Chapter 34

Today, with their hands full, the two were happy as they drove Comet back home.

Zhou Yun was surprised when Guan Yuanfeng didn’t return the same way. “Are we taking the national highway?”

Guan Yuanfeng replied, “Yes, there should be fewer zombies on the ring road around the city. It’ll be quicker to get back.” He had left home to join the army at the age of eighteen, and this city, where he had spent eighteen years growing up, no longer had any living people—only zombies remained.

Zhou Yun didn’t object, only suggesting, “Let’s stop for gas, we’ve used a lot of fuel today.”

Guan Yuanfeng agreed, driving the car to a gas station. There were hardly any zombies in sight. Zhou Yun unbuckled his seatbelt, planning to get out and refuel, but Guan Yuanfeng stopped his hand, saying, “Stay in the car with Comet. I’ll get the fuel.”

He grabbed a knife, opened the door, and went out to refuel.

Zhou Yun didn’t argue, but instead crossed over from the passenger seat to the driver’s side, placing his Tang Dao (a traditional Chinese saber) beside him.

Guan Yuanfeng knew this was for safety in case something happened and Zhou Yun needed to take control of the car. He couldn’t help but admire Zhou Yun’s alertness, as most ordinary civilians living in peaceful times wouldn’t have such a heightened sense of awareness.

Normally, it was better for the driver to stay in the car while the passenger refueled, but Guan Yuanfeng wouldn’t let Zhou Yun take the risk of going out alone.

Zhou Yun lowered the window and kept an eye on the surroundings, while Guan Yuanfeng efficiently filled the car with fuel.

At that moment, suddenly, a baby’s cry came from the gas station’s convenience store.

Guan Yuanfeng turned to look at Zhou Yun, and both their expressions changed.

The chickens on the roof were still clucking, but the baby’s cry was loud and clear.

Guan Yuanfeng put the fuel nozzle back, then, in a commanding tone, said to Zhou Yun, “Lock the car doors and windows.”

Zhou Yun grabbed his wrist and whispered, “Something’s wrong. Don’t go, the gas station is flammable and explosive, and your lightning and Comet’s abilities are too dangerous to use here.”

Guan Yuanfeng gripped his wrist, pressing his hand reassuringly, “Lock the car doors and windows, don’t leave Comet. Don’t worry—I’m not just about lightning abilities.”

Zhou Yun saw a small whirlwind suddenly form beside the fuel dispenser, silently drifting toward the convenience store. He relaxed, realizing he had been overly anxious. After all, Guan Yuanfeng was a former special forces team leader—he could definitely spot any anomalies.

He reached out and adjusted Guan Yuanfeng’s collar. Guan Yuanfeng turned in surprise and saw Zhou Yun holding a burr in his hand, which he quickly withdrew. He thought it was just something from the forest and didn’t pay much attention. He smiled and said, “Relax, close the windows.”

Zhou Yun nodded, locking the car doors and raising the windows.

Guan Yuanfeng turned back to grab his knife. His eyes flashed coldly as he walked toward the convenience store.

But he didn’t notice that just as the car windows were closed, a tiny dandelion puff of white fluff was blown out of the window, floating like delicate feathers scattered in the air.

Inside the convenience store, the shelves had been cleared, but the baby’s crying persisted—it was coming from a small MP3 player.

Three men were peeking out of the window. One, a younger man with yellow curly hair, seemed anxious. “Only one got out. The other one stayed in the car, and it looks like there’s a dog. What should we do?”

Another smaller man also seemed nervous. “The tall one has a knife; he might be hard to deal with.”

The tall, burly man in the middle sneered, “With your level, you’re just dreaming in the apocalypse. You’re afraid of zombies, and now you’re even afraid of people. What’s a knife going to do? We have guns!”

“Once I distract that guy, Lao Liu, you go out and grab the car. That’s a good one! And that big bag of chickens on the car, that should last us a month! We can even use it for paying city tolls several times! They definitely have more good stuff in their car!”

The small, skinny man said, “What if they have special abilities?”

The short-haired man spat, “Who has so many special ability users? Besides, all the ability users at the base are treated like royalty. Either that, or they’re all out killing zombies and collecting crystal cores. Why would they waste their time in such a remote place, looking for food?”

“Plus, we have guns. Even ability users are afraid of guns! Unless they have a healer with them, but that’s even less likely. Healers are like pandas at the base, they’re too important for people like us to use them in a small place like this.”

The tall, burly man shook the submachine gun in his hand, his eyes flashing with cruelty. “Like the last time, we’ll kill them when we get in, and then we’ll shoot out the car tires and kill the other one.”

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through the room, and some small dust and particles blew through the window. The short-haired man’s eyes were momentarily obscured, and he waved his hand to swat away the dust.

But his eyes started to itch terribly, even stinging. He couldn’t help but rub his eyes, and tears involuntarily began to flow out.

At that moment, the three men suddenly saw a flash outside. The tall man, who had been cautiously walking, had somehow already entered the room in a swift, leopard-like movement, decisively swinging a knife down.

The small man was caught off guard, hastily raising his gun to retaliate, but the battle knife came down like lightning, striking his wrist with the back of the blade, precisely disarming him.

With a scream, the handgun fell to the ground, and before the man could react, it was kicked away by Guan Yuanfeng, sending it flying through the air and crashing against the wall with a dull thud.

The yellow-haired man froze, holding his knife in confusion. The opponent’s eyes were sharp like an eagle’s, ghostly and fast. He was suddenly hit with an overwhelming force, as though struck by a beast, and was left paralyzed with fear. His soft abdomen was struck by the knee of his attacker, causing excruciating pain in his organs. The smell of blood almost rushed up from his throat as he collapsed to the floor, clutching his stomach.

The short-haired man, lying inside, barely noticed the pain in his eyes as he raised his submachine gun, but before he could fire, a gust of wind swept over him with a crackling sound.

He was electrocuted, his eyes rolling back as he couldn’t even scream. The submachine gun slipped from his hand and fell to the ground, where it was grabbed by Guan Yuanfeng. He turned it around and struck the man with the gun butt, knocking him to the ground, his body convulsing uncontrollably as he lost control of his bladder and fainted.

The entire battle had been swift and violent.

Inside the car, Zhou Yun opened his eyes and couldn’t help but smile slightly.

He had underestimated Guan Yuanfeng.

It turned out that with all his limbs intact, he was this powerful.

His astonishing agility in the fight, his clean and decisive movements, cold yet full of a beautiful force.

Anyone who saw such a battle would fall in love with this person.

He grabbed the water cup from the armrest box, used his special ability to turn the water into ice water, drank it in one go, then took the knife, opened the car door, and got out. Comet immediately scratched at the door, afraid that Zhou Yun would leave it alone in the car. Zhou Yun opened the door, and Comet quickly jumped out, circling around Zhou Yun’s feet.

Zhou Yun and Comet reached the supermarket door, where Guan Yuanfeng was holding a submachine gun and questioning, “Where did you get the gun?”

One of the three men was handcuffed to the shelf, his hand twisted at an odd angle, clearly broken.

The other hand and one of his feet were tied together, while the youngest yellow-haired man was also tied to the shelf with his eyes bloodshot. The short-haired man’s hands were tied behind his back and he was unconscious on the ground.

Their feet were all tied together, and no one could escape individually.

A black whirlwind was swirling around them, faint lightning sparking inside it.

Comet ran in, and Guan Yuanfeng, alert, turned to look. Seeing it was Comet, his expression softened. “Did you wait long? I’ll ask a few questions and then we’ll leave.”

Zhou Yun nodded and looked at the three men.

The yellow-haired man, his face full of tears, said, “The boss traded crystal cores for it.”

Guan Yuanfeng asked, “Where did he trade them?”

The yellow-haired man replied, “At the Beiming Base.”

Guan Yuanfeng frowned and exchanged a look with Zhou Yun.

The yellow-haired man clearly wasn’t very well-educated, speaking hesitantly. After some prompting from the thin man beside him, he finally explained.

It turned out that the three of them had met in prison, which quickly fell after the apocalypse started.

Some ability users in the prison awakened metal and earth powers, breaking through the prison gates and walls, taking the guns, and escaping to Beiming City, originally intending to smuggle themselves out, only to find it swarming with zombies.

They joined a former leader from prison, “Jiao Ge”, who had a fire-element ability and a large number of smuggled guns. He was powerful in Beiming and had established a gang called “The Four Seas Gang”.

The Four Seas Gang could rally anyone, and they could trade crystal cores for guns. Their submachine gun was traded for 100 crystal cores, the handgun for 50, and the bullets were an additional cost—one crystal core per bullet.

Every month, they had to pay gang fees, which could be in supplies or crystal cores.

The thin man with the broken hand pleaded, “We had no choice. We had to pay the gang fee, and we also had to pay the city gate fee to get into Beiming Base. We’re just regular people. Zombies aren’t easy to kill. We were forced into this situation.”

He looked at Zhou Yun and Guan Yuanfeng, both looking well-fed, clean, with no wrinkles in their clothes, their fair skin glowing with health. He secretly regretted trying to rob them—most people surviving in the apocalypse were ability users, and now they had run into the wrong people.

Zhou Yun suddenly asked, “Is the Beiming Base managed by your Sihai Gang?”

The skinny man shook his head, “No, the Beiming Base is managed by the head of the Gong family. He has many ability users under him, all of whom are very loyal.”

Zhou Yun asked again, “Is your Sihai Gang the most powerful gang?”

The skinny man shook his head again, “Not really. The Conch Gang, the White Sand Gang, and the Old Street Gang all have ability users as their leaders, and they all recruit little brothers. But they also pay taxes to the Gong family.”

Guan Yuanfeng furrowed his brows and asked, “What about the military? The police?”

The skinny man was at a loss for words, “Huh?”

Guan Yuanfeng frowned even deeper.

Huang Mao explained, “There used to be, but they either died or fled. The big shots, I heard, all went to the Zhongzhou Base. Some even went to Mars. I know a fellow from my hometown, he was an auxiliary policeman. He said they organized a large evacuation to the provincial city, but with all the waves of zombies, we couldn’t reach anyone. They got scattered, and now no one’s in charge of them anymore.”

“Now the base does have a security team. The base provides guns and weapons, and ability users lead the team, but they only follow the base commander’s orders. They occasionally maintain order inside the base.”

The implication was that they didn’t care about anything outside the base.

The skinny man said, “Ability users are treated as honored guests at the base. They recruit them, and they’re provided food and lodging. If you two go now, the Gong family will definitely treat you as distinguished guests, and you’ll receive crystal cores every month.”

Zhou Yun and Guan Yuanfeng exchanged a glance. Huang Mao pleaded, “We didn’t have any other choice. We’re starving. My parents died early, we have no education. Now there are zombies everywhere, no jobs, no way to survive. We were out of our minds when we robbed you two, please don’t hold it against us. Please let us go…”

“Everything outside is like this now. If we don’t rob people, they’ll rob us. We’re just trying to survive…”

Zhou Yun asked, “Where’s your vehicle?”

The skinny man and Huang Mao’s faces turned pale.

Zhou Yun said, “Since you set up an ambush here, you must come here often. Beiming isn’t far from Danlin City, but still a hundred kilometers away. You must have a vehicle and bullets.” The car would definitely have the goods they had stolen.

Guan Yuanfeng furrowed his brows. The black whirlwind immediately approached them, small lightning crackling in the wind.

The two of them were terrified, “We’ll talk! Don’t electrocute us!”

The skinny man stammered, “It’s too far and remote here, we can’t get to good places, so we came here to find an opportunity. We’ve only been here for two days… It’s in the parking lot behind the gas station, the red and white RV is the one.”

Huang Mao, a bit obsequious, added, “The car keys are in my pocket.”

Guan Yuanfeng used his knife to slice open his pocket, and sure enough, the car keys fell out.

Zhou Yun nodded and took the car keys, walking out. Guan Yuanfeng patted Comet’s head, “Follow.”

Comet immediately followed Zhou Yun’s steps. Zhou Yun laughed a little, “No need to worry about me. After today, you practically treated me like fragile glass.”

Guan Yuanfeng, however, spoke in a serious tone, “You don’t know how wicked these people are. They’re habitual murderers and robbers. Now there’s no law to punish them, and they’ve completely lost their bottom line.”

After speaking, he took a few steps to get in front of Zhou Yun.

The RV was parked in a secluded spot behind the gas station’s parking lot. They turned around and saw it right away.

Guan Yuanfeng, holding a gun, first walked around the RV to check that there was no danger. After confirming, he opened the door and got inside to check.

Zhou Yun stood outside, looking at the vehicle and complimented, “This RV is quite high-end.”

Guan Yuanfeng came out from inside, “It was probably stolen. There’s a bag of guns and bullets, along with some other weapons and supplies. The most valuable thing is this.” He lifted a bag, and inside the transparent plastic bag were dozens of crystal cores, large and small.

There was another transparent bag with fewer crystal cores, but they were of various colors like red, green, and blue, indicating much higher quality.

Guan Yuanfeng said, “I think it’s stolen. They acted all pitiful, but they probably robbed a lot.”

Zhou Yun smiled, “A black market of black on black. It’s quite satisfying.”

He also got into the RV and looked at the supplies inside—medicines, weapons, water, food, and crystal cores, all neatly organized. There was also a large bag of gold bars and gold ornaments, and two gasoline barrels in the trunk. The most striking item was a slightly wrinkled printed book.

The cover read “Zombie Hunting Techniques,” with bold red letters saying “Five crystal cores per book, piracy will be prosecuted.”

Guan Yuanfeng glanced at it, “This could be useful. We’ll study it when we get back.”

Zhou Yun was also curious. In his previous life, he had only passed through Beiming City once. He had heard that Beiming City was chaotic but somewhat orderly, with brutal growth, producing many high-level ability users who also killed each other. The resources were abundant, and the strong became kings.

It seemed that the apocalypse had just begun, and the Gong family had already taken control of Beiming City.

He noticed Comet sniffing around a black trash bag behind him and was surprised, “Comet, what did you find?”

Comet barked.

Zhou Yun walked over to open the plastic bag, but Guan Yuanfeng suddenly grabbed his arm, “Let me do it.”

Zhou Yun saw his serious expression and stepped back. Guan Yuanfeng used his knife to open the trash bag, revealing a stainless steel basin with half a basin of seawater, and inside it was a giant sea clam. A strong smell of seawater immediately filled the air.

Guan Yuanfeng froze. Zhou Yun lowered his head and smiled, “It should be a mutated sea clam. I don’t know where they got it from.”

Guan Yuanfeng said, “We can ask when we get back.” He looked closely at the clam, “If it’s a mutated sea clam, the crystal core should be water attribute, right?”

Zhou Yun nodded, “Most likely.” His eyes gleamed with joy. Given its size, the crystal core’s quality was probably high, and it could be very useful in critical moments for leveling up.

The two of them closed the car door and returned to the gas station convenience store. Sure enough, the skinny man said, “The city lord’s office issued a bounty for light-type healing ability users, saying they need various mutated animals. Any animals that are larger or fiercer than usual is probably mutated. No matter what, if you hand them over, there’s a reward. We passed by the pearl farm this time and saw this. The workers there said they’d never seen a clam this big, so we thought we could get a hefty reward and decided to take it… we bought it…”

Guan Yuanfeng and Zhou Yun exchanged a glance and continued asking, “Has anyone mentioned what it’s specifically useful for?”

The skinny man said, “I heard it’s beneficial for supernatural beings, but I don’t really know the details.”

Zhou Yun asked, “It seems like supernatural beings have high status where you are?”

The skinny man replied, “Yes, they live at the base with free food and accommodation, and they get crystal cores every month. They can even keep the crystal cores they personally kill. They just need to complete three tasks a month as required by the base. If they’re at a critical point in their cultivation, they can delay the tasks until after they advance.”

“Both of you should come to our Beiming Base,” he thought to himself, “Recommending others can earn contribution points,” a glimmer of hope rising in his heart. “Our Four Seas Gang is also offering high salaries to recruit supernatural beings. If you two can join, we’ll not only provide housing, cars, and crystal cores, but also women! They’re all willing to serve supernatural beings! All of them want to bear children for supernatural beings!”

The yellow-haired one, thinking himself clever, added, “Even supernatural women are fine! It’s rumored that when two supernatural beings combine, their children are likely to inherit abilities. Female supernatural beings are highly sought after in Beiming City right now! But they haven’t chosen anyone yet. With how handsome you two are, I’m sure you’ll be picked!”

Guan Yuanfeng: “…”

Zhou Yun: “…”

At that moment, the burly, crew-cut man slowly woke up and, upon seeing Guan Yuanfeng’s fierce gaze, said, “Although you are supernatural beings, our Four Seas Gang shares the same breath. Now that we’re not as skilled, we can offer things willingly, but if you harm our lives, our gang has supernatural beings who will hunt you down to the ends of the earth!” He probably didn’t know where he learned this gang jargon, and his words sounded awkward and unconvincing. Moreover, his body emitted a stench, making it hard to be intimidated by him.

Guan Yuanfeng’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t pay any attention to him but glanced at the sky and said to Zhou Yun, “Since we have a motorhome, why don’t you go back to the nursery and load up the seedlings you liked earlier? It’ll save you from making another trip tomorrow. I’ll stay here and ask a few more questions. Just wait for you to return.”

Zhou Yun gave him a deep look and smiled. “Okay.”

Guan Yuanfeng instructed, “Take Comet with you.”

Zhou Yun nodded, called Comet over, and indeed, took the keys to drive the motorhome out to the forest farm. He loaded the medicinal seedlings, rare plants, and some fruit-bearing or flowering plants onto the motorhome, all for the mutated bees.

After making a round at the forest farm, he collected the plants, fertilizers, organic fertilizers, and some small equipment like a shredder, lawn mower, insect trap, and insect cages, then slowly drove back to the supermarket at the gas station.

Guan Yuanfeng was waiting by the off-road vehicle, and when he saw Zhou Yun return, he waved for him to get out of the car. “I’ll drive the motorhome. Follow me with the off-road vehicle; it’s safer.” He didn’t mention how he dealt with the three robbers.

Zhou Yun nodded, got out, and switched vehicles with Guan Yuanfeng. Guan Yuanfeng also showed him how to use some special buttons on the motorhome before continuing to follow Zhou Yun with Comet. After filling up the gas, he started the motorhome and gestured for Zhou Yun to go ahead.

Zhou Yun started the off-road vehicle and drove ahead, occasionally glancing in the rearview mirror to see Guan Yuanfeng following closely behind in the motorhome, giving him a sense of security.

He didn’t ask Guan Yuanfeng how he had interrogated and dealt with the three robbers. They were murderers and thieves, with countless crimes on their hands, and ruthless in nature. If released, they might kill many more people.

Guan Yuanfeng must have thought that since he was a doctor, he might be concerned about mercy or not wanting his hands stained with blood, so he deliberately kept him away and handled it himself.

Although he had become as hard as iron since returning from the apocalypse, Zhou Yun still liked the feeling of being cared for.

This pleasant feeling lasted until they returned to the neighborhood.

When unloading the goods from the motorhome in the villa’s yard, Zhou Yun was still smiling. Guan Yuanfeng looked at him and couldn’t help but chuckle. “What are you thinking?”

Today they indeed returned with a full load, but Zhou Yun seemed happy for another reason.

Zhou Yun said, “Oh, I was thinking about that giant clam. Should I steam it? Or cut it and stew it with chicken, or maybe braise it? Steaming the whole thing might require a big pot, and it uses a lot of garlic.”

Guan Yuanfeng: “…”

Zhou Yun turned to look at him, his eyes full of laughter. “How about one-third steamed with garlic and vermicelli, one-third stir-fried with chives and chili, and one-third made into a chicken and tofu soup?”