A large portion of Shen Mu’s money had been converted into gold, silver, and jewelry to upgrade his space. By now, his space had become enormous.
In addition to the time-stopped storage area, there was a vast stretch of fertile black soil for planting. Most incredible of all, there was a spiritual spring. Although it only produced one drop per day, that single drop could remove his fatigue and even slowly heal old injuries.
The better his space became, the more Shen Mu hated Jiang Yun and Shen Ke. In his previous life, they had stolen this from him without any guilt—and even tried to kill him.
In this life, he would be the one to kill them instead.
However, after feeding a certain amount of gold and jewelry into the space, it stopped absorbing them and no longer changed.
Looking at the large gray, unopened area beyond the black soil, Shen Mu felt it was a pity—but he also guessed that further upgrades would require another method.
He tried many approaches, but none worked. Still, he wasn’t discouraged. There was no rush—the space was already more than enough.
Then, one day in January, he was surprised to find that the space had changed again. Seeing the newly appeared area—separate from the farmland and storage zones—and the items inside it, Shen Mu rarely showed such shock.
By January, the temperature was still over 20°C. While this was actually a comfortable temperature for people, it was clearly abnormal since it should have dropped below freezing.
The government had issued multiple notices about dealing with natural disasters, but it still hadn’t confirmed whether the apocalypse would come or whether zombies would appear.
Cheng Feng knew the reason—they couldn’t confirm it because no zombie virus had been detected at all.
In the original story, the virus had appeared suddenly, catching everyone off guard.
However, Cheng Feng believed things might be slightly better this time. He had given early warnings, so both individuals and the government should have made some preparations. It wouldn’t be as disastrous as before.
Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but complain about the original story’s male and female leads. He couldn’t understand how people like them became “chosen by fate.”
They were selfish and had no moral limits. Even though they knew about the apocalypse six months in advance, they didn’t warn anyone—which could be understandable for self-preservation—but they went further. They actually cultivated a zombie king to obtain higher-level crystals, causing multiple survivor bases to be destroyed.
And yet, after the zombie virus was eventually cured and the apocalypse ended, they were praised as heroes. All they did was escort researchers for a while, and suddenly they were seen as humanity’s saviors, rising to high positions in the government.
This absurd “redemption” and unrealistic storyline had somehow become Cheng Feng’s reality. Every time he thought about it, he found it hard to accept.
If possible, their rise to power had to be stopped—not just for those they killed, but for himself. They had to die.
Otherwise, once the apocalypse ended and they gained power, they would eventually come after him.
After all, he was an “enemy” who hadn’t handed over his space. And given how petty they were, they could hold grudges for years.
Still, dealing with them wasn’t urgent right now. Both of them could awaken powerful abilities, and he wasn’t their match yet. He needed the right time and allies.
Compared to his past life, they were already struggling much more this time because of him and Shen Mu. It wouldn’t be easy for them to dominate like before.
For now, his main task was still stockpiling supplies.
One day, he went out again to gather wild vegetables and check his traps. Without realizing it, he wandered deeper into the forest.
The wild vegetables were tender, just like in spring—perfect for dumplings, buns, stir-frying, or drying. Cheng Feng especially loved them.
After the mountain fruits were gone, he focused on gathering vegetables and cutting down dead trees along the way.
That day, near the edge of his usual area, he spotted some mushrooms and picked them. There hadn’t been much rain recently, but a short rainfall a few days ago had caused many mushrooms to sprout.
He became so absorbed in picking them that he unknowingly walked too far. When he finally came back to his senses, he felt a wave of fear and quickly turned to head back.
At that moment, he suddenly heard movement—not a small one.
His heart tightened. He threw the basket into his space and quickly climbed a tree.
His grandfather had told him that all kinds of animals lived deep in the mountains, so he should never wander too far.
Today, he had really been careless.
He took out a crossbow from his space, then thought for a moment and also prepared a silenced gun, just in case.
Whatever came, if it threatened his life, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill it.
Although he had been busy gathering supplies, he hadn’t neglected training his survival skills. After all, he had told Wang Yue and her husband to practice—he couldn’t neglect himself.
He wasn’t perfect, but he could hit about six out of ten shots.
After waiting for a while, the source of the noise finally appeared—it was a herd of wild goats.
Cheng Feng’s eyes lit up. If he could catch even a few, it would be a huge gain.
He stayed quietly in the tree, waiting for them to come within range.
Using a crossbow would be too slow, so he took out the silenced gun instead. It used more resources, but he had plenty, so it was worth it.
As the goats passed under the tree, he began hunting.
The herd was dense, so most of his shots hit. Sometimes one goat needed multiple shots, but that didn’t matter much.
The sudden attack threw the herd into chaos, and they scattered in all directions.
When he ran out of bullets, he didn’t have time to reload, so he switched to another gun and kept shooting. Later, he also fired a few crossbow bolts.
After the herd fled, he climbed down.
He quickly stored the goats in his space. Some were still alive, so he had to finish them off first—his space couldn’t store living things.
As he collected them, he counted—there were 12 goats in total.
He had used 20 bullets. The crossbow bolts didn’t count as a cost, since they could be reused.