Chapter 27 – Days Trapped on the Rooftop
At the sound of gunfire, Han Li’s face went pale, nearly dropping the equipment in his arms. Luo Xun quickly caught him, “Don’t worry. They’ll be fine.”
By now, some zombies had already evolved enough to have basic crystal nuclei, but they were still no match for trained soldiers with guns. And even if the soldiers failed, Luo Xun himself could handle low-level mutants.
“Thanks… I know.” Han Li blushed, clutching the equipment tighter as he ran out.
“There should be a warehouse in the back. Once we finish hauling these, let’s go check it out.”
The store shelves stretched up to the ceiling, packed with solar chargers. Their little truck couldn’t possibly carry them all. Luo Xun had two soldiers haul out at least half while he grabbed Yan Fei’s modified crossbow and dragged He Qiankun outside to scout.
Don’t be fooled by He Qiankun’s looks or scatterbrained act. He was a true computer geek—skilled at DIY and hardware tinkering.
He wasn’t much help with manual labor, but when it came to picking the right equipment, Luo Xun needed him.
“…Shouldn’t we bring along a soldier, you know, a soldier-brother?”
Watching the giant man nervously peeking around and calling for a “soldier-brother,” Luo Xun almost punched him. “Fine, I’ll get you your soldier-brother.”
Two soldiers returned from scouting, and Luo Xun had their captain assign them over.
“Two soldier-brothers—satisfied?”
“Yes, yes! As long as they’ve got guns!” He Qiankun nodded so fast it made the soldiers laugh. They were younger than him by a year or two—who was the “brother” here?
“Were there zombies back there?” Luo Xun asked, scanning store signs as they moved.
“Yeah, one. Already taken care of.”
“There could be more. Be careful.”
“This store, and that one—both useful.” He Qiankun pointed out. Luo Xun jotted down the numbers to return later.
They kept talking and searching until they reached the inner corridor.
“If we’re quick, maybe we can head back tonight! With these solar panels, we’ll have hot food tomorrow, right?” He Qiankun’s eyes lit up.
“Tomorrow night at the earliest. And wait—you had charcoal before, right? Why couldn’t you cook with that?”
“What good is charcoal alone? We didn’t even have pots or pans! That little pot you gave us was fine, but… burning charcoal takes forever. And we barely had water, so we just chewed through days of dry instant noodles.” He Qiankun looked pitiful, like his hot-meal dreams had been shattered.
Luo Xun rolled his eyes to the heavens. Really now…
“Heh… heh…”
“Zombie!” Before the laugh finished, a zombie stumbled from a room at the corridor’s end. Two soldiers immediately raised their guns and fired at its head.
Bang! Bang!
But while they shot the first one, a second zombie darted out, faster than expected. It bypassed the first and lunged straight for them!
They fired hastily, but only managed to hit its body.
Thud! The zombie collapsed, twitched twice, and lay still.
“Whoa… nice shot! Luo Xun, you trained?!” He Qiankun looked at him in awe, eyes glued to the crossbow he’d just lowered.
“Yeah, bird hunting.” Luo Xun didn’t put the weapon away, edging forward carefully. Both zombies were dead. The room was clear. Good.
The two soldiers glanced at each other. Had they just been… protected by a civilian?
And wait—that crossbow of his was basically a prohibited weapon, wasn’t it? But these days, as long as you didn’t cause trouble in the safe zone, the authorities turned a blind eye. After all, it wasn’t technically a gun, even if it packed pistol-level power.
On the way back, Luo Xun crouched to “collect spent bolts.” Under He Qiankun’s disdainful gaze, he smoothly pocketed a small, faintly glowing primary crystal nucleus.
Primary nuclei were tiny, but precious: ability users could absorb them to replenish or even level up. Later, they might even serve as energy sources. Though by the time of his rebirth, they hadn’t been widely adopted yet.
Still, they were valuable—eventually as good as currency. Points only worked inside a specific base, but nuclei were accepted everywhere.
One shop after another, they gathered what they needed. Some materials they only took partly, noting the rest for a future trip with a larger truck.
With their haul ready, Li Tie and his group dove into the PVC store, dragging out pipes like madmen. Luo Xun focused on metal sheets for Yan Fei. Noticing Li Tie’s frenzy, he kindly reminded them not to forget tools, drill bits, saw blades, adhesives.
Li Tie slapped his forehead, then kicked open the neighboring hardware store to loot it too.
Everyone worked themselves into a frenzy. By the time they came to their senses, it was already dark. They hurried to leave, only for nearby guards to rush back, pale-faced:
“A massive horde of zombies is passing outside—heading straight for the safe zone!!”
“Ah?!” The squad leader was a bit stunned, and quickly crept toward the main gate. Luo Xun thought for a moment, then climbed up the side of a truck onto the roof of a shop, binoculars in hand to observe the situation—his face instantly changed.
The situation outside wasn’t quite a zombie tide, and there weren’t that many gathered together, but one thing was obvious—
They were chasing someone southward in a steady stream! Even though the target was long out of sight, the zombies were still doggedly pursuing the direction they thought was correct.
Who the hell was it?! To draw so many monsters!!
The Southwest Base was lucky their walls had already been roughly completed. Otherwise, with this many zombies rushing over, even just a few getting inside would have thrown the entire safe zone into chaos!
——
“Hurry! Hurry! We’re almost there!” Several modified jeeps sped ahead. Behind them, the zombies were gradually thrown off and vanished from sight. Finally… finally they were safe…
“Big bro, up ahead! This is it! The Southwest Base even has its walls up! They should be able to hold!”
The man wearily pushed up his glasses. “That bastard Wang Heng… he actually ran this way too…”
“If they hadn’t stirred things up, would that many zombies have been attracted?!”
“Forget it. The Western Base wasn’t looking stable anyway. Barely any people building the wall, progress was so slow it was practically nonexistent even yesterday. We escaped in time—otherwise, we might not even have had the chance to leave!” Wu Changk?n knew well that even before the apocalypse, no matter how bad things got between him and Wang Heng, it would never have come to a life-or-death fight. And now, in the apocalypse? When everyone’s life was hanging by a thread, fighting Wang Heng would only give others the advantage.
“No matter what, at least we’ve got a foothold now, right? Eh? There’s even a line at the gate!”
“Damn it! With that horde of zombies behind us, who the hell has time to queue?!”
One of the younger guys swallowed nervously. Weren’t those zombies following their convoy? If the people inside found out, they might not even let them in…
——
A group of people sat silently on a rooftop, not daring to speak loudly, not daring to light a fire to cook, not even daring to rip open a plastic bag too forcefully, afraid the zombies passing outside would hear and come in to snack on them.
A small squad of soldiers, Luo Xun, Li Tie, and the others—sixteen in total—all crouched on the rooftop, holding their breath and counting the stars.
Luckily, they had expected this kind of situation before leaving the base, so they had prepared for an overnight stay outside. Luckily, in these early days of the apocalypse, zombies’ sense of smell wasn’t as sharp as their hearing—so long as they didn’t make loud noises, they wouldn’t be discovered. Still… it was damn uncomfortable!
“Damn it, if I find out who lured all these monsters over, I’ll knock all his teeth out with one punch!” He Qiankun swore, swinging a fist.
“With this many, I suspect someone passed through the city center and drew them out. To attract such a horde and not get eaten… they must have had a vehicle, and among them there’s likely an ability user—or at least someone with a gun.” Luo Xun coolly analyzed whether beating that person up would even be possible.
He Qiankun immediately deflated. “Why don’t I have any abilities?”
“Actually, Qiank?n, you awakened an ability before the apocalypse even began.” Wang Duo slung an arm around his shoulder and clung to him like glue. He claimed that fat guys radiated heat and were great for keeping warm in this cold weather, so he was just using him as a hand-warmer.
“What ability?” Though he had a bad feeling, He Qiankun still held onto a shred of hope.
“Eating! Being able to eat this much and cultivate such a well-fed figure—is that something ordinary people could achieve?”
“Get lost!”
If they weren’t stuck on a rooftop, He Qiankun would’ve sat on him and broken his back!
“Cut it out, or the zombies will hear.”
“Ugh, I wonder how the safe zone is doing… think they’ll hold?”
“Of course. Didn’t they just finish the walls?”
The squad leader encouraged them: “These zombies may look like a lot, but as long as they don’t all arrive at once, they’ll be taken out gradually. Don’t worry, the base will be fine!”
“I’m actually more worried that someone might take the chance to break into our homes. I still had some charcoal left unused…” Han Li tilted his head back forty-five degrees, sighing with melancholy.
“You’re overthinking.” Wu Xin rolled his eyes. “Our dump of a place has nothing in it. Even if someone pried the door, they wouldn’t bother taking anything.”
Luo Xun ate four stuffed buns—filled with pork, scallion, shrimp, and mung bean sprouts. These were made from leftover dumpling filling, which he had turned into buns yesterday to bring along as rations. Sure enough, they came in handy now.
Besides that, he’d packed some dry flatbread, ham, boiled eggs, juice, bottled water, and even his own homemade dry pancakes.
The juice was bought before the apocalypse from a supermarket—good for replenishing vitamins. Of course, he had also stocked plenty of vitamin C tablets. But since this was still the early days, he wasn’t about to deny himself good food when he could still eat it.
“Once we get back, do you plan to head out again?” Luo Xun downed two gulps of mineral water. He saved the juice as an emergency backup—if they got trapped for ten days or so, that could be a lifesaver.
“If we can, of course we’ll go out again!” Li Tie immediately replied. “Forget everything else—blankets, quilts, we don’t even have a proper bed! And food—whatever we can gather, we need. This time we came out for energy supplies. Next time, it’ll be for survival.”
The other four nodded quickly. They really were devoted fans—remembering every word of their idol clearly.
Luo Xun also nodded. “I have supplies at home, but next door is my cousin’s place. His apartment hadn’t even been renovated before the apocalypse—he’ll need those things. And while it’s still relatively safe, we should make more trips. Otherwise, sitting around eating through everything, sooner or later it’ll all run out.” He also hadn’t stocked clothes for Yan Fei—he’d need to go out and find some for him.
“And seeds!” Li Tie added quickly. “There’s so much more we need! I’ll make a list later. Let’s rent a car and head out together next time.” He’d heard He Qiankun say Luo Xun’s crossbow was ridiculously accurate—able to take out a zombie in one shot. Combat power like that was rare among ordinary people.
“First, we need to get back safely…”
“Yeah, let’s see how things look tomorrow.”
*
“Three days already…”
Yan Fei stood on the balcony, cold gaze fixed on the people busily moving in and out of the building next door. They had only moved into the complex yesterday. From the news he’d overheard before, Yan Fei suspected those outside zombies had been drawn in by them.
Their strength was formidable. Even without direct contact, he could feel it—most of them were ability users. But so what? If it weren’t for them, Luo Xun wouldn’t have gone missing for this long!
Irritation gnawed at him. He felt on edge, ready to explode at any moment.
Sensing his dangerous aura, the little pup hadn’t dared to tug on his pant leg like usual since morning. Ever since Yan Fei could move around, the pup had quickly accepted him as another member of the household. To the pup, he felt like another master—someone with no hostility toward him or his owner. Which was why his pant legs had always been fair game for teething.
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