Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Before Zuo Li could speak, the hot-tempered young man beside her couldn’t help but speak up. ”What’s all this fuss about? A bunch of people with nothing better to do.”

Xie Ning went over with Zuo Li and the others. Just as they reached the entrance of the hot pot restaurant, they saw the survivors had split into several small groups, brawling loudly amongst themselves.

The hot-tempered young man casually summoned two Fireballs. The moment he tossed them into the crowd, the brawling survivors were scared into scattering in all directions.

”Why are you just throwing Fireballs around?!” an old man yelled angrily, clutching half a bag of looted rice.

This old man was surprisingly spry. On her way over, Xie Ning had watched him beat back several soft-looking youths who’d clearly never done a day of hard labor in their lives.

”Captain Zuo,” Xiao Qi Zi said, running over covered in sweat and catching his breath. ”They’re demanding we give them a share of the supplies.”

”They started fighting over some leftover rice, oil, salt, beef, and mutton from the hot pot restaurant. We couldn’t even pull them apart.”

”Do you think you’re safe now?” Zuo Li raised an eyebrow, her voice chilling. ”Instead of wasting time on infighting, you should be thinking about how to get out of here alive.”

”There are still plenty of zombies scattered throughout this mall. Don’t get complacent!”

”Aren’t you here to rescue us? Then you’re obligated to guarantee our safety!” the old man with the half-bag of rice shouted, sticking his neck out stubbornly.

Zuo Li shot him an amused glance. ”These days, there’s no such thing as ’obligated.’ If you want to live, you fight for it yourself. If you want food, you prove your worth. For instance, by helping us clear out zombies.”

”Sir, it’s not really appropriate to do nothing and then make such outrageous demands.”

”Zhong was right. You Superpower Users are no damn good,” a woman holding a child cursed, her face flush with anger. ”You’re all a bunch of selfish, arrogant pricks! You don’t give a damn if ordinary people like us live or die.”

”That’s right! You bunch of hypocrites! You want us to go back to the base to slave away for you, doing all the hard labor, but you won’t even protect our lives and property!”

”Captain Zuo, let’s go.” Xie Ning turned and walked away, having no desire to deal with these self-pitying fools.

’What a time for this... They’re still here spouting their grand principles, trying to guilt-trip everyone. People like this probably didn’t have it easy even before the apocalypse.’

”Don’t bother with the movie theater upstairs. There’s nothing there,” Xie Ning said. Taking Cres and Yu Tianfeng with her, she headed for the stairwell. ”We’re going to the hot pot restaurant across the street.”

The restaurant across from the building, the one Zhong and his men had failed to breach, was an all-you-can-eat hot pot place. It had been quite expensive before the apocalypse.

She also wanted to check out some of the athletic brand stores in the mall and scavenge more clothing, shoes, and pants.

After all, they were constantly on the move these days, and their clothes wore out incredibly fast.

In the post-apocalyptic world, things like clothes, shoes, socks, and daily necessities wouldn’t be produced again for a very long time.

Even when large safe zones were eventually established, humanity’s first priority would be farming and developing various kinds of mutated ingredients.

Adhering to the principle of ”leave no stone unturned,” Xie Ning decided to take this opportunity to sweep through the mall and grab anything useful.

Stepping through the shattered glass doors of Hengyue Building, Xie Ning glanced back toward the mall’s entrance.

”Someone’s coming. Looks like they’re heavily armed,” Cres said, glancing in the same direction.

Xie Ning pursed her lips, glancing toward the mall’s public square. ”Let’s go! We’ll grab our haul first.”

Tossing a Metal Knife to each of them, Xie Ning broke into a sprint, making a beeline for an athletic apparel store.

’Nothing and no one could stop her from her shopping spree...’

Meanwhile, a group of seven or eight fully-equipped foreigners came running from the direction of the mall’s lawn, laughing maniacally as they sprayed the area with heavy machine guns, mowing down zombies.

Zuo Li had just led her team to the entrance of the brand-name hot pot restaurant when she heard the loud commotion.

She looked up, saw the group, and couldn’t help but frown. ”How did those lunatics follow us here?”

With a single slash, Xie Ning lopped off the head of an Initial-stage zombie. ”The zombies here are all low Rank.”

”Mm, they definitely haven’t been exposed to the acid rain.”

”But they don’t have Crystal Cores, either.” Xie Ning frowned, kicked the headless zombie on the floor out the door, and strode into the athletic apparel store.

”I’m going to loot the place. You two keep watch.”

Not caring if it was men’s or women’s apparel, Xie Ning adopted a ”take-it-all” approach, sweeping entire clothing racks from the store into her personal Space.

Ever since she had forced her Space Ability to advance to the Fourth Rank, her personal Space had expanded to a massive three hundred square meters.

Furthermore, its vertical height, much like the courtyard of her portable villa, seemed to have the potential to extend infinitely upwards.

She could move anything inside the Space at will, though arranging the items consumed a portion of her Space Ability Energy.

Xie Ning had long ago pushed the shipping containers, the supplies from Su City, and everything scavenged from the cargo ship into a corner of her Space. As a result, the entire dimension now looked quite empty and was in dire need of being filled to the brim.

After looting five or six athletic apparel stores in a row, Xie Ning finally stopped, satisfied that she had enough clothes, pants, shoes, socks, and even underwear and hats for everyone in the group, young and old alike.

Turning to the dumbfounded Yu Tianfeng and Cres, the young woman stated matter-of-factly, ”Oh, my, uh... my little Space got an upgrade recently. It’s a bit smaller than Tai Xian’s, but it can still hold a decent amount.”

Yu Tianfeng shot her a look of amused exasperation. ”Right. My Space is also ’a bit’ smaller than Tai Xian’s.”

As he spoke, he stored the few items Xie Ning had left behind for his own use.

Cres had already casually swapped into a brand-new pair of high-top sneakers, jogging back and forth inside the now-emptied-out store. ”Not bad. Where to next?”

”Let’s check out the furniture store next door. We still don’t know what the situation will be when we move to Golden City Base.”

The two furniture and home goods stores nearby didn’t have the massive selection of a dedicated furniture emporium, but they were still well-stocked.

They carried all the common furniture and household items, all from major brands. In other words... quality assured.

Cres and Yu Tianfeng once again witnessed what a Space ”a bit smaller than Ji Taixian’s” truly looked like...

She had emptied two entire furniture and home goods stores back-to-back. And she called that ”a bit smaller.”

Xie Ning didn’t even spare the light fixtures, though Cres had no idea what she planned to do with them.

’Might as well take it, I guess. It’s not like it costs anything...’

The two men followed the little shopping whirlwind, dashing through more than half of the mall. They entered every store they passed and took everything in sight.

Jewelry, handbags, makeup, stationery, sporting goods, collectibles, food—she spared none of it. She even cleaned out all the intact ingredients from a bubble tea shop: frozen taro balls, tapioca pearls, fresh panna cotta, yogurt... If it looked good, she wanted it.

Cres had rolled his eyes so far back they could see the heavens, but when he saw her collecting all sorts of toys and sweets, he was secretly overjoyed.

’Just let her take it all,’ he thought. ’As long as she’s happy.’