Morality and Ideology in the Last Days

Three cars drove unhurriedly down the highway; such was the typical speed in the apocalypse.

On one hand, no one had any reason to be in a rush in this era.

On the other hand, they had to be wary of zombies that might suddenly dart out along the way.

Although zombies weren’t like people, and hitting one had no real consequences, it was still rough on the vehicle.

In this era, there were no convenient places for car maintenance and repairs.

If a car broke down, you could only try your luck at finding another one.

Now, more than two months into the apocalypse, finding a drivable car was becoming increasingly difficult.

Aside from the imposter camp’s pickup truck, which had some flashy but useless modifications, the three vehicles had largely retained their original forms.

They had no special designs for impact and wouldn’t withstand a crash.

Counting the days since she had left the RV team, nearly a week had passed.

Before the apocalypse, a week, excluding sleep, would have been enough to make four or five round trips to Su City.

Even after the apocalypse began, if the roads were clear, one could reach Su City in three or four days.

Yet Ren Anhua’s journey could be considered to have just begun.

To describe her travel efficiency as “extremely low” would be a compliment.

However, Ren Anhua herself had no intention of hurrying.

In the apocalypse, who could truly have such a clear objective?

No more buying houses, no more going to work, no more attending school.

Besides staying alive, it seemed no one had any clear purpose.

Of course, the most important reason was that simply staying alive was already exhausting enough.

In the past, Ren Anhua had lived for her camp, but now she was no longer the camp’s leader.

Her only thought was to find the RV team and untie the knot in her heart.

But the RV team was only likely to be heading to Su City; it wasn’t a certainty.

With a mobile fortress like theirs, it was entirely possible they wouldn’t cower before the military.

‘If I joined them to escape the military’s pursuit, that might be a good choice, too.’

The power the military had displayed that day had left even Ren Anhua with a lingering sense of dread.

‘Dammit, why am I thinking about joining them again?’

Ren Anhua found herself inadvertently wanting to join the RV team.

At first, she thought it was her own desire.

The warm environment within the RV team was truly relaxing, something she found herself deeply attached to.

Outsiders only knew her as the arrogant overlord of the East Suburbs; who would care about the things she truly lacked?

But the more time passed, the more she felt that something about her was not normal.

If she sorted through the sequence of events, the fact was that the RV team had only ever deceived her and modified her for the sake of that deception.

For her to still lean so heavily toward them was, logically and emotionally, completely indefensible.

‘Could it be that all my feelings for the RV team are a false construct catalyzed by Ke Xingmei?’

Ren Anhua could no longer tell if her feelings for the RV team were real or fake.

They were so mixed, so chaotic, that she felt a profound unease about them.

This unease was so intense that it made her want to kill the entire team, just to put an end to these abnormal emotions.

Yet, at the same time, those very emotions strongly prevented her from doing so.

Although, given her current strength, the chances of accomplishing such a feat were not high anyway.

Ren Anhua told no one of the secrets in her heart.

But such deeply buried secrets always have a way of being unearthed.

It was impossible for Chen Shu’s team not to be curious about the origins of this person, “Ren Anhua.”

Initially, they had come together simply because their goals aligned, but now it seemed that not just Ren Anhua, but Chen Shu as well, had the intention of forming an alliance.

Not everyone could be as free-spirited as Shi Mu.

Since they were companions, some things needed to be made clear.

Moreover, Ren Anhua knew this day would come sooner or later.

Although she admired Chen Shu, she also knew that their philosophies and ways of handling things were vastly different.

Whether Chen Shu would consider her, Ren Anhua, a friend worth making was something Ren Anhua herself was not sure of.

“No, I sat here because I thought you had some questions you wanted to ask me.”

Ren Anhua awaited Chen Shu’s questions.

She didn’t care about the resources; she cared about Chen Shu’s thoughts.

Although Chen Shu had changed somewhat compared to his past self, Ren Anhua hoped this change could be more thorough.

Too much kindness was not a good thing in the apocalypse, even if she currently admired this quality in him.

She was preparing to give Chen Shu a lesson in ideology and morality, but she didn’t plan to focus on the two boxes of resources from before.

That would be too petty.

She wanted Chen Shu to ask about her identity so she could use her own experiences to tell him what kind of model human interaction should follow in the apocalypse.

But what she didn’t expect was that Chen Shu’s question would stray from her script, veering off in a direction Ren Anhua found rather difficult.