Meanwhile, deep inside the Red Zone...
Gu Luhan stood beside the truck he had driven into the wasteland, a filter mask covering the lower half of his face. His eyes were swollen and rimmed red as he stared silently at Wenzhi’s body lying on the cracked earth.
Hours had passed.
He had done nothing except sit inside the truck, step out to look at Wenzhi, then climb back inside again, unable to decide whether to leave... or stay.
His grip tightened around his phone.
No signal.
There hadn’t been one since he had driven this deep into the Red Zone.
According to the scans on his watch, there were no monsters in this sector. Most of them had migrated toward the newly expanding borders of the Red Zone.
For now... He was safe.
Gu Luhan let out a frustrated sigh and rested his forehead against the steering wheel.
He couldn’t contact Jiang Zhaohe. He couldn’t find out whether Wang Chenxi was still alive.
He didn’t even know what was happening outside anymore.
"...ugh." Giving up, he reached for the ignition.
The engine had barely started when a deep, guttural growl rolled across the wasteland.
Gu Luhan froze. His fingers instantly closed around the energy gun beside him.
Slowly, he turned his head and his pupils shrank.
Crawlers.
Dozens of them were dragging themselves over broken concrete and ruined walls, emerging from the fog in every direction.
His heart nearly stopped.
He slammed the truck into gear and sped forward, intending to outrun them but his gaze hit Wenzhi in the rearview mirror.
"...Damn it!" He stomped on the brakes.
Throwing the door open, Luhan sprinted toward Wenzhi while firing blindly into the mist. Blue plasma bolts ripped through the crimson haze, blowing the closest monsters to ash. He grabbed Wenzhi under the arms, desperately trying to drag his dead weight toward the truck, but more growls erupted.
The Crawlers were multiplying far too quickly.
Grinding his teeth, Gu Luhan was forced to let Wenzhi go.
He turned instead, raising the energy gun with both hands as he continued firing at the incoming monsters.
~•~
Meanwhile... Wenzhi floated inside an endless void. Darkness stretched infinitely in every direction.
His soul had returned to its original appearance. Shen Ran.
"...Hey!" His furious voice echoed endlessly through the emptiness. "Where the fuck am I?!"
His anger only grew.
How the hell had he died... Twice?
And both deaths had been so ridiculously stupid.
"The one time..." He clenched his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms. "The one fucking time I don’t carry my gun... Gu Luhan."
He nearly laughed from sheer disbelief. "Gu Luhan of all people kills me?"
He threw his head back and roared into the darkness. "Take me back! I’m not dying because I got shot by the one person I least expected! And a headshot?! Seriously?! I even got married!"
"Am I not allowed one happy ending in this miserable life?"
"Come on! I refuse to die like that!"
"I can’t leave Xinyuan! He doesn’t deserve that kind of pain!"
"Send me back!"
His voice reverberated through the endless void again... And again...
No one answered only silence.
"...HEY!" He didn’t even know who he had been screaming at.
Suddenly, his spiritual body shimmered. Shen Ran’s features dissolved, snapping back into the form of Lin Wenzhi. An icy, piercing cold shot through every part of him.
Then, very faintly, sound began to bleed back in. Screeches. Growls. Far away, but getting closer.
Bang!
Repeated blasts echoed from somewhere in the physical world.
Wenzhi’s eyes flew open. Above him, a familiar crimson sky of the thick Red Zone miasma came into view and the sharp, unmistakable smell of blood.
The gaping hole in Wenzhi’s forehead suddenly sealed itself, the bullet wounds in both shoulders closing just as quickly, flesh knitting together without leaving a single scar.
Like something ripped straight out of a horror film, his body jerked upright.
At that exact moment, a Crawler lunged at him.
Wenzhi’s dull grey eyes flashed a brilliant crimson, the exact same shade as Xinyuan’s.
Dark mist exploded from his body and tore through the Crawler in an instant, shredding it into black flesh and spraying blood across the cracked asphalt.
Wenzhi blinked. "Huh...?"
He slowly raised a hand to his face.
Around him, the black mist moved as though it possessed a will of its own, lashing through the swarm of Crawlers with terrifying precision. Limbs flew. Heads burst apart. None of the monsters even came close before being ripped to pieces.
Wenzhi pressed a hand against his chest. "I’m..."
"You’re... alive?" Gu Luhan’s voice cracked with disbelief.
Wenzhi froze.
Slowly, he turned toward him.
The moment his eyes landed on Gu Luhan, the crimson glow returned. "You bastard."
Gu Luhan instinctively took a step back. "W-Wait, I—"
"You shot me." There wasn’t rage in Wenzhi’s voice, just disappointment. "You fucking shot me."
His jaw clenched. "You didn’t even let me explain. You didn’t give me a chance to think of another way. You just... pulled the trigger."
Gu Luhan’s face crumpled. "I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking! They took Chenxi... they threatened to kill him if I didn’t—"
His voice died.
More Crawlers were emerging from the surrounding streets, their screeches growing louder as they poured toward them.
Both men instinctively shifted into fighting stances.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Gu Luhan’s watch erupted into a piercing alarm.
He glanced at it and the color drained from his face.
"What is it?" Wenzhi asked.
Gu Luhan looked like he had seen a ghost. "...The end of the world."
His lips trembled. "They didn’t succeed..."
He slowly lifted his head to look at Wenzhi. "...Xinyuan is going to kill us all."
Wenzhi frowned. "What?"
"He thinks you’re dead."
Wenzhi lowered his gaze to the black mist still slaughtering Crawlers around him.
"...I was dead." He flexed his fingers. "I can’t feel him anymore... but somehow..."
The mist rushed again, pulverizing another wave of monsters before they could even reach him.
"...I’m still using his abilities." He stared at his own hand. "This makes absolutely no fucking sense."
Gu Luhan could only stare.
Watching the man he had personally executed standing in front of him was already enough to shatter his sanity.
"Wenzhi... I..." He never finished.
CRACK!
Wenzhi’s fist smashed into his face, snapping his head sideways.
Before Gu Luhan could recover, CRACK!
A second punch sent him crashing onto the pavement.
Blood spilled from his mouth as he coughed harshly.
Wenzhi stood over him, breathing hard, his entire body trembling from the unnatural cold coursing through him.
"That..." He exhaled sharply. "...was for killing me."
He glanced down at himself. "I don’t even know if I’m a zombie right now."
Without another word, he snatched the energy gun from Gu Luhan’s hand before ripping the watch off his wrist.
"...Xinyuan."
The display blinked with a flashing global emergency alert.
WORLDWIDE DISASTER WARNING
The words alone made Wenzhi’s stomach drop.
It felt... Exactly like the novel.
Gu Luhan slowly pushed himself upright, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. "I’m sorry..."
His voice broke. "I really thought..."
"Enough." Wenzhi shot Gu Luhan a glare.
Gu Luhan immediately shut his mouth and slowly pushed himself upright, wiping the blood running from his nose and mouth with the back of his hand.
Wenzhi closed his eyes and reached for the bond.
It was... there. But... wrong.
It felt like a cord that had been severed, both broken ends desperately reaching for one another yet unable to reconnect.
His chest tightened.
Xinyuan....
"You have to go to him," Gu Luhan said suddenly, his voice hoarse. He coughed, another streak of blood trickling from the corner of his lips. "He has to see you. I think... I think that’s the only thing that’ll stop him."
Wenzhi swallowed.
Gu Luhan was right.
If Xinyuan truly believed he was dead... Wenzhi didn’t even want to imagine what state he was in.
He was still trying to process everything himself.
He had died. Again.
And somehow... He was alive. Just like that.
Then again...
Nothing about his existence in this world had ever made sense in the first place.
His gaze drifted toward the dense black mist surrounding them.
Can I teleport?
The thought had barely crossed his mind before the mist surged toward him as though answering his call.It wrapped around both him and Gu Luhan in a roaring vortex.
The Crawlers lunged at them with furious screeches.
Too late.
The black mist swallowed them whole.
In the next instant, they vanished and the Crawlers crashed into one another where they had been standing only moments before, their enraged screeches echoing through the Red Zone.
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