My Cherry Will Explode in the Apocalypse – CH106

Chapter 106: Utterly Deranged

When Cao Qishen was slammed hard to the ground, his mind was still reeling. The moment he saw Zhan Yun and the others surrounding him, his expression changed instantly.

He immediately encased his entire body in metal, still harboring thoughts of escaping. However, his legs suddenly sank into the earth, and a thunderbolt-like flash of lightning struck down onto his body.

Cao Qishen was instantly electrocuted into total paralysis. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground, completely unable to move.

Zheng Jiahe rushed over and firmly tied him up, then dragged him into the cellblock.

At this time, all the living people in the prison had been brought here. Zhan Yun had Cheng Qi and Cheng Jiao count them—there were over three hundred people in total, naturally including Cao Qishen, the Doctor, and Lin Xi.

Lin Xi was wearing nothing but her underwear, wrapped in a bedsheet, slumped on the ground. She had been dragged straight off Cao Qishen’s bed and brought here. Her pretty face was now streaked with tears.

The moment she saw Su Ruizhe enter through the doorway, she immediately lunged forward, clinging to his calf and crying out,
“Xiao Zhe, I was forced! I didn’t know anything about them planning to attack you! I really didn’t know… I’m your sister-in-law! For the sake of our blood ties, please let me go, okay?! I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!”

Su Ruizhe kept a stiff little face, lowered his head to look at his former sister-in-law, and asked calmly,
“Sister-in-law, where is my cousin? Where is my uncle? And where is my little nephew?”

“He… they…” Lin Xi stammered, unable to say anything.

“They’re all dead,” Su Ruizhe said, his face as calm as still water. “They were the ones truly related to me by blood. Without them, you are nothing.”

Lin Xi stood there with her mouth open, unable to utter a single word. She knew Su Ruizhe was right. Not only were they not related by blood, even their so-called familial affection had always been extremely thin. She had always looked down on this poor-looking boy and had never once treated him kindly. Even back then, for the sake of the housing demolition compensation, she had never lowered her head or softened her tone toward him. She never imagined that one day she would be reduced to wagging her tail and begging him for mercy…

“Get lost!” Zhan Yun mercilessly swept the eyesore of a woman away with his gravity ability. A shameless woman like this actually dared to cling to his Xiao Zhe’s leg?!

He hadn’t forgotten how, when they had just arrived at the base, this woman had tried so hard to ingratiate herself with Cao Qishen. He didn’t believe a single word of her pitiful act.

Next came the interrogation. Things were about to get too bloody, which wasn’t suitable for children to witness, so Zhan Yun had Wu Jing take Yu Dongdong back to a room to rest.

Just as Wu Jing was holding Yu Dongdong’s hand and heading toward the room, they happened to pass by Cao Qishen, who was bound and lying on the ground. The instant they brushed past him, Cao Qishen suddenly sprang up and lunged toward Wu Jing and Yu Dongdong.

In a flash, Cao Qishen’s entire body was covered in metal, and jagged serrations grew out of the metal surface, slicing through all the ropes at once. At the same time, two metal spikes extended from the backs of his hands and stabbed mercilessly toward Wu Jing’s vital points.

“Watch out!” Zhang Shuoliang shouted, his eyes nearly splitting apart.

In that split second, Wu Jing’s body suddenly dispersed, causing Cao Qishen to strike empty air. He froze for a moment, then immediately reached toward Yu Dongdong instead.

“Meow—ow!”
Xiao Hei leapt out of Yu Dongdong’s arms. Its sharp claws popped out from its soft pads and slashed viciously at Cao Qishen.

Because Cao Qishen’s body was covered in metal, the screeching sound of Xiao Hei’s claws scraping across metal was piercing and deeply unpleasant.

Cao Qishen reacted quickly as well—numerous spikes sprouted from his body as he tried to impale the black cat.

However, a wisp of white mist suddenly wrapped around his arms, restraining his movements.

When Xiao Hei realized that its claws couldn’t injure the human in front of it, it flew into a rage. Taking advantage of the moment when the human couldn’t move, it raised both front paws and began pummeling his face left and right.

Perhaps because Xiao Hei had once exchanged bodies with Zheng Jiahe, its strength was astonishing. Under this merciless beating, even with metal protecting him, Cao Qishen was beaten until stars danced before his eyes.

“Let me!” Cheng Qi’s lightning struck in an instant, electrocuting Cao Qishen until he was completely disoriented.

“S-spare me…” Cao Qishen could no longer maintain his metal armor, revealing a face swollen and bruised from Xiao Hei’s beating.

Zhan Yun slowly walked up to him, raised the pistol in his hand coldly, and aimed it at his head.

“W-wait… I have food, I have women… I have weapons… I can give you everything, everything…”
Seeing the killing intent in Zhan Yun’s eyes, Cao Qishen was filled with terror. He threw out all his bargaining chips, desperately trying to trade them for his life.

But Zhan Yun clearly had no intention of giving him that chance. He should have executed this beast on the spot when they caught him, instead of bringing him back for questioning.

Cao Qishen let out a miserable scream and fell backward, his head pierced by a horrifying bloody hole.

Zhan Yun put away his gun and had Wu Jing—who had already returned to human form—take Yu Dongdong back to the room to rest.

This time, Zhan Yun walked up to Lin Xi and the Doctor and said coldly,
“Answer whatever I ask. If you try to play tricks, you’ll end up just like him.”

Even the most powerful boss of Lin City Base had been killed without hesitation. As ordinary people, Lin Xi and the Doctor had no room left to bargain. Naturally, they poured out everything they knew like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

It turned out that because conditions at Lin City Base were poor, the people building the city walls cut corners, leading to the base being easily overrun by zombies. Cao Qishen led the remaining survivors in abandoning the city and fleeing to Lin City Prison.

Cao Qishen had long been stuck at the peak of level one, unable to find a way to upgrade his ability. Later, the Doctor accidentally discovered the use of ability cores. Unlike zombie crystal cores, ability cores contained no virus—only pure energy. Relying on one such core, Cao Qishen broke through in one fell swoop to level two.

After tasting success, Cao Qishen secretly killed several ability users while still at the base, stealing their ability cores to advance further. However, he didn’t dare be too blatant and had never crossed the line into eating human flesh.

This time, however, their escape had been disastrous. Losses were severe, and supplies grew scarce, so food rations were strictly limited. The survivors living in the cellblocks were almost starving every day.

One ability user had been gravely injured during the escape. Without Lin Jia’s healing ability, he couldn’t survive.

Before he died, the Doctor dug out his ability core and offered it to Cao Qishen, while the corpse was thrown into the rear courtyard.

The starving survivors in the cellblocks finally couldn’t endure it anymore. They secretly cut flesh from the corpse, took it back, and cooked it. To their shock, the meat was exceptionally delicious—no worse than mutated beast meat. By the time patrols discovered it, the corpse had been reduced to nothing but a skeleton, while the cellblock was filled with the rich aroma of meat.

After the incident was reported, Cao Qishen had people seize the cooked meat soup from the cellblocks. In his view, if they could eat it, so could he.

After tasting it, he discovered that the meat also contained energy beneficial to his abilities. From then on, he abandoned all resistance, ate his fill, and even shared it with his brothers.

The others were initially resistant to cannibalism, but once they realized the meat benefited their abilities, they accepted it just like that.

Before Zhan Yun and the others arrived, they had already secretly killed four ability users—devouring both their ability cores and their flesh.

As the account went on, Lin Xi and the Doctor even began accusing each other, trying to lighten their own guilt.

After listening, Zhan Yun and the others were both shocked and enraged. They never imagined there could be people so utterly deranged. Even more horrifying was the fact that all three hundred-plus people in Lin City Prison had eaten human flesh—and done so with a clear conscience.

Thinking back to the sinister looks in those survivors’ eyes when they had first entered the cellblocks, a chill ran down their spines. Had those people already been viewing them as prey rather than fellow humans?

Originally, Zhan Yun had planned to contact the Southern Base by radio after eliminating the Eight King Kongs and have them come take the remaining survivors back for resettlement. But now, that was no longer possible. These people had eaten human flesh—they had completely lost their moral bottom line. Bringing them back would introduce a highly unstable element into the base.

Yet killing them wasn’t appropriate either—after all, they were more than three hundred lives…

In the end, Zhan Yun still had Han Lei contact the base by radio and report everything that had happened. As expected of a base leader, Jiang Xuzhou made a decision quickly. He would send people to retrieve them. No matter what, they were over three hundred people. If left alone, who knew whether they might start killing each other? Once brought back to the base, they would be issued red identity cards, treated the same as prisoners, guarded by dedicated personnel, deprived of freedom, and required to support themselves through labor. Any violation of base regulations would be punished severely.

Zhan Yun approved of this solution. He then had Lin Xi identify the subordinates of the Eight King Kongs among the survivors. They were all executed by firing squad, and their bodies were cremated on the spot. According to the Doctor’s testimony, Lin Xi—being Cao Qishen’s woman—knew full well about many of the dark deeds. When Cao Qishen decided to kill Zhan Yun and the others, she had even helped devise the plan. Thus, she too was spared no death.

The Doctor begged repeatedly and cooperated enthusiastically during the interrogation, confessing everything he should and shouldn’t have said. Even so, Zhan Yun would not allow him to live. In their previous life, this man had been the chief culprit who tortured and killed Su Ruizhe. Even though in this life he hadn’t yet had the chance to do so, that was only because the conditions weren’t right. Given the opportunity, he would commit even more monstrous acts than before. Zhan Yun arranged a room and left Su Ruizhe alone with him for a full two hours. After Su Ruizhe came out, Zhan Yun personally went in to deal with the Doctor’s corpse.

Zhan Yun carefully counted the remaining people, distributed the food Cao Qishen had hoarded to the survivors, and warned them to wait obediently for the Southern Base to arrive. If they dared harbor any ill intentions, the guns of the Southern Base’s army were not for show.

After intimidating them thoroughly, they left the prison at daybreak. The seven women in the off-road vehicle were not left behind. They couldn’t trust the survivors, and those women had already suffered enough—how could they let them escape a tiger’s den only to fall into a wolf’s lair?

Jiang Xuzhou had said that the garrison of Wan City Base and the Lu family were already heading south. They would likely encounter them on the highway. At that time, they could hand the seven women over to the Wan City soldiers and have them escorted to the Southern Base.

Author’s Note:
Xiao Hei: Meow meow meow? There are always audacious humans who want to lay a hand on my human!

[Moshang’s Mini Theater]

Theater-kun: Did I read that right? Last chapter said Dongdong was “gnawing like a little mouse”?

Su Xiao Zhe: A little mouse? Isn’t it usually a little hamster? Or are little mice fashionable now?

Zheng Jiahe: Come on, be thankful the idiot author didn’t write “gnawing like a pig.”

Su Xiao Zhe: …That actually makes some sense?

Zhan Xiao Yun: Don’t worry, wifey. In my heart, even if you eat like a pig, you’re still the cutest pig!

Su Xiao Zhe: Smack! Who are you calling a pig?!

Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉