Translator: phizzlepop
Editor: mantou
Ye Ming abruptly opened his eyes, and found himself sitting in the system space. He was still stuck in the shadow of being smashed to death by a billboard. For a while, his eyes stared straight ahead, and he assumed a state of lifelessness.
After a long time, Ye Ming exhaled and said, “This method of death is too unsightly! It doesn’t match my status as a protagonist at all! I strongly protest! What accidental death package? You guys can’t skimp on me like this.”
888 responded dismissively, “Though death befalls all men alike, some are inherently as light as a feather, while others, as heavy as Mount Tai. For someone like you who’s lighter than a feather, pairing a billboard with you is more than sufficient.”
Ye Ming criticized 888 with a righteous expression, “All men are born equal! Each life is equally precious! How could you say that about me? Is my life not precious then?”
888 laughed, he he he.
Ye Ming felt he had been scorned again. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or not, but he’d always felt that the frequency of him being scorned had gotten higher and higher…
888 asked, “Are you going to keep grappling with this problem, or do you want to transmigrate to the next world?”
Ye Ming glared at him, then realized that 888 probably wouldn’t pay any attention to him. Finally, he gave a dry cough, “Let’s continue on to the next world, then.”
Without another word, 888 initiated the transmission.
【Ding. Transmission complete.】
Ye Ming accepted some memories in his mind, and immediately knew which world he’d returned to. He couldn’t help but sigh in despair. It wasn’t that he thought the mission was too difficult or anything, but rather, he just didn’t really like post-apocalyptic worlds where supplies were scarce and zombies ran rampant. He preferred to pursue an exquisite, high-quality, high-class lifestyle ma.
In this world, his name was Xu Xiaofei. When he’d first transmigrated to this world, this world hadn’t been a post-apocalyptic one, and had only been a very normal, modern world.
His capture target was called Yang Qian, Xu Xiaofei’s childhood sweetheart plus classmate. They’d originally been good buddies.
After Ye Ming transmigrated over, he successfully staged a ‘You treat me like a brother, I treat you like a lover’ performance. He pretended to have a secret crush on Yang Qian. Yang Qian didn’t think that Ye Ming would like him like that. At the beginning, he was still very surprised, but soon, he was captured by Ye Ming, and the two became a couple.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The two families were old family friends, and their parents were all more open-minded. They had no objections to the two of them being together. It could be said that the path of their relationship flowed with the wind and currents. Just when Ye Ming thought that this was simply an easy modern world, and was prepared to go down this path to completely fill up the favorability value, an incident occurred!
Ktf revvfc beaygfjx bo j nlger rkfqa jmgbrr atf fcalgf kbgiv. 90% bo atf tewjc qbqeijalbc tjv agjcrobgwfv lcab hbwylfr. Ojk jcv bgvfg rbbc mbiijqrfv, jcv atf regnlnlcu tewjc yflcur rageuuifv obg regnlnji lc j qbra-jqbmjisqalm kbgiv.
An urban theme suddenly turned into a doomsday theme. Everywhere, there were explosively ugly zombies opening their mouths to eat humans. There was no power, no water, no WiFi, a lack of food, and little to drink, just like living in the □□ Ages. At that time, there was only one phrase that could describe Ye Ming’s frame of mind: WTF.
Tf Zlcu tjv yffc abufatfg klat Tjcu Hljc atf fcalgf alwf, yea atflg gfijalnfr kfgf jii lc jcbatfg mlas. Vbbc joafg atf beaygfjx bo atf nlger, atfs ibra mbcajma. Mjmlcu atf jgglnji bo atf jqbmjisqrf, atf akb mbeiv bcis weaejiis vfqfcv bc fjmt batfg obg regnlnji jcv jvnjcmf obgkjgv.
Although life wasn’t easy, Ye Ming quickly found out that it wasn’t entirely without benefits. In such difficult circumstances where they were under the constant threat of death, the two fought side by side. In order to protect Ye Ming, Yang Qian encountered life-or-death situations on several occasions. The favorability value that rose very slowly before actually doubled in growth speed. The danger had actually stimulated Yang Qian’s desire to protect Ye Ming.
When the apocalypse arrived, besides the majority of human beings who had transformed into zombies, a small number of people awakened special abilities while fighting at close quarters. In the post-apocalyptic world, these humans with special abilities gradually demonstrated their skills and became existences standing at the apex of the food chain.
Regrettably, neither Ye Ming nor Yang Qian had awakened any abilities. There were only the two of them, and they didn’t team up with anyone else, so they led pretty difficult lives after the apocalypse… however, although Yang Qian didn’t have an ability, his survival skills and fighting abilities weren’t low, while his adaptability was very high. Among the ordinary human beings, he was considered outstanding. The two had several close calls, but fortunately, still managed to persevere.
Of course, they never ran into any kind of danger with certain death. Otherwise, even if Ye Ming had to get 888 to step out, he still wouldn’t have let Yang Qian die before his favorability value was full.
In fact, getting an ability couldn’t be considered something difficult for Ye Ming to accomplish. The system store sold ability awakening potions. Even the type of awakened ability could be selected. If Ye Ming wanted to dominate this post-apocalyptic world, it wouldn’t simply be a dream. But, the price of the potion wasn’t cheap, so Ye Ming was reluctant. Besides, with Yang Qian there, nothing would happen to him. In the end, Ye Ming’s goal wasn’t to dominate this post-apocalyptic world, but to obtain favorability points.
Making money wasn’t easy, ah. Ye Ming never wasted experience points on unnecessary things.
Like this, the two people fled for their lives and killed zombies along the way. Finally, Ye Ming raised Yang Qian’s favorability value to 90, and they successfully arrived at the largest survivor base in the north.
The leader of this survivor base was a powerful ability-user named Huo Yi.
Huo Yi was a mercenary before he awakened his ability. He brought along a group of comrades-in-arms under his leadership who had also awakened their abilities. While other human beings were still escaping in a panic or were reduced to zombie food, they began to plunder resources without restraint, and built up their own forces. These troubled times, on the contrary, allowed them to be like fish in water.
This post-apocalyptic world that had lost all social order was once again governed by the law of the jungle. Here, the strong were respected.
In order to survive, many human beings had no choice but to seek their protection. But, in order to secure Huo Yi’s protection, they needed to pay a price. Not only did they have to contribute manpower, but they also had to obey their instructions and hand over a lot of resources as protection fees. The people living here had to pay a lot to barely acquire enough food for subsistence. Useless women or weak men were sometimes even reduced to slaves who were bought and sold.
In this survivor base, Huo Yi’s existence was equivalent to that of an emperor, while the powerhouses who supported him were equivalent to the aristocrats of a country. They would go out to plunder resources, ward off zombies, and battle zombies. At the same time, they possessed privileges that other people didn’t have.
Nevertheless, compared with living in constant fear outside, the people who had nowhere to go would rather be exploited and stay in the survivor’s base Huo Yi and the others had built. At least then, they could live with their own kind and have strong people to protect them.
In this post-apocalyptic world, viciousness and cruelty, the instinct to cowardly escape, and all kinds of despicable aspects of human nature could no longer be concealed. The dark side that had once been constrained by ethics and regulations had lost its restraints, and lay bare for all to see.
By the time Ye Ming and Yang Qian had fled here, they were nearly spent. There hadn’t been a single night where they could sleep peacefully, nor a single day where they could rest peacefully. They didn’t have enough food to eat and lived in a constant state of fear. Even though they clearly knew that this base wasn’t some paradise, they still wanted to stay there at all costs.
Every day there were many people just like them who fled to this place. This was the only place they could find for survival. Even so, it wasn’t as though everyone could go in. Before they could enter the base, they still had to be assessed first. Completely useless good-for-nothings were denied entry, while the people who were allowed entry were divided into different classes and suffered through hardships to obtain barely enough food for subsistence.
Ye Ming and Yang Qian were only ordinary human beings without abilities. Only ability-users would receive VIP treatment, while they could only stay at the bottom and make a living. Yang Qian joined the dangerous search team and went out with other men to hunt for supplies and earn points to support the two, while Ye Ming stayed at the base to do much safer work.
Ye Ming carefully and conscientiously collected favorability points. He and Yang Qian mutually supported each other, not separating from nor abandoning the other, completely embodying what it meant to share trials and tribulations. The favorability value rose higher and higher, and right when it was almost full…
Huo Yi took a fancy to Ye Ming.
In this post-apocalyptic world, if someone didn’t have powerful enough strength, a good-looking appearance would often bring a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Without the constraints of laws and regulations, here, the strong were respected. The strong could willfully take whatever they’d set their eyes on, including people.
If it’d been those who’d originally been willing to rely on the strong by selling their bodies, then that’d be one thing, but there were always those who were unwilling to succumb to such oppression. But, if they didn’t have the ability to resist, if they weren’t snatched away, then they were turned into slaves who were bought and sold.
Ye Ming’s appearance in this world, indeed, was rather good-looking. Since Yang Qian felt especially distressed for him, he went out by himself to fight zombies and grab resources and left Ye Ming in the base to do much safer work. Ye Ming rarely suffered much after the apocalypse. With an exceptional temperament and remarkable looks… fortunately, he was a man, otherwise there’d have been even more people casting their greedy eyes on him. Nevertheless, he still couldn’t escape this obstacle.
Whenever Huo Yi wanted someone, he’d always directly grabbed them. Or, it could be said that whenever he wanted someone, it’d always been the others hurriedly delivering themselves to his doorstep while suffering a loss. It was rare to meet a person like Ye Ming who wasn’t willing to obey him, which, on the contrary, made him even more interested and determined to get his hands on him.
At first, Huo Yi still had a little patience and gave Ye Ming some time to think about it. But not after long, seeing that Ye Ming didn’t have the slightest intention to go with him, he lost his patience and directly snatched him away.
Ye Ming thought in his heart, how unlucky. Laozi was only missing a few points before the favorability value would be full, ah! Couldn’t you have waited a bit longer before making your move?
This was also the reason why Ye Ming hadn’t wanted to come to this base from the start. Having a lot of people around would easily cause new problems to crop up. Only, it wasn’t convenient for him to make his thoughts too obvious. Moreover, Yang Qian insisted on coming because he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to protect Ye Ming, so even if he had to go through fire and water, he still wanted to leave Ye Ming inside the base. His original intention had been to protect Ye Ming, but he hadn’t thought that the inside of the base would also be fraught with accidents and dangers. The darkness in people’s hearts could sometimes be more frightening than zombies.
That day, Yang Qian coincidentally went out with the search team. When they were coming back, they ran into a large wave of zombies and had heavy casualties. Only less than half of the group returned alive. After Yang Qian came back, he discovered that Ye Ming wasn’t at home and searched everywhere. Finally, he found out that Ye Ming had been snatched away by Huo Yi.
Yang Qian loved Ye Ming deeply. How could he tolerate his lover being taken away? He immediately went over to find Huo Yi to demand his return, but Huo Yi completely didn't have Yang Qian in his eyes. He contemptuously proposed using one thousand points for an exchange. Points were the currency that Huo Yi established in this base. A thousand points was considered an enormous sum that could be used to purchase a lot of food. He felt that using it to buy Ye Ming was more than enough, and Yang Qian ought to be deeply grateful for his kindness. After all, there were many people who were willing to sell their relatives or themselves just for the sake of survival.
But to his surprise, Yang Qian wasn’t moved at all by this. Instead, he was so humiliated his eyes turned red, and he recklessly attacked him. Of course, Huo Yi wouldn’t tolerate an ant acting so impudently, refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. So, he made a move to kill Yang Qian.
Ye Ming thought in his heart, “How could this be alright. My family’s Yang Qian is only an ordinary person, not enough for one slap from you. If you slap him to death, my experience points will go down the drain, ah!” His experience points were about to face a life-or-death crisis! Ye Ming was so agitated his eyes also reddened, and he rushed forward to block him. Even if laozi dies, I can’t let my experience points die, ahhh! If you dare kill him, I refuse to live under the same sky as you!
Huo Yi didn’t think that Ye Ming had such ‘profound affection’ for Yang Qian and immediately, the man’s scumbag nature was exposed a bit. The more he couldn’t obtain something, the more he wanted to obtain it, so instead, he liked Ye Ming even more now. Instead of killing Yang Qian, he drove him out. Then, he threatened to kill Yang Qian if Ye Ming didn’t listen to him.
But, the Ye Ming at this time was a little absent-minded, because just now, when he stood in front of Huo Yi to save Yang Qian, the favorability value that had just been missing one final point became full, and his mission was completed!
Huo Yi, however, thought that Ye Ming was unwilling because of Yang Qian, and continued to threaten him.
The favorability value was full, so Ye Ming felt it didn’t matter much anyway. After all, he was about to leave, and wasn’t this just the opportunity to make some trouble, ma. Anyway, Yang Qian’s favorability value was already full, so letting him believe that he decided to follow Huo Yi wasn’t a bad idea. This way, they could logically go their separate ways.
Ye Ming felt this was absolutely perfect!
The next day, Yang Qian secretly found a chance to meet with Ye Ming outside. Then, when he expressed that he would definitely think of a way to save him, Ye Ming calmly said to him instead: “Don’t come find me again, and don’t waste your efforts. Just forget about me.”
Ye Ming’s alienating attitude surprised Yang Qian and made him feel very sad. But, he didn’t believe that Ye Ming was the type of person who’d sell his own body and forsake their feelings. Just yesterday, in front of Huo Yi, he’d protected him. So, he asked sadly, “Did Huo Yi threaten you.”
Ye Ming said, “No.” He said, “You should realize that this is reality. I thought about it a bit afterwards. If I go with Huo Yi, I can live a much better life, and you can also get points, which is a good thing for both you and me.”
Yang Qian still didn’t believe that Ye Ming would abandon him to go with Huo Yi, so he said, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll definitely have a way to save you!”
Ye Ming saw that Yang Qian single-mindedly believed that he’d been threatened, and just wouldn’t believe that he’d abandon him. He also felt very helpless, but he was about to leave. If Yang Qian really was unwilling to believe him, then forget it.
But he hadn’t imagined that, on the next day, something would happen that would change his plans.
888 told Ye Ming that apparently, on that day, Huo Yi had overheard Yang Qian and Ye Ming’s conversation during their secret rendezvous. He also determined that Ye Ming had been ‘threatened by him and was afraid of something happening to Yang Qian’ and had intentionally said such things. Seeing Ye Ming ‘enduring such disgrace and bearing such a heavy burden’ for Yang Qian, Huo Yi’s heart gave rise to a murderous intent again. He instinctively felt that Yang Qian was a threat, and didn’t seem to be a person who could be content with his lot. So, he ordered his trusted subordinate, Liu Wenguang, to get rid of Yang Qian to eliminate a potential root of future troubles.
Ye Ming anxiously inquired 888, “If Yang Qian is killed before I leave, does the mission still count as complete or not?”
888 said that this kind of situation had never happened before, so he wasn’t too certain. It depended on what the main system decided. Ye Ming thought in his heart that it would be best not to take this risk. At any rate, they’d gotten along with each other for such a long time already. Watching Yang Qian just get killed like this because of him would make him him feel somewhat unsettled, so he brainstormed and conceived an ingenious (rotten) trick to kill two birds with one stone.
That very night, Yang Qian was captured by Liu Wenguang and brought back. He was only an ordinary human. He fundamentally wasn’t an ability user’s opponent at all, and could only be a fish on a cutting board.
The translator has something to say: apocalypse! apocalypse!! apocalypse!!! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ
Ohhh, what if Yang Qian becomes the Zombie King?!?! Like,they try to dispose him to the zombies and he becomes a powerful zombie?! Zombie lover stories are becoming a favorite of mine recently 😆
Thanks for the chapter! 😘
I honestly thought this would have the standard “You thought I sold you out for my greed, but it was actually to protect you” storyline, but it seems to be getting more and more exciting!! Thank you for the chapter n
Oops, sorry, didnt mean to reply
You’re good, it happens a lot on this site 😆
thanks for reading!
mn… Ye Ming-gege seems to have been in an interesting state of mind during this world. very interesting to see that he had the intentions to save his experience poi-ahem, the ML (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)
oooh~ those are always fun with the zombie legions… we shall find out more next chapter (♡°▽°♡)
thanks for reading!
Eh, the plot doesn’t seem that unredeemable, ne? What made it collapse?
right? was very surprised Ye Ming-gege mentioned that since he was about to leave anyway then he’d just leave it alone at some point. um… of course he changed his mind not long after to kill birds but it was there! ^ↀᴥↀ^
… But everytime we trust in YM… Sigh. There’s some stinking corpses under the rug, and I shall refuse to presume otherwise.
hahaha… all shall be revealed… on Monday. ( ˙꒳˙ )
Huehuehue (ಡ艸ಡ)
AHHHH IM SO HYPE! Lemme chant along with ya translator-san! Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Apocalypse! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ
Hearts and Kissies! Thanks for the chappie! ( ˘ ³˘)♡
me too!!!!! post-apocalyptic worlds are my fave!!! all the ~fun~ possibilities… (((o(°▽°)o)))
Thanks for the chapter <3
thanks for reading! o( ❛ᴗ❛ )o
Eeee excited…
The squared-out characters were censored by the original platform. There’s a list online of thousands of Chinese words that are censored on the internet there, whether because they’re too sexual, political, or illicit… As a translator, I usually just try to guess what might have gone there before and fill in the blank.
me too~
hehehe… I went with Dark Ages because that’s what came to mind as a common comparison in English for not having electricity but I couldn’t figure out what else the author could’ve been trying to reference that would result in it needing to be censored… normally she’s p careful and uses a lot of XXX instead of making up a name of a building or place too…
Thanks for your hard work!
OMG! I love apocalypse worlds! Zombies are my fave! 🎉
thanks for reading! (✪㉨✪)
me too, me too! so excited to be in this arc~
I take back what I said about waiting for this arc to finish before reading. Every time I go to NU, I see this shinning on the top of my reading list with unread chapters. I can’t resist this seduction anymore!
hahahaha making the NU reading list all “clean” after catching up with the new chapters is an ~aesthetic~
It’s not like I’m complayinig but just find it uncomfortable how mc is very indifferent and not caring about the target at all, who loves him so deeply. He isn’t moved at all.
If there really is no other relationship except missions then I’d better adjust my state, so I won’t feel so sad for ml every time and then understand that our mc doesn’t care at all. If I won’t do this, my heart will just explode.
The following is spoiler-y so i’m gonna leave some spaces here so ppl won’t see it unless they click on “read more” and open it:
i will say that this is indeed HE, 1V1 though, and the ML is the same person. the last arc (2 arcs later) is titled “the real world” if that gives you a hint of what’s perhaps to come. i think both Ye Ming and 888 could actually be considered somewhat unreliable narrators. bits of Ye Ming are revealed further down the line that may either cement or change your views on what kind of person he is, but i know readers are definitely split among reading this either bc “he’s a scum shou” and looking forward to seeing him get his just desserts, while the other half are in support of Ye Ming and looking forward to the “scum gong abuse”. my personal view on Ye Ming is that he’s black-bellied, but is fairly soft-hearted and doesn’t always say what he means, while even some of his “personal thoughts” we’re shown appear to be him convincing himself of something. there are very rarely hints of this though, but if i had to cite something immediate, when he was with Lu Xiuwen in front of his parents’ grave, as he was making his speech, he watched him but didn’t actually say anything, and later when 888 asked him what was wrong and why he seemed out of it, it seemed to me like he made up a frivolous excuse on the spot instead. i think he’s not unnecessarily cruel when he doesn’t have to be, but he’s also no saint. but readers have their opinions and tastes ofc when it comes to the kind of MCs they like, these are just my personal thoughts as a fellow reader.
I skipped the entire last arc and really couldn’t take it. I had enough of those parents and child rape scenes and weird entanglements🤡 if its not pure then no. This arc seems exciting , I hope YM be serious in the end and find his love one mua
Normally post-apocalyptic worlds traumatize me (because the MC always dies and I cry), but in the case of this novel…everything traumatizes me, so it should be fine ╮(＾▽＾)╭