The Great Granary

The granary was in a town not far from the shopping district, roughly a twenty-minute drive away.

They sent a rescue message to Headquarters that night. The logistics squad dispatched to collect the survivors arrived with a convoy of buses, though not until noon the next day.

"Sorry, we're so sorry! Our squad was pretty far away. We headed here as fast as we could once we got the message. I hope we haven't held you up."

The young woman leading the logistics team kept apologizing. Wang Weihu went over to handle the handover and assured her it was fine. "We've already sent you the survivor list. Quite a few of them have suffered psychological trauma."

The young woman nodded in understanding. "Don't worry! We have a healing-type ability user on our squad. Her mutation is Dreamweaving, and she used to be a psychologist!"

That put Wang Weihu at ease. He hadn't expected such an unusual ability to exist, though, and couldn't help marveling, "These abilities just keep getting more amazing."

While he handled the handover, Qin Luo discussed their route with Bai Shu and Chen Xiaofei. Xu Duoduo joined in, and the three men and one zombie gathered around the map.

"Didn't I say we shouldn't take another mission? How are we supposed to follow this route now?"

"Drop it and pick a different one."

"No way! That'd be embarrassing. Since when does the 3A Team back out of a mission?!"

"Xiaofei's right. That'd be embarrassing! Why don't we take one more and finish them all quickly?"

Xu Duoduo listened to the three of them discuss taking missions as casually as deciding where to eat that day. No wonder everyone on the forums called the 3A Team battle maniacs. With them charging to the front lines every day, how could they not be formidable?

Qin Luo finally settled it. "Let's go! That's the plan! We'll figure it out on the way. Quit overthinking!"

He hated dithering more than anything.

Bai Shu pushed up his glasses and stood as well. "All right. Old Wang should be done with the handover by now. Let's go."

Chen Xiaofei stood and dusted off his pants too. They had spread the map on the ground and crouched around it. They had no choice-with the little zombie being so tiny, she couldn't see the map in their hands if they stood...

The little zombie had no idea. She stood too, copying Chen Xiaofei as she patted her pants.

Qin Luo grinned at the sight and reached out to ruffle Xu Duoduo's hair. "Are your pants even dirty? Why are you patting them? Have to copy a little of everything, huh?"

She really was like a child.

Xu Duoduo glanced at him, then pulled out her teething stick and bit down on it with loud crunches.

Chen Xiaofei immediately rubbed his arms. "Ugh, that sound!" It gave him goosebumps every time.

Bai Shu wisely slipped away without a word, turning toward their Off-Road Vehicle.

Chen Xiaofei immediately followed.

Seeing how hard she was biting, Qin Luo was about to tell her not to grind her teeth so forcefully, but Wang Weihu called for them to get in the vehicle just then, and he never got the chance.

He scooped up the little zombie, carried her over, and tucked her into the back seat.

Business came first.

The logistics squad saluted them as their team left.

The survivors were numb, frightened, or overjoyed, too overwhelmed to spare any attention for the "heroes" who had saved them. Only the young store manager and the dozen or so orphans waved hard. "Stay safe!"

Wang Weihu honked the horn in acknowledgment.

With so many survivors here, the logistics squad would need a while to get everyone settled.

Their combat squad couldn't afford to linger too long. They had to take on as many missions as possible.

"Go, go, go! Off to the granaries! Once we clear out these few, we'll probably have enough food to last us ages!"

Chen Xiaofei cheered from the passenger seat, his baby face brimming with excitement!

Ping'an County, City C.

The roar of an engine shattered the stillness, sending a group of zombies on the road flying.

This modified Off-Road Vehicle was a dream to drive. They would never have dared do this in their old one.

They cleared out another wave of zombies.

These low-level zombies shouldn't have had any mutant cores. They should have needed to evolve into one-star monsters first, and mutant cores were scarce in the early days of the apocalypse. But that was the strange part: along the way, they had collected over a dozen cores, all translucent pale yellow.

The mood inside the vehicle grew a little tense.

Qin Luo examined the mutant core in his hand. "Zombie cores are pale yellow?"

Chen Xiaofei grew serious too. "Exactly! Isn't this proportion a little off? And the zombies around here are more agile than the ones elsewhere."

Bai Shu checked the forums, but there was no information about this area. City C was huge, and combat squads were still desperately short of personnel.

Most combat squads currently belonged to official units. Even ordinary people who gained abilities needed time and effort to adapt to the apocalypse.

That left them severely short-handed. Many places had yet to receive rescue teams, and naturally, there was no information on areas no one had entered.

Ping'an County was one such place. Headquarters knew there were granaries here, but they couldn't be sure whether any grain remained inside or whether other ability users had taken it. They were worried about sending a combat squad on a wasted trip.

Really, they simply couldn't spare the attention. Rescuing survivors took priority everywhere.

That left the 3A Team with an opportunity.

Bai Shu recorded everything about the area, planning to write a report and upload it to the forums later. "This means zombies have started leveling up faster too."

Chen Xiaofei kept grumbling. "Why do we level up so slowly when we work ourselves to death? These zombies just wander around and reach one star?"

His complaints lightened the mood in the vehicle considerably, and everyone couldn't help laughing.

"But now we have food for Little Class Monitor! These dozen or so will keep her fed for ages!"

As Chen Xiaofei spoke, he turned to look into the back seat with a grin.

Qin Luo held the mutant core. Despite sitting in a filthy zombie's head, once removed, this marvelous little thing repelled both water and dust.

It was spotless.

Crystal clear.

He casually offered it to Xu Duoduo. "Want some? Shall we give you all of these?"

To his surprise, Xu Duoduo politely refused, her little face scrunching up. She wouldn't eat zombie cores. It always felt like eating some part of a human body.

Little Zombie refused.

Qin Luo smiled at Chen Xiaofei. "See? She doesn't like these. She wouldn't even eat the Mutated Snake Person's core."

Chen Xiaofei scratched his head. "Ah, if she won't eat them, that's fine. We'll find something else later."

Bai Shu added, "Not a problem. We can trade the zombie cores with other people."

None of them called her picky or hard to feed. They simply felt that if she didn't like something, she didn't like it-they could find her something else to eat. No one thought she was being fussy.

Little Zombie felt even her dead body warming up.

Speaking of the Mutated Snake Person's core, it was probably the highest-grade core they could get their hands on.

Bai Shu said, "Since Little Class Monitor won't eat it, let's sell them all to the base for points when we get back."

Everyone agreed.

Soon, they spotted a vast expanse of enormous granaries.

They looked like yurts.

The white structures stood one after another on level ground, filled with stored grain.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded.

Xu Duoduo's eyes, however, gleamed. Oh, wow! So many more of Shishi's inventory slots are going to be filled!