Chapter 4: Chapter 17 (part 2)

The mutant zombies had been getting stronger and stronger over time. Like a river, they seemed to stream in, never seeming to ebb or dry up. No matter how many were killed, there always seemed to be more.

Would they reach Xijing in safety? Would the corpse emperor and its horde follow them there? That was the question on everyone's mind.

They found drones and other related equipment in the commercial section of a passing city and flew a number back in the direction of the horde, equipped with cameras. Though they were eventually destroyed, the drones afforded them a picture of the rear.

The truth was enough to make anyone despair.

The corpse emperor had been driving the horde of zombies after them, but their speed had been dragged down by the stiff movements of the ordinary zombies. But it had a glut of zombies at its disposal, and the corpse emperor had been manipulating them to devour each other, producing stronger and stronger mutants.

From the videos sent back by the drones, they suspected that a second corpse emperor had likely been born.

The corpse emperor is chasing Ding Yao. This rumor spread quietly through the crowd.

First the ordinary people left the migration, then the soldiers and superpowers. But when those who had left came back as zombies, they no longer dared to flee.

No matter what anyone else thought or did, Han Yanyan remained with Ding Yao. The beautiful dark-haired, clear-eyed girl seemed to know no hesitation. She stood firmly by his side, fighting shoulder to shoulder.

When Ding Yao turned to look at her, he sometimes saw Han Yanyan staring in the direction of the corpse emperor, and couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about.

 

It was around 1100 kilometers from Nanling to Xijing. It used to be a two day drive, three days at the most. But in the last days of the apocalypse, roads were blocked or collapsed. The team had walk, searching for supplies, fending off the zombies everywhere. Finding gasoline was a pipe dream. The migration took them five months.

In the course of the journey from Nanling, Ding Yao's team lost a third of their members. Countless people died, and most became zombies.

But Xijing finally arrived on the horizon, and the people found hope.

Yet hope is the easiest thing to shatter. In half the year, the zombie tide caught up to them, and the Xijing base fell.

People fell into despair, and the prevailing thought became that it was safer not to move in large groups for fear of attracting zombies. Survivors began to disperse, like groups of mice, wandering around in search of a hiding place.

Even Ding Yao and his Thunder team couldn't stay somewhere for long. The corpse emperor always seemed to know where they were.

This life went on for over a year, and Han Yanyan became powerful. The sight of her fighting back to back with Ding Yao left a deep impression, and the two of them were almost never separated, as if they were one. When one mentioned Ding Yao, one thought of Han Yanyan, and when you spoke of Han Yanyan, you couldn't not bring up Ding Yao.

Han Yanyan could feel that his gaze had changed a little in the past two years. But it wasn't enough. For her to achieve her goals, it wasn't enough. Han Yanyan needed a heavy blow to reach Ding Yao's heart.

And that opportunity finally arrived.

The formidable opponent that was the corpse emperor had created three others just like itself. Behind the mutant army that made superpowers tremble, they appeared as if from nightmares.

Han Yanyan had been waiting a long time for this day.

The robotic voice had thrown her into the world and ordered her to make Ding Yao fall in love with her. Completely by accident, Han Yanyan had let him into her heart, but what she didn't know was whether or not she had managed to worm her way into his. But the robotic voice had been silent ever since that one time when she had been far away from Ding Yao. Since there was no news, Han Yanyan figured that her ultimate goal had not yet been achieved.

Ever since then she had been contemplating what to do next. Then by chance, the corpse emperor appeared.

Many of the laws of this world were rather similar to the post-apocalyptic zombie stories Han Yanyan had previously written or read, so she made a bold guess that the corpse emperor would become stronger and stronger, or more and more of them would be born. One of them bore a grudge against Ding Yao, who had seriously injured it, and was bound to come for revenge sooner or later. She could only imagine that when it did reappear, it would be extremely powerful. She wasn't sure if it would be strong enough to kill Ding Yao, but would certainly be strong enough to threaten his life.

That was good enough.

Han Yanyan decided that she would die for Ding Yao.

Every since the robotic voice had reappeared, she had repeatedly gone over the tasks, requirements and restrictions it had given to her before she had entered this world. She found that it had only asked for Ding Yao to "fall in love" with her. Outside of that, there were almost no restrictions.

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Ding Yao was a powerful and cold-blooded man. Han Yanyan had no confidence in making him fall in love with her by simply marking time. She decided that some drama was necessary.

What is the most precious thing a woman can own? Not beauty, nor strength, nor even virginity.

It was life.

A woman who loved a man so much that she was willing to give her life for him. Even if the man's heart was cast with molten iron, surely there would be a moment of shock and distress?

Ding Yao only needed to fall in love with her for a second. After that second was over, he would die with her. According to the rules the robotic voice had laid down, the moment this second occurred, she would have completed the task.

And there was a little of Han Yanyan's own selfishness in this decision as well.

She had made it all this way with Ding Yao. If the task couldn't be completed, they would be trapped in this world, and her real body might lose its life. But if she completed the task, then what sort of situation would they face next? Would they meet again? Could they be together?

According to what she knew of the robotic voice and her own intuition... probably not.

If so, then Han Yanyan wanted Ding Yao to remember her forever.

Forever.

 

Han Yanyan's opportunity finally came.

Three corpse emperors besieged Ding Yao, each one stronger than the original one that he had first met.

When one of them broke through Ding Yao's lightning net and launched himself at Ding Yao like an arrow, Han Yanyan released an ice shield to block the mutants that had besieged her. She, too, rushed to Ding Yao like an arrow loosed from a bow, to the ground between him and the corpse emperor, preparing to block the blow with her own body and to capture him through the sacrifice of her own life.

But that very moment, the fourth corpse emperor appeared! The corpse emperors were nearly as intelligent as humans and even more cunning and treacherous. It had been hiding amongst the ordinary zombies, waiting to deliver the fatal blow to Ding Yao, that human powerhouse.

Han Yanyan's pupils shrank.

It was over! Ding Yao would die, this "Han Yanyan" would die, the task would fail, and the real her... would die!

At her most desperate moment, she felt space warp around her body. The next moment, she appeared in front of Ding Yao.

Struck by lightning, the third corpse emperor hurriedly retreated back. And the claws of the fourth... pierced Han Yanyan's chest.

 

Ding Yao was once attacked in Nanling. No one knows how he had escaped that bullet.

But now Han Yanyan knew. His power over space had evolved into the power to distort it. He had teleported the bullet shot at him somewhere else, just like he had teleported her from a safe distance away… to right in front of him.

Han Yanyan seemed to hear him breathing, and the back of her neck prickled with the heat coming from his nose and mouth. It was a familiar feeling. In the height of passion, when their limbs were entangled and he kissed her from behind; it was exactly this slightly tingling, itching feeling.

She couldn't see Ding Yao at her back, only the grim, inhuman, blue face of the corpse emperor before her. Its rocky arms and keen claws penetrated her chest and tore out her heart.

It was a chill and frigid winter.

Han Yanyan, her chest cold, fell into darkness.