“But you know, psychic-type abilities like mental control and mental perception are extremely rare. The Survivor Alliance has always been keeping people like that around.” An Muning looked at Fan Ningyue. “The most famous one they cultivated was your former… teammate.”

“Don’t make it sound like I was a bandit or something, and ‘teammate’ at that.” Fan Ningyue said with a wry smile.

Back then, among the people she had been on a squad with, there was a psychic-type ability user named Bai Yiqun.

Psychic abilities were indeed very hard to cultivate—different from spatial abilities or her own dark-type ability.

For psychic abilities, advancement required not only mutation crystals for enhancement, but also a strong enough will from the ability user themselves.

So cultivating a psychic ability user was extremely difficult.

Abilities like hers and An Muning’s were purely rare—so rare that a normal person might never encounter even one in their lifetime.

“And now you’ve become enemies.” An Muning spread his hands. “Listen to me—tell me where he is, and I’ll kill him. I can also use his ability to deal with those evolved zombies. It’ll even help you get revenge. Two birds with one stone.”

“I don’t know either.” Fan Ningyue shook her head.

“You were teammates and you still don’t know?”

“I really don’t.” Fan Ningyue sighed. “I never understood why they were so obsessed with… power.”

After the apocalypse ended, she had very little contact with them.

She herself was never particularly interested in so-called power.

Once the apocalypse was finally over, thinking back on everything she had seen during those years, she only felt exhausted.

Even though she had experienced many social interactions before the apocalypse, she had still never truly faced the shifting currents of human nature in business and politics.

Not to mention witnessing people literally eat people with her own eyes.

So after the apocalypse ended, she basically went into seclusion somewhere and rarely took the initiative to contact her former companions.

Those companions had begun, during the reconstruction of human settlements, to gradually rise upward—moving toward the peak of power.

She didn’t understand it, never had.

“It’s simple,” An Muning said, looking at her. “Because before the apocalypse, you already had power. You were born into wealth and authority. That kind of thing is as natural to you as breathing—you don’t even realize it. But other people have to chase it. That’s normal.”

For the former Fan Ningyue, buying a small piece of beef for tens of thousands was normal.

The place she lived in was so exclusive it could hardly even be found by searching online.

So she didn’t need power or wealth.

It was extravagant, even a bit pretentious—but that was just how it was. She was born in that kind of environment.

For An Muning in the past, even buying a piece of beef at a fresh food supermarket required careful consideration.

People like him naturally had the desire to climb upward.

“Ah, for people standing at the top, slacking off is the real life,” An Muning said, pouting. “Am I sounding a bit sour saying that?”

“Terribly sour.” Fan Ningyue waved her hand in front of her nose as if fanning away the smell.

“Haha.” An Muning laughed twice.

Ahead, the zombies parted to both sides. An Muning walked in front, like an emperor making an incognito inspection, his gaze sweeping over the zombies on either side.

Fan Ningyue knew exactly what he was thinking. “No beautiful female zombies. Stop looking.”

“…I warn you, stop reading my mind.”

“Can’t help it. Born with telepathy.”

“I advise you not to have it,” An Muning said with a smile like a spring breeze. “Otherwise I’ll have to kill you.”

To Fan Ningyue, who was long used to his almost split-personality way of speaking, this was nothing new. “You’ve tried to kill me so many times already. Not once did you succeed.”

“Same to you,” An Muning shrugged. “You haven’t killed me either.”

Fan Ningyue chuckled. “That’s because I held back.”

“Heh.” An Muning gave a cold laugh.

From here to where An Muning lived, it was a half-hour walk.

“You really are like a cautious rabbit with three burrows,” Fan Ningyue said, taking a deep breath. “Got more places?”

“Of course,” An Muning smiled. “Trying to probe my information?”

“No interest.” Fan Ningyue curled her lip, then, recalling something he once said when he was out of cigarettes, she imitated his calm demeanor. “What if the Survivor Alliance finds out I’m still alive and sends people to hunt me down? If we both retreat together, the target would be too big.”

An Muning glanced at her.

When did she become this dramatic?

……

Fan Ningyue leaned against the corridor railing, looking down at the wandering zombies below.

“You not getting depressed is a miracle,” she said softly.

Day after day watching these zombies wander around, with nothing but their roars filling the air.

Back when she was in the Survivor Alliance, even though it was called “seclusion,” she had still lived near human activity.

Places with human presence were never too suffocating.

“I?” An Muning flicked ash from his cigarette. “I don’t even have room left to get depressed. Besides, once you get used to it, these things—aside from not being able to talk—aren’t much different from people. In some ways, they’re even more straightforward. No scheming.”

“Right, they just try to eat you the moment they see you,” Fan Ningyue snorted. She turned her head toward the cigarette in his hand, a hint of confusion on her face. “Is that stuff good?”

“There’s nothing good or bad about it. At first it just perks you up, then you get used to it.” An Muning handed her the cigarette. “Want to try?”

“Persuading someone to smoke is as immoral as killing their parents.”

And it was just as shameless as encouraging someone to gamble.

But An Muning had no sense of morality.

Fan Ningyue looked at him and stayed silent for a moment. “You’re giving me one you’ve already smoked?”

“I don’t have the habit of biting the filter. There’s not much saliva on it.” An Muning shrugged. “What are you shy about? You’re not a zombie.”

Used to his absurd behavior, Fan Ningyue curled her lip and reached for the cigarette pack by his hand. She followed his example and lit one.

An Muning didn’t really inhale on the first puff, so she copied him and exhaled the smoke.

The strong, harsh taste made her feel slightly nauseous.

On the second inhale, it felt like oxygen was instantly cut off.

Her heart sped up, and Fan Ningyue started coughing violently, tossing away the cigarette she had barely smoked.

“Hey—you’re wasting it!” An Muning said regretfully, watching the cigarette fall to the ground and spark twice. “I told you not to give it to you.”

Fan Ningyue was still coughing, like she was about to cough her lungs out.

“Was it really that bad?”

“What is there to like about this thing?” Fan Ningyue felt like she was going to throw up.

The taste was strange—something you inhale into your lungs, yet it somehow made her stomach churn too.

Her mind became oddly clear, like blood rushing to her brain.

She took a deep breath. “It’s self-abuse. How is smoking any different from self-harm?”

“Haha, call it self-harm if you want.” An Muning looked at her with amusement. “Want another puff?”

“You want me to waste another cigarette of yours?” Fan Ningyue glanced at him.

“I don’t want that. This is a scarce resource.” An Muning coughed lightly. “You should never touch cigarettes in your life—unless you’re not next to me.”

“Petty,” Fan Ningyue said. “An Muning, you’re way too petty.”

“This is the apocalypse. Don’t treat it like it was before,” An Muning said, snuffing out the cigarette and leaning back against the railing. “If it were before the apocalypse, I would’ve tried everything to seduce you.”

Fan Ningyue: …

She was already used to this guy’s absurdity.

“Being a sugar baby isn’t shameful,” An Muning waved a hand. “Too bad—it’s the apocalypse now. Money has truly become worthless.”

Things that were once worshipped by countless people before the apocalypse had become waste after it—so useless they couldn’t even be used for toilet paper.