PSW – Chapter 9

“Someone’s cleared out the zombies around here, and it must have happened in the last day or two. The roadblock… that was probably set up recently, too,” Yu Yinan surmised, recalling the zombie corpses she’d seen on the side of the road. “I’ll get out and clear it so we can drive through.”

“Jiejie, someone’s coming over there,” Zheng Yi said, pointing out the window.

Yu Yinan’s expression soured. Five or six men armed with weapons were surrounding them. They were dressed in thick clothing, and from the looks of it, they had probably strapped other things underneath for protection.

One of them had tied a sharp knife to a long pole with wire, fashioning a crude spear. He was at the front, pointing the tip at the car door. When they saw that the occupants were two young women, they were visibly stunned for a moment.

“Stop the car and get out!” The man with the spear jabbed it forward menacingly, rapping it impolitely against the window as he barked, “Don’t resist! Come with us!”

“Is something wrong? Do you need help?” Zheng Yi asked softly, as if she hadn’t yet grasped the situation.

Yu Yinan’s face darkened. Just as she was about to ram through the barricade, regardless of the damage to the car, the men swarmed them as if they had anticipated her move.

“Don’t move! You don’t want us to slash your tires, do you? Get out!”

“Zheng Yi, when we get out, I’ll take the three on the right. You take the other two…” Before Yu Yinan could finish, Zheng Yi had already pushed the door open and stepped out. Yu Yinan slammed her fist on the steering wheel in frustration. What is wrong with Zheng Yi? This is the apocalypse! That last time was one thing, but these guys are obviously hostile. Does Zheng Yi have no sense of caution at all?

Kindness, innocence, even being a saint—whatever it was, in the wasteland, you had to be selective about it!

Yu Yinan hated people who couldn’t think straight in a crisis, but seeing Zheng Yi put herself in danger, her frustration was quickly overshadowed by worry and the need to figure out a solution. She quickly grabbed her fire axe, concentrating her mental energy. She still wasn’t very skilled at using her ability.

“It would be best if you didn’t touch my things just yet~” Zheng Yi said as she stepped out, smiling sweetly and conjuring a ball of water in her raised hand. “Why don’t you take me to see your boss first? We can decide what to do after that. You… wouldn’t want to make enemies of two ability users, would you?”

Ability users? Both of them? And water…

“You know our boss?” one of the men asked hesitantly. They hadn’t made a move yet. If both women were ability users, and one of them could control water, creating a source of it… In this day and age, clean drinking water was a precious commodity. Even if this woman didn’t know their boss, he would surely want to recruit her once he found out.

More importantly, they were both very beautiful women.

“Fine, I’ll take you to the boss,” the tall, thin man said, retracting his spear. He exchanged a look with his companions. “The rest of you stay here and watch the car and her friend. You, come with me.”

“Zheng Yi!” Yu Yinan got out of the car and hurried to grab her hand. Though frantic, she kept her voice low. “You have no idea how big their base is, how many people they have, or what the situation is. It’s dangerous for you to go alone. These guys aren’t ability users; you and I can handle them. Before their backup arrives, we can totally—” The word “leave” was still on her lips when Zheng Yi pointed ahead. A few more men were walking toward them.

“Don’t worry, Jiejie. There are more good people than bad in the world. They won’t hurt me,” Zheng Yi said, squeezing Yu Yinan’s hand and offering a sweet, reassuring smile. With that, she walked toward the man. “Take me to your boss. And you’d better make sure they don’t touch my things or bully my Jiejie.”

The tall, thin man was completely baffled by Zheng Yi’s approach, but looking at her, he saw not a trace of fear. “Let’s go.”

Whatever the case, the boss would decide what to do with them after he met her. As for the supplies in the car… just looking at that big motorcycle made his heart itch with desire. But there was no rush. If these two women were really capable, there would be plenty of opportunities to work together in the future.

Of course, if they had no value… The man gave Zheng Yi’s figure a subtle once-over and smirked.

---

The man led Zheng Yi into an abandoned building and straight up to the third floor. He knocked respectfully on a door. “Boss, it’s me.”

“Come in.”

Inside, a man was leaning back in a chair, puffing on a cigarette. He glanced at his subordinate before his eyes locked onto Zheng Yi.

The tall, thin man hurried to the boss’s side, leaned in, and whispered something in his ear, clearly giving a brief introduction of Zheng Yi.

“Alright, you can wait outside,” the boss said with a nod, waving his hand dismissively. He pulled a cigarette from the pack and tossed it to him. The subordinate accepted it like a priceless treasure, thanking him profusely and bowing several times before quickly exiting the room and closing the door. He carefully placed the cigarette in his inner jacket pocket before standing up straight to guard the entrance.

“You…”

The boss had just started to speak when Zheng Yi exploded into action. A fire axe grazed past his hair, shearing off a lock as it embedded itself deep into the wall behind him.

Gulp. A drop of cold sweat trickled down his temple. The man’s pupils contracted. He hadn’t even seen her move, let alone where the fire axe had come from! He stared at Zheng Yi’s… right hand, where another fire axe was being tossed into the air and caught with ease, as if it were a toy.

In that instant, it was too late for regrets. He forced his voice to remain calm. “What do you want?”

“Me? Oh, originally~ I just wanted you boys to do me a little favor and not block my way~ But you know, the way you all looked at me on the way here really made me feel very, un, com, fort, a, ble~” Zheng Yi’s voice was as soft and sweet as ever. She drew out the last few words with a slight lilt. If one didn’t consider the meaning, it would have sounded like a unique pleasure to listen to.

But the boss was clearly in no mood to enjoy it. His mind instantly supplied her next line: So I want to gouge out your eyeballs, one… by… one.

[You’re breaking character! You’re breaking character!]

‘We’re alone. Don’t panic.’

[If he doesn’t change his impression of you, or if you don’t kill him, you’ll lose Saint Points!]

“Call me Saint.”

“Huh?” The boss was taken aback.

“Oh my~ Since you’re not willing to cooperate with such a small request, then I’ll just have to…”

“Saint, Saint! Saint!” The fire axe moved, and the boss froze, his expression a picture of visible panic. Each word came out more urgent than the last. “I’ll cooperate, I’ll cooperate! Saint!”

“Very good. Saint is my codename. It refers to that purest, kindest, most self-sacrificing holy person, which is me,” Zheng Yi said, nodding in satisfaction. She then asked Zero One mentally, ‘Has his impression been corrected?’

[How could it possibly be corrected?!]

Zheng Yi’s expression instantly darkened. Her usual sweet smile had always made her seem harmless. But now, as the blade of her fire axe gently touched the boss’s neck, the man was overcome with a premonition of certain death.

“Clearly, you haven’t connected my codename with me as a person. Oh, but that’s alright. We still have a little time.” Zheng Yi smiled again. She spoke softly as she took the man’s hand and placed it on the table. The man tried to pull it back, but a sharp crack echoed as his bones gave way. “My dear, don’t you want to cooperate with me anymore?”

The man choked back a scream of agony. Cold sweat soaked through his shirt, but he didn’t dare show any sign of distress, forcing a smile in response. “N-No… it was a reflex. I didn’t mean it. I’ll cooperate, cooperate… Saint, Saint!”

“What’s your ability?”

“Lightning. I can manipulate lightning a little. But it consumes a lot of energy and has a limited range. Don’t worry, I would never dare to resist you!” The moment the door closed and the fire axe gave him a haircut, he knew he was no match for the person before him. Could he use his lightning to stun her? It was possible, but he wasn’t skilled with his ability, and it took time to build up to a full-power blast. In that time, Zheng Yi could have split his head open several times over.

“Mm, very good. My name is Zheng Yi. Remember it,” Zheng Yi said softly. “Zheng Yi is the Saint, understand? Repeat.”

What kind of weird fetish is this? The man was going crazy. Is it related to her ability? But Zheng Yi gave him no time to speculate. His hand was pinned to the table, and the fire axe lightly tapped his fingertip.

“I don’t like to repeat myself too many times~ Also, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like to slice up a living person~”

Fuck!

“Zheng Yi is the Saint! Zheng Yi is the Saint! You are the Saint! The Saint is Zheng Yi!” The man’s scalp went numb, and in that instant, all other thoughts vanished.

Just then, with a thud, a searing pain shot through the little finger of his left hand. He let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“Boss?”

“Get lost! Don’t come in!” he roared, cold sweat pouring from his forehead. He glared at Zheng Yi with bloodshot eyes, only to see her smiling sweetly at him. “Your words say one thing, but your heart isn’t sincere~”

“Zheng Yi is the Saint, Zheng Yi is the Saint!”

What was sincerity? What did she mean by sincerity? The man had no idea, nor did he know how this woman was judging him. Or maybe, she was just toying with him, planning to torture him to death bit by bit! This was definitely, absolutely not a normal person! Damn this apocalypse, damn these zombies—why did a lunatic like her have so much power?

The only thing he could do was loudly and repeatedly chant “Zheng Yi is the Saint,” trying to force himself to accept it, to acknowledge it, to believe it from the bottom of his heart.

[…Even if you slice him into pieces, this is not a saintly act!]

‘It’s not just saintly acts that count.’ Zheng Yi was perfectly calm, not at all rushed. In front of the man who was endlessly repeating the phrase, she used the fire axe to swiftly chop the severed pinky into thin slices, arranging them in a neat row on his desk. Then, she elegantly wiped the blood from her hands. ‘Zero One, we must be bold in our assumptions and careful in our verification.’