☆ Encounter, Survivor Team
The desert night wind was bitterly cold. Ye Xi wrapped her linen cloak tighter around herself and gripped the reins tightly. Just as she galloped onto the mainland, she saw a man riding a white horse coming towards her. The man was stunned when he saw Ye Xi riding a black horse. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ye Xi immediately spurred her horse and galloped away from him.
"Wait!" The man shouted as he saw Ye Xi turn and run instead of getting excited at the sight of living people, and turned to chase after her. "Danger! There are a large number of zombies ahead! We have to get out of here quickly!"
"Holy crap..." Ye Xi's lips twitched. She unconsciously touched the syringes in her pouch, and once she had enough, she immediately turned around and brushed past the man again. The man, perhaps not expecting Ye Xi's riding skills to be so good, was momentarily stunned. After a brief pause, he laughed, a serious glint flashing in his golden eyes. He tightened the reins, elegantly and swiftly turning back to chase after Ye Xi. His speed was even faster than Ye Xi's, who had honed her riding skills in perilous situations!
"Hey, miss, you don't need to be so scared. Those zombies are still some distance away, and just a little further on is our survivor team's base. There's strength in numbers!" The man rode side by side with Ye Xi, smiling brightly, seemingly not worried at all about the zombie attack.
Ye Xi glanced at him sideways in surprise. Thanks to her modified eyes, which could see as clearly at night as during the day, she could clearly see that he, like her, was wearing a black cowboy hat. From his perfectly proportioned physique outlined by his crisp police uniform, it was clear he exercised regularly. His sunny, energetic smile, while not conventionally handsome, held a warmth mixed with an undeniable seriousness. Judging from his relaxed demeanor, he seemed capable of going even faster, which frustrated Ye Xi, who was already pushing herself to the limit.
Well, it seems she really can't shake this guy off... Ye Xi sighed inwardly, slowed down, and asked indifferently, "Where is the survivor team you mentioned?"
"It's over there." The man pointed to the light not far away and said with a smile, "I'll take you there. With another member, I think the wolves will be excited for a long time."
Ye Xi didn't speak, only nodded slightly, her expression cold and aloof. Ye Xi didn't want to get involved with others; after all, she had a chip inside her body. Although she didn't know what Wesker intended to do with it, it certainly wasn't anything good. The man led Ye Xi towards his camp, staring intently at her profile marked with "01" as they walked. When Ye Xi couldn't help but glare at him coldly, he finally smiled awkwardly and explained, "Nothing, nothing, I just felt… well, maybe it's just my imagination…"
The man seemed lost in thought, his eyes slightly darkened, but he quickly changed the subject: "Hey, do you see anyone?" His voice was as sunny as before, "Hey, guys! Look what I brought back!" he shouted to the group.
"Meat?!" A fat man sitting by the fire with his back to them jumped up immediately.
With a "smack," another person slapped the fat man on the back of the head, yelling, "It's a woman! A woman!" Then he stood up, straightened his somewhat dirty clothes, and waited until they were close before trying to look cool by waving to the man and Ye Xi—but more importantly, to Ye Xi: "Hi, young, beautiful, and energetic lady, hello! I'm Legg Wisley, it's fate that brought us together in this vast desert! ~ I..."
"Ignore this idiot who gets all horny at the sight of a female." A brown-haired man in a white and blue tracksuit kicked the man, who was about to launch into a long-winded discourse on fate, in the backside, sending him flying to the side. "I'm Andrei Ryan, and I'm definitely much better than that moron. If you don't have a partner yet, you might want to consider me."
"What? Another woman..." The fat man rubbed his head, which had been slapped, and muttered in complaint, not expecting to immediately attract hatred. "Hey, what's with that tone? It sounds like you have a problem with the 'woman' species, you fatso?" A clear voice came from behind the fat man, who stiffened, then suddenly clutched his back and cried out, "Stop, stop, my dear lady! How could I dare to have a problem with you noble and supreme women? I'm just happy that we have another new member!"
"Hmph, that's more like it." The fat guy was pushed aside rather roughly, and a cute girl with princess-like long golden hair jumped in front of Ye Xi, looked her up and down, then frowned her delicate brows as if in distress, grabbed the handsome boy next to her, and whispered to him, thinking she was telling him, "Hey, Fury, tell me... is this girl with the cool aura and unique tattoos older or younger than me?"
A slight blush rose on the fair face of the handsome boy, who had a few freckles. He shyly tugged at the girl's sleeve and, thinking he was being quiet, replied, "Benny, it wouldn't be good if she heard what you just said... What does it matter if it's big or small..."
"This is a crucial relationship that determines whether I have a younger sister or an older sister!" the girl said seriously, pouting slightly, looking as cute as a doll.
"Hey you two, stop showing off your love here. Didn't you see the predatory looks from those single guys?" The sunny man on the white horse, who had started earlier, jokingly interrupted the cute girl and the handsome man's "whisper," and said to Ye Xi, who had remained silent with an icy expression, "How about we introduce ourselves? I'm Ethan Well. The couple I mentioned earlier are Benecca Donner, also known as Benny, and Fred Donner, also known as Fred. They've been engaged for a long time, getting married at 17 or 18, which makes us old bachelors green with envy. That fat guy was Pancer Smith, and those two thirsty guys at the end introduced themselves too, Legg and Andreik. Okay, that's our team. And what about you, the new member?"
"Ye Xi." Not wanting to get too involved with others, Ye Xi coldly uttered two words, then led her black horse to the other side of the fire and gently stroked its mane.
"Hiss—Ice Beauty!" Legg and Andreik gasped in unison, their wolf eyes gleaming simultaneously. It seemed that Ye Xi was more attractive to them this way. Could it be that the so-called masochistic psychology of liking what one cannot have is a common phenomenon?
Unlike their reactions, Officer Ethan, riding the white horse, seemed to be lost in memories upon hearing Ye Xi's name. His eyes lit up as he carefully examined Ye Xi's delicate face illuminated by the firelight. His tone, though uncertain, carried a hint of surprise: "You are... Ye Xi? The Ye Xi who graduated from MIT as a genius after only two years! I was wondering why you looked so familiar earlier; it turns out you're the genius junior! I didn't expect you to change so much over the years... and you even have a tattoo..."
"Huh? A junior?!" Everyone, including Ye Xi, stared in shock at the overjoyed expression. Legg and Andreik's wolfish eyes suddenly dimmed, their expressions turning as if the sky were about to collapse—"Are you kidding me?!" The adorable Benny was seduced by Fury, that cunning and manipulative guy, simply because she was Fury's junior. They'd barely had time to rejoice at finally getting a beautiful, icy Eastern girl, and now she's suddenly become their boss's junior! If this melodramatic senior-junior relationship escalates to a point where they're secretly engaged, what will become of these hungry, miserable, and unlucky kids?!
Ye Xi ignored the astonishment about her humiliating "tattoo," carefully checked the body's memories, and then looked Ethan up and down, but still couldn't recall such a person. "Don't try to make connections, idiot." In the end, Ye Xi, having found nothing, coldly uttered a few words of contempt, then took out some spare grass and fed it to her beloved black horse.
"Eh? Junior Ye Xi doesn't remember me? No wonder. It seems we've only met once, and it was a really bad one. Do you remember the end of your first year at MIT? Someone accidentally hit you with a basketball and knocked over your files?" Ethan seemed to be recalling that embarrassing encounter, his face showing a mix of awkward apology and anticipation.
Ye Xi frowned slightly—wait, wait, this looks like something out of a melodramatic, brainless romance novel meant for kids! How could it possibly happen in this apocalyptic world where everyone's going to die?! But Ye Xi did remember it. She was holding her mentor's treasured documents, documents that were more terrifying than Satan himself. She'd begged and pleaded for ages to get them, and she was so careful while reading them, afraid of getting them dirty and being strangled by her mentor. But on the way back, some idiot hit her with a basketball, knocking them to the ground. To make matters worse, it rained that day, and even worse still, some of the documents fell onto the wet ground… You can imagine how her mentor tormented her afterwards. Luckily, there were backups on his computer, which he never trusted, otherwise…
"Holy crap, it was this idiot who's always getting on her nerves..." Although these things didn't actually happen to her, Ye Xi still couldn't help but roll her eyes at this white horse idiot. Then, she decisively mounted her horse and looked down at everyone, saying, "Aren't you going to pack up and find some new seats? My idiot senior who went out on patrol just now said there's a group of hungry zombies not far from us." With that, she took the lead, pulling on the reins and riding off.
As the team leader, Ethan felt a responsibility to protect the team members who had entrusted their lives to him. He immediately snapped out of his daze, his excitement vanishing instantly. "Don't just stand there, get moving! Fatty, go get the car. The rest of you, pack your things and tents!" Ethan gave the orders expertly, then picked up a submachine gun and scanned his surroundings warily.
Perhaps they often encountered such situations, so everyone, including the seemingly delicate and cute girl Benny, remained calm and moved quickly. In less than two minutes, they had placed all their items on the military off-road vehicle. The fat man had been waiting for them, and as soon as they arrived, he stepped on the gas. Ethan rode his white horse closely behind, catching up with Ye Xi ahead.
"Hey, new teammate, you're running way too fast! You didn't even wait for us, we're teammates!" Unlike Legg and Andreik, Fatty Panse didn't wait for Ye Xi. So when he stepped on the gas and drove alongside her, he rolled down the window, ignoring the two wolves' tug-of-war, and complained to Ye Xi with dissatisfaction.
Ye Xi sneered inwardly. Having been alone for so long, she had long since become indifferent to these social niceties. Before she could even utter a sarcastic remark, Ethan, who had suddenly caught up, snatched the words away: "Fatty, don't say that. Our junior just joined us and needs some time to adjust. She was all alone before, and what she did just now was just a reflex. We don't know how much she's suffered alone. We need to be tolerant and accepting of her so she can trust us with her back. It's too much to ask her to cooperate with us now." Originally, it was Ye Xi who selfishly abandoned them, but Ethan twisted it into their fault for not giving Ye Xi a sense of trust. The protective guy had suddenly switched targets, which made Pan Sai's mouth twitch violently a few times.
Tragically, only Pantheon in the team realized Ethan's forced explanation! Seeing the others' foolish "sorry, it's all my fault" expressions, Pantheon slapped his forehead with his bear paw—good heavens, he, Fatty, was once a small-time boss who controlled a block, how could he have ended up with this group of brain-dead teammates and... this idiotic captain who's obsessed with his female classmates!
↑Fatty, you were a spy all along! You're the biggest tragedy in the team!
Ye Xi silently observed everyone's reactions. First, she sympathized with the somewhat sensible but helpless fat man, Pan Sai, then rolled her eyes at the idiot captain whose expression Ye Xi couldn't decipher. However, considering he reminded her of the zombie horde, she reluctantly accepted Ethan's decision to pull her into the survivor team without her consent... Ye Xi mentally shrugged.
Author's Note: This squad is not that squad. It will take some time before we encounter Claire Carlos's old acquaintance squad. Ye Xi needs to get used to being with a large group of people first. (shrugs) She's still in her wild state. (picks nose) Rolling around begging for comments... The click rate is more than 100 times the number of comments, what's going on?! QAQ I'm not a cruel mother, I never curse anyone~ (fake)
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