Chapter 9 – First Battle and the Little Lockpicking Expert
Carefully walking to the entrance of the corridor, Luo Xun glanced outside through the wide-open door. He saw no signs of anyone. Cautiously, he ran to the minivan parked at the building entrance, placed his things inside, and started the engine.
It seemed that the sound of a car in the neighborhood had drawn attention. A few households—those lucky enough to have survived the initial disaster and woken up to find the world changed—poked their heads out from the windows to look outside.
Luo Xun ignored the other survivors. The occupancy rate in Hongjing Community was very low now. If, even under these circumstances, they still ended up getting taken out by zombies… all he could say was coldly: “You’re not cut out to survive the apocalypse.” After all, today was only the first day of mutation. What made things even luckier was that the outbreak had begun in the middle of the night. Many zombies were still trapped in their homes and hadn’t had time to come out searching for food.
The streets of the southwest district were unusually quiet. When the second-hand minivan passed by, two figures in sanitation worker uniforms staggered toward the noisy vehicle, but Luo Xun quickly left them far behind. He had no time to clean up these zombies. At this stage, they were still in their primary form—slow, uncoordinated, with no crystal nuclei formed in their brains, and completely devoid of intelligence.
After getting onto the main road and driving north for about half an hour, he arrived at the construction-materials market he had previously scouted, ready to collect supplies.
From a distance, he saw the market’s gate left half open. Cautiously driving closer, he found blood spattered across the iron doors and the ground.
Probably the gatekeeper was attacked when opening up, Luo Xun thought grimly.
Raising his vigilance to the highest level, he stayed inside the vehicle, one hand clutching his homemade crossbow as he slowly drove in.
There were no bodies by the gate, but the trail of blood dragged all the way toward the guard room not far away. Luo Xun slowed the van, raised the crossbow, and carefully lowered the window.
Suddenly, three shapes burst out of the guard room, roaring as they staggered toward him!
“Damn it! Zombie dogs!”
Luo Xun’s face darkened. If it had only been a few basic zombies—even six or seven at once—he could still handle them. But was Heaven mocking him for being reborn? Throwing this level of difficulty at him right from the start?!
Zombie animals were different from humans. For reasons unknown, when humans turned, they started off slow, sluggish, clumsy—though strong and infectious, still relatively easy to deal with.
But zombie animals were another story. Agile, quick to react, and worst of all, they often retained much of their original instincts and alertness.
The three dogs split up, surrounding him from different angles. Cursing under his breath, Luo Xun loosed a bolt straight into one’s eye.
Unfortunately, his aim was off. It didn’t pierce the brain.
The struck dog whimpered, staggered, and kept charging. The other two lunged as well. With a thud, one slammed against the car door. With a crash, another shattered the side window!
Crossbow in his left hand, wolf-tooth club in his right, Luo Xun was ready. He jabbed hard with the club, knocking back the dog that had tried to force its way in. Then his left hand fired another bolt, hitting the skull of the one ramming the door. The beast staggered and collapsed, dead.
“Woof!” The dog with the bolt in its eye leapt at him, jaws snapping shut. Luo Xun hastily pulled back his left hand, thrusting the wolf-tooth club forward instead. The bar jammed right into its gaping mouth, reeking of rot. Its claws scraped furiously against the car door with ear-piercing screeches, and in moments, the thin sheet metal was being gouged through!
A shiver ran down Luo Xun’s spine. Quickly raising his crossbow, he shot a bolt through its throat, driving straight into its brain.
No time to breathe—the last dog lunged again. With a powerful swing, Luo Xun smashed the wolf-tooth club (still impaling the second dog) into the third, knocking it down. It rolled twice, snarling, then struggled back onto its feet. Whoosh! Another bolt shot out, piercing its skull. It wobbled, then collapsed, motionless.
Panting heavily, Luo Xun scanned the area in alarm. Would the noise attract more zombies?
He had been careless.
In fact, ever since long before his rebirth, he hadn’t fought zombies face-to-face in years. Life in the safe zone had been relatively stable. Once an ordinary person found a way to support themselves inside, they never wanted to risk going out again.
The outside world belonged to zombies, mutant beasts, and plants. Only the gifted ability users with powerful combat strength could hunt mutants and earn rich rewards.
Normal people? Unless forced, they would rather toil at the bottom of the base society than gamble their lives outside. Luo Xun had been no different. He remembered that his last direct encounter with zombies in his past life was during the sixth year of the A City safe zone—when the greatest zombie tide struck and he was drafted to defend the walls.
Fortunately, this time after being reborn, he had made the crossbow his top priority and practiced every day. Otherwise… today might have ended very differently.
Even luckier, his weapon was a repeating crossbow. If it had been single-shot—reload after every fire—he’d be dead the moment he was surrounded.
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, reloading bolts, Luo Xun tugged a few times before forcing the dented car door open. The metal was warped from the impact, covered in claw marks, sticky with foul-smelling fluids.
He ignored the damage and got out, retrieving each of the four bolts he had fired. Every one of them was homemade. You couldn’t buy fine steel bolts online, and even high-strength crossbows were rare, so he bought raw materials and crafted them himself.
He still had materials left, but grinding arrows was noisy. Unless absolutely necessary, he avoided making them at home. So each one was precious—none could be wasted.
After gathering the bolts, he got back into the van and carefully drove onward. Luckily, Heaven didn’t seem entirely against him—no more zombies appeared after the three dogs.
In the rows of shops, he found his target. Pulling out his homemade lockpicks, Luo Xun smoothly got to work.
Don’t ask how he learned lockpicking. Back when scavenging for supplies and shelters, nearly every survivor picked up some skill at it. The difference was, Luo Xun used finesse, while most just relied on brute force.
Solar panels, hardware tools, and building materials—he wasn’t greedy. He only took enough for himself. In less than half an hour, he had loaded everything he needed and drove back toward the gate.
The three zombie dogs still lay there. From deeper inside the market came faint noises—whether from survivors or zombies, he couldn’t tell.
Exiting the gate, he passed a few speeding cars. He couldn’t tell if they belonged to people still unaware of the situation and on their way to work, or those who had realized what was happening and were fleeing.
As he drove past a large supermarket next to the market, considering whether to stop for more supplies, a loud crash came. Not far away, a car rammed straight through the glass front doors.
Pulling out his binoculars, Luo Xun glanced at the entrance and couldn’t help twitching his lips. Should he admire the fearlessness of the ignorant? A group of people, three or four cars, with a modified Land Rover in front smashing the way in while the others followed. Sirens blared inside the supermarket.
More than a dozen people drove into the ground floor, parked, grabbed carts, and rushed inside.
Clearly, they had woken to chaos, seen someone turn, and quickly realized this was a real-life bioweapon crisis.
They reacted fast—rushing to the nearest supermarket to loot supplies. But with no experience, they had literally rammed into a still-closed supermarket… Zombies hunted by sound and scent. With so many people here, the smell was already thick, and now they had made such a racket… Were they volunteering to become dinner?
Luo Xun shook his head. He had originally planned to hit a supermarket on his way back too, but now… better not to clash with these “brave warriors.” Besides, he already had plenty of food at home. Instant noodles only lasted about six months anyway; even if he grabbed more, they’d mostly just be for bartering. And more importantly—he wanted to get home quickly. Who knew if someone might sneak into the community while he was gone? His little one was home alone. What if someone dared to break in?
He stepped on the gas, circling around the supermarket. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few staggering figures slowly heading toward it. With so many looters inside armed with weapons, they should be able to handle a few zombies easily enough.
All along the way, more quick-reacting, bold people were already out, driving private cars around. Some were fleeing the city, some were heading to family, while others were looting supermarkets and shops like the group before.
Luo Xun didn’t stop until he reached a pharmacy.
The rolling shutter was only halfway down, the door half open, a long trail of blood smeared across the floor.
After a moment’s thought, Luo Xun adjusted his helmet, parked at the entrance, gripped his wolf-tooth club in one hand and slung his crossbow over his shoulder, then stepped toward the door.
Outside, no one. Inside, empty—no sign of a soul.
He bent down, peered inside to double-check, then quickly pried open the lock on the glass door. What could he do? Lockpicking had become second nature.
Back when he had just been reborn, he often caught himself instinctively sizing up bicycle locks and storefront locks, itching to practice. If not for fear of getting arrested and ruining his preparations before doomsday, he might have started training earlier.
