As soon as they entered the mall, a huge fireball flew straight toward the two of them.
Yu Yao immediately accepted Luo Mei as a teammate and activated “Riding the Wind.”
At the same time, Luo Mei quickly raised a mental shield to protect Yu Yao in the center.
She noticed an unusual consumption of her ability.
Luo Mei made a small sound of surprise, then glanced sideways at Yu Yao, who gently shook her head to signal her not to speak or show any abnormality.
There were many survivors quietly observing from the shadows inside the supermarket; speaking recklessly might get them overheard.
Luo Mei understood and calmly closed her mouth.
Yu Yao slightly turned her head and said, “I’ll deal with the big one, you handle the rest.”
Without waiting for a reply, she dashed out of the shield’s range, brandishing her knife as she charged toward the flying fireball.
Before entering, she had noticed on the map a red light much larger than the others and guessed there was a high-level zombie.
Unexpectedly, it was a first-level ability zombie with powerful fire-based attacks.
Many other zombies nearby were also being controlled unconsciously by this high-level zombie and roared as they surrounded them.
But with Luo Mei there, they could handle it; Yu Yao only needed to focus on that ability zombie.
That ability zombie was much larger than the others and moved agilely, its eyes flashing with strange red light.
Seeing Yu Yao attack, it rapidly launched several large fireballs at her face while summoning other zombies to swarm her.
Yu Yao dodged each fireball, casually dispatching the approaching zombies while closely pursuing the ability zombie that kept throwing fireballs and retreating.
Her blade was sharp as the wind, quickly slicing off one of the zombie’s claws.
The ability zombie roared angrily and threw out a huge fire net at Yu Yao.
Knowing she couldn’t avoid it, Yu Yao quickly retreated.
Luo Mei, who had just finished dealing with a few zombies nearby, hurried in front of Yu Yao and protected her with the mental shield.
The fire net howled as it struck the mental shield, producing terrifying burning sounds. Luo Mei’s expression darkened briefly.
The mental shield was an extension of her mental power, so when it was damaged, some backlash affected Luo Mei herself.
After the fire net passed, Yu Yao noticed the ability zombie had retreated far away.
She twisted her wrist, sending her horizontal blade spinning out of her hand; within less than two breaths, she caught up and sliced the zombie in half at the waist.
The ability zombie screamed miserably as its upper and lower halves separated and fell to the ground.
But its strong will to survive still drove it to crawl forward on its arms, leaving a bloody and foul trail.
Yu Yao reached out and caught the returning blade, then stepped toward the half zombie.
The ability zombie noticed Yu Yao’s move, roared, and summoned more low-level zombies to attack her, trying to slow her down.
At the same time, its body flared with intense flames that prevented anyone from approaching.
However, it was clearly at its last breath; the flames, though frightening, would not harm anyone as long as they kept their distance.
Luo Mei, knowing Yu Yao was fine, stopped wasting time and swiftly turned to deal with the other zombies surrounding them.
Yu Yao stood about a meter from the fire zombie, lightly tossing her knife backward; the flames instantly died out.
Her knife firmly stuck into the zombie’s forehead, ending its life.
[Killed a level 1 mutated fire-type zombie, gained 300 experience points, 600 gold coins, 1 level 1 fire crystal core]
Satisfied, Yu Yao retracted her long knife without looking at the half-zombie corpse on the ground.
She then charged into the remaining horde, fiercely taking them down one by one.
After clearing the zombies on the first floor, Yu Yao glanced upward and caught sight of several heads quickly withdrawing upstairs.
Uninterested, she and Luo Mei headed directly for the underground supermarket.
There were also some wandering zombies inside the supermarket, but the shelves blocked their gathering, which instead became experience for Yu Yao.
…
Due to the earthquake, most of the supermarket shelves had collapsed, scattering most of the supplies on the floor.
It was clear someone had already been there; most easily filling and long-lasting foods had been picked clean.
Many supplies had also been trampled and ruined by wandering zombies, making Luo Mei grit her teeth in frustration.
Yu Yao calmly found a huge travel backpack and handed it to Luo Mei, signaling they should split up to collect supplies.
Luo Mei understood, grabbed the bag, and left.
Yu Yao herself didn’t pillage extensively; she used her space storage to take most of the sanitary pads, tampons, overnight pants, soft towels, disposable underwear, socks, toiletries, bedding, and other items from the warehouse.
She also took some favorite foods.
Although there were tons of supplies at the dock, and before the apocalypse she had stockpiled many things through purchase and zero-cost acquisition, she still needed more to feel secure.
Afterward, she went to the cold storage and collected perishable refrigerated and frozen goods that would soon spoil due to power loss.
When she finished gathering supplies and returned to the store, she casually grabbed a bottle of soda from a fallen refrigerator, twisted it open, and took a sip.
Then she headed toward Luo Mei’s location on the map.
In the past few days, Yu Yao had added Luo Mei to her friends list, so she could see Luo Mei’s information and check her favorability rating toward herself.
A startlingly high number.
A favorability rating above 60 meant not disliked, over 70 was considered liking, and above 80 meant a level where betrayal was impossible—teammate status could be granted.
This was why she could immediately add Luo Mei as a teammate when the ability zombie appeared.
In the game Rebellion, there are two types of teams.
One is a permanent team, like guilds or clans in other games, with no limit on the number of members. Members share experience and equipment.
Permanent teammates also don’t show as dots on the map but as small icons, allowing each other to see exact positions immediately.
No matter how far apart permanent teammates are, they can always know each other’s locations as long as they are alive.
Currently, Yu Yao hadn’t yet granted Luo Mei this permission, so Luo Mei couldn’t notice this.
Permanent teammates also share a common home.
In the apocalypse, unclaimed land was abundant.
Yu Yao planned to settle down first, then find a geomantically favorable location to establish a home.
Once chosen, the area would be protected by a transparent barrier covering both sky and ground, making it a private domain for the team.
The barrier would block outsiders, zombies, animals, viruses, and external attacks, providing a completely safe home for her and teammates.
Luo Mei was currently her only permanent teammate.
…
The other type of team was a temporary team.
This was basically a group of casual gaming partners.
The team could have up to ten members, share experience but not equipment.
On the map, temporary teammates showed only as ordinary green dots, distinguishable from others and from zombies or mutated animals.
The two types of teams could coexist without interfering with each other.
On the way here, bored, Yu Yao checked the favorability ratings of Ye Zi’ang and the others on her friend list.
Ye Zi’ang 76, Ji Yan 88, Fang Lianjiao 65, Jiao Yang 69.
As for Tan He and Zhao Han, their favorability was below 60, so they couldn’t be added as friends.
If it was even lower, they could be placed on a blacklist due to hostility.