As midnight approached, Yu Yao found an unoccupied house on the outskirts of Lin City, locked all doors and windows securely.
Then she turned off the Sky-Shield Stone.
After a few seconds, her eyes gradually grew heavy, her eyelids started fluttering.
She didn’t resist and fell asleep.
The next day.
At exactly midnight, the moon instantly returned to its previous form.
Yu Yao opened her eyes and checked her body.
Damn!
She had wasted an entire day for nothing!!!
If only she had taken a few breaths and not rushed so much!
Immediately following, there were intermittent screams and clearly inhuman roars.
They sent chills down her spine and filled her with terror.
The apocalypse had truly begun.
Yu Yao confirmed this by looking at her mini-map, where more and more light spots turned red.
She composed herself, peered down through the doors and windows, her gaze turning cold, and resolutely chose to leave.
She hadn’t slept in the selected villa district on purpose because she wanted to kill some zombies, hone her skills, and gain experience.
She carefully hung two knives on her lower back to ensure she could draw them immediately upon encountering zombies.
Yu Yao stepped outside.
Her caution proved correct.
No sooner had she opened the door than a tall, foul-smelling humanoid monster blocked her way in the corridor.
If she hadn’t reacted quickly, she would have been tackled and bitten.
She drew a knife and, with all her strength, decapitated the creature as it lunged at her, then quickly hurried downstairs.
Zombies’ weak spot is the head; unless the crystal core is destroyed or they are beheaded, they remain “alive.”
Days of practice and improving physical fitness allowed her to kill it with one strike, gaining 5 experience points and two gold coins.
But since these no-level zombies contained little energy, they did not drop equipment or cores.
There was no system notification in her mind, just quiet awareness, but she knew exactly what she’d gained — very convenient.
Just as she stepped out of the unit door, two more zombies came into view.
Their eyes were gray-white, skin bluish-black, like weathered and eroded stones, their movements stiff and their postures strange.
One was relatively intact but had blood and torn flesh around the mouth and chest, clearly having fed on many people.
The other’s left face and neck were covered in bite marks, black blood and decayed flesh hanging from its body, looking pitiful.
It was clearly a freshly turned zombie, killed and transformed by other zombies just after awakening.
Sensing the fresh human blood scent from Yu Yao, they recklessly charged at her, emanating a terrible stench.
Even with memories from the original body’s past life, Yu Yao felt uneasy.
She almost gagged!
She fought to steady her mind, raising her right hand to block the claw of one zombie.
With her left hand, she swiftly decapitated the relatively intact zombie that came first beside her.
As the first zombie staggered and fell, the other, covered in blood and flesh, already had its mouth close to Yu Yao’s neck.
Without hesitation, Yu Yao swung her knife again, effortlessly slicing off the second zombie’s head like cutting tofu.
Thinking about how close the foul mouth had been to her neck made her heart pound wildly — a bit scared but also excited!
She earned 5 experience points and two gold coins simultaneously, a small consolation.
It was clear even level-0 equipment was a rare divine weapon, outclassing the weapons she had hoarded by miles.
As for firearms?
Yu Yao was just an ordinary person, and for now, she didn’t dare to dream of them.
She’d learn later if the chance came.
She sensed more zombies approaching nearby.
Suppressing the nausea and weird excitement of killing her first zombies, she stopped lingering, quickly killing as she moved.
Until her arms grew numb from constant slashing, she searched the map for a nearby empty house to hide in.
Zombies were tougher than she imagined; though slow and stiff, they had high defense and no fear of death.
And with their numbers, it was exhausting to fight alone.
Especially when surrounded, the situation was very passive.
Also, the healer class’s constitution seemed to naturally attract enemy attention.
Even if she did nothing, she was easier to target!
Just like earlier, zombies chasing others saw her from afar and abandoned closer, easier prey to chase her!
The so-called “group fight starts, kill the healer first” was her biggest problem now!
Ugh, so annoying!
After a long while, before exhaustion overtook her, Yu Yao finally found an empty seed shop.
Confirming her target, she quickly approached the store, dispatched three zombies chasing her, and broke the roller shutter lock.
After opening, she found a glass door inside still secured with a lock!
A rotten claw reached quickly behind her; she hastily spun around, sliced off the claw, and killed the zombie.
Before the next zombie reached and grabbed her back, she quickly pulled out hydraulic cutters, cut the lock, and—
Pushing open the glass door, she slipped inside and quickly pulled down the roller shutter.
Sharp claws scraped against the shutter, producing a harsh, grating noise!
Yu Yao gasped, quickly closed the glass door behind her, and pushed the nearest shelf against the door to block it.
All her actions were extremely swift and seamless, without a hint of hesitation.
After finishing, she listened to the zombies outside gathering, pounding on the roller shutter.
From afar came a series of howls and screams.
Yu Yao hurriedly activated the Sky-Shield Stone and slowly sat down by the counter.
She was exhausted. Although her physical condition was strong now, fatigue was unavoidable.
Outside, chaos had completely broken loose; the streets had almost become the domain of zombies.
Occasionally, some people would run out but would soon become one of them.
Yu Yao closed her eyes, calmed her mind, and checked the map to see the surroundings.
There were many red dots nearby, as well as many blue ones, and a few faint purple and yellow dots.
Blue dots represented ordinary humans.
Purple dots were those with special abilities—perhaps because purple symbolized nobility.
Yellow dots were mutated plants and animals, while gray dots were ordinary, unawakened flora and fauna.
From what she could see, many people had already awakened abilities, and many plants and animals had mutated.
While watching her surroundings, Yu Yao took out a salad from her space to eat.
As she ate, her mind began organizing the supplies stored in her space.
The amount she gathered in the last three days was huge and varied, especially the dock supplies.
Various containers were piled together, and it took a long time to make sense of them.
Yu Yao’s mind scanned the inventory lists one by one.
From imported frozen fresh goods to snacks, medicine, alcohol and drinks, to textiles, crafts, and all kinds of daily necessities.
Also included were large amounts of building materials, electronic equipment, vehicles, machine parts, and survival gear for indoors and outdoors.
It was truly everything imaginable.
There were too many items to fully process.
Yu Yao remembered that in the original game, after level 10, the warehouse would have an auto-sort function.
She wondered if this function would still appear in this world.
Whether or not it did, she decided to wait until level 10 before worrying about it, and for now, just roughly knowing the locations of common items was enough.
She was too tired now.
Dizziness and blurred vision from exhaustion and intense mental stress left her unwilling to do anything.
She took out a brand-new mattress from the home goods container, placed it on the floor, lay down, and closed her eyes to rest.
The zombies outside had quietly dispersed.
Sky-Shield Stone, forever the best!
The next day, Yu Yao opened her eyes just as dawn broke.
Outside, zombies had been roaring all night.
Plus, worried about unpredictable dangers, she had barely slept.
Her temples throbbed painfully.
Rubbing her temples, she quickly freshened up and took out two plain steamed buns and a box of milk from her space and ate.
After clearing out the seed store’s supplies, Yu Yao moved the shelf blocking the door and opened the glass door.
Taking a deep breath, she gripped her two knives and nudged the roller shutter open with her toes.
The noise drew the attention of many zombies.
A rotten claw suddenly shot through; without thinking, Yu Yao slashed backward and cut off the hand.
She bent her waist and dashed out of the seed shop, turned off the Sky-Shield Stone, and faced the several zombies wandering outside.
Her knife skills had improved rapidly during this time.
Thanks to the zombies’ limited mobility at the beginner level, she could barely cope.
Within a few breaths, she had slain six zombies at the door.
From recent check-ins and the zombies killed yesterday, Yu Yao was just over 40 experience points away from leveling up to 5.
With the experience just gained, killing two more zombies would let her level up!
Her spirits lifted significantly, and she held her knives, moving toward an area with fewer zombies.
She had a tentative destination: a newly built villa district on the outskirts of Lin City.
Because with the tsunami came earthquakes and highly corrosive acid rain, she needed to find a place with good earthquake resistance to temporarily shelter.
The villa district reportedly could withstand an 8.5-magnitude earthquake, was newly completed, and barely inhabited — so fewer troubles.
It was perfect!
With a clear goal from the start, Yu Yao kept moving in that direction.
Her current location was already not far from the villa district.
So she planned to kill her way there, practicing her skills and gaining experience.