The Ger's Contract Marriage [BL]
Chapter 515: Road to Aran

Chapter 515: Road to Aran

It was much easier to get to "civilization" than Xu Feng thought it would be.

On one hand, he was clearly meant to be great, maybe even an overlord in the apocalypse. He had so easily gotten these two idiots, Zhang Wei and Li Hao, to take him to Aran Base.

They didn’t even realize how much they had underestimated him. Xu Feng couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought. Maybe he was meant for more than he initially realized.

He didn’t have to struggle much either, barely needing to bloody up his pipe. It had been rather easy dispatching the zombie cat—gross, but easy enough.

The cat had seemed to size him up with a lot of contemplation for the walking dead, sizing him up as if it couldn’t decide whether he was a delicacy or something that shouldn’t be eaten.

It paused, staring at him with its decaying face, and Xu Feng had taken a much shorter moment to size up the creature too. It was definitely the same strange presence he had felt when he was still butt-naked in the Piggy Grocery store.

The feeling had made his senses go on high alert. He got that hair-tingling sensation at the base of his neck, but that was it.

The cat didn’t actually frighten him. It was creepy, with clumps of fur missing and most of its flesh rotted away. Nasty smelling, but not as bad as the human-shaped zombies he’d faced afterward.

Despite his senses being on alert, something in him saw it as lesser. Swinging his lead pipe wasn’t scary, nor did he have second thoughts about smashing it to pieces; it was just disgusting.

The mess it left was even more disgusting. He’d had to change his clothes after the job was done. The mess was just too much for him to live with, apocalypse or not.

Cleaning up the human-shaped zombies that Ling Ling had attracted with her screaming had been much easier by comparison.

They were slow, predictable, and far less sneaky than the strange cat. There was little to no fear for Xu Feng, unlike the last time he was on this plane.

The experience had changed him, and made him stronger, more resilient. If he was forced to live in this place, maybe, just maybe, he could do it... nah.

He wasn’t scared, but the feeling of revulsion he felt around the walking dead—no, just by existing in this space—was too great.

It was like his body was rejecting the impurity around him. He felt a constant discomfort, a nagging sense that his very being was repelling the chaotic energy that saturated this world.

He would rather be in a sterile environment with limited energy than in a space with too much chaotic and "foul" energy. The thought of it made his skin crawl.

Xu Feng furrowed his brows as he thought back to the feelings he experienced while dealing with the monsters. "Foul" was a strong word, but it was exactly how he felt.

Every step he took, every breath he inhaled was filled with an invisible miasma that clung to his senses like tar. He couldn’t imagine subjecting his loved ones to this place.

Even if he could reunite with his family currently in Donghua in this plane, he didn’t want to force them to live this kind of life with him in this "foul" place.

’Overlord title be damned!’ he thought.

Xu Feng wasn’t just thinking about his future anymore. He was thinking about his people, his family, and what was best for all of them.

This world wasn’t it. There had to be a better way, a better place for them to be together.

...

The car slowed as they neared the gates of Aran Base, the fortified walls looming ahead. Xu Feng’s eyes narrowed as he took in the sight.

The base was more impressive than he had imagined. High walls made of concrete and steel loomed over them, topped with barbed wire and guard towers.

The sight of the former Aran Residential District was completely foreign. The meticulous luxury apartments, large townhouses, and McMansions that once boasted coveted green spaces manicured to a "T" were now covered up by immense walls.

The grand images of opulence and wealth were hidden behind fortifications that spoke more of survival than luxury.

Aran Base looked heavily guarded, with sentries posted along the walls and groups of soldiers stationed at the entrance. It was clear that this place was well-organized and well-defended, a strange comparison to the chaos outside its walls.

As they approached the gate, Zhang Wei and Li Hao exchanged more glances. But they didn’t pull up directly to the gate; instead, they pulled up to one of the two lines leading to the gate.

When they had left the Piggy Grocery store, it was still early in the morning. Despite reluctantly making stops at two garden supply stores along the way, they had made good time and arrived at the base with plenty of daylight left. Xu Feng guessed it was still a few hours before noon.

So why was the line to get into the base so long, even before nightfall?

Wasn’t it supposed to be difficult to get into a base before nightfall because the zombies got crazier as the day turned to dusk?

Xu Feng felt like all his knowledge about zombie apocalypses was going to waste. Were all the hours he had spent reading online novels and watching television dramas for nothing?

Putting his feelings about his sordid past behind him, Xu Feng took in the situation slowly as they moved up to the much longer line.

Much, much longer...

The two lines seemed to be worlds apart despite being only a two-minute walk away from each other.

Both lines had people in vehicles of all types as well as people on foot, so that wasn’t how they were divided.

Xu Feng’s mind wandered, and he couldn’t help but take a detour into wondering why everyone looked so... drained.

He had been thrown into a world where people were mostly farmers, and things like plagues were also rampant. Still, compared to what should have been a backward place that was also cut off from the rest of the world—Dongzhou—this apocalypse was devastating.

The people in line looked malnourished and dispirited, yet they were all still struggling to live on in a broken world.

There was a heaviness in the air, a sense of desperation that weighed down on everyone. It was evident in the way people moved, their shoulders slumped and their eyes downcast.

Even the few children present, who should have been playing or at least looking around curiously, seemed too tired to do anything but cling to their parents.

As Xu Feng took in the scene around him, his eyes settled on a group at the tail end of the other line—the one he wasn’t in.

He couldn’t actually see anyone clearly, but he felt a strange sensation, like a twinge in his gut or a tug in his mind that made him turn his head in that direction.

It was as if some invisible force was pulling him toward that line. His senses sharpened, and for a moment, everything else faded into the background.

The noise of the world, the smell of exhaust fumes, the chill in the air—all of it disappeared as he focused on that one spot in the distance.

Xu Feng couldn’t explain it, but he felt something—or someone—over there. His instincts told him to pay attention, that whatever was there was important.

"Hey, Xuan!" Zhang Wei’s voice snapped Xu Feng out of his thoughts. He turned to see Zhang Wei looking at him with a mixture of impatience and curiosity. "You good? I’ve been talking to you for a while now."

Xu Feng blinked, shaking off the strange feeling that had overtaken him. "Yeah, I’m fine," he replied, his voice steady. "Just... thinking."

Zhang Wei nodded, but his eyes lingered on Xu Feng for a moment longer before he turned back to the front.

As they continued to inch forward, Xu Feng couldn’t help but steal glances toward the other line.

The van at the end of the other line wasn’t outstanding in that it was just as dirty as any other vehicle in either line. It was covered in dust and mud, the grime of the road obscuring its original color.

Still, there was something about it that caught Xu Feng’s attention. It was weird, almost out of place.

Xu Feng noticed that the cars in his line were far dirtier than those in the other line. His line was a mishmash of different vehicles—sedans, beat-up trucks, a few motorcycles here and there.

Each one looked like it had been through hell and back, covered in layers of filth and battle scars from the road. In contrast, the vehicles on the other end were mostly vans and off-road vehicles. They were still dirty, but not nearly as grimy or damaged as those in Xu Feng’s line.

There was a certain ruggedness to them, a sense that they were built to handle the rough terrain of this post-apocalyptic world.