“What the heck is this?”

The packaging was flashy and flamboyant, shaped like a stick.

Just as Song Qinglan was about to reach out and see what it was, Ji Yushi grabbed it first. With a “click,” the object was tossed into the darkness of the corner.

Song Qinglan lowered his head to ask but noticed a blush gradually appearing on Ji Yushi’s cheeks, the heat seeping through his fair skin.

Ji Yushi rarely showed such an expression. Clearly embarrassed, but his eyes remained clear, and his tone was still steady: “Song, did you notice what this place is for when you came in?”

Given the urgent situation, of course, Song Qinglan had just rushed in without paying attention. There was no time to notice that this little green booth was for anything specific. But Ji Yushi was different—he probably remembered everything clearly, even if he didn’t pay attention.

With Ji Yushi’s reminder, Song Qinglan quickly understood. That thing… so this is a futuristic adult toy vending booth.

Ji Yushi’s reaction was amusing.

Song Qinglan was used to joking around in the team, so even in this situation, he couldn’t resist teasing: “You’re not missing anything, so why are you afraid to look? ‘To replace your other half,’ but you’d need to be a woman for that.”

“…,” Ji Yushi’s face remained expressionless, his voice cold, “Song, I now believe you’re a straight man.”

Wait.

Song Qinglan suddenly fell silent, realizing something might be wrong.

Ji Yushi’s reaction suggested that… maybe he could actually use it.

They exchanged glances.

A moment of suffocating awkwardness.

“Bam!”

The booth shook again.

The screen inside the booth dimmed, plunging them back into darkness where they couldn’t see each other’s faces. The small space was silent except for the sound of their breathing.

Pinned down by Song Qinglan, Ji Yushi began to sweat.

This guy was heavy, not just heavy but tall, with muscles so hard that Ji Yushi felt crushed, his chest, abdomen, and thighs all starting to ache. The Shenmian gun had unfortunately fallen underneath, its hard body pressing into Ji Yushi’s back, causing pain from his shoulder down to his tailbone.

Song Qinglan’s body carried the scent of blood, combined with the warmth of his body heat seeping into Ji Yushi’s nostrils.

Of course, Ji Yushi’s scent probably wasn’t much better at this point.

Song Qinglan was also struggling. With his arm propped up to support his body, his other hand was firmly holding onto the side door to prevent it from opening, forcing part of his body to overlap with the person beneath him.

Both being men and teammates, Song Qinglan hadn’t thought there was anything wrong.

But after the recent reminder, suddenly it seemed like every part of his body that touched the other was transmitting clear, warm sensations. Inappropriately, he remembered Ji Yushi’s slender waist and abdomen during their pre-mission training session.

The pristine image of Ji Yushi’s face in the light earlier was still fresh in his mind, making it easy to imagine how the other man looked now, being pinned down, his face showing a mix of patience and discomfort.

The gender awareness stemming from different sexual orientations was starkly evident.

Those ten-odd minutes seemed unbearably long.

“The drones should already be outside; they’ll track us down,” Song Qinglan said in a deep voice, using his authoritative tone as a team leader to make their current position seem more natural. “Plus, with the tracking device we dropped nearby, they should find us soon.”

Warm breath swept past Song Qinglan’s ear, making his ear and neck tingle—a sign that Ji Yushi was about to speak.

Ji Yushi’s voice came out: “Just now, Tang Qi said he heard a loud noise. They should be nearby, right?”

Song Qinglan had noticed this too. By right, Tang Qi and the others shouldn’t have taken this long to arrive.

But the sound of zombies’ howls and scratching outside the booth was slowly decreasing. If something was indeed wrong, they might have to fight their way out.

Before long, the under-skin communication device finally picked up a teammate’s voice.

“Song? Ji Yushi? Hey? Can you hear me?”

It was Tang Qi!

Song Qinglan breathed a sigh of relief, answering, “I hear you.”

Finally.

On the public channel, Tang Le’s voice came through: “No way, bro, we only got the signal, but we can’t see them!!”

“Bang bang!”

Several gunshots rang out simultaneously from the public channel and outside the booth, sounding not too far away.

Song Qinglan asked, “Report your location.”

The teammates were running, and Tang Qi was speaking breathlessly: “We’re next to a wrecked space vehicle!! There are a lot of zombies here!”

The battle was fierce; the booth was shaking again from the zombie swarm’s onslaught.

Amid the intense gunfire, Ji Yushi quickly reported their location: “Facing the rear of the vehicle, slightly to the one o’clock direction, there’s a fallen green booth on the ground!”

“Can’t see it! Damn it, Tang Le, watch your back!!”

The speaker was Li Chun.

It seemed that the situation outside was similar to when they had hidden in the booth, perhaps with even more zombies, and there were certainly no fewer. Song Qinglan quickly said, “The one on the ground, can you see it?! We’re hiding inside!”

“Shit!! They’re behind us!”

“Turn around!!”

“Hurry, hurry, hurry!!”

A minute later, gunshots rang out just outside the booth.

With a loud “boom,” a zombie was shot and fell onto the booth with a heavy thud.

“Song!”

The booth door was yanked open, revealing Li Chun’s face. Tang Le and Tang Qi were on either side, firing rapidly into the zombie horde, sending blood and flesh flying everywhere.

Seeing the two of them pressed together in the cramped space, Li Chun’s eyes went wide: “!!!”

Song Qinglan, with a less-than-pleased expression, rolled out of the booth first.

Tang Qi turned back: “Song! We got a car; we’ll break out from behind!”

Ji Yushi was numb all over, first tossing his Diamond Bird gun to Song Qinglan. He caught it mid-air, swiftly turning around and shooting down the zombies behind the booth.

Then, Ji Yushi emerged from the booth. He didn’t look well, not due to emotions but from what seemed like an injury, as he clutched his stomach and dragged out the Shenmian gun.

“Retreat!!”

The group fired while retreating, five guns proving far more effective than two. They fought their way through a path of scattered vehicles.

Song Qinglan shouted, “Ji Yushi!”

The Diamond Bird gun was tossed back, and Ji Yushi knew exactly what that meant—Song Qinglan disliked the Diamond Bird.

Without hesitation, Ji Yushi caught it, throwing the much heavier Shenmian gun back at Song Qinglan.

The weighty gun made Ji Yushi’s arm ache, but Song Qinglan caught it effortlessly, his eyes gleaming with a wild confidence in his own combat abilities.

With the Shenmian gun added to the mix, the fight turned in their favor.

They blasted a gap through the zombie horde and made it to the car Tang Qi had mentioned.

The door slammed shut, and suddenly, everyone was thrown backward as the car roared to life and sped off!

Several zombies were knocked flying, and the surging horde was left far behind.

From the front seat, Li Chun turned back: “Song! Ji Yushi! How did you end up there?! And hiding in that kind of place!”

Song Qinglan wasn’t happy about what had just happened. He knew that once they got back, this incident would be blown out of proportion. He shoved Li Chun’s head aside, snapping, “What about you guys? How could you take so long to cover such a short distance?”

Li Chun felt wronged: “A short distance? Boss, you’re too strict! If I hadn’t noticed the green dot on the tracker as we passed by, we’d never have found you!”

Song Qinglan didn’t really blame them for taking so long; he was just making conversation.

Ignoring Li Chun’s complaints, he asked, “Where are Lao Duan and Lao Zhou?”

Tang Le replied, “We got separated. I thought they were with you.”

Tang Qi was focused on driving through the devastated streets, reassuring them: “Don’t worry, they’re driving the space car; they’re probably faster than anyone. They should already be at the bookstore waiting for us.”

Space car, rendezvous?

The familiar teammates and the things they said made Song Qinglan sense something was wrong.

He turned to see Ji Yushi curled up, frowning.

Their eyes met.

Song Qinglan looked away, casually asking, “Earlier on the public channel, wasn’t it Tang Qi who said he heard a loud noise? How could he not find us?”

Tang Qi sounded puzzled: “It wasn’t me. I didn’t hear any loud noise or say anything on the public channel.”

Li Chun suggested, “Could it have been Lao Duan and the others? Should we go back and check?”

“No way!” Tang Le objected, “Go back again? We already got separated when we went back earlier!”

Song Qinglan calmly asked, “Where did you get separated?”

Tang Le replied, “Same as you, outside that building. We couldn’t find you anywhere, so we decided to head to the agreed rendezvous point.”

Ji Yushi rarely interrupted when others were talking, but this time, he suddenly spoke: “The Runjin Building?”

“Must be!” Tang Le paused, “I didn’t notice the building’s name; I was too focused on the car that rushed in. Ji Yushi, you sure observe carefully!”

Li Chun added, “Isn’t Ji Yushi known for his great memory?”

Tang Le laughed, “Oh right, I almost forgot.”

These guys had a knack for staying calm. Once they were out of danger, they seemed to have no trouble relaxing.

In this relaxed state, none of the three noticed that Song Qinglan and Ji Yushi had fallen silent simultaneously.

This team, whether in appearance or habits, was familiar to Song Qinglan, but it wasn’t the same team they had started with.

At least, these three teammates hadn’t been to the bookstore yet, nor had they experienced the incident with the black-faced man’s hijacking. They had just come from the Runjin Building.

So, if Tang Qi said he didn’t hear any loud noise or speak on the public channel, it made sense.

What in the world was going on?

Song Qinglan’s mind was in turmoil. The teammates continued talking for another two to three minutes, getting closer and closer to the bookstore coordinates when suddenly Ji Yushi called out, “Captain Song.”

Song Qinglan, deep in thought, turned around.

Ji Yushi had evidently also noticed that the teammates who rescued them from the self-service vending booth were not their original team members.

He said to Song Qinglan, “We still have some time before the black wall reaches the bookstore. There are some places nearby where we can find food. I suggest we collect some supplies before heading to the bookstore. That way, while planning our next destination, no one has to worry about running out of energy on the road. After all, this is a long-term mission.”

Ji Yushi spoke very naturally.

Song Qinglan couldn’t detect any hint of subtle delay from Ji Yushi’s expression.

This person seemed to remain incredibly calm, even when the world was collapsing around him. It was in stark contrast to the frail impression he might give off at first glance.

This world was full of mysteries and oddities, with people being toyed with by time.

Every time someone thought they had a clue, developments would overturn all previous assumptions, dragging them into another situation where the truth was even harder to grasp.

Song Qinglan couldn’t deny that, at this stage of the time loop, even he was beginning to feel lost.

Trying to untangle the chilling mess of clues, find the truth, and distinguish between reality and illusion was something that an ordinary person could only accomplish with exceptional intelligence.

If someone wasn’t mentally resilient, they might easily go mad.

But Ji Yushi’s endurance seemed to have no limits.

Song Qinglan pressed his lips into a tight line. Although he didn’t understand why Ji Yushi was doing this, his years of accumulated composure and instinct for detecting unusual situations led him to make a quick decision.

He turned around and ordered Tang Qi, “Check the area nearby for food.”

The teammates never questioned the captain’s orders.

Tang Qi readily agreed, “Yes, sir.”

The small hill where the bookstore was located had excellent landscaping.

It was morning, and sunlight filtered through the gaps between the dense trees lining the road, creating dappled patterns of light.

This appeared to be an upscale residential area. The streets were quiet, with only a few scattered groups of zombies, far fewer than in their earlier battle.

They parked the car in a visible spot, ready to make a quick exit if necessary.

The group proceeded cautiously, and before long, Li Chun spotted a convenience store. He whispered, “Over here!”

Several zombies were wandering inside the convenience store.

Li Chun pushed open the door, and with a creak, the zombies let out frenzied growls and charged at them.

Tang Qi and Tang Le drew their knives.

The twin brothers were in perfect sync; their habits were so similar that they often understood each other’s thoughts without a word.

In a few swift, silent moves, they took out the zombies in the store.

The shelves in the store were almost empty, having been looted clean, but the bottom shelves were stacked with a row of canned goods.

Li Chun picked up a can. “What are ‘Cramond Beans’? Never heard of it. If there’s so much of it left, it can’t be any good.”

Tang Qi said, “Doesn’t matter, as long as it’s edible.”

The convenience store was fairly large, with a self-service area on the other end, away from the three teammates.

Ji Yushi whispered, “We can’t go to the bookstore right now.”

Song Qinglan had a rough idea of Ji Yushi’s intentions: “Because we might run into another team there?”

Ji Yushi nodded.

“They probably went after us and might not have returned to the bookstore yet,” Song Qinglan mused. “Is this some kind of spatial overlap?”

If that’s the case, could they not only encounter another team but also encounter another version of themselves?

“It’s not just that,” Ji Yushi glanced around, then added, “Captain Song, I need some baking soda from over there.”

Song Qinglan brought the baking soda over.

Ji Yushi’s lips were pale, and his dark eyelashes framed his eyes as he tore open the packet and poured the powder onto the table.

In this era, paper and pens were nearly impossible to find, and their communication devices had been thrown out of the space car by the black-faced man. It seemed Ji Yushi intended to use the powder to draw diagrams and list items.

Ji Yushi dipped his finger into the powder and wrote the number “1,” then said, “This is us in the first loop. We were all killed when the space car hit us at the Runjin Building. Let’s call this Team 1.”

Song Qinglan was already aware of this.

Ji Yushi’s finger, likely stained with zombie blood, didn’t seem to bother him as he wrote a “2” next.

“Due to the time anchor, we restarted at the anchor point, beginning the second loop,” Ji Yushi explained. “But because I retained the memories from the last time, we successfully avoided the space car and entered the Runjin Building. We then escaped to the bookstore, where we were all killed again. Let’s call this Team 2.”

The taste of failure was bitter.

Not only did they face repeated defeats, but Ji Yushi had to list them out each time.

Next, Ji Yushi wrote a “3” next to the “2.”

“This third loop, which is us now, will be called Team 3,” Ji Yushi continued. “We were driving the space car when we collided with another car at the intersection. Based on my memories, we have reason to believe that was us from the first loop, meaning it wasn’t just a coincidence that a survivor happened to be driving a car with the same license plate. Team 3 killed Team 1 by crashing into them. Isn’t that right, Captain Song?”

Song Qinglan couldn’t deny it because, as unbelievable as it was, it was the truth.

They couldn’t deceive themselves; they had to face this horrifying reality.

Seeing his agreement, Ji Yushi pointed to the “2” and said, “So, we know that Team 3’s crash killed Team 1—this is the reality we’re in. But Team 2 avoided the crash, which raises the question: who was driving the space car that Team 2 avoided?”

The question was spot-on.

In the convenience store, the teammates were still chatting in the distance.

“The timeline was originally a single, infinitely looping line, which is why we could restart over and over.”

Ji Yushi paused, his slender finger drawing a line above the number “2.”

“But in the second loop, we retained our memories and avoided the space car’s crash, inadvertently creating a new parallel timeline. In that timeline, ‘we,’ just like us now, planned to drive the space car straight to the bookstore, but they encountered a car at the intersection and almost crashed. Seeing the car rush into the Runjin Building, ‘we’ worried about the survivors in the car, so we parked and went in to look for them, only to be forced to split up due to the intense zombie horde in the building. Let’s call this Team 4, which is the group of Tang Qi and the others we’ve just met.”

“Because space and time are fixed within the timeline, Captain Song, this is what you referred to as spatial overlap,” Ji Yushi said. “This is what’s known as multiple realities. The current situation is that, at the same time, there are two versions of Sky Vault’s Team 7 in PU-31. But because these are parallel timelines, Team 3 and Team 4 have collided, so they don’t know what we’ve been through, and we don’t know what they’ve been through.”

Song Qinglan thought carefully.

He quickly understood Ji Yushi’s point and reached out to tap below the “2.”

But his finger brushed against Ji Yushi’s, which had yet to be withdrawn.

Baking soda clung to their warm fingertips, a strange sensation passing between them, and both were momentarily startled.

Song Qinglan retracted his hand. “That’s not all. If space and time are fixed and parallel timelines have been created, then at this same time, not only do Teams 3 and 4 exist. Don’t forget, Team 2 is still escaping from the Runjin Building, and by now, they should be on their way to the bookstore.”

At this moment, Teams 2, 3, and 4 were all present simultaneously.

Ji Yushi said, “Exactly.”

Just as he spoke, Ji Yushi suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable. He bit his lip, his fingers gripping the edge of the table, and his face went pale.

“Ji Yushi?!”

Song Qinglan reached out to support him, only to feel wetness.

He looked down and saw his palm was covered in blood.

His shout brought the three other teammates over quickly, all looking concerned. “Consultant Ji!”

“Shit, he’s hurt?”

Li Chun, who was responsible for the team’s medical care, stepped forward to help. “Quick, lay him down!”

Ji Yushi was placed on the counter, with blood oozing from his waist and abdomen, soaking through his black combat uniform. The dark red stain was hard to notice, which was why no one had realized it earlier.

Song Qinglan found scissors and carefully cut open the fabric over Ji Yushi’s abdomen.

His pale skin was exposed.

A small bullet wound was continuously bleeding.

Song Qinglan asked, “When did you get hurt?! Why didn’t you say anything?”

Ji Yushi was sweating profusely, his mind starting to blur. The dull pain seemed to have reached an unbearable level only now. “When we hijacked the car.”

He gasped for breath, feeling faint. “It’s nothing serious. Even if I die, we can just restart.”

Song Qinglan pressed down on the wound. The warm skin, whether from blood or Ji Yushi’s body heat, felt oddly intimate under his touch.

Ji Yushi slowly closed his eyes, murmuring as he slipped into unconsciousness, “I just… wanted to restart as few times as possible.”

The fewer restarts, the less he would have to remember.

—”I have no ability to forget.”

At that moment, something tightened around Song Qinglan’s cold, hardened heart.

This guy wasn’t just a pretty face.

Judging people by their appearance could really backfire.

He thought to himself.