Chapter 35

Chapter 35

"Truly wicked..." Xie Linyuan thought to himself. This person must have black blood flowing in his veins, killing not just bodies but souls first.

Almost everyone present understood the sinister implication of Wu Yin's words. Despite their unwillingness, the desire to survive compelled them to play along with this cruel "game," eagerly volunteering themselves and slandering each other.

"I—I'm very good at driving," a gaunt man hastily asserted, patting his chest. "I used to have an A2 driving license."

His words immediately drew a sneer. A man in the corner, wearing black-framed glasses and a shirt, said scornfully, "Do you really think they're looking for someone who can drive?"

Undeterred, the skinny man eagerly moved forward on his knees, pleading, "They can't drive, only I can, really."

The wife who had lost her husband continued to wail beside his body. Her son, like a mad dog, saw the man's desperate attempt to prove his worth as a betrayal to the group. He furiously pounced on the man, biting his arm.

There was now another person screaming in agony.

The remaining survivors in the courtyard consisted of three men and three women. Besides the frenzied mother and son, the skinny man, the man in the corner with black glasses and shirt, there was also a young woman with a round face. Beside her, a small, dark-skinned girl clung to her arm, looking timid and frightened.

Although Wu Yin was blind the previous night and didn’t see faces, he was certain the little girl in front of him was the same one who had eagerly drunk his mung bean soup. The woman who had brought her to scam had died, but how was this little short-legged girl still alive?

"The kid's pretty clever," Xie Linyuan noted, addressing the unspoken question in Wu Yin's mind. "Last night, when the attackers first broke in, she quickly hid under the coffee table. Then she found a chance to run, but not before stealing several packs of chocolate from the kitchen. If the pot wasn’t so heavy, she might have even tried to take the remaining mung bean soup with her."

Wu Yin: "..."

"It's just a pity—" Xie Linyuan began, then slowly trailed off.

A pity for what? The people, the chocolate, or the pot?

Wu Yin glanced at Xie Linyuan quizzically, then turned to scrutinize everyone present. His gaze briefly skimmed over the others, lingering on the dirty hands of the little girl.

He picked up on something, subtly raising an eyebrow and exchanging a knowing look with Xie Linyuan.

The latter didn't speak but simply nodded affirmatively with his eyes closed.

Wu Yin understood and withdrew his gaze, but when he looked back at the little girl, the round-faced young woman had already tremulously moved her to stand behind her, as if shielding her from some perverted predator.

This action instantly irked Wu Yin. What did it mean? Did they think his taste was so bad that he'd be interested in such a dirty little thing? His bad mood was evident, his mouth downturned, and he gave the round-faced woman a sharp, piercing look.

The woman, nearly in tears with fright, still protectively hid the little girl behind her, aware that her actions had angered this unpredictable black-haired man, and that doing nothing now would mean certain death.

Before Wu Yin could speak, she forced herself to speak in an attempt to calm him, "You, you're not being fair. You only plan to keep one of us to drive for you. But Xiao Yun (the little girl) is too young to reach the steering wheel. Isn't that sentencing her to death from the start?"

Having said this, she seemed to think herself quite clever, having spotted a loophole in the rules set by the man before her, buying everyone more time to live. Surely the black-haired man would now ask her what she suggests. Then she would—

Lost in thought, the round-faced woman looked up only to find both the powerful, tall silver-haired man and the slender black-haired man looking at her as if she was a fool, hesitating to speak.

"Why should it be fair?" Wu Yin asked, puzzled. "You broke into my dwelling uninvited, disturbed my sleep, plotted to steal my possessions, attempted to kill me, and probably even planned to eat me. So I just wanted to disgust you before you die. I don’t care who lives. Why should I play a fair game?"

Round-faced woman: "..."

"Also, there’s no need to fight for her," Wu Yin glanced at the dirt-covered little girl, "She never had a chance to survive. She was bitten by an Infected."

His words, spoken so casually, struck the others like a thunderclap. The round-faced woman, forgetting her fear, turned quickly to check Xiao Yun's exposed skin for any signs of infection.

Little Cloud screamed in fright, hiding her right hand behind her back, "No, no, I wasn't bitten!"

Seeing her action, the round-faced girl could no longer hold back her tears, bursting out, "How, how could this happen? When were you bitten?"

"I wasn't bitten!" Little Cloud vehemently denied, her voice shrill with the distinctiveness of a child's. She slurred her words, as if struggling to speak, simply shaking her head desperately while repeating the same phrase, "Not bitten, if bitten, will be left behind, don't leave me behind! Sister Yueyue!"

The round-faced girl enveloped her in a tight embrace, mourning, "Never, how could we possibly leave you behind? Sister Yueyue would never abandon Little Cloud."

The small courtyard lawn was now in complete chaos, with crying and shouting everywhere, creating a cacophony of noise.

Wu Yin calmly observed everything around him, his uniqueness and non-human aura intensely palpable even within the ordinary body of Yang Mo, utterly alien to the myriad human conditions and expressed emotions around him, making even Jie Linyuan, with his silver hair, red eyes, and the ability to unfold half his body into solar panels, seem more human.

He seemed like an observer, detached from the world of mortals; yet also like a studious pupil, intently memorizing and mimicking the behavior of others.

Just then, the inconspicuous man with black glasses and a shirt suddenly stood up, clutching a folding dagger in his hand that reflected a sharp light under the sun.

Wu Yin's expression remained unchanged, still cold and haughty, as if he was alone in his own world, but his body honestly moved behind Jie Linyuan. He turned his head, lowered his voice, and whispered into Jie Linyuan's ear, "Why does he still have a knife? Didn't you disarm these people?"

Jie Linyuan glanced at him inexplicably, "It's just a small knife, what trouble could it cause? It can't even scratch my skin coating."

“……”

Unexpectedly, the man with the black-framed glasses did not aim the dagger at Wu Yin and Jie Linyuan. Instead, he took large strides to the woman whose husband had died, pushed her son aside, and in a mix of screams and roars, he choked the woman, plunging the knife tip into her chest in an instant.

As if that wasn't enough, the red blade was drawn out and plunged in again, until the blood soaked the ground beneath, the woman's convulsions ceased completely, and the man with glasses finally exhaled a breath of malice, tossing her body to the ground.

Then, with a backhand stroke, he slit the throat of the woman's son, who was attacking and biting at him.

His series of actions were swift and decisive, his arms muscular, a stark contrast to the skinny man on the ground, screaming and writhing with his wrist bitten open.

Wu Yin peeked out from behind Jie Linyuan, noting the man with glasses' actions were not just about fighting for a spot to survive but included blatantly taking the opportunity to kill out of spite, indicating internal strife within the group, far from united.

True to form, the next second, the man with glasses bitterly said, "I don't care who the last one standing is, but it definitely cannot be this family of scum."

Wu Yin lifted an eyebrow in silence as he watched the man with glasses kick the dead body of his son, then bent down to rummage through the pockets of the corpse's pants, extracting two unopened chocolate bars before hurling them onto the grass.

"I witnessed them intercepting Little Cloud on her way back to find you, snatching her food," the man with glasses said through gritted teeth. "Little Cloud insisted the chocolates were for Sister Yueyue and refused to hand them over, leading to her being pushed to the ground and the chocolates forcibly taken. I arrived too late; I intended to chase after them to retrieve the items but was alerted by Little Cloud's screams, only to find zombies nearby. It was probably then that Little Cloud was bitten..."

The round-faced girl immediately burst into even more tears, crying out for Little Cloud, blaming herself for not protecting her and lamenting her sister's foolishness.

Little Cloud, seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation, fixated on the chocolates on the ground, desperately reaching out for them only to be held tightly in the round-faced girl's embrace, immobilized.

After her tears had finally subsided, the round-faced girl resolved to wipe away her tears, crawled over to pick up the chocolates from the ground, and handed them to the girl, gently touching her tangled braids. "Don't worry, Little Cloud, I will never leave you alone," she assured.

She then resolutely looked up at Wu Yin and Jie Lin Yuan and declared, "There's no need for you to intervene. Once Little Cloud turns, I will take her life and then my own."

As the woman wept profusely, Wu Yin had already found an outdoor lounge chair to lazily sit down in and had even sent a Black Knight back into the café to fetch him a gaming console. Hearing the woman's determined declaration of death, Wu Yin nonchalantly acknowledged it, briefly lifting his gaze to give the silent man with glasses a look before casually turning on the gaming console.

"Since the kid is beyond saving and you've willingly given up your rights, and since the one on the ground who got his right wrist bitten off can't drive, it seems the only life left for us to consider..."

His words were abruptly cut off as he suddenly paused, then widened his eyes, issuing a piercing howl of agony.

Jie Lin Yuan swore he had known Wu Yin for over a month and had never seen him react so intensely, nor had he ever heard such a heart-wrenching scream from him.

It was as if a celestial being floating in the clouds had suddenly lost his magic and fallen to the mortal realm, tainted with the full spectrum of worldly emotions.

—"Who broke my Tetris record?!"

The deeply aggrieved round-faced girl and the man with glasses: "..."

Jie Lin Yuan, feeling both secretly thrilled and guilty, averted his gaze.

"Jie Lin Yuan!" Wu Yin called out the name of the main culprit through gritted teeth, but he couldn't possibly make a scene with Jie Lin Yuan at a time like this. The man with glasses standing not too far away didn't look like an easy target, his willingness to kill without hesitation indicating a ruthless character, making it essential for Jie Lin Yuan to stand unharmed before him to intimidate.

Unable to vent his anger on the main offender, Wu Yin decided to displace his rage onto some "innocent" bystanders.

"Was it really that woman's family who stole the little black monkey's chocolate?" Wu Yin asked with a sinister look in his eyes, questioning the man in black glasses, "How come you always happen to see everything, yet always seem too late to act? And why do you only start accusing after you've killed them?"

The man in glasses was taken aback by the question, and the round-faced girl, holding Little Cloud, stopped sobbing and looked up, bewildered: "What, what do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" the man in glasses retorted, confronting Wu Yin, "We're down to so few people, with some dead and others injured. Are you still trying to sow discord?"

Wu Yin sneered: "Accusing me of sowing discord? You know very well what you've done."

Indeed, he was sowing discord.

But had the glasses man not made such provocative statements after killing the mother and son, Wu Yin wouldn't have thought much of it. With everyone who could refute him dead and the only surviving child seemingly having speech issues, he could easily stir up the round-faced girl's guilt, pushing her towards suicide without shedding blood.

This way, he naturally becomes the only one left alive...

But how could he allow that?

Wu Yin had said he wanted to disgust them, so naturally, everyone must be equally disgusted, fair and square.

However, the man in glasses was not easily fooled. Unfazed, he slightly lifted his chin and said coolly, "I have a clear conscience. Either show some evidence or stop making baseless allegations here."

"..." Wu Yin, blind as a bat in the night, had no evidence, feeling frustrated and sullen, he shifted his gaze to Jie Linyuan, who smiled politely at him, subtly glancing at the game console in his hand.

I'll help you vent, but we'll call it even with the game record issue.

"..." Wu Yin narrowed his eyes, and after a few seconds of thought, nodded.

With the promise secured, Jie Linyuan lifted his head and smiled slightly: "Li Ruida, it's very unfortunate that at 4:39 AM, I witnessed you robbing Lai Yun of her food, threatening her verbally, and causing her to be bitten and infected on the wrist."

The man in glasses looked in surprise at the peculiar silver-haired man: "How do you know my name?"

The round-faced girl was even more shocked: "Lai Yun...? Is that Little Cloud's real name? When I found her, she only knew her nickname as Little Cloud."

"Yes, Ms. Qin Yue."

Round-faced woman: "..."

Jie Linyuan's left eye pupil transformed into a display screen, rapidly switching interfaces, pulling up surveillance footage, swiftly replaying, and finally locking onto several segments of highly magnified recordings.

With silver hair, red eyes, and the ability to effortlessly recall everyone's names, when Jie Linyuan projected images from his left eye onto the ground, displaying video clips and pictures, nobody present even felt surprised.

Witnessing the spectacle of the bespectacled man contemptuously holding Little Cloud's neck, dangling her in front of the Polluter's mouth to tease her as a threat to hand over the chocolate, Qin Yue, with a round face, screamed in horror and angrily questioned, "Brother Li, how could you do this?!"

His lies exposed and overwhelmed by fear of the unknown creature, the bespectacled man Li Ruida's calm and calculating facade abruptly shattered. His eyes bulged in collapse, his roar louder than Qin Yue's: "Why can't I do this! A mentally challenged child, feeding her is a waste! A waste that could save someone else's life!"

"That kind of thinking is wrong!" Qin Yue cried out, "Children have the right to live too! Little Cloud is innocent. How are you any different from a beast?"

Wu Yin's brows furrowed into a knot: "Why hasn't this woman shot that man yet? Can't she pull the trigger?"

Jie Linyuan: "..."

"Calling me a beast?" Li Ruida sneered, raising a bloodstained dagger and advancing step by step toward Qin Yue and Little Cloud, "Survival of the fittest, what’s wrong with that?"

Just then, the skinny, unnoticed man lying on the ground suddenly sprang up, wrapping his arms around the bespectacled man from behind, choking his neck, and shouting, "Quick! Quick!"

Qin Yue was still dazed, but Little Cloud, sharp as ever, yelled and lunged to grab and bite the bespectacled man's hand holding the dagger. In an instant, blood splattered, and the man, in pain, loosened his grip on the knife.

"Hurry! I can't hold on!" The skinny man, vastly weaker than Li Ruida, had gained a momentary advantage by surprise, but now Li Ruida reacted, grabbing the skinny man's broken hand. Amidst the clear sound of breaking bones, the skinny man instantly screamed, losing his strength.

The next second, Li Ruida fiercely threw Little Cloud to the ground, stepping on her chest. The little girl didn’t even have time to scream before blood oozed from her mouth.

Li Ruida roared triumphantly, relishing the arbitrary control over life and death. But in that instant, a sharp knife plunged into his heart. Looking down, he saw Qin Yue's angry gaze and tearful eyes.

"You... dare to..." Li Ruida punched Qin Yue in the face, sending her flying to the ground. Clutching his bleeding chest, he staggered back, while Qin Yue, fueled by unknown courage despite her swollen face, stood up fiercely, pulled out the dagger, and stabbed him again with force.