"Sue, are you only happy when you steal Tiana's credit?"
"Tiana discovered the zombie horde. Tiana found the Safe House we're hiding in now. Tiana even found all the supplies on the road. Why do you keep insisting you were the one who found them?"
"Exactly! You don't have any Abilities, you're just a freeloader. If it weren't for Jason and Tiana taking pity on you, we would've never brought a dead weight like you along!"
Sue Lawrence shook her head again and again. "No, I really did discover it. The closest base is sixty kilometers away, but the zombie horde will arrive in half an hour. The best option right now is to hide from the horde first, then go to the base..."
Unconcealed disgust filled everyone's eyes, as if every word she spoke turned their stomachs. Tiana Lynch, however, put on a magnanimous air, saying with false sympathy, "Let's just drop it. Sue is just anxious to get to the base and see her son. Sue, you must miss Leo so much that it's making you act this way, right?"
"I do miss my son, but I really am the one who..."
"Enough!" Jason Sterling, the ex-boyfriend who had broken up with her because of her son, scowled. "Everyone else has awakened a Superpower, but you're still just a normal person. You're holding us all back, and you're still bullying others. Tiana has been sticking up for you this whole time. Just look at yourself, Sue. Where do you get the audacity?"
"That's not true, I have a Superpower too..."
"Then what is your Superpower?"
'My Superpower?'
Sue Lawrence pressed her lips together. She couldn't tell them about her Superpower. If she did, she would be the first to die—at the hands of her own people.
"I... I..."
Seeing her hesitate, the disgust in their eyes deepened.
Before the apocalypse, they had all been in the same university club. After graduating, they even started a business together and were incredibly close. But ever since Tiana Lynch arrived, everything had changed.
Everyone started flocking to Tiana Lynch's side. Even Jason Sterling couldn't stop singing her praises, complimenting her strong abilities and great personality. After the apocalypse hit, Sue Lawrence had used her own Superpower to secure the Safe House, find supplies, and even predict the direction and arrival time of the zombie hordes. Yet, somehow, Tiana Lynch got all the credit.
Meanwhile, she was cast as the malicious woman who bullied Tiana Lynch out of jealousy, scorned by everyone.
"Jason, please listen to me..."
"Sue, just give it up."
Her cousin, Donovan Lawrence, frowned. "Getting wild at a bar and getting knocked up by God-knows-what animal... You don't actually think you're still good enough for our Jason, do you?"
She instinctively looked toward Jason Sterling and, just as she'd expected, saw the undisguised disgust and loathing on his face.
"Jason, didn't you say you didn't mind? You said we would look after each other once the apocalypse came..."
Before she could finish her sentence, a knife plunged into her lower abdomen.
SHLICK!
Maeve Walsh was even using the stance Sue had taught her. An upward, diagonal thrust beneath the ribs to puncture a lung. It would leave the victim gasping for breath and unable to move, but still, just barely, alive.
A mercenary had taught her that move. When you run into bad people and can't get away, you kill them. And in doing so, you make them serve one last purpose—to tie up the zombies.
"You..."
'Why?'
Maeve Walsh smiled. "We can't escape the horde if you're with us. You saved me from a rapist once, so just do me a favor and save me again."
The others around them all stared at her coldly. Not a single person tried to save her.
Her anger peaked in that instant. Sue Lawrence's whole body trembled, whether from the pain or the rage, she couldn't tell.
'If I'd known it would come to this, I never would have teamed up with these people!'
'What a shame. I'll never see my son again. We were only sixty kilometers from the base. Sixty kilometers!'
Sue Lawrence trembled all over. She was filled with so much hate, so much resentment. 'Leo... Leo...'
The only thing that had kept her going until now was Leo Lawrence!
"Leo..."
"Still thinking about your son?" Donovan Lawrence sneered. "Whoops. We never sent him to the base. A year ago, we used your son to lure away a horde of zombies, using this exact same method. Oh, right, and didn't you praise us for handling it so 'cleanly' back then? Hahaha! You should have seen it! We told him, 'Your mom said it was okay.' He stopped struggling right away. The look on his face was absolutely priceless!"
'Wha... what!'
Sue Lawrence began to struggle frantically again. The more she thrashed, the more she suffocated from the lack of oxygen. The wound tore wider, blood pouring out, but none of that pain compared to the agony in her heart.
'Leo, my Leo!'
The disgust in Jason Sterling's eyes intensified. "It was still too good a death for that little bastard. Sue, you bitch, we were about to get engaged, and you spring this bastard child on me. What kind of decent person do you find in a bar? Who knows what kind of diseases you have. If it weren't for all the supplies you hoard, the very sight of you would make me sick. You're disgusting!"
Tears blurred Sue Lawrence's vision. 'Her Leo, her baby boy... He was only five years old before the apocalypse. A year ago, he wasn't even seven!'
'He wasn't even old enough for elementary school, let alone adulthood.'
'How could you be so cruel?'
Sue Lawrence struggled to raise her head, staring at the people before her. One by one, she seared their faces into her memory. She struggled to speak. "I... I really do... have a Superpower..."
But no one believed her. Instead, they laughed with arrogant cruelty.
"Still spouting nonsense when you're about to die?"
"Guess you're addicted to slandering Tiana, huh?"
"You really deserve to die!"
Maeve Walsh snorted. "Is she actually hoping we'll save her? Forget it. Without you, how are we supposed to get past the zombie horde?"
"Alright, let her hold up the horde. Let's get out of here!"
They abandoned her and turned to leave.
Sue Lawrence clutched her wound, gasping for air. 'I really do have a Superpower. A Superpower I can't tell anyone about.'
Superpower: [Taker]
Skill 1, What's Yours Is Mine: You will acquire all the Abilities of any living being you kill with your own hands.
Skill 2, And I'll Take That Too: A certain probability of stealing a portion of a living being's Abilities. The probability is random.
Skill 3, I can do whatever I want with my things: You can freely distribute the Abilities you have taken. The more important someone is to you, the higher the probability that they will successfully gain a Superpower.
"Activate... Skill 2... And I'll Take That Too!"
Ultimate fury fueled her as she activated the Skill in the direction of the departing group. This was a last-ditch attack, and she poured every last ounce of her strength into it.
[DING! Plundered 99.7% of the four individuals' luck! Remaining Luck Value: 1.]
With only a single point of Luck Value shared between the four of them, their internal compasses spun wildly, pointing them directly toward the approaching zombie horde. Elated, the four of them sprinted straight for it.
A black tide of zombies flooded the land, the putrid stench assaulting the senses.
Sue Lawrence closed her eyes.
'Leo, will you come for Mommy?'
[DING! Luck Value is off the charts! Activating Time Regression!]
[Time reset. One month before the apocalypse!]
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in her mind. Like a drowning person taking their first gasp of air, Sue Lawrence's eyes snapped open.
"Mommy..."