“Then… what about the warehouse?”
Because frozen food would still thaw even if stored in her space, she wasn’t interested in the cold storage. But seeing it made her think of the warehouse instead, and she decided to take a look around.
Unfortunately, she had no prior experience sneaking into a supermarket warehouse, so she could only scan the surroundings using her ability along the edges of the store.
And she actually found it.
Following her senses, Nan Fei entered through a door. Inside, there was another tightly shut inner door.
It seemed that when the apocalypse broke out, someone had hidden inside, so it hadn’t been locked.
Nan Fei pushed the door open, but for safety, she did not close it behind her.
What greeted her was a large storage room filled with oversized packaged goods. Thinking that all of this would soon belong to her, the calmness she had just regained began to stir again.
Her psychic ability automatically wrapped around the items. As she walked through, even while carefully selecting, the space around her gradually became empty as goods piled up elsewhere.
In just five minutes, her spatial storage was completely filled.
Nan Fei was still immersed in the joy of collecting, but was forced to stop so early that she felt a bit frustrated.
Fortunately, most of what she had stored were convenient ready-to-eat foods—ending here wasn’t a loss.
She comforted herself and turned to leave the warehouse.
“Roar!”
The moment she turned around, she heard a frantic zombie roar. A blue figure in an employee uniform stood at the warehouse entrance and lunged straight at her.
A level 2 zombie!
Seeing its tiny black pupils like sesame seeds, Nan Fei’s heart sank. She quickly pulled out her dagger and gripped it tightly.
The zombie was extremely fast, closing the distance in an instant.
She immediately had to choose between close combat and her abilities, and threw a fireball at it.
Unlike level 1 zombies, level 2 zombies were not so rigid. It shifted its body sideways, trying to dodge.
Fortunately, Nan Fei hadn’t aimed for its head. The fireball grazed its chest and landed on its arm, igniting its clothes.
Flames instantly engulfed it, but Nan Fei did not feel relieved. Seeing the fire beginning to weaken, she quickly threw several more fireballs.
Only then did the flames fully ignite the zombie’s flesh.
However, a level 1 fire ability was still not enough to deal with a level 2 zombie. It could still move, continuing to charge at her while engulfed in flames.
Nan Fei quickly dodged behind a stack of cardboard boxes. Just as the zombie was about to grab her, her psychic ability silently struck its head.
“Roar—!”
A scream echoed in her ears. Nan Fei’s expression turned cold as she stabbed her dagger into the box for leverage and climbed to the top.
The zombie was left below her.
She noticed the small text on the boxes and tore one open, throwing it down at the roaring zombie below.
Packages of tissues fell onto it and were ignited by the flames. Nan Fei didn’t dare relax and kept throwing them down desperately. Whenever the fire weakened, she would add more fireballs.
“Roar! Roar!”
The zombie roared in rage, lifting its pale, clouded eyes to stare at her, its tiny pupils filled with a bloodthirsty desire.
Nan Fei increased the speed of her throws. At the same time, the moment the zombie feigned retreat, her psychic force pierced its brain.
“Roar!”
Its roar twisted into pain.
Taking advantage of this moment, Nan Fei converted her remaining energy into fireballs and threw them onto the tissue piles around it.
A larger blaze erupted instantly, engulfing it completely.
To prevent its escape, she used her psychic power to violently interfere with its brain, ensuring it would be burned thoroughly.
Watching its bald, burned head, Nan Fei grabbed another roll of tissues. She infused her remaining fire energy into her dagger, slicing the roll into pieces and scattering them over the zombie’s head.
Finally, the flames reached its skull. Nan Fei struggled to maintain her psychic control.
The zombie thrashed in the fire, and eventually its movements slowed.
But Nan Fei did not let up. Even though it had stopped roaring, she still detected faint movements through her psychic ability.
Another two minutes passed.
The zombie’s painful cries gradually faded.
Looking at the ashes on the ground, the charred remains of the zombie, and the burned hole in the cardboard boxes below, Nan Fei finally let out a breath of relief.
Thankfully, when she was at the police station, she had listened to her colleagues’ advice and learned to use the minimum amount of energy to affect a target instead of overexerting herself—otherwise, she would have exhausted herself after briefly controlling the target.
And fortunately, even while conserving her fire ability, she had continued training during supply runs, allowing her to precisely control the flame’s range and avoid burning herself.
She slumped down onto a box. Although her mind was calm, her heart was still pounding wildly.
In truth, she had become overconfident.
After being scratched, awakening dual abilities, gaining spatial storage, and learning that perfume could mask human scent, her mind had remained calm—but her confidence had quietly inflated. She had started to believe she could walk freely among zombies without danger.
Reality had just slapped her hard in the face.
Even with a psychic range of about 15 meters and strong perfume masking her scent, as long as she stood in front of a level 2 or higher zombie, they could still easily identify her as human—and, driven by their craving for flesh, would still attack her.
Nan Fei steadied herself and jumped down from the boxes.
In the gray ash, a rice-sized transparent crystal lay near the zombie’s skull.
A crystal core.
A transparent, attribute-less crystal core.
Nan Fei was relieved that this zombie had no ability. She picked up the core, and strands of energy flowed into her body, replenishing her drained power. The excess energy circulated within her before stopping at two barriers.
She was level 1. A level 2 crystal core was enough to upgrade one of her abilities to level 2.
Without hesitation, Nan Fei chose fire.
Although her psychic ability had played a key role in this fight, without fire support, she could only escape from zombies—not kill them.
The moment she made her decision, the energy broke through the barrier, elevating her fire ability to a new level.
Nan Fei raised her hand. A fireball, larger than before, appeared, its temperature even more intense.
Looking at her fully packed spatial storage, she no longer felt the urgency to upgrade it.
No electricity—can you live? Yes.
No strength—will you die? Yes.
In the face of survival, comfort was instantly discarded. After all, only the living could enjoy anything.
From now on, crystal cores would primarily be used to enhance her abilities. As for her space, she would only upgrade essential functions—like emergency survival features that allowed her to enter it physically.
Having made up her mind, Nan Fei took out perfume and reapplied it to restore the scent that had faded from her body, then headed toward the warehouse again.
The supermarket was unchanged from before she entered the warehouse. She passed through rotten fruit and walked to the shelves, grabbing a bottle of drink and gulping it down.
Estimating the time, she wiped the moisture from her lips and headed toward the household supplies section.
Before entering the warehouse, she had already reserved space for these items.
So now, she went straight toward essential female products—tissues, sanitary pads, panty liners, tampons, and overnight diapers.