Out of the Hospital & Running into “An Old Acquaintance”

"Che!"

Yun Che tottered when he got the tree heart and fell to the ground face down. Xing Feng who kept an eye on him rushed over. He got Yun Che into his arms before he hit the ground. "This is madness. You must tell us before you are debilitated."

With Yun Che in his hug, Xing Feng said with a caring tone. This was the second time Yun Che collapsed due to exhaustion.

"Well, it won't happen again because now you know how to deal with mutated trees. I'll leave this tiring work to you next time."

Yun Che put on a weak smile in Xing Feng's hug. Level 3 wasn't high enough. Granted, he had already consumed a lot of energy and hadn't gotten some proper rest before the fight, but it was only one level-2 mutated tree. If they were fighting a level-3 one or multiple mutated trees, they wouldn't stand a chance even he pushed himself beyond the limit. Hence, they must become stronger.

"Still boasting."

Xing Feng could do nothing with him but slapped his butt. He held him to walk to the gang. "Hang in there, guys. We need to rest elsewhere."

Yun Che was sapped. Leng Yehan and the rest were, too, worn out. They must find a place for refreshment but the hospital sure wasn't the best option. Due to the previous commotion, zombies gushed out of the inpatient building, in addition, there were a lot of zombies coming from the outside of the hospital. The longer they stayed here, the more dangerous they got despite the fact that Shen Rui and Lei Dashan reached level 3, too.

"OK. Can you see where has the fewest zombies?"

All of them got up. Zhao Gang and Shen Rui took the lead with their sufficient superfunctions while Lei Dashan brought up the rear. Supported by Xing Feng, Yun Che and space and light superfunction possessors were walking in the middle, flanked by Jiang Shang and You Dong and the other level-2 superfunction possessors.

"The zombies are all drawn to the hospital. There're a lot of places nearby without zombies. Come closer, you guys."

Having taken a glance at the air panel, Yun Che braced himself up forcefully. There were too many zombies outside the hospital for them to sally. "Xing Feng, you'll protect me this time. Please hold on tight to me."

A thin layer of air film wrapped them immediately.

"Jiang Shang, clear the way. Run!"

Xing Feng gave the order, Jiang Shang threw two golden ribbons out to make a way in the zombie crowd. Xing Feng picked Yun Che to run out. The others didn't hesitate, they all sped up with Xing Feng. Yun Che, freed from any physical movement, was engrossed in controlling the air film, making sure everybody was covered.

"Jiang Shang, left."

When they were out of the zombie flock, Yun Che yelled again. The air film faded. It wasn't that Yun Che chose to do so, it was just his superfunction was empty.

Roar!

"Piss off!"

As soon as the zombies smelled the living things, they chased after them like crazy. Jiang Shang and Shen Rui made a great duo at the front, Lei Dashan and Yu Wenqing were also doing a great job at the end. Everybody did their best to beat the zombies back.

"The mall in front of us. Haixuan, open the gate."

After two blocks, they saw a five-story mall from a distance. Xing Feng decisively gave an order. They needed to restore both their superfunction and energy. After several hours of high-intensity fights, they were famished.

Looking in the direction where Xing Feng was looking, Jiang Shang and Shen Rui started to move towards the mall. Lu Haixuan also rushed to the front of the line. When they reached the entrance of the mall, the others turned to thrash the zombies coming for them, Lu Haixuan crouched down to feel the keyhole of the roller shutter. With a small injection of superfunction, the lock melted from within but…

"Who-Who are you people?"

When they lifted the roller shutter, they heard human voices. Xing Feng raised his head, he saw 30ish people, men and women, standing behind the rolled shutter, most of them looked young. They were waiting with knives and steel pipes in hand. Xing Feng replied with composure, "We're survivors. We want to take a break here. We won't trouble you guys."

Before those people said anything in return, Xing Feng straight-up walked in with Yun Che in his arms. He Yongyi and Xiu Jie also didn't look at those people, not because they were arrogant but because they didn't have the energy to do so. After the high-intensity fights and the sally out of the zombies, they were already fatigued even though they were under protection all the time.

"No, we found and took the place first. Get out!"

"Yes, get out! The blood on you will draw zombies here."

"Are you trying to get us killed? Shoo!"

"Out! Out!"

Many mall-occupants came at them with indignation. Those young faces were filled with indifference, anger and fear. They had no compassion as human beings whatsoever, all they thought of was keeping themselves alive. The survival of Xing Feng and the rest meant nothing to them. Yet they shouldn't be blamed because humanity was scant in the post-apocalyptic world. Only a few people didn't join the gang but they didn't try to stop them either. Their eyes were full of helplessness close up, the doomsday had made them callous.

Bam bam bam!

Aaah!

"You wanna get yourselves killed? Back off!"

A barrage of glowing golden bullets on the ground stopped their way. A second ago, those people were all worked up, the next second, they backed up in fear. Some wimpish women started screaming and crying. Lu Haixuan gave them a menacing look, he dissipated the gold superfunction conjured pistols after making sure they'd quitted the riot. Before long, Leng Yehan led the rest of the team into the mall after clearing off all zombies within a several-meter radius around the entrance. Lei Dashan, the last one got in, shut the door behind him.

The mall-occupants involuntarily kept a distance from them when they smelled the stench and saw the blood on them but they kept watching them with their vigilant eyes as if these unwelcome guests would come at them all of sudden.

"Jiang Shang?!"

Given that most of them were young people and Jiang Shang was a show-biz celebrity, someone recognized him. People exclaimed and all the attention was put on him. Jiang Shang, however, looked at them blankly, he soon looked away and followed the team panting heavily. He'd been taking the lead for all day and due to the excessive hemorrhage, he was enfeebled now that he got a moment of relaxation. His mental strength kept him standing.

"Rest on the ground floor. Shen Rui, find something to eat."

Xing Feng never took the rabble seriously. After looking around, he found a clean place to put Yun Che down. They didn't intend to stay long, they would leave after Yun Che was recovered.

"No. The food is ours."

Those people stood up against them as soon as they saw them trying to rummage for food. Shen Rui gave them a scornful glance, he went straight to the supermarket on B1 with Zhao Gang without saying a word. With a flush of anger on the cheeks, those ignored people wanted to reason with them but they didn't have the nerve when they saw the blood on their clothes so they just stood there like idiots.

Yang Huaien and Lei Dashan didn't even bother giving them a look. They'd seen too many of people of this kind. They were weak but greedy. They should consider themselves lucky for meeting them because they might have been slaughtered if they irritated those grumpy superfunction possessors. Yes, the doomsday had driven them to desperation but so as everybody else. Only the people had what it takes to survive the doomsday.

"You don't think I passed out, do you?"

Yun Che leaned against the wall after being put down. He squinted and sounded very week. After all, he'd been fighting the whole day without getting some proper rest. Yes, level 3 was good but it was only slightly better than level 2, it didn't mean that his superfunction was inexhaustible.

"Opening a space consumes superfunction. This is a mall, there must be food around this place."

Yun Che stored all the packed food that Yun Yao made for them. Xing Feng chose the mall because he didn't want Yun Che to use superfunction again."

"Ha."

Yun Che didn't want to spend time and energy on an argument, he just waved his hand, a giant plastic box appeared. Disposable takeaway boxes stacked inside. They collected the boxes in the warehouse of the provincial supermarket. Yun Che asked Yun Yao to put the food in these boxes when she cooked for them because these were more convenient than insulated lunch boxes.

"It's over 3 o'clock. Don't use superfunction. We'll leave here in about one hour."

Xing Feng pinched his face. He took several buckets and barrels of water from the space, calling everybody here to wash their hands and get ready for the meals. He wetted and wrung a towel to wipe Yun Che's face and hands, as well as his bald head.

"Yun Che?! It's you?"

They heard an exclamatory voice. Then, some people rushed to him. Leng Yehan and the team stopped eating and warily watched them. Yun Che slowly opened his eyes after he heard the familiar voice. He guessed right, it was Jiang Yuan and his old roommates.

Seeing that Tongyang City was far away from Chuan City, Yun Che sighed after a brief surprise. "What are you guys doing here?"

If he remembered it correctly, there were a lot of survival shelters in Chuan City. So… all these were Hua University students. The thought reminded Yun Che of Han Mingzhe. With an acute pupil contraction, a touch of menace appeared in his eyes.

"Oh, it is Yun Che. Haven't seen you in a while. I heard you left university, I was worried about you. I didn't expect to see you here."

As if Yun Che had been seen through, a gentle smiley voice cut in before Jiang Yuan said anything. The lanky guy Han Mingzhe crouched down in front of Yun Che with friendliness. Looking at his hypocritical simpering face, all the antemortem memories from the last life struck him. Yun Che's burned-up body stiffened, his muscle throbbed under the clothes.

Others might not catch anything unusual but Xing Feng sitting next to him could clearly feel the difference. Also, this guy and Yun Che seemed to know each other pretty well, the look in Xing Feng's eyes turned serious, his whole presence turned icy. People went away back with Xing Feng, such as Yu Wenqing, were waiting for a brilliant drama. How dare this guy hit on their chief's baby boy? He must have been done living.

"What's going on? Is this a love triangle? Someone's trying to steal Yun Che from our chief?"

Zhou Yuze also felt the air turning cold, he moved furtively closer to Lu Haixuan and Zhan Yafei. Although his volume was extremely low, Zhan Feiya still heard him. They all shrugged, showing that they didn't know and they didn't want to get involved. They just sat on their asses watching. Up till now, Jiang Shang only darted a glimpse at those people when they rushed to Yun Che.