"You Still Dare Talk Back!"

Unable to find answers from Li Wei and unwilling to sit around waiting for death, David and the others found a spot to discuss ways to save themselves.

But the monster's tentacles alone were bigger than they were. Could the fragile supermarket really keep those monsters out?

The supermarket manager looked at the glass façade by the front entrance and said, "We can block the glass with dog food. We can tape up the broken parts. Hopefully, it'll work..."

None of them had much faith in that plan, but they were even less willing to do nothing and wait to die, so they all agreed.

"Maybe we should ask those soldiers. Didn't that Asian guy say it? This is another mess made by the military base!" A hippie in a blue bandana jerked his head in a certain direction.

Everyone instinctively looked over. All they could see were shelves, yet they could already "see through" them to the three soldiers who had come out on leave.

Brent clenched his fists. Thinking of Li Wei from earlier, he awkwardly changed the gesture into a raised hand. "I agree."

David and Ollie naturally felt that this was a bad idea, but if they wanted to make a useful plan, information was key!

Dan and several others offered no opinions, and silence fell over the group.

They looked at one another, but no one was willing to speak first.

"Hey, everyone, are you discussing something?" Just then, a woman's voice cut into their circle.

The group jumped and turned as one. When they saw the utterly unremarkable Amanda, they finally relaxed.

It was not as though this was some shameful secret, so they simply included Amanda in the discussion.

When Amanda learned what they were thinking, she looked puzzled. "Why not just ask them directly? It's just... a very simple question. They're trapped here too. Only by sticking together can we escape, right?"

Why not just ask them directly?

"That's a good question!" Brent straightened up, pulling his back away from the shelf. He looked at the somewhat naive woman, anger on his face, and said word by word, "If all we had to do was ask nicely for them to tell us about the damn secret experiments the federal government is conducting, then we wouldn't be agonizing over this here. Do you understand?"

"If we want to question them, we might need guns." A middle-aged man with a small mustache also looked at Amanda and shook his head slightly. "I don't trust their discipline. They must have guns on them!"

The supermarket manager undid the first button of his shirt, suddenly finding the atmosphere a little oppressive.

The silent David nodded silently as well. They did not live in some big city. They still had enough sense not to truly believe the nonsense those politicians spouted.

No sensible person would trust those soldiers. Wayne was a local, so perhaps he could be trusted a little, but the other two were troops stationed here from elsewhere. They could not be trusted.

"Guns?" Amanda said.

Everyone nodded. The mustached man looked toward the mist outside and said, "I have a hunting rifle, but it's in the trunk of my car outside."

The energy that had just risen in the others immediately drained away again. Saying that was the same as saying nothing.

But Amanda then pulled out the very thing they desperately wanted from the purse at her waist: a silver revolver.

"I have one... My husband gave it to me for protection when I went out."

At the sight of the gun, everyone sprang to their feet and stared excitedly at the revolver in Amanda's hand.

Now that they had a gun, all they needed was a simple plan. Then they could seize the two soldiers stationed here from elsewhere, torture them, and force information out of them about the military base in the forest!

After finalizing the plan, they organized people to pile large bags of dog food and cat food beneath the glass façade, building a low wall. They also made plenty of lighting devices, turning the supermarket into a slightly better, though still riddled-with-holes, defensive position.

Late at night, Li Wei leaned against some cardboard boxes and entered a temporary state of dormancy.

He could keep his mind highly active for a very, very long time. He simply chose not to, because he wanted to live more like he was living, rather than merely surviving.

He had plenty of time now and did not need to worry about his lifespan at all. How to arrange such a long stretch of time was a true test of his imagination.

Until he thought of an answer, Li Wei would continue using the lifestyle he was familiar with.

Half an hour after entering dormancy, strange sounds began to linger around him. At first, they sounded utterly chaotic, but if he calmed himself and listened carefully, he could make out the cries of many creatures.

Sparrows chirping, male lions roaring, venomous snakes flicking their tongues... and the disordered chatter of humans.

All those sounds blended together without the slightest sense of artistry. Instead, they formed a buzzing that made his head feel ready to explode.

Even after instinctively shutting down his hearing, Li Wei was still forcibly fed those bizarre, ethereal sounds.

Only after he transformed the mucus-secreting organ he had gained by devouring monsters in the mist into an ordinary human organ, then released the mucus he produced outside his body, did those sounds gradually fade from his consciousness.

His eyes glowed red in the darkness as he opened them. He felt that things had started getting interesting from this point on!

A small patch of ground had been corroded by the mucus and was giving off white smoke. Li Wei no longer felt like resting for the moment and prepared to go outside to find more monsters to study.

But the moment he sat up, the corner of his eye caught several figures heading toward the storage room.

Sensing the scent of gossip in the air, Li Wei quietly followed them out of curiosity about those people.

On their first night in the supermarket, many people could not sleep. Though they saw those figures heading toward the storage room, no one was interested in meddling.

Just like that, several figures passed before some of the people and entered the well-soundproofed storage room.

A moment later, Li Wei emerged from beside the shelves in aisle four, stepped over a man reeking of alcohol on the floor, and headed toward the storage room.

He pushed open the first door, and his hearing caught a somewhat heated conversation inside.

"Tie them up!"

"Tell us what exactly you're researching at your base in the mountains!"

"Be careful the gun doesn't go off. Give it to someone more reliable! I'll talk! We'll tell you everything!"

"Come clean! Did you create the mist outside?"

"Yes! We were conducting an experiment..."

Hearing that this was internal information about the U.S. military base indicated by Key's arrow, Li Wei stopped hiding and entered through the second door, where the lights were still on.

"Save some good stuff for me!"

"Ah!!!" *9

The sudden extra voice startled everyone in the room. Once they saw it was Li Wei, they slowly relaxed.

The supermarket manager saw him and hurriedly pointed at the three people tied to the racks. "Uh, we're interrogating them. We want to know how the mist outside appeared."

David, Brent, and the others all nodded in agreement, their expressions tense for some reason.

Li Wei wore an amused expression. He narrowed his eyes and stared at everyone present until they began to feel uneasy, then revealed a look of realization. "So that's how it is! You should've said so earlier. If you had, I would've come too!"

After saying that, he strode forward and gave each of the three people tied to the racks a hard slap across the face. Only after hitting them did he snarl, "Are you going to talk or not?!"

"I was just about to!"

"You're the one who interrupted me!"

"Fuck, why did you hit me?!"

"You still dare talk back!"

Quack, quack, quack!