The moment the girl fell to the ground with a scream, Lin Mingmei’s eyes swept across her arm.
There was a bloody scratch there.
Looking more closely, Lin Mingmei noticed the girl’s eyes had already begun turning cloudy gray.
This idiot had been scratched by a zombie and still had no idea she was already starting to transform.
Without saying a word, Lin Mingmei turned around and left immediately, subconsciously speeding up her pace. She feared that if she stayed even a second longer, she would end up trapped between two zombies.
The girl who had been kicked to the ground was still dizzy from the blow. By the time she scrambled upright, using both her hands and feet, the zombie chasing her was already right in front of her.
At that critical moment, a man suddenly rushed over.
He kicked the zombie away, knocking it to the ground, then quickly pulled the girl to her feet.
“Can you still run? Follow me!”
His expression was calm and resolute, and his voice carried a reassuring steadiness that instinctively made people trust him.
Having narrowly escaped death, the girl burst into tears.
“Thank you for saving me. I really thought nobody would help me…”
“Stop talking and move.”
Before leaving, the man glanced coldly at Lin Mingmei’s retreating figure, disgust evident in his eyes.
If she did not want to help, she could have simply walked away.
Why did she have to shove the girl down?
In a situation like this, deliberately harming someone was no different from murder.
Lin Mingmei had no idea what was happening behind her.
She rushed all the way to her target convenience store. After confirming through the glass door that there did not seem to be anyone inside, she immediately pushed the door open and entered.
The instant she stepped in, several nervous gasps sounded from deeper inside the shop.
Lin Mingmei silently cursed her bad luck.
She had not expected people to be hiding inside.
Why had they not gone outside to watch the chaos unfold?
She hesitated briefly.
But since it had already taken effort and risk to come here, she could not accept returning empty-handed.
Because there were people present, she did not dare expose her storage space and could only use the backpack she carried.
She quickly unzipped the bag and swept items from the shelves into it at top speed.
Before anyone in the store could react, she had already stuffed the backpack full and swung it onto her shoulders.
Just as she turned to leave, a trembling elderly voice called out from behind her.
“You… how can you rob people like this…”
Lin Mingmei turned around.
A man in his sixties stood there, with an elderly woman beside him. Judging from their appearance, they were likely the owners of the convenience store.
“If you don’t want to get robbed, lock your doors,” Lin Mingmei replied coldly.
“Otherwise, the next people who come in won’t just take your goods, they’ll take your lives too.”
As she spoke, she casually swung the heavy claw hammer in her hand.
The blood still staining it was horrifying to look at.
The elderly couple immediately turned pale with fear.
Lin Mingmei pushed open the door and walked away without another glance.
She did not dare continue visiting more shops.
Managing a zombie or two was one thing.
But against living people, especially strong adults, someone with her thin frame and lack of strength had no chance at all.
Encountering the infected girl and the elderly shopkeepers earlier had simply been luck.
If she met anyone truly dangerous next time, escaping would not be so easy.
Because she valued her life more than anything now, Lin Mingmei decided to head straight home.
In her hurry, she completely failed to notice the man and woman entering the convenience store immediately after she left.
They were the same pair from earlier, the rescued girl and the man who had saved her.
Although Lin Mingmei did not notice them, the man clearly saw her retreating figure and stared after her for two full seconds.
The elderly shopkeeper had just been preparing to lock the door when the sudden arrival of the pair startled him badly. Instinctively, he stepped back and shielded his wife behind him.
The old woman became visibly nervous.
They had not dared resist the previous girl, but the man standing before them looked far stronger.
“Please, take whatever you want, just don’t hurt us,” the elderly woman pleaded shakily while clutching her husband’s arm.
The man frowned slightly.
Thinking of the backpack Lin Mingmei had carried away, he asked, “Did someone just rob your store?”
The elderly couple nodded immediately.
The man’s eyes darkened with anger.
What a terrible person.
Attempted murder, robbery, she truly seemed capable of anything.
People really could not be judged by appearances.
If he caught her committing another crime, he would personally drag her to the police station and make sure she paid for what she had done.
“Achoo! Achoo!”
Meanwhile, on the road home, Lin Mingmei suddenly sneezed twice in a row.
As the saying went, one sneeze meant someone missed you, two meant someone was cursing you, and three meant you were catching a cold.
Since she had sneezed twice, someone was definitely talking badly about her.
Perhaps it was that convenience store owner?
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she sneezed a third time.
Lin Mingmei frowned.
Getting sick now would be disastrous.
At that moment, she suddenly realized something.
Medicine would become incredibly scarce after the apocalypse.
Since she already had a storage space, she should stockpile some emergency medicine as well.
With that thought, she immediately changed direction and headed toward the pharmacy near the entrance of the residential complex.
Unfortunately, this time her luck completely failed her.
The pharmacy was already in ruins.
Two zombies in bloodstained white coats wandered aimlessly inside.
The moment they heard movement at the entrance, they lunged straight toward her.
Fortunately, Lin Mingmei had remained cautious and had not entered recklessly.
The second she saw them charging over, she slammed the glass door shut and hid against the wall beside the entrance while holding her breath.
At that exact moment, the zombies smashed directly through the glass door.
Crash!
Shattered glass scattered everywhere as the monsters stumbled outside.
The loud noise immediately attracted several nearby zombies as well.
Lin Mingmei silently cursed her rotten luck.
There was no way she could enter the pharmacy now.
Without hesitation, she turned and sprinted back toward her apartment building.
In her panic, she completely forgot that she had dropped her backpack.
Several wandering zombies in the neighborhood noticed her movement and began chasing after her.
The overwhelming terror of a life-and-death situation unleashed strength she did not know she possessed.
Lin Mingmei ran faster than ever before and successfully escaped back into her apartment.
The moment she got inside, she hurriedly barricaded the door with tables and chairs before collapsing onto the floor, gasping for breath.
Her entire body felt weak.
After running such a short distance, her calves were already trembling painfully from exhaustion.
Over the years, she had sacrificed everything to support Gao Lang, feeding him well enough to become tall, handsome, and a star athlete on the sprinting team.
Meanwhile, she herself had become painfully thin and completely underdeveloped.
How stupid had she been?
Back then, she had genuinely believed Gao Lang was being responsible when he refused intimacy, thinking he wanted to wait until marriage.
Now she finally understood.
He simply found her unattractive.
In the apocalypse, physical fitness was everything.
For ordinary people without powers, survival depended entirely on stamina and strength.
Since Lin Mingmei herself had never awakened any superpower, she knew better than anyone how important physical conditioning was.
From now on, she would eat properly, rest properly, and train her body seriously.
Eat properly?
The backpack!
Only then did Lin Mingmei realize she had lost it.
Thinking about the food inside made her heart ache immediately.
She slapped herself hard on the forehead.
What an idiot.
She should have stored the backpack inside her space the moment she left the convenience store.
She had simply been too used to living without one.
She needed to change that mentality quickly.
She was no longer the penniless Lin Mingmei from her previous life.
Now, she possessed a storage space.
Losing a backpack full of supplies already hurt enough, but failing to collect the medicine from the pharmacy made her feel even worse.
Lin Mingmei glanced outside at the gradually darkening sky and made a decision.
She would go out again after nightfall.
Now that the apocalypse had begun, those curious people who loved watching excitement had mostly turned into zombies already.
The survivors who remained alive were either extremely cautious or too frightened to leave their homes.
Once night came, almost nobody would dare venture outside.
Without living humans moving around to stimulate them, zombies would become slower and more sluggish as well.
She still had a chance.
If she could obtain medicine, her chances of surviving the apocalypse would improve dramatically.
Her first outing had already proven something important.
She had killed a zombie.
Filled most of her storage space with supplies.
And escaped safely from danger.
Although fear still lingered in her heart, a stronger sense of ambition had also begun growing inside her.
As soon as darkness completely fell, Lin Mingmei fully armed herself once again and prepared to head back out into the night in search of more resources.