CH 28.1

Chapter 28: Entering the tiger’s den (1)

From the dark and gloomy sky, heavy snow fell like feathers. The thick white snowflakes contrasted deeply with the black clouds and the whole world was covered in a quiet layer of white powder.

There wasn’t a trace of life or death around.

On a long highway, a tightly wrapped figure slowly walked. Only a pair of intelligent big eyes were exposed to the cold and her pace was so languid she seemed to belong to another world. Footsteps were left in her wake, only to be hidden the next second by newly fallen snow.

Anyone walking towards her at this time would probably not recognize she was human. And this human was Chi Xin who had left Base L alone.

“What the…” Chi Xin muttered as she trekked through the heavy snow, “Where the hell is it?”

Her voice was muffled by the huge scarf and she could barely hear herself. Just as she had seen in the movie, after the scorching heat of the summer, the end of the world was experiencing a cold wave; and in order to survive it, she had made sufficient preparations.

Before leaving the area of City L, she had gone to a shopping mall that had been rather far away. She had searched for tents and other necessary items for the cold weather, and as she was now wandering alone, she had added a lot of batteries and various flashlights.

As for why she was wandering…

Chi Xin took a few more steps before stopping. She looked at the surroundings, her eyes filled with confusion.

… She didn’t know the way.

This world was so different from her she had also lost her sense of direction. Since she had left Base L, she had not known where to go; the only thing she had realized was wherever she went, the fewer zombies she encountered.

She raised her head to look ahead and her eyes fell on the majestic mountain in the distance, peeking from the fog and snow.

Since when was she headed toward the mountains?

Chi Xin wrinkled her nose and decided to find a building first to spend the night away from the wind. The weather was too cold, she wasn’t sure she would survive if she slept without any shelter.

With the current objective, Chi Xin started moving again—

But the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up; her eyes became sharp and her body tensed.

Since the disappearance of the system, she did not have to worry about the plot or being shocked. Instead, her awareness of her surroundings had increased.

Her own ability. 

The whistling wind echoed around her and she forced her breathing to slow down before looking around carefully. 

Both sides of the highway were full of abandoned cars buried in the now. Chi Xin watched through the white haze and her eyes fell on a very thin iron wire.

Oh, smart.

She raised her eyebrows and silently stuffed both hands in her pockets. She looked like an innocent traveler who didn’t know anything and stepped on the string with one foot. As she did, cars on both sides of the road exploded simultaneously; shards and flames flew around and instantly reached Chi Xin.

After the explosion sounded, several voices were heard.

“Are they dead?”

“Damn, that’s no luck. I thought a team would cross, I didn’t expect just one person. Look at this skinny guy, they probably haven’t eaten in a while.”

“I told you not to waste explosives. There was only one person, we can’t even share one piece of clothing now…”|

“Should I have taken the trap down?”

“Wait, shut up. Don’t you think something’s wrong?”

“What? With this kind of explosion, nobody can survive.”

“But… why didn’t we hear any screams?”

The men suddenly fell silent until one replied: “Stop scaring yourself, such a big fire would burn anyone to death.”

“That’s right. Let’s check anyway.”

“Hm.”

Gradually, a few heads appeared on the other side of the road. The flames of the explosion were swaying under the wind and their dazzling color was reflected on the bright snow.

The men kept complaining to each other as they walked. At one point, one of them stopped.

“Keep moving.” Another urged.

The man’s eyes widened. He stretched out a shaking finger and pointed at the fire: “That… That’s…” 

The others looked at him suspiciously but his face made them no longer dare to move forward. They all went back to watch the snow gradually extinguish the fire.

As the flames disappeared, a figure in the middle appeared. The figure was tightly wrapped and nobody could guess whether they were male or female, thin or fat; and in their hands, was a fire extinguisher. The figure was seriously facing the remaining flames, aiming at any little sparks.

As the fire extinguisher ran out in a puffing sound, the last of the fire also died.

Everyone: …

Where did this weirdo come from?

Who took such a difficult road with a fire extinguisher?

But although this whole situation was off, there seemed to be only one person on this side of the highway. And watching them play with the fire extinguisher, anyone would have doubted their sanity.

The men winked at each other and the one in the lead took out a gun before pouncing on the wrapped figure.

“Bang.”

The man saw the red fire extinguisher gradually become bigger. In a loud noise, his face was hit before he could even figure what was happening.

He staggered back and felt warm liquid fall on his face. He reached out to wipe it and found out he was covered in blood. In his daze, he watched the small and chubby figure hold the makeshift weapon and agilely hit his four companions in a flash. Then the figure abruptly turned around, and in another “bang” a hole the size of a bullet appeared in the red metal. Residual powder fell from it and disappeared in the white snow.

Except for the first man, everybody else was on the ground and groaning in pain. The leader had his gun raised, in trembling and blood-covered hands. He had watched such a small person take on much bigger men with a fire extinguisher and use this same weapon as a shield to block a bullet.

His eyelid twitched. He would have been foolish if he hadn’t known he had just encountered someone very powerful.

He carefully put down his gun on the ground and kicked it towards the figure, fully expressing his surrender. He showed a smile that was more of a grimace and said: “This… hero, we are new to this area, we didn’t recognize you and accidentally harmed you. This gun will be regarded as our plea, please spare our lives.”

The figure did not respond. They stood quietly in the same spot, dressed in this huge coat and even bigger scarf. The man trembled, afraid the figure was angry, and would pick up the fire extinguisher again to dig a hole in his head.

Fortunately, the figure finally seemed quite satisfied with their surrender.

With a muffled clatter, the figure threw away the extinguisher and stepped forward. They weren’t worried they would be attacked again and bent down to pick up the gun.

The man started shaking even more.

But the figure didn’t spare the men another look. After picking up the gun, they walked away. 

As they passed by, the man instinctively glanced sideways. During a split second, he seemed to see a pair of extremely beautiful eyes.