"Captain, you need to cure your sexism. There's nothing wrong with Omegas. Look, he was just secretly glancing at you..."

"No, no, he was secretly glancing at you. The two of you look so good together, how could you have the nerve to refuse?"

"But Captain, you're two months older than me, your need to start a family is more urgent. You're clearly the one who shouldn't refuse!"

"I have Comrade Xiao Si. See, Comrade Xiao Si was just looking my way. He obviously has a secret crush on me and is too shy to say it. How could I turn a blind eye and break his heart?"

Zhou Rong and Yan Hao sat by the fire with their heads together, looking quite like underground party members making contact, or like two terrorists plotting some unspeakable conspiracy. Everyone who passed by instinctively gave them a wide berth of ten meters. Suddenly, they both turned their heads, four eyes staring in unison at Si Nan, who was leaning against the armored vehicle wiping his military dagger, causing him to freeze.

"See," Zhou Rong said quietly from the corner of his mouth, his lips not moving, "he's looking at me, isn't he? And so intently."

Yan Hao said suspiciously, "Isn't he looking at me?"

Zhou Rong pressed down on the top of his head, forcing him to turn back. "You're overthinking it!"

Ever since they left B Military Region, every time Si Nan was almost certain that his thoughts about the relationship between these two Alphas were just wild guesses, they would suddenly do something shocking to blind Si Nan's seductive eyes, which were powerful enough to interfere with a battlefield from eight hundred meters away.

He habitually rubbed the spot between his eyebrows, subconsciously trying to smooth out the fine line there, and let out a long sigh.

"See, he sighed," Zhou Rong said coldly. "Keep refusing and watch out, or I'll beat you up!"

On the other side of the fire, Guo Weixiang was lying face down on the ground—to avoid putting pressure on his butt, which had just been kicked hard by Zhou Rong.

"...I say," he asked weakly, "did you guys forget there's another Alpha in our team?"

Yan Hao said sympathetically, "Ding Shi? No way. Da Ding has a crush on his village's Xiao Jinhua. The organization can't force a soldier's personal feelings."

Ding Shi nodded from the side, "Mhm! Mhm!"

Guo Weixiang grumbled, "Besides Da Ding, there's another one, isn't there?"

"Chuncao? Chuncao is also not an option," Zhou Rong said. "Our Cao'er hasn't reached pheromonal maturity yet. Her ten-thousand-year delayed development will have to be looked at by a doctor once we get to headquarters, right, Cao'er?"

Chuncao, with a serious face, said, "Yes! Yes!"

"..." Guo Weixiang's indignant gaze swept over his teammates' faces. After a long while, he finally couldn't take it anymore, scrambling to sit up and pointing at himself, "What about me?!"

No one paid him any attention.

"Don't I count as an Alpha? Can't you leave him to me?!"

Zhou Rong took the baby from Doctor Zheng, handed it to Guo Weixiang, and patted his shoulder with a benevolent expression. "You already have a child, what are you fussing about? Come on, we must respect our elders and care for the young. Make way for your deputy captain, who's two years older than you."

The new Omega's name was Ren Junyang. He was actually an adult, but he was quite delicate and petite, looking a bit younger than his actual age.

The fatal thing was that he wasn't in good health. It was unclear if he was born that way or if it was due to a later lack of exercise. In any case, he couldn't carry heavy loads or lift things, so he couldn't join the men on night watch duty, nor could he help the women with the cooking. Doctor Zheng racked his brains but couldn't think of anything to assign him, so in the end, he had him wash some of the lighter clothes with Wu Xinyan.

Even so, they didn't dare let him wash the special forces soldiers' clothes. Their Alpha Camouflage Agent only lasted for two months and was now starting to wear off. They were afraid the residual Pheromones on the clothes would trigger the Omega's Heat Period to arrive early. Zhou Rong felt helpless about this and could only squat by the river every day with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, huffing and puffing as he scrubbed T-shirts.

They headed south along the small villages and towns by the roadside, passing through Hebei and taking a route through Wuhan, doing their best to avoid the zombie-congested highways and densely populated major cities. Every time they passed a village, Zhou Rong would personally lead a team to search for survival supplies, and sometimes they could rescue some survivors.

However, as time went on, the amount of food they could collect and the number of people they could rescue grew smaller and smaller.

Because there were fewer and fewer living people.

Including the crowd from the Fertilizer Plant and the survivors rescued along the way, they had now formed a group of more than seventy people.

Zhou Rong said that if they entered a large town, they could definitely find more living people, but they no longer had the time or the ability to go deep into the high-risk heartland to search for more survivors.

No one knew if the Original Antibody they held was stable enough or how long its validity would last. If the South Sea Base was truly waiting for it, and the crucial timing for antiviral research was delayed by their journey, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Yan Hao lay behind cover, squinting as he looked at a zombie forty meters away through his scope. "Captain."

With the soft whoosh of a silencer, the zombie fell.

Zhou Rong: "What?"

They had just finished searching a village. It was completely dead; not a single survivor could be found in the entire settlement. There weren't many supplies left either. Wu Xinyan had chased a terrified rooster halfway across the village to catch it. Doctor Zheng had slaughtered it with the precision of a surgeon and was now preparing to pluck and bleed it to make chicken soup for everyone as an extra dish that night.

"I've been thinking for a long time," Yan Hao said solemnly. "I think you really need an Omega."

Zhou Rong: "...Why?"

"You've been single for too long. You're full of pent-up energy, and your endocrine system is clearly having problems. Last time you took a piss in the bushes, you almost knocked Chuncao over with the smell. And last night, you pretended to be asleep to cuddle Comrade Xiao Si, but he dodged you several times..."

"I was sleepwalking," Zhou Rong said, his expression unchanging and his heart not skipping a beat, as he steadily pulled the trigger and took down a zombie sixty meters away with a single shot.

Yan Hao sighed.

"Being stubborn won't work, Captain," he said pityingly. "O-phobia is just being deep in the closet. You need to come out. Besides, that Xiao Ren's scent is getting stronger and stronger. We haven't found a pharmacy this whole way. If this continues, it'll be very troublesome for everyone when he goes into his Heat Period. I think you should just take the initiative..."

Footsteps sounded from behind.

Zhou Rong, still in his prone position, turned his head to see Si Nan put a bullet case on the ground. Standing over them with his arms crossed, he looked them both up and down.

Zhou Rong subconsciously wanted to take the fruit candy out of his pocket to curry favor, but before he could, he heard Si Nan ask coldly, "Why don't you ask for his own opinion?"

Zhou Rong looked as if he had heard the world's biggest joke. "Whose opinion?"

Si Nan pointed behind him. Xiao Ren was sitting next to Doctor Zheng, clumsily helping to pluck the chicken.

"An Omega's opinion?" Zhou Rong burst out laughing. "What kind of opinion does an Omega need to give? It's just about being marked and having babies, anyway..."

Seeing that Si Nan's expression was off, Yan Hao quickly explained, "It's hard for him to survive if he doesn't find an Alpha, and something like being marked has never been up to the Omega themselves. It's an Omega's nature to seek out weaker Alphas whose Pheromone suppression isn't as strong. But if they were allowed to reproduce like that for generations, the Alpha system would have long since weakened or even collapsed. Many people now criticize so-called Alpha chauvinism, but this is the reality of society. That's what they taught us in our school textbooks."

Si Nan's eyes narrowed. If one looked closely, the muscles in his cheeks were actually a bit tense.

Zhou Rong shrugged in agreement with Yan Hao. "Besides, look at him. He doesn't look like someone who can make his own decisions at all. If we really can't find any Inhibitors, we'll just arrange an Alpha for him. In any case, we absolutely must not attract a zombie horde... Actually, Xiangzi isn't out of the question either."

Guo Weixiang was standing guard with his gun not far away, so Zhou Rong kept his last sentence very quiet.

Si Nan lifted the thirty-kilogram bullet case with one hand, opened it with a deadpan expression, and turned it over.

Countless magazines poured out, pelting the two Alphas until they were crying for their mamas. Si Nan put the empty case over Zhou Rong's head, clapped his hands, and walked away.

From that day on, Si Nan refused to sleep in the same vehicle as Zhou Rong. He packed up his bedding and moved to another car.

Yan Hao was somewhat delighted by this and also packed up to follow him to the other car. However, he had just laid down for less than two minutes when Si Nan rolled over, saw him, got up, packed his bedding, and left again.

Si Nan wandered around the camp for a few laps hugging his pillow, and under the close watch of Zhou Rong and Yan Hao from behind the car window, he ducked into the tour bus.

This runaway team of more than seventy people passed through Wuhan, via Xianning, and headed for Changsha from the outskirts of Yueyang City. After passing through Hunan, they would next have to face the coastal areas where the zombie virus was highly concentrated.

This journey, which cut vertically across half the country's map, had finally reached its dangerous stage.

"There's no way we can drive to the docks." Zhou Rong chewed on a blade of grass, his finger tracing lines on a tattered map he had found along the way. "Guangdong is too densely populated, and they eat everything. They'll skewer Fujianese people, fry them till they're crispy, and dip them in seafood sauce... When I was in military academy, my bottom bunkmate was a guy from Guangdong. He was a good person, but I've always suspected he had something to do with the disappearance of our Fujianese classmate across the hall..."

"So let's not go experience the lethality of Guangdong zombies firsthand. Here—" his finger stopped on Changsha on the map, "we can try searching for aerial equipment on the outskirts of the city. A private helicopter company would be best. We fly directly to the South Sea and then transmit a positioning signal to the base at close range."

Yan Hao, Chuncao, and the others were gathered around the map, while Si Nan stayed alone in a corner of the carriage, resting with his eyes closed.

"Where would we find a private helicopter company?" Chuncao asked.

"We can try our luck around the airport. Maybe we'll even find a pharmacy."

"Will we split up into teams then?"

"Yeah, as usual, I'll lead one team, and Yan Hao will lead another... No," Zhou Rong paused, murmuring, "Yan Hao's injury hasn't healed."

His gaze shifted to a spot not far away. In the corner, Si Nan lifted his eyelids and looked back indifferently.

An idea struck Zhou Rong, and he beckoned. "Come here."

Si Nan was lolling on the leather seat, looking at him lazily.

If the mountain will not come to me, I must go to the mountain. Not only go to the mountain, I can also hug the mountain. Zhou Rong, in an excellent mood, walked over and half-knelt in front of the seat. Then, under Si Nan's surprised gaze, he took off the ruby earring stud from his own right ear and reached out to fumble with Si Nan's left ear.

"..." Si Nan's voice trembled. "What are you doing?"

Zhou Rong asked with a smile, "Why don't you just get your ear pierced or something?"

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the hairs on the back of Si Nan's neck were standing on end. "Why would I get something so gay-looking like that?!"