Chapter 86

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Bai Lianhua has decided to stay with Gu Ronghang afterwards. Meanwhile, Gu Ronghang decides to approach a small safe zone for cooperation and quit their seclusion after his ability reached grade eight. He negotiates for beneficial treatment of them by using his ability to guarantee the safety of the safe zone and act as its shield so that he can start eliminating zombies at a greater scale without reservations.

While Bai Lianhua didn’t ask him to, but Gu Ronghang knows that he will be happy to hear that he did… He wants to see Bai Lianhua pleasantly surprised and proud of him. He’s also greedy, he wants Bai Lianhua to forever like him just a little bit more than everything else.

Plus, he’d also have to realise the promise that he would do good deeds. He doesn’t want to be dishonourable… He wants to prove to the Heavens that it is worth it to return Bai Lianhua to him. He can create more and more value for the world.

——As for why Safe Zone Fengxu was out, there were a lot of obvious reasons. For example, Fengxu is already well-established and it will be unsuitable for outsiders to intervene in it… But Gu Ronghang understands that, at heart, he might have tried his best to suppress his feelings for those days with Bai Lianhua’s persuasion, but he couldn’t let it all go. He’s always worried that might be a bad place for Bai Lianhua.

Which is something the system tries to use to raise Bai Lianhua’s favourability for the antagonist, “hey, host, look at how deeply the antagonist loves you… Even if he knows nothing about me but he, like, knows things, and he’ll be a good guy to help you complete your mission.”

Bai Lianhua finds that whole notion a bit silly but also heartwarming. He doesn’t say anything to the system’s rather obvious bias, but he does feel fluffy and sweet, and also a bit awkward inside.

So… he decides to ask Gu Ronghang, “would it be too much of a burden on you to choose this way of life?”

Gu Ronghang chuckles and shakes his head, “no.”

——For your sake, nothing is a burden.

He embraces Bai Lianhua, “though, if you could smile at me every day with those dimples, I would surely work harder.”

Bai Lianhua blinks and asks jokingly, “you like dimples?”

Gu Ronghang nods, “mm. The one on your cheek is good-looking.”

So Bai Lianhua smiles. He knows that he only has a dimple on one side, so he pokes at the other side with a finger, “it can’t be helped. If you like it… then I’ll give you two dimples.”

The system screams like it’s the apocalypse, “what in the world, host, when did you become so childish?!”

This is even dumber than when the host was in the dragon’s world, ok? The white lotus has become Bai ‘the Three Years Old,’ this is toxic!

Bai Lianhua asks, “isn’t this what you wished for? The antagonist likes me, and I like him in return.”

“Shouldn’t you be happy now?”

The system doesn’t have anything to say to that. That is true, of course, but it didn’t expect you two to be so sugary it’d start choking it.

It tries to hold its mouth in place but, after watching them for a while, it couldn’t help but make a pleased smile on its face.

…

Currently, the strongest known ability user has been stuck at grade seven for a long time… As the only grade eight ability user with such a unique ability, now even if someone were greedy for his ability nobody can actually threaten Gu Ronghang. No matter how strong other ability users get they’re all alone, but Gu Ronghang can control tens of thousands of zombies.

Instead, his ability has made people recall the odd events leading up to the Battle of Safe Zone Fengxu… How it received a warning prior to being attacked by a large zombie wave and making it out safely was already well-known among safe zones. There’s already been lots of speculation about Gu Ronghang that portray him positively, which means that he’s already been seen as a leader by some without knowing. Under this context, Gu Ronghang had an easy time winning over allies.

With his ability, he easily establishes himself over the safe zone. By eliminating large amounts of zombies, he has cleared up pathways after pathways between which safe trade could be conducted. The safe zone that was not doing well before has quickly started to prosper… After many years, Gu Ronghang, whose leadership skills are exceptional, became the new leader of the safe zone when he was invited to by the original leader when he was about to retire. The safe zone grew larger and larger in his hands, and when its size increased it was easier to eliminate nearby zombies again. A positive feedback loop is in place.

Bai Lianhua also trained vigorously. Even though he never did awaken a second ability, through his own hard work and piles and piles of crystal cores, he managed to reach grade six with his healing ability, the highest among all healing ability users in the apocalypse. He was also able to discover a new way of applying his healing ability that could save people who were bitten by zombies when less than three hours had passed.

——Thank God the system felt the healing ability was appropriate for a white lotus so it didn’t limit the potential of the ability. It might not have given him a golden thigh but at least it didn’t drag him back this time.

The discovery completely takes the world over by storm. It meant that a zombie bite was no longer a death sentence. Bai Lianhua didn’t hold back from spreading this method as widely as possible. The only drawback is that the exact operation is slightly demanding so only grade three healing ability users and up could use this method.

A good thing is that thanks to the safe zone growing larger, many small safe zones also joined or requested to become protectorates. Thanks to this many talents were gathered. After a great amount of research, a container was invented that could allow people with higher grade abilities to store their special energy away from themselves, which meant that the healing method was now mass reproducible. So now in missions even if a team didn’t have a high-level ability user present, they could still be protected.

Of course, there’s always a risk exposing so much of one’s talents, but with Gu Ronghang protecting him, Bai Lianhua was always under the most robust protection in the whole safe zone. Nothing bad happened to him at all.

These two people have had high achievements in their respective realms and both became famous… Bai Lianhua in the end beared witness as Gu Ronghang’s ability reached level ten, truly becoming someone that could end the apocalypse.

When the majority of zombies have been eliminated and only few remained scattered at a local level, the apocalypse was at an end. Gu Ronghang’s ability now was more symbolic than practical. So, when the upper management of the safe zone, now known as Country C, started to have second thoughts, Gu Ronghang suddenly left together with Bai Lianhua. The two of them have decided to go into seclusion again.

For Gu Ronghang, things like power is never his ultimate goal. If not for Bai Lianhua he would never have used this ability of his for good.

Everything was worth it in the end, though. They’ve experienced all of it these years, both the good and the bad, but he was able to consistently do good, and so Bai Lianhua always remained by his side.

Ever since the beginning, Gu Ronghang knew that… in that situation, Bai Lianhua could never have survived. But then again, so what? No matter how Bai Lianhua managed to make it back, he doesn’t care. He’s willing to see this as Heaven’s pity and remuneration for him.

Now, he’s done all he could, so he can finally let go of his burden and enjoy being with Bai Lianhua alone.

Like he has once wished, he and Bai Lianhua stayed somewhere where nobody bothered them. When they looked each other in the eye, all they could see were each other.

On their deathbed, Gu Ronghang and Bai Lianhua, both with white hair now, were holding hands together. They closed their eyes together, and both of them had serene smiles on their faces.

For the world, these two people have completed disappeared from the public eye in the latter half of their lives, but they live on in textbooks of the world after, recording the glowing names of Gu Ronghang and Bai Lianhua whose names were thunderous in the apocalypse, and leaving behind only the fantasies of their juniors.

…

After leaving the world and returning to the system space, when Bai Lianhua was resting, the system approached him like a puppy with a weird expression looking like it’s ready to set someone up again.

Bai Lianhua who was feeling empty and sad instead felt a headache, “what.”

The system raises its hand, “host, host, I want to ask a question!”

Bai Lianhua nods, “what is it?”

“Cough, um… which antagonist did you like best from all the worlds?”

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