CH 54

However, Luan Qing Xiao turned a blind eye to Nie Zhen'er's gaze. Her pair of indifferent eyes remained on Liang Yan the majority of the time.



Previously, Luan Qing Xiao had always been like this. But after experiencing Luan Qing Xiao's gentleness and then seeing such an aloof Luan Qing Xiao, her heart felt a little sour.



Why is there only the Captain in the Lieutenant's eyes? How can I make her see me? Clearly, she was the one who kissed her, right?



Nie Zhen'er thought, a little disappointed.



Nevertheless, Liang Yan didn't know what Nie Zhen'er was thinking. He gently asked Nie Zhen'er, "Did you bring your weapon?"



Nie Zhen'er quickly concealed the jealousy towards Liang Yan and replied, "Captain, I'm ready."



Liang Yan smiled helplessly, "How many times do I have to tell you? Just call me by my name."



Nie Zhen'er sneakily peeked at Luan Qing Xiao and was stung by the coldness in Luan Qing Xiao's eyes. She lowered her head, "Everyone calls you Captain, I can’t be the special case."



Liang Yan still had more to say, but Luo Zi Lin stepped forward, "Captain, Zhen’er is right. It’s better if we all address you the same thing. The time is almost here, let's hurry up."



【Host dada, the female lead is peeking at you, even though she doesn’t have her memories. Host dada, you’re so amazing~】



Luan Qing Xiao stated confidently: We are a match made in heaven. Even if we both lose our memories, we’ll definitely end up together sooner or later.



At exactly midnight, the six people set off right on time.



Liang Yan and Luan Qing Xiao walked side by side at the front with Nie Zhen'er, Luo Zi Lin and Jiang Yue Bai in the middle, while Zhang Yao protected them from the back.



The place where they temporarily set up at was an apartment. Within just a few steps out, they encountered two zombies staggering toward them.



Liang Yan raised his right hand, and his metal ability turned into a long knife in his hand. The fingertips of his left hand brushed across the blade of the long knife, and the knife immediately turned burning red by the tumbling flames.



"You guys move back and leave these two zombies to me."



Luan Qing Xiao and everyone else stepped back.



Liang Yan gave a low roar and rushed in front of the two zombies. He slashed the long knife twice and the heads of the zombies fell to the ground. The area where their bodies and their heads connected emitted white smoke along with a burnt smell.



"Captain, you’re so amazing!" Luo Zi Lin ran to Liang Yan and exclaimed in adoration.



Hearing her, Luan Qing Xiao snorted. She dug out the crystal nuclei from the brains of the two zombies, "Luo Zi Lin, store these."



The main purpose of Luo Zi Lin following them out was to store the items they collected into her dimension.



Luo Zi Lin glanced at Liang Yan aggrievedly. Liang Yan soothingly said, "Let’s hurry up, it's dangerous outside. Don't forget your own job and waste time."



Before she met Liang Yan, Luo Zi Lin’s personality was naive and adorable. After liking Liang Yan, her personality has only become worse and worse. In order to please Liang Yan, she often causes herself to be at odds with Luan Qing Xiao yet Liang Yan would only support the one who’s reasonable. Eight out of ten times, Luo Zi Lin was the unreasonable one and ended up being scolded. However even so, she was still unrepentant.



Luo Zi Lin's face paled when she heard Liang Yan's words. She stored two crystal nuclei from Luan Qing Xiao's hands in embarrassment.



"Lieutenant, I’m sorry."



Luan Qing Xiao remembered she had to appear aloof in front of Liang Yan, so she lifted her chin and gave Luo Zi Lin a contemptuous look, "You don’t have to apologize to me, the nuclei belong to everyone."



Luo Zi Lin: "..."



After collecting the cores, the six continued to set off towards their destination.



They had stayed here for a little more than half a month, so 80% of nearby zombies were killed by them already. Only one or two zombies were occasionally seen near the apartment.



In the past few days, they had to move farther and farther away to find zombies.



Yesterday when Liang Yan went out to collect supplies during the day, he discovered there was a large supermarket just beyond two kilometers away. The goods in it were almost all gone. However there were several blood-stained clothes on the ground. He speculated that they belonged to some ordinary people who were eaten by zombies.



If all goes accordingly, once they finish off the zombies in this supermarket, they’ll move the next day to find another place with more zombies.



There were plenty of other squadrons, like them, who actively sought out zombies for their crystal nucleus. They were all doing so to survive. In these post- apocalypse days, wherever there are supplies, there definitely will be zombies. If you can't quickly improve your strength, you will either be assimilated by the zombies into walking corpses or be starved to death.



About 20 minutes in, they only met one zombie on the road who found them by their smells. Liang Yan solved it with a single slash as usual, frowning. Then he commanded the others, "Move faster in the supermarket later. Let’s try to finish up before dawn, so we can head back to base earlier. We still have to relocate during the day. I don't know how long it will take to find the next safe zone."



When the group arrived outside the supermarket, the roar of zombies could be heard coming one after another, from inside the supermarket.



"Isn’t there too-too many zombies inside?" Jiang Yue Bai was relatively timid. Her legs became a little soft just from hearing the noises.



Previously, the zombie swarms they encountered were at most twenty. Even if they roared all at the same time, they weren’t as loud as the sound coming from the supermarket in front of them.



Jiang Yue Bai was terrified and couldn't help taking two steps back.



Although she has the healing-type ability, she was only Level 1, meaning she can't purify the zombie virus at all. If she was accidentally bitten by a zombie, she can’t even save herself.



Luan Qing Xiao glanced at Liang Yan and waited for his instructions. Liang Yan furrowed his brows and directed Zhang Yao, "You stay outside to protect Luo Zi Lin and Jiang Yue Bai."



"Yes, Captain." Zhang Yao Xue was an earth-type ability user with a high defense power. Despite being only Level 1, they have tested that most ordinary zombies couldn't  break through the high wall he built.



"Captain, I want to go in too!" Luo Zi Lin uttered abruptly.



No way she wanted to stay outside. Doing that means she won't get any benefits.



Originally, Luo Zi Lin wasn’t from this world. In her own world, she accidentally was electrocuted after reading a sweet doomsday web novel, 《The Apocalypse Leader’s Little Sweetheart》. When she woke up, she realized she had transmigrated as Luo Zi Lin, a cannon fodder with the same name as her.



She was familiar with the plot and knew that the male protagonist, Liang Yan, will eventually become the leader of the Earth Base Alliance, while the female protagonist, Nie Zhen'er, was pampered by him and lived a life comparable to a spoiled princess, even in the zombie-infested world.



While she was reading the web novel, Luo Zi Lin was extremely envious of Nie Zhen’er. After she transmigrated into the book, Luo Zi Lin was surprised to find that this body of hers was rather beautiful and the idea of ​​snatching Liang Yan from the heroine Nie Zhen'er sprouted.



Right now, Nie Zhen'er and Liang Yan weren’t together yet and nor did the series of events that prompted them to develop mutual feelings. Therefore why can’t she take her chances?



Besides, the male protagonist was incredibly tall and handsome. He also has an eight pack abs, Luo Zi Lin felt she won’t be at a disadvantage if she gets together with him.



She dared to go against Luan Qing Xiao because she knew that Luan Qing Xiao was the vicious female supporting character in the book, who would eventually be killed by the male lead and thrown into a zombie swarm to be ripped apart by zombies.



Faced with Luan Qing Xiao's scornful and disapproving gaze, Luo Zi Lin directly ignored her. She continued to sway Liang Yan, "Captain, I have great marksmanship. I promise I can protect myself inside."



Luo Zi Lin remembered the zombie clean-up in this supermarket was the turning point between Liang Yan’s and Nie Zhen'er’s relationship.



Normally the zombies they encounter were the least lethal Level 1 zombies, but this time there was a Level 2 zombie in this supermarket. The body of the Level 2 zombie was very durable, while their nails are exceptionally sharp and can easily cut through Liang Yan's long knife. Furthermore, at Level 2, the zombie gains a certain degree of intelligence and can order the surrounding zombies to protect itself.



After Liang Yan encountered the Level 2 zombie, he and Nie Zhen'er were accidentally besieged in the warehouse. They were trapped in the warehouse for nearly two hours before they were rescued by the passing A Base ability users.



Trapped inside the warehouse, Liang Yan thought he would be struck inside and starve to death. However, Nie Zhen'er never stopped encouraging and cheering him up until their rescue finally arrived.



Luo Zi Lin thought isn’t it just motivating the male protagonist, she can do it too. She definitely has to seize this opportunity and can’t let it slip away.



Since Luo Zi Lin didn’t read the epilogue of 《The Apocalypse Leader’s Little Sweetheart》, she didn't know that the reason why the ability users of A Base could break through the heavy encirclement of the zombie swarm and rescue Liang Yan was because of Nie Zhen'er's true identity as the zombie queen. Without her controlling the zombies, even if A Base’s ability users could kill their way in, they might not necessarily be able to kill their way out.



Because Luo Zi Lin insisted on going into the supermarket with them, Liang Yan reasoned it would save a lot of time if they collected the crystal nuclei while slaying the zombies, so he nodded and agreed.



After entering the supermarket, Luo Zi Lin followed Liang Yan tightly, squeezing Nie Zhen'er and Luan Qing Xiao behind her.



The rows of shelves in the supermarket separated the space with roughly two or three zombies crowded between each aisle. If the four of them stayed together, it would be incredibly inconvenient and inefficient to exterminate the zombies. Therefore, Liang Yan proposed to divide into two different teams.



Liang Yan and Luan Qing Xiao were both Level 2 users, while Nie Zhen'er was a Level 1 and Luo Zi Lin only had a gun. Luan Qing Xiao asked, "How are we going to divide the teams?"



Luo Zi Lin heard Luan Qing Xiao's question and quickly proclaimed, "Since Captain is more powerful, I’ll follow Captain."



Liang Yan pondered about it. He felt this would work too, "Let's just divide it like that. Zi Lin and I will head left. Qing Xiao and Zhen'er, you guys go right."



If this was usual, Liang Yan would never let Luan Qing Xiao and Nie Zhen'er interact alone. But right now was a critical moment. It was unrealistic to make the weaker Luan Qing Xiao and the weakest Luo Zi Lin be in a group. Moreover, he has carefully observed that Luan Qing Xiao hasn’t changed into another person yet.



After dividing into teams, Luo Zi Lin finally let out a sigh of relief.



She didn't come in to collect crystal nuclei and kill zombies. If she couldn't team up with Liang Yan, wouldn't she have come in and suffered for nothing?



Luan Qing Xiao was extremely satisfied with this group division. Once she leaves Liang Yan's sight, she will finally no longer have to ignore Nie Zhen'er.



Nie Zhen'er's battle weapon was an axe. The axe wasn’t big and could be carried behind her back, yet it weighed more than a hundred kilograms. It was quite lethal, and most people can’t even lift it.



Nie Zhen'er followed behind Luan Qing Xiao with the axe. As the zombies among the aisle came over due to their scent, Nie Zhen'er chopped one after another.



Luan Qing Xiao knew she liked being clean, so she used her water ability to cover her body with a water shield. The spattering dirty blood and meat bits from the zombies were isolated by the shield, and couldn't touch Nie Zhen'er's body at all.



"Lieutenant?" Because of Luan Qing Xiao's previous ignorance and indifference, Nie Zhen'er felt a little depressed. She didn’t expect Luan Qing Xiao would carefully separate her from these  foul pieces of zombies, and glanced at Luan Qing Xiao in surprise.



Luan Qing Xiao hugged Nie Zhen'er from behind and took a step back, avoiding the claws of the zombies, "Concentrate, we can speak after killing these zombies."



"Lieutenant, you can just keep up the water shield and watch me take care of everything else!" Instantly, Nie Zhen'er became filled with motivation. She ignored the flying zombie parts meanwhile the zombies also didn’t dare to resist because of the suppressing aura on her body. Nie Zhen'er slashed left and right. Soon she emptied all the rows of zombies in their assigned area.



Nie Zhen'er had already wanted to talk to Luan Qing Xiao before. So she sent an order not to approach her to all the zombies within ten meters of her as she boldly held Luan Qing Xiao's hand. She found a corner with her back against the wall, and looked at Luan Qing Xiao with shiny eyes, waiting for her to speak to herself.



Naturally, Luan Qing Xiao could guess what Nie Zhen'er did. She said with a chuckle, "Zhen'er is so powerful."



Nie Zhen'er stared at Luan Qing Xiao’s smile, mesmerized, and couldn’t bear to blink. As the result of Luan Qing Xiao’s praise, she blushed slightly, “That’s because there’s Lieutenant nearby to protect me, making me feel safe, which allows me to kill this many zombies. Lieutenant is the powerful one. The water shield just now was awesome. It can keep out the dirty stuff without getting my clothes wet."



Nie Zhen'er was a chatterbox who couldn’t keep quiet. She pouted, "Lieutenant, why were you ignoring me earlier? Do you dislike me?"



Luan Qing Xiao replied, "Nonsense, how could I not like you? In fact, I like Zhen'er very much."



"Then, then..." Nie Zhen'er’s face turned crimson from Luan Qing Xiao's unexpected "confession,” and became too bashful to speak.



Luan Qing Xiao stretched out her finger and tapped the tip of her nose gently. She said solemnly, "Because our squadron has rules that its members can’t date."