When Ye Yu’an arrived, the scene she witnessed was one of a massacre, with bodies lying scattered across the ground. She could vaguely hear voices and suppressed sobbing coming from inside the nearby building.

After scanning the surroundings for any immediate danger, Ye Yu’an quickly climbed through a broken window on the side and entered the building.

At the very moment Ye Yu’an entered the building, Shuxin successfully descended from the other side of the building using a safety rope, perfectly avoiding detection by Ye Yu’an.

After Shuxin and the others had dealt with the thugs and avoided any complications, they took all the guns from the criminals, leaving not a single bullet behind.

It seemed that this group had raided a police station’s armory, as they didn’t have much ammunition. Even though the weapons were few, in the end, any weapon, no matter how small, was still valuable. Firearms had become a non-renewable resource, and no matter how much they hoarded, it couldn’t compare to the overwhelming number of zombies out there.

Zombies were not static—they could evolve.

Simply put, zombies were like ability users. Both were products of humanity being exposed to some external stimulus, causing their genes to undergo rapid mutation and recombination to adapt to the environment.

A few individuals had a strong enough physical constitution to withstand the shock of this sudden genetic change, surviving the high-heat phase of the mutation and awakening special abilities, becoming ability users.

The majority of people, however, had average physical attributes and couldn’t handle such a drastic transformation, dying midway through the mutation process. Although their bodies perished, the altered genes in their systems survived and continued to evolve in a grotesque direction, giving birth to zombies.

There were also those who weren’t particularly lucky nor unlucky. They didn’t awaken the rare abilities of an ability user, nor did they transform into the vile, hate-filled zombies. They remained ordinary, normal humans.

Both ability users and zombies were products of genetic mutation. Ability users leveled up using the crystal cores in zombie brains, and zombies did the same.

By devouring human flesh and the crystal cores of other zombies, zombies would evolve, becoming stronger. As their level increased, their appearance became more human-like, and without special detection methods, it would be nearly impossible to distinguish them from humans with the naked eye.

As zombies evolved, the number of bullets required to kill them also increased. Ammunition, being a consumable, was a crucial resource for their future efforts to build their own forces.

Of the people in the building, four had been shot, while the rest had been killed up close. These scumbags wasted their bullets, which was both an insult and a waste.

From the moment this group of people entered the neighborhood, it was clear that the outside world had descended into complete chaos.

The neighborhood they had taken refuge in was far from the city center. At a time when gasoline was extremely precious, the fact that these people had come all the way out here to rob suggested that other areas had already been looted or taken over by other factions. They had no more opportunities to raid those places.

The events outside didn’t directly affect them, so they didn’t care too much. It was more important to shut the door and enjoy their little lives in peace.

However, Ye Yu’an did not share the same sense of ease. She couldn’t figure out who had taken out that group of thugs. Even the survivors said they hadn’t seen anyone, which made Ye Yu’an’s alarm bells ring loudly in her mind.

She had checked the bodies of the residents killed downstairs. The bullet wounds from the guns were different from those of the four people downstairs who had been killed with guns, meaning it was impossible that the thugs had been killed by a counterattack.

The only possibility was that someone in the neighborhood had weapons and extraordinary skills, capable of swiftly eliminating the thugs and escaping unharmed.

In a situation where she couldn’t determine whether the unknown person was an enemy or an ally, she couldn’t afford to lower her guard.