The convoy set off once again.
The lead black SUV sped across the broken highway.
Wang Ziming seemed to be fleeing from something. He ordered the entire team to accelerate and forbade any stops in between, seemingly wanting to leave the Pollution Zone from the previous night behind as quickly as possible.
This made things difficult for the survivors trailing behind. Those with cars could barely keep up, but those on foot or riding rusty three-wheelers were soon left far behind.
“Wait! Wait for a moment!”
“My shoe fell off! Please, slow down!”
“Brother Ming! Don’t leave us! There are monsters behind us!”
The cries and curses were swallowed by the swirling dust. However, the convoy ahead did not pause for a second; not even a brake light flickered.
Soon, evening arrived. The sky turned pitch black, and the Red Moon rose once again. Yet, the convoy still showed no intention of stopping.
“Damn it! Wang Ziming, you beast!”
A man whose car was almost out of fuel accelerated to catch up. His lungs felt like they were about to burst. Looking at his near-empty fuel gauge, his eyes turned bloodshot. Losing his sanity, he began screaming at the SUV ahead.
“Why are you abandoning me?! You used us as shields! You used us and threw us away! I hope you die a miserable death!”
“Everyone, stop moving! We’re dead anyway, so we might as well fight this bastard!”
His instigation had some effect. Several other survivors who were also running out of fuel showed expressions of malice in their eyes.
Screech —
The black SUV, which had been speeding the whole time, suddenly came to a halt. The man froze, thinking his threats had worked, and a sneer began to spread across his face.
However, the car window only rolled down a tiny crack.
Bang!
A crisp gunshot echoed across the open Wilderness. A bloody hole appeared in the center of the man’s forehead, and his sneer froze. He fell straight back into the dust, kicking up a small cloud of red earth.
The SUV restarted and accelerated away instantly. The cursing in the surroundings stopped abruptly. Those who had intended to join the commotion were too terrified to make a sound, their throats feeling as if they were blocked.
“In the Apocalypse, human life is as cheap as a dog’s.”
Mu Yingying sat in the passenger seat, calmly watching the shrinking corpse in the rearview mirror.
“These are the rules of survival in the Apocalypse. If you have no brains and no strength, you won’t live for long.”
In the back seat, Su Shuang’er pressed her hand against the bicycle’s seat. Her face was pale, but her gaze grew increasingly firm. She knew that weakness was a cardinal sin here.
It wasn’t until 11:00 PM that the convoy finally stopped in front of an abandoned highway tunnel. The long march had left everyone exhausted. Many people didn’t even bother to pitch tents, simply wrapping themselves in blankets and collapsing by the roadside to sleep.
However, in the isolation zone at the very back of the camp, the atmosphere was completely different.
Several bonfires were burning brightly. Xiao Yuan, the youth with yellow hair, sat by a fire, toying with a ball of orange-red flame in his hand.
“Hmph, what kind of thing is Wang Ziming? He’s just putting on airs.”
Xiao Yuan took a bite of roasted chicken, his mouth dripping with grease and his eyes filled with ambition.
“So what if he has a few guns? He has an Awakened Ability but hides it like a coward. It’s probably garbage. I’m a Mage now!”
“Once I master this Fireball Technique, the position of leader in this convoy will have to change hands.”
Next to him, a hulking man with immense strength ripped open a can of luncheon meat with his bare hands and laughed wildly.
“Exactly! I’ve been running all day and I’m not tired at all! This is the power of a god!”
“Those ordinary people ran until their legs broke, but for me, it was like child’s play!”
Several other survivors who had also obtained supplies gathered around. They greedily ate the food they had exchanged for an unknown price, their faces full of smugness.
“Those idiots… they didn’t even dare to trade last night.”
Just as the group was lost in their dreams of grandeur…
Whoosh —
A sudden, chilly wind blew past without warning. The roaring bonfires abruptly turned an eerie, pale green.
The surrounding temperature plummeted, making everyone feel as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
The chirping of insects and the sound of the wind vanished; even the distant snoring could no longer be heard.
Xiao Yuan’s movements froze. That familiar sense of pressure descended again, making every hair on his body stand on end.
“Hehe…”
A crisp, innocent laugh rang out in their ears. Everyone snapped their heads up.
Floating quietly in the air above the bonfire was the Little Girl in the black lolita dress. She still wore her two exquisite hair ribbons. Her ink-black eyes looked down at them from above.
“Big Brother, Big Sister…”
The Little Girl tilted her head and pulled her lips into a stiff smile.
“Have your wishes… all come true?”
“Yes… they came true!”
A middle-aged man clutching a tin of ham was the first to react. He failed to notice the change in the Little Girl’s tone and lunged forward.
“Little Immortal! I want more! I want an Awakened Ability! I want a Fireball Technique like Xiao Yuan’s! I want to become stronger too!”
As he spoke, he held up the tin.
“I have food now, but I want an Awakened Ability!”
The people around him also began to stir restlessly. Xiao Yuan stood up, his eyes flashing with greed, wanting to demand even greater power.
However, the Little Girl didn’t spare the tin a single glance. She slowly descended until she was in front of the middle-aged man. In her pitch-black eyes, there was a cruelty and innocence unique to children.
“Do you want something new?” the Little Girl asked in a milky voice. “Of course you can.”
“But…” She extended a pale finger and pointed lightly at the man’s thigh. “The debt from the previous trade… must be settled first.”
“Settled? What do you mean?” The man was stunned.
“You will understand very soon.”
The Little Girl shook her head, the smile still on her face.
“Equivalent Exchange. You ate ham meat. So, what you have to pay… is also meat.”
As her voice fell, her hand suddenly became a blur.
Squelch!
A sickening sound of tearing flesh rang out.
The man didn’t even have time to feel the pain. He looked down and saw a large chunk of muscle on his right thigh — skin and all — had vanished into thin air.
Blood gushed out, staining the ground red.
In the Little Girl’s hand was that bloody piece of meat, square-shaped and still twitching slightly. Its shape and size were exactly the same as the meat inside the ham tin he was holding.
“Aaaaagh!”
The delayed agony made him let out a shrill scream. He clutched his thigh, where the bone was visible, and rolled on the ground.
“Hehe, thank you for the treat.”
The meat in the Little Girl’s hand turned into black smoke and merged into her black dress. A sweet smile appeared on her face.
The surroundings fell deathly silent for a moment before the crowd erupted in screams.
“Mon… Monster!”
Xiao Yuan was so terrified that the roasted chicken in his hand fell to the ground. Instinctively wanting to back out of the debt, he activated his Awakened Ability to attack the Little Girl.
“Fireball! Burn her to death!” Xiao Yuan roared, a burst of flame erupting from his palm.
The flames didn’t fly toward the Little Girl; instead, they began to burn violently on his own body.
“What’s happening?! Ah! It’s hot! It’s so hot!”
Xiao Yuan discovered that the flames were burning from inside his body. His skin began to crack and turn charred, and his entire being started to melt at a rate visible to the naked eye.
“Help! Help me!” Xiao Yuan screamed and rolled on the ground, but the fire simply could not be extinguished.
“Big Brother, did you forget that I was the one who gave you the fire? Why do you want to kill me?”
The Little Girl floated in front of Xiao Yuan, watching him struggle in the flames with a look of pure innocence.
“It’s time for you to pay your debt too. I satisfied your needs, so you should satisfy mine.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Yuan’s screams stopped. His body rapidly shrank and solidified within the flames. A few seconds later, a living human being had been burned away, leaving only a single black hard candy lying on the ground, emitting the scent of burnt sugar.
The Little Girl floated over, picked up the still-warm candy, and happily tucked it into the pocket of her little dress.
“And all of you…” She turned around, looking at the remaining traders.
“No! No!”
“I don’t want it anymore! Take it back!”
“Help!”
Screams rose one after another.
The man with immense strength watched in horror as black smoke rose from his body. His muscles began to collapse, and he eventually turned into a black candy.
The girl who had gained speed screamed as she was also enveloped in black smoke. Her legs aged and withered at extreme speed, turning into two dried-up branches as she collapsed. Finally, she shrank into a black candy.
Those who had taken cigarettes found their lungs beginning to rot. They coughed up black blood as black smoke billowed from their chests and drifted toward the Little Girl…
This night, the rear of the camp turned into a living hell.
Inside the van further away, Su Shuang’er and Mu Yingying watched everything through the window. Their bodies were cold, and their hearts beat so fast it felt like they would jump out of their throats.
“That’s too cruel…”
White Night’s pale face turned even whiter, making her look even more like a ghost.
‘Equivalent Exchange… that is the cost… those are the rules.’
‘It’s a good thing… a good thing Little White Night was smart enough to stop us from speaking nonsense.’
Su Shuang’er hugged White Night tightly, trembling with lingering fear. If they had been greedy last night, the ones turning into scrap meat or candy right now would have been them.
Just as the two thought the horrific scene was finally ending, the Little Girl finished collecting her debts. Standing in a pool of blood, her ink-black eyes scanned the area before finally… fixing on Su Shuang’er’s van with a sweet smile.
“Hehe…”
The Little Girl’s figure flickered. Instantly, that pale, exquisite little face was pressed against the van’s window again!
Even the brave Mu Yingying was so startled she almost dropped the Smooth Gold Coin in her hand. After all, those deaths were far too gruesome.
“Two big sisters, and one little cutie…”
The Little Girl looked at the three inside the car. She didn’t act immediately as she had with the others. Instead, she tilted her head and asked in that same milky voice from the previous night.
“Do you… really not need anything?”
‘No, we don’t need anything at all.’
White Night shook her head frantically.
‘Is this a joke? After seeing what just happened, who would dare ask you for anything? That’s asking for death!’
Su Shuang’er and Mu Yingying were also deathly pale. They shook their heads like rattles and kept their mouths tightly shut, fearing they might say a single wrong word.
The Little Girl seemed somewhat disappointed. Her hollow eyes swept over the three of them before her gaze settled on White Night’s basket. There sat a glass jar of Rainbow Candy they had scavenged from The Villa but hadn’t had a chance to eat yet.
The Little Girl’s eyes suddenly lit up. She pointed a finger at the glass jar, then pointed at her own mouth.
“That…” The Little Girl swallowed. For the first time, her voice carried a trace of a child’s genuine longing rather than cold temptation. “Can you… give it to me?”
“This isn’t a trade,” she added, seemingly afraid that White Night and the others would refuse. Her eyes remained glued to the jar. “I just… want to eat candy.”
The interior of the van was terrifyingly quiet. Su Shuang’er and Mu Yingying were stunned. They watched as the monster who had just burned people into candy huddled against the window to beg for a jar of Rainbow Candy. For a moment, they didn’t know what to do.
White Night’s mind was also racing.
‘I’ll give it to you then…’
Whether she truly wanted to eat it or not, it was just a jar of candy! As long as it wasn’t a deadly trade, it was fine!
“Thank you~”
The Little Girl used her power to make the jar float toward her.
“Auntie Ying, quickly open the window,” White Night urged.
With trembling hands, Mu Yingying pressed the button and rolled down the window. The Little Girl reached out a pale hand and took the jar of Rainbow Candy. She peeled off a wrapper and popped a candy into her mouth.
Crack.
It was the sound of the candy shattering. Immediately after, a smile belonging to a child appeared on the Little Girl’s face. It was both sweet and ghastly.
“So sweet.”
She squinted her eyes, appearing to enjoy it very much. Then, she glanced at the two people and the bicycle shivering in the car. The suffocating aura around her dissipated significantly.
“Thank you. Little cutie, what is your name?”
‘My name is White Night.’
White Night didn’t give a fake name. Since the opponent was far more powerful, playing small tricks would only lead to a faster death.
“White Night, you’re so cute, and you’re generous and kind. From now on, we’re friends.”
After saying that, she turned and drifted into the depths of the darkness.
A Weirdness becoming friends with a bicycle… White Night felt like the world had gone mad.
“She… she really just wanted to eat candy? And she even became friends with you, Little White Night…”
Su Shuang’er collapsed against her seat, feeling that everything that had just happened was far too absurd.
‘Who knows… as long as we’re okay…’
White Night watched the Little Girl disappear completely, her heart finally relaxing.