A Little Incident on Woody's Back

Give you food, give you the Old Street Armor, then take you away?

Tom looked at Liang Pingchuan's self-righteous face and found it somewhat ridiculous. After two months of the apocalypse, it seemed that his past arrogance had not been eroded. That arrogance, built on the hierarchical relationship of money contracts, was still intact.

"Manager Liang, or should I say, Liang Pingchuan, don't forget that two months ago you were shouting about making me wear small shoes and sweeping me out of the company. But now, I no longer need the salary from the company where you work to survive. So what gives you the right to make so many arrogant demands of me?"

"You..." Liang Pingchuan's face first turned red, angry at Tom's "rudeness," but then immediately turned pale with fear as he remembered the reality. The room, which had felt cramped at over 100 square meters, had suddenly become a huge world of over 2,000 square meters overnight, and the emptiness and loneliness were unbearable for anyone.

"Let's go!" Tom was pleased that the other party had realized the harsh reality before leaving. At least his trip wasn't in vain, even if it wasted precious time.

"Ah... don't leave!" Liang Pingchuan quickly rushed up at lightning speed, frightening Prince Xiong, who thought he was retaliating out of embarrassment, and he quickly held up his steel needle spear defensively.

Unexpectedly, Liang Pingchuan actually hugged Tom's legs, crying and pleading, "Don't leave me, I'm so scared... take me away from here, Tom... I was wrong... I know I was wrong."

Tom was slightly surprised. This guy had just been acting cool and trying to flirt with Lin Meiqi. He had thought that Liang Pingchuan was leading a peaceful life, but apparently, it was just an act. In terms of acting skills, this guy was like one person in front of the boss and another behind his back, switching smoothly between the two, almost Oscar-worthy.

Lin Meiqi was smirking triumphantly beside him, while Feng Hanyun looked disgusted. She seemed to hate weak men, especially the sleazy and weak type like Liang Pingchuan.

Tom lifted his foot and pushed away the sleazy guy. "Wipe your snot off me, it's all over my feet."

"Ah... ah..." Liang Pingchuan quickly wiped the tears and snot from his face, then used his own wrapped cloth to wipe Tom's feet, only to be ruthlessly pushed away by Tom.

"Tell me, what happened to you? Weren't there several people with you before?" Tom disliked people who changed their attitudes so suddenly. He couldn't help but be impatient, and he ended up saying it inadvertently.

"Before? Several people?" Lin Meiqi's eyes lit up, immediately sitting cross-legged, propping up her chin with one hand, and smiling sweetly at Tom.

Tom realized he had slipped up and felt embarrassed. He dared not look into her shining eyes that seemed to say "you better explain this clearly," so he coughed and continued, "Where did they all go?"

Liang Pingchuan choked up for a moment before speaking, "They... they were all... carried away by birds."

"Birds?" Tom's heart skipped a beat as he remembered the attack he faced on the way here from Jiangjiang. "Black birds?"

"Yeah, three black ones... I recognized them as crows. It was terrifying! They flew over, pinned people down with their claws, pecked through their skulls to eat their brains, and then carried them away."

"Crows?" Lin Meiqi burst into laughter. "Great, now even the land and the air are interested in us. I bet soon we'll see fish in the river growing four legs, crawling onto the shore to eat us. Hahaha."

Tom was relieved that this incident had diverted the girl's attention. Hopefully, she wouldn't pester him about accidentally revealing that Liang Pingchuan wasn't alone here.

"Why are you okay? And why are you still staying here?"

Reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the spacious suite, Liang Pingchuan sighed and said, "This... this is my home, with the memories of my wife and children. As for why I'm okay, it's because... of this." With that, he pulled out a blue crystal, a Level 2 Blue Crystal, about the size of a pebble.

Tom was quite surprised. "Invisibility?"

Liang Pingchuan was even more surprised. He stared at Tom with wide eyes. "How did you know?"

"I've seen a lot." Tom laughed it off, besides Lin Meiqi, the others still didn't know about his ability. "Show it to me."

"Okay!" Liang Pingchuan clapped his hands, and his whole body flashed with a blue light, then slowly disappeared into the air.

"Wow..." Feng Hanyun exclaimed in shock, unable to believe she was witnessing such a superpower in real life.

Lin Meiqi, on the other hand, reacted quickly and asked directly, "Can you not move?"

Liang Pingchuan appeared in front of everyone with one foot raised, sighing, "That's right, little beauty, how did you know?"

"Ha, it's simple. If you had that ability, you would have disappeared and run away a long time ago. Why bother staying in this room?" 

That's just like me, Tom nodded. He had thought it was like the stealth ability of Skinny King Sanli, but it turned out he still couldn't move.

"As long as you're willing to follow my rules, I can take you with me." Although the other party was a bit of a scoundrel, he wasn't beyond redemption. With the apocalypse upon them, anyone who could be united was worth uniting. As for moral issues, he just needed to be more cautious.

Upon hearing that Tom was willing to take him in, Liang Pingchuan was overjoyed. "Great, Tom, I knew you were a good person. I've known that since we were in the company."

"So you've been squeezing me just because?"

"Uh..." Liang Pingchuan awkwardly lowered his head, feeling embarrassed. "Let bygones be bygones. Don't worry, I won't dare to disrespect you again in the future. Did you encounter any big rats outside when you guys arrived?"

Big rats? Tom exchanged a glance with Prince Xiong, realizing it could be troublesome.

Prince Xiong shook his head at Liang Pingchuan. "We didn't encounter any."

"After the crows carried them away, I thought about escaping. But when I got to the stairs, I saw a big rat with red eyes, and... and its back was covered in red fur. I spotted it, and it spotted me too. Luckily, it was a corner, so I hid back and activated invisibility to escape the danger."

Red fur? Tom felt the situation was getting tricky. This could be a Level 2 mutation, and possibly in another direction of mutation.

"Let's go, we still need to go up to the fourth floor." Although they hadn't encountered any Level 2 threats in the exchange shelter earlier, it seemed they had come from elsewhere.

With the addition of another person, the four of them stepped out of the suite door and climbed onto the back of the wood, heading towards the stairs.

On the back, Prince Xiong gave Liang Pingchuan two pieces of broken biscuits from his reserve. The guy ate them eagerly, clearly hungry after such a long time without food.

Lin Meiqi, disgusted, moved closer to Tom, not wanting to be too close to the sleazy man, and also for her other purpose.

"Hammer." Lin Meiqi leaned her face close to Tom's and whispered softly, "I guess you don't have the ability to sense the surroundings, so when you said you knew this guy wasn't alone, you must have seen it somewhere... let me guess where..."

Tom sighed. It seemed he couldn't hide anything from this smart girl, so he straightforwardly said, "It's the shelter, there's a secret room inside. The whole room has a 3D holographic view, showing the distribution of survivors and mutated creatures in the neighborhood."

"So you knew there was a terrifying mutant creature around me and rushed to save me, right?" Tom nodded. "Yeah!" Then his cheek was pecked by something wet, leaving him stunned. It was Lin Meiqi kissing him on the cheek.

"Hehe, don't misunderstand, I'm just showing my gratitude to you!" Lin Meiqi grinned and lay down on Tom's back, looking very pleased with herself.

On the side, Feng Hanyun was not happy. She had risked danger to come out just to get closer to Tom. Seeing Lin Meiqi kiss Tom, even on the cheek, made her feel annoyed. So, using the excuse of hating Liang Pingchuan, she moved to Tom's other side, directly wrapping her arms around Tom's thick arm and sitting down.

Tom turned his head in surprise, looking at her with a "who are you?" expression.

Feng Hanyun blushed shyly, tilting her head and saying softly, "It's dark, I'm scared."

Tom withdrew his hand directly. "If you're scared of the dark, sit at the back. The wooden head is bumpy, and it's easy to fall off."

Different treatment! Feng Hanyun looked at Lin Meiqi, who was lying on Tom's back, triumphant, and then bit her lip, continuing softly, "So, I want to hold onto your arm!"

"No, there could be threats ahead at any time, and I need to react immediately. If you're clinging to me, I might accidentally throw you off. Go back to the rear immediately."

Feng Hanyun was unwilling, feeling jealous of Lin Meiqi. She complained, "Then why can she stay here?"

Tom finally found an excuse and ordered, "Both of you, go back to the rear. Don't risk falling off when there's danger. I don't want to be distracted to fish you out!"

Lin Meiqi had achieved her goal, so leaving now didn't matter. She immediately shook her head triumphantly and walked back to the rear, then drove away Liang Pingchuan with disdain, "Uncle, you're so sleazy. Go to the back and stay there. I don't want to vomit my lunch."

"Why... why should I?" Liang Pingchuan protested. He didn't want to be at the back.

"Just because I have Tom!" Lin Meiqi proudly waved her hand at Feng Hanyun. This made Feng Hanyun, who was already upset, even more upset. She almost thought her chest was going to swell two sizes bigger. But what could she do with Tom's favoritism? She could only pretend not to see, sitting angrily on the back, turning away from Lin Meiqi's smug face.

Lin Meiqi waved Tom's banner and, coupled with her intimate behavior with Tom just now, what else could Liang Pingchuan do? He could only obediently arch his body, crawling carefully to the tail of the wood, grabbing the raised corner of the back, and gloomily lying there.

In this team, Tom was the core, and Lin Meiqi, who boasted of being with Tom the earliest and the closest, naturally became the second in command. Prince Xiong was a civil servant, quick-witted and agile-minded, so he knew exactly what he should do.

He took out a piece of jerky from his cloth bag and handed it warmly to Lin Meiqi. "The sleazy guy is gone, so eat something to fill your stomach."

Throughout the journey, it seemed like he was always bickering with her. Now that he saw her being so well-behaved, Lin Meiqi felt proud and immediately nodded in appreciation. "Prince Ji, you're quite smart, huh?"

"Ji what? We're just kidding around. I'm just a gofer. But..." Prince Xiong changed the subject, "But this jerky, if I hadn't snatched it away quickly, that sleazy guy would have almost stuffed it into his mouth just now. Uh... seems like he took a bite? Hahaha!"

"You!" Lin Meiqi immediately spat out the jerky, feeling so angry that she stomped her feet.