Nan Muran could understand their thoughts and was indeed curious to see how their powers had developed over the past few days: “It’s perfect. We’re going hunting today.”

“You better work hard, considering how many mutated cores you owe me.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure to kill plenty of zombies today and gather mutated cores for you, Sister Nan. All the cores we find today will be for you, and we won’t count them as repaid. Once we get back to base, the cores we find will be the repayment, and we’ll make sure to return them double,” Chen Dong said grandly.

The others, Eagle and Qiangzi, also agreed with him.

They had been staying in the mountain villa for these past few days, and Nan Muran had helped them out so much. Simply training the military dogs and giving them some used mutated cores wasn’t enough to repay her kindness.

So even if they returned to their unit, they would do whatever they could to help her.

However, Jia Wu seemed momentarily stunned by their words.

After spending more than a week together, they had never mentioned leaving. Nan Muran had never brought it up either, and Jia Wu had assumed they were staying.

At the back, Si Ye overheard the conversation and instinctively glanced at the silent Nan Muran, feeling an inexplicable sense of guilt.

Nan Muran only gave a small smile and said, “Alright, then consider today as free labor for me.”

“No problem, it’s the least we can do,” Eagle replied with a grin.

The group quickly packed their military backpacks, gathered their weapons, and grabbed self-heating meals from the cupboard before heading down the mountain.

When Chen Dong and the others saw the vehicle before them, they were stunned: “Sister Nan, is this your car?”

“Yes.”

“But… this is a Karlmann King!” Even Wang Qiang, who usually spoke the least, became excited.

“I was brainwashed by sci-fi movies back then and loved its design, so I bought it.” Nan Muran smiled. This was the only car she felt comfortable using from her space.

Chen Dong ran his hand over the streamlined design of the car, unable to stop admiring it: “A fourteen million-dollar car! Sister Nan, was your family very wealthy before?”

“Eh, it’s okay. Have you heard of the Nan Qiao Group?”

“Nan Qiao Group? It’s one of the top two companies in the northwest. Who hasn’t heard of it? Wait… it’s your family’s?”

“Yeah, my mom’s surname is Qiao, and Nan Qiao was founded by her and my dad. But why are you so excited? This is the apocalypse now, and money’s as valuable as paper—paper might even be worth more than money.”

“That’s true,” Chen Dong agreed.

“Alright, no more sighing, get in the car.”

“Can I drive?” Chen Dong asked eagerly.

Nan Muran tossed him the keys: “Sure, go ahead.”

“By the way, Sister Nan, where are we going?” After starting the car, Chen Dong felt his heart racing with excitement.

“The city is too full of zombies, with hordes of them everywhere. We’re going to head down the mountain and look for some resorts and school districts in the southern suburbs,” Nan Muran replied.

On the way, she began explaining the different zombie levels and the mutated cores to them.

The group soon reached the commercial street outside the Southern District University City.

The commercial street, located outside the university city, had been overrun with zombies after acid rain. Originally wandering aimlessly, the zombies began to approach quickly as they sensed the group’s presence.

“Should we engage them?” Chen Dong asked, eager to get started.

Si Ye thought for a moment: “Let’s split up for now. Don’t go for headshots immediately, try to use your abilities as much as possible.”

After hearing Si Ye’s instruction, Chen Dong, holding a dagger, charged into the horde of zombies. With his speed-enhancing ability, he nearly killed the low-level zombies in an instant.

Si Ye also used his fire abilities to set the zombies’ heads on fire.

Wang Qiang first tried scattering dirt but quickly lost patience and started decapitating zombies with his knife.

Eagle did the same, but in between headshots, he also attempted to use his wind ability to control the zombies’ movements.

Jia Wu took out his baseball bat and began smashing zombies.

Nan Muran watched their actions, taking out a dagger from her space and calmly collecting mutated cores as she followed behind.

Xiaoliu and Xiaobai occasionally extended their vines to help her gather the cores.

After just a few minutes, they had killed about twenty to thirty zombies. Si Ye called for a halt.

The five of them, along with Jia Wu, then tried to coordinate their actions.

Si Ye’s water abilities combined with Jia Wu’s lightning abilities created a powerful effect.

The wind abilities paired with the earth abilities—while not as effective in attack—were still useful in hindering the zombies. With Chen Dong’s speed abilities, the situation changed completely. One would scatter dirt, another would blow wind to change the zombies’ direction, and then Chen Dong would rush in and quickly decapitate the zombies from behind.

Nan Muran also started using Xiaoliu and Xiaobai’s vines to pick off the zombies’ heads from a distance.

Once they were all lined up, she impaled their heads, creating a “skewer” of zombie heads.

As they advanced deeper into the commercial street, the group continued to harvest zombies like crazy.

After walking about five hundred meters into the street, everyone sensed something was wrong.

“Ranyan, something doesn’t seem right here,” Jia Wu and Si Ye stopped attacking simultaneously and instinctively took a step back, standing protectively on either side of Nan Muran.

Logically, the area they were in should have been the core of the commercial street, where the most zombies would be. But here, the number of zombies was still less than at the entrance of the street.

“Maybe there are others killing zombies nearby. Nothing strange about it,” Chen Dong didn’t find it odd.

After all, in the apocalypse, zombies were everywhere, and survivors had to deal with them to get resources. The zombies were slow-moving and not hard to handle. It wasn’t surprising that some had already been killed.

Eagle didn’t bother with his reasoning and muttered, “Who drops in by parachute to fight zombies in the core area?”

“We’ll investigate ahead,” Si Ye decided to move forward.

“Don’t go, I’ll handle it,” Nan Muran said, focusing her energy and starting to search the surrounding area.

The next street had few zombies, but the shops on both sides didn’t show any unusual activity, except for a few convenience stores that had already been looted.

The search continued until they reached a supermarket at the center of the street.

The situation there was different.

The supermarket had three floors. On the first floor, all the useful food and supplies were already gone, and the second floor was similar.

On the third floor, Nan Muran saw over ten men holding various makeshift weapons. One of them was particularly burly and appeared to have awakened a strength-based ability.

The men were gathered around, playing mahjong, with a firepit nearby for warmth. The small space was filled with smoke.

Behind them, in what looked like a storage room, several young girls were bound. Their faces were dull, their clothes torn, and their bodies covered in wounds.

Scenes like this were all too common in the apocalypse, and Nan Muran sighed before continuing her search.

Suddenly, she noticed a large group of zombies gathering at the far edge of the commercial street.