NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13: Chapter 13: The Apocalypse Dawns, Settling Scores (Final)
Xiao Yang's laughter echoed through the coal-heated bunker. "So Xiao Feng got cuckolded by his own brother-in-arms! No wonder this bastard's got Wang Jian's pig-faced genes!"
Wang Jian's face purpled with suppressed rage as Zhang Li clutched her unconscious son. "You'll rot in prison for this!"
"Get out." Xiao Yang kicked Xiao Ren's bleeding body toward them. "Don't stain my floors with this bastard's blood."
Outside the Bunker - 00:10:00
Wang Min staggered through the sudden blizzard, her designer heels crunching on ice. "Y-You think you've won, Mu Wanqing?" Her chattering teeth turned threats into gibberish. "I'll... I'll make you kneel—"
The countdown on her wrist blinked 00:00:00.
Her frozen corpse hit the pavement mid-sentence, smile preserved under frost like a macabre ice sculpture.
Bunker Living Room
Mu Wanqing's palms stung from slapping Wang Min. "My brother taught me to return kindness tenfold—and vengeance a hundredfold." Her voice shook, adrenaline fading into tremors.
Xiao Yang watched her unraveling. "You should stay. It's -30°C out—"
She yanked the blast door open.
Arctic wind howled through the entrance, crystallizing her tears before they could fall. The university town below glimmered under diamond frost—students mid-stride frozen like insects in amber, a BMW SUV embedded in a roadside snowdrift with Xiao Ren's corpse grinning through the windshield.
Mu Wanqing's knees buckled. "What... what is this?"
"Survival 101." Xiao Yang guided her to the coal furnace. "Time energy dictates life now. Your arm's counter started at one year when the pulse hit."
He rolled up his sleeve—01-364-23:59:59 glowed faintly. "I just harvested eleven people's lifetimes."
Mountain Pass - 00:05:00
The careening Mercedes' heater fought valiantly against the -50°C onslaught. Xiao Ren's corpse rattled in the backseat, eyes frozen open.
"Faster!" Wang Jian beat the driver's seat. "My son needs—"
00:00:00
Zhang Li's final scream crystallized as the Mercedes vaulted the guardrail. The wreckage tumbled into darkness, ice encapsulating Wang Jian's severed arm still clutching the steering wheel.
Bunker Kitchen
Mu Wanqing stared at her 00-364-23:59:59 wrist. "You... you really left them ten minutes?"
"Mercy is a luxury." Xiao Yang stirred beef stew over the furnace. "They'd have died instantly at zero anyway."
Her chopsticks clattered. "But you shot Xiao Ren's kneecap! How could you—"
"To buy nine minutes." He ladled stew into her bowl. "Had to make sure their cars crashed somewhere no one would find the bodies."
Coal Ball the raven cawed appreciatively from his cage, pecking at frozen mealworms.