The protagonist who hates losers is so sweet to me.

Half an hour later, thin smoke rose in the cave. Song Xinqi placed the tinder in the wood shavings, blowing air into it until a flame appeared. He then put the burning wood shavings into the arranged wooden blocks, and soon a bright fire was lit.
Watching the whole process, Yu Qing sighed in amazement, “So this is how you make fire by friction, it’s not just rubbing a stick on another stick.”
The trashy documentary had lied to him.
He picked up the rope bow Song Xinqi used for fire-making and gestured with it, feeling like he had wasted his time watching.
Song Xinqi quickly processed the skinned snake and skewered it on a thin wooden stick to roast over the fire. This was a normal snake without mutations, unlucky to encounter them.
Yu Qing sat next to him, watching the elongated snake curl up as it burned. “This is the first time I’ve caught a snake.”
Song Xinqi glanced at him sideways. “What did you do?”
“Used it as bait, isn’t it?”
Song Xinqi replied, “Do I need to praise you?”
“That would be too embarrassing.” Yu Qing waved his hand and looked at the snake roasting over the fire.
He still didn’t understand. Clearly, Song Xinqi had only been at the base for a month and a half. How did the zombie horde arrive so early?
What butterfly effect had altered the plot?
He propped his chin in his hands, lost in thought, and suddenly had an epiphany.
He knew!
It seemed that things had gone awry since they encountered Wu Zhenhu’s group. According to the original plot, there should have only been the two of them on this journey, and Chen Yi would have appeared only after Song Xinqi arrived at another safe zone.
If they hadn’t met Wu Zhenhu, they would have returned to the road. But after meeting him, they had been on a small path the whole time. Along the way, they got lost in the overgrown vegetation, wasting a lot of time.
So the timeline hadn’t actually changed; they just arrived at the base half a month later than in the original story.
“I see.” He straightened up, his expression serious as he nodded.
Song Xinqi silently watched his rich variety of facial expressions.
“It’s done roasting,” he said, taking the roasted snake meat off the fire.
Yu Qing eagerly said, “Let me try, let me try.”
He handed him the stick with the snake meat, and Yu Qing grabbed Song Xinqi’s sleeve, blowing on the meat lightly before taking a bite.
Song Xinqi tightened the hand hanging by his side.
Feeling his sudden tension, Yu Qing tilted his head to look at him, blinking his thick, long eyelashes.
Song Xinqi said,”I told you to handle it yourself.”
Yu Qing received the stick with a puzzled expression on his face.
There were plenty of animals on the mountain, and with patience, they wouldn’t go hungry. Yu Xiaoxue, in particular, deserved praise. Despite her young age, she had learned to hunt, even finding a small spring on another cliff. While solving the water problem, she occasionally brought back small animals that had accidentally run into the muzzle.
With a relatively safe adjustment environment, minor incidents and major accidents were avoided. A week passed by in the blink of an eye.
One day, after Song Xinqi had dealt with several zombies attracted to the area, he spread out his psychic power to probe the surroundings.
After stabilizing his psychic power, he tried using it to probe the zombies, adjusting the method and intensity several times. Now, it was almost ready to use, covering a radius of about ten kilometers.
However, because he was using psychic power to search, he could not only sense zombies but also conscious creatures like animals and mutated plants.
For example, there was a mutated birch tree five kilometers away, and a mutated squirrel drinking water near the small spring. If Yu Xiaoxue went out now, she could catch it.
The first four days passed without incident. After the fifth day, the shadow of zombies gradually appeared, and more and more of them. Sometimes, they could even see zombies standing above the cave entrance.
Fortunately, the terrain here was treacherous, and even if the zombies were attracted, there was a high probability they would fall off the cliff, making it safe for them.
Breaking out of the base had almost drained Yu Qing’s body, and he spent most of the day sleeping. He also had to absorb four or five crystal cores every day to restore his abilities. Yue Xiaoxue also consumed crystal cores, and after a week, Song Xinqi’s savings were almost depleted.
Now that Yu Qing had finally passed the weak period, it was time for them to leave.
With a mentality of seizing opportunities, they deliberately swept all the zombies with abilities around before leaving the mountain. The way these zombies looked at them was no different from a fat sheep willingly sent to the slaughter.
“So, should we stay here a bit longer?” Yu Qing sat on Yue Xiaoxue’s back, absorbing today’s crystal core.
After evolving, the brains of zombies had also become larger, with crystal cores now about the size of four coins. The energy contained within was even more abundant.
These mutated zombies had become much stronger, with diverse abilities. It was best to kill them at first sight; otherwise, it would be troublesome later on. Fortunately, Song Xinqi’s ability was psychic, and no matter how strong the zombies’ defenses or attacks were, they couldn’t withstand psychic attacks.
He dug out another crystal core, wiped it clean with a piece of leaf, and put it in his pocket. “If we stay longer, more zombies will come, increasing the risk.”
Yu Qing wiggled his feet. “What should we do next?”
He pondered for a moment. “I want to establish a safe zone.”
The fleeting experience at the base had given him a new idea. Roaming in the wild was definitely not a long-term solution, but safety zones were not necessarily safe either. Selecting a location and maintaining it required careful consideration. He didn’t trust other safe zones, so he wanted to personally establish a highly secure permanent safe zone.
Of course, relying solely on the two of them wouldn’t work. They needed to first find a group of powerful individuals with abilities useful for constructing a safe zone who were willing to follow him.
These people were hard to come by in the wild.The best method was to first occupy a ready-made safe zone, gather enough intelligence about the apocalypse, make plans, and then proceed step by step.
As for which safe zone to occupy, he also has some ideas. The safe zones in cities B and C mentioned on the radio were not considered. These safe zones were all established by the government, and everything was subject to the government’s control. There were also many initial humans inside, posing high safety risks.
There were only a few officially established safe zones, and there were more people outside looking for privately established safe zones like the base.
Yu Qing knew that Song Xinqi was about to start a venture and was very enthusiastic: “Creating a safe zone? Great!”
“What’s there for you to be excited about?”
“This way, I can stay in the safe zone and live comfortably without worrying about zombies or people with ulterior motives harming me.” His face was full of unreserved reliance. “After all, it’s your safe zone!”
Since he didn’t have much ability, protecting himself was the best way to protect Song Xinqi.
His words were infinitely intimate, as if planning a shared future for the two of them. Suddenly, Song Xinqi felt like he had been pricked, “Do you want to stick with me for life?”
Yu Qing was taken aback, unable to keep up with Song Xinqi’s train of thought, “No.”
“If not, why do you think I have to support you to live comfortably?”
“I don’t have to live comfortably, but I’m carrying two lives on my own. You know my capabilities. Isn’t it too risky for me to go out to work recklessly?”
Song Xinqi stared at him, who was seriously considering their future, with a glint of inexplicable darkness in his eyes.
As Yu Qing spoke, he stopped and felt that the atmosphere around them was a bit off. Looking at the silent Song Xinqi, a bad feeling arose in his heart, and he tentatively asked, “Are you not planning to take me with you?”
“Why should I take you with me?”
He opened his mouth: “Aren’t we friends?”
They had been through so much together, and his attitude towards him had softened over time. No matter how one looked at it, they were friends.
“Who said we are friends.” The unease in Yu Qing’s eyes made Song Xinqi’s mind somewhat unstable, subconsciously avoiding some complex and strange thoughts.
He hated useless people, and no one could change that. He seemed to be telling Yu Qing, but also telling himself: “I’m only forced to bring you along because of the mental link.
One day, I will find a way to sever it. When that day comes, whether you live or die, it has nothing to do with me.”
“Oh…” Yu Qing lowered his eyelashes.
It turned out that he hadn’t changed Song Xinqi’s impression of him. Well, Song Xinqi’s biggest pet peeve as clearly written in the original work was useless people. Since he had been quite easy to get along with lately, Yu Qing had become a bit presumptuous, forgetting that he had always disliked him.
Yu Xiaoxue sensed that Yu Qing’s emotions were a bit off and intuitively felt that Song Xinqi had bullied him, so she barked at Song Xinqi.
Ignoring her provocation, he walked forward.
Yu Qing stopped Yu Xiaoxue from attempting to bite Song Xinqi, patting her head with black spots, “You’re still the best.”
“Meow.”
He suddenly felt a bit worried about what would happen to her after he died. He had to make her independent as soon as possible.
With her combat power, living in the wilderness as a leopard shouldn’t be a problem. But he had to teach it not to retaliate against Song Xinqi; it definitely wasn’t a match for him, and it might end up dead at his hands. He didn’t want to see that outcome.
He hugged Yu Xiaoxue’s head: “You need to grow up quickly and become strong, so that no one can bully you.”
She didn’t understand his worries and thought he was coaxing it, so it meowed playfully, deciding not to bother with Song Xinqi.
Finding a safe zone wasn’t aimless. Nowadays, with the evolution of zombies, if a large number of survivors gather together, it will definitely attract zombies from the surrounding area. By observing which direction the zombies are heading, you can find the location of the safe zone.
The next goal was clear, find a zombie horde.
Previously, Song Xinqi had taken a compass from Shi Tao’s legacy. They randomly chose a direction to move forward.
There weren’t many zombies on the road, and their movements were scattered, indicating that there was no safe zone in this direction. About one-fifth of the total number were zombies with abilities, similar to the situation in the base. They consumed and replenished crystal nuclei about the same amount each day.
Sometimes, Yu Qing followed along, and when tired, he rode on Yu Xiaoxue’s back. They walked like this peacefully for two days.
“Song Xinqi, I saw a super big earthworm over there, as big as a snake, and it startled me when it crawled out of the ground.” He ran a few steps faster, sticking close to Song Xinqi.
Song Xinqi looked towards the edge of the forest. Indeed, there was a large, worm-like creature burrowing into the soil, only its long tail sticking out.
These past few days, luck hadn’t been good; they rarely encountered anything edible. Yu Qing finally saw a mutated creature and couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander: “Can we eat earthworms? Earthworms can regenerate when cut, and their vitality should be stronger after mutation. Catching one would mean we won’t go hungry.”
Song Xinqi raised his chin, “You can try.”
Yu Qing stared at the large earthworm for a while, shivering: “Let’s forget it. I don’t feel very hungry anyway.”
Soon after, Song Xinqi heard the sound of a rumbling stomach from behind.
Yu Qing covered his stomach, looking back at Yu Xiaoxue: “Did your stomach growl?”
“Meow?” She tilted her head.
Song Xinqi fell silent for a moment: “Let’s find something to eat first.”
Using his mental power to search for nearby creatures, his mental search became more proficient day by day. Now, it had expanded to a radius of fifty miles.
Gradually distinguishing the sensed creatures, mutated plants and zombies.
Looking in a certain direction, he said, “Two more hours’ walk, and there’s a mutated dog over there.”
Yu Qing, moved to tears by the thought of finally having something to eat, continued to walk for another two hours after a long journey.
The vegetation here gradually diminished, and no mutated plants or zombies were found. Along the way, the most troublesome were actually not the zombies, but the unpredictable mutated plants that could suddenly emerge and attack from anywhere.
Song Xinqi could only sense the original locations of the plants, and the ones attacking them were often the branches extended by the plants.
The sparse vegetation was not good news. If there should have been plants in a certain area but it was barren, it was highly likely that a very powerful mutated plant had emerged here, devouring all competitors. But strangely, Song Xinqi did not sense the presence of the strongest mutated plant that should have existed.
At a certain moment, he stopped.
Yu Qing asked, “What’s wrong?”
Song Xinqi searched again with his mental power, and finally said, “The mutated dog disappeared.”
“Huh?” Yu Qing widened his eyes. “How did it disappear?”
His expression was solemn. “I don’t know. It just disappeared suddenly.”
Silently, unexpectedly.
He waved for Yu Qing to come closer and once again stepped down from the mental network, but still found nothing. His eyes darkened. Nothing should be able to evade the mental network and make a mutated dog disappear without a sound, unless… there was a higher-level psychic here than him.
Almost the moment he had this thought, a huge and strange flower suddenly appeared in his field of vision.
This flower was as tall as a building, with sword-shaped leaves, no stems, and a large, trumpet-shaped, yellow-white flower at the top, standing still in place without any warning, suddenly appearing in front of him.
It was psychic interference. His heart sank. He almost concluded that this flower had subjected him to psychic interference, making him mistakenly believe that there was a mutated dog here, and even making him unable to see the true form of the flower.
“Little Blue Orchid?” Yu Qing recognized the huge flower in front of him.
Without psychic abilities or psychic links, Yu Xiaoxue didn’t understand why the two suddenly stopped, but the animal instinct made it smell a dangerous scent and it bent down slightly, alerting its surroundings.
The giant Blue Orchid still stood in place. It found that the three prey it had attracted suddenly stopped moving, so it increased its psychic interference and manifested another mutated dog.
In the next moment, it suffered a fierce psychic attack.
“Yiya!!” The sword-shaped leaves of the Blue Orchid shook violently in the air, emitting a piercing, ghost-like scream.
It realized that the three prey had discovered it, so it launched an even more violent psychic attack in return.
Under the blazing sun, with no wind, waves of invisible wave-like attacks surged like a tide.
Like sand dunes collapsing in an instant, Yu Qing’s brain felt faint, and Yu Xiaoxue supported him with her body. Song Xinqi also grunted, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
It was indeed psychic abilities. Perhaps it was even a level higher than him, a level 3 psychic Blue Orchid.
Psychic abilities were quite special. Unlike other abilities of the same type, there was more or less resistance between abilities of the same type, regardless of their level. However, psychic abilities were different. Regardless of level, as long as the attack was effective, the damage would be doubled, and the level suppression was more obvious.
Just one blow, and Song Xinqi’s psychic power showed signs of dispersion. The Blue Orchid also realized that he was a psychic, and a majestic psychic force attacked him. He pressed on his painful temple, retaliating without showing weakness.
“Yiya!” The Blue Orchid was infuriated by the pain, swinging its huge leaves down towards hin, raising clouds of dust, while also launching a psychic attack, but it seemed ineffective against him.
Yu Qing felt his brain ache like it was exploding, his legs weakened, almost causing him to fall.
They were so far away from the Blue Orchid, yet they still felt such intense pain, let alone Song Xinqi, who was at the center of the attack.
Song Xinqi felt a pressure in his chest, spitting out a mouthful of blood. His eyes were cold, as if he couldn’t feel the imminent danger in the psychic world, swinging his sword towards the Blue Orchid, his movements decisive and calm, not giving the Blue Orchid any advantage.
The Blue Orchid, like a piece of paper, was cut into pieces by him, emitting psychic waves that seemed to fail to affect him, unable to stop his relentless attacks.
“Yu Xiaoxue, bite it!”
In a low growl from behind, the snow leopard pounced from behind, her sharp claws gleaming with snow, slashing off the Blue Orchid’s big flower, and her huge body pressed down on it, crushing its stem.
Yu Qing quickly fled from the range of the leaf attacks, and Song Xinqi also dodged to the other side.
He activated his ability and pointed it at the Blue Orchid. Its giant body instantly shrunk, brought down to Song Xinqi’s level. Without hesitation, Song Xinqi drew his sword and slashed at it, cleanly cutting off half of its leaves.
“Yiya!!” The Blue Orchid screamed as it swung its leaves wildly, attacking him with a hail of blows, and launching a fierce psychic attack at the same time. The powerful psychic waves rushed towards him.
Yu Qing shouted from behind, “Song Xinqi, is your stomach injured?”
Expressionless, Song Xinqi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and glanced at the wound on his abdomen. He heard Yu Qing shouting, “It hurts so much!”
The chaotic mental energy, which had been out of his control, calmed down slightly at Yu Qing’s shout. Song Xinqi clenched his tingling fingertips and, as Yu Xiaoxue stood up, slashed at the blue orchid below.
It tried to escape, but the sap leaking from its roots glued it to the ground, making it impossible to flee. The sharp tip of the knife sliced through its stem. In its final moment, it unleashed an astonishing mental wave.
This immense mental energy, enough to distort space, spread out, causing an unseen storm in another dimension.
“Clang!”
The knife handle fell to the ground, and the dead blue orchid was crushed again by Yu Xiaoxue’s collapsing body. Yu Qing lay unconscious in the distance, and Song Xinqi, staggering as he tried to resist the massive impact, ultimately fell onto Yu Xiaoxue.
Yu Xiaoxue, carrying Yu Qing on her back, almost stumbled. Shaking her tail, she turned to look at Song Xinqi and the still unconscious Yu Qing, her tail freezing in mid-air.
She went over and carefully confirmed that it was indeed Song Xinqi’s face. Then she looked at her own claws, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Yu Qing patted her fluffy head. “What’s wrong? Is your head not feeling well?”
The snow leopard shook her head, shaking off his hand placed on her head, her eyes filled with disdain.
“Yu Xiaoxue, do you know whose expression you’re mimicking right now?” He sighed, “You’re my cutest baby, you can’t learn bad habits from Song Xinqi.”
Her expression became even more indescribable. She tried to return to her own body but couldn’t. “I think we should take Song Xinqi away first, but I’m out of energy now, and I can’t maintain my abilities for much longer.
Do you still have the strength?” Yu Qing kept talking on the side, holding Song Xinqi’s body and shrinking it in his hands.
Yu Xiaoxue lowered her head, her expression changing unpredictably. Suddenly, her ears twitched, and she suddenly raised her head and pounced towards Yu Qing’s back.
He turned abruptly, only to find a zombie appearing behind him silently, but it was knocked down by her.
He first put down Song Xinqi and hurried to fetch the machete. While Yu Xiaoxue restrained the zombie’s movements, he vigorously hacked at its head, the blade sinking halfway in.
The force was not enough, so he tried again.
He went to retrieve the machete, but it was hard to pull it out after hacking down. With his body feeling weak, after struggling for a while, he simply stepped on the zombie’s face and pulled hard with both hands, finally managing to pull the machete out.
Yu Xiaoxue bit the zombie’s shoulder, her front paws pulling its body to prevent it from moving, while he stabilized himself, not knowing what expression to make.
He gestured with the machete a few times, then eventually dropped his hand in resignation, pointing a finger at the zombie, which shrank into a doll-sized form with a “pop” sound, then was torn to shreds by Yu Xiaoxue’s watchful eyes.
It’s still better to use abilities, he thought with some disdain as he tossed away the machete.
Yu Xiaoxue scraped off the flesh and blood from her claws, then turned around and picked up the unconscious Song Xinqi, walking over to Yu Qing. He extended his hands, and a shrunken Song Xinqi was placed in his palms.
He put the person in his pocket, then climbed onto Yu Xiaoxue’s back, pointing forward. “Let’s go!”
In the vicinity of mutated plants, there are usually good things, such as water sources or food.
Yu Xiaoxue didn’t follow his direction blindly but purposefully searched around. Sure enough, they found a small river nearby.
Yu Qing didn’t approach immediately. After observing the surroundings and confirming there was no danger, he cautiously approached, cupping his hands to drink from the river.
Yu Xiaoxue crouched by the river, looking at her reflection, then awkwardly used her tongue to lap up the water. Hearing Yu Qing beside her, he said, “Song Xinqi still hasn’t woken up. It might be dangerous to wander around. Let’s stay here for a while.”
Yu Xiaoxue thought to herself, you’re surprisingly obedient.
He took the unconscious Song Xinqi out of his pocket and restored his size, carefully placing him on the grass by the riverbank.
After sitting for a while, he felt it wasn’t good to just wait around. He turned his head to look at Song Xinqi for a moment, intending to deal with his abdominal wound first.
He rolled up the clothes from the bottom, revealing the torn abdominal muscles underneath, with blood seeping out.
He reflexively frowned. After a while, he wondered, “Huh, why don’t I feel any pain?”