Chapter 59: It's Her? Memories of the Past Life

Judging by your strength, you must have consumed quite a few zombies.

Ao Xin squeezed the crystal being's neck and lifted her slightly higher, causing her face to turn red with suffocation.

Based on the speed she had just displayed, she was easily at the level of a flesh-corpse.

Moreover, this type of mutated crystal being retained human characteristics, and her combat prowess was significantly lower than that of her peers.

In other words, the zombies she had eaten, had they been normal crystal beings, would likely have possessed the strength of a zombie-corpse!

Let me go!

Her voice was distorted, and she barely managed to force out three words, but she was met only with Ao Xin's sneering smile.

I have never harmed humans. I only eat zombies. Please, let me go.

Her breathing became increasingly difficult, and her mind grew somewhat chaotic, yet the instinct for survival made her persist in finishing her plea for mercy.

Let you go?

As Ao Xin smiled, he applied a bit more pressure with his hand.

Your brain-domain crystal should have reached the two-star level by now. Let me check.

His other hand reached toward her head, his five fingers forming a claw, intending to break open her skull and extract the crystal.

The crystal being trembled uncontrollably. Spare me, I beg you.

A tear slipped from her eyes. She did not want to die; even if living meant eating disgusting zombie flesh, she still did not want to die.

Yet now, this person whose strength was terrifyingly high showed not a shred of mercy, wanting only to extract her brain-domain crystal.

Feeling that hand, hard as a steel claw, resting upon her forehead, she closed her eyes in despair.

Was she still going to die?

However, the hand Ao Xin was about to use to crush the crystal being's skull and extract the crystal suddenly stopped.

His fingers brushed against something, plucked it off effortlessly, and brought it before his eyes.

It was a very ordinary hairband, with a small star decorating the side of the black band.

This hairband.

Ao Xin looked at the crystal being before him, her cheeks sunken and her body emaciated, and fell into a memory.

What is your name?

He relaxed his grip on the crystal being's neck slightly, allowing her to catch her breath.

Seeing that Ao Xin had not killed her and had instead loosened his claw, she did not understand his intention, but hurried to answer the question:

My name is Han Shuang.

Boom! The name struck Ao Xin's brain directly.

He lowered her gently to the ground and released his grip on her throat.

Do you have a younger brother named Han Lei?

How do you know? She had been set down, yet still dared not move rashly.

The young man before her was far too powerful.

Why, however, did he know about her younger brother?

Could he be someone her brother knew?

So it was you.

Ao Xin looked with a complex expression at Han Shuang in the darkness.

In his previous life, he had known her.

At that time, Han Shuang had disguised herself as a human and lurked among a group of survivors.

Because of her sunken cheeks and ugly, sickly ghost-like appearance, she was deeply unwelcome.

Only he had been willing to speak with her.

Later, her identity as a crystal being was exposed, and she had no choice but to flee.

At the time, he had been terrified upon learning she was a crystal being, but she had merely smiled and fled on her own.

Much later, many years afterward, when he was being hunted down by that punk who had acquired the Devil Fruit ability, she had once saved him.

Unfortunately, her intervention exposed her, and the punk subsequently spread the news, leading countless people to hunt for her brain-domain crystal.

As for what her ultimate fate had been, he never knew, because after she was pinned down by those pursuers, he had died at the hands of that punk.

At least, in his previous life, her actions showed no malice toward humans.

Nor had he ever heard of her consuming human flesh and blood.

Perhaps she truly was different from other crystal beings.

I owe you a favor.

Ao Xin uttered these ambiguous words. Han Shuang did not hear them clearly: Huh?

Nothing.

Shaking his head, Ao Xin said, Come with me. As long as you do not eat humans, I will keep you safe!

Han Shuang was still extremely fearful of him: I... but I am no longer human. I have become this ghostly thing. If we go outside, others will surely kill me the moment they see me!

With me here, no one will kill you!

Ao Xin's words carried weight; though spoken in a calm tone, they inexplicably gave her a strong sense of security.

Alright, alright...

Her voice grew softer and softer, until finally, she began to sob.

Ao Xin did not know how to comfort people, especially since the person before him could no longer be considered human.

He searched the basement for a moment and finally found a large bottle of club soda.

His purpose in coming to the basement was to find potable fresh water or juice.

Although alcohol no longer had any effect on his body, drinking liquor every day did not do much to quench his thirst.

Unscrewing the cap, he gulped it down. The cool sensation went straight to his stomach, instantly refreshing him.

Finishing the bottle in one breath, he tossed the empty container aside with satisfaction.

Finding another bottle of mineral water, he opened the cap and took a sip. It had not spoiled yet, so he screwed the cap back on, picked it up, and turned to leave.

He felt some regret for not bringing Ao Chen along. Had he brought Ao Chen's storage space, he would have been able to store more fresh water.

Yet thinking of the battles he had experienced over the past few days, if he had really brought his younger sister along, she would never have been able to withstand the hairy corpses and the endless hordes of zombies.

Let's go!

Returning to Han Shuang, he gave a brief call. Han Shuang murmured a soft assent and followed closely behind him as they left the basement.

Returning to the upper level of the bar, although it remained pitch black, the visibility was much better than in the basement.

Finding a sofa, he tossed the mineral water onto it, leaned his steel whip against the side, and sat down to rest.

Han Shuang wrung the hem of her clothes, cautiously sitting opposite Ao Xin. She sat bolt upright, terrified of displeasing him in any way.

You don't need to be so uptight. If you're hungry, there are zombies I killed outside—help yourself!

Crystal beings had only two sources of food: humans and zombies.

Since she did not eat humans, she had no choice but to consume zombies; other food was useless to her.

Seeing that she remained constrained, Ao Xin started chatting with her casually, eventually bringing up things she had been unwilling to speak of in his past life.

For instance, the reason she had turned into a crystal being.

Under normal circumstances, a person would not attempt to eat zombie flesh, even if starved to death.

Yet how had she ever come to such a pass?

In his past life, she had been extremely tight-lipped about this experience and reluctant to discuss it deeply. But now, under Ao Xin's overwhelming pressure, she answered whatever was asked without reservation.

I used to be a waitress at this bar.

Han Shuang recounted her experience.

When the apocalypse arrived, certain drug addicts in the bar had weak immune systems, failed to withstand the zombie virus, and underwent corpse mutation.

The entire bar had been in chaos at the time.

She and several other bar employees had fled in panic into the basement.

They survived for a few days relying on the food stored there.

However, the concentration of the zombie virus in the air grew increasingly high, and staying cooped up in the basement led to physical weakness. Soon enough, someone began to mutate.

Fortunately, they discovered it in time and killed the person just as the mutation was taking place.

Yet in the apocalypse, people who had lost all moral boundaries were everywhere.

A woman locked in a basement with several men in an environment where civilization had collapsed—what could possibly happen?

Even that no longer mattered to her.

As long as she could live.

Yet there were always people whose perversions defied imagination.

Zombies were everywhere outside the bar, making them afraid to go out, and their food supplies were dwindling rapidly.

Finally, someone suggested that she eat the flesh of the person who had mutated and been killed.

When she refused, those men held her down and forced the flesh into her mouth.

No matter how much she cried or struggled, it was useless.

Whether by some twist of fate or a stroke of luck, she did not turn into a zombie; instead, as her brain domain crystallized, she underwent a mutation, becoming a mutated crystal being.

And then she killed every single one of those men!