Little Pink Starfish

Just as they reached the edge of the county town, the two teams immediately split.
Meng Qiao, full of a mindset like “I must help Master monitor the old pervert, work hard, work hard, work hard,” quickly and decisively followed Yin Jiu, while Gu Bai, who was throwing flower petals in his heart and lighting a candle for the old gong, also turned around and led his brothers away in a cool, crisp, and even more decisive manner.
Everyone was just way too stylish.

After choosing the two streets that his group would cover, Gu Bai fully utilized his strength as a level five zomb—no, level five ice-type ability user, and launched a spectacular “core-digging” campaign.
Thus, all the little brothers and the hired hunters finally realized: so killing zombies was this easy, muah muah muah! (^^*)

How easy was it exactly?
As long as Gu Bai led the way, with every step he took, a thin layer of ice formed underfoot. Icy cold air spread in all directions, and the zombies that came howling toward them—just as they were about to close in—suddenly moved like they’d been hit by freeze peas, speed instantly dropping by 20%, if not in slow motion, then at least super stiff and several times easier to hit!

The little brothers and hunters instantly roared forward, tossing out their powers like they were free, bullets and cleavers flying together—what a spectacular sight!
In just a few minutes, the approaching zombies were all wiped out. Then the speed-type ability users became the people’s little core-digging champions, dashing around like afterimages, digging into the zombies’ heads at lightning speed and getting those crystal cores one by one with precision.

Gu Bai maintained his noble and cold expression, completely ignoring the worshipful gazes behind him.
This wasn’t even my full strength! You bunch of country bumpkins who’ve never seen the world! Even if I died and was left with just a corpse, I’d still be no ordinary corpse!

Then, with one hand in his pocket, Gu Bai continued to stroll forward leisurely.
Wherever he passed, zombies fell. Life and undeath, both were bitter.

But that wasn’t all.
When Gu Bai noticed more zombies surrounding them, and they were slightly higher-level, and the hunters were tensing up, he figured it was time to show off his 【beep——】skills again!
His left hand stayed in his pocket, and he still stood straight in the front. His right hand, however, stretched out flat and swiped gently.

Shuaa—
Dense ice mist sprayed out!
In the blink of an eye, the two to three hundred attacking zombies all turned into ice sculptures in unison!

Gu Bai remained expressionless and clenched his fist.
Crack crack crack—the ice sculptures shattered with a crunch, and all the zombies turned into ice blocks, okay!
Every time he used this move, he felt especially handsome—so handsome it made himself cry, okay!

The crowd’s reaction was enthusiastic:

“Wah—Captain is so amazing!”
“As expected of a high-level ability user!”
“That move, I want to learn it! I’m ice-type too, why can I only shoot lame ice spikes, this is not fair!”
“Damn, with this move, I won’t be afraid of not getting girls anymore, okay!”
“Captain is basically a snow lotus of Tianshan!”

Gu Bai nodded in satisfaction.
That’s how my subordinates should be—so lively!
As expected, I’m explosively handsome!

With Gu Bai as their ultimate weapon, killing zombies became easier than ever before.

If it was long-range zombies charging, the moment they got close, they’d look like they’d been hit with slow magic, moving in slow motion—anyone who wasn’t a total idiot could kill them;
If it was close-range zombies charging, before they even reached the target, they’d already be frozen into ice sculptures, then immediately smashed into ice chunks;
If it was higher-level zombies, the crowd would panic and go all out, but then what the hell, the zombies just ran straight into the ability, knife, weapon, bullet on their own? Zombie IQ was too low—damn… no, it was too delightful!

The little brothers and hunters also went from tense at the beginning, to nervous and slightly excited, to numb by the end.
Damn it, is our only job just to dig crystal cores out of zombie heads? This required too little skill—no sense of achievement at all, okay!

So later, everyone switched to a new method.
No way! We can’t let Captain think we’re freeloaders!

And so, they started… fancy core-digging.
Fire powers burned with flair! Wind powers blasted with style! Earth powers deodorized the corpses! Even bullets left beautiful blast marks, and cleavers and iron rods were wielded like instruments, okay!
We must show off our strength!
Clenched fists!

Gu Bai: “……”
Something… just felt off.

#Isn’t this supposed to be a serious apocalypse story#

But whatever, as long as they were happy, that’s all that mattered.
Good vibes were the real good things!

---

Boom—
Boom boom—
Boom—

The ground was shaking.

Since the apocalypse hit, though it had only been a few months, people had quickly built up their power. The weak had already fallen, and with the clear division between strong and weak…
At present, there were three large survivor bases, established as sanctuaries for those still alive in the apocalypse, along with countless smaller bases blooming like wildflowers across this devastated world.

One day,
In the early morning light, patrols were being carried out with utmost caution.
Zombie evolution had been accelerating. In the past few days, several waves had surged and been dealt with by heavy manpower—but even so, many hunters had died.
Ever since then, the guards had been even more vigilant, to avoid another tragedy.

After several days of calm, there hadn’t even been a handful of stray zombies.
The guards sighed in relief and relaxed slightly.
But at that moment, they felt the city wall trembling—what was it, what was happening?

The guards sensed something was wrong and immediately pulled out binoculars to look into the distance.
Was it an earthquake? No, it felt more like something was coming!

And when they finally saw what it was, they were struck by extreme fear in an instant.
One guard trembled as he pressed the alarm button.
A piercing siren blared through the entire base!

In the sky, thick black clouds.
It was a massive flock of flying birds, wings outstretched!
On the ground, an overwhelming tide.
Countless beasts were stampeding—an enormous beast horde.

The beast wave was coming!
Those beasts had crimson eyes—they were mutated beasts!
Faced with such a sight, no one could stay calm!

In a flash, the base’s leadership—both political figures and military generals—rushed to the wall at top speed. Even though they were surrounded by strong ability users, at that moment, they still felt no sense of safety.
That terrifying beast tide—why, why had it arrived without any warning——

Some people even saw clearly, in the center of the beast tide, surrounded by countless beasts, was a huge black shadow.
It brought with it a bone-deep, terrifying dread.

---

After wiping out the zombies in the two streets under his group, Gu Bai waved his hand and had the brothers and hunters quickly search the area for supplies.
He stood on a rooftop, hands behind his back, feeling as lonely as snow.
Seeing that the protagonist shou probably now liked him enough not to want to kill him, and the protagonist shou’s old gong was a loyal dog who wouldn’t disobey the shou, his life should now be secure… so why did he suddenly feel so… empty and bored and cold?

Maybe he was a plum blossom that lacked love.
Then… should he go find a girl?
But he had only ever loved 2D, not 3D—he truly couldn’t do it!

Also, in a world full of gay people, were there even soft girls left…
Gu Bai silently counted the girls in the original story.
Number one: a queen-type who used a poison whip.
Number two: a metal-body girl who fought zombies hand-to-hand.
Number three: a brute loli who could tear mutant wolves with bare hands.
Number four: a fire-breathing female tyrannosaurus who loved burning things…
Sorry, I’m just too heartbroken.

Who could handle that kind of girl!?
The only character with the “gentle and kind” tag wasn’t even a girl—it was a fake white lotus guy!
That fake white lotus acted more like a girl than the girls, stealing the soft girl role—is that really okay!?

Forget it, the girl thing… let’s skip it.
But that black-hearted lotus should be showing up at S City base around this time, right?

Gu Bai’s expressionless face pondered for three seconds.

According to the protagonist shou’s stubborn-outside-soft-inside personality, once he reunites with the black-hearted lotus, he’ll definitely ask for him to be given a position.
Ah no, now that the shou was his restaurant manager and had some power, he might just keep the lotus nearby—and the lotus would seize every chance to boost his “kindness” stat and smear the shou behind his back, eventually gaining favor, making the shou resign out of guilt, and then take over the manager spot to build connections and draw in supporters with his fake gentleness…

Out of ten black-hearted lotuses, seven or eight used this exact formula. He knew it all, hehe.

Gu Bai sighed.
Then a lightbulb lit up over his head.

Damn it, what’s he afraid of!? I’m not some pushover! If I say the rumors in my restaurant get reported to me, then they get reported to me! If I give the order, who dares spread nonsense!? Even if rumors spread, if I say Meng Qiao handles it, then only Meng Qiao handles it! Who dares oppose!
If business is bad, so what. If people gossip, so what. I have money and I’m capricious—I’m making the protagonist shou work!
Yes, I’m just that simple and violent!

Plus, Yin Jiu and Meng Qiao had already met early. If I casually “leak” some info to Yin Jiu, even if he’s got zero EQ, with at least a tenth of his brain, he should know how to win over the person he fell for at first sight.
By then, maybe a love rival might even be the best wingman!
I must give the black-hearted lotus a thumbs up in advance!

---

Gu Bai’s thinking wasn’t wrong.
Because three days after the mission ended, he received news.
The protagonist shou, his restaurant manager Meng Qiao, now had a delicate-looking boy with a “good personality” constantly by his side.
The two were inseparable.