Male Lead, Let Go of That Heroine—Let Me! [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 4

Lu Sheng and Ou Jie were beyond frustrated. The two had been dropped into the amusement park together, and initially, they were quite happy—after all, having a companion meant someone to lean on. However, that happiness vanished the moment they found themselves being hunted by over a hundred zombies.

Fortunately, the zombies moved very slowly, and Lu Sheng and Ou Jie managed to gradually put some distance between them.

“What do we do now?” Ou Jie asked, glancing back at the relentlessly pursuing horde.

“Find the other three. We need to regroup first,” Lu Sheng panted, wiping sweat from his forehead. “We have to shake off the zombies behind us; we can’t let them keep following.”

Ou Jie: “How? These zombies act like they’ve got GPS trackers on us. They’re persistent as hell.”

“Run for the amusement park exit first,” Lu Sheng said, eyeing the gate.

“Lu Sheng, Lu Sheng, something’s wrong!” Ou Jie yelled. “Look, the zombies are moving faster!”

Lu Sheng looked back and realized the zombies that were walking slowly moments ago were now jogging.

“Holy crap, did the zombies evolve? Run!”

The two didn’t have time to think further; they bolted for the exit.

Back at the supermarket, under Li Weige’s disapproving gaze, Yan Hui silently put down the kitchen knife. “I was only using it for self-defense.”

Li Weige: “…If you use that, the zombies are the ones who will be in danger.”

Yan Hui: “…….”

“Hahaha… Yan Hui got roasted, I’m dying. When she said she wasn’t violent while silently picking up a kitchen knife, it was actually kind of cute.”

“I’m starting to realize Yan Hui is actually very interesting…”

“I feel like Li Weige and Yan Hui are just a comedy duo roasting each other. Too funny.”

“Did you see? When Yan Hui went for the knife, Tan Yingying picked one up too. Li Weige’s face turned green, hahaha…”

After some negotiation, the three each took a fire extinguisher. To avoid harming the background actors’ safety, they planned to use the powder to block the zombies’ progress.

The three waited at the amusement park exit for Lu Sheng and Ou Jie. Li Weige stood at the front. When he spotted them, he immediately shouted, “Lu Sheng, Ou Jie! Over here! Hurry!”

Seeing Li Weige, the two ran toward them. Ou Jie shouted as he ran, “The zombies evolved! Their speed increased!”

Li Weige was shocked: “What?” Before he could ask for details, he noticed with horror that the zombies—who had been at a distance—suddenly accelerated. “My god! Lu Sheng, Ou Jie, hurry! The zombies are running! Oh my god…”

All the zombies had picked up speed. Hearing Li Weige’s shouting, they began screaming and snarling as they gave chase.

Seeing the zombies about to catch Lu Sheng and Ou Jie, Yan Hui and Tan Yingying pulled the pins on their fire extinguishers and sprayed the lead zombies right in the face. Blighted by the powder, the zombies were blinded and began spinning in place.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Li Weige grabbed Lu Sheng and Ou Jie and ran toward the supermarket. Seeing the others clear, Yan Hui grabbed Tan Yingying, who was still spraying, and retreated.

The five of them locked the supermarket door. The zombies swarmed the building, wandering around and staring into the store with eyes full of hunger and greed at the last five humans.

“What now?” Ou Jie looked at the zombies packed outside the door. “We’re surrounded. We can’t get to the research institute like this.”

Li Weige took out the map provided by the crew. “We are still quite far from the institute. Even if we ran, it would take about an hour—assuming no zombies blocked us. But now…” He looked at the door and sighed. “We can’t even get out.”

Lu Sheng said, “The crew wouldn’t put us in a dead-end situation. There must be a solution. Since we are weak and the enemy is many, we need tools for defense.”

“…Tan Yingying, put down the kitchen knife.” Li Weige saw Tan Yingying silently picking up the knife again and said helplessly, “Don’t let Yan Hui lead you astray, okay?”

Yan Hui: “…How did this get blamed on me?”

Tan Yingying pouted, “Lu Sheng said we need tools.”

“But not a kitchen knife! There must be other tools meant for dealing with zombies,” Li Weige argued.

Yan Hui: “How about a water gun?”

Li Weige said tiredly, “…Yan Hui, stop messing around, okay?”

“I’m serious.” Yan Hui raised a gun in her hand. “Look, there are guns here.”

The four looked over and saw that Yan Hui really was holding a gun. Li Weige gasped, “Holy crap, where did you get that?”

“Found it on the road.” When Yan Hui went to save Lu Sheng and Ou Jie, she saw a “corpse” on the ground holding a gun and picked it up.

“What is this for?” Ou Jie took it and examined it, realizing it was just a toy. “This is a toy gun. It won’t work against zombies, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Yan Hui fired a shot at the wall, and red water droplets sprayed out. “I observed the corpses on the ground earlier; some zombies had red marks on their heads. This proves we can use these water guns—if we hit a zombie in the head, we can ‘kill’ them.”

“Wow, Yan Hui, you’re so smart!” Tan Yingying said admiringly.

Lu Sheng nodded, “But we only have one water gun. There are too many zombies outside; we can’t resist them.”

“Who said we only have one?” Yan Hui pointed to the toy shelves at the back of the supermarket. “Aren’t there plenty there?”

On the shelves at the back of the store sat over a dozen toy guns of various types.

“But… aren’t these guns supposed to be specifically assigned?” Ou Jie said in surprise. “Even if we make our own ‘weapons,’ how do we get the red liquid?”

Yan Hui walked to the back. “There’s red ink and white pigment here. We can mix the color ourselves.”

Li Weige was still worried. “Will the ‘bullets’ we mix ourselves work on the zombies?”

“The background actors playing the zombies definitely know that red bullets kill them. As long as we act the part, it’ll work. Besides, the broadcast has already started; the crew has no way to tell every single zombie that we’re making fake bullets. Even if they tell the zombies we’ve made fake guns and bullets, I can put ‘real’ bullets in a ‘fake’ gun mold, or put ‘fake’ bullets in a ‘real’ gun mold. How will they distinguish which is real or fake? And even if they do distinguish them, we can just play dumb and refuse to admit it.”

The four: “…….”

The production crew: “…….”

I actually can’t refute that. It’s so d*mn logical yet such a shamelessly bold operation!

“…Holy sht, Yan Hui’s operation is top-tier. Mixing real and fake together—who could tell?”

“I’m starting to feel like Yan Hui is actually quite clever.”

“…She’s just being street-smart, deliberately exploiting the show’s loopholes and planning to play dumb. How shameless…”

“I think Yan Hui has great ideas. I’m turning from a hater to a neutral fan…”

“She’s just being difficult. Look at the other four; they definitely won’t agree…”

Yan Hui took apart a water gun, the corner of her mouth curling into a bold smile. “Well? Are we doing this or not?”

The four looked at each other, their eyes shining as they looked at Yan Hui. They shouted with heroic loyalty, “Let’s do it!”

“Hahaha, did the person above get slapped in the face…”

“I feel like my Brother Lu Sheng is having a lot of fun?”

“Mhm, Brother Jie too. They’re having a blast. I thought Yan Hui being here would ruin the show, but I didn’t expect it to be this watchable.”

“Yan Hui took care of Tan Yingying just now. Is there a script?”

“Big sister, this is a live broadcast. Where would they get a script for this? Use your brain before speaking, okay…”

The four filled the supermarket’s toy guns with self-made red bullets, each person draping several guns over themselves.

“There’s a door at the back of the warehouse. We’ll leave through the back; there should be fewer zombies there,” Yan Hui said.

“Fine.” Lu Sheng used a table to barricade the front door. “You guys go first, I’ll cover the rear.”

Li Weige: “Lu Sheng and I will cover the rear. Ou Jie, take care of the two girls.”

Ou Jie raised his gun and said solemnly, “Leave it to me. Let’s go, I’ll lead you out.”

Watching the five with their homemade weapons, the staff asked worriedly, “Director, is this okay?”

The director said calmly, “It’s the first episode, let it go. Let them be happy for now; we’ll settle the score later.”

The crew flashed evil smiles: “Understood, Director.”

There were a few wandering zombies behind the supermarket. Ou Jie and Yan Hui took out three or four respectively. Tan Yingying wanted to step up and help, but a zombie suddenly lunged from nowhere and was about to grab her. The live audience all thought Tan Yingying was about to be eliminated, and the crew was ready to announce her death. However, in the next second, a red dot suddenly appeared on the lunging zombie’s forehead. The zombie, realizing he had been hit, froze in place.

Yan Hui pulled Tan Yingying behind her and looked at the zombie. “You’ve been shot. Lie on the ground.”

The zombie felt the red ink on his head; he had indeed been hit. He obediently lay on the ground and played dead.

Yan Hui turned around and looked at the stunned Tan Yingying. “Are you okay?”

Tan Yingying stammered, “I… I’m okay.”

In that moment, she thought she was a goner. She had heard a sharp whistle of wind past her ear, and then the zombie in front of her was “dead.”

“Yan Hui,” Tan Yingying called out to her. “Thank you.”

Yan Hui ruffled her hair and smiled. “If you’re scared, just stay behind me.”

Tan Yingying blushed: “Mhm.”

“Yan Hui’s marksmanship just now was insane. She must have been 100 meters away from Tan Yingying, right? And she still hit?”

“Visually it looked like over 100 meters, plus the zombie was moving. Yan Hui hit the head in one shot. Top tier.”

“Oh my god, the head pat! Yan Hui gave Tan Yingying a head pat! AHHH!”

“‘If you’re scared, just stay behind me.’ Holy sht, that ‘boyfriend energy’ is off the charts. That sentence totally satisfies my fantasy of a boyfriend…”

“The ‘Ink-Slab’ (Yan-Tan) CP is amazing. It’s real. I’m shipping it!”

Following the map, the five encountered several waves of zombies and used up the bullets in five water guns before finally finding the research institute. However, the institute was surrounded by a wall of zombies so thick not even a breeze could get through.

“How do we get in?” Ou Jie looked through binoculars. “It’s surrounded. There must be over 300 of them.”

Li Weige sighed: “The crew really went all out. They’re trying to kill us.”

Lu Sheng: “Do you see any other entrances?”

Ou Jie shook his head. “No. They’ve surrounded everything. We can’t get in, and the institute walls have high-voltage wires, so we can only enter through the front gate.”

Tan Yingying looked at the layers of zombies. “Enter through the front gate? That’s impossible.”

“I’ll be the bait. You guys take the chance to run in,” Yan Hui suggested. “There’s a motorcycle over there. I’ll ride it to draw the zombies’ attention, and you guys take the chance to get inside.”

Li Weige immediately rejected the idea: “No way, it’s too dangerous. Even if someone has to be bait, it should be us men.”

Yan Hui said flatly: “I can ride a motorcycle. Can you?”

Li Weige: “…No.”

Yan Hui looked at Lu Sheng and Ou Jie: “Can either of you?”

Lu Sheng and Ou Jie remained silent.

“The zombies’ speed has increased now. With this many people, some are bound to be fast. Running alone won’t draw them all away, so I have to use a vehicle to lure them. That’s your window to get into the institute,” Yan Hui said. “Once you get the antidote, run straight to the finish line. Don’t worry about us.”

“No, I can’t let you go alone,” Lu Sheng said, also disagreeing.

“I won’t be alone,” Yan Hui looked at Tan Yingying. “Do you want to come with me?”

Tan Yingying said excitedly, “I… can I? Will I hold you back?”

“As long as you want to. With me here, I’ll protect you.” Yan Hui reached out her hand. “Want to go to our ‘deaths’ together?”

Tan Yingying’s eyes reddened. She placed her hand in Yan Hui’s. “Yes.”

“I’m crying. This is freaking love!”

“‘Want to go to our deaths together?’ Oh my god, that’s basically a confession, right? Yan Hui is such a flirt!”

The others couldn’t think of a better plan. Only Yan Hui knew how to ride a motorcycle, and there were no other vehicles on the set. This was the only way to divert the horde.

Yan Hui and Tan Yingying got on the motorcycle and signaled to the three hiding nearby. As the motorcycle started, the roar of the engine immediately caught the zombies’ attention. All the zombies began running toward them. Using her riding skills, Yan Hui wove through the streets, successfully drawing the majority of the zombies away from the institute. Tan Yingying sat on the back, firing water guns at the zombies wildly.

Seeing the zombies lured away, Lu Sheng and the others rushed into the institute. There were still a few zombies inside, but fortunately not many; they handled them quickly. They found the laboratory and the preserved antidote. Following the notes left by the doctor, the three figured out how to use it.

When the antidote was exposed to oxygen, it would dissolve into the air and be scattered across the world by the wind. Humans and zombies who inhaled it would be cured.

The motorcycle was running low on fuel. Yan Hui had no choice but to ditch the bike and pull Tan Yingying into a building. The zombies were hot on their heels. They were nearly out of bullets—they had emptied three water guns and were down to the “real” gun Yan Hui had picked up earlier.

The two hid in the building’s underground parking lot. The zombies had already caught up. One zombie was running incredibly fast; seeing this, Yan Hui immediately pulled Tan Yingying away, but her arm was scratched by the zombie, leaving a mark.

She was infected.

The incubation period for the zombie virus was very short; she would turn in ten minutes.

Tan Yingying didn’t notice Yan Hui was injured and kept pulling her forward. Yan Hui scanned the area and spotted a small storage room in the parking lot.

“Go in there, it’s safer.” Yan Hui pulled Tan Yingying to the storage room and let her in first. Seeing that the room was secure, Tan Yingying called out, “Yan Hui, hurry, come in!”

“I’m not coming in.” Before Tan Yingying could realize what she meant, Yan Hui slammed the door shut and locked it from the outside. Shocked, Tan Yingying realized what Yan Hui was doing. She screamed, “Yan Hui, come in! There’s room for two! Don’t lock the door! Come in, Yan Hui!”

There was a small window on the door. Having locked it, Yan Hui looked at the anxious Tan Yingying inside, smiled, and lifted her hand. “I’m infected. Hide here; I’ll lead the zombies away.”

Tan Yingying looked at the scratch on her arm and suddenly realized that when Yan Hui had pulled her earlier, it must have been to save her. Tan Yingying burst into tears, crying, “Yan Hui, Yan Hui, don’t leave me alone! Bite me! Let’s die together!”

Yan Hui didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Stop messing around.”

“You promised me! You said we’d die together! You can’t lie to me!” Tan Yingying pounded on the door. “Let me out, Yan Hui! I’ll die with you, Yan Hui!”

Looking at the approaching zombies, Yan Hui sighed: “Stay alive, Tan Yingying.”

As Tan Yingying watched Yan Hui’s retreating back, her tears wouldn’t stop. She knelt on the ground, whispering: “Yan Hui…”

Upstairs in the institute, Lu Sheng and the others reached the roof. Ou Jie gauged the wind and looked at the dense crowd of zombies below. He said solemnly, “Let’s begin.”

Lu Sheng opened the antidote. It evaporated instantly upon contact with the air and was carried far away by the wind.

“Congratulations to everyone for completing the mission of ‘The Last Humans’ and saving the nation.”

As the prompt sounded, all the zombies on the streets stopped. Lu Sheng and the others let out long breaths and laughed as they looked at each other’s disheveled appearances.

Ou Jie said happily: “We won.”

Li Weige wiped the corner of his eye: “Yes, we won.”

Lu Sheng, worried about the girls, said, “Let’s go find Yan Hui and Tan Yingying.”

Following the crew’s directions, the three found Tan Yingying in the underground parking lot. By then, her eyes were swollen from crying and her voice was hoarse. As soon as Lu Sheng and the others unlocked the door, she rushed out, sobbing: “Yan Hui… to save me… she got infected… she led the zombies away to save me!”

“Where is she now?” Li Weige asked.

Tan Yingying sobbed, “I don’t know… I don’t know where she went…”

Lu Sheng frowned. “We’ve cleared the game, so Yan Hui should be fine now. Maybe she’s already back at the waiting room?”

“Then let’s go there quickly!” Tan Yingying immediately ran toward the waiting room.

Yan Hui had led all the zombies away. When the time was up, she “turned” into a zombie. The crew had dressed her in zombie attire: white contact lenses and realistic special effects makeup on her arm. She truly looked the part.

Upon hearing the completion announcement, she was brought back to the waiting room by the staff. After running all day, Yan Hui collapsed weakly onto the sofa.

Tan Yingying rushed into the room. Seeing the “zombie” Yan Hui, she couldn’t hold back and began wailing again: “Yan Hui, Yan Hui…”

Looking at the inconsolable Tan Yingying, Yan Hui said helplessly, “Why are you crying? I’m not dead.”

“But you turned into a zombie, wahhh…” Tan Yingying didn’t dare touch her. She looked at the wound on her arm. “Does it hurt?”

Yan Hui patted her arm. “It’s makeup, not real. Stop crying; your eyes are swollen like walnuts, it looks ugly.”

Tan Yingying sniffled. Seeing Yan Hui so full of life, her fear faded. She hugged Yan Hui, wiping her tears on Yan Hui’s clothes, and whispered: “You scared me to death just now. How could you leave me behind?”

“I was infected. Staying with you would have been suicide, wouldn’t it?” Yan Hui was too tired to move and simply let Tan Yingying hug her.

Lu Sheng and the others also came in. Seeing that Yan Hui was fine, they felt relieved.

The moment Lu Sheng and the others released the antidote, the live broadcast had been cut. They all shared a meal together, lamented the day’s hardships, and then dispersed.

The first episode of ‘Simulated Life’ was a massive hit. The number of live viewers broke ten million, and it went straight to the trending searches that day. The name “Yan Hui” stayed in the top three trending topics, and the “Ink-Slab CP” (Yan-Tan) trended steadily, with a dedicated fan group gathering over ten thousand members instantly.

Everyone was moved by the scene of Yan Hui willingly sacrificing herself to save Tan Yingying. Although many said it was scripted, it didn’t stop a huge number of fans from shipping the “Ink-Slab CP.”