Chapter 19: Encountering Variants on a Night Road

Their car was parked outside the villa, originally intending to drive away after finding it, but upon arrival, they only found a pile of charred remains on the ground.

The car had melted directly under the scorching sun. Surprisingly, it hadn’t exploded, otherwise, they would have heard it inside the villa.

“We’ll have to walk. Luckily, the sun was an indiscriminate attacker during the day, even killing Variants,” Zhou Quan said.

As they came along the way, they saw many beetle and green-furred wolf corpses on the ground. The Variants had been scorched to death, but their bodies hadn’t been charred, making them more heat-resistant than cars.

Then, Lou Su heard his words but became vigilant, “If that’s really the case, we need to be careful.”

“Why?” Su Yan asked, her mind consumed with the fact that her parents were gone, leaving her unable to think clearly.

After Lou Su’s reminder, Zhou Quan also realized it and explained to Su Yan, “Although the temperature is low at night, it’s not enough to kill Variants. We’ve all chosen to travel overnight, so the Variants that have been cooped up all day will probably be unusually active at night.”

He had barely finished speaking when he felt movement under his feet.

“Run!” Lou Su commanded, taking the lead in pulling Chu Xihen forward to run.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan dragged Gao Lin, one on each side, barely managing to keep up with Lou Su’s speed.

After running a distance, Zhou Quan looked back and saw blue-glowing beetles emerging from the ground in the darkness, but their speed didn’t seem as agile as when they first encountered them.

“Brother Lou, those bugs seem to be afraid of the cold too,” Zhou Quan said while running, exhausted.

Plus, they were all wearing thick down jackets, making it difficult to run smoothly.

“That’s good, it gives us enough time to escape.” Lou Su also looked back and saw that it was indeed as Zhou Quan had said.

It seemed that the weather was an indiscriminate attacker, unkind to humans and showing no mercy to Variants either.

“Are you tired? Do you want me to carry you?” Lou Su asked Chu Xihen, who was panting beside him.

Lou Su had trained Zhou Quan and the others for a day, but his energy was still abundant. He had been running all this way, and his breathing was steady.

“No, thank you.” Although Chu Xihen really wanted to, he declined. There were outsiders watching, and even though he was lazy, he still had some pride.

After running for a while and realizing the bugs weren’t catching up, they stopped to rest.

Chu Xihen leaned his whole body against Lou Su, using him as a human-shaped pillow.

“Why can’t we find a safe place to stay? Running for our lives is so tiring,” Chu Xihen complained.

When would his retirement life be realized?

“Once we get to Jing City, we’ll settle down and not go anywhere,” Lou Su coaxed while patting his back to help him catch his breath.

Chu Xihen still didn’t know why Lou Su wanted to go to Jing City, but with outsiders present, he couldn’t ask and could only hold it in for now.

However, Lou Su was one of the male protagonists of this world, with a mission to save the world, so it was impossible for him to find a place to stay and not go anywhere.

Chu Xihen thought that this might be another reason for his breakup with Lou Su after Bai Jinli appeared, right?

Anyway, they hadn’t found a good place yet, and he was a little reluctant to leave Lou Su, so he would follow along for now and scout for a retirement spot on the way to Jing City!

“That’s enough, let’s continue on our way!” Lou Su patted Chu Xihen and pulled him up to stand.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan were also efficient, but Gao Lin couldn’t help coughing when he got up.

He had been injured by Wan Ming and hadn’t had time to rest properly. He had also endured the pain to train with Lou Su all day, and now he had run so far, he couldn’t handle it anymore.

“How are you? Can you still walk? Or should I carry you?” Zhou Quan imitated Lou Su’s words from earlier. Although he was shorter than Gao Lin and his physical strength was poor, he didn’t hesitate to walk up to him and bend down when he saw Gao Lin’s condition.

“No need, I can still walk. It’s just that I ran too fast, and the wind blew into my throat, making me a little uncomfortable,” Gao Lin said, wiping the blood he coughed up onto the sleeve of his black down jacket.

It was dark, and no one noticed.

“Then I’ll support you. The bugs didn’t catch up, so we don’t have to run,” Zhou Quan said, placing Gao Lin’s arm over his shoulder and helping him on his way.

Lou Su slowed down to take care of them and to make Chu Xihen more comfortable.

But even so, Gao Lin coughed more and more severely, and he couldn’t walk at all after less than two hours.

This time, Zhou Quan didn’t ask anything and dragged him along with Su Yan.

To make matters worse, Variants attacked them at this moment. Not only were there beetles on the ground, but a crack opened in the sky, and green-furred wolves fell one by one from the sky.

“We’ll stand back-to-back to face the enemy, with Gao Lin in the middle,” Lou Su said, then asked Zhou Quan and Su Yan, “Do you remember the moves I taught you during the day? Take out your daggers and prepare to defend. Whether you can kill the Variants isn’t the key, but it’s most important that you don’t let the Variants touch you. As long as you can wound the Variants with your daggers, I can kill them.”

“Brother Lou, we remember!” Zhou Quan and Su Yan took out their daggers from their backpacks and held them in their hands.

The daggers were what Lou Su had taught them to practice with during the day, which Su Yan had found from her house. After using them, he had them keep them.

Larger weapons were difficult to carry while escaping, so only daggers were the most convenient.

Chu Xihen didn’t practice during the day, so naturally, he didn’t get a dagger. Lou Su had also thought of this and had already prepared one for him, but when he took out the dagger to hand it to him, he saw Chu Xihen reach into his backpack and slowly pull out a kitchen knife.

Lou Su: “…”

Sensing his gaze, Chu Xihen turned to look at him, “What’s wrong? I put it in my bag when I took the seasonings from the kitchen.”

Wan Ming only saw him packing seasonings at the time; otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought he was going on a picnic.

“Very good, very prescient,” Lou Su praised.

After they finished speaking, the beetles that were closer to them charged over.

Zhou Quan and Su Yan trembled with fear but didn’t dare to back down, using the moves Lou Su taught them to deal with the beetles. Because the low temperature had given the bugs a debuff, slowing their movements slightly, the two of them could temporarily cope.

While Lou Su was using his dagger to cut bugs, he was also using his abilities, instantly killing the beetles at the front.

At this time, the green-furred wolves also landed. Perhaps because they had just come from the sky, they hadn’t been affected by the low temperature yet, and their speed was much faster than the beetles.

Green-furred wolves pounced from all directions, scaring Zhou Quan and Su Yan. Seeing the appearance of the green-furred wolves, they could barely hold the daggers in their hands.

Compared to beetles, green-furred wolves were Variants of a higher level, but these two could kill beetles but were too frightened by the green-furred wolves to move.

“Don’t be dazed,” Chu Xihen reminded from the side, although he was holding a kitchen knife in both hands, he just made a gesture and hadn’t done anything yet.

But his soft reminder did bring Zhou Quan and Su Yan back to their senses, and they quickly stabbed forward with their daggers.

But they were too slow, allowing the green-furred wolves to dodge.

Lou Su was currently dealing with the green-furred wolves in front of him and Chu Xihen and couldn’t take care of them.

His ability could be activated without having to face them, but only if the green-furred wolves were wounded by Zhou Quan and the others. If they couldn’t hit them, Lou Su couldn’t help them.

Surrounded by several people, Gao Lin couldn’t help but blame himself. He hated his incompetence and being a hindrance at a critical moment.

If he had an ability, Zhou Quan and the others wouldn’t be in such a dangerous situation.

Looking at the green-furred wolves in front of Zhou Quan and Su Yan, his eyes were bloodshot, and it felt like a fire was burning in his heart.

The next second, seeing a green-furred wolf about to pounce on Zhou Quan, he suddenly raised his hand, and a ball of flames flew from his palm, hitting the green-furred wolf…