PSW – Chapter 12

One: From now on, do more good deeds and fewer evil ones.

Two: Spread the name of Saint Zheng Yi throughout the entire world.

Three: Don’t even think about removing the control object, or else the moment Zheng Yi senses something is wrong, she’ll detonate it.

As the leader ran into the bathroom to retch, Zheng Yi’s “admonitions” played on a loop in his mind. He looked at the injury on his hand, barely able to think about it. The moment his thoughts strayed, he remembered those thinly sliced pieces of meat and bone, and he would start to gag.

The office was a lost cause, too. He planned to seal that room off and never step foot in it again for the rest of his life. As for reattaching his finger… there was clearly no chance of success.

Once he finally managed to calm himself down, he immediately sent people to give Zheng Yi’s car a simple cleaning and maintenance, then to fill up the tank. As for the motorcycle tied to the roof and the supplies inside the car, they couldn’t be touched. After the cleaning and maintenance, everything had to be returned to its original state.

As for resisting, the man had considered it. He could slip some sleeping pills into their food, keep Zheng Yi and the other woman here. As long as Zheng Yi let her guard down, he wasn’t completely without a chance to kill her.

But all these thoughts were from before he ate that “candy.”

The force of the explosion was practically seared into his mind, more terrifying than having his finger chopped off, sliced up, and eaten. The moment Zheng Yi realized something was wrong, with a single thought, his entire body would probably be blown to smithereens.

…He didn’t dare risk it.

Right now, he just wanted to obediently fulfill Zheng Yi’s demands and send this great Buddha on her way. As for spreading the name of the “Saint” throughout the world…

The leader was truly unsure what Zheng Yi’s real ability was. Could she really sense whether he sincerely believed she was a Saint? He seriously thought Zheng Yi had a screw loose, but in this post-apocalyptic world, lunatics like her were the last people you wanted to provoke.

He would just do as she said.

The lunatic herself had said he could make things up as he pleased. Fabricating some saintly deeds to spread around and then brainwashing his underlings shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

---

[Your Saint Points have increased by one.] Zero One gave Zheng Yi a real-time update. It seemed the leader was thoroughly traumatized by Zheng Yi; otherwise, he wouldn’t be so efficient.

Ah, but that wasn’t necessarily it. What if Yu Yinan had been duped into believing her Saint persona?

[When you go to other factions in the future, you’re not going to use this method every time, are you? This is bound to backfire sooner or later.] Zero One was worried, feeling that Zheng Yi was being a bit too reckless.

[Besides, don’t you think it’s strange to get Saint Points and recognition this way?] No matter how Zero One thought about it, something felt off. [What’s the difference between this and a cult?]

‘This little camp isn’t very big, and the leader is weak, so I just wanted to test it out a bit,’ Zheng Yi said reassuringly. ‘Don’t worry. It’s just being a Saint, right? I’m a professional.’

[…] Hearing that, it couldn’t relax at all.

There was a big problem with the system’s judgment, too! Although that man might have truly etched the idea of Zheng Yi being a Saint into his soul in a life-or-death moment, still… if the system had just reviewed Zheng Yi’s methods, it wouldn’t have come to this, right?

Forget it. It was a good thing for it, too. If the system’s judgment was too strict, Zero One had no idea when Zheng Yi would ever have enough Saint Points to go on a shopping spree in the store.

“Jiejie, it’s getting late. Should we rest here for the night, or leave now?” Zheng Yi was actually inclined to stay the night, which would also give the leader a chance to try and counter-attack. Of course, if the leader really did dare to harbor ill intentions, things would become even more interesting.

“Can we… leave directly?” Yu Yinan asked with some hesitation. She could tell Zheng Yi was leaning toward staying the night here.

“We can. They won’t stop us,” Zheng Yi said with a smile. “But we’ll have to wait a little for them to finish cleaning the car.”

“…If you want to rest here for the night, that’s fine too.” Yu Yinan glanced at the dark sky, weighing the dangers of resting outside. The car was cramped, and it was difficult for her and Zheng Yi to sleep comfortably. Even at night, they had to be vigilant against approaching zombies, so they couldn’t sleep too deeply. But in Yu Yinan’s mind, other humans in this apocalyptic world were far more alarming than the currently un-strengthened zombies.

“Jiejie, you don’t have to force yourself. We’ll leave in a bit, it’s fine.” Zheng Yi was very considerate. She took a mint from her pocket and pressed it into Yu Yinan’s palm. “Jiejie can sit here for a while. I’ll go check on their progress. And I’ll have another word with the leader.”

“Okay.”

Zheng Yi got up and went to find the leader. She walked slowly toward him, the designated lure held between her fingertips. The leader, who had been sitting on a chair trying to recover, was drenched in a cold sweat. Seeing Zheng Yi approach, he shot up to greet her, but Zheng Yi didn’t give him the chance. She walked right behind him and placed her hand gently on the wooden chair.

“Boom!”

Wood splinters flew everywhere. The flesh on the leader’s face trembled, and he stood there, petrified, almost stunned senseless by the massive explosion.

“Sorry, I just ate and I’m a little out of it. I used my ability by accident~” Zheng Yi patted his shoulder with a look of concern. The leader’s body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground. “Oh my! I didn’t scare you, did I? Are you alright?”

“N-no, I’m fine, I’m fine…” The leader’s tongue was practically tied in a knot, and he could barely speak properly. He scrambled to get up from the ground, but his legs were weak and he had no strength in his limbs. After one or two failed attempts, he fell again before finally managing to stand up shakily. If he weren’t afraid that a bigger reaction would anger Zheng Yi, he probably would have wet himself in terror. In that instant, he had truly thought he was about to be blown to pieces.

“I’m planning to leave. My car…”

“It’s ready! Everything is ready!” The leader hadn’t even dared to conserve water, making sure every detail would satisfy Zheng Yi.

“You still remember everything I told you to do, right?”

“I remember, I remember. Do no evil, remember that Zheng Yi is a Saint, and make sure everyone knows this fact. I was just about to gather my men to tell them.” After saying this, afraid that Zheng Yi wouldn’t believe him, he immediately recited the admonitions she had given him earlier. Only when Zheng Yi nodded in satisfaction did he let out a sigh of relief. He followed Zheng Yi to get Yu Yinan and led them to the car.

“Gulp.” It was only a short walk, but the leader was breaking out in a cold sweat, swallowing nervously. He simply couldn’t connect the girl in front of him, who was clinging to the other woman’s arm, whining and calling her “Jiejie,” with the madwoman who had just chopped off his finger with a flick of her wrist.

No, there was a connection.

After all, Zheng Yi’s voice had been just as gentle when she was slicing his finger and forcing him to eat it as it was when she demonstrated her explosive ability.

The car’s body and windows had been polished so brightly you could believe it was new. The scratched paint and dents from collisions couldn’t be fixed due to a lack of materials, but Zheng Yi wasn’t going to be overly difficult about it. Yu Yinan’s motorcycle had also been washed and was gleaming on the roof rack.

The car doors opened to reveal that the seats and interior had been meticulously cleaned. The backpacks and other supplies had been put back in their original places after the cleaning was done. Under the leader’s strict orders, the others had no choice but to comply, no matter how dissatisfied or confused they were.

There weren’t many weapons here. Zheng Yi reluctantly picked out an iron rod and two kitchen knives before losing interest. She gave the leader a friendly wave, moderately satisfied with the outcome.

And the leader, having finally sent off that demon, at last remembered who had invited this menace to his office in the first place.

“You, come here. We need to have a good talk.”

---

“Are we still heading toward the city center?”

“Mhm,” Zheng Yi said softly. “That leader wasn’t a Genbin local, so he didn’t know much about the initial emergency notice. But he did say there’s a military base here in Genbin, it’s just not marked on the map.”

“Let’s just drive around. As long as the car can get through, it’s fine,” Zheng Yi said after a moment’s thought. “There are bound to be survivors here. When we run into them, we can just ask and find out what’s going on.”

Of course, based on the original novel, the situation was clearly not very optimistic.

“Okay,” Yu Yinan replied earnestly. Seeing Zheng Yi yawn in the passenger seat, she instinctively lowered her voice. “You should get some sleep. It’s normal to be tired after a full meal.” Besides, they hadn’t had a proper rest in a long time.

“Okay, I’ll sleep for a little while then.” Zheng Yi didn’t refuse. She adjusted the back of her seat, yawned again, and simply closed her eyes for a nap.

Yu Yinan stopped the car, rolled up the window on Zheng Yi’s side, took a small blanket from the back seat to cover her, and then started the car again.

The cool mint candy rolled on her tongue, its refreshing sweetness spreading from her taste buds. Yu Yinan couldn’t help but glance at Zheng Yi in the rearview mirror a couple more times, only to find that she understood her less and less. Of course, she had no intention of prying into the secrets Zheng Yi was hiding.

But now that she had calmed down a little, recalling her earlier emotions and thoughts, and thinking about how Zheng Yi had run over calling her “Jiejie” and the hug during the hot pot… Yu Yinan really wanted to rub her temples. It seemed… she was completely under Zheng Yi’s thumb.

But this kindness, this warmth, was truly hard not to get lost in.

The apocalypse had only just begun. The chaos hadn’t even lasted a month, and some people who had just awakened their special abilities, not yet even fully proficient in controlling them, were already gathering small groups of survivors to rob people on the road…

As the apocalypse dragged on, what would this world become? Yu Yinan could roughly imagine it, but she didn’t want to think about it.

Her control over fire… she had to practice hard every day. Gaining a special ability already made her much luckier than ordinary people. This luck might not protect her forever, but she had to hold on to it tightly.

She had to become stronger.

Not to invade others or plunder resources, but simply for self-preservation. For now, zombies were easy to deal with in small numbers, but who knew when the second great rain would come? Her own kind could be a threat, zombies could be a threat, and even…

Yu Yinan glanced at the grass and trees in the green belt. Who could know if the strange elements in that rain only affected humans and zombies?

The road ahead was long.