3.22: The Zombie President

Duran City was now in ruin. A city that was once one of the big cities in the apocalypse was destroyed after its vice president, Bi He, suddenly into a giant behemoth zombie that destroyed the city.

There were few thousands of casualties, and their bodies were mangled, some even only had part of their body left, it was so grotesque for anyone to stomach.

Duran City would be a ruined city if not because of one figure. This figure was the hero of the city, the one that defeated the giant behemoth and defeated the zombie king, Ling Kai. After Bi He's body exploded, Ling Kai also disappeared from this world, leaving Ru Lan as the only survivor who came out victorious. 

He said that he had defeated Bi He and killed Ling Kai, and he wanted to rebuild the city again. 

The survivors who were heartbroken because of the loss of their family members, finally regained their spirit back after President Ru promised that he would protect all of them. Everyone will be safe under his wing.

"Long live, President Ru!"

"Long live, President Ru!" 

The chant echoed through the ruined city. Ling Kai was now inside Ru Lan's body, there was no more Ling Kai, the zombie king, only the great President Ru.

The people of Duran City were rebuilding the city slowly, meanwhile, President Ru always left the city alone for all expeditions and returned with many valuable brain beads. He would also defend the city against any raiders or high ranking zombies. 

Ru Lan became a famed name across the continent as the strongest ability user in the world, he was also the one that defeated Ling Kai and rebuilt Duran City. 

After five years, Duran City had been restored to its original glory. In fact, it was even better. Due to President Ru's ability to gather high quality brain beads, the city developed even further and became the biggest city in the continent in only five years.

To show their gratitude to their hero, the people of Duran City erected a big statue of President Ru Lan, the legendary protector of Duran City. It was the highest honor that a man could get. The now rebuilt Duran Tower was also renamed as Ru Tower.

Ling Kai watched when the statue had been erected, the face of the handsome man that he would never forget. Although he was now using the body of the handsome man, he still missed him badly.

'Ru Lan, at least, you get the honor that you deserve after so long. If only you were here with me, you must be very happy.'

'I can only do this much, because this body of yours starts to rot after five years. And I don't want to stay in this world without you for too long.'

Ling Kai watched the city from the top of Ru Tower. 

"President Ru, are you calling me?" a young man came to his office after Ling Kai summoned him. 

"Yes, Dong Xu," Ling Kai turned his head towards Dong Xu, the young vice president that he had carefully selected. He read this young man's mind and saw that this was a good man, a potential leader. He was also a powerful earth user. 

"Do you have any task for me?" Dong Xu asked.

"This will be the last task for me," Ling Kai said, "I appoint you to be the next president. I will leave the city soon."

***

The news about President Ru leaving the city shocked everyone, he completed all the paperwork for Dong Xu and then vanished like a thin air. Everybody tried to search for President Ru in other cities, but President Ru didn't leave a trace for them. 

With that, President Ru was now only a legend for them. He defeated the zombie king, the giant zombie behemoth, and rebuilt Duran City in five years. He deserved all the glory in life, but he decided to disappear forever. 

In fact, Ling Kai only returned to his old house. He was aware that he couldn't use Ru Lan's body for more than five years, just like the rest of his previous bodies. Ru Lan's body started rotting and his skin started falling off. 

Ling Kai didn't want to ruin Ru Lan's body even more, but he also didn't want to find another body and live alone in this world.

He had tasted a drop of love from Ru Lan, and he didn't want to let go. 

Ling Kai sat on his bed, the one where he woke up as a zombie. He looked around, "As expected, I still don't know anything about my past."

Ling Kai only knew that Bi He was the one who killed him, and he was called Professor Ling in his life before the apocalypse. But that was it. 

However, he still wanted to believe in Ru Lan's words, that he was a good, studious man when he was alive. 

"Ru Lan, I don't want to live forever in this world without you. It's too lonely…"

"I miss you, I really miss you…"

Ling Kai extracted his brain bead from his skull and stared at its brilliance, "I just wished… that I will die for real this time."

Ling Kai laid on the bed, he closed his eyes and crushed his brain bead.

***

Ling Kai's soul floated in a sphere, when he opened his eyes, he was in an infinite space with a bunch of floating numbers. 

"You are finally here."

Ling Kai heard someone talking to him, a man appeared in front of him. He wore a black-golden robe and his face was exquisitely handsome. In Ling Kai's wildest imagination, he thought that this man's face must have been his face prior to his death. 

"Who are you?"

"You are part of my soul, so we're basically the same person," the man said. He flicked his sleeve and a crystal sphere appeared in front of him, Ling Kai saw two handsome men who were fighting against each other. 

Although the faces of these two men were foreign for him, he could sense that one of them was Ru Lan, "Who dares hurt my Ru Lan!?" 

Ling Kai's energy swirled inside the sphere, he tried to break the sphere that trapped him, but he couldn't. With one flick from the man in front of him, his powerful energy vanished without trace. 

"Relax, Ru Lan is in another world, his real name is Bai Yunyu," the man in black robe said, there was a smirk on his face when he said 'Bai Yunyu'.

Ling Kai paused, he stared at the man, "Bai… Yunyu…" 

Ling Kai felt familiar with that name, although he didn't remember anything.

"Do you want to meet Ru Lan, or should I say… Bai Yunyu?" 

"…Yes, I miss him so much…" 

"Then, give your soul to me, we will meet him as one."

Ling Kai didn't understand what this man was saying, but he was always oblivious about anything, as long as he could meet with Ru Lan again, then everything would be fine. He just nodded and closed his eyes. 

The sphere minimized into a small bead and the man swallowed Ling Kai's soul. He laughed low when he received Ling Kai's memory.

"You are still oblivious, Bai Yunyu. When you entered this world for the first time, you burned everything to the ground, you fried Ling Kai and his brain bead easily with your lightning. But now, you have to struggle to defeat a weakling like Bi He. How funny."

"You are always like that, right? Destroying everything with your overwhelming lightning, like a kid stomping ants," the man said, his gaze darkened as he watched the crystal sphere.