Chapter 6 - Store room

Lin Yunfeng did not rush inside the shop. he did not have time to be a hero. That was to reach his brother in time to rescue him. As for others who needed help… he had to ignore them.

It was the hardest thing to do. But he had to do it.

His hands clenched into tight fists listening to the desperate tapping behind him.

It would take at least a day to get to his village, but during the apocalypse times, with the roads filled with zombies, it might take him at least two days if he rushed over there.

'I can't waste time…'

The tapping became urgent. As if someone was trying their best to call for help.

'I can't….' Lin Yunfeng tightly clenched his jaws. He pulled away from the wall. The coast was still not clear the zombies that had finished off the mutant rats were still lingering around. Even a small sound can pull them all over here.

He could not risk it.

Since it was the night of New Year the roads were already filled with people partying and celebrating. The mini-mart was thankfully on the most hidden dark side of the alleyway, so the zombie population was not that crowded here.

Even so, he had to be very careful.

He mentally calculated the route he could take to get out of the city successfully.

The tapping behind him became louder.

Lin Yunfeng frowned. 'If it becomes any louder, it would attract those things. I have to move.'

When he was thinking this, he suddenly felt a warm breath behind him.

Lin Yunfeng hurriedly dodged. Something hard smashed the walls behind his head creating a huge dent, missing his face only by a few inches.

His heart pounded loudly in his ears, making him slightly dazed. It was dark he could barely make out who was standing in front of him. Only the dim light of the street lamp reflected behind that figure lighting up its silhouette.

A zombie with a hand made of metal

This…. this was his boss.

The man had a family, he has a daughter…..

'shit…..'

The zombie growled loudly and smashed at him with that heavy-looking arm. Lin Yunfeng dodged and escaped. but his bike did not share that luck. the metal arm crushed the engine part of the bike.

Lin Yunfeng hurriedly shot up and kicked him down. The zombie was fast to stand up and try to attack him again. Gritting his teeth, he used his ability again. His thunder claws sparkled brightly slashing the man's back, severing his head completely.

{defeated level 2 zombie}

He did not have any time to even collect the soul point before another zombie attacked him from behind.

Lin Yunfeng panicked. he ran out of the alleyway. Suddenly he realized his mistake. With trembling eyes, he glanced ta the main road. Thankfully, the zombies did not seem to have noticed him but were looking ahead at something else.

He took this chance to hurriedly run into the nearby building to hide before they could all notice him. This place happened to be the mini-mart. The doors were made up of flimsy glass. They opened for him automatically revealing the dark interior of the familiar store.

This place was not secure at all!!

Even a stray cat can easily get in here!!!

In a panic, he had run into this place without realizing it.

he hid behind a snack aisle. His breath was coming out in pants. He lost a bit of his composure when he had seen his boss in his zombie form. It shook him up.

Lin Yunfeng gently pinched his arm. 'Fucking… why did I get distracted? I'm stuck in this place now….'

his bike was good as trash right now...

He could already hear the zombies crawling around that alleyway to investigate the sounds they had heard there earlier.

Even inside the mart, he heard a small sound of shuffling feet. It did not sound like a living person as the footsteps were lazy and nonchalant.

He tightly gripped the dagger tightly and poked his head out.

Another zombie was right by the cashier counter, which was close to the door.

It was seen carrying a small bag of torn meat in its hand and chewing on it loudly. It calmly walked out of the shop as the automatic doors opened for it.

Lin Yunfeng's breath caught in his throat. The door was opened again.

He hurriedly moved inside the store to the end where the store room was.

All of a sudden, a soft hand grabbed him from behind.

He hurriedly lashed his dagger toward that zombie but just as the sharp edge of his knife was about to stab in froze. this wasn't a zombie.

It was a human… a woman. The cashier from earlier.

The woman's eyes were tightly closed as she crouched on the ground under him.

He hurriedly pulled away the knife from her face and patted the top of her head, gesturing for her to let go of his hand.

The woman looked up at him with her eyes wide open. A single tear escaped her stunningly beautiful eyes.

Lin Yunfeng was dazzled momentarily.

The girl tightly held his hand and dragged him into the dark storage room. Slowly she closed the door behind them and faced him. "You… you were that guy from earlier… are you hurt anywhere?"

Lin Yunfeng shook his head.

Releasing that she could barely see his face in the dark, he simply whispered that he was fine.

"Good… how is it out there?"

"Bad." He whispered back.

The girls trembling hand tightened around his wrist. "How bad?"

"Very bad. So many had turned."

The girl released his hand and slowly pranced into the dingy room. "Why did this happen? Is it some kind of bio attack? Are we at war or something? Fuck fuck…it must be… then how else can it be explained. That red aurora, it glowed… it glowed before things went crazy… it must be the reason…"

Lin Yunfeng did not listen to a word. He glanced around the room searching for something that can help him escape. This store was well stocked with food boxes but he did not find any kitchen knives or so.

he searched through the boxes and stumbled upon a huge box full of lighters along with cigarettes.

"Can I take a few of the things here… I.. I don't have money." He whispered, stopping the woman's mumbles.

"oh... yeah you can take anything you want... but... but you have to take me with you."

Lin Yunfeng frowned. "I'm heading out of the city. It's too dangerous. I can't take you with me. Consider this a loan… I will pay your father back after all this shit is over." he whispered, taking a few lighters.

The store room also had a few new boxes of spray deodorant. He picked out a few big bottles and stuffed them in his already stuffed jacket.

"No, you have to take me with you."

Lin Yunfeng did not say anything more. He just needed to wait it out for a while and leave this place silently.

He pocketed anything that he thought would be useful. By the end of it, his jacket was so bulging that he had extra biceps.

"You can have my backpack if you want. I just brought a new one." The girl softly injected.

"it's okay. I am comfortable with having them on me."

He initially only wore his jacket because he did not want things to be clanging in his backpack., but soon realized that stuffing things in his clothes really gave him added protection. The bed sheet around his neck and his hands had saved his life twice in just a span of ten minutes.

It's always better to be extra careful.

After making sure nothing was making a sound he sat down on the ground. He mentally called out his stats window.

Lin Yunfeng subtly looked up at the girl opposite him. She didn't seem to notice the translucent pop-up window floating in front of his face.

"I'm Lu Narin, I've heard of you from my father…. my father owns this shop you know…. he got hurt yesterday so i was covering for him...i didn't expect"

He moved out of her earshot and sat down on the dusty ground once again to check up on his stats.

[Name: Lin Yunfeng

Level: Level 2

Race: Human

Job: Undetermined

Mode: easy

Strength: 5(10)/ dexterity: 6(10) / health: 5(10) / Stamina: 4(10)/ Luck: 3(10) / Mana: 230(250)]

"Why did my stats go down?" He gripped the skate that was pretending to be dead around his neck.

The little snake wiggled out of his grip. "of course, it's cuz you ran around like a fool without collecting stat points. Tsk anyone else in your position would have taken this chance to go around hunting this stupid low-level zombie. You can easily level up at least three levels in a day! But here you are hiding in a dark dingy store room complaining about your stats. Tsk tsk."

He tightened his grip around its neck. 'Tell me why the stat went down.' He said in a soft growl.

"The stats are connected to your physical condition while the mana is related to your soul's condition. If you get physically exhausted your stats go down. proportionally you get the luck value also goes down. Without luck, you are simply a mumbling fool running away from those bloodthirsty zombies. Tsk tsk why am I stuck with a host like you? I could have gotten a better master than you. I don't understand why I was gifted to you. They must have seen some kind of potential in you."

He could feel the contempt the snake held for him.

Lin Yunfeng tossed it to the side.

He pulled out a huge packet of bread from behind and started to chew in it hurriedly.

"Wow you really have an appetite huh…" the woman said softly.

Lin Yunfeng ignored her completely. If physical exertion could bring down his state, then food can revitalise his physical state a lot. he wanted to check if that theory was true or not.

He hogged down on a whole packed of freshly baked bread and found a bottle of Gatorade to wash it all down.

Burping loudly, he opened his stats window again.

As he had expected it had changed a lot.

[Name: Lin Yunfeng

Level: Level 2

Race: Human

Job: Undetermined

Mode: easy

Strength: 8(10)/ dexterity: 7(10) / health: 7(10) / Stamina: 8(10)/ Luck: 2(10) / Mana: 230(250)]

'Awesome!'

Lin Yunfeng found a few more sandwiches and ate them even though he was full.

"You might get sick you know…" Lu Narin silently added.

Yunfeng hummed and continued to eat.

He did not know what would happen to his body when his strength hit zero, but he did not wish to find that out. He had to keep the state full at all times!

But he soon realized his excellent plan had a great flaw.

Overeating was not a great idea.

He puked his guts out in the small corner of the storeroom until his throat was aching.

"I told you so." Lu Narin mumbled softly.

Yunfeng glared back at her.

"She really told you so." The snake added in a haughty manner.

Rolling his eyes, he checked his stats again.

To his dismay, it had gone down so drastically. His health and strength stats have taken a hit!

[Name: Lin Yunfeng

Level: Level 2

Race: Human

Job: Undetermined

Mode: easy

Strength: 5(10)/ dexterity: 7(10) / health: 5(10) / Stamina: 8(10)/ Luck: 2(10) / Mana: 230(250)]

Cussing out loud, he assigned the extra stat point he had collected while killing the zombies to it bringing it to full 10s.