Safe Zone

After leaving the hotel, Bai Yaoyao killed a level-one zombie with a single Spatial Blade.

Doggie stepped forward, dug out a Crystal Core with a claw, and fawningly offered it to Bai Yaoyao.

Bai Yaoyao smiled, patted Doggie's head, and put the Crystal Core into her storage space.

Monkey said, "Should we check out the mall across the street? I'm dying to do some zero-dollar shopping!"

"This is downtown. There can't be anything left. People must've looted it all ages ago," Keke said.

"Let's take a look. We can collect steel shelving, iron, and stuff like that to exchange for points later," Bai Yaoyao said after some thought. They would be fighting zombies wherever they went anyway.

The moment they entered the mall, everyone was speechless.

Perhaps because the air couldn't circulate indoors, and rainwater had seeped in too, the place not only reeked but was also littered with zombie and human corpses. They were covered in all kinds of insects, moss, and fungi. Some bodies had even started growing mushrooms.

Shattered glass covered the floor, and almost every shop had been smashed and vandalized beyond recognition.

Most of the shops near the entrance sold cosmetics, but nearly all their products had been thrown onto the floor, leaving the counters empty. The once-glamorous stores had become utterly dilapidated and desolate.

Malls usually had a supermarket on the first basement level, but Ability Users had violently destroyed the escalators. Every step was gone.

Some people simply thought that way: If it's useless to me and I don't want it, you can't have it either. If I can't take it away, neither can you. Better to destroy it.

Bai Yaoyao felt nothing in particular at the sight. This was normal in the Apocalypse. Under such extreme, brutal conditions, human selfishness was amplified without limit.

Ever since entering the mall, Bai Yaoyao had felt a peculiar unease, yet probing with her mental power revealed nothing unusual.

After so many years as an assassin, followed by ten years struggling through the Apocalypse, that sense of danger had saved her more times than she could count. Without further hesitation, she made an immediate decision: retreat.

"Move! Get out!" Bai Yaoyao said. No one wasted words; they followed her at once.

Less than ten seconds after entering, she led everyone back out. Forget those Crystal Cores. It stank too damn much.

What Bai Yaoyao didn't know was that a level-four zombie was sitting in a corner on the mall's first basement level, eyes closed, constantly releasing poison gas. Around a hundred corpses lay beside it.

Sensing people entering the mall, it opened its eyes in excitement. Just as it was about to follow their scent, the scent vanished. It curled up in the corner again and continued releasing poison gas, with no intention of leaving.

Only after leaving the mall did the sense of danger in Bai Yaoyao's heart gradually fade.

The area didn't seem very safe, so they simply drove straight toward the northern part of the city to check out the Safe Zone. Doggie led the way with Little Crook on its back. Little Crook immobilized the zombies, and one swipe from Dog Brother's claw was more than even a level-three zombie could withstand.

Whenever they encountered mutated zombies, everyone took turns getting out to kill them. Their journey was already going remarkably smoothly, but even so, it was late at night by the time they reached the northern part of the city.

"Who's there? Stop the car! Stop!"

They were stopped about two hundred meters from the Safe Zone's tent area.

Bai Yaoyao had just gotten out to speak with them when the young man who had called out said, "It's you-the Dark Night Squad?"

Bai Yaoyao thought back. The man in front of her seemed to have accompanied Captain Meng Qilin to the villa district, so she said, "That's us."

"Great! Captain Meng sent people to the villa district to find you today, but they couldn't find you. And now you've come here!"

"We must've just missed each other," Bai Yaoyao replied casually, not knowing what Captain Meng wanted with them.

"Come with me. I'll notify Captain Meng!"

"Sure. Sorry for the trouble, handsome."

The young soldier immediately ran off, blushing.

Bai Yaoyao and the others followed him into the makeshift Safe Zone.

Perhaps because it was late and everyone was asleep, the place seemed fairly quiet. Still, the tightly packed rows of tents made it clear that there were plenty of people here.

"Captain Bai! Haha, we meet again!" Meng Qilin said excitedly when he saw the Dark Night Squad.

The zombies had grown much stronger after the rain, severely hampering rescue operations. They were also short on manpower, and several areas hadn't been visited at all. Meng Qilin was so anxious that his mouth was covered in sores.

Over the past few days, organizing the Safe Zone's Ability Users to go out on rescue missions had been an enormous headache. Every one of them thought they were exceptional, and none would listen to the others. They were utterly inefficient, yet still had the nerve to demand rewards from him.

Only after killing two ringleaders today had he managed to quell the unrest, but that did nothing to solve the underlying problem.

That was why he wanted to work with the Dark Night Squad. Whether he paid in supplies or Crystal Cores, the most important thing was to gather the remaining survivors and head to City D as soon as possible. The supplies they had brought wouldn't last much longer.

But when he sent people to find the Dark Night Squad during the day, they discovered that the squad had already left the villa district. He had been fretting over it when a subordinate told him the Dark Night Squad had arrived, and he hurried out in excitement.

"Hello, Captain Meng. Sorry to disturb your rest so late at night," Bai Yaoyao said politely.

Captain Meng smiled. "Not at all, not at all. I haven't gone to bed yet. Come into the room... er, the tent, and rest for a bit. There's something I'd like to discuss with your Dark Night Squad."

"Sure. I happen to need your help with something too." Bai Yaoyao could roughly guess what Meng Qilin wanted to discuss.

They followed Captain Meng Qilin to the center of the Safe Zone, where there was a fairly spacious tent, though it still wasn't large enough to fit everyone.

So Bai Yaoyao asked Fatty and Stone to join her for the discussion, while the others rested in the tent next door.

There wasn't even a table inside, just a few cardboard boxes in a corner with some bedding beside them. This was probably where Meng Qilin slept at night.

The young man who had led them in brought over a few stools. None of them were fussy, so they simply sat down in a circle.

"Captain Bai, here's the situation. We're severely short-handed right now, and our rescue efforts are progressing far too slowly. We'd like your help with the rescues.

"Of course, we can pay you accordingly in supplies or Crystal Cores. Would that work for you? If you need anything else, please feel free to tell me," Meng Qilin said sincerely.

Bai Yaoyao considered it briefly, then said, "We can help with the rescues, but we'll only be responsible for clearing out the zombies. Your people will need to handle things afterward, like dealing with the rescued survivors and distributing supplies.

"Put simply, we'll do the fighting and nothing else."

Bai Yaoyao knew her own temperament and her companions' all too well. They couldn't handle those tedious tasks. If they ran into anyone looking for trouble, they might lose their tempers and want to kill them.