Small Town

Shen Yize scolded Jiang Zhi and instructed him to retrieve the large piece of wood as a punishment, instead of putting it back into the space. Jiang Zhi struggled to carry the wood. After a short break, Jiang Zhi suddenly saw Zhao An outside.

Tossing the wood aside, Jiang Zhi approached Zhao An and asked, "Hey, looking for me? What's up?"

Zhao An nodded and pointed to his private garage. "Look, I'm fixing up the car for our trip."

The car that Zhao An fixed was much stronger and more durable. It could be used for hunting trips in the future.

"Oh, and I also fixed the van so you can carry more supplies."

They walked into the garage and admired the fixed cars.

Jiang Zhi showed his admiration and didn't hold back his praise. "Cool, we'll use them later."

Talking about hunting zombies and gathering food at the same time, Jiang Zhi suddenly thought of something. "By the way, how are we going to communicate if you're not coming?"

This place might be safe now, but who knew what could happen in the future. And hunting was always uncertain about when they'd return. It's hard to rely on something that required a signal.

Thinking about things like that took energy, which Jiang Zhi had just spent some of. "We'll figure it out later, buddy. I'm tired."

Zhao An agreed. "Sure, rest up and try to convince Shen Yize."

Raising an eyebrow, Jiang Zhi asked, "Why do I have to persuade him? Shen Yize doesn't respond well to pressure. He'll come around when he's calm."

Hearing that, Zhao An felt that Jiang Zhi and Shen Yize's relationship was truly strong, so he could only smile. "You really know him well."

A few days later, Jiang Zhi invited everyone to go hunting, and they all gathered in the living room to discuss.

Zhao An had successfully modified three cool cars to be more powerful. They could use them for a journey of several days.

"Alright, let's assign the vehicles. Ilene and I will take the first one, Mu Yang and Mu Xiao will handle the van for supplies, and Bo Hueming and Zhang Rui, you two will take the last car since you're the strongest."

"Any objections?"

"Uh, yeah, me." Zhang Rui raised his hand enthusiastically, expressing his objection. "Bo Hueming has the patience of a tissue, how can we travel together?"

Shen Yize found it amusing, especially remembering Zhang Rui heating up his anger a few days ago, so he remarked, "Well, Zhang Rui, maybe you should watch your words and behave during the trip."

"Why? We're a bunch of friends, not overachieving students at a university."

"Because you're annoying when you talk."

Jiang Zhi nodded in agreement with Shen Yize. "Anyone else want to comment?"

Everyone fell silent, including Zhang Rui, who could only snort. However, he also knew that sometimes he was annoying.

"Just a reminder, our main goal this time is to get as many zombie core crystals as possible and gather food supplies. Let's try to avoid getting involved with other groups if possible," Shen Yize added.

Since the apocalypse happened, people would form groups to survive. And each group had the same goal, which was to gain as much advantage as possible and not care about other groups.

So, it would be troublesome if they clashed with another group.

Jiang Zhi nodded again, for Shen Yize, he would always agree. "Okay, it's settled. Get ready, we'll depart in two days."

After preparing themselves and bringing plenty of weapons, they headed to a nearby small settlement two days later.

Not seeing many zombies in the area, they decided to split into groups.

Jiang Zhi would go with Shen Yize and Mu Xiao to scavenge for supplies, while Mu Yang, Bo Hueming, and Zhang Rui would go zombie hunting.

"We'll meet back here in about 3 hours, alright?" Jiang Zhi asked them.

Zhang Rui had no objections and answered on behalf of the others, "Sounds good. Okay."

Jiang Zhi took Shen Yize and Mu Xiao with the van to find the nearest mini-market. This mini-market was very different from their base, like night and day. As it had been abandoned for quite some time and wasn't maintained, there was a lot of spoiled food here.

"These shelves contain some good stuff!" Shen Yize exclaimed, pointing to one of the shelves nearby. "Jiang Zhi, come take some and store them in the space."

Before Jiang Zhi acted, Shen Yize spoke again, "We should leave a bit to put in the van, so as not to raise suspicion if we meet people later."

If their van was empty, people would suspect them and investigate about Shen Yize's space. But if there were some items, the likelihood of suspicion decreased.

Jiang Zhi understood and didn't have a problem with that.

After looting the mini-market, they moved to an even smaller market area.

Mu Xiao emerged not far from them. "Hey, look what I found, some cool seeds!"

"Whoa, those are rice and wheat seeds that are still quite good. Jiang Zhi, take all of these and store them. Seeds will be hard to find and valuable in a few years."

"Oh, and check this out, I also found grape seeds! I'll keep these as weapons." Mu Xiao proudly displayed her loot, this was her expertise.

While they were examining items, suddenly they heard the rumbling of vehicles approaching. They quickly looked outside and saw several large military trucks stopping not far from their location.

Jiang Zhi shifted his gaze from outside and said, "Let's go. It'll be a big problem if we encounter them."

They exited through the opposite direction of the military trucks towards their vehicle.

On the way, Mu Xiao asked curiously, "Why are they coming to this small settlement? Are they also looking for food?"

"Most likely," Shen Yize replied. "Or they have a secret mission and are seeking some advantage."

Mu Xiao nodded in understanding.

They got back to their vehicle and left, looking for another place to gather supplies. The vehicle would stop somewhere when they realized something was wrong.

"Soldiers here too? That's strange." Shen Yize frowned as he thought.

Jiang Zhi wasn't quite understanding. "Why do you think that's strange?"

Shen Yize explained to them that soldiers from a base usually wouldn't come to a small town in such large numbers. Even if they had a mission, the soldiers would be divided into smaller groups and go separately, not all in one small town simultaneously.

This fact made Shen Yize feel that something was happening.

Jiang Zhi looked at Shen Yize seriously and reached out to smooth his furrowed brow. "Should we investigate?"

Naturally, Shen Yize shook his head. "No, let's lay low."

If the soldiers' mission was important, they didn't want to get caught snooping and end up in trouble. It was better to head to the meeting point as planned, and then leave this settlement.

Mu Xiao felt like the odd one out among them, even though Jiang Zhi and Shen Yize didn't voice or acknowledge their feelings for each other, their chemistry was commendable.

"We still have an hour and a half until we meet the others. Will Mu Yang and the others be okay?" Mu Xiao asked, trying to alleviate her awkwardness.

"That's the issue," Shen Yize said. "We can't tell them because we have no way to communicate."

On the other hand, Jiang Zhi reassured them, "Don't worry, Mu Yang is smart, he'll handle this situation."

Not long after, they arrived at the agreed location and found a safe place to hide inside the vehicle. Suddenly, there was a knock on the car window.

Shen Yize snorted disgustedly. "Damn it! Why are they here too?!"

The gruff and loud voice of the soldier echoed, "Hey, roll down the window!"