After the group entered the water tower, they immediately huddled together in a corner of the platform.

The warmth inside helped ease their stiff, cold bodies slightly, and the scent of food began to fill the air, making their noses twitch.

They watched as Nan Muran and her group unpacked various military self-heating meals—braised pork with rice, pickled vegetables with pork, and all sorts of other options.

The most surprising part was that Nan Muran even pulled out several types of self-heating hot pots from her backpack.

The five of them could no longer resist; their mouths watered uncontrollably.

To be fair, since the apocalypse began, their food situation hadn’t been too bad.

But right now, in this cold and hungry state, seeing Nan Muran’s group greedily enjoying delicious meals made them ravenous.

“That… “

Zhou Ling opened his mouth, but before he could speak, a cold male voice interrupted, “If you don’t want to be thrown out, then shut up.”

Jia Wu looked at the group of five with drooling mouths and felt no sympathy for them, only irritation.

Food was scarce in the post-apocalyptic world. Even Han Yingting and his group weren’t kind enough to starve themselves to offer any to others.

Zhou Ling felt wronged, but facing Jia Wu’s fierce gaze, he dared not speak.

Seeing the five of them wisely remain quiet, the others began to focus on eating.

By the campfire, Si Ye watched Nan Muran eating her simple rice with cured meat. After thinking for a moment, he turned around and pulled out a box of tomato-flavored self-heating hot pot, followed by another box of self-heating pickled fish.

“When did you prepare these?” Nan Muran looked surprised as she saw her favorite food.

She had these in her space, but hadn’t planned to take them out in front of everyone.

Yet Si Ye had pulled them from his backpack.

“He packed them when we left. His bag is full of food, apart from the essentials,” Jia Wu said to Nan Muran.

Si Ye smiled without saying a word. “Had to eat a bit more just now.”

The tempting aroma of the self-heating pot spread, with its tangy, spicy fragrance. Now, even Han Yingting and the others couldn’t help but swallow their saliva.

“Brother Wu, do you still have some of the food that Sister Mei prepared? Take more out for everyone. Once we’re full, we’ll have the strength to fight.”

Nan Muran knew that Sister Mei had prepared food for the journey, so she suggested it.

It wasn’t about being generous; rather, they would soon face a fierce battle.

Han Yingting’s group visibly brightened when they heard her words.

Soon, five self-heating hot pots were placed around the campfire, along with various kinds of marinated dishes, clearly Sister Mei’s cooking.

As they enjoyed the hearty meal, it felt as though they were having a gathering before the apocalypse.

Watching their group of nine devour the food, Zhou Ling and the others’ stomachs growled uncontrollably.

But none of them dared to speak, worried they might be thrown out by the scarred, fierce-looking man.

They could only watch as almost all the food was finished.

“Uh… can I have some hot soup? To… warm up,” the boy with black-framed glasses finally gathered the courage to ask Nan Muran, who had the final say.

Nan Muran glanced at them and nodded slightly.

Soon, the leftover food from the campfire was all served to the five of them.

They all instinctively picked up their bowls of hot soup and began drinking, but found there were still two servings of sausage rice that hadn’t been touched. They figured the others couldn’t finish it, so they quickly devoured it.

After the meal, they sent the eagle out to keep watch.

“Everyone, quickly lean against the wall and rest for a bit,” Nan Muran said as she rested her head on Si Ye’s shoulder, finding a comfortable position to close her eyes.

After eating and drinking, Zhou Ling and his group were soon drowsy from the warmth in their bodies.

But there were still people outside keeping watch.

Except for Nan Muran, Cheng Cheng, and Qi Jin, the other six followed the designated watch order to observe the zombie swarm.

“Muran, wake up, the battle outside is over,” Jia Wu entered as soon as he saw the situation, waking everyone up.

They quickly stood up and rushed to the edge of the water tower to look outside.

The moonlight tonight was good, casting a bright white glow on the snow-covered ground, making the situation below the tower clearly visible.

The water system’s level five zombie king had been killed, and the zombie swarm, which had been advancing relentlessly, was now completely out of control.

However, this situation didn’t last long. After about ten minutes, all the zombies below began to shift targets, moving towards the water tower.

After five full hours of battle, even the slow and stiff attacks still resulted in more than half the zombies being lost.

Now, the remaining zombies began to converge towards the water tower.

Zombies on the elevated bridge also started falling like free-falling objects, crashing to the ground.

“The fire-type zombie king won,” Nan Muran observed the fire-type mutated zombie not far away.

The mutated zombie’s red pupils glowed brightly in the night.

It was less than five hundred meters from their position, holding a glowing light green crystal core, the one from the previously killed water-type mutated zombie.

“I’ll go with you to get it,” Si Ye knew Nan Muran wanted those two level five crystal cores and said faintly.

Nan Muran smiled lightly, “Brother Wu, Eagle, help Han Yingting deal with the zombies under the tower. We’ll go dig for the crystal cores.”

Suddenly, Xiaobai leapt from Nan Muran’s hand, forming a protective circle around them, safely transporting everyone except Qi Jin to the ground.

As they landed, Xiaobai and Xiao Liu started clearing the way in front of them.

Without wasting any time, Nan Muran and Si Ye drew their daggers and headed toward the fire-type mutated zombie.

The fire-type zombie king was a bit surprised to see a man and a woman approaching him.

Since the apocalypse, he had never encountered such a powerful human ability user. Too bad they were only at the late stage of level four, one whole level below him—it wasn’t enough.

At the same time, Xiao Liu and Xiaobai extended countless branches and vines, creating sugar-coated haws along their path, directly retrieving the crystal core.

Once they got closer to the fire-type mutated zombie, Xiao Liu surrounded Nan Muran, protecting her safety. All zombies that came near Xiao Liu had their heads pierced quickly, and their crystal cores were taken.

Soon, a large pile of zombie corpses accumulated around the outer perimeter of the circle.

At the same time, Si Ye and Xiaobai quickly approached the fire-type mutated zombie.

In the moment the zombie was stunned, Xiaobai immediately snatched the glowing light green crystal core from its hand.

As a level five mutated zombie in the later stage, the fire-type zombie’s combat experience was clearly not as rich as Xiaobai’s.

With the crystal core in hand, Nan Muran immediately activated her mental power, suppressing the fire-type mutated zombie’s body.

Si Ye, already close to the opponent, immediately acted. Ice blades, sharp blades, and fireballs split into three directions toward the fire-type mutated zombie.

Suppressed by Nan Muran’s mental powers, the fire-type mutated zombie couldn’t move, enduring Si Ye’s consecutive attacks.

Nan Muran’s mental abilities were on the verge of breaking through. The mental powers of a late-level four ability user could suppress a higher-level opponent, and although it wasn’t a 100% success rate, with Si Ye—a combat veteran with three abilities—the chances of victory were greatly increased.