As soon as Luo Na entered, a zombie on the second floor, alerted by the noise, slowly stumbled downstairs.
Low-level zombies moved sluggishly and reacted slowly—no threat to her at all.
Luo Na picked up a fishing knife from inside the shop, walked over, and cleanly sliced off the zombie’s head. She then stabbed into the skull and forcefully pried it open.
A red energy core popped out.
She caught it smoothly and tossed it into the small pouch at her waist. “Feels like wood-type cores are really rare? I’ve killed a thousand zombies and still haven’t seen one.”
She currently had sixteen cores in her pouch—zero wood-type cores.
Wu Zhe and Gao Lei’s voices came through the wristband. They didn’t have any either.
Huo Ling only had one.
Lin Shuangshuang had already switched to her new wristband. After hearing everyone’s report, she looked down at her own cores—thirty in total, none of them wood-type. “I don’t have any either.” And they were all tier-one cores.
It seemed tier-two zombies hadn’t started proliferating yet.
Luo Na saw that the fishing shop had very low contamination levels, and most items inside were still in good condition. She wasn’t sure what could be taken and what couldn’t.
So she called for backup.
“Everyone come over. The front door is intact, and there’s only one zombie inside—it should be the owner. Everything looks pretty clean.”
She couldn’t carry all the supplies alone.
Everyone agreed.
So they regrouped there.
The small fishing tackle shop was surprisingly well-stocked with all kinds of fishing gear.
Wu Zhe walked around inside. “You’re right, most of this stuff has almost zero contamination.”
Gao Lei picked up a knife. “Multi-purpose knives are useful—sharp, durable. We’re short on small portable tools like this.”
They could be used for cutting, hunting, killing prey, cutting ropes, and more.
Luo Na pointed at axes and machetes. “A fishing shop even sells these? That’s wild. But those big water buckets look pretty useful.”
Huo Ling scanned the area, took photos one by one, and sent them to the group chat, tagging Zhao Pingsheng and Zhang Dapeng to ask what was useful.
“It’s not strange,” he said. “Some fishing shops also sell large tools for clearing shoreline vegetation or breaking ice, so axes and machetes aren’t unusual.”
He indicated that everything could be taken.
Including scissors, wire cutters, and heavy-duty pliers—more of these were better.
Nylon rope and fishing line were especially valuable. The former could be used for shelters, traps, climbing, and tying supplies. The latter had even more uses—repairing clothes and gear, making bowstrings, fishing, and even acting as surgical sutures.
Wu Zhe couldn’t help exclaiming, “Huo-ge, how do you know all this?”
Luo Na was stunned. “Tsk, looks like we really should read more books and newspapers.”
Gao Lei silently got to work, using nylon rope to bundle supplies.
As for Lin Shuangshuang—
She was very smart. While they were talking, she had already gone upstairs to check the second floor.
It was a small storage room combined with a living area since the shop was not large.
Half commercial, half residential.
Her pink backpack was back in action. She had already handed over yesterday’s supplies, so it was empty again and ready to be filled.
Because the owner had turned into a zombie and spent more time upstairs, most of his personal belongings had been contaminated and were unusable.
But a few things were still intact—like food stored in the cabinet.
Half a bag of rice, about ten jin. Ten cans of canned fish with black beans (227g each), five small packs of pickled vegetables (70g each), one unopened jar of mushroom meat sauce (200g), two jars of wild honey (500g each), and two bags of star anise (55g each).
Lin Shuangshuang packed everything into her backpack, then checked the storage room.
But the moment she opened the door—
A female zombie lunged out.
It was covered in a foul smell and had dense red rashes all over its body, its skin resembling a toad’s.
Lin Shuangshuang instinctively kicked it away. The zombie slammed into the wall of the storage room, still trying to struggle.
In the next second, a steel pipe pierced straight through its head.
It went completely still.
“What happened? What happened?!”
Wu Zhe’s voice came from downstairs, startled by the noise.
Luo Na followed immediately. “Shuangshuang? Are you okay?!”
Huo Ling had already reached the second floor. He strode over, pulled Lin Shuangshuang aside, and then looked at the red-rash female zombie.
“Stand there.”
His voice was cold and firm. Then he casually pulled down a clean curtain, wrapped the zombie up, and dragged it aside.
There were still many supplies in the small storage room.
“There’s another zombie upstairs, already dealt with by Lin Shuangshuang. Area secured. There are still supplies here—someone come upstairs and help carry them.”
Lin Shuangshuang watched him handle everything without even blinking.
She stared directly at him. “You’re worried about me.”
Her tone was very certain.
Huo Ling pulled a long face. “Illusion. I’m not.”
Lin Shuangshuang couldn’t help smiling. “You are.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
She insisted.
He was definitely worried about her.
Huo Ling let out a cold laugh, too lazy to argue further. “Move aside. I’m carrying things.”
“I can help too,” she said eagerly.
He ignored her.
But Lin Shuangshuang worked even more energetically.
The fishing shop turned out to be a big haul—almost everything could be used.
When Zhao Pingsheng and Zhang Dapeng received the report, they immediately called in a video, both extremely excited, telling them to bring everything back.
“Lead sinkers are gold! Bring back as many as possible! You can melt them into bullet cores, do you understand?!”
“Alcohol and disinfectant are essential—take them all! Don’t forget pliers! Fishhook pliers can even be used for surgery!”
“There’s definitely strong glue too, right? Screws, nuts, adapters—bring everything back! I can use it!”
“I’ll send Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu to meet you and help transport some of it first.”
A rare low-contamination shop like this—they absolutely had to strip it bare.
The robot dogs were already on the way.
Wu Zhe was exhausted. He was busy packing everything, putting small items into large bags and grouping bigger items together.
“Help! There’s so much stuff—I’m dying. How long is this going to take?!”
He was about to collapse.
Luo Na sighed while picking things up. “This is torture. I’d rather fight zombies. Why don’t we have spatial abilities? That’s not fair—novel protagonists always have them!”
Gao Lei carried heavy items downstairs without complaint. “Isn’t that usually a main-character perk?”
Luo Na was exhausted. “Aren’t we also supposed to be outstanding people? Isn’t that enough already? I really think we should get a space ability…”