Chapter 2: They Have to Pay the Price
A dozen counterstrategies flashed through Su Han’s mind in a split second, and not a single one was viable.
Judging by how the man had just hurled a machete with enough force to cleanly sever a mutated zombie’s head, Su Han stood zero chance against him in a fight.
Shen Chengyin leaned down, raising a hand to seize Su Han by the throat.
Just as Su Han moved to dodge, the man swayed on his feet and pitched forward, crashing deadweight onto Su Han’s chest.
With a dull thud, the breath was knocked clean out of Su Han. He broke into a fit of hacking coughs, nearly crushed to death on the spot.
Struggling to shove the heavy body off him, he gasped for air and complained to the system:
“Tell me I’m not crazy—didn’t the male lead just try to kill me?”
The system chimed in with obvious guilt: […An illusion. It was definitely just your imagination.]
Su Han rolled Shen Chengyin onto his back. To his disbelief, the man who had been a mangled heap of shredded flesh moments ago had miraculously knitted back together, skin and bone reformed into that of a completely normal, healthy human.
So this is the life ability. If someone called it immortal sorcery, he wouldn’t doubt it for a second.
The man possessed striking, chisel-cut features—the kind of impeccably handsome face that made it instantly obvious he was the male lead the second he entered the frame.
Damn, he’s gorgeous.
Su Han silently offered two lines of praise before shamelessly brushing his fingers across the firm, defined lines of the man’s chest and abs. Only then did he turn to his pack, pulling out a change of clothes to slip onto the male lead.
He reached out and felt Shen Chengyin’s forehead; sure enough, it was scorching hot.
It was the typical high fever that accompanied the awakening of a new ability.
This place was too dangerous to linger. On top of that, the male lead had just unlocked his life ability and was burning through a fever; he needed a sheltered, warm spot to recover.
He picked up the machete, cracked open the severed zombie skull on the ground, extracted a crystal-clear core, and slipped it into his pocket.
Draping Shen Chengyin’s arm over his shoulders, Su Han laboriously dragged the man forward inch by inch.
As long as he could reach a main road, he could find a usable vehicle.
After stumbling forward for about ten minutes, a gunshot cracked through the air behind them.
Su Han furrowed his brows. This stretch of wilderness was completely barren. The only people out here with firearms—and the audacity to fire them so recklessly—had to be from Hope Base.
Did they track us down?
In the original novel, this was precisely how it played out: Shen Chengyin awakened his life ability at death’s door and fled in a battered state, only to be spotted and relentlessly hunted down by Hope Base’s lackeys.
“Fuck, you think Old Wang’s gone paranoid? That guy was turned into mincemeat—how the hell could he still be alive? Crawling back up and walking off? Isn’t he just messing with us!”
A voice drifted over from the distance.
“Tell me about it! We’ve been walking for ages and haven’t seen a damn soul, just more and more zombies,” another voice chimed in with bitter resentment. “Doing his dirty work like this… if we bite the dust out here, there won’t even be any honor in it.”
“Give it a rest. You know Wang Jiafu’s methods. Everyone in Hope Base thinks Leader Shen was a tyrannical psycho, while Vice Leader Wang is the benevolent saint. The crowd probably tore that Shen guy’s name to shreds long ago, practically begging for him to get kicked off his throne.”
Hearing this, Su Han subtly tilted his head.
The man’s head rested low, extremely close to his own, eyes shut tight. Su Han could clearly see the faint tremor of his dark lashes.
He knew their words were true. The novel had made it clear: Shen Chengyin had trusted his sworn brother, Wang Jiafu, with his life, delegating practically everything to him.
Wang Jiafu had seized every chance to hoard all the credit for himself, while secretly spreading venomous rumors to smear Shen Chengyin’s reputation.
Shen Chengyin hadn’t learned the truth until the brink of death.
No one had stepped forward to clear his name; no one had even mourned him. When he “died,” the survivors of Hope Base had only celebrated it as good riddance.
[Run! What are you standing there spacing out for?!] the system urged in a panic. [If you don’t bolt right now, they’re going to spot us!]
The voices were drawing nearer by the second. The pursuers had guns; getting caught meant instant death.
“I can’t just leave.” Snapping back from his thoughts, Su Han had reached a decision.
System 111: [???]
Wait, has the host lost his mind?
“Since I’ve decided to save the male lead, then after everything he suffered here… the entire base has to pay the price.”
A cold glint flashed across Su Han’s eyes.
System: […]
Is this really the time to be thinking about that?!
Running for your life comes first!
After slipping past the search party, Su Han carried Shen Chengyin to the outskirts of the city closest to Hope Base.
Dense urban centers were deathtraps for humans following the apocalypse. The zones nearest to Hope Base had already been stripped bare of every scrap of resource by scavenger teams, meaning virtually no one came out this way anymore.
By contrast, stashing a comatose Shen Chengyin here while he burned through a fever was the safest bet.
Su Han located a relatively clean apartment in an old residential complex. After clearing out the stray zombies inside, he laid Shen Chengyin down on the bed.
The man’s hair was a disheveled mess and his brow was knitted in a tight furrow, clearly enduring immense torment.
For some reason, a pang of pity twitched in Su Han’s chest. He pulled out the last half-bottle of mineral water from his pack and, using the cap, patiently fed it into the man’s dry lips drop by drop.
Once he finished, he left some food by the bedside, locked the door, and quietly slipped away.
The next morning, the line outside the gates of Hope Base gained a new face: a youth with light-colored hair.
The onlookers cast appraising glances at Su Han, their eyes predominantly laced with ill intent.
In an era where order had completely collapsed, attractive young men and women had almost all been claimed and carried off by powerful figures. It was rare to spot a boy this striking among the common rabble.
“You here to apply for Hope Base too?”
Someone struck up a conversation with Su Han.
Su Han nodded, putting on a naive, harmless facade. “I’m super strong! I even have superpowers!”
The moment the words left his mouth, an uproar rippled through the crowd.
An ability user—the ultimate golden ticket in the apocalypse.
When the apocalypse first hit, a tiny fraction of humanity came down with searing fevers. Those who managed to pull through woke up with all sorts of superhuman abilities.
People called them “ability users.”
In the early stages of the end times, ability classifications were still crude and unrefined. People only knew that some could conjure fire from thin air, while others commanded lightning.
And then there were exceptions like Hope Base’s former leader, Shen Chengyin, who wielded the largest known spatial dimension.
The instant they learned Su Han was an ability user, the gazes around him underwent an immediate transformation. The previous malice and sordid thoughts were hastily tucked away, replaced by uniform flattery.
“Young and promising! Truly young and promising!”
“It’s capable young talents like you that Hope Base needs the most!”
As the crowd chimed in with praise, the commotion quickly caught the attention of the guards managing the front of the line.
A pair of men clad in black tactical gear strode over, Hope Base badges pinned to their chests.
“If you’re lining up, do it quietly; if not, get the hell out. There are plenty of people begging to get in, we don’t need you holding up the line.”
Eager to curry favor, a bystander leaned in with a servile grin and spilled the entire situation to the guards.
The moment the two men heard Su Han was an ability user, their demeanor flipped a full 180 degrees.
“So you’re an esteemed ability user! Forgive our rudeness. Please, come with us—any ability user seeking to join our base is personally received by the Leader.”
This was a one-in-a-million talent. Even though Hope Base held the prestigious title of being one of the top three bases, they currently had only a few dozen ability users in total.
Su Han nodded and followed the two men through the gates.
He hadn’t actually expected to meet Wang Jiafu right off the bat; he had merely wanted an excuse to infiltrate Hope Base.
Who would have thought the base had such a protocol? It played directly into his hands.
Along the way, he made casual small talk with the two men: “Scraping by out there on my own kept me completely out of the loop. I only learned about Hope Base after running into some of your folks today.
Who’s your base’s leader? Why does someone with superpowers have to meet the leader personally?”
Hearing the mention of their leader, the guards instinctively clammed up, brushing off the question with a vague reply: “You’ll find out once you get there.”
Su Han followed the guards through the streets until they reached the tallest building within Hope Base. The three of them took the elevator all the way to the top floor.
Inside a sleek, spacious office, a stocky young man who had received the news early was already waiting.
