Little Pink Starfish

“Wake up… are you okay…”
“Don’t save… leave them behind…”
“He’s still alive…”
“If… you insist… then take responsibility…”
“I insist…”

The noisy voices entered his ears. Gu Bai frowned and opened his mouth, wanting to bark out “Impudent!” but the moment he opened his eyes, those two words got stuck in his throat.
In front of him, meeting his gaze directly, was a slightly arrogant-looking youth. But judging from the concern in his eyes, it was clear the kid wasn’t bad at heart.

Seeing he was awake, the youth’s face stiffened. “Hmph! Since you’re awake, get up already!”
But while speaking, his movements were actually quite gentle as he supported him. “Can you stand?”
Gu Bai’s throat let out a hoarse sound: “I can.”
The youth applied a bit more strength, and Gu Bai borrowed that force to stand up.

Gu Bai looked around.

This place was… the wilderness.
And the situation was complicated.

Why complicated? Because everywhere Gu Bai looked, there were corpses! And with his vision, he could clearly see—those corpses had twisted faces and gaping skulls. It was so obviously wrong!
What was worse, everyone around looked exhausted, still gripping weapons, many appearing malnourished. The women and children huddled on the side were pale and thin. Everything about this screamed: refugees!

Which meant only one thing.
…Damn, it’s the apocalypse!

Gu Bai remained expressionless.
He just didn’t get it! He had just finished cleaning up Tiandu City, turned it into a civilized utopia for the protagonist to come examine and (hopefully) spare his life—and now he wakes up in another world again?!
And it’s the freaking apocalypse?!
He didn’t know which was worse—being eaten by the yandere MC in Wu Huang Wu Zun, or being eaten by zombies here… Either way, he got eaten! Dammit!

Gu Bai’s gaze dropped back to the youth who saved him.
Thanks to years as a city lord, he was no longer that clueless shut-in. He could already tell that this must be another transmigration—his soul landed in someone else’s body, collapsed on the roadside, and was rescued.
If not rescued… maybe he’d have died faster?

Feeling a bit grateful, he opened his mouth. “And you are?”
The arrogant youth huffed, “I’m Meng Qiao, your life-saving benefactor! You better repay me, got it?”
Gu Bai said simply, “Okay.”
Seeing how straightforward the answer was, Meng Qiao pouted but said nothing. Still, he awkwardly held onto Gu Bai, preventing him from collapsing again.

In truth, the moment Meng Qiao introduced himself, and Gu Bai saw the setting around him, a new memory started flooding his brain—this world came from a novel he’d read.
Title: Counter-Rebirth: Lover in the Apocalypse.
Yep. A gay novel.

Gu Bai mentally collapsed.
What the hell?! Why did a straight harem author like him transmigrate into a BL novel?!
Was he about to be blinded by endless gay PDA now? Seriously?!

Even though Gu Bai didn’t remember when he’d read this novel, the plot had clearly been branded into his mind.
Naturally, he remembered Meng Qiao’s identity.

…Meng Qiao was the main shou of this story!
The “lover” in the title referred to him and his gong.

As for “counter-rebirth”—the title said it all. The story was about fighting a rebirth antagonist.
Pretty novel, actually.
Basically, Meng Qiao’s former best friend, secretly jealous since childhood, gets reborn. After Meng Qiao meets his powerhouse gong, the white lotus tries to seduce said gong first and sabotage Meng Qiao, planning to climb to the top.
But reborn cannon fodder is still cannon fodder.
Love isn’t about who comes first, it’s about fate and attraction.
Despite using every trick and nearly ruining Meng Qiao, in the end, the white lotus fails. The gong still chooses the MC shou.
And the shou stomps the white lotus into the ground.

Moral of the story:
If someone achieves success with evil means, that success is temporary—they’re still a failure.

…

Gu Bai was speechless.
Yeah, great life lesson and all—but could someone give him back his all-purpose maid? His hard-earned combat power? His peace and quiet?!
Come on!!

↑
Of course, all this internal ranting happened in a flash.
As the proud and awkward main shou, Meng Qiao didn’t notice anything strange about Gu Bai’s reaction.
After that, Meng Qiao supported Gu Bai into the vehicle with the rest of the group, and they continued forward.

Gu Bai gradually pieced things together.
Apparently, it was about a month into the apocalypse.
Meng Qiao, a spoiled 17-year-old, had been home for summer break when everything collapsed. He hid at home for a while but eventually decided to escape, taking some food and joining up with both familiar and unfamiliar survivors. Their goal was to reach the S City survival base.

Many people died on the way.
Meng Qiao awakened water powers just before he was almost killed by zombies.
While it wasn’t as aggressive as fire or wind powers, it still put him above ordinary people.
During a zombie attack, after fending off ten or so zombies, he found Gu Bai’s unconscious body.
Many objected to bringing Gu Bai along, but Meng Qiao insisted—he’d personally care for him and ration his own food.
That was why Gu Bai survived and woke up.

Now, Gu Bai sat beside Meng Qiao, slowly recovering his strength.
He didn’t yet know what his new body looked like, but judging from a few surprised glances thrown his way, it couldn’t be too bad.
Once he had time alone, he’d check.
It would be too weird for a guy to randomly ask for a mirror in front of everyone.

As for the main shou…
Just being around Meng Qiao for this short time, Gu Bai could already tell—this kid was majorly tsundere.
That “mouth says no, body says yes” energy was exhausting.
But Gu Bai didn’t care.
As a poker-faced man, all he had to do was talk slow and deadpan.
Ice types beat tsunderes, okay?

Besides, even if he couldn’t appreciate tsundere beauty, it was fine. The main gong would.
As for him, he’d stick by the MC, and when the chance came, he’d repay the life debt.

Like, say…
If that reborn black-hearted lotus showed up,
he could help the MC see his true face early!

Gu Bai gave himself a mental thumbs-up.
The black lotus had cheat powers and wanted to steal the MC’s plot armor?
Fine—he’d become the MC’s plot armor.
He could give spoilers, help grab the cheats early—whatever worked.

The MC here had a sound mind, seemed like a good teammate.
He was just that smart!
One hundred ways to lower his chance of dying stupidly!

→He’d completely forgotten about the last time he’d bailed out on a story.

#TheTragedyOfSelectiveAmnesia#

Just as Gu Bai was mentally rehearsing how to prompt a three-hundred-round war between the gay MC and the gay black lotus,
the truck they were riding in suddenly jolted violently.

In the next second, someone shouted:
“Enemy attack—”
“Zombies—”
“All able-bodied men get off and fight! Elderly and kids, prep for crystal core collection!”
“Move! Now!”
“Ability users, get ready!”

Meng Qiao’s brows furrowed as he heard this.
He quickly shoved Gu Bai off him and snapped, “Weakling, stay put and don’t mess this up, got it?!”
Gu Bai: “Got it.”
Meng Qiao looked at that cold, beautiful face… and turned away.
God, this guy seriously couldn’t hold a conversation. Would it kill him to say more than one word?
Who the hell had he saved?!

Then he jumped off the truck and started fighting.

This group’s luck was trash.
They were being swarmed by over a hundred zombies—including a terrifying level-two among the level-ones!

The whole group was freaking out.
Their fear sapped their strength.
The tide turned against them.
Only the ability users held the line—but even someone like Meng Qiao, with water powers, was being overwhelmed.

Gu Bai watched all of this calmly.
At the same time, he felt a familiar energy stir within his body…
Wait—ice?!
He had an ice ability?!

He was a pro with ice!
So he leapt from the truck, stretched out a hand—and a chilling mist swept outward.

In the blink of an eye, all zombies were frozen solid.
With one squeeze of his hand,
the frozen zombies shattered into glittering ice crystals.

Everyone saw it.

That cold, handsome young man had descended like a god.
With a wave of his hand,
all enemies (zombies) were gone.

So. Freaking. Cool.