Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System-Chapter 18: Goodnight, Sleep Well

The moment we split off, my gut became heavy with a sense of insecurity or lack of confidence after becoming alone. Although I could face anything life threw at me in the past, this wasn't something I could face with the same confidence.

My hands ached from the heavy steel weighing my hands down.

Yet a sense of excitement throbbed at the back of my head, like an unwanted migraine that refused to go away. No points came through, meaning that the others were also safe. For now, I could relax.

With each step, we grew closer to his home.

Old Lei's breathing became more strained as his eyes welled up with tears.

I didn't speak because my words wouldn't help.

Step.

The gritty streets remained silent.

Step.

A loud noise sounded from behind us, followed by a woman shouting.

Creak...

We reached his back gate, the latch easily unfastened as Old Lei took a deep, lingering breath, almost choking as he sucking the surrounding air.

"Old Lei... are you good?"

My nerves became a little more sharp—after that shout the surroundings stirred and became more lively. I could hear them groaning as if watching us sneak through the alleyway. Stalking us with their cloudy grey eyes, just waiting for us to make a mistake.

"I'm fine, this is the place. Come on, my wife makes the best coffee."

He seemed to have noticed that, unlike most Asians in this country, I preferred coffee to tea.

Quietly, we shifted through the back gate, the overgrown garden filled with the sweet and bitter scent of overturned earth and fresh flowers.

It seemed his wife might have a habit of gardening.

Maybe Old Lei himself?

Squeak!

Suddenly, the moment the gate opened, the hallway's rusted hinges made a loud and grating sound that made me gasp. The sound was clearly something that Old Lei tried to avoid, with how slowly he pushed open the door.

"Old Lei?"

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I called out to him in a whisper, but he just remained still, turning back to face me, his face pale as if he saw a ghost.

"John... are we safe?"

He seemed out of it.

I didn't have the time to keep dealing with this. Maybe Old Lei couldn't hear because he hadn't increased his physique... or maybe normal humans couldn't. It was a question I didn't want to waste time on.

So I pushed him into the garden.

The middle-aged man staggered, slipping on the dirt path.

He looked up at me in shock, as if I was some kind of monster. So I pushed the door closed with a sense of urgency.

Clack!

Sealing the bolt and locking the gate, I finally released my suppressed sigh.

A distant groan echoed through the air, and just like I thought, the zombies were now on the move, hunting. Once the sun lowered, it became dangerous.

▼ Mu Qinglan has killed a Stage 1 Zombie!

+5 ZBK

+10 EXP

▼ Shen Yifei has killed a Stage 1 Zombie!

+5 ZBK

"..."

My body froze.

Not only did Mu Qinglan fight, but Shen Yifei got her first true kill. Although this made me feel happy, something inexplicably made me feel wrong.

"Old Lei we cannot waste more time, let's go."

However, when I turned back he was gone, the back door ajar.

"Damn it!"

I won't trust humans overwhelmed by emotions again.

Without knowing the layout, I could only lower my body and shift through the garden, the tall grass hiding my figure, but something passed the second-floor curtains, causing it to sway, though I thought it might be Old Lei...

But something told me I was dreaming.

Creeping through the garden of a stranger felt bizarre, as did the small trinkets and broken toys that signified family memories, a half-buried doll in the dirt, an old bike from thirty years ago covered in rust, and a missing chain.

I felt like I learned more about Old Lei's life with each step.

"Haa..."

The kitchen door swayed slightly in the breeze.

Old, tatty curtains covered the glass window, and countless cow trinkets and small china plates stacked on a wall rack came into my view through the gap.

I pushed my ear close to hear anything to keep myself safe, rolling the metal spear in my hand.

'Quietly, calmly. Don't get bit!'

Silence.

'Wait...'

I held my breath, counting to five.

Nothing...

My heart pounded against my chest as I stepped into the kitchen with measured half-steps and keeping my body low, jerking my head from side to side, ready for anything.

Like a common thief, I crept through, sliding my hand across the floor, squatting with a slight bounce to keep enough momentum to pierce forward. Thanks to the self-defence skills Mu Qinglan gave me, I could do this without pain or aches in my joints.

Step...

I moved towards the inner door, a cheap brown door with missing paint. My breathing was now extremely slow, and the constant messages from Mu Qinglan and Shen Yifei distracted me almost enough to miss the figure swaying ahead of me.

Small.

Maybe just over five feet tall.

A woman with dark hair swayed while facing away.

My blood suddenly surged as if it froze from the sudden terror and adrenaline that pumped through my body.

A flight-or-fight response caused me to act before I full understood the situation.

My heavy black spear felt comfortable in my hand.

Thrust!

I lunged forward, my left foot slipping as the spear's tip pierced

Squelch!

Blood spurted like a terrible movie as my spear pierced the woman's throat from behind.

The feeling of my spear gouging her flesh... transmitted through the black steel.

My stomach became heavy and churned.

'Endure it!'

Though I wasn't like before, the second day of the apocalypse hadn't instantly made me immune to murdering former humans just yet.

'Old Lei...?'

I checked around after seeing the notification that she was a zombie. He didn't seem to be downstairs, but from the looks of things.

The entire house was a mess.

A broken glass table covered in blood, chunks torn from the sofa, with fluff and foam spread across the room. And a television locked on a static station, with a buzzing echo that made my head hurt.

BANG!

"Ugh... stop... Yan'er!"

Suddenly, something happened above. I could hear shuffling, and Old Lei grunted... he seemed to grunt and struggle.

I rushed up the stairs, ignoring the front door, the broken banister, almost sprinting up the narrow staircase, hearing a series of loud thuds and a sudden wet crunch.

"OLD LEI!"

Bursting into the small room at the back of the house, where I saw the curtains moving, I found Old Lei sitting on the ground. He looked haggard, pale and void of all emotions as he visibly shook, hugging a small pair of shoulders.

I watched in silence.

A scene that I wanted to avoid—death was something I never managed to overcome.

But here it was, rearing its ugly head.

"Sorry..."

The middle-aged man, who seemed indestructible, sounded weak.

His breathing heavy and desperate as if gasping through a tube for oxygen, at the same time he noticed the small human in Old Lei's arms.

Short black hair tied into pigtails, pictures across the house showing her smiling face.

Her eyes were grey and lifeless.

'Old Lei...'

I could do nothing more than stand in silence.

He turned to me with a face pale like a zombie. The way his cheeks sagged made it look like he aged ten years in five seconds. His eyes were red and welling up.

"My... Princess... it's okay, I'm here. It's your dad."

He tried to speak as calmly as possible, but his words came out as almost a broken whimper. As he spoke, he tried to wipe away the blood from her lips with the back of his sleeve, staining the dirty white shirt.

"Old Lei..."

I wanted to help him... but my body felt like something glued it to the floor.

My heart raced, my head became dizzy, and my stomach stirred.

"Wake up now... I'm a little late, but I'm back now!"

I couldn't bear to watch this scene. I wanted to leave, but my legs refused to budge.

'He's dead... face reality.... Kill him!'

Words that seemed to be a stranger's whispered in my mind.

Yet I knew these were my true feelings, dark and dirty.

I couldn't understand empathy or compassion, or maybe it was just that my brain didn't understand how to process them...

My hand gripped the heavy steel in my hand.

There was no need to continue this act, a shame of a loving father.

I leaned my head back, wiping the rain from my eyes.

The weather was a little strange right now.

My body lowered, and I thrust my spear twice with all my might to ensure a quick and painless end.

Turning my back...

I left this godforsaken house.

Today, I killed an entire family.

"I want to see Qinglan..."