Chapter 82: Zombie King x Ex-Girlfriend (4)

Lyra quietly followed Claire out into the main hallway of the library base.

As she walked down the long corridor, her dark eyes wandered over the surrounding survivors. Almost everyone was dressed in torn, blood-stained, filthy clothes, their faces weary and covered in dark soot as they hauled wooden crates and sorted scarce food supplies.

Passing a nearby reading nook, she noticed a large group of male students gathered around someone. She couldn’t quite see who was sitting in the middle, but she caught a quick glimpse of long, shimmering golden hair fluttering in the dim light.

Lyra’s eyebrows furrowed slightly in curiosity, her head turning to catch a better look-

THUMP!

Her forehead slammed right into a tall, soft back! A fresh, fragrant scent of floral water instantly filled her nostrils as she stumbled back half a step.

Lyra looked up, rubbing her nose. Claire had stopped dead in her tracks and was staring down at her with a sharp, heavy scowl.

"Watch your steps," Claire chided coldly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Lyra gave a quick, submissive nod, though inside her mind she was grumbling intensely. Damn it, why is everyone in this world so ridiculously tall?!

Kael Noctis was an intimidating 203cm giant, while Senior Sister Claire towered like a model at 190cm. Meanwhile, Lyra in her current body was only 172cm forcing her to constantly tilt her chin up just to look people in the eye!

The commotion near the reading nook quieted down as the group of students finally noticed the two walking past. The moment their eyes landed on Lyra, a collective gasp echoed across the room

"Wait... isn’t that Lyra Vance?!" a male student whispered, his eyes bulging out in absolute shock. "The famous campus crush?!"

"Yeah... it’s really her!" another muttered, staring up and down at her delicate floral dress and immaculate skin. "How on earth does she still look so perfectly put-together in the middle of an apocalypse?!"

"When did she become this breathtakingly pretty...?"

A dozen male survivors stared at her in wide-eyed, spellbound admiration, while several female students threw sharp, jealous glances in her direction. In a place where everyone looked like beaten refugees, Lyra stood out like a pristine, sparkling diamond.

Suddenly, a deathly cold voice rang out from the end of the hallway, cutting through the murmurs.

"Get back to work."

The whispering students flinched violently! They scattered in an instant, hurrying back to their designated tasks without daring to utter another word.

Lyra shifted her gaze toward the source of the voice. Standing near the marble pillars, his arms crossed over his broad chest, was Kael Noctis. His sharp jawline, messy black hair, and piercing emerald eyes radiated a dark, unyielding authority. From the original host’s memories, Lyra remembered that he had always worn this exact same cold, expressionless face on campus.

Grumpy ass... Lyra muttered under her breath.

The very next second, her heart skipped a massive beat!

She suddenly remembered a crucial detail- zombies had hyper-sensitive hearing capabilities, and Kael Noctis was the secret, supreme Zombie King!

Gasping internally, Lyra gulped and slowly raised her eyes- monly to find Kael already staring dead at her with a pitch-black gaze

Panicking, she instantly flashed him a bright, awkward, and extremely fake smile. "Ehe... Hi, Captain!"

Hearing her squeaky greeting, Kael’s emerald eyes darkened slightly, becoming even more fierce and intense as he stared down at her small frame.

"You’ll stay on the 3rd floor," Kael commanded in a deep, flat tone. "In the room right beside the central archive room."

Claire’s eyes widened in unbelievable shock! She snapped her head toward Kael, her lips parting. "Captain... that’s- "

She cut herself off, swallowing her words as she saw the unyielding, icy glint in Kael’s eyes. She clamped her jaw shut and stayed silent, though her suspicion deepened into a dark knot.

Lyra nodded submissively. "Understood, Captain."

Kael stepped closer, his tall frame casting an intimidating shadow over her. "Do you have any awakened abilities?"

Lyra shook her dark head, her eyelashes fluttering. "No..."

A cold scoff escaped Kael’s lips as he looked down at her. "Knew it. As useless as ever."

Lyra’s dark eyes flared with instant, fiery rage! She glared straight at his handsome face, her teeth grinding together. Useless?! Who are you calling useless, you mutated zombie cabbage?!

Holding back her urge to strangle him, Lyra forced a sweet, proud grin onto her face and puffed out her chest slightly.

"I can join your vanguard team and hunt the zombies!" Lyra declared boldly, emphasizing her words with a playful tilt of her head. "You already know what I’m capable of... since I saved your life back on the steps!"

She deliberately dragged out the word "saved" to remind him of her heroic sacrifice.

Kael looked down at her confident, sparkling face. He stayed quiet for a long moment, before looking away with a soft, indifferent hum.

"Fine," Kael replied calmly. "You’ll attend the combat training with everyone else tomorrow morning."

Claire stared at Lyra in pure disbelief. This fragile, pampered girl in a floral dress wants to hunt mutated zombies?! Tsk! She looks like she can’t even lift a dry leaf!

"Show her to her room," Kael instructed Claire smoothly. "And prepare her for the morning training."

With that brief order, Kael turned on his shoe and walked away, his heavy boots echoing down the quiet corridor.

A few minutes later, Claire led Lyra up a quiet flight of stairs to the third floor of the university library.

The third floor was vast, eerie, and almost completely empty. Dust motes danced in the dim sunlight filtering through high windows. Claire stopped in front of a small, wooden door near the end of the hall and pushed it open with a loud creak.

Inside was a dusty, cramped space filled with discarded metal shelves, broken chairs, and cardboard boxes- it was clearly a former maintenance storage closet!

Claire pointed at a room located further down the spacious corridor. "Can’t I stay in that room over there?" Lyra asked innocently, pointing toward a large, elegant door with double handles. "It looks much cleaner and bigger."

Claire sneered, rolling her eyes in disdain. "The Captain lives there. That’s his private quarters. You better not step even a millimeter near that door or anger him, unless you want him to throw you out to the zombie horde with his own hands!"

With an annoyed click of her tongue, Claire grabbed a bundle of yellow cleaning cloths and a wooden duster off a nearby shelf, tossing them unceremoniously into Lyra’s arms.

"Clean it up yourself," Claire ordered coldly. "And prepare for tomorrow’s training. I will have a survivor uniform sent to your room shortly."

Without waiting for a reply, Claire turned and stomped back down the stairs, leaving Lyra standing alone in the dusty hallway.

The second Claire’s footsteps faded into the distance, Lyra’s jaw dropped in absolute realization!

"EH?!!" Lyra shrieked out loud inside her head, her inner soul clutching its hair in madness! "I HAVE TO STAY ON THE EXACT SAME EMPTY FLOOR AS THE MALE LEAD?!! RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO HIM?!"

She looked over at Kael’s dark door, a shudder running down her spine.

"WHAT IF HE GETS MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS AND EATS ME UP OUT OF HUNGER?! HE IS LITERALLY THE ZOMBIE KING!"

Ding!

A bright blue notification window suddenly materialized right in front of Lyra’s face, pulsing with glowing green icons!

[ SYSTEM ONLINE! ]

LOCATION UPDATE: Successfully stationed at the 3rd Floor Command Center!

NEW SURVIVAL PARAMETER: BUILD TRUST DURING TOMORROW’S COMBAT TRAINING!

Lyra let out a long, soul-draining sigh, tossing the cleaning rags onto a dusty wooden desk.

"System..." Lyra muttered in her mind, her eyes narrowing. "Did you see that group of survivors near the reading nook earlier? The ones gathered around that golden-haired girl?"

[ YES, HOST! ] the System chimed back, bringing up a character profile panel.

[ CHARACTER PROFILE DETECTED: ]

NAME: Seraphina Gold (The Original Female Lead!)

IDENTITY: A high-tier Light & Healing Ability User! The ultimate saintess of the apocalypse!

CURRENT STATUS: Highly adored by the survivor base, currently treating injured students in the reading nook!

Lyra’s eyebrows raised in genuine surprise. "So that golden-haired girl is the actual Female Lead of this world?!"

[ Correct, Host! ] the System explained. [ In the original novel timeline, Seraphina’s gentle healing powers and warm personality were supposed to melt Kael’s frozen, mutated heart, preventing him from completely destroying humanity! However, because you jumped in and took a bullet for him today, his focus has shifted significantly toward you! ]

Lyra collapsed onto a semi-clean wooden chair, burying her face in her palms. "Great... just great. So now I have a secret Zombie King living next door, a hostile Senior Sister who thinks I’m a fake, and a holy Female Lead whose romantic plot I accidentally stole!"

She looked around the dusty storage room, her mind racing with survival tactics.

If she wanted to survive this S-Rank apocalyptic world, earn her 50% soul fragments, and return to her original world, she had to play her cards with absolute perfection. She needed to pass tomorrow’s combat training, prove her usefulness to the team, and keep Kael Noctis from discovering her true fear of him.

Lyra rolled up the sleeves of her floral mini dress, grabbed the wooden duster, and began vigorously wiping down the dusty shelves.

"Alright, Zombie King..." Lyra grumbled under her breath, a sharp, determined glint flashing deep within her dark eyes. "Let’s see who survives who."

Outside her window, the gloomy sky slowly dissolved into a pitch-black, silent night, while behind the closed door down the hall, a pair of cold, emerald-green eyes stared into the darkness, silently listening to every soft breath coming from the room next door.