CHAPTER 28

"Let's eat!", Shen Tian clapped his hands and invited the three men to partake in dinner.

Li Qingshan and Mo Jun stared wide eyed at the dishes in front of them. Of course, it was simple homemade meals, but for people who have been filling their stomachs with dry breads and the likes for several years now, what was in front of them seemed like a five-star luxury dinner.

"What the heck is this?!", Mo Jun exclaimed as he drolled at the mouth-watering dishes in front of him..

Shen Tian looked at the him questioningly, "Uhm.. dinner?"

"Yeah, well, I know this is dinner, but..."

"Why, what's the problem?"

Li Qingshan and Mo Jun looked at each other, each not knowing how to voice out their questions. There are a lot of questions running through their mind, but they didn't want to ask in case their landlord gets offended.

They turned to look at Shao Haoran for help, but he was focused on stuffing his mouth one spoonful at a time.

"Do you know how many years into the apocalypse we're at now?", Li Qingshan decided to explain their concerns to Shen Tian. "It's been three years! Three years is enough to decimate food supplies in small bases. Most importantly, this!"

He pointed at the pan-seared chicken dish and steaming hot rice on the table.

"As far as we know, there are no more normal livestock in existence anywhere. If there are any, they should have mutated either as superpowered animals or flesh-eating mutants."

Silence filled the air as Shen Tian realized where Li Qingshan was going with his words. Indeed, it can be really suspicious if someone suddenly produced fresh chicken meat when there are no more viable meat sources available. He wracked his brain on how he will answer without causing further suspicion.

Fortunately, Li Qingshan noticed Shen Tian's difficulty.

"W-well, we're not really trying to interrogate you or anything. Please don't misunderstand," he clarified. "We just can't believe that something this good is in front of us."

"You can say that it's my superpowers, I guess?" Shen Tian carefully filtered his words in his head. "Truthfully, this safe zone is my superpower. As long as I level up my superpower, I can build literally a safe zone."

Shen Tian tried to elaborate more, but realized that he'll be sharing more than he is allowed to if he continue any further. He scratched his head and he decided to give up.

"I'm sorry, that's as far as I can explain about my abilities."

"No need to be sorry. We understand." Li Qingshan replied. In the apocalypse, one must hide his cards as much as possible, after all. Having Shen Tian explain this much is already beyond Li Qingshan's expectations.

"Let's eat, the food will get cold." Shao Haoran interrupted.

Indeed, the food in front of them will be gone if they don't eat. Shao Haoran had been stuffing himself since earlier.

"Ah! Haoran! You're eating too much!" Mo Jun complained and also started eating.

Shen Tian, seeing that the three men had focused on eating instead of interrogating him, breathed a sigh of relief. He still remembered that he isn't supposed to expose all this "divine knowledge" about the apocalypse and all that.

"Haaaa~", Mo Jun gave a satisfied sigh as he rubbed his stomach.

Dinner has ended and they were lounging in the porch, breathing the fresh air. It was the first time in so many years that they've been full.

Shen Tian came out of the house and served the three guests with a cup of barley tea. These three are his first guests and it's important to leave a good impression, so Shen Tian tightened his belt and spent 20 crystal cores to purchase a pack of barley tea from the shop.

As he handed Shao Haoran his cup, he noticed that the man was looking at the distance, right where the entrance of the safe zone was located.

"What are you looking at?"

His question piqued the interest of the two other men and they looked at Shao Haoran at the same time. Noticing where he was gazing, the two also turned their eyes at the distance.

"Hey, is that a human?"

Superpowered humans have improved eyesight so they can see a figure swaying about at the entrance. However, since it was dark and with the distance from where they were, they weren't able to ascertain if that silhouette was that of a human or a zombie.

"That's a zombie.", Shen Tian replied. With his cup in hand, he sat at the swing and sipped.

`If it was human, I would've received a notification,` he commented to himself. After all, when Shao Haoran and the two men arrived today, he received a notification from the system that three guests have come way before they entered the safe zone.

"Zombie??"

Li Qingshan and Mo Jun immediately went on alert, while Shao Haoran remained gazing at the silhouette. Sensing that the humans around him were on alert, Baobao stood up and gave a low growl as well.

"It's not crossing," Shao Haoran spoke.

"What?"

"It's not crossing the entrance."

Li Qingshan and Mo Jun realized that, indeed, the zombie wasn't crossing the gate.

"It's really not crossing!"

Shen Tian cleared his throat, attracting the attention of the three men. He then started promoting the safe zone.

"Please, guests, don't worry about the zombies outside. The safe zone's main priority is the safety of the residents. Rest assured, no zombies can enter here.", Shen Tian gave his most business-like smile.

Shao Haoran somehow expected this, since Shen Tian already told him that before. However, seeing it with his own eyes was different. His heart beat wildly at the possibility of having a safe haven, not only for himself and his friends, but also for the other survivors of this apocalyptic world.

Not only him, Li Qingshan and Mo Jun thought the same. In fact, Li Qingshan can't wait to bring his wife and son to this place. Just by having a place that zombies can't enter is enough. As long as they have a safe place to stay, they can think about other basic necessities later on.

"This place is perfect!" Mo Jun excitedly commented. "I can't wait to let Fang Cheng and the team know about this place!"

Shen Tian's eyes sparkled upon hearing Mo Jun's words. This is a potential income! However, thinking that he doesn't have any other guest rooms to offer, he felt saddened.

"You can definitely invite them to come and stay at the safe zone," Shen Tian replied. "However, it may take a while before I can build a place for more people to live in. I still have a couple of tasks to do before I can build a place for people to stay at."

"That's okay," Li Qingshan assured, with a huge grin on his face. "Even if it's just a tent or a sleeping bag, as long as there's no worry of zombies jumping at us while we sleep, this place is definitely ideal for us! I'll be bringing my wife and son here then!"