Chapter 34: Korean-Style Crispy Fried Chicken

The mountains of G City are layered with peaks, and the highways are mostly built winding around the vast ranges and rivers. As long as one avoids passing through city centers, it is rare to encounter zombies on the road.

Unfortunately, where there are many mountains, there are also many highway bandits.

In order to survive, the surrounding villages and towns have spontaneously organized into bandit gangs of various sizes. They are self-sufficient when it comes to food from their fields, but all other daily necessities are obtained through highway robbery.

Of course, these bandits are selective about their targets.

If the passing vehicles are occupied by burly men with abundant supplies and well-equipped gear, they silently let them pass. If the passengers are the elderly, the weak, the sick, or children, they swarm them to steal supplies and vehicles, sometimes even kidnapping people.

Su Su’s group, which includes the elderly, the weak, the sick, and children, while driving a highly modified, high-performance off-road vehicle, is like a toddler holding gold while walking through the streets—a perfect candidate for the bandits to target.

Moreover, there are two young, beautiful women sitting inside the car.

Such a large piece of "fat meat" would tempt anyone, causing them to let their guard down due to being blinded by appearances.

Regrettably, no one has managed to take a bite of this meat yet.

The mountain road ahead is narrow, and seeing another sharp turn approaching, Pang Cancan releases a few poisonous insects to scout the path. Less than half a minute later, she lets out a long sigh.

"Sister Su Su, there are people ambushing us ahead again."

Su Su frowns in annoyance: "There are too many of them."

It’s true! They had just dealt with one group of bandits, and they had only driven ten kilometers before running into the next!

"Can they really get any supplies this way?" Pang Cancan asks, skeptical. "Shouldn't it all have been exploited by the bandits further ahead already?"

Who knows.

Su Su slows the vehicle down, constantly vigilant for iron spikes that might suddenly appear on the road. If they were to puncture a tire here in the middle of nowhere, there would be no place to get a replacement.

It would even be difficult to wait for other vehicles to pass by.

Just as she thinks this, Le Rui, who is趴 on the rear window, exclaims: "Sister Su Su, there’s a car coming up from behind!"

Su Su glances in the rearview mirror and sees a vehicle indeed approaching on the road behind them.

"Can you tell what kind of people are inside?"

Pang Cancan also crawls to the rear window, squinting her eyes for a long time, and vaguely discerns that the driver is a man.

In the apocalypse, someone who can still drive a Land Rover is either a wealthy fool or a ruthless character.

"Why don't we let them go first and let them pave the way for us!"

Su Su slows down even further.

The Land Rover behind them quickly catches up and zooms past their car. She only has enough time to see two large men in the driver and passenger seats.

*Vroom! Vroom, vroom, vroom—*

After the Land Rover overtakes them and rounds the corner, the roar of the engine unexpectedly dies down, and it comes to an awkward halt in the middle of the road.

Immediately after, dozens of burly robbers jump out.

"Hand over all the supplies in the car!"

The expected roar echoes through the mountains. Pang Cancan perks up: "Is it starting?"

No sooner has she spoken than screams drift over from around the corner.

"Have mercy! We won't dare do it again!"

"Ow, ow, ow! Stop hitting us! Let us go!"

On the other side, Guan Zixuan jumps out of the car in a rage and kicks over the two bandits closest to him.

"Daring to scatter spikes on the road! Are you pathetic? Huh? Are you pathetic!"

A powerful gust of wind-elemental ability blows over a dozen burly robbers. The strongest among them are merely first-tier ability users, and they are beaten to the ground by Guan Zixuan alone upon their first encounter.

Seeing that someone might die if this continues, the man in the passenger seat finally speaks up.

"Zixuan, that's enough."

Guan Zixuan stops at the right moment, his tiger-like eyes glaring at the punctured tire, feeling both hateful toward the road-robbing bandits and frustrated by his own negligence.

"Brother Wei, the tire needs to be changed."

Wei Yan rubs his temples, sighing helplessly: "What happened to you just now? How could you not see such an obvious trap?"

Guan Zixuan hangs his head in shame.

He... he was looking at the beauty. The car they just passed had an exceptionally beautiful young woman in the driver's seat. Even a hurried glance felt stunning; her face was as white as porcelain, her lips as red as cherries, and even her hair was exceptionally dark and fluffy, making the surrounding scenery look much more refined.

Distracted like that, he didn't have time to slow down and check the road ahead, and so he punctured the tire.

"Forget it, get out and change the tire."

There is a spare tire in the car.

Wei Yan and another female teammate get out of the car as well. They don't help, just stand to the side, watching the careless Guan Zixuan struggle to change the tire.

"Sigh."

Guan Zixuan sighs while working, glancing back from time to time.

Wei Yan frowns: "What are you looking at?"

"Looking at that car behind us, wondering why they haven't driven over yet." He still wants to see the beauty again.

Wei Yan had also noticed the modified off-road vehicle earlier, but he had only taken a few extra looks before averting his gaze.

"They probably heard the commotion here and didn't dare to come over yet."

That's true. The commotion he made was so loud that perhaps that little beauty, who looked like a flower, is parked behind, observing the situation.

Guan Zixuan finishes changing the tire quickly. Before getting back into the car, he takes a regretful look behind him.

Seeing this infatuated expression, Wei Yan frowns: "Let's go."

*Tch, the captain really has no appreciation for romance.*

Guan Zixuan steps on the gas, the roar of the Land Rover sounds again, and in the blink of an eye, it speeds away from this stretch of road.

Behind the bend.

They guessed right; Su Su has parked the car a few hundred meters away, waiting for the conflict ahead to end.

It is always better to be cautious.

"They seem to have left?"

"They have indeed left."

The off-road vehicle starts up again, slowly driving past the bend. The iron spikes on the road have long since been swept into the mountains by the wind-elemental ability, leaving the path clear.

Over a dozen bandits lie scattered on the ground, some unconscious, some injured; for the time being, no one can stand up to continue their robbery.

Su Su scans the group, her gaze suddenly falling on the fields not far away.

"Cancan, are those bok choy?"

Pang Cancan follows her gaze and discovers a small patch of bok choy growing in the fields.

While they haven't been short on supplies along the way, fresh vegetables are hard to find. For the sake of nutrition and health, they have had to dig for wild vegetables in the roadside forests every so often, and it has been far too long since they have seen cultivated green vegetables.

"It's bok choy!"

The two catch each other's eyes in the rearview mirror. The former stops the car with a mutual understanding, and the latter gets out with a backpack, heading straight for the field.

Not long after, Pang Cancan returns carrying a backpack full of bok choy.

"Finally, some green vegetables!"

Such brazen behavior makes it hard to tell who the real robbers are. The only two first-tier ability users, enraged, climb up from the ground.

"Put that down! That's the food we planted!"

Pang Cancan says "Hey" and blatantly throws the backpack into the car.

"I say it's just wild vegetables growing on the side of the road! Do you have proof that you planted this?"

Bok choy as wild vegetables? That is pure nonsense!

The two ability users, having just been beaten black and blue, see that the person before them is a woman and suddenly regain a strong sense of confidence.

They approach with dark expressions: "Damned woman! If you won't drink the toast, you'll drink the forfeit! Let's see how we teach you a lesson!"

"You bastards, how dare you curse at me! Today, I'll teach you what it means to rob the robbers!"

Pang Cancan rolls up her sleeves, but dozens of apple-sized hailstones fly past from behind, slamming into the two ability users without a word, sending them scurrying away in fear.

Looking back, it was Le Rui who had acted.

Her face, which had finally started to show a bit of flesh, is tight, and the voice she shouts with is exceptionally threatening: "If you dare come any closer, I will kill you!"

A second-tier ability user!

The two men look at each other in terror, their feet rooted to the spot, not daring to make another move.

Inside the car, Su Su looks at Le Rui with approval: "Well done."

Praised by the sister she likes, Le Rui's face flushes a deep red: "I... I don't like them using bad language."

"That's right, it was so foul!" Pang Cancan crawls into the back seat, sternly instructing the child: "You mustn't learn to be bad from them; cursing is the lowest behavior!"

She conveniently ignores the profanity she just uttered herself.

Le Rui nods solemnly.

Given this advice, Su Su remains silent for two seconds, ultimately deciding not to say anything.

The car continues forward.

Pang Cancan is already impatient to eat stir-fried bok choy and picks up the map to start planning.

"If we drive another dozen kilometers, we'll pass a small county town. Before we enter the town, shall we stop and have lunch?"

"Fine."

For the remainder of the journey, they do not encounter any more mountain bandits.

The group successfully finds a spot near a water source. Pang Cancan builds a fire, Le Rui gathers firewood, and Su Su walks toward the river pool.

The clearer the water, the harder it is to see the depth.

Su Su stares at the water for a dozen seconds, then suddenly turns to look at the black python accompanying her at her feet.

"Little Black, do you know how to swim? Can you go into the water and catch some fish?"

It wouldn't be a land snake, would it?

The human and the snake are standing very close to the river. The black snake's tail is already swaying in the water, and its slit pupils stare back eerily.

Su Su has long understood that Little Black is a snake that only works for benefits; the only things that can move it are crystals and energy.

She takes out a few crystals.

The snake's tongue sweeps them directly into its mouth.

Under Su Su's expectant gaze, it still remains motionless.

"Not enough?" She takes out a few more, and at the same time, releases some of her own energy. "Is this enough?"

The black snake accepts everything offered but still won't do the work.

The human and the snake stare at each other for a long time. Su Su's expression gradually changes from expectation to confusion: "Are you unwilling?"

If it really didn't want to, she wouldn't force it, but how could it put on this act and trick her out of so many crystals... Just as a sense of resentment begins to bloom, the black snake that had been tricking her abruptly straightens up.

The lower half of its body stays on the ground, supporting it to maintain eye level with the human.

*Hiss~*

Su Su’s chin is first rubbed heavily, and then the corner of her lips is licked intensely for several seconds.

Meeting those direct, ink-green slit pupils, she finds herself, for once, unable to understand its thoughts.

"Little Black?"