A rusted steel bar pierced through the man's chest, and wet blood dripped down along the metal.

The man stared at the person right in front of him in disbelief, collapsed to the ground, struggled twice, and then went still, his body twitching before falling silent.

Seeing that the man was dead, the youth casually wiped the blood off his arm.

"T-t-this... this was the first human you've encountered in The Apocalypse, and you just killed him like that?!"

The surprised voice of system 111 echoed in his mind.

"If I didn't kill him, my pants would have been pulled down."

Su Han adjusted his clothes, feeling disgusted.

Today was his seventh day since transmigrating into the book, and also his seventh day struggling to survive in The Apocalypse.

Although he hadn't found a chance to see his own face clearly, his limbs were slender and his skin fair, so he likely looked quite decent.

In an era like The Apocalypse, where morality had collapsed and order was lost, such an appearance was the most fatal trait.

Su Han sighed and kicked the corpse.

There was no other way; he had to survive.

He had transmigrated into a male-oriented novel titled "Apocalyptic Destruction Guide," which was rumored to be the author's revenge-fueled work.

The male lead, Shen Chengyin, was the eldest son of the Shen family. As a child, he was swapped by a servant and sent to an orphanage, leading to a miserable childhood. In The Apocalypse, he was betrayed by friends and family one after another, suffering both physical and mental abuse.

In the end, this favored son of heaven was forced to detonate himself to destroy the world, and only then did it end.

To survive, he had to find a way to change the plot line and prevent the male lead from turning evil.

But the biggest problem now was—where was the male lead?

He had been struggling in The Apocalypse for a week, and the sleazy middle-aged man who tried to pull his pants down was the first living person he had encountered.

"According to the plot, the male lead established 'Xiwang Base' (Hope Base) at the beginning of The Apocalypse and became its leader. But it has already been three months since The Apocalypse began..."

system 111 trailed off.

Su Han took a deep breath; his future looked bleak.

Three months into The Apocalypse was exactly the time when the Xiwang Base, where the male lead resided, experienced its first large-scale zombie siege.

It was also at this time that the male lead was seriously injured, betrayed by friends and family, had his chest cut open and drained of blood, and was thrown out of the city gates, left on the verge of death.

This was the first step in the male lead's descent into darkness.

Hopefully, he could still make it in time.

Su Han scavenged some useful supplies from the man's body, stuffed them into his backpack, and then found a place to hide.

People who could live well three months into The Apocalypse were either exceptionally skilled or had accomplices to help them.

The middle-aged man was short and fat, so he preferred to believe the latter.

Not long after, two young men holding weapons stumbled over. Upon seeing the corpse on the ground, their eyes immediately turned red.

"Uncle Wang—!"

The other person pulled him back and shook his head, "He's gone. Let's hurry back to the base. Today is the ceremony for the deputy leader's confirmation; if we go back late, we won't even get a piece of meat."

The two quickly composed themselves and returned to their vehicle.

The vehicle slowly drove away, and Su Han cautiously followed behind.

Half an hour later, the group finally arrived at Xiwang Base. The vehicle passed security and entered the city gates, while Su Han could only pace outside.

In the original text, the male lead awakened his Spatial Ability early in The Apocalypse and relied on the abundant supplies within his space to become a base leader who protected the people.

During the first zombie siege, the male lead was seriously injured while protecting his brothers, but they kicked him while he was down, forcing him to his death to extract the supplies from his space.

Su Han hid outside the city for nearly two hours before he finally saw a group of people on the city wall throw a dark mass down.

Several zombies approached at the sound, feasting on the dark mass.

The group on the city wall laughed and giggled, staring at the dark mass for a while before leaving.

After the group left, Su Han immediately approached and silently decapitated the few zombies with his knife.

However, when he got closer, he couldn't help but gasp.

Before him was a mass of rotting flesh that vaguely resembled a human shape, gnawed almost entirely by zombies. His chest had been sliced open by a sharp blade, exposing the ribs and internal organs inside.

If not for the heart exposed to the air, which still twitched every now and then, he would have truly thought the male lead was dead.

Everyone in this city was someone the male lead had protected with his life, yet he ended up with such an outcome.

Su Han's nose stung. He picked the person up and retreated into the distant dense forest at high speed.

Large bases constantly attracted zombies and were not suitable for long stays. Given Su Han's physical stamina, he couldn't run too far either.

He took off his jacket, covered the male lead with it, and sat down in a sheltered spot behind the mountain.

From beginning to end, he didn't dare to lift the clothes to look at the male lead.

After all, that sight... was simply too bloody.

Time ticked by, and the clothes covering the male lead's body remained motionless. Su Han was truly worried and raised his hand to lift a corner of the jacket.

He saw the male lead's heart, twitching irregularly and slowly within his chest.

He didn't know if it was his imagination, but the twitching seemed to be getting slower and slower...

One beat, two beats.

"...Hey, the heartbeat seems to have stopped."

It wasn't until system 111 spoke that Su Han snapped back to reality.

The person before him was completely dead, turned into a cold corpse.

He searched the body in disbelief; it was just a pile of rotting flesh, no different from the pork at a butcher's stall.

"Shen Chengyin!"

"Shen Chengyin! Don't die!"

Su Han's mind went blank.

It was over. The male lead was dead. The mission had failed before it even started.

He didn't want to stay in this zombie-infested world forever!

"Are you crazy! Yelling so loudly will attract zombies!" system 111 warned urgently.

Zombies had degraded vision and smell, but their hearing had become acute. Usually, to avoid zombies, Su Han moved very lightly.

Su Han also realized he had lost his composure and immediately entered a state of alert.

But it was already too late.

Before his hand could grab the knife on the ground, a roar sounded right by his ear.

Su Han had to give up on grabbing the knife and rolled to the side.

A Primary Zombie lunged, missing Su Han by a hair's breadth as it brushed against his arm.

A Primary Zombie had speed and strength that were even more freakish than ordinary zombies (which don't have any level yet).

It was very difficult for Su Han to deal with it alone, especially since he hadn't retrieved his weapon, leaving him in a very passive position.

After failing its first strike, the zombie immediately turned and pinned Su Han to the ground.

Rotting skin mixed with slime dripped onto Su Han's face. He used all his strength to grab the zombie's neck and pushed outward with all his might.

He didn't want to die!

The Primary Zombie had great strength, and Su Han's arm was forced to bend inch by inch.

If this continued, his arm would break.

He struggled with all his might to the side, preparing to roll over. Just then, a squelching sound suddenly came to his ears, and immediately, the pressure on his hands vanished.

The Primary Zombie's head had been severed by something, and it rolled to the side.

He panted heavily, staring at the weapon that had severed the zombie's head.

It was the very machete he hadn't been able to pick up just a moment ago.

Su Han kicked the zombie's corpse away, and in the next second, he saw a figure standing before him.

The figure was draped in his jacket, and his expression was unclear. One could only See a pair of scarlet, sinister eyes hidden amidst messy black hair.

That gaze clearly indicated an intent to kill him.

Su Han instantly thought of many countermeasures in his mind, but none of them would work.

Judging by the way the other person had just thrown a machete and cleanly severed the head of a Primary Zombie, he definitely couldn't beat this man.

Shen Chengyin leaned over and reached out to grab Su Han by the throat.

Just as Su Han wanted to dodge, the man swayed and fell forward, slamming solidly onto Su Han.

With a dull thud, Su Han coughed heart-rendingly; he had almost been crushed to death by this guy.

He struggled to flip the man off, caught his breath, and complained to system 111:

"Why do I feel like the male lead wanted to kill me just now?"

system 111 replied with a guilty conscience: 【…It's an illusion, it's all your illusion.】

Su Han turned Shen Chengyin over and saw that the man, who had been a pile of rotting flesh just a moment ago, had miraculously regenerated his bones and flesh in the blink of an eye, looking no different from a normal person.

This was a Life Ability; he would even believe it if someone called it sorcery.

The man had perfect facial features and a sharp, three-dimensional profile; it was the kind of face where everyone would know he was the male lead the moment he appeared.

So handsome.

Su Han offered a couple of compliments, then reached out and felt the solid muscles on the man's chest and abdomen before turning around to take clothes from his bag to put on the male lead.

He touched Shen Chengyin's forehead, and sure enough, it was burning hot.

It was the normal fever associated with awakening a new Ability.

This was no place to stay for long, especially since the male lead had just awakened his Life Ability and was running a fever; he needed to find a warmer place to rest and recover properly.

He picked up the machete, split open the zombie's head on the ground, took out a glass-like crystal core, and shoved it into his pocket.

Then, he propped up Shen Chengyin's arm with one hand and struggled to move outward, bit by bit, with the man.

As long as they found the road, they would be able to find a useful vehicle.

The two of them stumbled along for more than ten minutes when a gunshot suddenly rang out behind them.

Su Han frowned. This area was desolate and uninhabited; the only people who could obtain firearms and be so unscrupulous about firing them were likely from Xiwang Base.

Had they caught up?

In the original text, Shen Chengyin had also awakened his Life Ability at the last moment of near-death, fleeing in a sorry state, only to be spotted by the lackeys of Xiwang Base and hunted for a long time.

"Damn it, do you think Old Wang has become paranoid? That guy was a pile of rotting flesh—how could he still be alive? How could he get up and walk? Isn't he just playing us for fools!"

A voice approached from far to near.

"Exactly. We've been walking for so long, and we haven't even seen a shadow, while the zombies are just getting more numerous," another voice complained indignantly. "Doing this dirty work for him, it wouldn't even be an honorable way to die."

"Forget it, it's not like you don't know Wang Jiafu's methods. Everyone in Xiwang Base knows that Chief Shen is brutal and excessive, while Deputy Leader Wang is benevolent and righteous. They've probably already criticized that Shen guy to pieces and are dying for him to step down."

Upon hearing this, Su Han turned his head calmly.

The man's head was lowered, very close to him, eyes tightly shut; Su Han could easily see the man's slightly trembling eyelashes.

He knew that the conversation between these two was factual. The book stated that Shen Chengyin trusted his sworn brother Wang Jiafu unquestioningly and left everything for Wang Jiafu to handle.

Wang Jiafu took the opportunity to claim all the credit for himself and even had people spread rumors to smear Shen Chengyin's image.

Shen Chengyin didn't find out about all of this until he was nearly dead.

No one sought justice for him, and no one even mourned him. When he died, the survivors in Xiwang Base felt a sense of relief instead.

【Hurry up and leave! What are you standing there for!】 system 111 couldn't help but remind him, 【If you don't run now, you're going to be discovered!】

The voices of those two were getting closer and closer, and they had guns in their hands; if they were discovered, they would be done for.

"I can't leave." Su Han pulled himself out of his memories, having found an answer.

system 111:???

No, is the host crazy?

"Since I've decided to save the male lead, and the male lead has been wronged here, the entire base must pay the price."

A cold light flashed in Su Han's eyes.

system 111: 【...】

Is this the time to be thinking about that?! Saving your life is what matters!

After dodging a round of searching, Su Han brought Shen Chengyin to the edge of the city closest to Xiwang Base.

The city was densely populated and, after The Apocalypse, was not suitable for human survival. The area closest to Xiwang Base had already been picked clean by scavenging teams, so no one usually came here.

By comparison, placing Shen Chengyin, who was unconscious with a high fever, here was the best choice.

Su Han found a relatively tidy apartment in an old residential complex, cleared out the zombies inside, and placed Shen Chengyin on the bed.

The man's hair was messy, and his brows were tightly furrowed; he was clearly enduring great pain.

For some reason, Su Han felt a bit of heartache. He took out the last half-bottle of mineral water from his backpack and used the cap to feed it into the man's mouth, bit by bit.

After finishing all this, he left some food by the man's side, locked the door, and quietly retreated.

The next morning, a fair-haired youth appeared among the people queuing at the entrance of Xiwang Base.

The looks the crowd gave Su Han carried a hint of curiosity, but were mostly malicious.

In this era where order had been lost, those good-looking young men and women had basically all been abducted by powerful people; it was rare to see such a good-looking youth among the commoners.

"Are you also here to apply to join Xiwang Base?"

Someone struck up a conversation with Su Han.

Su Han nodded, putting on a naive and innocent expression. "I'm very powerful; I have an Ability!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd was in an uproar.

Ability User—a get-out-of-jail-free card in The Apocalypse.

At the beginning of The Apocalypse, a very small number of humans developed symptoms of high fever. Those who survived and woke up gained different abilities.

People called such people "Ability Users."

In the early days of The Apocalypse, the classification of abilities was not clear. They only knew that some people could create fire out of thin air, and others could control lightning.

Even more so, there were people like the former chief of Xiwang Base, Shen Chengyin, who possessed the greatest known Spatial Ability.

Upon learning that Su Han was an Ability User, the gazes of the people around him changed instantly. The original malice and disgusting thoughts were hidden away, replaced by uniform praise.

"Young and promising, truly young and promising."

"What Xiwang Base lacks are capable young people like you!"

As a few people chimed in, the managers at the front of the line soon noticed the situation here.

Several men wearing black combat uniforms walked over, with Xiwang Base badges hanging on their chests.

"If you want to queue, queue properly. If you don't want to queue, get lost. There are plenty of people who want to enter our base; we don't need you."

Someone wanting to curry favor went up with a fawning smile and reported the situation to the two men in detail.

When the two men heard that Su Han was an Ability User, their attitudes did a 180-degree turn immediately.

"So you are an Ability User; it was our oversight. Please come with us. Ability Users who want to join our base are all met by the chief personally."

This was one-in-a-ten-thousand talent. Even though Xiwang Base held the title of one of the three major bases, there were currently only a few dozen Ability Users in the base.

Su Han nodded and followed the two men through the gate.

He hadn't actually intended to meet Wang Jiafu directly; he just wanted to find a reason to sneak into Xiwang Base.

He hadn't expected Xiwang Base to have such a rule, which actually played right into his hands.

On the way, he chatted casually with the two men. "I've been struggling on my own outside, so I'm very out of the loop. It wasn't until I met people from your base today that I realized there was a Xiwang Base here."

"Who is the chief of your base? Why does the chief have to meet people with abilities?"

Hearing news about the chief, the gatekeepers subconsciously avoided the topic and brushed him off: "You'll know when you get there."

Su Han followed the guards through the streets to the tallest building in Xiwang Base, and the three of them took the elevator to the top floor.

In a simple yet imposing office, a stocky young man had received the news early and had been waiting for a long time.

Wang Jiafu was not ugly; he had delicate features, but his narrow eyes made him look scheming.

When Su Han entered, his gaze swept over Su Han's face, then dropped to his shoulders, waist, and legs.

There were not many women who survived The Apocalypse, and they were all well protected. He also carried the identity of a righteous chief, so he had been abstinent for a long time.

Now that he happened to see someone so good-looking, he couldn't help but feel restless, regardless of whether it was a man or a woman.

Wang Jiafu did not show his sordid thoughts on his face and diligently poured a cup of tea for Su Han.

"Are you the new Ability User who arrived today?"

Su Han scratched his head shyly. "My name is A-Han. I happened to meet people from our base while collecting supplies outside, and that's when I learned that humans already had a large shelter."

"I am the current chief of Xiwang Base, Wang Jiafu." Wang Jiafu raised his hand, and a few drops of water quickly appeared out of thin air in his right palm. "Water-type Ability User."

The reason Wang Jiafu had such prestige in Xiwang Base was inseparable from his Ability.

Even if Shen Chengyin was powerful, so what? Spatial Ability was at most just having a bit more space to store things. But Deputy Chief Wang could produce water for the people in the base to drink!

They didn't know that time did not pass in Shen Chengyin's space, which could guarantee that food would never spoil. The few drops of water that Wang Jiafu produced now were just a drop in the bucket in the current state of extreme water shortage.

He lowered his eyes, suppressing the emotions in them.

Seeing that Su Han didn't react, Wang Jiafu couldn't help but remind him: "A-Han, what is your Ability? Can you demonstrate it for everyone?"

"Actually... I'm not sure what my Ability is." Su Han took a Primary Zombie crystal core out of his pocket. "I used to be an ordinary college student. After a high fever, I suddenly became very good at fighting and wasn't afraid of any zombies."

These words could only fool people in the early stages of The Apocalypse. Later, when human research on Ability Users deepened and the classification of abilities emerged, there would be no such Ability as the one Su Han mentioned.

Wang Jiafu's expression changed drastically.

He took the crystal core and looked at it over and over. Now was the early stage of The Apocalypse, and zombies were evolving faster than humans.

A Primary Zombie was already a very tricky existence. Even for Xiwang Base, it would take three Ability Users with extremely strong physical fitness to kill one.

If what this young man said was true...

That could simply be called a human killing machine!

Wang Jiafu's gaze changed instantly. He gave a look to the guard beside him, and the other person immediately stepped forward.

"Whether it's true or false isn't for you to say. If you have the ability, spar with me."

This guard came from the army and was very good at fighting.

As soon as the man finished speaking, Su Han stood up and nodded.

The next second, he rushed forward violently. Wang Jiafu didn't see Su Han's movements clearly. With a bang, the guard who had just provoked him took a heavy punch and fell face-first onto the ground.

So fast!

Wang Jiafu's eyes were full of admiration.

Su Han himself was very good at fighting. Plus, the system blocked his pain, so he wouldn't be timid when fighting.

The fight just now was mostly for show.

"Can you believe me now, Chief Wang?" Su Han smiled slightly.

"Of course, of course." Wang Jiafu laughed heartily. "I'm not much older than you, so just call me Brother. Quickly take A-Han to his accommodation and arrange it properly."

The second half of the sentence was said to the guard lying on the ground.

The guard stood up, grimacing, rubbed his butt, and said, "Follow me."

Xiwang Base hadn't been established for long, and the regulations in various aspects were not yet perfect.

The only thing that could prove one was a survivor of Xiwang Base was a small ID card.

The guard brought Su Han to an independent small villa near the city center. It wasn't large, but it had two floors and a yard, which could be considered a very superior place to live.

Wang Jiafu really valued him.

"The real currency circulating in The Apocalypse now is the crystal core inside a zombie's head. Your accommodation has been arranged, but if you want to eat your fill, you still have to go out and collect supplies."

Su Han listened to the bunch of rules the guard said, nodded as if he understood, and then grinned, showing a smile. "Thanks, Brother. I understand."

The guard was dazzled by this smile, and he felt a sigh in his heart.

A silly kid won't last long in The Apocalypse.

After the guard left, Su Han took the Primary Zombie crystal core to the largest trading center in Xiwang Base and exchanged it for some medicine and water.

Immediately after, he ran away under the pretext of going out of the city to collect supplies.

He was really afraid that if he didn't watch him, the male lead would burn his brain out.

He returned to the room where Shen Chengyin was placed. The man hadn't woken up yet; he was lying stiffly on the bed with his brows tightly furrowed.

Su Han fed Shen Chengyin the medicine and sat by the bed to sort out the plot.

In the Zombie Tide that Xiwang Base had just experienced, the reason Shen Chengyin was seriously injured was that when the zombies broke in, he was pierced through the chest by a Primary Zombie's claw while protecting another Water-type Ability User in the base.

It was clearly a heroic deed of saving someone, but what later reached the ears of other survivors was that Shen Chengyin was treacherous and fled alone, abandoning the injured Ability User.

Fortunately, Deputy Chief Wang arrived in time, and that Water-type Ability User was safe.

Something must have gone wrong in the middle, and it was most likely Wang Jiafu's doing.

【Huh, the male lead's hand seems to have moved.】 The system suddenly spoke.

Su Han turned his head and stared at Shen Chengyin.

The man's eyes were tightly closed, and there was no sign of him waking up at all.

"He didn't wake up. You scared me." Su Han muttered.

If Shen Chengyin woke up at this time, he really wouldn't know how to explain his identity.

He hoped that Shen Chengyin would wake up while he was away, so that when they met, Su Han could claim to be a survivor of Xiwang Base who happened to meet him while searching for supplies here.

As the sky grew late, Su Han had to go back.

Before leaving, he covered Shen Chengyin with the quilt and tucked in the corners.

On the way back, Su Han killed a few ordinary zombies and returned to the base with the crystal cores.

Normal people needed to have their bodies checked for wounds before entering the base, but Ability Users only gained their abilities because they were infected with the zombie virus, so they would not be infected a second time.

Su Han also benefited from this and went in without even taking off his clothes.

He returned to his accommodation, wiped his face with water, and saw himself in the mirror for the first time.

In the mirror was a handsome young man with soft and fluffy light brown hair and beautiful eyes.

Su Han's heart skipped a beat.

With this appearance, he estimated that countless people would covet his ass.

The system saw Su Han's worry and couldn't help but remind him: 【Don't worry, Wang Jiafu is a proper heterosexual.】

"It has nothing to do with being gay or straight. If a person is driven crazy by desire, they can do anything."

Su Han lay on the sofa and ate two bites of a dry bun, which was food he had exchanged for with zombie crystal cores.

If he wanted to figure out how Wang Jiafu framed Shen Chengyin, he had to start with the Water-type Ability User whom Shen Chengyin had saved back then.

The next day, Su Han used the excuse of wanting to form a team to inquire about news in the Mission Hall.

He had a few extra crystal cores in his hand, and when he stuffed them into the hands of a few soldiers, the other party opened up as if they had seen their own father.

"Deputy Chief Wang... no, Chief Wang is the great benefactor of our Xiwang Base. If it weren't for him, our base wouldn't have developed so well."

Su Han pretended to be ignorant and fished for information: "Chief Wang is really amazing. Did he create this Xiwang Base single-handedly?"

The soldier's face changed, and he waved his hand, "No, our base had a chief before, but he died, and he deserved it."

The soldier's companion heard him mention Shen Chengyin and immediately gathered around, shouting with righteous indignation:

"Exactly, he deserved to die."

"Who told him to not care about our lives at all and greedily put the base's supplies into his space."

"Exactly, if it weren't for Deputy Chief Wang, we would still be kept in the dark."

"Such a person doesn't deserve to be a chief at all; he deserves to die!"

"And there was the Zombie Tide not long ago; he abandoned the wounded and fled alone. It's really disgusting."

There were many people in the Mission Hall, and everyone started shouting along.

Su Han felt cold in his heart.

It wasn't written like this in the book at all. Shen Chengyin put the base's supplies into his space under Wang Jiafu's suggestion in order to keep the food from spoiling.

Now he was being bitten back, and it had become evidence for Wang Jiafu to frame him.

The louder these people shouted, the colder Su Han felt. He didn't understand how Shen Chengyin, who thought about protecting survivors until his death, ended up with such an outcome.

In the midst of the noise, Su Han glanced and saw a thin young man in the corner of the Mission Hall who kept his head down, trembling all over.

He did not participate in the accusations against Shen Chengyin; instead, he seemed... very sad?

〚ᵀᴸᴺ: ᴴᵉʳᵉ'ˢ ᵃⁿ ᴬᴵ-ᵍᵉⁿᵉʳᵃᵗᵉᵈ ⁱᵐᵃᵍᵉ ᵒᶠ ˢᵘ ᴴᵃⁿ.〛