Don't Pick Up Green Tea in a Zombie Horde [Apocalypse]

★ "All my life I have been looking into the depths of people's eyes. Perhaps that is the only place in the human body where the soul still exists." - Jose Saramago On a supply-gathering mission with his team, Tang Jue came across a little zombie. It was covered in blood and grime, but its face was the one exception: delicate and handsome. As a sucker for a pretty face, Tang Jue squinted at him for half an hour, then swore as he lowered his gun and shouted, "Close your eyes! Lie down!" The little zombie obediently pretended to be dead and escaped with its life. Five years later, the main base was surrounded by a tide of zombies. Tang Jue tossed aside his empty magazine, leaned on his short blade, and wiped his face. If he didn't want to become a zombie, he figured he had no choice but to end his own life. Just as the blade touched his throat, a voice came from beyond the scarred iron gate. "Close your eyes." A moment later, someone burst through the gate with a blinding light at his back, wrapped his arms around the bloodied, filthy Tang Jue, and murmured into his ear in a soft, wounded voice, "Bro." Tang Jue struggled in his arms and looked up, straight into a handsome face. – Everyone at the main base knew that Tang Jue, captain of the assault team, had started out as a street thug and had plenty of bad habits. Then he brought back a young man who followed him around all day, calling him "Brother Jue" this and "Brother Jue" that. Before long, the young man had turned their boss into a model citizen. Tang Jue led training with a cigarette between his lips, cursing up a storm. Who could have guessed Fu Li would come visit him from the lab? "You shouldn't swear." "..." "Want me to light that for you? The cigarette." "..." "Why aren't you saying anything, Brother Tang Jue?" "Fine, fine, I get it, I was wrong, okay?! What do you want from me? Quit looking at me like that, damn it..." – A year later, on the day before the main base's annual Model Resident medal ceremony. Tang Jue held the invitation. "???" ★ Short-tempered older bottom x green-tea, wolf-in-sheep's-clothing top ★ Fu Li is not a zombie, not a zombie, NOT a zombie ★ Pseudo-mystery, pseudo-wasteland, pseudo-sci-fi ★ You've read this far, so won't you bookmark me, girl? (twists) ★ First published 2020.08.10 Upcoming story: The Newbie Returns to the Village of Max-Level Experts Tu Nan had been dead for three years. More precisely, he had been released from the "Godslaying" System with grave injuries and had spent three years clinging to life. He thought that after getting through rehabilitation, he could finally live like a normal person. But when he opened his eyes, he was back where it all began. It was the familiar altar, the place where he had died after being torn apart by ghosts and ground into dumpling filling. A chill ran through him. He resolved that, next time, he would at least die with a little more dignity. Then he strolled into a human settlement to ask about the state of the world. It would have been better not to ask. He nearly died from what he learned. He stared in horror at The Guardians of the System's Deadliest Stages: A Collection. Ordinary people: "Terrifying. Simply terrifying." Tu Nan: "They're all people I know..." Ordinary people: "The Flower God. A god who looks like a young girl sitting on a swing. She has planted tens of thousands of flowers, and only one is poisonous." Tu Nan: "The little girl who sells flowers. I made her cry by saying she wasn't as pretty as the girl next door who sold matches, so I tied her a swing to make it up to her." Ordinary people: "The God of Misfortune. He can make any sentence you say come true, and 99.9% of the time, it brings bloody disaster." Tu Nan: "The one who never throws a punch in a brawl and only runs his mouth. I used to call him a coward." Ordinary people: "The God of Time. A devil who controls the mission progress bar. He loves reloading your save one second before you complete a mission." Tu Nan: "Quiet and boring. I brought him lunch for two years, and he always ordered the same dish." Ordinary people: "The God of Death. He hates all humans who breathe. A locust of the System, leaving not a single person alive wherever he goes." Tu Nan: "We drank together. He'd never drunk before, but still picked a fight. I held his head in a vat of liquor and nearly drowned him." The more he read, the darker his vision became. #Your own failure is unfortunate, but your enemy's success is even more upsetting# #Dumpling filling isn't so bad either# #Can the second death be covered by health insurance?# At last, the final page introduced someone he didn't recognize. Ordinary people: "The Supreme God. Ruler of all the gods. If you accidentally enter the Supreme God's domain, don't struggle in vain. Hurry up and arrange your final affairs!" Tu Nan: "...Is there good-looking dumpling filling and ugly dumpling filling?" Besides that, he also heard a bit of gossip. "The last time all the gods fell, it happened in a single night. Then it rained for a whole month and flooded all the human settlements." "The new gods get all their power from the Supreme God, so you'd better not badmouth him in front of them. Otherwise, you'll die without even knowing how." "Oh, and I heard the Supreme God once had a wife. They got together before he awakened." "Too bad she died." "Three years ago, right on the altar. She left nothing behind." Tu Nan choked on his drink. The new lackey beside him patted his back to help him catch his breath. "What's wrong, Brother Tu Nan?" Coughing, he waved a hand. "It's nothing. I just find it strange. The... the Supreme God can get married? How many wives has he had since then? Were they all pretty? How many times has he divorced?" The handsome young man smiled at him. "Just the one." At that, Tu Nan couldn't help sighing. "No wonder the Supreme God has such a bad temper. If a widowed bachelor doesn't have a bad temper, who does?" Then he lowered his drunken, bleary face and slumped against his lackey's shoulder, falling asleep. So Tu Nan didn't hear what the other man whispered in his ear. "That's right. I've been a widower for three years because of you. What are you going to do to make it up to me?" But Tu Nan, who seemed strong and thick-skinned, had secrets of his own. For example, the layers of scars on his body all came from a rainy night three years ago. That night, every inch of his skin was bleeding. That night, he slaughtered every god. Screenshot saved 2024.1.18 Theme: The past is gone, and the future is here.