After hearing the whole story, Yu Yao glanced coldly at the pale-faced Zhao Han.
This made Zhao Han blush furiously and shout, “Why blame me? Isn’t it because Yu Yao didn’t stick with us? If she had been here, would we have been forced into this situation?”
Everyone was left speechless by her shamelessness.
Luo Mei wouldn’t tolerate her and raised an eyebrow, retorting, “Tsk tsk tsk, does that sound like human speech to you?”
This extreme sarcasm made Zhao Han’s face even uglier. She glared and only managed to say, “You!”
Luo Mei lifted her chin with contemptuous eyes.
“What about me? Who is Yu Yao to you? Why should she protect you? When something goes wrong, you don’t look for the cause in yourself but shift the blame onto others? Who gave you that face? Your mom?”
“I didn’t—Isn’t it true? If Yu Yao was here…”
“Shut up!”
Ji Yan, who had reached his limit, stopped Zhao Han’s unfinished words with a cold look.
Frightened, she immediately shut her mouth and dared not speak again.
Yu Yao glanced at the scared Zhao Han, then looked at the fluctuating purple and red light points in her mind representing Fang Lianjiao.
She took out a rope and said, “Let’s tie her up first. Maybe she can still awaken her abilities.”
Jiao Yang looked up in surprise.
“She won’t die?”
“Not necessarily. It depends on fate,” Yu Yao said, then turned to Zhao Han. “What have you been hoarding?”
Yu Yao’s question made Zhao Han look like a duck caught by the neck, instantly flustered.
“Why should I tell you?”
Yu Yao’s tone was calm. “If you don’t want to keep being attacked by zombies, you’d better tell me.”
“What do you mean? You’re saying I was attacked because I hoarded something? Impossible! Everyone knows what I have, how could there be anything that attracts zombies!” Zhao Han shouted at Yu Yao, furious but oddly guilty.
Yu Yao’s patience ran out. “Then take out the things you secretly stored. The sooner, the better. I have no patience to waste time with you here.”
Yu Yao was so sure because the treasure chest was right on Zhao Han’s light point.
She was eager to know what kind of treasure had such power.
“You’re talking nonsense—”
Before Zhao Han could finish, Yu Yao’s horizontal blade was already pressed against her neck.
“Take it out.”
The cold blade pressed against her skin silenced Zhao Han instantly.
“I… I…”
“Hurry up.”
Zhao Han swallowed nervously, closed her eyes, reluctant but helpless.
She could only tremblingly take out one item after another from her space.
Gold necklaces, jade bracelets, diamond rings, pearl jewelry, crystal ornaments.
All kinds of precious pre-apocalypse jewelry she quietly hid in her space.
There were even many gold bars and ingots piled all over the floor!
Ye Zi’ang looked at the items and said coldly, “You’ve been telling us there’s no space left, but you still secretly hid all these things?”
Zhao Han turned her head in shame and anger, clenching her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms.
She muttered in defiance, “The space is mine. I put whatever I want in it!”
Ye Zi’ang’s eyes darkened, and he stopped speaking. He exchanged a glance with Ji Yan, both sharing the same meaning:
This person can’t stay, even if she is a rare space ability user.
While gathering supplies, they met some survivors and learned about ability users.
They found space ability users to be very rare, and having one in the team was really convenient.
But now, no matter how important or rare a space ability user is, if they’re not trustworthy, they cannot stay.
Otherwise, it would spell disaster sooner or later, just like today.
Faced with the pile of treasures, Yu Yao and Luo Mei were the calmest.
Yu Yao soon noticed among Zhao Han’s secret stash a piece of irregularly shaped stone shining with blue light.
She picked it up and asked, “Where did this come from?”
Zhao Han knew Yu Yao wouldn’t be easily fooled, so she obediently answered:
“I picked it up. It was originally a decoration in a jewelry store’s glass showcase downstairs. I was going to use it to smash another glass case. But when I picked it up, the outer layer of stone suddenly disappeared, leaving only the inside, which looked quite beautiful, so I kept it.”
Holding the blue-glowing mineral, Yu Yao felt a strange, indescribable sensation and decided to put it in her backpack.
Anything placed in the backpack’s grid would automatically display its name and description—like an identification device.
As soon as the mineral entered the backpack, its introduction appeared in Yu Yao’s mind:
“Five-colored Stone Fragment – Blue”
A fragment of the five-colored stone used by Nüwa to mend the sky, containing enormous energy, able to boost ability levels, convert into experience points, evolve zombies, and has a fatal attraction to zombies.
Five-colored stone? Mending stone?
Is there such a thing?
Yu Yao took out the blue fragment and examined it carefully. This single fragment could provide 2,000,000 experience points, enough to instantly level up Yu Yao by many levels.
But there was a note afterward: for each additional fragment, the experience points multiply and stack.
Two fragments would provide experience equal to 2 million × 2 million!
Three fragments would be 2 million × 2 million × 2 million.
Although 2 million experience points is a lot, after level 40, the experience needed to level up exceeds tens of millions!
Whether for other uses or for leveling up, absorbing a single fragment alone is definitely the least cost-effective!
…
Yu Yao looked up and asked the stunned Zhao Han, “Any more? You’d better take them all out.”
She was here to snatch them anyway—wasn’t this trip all about those so-called treasures?
Rescue them, exchange for fragments, everyone benefits!
Zhao Han quickly shook her head. “No, no more. Just this one. I even checked all the surrounding stones—there’s not a single one left.”
Yu Yao nodded and silently took the blue fragment out of the back kitchen and went to the window she had entered through.
Then, as if casually, she appeared to toss the fragment out.
In reality, when the stone was about ten meters away and just fell into the zombie crowd, she used her mental power to pull it back into the backpack grid.
One-click retrieval.
At the moment she retracted the fragment, she clearly felt a change in the zombies outside. This confirmed for Yu Yao that the game backpack grid can mask the aura of the five-colored stone fragment.
But she didn’t want to reveal the special nature of her space ability, so she pretended to have thrown it away.
The others followed out as well. Luo Mei, seeing her toss the stone, curiously asked,
“Was there something strange about that stone? Why did you throw it away?”
“It’s a meteorite. It can evolve zombies and has a deadly attraction to them. Although throwing it away will cause some zombies to evolve, if we don’t, we’ll face endless hordes of zombies surrounding us.”
Everyone understood what the choice was.
Zhao Han gasped, and the expressions of Jiao Yang and the others changed.
Luo Mei grew interested. “There’s something like that?”
“If zombies already exist, what’s so strange about a meteorite?”
“Tsk, that’s true. Amazing.”
Without the five-colored stone fragment, the zombies outside suddenly became restless.
Yu Yao worried that so many living people gathered together would still provoke the zombies into frenzy.
She decisively expanded the range of the (Sky-covering Stone), hiding everyone.
There is a downside to using the Sky-covering Stone this way.
She can’t move easily; otherwise, the concealment effect becomes unstable.
If they move, the maximum effective range covers only two people.
Not enough.
Also, the original survivors inside the mall had already escaped long ago once they realized the zombies wouldn’t attack them, saving Yu Yao from worrying whether to protect them or not.
Luo Mei noticed something strange around, her eyes flickering.
After meeting Yu Yao’s gaze, she knowingly blinked and slightly curled the corners of her lips.
…
Without the five-colored stone fragment and the lure of living humans, the zombies outside began to slowly disperse.
Only a few remained foolishly wandering in place, unwilling to leave.
When the danger was temporarily gone, Yu Yao pointed at the window and said, “The zombies inside the mall won’t disperse for now. We’ll leave through the window.”
Zhao Han instinctively objected, “It’s so high, how can we get down?”
Luo Mei snapped back, “Do it however you want.”
“You!”
Luo Mei rolled her eyes. “Stop with the ‘you’ and ‘me’—you say the same thing over and over. Don’t you find that embarrassing?”
“I—I’m not, I just…”
Seeing Zhao Han at a loss for words, Tan He felt a bit sorry for her and held her wrist gently to soothe her.
“Alright, Hanhan. They mean well. There are zombies all over the mall that won’t leave. It’s too dangerous to go out recklessly. The window is the safest way.”
“But, but I…”
“I’ll take you down. Don’t be afraid.”
Since he said that much, what else could Zhao Han say?
She obediently nodded and stuck close to Tan He, no longer daring to speak up.