she refused to do any more missions and stayed hidden in the base. She never told anyone about it, fearing retaliation.

Later, she heard that a zombie king had been born among the zombies, and that major bases had been successively breached.

Her base, thanks to that despicable woman Ruan Yunzhen, managed to hold out until the very end.

But all resistance was futile against the Zombie King's leadership, and the base was eventually breached.

When the defenses were breached, she finally saw the zombie king's face clearly; it was exactly the same as the face from her nightmares!

She didn't know why such a powerful person would turn into a zombie, and she would never have the chance to find out.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself back in the pre-apocalyptic world.

She recalled that in her previous life, in order to prevent the zombie queen Ruan Yunzhen from revealing her secrets, she did not hesitate to steal her cheat code and keep it for herself.

Just in case, they even hinted that people should ostracize her and frame her, ultimately pushing her into the zombie horde.

She could only find peace when she was completely dead.

Later, she successfully established her own base, but the fear of the name "Lin Wuque" remained deep in her bones.

So she made up her mind early on that when the zombie king attacked the city, she would take her entourage and hide in the space, never to come out again.

Seeing that terrifying face, etched into her very bones, so close at hand, Zhou Shihhan's mind froze instantly.

Extreme fear was like ice water poured over my head, and even screams got stuck in my throat.

Her meticulously drawn eyelashes trembled violently, her scarlet lips turned deathly pale, and she stood frozen in place like a frog being stared at by a venomous snake.

Ruan Yunzhen raised an eyebrow, surprised that she actually knew Lin Wuque.

However, considering this is her second time around, it's not surprising.

She wasn't curious about what Lin Wuque was like in his previous life; the most important thing now was to kill her before she could react.

When its owner dies, the jade bracelet becomes ownerless and can be reclaimed.

Ruan Yunzhen suddenly lunged forward, grabbed Zhou Shihan's slender neck with her five fingers, and twisted it cleanly and decisively.

With a sharp "snap," Zhou Shihhan's eyes widened suddenly, her pupils still frozen with lingering terror.

Her attention was entirely focused on Lin Wuque, and she didn't notice Ruan Yunzhen's presence at all.

So she never realized until her death that the woman who had cut off her life was Ruan Yunzhen, the one whose golden finger she had stolen.

As she died, a lustrous jade bracelet appeared out of thin air and fell down.

Just as it was about to fall to the ground, Ruan Yunzhen lightly flipped her wrist, and the jade bracelet landed steadily in her palm. She then put it into her spatial storage.

Ruan Yunzhen never expected the jade bracelet to arrive so smoothly.

This can also be attributed to Zhou Shih-han's arrogance.

Relying on the space that allowed him to save his life, he didn't even bring the most basic guards with him, and appeared without any precautions.

Perhaps in her view, any danger can be resolved by instant teleportation.

Unexpectedly, she fell into extreme fear and forgot to move.

Ruan Yunzhen smiled with pleasure as she looked at the young man trembling behind the sofa.

"Lin Wuque, kill him, then together with Zhao Chenxiao, capture Song Linran."

Those who stay by Zhou Shih-han's side are all bad news.

Even if the judgment was wrong, the two sides were still enemies, so Ruan Yunzhen felt no guilt in killing them.

"No, spare me, please—"

The pleas for mercy abruptly ceased, and the man turned into a cloud of black ash.

Lin Wuque then transformed into a blur and joined Zhao Chenxiao in surrounding Song Linran.

Song Linran was only at the early stage of the eighth level. He could still hold his own against Zhao Chenxiao, but when Lin Wuque's palm wind, which was wrapped in black mist, came, the battle situation was instantly reversed.

Several crisp "crack" sounds rang out in succession as Song Linran's limbs twisted and broke at bizarre angles, and he was then thrown to Ruan Yunzhen's feet like a rag doll.

The excruciating pain contorted his face, and cold sweat mixed with blood soaked through his clothes.

He was about to say something when he met Zhou Shihhan's unseeing eyes, and his whole body trembled violently.

"How could you kill her?!"

Ruan Yunzhen looked down at Song Linran with a cold gaze.

His face showed unexpected astonishment and furious anger at the destruction of his carefully planned scheme, but not a trace of sadness at losing his beloved.

It's ironic that the seemingly perfect couple at the Savior Base, admired by everyone, turned out to be nothing more than an elaborate scam.

It now seems that Song Linran probably already knew about Zhou Shihhan's secret.

Those tender vows and meticulous care were nothing more than sugar-coated bullets tailor-made for her, concealing a scheme sharper than the fangs of a zombie.

Ruan Yunzhen unexpectedly recalled the original plot.

In that lifetime, without Zhou Shihhan's interference, the original owner and Song Linran got together.

How much of this is genuine affection, and how much is calculation?

Perhaps because his carefully laid plans had been thwarted, Song Linran's composure completely collapsed. He even forgot his status as a prisoner and roared:

"Don't you want the antidote? If you kill Zhou Shih-han, you'll never get the antidote again. You are sinners to the whole world!"

Ruan Yunzhen said calmly, "You don't need to worry about that. You should worry about yourself."

The ethereal and melodious voice was like a clear spring in a secluded valley. Song Linran stared blankly as he raised his head, his breath catching in his throat for a moment.

Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, bathing Ruan Yunzhen in a hazy golden glow.

Her unadorned face was breathtakingly beautiful amidst the interplay of light and shadow, like a celestial being descended from an ancient painting.

At that moment, the excruciating pain of the severed limb suddenly seemed distant, and in a daze, he could only hear the thunderous pounding of his own heart.

Lin Wuque's eyes flashed with malice, and he raised his leg, stomping hard on his broken leg and grinding it down.

"ah--"

Lin Wuque coldly warned, "Get your dog eyes off me!"

The intense pain brought Song Linran back to his senses. When that familiar yet unfamiliar face came into clear view, he was immediately horrified, and his pupils contracted sharply.

"You, you are, you are Ruan Yunzhen?!"

You're still alive?

Ruan Yunzhen raised an eyebrow slightly and chuckled, "Yes."

Song Linran's face turned pale and then red.

Even though the person in front of him was breathtakingly beautiful, Song Linran couldn't muster the slightest romantic thoughts.

In his heart, nothing was more important than himself.

Song Linran forced a happy smile.

"Yunzhen, it's so good that you survived. I originally wanted to save you, but Zhou Shihan held me back. Later, I went back to look for you, but I didn't see you, so I thought something bad had happened to you."

"You have no idea how much I blame myself. Every night I toss and turn in regret, wishing I could have saved you in time."

His voice was deliberately softened, with a slight sob in it.

Ruan Yunzhen simply looked at him with a leisurely air and did not respond.

Song Linran's smile became even more forced.

"Are you here to seek revenge on Zhou Shih-han? I'm sorry, I had no choice but to do some bad things to you back then."

"Can you give me a chance to make it up to you? I'll do anything for you."

He lowered his head, his voice trembling deliberately.

"Consider it...consider it my way of atoning for my sins. Back then, I could only reduce Zhou Shih-han's targeting of you by pretending to hate you...Every time I see you, my heart aches, but to save your life, I had no choice but to..."

Before she could finish speaking, a sob suddenly escaped her throat, stopping at the most pitiful moment.

Song Linran was the original owner's senior. Before the apocalypse, there was a hint of affection between the two. However, after Zhou Shihan announced that she had awakened her superpower, the relationship between the two took a sharp turn for the worse.

A hint of surprise flashed in Ruan Yunzhen's eyes. She didn't care about such insincerity, but she didn't expect that someone could say such shameless things.

In the past, the people I met always tried their best to show off and present their best side.

This was the first time someone had shown their shamelessness in front of her.

She exclaimed, "You're so shameless!"

Song Linran choked up, then said earnestly, "What I said is true, and I sincerely want to make up for the harm I caused you. I have taken the opportunity to eliminate all those who bullied you, just to avenge you."

Yes, those who broke through the encirclement together and then ostracized Ruan Yunzhen in order to curry favor with Zhou Shih-han all died one after another later.

However, it wasn't Song Linran who killed him, but Zhou Shihan.

In her previous life, she was in the same position as these people, all dependent on Ruan Yunzhen for survival, and naturally knew that they had many opinions about Ruan Yunzhen.

She's not that idiot Ruan Yunzhen, who would leave behind so many ungrateful wretches.

As for Song Linran, Zhou Shihan is obsessed with him, perhaps stemming from the phantom image of him from her past life who was always gentle and considerate to Ruan Yunzhen.

She had witnessed the sweetness between him and Ruan Yunzhen more than once, seeing his tender care and tolerance for Ruan Yunzhen, and how he always protected her.

Those images, like poisoned honey, fermented in her heart into a twisted longing.

In this life, almost instinctively, she took this man as her own.

The pleasure she gleaned from Ruan Yunzhen, mixed with the sense of superiority brought by her past life memories, made her hand over her trust without hesitation.

Song Linran was unaware of the reasons behind this, but he was happy to see it happen.

He had already discovered Zhou Shihhan's secret and naturally didn't want anyone else to get a share of it.

However, all of his plans were shattered at this moment, and one can imagine how devastated he must have felt.

However, to save his own life, he had no choice but to swallow his pride and say all sorts of nice things.

Ruan Yunzhen was a little disappointed: "Are they all dead?"

"Leave no one alive!" Song Linran nodded urgently. "Yunzhen, I didn't know you were still alive. Every blow I took when I killed those traitors was filled with guilt towards you..."

"Fortunately, good fortune smiles upon you, and you are still alive. I still have a chance to atone for my sins. Now I am an eighth-level ability user, capable of many things. From now on, whenever you ask, I am willing to be your sharpest blade."

He deliberately emphasized the words "level eight ability user," his words carrying a hint of certainty.

Since Ruan Yunzhen did not execute him immediately, it means that he still has value to her.

"Master, do you want to keep him?"

Lin Wuque's voice was deep and resonant, like the hiss of a venomous snake.

His gaze toward Song Linran was sinister, and the black mist swirling around him surged restlessly.

His beautiful peach blossom eyes narrowed slightly as he tilted his head to look at Ruan Yunzhen, a sweet yet chilling smile curving his lips.

"Does this filthy thing even deserve to stay by your side?"

The black mist rose steadily with his suppressed breathing, each wisp poised to burst forth.

If his god shows even the slightest sign of approval, Hei Yan will pounce on him without mercy and tear him to shreds.

Ruan Yunzhen revealed a wicked smile: "No, I asked you to spare his life only because I didn't want him to die too quickly."

Although the original owner of this body had already died when she arrived, those unforgettable memories were so real that they felt like she had experienced them herself, which made Ruan Yunzhen very unhappy.

Not to mention that when she arrived, they had pushed her into the zombie horde. If it weren't for Lin Wuque, she would have already gone to the next world and wouldn't have had the chance to discover the function of the crystal core.

This is absolutely unforgivable.

So killing Zhou Shih-han cleanly and decisively was the only option; it would be too easy on her. The others were already dead, so let this sole survivor bear the brunt of her wrath!

She wanted to show him what it meant to be unable to live or die.

A dagger suddenly appeared in Ruan Yunzhen's hand.

She slowly squatted down in front of Song Linran, the sharp tip of the knife gently slicing across his pale cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

"Where should I begin?" she asked, tilting her head slightly and speaking in a soft, casual tone.

Song Linran's muscles tensed, and cold sweat soaked his back.

He forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.

"Yun... Yunzhen... You're joking, right?"

Yes, it must be a joke. He's an eighth-level superhuman!

With a gentle twist of her wrist, Ruan Yunzhen sliced ​​off a piece of flesh from his face.

"An eighth-level ability user should be able to withstand the damage, right?"

"Lin Wuque, how many blows do you think he can withstand?"

Ruan Yunzhen turned her head to look at Lin Wuque, her voice soft and melodious, as if she were discussing something unimportant.