Back to the Apocalypse

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Bai Jing and Xiao Sa traveled day and night, following the traces of battle, and finally caught up with the team on the fourth day after spending three days on the road playing catch up.

The procession of over a thousand people was very striking. The two of them didn’t go up directly to reunite with the team and instead remained hidden, locating a tall building over a kilometre away from the main group to set up camp. From there, they could observe the team situation while concealing their whereabouts. Bai Jing and Xiao Sa hadn’t forgotten that they were considered missing persons at this point.

After nightfall, the two men silently snuck in. Bai Jing had become more proficient in using the space shield after repeated practice, and they avoided the mercenaries on night watch. Xiao Sa accurately led them to the room where their people were staying.

As soon as they entered, the people inside immediately went on alert.

“Shh!” Bai Jing quickly set up a barrier and looked around carefully. He ascertained that they hadn’t disturbed the other people around them, then began to carefully examine their surroundings.

This room wasn’t very big, and there was a total of eight people living here. Three of them were crowded onto the bed while the other five bunked down on the floor. The three on the bed were injured; they had smelled the faint scent of blood as soon as they entered the room.

“What happened?” Bai Jing’s expression was ugly. Based on the team’s itinerary and the strength of the people in the team, they shouldn’t have suffered such serious injuries.

Wu Guoan was very shocked and barely kept himself from jumping up. He endured and suppressed his agitated excitement. "Brother Sa."

Xiao Sa frowned as he nodded lightly, stopping Qin Lie, who was about to get up, from moving. He looked over the three men on the bed calmly, "Don’t move, you guys. Stay as you are first. Tell me, what’s going on?" He knew everyone’s strength. There were two hundred of them, and even without his and Bai Jing’s help on this journey, everyone should still be safe and sound. There was no reason for them to already be in such a state when traveling with a thousand person team.

“There were zombie rats." Wu Guoan bit out. Fortunately, there had been no casualties. Otherwise, he would have dragged these people down with him even if it meant that they wouldn’t be able to complete the mission.

Bai Jing sneered and didn’t need to ask more. It was another of the Zhou Family’s ploys. How could the base be unaware of a big problem like zombie rats? And yet they still managed to encounter them; this was too coincidental.

“I found that this kind of thing is very attractive to zombies.” Wu Guoan finished speaking and turned to look at Lin Juan. Lin Juan understood what he meant and hurriedly took out a black stone from his space, "We found this underneath the car."

Xiao Sa was silent as he immediately understood the causes and consequences of the situation. The Zhou Family had really done everything they could. He thought that Zhou Yuanji would have at least waited until they arrived at the military factory before acting.

“It’s a meteorite.” Bai Jing frowned and naturally associated it with the meteorite in his own space.

Lin Juan continued quickly, “The zombies’ noses are very sensitive. It’s only safe if we keep it in the space."

Bai Jing returned the meteorite to him, “You keep it safe.”

Lin Juan was stunned. He’d thought that Young Master Jing would keep it himself.

Bai Jing took out some antibiotics and medicine, and filled up a few mineral water bottles with spring water. "Store these away. In a while, you can give them to the injured and help them dress their wounds. No matter what happens, safety is paramount."

Lin Juan smiled shyly and was excited to be of use. His abilities weren’t as good as Young Master Jing’s, and he wasn’t as useful as he was, but he was really happy to help everyone. “This is something I should be doing."

Bai Jing nodded. He felt a sense of revulsion towards that piece of black meteorite and intuitively didn’t want to put it into his space. Based on the principle of adhering to caution, he thought it was better to be careful. He had discovered during the apocalypse that the place with the most zombies was the area where the meteorite had landed. The piece of meteorite in his space was red; what exactly was the difference between the two?

Wu Guoan heard the meaning behind Bai Jing’s words and was internally shocked, "Are you guys not going to go with us?"

Bai Jing shook his head and took out a piece of information from his space, which was something they had printed out earlier. It was the detailed distribution map for the military factory.

Wu Guoan was stunned and admired Bai Jing to the point where he wanted to throw himself at his feet. He was even able to get this kind of thing! If they were able to take down the military factory, then...

Xiao Sa quickly interrupted his dreams, “Me and Little Jing will deal with the military factory. You’ll take this map as a backup. Remember, your goal is to stay alive. Additionally, make trouble for the Zhou Family. The goal is not to accomplish the mission."

"This..." What did he mean?

The people in the room were all shocked silly. Wasn’t he just asking them to cause trouble? They had even originally thought that they’d be given a big task.

Bai Jing rolled his eyes. The task was obviously a trap; what was the point in doing it? It was just a matter of seeing who could scheme better than the others, "Take the meaning literally. Your purpose this time is to drag the team down and make it easier for me and Xiao Sa to do what we need to do."

Wu Guoan’s lips twitched. He was afraid that only Young Master Jing would be able to say such words in such a straightforward and vigorous manner.

No one raised any questions. Everyone was accustomed to Young Master Jing’s commands, which could sometimes leave people speechless, but never turned out to be wrong. It might have been difficult for them to accomplish the mission, but asking them to drag everyone back and cause trouble was a trivial matter.

Everyone was secretly excited; they had never known before how refreshing it could be to do shady things behind people’s backs. They were now looking forward to the trip ahead even more.

The few of them deliberated for a while until it was time for the night watch to change shifts. Bai Jing pulled Xiao Sa away, and they didn’t disturb anyone from start to end, leaving as silently as they had arrived. There was no trace of them left behind, and it was as if they had never appeared.

Only the next day, everyone in the entire team discovered that the mood of this entire group was now different. They were a little more relaxed and a little less nervous. Even the injured team members were recovering at a near miraculous pace, and although they constantly made mistakes during battle, others were unable to pick out the problem. During the entire journey, if it wasn’t one thing going wrong, then it was another somewhere else. In any case, they caused endless trouble and didn’t listen to orders, refusing to accept the arrangements they were given. Yet, when confronted, they would always have a lot of excuses and reasons readily prepared.

The Song Family found it curious as they quietly observed from the dark. What had happened for them to suddenly change overnight?

Although the Qi Family was dissatisfied, they had always known how to judge the situation. Other than tossing in a few provocative words to tentatively test the waters, they left it alone.

Zhou Yuanji had always been able to keep a tight rein on his anger. Even if he was so angry that smoke was about to blow out of his nose, he was still able to keep his expression bland and pretend to be oblivious. Ever since he discovered that his nephew had placed a meteorite in their car, and they had successfully avoided that disaster, Zhou Yuanji no longer dared to act rashly. Unfortunately, there was nothing to fear from a godlike opponent, but a pig-like teammate was a terror; Zhou Wei frequently made trouble for them and suffered several losses before allowing Zhou Yuanji to stop him. It was unknown what the two of them discussed, but Zhou Wei only smiled darkly at them from then on. His eyes were fierce enough to eat them alive, but he no longer provoked them and it was as though he was enduring and waiting for something.

Everyone knew what he was waiting for - they were waiting until they arrived at the military factory before making a move. However, Wu Guoan only smiled back just as darkly. It would all depend on who was better at scheming by then.

Almost everyone else was a mercenary, and they remained removed from the matter regardless of how big it grew. As a result, the entire team developed into a rather free-willed and scattered group that had no discipline, organization, or leadership. In any case, the whole group was chaotic and fragmented, and no matter how they looked at it, it didn’t seem like they were all on the same mission together.

Wu Guoan and the others were in a good mood. Although there were fights along the way, none of them ended up injured or encountered any trouble. Sure enough, people were always afraid of being tricked. His respect for Young Master Jing rose up to another level; the feeling of being a bad man was indeed damned great.

Bai Jing and Xiao Sa soon arrived at the secret military factory. They could see towering walls, metal gates, and sturdy structures as well as high-rise science and technology buildings.

Their journey over had been very smooth, and the closer they came to their destination, the fewer zombies they encountered. The military factory was clearly built in a forest, but other than mutant plants, they didn’t see a single animal nearby. It was obvious that they’d been scared away by whatever was here - animal intuition was often more acute than that of humans.

“There are high level zombies inside.” Xiao Sa stood outside the wall and gazed inside indifferently.

Bai Jing’s eyes narrowed. “How confident are you.”

Xiao Sa created a steel knife out of the air and held it in his hand, slicing out a golden light, "I can win all the fights alone."

Bai Jing understood what he meant. He could beat them all in one-on-one fights, but a group fight or siege would be different. Bai Jing opened the map, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. Even if he could teleport, he couldn’t manage it in places where air didn’t circulate. What damned person built this factory?! "The important items are on the third floor of the basement, the warehouse is on the second floor, and the factory is on the first floor of the basement. The first and second floors are offices, the third to fifth floors were for research, the sixth and seventh floors were for testing. The eight floor holds the research materials, and the ninth floor..." Bai Jing read out the information one by one as he cursed internally.

No wonder a lot of people had come here but never lived long enough to leave. Just based on the shape of the military factory, Bai Jing could understand what had happened.

The military factory looked very large from the outside, and there must have been military guards before the apocalypse. Not only was there the science and technology building, there were also dormitory buildings, training grounds, and places for the entertainment and leisure of the staff of the military factory. It was almost like a closed off prison, and the metal gates looked daunting. After the apocalypse, it wasn’t that the people inside didn’t want to escape, but they had no way out, so this became their graveyard.

Bai Jing tried to use his spiritual power to explore but couldn’t find anything. He was slightly depressed and laughed bitterly. “The zombies inside are very powerful." There were some that were a higher level than him; although he wasn’t a psychic ability user, he couldn’t sense anything, and the only feedback he got was an empty silence.

Xiao Sa raised his eyebrows. After having spent such a long time with Bai Jing, he had also learned a bit of how to be a scoundrel, "Are you planning to face them head on?"

Bai Jing was dazed, then laughed. Right. They had come for supplies. So what if there were high level zombies? If they could fight them, they would, and if they couldn’t, they’d run away. Only fools would do something they knew they couldn’t do, and he had always been one to bully others and would never put himself in a situation where he had to fight against heavy odds.

“Where shall we go first?” Looking at the map carefully, Bai Jing felt his stomach twist more and more. He must obtain the things in the basement, but why the hell were there thirteen warehouses even without counting the warehouse upstairs and the big storage area behind the factory? He had to give up a portion of it. Otherwise, even if he could teleport out and somehow manage not to alert the zombies, he still couldn’t take it all away.