Sean and his group joining them was completely out of her expectation. However, considering how close they had become during the few months they spent together at the main base, it was not weird they wanted to help Darren. She just didn’t expect Sean to be this kind of person. She even viewed him as a bit individualistic in how he easily disbanded his team at the branch capital base. After reflecting on herself, she saw him in a new light. Currently, Sean and his group were driving in their own car. The others were also Darren and Nyra’s mercenary team members. In the car, Zerra curled up deeper into her seat. She was still guilty after what she had done. Because of her emotional fluctuations, she had turned into a fox. She couldn’t be more thankful for that now. If not for a certain man’s evil paw she needed to swat away occasionally to protect her innocence, being a fox in the current situation was good. They wouldn’t be able to read her expression, and she didn’t need to speak. "Do you want company?" Cassias suddenly asked. Zerra tilted her head, her long tails wrapped around herself like a blanket. Her eyes asked him: what do you mean? "Zee, come here." Nerith called out from the backseat, her eyes sparkling when she saw Zerra’s fox form. Zerra hesitated for a moment before she jumped into her mom’s embrace, not before sending a smirk in Cassias’ direction. His evil claw wouldn’t reach her then. Cassias let out the baby tiger, who had a confused look on its face. When it saw Zerra’s fox form, it struggled in Cassias’ hand. He set it down, letting the baby tiger jump and play with Zerra. Nerith hugged the two little cubs. The baby tiger’s paw didn’t lose out in terms of softness compared to Zerra’s. "It seems to be looking for you," Cassias told her. "The cub had been restless for a while." It was clawing at its mother’s belly, bored. It even fell a few times in the pond that its mother was getting annoyed. At first, it was panicking, but gradually, when it kept on falling repeatedly, the tiger got tired. He wanted to let the tiger drink the spring water, but the baby tiger kept on interrupting it. "Eat some crystal cores, Zee." Nerith took out some crystal cores from the space ring. Zerra stared at the crystal core with anticipation. Her mom had put them in the jar. They looked colorful, like candies. She wanted to eat by herself, but Nerith kept on feeding her. "Can this tiger cub eat crystal cores too?" Nerith asked. She put one crystal core on the seat beside her. Seeing Zerra eat the colorful stones with relish, the baby tiger became curious. It sniffed the crystal core and licked it into its mouth. The baby tiger coughed, spitting out the crystal core as though it had just eaten a rock. Its whole fur stood up as if it were a little traumatized. "Oh, it’s not suitable for all mutated animals, isn’t it?" Nerith muttered. "Only Zee can eat this directly like that." She pinched Zerra’s soft paw pads, then gave the baby tiger some canned meat. The little thing ate with relish, glancing at Zerra as if wondering why she preferred such a hard rock instead of the tasty meat. Zerra couldn’t answer it. Nerith stuffed another crystal core into her daughter’s little mouth. Zerra keenly noticed Cassias was staring at her. He had a thoughtful look on his face, then a small smile blossomed. Zerra’s little heart trembled. What kind of evil plan the male lead had hatched in his mind now? "We are going to exit the Capital soon," Cassias announced. They went through a similar process just like when they first came, reporting their identity if they wanted to get out of the capital. The capital did it only for a population track record. The capital was relatively peaceful, but as soon as they exited the gate, a lot of refugees were staring at their car. Some came close, yelling and begging for some food from them. They didn’t stop, quietly speeding through the rows of ordinary people whose skin was as dry as tree bark and as thin as a rake. Nearly half a year ago, when they had just arrived at the capital, the situation wasn’t as bad as it was now. Dead bodies lay on the side of the streets, rotting. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹·𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾·𝗇𝖾𝗍 From their position, they didn’t seem to have died because of wounds or violence, but starvation. Even Nerith became quieter as the journey went on. They had lived a decent life, and her children were also safe. Although the world was dangerous, they still had food to eat. Life wasn’t that bad. But seeing these scenes... their life was far more luxurious compared to most people out there who couldn’t even get a piece of bread to eat. "We might face some zombies on the way," Cassias warned. "There might be more zombies compared to half a year ago." Late bloomers had been happening to a lot of ordinary people lately, but no one knew the reason. Even without mutated animals’ bites, they would catch fever one day and wake up as an ability user the next day. Of course, their power was less potent compared to the ability users who had awakened their power since the beginning of the apocalypse. Along the way, Nerith saw these monsters with rotting flesh, which wore human appearances. She had lived quite a sheltered life because of her husband’s protectiveness and rarely saw zombies from close range. Now that she did, she had a strange feeling... "These zombies are no different from humans." She frowned. "I heard some months ago they had walked too slowly. Now their speed is not much different compared to ordinary humans." Some moved even faster than that. When they crossed a road with zombies roaming not far away, they would instantly swarm toward them, chasing the car. The group knew they didn’t want to deal with the zombies because it would waste their time. Thus, they hit the pedal gas and drove the car as fast as possible. "Ability users’ powers have been increasing each day," Cassias exhaled. "Likewise, the zombies also have their power increasing. Although the power for the latter appears to be more passive." A familiar sight of green scenery appeared in the distance. "We are going to enter the forest soon," Cassias announced. Zerra stared at the forest ahead. Why did it look even more ominous than the last time they passed by it? It was as if there was a layer of invisible gloom over it.