The deputy team leader, who was standing behind the young man, came forward. He sized up the young man with a wrinkle in his brow, kicked aside the mask on the ground, and spoke in a somewhat bad tone.

“I’ve already told you guys a long time ago, don’t think that you can pretend to be the Son of Hell and act cool with some shoddy broken mask. We’ve caught the wrong person four or five times now. It’s lucky that you still seem steady. Right now, it’s a mess outside. What will you do if something really happened to you?”

……

Su Shi went silent. He glanced at that shoddy broken mask on the ground.

“All right, you’ve already lectured him enough.”

The young man who was the head of the squad interrupted the deputy leader. With a milder tone, he said to Su Shi: “My name is Yuan Zheng, I am the leader of the patrol team at B Base. It is very dangerous here. What is your name, and where do you live?”

There was a slight shift in Su Shi’s expression when he heard this person’s name.

It turned out that the other party was the protagonist of this world.

Yuan Zheng was currently only an A-level ability user, but he has S-level potential. He possessed fire and light abilities, and was the captain of a government-sanctioned patrol team.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

In accordance to the storyline, there would be many eyes on the protagonist due to his talents, and he would encounter countless crises. And it was precisely because this time the protagonist chose to stop pursuing him that Mu Shi decided to secretly guard the other person all the way until the end, often times saving the protagonist in life or death situations.

His heart shook with expectation at the familiar storyline, but in the following blink of the eye those expectations vanished like smoke in thin air. He laughed at himself for indulging too excessively in his fantasies.

It was Su Shi who had personally pushed that string of data onto the road of a civil servant*, but before that happens – before he ascends to godhood – he would be stuck in that world. In this new world, it was unlikely for Su Shi to meet his protagonist – the one who always stirred up trouble for his missions.

[T/N: Refer to chapter 102. If Esmond (the ML of the previous world) ascends to godhood he will transcend that world’s plane of existence and become a “staff member/civil servant” of the main god system.]

Well, it was probably better this way. At least he would be able to steadily carry the pot until the end.

Su Shi silently comforted himself like this, and tried his best to wave away the trace of loneliness in his heart. Holding fast to his character setting of a grim and vicious thief, he shot the other person a quick glance, turned around, and walked away just like that.

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He only made it a few steps when the striker* caught up to him and blocked his path: “Damn brat, do you want to die? The real Son of Hell is inside. A student with soft skin and tender flesh like you should be careful. He’ll roast you and eat you up!”

[*T/N: 突击手 – I think it is referring specifically to the person who cut his mask in two. Coming back from translating chapter 106, “striker” seems to be his role/position in the team, just like a doctor or a marksman role. Can also be translated as “assaulter” or “attacker” but I’m afraid that might get confusing later, so I went with “striker.”]

Su Shi frowned slightly. His right hand, which was hidden in his sleeve, twitched. He was about to tie the other person up with vines, but Yuan Zheng suddenly grabbed his right arm.

“We’re the ones who chased you all the way out here. Regardless of anything else, we should be the ones to escort you back.”

Before Su Shi could gather his wits about him, the protagonist was already dragging him along.

While pulling Su Shi forward, Yuan Zheng turned his head to look at him and spoke with a kind temperament: “Can you tell me what your name is now?”

The corpse of the mask had yet to go cold. Su Shi glanced back at the broken mask and insisted: “Son of Hell–”

Before he could finish talking, there was a thud on his forehead. The striker fumed: “Tell the truth!”

His mission was to protect the protagonist’s group in secret. Su Shi swallowed his words and chose not to argue with him: “Mu Shi.”

Everyone referred to him as the Son of Hell, but no one knew his real name.

Yuan Zheng nodded and patted him on the shoulder: “Where is your home? We will send you back.”

Since his task was to protect the protagonist’s group in secret, then naturally he could not travel with them.

Su Shi was eager to get away from them, so he flippantly answered with the name of a base that was nearby, but then the look in everyone’s eyes changed. Their gazes were full of hesitance and sympathy.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

“That place… was just met with a wave of zombies. It’s already been destroyed. We had received a notice, so we came to try our luck, to see if we can salvage any armaments or supplies from there.”

Yuan Zheng’s expression was complicated, and he spoke with a careful tone.

As a result, midway to their destination they coincidentally ran into their old enemy, the Son of Hell, and ended up pursuing him all the way here.

The defensive power of that base was very weak, and it did not take long for the wave of zombies to overwhelm it. Most likely this young man’s home was in shambles too.

Yuan Zheng couldn’t bear it. He stepped in front of Su Shi and placed a consoling hand on the young man’s shoulder. “If you have nowhere to go, then come with us.”

Hearing what he had just said, the team deputy leader was stunned and promptly opened his mouth to stop him: “Captain–”

“This is the apocalypse. Everyone joins together to survive. It’s no big deal.”

Yuan Zheng interrupted his deputy leader. Then he pressed his military knife into Su Shi’s hand: “Take it for self-defense. Be careful. Now let’s leave this place first.”