Chapter Twenty: Sanctuary

The next morning, as the roll-up door of the supermarket opened, a young boy with his left arm hanging in the air and a girl nibbling on a chocolate bar walked out into the light filled with the morning sunshine.

"Clearing it... It's actually simple, right?" Yuanyuan said.

Su Ming'an understood what she meant.

Actually, clearing the first world was really simple.

Given four days of preparation time, players could easily prepare enough food and run to a safe place. Just like the supermarket they had just left, pulling down the roll-up door, staying inside for ten days wouldn't matter.

"But this way you'll never get stronger," Su Ming'an said, holding a fire axe he had found in the supermarket in one hand, and walked out first.

Yuanyuan's gaze lingered momentarily on his empty sleeve, then she hurried her steps to catch up.

[Exp+50]

[Exp+50]

[...]

The hospital was in the northeast corner of the city, and it would take another day to get there. After walking for a day, Su Ming'an and Yuanyuan both leveled up to First Rank Level Three, and once again, three attribute points were added to Spirit.

Suddenly, Su Ming'an felt someone tugging on his sleeve.

A girl with sparkling eyes looked up at him.

Her bag of chocolate bars was now empty.

"Did you finish all the ones in your backpack too?" Su Ming'an was somewhat surprised. That was a one-cubic-meter backpack, and Yuanyuan's bag was filled with nothing but swords and piles of chocolate snacks. They had just filled it up before leaving the supermarket but now it was empty...

Facing the girl's solemn nod, Su Ming'an sighed and walked towards a nearby small supermarket.

The first floor sold daily necessities, and he pulled Yuanyuan straight to the second floor, only to spot a zombie crouching in the corner.

Su Ming'an slightly raised his axe.

"Swish—"

Suddenly, a heavy steel pipe fiercely stabbed into the zombie's temple from the side.

Su Ming'an slightly lifted his eyelid and saw a tall man in military uniform, his posture as straight as a poplar tree, his deep-set eyes showing no oddity, and his appearance stern, as if the clashing of metal still echoed around him.

"Relax, you are safe now." The man's lips curled into a comforting smile as he reached out his large hand, seemingly wanting to shake hands with Su Ming'an.

"Plop." Yuanyuan's empty chocolate bar bag dropped into his palm, her eyes already fixed on the snacks on the second-floor shelves, her steps drifting towards them.

...

Yang Changxu was an army officer before entering the game, and after entering, he didn't follow the mainstream. He met a fellow troop member and actively went to rescue players who lacked escape capabilities, clearing a kindergarten in the city and turning it into a sanctuary.

He and other players with combat power went out to search for supplies and clues, meanwhile continuing to rescue players who were almost killed by zombies.

He didn't know what a live stream was, only heard that it involved points and thus opened one, later rising on the leaderboard due to these actions. His live stream had the friendliest atmosphere, with everyone admiring this fearless soldier.

Today he was searching for supplies in a supermarket with three teammates when he suddenly heard footsteps downstairs. Realizing these might be survivors, he hurried over and coincidentally saw the zombie that had slipped through the net and killed it on the spot.

On seeing the faces of the survivors—two teenage students, he was glad he had been quick enough. Otherwise, these two young people might have ended up dead.

After the chocolate bag slapped into his hand, Yang Changxu was somewhat bewildered, until the boy in front of him flashed a bitter smile and moved the chocolate bag away to shake his hand, then he realized the gesture.

The barrage was still scrolling:

[Military brother is searching for supplies again today?]

[Wow, they encountered survivors… That girl looks so cute~]

[They don't look very strong, do they have combat power?]

[The survivor base is going to have more people, go Brother Changxu~]

[Eh? It looks like he's disabled; he seems to only have the right hand.]

[Heartbreaking, but lucky they met our soldier brother.]

[Heartbreaking +1]

[Is this an Army uncle? He really looks handsome.]

[Protecting the best of us, our soldier brother~]

...

"Hello, I am Yang Changxu, a soldier, currently searching for supplies with my companions," he said, looking directly at the young man in front of him and suddenly noticing the emptiness of the youth's left sleeve.

His heart was immediately filled with pity.

...Such an injury could not possibly be caused in the apocalypse; this person must have been disabled before the game began. Losing an arm and still struggling to survive up to now must have been incredibly difficult.

Civilians shouldn't have to endure this suffering; he should protect them.

"Hello, Su Ming'an, just a regular student," Su Ming'an said, smiling as he withdrew his hand.

Yang Changxu hadn't paid much attention to the barrage of messages and was unaware of any preliminary ranking, so he assumed the youth was disabled and still had to manage survival with a girl who looked incapable of defending herself. A wave of bitterness welled up in him as he said with a sunny smile to Su Ming'an, "Don't worry, there will be no danger anymore. We've established a sanctuary at the former site of the X City Rainbow Kindergarten. As long as you stay inside, surviving ten days shouldn't be a problem. We, the ones with combat power, will handle the issues of supplies and safety."

"Thank you, but we are about to leave... huh?" Su Ming'an noticed Yuanyuan signaling him with a gesture.

She was pointing upstairs, a chocolate bar clamped in her mouth.

"Is there something upstairs?" Su Ming'an turned to ask.

"Is there a third floor in the supermarket? We couldn't find a way up; there might be a locked stairway," Yang Changxu touched his head, unconcerned. "We've cleared out all the zombies here. It's convenient since it's night, so why not come back with us? It's always good to have more people, and we can watch out for each other."

Suddenly, he rarely noticed that his side of the screen was scrolling incredibly fast, as if frantically reminding him of something.

[Damn! That's Su Ming'an, Su Ming'an!]

[The forum still circulates the live recording of his amputation; I get goosebumps every time I watch it, wuuu.]

[What? Who are you talking about?]

[Preselection rank one hundred! That ruthless man in the live feed covered in blood, oh crap... He didn't even scream when his arm was severed; I suspect he has a pain-resistant physique.]

Yang Changxu looked up, a bit surprised, realizing that the youth had severed his own arm.

…Could an ordinary person really endure such a thing? Even in the army, he had seen few who could bear pain to this extent.

He was still in shock when he suddenly heard a strange series of footsteps. They didn't sound like those of a normal person but rather like water sloshing in a bucket — "clang clang."

Not coming from the front nor from behind.

It was as if… resounding right above their heads.

With a premonition, he looked up.

—And met a pair of blood-red eyes.

"Whoosh—!"

A zombie, different from the ordinary ones and resembling a blood-filled eye rather than a black void, its muscles not atrophied but seemingly free to move, suddenly jumped onto Yang Changxu's head—

"Bang!" He swung his steel pipe, but his heart skipped a beat.

…It missed.

That was definitely a mutated zombie, a cut above the ordinary ones.

As the whooshing sound neared, he couldn't manage to assume the best defensive pose before a chilling pain struck his arm, spreading rapidly from his heart.

[——HP-90!]

[——HP-30! (Basic zombie poison)]

…It was over.

His arm throbbed with a stinging and numbing sensation; it felt as though the evil intent determined to claim his life was climbing up, fiercely biting into his limb.

Yang Changxu's mind blanked for a moment, but he quickly steeled himself, thinking that since he was already infected, he might as well fight this damned zombie—

Then he suddenly saw a dazzling silver flash at the corner of his eye.

[——HP-562! (Fatal injury, Sharpness, Darkness Suppression!)]

A seemingly endless sharpness scratched past his cheek. He stepped back half a step and saw the one-handed girl holding a sword, with a chocolate bar in her mouth. Her black hair fluttered slightly behind her, a fuzzy patch still moving like snow on her, but her ice sword had already pierced through the head of the mutated zombie, bringing with it gusts of chilling wind.

"Crack." The chocolate bar in her mouth unexpectedly broke. Yuanyuan looked down at it on the ground with some dismay, the blade's light instantly retracted as she reached into her bag for another one.

Meanwhile, the body of the mutated zombie also collapsed lifelessly.