"Yu Ren?"
The name left Lian Zhou's mouth like a stray bullet—quiet, startled, unguarded.
For a moment, Yu Ren forgot the monsters, the smoke, the dying world. He forgot the hunger, the cold, and the ache in his leg. His entire body seized around that single name. Heard through gunfire. Spoken by the man the System told him to find.
And then reality caught up.
A monstrous shriek tore through the air from behind the rubble, shattering the frozen moment.
Lian Zhou's gun snapped up in an instant. Without a word, he moved—fluid and fast, the way only people used to violence could move. His coat flared as he stepped in front of Yu Ren, pulling the trigger twice in quick succession. A deafening crack. A spray of black blood.
Yu Ren flinched, the shock snapping him back to his body.
Another monster dropped from a nearby roof. It was half-lizard, half-hound, jaws gaping with rows of wet, glassy teeth. It launched toward them in a blur.
Yu Ren opened his mouth to scream, but Lian Zhou was faster. He drew a second weapon from his belt and fired into the beast's open mouth.
It dropped at Yu Ren's feet.
Dead.
The silence afterward felt like static. The air stank of gunpowder and rot.
Lian Zhou turned to him. "Are you hurt?"
Yu Ren shook his head before he could think. Then realized that was a lie.
"My leg," he said, voice cracking. "A few days ago. Knife wound. Not deep—just… I was hiding, and—"
"Show me."
Before Yu Ren could respond, Lian Zhou was crouching, already pulling up the edge of Yu Ren's pants. His fingers were firm, precise. The belt-tie he'd used as a tourniquet had mostly stopped the bleeding, but the skin was inflamed. Infection had started to set in.
"Dumb," Lian Zhou muttered. "You should've cauterized it."
"I didn't have a fire."
Lian Zhou looked up, and something flickered across his face—exhaustion, recognition, maybe something more. But it vanished as fast as it came.
"Come with me. You'll die out here."
Yu Ren hesitated.
[System Notification: Affinity Target has extended proximity protection. Do you accept?]
[Y/N]
"Yes," Yu Ren whispered.
Lian Zhou didn't wait for him to follow. He simply turned and walked toward the fire-lit street, stepping over rubble and corpses without pause. Yu Ren limped after him, each step sharp with pain.
Ten meters. That was all he had to stay within.
But the truth was, even if the System hadn't told him to follow…
He would've followed anyway.
---
They made it to an abandoned parking structure, repurposed into a temporary base. Rusted barriers and spiked fencing surrounded the perimeter, with burnt tires stacked as walls. Several survivors milled inside—wounded, dirty, hollow-eyed.
Lian Zhou's arrival drew immediate attention. A few saluted him. Others whispered.
Yu Ren stayed close but kept his head down.
"Second floor's secure," someone said. "Generator's working. No signs of trackers."
Lian Zhou gave a curt nod. "Set the perimeter sensors. Triple the watch until morning."
He didn't introduce Yu Ren. Didn't explain why he'd brought a limping, unknown civilian into their stronghold. No one dared ask.
Up on the second floor, behind a row of metal drums and crates, Lian Zhou motioned for Yu Ren to sit. He handed over a bottle of water and a half-pack of crackers—actual food.
Yu Ren blinked at it. "You sure?"
Lian Zhou didn't answer. Instead, he pulled out a med kit and crouched beside Yu Ren again.
"You still flinch like a rabbit," he said, cutting the pant leg open.
"I'm not used to this," Yu Ren muttered, cheeks burning.
"No one is."
The alcohol stung like hell. Yu Ren bit his lip, but a soft noise escaped anyway. Lian Zhou paused, glanced at him.
"…Sorry," he said.
That single word, said so quietly, disarmed Yu Ren more than the monsters ever could.
[Affection Level: 1 → 3]
[Lian Zhou remembers a shared elevator ride during a blackout. You gave him half your granola bar.]
[Survival Probability: 33% → 35%]
Yu Ren blinked. He hadn't said anything about that. Not aloud.
The System… could see his memories?
Or Lian Zhou's?
"What the hell are you?" Yu Ren whispered.
Lian Zhou looked up. "What?"
Yu Ren shook his head. "Nothing. Just… tired."
That much was true.
---
He slept in the corner of the makeshift room, curled on a military blanket, the sound of the wind outside masking the occasional gunshot in the distance.
That night, he dreamed of a white corridor and Lian Zhou's back, walking away. He tried to call out. Tried to run. But the world was slow, heavy, like wading through water.
He woke to a System notification.
[New Passive Skill Acquired: Empathic Awareness (Lv. 1)]
[You are beginning to sense the emotional fluctuations of your Affinity Target.]
[Skill Explanation: Limited subconscious access to surface-level emotions. Accuracy improves with proximity and bond level.]
Yu Ren stared at the screen.
Then at Lian Zhou, who was seated across from him, cleaning a blade in silence.
He didn't look angry. Didn't look worried.
But for just a moment, Yu Ren felt something.
A flicker of guilt.
Why?
---
The following day, they moved at dawn.
Yu Ren was assigned a backpack with basic rations and a dull machete. Lian Zhou gave no explanation about their route, only said they were headed to a shelter two sectors away—an outpost rumored to have solar power, clean water, and a working signal tower.
Yu Ren didn't ask why they weren't staying put.
He didn't ask why Lian Zhou kept looking at the horizon like it had betrayed him.
He just followed. Ten meters behind. Always ten.
---
They crossed over a fallen bridge, through an industrial district where mutated plants choked the buildings, vines pulsing with bioluminescent veins. Once, they passed a crumbled school. Blood handprints painted the walls.
Yu Ren didn't look.
[New Quest Received: Maintain Proximity to Lian Zhou for 72 Consecutive Hours]
[Reward: Survival Chance +10%, Unlock Shared Vision Feature (Lv. 1)]
[Warning: Failure will result in loss of passive protection]
Each quest felt more invasive.
More personal.
But at the same time…
Yu Ren had never felt safer.
He told himself it was just the system.
Not the man walking ahead of him with a rifle across his back and the memory of his name in his voice.
---
That night, while they camped in a half-burned diner, Yu Ren finally broke the silence.
"Do you really remember me?"
Lian Zhou was sharpening a blade, but paused. "Yes."
"From where?"
Lian Zhou didn't answer right away.
"You always brought your own mug," he said at last. "Even though we had paper cups."
Yu Ren blinked.
"That's… not what I expected."
Lian Zhou looked at him. His expression didn't change, but something in his voice softened. "I remember small things. They're harder to lose."
Yu Ren swallowed. "I thought I was just a background face. One of the many."
"You were."
A pause.
"But I noticed anyway."
[Affection Level: 3 → 6]
[Shared Memory Fragment Unlocked: Lunch by the loading dock, 13 months before the Collapse.]
[Survival Probability: 35% → 40%]
Yu Ren's chest ached.
For a world that was already gone.
For a man who never said much, but remembered the things no one else did.
---
When he lay down that night, he dreamed again.
This time, Lian Zhou was bleeding. Reaching out. Falling backward into fire.
And someone—Yu Ren?—was screaming his name.
He woke up gasping, heart pounding.
The System chimed once more.
[New Dream Sequence Detected. Memory sync in progress.]
[Skill Unlocked: Partial Foresight (Dormant)]
[Warning: Target death detected in future probability tree. Affection level may influence outcome.]
Yu Ren stared at the screen.
Then at Lian Zhou, who slept with a gun across his chest.
"No," Yu Ren whispered.
"I won't let you die."
Even if the world already had.
---
To be continued.