A Fake Holy Mother in the Zombie Apocalypse

Huo Ren turned his head, looking at Bei Nuan with a half-smile. His eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had remembered something, and he stood up.

He left his seat and walked towards Bei Nuan.

Bei Nuan's whole body tensed.

He stopped in front of Bei Nuan, leisurely admiring her bristling form for a moment, before bypassing her and walking to the door. He opened it and called someone in.

Huang Mao was still dutifully guarding the door. Huo Ren whispered something to him.

Bei Nuan vaguely heard him mention hanging something up, and something about zombies, but the voice was too low to hear clearly.

After a long while, Huo Ren finished his instructions, closed the door, and turned back. As he passed Bei Nuan, he suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm.

"Come with me. I want to show you something fun."

He walked briskly, full of enthusiasm, and pulled Bei Nuan all the way to the balcony, as if he really intended to show her something interesting.

This was the same balcony where he casually shot and killed someone yesterday.

Looking down from above, there were quite a few people in the courtyard, a large swathe of dark heads, making it difficult to distinguish who was who without looking closely.

Everyone was idle, unable to go out, just basking in the sun.

Huo Ren pulled Bei Nuan to the balcony railing. Just as Bei Nuan suspected he was going to throw her down from the fourth floor, he let go and leaned over to look down himself.

Huang Mao and several armed guards came out of the building.

They walked into the crowd sunbathing and suddenly grabbed two people.

One was a thin young man, and the other was a girl, who seemed to be his girlfriend.

Without a word, the guards dragged them away.

"Why are you arresting us?" The young man, not quite daring to resist, struggled and tried to reason. "What did we do?"

The guards were indifferent. "You broke the rules here. You didn't follow the rules."

The young man was baffled. "We didn't break any rules! What rules did we break? You must have made a mistake!"

The guards ignored him and dragged him and his girlfriend to the large iron gate.

The gate here was as tall as the wall. Above the black iron gate was a sturdy cement gatehouse, with a narrow set of steps leading up to it.

Several guards took them to the gatehouse and tied ropes around their wrists.

The people in the courtyard couldn't see, but Bei Nuan, looking down from above, suddenly understood what they were planning to do.

Bei Nuan turned her head and looked at Huo Ren in disbelief.

Huo Ren's face was full of amusement. He smiled at Bei Nuan. "Interesting, isn't it? I'm showing you how to fish."

The guards tied the two people up and kicked them downwards. The two were then suspended from the gatehouse.

They both screamed.

Outside the gate was the main road. Because it was on the outskirts of the city, it wasn't very busy. There were only a few scattered zombies wandering around. Hearing human voices, they rushed over frantically.

But the prison gatehouse wasn't low, and the two people were hanging high. The zombies were just a little too short to reach them.

The young man and his girlfriend screamed and desperately curled up their legs and feet, fearing being dragged down by the zombies.

Some zombies clawed wildly below. The two were scared out of their wits, screaming miserably, which only attracted more and more zombies.

On the road outside, zombies ran towards the noise one after another. In no time, a large group had gathered outside the iron gate.

Although the people in the courtyard couldn't see outside, they could hear the screams of the hanging people and the groaning of the zombie horde.

So many people in the courtyard, yet it was silent.

Only the screams from outside, one after another, grated on everyone's nerves.

"Others fish for fish, I fish for zombies. Fun, isn't it?" Huo Ren asked Bei Nuan leisurely.

Bei Nuan didn't speak.

"I thought you'd find it amusing." Huo Ren's tone was regretful. "Yesterday by the river, I felt you were different from others."

Huo Ren leaned leisurely against the balcony railing.

"I heard the one I killed was your boss? I shot him, and you were just startled, no other reaction at all."

"Were you only thinking about how to stop me from killing you? Weren't you sad that he died?"

"Can't I just hate my boss?" Bei Nuan finally spoke. "I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who wishes their boss would get shot."

"That's just talk," Huo Ren actually started a serious discussion with her. "Seeing someone you know suddenly die in front of you is a different matter."

Huo Ren licked his lips, revealing a smile. "They cry, they scream, they go crazy with fear. I've seen it many times."

Huo Ren turned to face Bei Nuan, leaning against the railing. He reached out a finger and stroked her cheek, studying her carefully.

"I've never seen anyone so calm. Stop pretending. You don't care about others at all. You have no sympathy, you only think about yourself."

Huo Ren leaned closer, his eyes looking into Bei Nuan's.

"With a face like this, yet so cold and heartless, you're really my type."

Outside the gate, panicked screams rang out, one after another. They had been screaming for so long, their voices were now hoarse.

"Look outside. This is a brand new world."

Huo Ren glanced leisurely in the direction of the gate.

"Not boring at all, right? The weak are all dead, and those who are lucky enough to survive are just cowering below."

Huo Ren tilted his head and looked appreciatively at the dark mass of heads below.

"I give them food when I'm happy, and I take their lives when I'm not. They don't even dare to breathe. With just a little pressure, they're scared to death and obediently listen to me."

Bei Nuan thought: So you're not here for some perverted reason today, you're here to find someone to chat about society, life, and ideals.

Huo Ren continued, "In this world now, all the rules have been rewritten. It's perfect for people like us. It's basically our paradise."

Bei Nuan silently complained: People like us? Who the hell is the same kind of person as you, you monster?

Amidst the shrill screams, more and more zombies gathered outside, banging against the iron gate.

Huo Ren raised the corners of his mouth. "We should go. Let's have one last bit of fun before we leave."

Bei Nuan saw a row of SUVs slowly driving out of the garage behind the building. The armed guards here were all picking up their bags and getting into the vehicles.

Bei Nuan suddenly understood what he was going to do and looked at him in horror.

This shelter was useless to him. He didn't want it anymore.

Not only that, but he also deliberately hung two people at the gate to attract a large group of zombies.

As soon as the iron gate opened, not one of the hundreds of people in the courtyard would survive.

This man was a complete psychopath.

"Worried about your little life again, aren't you? Don't worry, I'll take you with me." Huo Ren smirked, left the balcony, and called Huang Mao in. "Take her downstairs and find her a car."

Bei Nuan's mind raced. She felt that no matter what, she needed to find Lu Xingchi immediately.

Huang Mao escorted Bei Nuan out, leading her through the courtyard towards the row of SUVs.

The courtyard was full of panicked people. Bei Nuan deliberately slowed down, desperately searching for Lu Xingchi in the crowd, but couldn't find him.

Huang Mao was a little impatient and asked Bei Nuan, "What's wrong?"

"Leg cramp." Bei Nuan pressed her leg with a pained expression.

Judging by her expression, it didn't seem like she was faking it. Besides, the zombies were about to break in, so delaying wouldn't do her any good.

Huang Mao didn't dare to be truly harsh with her, so he suppressed his temper and slowly accompanied her.

The guards all looked like they were about to evacuate, and the people in the courtyard were apprehensive.

Someone came up and cautiously asked, "Are you leaving? What will happen to this place if you leave?"

Huang Mao pushed his way through the crowd and walked forward, ignoring them completely.

Bei Nuan saw Huo Ren also come out of the building with a bag and jump into the first SUV. As soon as he got in, the car turned and quickly drove out the back gate, disappearing from sight.

So many zombies were gathered at the front gate, but the back gate was peaceful.

One SUV after another drove out of the back gate. Huang Mao found a car for Bei Nuan, and she immediately saw Zhen Zhen inside.

Huang Mao wanted to push Bei Nuan into the back seat as well.

The driver refused. "Bro, there are too many people, it's crowded! Take her yourself."

Bei Nuan had been stalling for too long, and the cars had all left. Huang Mao had no choice but to push Bei Nuan into the last car and get in himself.

As soon as they got in, the person in the driver's seat said to Huang Mao, "Brother Huo told us to open the gate. It's so dangerous to open the gate with so many zombies outside."

"No need to go open it, I already took care of it. Watch this."

Huang Mao winked at him and held up something that looked like a remote control. "Just blow it open, isn't that easier? They won't be able to close it again."

After all the other cars had driven out of the back gate, Huang Mao opened the car door and jumped out, grinning. "Cover your ears, we're setting off firecrackers!"

Just then, Bei Nuan suddenly saw Lu Xingchi.

He and Du Ruo were coming out of the building, hurrying towards the convoy.

He finally arrived.

Bei Nuan had only one thought: The zombies were about to rush in, and they had no weapons.

Ignoring everything else, Bei Nuan rolled down the car window, leaned her entire upper body out, and the crossbow and several magazines instantly appeared in her hands.

She shouted, "Lu Xingchi!"

Her voice was loud enough for many people to hear, and they all looked towards her.

Without a second's delay, Bei Nuan used all her strength to throw everything in her hands towards Lu Xingchi.

The crossbow and magazines arced through the air.

At the same time, Huang Mao pressed the remote control, and there was a loud explosion from the front gate.

The lock on the large black iron gate was completely blown open, creating a large hole.

The zombies gathered outside, seeing the hole in the gate, hesitated for only a moment before lunging forward.

The unlocked iron gate swung open, and the zombies swarmed in like a disturbed beehive.

After detonating the explosives, Huang Mao quickly jumped back into the car. Without needing to be told, the driver slammed the accelerator and sped towards the back gate.

Everything seemed to happen at the same time.

But Bei Nuan saw it all clearly.

The explosion, the roars of the zombies, the screams of the crowd, and the roar of the SUV engines all faded away.

Bei Nuan only saw that person.

He raised his clear eyes, glanced at Bei Nuan first, and then opened his hand towards the magazine flying in the air.

The covers of the magazines all popped open automatically.

The spikes inside, as if by magic, rose into the air simultaneously, like a dense volley of arrows on a battlefield, shooting straight towards the incoming zombies.

Each one accurately hit a forehead.

Behind the tide of zombies, the black iron gate suddenly slammed shut, as if scorched by a mysterious force. The iron gate flowed like melting chocolate under the sun.

The hole in the gate was covered, the edges of the two doors fused together, and then instantly solidified, trapping the zombies that hadn't yet rushed in outside.

After doing all this, he looked at Bei Nuan again.

The SUV that Bei Nuan was in stopped abruptly, the wheels screeching.

The engine sputtered for a moment, then emitted a large cloud of white smoke and completely died.

Within seconds, all the zombies that had rushed in lay scattered on the ground, the gate was resealed, and the courtyard returned to normal.

Huang Mao and the driver, completely clueless about what had just happened, jumped out of the car and frantically pulled out their guns.

The guns spun and flew away.

Everyone in the courtyard was stunned. Countless people stood frozen in place, either too scared to move or simply hadn't reacted yet.

In just a moment, the gate was blown open, zombies rushed in, then the gate was sealed again, and the zombies all collapsed. What just happened?

Everyone was puzzled. Someone with sharp eyes in the crowd pointed at Bei Nuan. "I saw it! She threw those boxes, and a lot of nails flew out and killed all the zombies!"

Bei Nuan didn't hear anything, only staring at Lu Xingchi in a daze.

Ever since she discovered he had a crossbow that wasn't in the original novel, and that he could accurately wipe out a horde of zombies with it, Bei Nuan had felt that something was off about him.

All locks seemed fake in his hands, twisting open easily.

Last time in S City, he had only taken the time it took to eat a meal to weld steel bars onto the doors and windows of the house and steel plates around the courtyard walls, creating a sturdy steel fortress for Bei Nuan.

By the time she got the button that had flown across the wide river, Bei Nuan was almost certain that Lu Xingchi was hiding a secret.

All the strange things were related to metal.

He must have an ability.

But this beta version was already so skewed, she herself had a space, so him having an ability was normal, right?

For a moment, Bei Nuan wondered if Lu Xingchi, like herself, was a transmigrated host, but then dismissed the thought.

His personality and behavior were exactly the same as in the book, not skewed at all.

Bei Nuan was lost in thought when she suddenly heard a clang.

The car door next to her, like a roasted chicken wing, was easily ripped off by a force and thrown to the ground.

Bei Nuan came back to her senses, jumped out of the large opening in the car, and happily ran towards Lu Xingchi.

Lu Xingchi smiled, opened his arms, and caught her steadily.

"Lu Xingchi," Bei Nuan clutched his clothes tightly, "I will never, ever stay in the car by myself again. I will follow you every step of the way! Eating, sleeping, going to the toilet, everything!"

Bei Nuan looked up at him, her tone firm.

All the time not spent with the male lead was a waste of life.

A whole day! A whole day! Her Holy Mother points hadn't increased at all!!

Du Ruo, standing next to them, was dumbfounded. "Even to the toilet?"

Lu Xingchi, still holding her in his arms, looked down at her small face, and after a long while, uttered a single word, "Okay."

Du Ruo continued to be dumbfounded. "You actually said okay? She said even to the toilet, didn't you hear?"

Bei Nuan, tugging at Lu Xingchi's clothes, brought up the Holy Mother points progress bar and was surprised to find that her Holy Mother points were steadily increasing.

A large section had been added.

Bei Nuan suddenly realized it was because she had just thrown the weapons to Lu Xingchi, indirectly saving hundreds of people in the courtyard, and with the double halo of the "Generosity" mission, her Holy Mother points had unexpectedly soared.

Bei Nuan looked at the Holy Mother points double halo again.

Only three minutes left.

Having wasted a whole day, these last precious three minutes absolutely couldn't be wasted.

Bei Nuan let go of Lu Xingchi and ran.

She sprinted to the main gate, rushed up the steps of the gatehouse in one breath, and frantically tried to pull up the young couple who were still hanging.

Everyone in the courtyard was still in shock, standing dazed and frozen in place.

Things had been too chaotic earlier, and most people had forgotten about the people still hanging from the gate.

Bei Nuan turned around on the gatehouse and shouted to the people below, "Can anyone come up and help me? They're too heavy, I can't pull them up alone!"

She stood high on the gatehouse, her long hair fluttering in the wind. Against the backdrop of the clear blue sky, her face was so holy and beautiful that she looked like an angel.

Everyone who saw her couldn't help but hold their breath.

It took a while for someone to react and rush up to the gatehouse.

Lu Xingchi, Du Ruo, and the others also came up, and everyone helped her pull the couple up.

The three-minute countdown stopped.

Bei Nuan checked her Holy Mother points, and sure enough, they had increased a little. The last three minutes of this precious halo hadn't been wasted.

Everyone came down from the gatehouse. Bei Nuan suggested, "The front gate is sealed, do you want to lock the back gate too? Those people won't be coming back, right?"

However, hatred was more captivating than what Bei Nuan was saying.

Someone saw Huang Mao and the others sneaking away.

"It was those two who blew up the gate, trying to let the zombies in to bite us!"

"Kill them!"

"Do they have guns?"

"No, they don't have guns, the guns flew away!"

The crowd surged forward like an angry tide, quickly engulfing Huang Mao and the others.

The courtyard was in chaos.

The young man who had been hanging for a long time rested on the steps for a while before finally standing up and helping his girlfriend walk back.

He seemed alright, but his girlfriend looked completely distraught, her eyes wide and unblinking, her expression terrified as she gripped her boyfriend's arm tightly.

"She's scared. I'll take her back to lie down, and she'll be fine," her boyfriend said.

His legs were still weak, and when he took a step, he stumbled forward.

Du Ruo saw this and instinctively stepped forward to help him.

Unexpectedly, before his hand touched the young man's arm, the girl, seeing him approach, suddenly lunged at him like a madwoman and pushed Du Ruo's hand away.

She was clearly not in her right mind, probably thinking someone was trying to tie them up again.

Du Ruo dodged quickly but still got a bloody scratch on the back of his hand.

Finally, her boyfriend recovered a bit and took the girl back to the building to rest by himself.

Huo Ren and the others didn't come back.

It seemed they were in a hurry to go somewhere to find that mysterious person. They didn't seem to care much about Huang Mao and the others being left behind to open the gate and not being able to catch up with the convoy.

Everyone locked the back gate and finally felt a bit more at ease. The hundreds of people in the shelter sat together on the restaurant floor and held a meeting.

This prison was a naturally good place to defend against zombies and should be safe.

Huo Ren and his group couldn't take much with them, leaving behind quite a bit of supplies.

There was a lot of food in the prison warehouse, and there was a large vegetable garden behind the building where prisoners used to grow vegetables, which was originally directly supplied to the canteen. It could last for a while.

The water supply hadn't been cut off yet. Although the electricity was out, there was a diesel generator, originally used to power the administration building, which could be used in emergencies.

For the time being, supplies weren't a worry. The next thing was to establish a set of management rules that everyone could accept.

Like any place with a large number of people, factions had already formed here.

A group of people living in Jiangdong formed a group, a group of people living in Jiangxi formed a group, and there were also dozens of students who had escaped from a school, forming their own group. In addition, there were also several small, scattered groups.

No one yielded to anyone else.

Management meant power, especially during times of scarcity, it meant resources and survival opportunities. All sides were unyielding.

They were stuck on deciding who would be the main person in charge here.

Everyone wanted to be the boss, so no one could be the boss.

Amidst their heated arguments, Bei Nuan quietly asked, "Why are we staying here to listen to them argue? It's so boring, let's go?"

Lu Xingchi nodded and was about to stand up.

Jiang Fei said calmly, "The gate is locked. We have to ask them for the key, right?"

"I can open it," Lu Xingchi stated directly, no longer hiding the fact that he had an ability.

They had all seen him shoot zombies with flying arrows and melt the iron gate just now. They weren't stupid.

"Ah? You can open it?"

Du Ruo took out a piece of beef jerky and tossed it into his mouth, deliberately feigning surprise.

"You can open the door without a key? How are you so amazing? How come I didn't know?"

Du Ruo was clearly annoyed that Lu Xingchi had an ability and had kept it from him.

"If we're leaving, shouldn't we tell them?" Jiang Fei said. "Let them open the gate for us."

Du Ruo handed the bag of beef jerky to Bei Nuan.

Bei Nuan didn't want beef jerky, she wanted cola and ice cream, preferably cola-soaked ice cream, but that was definitely impossible now.

They argued endlessly, faces red with anger, almost coming to blows.

Bei Nuan quietly slipped into the heart of the conflict.

"I'd like to ask something."

Her voice was sweet and clear, like a spring breeze. The arguing people suddenly fell silent.

"We don't want to stay here, we want to leave. Could you please open the back gate for us?"

Silence fell around them.

Such a bizarre request had never been heard before.

There were zombies everywhere outside, and everyone was desperate to stay in this safe haven, yet someone actually wanted to go out?

Someone in the crowd suddenly said, "Isn't this the girl who went up to the gatehouse to save those people?"

Someone from the student group also recognized her. "It's her! She's the one who threw the box that shot out the flying arrows and killed all the zombies!"

"Does she have some kind of ability?" someone said. This person must have read a lot of apocalypse novels.

"Possibly. Was it her who welded the gate so strangely?"

Bei Nuan quickly waved her hands. "It really wasn't me. I don't know what happened, those arrows just flew out on their own, it had nothing to do with me."

She spoke with utmost sincerity, but few believed her.

They were all talking at once, and Bei Nuan couldn't help but ask again, "So, can we few leave?"

The leader of the student group's eyes suddenly lit up. "I have an idea. Since we can't decide who should be the main leader of our Ninth Prison Shelter, why don't we just choose her, how about that?"

Bei Nuan: ???

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