Chapter 222 - 144: Return

With Ben’s help, Paige Summers and Sheldon Reid successfully made it out of the tunnel.

Ben was the name Paige Summers had given the zombie. He had provided her with so much goodwill energy—far more than any human ever had. Besides, he’d been helping her constantly. She couldn’t just keep calling him "Zombie."

Ben meant "friend."

The tunnel exit didn’t open onto level ground, but onto the face of a cliff.

However, this wasn’t a problem for Paige Summers. She used her Hook Claw to quickly scale the cliff and reach the top. Ben followed her, and Sheldon Reid was the last to make it up. Ben couldn’t speak, and Sheldon, fuming, said nothing. As a result, Paige had no idea that Sheldon had been unceremoniously shoved into third place.

Thankfully, despite their sorry state, all three of them made it to the top safely.

Paige Summers let out a silent sigh of relief. ’This was a true brush with death,’ she thought. ’If it hadn’t been Ben—if it had been any other Zombie—I might not be standing here right now!’

No, it was more than that. Thanks to Ben’s goodwill, her left earring had already collected a significant amount of energy. It probably wouldn’t take much longer to fully activate.

The thought that she could soon use the earring’s power made Paige Summers incredibly excited. Her gaze toward Ben grew even warmer.

But then a thought struck her. ’Ben can’t just keep following me around like this.’

She could probably hide him when there weren’t many people around, but in a crowd, the risk of exposure was too high. It was just too dangerous. In all the years of the apocalypse, the consensus was clear: once human, now Zombie, always the enemy. This was what nearly everyone believed. If he appeared in front of a group of people, he would undoubtedly be attacked on sight.

Even if she tried to explain, she doubted anyone would believe her.

’I’ll have to think this through carefully.’

She walked over to Ben and began to communicate with him through gestures. But before they could come to any conclusion, a shrill, strange sound rang out nearby.

Looking over, she saw Sheldon Reid holding a small, compact pistol, having just fired a round into the air.

It wasn’t a lethal weapon, nor was it a flare gun; there was no trace of anything in the sky. But a sense of foreboding washed over Paige Summers. "What was that sound?"

"You can hear that?" Sheldon Reid seemed slightly surprised. It was a Sound Transmission Bullet, used exclusively to contact his confidants. The sound bullet emitted a very high-frequency wave that most Superpower Users couldn’t detect. The only exception would be an Original System Superpower User with an auditory Enhancement, but as far as he knew, Paige was not one of them.

Paige Summers said nothing. She had already figured it out. ’It must be some kind of signal, like a flare gun. He’s calling his men!’

’I thought he wouldn’t dare to openly search for his people, so I wasn’t expecting a move like this! Sheldon Reid has always been suspicious of Ben. If his men show up, they’ll almost certainly be hostile toward him.’

Paige Summers’s expression hardened. She turned to Ben and said, "You need to go! Now!"

But Ben didn’t look at her. Instead, his eyes were locked on the pistol in Sheldon Reid’s hand. Then, he tilted his head back and let out a piercing shriek that made their eardrums ache.

Paige Summers’s lips twitched. ’That sound... I’ve heard it before.’

’Back in the caverns, that was the sound he used to summon the other Zombies. But... weren’t they all crushed to death?!’

Sheldon Reid also recognized the meaning behind that cry, but his expression remained unchanged. He and Ben stared each other down, the atmosphere between them shifting as their mutual hostility intensified.

Watching them, Paige Summers gripped the Crossbow in her hand.

’If they surround Ben,’ she thought, ’I’ll have no choice but to fight.’

Although she didn’t want to make an enemy of Sheldon Reid here, Ben had saved her life. She had to repay that debt. She couldn’t just stand by and watch him be killed!

The three of them remained in a standoff. Time ticked by. About ten minutes later, there was a stir.

Sheldon Reid’s men had arrived.

There were only eight of them. Clad in the combat uniforms of The Power Corps, they emerged like shadows from the woods behind Sheldon Reid and took their places at his side. The man in the lead was clearly emotional. "Commander! We finally found you!"

"Mm." Sheldon Reid grunted, not even glancing at them. His eyes remained fixed on Ben.

’This is bad,’ Paige Summers thought.

’Their faces are unfamiliar, but their auras are incredibly powerful,’ she noted. ’I don’t remember seeing them on the road.’

’It’s unlikely they just arrived. That means they must have been hiding among the regular members of The Power Corps this whole time. The fact that they did so deliberately, without anyone noticing, was just another testament to their exceptional skill.’

’Honestly, I’m not sure I can hold them off by myself and give Ben a chance to escape safely. But I have to try.’

Just as she was about to step forward, Ben grabbed her arm.

He shook his head at her.