Fan Ningyue had gradually come to a superficial understanding of this man.

His family background, it seemed, had been very poor in the past. Life had been difficult, and from his indirect remarks, it sounded like he had even been bullied by certain so-called “big figures.”

He had walked toward that position for some kind of goal…

He didn’t seem anything like the so-called “born evil person” she had heard about.

“You look like you’ve been pretty shocked,” An Muning said, glancing at her expression and shaking his head with a wry smile. “Just how exactly did they portray me?”

“Anyway, they didn’t say anything good about you,” Fan Ningyue pouted.

Since she had started interacting with An Muning—only three or four days ago—her trust in the Survivor Alliance had been rapidly declining.

People who were overly protected might indeed have such a rigid sense of morality.

Just like her own family: her parents were successful enough that, beyond necessary contact, they never demanded their daughter achieve anything or strive particularly hard in her career.

Fan Ningyue had always been very clear about love and hate. Compared to her, An Muning, when interacting privately, seemed frivolous—detached from life and death in a way that didn’t feel human.

She thought about it. If she had been slandered like this in the past, she probably would have been furious beyond reason.

Even after establishing herself within the Survivor Alliance, she had rarely participated in high-level decision-making, avoiding contact with all that dirty, corrupt matter.

An Muning had probably been interested in her back then precisely because of this—clear in love and hate, aware of human ugliness in the apocalypse, yet choosing to remain herself, unwavering.

That kind of personality couldn’t be shaped by a normal family.

That was why, during their final duel, An Muning had said to her:

“When the birds are gone, the bow is put away; when the rabbits are dead, the hunting dogs are cooked. Even in peacetime, honest officials struggle to survive in political circles—let alone in an apocalyptic world filled with human brutality. With your personality and your powerful abilities, if you don’t align with them, there is only one outcome.”

Back then, the girl had frowned and replied that she would not involve herself in those matters.

Her abilities were indeed enough to deal with all threats from the Survivor Alliance—and she didn’t believe that the people she had protected would ever turn against her while she was at full strength.

She was not naive. With so many top-tier abilities, she was powerful enough that there was no real conflict between her and the higher-ups. She followed the rules, and deliberately avoided political affairs.

Or rather, she intentionally stayed out of governance.

“An innocent man is punished for possessing a treasure”—that saying was true, but she was not an “innocent man” in that sense. Apart from her strength, she had no real conflict with those leaders.

What no one anticipated was how far those people would eventually go.

From Fan Ningyue’s perspective, the apocalypse was already so difficult—everyone who had survived it should want it to end, not to bring it back.

But she failed to understand that those current leaders were living even more comfortably in the apocalypse than anyone else.

Openly owning slaves—both male and female.

Pleasure, food, power—money itself had become meaningless. Social rules and laws had completely collapsed.

They could openly do anything they wanted.

What they wanted was a controllable apocalypse—one that could be stopped whenever they wished, one that would not spiral out of control, one that would allow them to live in luxury.

And in truth, the current Survivor Alliance did have the ability to maintain such a “controlled apocalypse.”

They still sat in their high towers, drinking red wine and eating steak, with slaves serving beneath them. Morality and decency no longer mattered; their words had become law.

For people who had spent half their lives chasing power, such a world was intoxicating just to imagine.

And all of it had been pinned on Fan Ningyue. When they left those high towers to “experience life,” they were still met with admiration and worship from ordinary survivors.

In short—they had everything.

Fan Ningyue pulled herself out of her thoughts and took a deep breath.

In contrast, An Muning on the other side was laughing casually, completely unconcerned about the slander against him.

“You really don’t care at all?” she asked again.

“You’ve asked that many times already,” he replied.

“If it were me, I’d be furious.”

“Then you’d already be dead from anger,” An Muning said, arms crossed, laughing loudly. His voice echoed through the empty mall like wind brushing past her ears.

“…True enough,” Fan Ningyue said softly, shaking her head as a barely noticeable smile appeared.

This man really was strange—she had always known that.

No matter how much the Survivor Alliance suppressed him or hunted him down, he always came back like an unkillable pest.

Every time, he found a way through. Every time, he became the winner.

At one point, she even suspected he might possess some kind of “constant victory” ability.

“Truly carefree,” she murmured.

An Muning didn’t ask what she meant. He simply placed his hands behind his head and leaned back.

“If you’re not carefree in this world, you can’t survive,” he said with a smile.

…

Fan Ningyue conducted a two-day-long “An Muning Behavior Observation” project. When she woke up in the morning, he liked to smoke a cigarette and drink an extremely bitter cup of coffee.

No one knew where An Muning had gotten the coffee beans from. He ground them himself with a grinder and brewed them, but he never got the proportions right.

The coffee was extremely strong—Fan Ningyue had tried it once, and it was so bitter it made her want to jump straight into her next life.

There was even residue floating at the bottom of the cup.

But An Muning seemed to enjoy it a lot himself.

He ate at irregular times. (xqingchengxs.com, loulanxsw.com, noumengxs.com, shenmaxsw.com, weixswz.com, haiyaxs.com)

He only started eating when his “HP bar” began dropping from hunger.

And finally—this guy was heavily addicted to smoking.

Waving away the smoke in the air, Fan Ningyue sighed.

“What are you sighing for when you’ve got nothing to do?”

“Can you smoke a little less?” she said, her brows twitching. “You don’t want the Survivor Alliance higher-ups to get what they want in this way, do you?”

An Muning smiled indifferently, holding a cigarette between his fingers as he waved her off. “Remember to transfer me secondhand smoke fees.”

Fan Ningyue: “……”

An Muning looked at her, slightly frowning.

Perhaps the shock of betrayal had been too great—these past few days, she had been like a soulless puppet, barely even smiling.

Thinking back to how expressive she used to be, An Muning rested his chin on his hand.

Humans really were strange creatures.

They don’t want to live, but they also don’t want to die.

They end up stuck in that in-between state—half-alive, half-dead.

Now the two of them were the same.

No, not quite.

An Muning thought again.

He wasn’t particularly eager to live—he just didn’t want to die such an ordinary death.

Right now, he was just waiting for the day a group of super beautiful female zombies would come and devour him.

His life had too many regrets. Being swallowed whole by zombies would be perfect.

He flicked out his cigarette and checked the box. “Already empty again?”

He looked genuinely surprised, shaking the empty pack. “Damn… is this fake or something?”

Fan Ningyue looked at him and shook her head.

“You opened that box last night.”

She had been keeping track.

Last night at 10 PM—he opened the pack.

He went to sleep at 11 PM. Woke up around 7–8 AM.

Now it was 9:40 AM. The entire pack was gone.

“Are you smoking or eating cigarettes?”

“Same thing,” An Muning waved it off casually, yawning. “Yep, that’s exactly how it should be.”

“How what should be?”

“Talking like this—bickering like we used to,” he said with a smile. “You’ve been too lifeless lately. Like a doll.”

“Me?”

“Who else? Me?”

Fan Ningyue tilted her head slightly, thinking.

She really hadn’t noticed.

In fact, she had already come to terms with things—holding onto resentment didn’t really help anything.

But she still couldn’t adjust her emotions or daily rhythm in such a short time.

“You’ve been staying here all this time?” she asked, glancing around.

Compared to before, An Muning’s life now seemed overly monotonous.

“More or less. I go out occasionally,” he nodded. “There’s a sea not too far from here. Sometimes I go there to take a look, maybe catch some fish.”

Fishing by the sea?

Fan Ningyue was confused. She had never heard of fishing like that at the coastline.

“Hey!” An Muning slapped the window frame. “Pack up.”

“What for?”

“Taking you out to relax,” he said. “And also to get some cigarettes.”

“There are still cigarettes?”

“I’ve got secret methods.”

“Then why not just keep them all here?”

“Rabbit hole strategy,” he said, spreading his hands. “If I store everything here and one day the Survivor Alliance finds me and destroys this place, I’d lose all my supplies.”

“Besides, now it’s probably impossible. Without you, they don’t dare mess with me anymore.”

Fan Ningyue’s dark-type ability was indeed powerful. She had once been the sharpest blade among human survivors.

Wherever there was a shadow, it was her domain—it could become her strength.

So An Muning couldn’t help but wonder how they had managed to defeat her at night.

Unless she hadn’t fought back…

Hadn’t fought back?

He glanced at the somewhat dazed woman sitting on the sofa, disbelief flashing in his eyes.

No way… there are really people in this world with that strong a sense of morality?

“You’re invincible, kid.”

Fan Ningyue: ?

She tilted her head, staring blankly at him, confused. “What do you mean invincible?”

“Nothing,” he waved it off. “Pack up. We’re changing places. Changing mood.”

She nodded woodenly and stood up from the sofa.

…

The two of them walked past zombies on the road.

An Muning looked around and finally sighed in disappointment.

“…Are you thinking again about why there aren’t any beautiful female zombies?”

“Logically speaking it’s impossible, but what if such evolved zombies exist?” he said seriously, nodding. “I still have hope.”

Nerve.

Fan Ningyue muttered internally.

This guy really wasn’t normal.