Chapter 94: What Do You Want to Eat?
“Understood!” Chu Yang beamed, his eyes curving into bright crescents.
Nearby, Lin Xiao shook his wrist, flicking away the dark, putrid blood that stained his blade, and pinned the last struggling zombie against the corner of the brick wall. The squad exchanged quick, assessing glances before gathering around the center of the street.
More than thirty corpses lay strewn across the cracked asphalt, the thick night air heavy with the stench of copper, rot, and charred flesh.
“Boss, are we pushing further?” Wang Qiang asked, wiping the sweat from his neck with the back of his forearm. His fingertips grazed a patch of sticky grime, prompting him to wipe his hand against his trousers in disgust.
Jiang Jue shook his head, brushing a stray smudge of blood from his sleeve with effortless nonchalance. His gaze swept across the shadowy street before settling on a commercial hotel seven or eight stories high, just a short distance away.
Most of the hotel’s glass double doors were shattered, and a corner of the acrylic sign hanging above the entrance had snapped off, leaving only the faded words Shengze Hotel barely legible in the dim light.
“We stay here tonight,” Jiang Jue said, his voice calm and decisive. “Take the others inside and clear it floor by floor. Move carefully, and only set up camp once you’ve confirmed each level is secure. Leave no blind spots.”
Su Mubai looked at Jiang Jue, then turned his gaze to Chu Yang, who was practically vibrating on the balls of his feet, itching for a hunt. Curling his fingers, Su Mubai hesitated before asking, “Boss, aren’t you coming up with us?”
Jiang Jue shook his head. When his eyes drifted to Chu Yang, the sharp, icy contours of his face softened by a noticeable fraction. “I’m going to take Yangyang to scout the perimeter. We’ll regroup once we’re done.”
“Scout the perimeter?”
Lin Xiao’s ears pricked up immediately, and he pushed his way into the circle. “You’re heading out to hunt the big fish, aren’t you? Boss, take me along! I want in! I just broke through to Tier 2, and my hands are itching for a real fight!”
Chu Yang chuckled, clapping Su Mubai lightly on the shoulder as he extended a casual invitation: “Little Bai, want to tag along too? We’re going after Tier 2 mutants—we might find some crystal cores that fit your element.”
Su Mubai felt a momentary spark of temptation and unconsciously clenched his fists. However, his healing power had only just crossed the threshold into Tier 2, and his offensive capabilities remained minimal at best.
Unwilling to hold them back, he shook his head and replied with a warm, steady smile, “You three go ahead, just be careful out there. I’ll help Qiang and the others secure the hotel. More hands make quick work.”
Chu Yang nodded, letting the matter rest without pressing further. Then, as if a sudden thought had struck him, his gaze snapped toward Wang Li, who stood cradling Niu Niu nearby. A look of pure, hungry anticipation washed over his face. “Sister Wang! Our dinner tonight is entirely in your hands! What do you want to cook? Tell me, and I’ll pull out the ingredients for you!”
Caught completely off guard, Wang Li looked up in a fluster. Anxious yet deeply earnest, she stammered, “What… what would Brother Chu like to eat? I can make whatever you have in mind!”
“I want to eat everything!” At the mere mention of food, Chu Yang’s eyes sparkled. He immediately reached out with his mental focus to survey the contents of his spatial storage. “Hold on, let me check our pantry…”
With a flourish of his wrist, a generous mountain of supplies materialized out of thin air on the cleared pavement: a heavy fifty-pound sack of sealed white rice, half a side of pork marbled with rich fat and lean meat and dusted with frost, a box of rock-solid frozen shrimp, two crates of frost-covered sea crabs, and several large bags of frozen fish and beef meatballs.
“What a shame we don’t have fresh vegetables or fruit,” Chu Yang muttered, clicking his tongue in mild regret as he surveyed the haul. Then, waving his hand grandly, he beamed at Wang Li. “Sister Wang, just work your magic with whatever you see here! Make plenty so everyone gets their fill. Cook a massive feast—everyone’s been on the road all day and we’re starving!”
Staring at the bountiful spread—a feast that would be considered unimaginable luxury in the middle of this wasteland—Wang Li’s eyes went wide. Her hands cradling Niu Niu trembled faintly with overwhelming relief and gratitude. She nodded repeatedly, her voice thick with emotion. “Yes, of course! Leave it to me, Brother Chu! I’ll make sure everyone has a fantastic, satisfying meal!”
“Qiang, Li Yu,” Chu Yang turned to the pair, gesturing toward the food on the ground. “Help Sister Wang haul these upstairs and track down an intact kitchen.”
“On it, Brother Chu!” Wang Qiang and Li Yu replied in unison, stepping forward to hoist the heavy supplies.
With everything arranged, Chu Yang rubbed his palms together, turning toward Jiang Jue and Lin Xiao with undisguised excitement burning in his eyes. “Shall we roll out?”
Jiang Jue gave a subtle nod and took the lead.
The trio wasted no more time, slipping into an alleyway running along the side of the hotel. Their figures vanished into the gloom in the blink of an eye.
Deeper inside the narrow corridor, the stench of decay grew stiflingly thick.
Just as they rounded a blind corner choked with rusted dumpsters and rotting refuse, a sudden flurry of hoarse hisses shattered the silence. Several dark figures lunged forward with unnatural agility, their eyes glowing with faint, bloodthirsty crimson light—Tier 2 speed-type mutants!
Trailing right behind them were seven or eight common Tier 1 zombies, clumsy and slow, yet pressing forward with dangerous numerical weight.
“Here they come!” Lin Xiao barked a low warning, reacting with lightning speed.
He swung his arms forward, and a dozen half-foot-long, razor-sharp steel spikes materialized instantly in the air before him. With a piercing whistle, they launched into the darkness like a localized metal storm!
The Tier 2 mutants were remarkably agile, weaving and dodging across the tight space. Most of the steel darts missed their marks, striking the brick walls and pavement with crisp, ringing sparks. However, two spikes found their target, burying deep into the shoulder and thigh of the lead mutant, causing it to stumble violently.
Simultaneously, Jiang Jue struck.
He cut through the shadows like a phantom, effortlessly slipping past a snapping maw. His left hand shot forward, fast as lightning. Instead of releasing an expansive electrical arc, he concentrated the volatile energy into the center of his palm, compressing it into a blinding, fist-sized orb of violet plasma before slamming it dead center into another Tier 2 mutant’s chest!
Zzzzt—BOOM!
The compressed orb detonated the instant it made contact. The blast blew a charred, gaping crater straight through the monster’s ribcage, sending its body flying backward. Engulfed in crackling static, the zombie crashed through a stack of discarded cardboard boxes, twitched once, and went completely still.
Meanwhile, Chu Yang faced down a third Tier 2 mutant that lunged straight at him from the darkness on his flank.
The creature’s blackened talons swept through the air with a foul wind, aiming straight for his heart!
Chu Yang didn’t flinch, nor did he step back. A cold silver shimmer flared in his eyes as the space directly before his chest warped into a localized distortion.
Spatial Barrier!
The mutant’s claws slammed against an unseen, immovable barrier inches from Chu Yang’s chest with a dull, heavy thud, shattering its brittle nails on impact!
Capitalizing on the creature’s broken momentum, Chu Yang brought his right hand down in a clean chopping motion, his fingertips wrapped in a faint, vibrating ripple of spatial distortion. He drove the strike with ruthless precision toward the monster’s throat!
Pfft!
The spatial edge sheared through the neck like a hot knife gliding through soft butter. The head tilted and rolled away as dark blood sprayed outward. Carried by its own forward inertia, the headless torso stumbled two steps before collapsing into a heap on the pavement.
By then, Lin Xiao had closed the distance on the wounded mutant, driving a newly condensed metal spike cleanly through its temple.
Working in flawless tandem, the trio made quick work of the remaining Tier 1 stragglers.
Within minutes, the alley plunged back into dead silence, leaving only a field of mangled corpses in their wake.
Chu Yang caught his breath, his eyes gleaming as he stared down at the fallen Tier 2 mutants. “Time to harvest, time to harvest! Let’s see what kind of loot we pulled!” He dropped down enthusiastically, wasting no time in getting to work.
Jiang Jue remained standing by his side, his senses extended outward into the darkness to keep a vigilant watch over their perimeter.
Prying open a skull with his dagger, Lin Xiao chuckled under his breath, “Tsk, running with the Boss and Chu Yang is on a whole other level—even the cores we harvest are premium quality…”
With practiced dexterity, Chu Yang extracted the crystal cores from the fallen Tier 2 mutants. The stones radiated a rich, clear luminescence, noticeably larger and far more transparent than the cloudy Tier 1 cores they had been gathering before.
