Rebirth of MC

Hrrgrr

Greyish-green face, withered skin, a pair of muddy eyes, arms akimbo and waving around blindly, non-stop low growling emitting from their throats. Disfigured human heads swaying back and forth on bony necks. Countless zombies pour towards the house from all directions, climbing over each other like so many ants trying to reach the roof of the shabby building. Pushing and shoving, gnashing and scrabbling, as though something is calling out to them from inside.

However, the strangest thing isn't quite the horde of undead, but rather, that the house has yet to be torn down by the zombies, and it seems like an invisible force is preventing all of them from crossing a line and touching the building.

Within this house, upon a straw-woven mat, sits a cross-legged elderly full of wrinkles. Both eyes closed, a dog-eared and damaged book lies on the ground before her. Besides the old woman in this old, near-crumbling home, there are also quite a few adults and children, each of them wearing an expression of terror and fright.

"Esteemed grandmother, those monsters have almost crossed the red linewhat do we do? If things continue like this, we will all be eaten." A middle-aged man with a head full of grey hair throws himself down before the elderly, banging his head on the ground a few times, face pale with fright.

"They are coming, the people who will rescue us will definitely arrive on time." The old woman says in a frail voice, still keeping her eyes closed.

In her mind's eyes, she can see the people who will be their saviours arriving

~~~

When Long Zhanye drives, the speed he forces the car to go at is not something an ordinary person can imitate. Close to sunset, the off-road vehicle has already left Huan Shan Street and entered the suburban district's Huang Ni Tu road. Wheels kicking up sand and dust, the vehicle's black-painted body is adorned with a layer of yellow sand, giving it a slightly battered look. However, the car's speed is still pretty fast, advancing along the bumpy road as though it is driving through an ordinary, flat, bitumen lane. Occasionally, there's a bang and a bump as the car ploughs over zombies in the way, either running them over or sending them flying away.

With Li Qing snuggling into Qin Jun's chest, the two intimately shares a piece of rou gan[1] in the backseat.

"Little Qing, returning this to you." Sitting in the passenger seat, Huo Zaiyuan waves his left hand even as his eyes continue pursuing the map before him. A wooden case appears, the very one taken from his mother's house in Z City that Li Qing asked him to safe-keep. Now that Li Qing has his own storage ring, then it is a good time to hand over what his mother memento.

Taking the box, Li Qing stares at Huo Zaiyuan. "Little Yuan, this is"

"It has always belonged to you and now you're responsible for safeguarding it. Unless you actually want me to hold onto it forever?" Huo Zaiyuan scoffs lightly at the disbelief in Li Qing's eyes.

"But the ring"

Although Li Qing is pleased to be the one wearing this storage ring and had fun taking things out of it, so far, he has only been treating it like a game inventory. After playing with it for a while, he wholly expects to be asked to hand it over, and when the time comes, will not hesitate to do so. Because this ring doesn't originally belong to him. Not to mention during the fight with Mad Dog's gang, he didn't exactly do much, no more than delivering a few kicks. If you ask him who deserves this ring the most, he will immediately say Long Zhanye as the one who defeated Mad Dog was the soldier.

"You were the one who took it off Mad Dog, so it's only natural for you to keep it. Oh, wait, it will be better to wear it around your neck instead of on your finger as it will be less attention-grabbing." Another wave of his hand and a length of thin red rope floats down before Li Qing.

Reaching out to grab the rope, Li Qing still expressed a little hesitance.

"Little Qing, this older brother don't need a storage ring, so it would be better for you to properly take care of it." Long Zhanye persuades, knowing full well why Li Qing is hesitating.

"Thank you." Hearing Long Zhanye's words, he finally smiles and ties the ring around his neck with Qin Jun's help.

The off-road vehicle continues its high-speed race forward, and as the sky begins to darken, they can make out a small town out in front.

"That is X City's Y Town." Looking at the map, Huo Zaiyuan says. "Tonight, we'll spend the night here."

"Spend the nightthis time, we shouldn't run into any 'Elder Demon of Black Moutain', right?" Li Qing murmurs as he burrows into Qin Jun's arms. It's not difficult to tell the demonic tree's sudden attack that night had frightened him deeply.

"I can't guarantee that it might not happen." Huo Zaiyuan sighs with a roll of his eyes.

The other two men simply laugh.

Footnotes:

[1] Rou gan = flat seasoned pieces of meat, usually cooked over fire like BBQ