As the supermarket leveled up, the sign above the entrance underwent a subtle change too.
Shan Nai wasn’t quite sure what material it was, only that the new sign looked like glowing glass, the four characters “Lucky Supermarket” shone brilliantly bright against the silent, dark city.
On a road ten li away from the supermarket, Li Jianan carried Lin Rou on his back, walking as fast as he could manage.
“Brother Jianan, are you really going to that scam artist’s rundown supermarket?” Lin Rou pouted, sprawled across his back.
She truly couldn’t walk anymore, and since Li Jianan wouldn’t let her rest, being carried suited her just fine.
Li Jianan leaned against a roadside lamppost, freeing one hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Rourou, we haven’t had water in three days. Would you rather drink rat’s blood? There’s no harm in just taking a look.”
Lin Rou frowned deeply at that.
Li Jianan’s life had been saved at the cost of Lin Rou’s father’s own life, she was the dying wish her father had entrusted to him.
So no matter how unreasonable Lin Rou got day to day, he could put up with it.
Besides, Lin Rou’s ability was healing, which he needed too.
Since their encounter with Shan Nai, the two of them had found a place to hole up for a few days, letting their injuries heal enough, before heading back out to search for supplies.
But three days had passed in the blink of an eye, and aside from catching two rats and finding one expired, spoiled drink, they had nothing else to show for it.
If they didn’t replenish their energy soon, even getting back to base would be a struggle.
After all, the stretch between this city and Tomorrow Base was nothing but desolate wasteland.
A rustling sound rose up behind them.
“Brother Jianan, it’s a night-raider zombie!” Lin Rou cried out, whipping her head around.
She quickly jumped down off Li Jianan’s back, hiding at his side.
This was exactly why Li Jianan had been trying to rush their pace, zombies that came out at night were mostly tier-three night raiders, fast-moving, capable of dodging attacks, with clear vision in the dark. Extremely troublesome.
Under the hazy moonlight, Li Jianan narrowed his eyes and saw a night-raider zombie behind them, its whole body rotting, head lolling from its neck, the sickening stench was noticeable from a great distance.
The night raider charged straight at the pair.
Li Jianan immediately activated his metal ability to armor himself and brace against the attack.
After a fierce clash.
The zombie spun in a grotesque flourish, flinging rotten flesh and filthy blood all over Lin Rou’s face. Disgusted, she screamed, “Ahh, Brother Jianan, help me!”
If Li Jianan hadn’t been shielding her, she’d surely have been torn in half by now.
“Run, we can’t beat this thing.” Li Jianan gritted his teeth, slashing at the zombie with all his strength.
A tier-three zombie was no joke, far too agile, with decent jumping ability too. His metal ability was only tier two, there was simply no chance of winning this.
With that, Li Jianan grabbed Lin Rou’s hand without looking back and broke into a sprint.
With the zombie behind them, he ran so fast that Lin Rou’s heels barely touched the ground. “Jia… Jianan… slow… down…”
The man ahead paid her no mind at all, gritting his teeth and running for dear life, a faint thought surfacing in his mind, just abandon Lin Rou here and now.
Sure enough, bringing her along was a burden.
“Fwip—”
A thick steel rebar pierced Li Jianan’s shoulder, blood instantly soaking through his clothes.
It was the night raider.
It could even use tools, Li Jianan was struck with dread.
Looked like this time, the odds were grim. “Rourou, you…”
“Shut up! Listen to me, Li Jianan, you hold that thing off! Don’t run in the same direction as me! Even if it costs you your life, you buy me some time! Otherwise how could you ever face my father!” Lin Rou cut him off urgently and shoved him hard toward the zombie.
In the darkness her expression was unreadable, only her venomous words carried through.
Deep down, Lin Rou’s feelings toward Li Jianan were complicated.
Because…
Her father hadn’t died to save him.
The truth was, her father had been bitten by a zombie, and while he still had some awareness left, he’d run into the son of the Lin family’s driver, Li Jianan.
Seeing that Li Jianan had just awakened his ability, and knowing he himself was about to die, Lin’s father, recognizing Li Jianan’s kind, deeply responsible nature, decided to use the moment to secure his protection for his own daughter in this ravaged world.
So Lin’s father deliberately lured several zombies over, then let Li Jianan “heroically” appear with his daughter, sacrificing himself as if to save him, staging a whole dying wish scene.
Only Lin Rou knew the truth of it.
Over these past few years, Li Jianan really had taken great care of her, even down to his very last bite of food, he’d give it to her.
Yet Lin Rou still wasn’t satisfied, because Li Jianan didn’t really like her that way, staying cold and distant toward her.
And now, he’d been stabbed by a zombie, the blood would draw more zombies any moment now, and Lin Rou’s healing ability was too low-tier, even an ordinary wound had taken her several days to heal last time.
Not to mention there was a dangerous tier-three zombie right behind them now!
Without even a second thought, Lin Rou shoved the man beside her hard and bolted in the opposite direction.
The night was pitch black.
Her figure vanished quickly from sight.
Li Jianan frowned in pain, letting out a silent, cold laugh.
“Exactly what I wanted.”
This was her choice, and in this world torn to shreds, he understood it.
Enduring the pain, Li Jianan yanked the rebar out of his chest, quickly sealing the gaping wound shut with his metal ability, then raised the rebar and fought the night raider in a fierce clash.
Lin Rou, if fate allows us to meet again, we’ll owe each other nothing.
Swinging the rebar in his hands, he silently thought to himself that without her around, his will to survive had only grown stronger.
He held out for about ten minutes.
Truly out of strength to keep fighting, he used every last bit of energy in his body to drive the rebar deep into the night raider’s waist, then activated his metal ability to weld the rebar fast to a nearby iron pillar amid the ruins.
The night raider felt no pain at all, though pinned to the pillar, it still lunged forward with its bloody maw wide open, straining with everything it had.
A large kidney slipped out through the hole in its side, other organs spilling out after it in a mess, on the verge of tearing itself apart.
Li Jianan wiped the blood off his hands and turned to walk away.
…
【Host, it’s already eight-thirty, and you still haven’t had dinner yet.】 The supermarket’s operating hours run from nine to nine, and still no dinner, how worrying.
“Shh~”
Shan Nai was staring intently at another electronic screen on the checkout counter, completely absorbed, not blinking once.
Besides the dedicated checkout screen, the counter also held a “Super Entertainment Tablet” that the system had specially requested from headquarters, worried she might get bored.
The little tablet’s content was comprehensive, storing countless films, TV shows, anime, variety programs, and all kinds of single-player games from Blue Star.
Shan Nai was in the middle of watching a horror film, the tension building right at that very moment, when the system suddenly spoke up, startling her badly.
She quickly curled into a ball, hugging her knees, her small hands clamped tightly over her eyes, ears flying straight up in fright, yet she still couldn’t resist peeking through a small gap between her fingers.
The system felt utterly helpless, clearly the Host was too scared to watch the female ghost in the movie, yet she insisted on watching anyway. Such a timid little kitty.
On screen, a messy female ghost in a red dress was advancing step by step toward the protagonist.
The immersion was too strong, through the gap in her fingers, Shan Nai felt like the female ghost was about to crawl right out of the screen.
『Darling, come here~ Do I look good in this red dress~ Come on, let’s have some fun~
Don’t come any closer—don’t—ahh!!』
“Bang!”
The protagonist’s scream rang out from the movie at the exact same moment something suddenly went “clang” outside the supermarket door.
“Ahh~” Shan Nai yelped in fright, hurriedly slamming her hand on the tablet’s power and volume buttons, flipping the screen face-down!
【Don’t be scared, Host, I’m right here!】
“Mm-hm…” Shan Nai looked at the now-silent tablet, patted her own cat ears, and felt her mood settle considerably. She then closed out of the movie.
She figured the plot of horror movies wasn’t really all that scary, it was the background music that was truly bone-chilling.
“Oh right, was that someone at the door?”
Shan Nai, recalling the clanging sound from a moment ago, picked up the baseball bat hidden inside the checkout counter and walked toward the door.