This discovery was infinitely more critical than figuring out if she came from another universe. After all, Li Ke was already carrying a zombie scratch himself, which basically meant he was a dead man walking.
To go through all the trouble of saving a girl, only to find out she was also on a countdown to execution—it was a deeply depressing realization.
"Setting everything else aside, look at your leg. You've been scratched." Li Ke pointed a finger down at her calf. "I assume you've seen zombie movies. You should know exactly what happens to people after something like this."
Blood continued to trail down the girl's leg, staining her black socks and ruining the edges of her delicate leather boots. The jagged injury looked hideous against her pristine, pale skin.
Then again, blood rarely made anything look good. The tear in her flesh was brutal and unyielding, leaving no room for aesthetic grace.
"Ah!"
Erina Nakiri gasped, her eyes wide as she stared at her calf. Her knees gave out, and she sank heavily to the ground.
Despite being a sheltered, high-society heiress from a legendary culinary family, she wasn't completely cut off from pop culture. She had seen her fair share of movies. She knew about zombies, and more importantly, she knew exactly how the infection spread. Panic-stricken, she hovered her pale hands over the wound, desperately wanting to touch it but lacking the courage to make contact.
The sheer adrenaline of fighting for survival had masked the pain until now. But with Li Ke pointing it out, the throbbing ache became blindingly sharp, plunging her mind right back into despair.
The gnawing hunger, her "God's Tongue" which now felt less like a blessing and more like a curse because it made her vomit up cheap canned spam...
And now, the cruel reality that just as she found another human being and a glimmer of hope, she was likely already infected. The sheer weight of it all crushed her spirit into endless darkness.
Tears instantly flooded her eyes. Erina was normally a fiercely resilient person, even arrogant. But that pride was entirely built upon the foundation of her old life—her noble lineage, her peerless talent, and her grueling training. Those were the anchors of her superiority.
But in this brutal, zombie-infested wasteland, none of those advantages mattered.
All that remained was the raw threat of death.
"Well, looks like we're both at the mercy of fate, huh?"
Li Ke let out a weary laugh. The absolute despair in her eyes was a mirror image of what he had felt just a day ago. The only difference was that he had been ambushed the moment he spawned in, while the girl before him had doomed herself through a careless mistake.
He wasn't gloating. If anything, he just felt a profound sense of helplessness, completely amused by how twisted and absurd their destinies were.
Under her stunned gaze, Li Ke unraveled the makeshift bandage wrapped around his own forearm, exposing his raw, gruesome wound for her to see.
"I'm in the same boat," he said, offering a small, casual shrug. "So we might as well make the most of whatever time we have left. Besides, who knows? Maybe a scratch won't actually kill us."
Li Ke knelt down, unzipping his backpack to pull out a few bottles of scavenged water and his remaining medical supplies. Without missing a beat, his hands moved toward her footwear.
He carefully removed her sock, revealing a small foot that, despite being stained with blood and grime, looked out of place in such a harsh environment.
Erina Nakiri felt a flush of embarrassment as he held her leg, but she didn't pull away. She watched his steady hands with a mix of anxiety and resignation; she had no choice but to rely on this stranger's help.
Li Ke used the water and gauze to clean the area around the injury. When he poured the remaining alcohol over the wound to disinfect it, the intense stinging made Erina squeeze her eyes shut and clench her fists. To Li Ke's surprise, she didn't make a sound. He had expected her to scream and had even considered needing a gag to keep her quiet.
To take her mind off the pain, he asked, "You said you arrived in this world suddenly?"
Erina nodded weakly. She looked at his meager supplies and realized he lacked any real medicine to stop the infection. But then, if a cure existed, the world wouldn't be a wasteland of the walking dead. She leaned her head back, looking up at the sky in despair. "Yes. I was just... suddenly here."
She saw no point in hiding her circumstances anymore. Since they were both potentially facing the same fate as "infected," the usual social barriers felt meaningless.
"I'm curious," Li Ke continued. "You can clearly handle a lot of physical pain. Why did you lose your composure earlier just because of some bad-tasting food?"
He had heard of her "God's Tongue" ability back in his own world, but he didn't fully understand why someone would prioritize taste over survival in a place like this.
"It is a curse," she said, her voice trembling slightly.
"A curse?"
"The God's Tongue. People envy it, but for me, it means every flaw in a dish is magnified a thousand times. To my palate, that industrial food tasted of nothing but chemicals, machine oil, and rot. My training and my upbringing make it impossible to simply ignore."
A flicker of her former pride returned to her face as she spoke, though she remained pale from the blood loss.
"I see. I can't really wrap my head around that, but surely you can handle some honey?"
Li Ke finished wrapping the gauze tightly around Erina Nakiri's calf. He had done the absolute best he could to treat her with the limited supplies he had scavenged—some rubbing alcohol, gauze, and a few miscellaneous vitamins. It wasn't a hospital, but it was all the wasteland offered.
"I... suppose it should be fine," Erina nodded, her voice trembling slightly. As a gourmet, she knew honey was sensitive to storage and quality, but in this situation, nutritional value outweighed flavor.
"In that case—here's to despair."
Wiping his hands on his shirt, Li Ke opened the jar of honey and handed it to her. The scent hit Erina, and despite her best efforts, tears began to well up again. She watched Li Ke's resilient smile, unable to comprehend how he maintained such optimism. She tapped her jar against his in a silent toast.
"To despair," she whispered.
Li Ke took a large swallow of the honey, giving her a thumbs-up. To him, the sweetness was a luxury. He had expected to face the end of the world in total isolation; having a companion changed everything. For the first time in a long while, the weight of survival felt a little lighter.
For Erina, the honey was crude—thick, cloying, and lacking the refinement she was used to. Yet, the sheer necessity of survival made the sweetness intense. She forced it down, the primal needs of her body overriding her sophisticated palate.
"It's... not very good," she murmured, wiping her eyes and replacing the lid. With Li Ke's help, she attempted to stand, but her injured leg gave way immediately. The combination of exhaustion and trauma was too much.
"Rest easy. We have to keep moving," Li Ke said. Seeing she couldn't walk, he moved his pack to his front and knelt down, gesturing for her to climb onto his back.
Unfortunately, due to her sheer exhaustion and the injury, Erina couldn't walk at all. Li Ke had no choice but to adjust his backpack to his front and offer her a piggyback ride.
It wasn't until her soft chest pressed firmly against his back that Li Ke fully realized just how incredibly voluptuous the girl was. A sudden, rare wave of romantic tension washed over him.
Handing the duffel bag to her to hold, he reached back to support her thighs. The smooth, supple feel of her skin was an intense, dizzying jolt to his senses. Erina, meanwhile, couldn't help but furrow her brows slightly; the sharp tang of sweat and dried blood clinging to him made her a little uncomfortable.
However, that slight discomfort was nothing compared to the overwhelming sense of security Li Ke provided. The moment he lifted her up, she finally felt a fragile, fleeting semblance of safety.
Driven by instinct, her head drifted down until it rested gently against his shoulder.
Li Ke moved with extreme caution, navigating toward the shelter he had scouted earlier—an abandoned RV with blown-out tires.
He had thoroughly inspected it before. Even though its tires were completely flat, the vehicle boasted a two-room layout, a reinforced sheet-metal exterior, and barred windows.
Best of all, the fuel tank was completely full, and the keys were still dangling in the ignition. It was obvious the original owner had planned a desperate escape but failed before they could even drive away.
Standard zombies stood no chance of breaking through that metal hull. After all, despite their lack of pain, the undead were still made of mere flesh and blood.
Brute bone could never compete with reinforced steel.
As they crept through the woods, Li Ke maintained absolute vigilance. While the forest was less likely to harbor zombies, he refused to take chances. Every few minutes, he would deliberately slow his pace to conserve his stamina, ensuring he wouldn't be left completely drained if an emergency suddenly struck.
Neither of them spoke during the trek. Instead, they silently leaned on each other's presence, their eyes scanning the dense undergrowth for any sign of movement.
A journey that normally took Li Ke a brisk ten minutes stretched into a grueling half-hour ordeal. Keeping his eyes locked on the zombies still aimlessly wandering around the dilapidated houses nearby, Li Ke slipped inside the RV, pulled the heavy door shut as quietly as possible, and finally let out a massive sigh of relief.
"Alright. We each get our own room."
Safe inside the vehicle, Li Ke relaxed his tense shoulders. He pointed toward the two small compartments partitioned within the RV, gave Erina a reassuring smile, and handed her an axe.
"Lock your door, and keep this close. That way, if either of us turns during the night, the other can put them down and keep surviving. It's also smart to wedge a small cabinet against the door handle just to be safe."
Li Ke paused, pulling out the can of spam she had tucked away earlier, alongside her opened jar of honey. He handed them to her along with a fresh bottle of water.
"I'll leave the rest of the supplies in the RV's kitchenette. Try not to eat everything at once; we're going to need our strength tomorrow."
He handed the items over with complete transparency, without attempting to use his leverage to make any untoward demands. Granted, the girl before him was exceptionally beautiful, and his body had certainly reacted to her physical closeness during the trek, but...
Well, it was complicated.
Li Ke felt like the first half of his life back on Earth had been nothing but an exhausting treadmill of school, corporate grinding, and forced socializing. Now that he was staring down the end of his life, he simply wanted to pursue a bit of inner peace.
Granted, an apocalypse wasn't exactly peaceful.
Of course, if the girl were willing, he wouldn't mind crossing that line with her. But as things stood right now...
Food was desperately scarce, his energy was depleted, and there was still a microscopically small chance he wasn't actually infected.
But above all else...
He was just so incredibly tired.
Li Ke raised a hand to his brow, a grimace forming on his face as he felt the burning heat radiating from his skin.
He had pushed himself to the absolute limit during that earlier skirmish with the zombies. If he hadn't been running on pure adrenaline, a grown man like him wouldn't have taken a full half-hour to carry a petite girl back to shelter.
The telltale signs of the infection were officially settling in.
A raging fever, profound muscle weakness, and a crushing, bone-deep exhaustion.
If this wasn't the infection setting in, what else could it be?
While the symptoms hadn't entirely crippled his body yet, Li Ke had no desire to waste his remaining energy on anything unnecessary. Besides, forcing the issue with the girl would only complicate things. If she fought back tooth and nail, it would ruin their dynamic or, worse, lead to mutual destruction.
He just wanted to enjoy his final moments as much as possible, not get bogged down in toxic mind games.
Erina Nakiri remained silent. She understood that Li Ke's arrangement was for her own safety and undeniably the most practical approach. This way, if either of them succumbed to the virus during the night, the survivor could safely escape. Even if a turned companion managed to break through a bedroom door, the other would at least have a weapon to put them down.
How can this man accept such a desperate reality with this much calm?
"Mr. Li Ke," Erina murmured, biting her lower lip. "Why are you being so kind to me?"
She wasn't completely ignorant of fiction; she knew exactly what kind of horrific fates awaited girls like her in a lawless, broken world. Yet, Li Ke had willingly handed her weapons, shared his food, and dressed her wounds without demanding a single thing in return.
"Because I want to live out the rest of my days with absolutely no regrets," Li Ke replied with a faint smile.
He dragged a heavy storage unit forward, wedging it firmly against the RV's main entrance. Giving Erina a brief wave, he grabbed his own share of the rations, stepped into his designated room, and quietly pulled the door shut behind him.
"Living out his final days with no regrets..." Erina stared at his closed door.
A wave of profound helplessness and anxiety washed over her, accompanied by a crushing sense of sorrow. Clutching the supplies to her chest, she hesitated for a moment before dragging the heavy axe into her room and locking herself inside.
Back in his compartment, Li Ke immediately set to work on his food.
The cold spam was undeniably greasy and unappetizing. Under better circumstances, he would have used the RV's kitchenette to fry it up, but he couldn't risk the noise or smell drawing unwanted attention. Fortunately, the rich sweetness of the honey made the grim meal a lot more tolerable. Even though the thick, unrefined honey wasn't top-tier, the burst of sugar was a rare luxury. By the time he scraped the spam can clean, he had already polished off half the honey jar.
With his stomach full, he collapsed onto the mattress. The soft, cushioning comfort brought a wave of relief to his aching joints that he hadn't felt in ages.
"Heh... funny. I haven't slept like this in years," he muttered to the ceiling. "No deadlines to worry about, no corporate BS to stress over, no draining social obligations to maintain. What a dark joke."
Li Ke closed his eyes, letting the heavy curtain of exhaustion pull him under. Just before his consciousness drifted away, he cast one final glance at the cabinet blocking his door, letting out a breath of reassurance.
After all, he couldn't even guarantee he would wake up as a human tomorrow.
His deep, feverish slumber didn't last long. A sharp, urgent pressure on his bladder violently jarred him awake. Groaning, he stood up to head toward the RV's compact bathroom, but froze mid-step as an unsettling noise echoed through the metallic chassis.
Thump... scratch... thump.
Something was methodically clawing at the outer hull of the RV.
Li Ke's survival instincts flared instantly. Gripping his fire axe tightly, he crept out into the narrow hallway and quietly approached Erina's door.
"Did she turn into a zombie already?"
Letting out a weary, sorrowful sigh, Li Ke wrapped his fingers around her door handle and braced himself for the worst.
To Li Ke's surprise, the door wasn't locked. Even if it had been, it wouldn't have mattered since he held the master keys, but the lack of a barricade genuinely worried him.
Is she going to lung at me the second I open this?
Anxious, he swapped his stance to hold his hammer forward. If she did pounce, he could at least use the handle to keep her at bay.
Taking a sharp breath, Li Ke threw the door open.
A muffled shriek pierced the room. But instead of a ravenous monster, Li Ke found Erina Nakiri curled into a terrified ball in the corner, her room illuminated by the pale moonlight. The unsettling noise wasn't coming from her—it was coming from the window.
Specifically, from a pack of wolves, their eyes glowing an eerie, feral green in the dark.
The moment he burst in, Erina opened her mouth to scream again. Sensing immediate danger, Li Ke lunged across the space, slapping his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound while simultaneously slapping the wall switch to kill the room's lights.
The girl's soft frame thrashed against his chest for a few frantic seconds before she went entirely still. Her eyes, wide with sheer terror, locked onto the window. Outside the RV, a nightmare was unfolding.
Shadowy, erratic figures were sprinting out of the darkness at an impossible speed. They slammed headfirst into the wolves clawing at the vehicle, instantly devolving into a chaotic explosion of snapping jaws and tearing flesh.
One of the blurred attackers overshot its target, crashing violently against the RV's reinforced side panel with a deafening metallic thud. Illuminated by the stark moonlight, its grotesque, decaying features were laid bare.
It was a zombie.
"They're this fast?!" Li Ke's jaw dropped as he watched the undead pack tear into the wolves, gradually drifting away from the vehicle. "Were they just nerfed during the day?!"
This completely shattered his understanding of the shambling hordes he had fought hours ago. If these monsters ran at this terrifying velocity every time the sun went down, his chances of long-term survival were practically zero.
The desperate yelps of the dying wolves violently awakened the rest of the abandoned town. From every direction, zombies of all shapes and sizes began smashing through wooden doors and shattering glass windows to join the frenzy. They didn't stumble; they sprinted like Olympic athletes. Every single one of them looked like Usain Bolt on a rampage.
Realizing they were completely outmatched, the surviving wolves abandoned the fight and scattered into full retreat.
What followed was a surreal, horrific spectacle: Li Ke and Erina watched in stunned silence as dozens of hyper-aggressive zombies chased the fleeing pack down the main road in a dead sprint.
The shrieks and guttural roars of the hunting undead triggered a chain reaction, waking up even more dormant infected. Doors burst open down the entire street as a massive wave of monsters flooded the asphalt.
A handful of zombies sprinted right past the RV. A few paused to sniff the air or glare at the metal chassis, but the distant, agonizing cries of the wolves proved to be a far more intoxicating lure. Ignoring the vehicle, they joined the stampede toward the edge of town.
Finally, when the last straggler vanished into the tree line following the pack, Li Ke felt the crushing tension in his chest ease. He slowly lowered his hand, releasing Erina.
He didn't dare speak, nor did he dare flip the lights back on. He quietly began to stand up, fully intending to retreat to the safety of his own room.
The entire display had been utterly soul-crushing.
But before he could step away, a cold, trembling hand wrapped tightly around his wrist. Bathed in the silver glow of the moonlight, Erina sat in her thin shirt, her pride entirely shattered.
In a voice so quiet it was barely a whisper, she pleaded, "Don't go..."