Apocaly Utopi apocaly utop

Chapter 16 Husband

"Shirley," Emma controlled her facial muscles, trying to maintain a gentle expression as she spoke, "come here for a moment. I want to ask you, have you seen my little silver bottle?"

When it came to the silver bottle, the first thing that came to mind was the ability to polish—Shirley didn’t move, looking confused as she said, "Didn’t I leave it on the sofa?" As she spoke, her hand continued to pat Lucky’s back.

At the time, because she had left with Lucky, she had no choice but to leave the Polish upstairs. This was something Emma was also aware of.

Emma suddenly frowned, "Oh, I forgot to take it!" She turned to Lucky with a smile, "It’s all because of my terrible memory. I’ll have them accompany me upstairs for a moment, Sister Kong. Would you mind waiting here alone?"

Lucky was taken aback.

Knowing that her behavior wasn’t entirely natural, Emma didn’t give Lucky a chance to respond. She hastily grabbed Jack and headed toward the door, then turned back to Shirley and waved, "Come on, let’s see if there’s anything useful we can grab while we’re at it."

Shirley’s expression was both blank and suspicious, but she obediently stood up.

"Sister Kong, don’t be scared, we’ll be back soon…" Emma said with a smile as she reached for the door. In the narrow gap just before the door closed, Lucky sat in the living room, her face expressionless as she watched Emma.

With a loud bang, the door shut, and darkness obscured her face.

As soon as the door was firmly closed, Emma turned and sprinted upstairs; the other two hurriedly followed, confused. Jack was the first to react, whispering in a low voice, "What’s wrong? Did you notice something off?"

"I—I hope I’m just overthinking it!" Emma’s words were jolted by her heavy strides, "Let me confirm something first…"

Within minutes, the three of them had raced to the top floor. Emma’s heart was pounding, and she didn’t even take the time to catch her breath before pushing the door open and rushing into the 38th-floor apartment.

The room was pitch black—"Give me a lighter!" Emma shouted.

Jack immediately tossed one in a parabolic arc. The lighter clicked to life the moment it landed in her hand, its orange flame illuminating a corner of the dining area.

On the dining table were four bowls.

Jack and Shirley exchanged glances, their eyes involuntarily drawn to the spot Emma had illuminated.

"Huh…?" Shirley was the first to notice something unusual. "Why didn’t she—"

Earlier, the group had finished their porridge in the dark and left without noticing anything amiss. Now, upon closer inspection, they realized something was wrong: next to three of the bowls were small piles of chicken bones and skin, looking messy. Only the bowl Lucky had used was completely empty.

This wasn’t necessarily strange—maybe she just liked eating chicken bones. The thought had just crossed Jack’s mind when Emma, with a grave expression, picked up Lucky’s bowl. With one glance, he swallowed his words.

In the scorching heat of this extreme-temperature hell, even the evolved individuals were in a state of mild dehydration, which was why the three of them had to replenish their fluids from time to time. Even with access to a supermarket, every drop of water was precious to them—they had finished every last drop of the porridge broth earlier.

But Lucky’s bowl still contained a large portion of clear, shiny broth.

Stirring it with a spoon, Emma noticed that the porridge had been picked clean, not a single grain of rice remained; the chicken pieces added to the broth had also been eaten. Only the most precious resource in this new world—water—had been left untouched by Lucky.

"She… why isn’t she drinking water?" Jack frowned, his red lips tightly pressed together, leaving a mark.

Emma’s expression didn’t look good.

Thanks to her **Keen Intuition**, she was able to piece together these seemingly unrelated clues. But if her intuition was correct, Lucky would be far more troublesome than any of the Fallen Ones.

Emma spoke in a low, deliberate voice, "She lied. She must have developed at least one advanced ability… and if I’m not mistaken, I think I know what it is."

Chicken, rice, plants, goldfish, the vegetables in the fridge…

Putting down the bowl, her gaze swept over Jack and Shirley’s faces, her voice heavy. "Lucky’s ability is likely the power to convert any form of life into the nutrients she needs to survive—I suspect that as soon as she touches her target, she can completely absorb it without making a sound. How long did it take us to eat? All the rice and chicken disappeared as if they never existed!"

Shirley gasped, "… Any form of life? Just by touching? That’s not just a survival ability—if this is used in combat…"

It would mean instant death upon contact.

"But that still doesn’t explain why she’s not drinking water?" Jack recalled the moment when the group had been jostling together in the stairwell earlier, and his face paled.

"Could it be that her ability has altered her body, making it impossible for her to absorb water like we do? For her, all her hydration and nutrients might have to come from absorbing other life forms," Shirley suggested.

"We’ve been with her for half a day… if she had hostile intentions, we wouldn’t have survived this long, right?"

Emma nodded—this was what she wanted to say, and it was also a glimmer of hope in her heart.

But what if…

The thought had just formed, not yet articulated, when Lucky’s voice echoed from the darkness once more, "Why is it taking you so long to grab something?"

All three of them froze. Had it been a long time? Emma couldn’t help but glance at the time on her watch.

From the moment they went upstairs until now, it had only been ten minutes—why was Lucky so eager to keep up with them?

Seeing the other two remain silent, Shirley quickly called out in her direction, "Wait at the door, we’ll be out soon."

Lucky responded with an "Oh," but her footsteps didn’t stop. Slowly, she dragged her feet and walked into the room.

The atmosphere instantly became strange.

After a moment of silence, Shirley forced a smile, "Hey, we’re about to leave, you really didn’t need to come in…"

Lucky said softly, "I’m scared of being alone, I just prefer to be around people. You don’t mind, do you?" As she spoke, she moved closer to the three of them, smiling as she reached out to take Shirley’s arm.

Emma’s heart skipped a beat, and just as she was about to intervene, Jack swiftly pulled Shirley away from Lucky, moving so fast he was almost a blur.

Shirley had barely steadied herself when Jack’s low, angry voice rang out, "What are you really trying to do?" His voice trembled with fury, and Emma had never seen this fair-skinned, delicate-looking boy so angry before. "You’ve already developed an ability, haven’t you? We know! So, why have you been sticking to us?"

"Ah…" Lucky seemed momentarily stunned, not reacting immediately. After a pause, she awkwardly said, "There are indeed some things about me that aren’t normal… I didn’t dare tell you at first because I was afraid you’d be scared of me. So, you’ve already figured it out…"

Shirley looked at her cautiously, asking tentatively, "You—you don’t mean to harm us, do you?"

Emma immediately shot her a glance. Shirley was great, but sometimes she was too trusting—if Lucky truly had ill intentions, would she honestly tell you?

"Harm you?" Lucky was taken aback, then said something Emma hadn’t anticipated, "No, no, no, just one will be enough. I don’t want to absorb three people, that would be too cruel."

Her words acted like a pause button, freezing the air.

Seeing the shocked expressions on their faces, Lucky seemed to steel herself and sighed, "I really don’t want to absorb living people, but my body is weak. I’ve absorbed everything I could at home, even the security guard downstairs—but I still feel weak, so weak it’s unbearable…"

Emma wasn’t sure whether to be angry or laugh—

Perhaps noticing her expression, Lucky wiped her tears, "When I first saw you, I didn’t even think about absorbing anyone. But the longer I stayed, the harder it became to resist… Just ask yourselves, if killing one person could save your life, would you do it?"

She didn’t actually wait for an answer, immediately raising a finger and pleading, "I’ll only take one… really, just one!"

"Shirley, Jack, you two only met her yesterday, right? It’s just a casual acquaintance…" Lucky’s face twisted into a near-manic smile, "Without this girl, you could still live your lives as usual, no loss at all."

"You’ve got it all figured out, huh?" Emma laughed coldly, not bothering to look at Jack and Shirley’s expressions, but a surge of anger rose in her heart.

Hearing this, Lucky turned to face her, "Girl, I see your boyfriend isn’t around, so I understand. You’re just playing around, you wouldn’t understand the bond between me and my husband… I can’t die. Even if the whole world dies, I can’t die. I have to wait for my husband to come home…"

Jack couldn’t take it anymore and snapped, "Enough with the nonsense! If you want to eat someone, go home and eat yourself!"

Emma felt a wave of relief and turned to smile at the two beside her.

Just as she was about to turn back, her gaze swept over the door to her bedroom—it looked pitch black in the night, as if it had merged with the universe. Behind that door was a double bed.

The bed…

In an instant, a sudden thought flashed through Emma’s mind, and before she could process it, a question had already slipped out, "Lucky, you said that when you woke up last night, only his pajamas were left on the bed?"

"Yeah, why…" Before she could finish, Lucky saw Emma’s expression, and her face turned deathly pale.

Emma smiled at her with a hint of vengeance, her teeth gleaming as she locked eyes with her, "BINGO, we’ve found your husband."