Chapter 58 - Qi An
W County secure base was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and its gates were located on the fourth. Currently, the gates were all obstructed by zombies.
Frankly, with the existence of earth ability users, the thousands of survivors, and a lot of supplies and ammunition in W County secure base, it wasn’t that much of a problem to build a road through the mountains.
However, even if that road was constructed, wasn’t it possible that it would also be blocked by zombies? That the zombies might enter from there too?
W County secure base’s people were extremely paranoid over these possibilities, and ended up doing nothing. Every family just found a patch of land and planted some vegetables, and the braver ones would go to the nearby mountains to look for food.
But how could planting vegetables be so easy? And food in the mountains was even harder to find— These mountains near W County were developed. There may be wild vegetables, but there weren’t many wild animals. In the end, because more and more people went to the mountains, the number of zombies in the mountains increased as well…
At this time, the whole of W County secure base was permeated with a depressing atmosphere. In the past, everyone at least had the time to discuss why this mysterious killer wanted to kill people and steal their supplies, but now, no one cared.
The atmosphere outside was very grave, but in a corner of W County secure base, there was a group filled with hope.
B City secure base would supply food to the elderly and children free of charge, but W County secure base definitely couldn’t treat them the same way. To feed their children, some parents would leave the secure base, but never returned once they left, and their children were left behind in the secure base to starve to death. And some parents, in the face of life or death, would even choose to abandon their children…
This group of hopeful people were the children who had lost their loved ones due to various reasons.
Many of these children were little tyrants at home a few months ago, getting everything they demanded. Some of them had even been little devils that made people loathe them. Now, they had all become orphans, and matured in a short period of time…
A little boy around the age of ten, who was still a little plump despite having lost a lot of weight, was holding a shovel and digging a tunnel. He was working very seriously; perhaps no one would have imagined that he used to be a ‘young master’ who didn’t know how to do anything and would throw a tantrum if there was a dish he disliked on the table.
At the side, a pretty girl with her hair messily cut short, dressed in a filthy skirt, had made congee and was feeding it to a baby. She didn’t mind the dirtiness one bit, and no one would’ve imagined either, that she was someone who would wipe the park bench a few times before being willing to sit down, and wouldn’t leave the house if she wasn’t dressed beautifully.
Of course, some children hadn’t lived well even before the apocalypse. For example, among them was a pair of sisters, who were from a rural area; everything in their home was given to their little brother first. When the apocalypse struck, their parents had been willing to give them a bit to eat at first, but later drove them out, making them resort to begging.
The place they were at was an abandoned air-raid shelter in a mountain next to W County secure base. This was at the periphery of W County secure base and no one would usually come by. They had obstructed the tunnel entrance that they were hiding in, and lit a few lightbulbs with batteries. Their living conditions were actually fairly decent.
“I dug out a small cave. This way, even if someone else comes, there’s still a place for them to stay,” the plump kid said.
“Such a small cave…” The pretty girl curled her lip.
“It’s already very big!” The plump boy said, “I think I’m already very amazing. Boss Qi will definitely be satisfied, and might even be willing to let me be a boss who follows Boss!”
“When is Qi gege coming?” A little boy, who was about four or five, couldn’t help asking.
“I’m here already. Does xiaobao miss me a lot?” Qi An appeared out of nowhere and smiled at the little boy.
“Qi gege!” The little boy looked at Qi An in surprise and threw himself over at him.
Qi An dodged him. “Don’t wipe dirty things on my clothes!” As he spoke, he took out a large packet of sweets. He gave one to the child who had pounced over, then distributed the rest to everyone present.
Qi An’s stature was smaller than many of the children, but his prestige here was unrivalled, and it was very understandable— All the children here were saved by him.
For example, the father of the beautiful girl had sacrificed himself to send her and her mother to the secure base. Unfortunately, someone had taken a fancy to their looks. Her mother had resisted and was beaten to death, and her… If Qi An hadn’t saved her, she feared that she might have already died.
Besides all that, the food and water they had were all gathered by Qi An.
This time, Qi An had brought back ample amounts of food. He passed them over to the older children to cook while he sat at the side to recover his ability.
He had already been reborn for a period of time, but his ability had just reached level two. He had a very limited amount. Using a spatial blade was still fine, but for teleporting, he would feel that it was running low after a few uses, especially when he had to bring someone or other things along.
“Boss Qi, thank you.” While the plump boy was eating, he sincerely expressed his gratitude.
“You don’t have to thank me; you should thank my boss.” Qi An said, “In the past, it was him who had fed me when I was about to starve to death. Seeing that you all were about to die of hunger, I gave you guys something to eat.”
“Boss Qi’s boss must be a very powerful person!” the plump boy said.
“Of course. My boss’s prestige is especially amazing, and no one in the world can compare, to the extent that people can only tremble when they see him. He’s someone whom we should prostrate ourselves in worship!” Qi An said unhesitatingly. He was only an eight-year-old child, yet he had the assertiveness of a youth with an eighth-grade syndrome.
The plump boy’s voice was somewhat awed. “Boss Qi, can I meet him?”
“When he comes, I’ll definitely take you to see him,” Qi An said magnanimously despite being faintly worried.
After he had been reborn, he wanted to look for his boss, but it was at this time that he had realised that he knew nothing of him.
Not only did he not know who his boss was, or what his name was, he didn’t even know where he was or what he was doing during the beginning of the apocalypse. He only knew that the first time his boss had appeared was in this W County secure base.
Qi An had no choice but to come here from thousands of kilometers away to wait.
At first, he had only planned to wait here calmly. When the time comes, he’ll rush to contact his boss ahead of Nie Yi, striving to become his boss’s very firstlittle brother. As a result…
His plans were very thorough, and he had calculated that he would have enough time to rescue some people and cultivate some little brothers for himself. But now, many things weren’t the same as in his memory!
To say nothing of the others, just this W County secure base, why didn’t it wait until his boss made a great attack to be encircled by zombies? If it continued like this, his boss wouldn’t even need to attack before this place became wiped out by zombies! When that time comes, where should he go look for his boss ah?!
Thinking about the possibility that Nie Yi would be the first again, Qi An became particularly depressed.
The few children soon finished cooking the food, and Qi An didn’t reject it either and ate up his fill.
“Qi gege, I helped you set up your bed already,” two of the children said.
However, Qi An didn’t take an afternoon nap like usual, instead saying, “You all stay here. I’m going out again to take a look.” With that, he left.
Aside from teleportation and spatial blade, Qi An actually had another move, which was to hide himself in a separate space so that others couldn’t find him. Of course, this method used too much of his ability, so he generally would only use it right after teleporting.
In truth, he had no choice but to use it. Who made his spiritual strength so weak now, to the point that if it was any lower, he wouldn’t even know where he would teleport to?
This time, Qi An had come to W County secure base’s city wall.
As the number of zombies outside grew, and with quite a lot of level two zombies among them, he recently feared that the city walls would be breached.
Truthfully, the current zombies were very useless ah, actually unable to topple over such a weak city wall… Fine, he was also very weak right now.
Laying on his belly in a small hole he had dug out in the city wall, Qi An carefully scrutinised the wide expanse of zombies. He wanted to see if there was a strange ‘zombie’ covered in a black robe from head to toe being alienated by other zombies.
But he couldn’t find it at all.
These zombies outside were clearly not ordered about by his boss, and he didn’t know where his family’s boss was right now…
Qi An was very dejected, yet at this time, the patrolmen at the city walls were even more dispirited.
“Today’s lunch decreased. A bowl of congee and a steamed bun merely the size of a child’s fist; it’s not filling at all.”
“Don’t say that. We’re already considered lucky enough. In any case, we have food… Yesterday, the family next door were poisoned to death after eating the wild vegetables they had gathered.”
“Yeah, moreover, you can eat alone without having to starve a family, I… I still have to bring that steamed bun home,” someone else said.
“Okay, enough talking, let’s save up our strength.” A hoarse voice was heard, and everyone immediately stopped talking.
This team was sitting on top of the city walls. Seeing more and more zombies gathering below, they only felt more forlorn.
However, right at this time, they suddenly heard sounds coming from a distant place.
“There’s people over there!” A youth in the team said.
“People?” The person who had previously told everyone to stop talking said in surprise, then sighed. “They painstakingly found this place, but perhaps they’ll just add to the zombies…”
When he said this, everyone around him fell silent as well. Their secure base was quite well-known. At first, they had appealed for people to come over, but later, those who found this place had all become zombies…
These people couldn’t help looking at the place where the sounds were issued. As a result, the sounds were actually getting closer!
Everyone used the binoculars hung on their necks to look, and saw that a few trucks nearby were charging over.
Countless zombies swarmed towards the trucks, and many were even exhaling black fog, but those people weren’t afraid at all. Various abilities were tossed down from the truck, and the explosion of bombs resounded. It unexpectedly allowed them to force open a path.
At the same time, they heard some of those people shouting, “Annihilate the zombies! Annihilate the zombies!”
“Are they here to save us?” Hope suddenly rose on the faces of despair.
“Their earth ability users are so amazing; they stopped all the zombies!”
“They must be from B City secure base! Didn’t we go to B City secure base to ask for help? It must be them!”
“They’re here to save us!”
These people were endlessly excited, and somewhat confused amidst their excitement— Why were there trucks so flowery and green on top? However, even if these trucks were a little strange, it didn’t diminish this pleasant surprise at all.
At this time, Qi An also had a feeling of ‘so it turned out to be like this’… He just knew that W County secure base shouldn’t have been destroyed at this time; it turned out that they were saved by people!
Qi An looked at those trucks from afar and felt a faint sense of envy— It would be great if he had a troop like that!
What a pity… Looking at his tender arms, Qi An couldn’t help sighing.
In his last life, he had grown to the age of seventeen with great difficulty. He initially had even thought that, if he became a little older, he might even be taller than Nie Yi. As a result, he had lost his life, and even turned into a small child. It truly was too hateful!
Qi An gritted his teeth as he looked at the troops from afar. Then, he discovered that that team really was very, very powerful. With the help of various types of ability users, the trucks had broken through the centre of the zombies, as if it was an uninhabited land!
It was said that before his boss had wiped out the majority of the higher-level ability users in B City secure base, there were many amazing ability users, and many were from W County secure base. Could there be some among these people?
Qi An’s eyes were filled with eagerness but soon calmed as he lightly snorted.
So what if they were powerful? Didn’t they still get defeated by his boss?
Thinking this way, Qi An didn’t care about these people, up until the fleet had unexpectedly disposed of a large area of zombies, and even entered through the city gates…
The person who came down from the truck was unexpectedly Nie Yi! Why was it Nie Yi?!
Qi An watched as Nie Yi was welcomed in, his eyes filled with gloominess— Why was it this fellow again?!
The small, eight-year-old boy who had never wronged his stomach ever since his rebirth had a squishy face, and now, he was angered to the point his cheeks had puffed up.
“I, Qi An, will definitely surpass Nie Yi! I’m someone who can be reborn! The protagonist!” Qi An secretly gave himself encouragement and followed them from afar.
His teleportation was very useful, but it was also defective as he still couldn’t position himself accurately. Even though the spatial blade was very powerful, it could still be sensed by ability users, so he had to be careful…
After Nie Yi brought his people into W County secure base, he received a very warm welcome from the secure base’s side due to their prior display outside.
Those people were very respectful to Nie Yi, even bordering on kissing up to him. Nie Yi looked at them with a smile on his face, but his fist was clenched extremely tight.
It was these people who had imprisoned Qi Jingchen in their last life…
Nie Yi almost couldn’t conceal the fiendish aura he emanated. Fortunately, he and the people behind him had just killed their way out of a horde of zombies, emanating an aura of death around them. It didn’t make other people feel any peculiarities, and they simply thought that he wasn’t easy to approach.
“Nie shao? We’ve prepared a welcome feast…” the chief of W County secure base said.
Nie Yi’s aggressiveness rose once more, almost wanting to directly explode this person into bits. Yet at this time, someone grabbed his arm…
Nie Yi’s aggressiveness weakened instantly, and it also made people notice the youth by his side.
This youth was approximately 175cm, dressed in a white shirt, khaki-coloured, casual pants, and white sports shoes. Besides this, there was a dark green jadeite hanging on his neck, an extremely expensive, branded watch on his wrist, and gems on his cufflinks…
If it was before the apocalypse, this person would be a noble young master that would have people wailing about wanting to give birth to a child for him. But after the apocalypse, such things were completely inharmonious with W County secure base’s environment, and only made people feel envious and hateful towards him.
The chief of the secure base used to be a rich person as well, but didn’t have the energy to care about these things during the apocalypse. Now, he couldn’t help falling into a daze, and even pondered over what great god this one was.
Could he be like Nie Yi, the son of an important figure in the secure base?
“Since you’ve already prepared the welcome banquet, then receive the people behind us well. I don’t like eating outside food, and Nie Yi will cook for me, so we won’t go.” Qi Jingchen tugged Nie Yi and spoke arrogantly while secretly pinching him.
With this pinch, the aggressiveness on Nie Yi had disappeared without a trace. He also knew what he couldn’t do, and promptly but unhappily said, “Just arrange a clean room for me, hurry.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll arrange it immediately,” the W County secure base’s chief responded, but some dissatisfaction flashed in his eyes. Even though he was very friendly to Nie Yi, Nie Yi’s behaviour of disrespecting him and ordering him around made him unhappy.
Nie Yi soon brought Qi Jingchen into the room they would be resting at. Qi An watched all of this from far away and mulled it over.
It was said that Nie Yi had a paramour during the initial stage of the apocalypse. Was it that person? It seemed that he had followed the boss after he was betrayed by his paramour… If that paramour of his didn’t betray him, would he not look for the boss?
Baobao Notes
Every reborn person at first: I’m the protagonist
Also everyone who didn’t know the Facts: Jingchen MUST be the lover that betrayed him!
Ruru: I think it’s now a running gag LOLOL. Qi An seems cute though…