Chapter 79: Not to be Messed With
Chen Feng’s heart skipped a beat, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up instantly.
There weren’t many of them—only four in total—but the aura they projected was terrifyingly strong.
The man standing in the center was especially intimidating. He simply stood there, relaxed and motionless, showing not the slightest hint of overt hostility. Yet, under his gaze, Chen Feng felt as if he were being watched by a dormant beast. A cold chill snaked down his spine.
Zhou Qian, Zhao Tiezhu, and the rest of the squad behind him clearly sensed it too. Their expressions tightened as they instinctively rested their hands on their weapons.
“Boss, are… are they also here to scavenge?” Hou San shrank back, shifting a half-step behind Chen Feng as he whispered with a trembling voice.
“Shut up!” Chen Feng snapped in a low hiss. His gaze remained locked on Jiang Jue as his mind raced, frantically trying to calculate the group’s background and strength.
Zhou Qian frowned and leaned close to Chen Feng’s ear, whispering a warning: “Boss, this group isn’t simple. The man in the middle has an overwhelming presence. He is definitely an Ability User, and his strength is no joke…”
She glanced at the cocky young man standing next to him—Lin Xiao. He was grinning, his eyes full of mockery. He even raised a provocative eyebrow at her, his attitude clearly screaming, Try me if you have the guts.
This sheer lack of concern made Zhou Qian’s heart sink.
Hearing Zhou Qian say they weren’t simple, Hou San glanced back at their own squad of seven or eight people and quickly regained his confidence. Craning his neck, he muttered indignantly, “What are you afraid of? We’re Ability Users too! There are only four of them, and we have double their numbers. If a fight breaks out, it’s not certain who will win!”
Zhao Tiezhu couldn’t stand it anymore. Glaring fiercely at Hou San, he retorted in a gruff, heated voice: “Hou San, will you shut the hell up! Ability Users have ranks too! Can’t you feel it? That man in the middle has such a terrifying aura; he’s at least at the peak of Tier One, maybe even Tier Two! In our team, only Brother Chen is a mid-Tier One; the rest of us are barely beginners. If we clash with them, it’s pure suicide!”
Chen Feng’s expression darkened further. Zhao Tiezhu’s words hit exactly upon his deepest worry. The fact that this small group had wiped out so many zombies meant their strength was absolutely not to be trifled with. The pressure radiating from the man in the center was the heaviest Chen Feng had ever encountered. A Tier Two Ability User… or perhaps even higher.
With his thoughts racing, Chen Feng made a split-second decision. He immediately plastered on a polite smile and took the initiative to speak, raising his voice with a probing, friendly tone: “Friends inside, we mean no harm! We were just passing by and were a bit surprised to see so many… ahem, corpses. Did your group take care of all these zombies? That’s truly impressive!”
As he spoke, he signaled his subordinates to hold their ground. He and Zhou Qian moved forward cautiously, presenting an open and non-threatening demeanor, though he carefully maintained a safe distance from the other group at all times.
Jiang Jue ignored him completely. He didn’t even bat an eyelid, treating Chen Feng’s words like a passing breeze. He merely swept his cold gaze over the newly arrived squad.
Then, under the watchful eyes of Chen Feng and Zhou Qian, his right hand, which rested casually at his side, moved. With a slight twitch of his long fingers…
Crackle!
Several small but blindingly bright arcs of blue-white electricity suddenly danced across his fingertips, sizzling sharply in the quiet air!
The electric arcs were small, but the violent energy and pure destructive aura of the Lightning element caused Chen Feng and Zhou Qian’s pupils to constrict violently.
A Lightning-type Ability User! In the apocalypse, these were known as absolutely ruthless fighters, famous for their devastating attack power and blinding speed.
The smile on Chen Feng’s face instantly grew several degrees more “sincere.” He waved his hands hurriedly, his tone becoming incredibly earnest: “Friends, please don’t misunderstand! We really mean no harm! It’s not easy for anyone to survive in this apocalypse. Seeing experts like you, we just felt genuine admiration and wanted to say hello. We have absolutely no other intentions!”
He rapidly stated his position, making sure there was no room for doubt: “Since this area was cleared by your team, the spoils of war are naturally yours! We wouldn’t dare covet them in the slightest! We apologize for the intrusion. We’ll be on our way right now!”
Without daring to linger for another second, he signaled his subordinates. The group immediately began to back away slowly, their eyes fixed nervously on Jiang Jue’s team, terrified that they might suddenly launch an attack. Only after they had retreated into a nearby alley did Chen Feng and his squad finally heave a collective sigh of relief.
“Brother… Brother Chen, are we really just going to let this go?” Hou San peeked out of the alley toward the shopping mall, his greed and unwillingness bubbling up again. He muttered, “There are only four of them… if we all attack together and coordinate well, maybe…”
“Shut the hell up!” Chen Feng spun around abruptly, grabbed Hou San by the collar, and slammed him hard against the brick wall with a dull thud.
Chen Feng’s face was dark as a thundercloud, his eyes filled with irrepressible, lingering fear. “Hou San! Is your brain full of shit? Didn’t you see that he has a Lightning ability? He’s at least a Tier Two! A Tier Two Lightning user! Do you have any idea what that means?! It means with one casual bolt of lightning, he could fry half of us alive! And the rest of us wouldn’t even have the speed to escape!”
Zhou Qian also glared coldly at Hou San, scolding him in pure frustration: “Hou San, use that pig brain of yours and think! The fact that they can casually scavenge for crystal cores in a place like that proves their strength is leagues above ours! That Lightning user, and the people beside him, were standing there like it was nothing. That’s absolute confidence! Can’t you see? If they can slaughter that many zombies, are they really the kind of people you want to mess with?”
Zhao Tiezhu nodded in firm agreement from the side. “Zhou Qian is right! Just looking at that mountain of zombies at the entrance—even if our whole squad went all out, we’d probably die of exhaustion before we could kill them all! You’re supposed to avoid tough targets like that, yet you want to provoke them?”
Being scolded by everyone in turn, Hou San’s face turned blue, then pale. His lips moved as if he wanted to argue, but in the end, he sullenly shut his mouth, not daring to utter another sound.
Chen Feng released his grip on Hou San’s collar and took a deep breath to suppress his anger. “From now on, keep your wits about you!” he ordered in a low voice. “If you encounter people who are clearly not to be messed with, turn around and take a detour! In this world, surviving is the only thing that matters. Let’s go!”
With that said, he didn’t spare Hou San another glance. Leading his group of shaken subordinates, Chen Feng quickly disappeared into the shadows of the alley.
Back inside the shopping mall, having watched the group disappear completely, Lin Xiao spat fiercely toward the entrance and cursed, “See that, Qiang? Those bastards were definitely here to scavenge! Good thing we came down quickly and moved fast. Otherwise, if we’d let them pick this place clean, we would have suffered a huge loss!”
Wang Qiang patted his chest, still feeling a lingering sense of tension, and nodded repeatedly. “Exactly! But looking at how cowardly they acted in the end, I guess they realized we aren’t a group to be messed with!”
Jiang Jue withdrew his gaze and glanced up at the darkening sky outside. “Move faster,” he instructed in a low voice. “It’s about to get completely dark.”
“Understood!” the group replied in unison. Not daring to delay any further, they immediately dispersed, quickening their pace as they searched through the mountain of corpses.
![The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]](https://i3.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20250902175028_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]")
