"That's true. I was doing pretty well back where we were. I knew some martial arts to begin with, and with a talent related to physical enhancement, my combat strength should rank fairly well among all the survivors."
Zhao Yong made no secret of his talent. There was nothing much worth hiding anyway.
"My talent is related to mutation. If there were combat rankings, I should rank fairly high in the entire region."
Xu Min spoke modestly.
"Uh, compared to you, I'm not very good at fighting, and I don't know how to use guns. My talent is related to luck. I can see where it's safer."
Li Ji actually didn't like her talent very much.
Her luck had never been very good before. She had worked desperately hard to achieve her goals, only to get nothing.
After she gained this talent, everything had reversed. By relying on luck alone, she could obtain supplies that others couldn't get even by risking their lives, without taking any risks herself.
That contrast left her somewhat lost and guilty. To her, this talent was rather ironic.
"Oh? Where is it safer right now, then?"
Xu Min was quite interested in this sort of talent. If luck could be quantified, that was a kind of science too.
Li Ji looked at Lin Ye with some embarrassment and said:
"It's very safe beside Mr. Lin. If I leave this building, I'll die here tonight."
What Li Ji didn't say was that it was relatively safe beside Zhao Yong too, but she could very easily die beside Xu Min.
"You can call me Lin. That's what everyone in the group calls me. Your talent is powerful, but don't rely on it too much. Safety is relative. Your own strength is the foundation of everything. For example, if I wanted to kill you right now, you'd definitely die."
Lin Ye liked this polite high school student. She reminded him of his younger self. After spending a few years getting by in society, that felt like a lifetime ago.
"I understand. Thank you."
Li Ji obediently picked up a pistol and began studying how to use it.
"My talent is a support ability. It lets me exchange for items and information. It doesn't help much in combat, but my combat strength is fairly decent."
Lin Ye also introduced his talent, though he didn't say much. He believed the others had done the same.
"Then can you use your talent to get some information now?"
Xu Min was also fiddling with a pistol. She learned quickly and shot accurately at close range.
"Unfortunately, I already used my talent this morning. I can only use it once a day."
Even if he hadn't used it, Lin Ye wouldn't have dared use his talent outside his shelter.
"So teams are matched according to strength? Stronger teams get harder missions too?"
Zhao Yong wasn't afraid. Instead, he seemed rather eager to try.
"That's very likely. And I think the harder the mission, the greater the rewards."
Lin Ye spoke while teaching Li Ji to shoot.
Based on his understanding of the system, the likelihood was over ninety percent.
"That's really... great."
Zhao Yong preferred this place to Blue Star. At least here, he wouldn't die in bed.
While they chatted, night fell completely.
The supermarket had a generator supplying power. Once the lights came on, it stood out in the dim ruins, but the nearby mutated creatures didn't come to attack them.
That was because the gigantic shadow in the distant center of the ruins had moved, and the entire ruins shook with it.
Vast numbers of mutated creatures in all sorts of shapes surged out from beneath the shadow's feet. Like a tide, they spread outward from the center of the ruins, extending throughout the entire ruins.
Every living thing in the ruins came under indiscriminate attack. The tide would wash away all living things in the ruins and bring their corpses back to the nest.
Lin Ye and Zhao Yong set up machine guns on the second floor and sprayed the mutated creatures charging toward the supermarket. Xu Min and Li Ji fired follow-up shots beside them, and large numbers of mutated creatures fell in front of the supermarket.
But these mutated creatures seemed endless, while their bullets were limited. If this offensive continued a while longer, they would have to fight large numbers of mutated creatures at close quarters.
"What do we do? We won't last long at this rate!"
Zhao Yong roared over the gunfire and the monsters' howls.
"Don't worry! There are plenty of narrow spaces in the supermarket. Once the ammunition belts run out, we can let them in and deal with them slowly. Hold the stairs first. If we can't hold them, everyone will have to fend for themselves. Li Ji, if you can't handle it, find somewhere to hide."
Lin Ye shouted too.
"Got it. Don't worry about me."
Li Ji spoke hurriedly.
The ammunition belts soon ran out. They pushed the remaining guns over to the stairs and continued shooting the mutated creatures. These creatures were like unfinished things only halfway through gestation, each grotesquely misshapen.
Lin Ye and Zhao Yong took turns firing, Li Ji fired follow-up shots, and Xu Min dealt with the monsters that got close. The four worked together seamlessly, holding out until their bullets were exhausted without letting any monsters charge up the stairs.
By then, the first floor was already piled full of monster corpses.
Looking at the monsters still pouring into the supermarket, Lin Ye sighed and said:
"Everyone's on their own now."
If I'd known, I would've found another gun shop. I'd even been thinking of taking some bullets back.
Lin Ye hadn't expected them to use up that much ammunition.
Although he had said everyone was on their own, the three didn't hurry to leave. Instead, they remained at the stairs, ready to hold out a little longer.
Lin Ye drew the Red Blade, Zhao Yong picked up a length of rebar with concrete attached, and Xu Min fought barehanded.
The three stood like a dam before the tide. Corpses soon filled the staircase, and the mutated monsters clambered over layer upon layer of bodies to meet their deaths in front of them.
At first, they still handled it with ease. Zhao Yong even had time to guide Lin Ye's blade movements. But people weren't machines, and with both their stamina and concentration being drained, someone was soon injured.
Xu Min was the first to be injured. Women naturally had less stamina than men, and she had no weapon either, making her the most susceptible to injury.
Fortunately, her talent was extremely powerful. Her injuries didn't reduce her combat strength, but instead made her even fiercer. Before, she occasionally needed two punches to kill a mutated creature. Now, she could blast one apart with a single punch.
Zhao Yong was the second to be injured. Although the old man was seasoned and fierce, he was getting on in years, after all, and his endurance was somewhat lacking. As time went on, his movements couldn't keep up with his reactions.
Lin Ye, on the other hand, was in good shape. The Psychic Ring's effects were pronounced, and combined with the perception provided by the Cross Necklace, he could control the Psionic Energy within him to flow into every fatigued part of his body.
Thus, of the three, only Lin Ye remained completely unscathed.
Li Ji wasn't idle either. She kept helping from the side, sometimes switching places with an injured person and holding the line for a few minutes. Her claim that she wasn't good at fighting had clearly been modesty.
As his control over Psionic Energy grew more practiced, Lin Ye's slashes became increasingly fluid. Psionic Energy flowed through his body, reinforcing every point where he exerted force, and his movements grew faster and faster.
Just as he was hacking at monsters and getting a feel for cutting techniques, a group of monsters distinctly different from the other misshapen creatures charged into the supermarket.
Before you continue