Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Something that would go a long way towards their goals of figuring out how to get back to North America. In the meantime, Zane was indeed curious why the local Horde King had not retaliated against the local human population of Beijing, who had slowly but surely begun to reclaim its desolate streets for humanity.

As a result, when he found a section of the city which had been walled off. And was currently full of human survivors. Zane quickly reached out to them. It turns out some of the locals were much more friendly to them the moment he revealed that he understood Chinese.

After all, if that was the case, then it was likely that Zane had lived in the area prior to the outbreak of the apocalypse, even if he was a foreigner. Which was better than the dreadful thought that foreigners were coming to visit years after the world had ended.

That would mean they must be from a powerful faction, one that could cross the ocean. And that was a terrifying idea. Luckily, now that Zane knew how to speak English this didn\'t seem to be a worry that locals had when interacting with him.

And because of this he was quickly able to convince the guards of one of the settlements to let him inside. It was a brief interaction, but not one with any hostility.

Once inside the walls of the settlement, Zane was honestly surprised by what he saw. The streets were bustling. People were walking around without a care for the world. And there were even open markets where people were exchanging items through free trade.

Most people looked on at Zane, Gwen, and the other companions by his side with a bit of surprise. It was rare, after all to see foreigners in these parts as most had died out during the early days of the apocalypse.

But the locals supposed that if some survived, then they would have done so by banding together. So it wasn\'t all that surprising, especially if this small group of foreigners were the only ones left in the region.

As Zane was walking through the streets, he definitely noticed that people were eying him, some with curiosity, and others with more hostile intent. Being a foreigner in an apocalyptic China wasn\'t exactly an easy thing.

Perhaps because of it, someone eventually came up to Zane to make trouble for him. It was a relatively large local man. Dressed in armor that depicted him as if he were going for a barbarian style class. He had a large axe on his back, and was looking at Zane as if he were some kind of easy prey.

He said in the most broken English he could manage.

"You! Westerner! You give me women now! Or I smash your skull!"

Zane looked at the man as if he were a simpleton. Before conversing to him in perfect Chinese. Thus shocking him, and everyone else around him.

"By all means, if you think you\'re capable enough just try to lay your hands on them. But I promise you that will not go the way you think it will. Thy are much more powerful than they appear. Even I wouldn\'t dare take them on alone. But it\'s your funeral. Stupid bastard."

The man looked over at Gwen and the others. Each of which had a varying expression. Gwen flashed her teeth with excitement, almost as if she were a predator gazing upon prey. Eliza rolled her eyes with disgust. Beatrix just sort of yawned with disinterest. And Evilyn did not even reveal herself.

She was invisible to the eyes of the mortals.

Either way, it was enough to thoroughly intimidate the local thugs. The leader of which simply spat on the ground and walked away without saying anything. After which, Zane simply sighed and shook his head.

That is until a young woman approached him. She was dressed in a set of armor that appeared as if it were straight out of a cultivation comic. In fact, now that Zane realized it, everyone was dressed that way. Was this perhaps the effect the system had on armor? Having different designs based upon the cultural fantasy of different regions?

The young woman was quick to talk to Zane as if he were some kind of big shot. And quickly expressed why.

"It\'s not every day that Pàng Xióng let\'s an outsider go without paying some kind of toll. You must have done something to scare him off like that. I wonder what? I mean, he\'s definitely the kind of guy to take his payment in the form of women. Especially something as rare as foreign women."

Zane looked at the woman who had introduced herself with a suspicious glance. Just why did this woman approach him? What were her goals in doing so? She had a relatively petite and thin frame, like most Asian women did, at least comparatively so to Westerners.

She also had dark hair and eyes. Which was normal for this part of the world. She instantly broke out into laughter when she realized Zane was scrutinizing her in an act that could be best described as paranoid.

"Sorry, I didn\'t realize you were that paranoid. I should probably introduce myself. My name is Zhao Qiu. It\'s a pleasure to meet you and your companions. I run the local inn, and I couldn\'t help but notice that the fat bastard was making trouble again with visitors again. Though I guess you were the rare kind of visitor who was capable enough to scare him away…."

Zane finally responded to the woman by making a statement about his companion\'s strength.

"Believe me, if he tried anything hose three would have eaten him alive…"

Though the woman laughed, she did so because she did not know that Zane was not being figurative, or hyperbolic with his language, but rather literal. I mean few humans even after three years had interacted with Horde Kings.

And the ones who had had encountered those who had some sign of physical distress when they had died. Like the hideous scars Eliza previously had prior to Zane resurrecting her.

But it was because of this misunderstanding that she was more friendly with Zane and his companions than she would be if she knew they were undead.

"Well, welcome to our little town. We get visitors from other settlements quite frequently. But I have to say in the past three years I have not seen a foreigner like yourself. I honestly thought you had all gone extinct by now.

If you need a place to stay while you\'re in our town, then you might want to take a crack at the Peach Blossom Inn. It\'s my own little slice of heaven in this fucked up world. I promise you the rooms are nice and heated, and the beds are comfy and clean."

Seeing how this woman seemed intent n making a customer out of him. Zane simply left the matter to be decided as another time, as he instead questioned her about things about the town, and the other surrounding settlements.

"Well, you could say we\'re new to the area… We\'ve been on the move for quite some time now, and we don\'t exactly know the situation in the city. As long as you decide to throw in some information about the cost of a room. I\'ll consider your offer."

Zhao Qiu\'s eyes lit up when she heard this. She damn near grabbed hold of Zane\'s hand as she tried to interrogate him with a bunch of questions about his identity and where he was from. But he was much faster than her and easily managed to evade her attempt.

"I knew it! Where are you from? Europe? Or maybe America? What\'s the situation where you are from? How many of you are left?"

Zane honestly did not know how to deal with such excitement, and thus he took a step back from the woman as he promised to answer her questions in exchange for information that he required. Thus, Zane and his companions had found a place to stay for the night.

At least until they figured out more of Beijing, who the local factions were, what their capabilities were. Et cetera. Once they learned all that they needed to know over a hot meal, they would be able to plot their return to the North America.

But in the meantime that was something that would have to wait for another time.