Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 125: Threads in Motion

Chapter 125: Threads in Motion

John Wang (POV)

March 19th, 20xx — 6:00 AM

Zone 3A-Δ – Tenth Floor – John’s Apartment (Master Bedroom)

———

The morning was still grey.

Ever since the world ended, I started to miss simple things. The things we once hated or complained about that now vanished. Things like the sound of people arguing in traffic or the horn of delivery trucks passing my apartment.

No birds. No trucks. Just the soft hum of power filtering through reinforced walls.

I opened my eyes to warmth. Heat pooled at my side — not just body heat, but the kind that lingered when comfort settled so deep into the bones, it refused to let go.

Mu Qinglan covered me like a blanket. Leg hooked around my thigh. Arm across my chest. Her hair a dark fan against my neck and pillow. She was heavier than she looked, but it didn’t bother me. I didn’t want her to move.

’The feeling of your girlfriend pressing against you in the morning, what bliss.’

Her breathing was slow. Rhythmic. A small line of drool kissed the corner of her lips, and the edge of the sheet clung to her back just above the curve of her waist.

The system clock blinked in the corner of my HUD.

[06:00 AM, March 19th]The new day had come.

But the warmth beside me made it easy to ignore.

"...You’re staring again."

Her voice rasped sleepily, eyes still half closed. But her lips curled just a little into a seductive smile.

"You’re naked on my chest. You expect me not to?"

"I expect you to keep doing it," she muttered, half into the pillow.

I chuckled with a deep tone, noticing her hand... grasping my morning glory.

My hand slid down her spine, then back up — slow, steady, like I was drawing a map. I felt her shift under it. Hips adjusting, thighs pulling me in slightly deeper beneath the tangle of limbs and covers.

"Plans today?" she murmured.

"Plenty."

"Dangerous?"

"Probably."

"Then hold me a little longer."

Her fingers curled into the skin just above my ribs — not sharp, but enough to let me know she didn’t want to get up yet. Not when the world was still quiet. Not when it was still ours.

So I kissed her forehead.

Then her cheek.

Then lower, brushing the corner of her jaw before I buried my nose into the curve of her neck.

She sighed.

"Mmm... morning sex is a luxury in the apocalypse," she said, voice sliding into a smile. "But I’m not complaining."

"Neither am I."

She didn’t move.

And neither did I.

We didn’t need to — not yet.

Not this morning.

And for a little while longer...

...we just lay there.

Wrapped in warmth.

Breathing the same breath.

Slowly, our bodies became one...

The room filled with a passionate heat and soft cries.

I towelled the last of the damp from my hair, the faint scent of iron, sweat, and Mu Qinglan’s shampoo still clinging to my skin. A low breeze brushed in through the reinforced window — chill but clean. For once, I didn’t smell like blood.

The system timer blinked softly at the corner of my HUD.[07:04]

The steam curled from the half-cracked bathroom door behind me. Water ran slow — no splashes, just steady flow. Mu Qinglan was still soaking. She hadn’t said anything after we finished — just smiled, kissed my collarbone, and padded silently into the bath.

I didn’t need her to say anything.

She’d said plenty last night. And this morning.

I pulled on my shirt — dark, sleeveless, combat-fit — then slid the bandolier strap over my shoulder and checked the light pouch attached to my thigh. The new comms earpiece was tucked neatly against my ear, sleek and barely visible.

These were items I bought after Qinglan fainted for the second time last night. They were quite cheap, only fifty ZKP each, so I bought twenty of them.

[Comm Link Status: Online – 2/20 Synced]

Just mine and hers, for now.

But that wasn’t the interesting part.

It was the notification that came after.

[System Update – Crafting Blueprint Acquired: Tactical Comms Unit (Short-Range)]

[Materials Required: Plastic x 5 | Metal x 2 | Cloth x 1]

[Crafting Station: Engineering Bench Compatible]

[Items purchased through the store will now auto-generate craftable blueprints]

[Authority Node Registered: Old Zhou – Class: Master Mechanic]

[Skills Detected: Analyse Item, Dismantle I, Basic Crafting]

[Permission Required!]

[Allow "Old Zhou" access to stored materials and system blueprint queue?]

I blinked once.

That was... new.

So that’s how it works.

Anything I buy, I can eventually make.

And anyone with the right class — and my permission — could make them for me.

Old Zhou was the first. The only one with the right profile.

It was good timing. I needed those earpieces distributed before noon. And more than that... I needed someone who could start building the backbone of this base while I was out breaking bones.

So, time to move.

I fastened the last strap on my boots and stood.

Qinglan’s voice drifted out from the bath, faint over the sound of the water.

"Don’t forget."

The soft scent of steam and floral oils teased the air again as Qinglan’s silhouette moved behind the glass. Her legs, bare and perfect, curled up inside the water. She was humming something tuneless but relaxed.

"If I find a hickey on you that I didn’t leave..."

"Just give me another one. Lan’er."

Her laugh echoed once, light and pleased.

"You’re lucky that I can’t chase you, John."

Well, after last night, her legs seemed a little shaky and weak, but she bit my shoulder when I mentioned anything lewd in bed...

It seemed Qinglan was a shy girl after the act finished.

I strapped on the last of my gear and stepped toward the stairwell door. My eyes lingered once more on the foggy mirror and the outline behind the glass.

No goodbyes.

Just a quiet kind of trust.

"Be safe," she said — soft enough that I almost missed it.

I didn’t answer.

Just closed the door behind me and descended toward the mechanical floor.

It was time to visit the old man.

Time to start building.

———

March 19th — 7:16 AM

Zone 3A-Δ – Third Floor – Armoury / Mechanical Room

———

The door hissed when I stepped inside.

Faint oil hung in the air — old-world mechanic scent. Not harsh. Just lived in. The workbench to the left was half-covered in tools and stripped casing parts. But it was the glow from the far corner that mattered — the Engineering Bench lit with faint pulses of neon-blue runes etched into alloy, subtle and alive.

Old Zhou stood at the bench, sleeves rolled, cigarette tucked behind one ear.

"Finally," he muttered without turning. "I thought you were gonna sleep through the damn ration clock."

"Already ate," I said, stepping forward. "Needed your eyes on something."

I set one of the earpieces down beside his tray of hand tools — sleek, black casing no bigger than a button. Zhou looked at it once, then picked it up between thumb and forefinger. He turned it over slowly.

"This yours?"

"It is now."

"Didn’t come from any stockpile I’ve seen."

"It didn’t."

He raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t elaborate.

Instead, I nodded toward the Engineering Bench glowing faintly nearby. "And that?"

Zhou’s attention shifted, finally noticing the shimmering glyphs lining the crafting table’s core interface. His brow furrowed. Slowly, he stepped toward it and hovered his hand above the panel.

The display shifted. Lines of code. Material diagnostics. Craft queue options. System-linked data.

"...The hell is this?"

"You see it?"

"Yeah," he muttered, eyes narrowing. "Some kind of... interface just lit up when I got close. It’s listing blueprints. Metal, plastic, cloth. Same setup I was just planning to build by hand."

That was fast.

Most couldn’t even feel the system unless I toggled access.

But Zhou wasn’t like most people.

He turned to me slowly, squinting. "You going to tell me what I just touched?"

I didn’t lie.

"I have something inside me. A kind of survival system. It upgrades me. Teaches me things. Builds things. It let me link this floor to a crafting interface only people I allow can use."

Zhou was quiet.

Then grunted. "You’ve been feeding this base tech from a goddamn cheat code."

"Not a cheat. Earned. Every step."

He studied me for a second longer. Then nodded once.

"I don’t need the whole story. Just tell me what’s next."

"There’s one condition."

A system window opened in the air between us — blue text framed by binding runes.