Scavenging Room 602

Wang Tao had not played with Walkie-talkies much, but he knew they were useful.

Without a network, phones were basically useless. But Walkie-talkies worked differently from phones—perhaps they could still be used to communicate?

The old guy must have been a radio enthusiast. There were four Walkie-talkies of different designs here, along with their boxes.

Besides the Walkie-talkies, there were two radios, one large and one small. The smaller one used batteries, while the larger one could generate power by hand-cranking.

Wang Tao fiddled with them briefly. Both the Walkie-talkies and radios produced nothing but static, with no useful information to be heard.

He was somewhat disappointed, but Wang Tao was in no hurry. He could take them home and test them slowly.

After searching the room for quite a while longer, Wang Tao took everything he thought might be useful.

There were two suitcases, packed to the brim. Wang Tao also found a bedsheet and bundled up everything else in it. Whether he could use it or not was beside the point—anything he could carry, he took.

After confirming that he had not missed anything for the time being, Wang Tao packed everything up. On his way out, he locked Room 602 and took the key with him.

Just as he locked Room 602, bang, bang, bang suddenly came from Room 601 next door, followed by a hoarse roar through the security door.

Wang Tao immediately focused.

"There really are zombies in there..."

He set down his things and went to Room 601's door. Seeing that it was locked tight, he relaxed a little.

As Wang Tao remembered, Room 601 belonged to a middle-aged couple. Their workplaces seemed to be fairly close, and they always went to and from work together.

"In other words, there should be two zombies inside..."

Wang Tao's eyes flickered. He could handle one zombie, but two might be another matter... Still, it was too early to worry about that, since he had no way to open the security door.

"I need to find some tools for prying open doors or picking locks. As for breaking it down by force, setting aside whether it would even work, the noise would definitely be huge..."

Zombies were everywhere outside. Although there were no zombies in the hallway for now, Wang Tao still felt that he could not make too much noise. Even if the zombies could not get in, if they all blocked the entrance to the building, he would be unable to leave.

Wang Tao carried a twenty-four-inch suitcase in each hand, with a large bundle on his back and another hanging around his neck as he headed up to the fifth floor.

After returning home, Wang Tao found places to put everything away.

Setting aside the other things, the food alone was enough to last half a month. Combined with the food he already had, it should last around twenty days.

Before discovering his ability, Wang Tao would definitely have chosen to wait for rescue if he had this much food. But after discovering it, he was unwilling to sit around and wait for death.

"Let's call it a day. Tomorrow, I'll see whether there are any other rooms I can get into. As for now... I'll treat myself!"

With food on hand, Wang Tao felt much more confident. He took out all the food that would not keep for long and prepared to cook himself a feast.

As for how to cook it, he was not particular. After washing all the ingredients, he tossed in a block of Hot Pot Base and stewed everything together in one pot.

"Smells amazing!"

Perhaps it was just psychological, but Wang Tao felt that this huge pot of food smelled better than anything he had ever cooked before.

He served himself a big bowl of rice and sat down. Just as he was about to start eating, he heard his door again.

Knock, knock, knock—

This time, the knocking was urgent but very light.

Wang Tao immediately picked up the Homemade Short Spear beside him and went to look through the peephole.

A woman with her hair piled high in a bun stood outside, staring nervously at Wang Tao's door.

"Her?"

The person outside was none other than Ding Yuqin, the neighbor across the hall—the Sister-in-law Zhao Yuan had messaged him to look after.

Wang Tao did not open the door right away. Instead, he first fastened the chain behind the security door. It was the apocalypse now; one could never be too careful.

Outside, Ding Yuqin glanced at the hallway, then at Wang Tao's door, her face full of anxiety. Her own door was still open. If anything happened downstairs, she would run back immediately.

If possible, she truly did not want to come out. Crossing those few steps of hallway had already taken her several hours of agonizing deliberation.

But she had no choice. She had run out of food long ago. If she did not think of a solution soon, even if zombies did not bite her to death, she would starve to death.

Of course, there was another decisive reason that had pushed her out the door: she had personally seen Wang Tao kill the zombie wandering in the stairwell! She had not seen the battle clearly. Though the peephole offered a wide view, it was still limited. After all, Wang Tao and the zombie had fought all the way downstairs.

But she knew Wang Tao had won! The only zombie in the hallway was dead!

She had never expected Wang Tao to be so strong. Before losing contact with her, her husband had told her how terrifying those zombies were. Forget cold weapons—even with a handgun, one might not necessarily win. Many police officers had died horribly in the jaws of zombies.

Yet Wang Tao had killed a zombie alone with a cold weapon. It had to be said—he was incredible.

At that time, Ding Yuqin had felt the urge to run out.

But she still did not dare. She was not only afraid of other zombies, but even more afraid of Wang Tao—because she did not know whether Wang Tao had been infected. If Wang Tao was infected, would she not be walking straight into a tiger's den? So she waited several more hours.

When she saw Wang Tao return home, then come back out carrying a huge pile of bags from upstairs, she guessed that he most likely had not been infected.

Information online said that although the incubation period after infection varied, most infected people shared one trait: they developed negative symptoms such as weakness, fever, coughing, and the like.

Wang Tao had lively carried so much stuff downstairs. Clearly, there was nothing wrong with his health.

Even so, she was still somewhat afraid to come out. After all, stepping through that door required tremendous courage.

But now, as her stomach growled and she smelled the tempting aroma faintly drifting over from next door... she truly could not bear it any longer.

Only those who had suffered hunger knew that hunger was more terrifying than any addiction. Eating was an instinct for survival. When someone was truly close to starving to death, as long as there was something to eat, they could do anything.

Click. Room 501's door opened.

Wang Tao's face appeared behind the door.

"Sister-in-law, what is it?"

Seeing that face, Ding Yuqin froze for a moment. Was this really Wang Tao, the man whose appearance could make children cry? Where was the huge scar on his face? Though she was astonished, the voice and height were indeed Wang Tao's. Ding Yuqin had no time to dwell on it. She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and spoke softly.

"Ahem, um, Little Wang... Wang Tao, seeing as we're neighbors, could you lend your Sister-in-law some food..."