Chapter 34 — The Loading Maniac
They turned off the overpass toward the home improvement center. There were even more wrecked vehicles here — clearly, others had targeted this supermarket before them.
They didn’t head to the supermarket first; plenty of cars were still parked outside, and some people were visible moving in and out. The noise was sure to draw more zombies.
Perfect chance to check out the home improvement market while the undead were distracted.
They parked, rolled down the window, and shot a few crossbow bolts to clear the zombies near the entrance. Luo Xun scanned the area and noticed several container trucks parked not far away.
Li Tie’s group hurried over to inspect them.
After some fiddling, they found that the larger trucks were locked with electronic systems — no luck there. But two of the container trucks were half-open, and both had keys nearby: one still in the ignition, the other found on the corpse of a long-dead driver.
With the keys secured, they raised their makeshift weapons and slipped into the darkened hall of the building materials market.
The huge, shadowy lobby felt eerily cold. Sunlight filtered through broken windows, casting long, unsettling rays across the room.
Someone had clearly been here before. The apocalypse had been going on long enough that even if people thought the goods here weren’t immediately useful, plenty would’ve scavenged what they could.
After a quick look around, Luo Xun motioned for everyone to head to the storage area.
“There’s still a lot out here,” one of the students asked, puzzled. “Why not grab it?”
“The stuff out front’s just display models,” Luo Xun explained. “The types are varied, but the quantities are small. The real stock’s in the warehouse.” Some items weren’t even stored here at all — they were shipped directly from factories when customers ordered them.
Before the apocalypse, Luo Xun had scoped out this place and roughly remembered where the warehouse was located. Sure enough, before long, they found a half-open iron door.
After smashing down a stray zombie that stumbled out, they quickly pried the door wider and scoped out the inside.
Their “lock-picking expert” made short work of several padlocks, and Luo Xun nodded toward Li Tie’s group. “Bring the truck inside. We’re loading up.”
“Wait— we can drive in?” The students gawked. There were stairs outside the mall! They were ordinary college kids — no one here had the skills to drive a truck up stairs!
Luo Xun blinked, realizing he’d forgotten about the stairs — and about how inexperienced these guys were. He’d momentarily mistaken them for the reckless veterans he’d once known — the kind who’d ram zombies with their cars and even drive straight up a staircase if it meant grabbing supplies.
Alright, fine—he wasn’t exactly a skilled driver himself.
“Let’s just use that to haul the stuff,” Yan Fei said, pointing toward a cart to help Luo Xun save face.
There was more than one cart. After choosing a few warehouses and confirming that the materials inside would be useful, the seven men rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
Wooden flooring panels, wall paint, wallpaper, tiles, all kinds of glue, piles of PVC pipes, lighting fixtures and bulbs, electrical wire, varnish, even lumber and boards for making tables and chairs…
They packed the two small container trucks almost full—enough supplies to refurbish two entire apartments—before finally stopping. Naturally, all the noise they made while moving things attracted nearby wandering zombies. But zombies were like that: the first one you kill leaves a deep psychological shadow, yet after the second and third, it starts to feel easier.
Fortunately, the ones shambling their way now were all mangled, clearly people who had been attacked and infected by other zombies. Many faces were no longer recognizable; though disgusting, it made killing them much less mentally taxing.
Panting for breath, the group leaned against the trucks to rest—when He Qiankun suddenly pointed at Yan Fei, who was standing off to the side with his hands in his pockets, calm as ever, and stammered, “You—you—”
“You what? Use real words,” Wu Xin said, swatting the back of his head.
“He—how come he’s not even breathing hard?” He Qiankun looked pitifully at Wu Xin, tears practically welling up.
Yan Fei hadn’t been slacking off—he’d moved, loaded, and hauled just like everyone else. But even now, he looked perfectly fine, barely sweating. It was… incredibly enviable.
Hearing this, Yan Fei gave He Qiankun a disdainful once-over, eyes sweeping up and down the man’s soft belly. “Because I have stamina.”
People always thought fat guys were strong, but unless they were sumo wrestlers, most of them were just flabby. Everyone knew they’d get winded just climbing stairs—how could their endurance compare to someone with a fit body, much less someone who trained regularly?
And ever since Yan Fei awakened his metal ability, his physical condition had improved further—stronger, tougher, with far more endurance than before. He was pretty sure he could even stay hard all night now, though, unfortunately, there hadn’t been any opportunity to test that theory yet.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?” Luo Xun asked uneasily. There was something strange—and regretful—about Yan Fei’s gaze that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
By the time they finished loading, it was already past noon. After confirming that there weren’t many zombies nearby, everyone got into the trucks to eat and recover their strength.
Before leaving, Luo Xun had packed plenty of boiled eggs—they’d go bad if not eaten soon anyway, and there weren’t many left. Along with the eggs were pancakes, crispy rice crackers, stir-fried vegetables, vitamin tablets, and dried beef.
Yan Fei accepted his portion without a single complaint. Out here, having anything to eat at all was already a luxury.
“What about your mini-van?” Yan Fei asked between bites, nodding at the white van parked nearby.
Luo Xun looked conflicted. That van might be flimsy, but he couldn’t bear to part with it—it was something he’d bought himself before the apocalypse!
Indeed, Luo Xun, who’d already died once in a past life, was not one to waste things—especially not a vehicle he’d purchased with his own savings. It could still carry a good load, and aside from thin panels, there wasn’t much wrong with it. But driving it back posed problems: in Li Tie’s group, only Li Tie and Wang Duo could drive; the others couldn’t. And they already had two vehicles.
Plus, the van wasn’t nearly as safe as their current one. He couldn’t exactly send someone off alone to drive it.
Seeing his hesitation, Yan Fei smirked. “I’ll just connect the two vehicles together.”
“Huh?” Luo Xun blinked. Connect? What did he mean by that?
“Connect them,” Yan Fei repeated, one brow lifting, his smile deepening into something almost wicked. Luo Xun immediately looked away—damn, that smile was lethal. Good thing Yan Fei usually wore that tattered mask.
And by “connect,” Yan Fei meant it literally.
Don’t forget—he was a man with a metal ability. When he fused the two vehicles together with a strip of melted steel, the sight left Luo Xun utterly speechless. So this is the difference between an ability user and a normal human, he thought weakly. He’d assumed Yan Fei meant tying the cars together with rope—he hadn’t expected him to weld them.
Li Tie’s group, driving a bit ahead, didn’t see the details. They just assumed the two vehicles were hitched together. Li Tie, He Qiankun, and Wu Xin rode in one truck, while Wang Duo and Han Li drove another. Their small truck and container van led the way, followed closely by Luo Xun’s newly “conjoined twins.”
Luo Xun had some combat ability, but nowhere near Yan Fei’s level. He focused on driving, while under the passenger seat lay a pile of reshaped metal plates—spare weapons Yan Fei could mold at a moment’s notice if needed.
The convoy turned toward the Fabric and Curtain Market. The front gate was far more crowded with zombies than the Home-Decor Mart’s had been—proof that most survivors had probably targeted this area for food and daily supplies.
“Head to the back entrance,” Luo Xun said, stepping on the gas to pull up beside Li Tie’s truck. “We’ll go through the warehouse!”
“Got it! That turn up there?”
“Yeah, the one up ahead on the right.” Zombies were thick near the main road, and if they wanted to break through, they’d have to fight. Luo Xun pointed to the smaller road toward the rear entrance, giving directions to the others.
But the back entrance wasn’t exactly empty either—narrower streets, and plenty of zombies drawn by the sound of engines, staggering toward them with outstretched arms.
Li Tie swallowed nervously. They’d just fought some zombies earlier, but that had been only a handful at a time. Now there were dozens charging at once—the sight alone made his calves cramp with fear.
With a squeal of brakes, all three vehicles stopped. Luo Xun rolled down his window, raised his crossbow, and started shooting at the leading zombies. There were a lot, but nothing impossible. For anyone who’d survived in the apocalypse for a while, this was normal—if they couldn’t handle this, they might as well give up scavenging.
“Don’t panic. Take it slow,” Luo Xun called out.
The reminder steadied the others. There were maybe twenty zombies ahead; Luo Xun had already dropped three, and from the other vehicle, a few more bolts flew—apparently Yan Fei was shooting too. The enemies looked manageable enough, no different from what they’d faced earlier.
Buoyed by confidence, the five young men grabbed their iron rods, flung open the doors, and charged out with a yell.
Luo Xun fired from behind while Yan Fei, utterly relaxed, broke off small chunks of metal from the pile at his feet. Like a kid playing with clay, he shaped each one into a makeshift “bolt,” flicked his wrist—and whoosh! the projectile curved midair and struck a zombie clean in the skull.
Luo Xun gawked as one of Yan Fei’s shots arced beautifully through the air, hitting a target he himself had just aimed for. Seriously? I spent my whole last life practicing crossbow marksmanship, and this guy’s over here bending bullets? Ordinary people really couldn’t compete with powered ones.
Sighing inwardly, he pushed open his door and joined the cleanup.
Li Tie’s team was jumping up and down, flushed with adrenaline. “We did it! We’re amazing! We killed all those zombies!”
“Waaah, fighting zombies is so hard, but we did it!”
They were so hyped up they didn’t even notice that some of the bolts had flown in impossible trajectories.
Luo Xun chuckled, patted their shoulders, and said, “Let’s move the trucks to the back and start loading up.”
Compared to the Home-Decor Mart, where they’d had to guess what each warehouse might hold, this Fabric Market was simpler—just bolts upon bolts of cloth.
Luo Xun opened a few warehouse doors and found one storing raw cotton fabric. “This one’s good,” he said, calling the others over to help carry the rolls. He’d bought plenty of cloth before the apocalypse, but honestly, you could never have too much. He still had plenty of vacuum-seal bags for storage, too.
“Hey, isn’t that denim over there?” He Qiankun pointed to another open door.
Luo Xun glanced over. “Canvas, actually—but also useful. Grab a few rolls.”
“You can make pants out of that?”
“Yeah, a bit stiff though—tougher than normal denim, but durable.” He lifted one end of a bolt of fabric with Yan Fei and loaded it into the truck, then turned to pick out materials for outerwear.
Canvas, cotton, coral fleece, sponge padding, thick winter cloth, and heavy curtain fabrics—they gathered everything they could. Finally, Wu Xin hesitated and asked, “Uh… all this fabric’s great, but… does anyone here actually know how to make clothes?”
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