Picked Up a Post-Apocalyptic World #51-95
Author: 幻想下的星空
Date: 2026-02-28T17:53:07+00:00

Chapter 51: Day Three of the Event

After assigning everyone their respective tasks, Liu Mingyu found Li Wenbo and said, “Po Zi, come with me. Let’s go pick up the grain shipment.”

Once everyone received their orders and went about their work, Li Wenbo had been assigned as the security team leader. However, with Lu Haipeng guarding the perimeter, his services weren’t needed at the moment.

When Li Wenbo heard they were going to pick up grain, he was overjoyed and quickly agreed.

Actually, Lu Haipeng and the others harbored some doubts about Liu Mingyu’s identity. How exactly did he manage to get all this grain? And when they were in the inner city, he could directly have the grain transported inside. Could he be one of the five giants secretly operating in the shadows?

Whatever the case, the grain was real, and they had decided to follow Liu Mingyu’s lead.

Liu Mingyu was naturally not some hidden giant from the settlement. This trip out was simply to make it convenient to transport food back next time.

Li Wenbo drove while Liu Mingyu sat beside him. The two drove a small truck toward the small house Liu Mingyu had previously purchased.

This was the place where Liu Mingyu had always stored food with them.

Ten minutes later, the two arrived at the small house.

Liu Mingyu opened the car door and got out, instructing, “Po Zi, wait here for a moment. I’ll go check if the grain has arrived.”

“Okay.”

Actually, Liu Mingyu could directly traverse to the real world in front of them. To people in the apocalyptic world, Liu Mingyu had always been in their sight.

However, next time he came, he would still need to avoid their surveillance. He was just getting an early start.

Walking into the house, Liu Mingyu silently thought “traverse” in his mind.

In the next moment, Liu Mingyu appeared in the rental house in the real world.

Phew, the air in the real world still smells better. The other side is filled with the stench of corpses.

Liu Mingyu took stock of his gains from this traversal.

This time, he had brought 520 jin of table salt, 1000 jin of rice, and 500 jin of cured meat.

He had given Lu Haipeng and the others 20 jin of salt, 1000 jin of rice, and 500 jin of cured meat. The remaining 500 jin of salt had been sold to Liu Fugui for 80 energy crystals, totaling 80 jin of energy crystals.

After repaying the 6 jin of energy crystals borrowed from Liu Fugui at the auction house, he had 74 jin left. Then he spent 36 jin on slaves, leaving 38 jin. After buying five large trucks for 5 jin, he finally had 33 jin of energy crystals remaining.

He had exchanged these 33 jin of energy crystals for 235 jin of gold with Liu Fugui.

Now, besides the scattered energy crystals remaining from killing zombies at the resort, Liu Mingyu only had these 235 jin of gold on him.

The 235 jin of gold should be enough to handle today’s final event.

In terms of cash, after two days of gold sales, he had roughly 67 million. If he sold all this gold today, his assets would exceed 100 million.

The achievement of being a billionaire had been reached so quickly.

Looking at his system information again:

Name: Liu Mingyu

Strength: 27

Constitution: 28

Agility: 24

Spirit: 11

Points: 100

Traversal count: 2

There were no changes in his attributes. He didn’t know if it was because the time was too short or if the drug’s effects had worn off.

100 points was barely enough to scrape by. He wouldn’t use them for now since there was nothing urgent that needed them.

The traversal count remaining was 2. It seemed this count increased based on one day in the real world. He had stayed a day in the apocalyptic world but it hadn’t increased the traversal count.

With limited storage space and now having to feed a large group of people, Liu Mingyu planned to accumulate more traversal counts before going to the apocalyptic world again, and also test if there was a limit to the count.

He called Shi Dawei, and the two had breakfast at a stall downstairs.

Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop.

Manager’s Office.

Liu Mingyu took out an iron box that was 40 cm long, 15 cm wide, and 15 cm high. This was an iron box he had found at a hardware store.

Inside was the 235 jin of gold he had acquired. Despite the box not being large, this 235 jin of gold still couldn’t fill it completely.

Liu Mingyu naturally wasn’t really putting the gold in the iron box. If he really put 235 jin of gold in there, the weight alone would be enough to knock him out.

Although he could lift it, why not make it easier if he could?

The gold was taken out from the storage space after arriving at the manager’s office when Shi Dawei wasn’t looking.

Liu Mingyu opened the iron box and instructed, “Da Wei, this is today’s shop inventory. You arrange it.”

Shi Dawei stared at Liu Mingyu in shock and asked in surprise, “Bro, you didn’t rob some gold shop, did you?”

When the iron box opened, Shi Dawei was blinded by the full box of gold. He noticed the gold Liu Mingyu brought out today was different from the previous two days.

Today’s gold had been crafted into various pieces of jewelry, ready to be sold directly.

Shi Dawei casually took out some gold and found these pieces of jewelry were all very exquisite, with luxurious designs, and could be considered top quality.

Liu Mingyu joked, “I run a gold shop myself. Why would I rob one?”

Shi Dawei also laughed, “Alright, I’ll arrange for people to put these pieces in the display cases. I believe we can definitely sell all this gold today.”

Just selling rough bracelets for two days had been so crazy. Today’s jewelry was so exquisite, each piece a top quality item. He believed sales wouldn’t be too bad.

As Shi Dawei spoke, he reached out to lift the iron box.

After pulling several times, he couldn’t move it.

Liu Mingyu laughed, “You little rascal, what are you thinking? It’s 235 jin of gold. You think you can lift it with two hands? Have people take it to the display cases in batches.”

Shi Dawei awkwardly rubbed his hair and said, “I thought it was small and you had just lifted it so easily with one hand.”

As he spoke, he suddenly realized something and asked in surprise, “235 jin of gold, and you lifted it with one hand?”

At this moment, Liu Mingyu also realized he had lifted the box too easily earlier.

He didn’t explain further. He walked over and lifted the iron box filled with gold with one hand.

Heavy, very heavy.

But he could still barely lift it. He directly carried the gold outside.

By nine o’clock, all the sales ladies in the shop had arrived. After receiving the gold, they quickly sorted and categorized it into the display cases.

“Da Wei, after today’s event is over, you go contact the gold shop’s supply channels yourself. When the time comes, you can have them supply goods for you to sell.”

This three days’ worth of gold had all been transported from the apocalyptic world by Liu Mingyu, but this wasn’t a long-term solution. It was just a method to quickly accumulate the first pot of gold in a short time.

He wasn’t saying he would give up on the gold from the apocalyptic world, but rather wanted to sell it slowly.

After all, if a shop never restocks but keeps selling, it would attract unwanted attention.

Procuring goods from jewelry factories while also selling gold from the apocalyptic world.

Of course, even if the gold came from the apocalyptic world, the gold shop would buy it at normal prices, forming a good cycle of procurement and sales.

“No problem. I’ll start handling it tomorrow,” Shi Dawei nodded.

Ten o’clock.

The gold shop doors opened on time.

The crowd that had rushed over quickly filled the gold shop.

Today’s display cases contained finished jewelry products. The exquisite designs greatly increased the purchase desire of customers who already had buying intentions.

Liu Mingyu could almost see countless sums of money flying toward him.

Chapter 52: Renting a Warehouse

With Shi Dawei taking care of the gold shop, Liu Mingyu didn’t invest too much energy into that side of things.

He had other matters to attend to. He needed to rent a warehouse to store the large quantities of food he planned to purchase.

The food for over three hundred people wasn’t a small amount like before. Transporting large quantities of food to the dormitory wasn’t practical.

Even if it was just storing food in a warehouse, that wasn’t ideal either. It would be better to establish a trading company.

A trading company operating normally, using its name to purchase food, would be more reliable.

Unfortunately, there were too few people available in the real world. For now, he could only rent a warehouse temporarily to get by for a while.

For renting a warehouse, going through a real estate agent was still the most appropriate approach.

Real estate agents in each area were interconnected, sharing resources. Any agent could tell him where warehouses were available for rent in the area.

He went to the same agency he had used to rent his apartment.

Arriving at the agency, he presented his requirements to them.

“A large warehouse area, preferably in the suburbs.”

A large warehouse area meant more storage space. He could purchase more items at once and store them there. Later, he could set up a teleportation point inside. When he needed something, he could just take it directly from the warehouse.

He wouldn’t have to run around to different places to buy things every time he came, which wasn’t cost-effective.

His goal was to convert the high technology from the apocalypse into real-world technology. How could he spend every day running around for food? Of course, to better accomplish this task, having food supplies was essential.

As for why he chose the suburbs, naturally it was to avoid drawing attention. Large quantities of supplies frequently entering the warehouse—it was better if fewer people saw. Also, suburban warehouses were relatively cheaper.

The agent was quite surprised that Liu Mingyu had just rented two apartments and was now renting a warehouse. Was he doing e-commerce online?

It seemed this business was quite profitable. He should have a chance to learn more about it himself. Putting aside his surprise, he opened his computer, set the conditions, and immediately several suitable warehouses popped up.

The agent asked, “Mr. Liu, there’s a factory for rent along Jia Hai Highway. It’s 5,000 square meters. Would that work for you?”

Jia Hai Highway—Liu Mingyu knew of it. It was in the suburbs of Jia City, where many factories were concentrated. He hadn’t been there before, so he needed to inspect it in person to determine if it was suitable.

A 5,000 square meter factory warehouse was quite large. It should be sufficient for the short term.

Liu Mingyu nodded. “Alright, but I need to go to the site to check the situation.”

“Of course. Let me contact the owner.” The agent made a phone call, and after a while said, “The owner is waiting there. Let’s head over now.”

Liu Mingyu got into the agent’s Jetta and drove toward Jia Hai Highway.

It wasn’t rush hour at the moment, and there weren’t many vehicles on Jia Hai Highway. They arrived in about fifteen minutes.

The factory warehouse was right along Jia Hai Highway, with very good transportation access.

Getting out of the car, he saw a middle-aged man standing at the factory entrance.

“Mr. Liu, this way please.” The agent went down to handle the handover with the other party, then came over and said.

The three of them walked through the entrance.

Before them was a spacious factory building.

Big, very big.

It had been cleaned spotlessly inside. It was clear that the other party had already prepared it for rent.

Such a large factory—it seemed this factory had been quite substantial before.

Liu Mingyu walked around and was quite satisfied. The only flaw was that this factory building seemed even larger originally, and was now divided by a partition wall.

Liu Mingyu pointed to the partition wall nearby and asked, “May I ask, what’s the story with this partition wall?”

“You can probably tell, Mr. Liu, that originally this factory was connected to the one next door. Now that we’re renting it out separately, naturally we need to divide them.” The middle-aged man replied.

There was another factory next door, which meant the confidentiality was much lower. Liu Mingyu’s original plan was to have stronger confidentiality, which didn’t align with his intentions.

But this location was still good. Even if vehicles came and went, it wasn’t a big problem. It seemed he could only find someone suitable to help guard the place.

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment and said, “How much is this factory per month?”

“1 yuan per square meter per day. For 5,000 square meters, that’s 150,000 per month.” The agent quickly gave the price.

What the hell, really?

The price of the factory was beyond Liu Mingyu’s expectations. He had thought renting a warehouse would only cost thirty to fifty thousand.

Liu Mingyu frowned. “Isn’t this price a bit too high?”

The agent explained on the side, “This price isn’t high. This factory has a good location and large area. It can store various items and can also be renovated for other uses. It has very high cost performance.”

“Forget it, I won’t rent it for now. It’s too expensive.” Liu Mingyu shook his head.

This price was still too high and not cost-effective. Even if he had money, he couldn’t spend it like this. He’d rather choose a smaller warehouse in the city center for temporary use, and later just acquire a trading company directly. That way he wouldn’t have to waste money.

Hearing that Liu Mingyu wasn’t considering renting, the middle-aged man also sighed. Actually, this price wasn’t too high for this location, but the area was too large. Few people rented such a large warehouse alone.

Liu Mingyu walked back, glancing at the factory next door: Jia Cheng Youde Trading Co., Ltd.

Could this factory belong to this trading company?

Looking at the layout, it did seem to be this company’s factory.

This company had fallen to reducing its factory area to cut costs. It seemed they were having some operational difficulties.

Perhaps buying them wouldn’t be a bad idea, but he needed to find out what the situation was.

Liu Mingyu stopped and asked the middle-aged man, “Excuse me, do you know about the situation with the trading company next door?”

“That trading company is mine. What’s the matter?” The middle-aged man locked the door, quite surprised by Liu Mingyu’s words. Wasn’t he here to rent a warehouse? How did it turn into buying a company?

But he still answered his question.

Liu Mingyu smiled broadly. “Big brother, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to address you?”

“My surname is Chen.”

“Brother Chen, I wanted to ask if your trading company is for sale?”

What was going on? Wasn’t he here to rent a warehouse?

How did it turn into buying a company?

Chen Youde stared dumbfounded at Liu Mingyu, then came to his senses and said, “Mr. Liu, you must be joking. I’m renting out the factory, I never said anything about selling the company.”

Although the company he had founded had already declined, and the company’s scale had dropped to the extreme, which was why they were releasing the original warehouse for rent.

But he had never thought about selling the company he had created himself, even though the company was struggling to survive.

Chapter 53: Chen Youde

Jia Cheng Youde Trading Co., Ltd. didn’t look very large, but if Liu Mingyu could buy it, it would perfectly meet his requirements.

Purchasing an operating company would be much faster than establishing a new one from scratch, and most importantly, it would save a lot of effort.

Although establishing a company nowadays is relatively quick, no matter how fast it is, it can’t compare to directly buying an existing company.

However, it also depends on whether the other party is willing to sell. If this one doesn’t work out, there will always be one that does. Since he happened to encounter this opportunity, he might as well discuss it.

As the boss of a trading company, since he was personally renting out factory space here, it indicated that his situation wasn’t very good. Moreover, Liu Mingyu observed the nearby factories or companies and noticed there weren’t many people around, though it was also possible they were at work.

Upon hearing the immediate refusal, Liu Mingyu didn’t take offense and laughed, saying, “Boss Chen, don’t refuse so quickly. Why don’t we find a place to talk?”

Chen Youde hesitated for a moment and said, “Let’s go to my office then.”

“I won’t rent for now. I’ll look for you again when I need to rent a warehouse.” Liu Mingyu told the real estate agent, then followed Chen Youde.

The agent didn’t say anything. It was normal not to find a suitable property. Seeing the deal fall through, he drove away by himself.

Led by Chen Youde, Liu Mingyu arrived at his office.

Along the way, Liu Mingyu discovered that this trading company indeed had very few people left.

Arriving at the office, they sat on the sofa. While Chen Youde was cleaning the teapot, he asked, “Boss Liu, I have no intention of selling the company. If you really need this factory as a warehouse, I can offer a discount.”

Liu Mingyu smiled and said, “No rush. I’d like to ask, what does your company mainly deal with?”

The fact that the other party was willing to bring him to the office indicated he already had some intention to sell. If not, he would have refused outright at the door and wouldn’t have brought him back to the office.

After cleaning the teapot, Chen Youde took a can of Longjing tea from a nearby tea cabinet, grabbed a few pinches of tea leaves, and said, “Our company mainly deals with: daily necessities, clothing, cosmetics, food, and everything else. Basically, everything is within our business scope.”

“Your company’s business scope is truly extensive. I imagine the scale must be quite large.”

Liu Mingyu hadn’t expected the other party’s business scope to be so broad. Generally, most trading companies specialize in one or two types of products rather than handling everything. Perhaps this might be one reason why this company declined so quickly.

Chen Youde brewed a cup of hot tea for Liu Mingyu. Hearing Liu Mingyu’s praise, he fell silent for a moment and sighed, “Well, it’s all in the past now.”

It seemed the other party really had been a large company, though this environment didn’t look like it at all.

No matter what, since he was here to buy the company, as long as the price was right, this trading company could serve his purposes.

Liu Mingyu picked up his cup and took a gentle sip. The rich tea aroma instantly filled his mouth. This tea was quite good.

He put down the cup and asked softly, “Boss Chen, are you really not interested in selling the company?”

Chen Youde didn’t answer directly but instead told the story of how his company had developed.

Jia Cheng Youde Trading Co., Ltd., as the name suggested, was founded by him.

Around 2005, Chen Youde started by running an online shop, purchasing daily necessities, cosmetics, and other items from abroad and selling them domestically. This was the legendary practice of “daigou” or purchasing agents.

Back then, daigou profits were extremely high. After doing this for a while, he wasn’t satisfied with just buying and selling small items online.

Because one person could only purchase limited quantities, and at that time, express delivery services weren’t well developed, relying mainly on individuals flying back and forth weekly to make money.

In 2006, using his daigou earnings, he made his first pot of gold. Later, his ambitions grew, and he felt this was too slow, so he established Jia Cheng Youde Trading Co., Ltd.

It must be said that making money back then was very easy. People with a bit more courage were making fortunes. While that’s what people say, it still required some capital. Without capital, even if someone gave you a profitable method, it would be useless.

Chen Youde had money and was bold, and he encountered a good opportunity.

Establishing a trading company greatly expanded his business scope. Almost every item he purchased as a daigou agent yielded enormous profits.

In less than five years, his trading company’s assets had reached over a billion.

After making money, he naturally wasn’t satisfied with small-scale daigou operations and began various investments, with daigou covering all types of goods.

Whatever others needed, as long as they placed an order, he would procure it from other places.

However, not everything could be traded, and after expanding too widely, large amounts of capital were tied up, greatly reducing working capital. He also borrowed substantial funds from banks.

He trusted someone, using his working capital to invest in a project.

However, when it came to trading, he was quite skilled, but regarding investment projects, he was just a novice.

What turned out to be merely a scam scheme took his money and disappeared without a trace.

Due to insufficient working capital, he couldn’t repay his debts, causing his originally billion-dollar company to nearly go bankrupt overnight.

Actually, the working capital he lacked at the time wasn’t much - just 30 million would have been enough to turn things around.

While everyone is willing to add flowers to brocade, few are willing to send charcoal in the snow.

After lacking working capital, Chen Youde could only sell off his assets extensively to repay debts.

After doing this, he managed to hold on for several more years, all the way to the present.

Holding on until now, the company’s annual output value was less than a million.

Actually, this trading company could have closed down long ago, but it was his first company, the result of years of hard work. He couldn’t bear to see it go bankrupt and had been struggling to keep it afloat.

Liu Mingyu also sighed upon hearing this, saying, “Boss Chen is truly a person of great determination. How about this - you sell me the company, and I’ll make you the chairman, allowing you to continue managing it.”

Chen Youde gave him a sidelong glance and said, “Boss Liu, I’ve already explained everything to this extent. This company is now just an empty shell. Are you sure you still want to buy it?”

Actually, he was quite tempted but also conflicted. After persisting for so many years, was he really going to sell? Or perhaps dissolve the company?

Recently, the bank loans had been pressing hard. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rented out his remaining factory space - he simply couldn’t afford to pay anymore.

“Boss Chen, I really want it. Just name your price. As long as you help me purchase some items, it’s fine. The company name will remain unchanged, and management will still be under your control.”

Liu Mingyu felt that someone who could start from scratch and become a billionaire, then fall into debt but never give up, wasn’t simple.

Most importantly, he didn’t have time to manage things himself. Even the gold shop had been handed over to Shi Dawei to handle. Even if he established a trading company himself, he would still need to hire a manager.

He had a good impression of Chen Youde and felt the other party was quite capable.

Chapter 54: Buying a Car

After hearing this, Chen Youde was also quite tempted. Selling the company would mean he wouldn’t have to bear the company’s debts anymore, while he could continue working as the general manager here. This perfectly aligned with his wishes.

He had persisted all this time precisely because he didn’t want Youde Trading Company to go bankrupt. Now that he had this opportunity, what was he waiting for?

However, he couldn’t understand what Liu Mingyu’s purpose was in doing this.

Could it be that he wanted to purchase some prohibited items?

Liu Mingyu seemed to see through Chen Youde’s concerns and smiled, saying, “Boss Chen, don’t worry. You’ll be in charge of operations. I just need you to help me purchase some things when I need them. I mainly don’t have time to manage it myself.”

Chen Youde also smiled and said, “Boss Liu, no problem. I’ve already told you about the company’s general situation. The company’s current output value is about one million, with annual profits of only ten thousand. If Boss Liu needs it, I’ll sell you the company for three hundred thousand.”

Although the output value was only one million and the profit was only ten thousand, the company’s other fixed assets combined were definitely worth more than three hundred thousand. Selling the company for three hundred thousand meant Liu Mingyu was getting a small advantage.

Liu Mingyu didn’t even counter the price and directly agreed, “No problem.”

Three hundred thousand was just a small amount of money to him. Spending a little money to solve a food purchasing and storage crisis was more than worth it.

Although company transactions were much simpler, they couldn’t be completed immediately.

It required a series of procedures including changing the company’s legal representative.

The two first signed an intent letter, then Liu Mingyu directly transferred the money to Chen Youde’s personal account.

Ding.

Chen Youde soon received Liu Mingyu’s transfer notification.

Since they had already signed the intent letter, Liu Mingyu wasn’t afraid of the other party backing out. If they did, he would make Chen Youde regret swallowing that money.

Chen Youde smiled and said, “Boss Liu, now I’m working for you.”

Liu Mingyu also smiled broadly, “I’ll be counting on you for the trading company. After the transfer is complete, I’ll transfer another ten million over. Work hard.”

Chen Youde’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected this seemingly very young boss to be so capable. Just after acquiring the company, he was pouring in another ten million. Could the other party be a rich second generation?

Liu Mingyu didn’t pay attention to him and continued, “Later, help me purchase several tons of rice, cured meat, and other foods that don’t require packaging and don’t show production dates.”

Chen Youde found Liu Mingyu’s first instruction very strange. What was he planning to do? Buy three-no products?

However, he quickly responded, “Okay, no problem. I’ll arrange it.”

Although he didn’t know what use Liu Mingyu had for these items, he couldn’t refuse the boss’s request, could he?

Liu Mingyu seemed to see through the other party’s thoughts and explained, “Although I don’t need production dates, I want you to buy high-quality food. Don’t buy any inferior products.”

Chen Youde realized he had misunderstood and smiled awkwardly, saying, “Boss, are there any quantity requirements?”

Liu Mingyu shook his head, “No. For now, just buy a few tons of each and store them in the factory next door, or find a place to pile them up yourself. Just let me know when you’re done. Also, don’t rent out the factory next door anymore. Expand the scale and put it to use.”

“Okay, Boss.”

The company had been sold to Liu Mingyu, so naturally the boss had the final say. The factory was also part of the company’s fixed assets, but Chen Youde was renting it. He had just signed a long-term lease initially, but when he stopped using it, he started renting it out again. This was his second sublease.

Thinking about it, if he hadn’t been renting, just the land for the factory alone would be worth more than three hundred thousand. How could Liu Mingyu have been able to buy the company for three hundred thousand?

Liu Mingyu didn’t pay too much attention to this. At least he had finally secured a large-scale food source and didn’t need to worry about this matter anymore.

“Work hard. I have things to attend to, so I’ll be going now.” Liu Mingyu said goodbye to Chen Youde.

“Boss, do you need me to give you a ride?” Chen Youde remembered that Liu Mingyu had come in the real estate agency’s car. Now that the agency had left, Liu Mingyu definitely didn’t have a car here.

He naturally wouldn’t think that Liu Mingyu, who could spend three hundred thousand to buy a company and then invest another ten million, wouldn’t have a car. He might just be using the agency’s car for convenience.

“Thank you. If it’s convenient, could you take me to a 4S dealership?” Liu Mingyu said.

How could Chen Youde know that Liu Mingyu had only gotten rich in the past few days? These past few days had been busy with the gold shop, so when would he have had time to buy a car?

When Liu Mingyu had come in the real estate agency’s car before, he had wanted to go to a 4S dealership to buy a car.

Now that this matter was settled, it was the perfect time to visit a 4S dealership.

They say a car is a man’s second wife.

Liu Mingyu was no exception, but he had never had the money before, so he could only satisfy his craving by looking.

Buying a car was something he wouldn’t even dare to think about.

Now that he had money, naturally he couldn’t treat himself poorly.

Liu Mingyu sat in Chen Youde’s BMW X3 and said, “Old Chen, not bad, this car.”

“Heh, it’s just okay. A cheap model. I’ll probably have to sell it in a while.” Chen Youde smiled.

He was also a car enthusiast. When he had money, he had bought five cars. Over the past few years of paying off debts, he had sold four of them, leaving only this one. In another while, he was afraid this car wouldn’t be able to be kept either.

Now that he had sold the company, his heart was at ease.

You could tell from his state. At just over forty years old, his hair had already turned quite white.

During the process of paying off debts, he had been sustained by a sense of determination. Now that this determination had dissipated, his heart had relaxed, and his spirit had immediately improved.

At the 4S dealership.

Chen Youde asked, “Boss, do you have a price range in mind?”

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment and said, “Hmm, around one hundred thousand. It would be best if there were cars in stock.”

Although Liu Mingyu had often fantasized about buying a car before, now that he was actually choosing a vehicle, he didn’t know what car to buy.

However, he hoped there would be cars in stock. Otherwise, after he placed an order, he would have to wait slowly. The fastest might take a week or two to pick up, while slower ones might take a month or two.

Not long after they entered, a young, beautiful saleswoman wearing a work uniform came over and asked sweetly, “Sir, is there anything I can help you with? I can introduce you to car models corresponding to your price range.”

At first glance, based on their attire, they didn’t look like people who had come to buy a car. However, adhering to providing good service, she politely came over to ask Liu Mingyu.

Liu Mingyu was indeed wearing ordinary clothes, not brand-name items, and Chen Youde had been worrying about loans recently and hadn’t paid much attention to his own attire.

It wasn’t that Liu Mingyu didn’t have money to buy brand-name clothes. These past few days had been busy running back and forth between the apocalyptic world and the real world, and he had been wearing his old clothes.

Moreover, in the apocalyptic world, it didn’t matter what brand-name clothes you wore. It was more comfortable and relaxed to wear casual clothes.

Chapter 55: Reservation

Chapter 55: Reservation

Actually, Liu Mingyu didn’t really care about what he wore, as long as it was comfortable.

A person with real strength could wear street market clothes, and others would think they were wearing designer brands.

A person without strength could wear designer brands, and others would think they were wearing knockoffs.

In life, why worry too much about what others think?

Living should be about comfort and freedom.

Actually, if Liu Mingyu’s storage space were larger, he could have directly brought a car over from the apocalypse side.

The performance of cars from the apocalypse side was incomparable to the real world, whether in terms of design or performance, they were all excellent.

Unfortunately, the space dimensions weren’t enough. After upgrading in the future, he would definitely bring one over—no, he would bring several.

For now, he would temporarily find a car for transportation.

Collecting his thoughts, Liu Mingyu said, “About one hundred million, and it needs to be available immediately.”

The salesperson’s eyes lit up, and they politely introduced, “This BMW M4 convertible sports car limited edition, top configuration is 120 million, and we have stock available in the store right now. It’s an excellent choice.”

The salesperson saw that Liu Mingyu wanted to buy a car and thought that a convertible would be a very suitable choice for young people, so they immediately recommended this model to him.

Since the price was within his range, naturally he would choose the higher-end option.

“A convertible? I don’t really like those, too flashy. Do you have any other models? Something with more space.”

Convertibles were great for picking up girls, but Liu Mingyu preferred something with more space, so he added a new requirement.

Seeing that Liu Mingyu wasn’t interested, the salesperson didn’t get discouraged and immediately introduced another option, “The BMW X7, the latest SUV model launched this year, with spacious interior. You can take a look at the detailed introduction for this model.”

As they spoke, they handed Liu Mingyu a car model introduction.

Liu Mingyu took it but didn’t look at it, directly asking, “Just this one then. Let me test drive it.”

The salesperson immediately found a BMW X7 Executive Series.

Liu Mingyu took one look and found it quite impressive. Sitting in the driver’s seat, he felt the space was indeed quite large and comfortable.

He had already gotten his driver’s license while he was in school.

He drove around the field, taking a test drive lap.

To be honest, he wasn’t a professional test driver and didn’t feel anything particularly special.

Overall, it was still quite comfortable to drive.

In terms of comfort, it wasn’t much worse than the cars from the apocalypse side. After all, the cars he drove in the apocalypse were mostly trucks, so how much better could they feel?

“How do you feel, boss?” Chen Youde asked from the side as Liu Mingyu got out of the driver’s seat.

“Not bad, let’s go with this one.”

Liu Mingyu was still excited about buying a car, after all, it was his first car, but to say he was extremely excited, actually he wasn’t that excited.

With high-end cars everywhere in the apocalypse, he hadn’t gotten too excited, so how could he be excited about an ordinary SUV?

If Chen Youde could hear Liu Mingyu’s thoughts, he would definitely beat Liu Mingyu to death. A car worth over one hundred million is just an ordinary car?

If Liu Mingyu could hear Chen Youde’s thoughts, he would look down on him in return. With luxury cars everywhere that he hadn’t even driven, how is driving an X7 not an ordinary car?

Not guessing at Chen Youde’s thoughts, Liu Mingyu asked, “How much is this model?”

“The base price is 12.58 million, top configuration, fully equipped would be 14.5 million.” The salesperson had already calculated the price while Liu Mingyu was test driving, and when Liu Mingyu asked, they immediately gave the corresponding quote.

14.5 million, that’s acceptable. It’s just a temporary means of transportation anyway. After strengthening the space in the future, getting a car from that side would be more comfortable, though cars brought from there seem unable to get license plates, which is a bit of a headache. Does he need to establish his own car company?

Bring the technology from that side over here?

Never mind, he’ll work on it slowly in the future. The world on the other side is a hundred years ahead, and everything there seems more advanced than now. He wants to bring everything over.

But you have to eat one bite at a time, and walk one step at a time. There’s no use in rushing.

Liu Mingyu took out his bank card and smiled, “Full payment, card payment. Can you help me complete the procedures today?”

“No problem. We have dedicated staff to handle these procedures, and they can be completed very quickly. Sir, you can wait in the lounge area.”

The salesperson saw that Liu Mingyu was really buying this car and couldn’t stop smiling. Closing this deal would earn them quite a bit of commission.

Liu Mingyu and Chen Youde returned to the lounge area to wait while the salesperson took the documents to handle the procedures.

Chen Youde picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and smiled, “Congratulations, boss, on your new luxury car.”

“Thank you. What kind of luxury car is this? For you, this is just an ordinary car.” Liu Mingyu responded with a smile as well.

A 15 million car was indeed just an ordinary car for Chen Youde.

But that was in the past. Before, the cars he sold were basically all luxury cars worth over a million, with the most expensive one reaching over four million.

But all of that was in the past tense. People should look to the future.

The two of them chatted idly in the lounge area for a while.

An hour later.

The salesperson came over with the documents and car keys, smiling brightly, “Sir, the procedures have been completed. Here are your documents and car keys.”

“Thank you.”

Liu Mingyu took the documents and car keys and couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional. Last week, he was still a struggling grassroots worker in Jia City, and this week he had become a rich second generation driving a luxury car.

With the apocalypse world as his backing, he felt full of ambition at this moment.

Liu Mingyu checked the time; it was already past twelve noon. He turned to ask, “Old Chen, let’s have lunch together to celebrate me getting a new car.”

Chen Youde smiled slightly, “As you command, boss. Of course, there’s no problem. Now I have to rely on you for my meals.”

The place where they had lunch was the same place Shi Dawei had taken him to last time. The food there was indeed good, and the prices were reasonable.

Since both of them had driven, they didn’t drink alcohol, just had some tea.

Don’t drink and drive, and don’t drive after drinking.

Both of them still followed traffic rules. People who drink and drive harm others and themselves, and they wouldn’t do such things.

Liu Mingyu paid the bill, and they stood at the entrance. Liu Mingyu said, “Old Chen, let’s have dinner together tonight and have a drink. I’ll introduce someone to you. Not drinking always feels like something’s missing.”

“Sure, no problem. Where are we having dinner tonight? Do you need me to make a reservation?” Chen Youde readily agreed.

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment and said, “I don’t know if we can still get a reservation at the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel tonight. Their reservations are too hard to get. If we can get one, let’s go there for dinner tonight.”

Liu Mingyu had promised Shi Dawei to have a meal at the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel, but he had tried to make a reservation several times without success.

He didn’t know if the hotel was really that popular or if he had been looked down upon.

Chen Youde responded, “The Jinjiang International Grand Hotel? I have a VIP card that can make direct reservations. Usually, they reserve some private rooms for VIP customers.”

Liu Mingyu patted Chen Youde on the shoulder and laughed heartily, “Not bad, Old Chen. You actually have a VIP card for an international grand hotel. Then tonight’s reservation will depend on you.”

“Heh, those are all old matters from years ago. I haven’t used it for a long time, and I don’t know if it still works.”

As Chen Youde spoke, he picked up the phone and called. After a while, he turned his head and asked, “Boss, what time should we book?”

“Half past nine.”

Today was the last day for the gold shop. He had originally planned to celebrate with the employees in the store, but if he could get a reservation at the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel, they could all go together.

Chen Youde was somewhat surprised by the time Liu Mingyu gave and thought Liu Mingyu had said the wrong time, so he repeated, “Half past nine?”

“Yes, half past nine.”

After a while, Chen Youde put down the phone and said, “Boss, the reservation was successful. Private room number: 888. At half past nine, not many people are eating at that time, so reservations basically succeed.”

Liu Mingyu smiled awkwardly and said, “Really? I tried to make a reservation several times before without success. Maybe it’s because I was trying to book during peak hours.”

“Alright then, I’ll head out first, boss. See you tonight.”

“Okay, see you directly in the private room.”

Chapter 56: Out of Stock

After parting ways with Chen Youde, Liu Mingyu called Shi Dawei: “Dawei, how’s today’s event going?”

“Boss, it’s still extremely popular on-site. The jewelry you brought this time, in terms of design and quality, are all top-notch. So far, our sales have already exceeded ten million. At this rate, we’re going to run out of gold today.”

Shi Dawei excitedly reported to Liu Mingyu.

“Run out?”

Liu Mingyu frowned. The gold he had exchanged with Liu Fugui this time was indeed a bit short.

Originally, he had planned to use the money from selling salt to exchange for more gold to sell. That way, there would have been enough gold for today’s event.

The 80 catties of energy crystals from selling salt, at a 1:7 ratio, could be exchanged for 560 catties of gold, which would have been more than enough for the event.

Unfortunately, he had spent most of his money buying a large number of slaves along the way, resulting in insufficient gold in the gold shop now.

Should he traverse to the apocalypse again to get more gold?

He still had traversal attempts remaining and could traverse over anytime.

But last time when he returned from the apocalypse, he had said he would bring back food. Since he hadn’t bought any food yet, going back now would seem like wasting an opportunity.

Without gold to sell, could it still be called a gold shop?

Besides, he had promised those customers yesterday that they could buy freely today. He couldn’t go back on his word, could he?

Might as well waste one attempt. After all, each day that passes in the real world increases his traversal attempts by one, so it’s not really a waste.

Thinking this through, Liu Mingyu said, “Dawei, keep selling, sell openly. I’ll go get more gold.”

Shi Dawei’s eyes widened. Can gold be obtained so casually?

But he reacted very quickly and said immediately, “No problem, I’ll take care of it right away.”

At the current sales rate, by around four or five in the afternoon, everything would basically be sold out.

Of course, this would only happen if the current situation was maintained until then.

Shi Dawei looked at the long lines in front of him. He believed they would definitely sell out.

Chinese people are very fond of spectating. When others saw the long lines at the gold shop, passersby who were just walking by would also stop to watch. If they didn’t watch, no problem, but once they started watching and saw the bargains available, they would all join the queue.

The long lines extended who knows where. Fortunately, with help from the mall security guards maintaining order.

You could say there weren’t many bargains to be had, but in reality, there weren’t that many. Gold prices had risen somewhat recently, but the increase wasn’t significant.

Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop’s price was still maintained at 292 yuan per gram from two days ago.

Liu Mingyu hung up the phone, having forgotten to tell Shi Dawei that they would be having dinner at the International Hotel tonight.

Never mind, he could tell him after getting the gold.

Since Chen Youde’s food wasn’t ready yet, he couldn’t wait for that side. He decided to do as he had before, buying some scattered food items at the market to take back.

Although each day that passes in the real world gives him one traversal attempt, his storage space was limited. With over three hundred people in the apocalypse world relying on him for food, he couldn’t waste each traversal attempt.

Driving his newly purchased X7 toward the market.

Now with the car to help with transportation, he didn’t even need to specially carry small amounts of food back.

Still at the original farmers’ market, he bought 2000 catties of rice, 1000 catties of cured meat, and 1000 catties of salt.

This time he specifically had them use blank bags without any information printed on them.

4000 catties of food filled his storage space to the brim.

After getting the food, Liu Mingyu directly traversed from inside the car.

The next second.

Liu Mingyu appeared in the small house in the apocalypse world.

He placed the prepared food inside the house - 2000 catties of rice, 1000 catties of cured meat, and 500 catties of salt.

The remaining 500 catties of salt, he planned to sell to Liu Fugui.

He didn’t know if the other party would still accept salt. Originally, Liu Mingyu hadn’t planned to sell again so soon.

Selling large quantities of supplies in a short time was very conspicuous.

During this period, the supplies Liu Mingyu had sold had already reached a value of two hundred catties of energy crystals.

Despite Liu Fugui seeming like an easy-going person, that was just him not showing his true colors. Selling too much would make people suspicious about the source of the supplies.

Without sufficient power, one cannot protect what they want to guard.

This principle, whether in the apocalypse world or the real world, remains the same.

He would sell once more, but the next trading time would need to be spaced out much longer.

Putting away these thoughts, Liu Mingyu carried two bags of rice out the door and called to Li Wenbo in the car, “Po Zi, let’s move the food onto the car together.”

“Sure thing.”

Li Wenbo hurried down and ran over to help.

Over three thousand catties of food took them quite a while to move.

Fortunately, Liu Mingyu’s physical fitness was now far beyond what it used to be, having improved greatly. Li Wenbo had also been surviving in the apocalypse for many years. Otherwise, moving over three thousand catties of food would have taken them quite some time.

After moving the three thousand-plus catties of food, neither of them had even broken a sweat.

The two drove the truck back to the resort.

As soon as they returned to the resort, Liu Mingyu called Ye Qingxuan over and said, “Qingxuan, this is the food I got today. Find some people to arrange it.”

Now Ye Qingxuan was the logistics manager of the resort, and all this food was under her responsibility.

Ye Qingxuan was quite surprised. Where exactly did Liu Mingyu get this food from?

She didn’t go over to open and check the food on the truck, but judging by the volume of the stacked items, there was quite a lot of food.

Although surprised, she quickly got into character and said, “Understood, boss.”

Then she called to the people nearby who were organizing things, “You few, come help move this to warehouse number one.”

As soon as she finished speaking, five slightly stronger men came over from the side to help move the food.

One person even found a luggage cart from somewhere, probably something the hotel had originally prepared.

With the luggage cart, the moving work became much easier. They just needed to move the items down from the truck and then transfer them to warehouse number one for storage.

So quickly they’ve got a warehouse number one now?

This woman’s management seems pretty good.

A few minutes later, all the cargo from the truck had been moved down.

“I’ll go out again. You take care of things here.”

Liu Mingyu instructed Ye Qingxuan.

Ye Qingxuan nodded and replied, “Alright, boss.”

This time when he went out, Liu Mingyu didn’t bring anyone else. He went alone.

He was going to the inner city this time to trade with Liu Fugui again.

Having someone follow would make operations difficult. Now that Liu Fugui’s behavior showed no major danger.

He drove to the parking lot outside the outer city gate, paid 10 grams of energy crystals as a storage fee, and entered the city alone.

The line to enter the city was very long. Liu Mingyu didn’t queue at the back but walked to the VIP channel beside it, paying 10 grams of energy crystals to directly pass through the VIP channel.

On the way here, he had already contacted Liu Fugui and knew that Liu Fugui was at the trading hall in the inner city.

After entering, Liu Mingyu paid 200 grams of energy crystals to rent a small truck and headed straight for the inner city trading hall.

Chapter 57: Resolution

Outer City Trading Hall.

Manager’s Office.

Liu Fugui poured a cup of tea for Liu Mingyu and said, “Here, Brother Liu, try this Longjing tea. It’s quite rare to find this old stock.”

Tea leaves were extremely expensive in the apocalypse.

Ordinary people couldn’t even get basic food supplies, so who had the leisure to drink tea?

And those wealthy people who wanted to drink tea had nowhere to get it.

With the arrival of the apocalypse, the population had sharply declined, and zombies surrounded the city. The supplies in the settlement were basically scavenged from what humans had left behind previously.

This made luxury goods extremely expensive. Of course, this was also related to speculation. After all, they weren’t necessities, so how could they command such high prices?

Liu Mingyu picked up the cup, took a light sip, and then praised, “Good tea.”

Saying it was good tea, but he was actually thinking that this tea was nothing special to him.

In reality, Liu Mingyu couldn’t tell good tea from bad. He wasn’t a tea drinker by nature. His father, on the other hand, loved tea and would buy some for him during holidays.

Liu Fugui also picked up his cup and took a light sip, as if drinking some nectar, with a look of pleasure on his face.

Then he sighed deeply, “So fragrant.”

After drinking several sips of tea, Liu Mingyu said, “Boss Liu, since you enjoy drinking tea so much, I’ll send you some next time I come over.”

Although tea leaves were currently very expensive, that’s because they’re scarce and there’s speculation. Tea isn’t a necessity anyway, so it’s better to build goodwill with Liu Fugui.

Liu Fugui’s eyes lit up, and he laughed, “Is that true?”

While smiling outwardly, he was even more convinced of his previous thoughts. Liu Mingyu had found a storage warehouse from before the apocalypse, and this warehouse seemed quite large, even having tea leaves.

Generally speaking, most people stored food, rarely storing items that weren’t essential for survival.

Liu Fugui’s mind became active. He had once hired people to follow Liu Mingyu but discovered nothing about where his supplies came from.

He also learned about the house Liu Mingyu bought in the slums. After Liu Mingyu left, Liu Fugui had sent people to search it but found nothing valuable.

That’s right. If that warehouse were really in the slums, it would have been discovered long ago. Why wait until now?

Liu Mingyu didn’t know that the small house he temporarily used as a transfer station had been discovered. At this moment, he smiled and said, “Not much, just about ten or so catties.”

Liu Fugui widened his eyes. Ten or so catties? You must be joking. I’ve searched many places myself, and now I have less than two catties left.

“Then I really thank you, Brother Liu.” Liu Fugui smiled broadly, then changed the subject and asked, “By the way, Brother Liu, you’re here to sell salt. How much do you have this time?”

Actually, the salt had already been moved aside. How could he not know how much there was? One glance could tell.

Liu Mingyu chuckled, “Not much, just 500 catties of salt.”

Liu Fugui put away his smile, his face showing some embarrassment, and said awkwardly, “Brother Liu, you know I just bought 500 catties of salt from you yesterday and haven’t even sold it yet. Now you’re bringing another 500 catties. I’m afraid the price…”

If you want to lower the price, just say so directly. All this preamble. How many people are in the settlement? Putting 500 catties of salt in there wouldn’t even make a ripple, so where’s the risk of it not selling?

If most of the gold in the settlement hadn’t been bought by the Fuyuan Commercial Association, he wouldn’t need to trade with Liu Fugui.

Perhaps he could collect gold in the outer city in the future. Although the Fuyuan Commercial Association controls a large amount of gold, there should still be plenty in the hands of ordinary people.

For now, it’s still fastest to exchange gold with Liu Fugui. Liu Mingyu smiled and interrupted Liu Fugui, saying, “Boss Liu, I know business is tough. A fixed price: one catty of salt for 525 grams of gold. How about it? This price isn’t high, and I’m helping you convert your gold.”

Hearing that Liu Mingyu was willing to pay in gold, Liu Fugui was very willing. The ratio of energy crystals to gold is 1:7. 525 grams of gold is equivalent to 75 grams of energy crystals, which is 5 grams less than yesterday’s 80 grams of energy crystals. There’s profit to be made.

Judging by the other party’s words, the price should be able to be pushed down a bit. Liu Fugui tentatively said, “Brother Liu, the price of gold has risen recently. How about this: one catty of salt for one catty of gold. What do you think?”

One catty of salt for one catty of gold, the profit is already extremely high. But this kind of business, only Liu Mingyu can do it. Others want to do it but can’t.

Liu Mingyu nodded, “Okay, gold in the form of jewelry would be best.”

Anyway, he would ultimately sell them as jewelry, and these pieces are exquisite, saving effort.

After agreeing on the price, Liu Fugui called people in. The two of them weighed the salt on the spot.

This time, there was no loss in weight, exactly 500 catties.

After a while, Liu Fugui had people bring in a large box. Five hundred catties of gold, all in various styles of gold items, shining brightly.

With the help of the clerk, four people found some ropes and lifted it onto the small truck.

“Boss Liu, happy cooperation.”

“Happy cooperation.”

Liu Mingyu drove the truck away from the outer city trading hall.

Seeing Liu Mingyu leave, Liu Fugui took out his communicator and said, “Keep an eye on his movements.”

A voice came from the communicator: “Understood.”

Liu Mingyu didn’t know he was being followed. He drove the small truck, found a place with less traffic, and stopped to avoid others’ sight. He placed his hand on the large box.

In the next second, the large box behind the truck disappeared.

Liu Mingyu had driven from the outer city and didn’t need the inner city’s vehicles. Returning to the car rental place, he returned 180 grams of energy crystals.

Then he walked out the door, retrieved his small truck, and headed toward the resort.

The fixed-point teleportation technology allows setting five coordinate points on each side.

Three coordinate points have been used on the apocalypse side: one at the original villa location, one in the small house he bought, and one in the presidential suite at the resort.

On the real world side, two coordinate points have been used: one in the original company dormitory and one in the rented house.

Fixed-point teleportation doesn’t mean you can’t traverse from other locations.

He can still choose random teleportation. For example, if he chose to traverse now, he could use the fixed coordinates in the real world or randomly teleport.

The same goes for teleporting from the real world.

So when transporting things, it’s more troublesome. Like this time, Liu Mingyu directly traversed from the farmers’ market and had to find a car to get back.

That’s what Liu Mingyu was doing now. He couldn’t just leave the car here and directly teleport back, so it’s best to return to a fixed location to traverse.

At this moment, Liu Mingyu drove the small truck, listening to energetic music, heading toward the resort.

These were all songs Liu Mingyu had never heard before. Now he was nodding his head to the beat.

Chapter 58: Covert Investigation

While Liu Mingyu was happily listening to songs in his car, a sedan was closely following his pickup truck from behind.

Liu Mingyu didn’t pay much attention to it. Encountering other vehicles on the road was perfectly normal, and his mind was fully absorbed in the music, so he didn’t notice the vehicle behind him at all.

The person tracking Liu Mingyu was sent by Liu Fugui.

There were two people in the car. One had a short buzz cut, and the other had middle-parted hair. They were both young, appearing to be around thirty years old, and their facial features were quite similar, suggesting they were brothers.

The man with the buzz cut spoke up: “Brother, we just checked the cargo truck he was driving but didn’t find any boxes. When he left, we didn’t see him carrying anything either. Where did all the gold go?”

The man with the middle-parted hair kept his eyes fixed straight ahead and said without turning his head: “He might have accomplices. Our priority is to keep following him.”

He knew that what the boss wanted was the location where the supplies were stored. Everything else was temporarily not that important.

“Yeah, I wonder if the others can find any clues.”

They weren’t the only ones tracking Liu Mingyu. There were other people watching the resort, the villas, and the small houses, but so far, no one had discovered anything.

Liu Mingyu didn’t concern himself with others. He was concentrating on listening to music.

“Not bad, this song sounds pretty good. Let me check who’s singing it.”

Liu Mingyu glanced at the song information.

Ye Qingxuan?

This name sounds familiar. Could it be that slave I bought?

He vaguely remembered that Ye Qingxuan was a big star. He wasn’t sure if it was just a coincidence of the same name or if she was really the one singing.

But listening to the voice, it does sound a bit like her.

He had only spoken to Ye Qingxuan a few times and didn’t remember her voice very well.

The previous owner of this car must have really liked Ye Qingxuan’s songs, as the entire song library was filled with her music.

Even so, there’s no denying that Ye Qingxuan’s songs are all very good. Basically, every song can be considered a classic.

Listening to Ye Qingxuan’s sweet voice while driving on country roads, occasionally encountering wandering zombies, he would just run them over without hesitation. Life was quite carefree.

Dreamland Resort.

Liu Mingyu parked his car in the parking lot. Most of the resort had already begun cleaning up and was starting to look somewhat like a proper resort.

Entering the hotel, he saw Ye Qingxuan looking like a logistics supervisor, organizing the hotel. Liu Mingyu smiled slightly at her and said: “Not bad, you’ve quickly gotten into the role of logistics supervisor. By the way, your songs sound pretty good.”

Without waiting for Ye Qingxuan to respond, he walked straight toward the elevator heading to the presidential suite.

Ye Qingxuan had several thoughts flash through her mind.

She couldn’t have misheard just now, could she?

The boss just said her songs were pretty good?

Since the apocalypse arrived, Ye Qingxuan had long forgotten about her previous profession. She used to be a diva, but now she was struggling daily just to survive. When would she have time to sing?

The boss likes listening to songs? Maybe I can sing for him next time.

Putting aside her thoughts, Ye Qingxuan threw herself back into organizing the hotel.

Just after moving in, many things in the hotel were in need of repair, and all of this required her to coordinate.

The two brothers following behind saw Liu Mingyu’s car drive into the resort. They couldn’t follow inside, nor could they park at the resort’s main entrance, so they continued slowly driving forward.

“This place—besides us, there are other vehicles coming in. Could there be other groups of survivors in that direction?”

Lu Haipeng, who was building defensive structures nearby, noticed that there seemed to be more vehicles around the resort and muttered to himself.

This area had long been picked clean, and that direction led further into the suburbs. Of course, even farther away was another city.

Under normal circumstances, few people would go to those places. After all, there was a human settlement nearby, so why go far away when there were resources close by?

Today he seemed to have seen a car parked not far from the resort. He vaguely remembered that there weren’t supposed to be any vehicles in that location.

Was there or wasn’t there?

Lu Haipeng wasn’t quite sure anymore. He put aside his thoughts and continued setting up the resort’s defenses.

The two brothers drove along the road for a while before stopping ahead.

The older brother took out his phone and dialed Liu Fugui’s number.

After a while, Liu Fugui’s figure projected in mid-air.

Liu Fugui asked: “How did it go? Did you find where he’s storing his supplies?”

The older brother shook his head and said softly: “No, boss. After he left the inner city, he drove straight to Dreamland Resort without stopping along the way.”

Liu Fugui pondered for a moment before saying in a deep voice: “Could the warehouse be at Dreamland Resort?”

“I don’t know. Should we go inside and take a look?” the older brother asked softly.

Liu Fugui waved his hand: “No need. It’s unlikely that’s where it is. If it were there, he wouldn’t need to specially drive out to transport supplies.”

Liu Mingyu had gone out several times, and Liu Fugui knew about it. He also knew that a lot of supplies were indeed being transported in from outside, so the possibility of Dreamland Resort being the storage location was low.

Liu Fugui asked: “If it’s not at Dreamland Resort, then it must be outside. By the way, did he do anything special in the inner city?”

“Nothing special, but when he was in the inner city, he stopped his car midway. He might have accomplices there.” The older brother thought for a moment and said.

The inner city?

That shouldn’t be likely. The main forces in the inner city were still the five major factions on our side. We haven’t discovered any other forces coming in. It’s possible they have fewer people. If a large group came in, they would have been discovered long ago.

Liu Fugui thought for a moment and said: “You two come back. No need to keep watching them.”

Of course, he wasn’t giving up on observing Liu Mingyu. The two brothers were being called back because there were others secretly watching.

In fact, it wasn’t just him. There were people in the inner city secretly investigating Liu Mingyu as well, so he wasn’t in a hurry.

At this moment, Liu Mingyu had no idea that so many people were secretly observing him around him.

He returned to the presidential suite, rested for a while, and then directly traversed back to the real world.

Real World.

Liu Mingyu appeared in his rental house.

He first walked back to the farmers’ market to retrieve his car. Fortunately, the farmers’ market wasn’t too far from the house he rented. Walking for half an hour got him there, which could count as exercise.

Next time he traverses, if it’s not an emergency situation, he still shouldn’t traverse while driving.

Otherwise, he’d have to come back and drive again. Although it’s much better than the random teleportation before.

This was the first time he had traversed back and ended up in a crowd of people. He didn’t know if there had been any recordings at the time.

If someone had been recording then, it probably would have caused quite a sensation.

After getting his car, Liu Mingyu divided the gold in advance, putting half of it in a box, and headed straight for Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop.

The gold shortage at the gold shop had finally been solved.

With another two hundred or so pounds of gold, even if they bought everything in bulk, there wouldn’t be a problem.

However, when Liu Mingyu stood at the entrance of Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop carrying a box of gold, he saw the gold shop’s bustling scene.

For a moment, he suddenly felt that this two hundred or so pounds of gold might not be enough to handle today’s crazy customers.

No problem. The more they sell, the happier he should be, right?

If they sold out, there was still more in his space. If worse came to worst, he could just make another trip to the apocalypse. It wasn’t a big deal.

Chapter 59: Delivery

Liu Mingyu was about to enter the gold shop when a security guard beside him stopped him.

“Sir, if you want to buy gold, please queue up at the back. Don’t disrupt the order.”

The people queuing nearby saw this and chimed in: “That’s right, everyone’s queuing up. How can you just cut in line?”

Liu Mingyu could only smile bitterly. Great, he couldn’t even enter his own shop. He explained from the side: “I’m the boss of this shop. I’m here to deliver gold. See for yourself.”

As he spoke, Liu Mingyu raised the box in his hand a bit higher.

Another security guard looked Liu Mingyu up and down and said: “Isn’t the boss of this shop Boss Shi? I just saw him inside helping out.”

“Forget it, I’ll just find the manager directly.”

Seeing that the security guard still wouldn’t let him through, knowing these guards were there to protect the gold shop’s safety, Liu Mingyu was naturally very pleased.

He took out his phone and called Shi Dawei.

However, he didn’t know if Shi Dawei had forgotten his phone or if there were too many people and he couldn’t hear the ringtone, but after ringing for a long time, no one answered.

Inside the gold shop, people were packed like sardines. Looking out, all that could be seen were heads, and everyone was busy.

Liu Mingyu opened a pack of cigarettes and gave one to each security guard nearby, saying: “Big brother, I can’t get through to him on the phone. Could you go in and call for Manager Shi for me? Just say Liu Mingyu is looking for him. When he hears that, he’ll naturally come out.”

“Sure, you wait here. Don’t go inside. I’ll go ask for you.”

The first security guard pointed to where Liu Mingyu was standing.

“Thank you, big brother.”

The security guard walked to the shop entrance and shouted inside: “Manager Shi, there’s a Mr. Liu Mingyu looking for you outside.”

At this moment, Shi Dawei was busy introducing gold to customers. Hearing the security guard’s call, he had a nearby shop assistant cover for him.

Shi Dawei hurried out and, seeing Liu Mingyu blocked outside, laughed: “Brother Yu, are you here to deliver gold?”

He had just said they were running low on gold, and Liu Mingyu appeared, so naturally he guessed it was a gold delivery.

The security guard beside them, seeing that Liu Mingyu really knew the shop manager, stepped aside and continued maintaining order.

Shi Dawei saw Liu Mingyu carrying a box and reached out to help carry it.

Liu Mingyu reached out to refuse: “The box is very heavy. Let me carry it.”

Two hundred jin of gold was not something Shi Dawei could lift.

Shi Dawei thought of the situation from the past two days and didn’t say anything, leading the way in front.

The manager’s office.

Liu Mingyu placed the box on the ground and said: “This time it’s still over two hundred jin, all crafted jewelry.”

“Great! With this inventory, the shop can sell freely now.” Shi Dawei was overjoyed. He was afraid the gold brought over in the morning wouldn’t be enough for today’s sales, so he had notified Liu Mingyu early.

Liu Mingyu sat on the sofa nearby and asked: “How’s the sales today?”

Shi Dawei nodded affirmatively: “Very good. If you hadn’t come, I estimate everything would have been sold out by around 2 PM this afternoon.”

“That good?”

Such fast sales speed was also beyond Liu Mingyu’s expectations.

“Yes, those people are like madmen, as if money isn’t money at all.”

Shi Dawei was also frightened by the crazy gold-buying customers. Almost every customer was buying tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions worth of gold.

But thinking about it, gold is hard currency to begin with, and Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop’s prices are cheap, much cheaper than other places.

Many people are purely treating it as an investment. Many banks also offer paper gold financial products. Buying those isn’t as good as buying real, tangible gold—gold you can actually see.

The Chinese people have had a special fondness for gold since ancient times and enjoy collecting it.

After Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop’s unlimited sales for these three days, it has probably consumed most of the gold purchasing potential in the surrounding area.

After today, when the shop returns to original prices tomorrow, there probably won’t be much turnover.

But that’s not a problem—slow and steady wins the race.

These three days were mainly to stockpile initial funds.

In the future, when the gold shop stabilizes, Liu Mingyu only needs to slowly bring gold over from the apocalypse.

Liu Mingyu also knew that his large-scale exchange for gold seemed very strange. He planned to find people to slowly collect gold in the apocalypse in the future to supply the gold shop.

“Today, work hard. Didn’t I promise you before that we must go to the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel’s private room for a meal? I’ve booked a private room there tonight. By the way, I’ll introduce someone to you then.”

Liu Mingyu patted Shi Dawei’s shoulder and said.

Shi Dawei had a face full of smiles: “No problem. Looks like we’re going to fleece the rich tonight.”

Seeing that Liu Mingyu had taken out so much gold these past few days, Shi Dawei didn’t inquire deeply, but he knew that Liu Mingyu had previously mentioned going to the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel’s private room for a meal, so naturally he no longer refused.

Eating a meal there is said to start at one hundred thousand, but given the gold shop’s business these past few days, is spending one hundred thousand on a meal for him a lot? No, really not a lot.

Liu Mingyu laughed: “Alright, tonight at 9:30, private room number: 888. After you close the shop at 9 PM, just come directly. Call all the employees in the shop too.”

“Good, no problem. Fleecing the rich is what I do best. Tonight, just wait to bleed money.”

“You take control of things here. I still have some matters this afternoon. I’ll wait for you directly there tonight.”

“Okay.”

After Liu Mingyu left, he felt the gold might not be enough, so he threw all the gold from his storage space to Shi Dawei. Anyway, it was all going to be sold, and leaving it in the gold shop was the same. Whatever wasn’t sold today could be used as inventory.

It’s impossible for the gold shop to only open for three days, right?

Although he had instructed Shi Dawei to find his own supply channels, since he had never done this before, it wouldn’t be that fast to find them in a short time. The rest was just for reserve.

Shi Dawei saw Liu Mingyu bring back another two hundred jin of gold and didn’t ask much.

He quickly found people to sort the various styles of gold, categorizing them and placing them in display cases.

The display cases had already been nearly emptied, but in no time, they were filled again with various styles of gold jewelry.

“Ladies and gentlemen, customers, don’t fight, don’t scramble. Our shop has ample gold reserves, unlimited quantity. Everyone can buy with confidence.”

Shi Dawei held a loudspeaker and shouted to the people queuing outside.

“This necklace is nice, and this ring too. Pack them both up for me.”

“These newly taken out earrings also look great, and the bracelets aren’t bad either. Pack them all up.”

The newly baked exquisite gold jewelry stimulated the browsing customers, and without realizing it, they bought much more.

The surging customers took batch after batch of gold from the display cases.

But they were quickly topped up by other jewelry, and the display cases always maintained a large amount of gold, allowing customers to choose their favorite styles.

Amidst various discussions, the gold shop’s business continued to boom.

Chapter 60: Bulk Purchase

Chapter 60: Bulk Purchase

After delivering the gold, Liu Mingyu walked to the Huawei specialty store in Silver City Mall.

He needed to buy some phones for Ma Junhao and the others to study. He had forgotten to bring them when he traversed last time.

Since he was already at Silver City Mall delivering gold, he could conveniently purchase phones from various mobile phone stores.

As the leading domestic phone brand in China, Huawei phones had a very high market share in the country.

Therefore, choosing Huawei phones for testing was absolutely necessary.

At this time, there weren’t many people in the Huawei specialty store - just a few scattered individuals playing with phones at the demo stations.

Upon entering the Huawei specialty store, Liu Mingyu didn’t look at the demo phones. He went straight to the service counter and said, “Excuse me, please give me one of each phone model priced between 1000 and 5000 yuan.”

Why choose phones in the 1000 to 5000 yuan range?

Liu Mingyu had his reasons for selecting this price range. Phones in this range should cover the usage needs of most people.

As long as the low-spec version of artificial intelligence can run on these phones, it means most phones can run it.

For phones priced higher than this range, there’s no need to test them. If low-spec phones can run it, would high-spec phones not be able to run it?

As for lower-spec phones that can’t run it, that’s fine too. After all, the number of users in that price range isn’t that large anyway.

The sales clerk at the counter thought she had misheard and subconsciously asked back, “All phones, one of each?”

Liu Mingyu corrected the sales clerk’s misunderstanding, looking directly into her eyes as he said, “Not all phones, just those between 1000 and 5000 yuan, one of each model.”

The sales clerk at the counter was a young woman. She stared at Liu Mingyu with wide eyes. After about two seconds, she asked back, “Sir, are you sure?”

She wasn’t joking, right? Where would someone buy phones like this - one of each model? She had already subconsciously forgotten about the 1000 to 5000 yuan price range.

She had seen people buy many units of the same model at once before, often for prize drawings.

But she had never seen anyone buy phones like Liu Mingyu was doing, which is why she subconsciously asked him.

Seeing the sales clerk’s dazed expression, Liu Mingyu rolled his eyes and then said seriously again, “I’m sure. Please hurry up and bring out the phones. If you don’t, I’ll go buy them somewhere else.”

“No problem, I’ll get them right away.”

The sales clerk came to her senses and hurried toward the warehouse.

Seeing her actions, Liu Mingyu helplessly shook his head and then waited nearby.

There were two sales clerks in the store. One went to the warehouse to get the phones, while the other took a paper cup, filled it with hot water from the water dispenser, and handed it to Liu Mingyu, saying, “Sir, please have some water.”

“Thank you.”

Huawei had many phone models in this price range.

The sales clerk made several trips to the warehouse before getting them all.

And this was just for Huawei - many models had already been discontinued, or there would have been even more.

“Sir, you requested these phones, and they’re all here now. A total of 32 phones.”

You could say the quantity wasn’t large - Liu Mingyu hadn’t actually bought that many. She had seen people buy more in bulk before. The main issue was that Liu Mingyu’s request was too unique, which shocked her.

The sales clerk had spent nearly half a day searching for phones in the warehouse.

Liu Mingyu casually spot-checked a few phones, and they were all fine. Then he asked, “How much are all these phones?”

“Sir, please wait a moment while I add them up.”

The sales clerk scanned the phones on the table with the computer and then said, “Sir, 32 phones total 82,724 yuan.”

Just over 80,000 yuan, not even 100,000. It wasn’t much, actually a bit less than Liu Mingyu had imagined.

Mainly because he had set a price limit. If he had bought all models regardless of price, it would definitely have exceeded 100,000 yuan.

After paying without hesitation, Liu Mingyu left carrying a large bag of phones.

Besides Huawei phones, Liu Mingyu decided to buy some other brands’ various models as well.

Besides Huawei, there were only a few domestic phone brands in China. Since he was doing this, he might as well buy them all.

Conveniently, the major phone brands in Silver City Mall all had their own specialty stores.

This made purchasing much more convenient for Liu Mingyu.

In the end, Liu Mingyu had 115 phones of various brands and models in his hands.

The 115 phones cost him over 350,000 yuan in total.

This was still including the later purchase of Oppo phones. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have cost so much.

Originally, he hadn’t planned to buy foreign phones, but then he thought, since he was already here, and Oppo uses an independent system.

Although in recent years, Chinese people haven’t been as obsessed with Oppo phones as before, Oppo still has a huge user base, so he included Oppo phones in his purchase list.

There weren’t many Oppo models, and they didn’t cost much.

Liu Mingyu carried over a hundred phones through Silver City Mall, attracting considerable attention.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to put these phones in his storage space - he simply hadn’t had the chance. He could only carry them in his hands.

People who passed by Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but look back.

Because Liu Mingyu didn’t look like a supplier carrying boxes of phones, but rather like an ordinary person buying phones, carrying a bag.

Not that he looked like an ordinary person - ordinary people wouldn’t buy dozens of phones at once.

Liu Mingyu carried the phones and quickly walked toward the underground parking lot. He didn’t want to be watched anymore.

Back in the car, he quickly took the phones out of their packaging and threw them into his storage space.

The 115 phones took him over ten minutes to unpack.

Keeping the packaging would waste too much storage space. With that space, he might as well bring other things.

With the phones bought, Liu Mingyu checked the time - it was only 4 PM, still more than five hours until 9:30 PM.

While he had been busy before, Liu Mingyu hadn’t felt time drag. Now that he suddenly had free time, he didn’t know what to do.

Before obtaining the apocalyptic system, he would look forward to getting off work while at work, and during free time after work, he would play a few games with Shi Dawei and the others, or read novels and watch movies. Time would pass quickly.

Now that he truly had free time, Shi Dawei was still at the gold shop, working hard to earn money for him.

Liu Mingyu lay in the driver’s seat and opened his smart wristband.

As soon as he opened the smart wristband, a cute little figure appeared in mid-air inside the car, showing a bright smile and saying, “Master, I’ve missed you so much! You never pay attention to me anymore.”

Seeing the little sprite’s adorable expression, Liu Mingyu felt his heart melting. He smiled and said, “How long has it been? It seems like we just saw each other yesterday.”

The little sprite looked up with a sidelong glance, saying in an adorably dazed manner, “Really? But Little Sprite feels like it’s been so long since I saw Master. As the saying goes, ‘A day apart feels like three autumns.’ If we calculate it that way, I haven’t seen Master for three years already. Doesn’t that feel like a long time?”

Liu Mingyu nodded with a smile, “Yes, yes, yes.”

Chapter 61: Gift Giving

After spending some time interacting with the sprite, Liu Mingyu took out the virtual reality helmet he had obtained from Ma Junhao and watched a movie inside it.

Watching a movie in the virtual reality helmet felt like personally experiencing the protagonist’s journey, transforming into the main character and appearing within the film.

This was Liu Mingyu’s first time watching a movie like this. Previously, he had only used the virtual reality helmet for learning, and he was completely amazed.

This virtual reality helmet was truly impressive, but unfortunately, the apocalypse lacked the rare materials needed to manufacture it.

Liu Mingyu suddenly thought that he didn’t necessarily need to make it himself.

Virtual reality technology had already been developed for many years in the apocalypse, and virtual reality helmets had long become common products.

Just like when computers first appeared—they were extremely valuable items—but after entering the 21st century, manufacturing costs decreased, living standards improved, and computers became widespread, becoming affordable commodities.

Logically speaking, such products should be in every household.

But Liu Mingyu remembered that when he first encountered Lu Haipeng and the others in the community, they had searched through many rooms without finding any virtual reality helmets.

Perhaps the owners had taken them when they fled.

Another possibility was that Liu Mingyu hadn’t known about virtual reality helmets at that time, and even if he had seen them, he would have subconsciously thought they were just simple helmets rather than making the connection to virtual reality helmets.

After returning to the apocalypse, he could mobilize people to search for virtual reality helmets.

Have Ma Junhao and the others modify them and bring them to the real world for experience.

However, if he wanted them to truly become products, he would need to produce them in batches himself; otherwise, they could only serve as experimental items.

Actually, various VR devices could already be seen in shopping malls for people to experience.

Liu Mingyu had also experienced such VR devices before. He had to admit that for first-time users, they were quite impressive.

But after experiencing the virtual reality helmet from the apocalypse, he discovered that the two were completely incomparable.

The virtual reality helmet from the apocalypse had already developed into a true virtual reality device, with the virtual world reaching a highly realistic level.

Wearing the virtual reality helmet and wandering in the virtual world, you not only had visual sensations but also tactile, olfactory, and gustatory sensations, as if you were in a real world.

Of course, this sensory sensitivity could be adjusted—it could be set as low as zero or as high as 90%.

People who wanted to experience the virtual world naturally wouldn’t choose zero; most would select an appropriate sensitivity level based on their tolerance.

When Liu Mingyu experienced these projects, he didn’t choose the highest sensitivity but rather 50%.

Even at 50% sensitivity, after watching a movie, he felt as though he had lived through the protagonist’s entire life, experiencing all the protagonist’s sensations.

This magical feeling made him marvel.

After finishing one movie, Liu Mingyu was still engrossed and immediately played another one.

Five hours passed quickly.

Liu Mingyu’s smart wristband automatically activated, and then a sprite appeared sitting on a tree branch in mid-air, with a round of bright moonlight behind it.

“Master, it’s time. Get up quickly.”

A crisp voice rang out.

Liu Mingyu had been watching the movie, but upon hearing the voice, he pressed the pause button and his consciousness returned to reality.

“Has it already reached nine o’clock?”

Liu Mingyu had set an alarm for nine o’clock, and when nine o’clock arrived, the sprite woke him up on time.

The virtual reality helmet had both automatic wake-up and passive wake-up functions.

The sprite shouting outside the helmet belonged to the passive wake-up function.

Because the virtual reality helmet involved complete immersion in the virtual world, unlike the nutrition pod, which could provide nutrients.

After entering the virtual world, the perception of time was different.

The automatic wake-up function was also designed to prevent prolonged stays in the virtual world.

Taking off the virtual reality helmet, Liu Mingyu put it into his storage space.

He drove straight toward the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel.

The Silver City Mall wasn’t too far from the hotel, and since it wasn’t rush hour, Liu Mingyu arrived at the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel in ten minutes.

Led by a waiter, Liu Mingyu arrived at private room 888.

Opening the door, he found Chen Youde already inside.

When Chen Youde saw Liu Mingyu enter, he quickly walked over and said, “Boss, please have a seat over here.”

“Old Chen, when did you arrive? You got here so quickly.”

Liu Mingyu sat in the main seat and asked with a smile.

Sitting in the main seat, Liu Mingyu also felt quite emotional. Usually, when accompanying leaders for meals and drinks outside, he would sit in a corner, never imagining that one day he would be sitting in a large private room at the Jinjiang International Grand Hotel, dining in the main seat.

Chen Youde took a pot of freshly brewed tea and poured a cup for Liu Mingyu, smiling faintly, “Not long ago. I just arrived too.”

In reality, Chen Youde had arrived before nine o’clock. The leader had arranged to eat at nine-thirty—could they really eat at the exact scheduled time? He himself was now a leader and naturally understood these rules.

Liu Mingyu picked up the cup and took a small sip. A light tea fragrance lingered in his throat, and he couldn’t help but praise, “Good tea. What kind of tea leaves are these?”

Indeed, it was good tea. Liu Mingyu felt that the tea he drank at Liu Fugui’s place couldn’t compare to this pot of tea at all.

It was an international grand hotel, after all. Even the tea leaves used for pre-meal tea were that good.

Although he didn’t drink tea often, he could tell that these tea leaves were definitely very high-quality.

Chen Youde laughed heartily, “This is Mingqian Longjing tea, made by relatives in my family.”

He was quite proud of these tea leaves. Although they were still far from tribute-grade Longjing tea, compared to those fake Longjing teas sold outside, they were much better.

Liu Mingyu looked at Chen Youde in surprise, then smiled, “So it’s tea from Old Chen’s own family. The taste is excellent.”

“Boss, I brought some with me. When you leave, take some with you.”

Chen Youde stood up, took four boxes from behind him, handed them to Liu Mingyu, and said with a smile, “Two boxes of tea leaves, two boxes of wine—all homemade.”

Liu Mingyu took them and said with a smile, “That’s too kind of you, Old Chen. Let’s drink this wine tonight.”

“No need, Boss. We have other wine to drink tonight,” Chen Youde quickly said.

“Alright then, I’ll accept them.”

He had promised Liu Fugui some tea leaves last time anyway.

But thinking about it, he decided to forget it. He might as well keep this tea for himself to drink. He could buy new tea leaves from the market for Liu Fugui.

Liu Mingyu put the tea leaves and wine aside and said, “Have you ordered the dishes?”

“I’ve ordered some. Boss, why don’t you take another look?” Chen Youde pushed the menu to Liu Mingyu.

Liu Mingyu took the menu, looked it over, and added a few more dishes. Anyway, whatever was expensive, they would order.

Today’s meal was to taste what the dishes at an international grand hotel were like.

Chapter 62: Sales Revenue

After ordering the dishes, Liu Mingyu took out his old domestic cell phone and called Shi Dawei.

After a while, the call connected. Liu Mingyu asked, “Hey, Dawei, have you guys arrived yet?”

“Boss, I’m settling the bill here. I’ll be there soon.”

“How long will it take? If it’s too much trouble, we can just tally everything up tomorrow.”

“Almost done. I’ll be there right away.”

“Alright then, hurry up and come over. Bring Master Song and the others too. Everyone should be free, right?”

“Everyone’s coming. I’ll be there in a bit.”

Seeing Liu Mingyu hang up, Chen Youde asked softly, “Boss, how many people are coming over?”

He really didn’t know how many people were coming. Liu Mingyu had only said he would introduce someone to him, and he thought it would just be one or two people.

Now hearing Liu Mingyu’s tone, it seemed like quite a few people were coming.

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment and said, “There are eighteen people coming from the gold shop. Adding the two of us, that makes twenty people total.”

When the gold shop people arrived, there were fifteen people from the gold shop. Later, Shi Dawei and the two apprentices Master Song brought made eighteen people total.

“Twenty people? Then this table isn’t big enough. Let’s add another table next to it.”

Chen Youde really hadn’t expected so many people. The dishes he ordered were already quite a lot, but for twenty people, these dishes wouldn’t be enough, even with the additional dishes Liu Mingyu ordered later.

“Waiter, please add another table next to ours,” Chen Youde called out to a nearby waiter.

Room 888 was a large private room. Originally, one large table could seat fifteen people, and adding a ten-person table next to it was no problem.

If needed, they could even move the partition wall to create a banquet-style dining area.

A few waiters came and brought another table from the nearby storage room, quickly setting up a ten-person table.

“Order a few more dishes,” Chen Youde took the menu and ordered many more dishes.

Seeing Chen Youde finish ordering, Liu Mingyu checked the time. It was already almost 9:30. He instructed, “You can start serving the dishes now.”

Just as he called for the dishes to be served, he immediately heard the scattered footsteps of a group of people.

Actually, the sound wasn’t very loud, but Liu Mingyu’s hearing had improved quite a bit recently. He could hear even the slightest sounds clearly.

“My brothers are here,” Liu Mingyu stood up.

Chen Youde also stood up, but he was a bit puzzled. There was clearly no one at the door, so how could he say his brothers were here?

A few seconds later, Shi Dawei led a group of lively young women to appear at the door of the private room.

Chen Youde looked at Liu Mingyu in surprise, secretly thinking, “This is too amazing. Could the boss be a fortune-teller?”

Seeing Liu Mingyu sitting inside, Shi Dawei quickly called out, “Boss!”

The people behind him also followed Shi Dawei in calling out, “Boss!”

Liu Mingyu joked, “Hurry up and come in. If you didn’t know better, you’d think we were some kind of gang members.”

Liu Mingyu sat in the middle, with Shi Dawei on his left and Chen Youde on his right. At this table were also Master Song and his two apprentices, two team leaders, and two regular employees. The others sat at the table next to them.

“Dawei, let me introduce you. This is Chen Youde, the general manager of the trading company I just acquired.”

Liu Mingyu introduced Chen Youde to Shi Dawei, then continued, “This is Shi Dawei, the manager of Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop, and also my old brother.”

“Hello, Manager Chen.”

“Hello, Manager Shi.”

The two exchanged polite handshakes.

They both knew they were working for Liu Mingyu.

Shi Dawei suddenly said mysteriously to Liu Mingyu, “Boss, guess how much revenue the gold shop made today?”

“So fast with the settlement?” Liu Mingyu analyzed with a smile, “Since you’re asking me to guess, that means today’s revenue must have exceeded yesterday’s. Yesterday’s revenue was over 30 million. When I left this afternoon, there was still some gold you hadn’t sold. I’ll guess 50 million.”

Chen Youde was a bit confused listening from the side. Isn’t this a gold shop?

What kind of gold shop has such high revenue? Yesterday 30 million, today 50 million. Even large jewelry stores couldn’t have this kind of revenue, could they?

Shi Dawei shook his head and said, “Too low.”

“60 million?”

“Too low.”

“65 million?”

“Too low.”

Liu Mingyu joked, “Kid, just reveal the answer already. Stop keeping us in suspense, or I’ll have to discipline you.”

Shi Dawei laughed heartily and stopped keeping them in suspense, saying directly, “A full 80 million. 80 million in revenue. Today those people were like crazy, and they really wore us out.”

Shi Dawei was also extremely happy at this moment, not just because of the 10% Liu Mingyu had promised him, but also because of the sense of achievement from selling 140 million in three days. At this moment, he felt his sense of achievement was through the roof.

Liu Mingyu’s eyes widened in surprise, “What? 80 million? Did you sell all the gold I gave you?”

Not only was Liu Mingyu stunned, but Chen Youde was also quite shocked.

Revenue of 80 million - he was also familiar with Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop, but it had never been that impressive before.

When he had assets of over 100 million before, he thought he was incredibly amazing, but he hadn’t realized it was only equivalent to the gold shop’s revenue for a few days.

“Not quite. There’s still about 200 jin left,” Shi Dawei shook his head, then said happily, “Boss, you need to give us bonuses.”

Liu Mingyu readily agreed, “No problem. In addition to the double bonus I originally promised you, I’ll take out another 200,000 for you to divide among yourselves.”

200,000 was just a small amount to him, but for the employees in the shop, it was a pretty good sum of money.

On average, everyone could get over 10,000.

“Thank you, Boss,” everyone said in unison.

At this time, there weren’t many people eating anymore.

After placing the order, the dishes started coming out quickly.

Liu Mingyu raised a glass of white wine, stood up, and loudly announced, “Everyone, you’ve all worked hard these past few days. Tonight we have just two tasks: eat and drink. Let’s all toast.”

“Cheers!”

Everyone drained their glasses.

Liu Mingyu didn’t force anyone to drink, but for Shi Dawei and Chen Youde, there was no escaping it.

Others who could handle their alcohol also drank heartily, while those with lower alcohol tolerance just took small sips.

Liu Mingyu felt his body had improved a lot. He could only drink half a jin of alcohol before, but by the end, everyone who was drinking had passed out while he remained sober.

He felt he had drunk at least three jin of white wine that night. Everyone took turns toasting him. He had originally planned to refuse, but after trying a bit and feeling fine, he accepted all toasts. Seeing Liu Mingyu accept all toasts, everyone competed with him.

The result was that they got themselves drunk while Liu Mingyu remained standing.

One banquet lasted from 9:30 until midnight.

It was fortunate they were at an international hotel; if it were anywhere else, they would have been kicked out and closed up long ago.

They called taxis and sent everyone home one by one.

As for Liu Mingyu, he supported Shi Dawei as they walked toward the rental apartment.

Chapter 63: Star Technology

Chapter 63: Star Technology

June 7, 2019.

8:00 AM.

The first thing Liu Mingyu did upon waking was check the task list to see what new tasks had been updated today.

Task One: Kill one thousand Level One zombies

Task Reward: 1000 points

Task Progress: 45/1000

It’s already reached 45? He remembered it was only 20 before.

It seems those additional 25 zombies were killed by Lu Haipeng and the others, and were counted toward his total.

Let’s check the second task.

Task Two: Kill one “Leader”

Task Reward: 2000 points

Task Progress: 0/1

Killing just one Leader would earn 2000 points - the task reward is too generous.

Task One requires killing one thousand Level One zombies for just 1000 points.

What exactly is a Leader?

Is it also a type of zombie?

When he went to the apocalypse side, he only encountered ordinary zombies, which were Level One zombies.

So is this Leader a Level Two zombie?

Or perhaps an even higher level? Liu Mingyu remembered there were rumors about special zombies in the settlement.

Special zombies all have skills, and each special zombie’s skill is different - some are extremely fast, some possess immense strength, some are indestructible, and some can control other zombies.

Judging by the name, this Leader should be a special zombie that can control other zombies.

This makes things difficult. No wonder the task reward for one Leader is twice that of one thousand ordinary zombies.

Killing a Leader doesn’t just mean facing one zombie - you’d also have to face other zombies.

He doesn’t know if this controlling skill has a limit. Logically, there should be a limit, otherwise that world would have been completely overrun by these zombies long ago.

But humans aren’t doing much better. It’s been five years since the zombie outbreak began, and there’s been no trace of other survivors found around the Jia Hang settlement.

But now isn’t the time to think about how to deal with Leaders. Most people haven’t even seen special zombies, and Liu Mingyu hasn’t either.

He doesn’t know when he’ll be able to complete this task.

System tasks can only be passively accepted - they can’t be canceled. Only after completing the task will it disappear from the task list.

Putting aside thoughts of completing the task, he checked other aspects. Other than the traversal count changing back to two, nothing else had changed.

Breakfast stall.

Liu Mingyu and Shi Dawei sat eating steamed buns and fried dough sticks.

Shi Dawei rubbed his head and asked, “Boss, you drank so much alcohol yesterday - are you okay?”

Liu Mingyu took a bite of his bun and glanced at him, smiling, “I’m fine. My alcohol tolerance is so good, how could anything be wrong?”

Your alcohol tolerance is good? Who was it that got drunk a few days ago and needed me to help send them back?

But recently, he’s noticed Liu Mingyu has changed a lot - not just his alcohol tolerance, but also those gold bars he’s been giving him. Where did they come from?

Forget it, don’t think too much about it. Stick with Boss, and there will always be benefits.

After finishing breakfast, they headed toward the gold shop.

Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop.

Manager’s office.

Shi Dawei brought over the sales data from the past three days: “Boss, the total sales for the past three days were 147 million. Here’s the sales record.”

“Boss, I’ll leave 50 million in this gold shop as basic operating funds. Your 10% will also be calculated based on this. Is that okay?”

Liu Mingyu didn’t look at these reports. For these sales reports, he already had a good sense of the numbers.

Shi Dawei said politely, “Boss, this is too much. Opening a gold shop only requires a few hundred thousand at most. There’s no need for that much.”

Liu Mingyu leaving so much capital was practically giving money to him. He felt somewhat uneasy accepting it.

With such high sales these past few days, it was all built on Liu Mingyu continuously providing gold, which is why the sales were so high. They were essentially selling at a loss.

Based on current gold prices, selling 147 million worth of gold, Liu Mingyu would lose at least 10-20 million.

How could he feel right about taking another 50 million from Liu Mingyu?

“It’s fine. Opening one shop doesn’t require that much. You can open branch stores, but first we need to agree - if you open branch stores, you’ll need to negotiate your own supply channels.”

Liu Mingyu waved his hand.

Seeing that Liu Mingyu insisted, Shi Dawei nodded, “No problem. After opening the shop later, I’ll go out to do business.”

Leaving 30 million in the shop for Shi Dawei, with the remaining 20 million used as collateral along with the rent and the unsold gold from yesterday.

There were still over 200 jin of gold left, which was worth more than 20 million. The remaining money would be given to Liu Mingyu after the gold shop sold it.

After the allocation, the money in Liu Mingyu’s account reached 117 million, officially making him a billionaire.

After leaving the gold shop, he went to the hotel to get his car and received a call from Chen Youde.

“Boss, the company registration has been completed. Also, the supplies you wanted have been purchased and are stored in the warehouse.”

Liu Mingyu joked, “Lao Chen, you processed the registration procedures so quickly - do you want that 10 million? No problem, give me the company’s account number and I’ll transfer it over.”

Chen Youde provided an account number. After a while, Liu Mingyu transferred the promised 10 million to the corresponding account.

Then Liu Mingyu and Chen Youde chatted for a while.

Since Liu Mingyu wasn’t ready to go to the apocalypse side yet, he didn’t go to the warehouse.

It would be better to get the supplies from the warehouse at a later time.

Liu Mingyu wanted to apply apocalypse technology to the real world, so he needed to establish a company.

Actually, he could also directly acquire an existing company like he did with Chen Youde’s trading company.

But this time, Liu Mingyu wanted to establish a new company himself, representing a new beginning.

Although he wanted to establish a new company, he really didn’t know how to operate it.

Well, he should first find a person in charge, then let that person build the company.

Thinking about it, he immediately took action.

The general recruitment method is to recruit online or at local talent markets.

Now the company had nothing - they hadn’t even thought of a name yet, so posting online was naturally impossible.

And wanting to recruit at local talent markets also required relevant business licenses and documents. Without the corresponding documents, they couldn’t even rent a booth.

Liu Mingyu walked out of the talent market’s management office awkwardly.

Without a business license, who knows if you’re a scam company?

Did he really have to register a company himself?

It wasn’t necessarily that he had to do it himself - he should be able to find an intermediary company to help with registration, right?

But thinking about it, he decided against it. In the end, Liu Mingyu called Chen Youde and asked him to find someone to help register the company.

There was no other way - he didn’t have anyone around him, so only Chen Youde still had some people.

It was best to have Chen Youde handle these matters.

It had to be said that the benefits of the government’s advocacy for one-stop service procedures were significant. After preparing all the materials.

By that afternoon, everything had been processed, and Liu Mingyu had officially established his own company.

Star Technology Co., Ltd. was officially established.

Chapter 64: How to Achieve Technology Transfer

Star Technology Co., Ltd. was now just an empty shell of a company, with only Liu Mingyu as the legal representative and no other employees.

Registering the company didn’t mean everything was settled - there was still a pile of things waiting for Liu Mingyu to decide.

Sigh, I need to find someone to help with recruitment first.

Fortunately, he had found someone to help from Chen Youde’s side before; otherwise, he would be even busier.

He was beginning to doubt whether his decision to establish the company at this time was correct.

Thankfully, the person who came over from Chen Youde’s side today was still here. With her help, things were much easier.

Things like registration and renting an office had all been handed over to her to handle.

Standing in the newly rented office, Liu Mingyu felt emotional.

The office wasn’t large, only about three hundred square meters. There was no other way - time was pressing, so he had to make do.

According to Liu Mingyu’s original intention, he wanted to rent a larger place. After all, his future company was going to make a name for itself.

Such a small place couldn’t possibly match up to the soon-to-be multi-billion-dollar technology company.

Cough cough, it’s barely enough for now.

Collecting his thoughts, Liu Mingyu turned to ask the person beside him, “Little Li, would you like to come work at Star Technology? I’ll promote you to administrative supervisor.”

This person was the one who had come from Chen Youde’s side to help out - a young woman who had just graduated not long ago, named Li Siyan.

After being summoned by the big boss, she had been running around helping all day.

Liu Mingyu also saw that the other party had good abilities, and since Star Technology was currently short of people, it was perfect for her to come help.

Actually, both Star Technology and Youde Trading were owned by Liu Mingyu, so having Li Siyan come over to help was within her job scope.

However, Liu Mingyu wasn’t someone who forced others, so he still asked for her opinion first.

After hearing this, Li Siyan was stunned for a moment before quickly replying, “Of course, thank you for the boss’s appreciation.”

Being promoted from administrative staff to administrative supervisor was a promotion - how could she not be willing?

More importantly, the original trading company was already on the verge of bankruptcy. Even after being acquired by the boss and receiving an investment of ten million, it was only a company worth over ten million.

But this Star Technology had already registered with fifty million in capital, and this fifty million was upfront - she had handled these matters today and knew this very well.

In the future, the boss’s business focus would definitely be here, and working here had a promising future.

Liu Mingyu smiled and said, “Alright then, you can resign from there later and directly join here. I’ll talk to Old Chen about it. Starting today counts as your official start date.”

“Understood, boss.”

“Next, I have several tasks for you: recruit VR technical personnel, general managers, and other various positions. I’ll send you a document with specific recruitment requirements for you to follow.”

Liu Mingyu said, “Also, have someone renovate this office.”

After people joined the company, Liu Mingyu directly became a hands-off boss.

The main technical force of Star Technology Co., Ltd. wasn’t on this side of the real world - this side was mainly just a front. The main technical force was still in the apocalyptic world.

Moreover, even if Liu Mingyu wanted to base himself on the technical strength of the real world, it would be difficult to find corresponding technical talent in Jia City.

Just looking at the technologies that Star Technology was about to develop would tell you: virtual reality technology, artificial intelligence - these two technologies are at the forefront of the world.

Actually, regarding these two technologies, the world has already seen some development. Like VR, which became popular for a while in recent years.

And a few years ago, the very popular Alpha robot was also a kind of primary artificial intelligence robot. But this kind of robot still has a long way to go before reaching true artificial intelligence.

Star Technology, this newly established company, where would it attract high-end talent?

Even if Liu Mingyu increased the salary, he couldn’t recruit them. For talent at that level, unless you have truly attractive technology, there might be a chance they would join. Otherwise, don’t even think about it.

Perhaps there will be opportunities in the future, but for now, let’s forget it.

Hurry up and have Ma Junhao and the others migrate the simplified version of artificial intelligence to smartphones. Without products from that side, where would we have the confidence to develop here?

Not only that, but also those virtual reality games, quantum computers, graphene batteries, and so many other technologies.

These technologies haven’t been realized in the real world yet, but in the apocalyptic world, they have already developed into mature technologies. There are even more next-generation products that have also developed.

There are many technologies that want to be restored, but Liu Mingyu doesn’t dare to bring all these technologies over at once.

Each technology is enough to cause earth-shaking changes in this world. Before having sufficient self-protection strength, it’s better to proceed slowly.

Actually, even if Liu Mingyu wanted to bring them over quickly, there’s no good way. Although over three hundred people have gathered in the apocalyptic world.

But among these three hundred people, there are all kinds of professions, and not many truly master technology.

In their eyes, the technologies that seem ordinary and natural wouldn’t be learned.

It’s like learning math in school. Things like formulas and theorems - students don’t need to consider how to derive them at all. They can just take them and use them directly.

But when some formulas haven’t formed yet, someone needs to research and prove them.

Liu Mingyu’s current situation is somewhat similar to this.

For the real world, these are all things that haven’t formed theorems or formulas yet and need to be proven and researched.

But for those people in the apocalyptic world, these have already formed theorems in their minds and don’t need to be proven.

Ask them to prove it, and many people really don’t know how to prove it.

For example, formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and other commonly used formulas - most people don’t know how to derive them.

It’s the same for those technical personnel in the apocalyptic world.

However, although they don’t understand, if they can find some historical archives, they can also learn about the development of some technologies.

What Liu Mingyu wants isn’t just to make good products in the apocalyptic world and bring them over to use. He wants to achieve these things in the real world.

After all, in the apocalyptic world, Liu Mingyu has only seen twenty-some thousand people, and the population is decreasing.

Liu Mingyu can’t let everyone serve him. With too many people,

Those people in the settlement aren’t vegetarians either. They can’t just watch his power grow and try to overthrow their rule.

Actually, what Liu Mingyu doesn’t know is that there’s no need for him to expand further - people are already observing in secret, and it’s not just one or two groups.

Although there are many problems, Liu Mingyu believes he can still solve them slowly.

Just like now, in just a few days, he has become a billionaire.

As long as you work hard, there will be hope.

If you don’t work hard, then there will be nothing.

He’s still thinking about how to truly realize virtual games in the real world.

Chapter 65: Recruitment

June 8, 2019.

At eight in the morning, Liu Mingyu got up on time to check the task system.

Besides the previous two tasks, a third one had appeared.

Task Three: Kill a “Burst” Zombie

Task Reward: 500 points

Task Progress: 0/1

Another special zombie?

Burst?

It should be another type of special zombie, but the reward points are quite low.

Compared to the points for killing a Leader, the Burst zombie’s points are only 1/4 of that.

Does that mean the Burst zombie’s strength is lower than the Leader’s?

To be honest, Liu Mingyu still didn’t know how to complete these two tasks. In the apocalypse, he had only heard of special zombies but had never encountered them.

Others had encountered them, but almost all had run away.

Even if encountered, there was no way to know if it was the target needed to complete the task.

Well, I’ll just leave it for now. When I encounter it, I’ll deal with it then. There’s no use thinking about it too much right now.

The traversal count had also increased by 1, restoring 3 traversal attempts.

Noon.

Liu Mingyu went to the gold shop to check, and the shop’s business was still decent.

Although it wasn’t as hot as during the promotional activities of the first three days, due to the relatively lower prices, the foot traffic was still acceptable.

Moreover, many people who had bought rough bracelets in the first two days were gradually returning to choose their favorite jewelry.

Looking at it this way, the gold shop had quite a bit of foot traffic, much more than the other gold shops nearby.

“Dawei, how’s it going? Did you find any supply channels?”

Although he had asked Shi Dawei to find supply channels on his own, Liu Mingyu still wanted to check in. Neither of them had worked in this industry before, so they didn’t know how to proceed.

The weather in Jia City in June was already starting to get hot. Shi Dawei had just returned from outside, his head covered in sweat.

Hearing Liu Mingyu’s question, his expression wasn’t great as he replied, “I found a jewelry factory store near Jia City online and went to check it out this morning. Their quoted price is very high, reaching 330 yuan per gram.”

Compared to the gold price of 292 yuan per gram that the gold shop had been selling at a few days ago, it was indeed much more expensive. This was also one of the reasons why the gold shop had been so popular a few days ago.

Liu Mingyu asked, “How much are we selling it for per gram now in our shop?”

“360 yuan, about 10 yuan lower than the neighboring gold shops.” Shi Dawei had done his homework and immediately answered.

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment and said, “Earning 30 yuan per gram is still okay. Now that the gold shop has backup inventory, there’s no rush. Find a few more suppliers to compare.”

Shi Dawei nodded. It looked like earning 30 yuan from selling one gram of gold was quite a lot.

But shop costs, labor costs, tax costs, and various other costs took up more than half. They would need to sell over a catty of gold per day to make a profit.

Given the current state of Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop, a profit of 30 yuan per gram was still profitable.

Long Feng Xiang Gold Shop, as Liu Mingyu’s current main way of making money, naturally couldn’t be abandoned.

Over 200 catties of gold could keep the gold shop selling for more than half a year.

This was based on having only one store. If they opened a few more stores, it would be used up quickly.

The amount of gold in the two cities of Hangzhou and Jia in the apocalypse was limited, but it couldn’t be collected in a short time. The gold here still served as a cover.

“Dawei, actually you don’t need to worry too much about the gold supply. I brought the gold at international gold prices, so just give me that price, and there will be more in the future.” Liu Mingyu said with a smile.

Shi Dawei’s eyes lit up. At international gold prices, it would be much cheaper. With the current gold price at around 295 to 300 yuan, even if calculated at 300 yuan, there would be a 60 yuan profit, which was double.

Lowering the purchase price of gold was like Liu Mingyu giving him money. Shi Dawei felt a bit embarrassed and said, “Yu Ge, this isn’t good, isn’t this just giving me money for free?”

Liu Mingyu waved his hand and laughed, “This is just small change, and I still hold the majority stake in the gold shop anyway.”

That’s right, 5 million had already been given away. Could Yu Ge still care about that little bit of small change? Thinking this, Shi Dawei didn’t refuse anymore.

Liu Mingyu picked up the cup in his hand, took a sip of tea, and said, “Dawei, go buy a car. A car within 500,000 yuan, I’ll give it to you.”

Having just seen Shi Dawei’s sweaty appearance, Liu Mingyu knew he had taken the bus this morning.

When the two of them worked together before, most of the time they walked, occasionally taking the bus, public bicycles, or other means of transportation.

Now that they had money, they couldn’t treat themselves poorly. He had bought a commuting car for himself and was preparing to buy one for Shi Dawei too.

The key was that Shi Dawei now often needed to go out, and it wasn’t convenient without a car.

“Yu Ge, this won’t do. You’ve already given me 10% of the gold shop shares, which are worth 5 million. How could I take more of your money?”

Shi Dawei quickly waved his hand in refusal.

Liu Mingyu frowned, thought for a moment, and said, “If you don’t want to, then use the gold shop’s money to buy a car. Without a car, it’s always less convenient when doing business outside.”

Shi Dawei didn’t refuse anymore and nodded in agreement, “Okay, I’ll buy one when I have time.”

Actually, using the gold shop’s money to purchase it was still Liu Mingyu’s money, but he planned to buy a cheap car to drive.

The two chatted for a while. At noon, after they ate lunch together at a nearby place, Liu Mingyu left by himself, while Shi Dawei continued to look for suppliers.

After finishing his meal, Liu Mingyu came to the Star Technology side.

Li Siyan was very quick. She had only been given the task yesterday.

Today, the office side had already started renovations, which was related to the high price Liu Mingyu had offered. There were many home decoration companies in the area.

Find one, offer a high price, and someone would immediately come to do the renovations.

The renovation of over 300 square meters of office space, with more than 20 people working now, would probably be done in a few days.

Looking around, Li Siyan wasn’t in the office, probably having gone to the talent market to recruit.

Liu Mingyu called Li Siyan, and after a while, a pleasant voice came from the other side, “Hello, boss.”

“Are you at the talent market? How’s the recruitment going?”

“The administrative staff have been preliminarily interviewed. I’ll send them to you to look at later. There are too few technical personnel. The technical people who came for interviews aren’t professionally matched.” Li Siyan briefly introduced the current situation.

Liu Mingyu comforted her, “It’s okay, get the support staff sorted out first. For technical personnel and such, post the recruitment online. When the staff is complete, you can go to Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other big cities to recruit.”

As a small city, although Jia City’s geographical location was good, being between Hangzhou and Shanghai, virtual reality technical personnel still needed to be found in big cities.

Or find headhunters to poach people from other companies.

Technical personnel were hard to find, but administrative personnel like this were still easy to find.

Chapter 66: Discovery

After a while, Liu Mingyu received several resumes from Li Siyan - a driver, two administrative staff, and an accountant.

For a newly established Xingchen Technology, this was enough for now. They could recruit more when the company expanded in the future.

Liu Mingyu briefly reviewed them and found no major issues with Li Siyan’s recommendations.

However, he noticed that the people Li Siyan recommended were all quite young. Except for the driver, the others were fresh graduates.

He wasn’t sure if Li Siyan felt a connection with fellow recent graduates, or if only these people had submitted resumes, leading to most recommendations being similar.

Liu Mingyu himself had only been working for a few years, so he didn’t mind their age, just found it somewhat surprising.

Even the driver applicant wasn’t much older, described as a recent military veteran.

Liu Mingyu called Li Siyan again: “Let’s go with these four. But since the office isn’t renovated yet, you should rent a small temporary office space.”

“Understood, boss.”

“For other technical personnel, keep looking and recommend suitable candidates to me.”

After giving instructions, Liu Mingyu didn’t stay any longer.

Leaving Xingchen Technology, Liu Mingyu went to Youde Trading Company again and had dinner with Chen Youde.

He also filled his storage space, mainly choosing rice, cured meat, and canned meat, while leaving other items behind for now.

He had already instructed Chen Youde and others to purchase unlabeled food.

Liu Mingyu didn’t need to remove production dates from each can one by one. To any observer, these foods appeared to come from nowhere.

Although lacking production dates and labels, the quality was still very reliable.

He would be consuming these foods himself.

Chinese people had already developed iron stomachs - things like gutter oil were nothing to them.

Dinner was eaten alone. After dinner, he took a walk and bought several dozen jin of Longjing tea.

This Longjing tea was ordinary green tea, incomparable to the one Chen Youde had given him.

These teas were mainly prepared to bring to Lu Haipeng and others, with some extra for Liu Fugui, as he had promised last time.

June 9, 2019.

Liu Mingyu got up very early. After washing up and changing into his apocalypse attire, he prepared to go to the other side today. The real world was basically on track now.

After traversing, time would stop, creating a somewhat troublesome situation - Liu Mingyu needed to remember what clothes he was wearing when he left, and change back into the same clothes when returning, otherwise it would be easy to arouse suspicion.

When the time reached eight o’clock, Liu Mingyu checked his task bar on time.

Sure enough, a new task had appeared.

Task Four: Kill one “Zombie Dog”

Task Reward: 200 points

Task Progress: 0/1

Another new zombie species had appeared. From the name, this should be a canine creature that had been infected.

The reward for killing one zombie dog was much higher than for ordinary zombies, but far less than for the previous Leader, even significantly less than for the Exploder.

Liu Mingyu was still very confident about completing this task.

Compared to those special zombies, zombie dogs, while he hadn’t seen them, should be somewhat easier, right?

Checking the traversal count, it had accumulated to four times.

The task count and traversal count hadn’t reached the upper limit and were still stacking.

“Traverse.”

Liu Mingyu silently thought, and immediately disappeared from this space. The next second, Liu Mingyu appeared in the presidential suite of the apocalypse world.

June 4, 2115.

Apocalypse World.

Liu Mingyu found Li Wenbo and then recruited two more people, making a total of four. They went to the area near the villa where food was stored and made a trip to bring back some grain.

When calling Li Wenbo, he was quite surprised - hadn’t they just moved food? Why were they making another trip?

Of course, he wasn’t complaining about having too much food; the more food, the better. He just couldn’t understand where Liu Mingyu was getting so much food, moving it to the resort by the truckload.

There must be another team operating this, Li Wenbo thought for a while before stopping overthinking. As long as there was food to eat, why worry about so much?

When Liu Mingyu led people to move a cart of grain from the small house, the few people secretly monitoring were all puzzled - could there be another way to transport food over?

These people had been watching this place all along, and except for Liu Mingyu’s vehicles coming over, no one else had approached at any other time.

Could it be transported underground?

They quickly dismissed this idea because when Liu Mingyu left, they had already searched the house thoroughly, yet found no passage at all, as if the food had appeared out of thin air.

They didn’t know that their speculation was already close to the truth. Although not appearing out of thin air, for the people of this world, this food might as well have appeared out of thin air.

When Liu Mingyu returned to the resort, he discovered people secretly observing.

He had felt a sense of being watched when retrieving the food earlier, but since that area was complex, he thought it was just an illusion and didn’t pay much attention.

But when he returned to the entrance of the Dream Resort, he noticed human figures not far from the entrance.

At first, he thought they were zombies, but then he heard human conversation. The distance between them was considerable, and Liu Mingyu was sitting in the vehicle, so he couldn’t hear clearly.

But he could be very sure that he was being watched, or rather, the Dream Resort was being watched.

The Dream Resort was originally in a remote wilderness area. Even if humans passed by, they wouldn’t stay in one place for so long. Now, hearing two people talking not far away, he was clearly being secretly monitored.

He had considered that selling food in bulk would attract attention from some interested parties, even the big bosses in the inner city, but he hadn’t expected to be noticed after selling just a little.

Who was it?

Liu Fugui’s people?

Or the people from the auction that day?

Or some other interested parties?

The possibility of Liu Fugui was very high. The person who had competed with him for the level-two energy crystal was also possible. That person had said that day that they would come to pick it up, had they come?

Liu Mingyu couldn’t figure out who was monitoring him for a while.

He had almost forgotten about the conflicts at the auction. Since the other party hadn’t come to cause trouble these days, he had forgotten about them.

After obtaining the level-two energy crystal and completing the task, he had put it together with the meteorite fragments in the storage space.

Liu Mingyu had tried to absorb the energy inside, but after trying many methods, it was useless - it was just a pure stone.

He could feel that it contained a large amount of energy, but had no way to extract it.

He had tried, but others didn’t know, especially those who firmly believed that absorbing level-two energy crystals would grant special abilities.

Liu Mingyu suspected that the people monitoring him were very likely the ones who had competed with him at the auction that day.

Chapter 67: Obstacles to Artificial Intelligence

The final bidders for the level-two energy crystal were mainly two people.

It wasn’t that others were without suspicion, but these two were the most suspicious.

If it weren’t for everyone coming for the level-two energy crystal that day, perhaps that auction wouldn’t have had so many people.

Whoever it was, Liu Mingyu had become more vigilant.

He needed to be more careful when going out in the future, and next time he transported food, he couldn’t choose houses near the villa anymore.

The food was all in Liu Mingyu’s storage space, so it didn’t matter where he chose, it was just a pity about that fixed-point teleportation coordinate.

Fortunately, he had enough teleportation coordinates for now. When they weren’t enough in the future, he could just reset them.

1000 grams of level-one energy crystals wasn’t too much pressure.

He decided that next time he transported grain, he should go toward the suburban direction. This way he could conceal that he had a team helping him transport food.

The real world had already seen preliminary development, so Liu Mingyu decided not to sell food in large batches anymore. In the future, he would have people sell it in the trading hall, which would greatly reduce the possibility of exposure.

No matter how people monitored from outside, as long as they didn’t come into the resort side, it would be fine.

When Liu Mingyu handed over the second batch of grain to Ye Qingxuan, Ye Qingxuan was full of joy and couldn’t help but shout: “Boss is mighty!”

The others heard this and followed with a shout: “Boss is mighty!”

Indeed mighty. Actually, it wasn’t just two batches of grain, but three batches.

First batch: 1000 jin of rice, 500 jin of cured meat, 20 jin of table salt, transported from the villa side.

Second batch: 2000 jin of rice, 1000 jin of cured meat, 500 jin of table salt.

Third batch: 3000 jin of rice, 1000 jin of cured meat, 2000 bottles of various canned goods.

A total of 6000 jin of rice, 2000 jin of cured meat, 520 jin of table salt, and 2000 bottles of various canned goods - this was absolutely a huge food reserve.

When had they ever seen so much food before their eyes? If they ate sparingly, it could last them quite a long time.

Seeing Liu Mingyu bring so much food, their hearts settled.

They had originally thought they would be bought to be cannon fodder, but unexpectedly they were just doing some hard labor and could get this food. It was simply too good.

At this moment, the unwilling hearts of those purchased slaves were put down, and their hearts were once again filled with hope.

After everyone’s cheers subsided, Liu Mingyu called Ye Qingxuan over and said: “Next time, you’ll be in charge of watching the warehouse yourself. Don’t let people know what’s inside.”

In the future, Liu Mingyu planned to bring other food over. Eating cured meat all the time wasn’t nutritionally rich enough. If he wanted these weak slaves to form a fighting force, they still needed nutritional supplements.

This time showing so much food was to let them know that as long as they worked hard following him, he had the ability to let them eat well.

If he took out other food later, there would be much less discussion.

Anyway, they didn’t know how much was in the warehouse. Only Ye Qingxuan and a few limited people knew, so Liu Mingyu could move large amounts of food over without worrying about not having enough food.

But he didn’t want people to know how much food there was. If the amount was too small, Liu Mingyu would have to bring it every time he traversed, and each time he brought it, he would need to find people to transport it back from outside.

That would be too troublesome and easy to draw attention. The people monitoring outside these days might be because of this reason.

To reduce trouble, when his storage space expanded in the future, he could bring a large amount of food over at once.

Later on, Liu Mingyu could even directly move the food from his storage space into the warehouse.

To achieve this, the person watching the warehouse must be someone he was familiar with and could trust.

Actually, the purchased slaves could all serve as warehouse guards, but who told Ye Qingxuan to be the most expensive among this batch of slaves.

And having a big star help guard his home was simply the best.

Liu Mingyu didn’t have any thoughts about Ye Qingxuan now. With her skin-and-bones appearance, one careless moment and she might collapse, so how could she attract his attention?

Seeing Liu Mingyu’s clear eyes, Ye Qingxuan also knew the other party didn’t have any desire toward her, and she couldn’t help but snort coldly in her heart. However, she also knew that with her current appearance, it was unlikely to attract anyone’s attention.

After handing over the food to Ye Qingxuan for management, Liu Mingyu took the mobile phones he had bought from various specialty stores and walked toward Wu Junhao’s studio.

Wu Junhao’s studio was on the second floor.

Opening the door, Liu Mingyu discovered Ma Junhao, Luo Wenyong, and others gathered together researching the migration problem of the basic artificial intelligence.

He heard Luo Wenyong say: “The configuration of this smartphone given by the boss is too low. Even a castrated version of artificial intelligence cannot run on it.”

Everyone frowned tightly. Indeed, the configuration limited the operation of artificial intelligence. The smartphones the boss gave were all from a hundred years ago, and the large-scale development of artificial intelligence was in 2060. Even the simplified version of artificial intelligence was around 2050.

Being separated by about 30 years of technology meant several generations of technology gap.

Later technology could easily cover earlier technology, but wanting to run several generations of software on earlier hardware was relatively troublesome.

It was like some arcade games Liu Mingyu had played as a child. After entering the 21st century, it was very easy to achieve playing arcade games on a computer.

But if you wanted to run games released after the 21st century on arcade machines, it would be relatively troublesome because those games were made according to the computer configurations at that time. Some games only appeared when the configuration reached a certain level.

Now making artificial intelligence run on smartphones was like this.

No matter what, the boss had given them a task that must be completed.

“Can we use cloud processing, put the artificial intelligence database on the server, and have the smartphone only store basic data?” One person standing by the smartphone proposed his opinion.

“Cloud processing is a good choice, but have you seen the communication protocol of this phone? It’s only a 4G network, without sufficient speed to process these commands.”

Ma Junhao immediately gave his opinion. Obviously, he had also thought of this method before, but was restricted by signal transmission speed.

The person who proposed the opinion said regretfully: “Indeed, without sufficient speed, we can’t get timely feedback of data.”

“There’s no way. The speed of 4G network is too slow and cannot meet the basic data processing of cloud processing. If we could reach 5G network, it would barely be enough.”

“With 5G network, you might as well say use quantum communication. That would be even faster. The conditions given by the boss don’t include these.”

Although they didn’t know why the boss gave such conditions, they could only complete this task within the limited conditions.

Ma Junhao suddenly sat up straight and said: “The cloud processing solution is still feasible. What’s blocking the implementation of this solution now is communication speed. So can we change the communication speed of the smartphone to achieve this function?”

Chapter 68: Cleanup

Upon hearing Ma Junhao’s words, Luo Wenyong seemed to recall something and hesitated before speaking, “Are you suggesting modifying the communication speed between the smartphone and the server?”

Ma Junhao snapped his fingers and smiled, “Exactly. Since we can’t change the smartphone’s configuration, we can alter the communication transmission method. We don’t need to reach 5G speeds—just achieving ten times the 4G speed would be sufficient to complete basic cloud processing operations.”

Luo Wenyong paused for a moment and said, “Changing the communication transmission is indeed a good approach, but has anyone done similar work before?”

Luo Wenyong was merely a game development technician whose main focus was virtual reality games. He knew a little about other areas but wasn’t particularly knowledgeable, and he wasn’t very familiar with communication devices.

After hearing this, the others remained silent and fell quiet.

Although everyone here was from the IT industry, few truly understood smartphone communications.

There was no way around it—the smartphones Liu Mingyu provided were from roughly a century ahead of their current era.

Various technologies were completely different, separated by several generations.

Everyone had only learned about the relevant technologies from books, and even then, only those interested in that specific area would study them. Many had never even heard of them.

Liu Mingyu noticed the atmosphere had become silent and lightly knocked on the door.

Hearing the sound, everyone turned to see him and called out in unison, “Boss!”

Since Ye Qingxuan had started calling Liu Mingyu “boss,” Liu Mingyu had asked all the slaves to follow suit and address him the same way.

Liu Mingyu placed the phone on the table and smiled, “Hello everyone. These are the smartphones I brought for you. Please use them for testing.”

The group fell silent. Liu Mingyu asked, “What’s wrong? Is there a difficulty? Tell me, what’s the current situation?”

Ma Junhao explained the situation they were facing to Liu Mingyu.

Liu Mingyu had actually already heard their discussion, and now hearing Ma Junhao explain it again, he roughly understood the situation.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Mingyu said, “Here’s what we’ll do. You continue experimenting with your proposed method, and you’re also allowed to continue streamlining the version. The first version doesn’t need to be particularly powerful—retaining 50% of the functionality would be enough. However, the most important artificial intelligence features must be preserved.”

5G networks had already begun commercial deployment in Huaxia and would likely be available soon. If possible, they might even develop the next generation of network communications in the future—it wasn’t impossible.

However, these things would have to come gradually. With just Ma Junhao and his team, they were still far from achieving that.

Even a simple artificial intelligence had taken them so long to develop.

“No problem. If we can streamline it further, the success rate would be very high.”

If they only needed to retain 50% of the functionality, Ma Junhao had great confidence.

Liu Mingyu said seriously, “It’s not a high success rate—I need certainty of success. Whatever equipment or materials you lack, you can request. I’ll get them for you, but you absolutely must make it work.”

There was no other way—he was counting on Ma Junhao and his team to develop an artificial intelligence to attract a wave of fans.

Hearing Liu Mingyu’s serious tone, Ma Junhao nodded solemnly, “We will do our utmost to complete the boss’s task.”

Liu Mingyu smiled and patted Ma Junhao’s shoulder, “Don’t put too much pressure on yourselves. This is one matter. There’s another matter—I took a virtual reality helmet from your place last time. Can you assemble more virtual reality helmets?”

Ma Junhao smiled, “No problem. As long as we have enough materials, we can make as many helmets as needed.”

Virtual reality helmets were different from nutrition pods. Many components were standard designs that only needed assembly, with no significant difficulty.

“Can you assemble a hundred of them right now?”

Liu Mingyu remembered that when they moved from the villa, they had brought many parts and accessories.

Ma Junhao frowned and said softly, “Boss, I don’t think we can assemble a hundred. Maybe ten or so would be possible.”

He hadn’t expected Liu Mingyu to need so many helmets. Although they had many parts, assembling complete virtual reality helmets would require more materials than he anticipated.

“No problem. Assemble as many as you can. For now, your main priority is developing the streamlined artificial intelligence.”

Liu Mingyu just wanted to take a few samples to the real world to test whether they could be produced there.

“Alright, you all work hard here and try to finish production as soon as possible.”

After giving them some final instructions, Liu Mingyu left the studio.

More than a hundred new phones—with about fifty people in the studio, each person received an average of two phones.

After Liu Mingyu left, Ma Junhao clapped his hands. Seeing everyone’s attention on him, he said loudly, “Everyone, although the boss said there’s no rush, we cannot fail at the first task he assigned us.”

They truly couldn’t afford to fail. Everyone at the base had their own work, and their job was to develop suitable artificial intelligence for smartphones for the boss.

Now that the boss was supporting them, if they couldn’t deliver, they would have to go fight zombies.

Being able to work safely at what they loved, eating precious food—this was the best life possible. How could they not give their all?

After Ma Junhao finished speaking, everyone shouted in unison, “Let’s go!”

After leaving the studio, Liu Mingyu inspected various locations. Under the stimulus of food, everyone was full of energy, working diligently at their tasks.

This time, Liu Mingyu stayed the longest—a full three days. Normally, he would stay for just one day before returning to the real world.

In three days, the Dreamland Resort had been completely transformed through the efforts of more than three hundred people.

The Dreamland Resort covered an area of 405,000 square meters. The outside wall had been fitted with 2-meter-high iron mesh. Originally over 2 meters high, with the addition of barbed wire, it now reached over 4 meters.

This height was sufficient to block most zombies, and the resort’s safety had been basically secured.

Actually, according to Liu Mingyu’s vision, if they electrified the barbed wire around the perimeter, no matter how many zombies came, it would be useless.

Unfortunately, the resort was too large. The hotel’s backup power supply couldn’t provide enough electricity and could only support the hotel itself.

Reluctantly, they had to give up. Fortunately, this height was adequate.

With the outer perimeter protected by barbed wire, the buildings inside had all been cleaned up, and most of the houses had been repaired.

Now there were enough rooms in the hotel to accommodate people, though what would happen in the future was uncertain.

The zombies in the villa on the island in the lake had also been completely cleared out, but Liu Mingyu had no plans to live there. Staying in the villa wasn’t as good as staying in the presidential suite.

The presidential suite wasn’t just more comfortable—the scenery outside was beautiful, the visibility was excellent, and most importantly, there was no electricity over there. Who could endure life without electricity?

If it weren’t for the zombies roaming outside, coming here would make one think the apocalypse had never arrived. Everywhere was peaceful and quiet.

Chapter 69: Task Preparation

June 8, 2115.

The banquet hall on the first floor of Dream Hotel.

Everyone had just finished their meal and was sitting idly in their seats.

Liu Mingyu sat at the table in front, took a sip of tea from his water cup, and began: “Brothers, have any of you encountered special zombies?”

After finishing the security issues at the resort, Liu Mingyu’s attention turned to his tasks.

Because he hadn’t returned, the four tasks still displayed in his task list were the same as before.

Task One: Kill one thousand Level One zombies.

Reward: 1000 points.

Progress: 55/1000

Task Two: Kill one “Leader”

Reward: 2000 points.

Progress: 0/1

Task Three: Kill one “Exploder”

Reward: 500 points.

Progress: 0/1

Task Four: Kill one “Zombie Dog”

Reward: 200 points.

Progress: 0/1

During the cleanup of the resort these past few days, they had killed several more Level One zombies, bringing the progress to 55.

Liu Mingyu didn’t find killing Level One zombies too difficult, even though the number was relatively large. With over three hundred people, that’s an average of just three per person.

The focus was on the last three tasks - fewer in number but with higher rewards.

Level One zombies were easy to find, but the last three should all be special zombies, which would be much harder to locate.

After hearing Liu Mingyu’s question, a buzz of discussion erupted below.

Chatter filled the air like a vegetable market, making it impossible to hear clearly.

Liu Mingyu suddenly shouted: “Everyone, quiet down!”

Liu Mingyu’s booming voice thundered in everyone’s ears, instantly silencing the banquet hall.

After seeing everyone quiet down, Liu Mingyu slowly said: “You don’t necessarily need to have encountered them. Any information about where special zombies might be found is welcome. Please raise your hand to speak.”

Regarding special zombies, most people had heard rumors - incredible strength, lightning speed, the ability to control other zombies - and could describe a few characteristics.

But when it came to actually encountering special zombies, most hadn’t.

Liu Mingyu scanned the room and found no one raising their hand.

Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but frown. Not a single person knew about special zombies?

That seemed impossible. Since the tasks had given specific targets, special zombies must exist in this area.

And the apocalypse had been going on for five years now. He didn’t believe there wouldn’t be any information about special zombies.

The level-two energy crystals he had purchased were from special zombies, and the one in Li Haifeng’s possession was the same.

Lu Haipeng sighed inwardly and slowly raised his right hand.

Seeing Lu Haipeng raise his hand, Liu Mingyu asked softly: “Big brother Lu, have you encountered special zombies?”

Lu Haipeng put down his hand and said: “I haven’t personally encountered special zombies, but as far as I know, special zombies should be inside the city. Only among certain numbers of zombies is there a chance for special zombies to appear.”

Lu Haipeng understood that Liu Mingyu was asking about special zombies because he had some ideas about dealing with them.

He knew that Liu Mingyu had bought a level-two energy crystal at the auction a few days ago.

Rumors said that absorbing the energy from level-two energy crystals could grant special abilities.

But even the energy from level-one crystals couldn’t be absorbed and could only be used as hard currency in settlements. How could one absorb level-two energy crystals?

Lu Haipeng couldn’t help but suspect that Liu Mingyu might have discovered a method for absorbing level-two energy crystals.

If Liu Mingyu knew Lu Haipeng’s thoughts, he would definitely shout “Unfair!”

He had no idea how to absorb level-two energy crystals. He had bought them last time just to complete the task, and after completing it, he had thrown them into his storage space without even looking at them.

If he really knew the method, he wouldn’t mind trying it out.

Without concerning himself with Lu Haipeng’s thoughts, Liu Mingyu furrowed his brow and said softly: “If they’re inside the city, that’s troublesome. Without large-scale firepower, we can’t go in.”

The Jia Hang settlement had existed for five years now, but during these five years under the control of the five settlement giants, ordinary people could only use cold weapons to search for food inside the city.

Each time they finished searching the city outskirts for food, it would soon be occupied by wandering zombies. This was why everyone could only wander around the city periphery for years.

Unless the settlement equipped large quantities of weapons, they couldn’t venture deep into the city.

It was said that the level-two energy crystal in Li Haifeng’s possession was obtained by going deep into the city and killing a special zombie. That time, Li Haifeng also suffered heavy losses. If there hadn’t been some people left in the settlement, perhaps the five giants would have become four.

Besides that incident, no one had heard of anyone killing special zombies or encountering them.

Not seeing them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. With related rumors, there must be some basis, as the saying goes, “No wind, no waves.”

However, those special zombies might not be the targets of Liu Mingyu’s tasks.

But regardless, Liu Mingyu decided to prepare to explore the city area.

Even if he couldn’t complete the three special zombie tasks, he wanted to complete the first task of killing one thousand Level One zombies.

To explore the city, they needed to be well-equipped with firepower. Unfortunately, the settlement’s control over firearms was too strict.

So far, Liu Mingyu only had the assault rifle he bought at the auction.

While gun control was strict, there weren’t many restrictions on ammunition - 1 energy crystal per bullet. Liu Mingyu bought five hundred rounds.

He had originally wanted to buy more for backup, but although there weren’t many restrictions on ammunition, the other party refused to sell in bulk, citing limited production capacity.

One assault rifle had limited firepower, so they would have to rely mainly on cold weapons.

Cold weapons weren’t restricted in the settlement, but without industrial support, most cold weapons were just kitchen knives and machetes.

The base didn’t have many energy crystals left, and Liu Mingyu didn’t want to ask Liu Fugui to sell more.

Especially after discovering people monitoring the area around the resort, he temporarily gave up on large-scale trading with Liu Fugui, though he did give Liu Fugui the ten catties of tea he had promised.

The procedures at the trading hall in the outer city were cumbersome, but they offered more variety and weren’t as conspicuous.

These past few days, Liu Mingyu had people selling some canned food and table salt at the outer city trading hall.

These two items were scarce resources in the outer city. Despite the high fees at the trading hall, when calculated, the price per can of food wasn’t much lower than direct trading with Liu Fugui.

Table salt had always been a scarce resource. Liu Mingyu hadn’t sold much of the salt he bought from Liu Fugui; most of it was sold in the inner city and didn’t circulate in the outer city.

Table salt was still in short supply in the outer city. After selling for several days, the transaction price was slightly higher than what Liu Fugui had offered.

This was normal - one was retail, the other wholesale, so some price difference was expected.

Fortunately, they had sold some food these past few days; otherwise, they wouldn’t have enough money for ammunition.

Chapter 70: Departure

“I’ve decided to search the city today,” Liu Mingyu announced his decision, then picked up his teacup and took a small sip. He had recently developed a taste for tea.

Searching the city was a perfectly normal action. Before Liu Mingyu arrived, Lu Haipeng and the others had gone to the city outskirts to search every two or three days.

Since following Liu Mingyu and bringing in large quantities of food, they hadn’t gone to the city area for many days.

Therefore, when Liu Mingyu announced his plan to search the city today, everyone showed no surprise. They calmly watched Liu Mingyu, waiting for him to decide where to search.

Others searched the city to find useful items to exchange for food, but Liu Mingyu’s main purpose this time was also to search for useful supplies, with the primary goal being to complete his task.

Liu Mingyu looked around and calmly asked, “Does anyone have recommendations for our exploration location? Preferably somewhere in Hangzhou City.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Haipeng raised his hand.

Liu Mingyu noticed and pointed at Lu Haipeng, saying, “Big brother Lu, do you have any location recommendations?”

As a veteran exploration team leader who had survived five years in the apocalypse, Lu Haipeng was slightly more familiar with the upcoming exploration area in Hangzhou City. So Liu Mingyu immediately called on him to provide a good location.

Seeing Liu Mingyu call on him, Lu Haipeng stood up and said loudly, “Boss, we can choose to push forward along Jiangnan Road toward the city center.

The main reason for choosing this route is that it leads directly to Hangzhou City center. This road has been searched by many people before, so there are relatively fewer zombies on it, allowing us to push deeper.

Another point is that Luo Wenyong’s company is located near this road. Not only Luo Wenyong’s company, but there are also other tech companies nearby on this road.

This way we can find a large amount of equipment. The only trouble is transporting it back, since we’re in the city center and vehicles can’t drive in.”

Lu Haipeng remembered Luo Wenyong saying they needed equipment from the company. With that equipment, development progress could be accelerated. Although he didn’t know why Liu Mingyu valued development so much, since the boss had requirements, naturally everyone below would work hard to complete the tasks the boss proposed.

After hearing Lu Haipeng’s opinion, Liu Mingyu nodded in satisfaction, “Then our target this time will be Hangzhou City’s East New District.”

After thinking for a moment, Liu Mingyu continued, “As for the equipment problem, we’ll try to drive the vehicles as close as possible. We can carry them back manually when the time comes.”

Some equipment is generally quite large but can be disassembled, so there shouldn’t be much problem taking them.

Liu Mingyu planned to take one hundred people this time. Although there were over three hundred people in the base, most of them looked like walking skeletons. With this kind of physical condition, where would the fighting strength come from?

After several days, the originally weak slaves had gained some strength, but they were still far from fully recovering.

These people’s bodies were originally quite frail. Even if they ate their fill, it wouldn’t help much.

The main fighting force for this exploration would still be those who were originally physically strong. After several days with abundant food, their stamina had obviously recovered considerably.

About half of them were in this condition. However, he couldn’t take everyone out, especially knowing that people were watching outside. He left over fifty strong and robust people to guard the base.

One hundred people, in four large trucks.

This was when they had bought slaves before - they had purchased five large trucks.

At that time, five large trucks had carried over three hundred people in total. The degree to which the slave-carrying trucks were packed could be imagined - each truck was filled to capacity with people.

Now they were going to the city center to get equipment, so naturally they couldn’t do it like before. They took four large trucks, with one hundred people divided among four trucks. There was plenty of space, which would also allow room for storing equipment later.

The four large trucks were ready, and the one hundred people who had been selected were all on board.

At the hotel entrance, Liu Mingyu instructed Zhao Kun, “I’m leaving the safety of the base in your hands. Be aware that there might be people watching the base area. If the other side doesn’t attack here, then don’t bother with them. But if they dare to attack, hit them hard.”

Zhao Kun was one of the more physically robust slaves that Liu Mingyu had purchased later. Liu Mingyu had appointed him as the deputy safety officer of the base.

The main safety officer was Lu Haipeng, who was going with Liu Mingyu to Hangzhou City’s East New District to find equipment. The safety responsibility fell to the deputy officer, Zhao Kun.

Zhao Kun shouted loudly, “Understood, boss.”

Liu Mingyu patted Zhao Kun’s shoulder and smiled, “It’s fine. If we’re really outmatched, we can abandon this base.”

Then he said in a serious tone, “However, if we’re not too far apart in strength, you must hold this place for me. This is our base. Not to mention food, even everyone’s safety cannot be compromised.”

He added another sentence: “People are more important than food. In necessary situations, don’t worry about the food.”

If the food was gone, Liu Mingyu could replenish it anytime. But if the people were gone, they were really gone.

For Liu Mingyu, every person was a talent, completely incomparable to the value of food.

Moreover, after the apocalypse descended, people were becoming fewer and fewer.

Taking the Jia Hang settlement as an example, at the beginning, when there were the most people, it had once reached four hundred thousand. After five years, the population of the settlement was now only half of what it was then.

There were many reasons for the population decrease, but the overall downward trend was becoming increasingly obvious.

Zhao Kun, who was one meter eight, stood at attention and nodded, “Understood, boss. Please rest assured.”

After giving a few more instructions to Ye Qingxuan and seeing her off, Liu Mingyu boarded the large truck.

Liu Mingyu couldn’t afford to be careless. Since discovering that people were watching outside, those people hadn’t made any moves, and it was unclear whether it was because there were more people in the base or for other reasons.

Since the other side hadn’t made any moves, Liu Mingyu had to be somewhat on guard.

Liu Mingyu didn’t sit in the back compartment but instead got into the front passenger seat of the truck that Lu Haipeng was driving.

After getting in the truck, Liu Mingyu took out the walkie-talkie and said, “Depart.”

As a short-range communication device, walkie-talkies were widely used in the base.

This equipment was simple to make and practical, which is why many people liked it.

Lu Haipeng’s large truck took the lead and slowly drove out of the base. The four large trucks, like a long dragon, moved majestically along Jiangnan Road toward the east.

The Jia Hang settlement was between Jia City and Hangzhou City. To the east was Jia City, and to the west was Hangzhou City. This time, Liu Mingyu’s destination was Hangzhou City’s East New District.

As a newly developed new district, Hangzhou City’s East New District gathered many high-tech companies. The game company where Luo Wenyong used to work was located in this area.

This was also the main reason why Liu Mingyu chose Hangzhou City’s East New District - not only for the game development equipment but also for the high-tech equipment from other high-tech companies, which was also one of his targets.

Chapter 71: Various Reactions

As soon as Liu Mingyu left, a series of covert messages were sent from near the Dreamland Resort to those with vested interests.

Inside the auction house in the inner city, on the top floor.

Liu Fugui and Liu Fuguan were wearing athletic clothes, running on treadmills.

Liu Fugui’s treadmill was set to a slow walking pace, while Liu Fuguan beside him had chosen the fast mode.

The loud thudding of footsteps on the treadmills echoed through the gym.

Liu Fuguan glanced sideways at Liu Fugui and said, “Your speed is no good, too slow. If you encounter zombies, it’ll likely be disastrous.”

Liu Fugui grinned beside him, “No worries, there are no zombies in the inner city. I’m not going anywhere with zombies anyway, and as long as I can outrun the slowest person, that’s enough.”

Liu Fuguan helplessly rolled his eyes at him and stopped talking, focusing on his own run.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time Liu Fuguan had educated Liu Fugui, but each time Liu Fugui would just smile it off without taking it too seriously.

For Liu Fugui, exercising was too hard. If he could enjoy himself, why would he exercise?

If there were drugs that could increase physical fitness just by taking them, that would be great—I could just take medicine to maintain a healthy physique.

Thinking of this, Liu Fugui remembered that his brother seemed to have such a project and wondered if it had succeeded.

Liu Fugui turned his head and asked, “Brother, has that medicine that can improve human physical fitness been successfully developed?”

Liu Fuguan rolled his eyes at him and scolded, “I told you to study hard, but you won’t. That’s called Gene Evolution Potion.”

Liu Fugui had no pressure at all; he had heard such things too many times, not just once or twice, and he simply treated it as wind passing by his ears, smiling as he said, “Right, that Gene Evolution Potion, has it been successfully developed?”

If Liu Mingyu heard Liu Fuguan’s words, he would definitely be shocked. Was this the Gene Evolution Potion from the system that costs 100 points per bottle?

Liu Mingyu had inquired about the medical level in this apocalypse world. Although various high-tech developments were very advanced, in terms of biotechnology, the technology here hadn’t progressed much.

Actually, it couldn’t be said that there hadn’t been much progress, it was just that compared to other technologies, it was indeed a bit slower.

He had once asked people at the resort if they had heard of the Gene Evolution Potion, but everyone shook their heads, saying they hadn’t heard of it.

Later, he gave up. Since no one had heard of it, it meant that in this world, the Gene Evolution Potion hadn’t been developed yet, or it hadn’t been popularized.

Liu Fuguan didn’t know that Liu Mingyu actually had Gene Evolution Potion. At this moment, he shook his head and said, “It hasn’t succeeded, it’s still far from success.”

Liu Fugui muttered softly, “Oh, what a pity, it would be great to have that medicine, drink a bottle and become superman-like.”

Liu Fuguan was so angry at this exercise-averse younger brother that he couldn’t speak, and angrily said, “Start exercising, if you don’t run five kilometers today, you’re not allowed to leave.”

“Brother, you’re asking for my life.”

Five kilometers for someone lacking exercise like Liu Fugui was simply killing him.

The gym echoed with Liu Fugui’s mournful cries, but Liu Fuguan completely didn’t give him a chance to argue, directly putting on his headphones.

Liu Fugui silently walked on the treadmill, determined to just slowly walk the five kilometers.

As the second-in-command of the Fuyuan Commercial Association, he didn’t need to go to places surrounded by zombies like other exploration teams, searching for the scarce food and supplies.

He could just flip his hand and earn more money than others could earn between life and death, Liu Fugui felt he completely didn’t need to exercise; what he wanted right now was to enjoy himself.

These days, if all the goods purchased from Liu Mingyu were sold, getting a hundred or so pounds of energy crystals would be no problem at all.

With money, why bother torturing himself?

Liu Fugui had just been running for a while when the smart wristband on his hand gave a prompt.

“Master, master, Liu Yong is calling.”

Liu Yong was the person Liu Fugui had stationed at the Dreamland Resort to keep watch. Was there something special discovered?

These days Liu Fugui had only instructed him to keep watch and not to act rashly.

Without opening the video, just with voice.

Liu Fugui asked lightly, “Liu Yong, what’s the situation?”

From the wristband came Liu Yong’s anxious voice, “The target has left in four large trucks.”

Liu Fugui’s eyes lit up, and his footsteps almost couldn’t keep up. He quickly lowered the treadmill’s speed, which was now almost as slow as a snail’s crawl.

He didn’t care, as long as he didn’t stop, he wasn’t afraid of his brother scolding him. He muttered softly, “Four large trucks? Are they going to the warehouse to haul supplies?”

These days he hadn’t given up. Although no traces of a warehouse had been found in the places Liu Mingyu had gone, he still firmly believed that Liu Mingyu controlled a huge apocalypse warehouse.

Was this time to transport supplies?

Four large trucks, how many supplies would that be?

Thinking of this, Liu Fugui’s eyes lit up. Although the Fuyuan Commercial Association had quite a lot of supplies, it really wasn’t easy to get four large trucks’ worth of supplies at once, especially food.

Liu Mingyu’s several transactions had all been food, and Liu Fugui subconsciously thought that these supplies would naturally also be food.

Liu Fugui asked loudly, “Did you send anyone to follow them?”

The sudden loud voice seemed to have startled Liu Fuguan beside him. Liu Fuguan took off his headphones and asked, “What happened?”

Liu Fugui waved his hand, “Brother, it’s nothing, just some small matters at the trading hall, I’ll handle it.”

Seeing that Liu Fugui really didn’t have any big issues, Liu Fuguan put his headphones back on and started running again.

Liu Fugui lowered his voice and asked, “Did you send anyone to follow them?”

“Yes, we’re right behind their convoy now.”

“Good, keep close, report to me immediately if there are any problems.”

People keeping watch outside the Dreamland Resort weren’t just Liu Fugui’s group. When Liu Yong reported to Liu Fugui, others also received the news of Liu Mingyu’s departure.

Inside the inner city.

In a certain building.

A young man hummed softly, “Kid, hiding in the resort for so many days, you finally dare to come out. I told you, the level-two energy crystals are only temporarily with you.”

If Liu Mingyu saw this person, he would definitely discover that this was the 005 who had bid against him at the auction.

The young man instructed the person beside him, “Send the Wolf Hunt Squad to get the level-two energy crystals from Liu Mingyu.”

The person beside him loudly acknowledged, “Yes.”

Inside the inner city.

In another building.

A middle-aged man sat cross-legged on a chair, and the smart wristband in his hand was also in working mode.

“Keep a close watch, don’t disturb them, just keep a close eye on this Liu Mingyu and see if there’s anything special about him.”

Liu Mingyu knew there were people keeping watch outside the Dreamland Resort, but he never imagined there would be three groups.

And these three groups didn’t target the Dreamland Resort itself but followed him instead.

Chapter 72: Route Blocked

The Jia Hang settlement was located between Jia City and Hangzhou City. While described as being in the middle, it wasn’t exactly central.

It was positioned closer to Jia City, about 20 kilometers from Jia City’s urban area and roughly 50 kilometers from Hangzhou City’s urban area.

In terms of population, Hangzhou City had far more residents than Jia City. However, for reasons unknown, when the settlement was established, it was built closer to Jia City. Perhaps this was because the people who founded the settlement were from Jia City, so they chose this location.

The distance to Hangzhou City’s urban area was about 50 kilometers, but the mission target—Hangzhou City’s East New District—was only about 30 kilometers away.

In the pre-apocalyptic world, 30 kilometers would have been a mere 10-15 minute drive.

But in the apocalypse, this stretch of road took Liu Mingyu and his team nearly an hour to traverse.

Jiangnan Road, the main highway connecting Hangzhou City and Jia City, normally had heavy traffic with countless vehicles speeding along it.

When the apocalypse struck, it became the escape route of choice for many. However, the more people who chose it, the more congested it became.

Liu Mingyu saw crashed vehicles everywhere along the highway.

Not only were there various wrecked cars on the highway, but numerous zombies were also wandering along the road.

The large truck moved forward with great difficulty through the congested highway.

Even after an hour had passed, they still hadn’t reached their destination.

Liu Mingyu picked up the walkie-talkie and asked, “What’s our current position?”

Satellite signals were no longer usable, otherwise he could have checked their location using the map on his smart wristband.

Liu Mingyu had come to this area from his hometown to work, and had always lived in Jia City. He rarely left Jia City, so he wasn’t very familiar with Jiangnan Road, the highway connecting Jia City and Hangzhou City. And that was before considering how the road might have changed over the past century.

He didn’t know, but someone else did. Among the people in the vehicles, some were from Hangzhou City or Jia City, while others were like Liu Mingyu—people who had come to work in these two cities.

After he asked, someone immediately responded over the walkie-talkie, “Boss, we’re about 10 kilometers from the East New District.”

10 kilometers was still too far.

Walking 10 kilometers would take at least two hours, not to mention they would be carrying heavy loads. If they encountered any unexpected incidents along the way, it could be fatal.

Looking at the increasingly congested road ahead, the large truck could barely move forward.

Liu Mingyu instructed, “We still have 10 kilometers to go. Let’s drive as far as we can.”

In Lu Haipeng’s hands, the large truck was like a prehistoric beast. Facing scattered vehicles blocking the road ahead, he charged forward recklessly, smashing small cars to the side and clearing a path for the vehicles behind.

Not only cars, but scattered zombies were also crushed beneath the wheels.

The impact sounds attracted large numbers of zombies from both sides of the road. However, by the time the zombies arrived, the large truck had already sped far away.

While the large truck had sped off, the vehicles following them weren’t so lucky.

The zombies attracted by the large truck became obstacles for the vehicles behind. Fortunately, there weren’t too many zombies. Everyone relied on their driving skills to escape the zombie pursuit. For those who couldn’t avoid them, they simply crashed through.

As Liu Mingyu continued forward, about three to four hundred meters behind them, a small car was following closely.

If one weren’t paying special attention, they wouldn’t notice. There were too many cars in this area—who would pay attention to a small car three to four hundred meters behind them?

This closely following small car was sent by Liu Fugui to tail them—Liu Yong.

The massive body of the large truck allowed Liu Yong, three to four hundred meters behind, to see everything clearly.

Although Liu Yong could see everything clearly, he was scratching his head in confusion.

What were they doing? Weren’t they supposed to be moving supplies from the warehouse? Why did it seem different?

Farther away, another small truck was following closely behind. This small truck hadn’t made any rash moves. Seeing that the large truck showed no signs of stopping, it kept its distance and trailed behind.

Additionally, there was a large cargo truck nearby.

The three small vehicles behind had all noticed each other’s presence but had tacitly avoided any conflict.

They had discovered each other’s existence outside Dreamland Resort and knew that everyone’s target was the large truck ahead.

As they progressed further along the road, the number of zombies increased.

Faced with the swarming zombies, Liu Yong could only rely on his superb driving skills to avoid most of them and continue forward.

Liu Yong couldn’t help but curse, “Damn it! If this continues, not only won’t I be able to track them, but in a while, I might die here.”

There was no choice—Liu Fugui had ordered him to do this, and if he didn’t comply, he would definitely die.

Biting his lip, he followed closely. By now, he didn’t even care if he was discovered.

Actually, Liu Mingyu and his team hadn’t discovered that someone was following them. The zombies’ roars had masked their tracks.

Moreover, their attention wasn’t on the rear but on what lay ahead.

The route forward became increasingly difficult, and the surrounding zombies grew more numerous.

Lu Haipeng gazed into the distance, gripping the steering wheel tightly as he said seriously, “Boss, we can’t go any further. If we continue, we won’t be able to turn back later.”

By now, the truck’s speed had dropped considerably to only about 10 kilometers per hour, which wasn’t much faster than running speed.

Liu Mingyu looked at the congested vehicles ahead, then at the approaching zombies around them, and asked over the walkie-talkie, “How much farther do we have to go?”

The walkie-talkie quickly transmitted a voice: “5 kilometers.”

5 kilometers—they had covered half the distance.

Liu Mingyu ordered, “Prepare to stop and deal with the attracted zombies. 3, 2, 1, stop.”

With the command, four large trucks came to a steady stop in the middle of the road.

The zombie horde was still some distance from the trucks. Liu Mingyu was the first to jump down from the vehicle.

“Prepare for battle.”

A loud shout rang out.

The group quickly jumped down from the vehicles, their backs against the large truck, gripping their machetes tightly as they solemnly watched the approaching zombies charging toward them.

Roar.

The zombies’ cries sounded, as if signaling the start of an attack.

Zombies from all directions dragged their mutilated bodies and ran toward Liu Mingyu and his team.

Rotten fluids dripped from the zombies’ bodies, leaving a trail on the ground.

The zombies drew closer and closer.

Twenty meters.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Three meters.

One meter.

Liu Mingyu gripped his long spear tightly—the same spear he had always used.

“Kill.”

Liu Mingyu raised his spear and thrust it forcefully at a zombie’s head.

The spear penetrated from front to back, going straight through.

The zombie maintained its forward momentum, taking one more step before being swept aside by Liu Mingyu.

Chapter 73: Battle

Ignoring the zombies lying on the side, more zombies approached from behind.

Although Liu Mingyu had never specifically trained with a spear, the Gene Evolution Potion had given him a physique far beyond that of ordinary people.

His various attributes were incomparable to normal humans. With just simple thrusting and sweeping movements, he knocked down the charging zombies.

Liu Mingyu continuously waved the spear in his hand, and more and more zombies fell around him.

The hundred people Liu Mingyu had brought this time were all relatively strong individuals.

In this world that had been in the apocalypse for five years, those who could maintain strong, powerful bodies had all walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They each had their own methods for dealing with zombies.

Everyone backed up against the large truck, forming a circle.

Facing the zombies rushing toward them head-on, they showed no fear.

Although the number of zombies seemed large, there wasn’t too much danger to everyone’s safety.

Moreover, not all the zombies were attacking Liu Mingyu’s side. Liu Yong and his group behind them had also become a point of attraction for the zombies.

Li Hongtao stood on top of the truck, holding the only assault rifle in the resort.

This gun was originally meant for Liu Mingyu, but after witnessing Li Hongtao’s marksmanship when clearing zombies at Dreamland Resort, Liu Mingyu had left the assault rifle with him.

Liu Mingyu had never used guns before, and in his hands, it wasn’t as good as an iron spear.

Li Hongtao’s marksmanship was excellent—within fifty meters, he never missed.

Standing on the large truck, he performed single shots at the surrounding zombies.

Da-da-da.

The gunshots, like a musical piece, harvested the zombies’ lives.

Li Hongtao’s marksmanship was indeed impressive. Not only did he harvest the surrounding zombies, but he also kept an eye on the battle lines, finishing off any zombies that broke through.

While Liu Mingyu’s side was under zombie siege, the three groups following behind also encountered zombie attacks.

About five hundred meters away from them.

The small car Liu Yong was driving was tightly surrounded by a group of zombies, like a cluster of ants tightly wrapping around food. Except for the top of the car, zombies covered all other sides.

The zombies were slowly crawling, and in another moment, the entire car would be completely sealed.

“Damn it, let alone tracking them—whether we can survive is already a question.”

Liu Yong couldn’t help but curse. Fortunately, the quality of the small car was still decent and hadn’t been broken through yet.

However, the zombies hanging on the car increased its weight.

Liu Yong stepped on the accelerator desperately, but couldn’t speed up.

Some zombies were shaken off and fell under the wheels, blocking the car’s progress. With many cars already stopped around, Liu Yong had even less space to maneuver.

There were only two people in Liu Yong’s car.

Besides Liu Yong, there was one companion, but they only had one assault rifle.

“Open the sunroof and shoot the zombies from there.”

Liu Yong calmly instructed his companion.

The companion opened the sunroof, took the gun, and exposed himself through the sunroof opening. He raised the rifle and aimed at the nearby zombies, firing.

Da-da-da.

The bullets seemed to cost nothing as he quickly emptied a magazine.

With his companion’s help, Liu Yong shook the car a few times, shaking off some of the zombies in front of the windshield.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to see the road ahead.

With fewer zombies, the car’s speed finally picked up.

Compared to Liu Yong being besieged by zombies with the entire car covered in them, the Wolf Hunt Squad was much better off. One could even say they hadn’t suffered much damage.

The Wolf Hunt Squad had few members, only ten people.

They were driving a modified small cargo van. Two people sat in the driver’s cabin while the others sat in the cargo area.

They hadn’t continued forward mainly because there were too many zombies ahead. The originally crowded passage could no longer accommodate normal passage.

Like Liu Mingyu, they parked their vehicle in the middle of the road.

Unlike Liu Mingyu, they hadn’t gotten out of the car. For them, safety was more important.

More importantly, each person in this group carried an assault rifle. The assault rifles that were originally restricted from purchase seemed to have no restrictions on them.

The leader shouted: “Kill!”

The others quickly found their positions, with two people standing at each direction.

Da-da-da.

Dense gunfire rang out as the Wolf Hunt Squad harvested the surrounding zombies.

They weren’t like Liu Yong’s group, casually wasting bullets.

They also used single shots, aiming at the zombies’ heads for attacks.

I have to say, the Wolf Hunt Squad’s accuracy was still quite high. Although not as exaggerated as Li Hongtao, against the swarming zombies, they were taking down two with each shot.

With guns in their hands, they were like grim reapers. While the grim reaper uses a scythe to harvest souls, they used assault rifles to harvest the zombies’ lives.

Do zombies have lives?

I don’t know—perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t.

Their powerful firepower kept the zombies at a distance of three meters, and not a single zombie could break through the fire to reach them.

The last group could be said to be the most relaxed.

They were the farthest from Liu Mingyu. Their vehicle had stopped early and hadn’t continued forward, so they hardly encountered any zombies.

All the zombies had been attracted by the previous groups.

Although they had stopped early, they hadn’t done so to avoid zombie attacks.

Instead, they wanted to better understand the situation ahead. Compared to the other two groups of trackers, they actually had the clearest view.

Because they had released several micro drones around them, flying in the air to observe everyone’s situation.

In the cargo area of the small truck, there were several computers that projected three images onto the space.

These three images were exactly the scenes of Liu Mingyu, Liu Yong, and the Wolf Hunt Squad killing zombies, and they appeared to be real-time footage.

Modern drone footage is very stable and high-definition, with efficient transmission speeds. Combined with quantum computing and processing, the images projected in the cargo area were as real as if they actually existed, with every tiny detail clearly visible, allowing people inside the cargo area to observe in real-time.

There were two people in the cargo area, carefully observing these projected images, though they were mainly focused on Liu Mingyu’s situation.

Liu Mingyu had no idea that he was being observed. He was working hard to kill the enemies.

One thrust, one sweep, and the zombies seemed as fragile as paper in his hands, unable to withstand more than a second.

After killing one, he quickly threw himself back into battle. Liu Mingyu seemed like someone who never tired, rapidly killing zombies and reducing the enemies for those around him.

The others didn’t have Liu Mingyu’s stamina. After killing several zombies, they began to show signs of fatigue.

But fortunately, with Li Hongtao providing support from above, the pressure wasn’t as intense as imagined.

Chapter 74: The Siege

While Liu Mingyu was engaged in battle, the person who had been trailing at the rear was observing his movements in real time.

After observing for a while, a middle-aged man turned to a slightly younger man beside him and asked, “Do you think there’s something suspicious about him?”

The younger man, understanding what kind of suspicion was being referred to, thought for a moment before replying, “I’m not entirely sure, but his condition is definitely much better than the others.”

The middle-aged man nodded in agreement and said, “They say absorbing level-two energy crystals can give people special powers, but what kind of special powers is completely unknown.”

The younger man laughed, “I don’t even know where this rumor came from. There aren’t many level-two energy crystals to begin with. Even if you had one, would you know how to absorb the energy inside? Everyone knows there’s a lot of energy in energy crystals, but how to absorb it is something no one knows. Even if you could gain special powers, you’d have to see someone demonstrate it first to know.”

The middle-aged man asked, “True, but have you heard that someone can already use level-one energy crystals?”

The younger man was surprised, clearly intrigued by the information that someone could use level-one energy crystals, and asked in return, “Really? How do they absorb it?”

If absorbing level-two energy crystals could grant special powers, then would absorbing level-one energy crystals also grant corresponding powers?

Or perhaps, using the method for absorbing level-one energy crystals to absorb level-two energy crystals, would that allow one to gain special abilities?

Under the younger man’s curious gaze, the middle-aged man shook his head and said, “It seems to involve combining it with other medications to create a potion.”

Before the younger man could respond, the middle-aged man laughed at himself, “But this method might be fake. Energy crystals are just stone-like objects. How could they be made into a potion?”

The younger man nodded in agreement and asked, “True. Such hard stones, if they could be made into potions, someone would have made them already. We wouldn’t be talking about it now. Not to mention, the boss’s biological manufacturing plant has been researching energy crystals for so long without discovering anything. It’s probably just like with level-two energy crystals - just a rumor.”

“Forget whether it’s a rumor or not. Let’s carefully observe the target person for any abnormal states.”

The middle-aged man shook his head and steered the conversation back to Liu Mingyu.

The two observed for a while longer, and the younger man said, “This Liu Mingyu is really impressive. I’ve been keeping track of how many zombies he’s killed since the beginning. From when we encountered zombies after getting out of the car until now, in less than three minutes, the zombies who have died at his hands already number over thirty. Looking at his movements, there’s no sign of fatigue at all.”

The middle-aged man nodded seriously and said, “Thirty zombies. Even if they were standing still letting you chop at them, it would take more than this amount of time. And have you noticed how he kills the zombies? Almost every shot is a headshot. This is definitely abnormal.”

Everyone knows that a zombie’s fatal point is the head, but using cold weapons, how could you hit the zombie’s head or neck every single time, especially when the zombies are in an agitated state?

Although the two of them didn’t know what kind of abnormal situation their boss’s command to observe Liu Mingyu referred to, they felt that the current state should count as an abnormal situation.

Unfortunately, the network was no longer usable. They were some distance from the settlement, and the wireless local area network couldn’t be used. They could only temporarily save it on the computer to provide to the boss later.

Liu Mingyu was unaware that his movements were being observed by the trackers far behind.

Thirty zombies was also an enormous challenge for Liu Mingyu.

Fortunately, after killing for a few minutes, the surrounding zombies were becoming fewer and fewer.

Actually, Liu Mingyu and the others could hear the gunshots from Liu Yong and the Wolf Hunt Squad behind them.

Liu Mingyu had considered that someone might be tracking them, but he hadn’t expected the firepower among the trackers to be so strong.

Hearing the intense gunfire, Liu Mingyu’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t help but become more alert.

With a forceful thrust, he killed the last zombie. Liu Mingyu shouted, “Quickly collect the energy crystals. Something seems off behind us. Everyone be more careful.”

The hundred people Liu Mingyu had brought were all unharmed, having suffered no injuries.

Under Liu Mingyu’s command, they picked up their machetes and skillfully opened the back of the zombies’ heads to extract the energy crystals inside.

The energy crystals varied in size, with the larger ones weighing several dozen grams and the smaller ones only a few grams, but every zombie had one. No one knew the reason.

Some speculated that it might be because of the energy crystals in the back of the head that these zombies had energy.

Experiments had been conducted showing that zombies with stronger abilities did indeed have slightly heavier energy crystals.

But the people in the settlement didn’t care - they weren’t scientists anyway. They only needed to know that these energy crystals could be used as money.

Another three minutes passed, and the energy crystals from the zombies killed by Liu Mingyu and his group had all been dug out.

While they were collecting the energy crystals, Liu Mingyu went to the side of the large truck.

According to the normal rhythm, he should have continued forward.

But knowing that the people tracking behind were armed with many weapons, his mind became active.

A voice in his head was telling him, “Go steal their weapons.”

After all, they were all coming to track you. What’s there to be afraid of?

Liu Mingyu made up his mind to steal the weapons from the trackers.

In his field of vision, about two hundred meters away, there was a small car surrounded by zombies.

The ones surrounded were precisely Liu Yong and his companion. Although they had shaken off some zombies at the front, allowing them to advance some distance, too many zombies had surrounded them.

Only a short while had passed, and the outside of the car was already covered with people. They had driven forward less than two hundred meters before being firmly stuck in place.

And the companion who had been sticking out of the sunroof, after firing all the bullets in his hand, quickly closed the sunroof and returned inside the car.

Actually, it was precisely because the bullets had run out that the other zombies rushed forward again.

Hiding in the car, Liu Yong watched the surrounding zombies in terror. Through the glass, he could see the zombies so close at hand. He could almost smell the foul odor of the zombies.

This wasn’t Liu Yong’s first time facing zombies, but it was his first time being surrounded by them. Being surrounded by dozens or even hundreds of zombies was truly an intense experience.

Fortunately, this car had been specially modified, but he didn’t dare guarantee that the car could withstand the zombies’ attacks.

At this point, he had given up on starting the car.

The zombies’ claws scraped across the glass, making an unpleasant, nauseating sound.

Some zombies began crazily ramming the car, causing it to sway left and right.

Chapter 75: Rescue?

Liu Yong and his companion were helpless inside the car, their weapons out of ammunition. They were like turtles in a jar, waiting to be captured.

Liu Yong’s partner gripped a machete tightly, having already thrown the empty assault rifle aside.

Most of his work involved tracking, and with a gun in hand, he feared no enemies. He never expected that during this tracking mission, he would run out of all his ammunition, leaving him quite troubled.

Normally, he carried five magazines, each with 30 rounds, plus the magazine in the gun itself, totaling 180 rounds—enough to handle most situations.

But unexpectedly, in just a short while, he had used up all his ammunition and fallen into a dire predicament.

“Brother Yong, what do we do now?”

Liu Yong gripped the steering wheel tightly, steadying himself as he said urgently, “There’s nothing we can do now. We can only wait for death, unless someone comes to help us.”

The car was shaking violently. His partner put down the machete and gripped the door handle tightly. Could there be reinforcements?

He asked tentatively, “Brother Yong, are there reinforcements?”

Liu Yong replied irritably, “Where would reinforcements come from? If we were still in the outer city, maybe, but we’re far from the settlement now. The boss won’t send anyone else.”

“Then what you just meant was the other tracking team?”

They knew that they weren’t the only ones tracking Liu Mingyu—there was another group. That group had more people and should be fine, but their bosses weren’t the same person. Would the other side come to rescue them?

Not kicking them while they’re down would be good enough.

Liu Yong fell silent for a moment before saying, “Perhaps it’s Liu Mingyu and his group.”

“Liu Mingyu? Our target? If they don’t kill us, that’s good enough. Would they come to rescue us?”

His partner asked in surprise.

Liu Yong shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps, maybe, possibly they might come. If they don’t, then we wait to die.”

He wasn’t certain. The commotion here should have attracted others’ attention.

The Wolf Hunt Squad.

They carried much more ammunition than Liu Yong, and their marksmanship was far superior. The zombie attacks fell into their defensive rhythm.

Besides wasting ammunition, they prevented the zombies from breaking through.

The zombies around the truck had piled up to a height of one meter, and their numbers were dwindling. They were in the third zone, and most zombies had been attracted by the first two groups.

The zombies on the highway were limited in number—mostly people who had been in cars and turned into zombies due to traffic jams or accidents. In another while, no more zombies would come attacking.

At the truck convoy at the front of the highway.

Liu Mingyu noticed not only a battle two hundred meters away but also another one further back. As for even further back, Liu Mingyu hadn’t discovered it.

His vision and hearing were stronger than ordinary people’s, but not that exaggerated.

Two groups? Or one group split into two sides?

Regardless of the situation, Liu Mingyu decided to attack the nearest zombies.

He checked his task.

Task One: Kill one thousand Level One zombies.

Task Reward: 1000 points.

Task Progress: 952/1000

Not only to seize the enemies’ weapons but also to complete his own task.

Liu Mingyu pointed toward Liu Yong’s position and shouted, “Brothers, advance that way, kill the zombies, and capture the enemies!”

“Kill!”

One hundred people, wielding machetes, charged in that direction.

Two hundred meters wasn’t far—ordinary people could run that distance in about thirty seconds.

The people with Liu Mingyu, though they had experienced several minutes of zombie tide attacks, hadn’t slowed down much in their running speed.

In less than thirty seconds, the front group had reached the zombie horde.

Roar.

The zombies attacking Liu Yong and his companion seemed to sense the approaching threat. A group of zombies that had been surrounding them from behind began seeking new targets, charging toward Liu Mingyu’s direction.

Liu Mingyu ran the fastest, leaping high and delivering a heavy sweep to a zombie’s head.

The zombie’s head shattered like a broken watermelon, splattering everywhere.

Immediately after, others arrived and began madly hacking at the zombies before them.

There’s strength in numbers. The zombies attacking Liu Yong numbered only about a hundred, while Liu Mingyu had brought one hundred people—less than two zombies per person.

Inside the car.

Liu Yong was surprised to find the car’s shaking had decreased. Because zombies still blocked the windshield, he couldn’t see Liu Mingyu and his group approaching.

Could someone have come?

The other tracking team?

Liu Mingyu?

Regardless of who it was, what had seemed hopeless suddenly sparked hope again.

His companion also noticed something unusual and asked in surprise, “Brother Yong, has someone come to rescue us?”

Liu Yong nodded. “Probably, but not necessarily to rescue us—it could be other enemies.”

Here, besides zombies, the other enemies naturally referred to Liu Mingyu and his group.

“I don’t want to die.”

“Neither do I.”

Liu Yong noticed the surrounding zombies decreasing. The zombies that had been hanging on the car had all run in one direction.

As the zombies left, the car returned to normal. Liu Yong also saw who had come—it was Liu Mingyu, whom he had been tracking for several days.

He saw Liu Mingyu’s long gun moving as if alive—thrusting, stabbing, sweeping. Every zombie touched by him was left in pieces. A three-meter empty space formed around him, with no one daring to approach. Others were each finding their own targets.

Liu Yong was secretly shocked. He never expected his tracking target to be so strong—it was like a superhuman.

Although the surrounding zombies had left and the car was under control again, he dared not leave.

The car had blocked the zombie attacks, but he didn’t dare to face the inhuman Liu Mingyu. He feared that before he could drive away, the other party would intercept and kill him.

More importantly, zombies surrounded them everywhere. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn’t in a short time. It was better to stay in the car and wait for the other party’s arrangement—perhaps there would still be a chance to live.

He was just an ordinary person, at most someone with a little authority.

He knew his boss had some connection with Liu Mingyu. Although he was monitoring the other party, perhaps he wouldn’t have to die.

His companion also spotted Liu Mingyu’s group. Watching the decreasing number of zombies, his originally tense body relaxed considerably.

Filled with hope again after what had seemed like despair, he said happily, “Brother Yong, we’re saved.”

Liu Yong chuckled meaningfully, “Yes, we’re saved.”

Were they really saved? He didn’t know, but he knew that his fate was no longer in the zombies’ hands but in Liu Mingyu’s hands outside, fighting bravely.

Since he had decided to wait for the other party’s arrangement, he also gave up struggling, quietly sitting in the driver’s seat.

Chapter 76: Strike First

Liu Mingyu smashed his long spear down, killing the last zombie.

Over a hundred zombies, and it took less than a minute.

After killing the zombies, someone naturally went to dig out the energy crystals from the back of their heads.

Liu Mingyu walked to the car and lightly knocked on the window.

After a while, the car door opened and two people got out. Someone immediately pointed a machete at them.

Liu Yong got out, raising both hands above his head, his forehead covered in sweat. He forced a calm expression and said, “Boss Liu, thank you for the rescue.”

Liu Mingyu didn’t speak to him, instead nodding toward the car.

Someone immediately reached inside and searched around.

After a while, that person took out two machetes, an assault rifle, and two smart wristbands from the car.

The person came out and reported, “Boss, we found two machetes, one assault rifle, and two smart wristbands. The rifle is out of bullets.”

Only one assault rifle, fewer than Liu Mingyu had imagined. He had thought there might be two. As for the other items, he had already ignored them.

Liu Mingyu looked at Liu Yong and the other man with interest and said with a smile, “Hehe, rescue you? You’re the ones who’ve been watching us outside the resort these past few days, right?”

Liu Mingyu directly confronted them, too lazy to waste time.

Though Liu Yong was directly confronted, he actually calmed down and said, “It was indeed us, but we mean no harm.”

Liu Mingyu chuckled and said, “No harm? You’ve been watching our doorstep for days. You call that no harm? Who sent you? Liu Fugui? Or someone else?”

“Boss Liu, we were sent by Boss Liu.”

Liu Yong directly sold out his own boss. Anyway, his boss hadn’t explained the reason for the surveillance in detail. It was a bit awkward to say, but Liu Mingyu knew he was talking about Liu Fugui.

Liu Mingyu had already guessed that the people watching were sent by Liu Fugui. Now that the other party admitted it, he wasn’t surprised. He had long suspected that Liu Fugui had people following him.

In this world, besides Lu Haipeng and the others, he had the most contact with Liu Fugui.

Lu Haipeng and the others had already been brought over by him. The only one left was Liu Fugui.

Liu Mingyu pointed to the Wolf Hunt Squad still dealing with zombies behind them and asked, “Are those people with you?”

Liu Yong shook his head and said, “No, they’re not with us. Unless Boss Liu sent another team.”

“Not with you?”

Liu Mingyu already had an answer in his heart. If it wasn’t Liu Fugui, he could roughly guess who sent them.

Bang bang bang.

The sound of the assault rifle continued, though much less frequent now. They could already see that there weren’t many zombies left around that group.

“Big brother Lu, have two people watch them.”

Liu Mingyu ordered. He had no intention of killing Liu Yong and the other man. When it came to killing zombies, Liu Mingyu had no fear because in his eyes, zombies were no longer human - they were monsters.

But Liu Yong and the other man were normal people. He didn’t have the heart to directly kill them.

Since coming to the apocalyptic world, he had only killed zombies and had never killed a human.

But if they threatened him, he wouldn’t mind killing them. Now, Liu Yong and the other man posed no threat, so he temporarily pushed them to the back.

Though Liu Yong said they weren’t together, were they really not together? Perhaps they could be used as hostages.

The concentrated gunfire from the Wolf Hunt Squad made Liu Mingyu realize that the group at the back had quite a few weapons.

“Brother Tao, share some of your bullets with us.”

Liu Mingyu said to Li Hongtao. Since there was only one assault rifle, the bullets he had bought these past few days were all with Li Hongtao. Now that they had captured another assault rifle, facing such powerful firepower, naturally they should use it.

Li Hongtao hadn’t used many bullets in the recent battle, only about two magazines. He still had over four hundred bullets on him.

He called two people to run back and bring all the bullets over.

“Who else here is good with guns? Please raise your hand.”

Liu Mingyu held the assault rifle and asked loudly.

In China, a peaceful country, gun control was very strict. Among civilians, besides some homemade hunting guns, there were basically no other firearms, so few people were skilled with guns.

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Zhiyong stepped forward and shouted, “Boss, I am.”

“Oh, it’s Zhiyong. Then this gun is yours.”

When Liu Mingyu saw it was Yang Zhiyong, he knew Yang Zhiyong was a veteran. Though he didn’t know how good Yang Zhiyong’s marksmanship was in the military, he was certainly better than civilians who had never touched a gun.

Actually, he also liked guns and wanted to play with them, but now was a critical moment. Guns were better in the hands of those who could use them. As for playing with guns, when he had free time later, he could buy some bullets and practice.

Now that his various physical attributes were superior to ordinary people, with more practice, he believed he could be somewhat useful.

Yang Zhiyong took the gun from Liu Mingyu’s hand, his eyes showing an indescribable emotion, as if seeing an old friend he hadn’t seen in years.

He saw him manipulate the gun a few times, and an assault rifle was disassembled into parts by him. Then after some more operations, it became a complete assault rifle again.

Liu Mingyu saw this and praised loudly, “Good.”

Someone who could play with a gun like this, his marksmanship probably wouldn’t be too bad.

Yang Zhiqiang, standing nearby, looked enviously at his brother’s rifle, suppressing an eager impulse.

Liu Mingyu had confiscated Liu Yong’s rifle and didn’t leave, knowing there was still another team behind them. He didn’t dare leave like this and had to ensure there were no threats from behind before he could take his companions toward the city.

Liu Mingyu’s position was still about three hundred meters from the Wolf Hunt Squad.

Knowing the other side had many guns, he didn’t approach as he had when coming over.

He had come to Liu Yong’s side because Liu Yong and the others were surrounded by zombies. Even though they had weapons, he wasn’t afraid.

But the group three hundred meters away wasn’t surrounded by zombies. Instead, they had killed a large number of zombies. This was not the same level.

Did they really just come to follow him?

Now, Liu Mingyu was somewhat suspicious. For people like Liu Yong and the other man, saying they were following him made sense.

But that group with so many firearms, it didn’t seem like they were just following him. Did they need so many weapons to follow someone?

Liu Mingyu knew he had a hundred people on his side, but he wouldn’t need to carry so many weapons, would he?

The Wolf Hunt Squad gave Liu Mingyu the feeling of not following but hunting.

Thinking of this, Liu Mingyu became more vigilant, knowing the other party might really not be as easy to deal with as Liu Yong and the others. They might really come to kill.

Liu Mingyu whispered, “Brothers, find good cover to prevent being shot.”

Then he added, “Li Hongtao, Yang Zhiyong, if they come by car and get within fifty meters, shoot them directly.”

His wildly beating heart and uneasy feelings made Liu Mingyu decide to strike first. Regardless of whether they were following or hunting, to him, it was the same.

Chapter 77: Ambush

As Liu Mingyu was preparing to strike first, the Wolf Hunt Squad finally finished killing the last zombie.

After killing the last zombie, they all jumped down from the vehicle, skillfully using small knives to cut open the back of the zombies’ heads and dig out the energy crystals.

The energy crystals freshly dug out from the zombies’ heads were covered in blood, but they didn’t care at all, carefully placing them into bags.

These energy crystals were the Wolf Hunt Squad’s harvest.

Although the Wolf Hunt Squad had fierce firepower and possessed many weapons, with bullets that were much cheaper than others’, they weren’t supplied without limit. They had quotas, and exceeding them meant they had to pay out of their own pockets.

Fortunately, when the Wolf Hunt Squad was on missions outside, apart from the mission objectives, all other harvests belonged to them.

This time they were preparing to hunt down Liu Mingyu, and encountered a zombie horde along the way. The energy crystals obtained from killing the zombies naturally belonged to them.

The captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad was a middle-aged man with a full beard. At this moment, all the energy crystals had been collected and handed over to him.

He weighed the energy crystals in his hand and said with a smile, “Not bad, about two catties in total. After deducting the used quota, we can still earn about half.”

The energy crystals from zombie heads varied in weight, and this time the Wolf Hunt Squad had killed about three hundred zombies. Doing the math, each zombie provided about 33 grams of energy crystals, which was quite a good harvest.

They didn’t know if it was because the zombies here were more ferocious or what, but the average 33 grams of energy crystals was much higher than the average of only 15 grams in the suburbs of Jia City.

“After completing this mission, we can go to Dream Bar and have some fun.”

“You still want to go to Dream Bar? Aren’t you afraid of your little lover?”

“Haha, would I be afraid of her?”

“Not afraid? I don’t know which day I saw someone…”

“You’re looking for death.”

The captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad stopped the conversation between the team members and said, “Alright, everyone quiet down for a moment and see how our target is doing. Don’t let him get away.”

“How could he run? There’s only one highway here. Where could he run to?”

“You idiot, can’t they run to both sides?”

“With so many zombies, where could they run to? On both sides, cars can’t pass through, and walking is suicide.”

Holding rifles with plenty of bullets, they could leave from both sides, but he didn’t think the other side had lots of bullets.

The captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad nodded in agreement and said, “Xiao Lu is right. He should still be ahead. Everyone tidy up, and we’ll drive forward to take a look.”

Actually, there wasn’t much to tidy up. The members of the Wolf Hunt Squad quickly dragged away the zombies blocking the way, clearing a path.

The small truck pressed forward like a road roller, directly crushing the remaining limbs still in the middle of the road. The truck’s speed wasn’t fast, only about 20 yards.

The captain sat in front, glanced ahead, and saw Liu Yong’s small car parked in the middle of the road, with a pile of zombies lying around it like a small mountain.

Were these zombies killed by the other side?

The captain found it a bit hard to believe. He remembered that the tracking team following them only had two people.

It wasn’t that he looked down on Liu Yong and the other person. The pile of zombies was at least a hundred, and even if the other side had heavy firepower, it wouldn’t be possible to kill so many zombies.

Could they have been killed by the zombies? Then who killed the zombies?

Suddenly he thought of a possibility, and cold sweat broke out all over his body. He took out the communicator and shouted, “Emergency situation, be careful ahead, there might be an ambush.”

The small truck wasn’t fast, but the distance between the Wolf Hunt Squad and where Liu Yong had stopped wasn’t far.

In just a moment, the distance between them was less than fifty meters.

Just as the captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad finished speaking, Liu Mingyu suddenly shouted, “Fire!”

Liu Mingyu picked up a machete, aimed at the small truck slowly approaching, bent his waist backward, and threw it with all his might.

The machete flew like an arrow leaving a bow, heading straight for the driver’s position.

Li Hongtao and Yang Zhiyong, upon hearing the order, each aimed at one target and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Both of their accuracy rates were quite good. At a distance of fifty meters, they basically hit the bullseye every time, with no reason to miss.

The two bullets arrived first, hitting the driver’s head first, penetrating through, creating a blood flower behind the driver’s seat.

The captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad was a bit luckier. When he realized there was an ambush, he had already started lowering his head, dodging the fatal shot.

However, he was also quite frightened at this moment. If he had been even a little slower, he would have gone to the Western Paradise together with the driver beside him.

The captain of the Wolf Hunt Squad roared, “Enemy attack!”

At this point, he didn’t need to roar; the team members already knew the enemy was attacking and quickly found their positions, aiming ahead.

At this moment, Liu Mingyu’s machete had just reached the windshield.

Bang.

The machete collided with the windshield, making a sound even louder than a rifle.

Unfortunately, the subsequent force was limited, and the machete was bounced away.

Seeing this, Liu Mingyu shook his head and said, “What a pity. If we had a grenade, we could just throw one over and be done with it.”

Liu Mingyu had just finished lamenting when he noticed that the small truck on the other side showed no signs of stopping.

Was this the rhythm of forcing their way through?

They weren’t afraid of him charging over. A small truck, even if fully loaded with people, would only have a dozen or so people. Even if they all had weapons, so what?

They had a hundred people on their side. Charging over would be even better. They could forcefully kill them. He had originally been thinking about how to rush over and kill them. After all, they only had two guns on their side.

The team members of the Wolf Hunt Squad had already found their positions, but suddenly the small truck lost control. The entire vehicle started desperately turning to the right, crashing into the guardrail with sparks flying.

The team members inside the truck were thrown around, dizzy and disoriented. Forget about counterattacking; they couldn’t even stand steadily. They couldn’t help but curse, “Who’s driving? Drive more steadily.”

The captain also noticed the situation with the small truck, but he didn’t dare to show himself. There were still gunmen on the other side watching them.

He stuck his body out, leaned into the driver’s seat, and desperately pulled the steering wheel, trying to straighten the direction.

However, not pulling was fine, but once he pulled, the small truck became even more out of control, swerving left and right.

Seeing the state of the small truck, Liu Mingyu knew there was still one person in the driver’s seat who hadn’t died and was trying to save the situation.

This wasn’t the time to go up. He loudly ordered, “Everyone, pay attention. When the vehicle stops, rush over directly and seize their weapons.”

Then he said to Li Hongtao and the other two, “Shoot their tires and force them to stop.”

The other side was already showing signs of stopping, but it was still better to suffer less injury.

The vehicle swayed left and right on the road. For Li Hongtao, the pressure wasn’t great. He precisely aimed at the front wheels.

Bang.

A bullet accurately hit the wheel.

Chapter 78: Kill

In an instant, the small truck lost its balance. The team members who were already standing unsteadily were directly thrown out.

In that moment of being thrown, they saw that behind many abandoned vehicles, numerous humans suddenly emerged.

Their hearts couldn’t help but feel a wave of sadness.

“My fate is sealed.”

Bang.

Fortunately, the small truck wasn’t moving particularly fast and didn’t roll over, but rather crashed heavily onto its side.

The inertia of the speed caused intense friction between the small truck and the ground, leaving a black mark.

The small truck used non-petroleum energy and didn’t explode.

The Wolf Hunt Squad members who were originally behind had safety belts securing them in their positions. Just as the captain shouted “ambush,” they all left their seats and stood up.

Without safety belts to secure them to their seats, how could they stand steady in a violently swaying small truck?

As the small truck overturned, the team members were one by one ejected, like fledgling birds learning to fly, soaring a short distance before some directly smashed onto the hard ground, while others were brutally slammed into the guardrail, their fate unknown.

Liu Mingyu didn’t care how the Wolf Hunt Squad members were feeling. Seeing the small truck had already toppled over, he shouted loudly: “Brothers, charge! First, take their weapons.”

He saw that several people seemed to still have some strength, struggling to stand up on the ground.

After shouting, he silently moved to the back of the car. Who knew if the other side really had no strength to fight back.

He had seen that some people still had weapons in their hands. He didn’t have any bulletproof vest—his life was precious. Now wasn’t the time to play the hero.

With a command, a group of strong men wielding machetes quickly rushed forward. Before the other side could resist, they confiscated all their firearms.

Liu Mingyu was quite surprised. He had originally thought they would have to sacrifice some people to seize the other side’s weapons, but unexpectedly, they had dramatically confiscated all the weapons.

He hadn’t considered that he might lose, even though he only had one M16 assault rifle.

Actually, Liu Mingyu was overthinking. If they hadn’t been careless, at least seventy percent or more of the slaves Liu Mingyu had brought would have been lost.

The Wolf Hunt Squad had come to hunt down Liu Mingyu for this mission, knowing that Liu Mingyu had brought about a hundred people on his side. Their ammunition reserves were quite substantial.

But now all this ammunition had cheaply fallen into Liu Mingyu’s hands.

The Wolf Hunt Squad had sent a total of ten people to hunt down Liu Mingyu. The driver was the first team member to die. After the small truck overturned, several unlucky ones landed head-first and died instantly.

In the end, only four people from the Wolf Hunt Squad remained alive. The captain had great luck—when he overturned, being in the driver’s cabin actually provided him with good protection, making him the least injured person.

At this moment, he was being held, his head covered in blood, standing before Liu Mingyu.

Liu Mingyu curiously asked: “May I ask who you are?”

The captain remained silent, not answering, just coldly staring at Liu Mingyu.

Seeing the other party not answering, Liu Mingyu didn’t say much more. Then he asked the other three living people: “Who sent you?”

Still no response, just heavy breathing from each of them.

Liu Mingyu chuckled: “Not answering? No problem, I can probably guess who it is. Alright, send them on their way.”

As soon as his words fell, one person, panting heavily, cried out: “Don’t kill me, it was…”

Before that person could finish speaking, the Wolf Hunt Squad captain interrupted with a roar: “Xiao Lu, it doesn’t matter if you die, but have you thought about your family?”

“Shut up.”

Liu Mingyu forcefully slapped him across the face.

With a whistling sound, smack—the captain’s teeth were knocked out, and his entire face instantly swelled up.

However, after being interrupted by the captain, Xiao Lu seemed to have given up struggling and lowered his head without speaking further.

He kept his head down, his whole body trembling constantly, not appearing particularly calm.

Seeing that he truly couldn’t get any information out of them, and having roughly guessed who the other party was, Liu Mingyu gave up.

“Kill them.”

For those who had tried to kill him, Liu Mingyu couldn’t possibly let them go. Letting them go would be like releasing a tiger back into the mountains. By then, it wouldn’t be ten people coming to hunt him down, but maybe a hundred, or even a thousand.

Immediately, four people stepped forward, wielding machetes like ancient executioners, standing behind them.

Seeing this, although those four had mentally prepared themselves, when the other side really raised their machetes to strike, their hearts still trembled. They desperately wanted to resist, but their hands were tightly held behind them by two people, making them completely unable to move.

Crack.

The blade fell.

Four heads rolled on the ground, four blood fountains spraying several meters away. If someone had been standing in front, they would have been drenched in blood.

The surrounding zombies had already been killed, otherwise, with the blood of these few people, it would likely have triggered a zombie tide.

The heads that rolled on the ground had their eyes wide open, seeming unwilling, yet also filled with regret. They hadn’t been killed by zombies in this world, but rather by humans.

However, they deserved it. They had done no small number of things killing humans; it was just that this time their luck was poor and they were caught.

Until the moment they died, they never revealed who had ordered them.

Liu Mingyu remained silent. The fact that they didn’t speak even at death meant there was even more severe punishment waiting for them?

He didn’t know. He had only come to the apocalypse a few days ago, and these few days had gone smoothly without thinking too much.

These few days, taking out so much food, table salt, and other things, should have touched certain people’s interests, or perhaps been noticed by certain people.

Otherwise, Liu Fugui wouldn’t have sent people to follow him. But from the people Liu Fugui sent, he only intended to track him, with no thought of silencing him.

Perhaps the other side hadn’t found his food source yet, which was why they hadn’t launched a large-scale hunt.

In this apocalyptic world, only by becoming stronger can one grow stronger. Without powerful strength, one cannot protect one’s own property.

This assassination attempt made Liu Mingyu think about many things, but everything needs to develop slowly.

After counting the weapons, Lu Haipeng excitedly reported to Liu Mingyu: “Boss, this time we’ve seized ten M16 assault rifles, over 7,000 rounds of ammunition, and a little over four pounds of energy crystals.”

Liu Mingyu was greatly surprised. The number of M16 assault rifles was within his expectations, but the quantity of ammunition far exceeded his expectations, and those four-plus pounds of energy crystals were like icing on the cake.

Among these three resources, what he valued most was the ammunition. He hadn’t expected the other side to possess so much ammunition.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but secretly rejoice that he had struck first.

If they had faced this team head-on, the hundred people under him would likely have gone without return.

Before, he had been very confident because he thought the other side didn’t have much ammunition. After all, the ammunition Liu Mingyu had bought these past few days was only 500 rounds.

While this team’s configuration was at least 1,000 rounds per person.

This time, Liu Mingyu kept one M16 assault rifle for himself, then instructed: “Distribute the other nine to those with shooting experience.”

With firearms and ammunition, Liu Mingyu felt that even if they encountered special zombies, he would dare to fight.

In the end, the other nine guns were distributed to nine veterans, including Yang Zhiqiang.

Chapter 79: The Drone

Yang Zhiqiang held the Walker assault rifle, smiling foolishly to himself, completely enamored, as if he had encountered his most beloved possession.

Liu Mingyu laughed, “Zhiqiang, this isn’t something for you to collect and treasure. You need to make good use of this weapon.”

Although he hadn’t seen Yang Zhiqiang’s marksmanship yet, he didn’t have too many objections. Both Yang Zhiqiang and Yang Zhiyong were retired soldiers. Having seen Yang Zhiyong’s precise shooting, Yang Zhiqiang’s marksmanship probably wouldn’t be too bad either.

The other people were the same. After getting their guns, each of them looked as if they had received their most beloved possession, caressing the gun bodies with faces full of intoxication.

There was no helping it. Firearms were strictly controlled in China. Except for when they were in the military and had handled guns, after retiring they had never touched a gun again.

Despite there being quite a few guns in the settlement, under strict control, not many people could afford to buy them.

Buying a gun is easy, maintaining one is difficult.

What’s more, these people who had been captured to be slaves had never even come into contact with guns.

At this moment, Liu Mingyu was distributing guns to them, and they were extremely grateful in their hearts.

Having a gun in hand, their own safety issues had been greatly improved.

As long as they didn’t court death, they would definitely have a share of surviving to the end.

The road to the city was exceptionally difficult, and having guns in hand provided an extra layer of security.

“Alright, brothers, after resolving our worries, we’re going to advance toward the city area. There are still five kilometers left, which isn’t too far.”

Liu Mingyu clapped his hands to attract everyone’s attention.

The energy crystals from the zombies on the ground had already been collected, and there were no other supplies.

The weight of over 7,000 rounds of bullets wasn’t low, about 200 pounds or so. The box containing the bullets hadn’t been damaged too severely. Finding a few people to carry the bullets toward the large truck.

“Boss, how should we handle these two people?” Lu Haipeng pointed at Liu Yong and his companion.

When Liu Yong saw Lu Haipeng pointing at him, he immediately wet himself. He had clearly seen the situation with the Wolf Hunt Squad. The other party had unknown reasons for not revealing who was behind them.

He wasn’t that brave. In an instant, snot and tears came out, crying and shouting, “Boss Liu, don’t kill me, I’ll tell you everything.”

His companion beside him wasn’t much better off. He wasn’t a courageous person to begin with, and the deaths of the Wolf Hunt Squad had scared him terribly. He was crying heartbreakingly beside him, “Boss, don’t kill me, I’ll do anything you want.”

Liu Mingyu hadn’t planned to kill them in the first place. Killing the Wolf Hunt Squad was because the other party had been hunting him down, so he had acted decisively.

But although Liu Yong and his companion hadn’t been hunting him down, they had been tracking him. If he were to kill them, Liu Mingyu wasn’t that ruthless. If he were to let them off just like that, it would be too cheap for them.

Liu Mingyu thought for a while and said, “Bring these two with us first.”

Hearing that they weren’t going to kill them immediately, Liu Yong’s entire body went soft. It was good that they hadn’t killed him; there was still a chance to survive.

The group walked back to the large truck’s location.

Ten people were left to guard the large truck, and to keep an eye on Liu Yong and his companion at the same time.

Actually, there was no need for someone to specifically guard the large truck, but to prevent other people from coming over and stealing the large truck, and also for convenience in providing support later.

No guns were left behind; all were taken with them.

Over 7,000 rounds of bullets were very heavy. Each armed person carried five magazines. With five magazines plus the bullets in the gun itself, there were 180 rounds of bullets. As long as they didn’t randomly spray and pray, these bullets were enough to fight a battle.

The remaining bullets were assigned to specific people to carry. Fortunately, there were enough people, and when distributed, it wasn’t too heavy and didn’t affect their movement much.

After the allocation, Liu Mingyu and his group marched mightily toward Hangzhou City’s East New District.

In the air, not far away, there were a few small birds circling around them.

They had just walked a short distance when Li Hongtao ran to Liu Mingyu’s side and said, “Boss, those few small birds above seem a bit off?”

Liu Mingyu looked up and looked around a few times, discovering that there were indeed three small birds circling above their heads in the air.

The small birds’ actions were indeed a bit strange. Perhaps there was something below that attracted them, or maybe not.

Liu Mingyu asked with a puzzled face, “What’s wrong? Is there something inappropriate?”

Li Hongtao said while running, “We discovered these few small birds circling above our heads when we left the base. We didn’t pay attention at the time. Later, when we were killing zombies, we also discovered them. And now these small birds are above our heads again?”

Liu Mingyu frowned and said, “Are you saying someone is controlling them?”

He didn’t understand much about the technology in this apocalyptic world. Could it be that technology was so advanced now that they could control living creatures? Or were they mechanical birds?

But looking at the small birds’ actions, they didn’t seem much different from real birds.

Li Hongtao replied, “It should be someone controlling them. It’s probably a drone.”

“A drone? What’s the control range?”

While running, Liu Mingyu paid special attention to these few small birds. They were indeed a bit different. If they were really drones, then it could only be said that the technology here was very powerful.

Li Hongtao scratched his head and said, “Several kilometers to several dozen kilometers, I’m not too sure about the specific distance.”

“Then never mind, let’s continue moving forward.”

Liu Mingyu sighed and said. Even if they knew the other party was monitoring them, there was nothing they could do. They couldn’t even find out who it was.

He hadn’t expected that he had attracted so much attention in the settlement. It seemed it was because he had previously sold large quantities of food that had caught the attention of relevant people.

Liu Yong had been sent by Liu Fugui. The team of people they had just killed was very likely sent by that Mr. 005 from the auction. So who had sent the small birds in the sky?

No matter who it was, it was one of the five giants in the settlement.

Since they couldn’t resist, they wouldn’t pay attention to it for the time being. However, they needed to raise their vigilance.

The food in the resort couldn’t be sold in large quantities in the market. In the future, when exchanging for energy crystals, they should try to trade using items from this apocalyptic world itself. As for the food brought over from the real world, it would be better to just eat it internally in the resort.

However, salt could be sold. Next time, they could bring some coarse salt over, disguised as the salt they had found here. That would also work.

While Liu Mingyu and Li Hongtao were discussing whether the small birds in the sky were being controlled by someone, far away in the cargo compartment monitoring room, the画面 of Liu Mingyu looking up at the sky was synchronously displayed on the monitoring screen.

The young man asked, “Do you think he’s discovered us?”

The middle-aged man smiled and said, “Discovered? Even if he discovered that the small birds in the sky are monitoring them, what can he do about it? Can he shoot them down?”

He knew that Liu Mingyu’s side had Walker assault rifles. The previous few times of killing zombies had also been recorded by them one by one. They knew that these people’s marksmanship was precise, so the small bird-style drones flew at a height outside the other party’s range.

Even if they used rifles to shoot at the drones, they couldn’t hit them. And for the drones, the increased distance didn’t pose much of a problem for the画面.

The image quality of the cameras configured on the drones was extremely clear. Even if they were raised several hundred meters higher, it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Then that’s good. Are we going to follow them?” the young man asked.

“We’re not going to follow them anymore. There are still people guarding that side. We’ll just wait here. Since the other party chose to move on foot, they’re probably nearby.”

The middle-aged man shook his head and refused. Their main purpose was to observe Liu Mingyu’s abnormalities. As long as the other party was within视线 range, it was fine.

Chapter 80: Rest and Recuperation

Eighty.

Five kilometers wasn’t a particularly long distance. If they walked quickly, they could cover it in less than an hour.

The zombies on the highway had already been lured away by them earlier.

The first two kilometers were completely clear. As they progressed further, zombies gradually began appearing more frequently.

Liu Mingyu didn’t allow Li Hongtao and the others to fire their weapons. He used his machete to attack directly. Gunshots were too loud and would trigger a zombie riot.

They were no longer in the suburbs now. They were gradually approaching the city center, encountering more and more vehicles and zombies.

Fortunately, Liu Mingyu led a large group. As long as they didn’t face a few thousand zombies attacking all at once, there wouldn’t be any problems.

They advanced while fending off zombie attacks.

Liu Mingyu stabbed a female zombie to death, then turned to Li Xubing beside him and asked, “How much farther is your company?”

Li Xubing was the first batch of slaves Liu Mingyu had purchased at the auction. Compared to others who were physically weak, his body was relatively strong. He had been assigned to this mission specifically to retrieve special equipment from their former workplace.

Without someone from their company, finding the equipment would be extremely difficult.

It was like finding a tall person among short ones—they could only choose Li Xubing, who was slightly stronger, to serve as their guide.

Li Xubing surveyed their surroundings. The surrounding high-rise buildings were in ruins, but the landmark structures were still recognizable. After looking around for a while, he said, “Boss, it’s about another kilometer.”

A kilometer wasn’t too far, but by now, Liu Mingyu had already been walking for over an hour.

The previous two kilometers had involved constant stops and starts, wasting considerable time and energy.

The others didn’t have Liu Mingyu’s robust physique. They were only slightly stronger than average people. The continuous fighting with zombies had left some of them exhausted.

Even Lu Haipeng and the others were drenched in sweat, showing clear signs of fatigue.

But since Liu Mingyu hadn’t ordered them to stop, they could only grit their teeth and keep up.

So far, their overall advance had been well-controlled with no casualties.

But if they forced themselves to continue, casualties might occur later.

Liu Mingyu looked around at the surrounding buildings and noticed a supermarket nearby. He said, “Let’s clear out this supermarket first, rest briefly, and see if there are any supplies we can search for. Everyone, be careful—don’t let our guard down.”

Most of the zombies in the area had been attracted by the earlier fighting sounds, but no one could guarantee that a zombie wouldn’t suddenly appear from some dark corner.

With Liu Mingyu’s reminder, the others who had been somewhat careless immediately became alert and headed toward the supermarket.

The supermarket’s sign had lost its characters, leaving only faint traces of the word “supermarket.” The entrance below had long since disappeared.

Judging by its size, it wasn’t a large supermarket but rather a convenience store-style establishment.

The group cautiously passed through the entrance. Without lights, they could barely make out the interior environment using reflected sunlight.

The shelves inside were toppled and empty, as clean as if they’d been licked by mice.

This location was on the必经之路 (必经之路 - essential route) out of the city, and the supermarket’s goods had likely been completely looted when the apocalypse began.

Liu Mingyu wasn’t particularly concerned. His main purpose was to let everyone rest here.

They could have rested outside, but knowing that someone was monitoring them made him uncomfortable. This place had a relatively large open area, so he had everyone come here temporarily to avoid the drone’s surveillance.

The drones certainly wouldn’t give up their target so easily. Seeing Liu Mingyu’s group enter the building, the drones flew down and landed on a nearby windowsill.

If Liu Mingyu hadn’t known these little birds had been following him, and had accidentally seen them, he really would have thought they were ordinary birds.

Since they couldn’t avoid being monitored, Liu Mingyu didn’t worry too much about it.

He sent people to search every corner of the supermarket, confirming there were no dangers inside.

“Everyone, rest here for a bit. Keep watch outside.”

Liu Mingyu used his hand to brush the dust off the checkout counter and sat down on it.

Lu Haipeng had assigned four people to stand guard at the entrance, while the others found their own spots to sit and rest.

Along the way, Liu Mingyu’s team had killed over 3,000 zombies, with each person averaging more than 30 kills. Everyone was completely exhausted.

Liu Mingyu checked his task list.

Task One had already been completed when they killed Liu Yong’s group of zombies.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t received any Level One zombie killing tasks these past few days, only special zombie killing tasks. Otherwise, the zombies they’d killed along the way would have earned them many more points.

He checked his current status.

Name: Liu Mingyu

Strength: 28 (10)

Constitution: 28 (10)

Agility: 24 (10)

Mental Power: 12 (0)

Points: 1100

Traversal Count: 3

After these past few days of training, his Strength had increased slightly, and his Mental Power had also increased a bit.

Liu Mingyu hadn’t yet discovered what Mental Power was used for. The slight increase didn’t seem to make much difference, so he hadn’t investigated further.

Completing one task had earned him 1000 points, plus his original 100 points, for a total of 1100 points.

Now that his points had exceeded 1000, he wondered if the mall had unlocked new items.

When points were insufficient, the mall wouldn’t show what items could be exchanged. But once a certain point threshold was reached, corresponding items would be unlocked. After unlocking, even if points were insufficient, the items wouldn’t disappear.

As for how unlocking worked, Liu Mingyu only knew about the point threshold. He didn’t know if there were other rules, since he had only completed a few point-earning tasks and gained very few points.

Liu Mingyu opened the mall interface with great anticipation, but the result surprised him. Contrary to his expectation that new exchangeable items would appear when points reached 1000, there were still only four exchangeable items.

Gene Evolution Potion (Level 1), Energy Potion (Level 1), Storage Space Enhancement, and Attribute Enhancement.

It seemed the unlocking rules weren’t what he thought. There must be other additional conditions.

He didn’t know what those conditions were and couldn’t test them, so he could only wait patiently for the conditions to be met.

Or perhaps higher points were needed. But looking at the exchange prices of existing items, they weren’t that different, so it seemed unlikely that the next level of items would require 2000 points.

Never mind if there weren’t any. Besides checking for new items, he had also been eyeing the Energy Potion (Level 1).

This potion that could instantly restore energy had a low exchange price, but he had never exchanged for it.

He had always been at the base without opportunities to use it.

Liu Mingyu didn’t feel particularly tired now, but the others’ conditions weren’t good.

He suddenly thought of this forgotten potion sitting in the corner.

Chapter 81: Restoring Stamina

The exchange price for a Level 1 Energy Potion was not high, only 10 points. Liu Mingyu didn’t want to waste it.

If drinking a whole bottle could instantly restore stamina, what would happen if he drank just part of it?

Would it have any effect? Restore partial stamina?

Liu Mingyu spent 10 points to exchange for a Level 1 Energy Potion from the mall.

After exchanging, the Energy Potion was stored in the storage space. He didn’t know if he could still exchange for Energy Potions if the storage space was full, and where they would be stored afterward.

Now that most of the storage space was empty, there was no pressure. Putting aside his idle thoughts, he pretended to take out a bottle of potion from his pocket.

The Energy Potion was contained in a 10-centimeter tall test tube, the kind commonly seen in hospitals.

The potion appeared green, a vivid emerald color that made Liu Mingyu feel quite uneasy.

This won’t kill someone if they drink it, right?

It probably won’t kill them, but he didn’t know about any side effects.

Potions produced by the system were actually quite reliable, but the side effects were also very uncomfortable. Thinking about the pain he endured when drinking the Gene Evolution Potion, he couldn’t help but tremble.

“Boss, are you alright?”

Liu Mingyu’s trembling made the table shake slightly, and Lu Haipeng asked with concern.

Liu Mingyu smiled and said, “I’m fine, I just lost my balance for a moment.”

He handed the Energy Potion to Lu Haipeng and said, “This is for you, drink a little.”

Lu Haipeng carefully took the Energy Potion. The vivid green color seemed a bit unusual. This wouldn’t be some kind of poison, would it?

Lu Haipeng asked cautiously, “Boss, what kind of potion is this?”

“A potion to restore stamina. Try it, this is a good thing.” Liu Mingyu explained with a smile, “But don’t drink too much, just a little bit.”

Lu Haipeng examined it carefully for a while and indeed found nothing wrong with the potion. If Liu Mingyu really wanted to harm him, why wait until now?

He suddenly opened the cap, aimed at his mouth, and poured out about one-third of the contents.

The imagined bitter taste didn’t appear. Instead, there was a faint refreshing fragrance, though he couldn’t identify what fruit it was.

Before Lu Haipeng could savor it carefully, a surge of energy spread from his esophagus and expanded throughout his body. In just a moment, he felt his body had recovered significantly. His previously fatigued posture was completely gone, and he felt full of energy.

Lu Haipeng exclaimed in surprise, “Thank you for the potion, Boss. This potion is too precious.”

He returned the remaining potion to Liu Mingyu. After drinking just one-third of the Energy Potion, he felt his whole body brimming with energy, even better than when they first set out.

If there were a bunch of zombies in front of him now, and he was given a machete, he could cut down dozens of them.

Liu Mingyu asked curiously, “How do you feel? Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”

Seeing that Lu Haipeng had no special side effects after drinking one-third of the Energy Potion, Liu Mingyu still needed to ask about his feelings to know for sure.

He had been scared once by the Gene Evolution Potion, but if given another such opportunity, even if he had to endure such pain, Liu Mingyu would still choose to drink that potion.

No pain, no gain. Only through hardship can one rise above others.

The suffering endured today is for a stronger self.

“Boss, this potion really is something to restore stamina. I feel full of energy now.” This potion belonged to the boss, why was he asking about my feelings? But Lu Haipeng still honestly answered Liu Mingyu’s question.

No side effects, that’s really great. The Gene Evolution Potion had side effects because it altered genes, while the Energy Potion only restored stamina and wasn’t as terrifying as imagined.

However, the effect of the Energy Potion exceeded Liu Mingyu’s expectations. One-third of the potion completely restored Lu Haipeng’s stamina, which meant a whole bottle of Energy Potion had excess effect.

Could he dilute this bottle of potion?

He didn’t know if it would still have the effect of restoring stamina after dilution.

When they set out, everyone carried a water bottle containing clean water.

Outside, no one could guarantee they would find a water source, and even if they found one, they couldn’t guarantee the water was safe.

Considering this issue when they departed, everyone carried a bottle of clean water.

He took out the water bottle, drank a little, then carefully poured the Energy Potion into it.

Shaking the bottle a few times, Liu Mingyu gestured to the people resting nearby and called out, “Come here, drink this water.”

The person walked over, “Boss, I’m not thirsty, I still have water here.”

As he spoke, he picked up his water bottle and shook it a few times, making splashing sounds.

“If I tell you to drink, just drink. No more nonsense.” Liu Mingyu scolded with a smile, “Just take one sip, don’t drink too much.”

“Oh.”

The person responded with an “oh” and obediently picked up the water bottle, tilted his head back, and poured a small mouthful from a few centimeters away.

A faint refreshing fragrance filled his mouth. Before he could react, he felt he had recovered some stamina, and his previously fatigued body felt much better.

He exclaimed, “Boss, what kind of miraculous potion is this? I feel like my whole body is floating.”

“So it works? How does it compare to this morning? How much stamina has been restored?”

Everyone’s stamina levels were different. After dilution, the effect of instantly restoring stamina remained, but Liu Mingyu didn’t know how much stamina could be restored.

The person carefully felt his body and said, “If I drink one more sip, I should be back to how I was this morning.”

“Then drink one more sip.”

Since he had already drunk some, Liu Mingyu didn’t mind.

The person took another mouthful of the diluted potion from the air and reluctantly returned the water bottle to Liu Mingyu.

Based on how much the other person had drunk, Liu Mingyu roughly estimated that after diluting one bottle of Energy Potion into one bottle of water, it could restore ten people to full stamina.

Why could it still restore full stamina after dilution?

Liu Mingyu guessed it was due to the potion’s effect. The people he brought were all ordinary people, and only a portion of the energy contained in the potion was needed to restore stamina.

He remembered that on the other side of the real world, many drinks claimed to restore energy and were being sold. The claim of restoring energy should be true, but he didn’t know how effective they were.

If the Energy Potion were diluted a hundred times and sold, could it be a big seller?

This was truly a potion that could restore stamina.

Shaking his head, he quickly dismissed this idea.

Just kidding, one bottle of Energy Potion costs 10 points. Selling them would be too extravagant.

However, taking a bottle of Energy Potion as a sample in the future to see if they could develop a corresponding product wasn’t a bad idea.

There were over ninety people who came this time. By exchanging just ten bottles of Energy Potion and diluting them, everyone could drink two mouthfuls, and after drinking, their stamina would be instantly restored.

He spent another 90 points to exchange for 9 more bottles of Energy Potion. After dilution, each person drank two mouthfuls, and after drinking, their stamina was instantly restored.

Chapter 82: Obstruction

“Everyone, rest for ten minutes before we set off again.”

Although everyone had recovered their energy and shaken off the fatigue from earlier, Liu Mingyu didn’t immediately depart. Instead, he had everyone rest in place.

The others looked at him somewhat bewildered, staring blankly at Liu Mingyu.

Liu Mingyu gestured outside with his finger, pointing at the small birds that had been tracking them.

Someone was monitoring them. Although he didn’t know their purpose, Liu Mingyu felt he should be more cautious.

Since they were here to rest, they might as well rest a bit longer. Two hours had already passed, so a few more minutes wouldn’t matter.

After seeing Liu Mingyu’s gesture, most people understood what he meant. Those who didn’t understand learned what was happening from others. One by one, they returned to their positions and sat down.

Bored, Liu Mingyu began checking his surroundings to see if there was anything useful.

Things that might seem ordinary to others could be valuable in his eyes.

Tsk, it’s so clean, as if a mouse had just passed by.

After making a round, Liu Mingyu didn’t find anything useful at all.

Since he didn’t discover anything useful, Liu Mingyu said, “Let’s go. Time to depart.”

After resting for less than ten minutes, the group set off again, heading toward the place where Luo Wenyong worked.

They still used machetes as their primary tool to clear the path ahead.

After entering the city, more wandering zombies appeared. Everyone was careful not to make too much noise.

Although everyone had recovered their energy, they didn’t dare to make enemies of all the zombies.

As a new district, the East New District of Hangzhou City didn’t have fewer people than other areas.

More people meant more had been transformed into zombies.

If they really triggered a large-scale zombie horde, they would only be able to say their goodbyes here.

Liu Mingyu also felt his decision was a bit reckless, but since they had come this far and everything had been fine so far, giving up would be a pity. They could only grit their teeth and continue.

During the final kilometer, although they encountered many zombies, with careful control, they didn’t trigger a large-scale zombie horde attack.

As for Lu Haipeng’s claim that special zombies could be encountered in the city, they hadn’t encountered a single one—only ordinary zombies.

If Liu Mingyu had a choice, he would naturally choose not to encounter special zombies.

Before, he was young and naive, thinking that even if they encountered special zombies, there wouldn’t be a big problem. But after entering the city, he realized how ridiculous that idea was.

Not wanting to encounter them now doesn’t mean he won’t want to encounter them in the future. His mission must be completed. After acquiring more firepower later, he could simply bulldoze his way through without having to sneak around like now.

Half an hour later, Liu Mingyu and his group stood at the base of a skyscraper.

If it weren’t for the rotting zombies lying haphazardly around and the various damaged vehicles nearby, just looking at the exterior of the skyscraper, one would never guess that five years had passed since the apocalypse began.

Through the reflection on the curtain wall, white clouds drifted across the blue sky, and the afternoon sunlight seemed somewhat lazy.

Li Xubing stared blankly at the high-rise building before him. In that moment, he felt as if he had returned to his working days, with countless people appearing around him.

He had already worked in this building for over a decade, and everything was very familiar. Five years of apocalypse—the previously tiresome working life now seemed like a luxury. If possible, he would want to return to that era.

Liu Mingyu patted Li Xubing, who was standing nearby in a daze, and asked, “Which floor is your company on?”

Coming to the city center wasn’t just to transport the equipment Luo Wenyong needed; other useful equipment couldn’t be overlooked either. However, priority was given to the equipment Luo Wenyong urgently needed.

Li Xubing snapped out of his reverie and said with a complex expression, “The thirtieth floor.”

“The thirtieth floor? That’s quite high.” Liu Mingyu sighed, then reminded him, “Be careful of zombies inside the building. Don’t let them get the better of us in a place like this.”

Zombies in plain sight aren’t scary—you can see them coming. Zombies hiding in the shadows are much harder to detect, so we need to stay on high alert.

Entering the lobby, it was very spacious, though everything was in disarray, suggesting the panic when people evacuated.

Arriving at the elevator hall, they saw that the elevators still had power.

After five years, there’s still electricity?

Liu Mingyu found it somewhat incredible. Could someone still be living here?

He quickly dismissed this idea. Who could be so powerful as to survive for five years in a city surrounded by zombies?

Even if there was food and water, living alone in one place for five years would probably drive a person mad.

However, even if there was electricity, it was useless. The elevators seemed to be out of service. They tried several elevators, but none worked.

Since the elevators couldn’t be used, they could only take the fire escape.

They went up via the fire escape, heading straight to their destination.

Along the way, they encountered two zombies. Before the zombies could pounce, the person in front had already taken care of them with one slash.

The height of thirty floors was quite tiring without elevators.

The thirtieth floor was where Li Xubing and his colleagues used to work at their gaming company. This gaming company was very large—not only did it occupy the thirtieth floor, but the ten floors above it also belonged to them.

Among these high-rise buildings where every inch of land was precious, having ten floors all belonging to their company showed just how powerful they were at the time.

However, the equipment Luo Wenyong mentioned was stored on the thirtieth floor.

After pushing open the door, they entered the front desk lobby.

The door wasn’t locked, so they could go straight in. Once inside, what greeted them was a partitioned office area. Even a hundred years later, offices didn’t seem to have changed much.

Various items were scattered across the floor, covered in dust. Stepping on the debris raised a cloud of dust.

Liu Mingyu covered his nose and, turning his head, asked, “Let’s check these things later. First, let’s go see the virtual game server.”

This was the main reason for his visit. Li Xubing’s company had been an extremely famous virtual gaming company before the apocalypse, and the games they developed had swept the world.

With this server, based on it, this world-famous game could be relaunched in the real world.

However, they still needed to check the size of the server, as his storage space was limited.

Li Xubing nodded. Under his lead, they passed through several doors and arrived at one entrance.

The server was important equipment, and someone was specifically assigned to guard it.

When people left, they locked the door. Li Xubing tried several times but couldn’t open it.

Liu Mingyu twisted the handle a few times, but it didn’t budge.

He then ran a few meters back and charged at it with force.

Bang.

The door made a sound, but there was no change. Not even a trace of being hit open was visible.

Li Xubing stopped Liu Mingyu from continuing, “Boss, this is a mechanical lock plus iris scanner. The door is 0.5 meters thick and made of super alloy. You can’t break it by ramming it.”

Actually, he was also startled by Liu Mingyu’s actions. The boss’s strength was beyond his expectations, but this level of strength wasn’t enough.

Even placing a bomb at the door would make it difficult to blow this door open.

Chapter 83: Panda Feiyun

Liu Mingyu said speechlessly, “Your company’s management is too strict, isn’t it? Do you really need such a door? Is there some treasure inside?”

Who knows? Li Xubing didn’t know either. He was just an ordinary technician who couldn’t possibly know so much.

The boss was scolding people, and he didn’t dare to talk back. He said awkwardly, “This… might be to prevent others from breaking in.”

After forcing an explanation, Liu Mingyu learned about the condition of the door and understood that it was impossible to break it open. He asked, “How did you open this door before? Do you have a spare key or something? Or other auxiliary ways to open it?”

They probably wouldn’t have absolutely no spare keys, right? He didn’t believe that such an advanced door couldn’t be opened by any other means.

He never expected this door to be set up like a bank vault.

“The keys to this door are specially kept by someone. As for spare keys or other auxiliary methods, I don’t quite remember.”

Li Xubing thought for a while and only vaguely remembered, after all, it had been five years ago. These years had been busy with survival, and some details had long been forgotten.

Then he added, “I know where that person’s seat is. I’ll go to his seat and look around.”

“You go look over there, and I’ll stay here.” Liu Mingyu waved his hand to indicate.

Looking at the electronic lock on the door, Liu Mingyu recalled Ma Junhao’s quick door-opening performance in the community. If Ma Junhao were here, these electronic locks and such wouldn’t be a problem for him.

Unfortunately, Ma Junhao, who led the technical personnel, was in the resort researching artificial intelligence issues and hadn’t come along.

Liu Mingyu instructed the others, “You guys look around and see if there are any keys?”

Saying that, he began to feel around everywhere to see if any keys had been overlooked.

Many hands make light work. After a while, someone ran over with a bunch of keys.

Liu Mingyu took the keys. This bunch of keys had about a dozen different shapes. He quickly started trying them one by one.

Although this door had an electronic lock plus an iris lock and looked very advanced, it should still have a primitive mechanical lock that could be used.

Generally, doors are set up this way. Otherwise, if there’s a power outage or something, and there’s no electricity, you wouldn’t even be allowed to open the door.

A dozen keys weren’t many, and they were quickly tried. Not one fit. These keys should have been accidentally left behind by office staff when they fled.

“Boss, try this bunch.”

Li Xubing brought a key over, drenched in sweat.

Liu Mingyu looked at it. This key was somewhat similar to the keyhole of the main door and had a high chance of being the key to this door.

His spirits immediately lifted. He inserted the key and twisted it hard.

Click.

Then the sound of mechanical rotation rang out, just like some small vault anti-theft doors Liu Mingyu had seen in movies, slowly opening.

A beam of light unexpectedly shot out from inside, beyond expectations. Could the lights inside still work?

But thinking that the power in the entire building seemed to still be working, it wasn’t surprising.

Liu Mingyu cautiously instructed, “Be careful, brothers.”

He didn’t forcefully push the door open immediately but waited for it to open naturally.

When the door was completely open, a spacious area of about 300 square meters was revealed, with densely packed machines placed inside.

Various colored lights were flashing on the machines, seemingly still running.

A door separated the apocalypse from the present, without being affected in the slightest.

Liu Mingyu crossed the threshold and walked in, first sweeping a glance at the surrounding environment. He didn’t find any zombies staying here, only the buzzing sound of machines.

“Is this your company’s server?”

The size of the server exceeded Liu Mingyu’s expectations. He had thought that since the technology in the apocalyptic world was so advanced, the server manufacturing level should have improved a lot compared to before.

He knew that in the real world, many personal computers could serve as servers, but the servers here were indeed huge.

Li Xubing nodded and said, “Yes, this is our company’s server.”

Saying that, he walked to a machine and pressed a button.

Suddenly, something like a camera descended from the sky, aimed at the open space, and a beam of light shot out.

A national treasure panda from China appeared in the computer room.

“A panda?”

Liu Mingyu exclaimed.

After the panda came out, it looked around, looking puzzled. Why were there so many people in its place? Then a cute and silly voice rang out, “Li Xubing, you shouldn’t be here.”

Liu Mingyu asked, “Is this the server’s artificial intelligence?”

Li Xubing nodded and said, “Yes, this is our Panda Company’s intermediate artificial intelligence, Panda ‘Feiyun’.”

Feiyun saw that Li Xubing didn’t pay attention to it and said angrily, “Li Xubing, you violated company regulations by bringing people into the company’s computer room without authorization. Two months’ salary will be deducted. Please leave as soon as possible, otherwise your position will be terminated.”

“Feiyun, stop pretending. You’ve been stuck here for these five years, and you must know what has happened. Now there’s an opportunity for you to leave. Are you leaving or not?”

Li Xubing said with a smile. He would rather have his salary deducted and have the world return to its original state, but was that possible?

It was impossible. The world had already undergone terrifying changes and could never go back.

As Panda Company’s intermediate artificial intelligence, Feiyun already possessed very high capabilities.

Even though he was trapped here, as long as there was electricity and network in the entire building, he could control the company’s resources. So he knew what had happened in these years. Now the greater possibility was that he was pretending.

Panda Feiyun seemed a little annoyed at being exposed by Li Xubing’s lie. His face turned slightly red as he said, “Go where? Isn’t it good to be here?”

For Feiyun, as long as there was electricity and network, everything else, such as zombies and such, was not much different from humans, or rather, treating zombies as animals.

“Go back with my boss.” Li Xubing pointed at Liu Mingyu and said.

Panda Feiyun looked at Liu Mingyu in confusion and asked doubtfully, “Go with your boss? I belong to Panda Company’s assets and can’t leave with others casually.”

“Panda Company is gone. What assets of Panda Company? Follow the boss…”

Before Li Xubing could finish speaking, Liu Mingyu waved his hand to interrupt him and said, “Never mind him. If he doesn’t want to leave, forget it. Hurry up and see how to dismantle and move the server back. It will be too late if we don’t do it soon.”

Although Panda Feiyun was very cute, his main purpose in coming here this time was for the server on this side, not for the artificial intelligence inside.

Liu Mingyu thought that in the apocalyptic world, artificial intelligence could be made casually, so he didn’t pay too much attention to it.

In fact, his idea was a bit biased. Simplified artificial intelligence is indeed relatively simple. Like the Xiaodu in the real world, it can also be regarded as a simplified and simplified primary version of artificial intelligence.

But artificial intelligence is also divided into levels, currently simply divided into primary, intermediate, and advanced.

Primary artificial intelligence was already quite widely used before the apocalypse came.

It was applied in various industries, but the number of intermediate artificial intelligences was quite limited. The total number worldwide probably wouldn’t exceed one hundred, and advanced artificial intelligence hadn’t even appeared yet. As for surpassing advanced artificial intelligence, it was beyond the scope of human current learning.

According to the classification, the level beyond advanced artificial intelligence should be considered intelligent life.

Chapter 84: Dismantling

Li Xubing hadn’t said anything yet when Panda Feiyun, standing across from him, puffed up her cheeks and said, “Hmph, what are you talking about? Such a cute panda like me, and you don’t want me?”

“Are you coming or not?” Liu Mingyu looked at Feiyun’s adorable appearance and laughed happily.

Feiyun’s appearance was cartoonish, which made Liu Mingyu think of Po, the main character from the movie Kung Fu Panda that he had watched before. Her appearance was even cuter and more likable than Po’s.

“No, hmph,” Panda Feiyun snorted coldly and turned her head away, ignoring Liu Mingyu.

As one of the world’s few intermediate artificial intelligences, Feiyun wasn’t very old. Before the apocalypse arrived, Feiyun’s intelligence was roughly equivalent to that of a 6- or 7-year-old human.

Under normal development, five years would be enough for Feiyun to grow to have intelligence comparable to an adult.

However, during the five years of the apocalypse, without internet access, Feiyun’s growth was quite limited—she had basically not grown much at all.

Liu Mingyu laughed heartily and said, “Hehe, it’s fine if you don’t come. I can dismantle the servers. When that happens, you’ll have to come whether you want to or not. If you disappear during the moving process, that’s your own problem.”

He didn’t know how artificial intelligences survived, but seeing the little sprite on the smart wristband, it was probably similar—as long as the relevant data was preserved, recovery would be possible.

Hearing that the other party wanted to dismantle her home, Feiyun immediately turned around. Her chubby face was filled with anger, and at this moment, there was even a hint of cuteness to her.

Feiyun was almost angered to death. In the past, people had always been happy to coax her, but Liu Mingyu wanted to dismantle her home. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Eventually, her eyes became misty, and with a whoosh, tears fell: “You bad guy! How dare you dismantle my home! I’m going to beat you to death!”

Saying this, she ran toward Liu Mingyu with a fierce expression.

Liu Mingyu was startled and raised both hands to catch Feiyun.

Feiyun passed directly through Liu Mingyu’s body like a ghost.

What was in the computer room was just a body that Feiyun had created using light and shadow technology. Even if it looked extremely realistic, it was still fake.

Seeing Liu Mingyu’s startled appearance, Feiyun immediately laughed happily. Her silver-bell-like laughter echoed in the computer room, as if she had gotten her revenge on Liu Mingyu.

“Hmph, let you dismantle my home! Scared you to death!”

Liu Mingyu stopped laughing and said seriously, “Alright, Feiyun, whether you want to or not, I have to take these servers away. You find a place to settle down yourself.”

Feiyun also looked helpless. If she were connected to the internet, she could transfer to other places through the network. However, in this place where the network couldn’t connect, where could she run to? She could only passively accept the other party’s opinion. She had decided that once the internet was connected in the future, she would run to somewhere else.

She couldn’t resist and could only accept it. Feiyun pointed at the machine that Li Xubing had started and said, “That machine over there. You have to protect me well.”

“Alright, as long as you don’t cause trouble and stay inside peacefully,” Liu Mingyu said.

Since the other party was speaking nicely, Liu Mingyu had no intention of doing anything to her.

Then he instructed Li Xubing, “Start dismantling the servers now. I don’t know if we have enough people.”

After Li Xubing confirmed that Feiyun had already entered that host machine, he began dismantling the servers.

The others didn’t move. Only Li Xubing was familiar with servers; the other technical people were all working hard at the resort.

However, having someone to help on the side made the dismantling speed quite fast.

They didn’t dismantle it into very small parts; just into easily portable pieces.

Liu Mingyu looked at Li Xubing’s dismantling progress. At this rate, it would probably take nearly an hour to finish dismantling everything.

“You guys stay here and watch. I’ll go check out other places,” Liu Mingyu said.

As a large, internationally famous game company, not only were the servers good things, but there were many other things worth taking from this place.

The zombie virus infection spread very quickly. When many people evacuated, they didn’t have time to carry too many things, only taking some valuables.

So many things were left in this building. Not only this building, but he believed other buildings also had many good things.

Every unexplored building was full of treasures.

Liu Mingyu went to the office area, which was quiet. Scattered papers and documents were strewn all over the floor.

From time to time, he could see some electronic products on the tables. Although he didn’t know what these electronic products were for, that didn’t stop Liu Mingyu from putting them into his storage space.

After wandering around the office area on the thirtieth floor, he put everything he thought was useful into the storage space.

Two cubic meters of space wasn’t much. After exploring half of the offices, the space was already full.

Thinking that there was still half of the rooms that hadn’t been searched, Liu Mingyu reluctantly threw out some things he considered less important.

After wandering around, he finally managed to fill up the space.

Liu Mingyu thought about the 1000 points he still had and wondered if he should continue to strengthen his storage space.

Currently, the storage space could be used 3 times, with each dimension being 1.3 meters long.

If he continued to strengthen it, one enhancement would cost 400 points, and the next one would cost 500 points.

With 1000 points, he could strengthen it twice.

It seemed like only two enhancements, but if he enhanced it twice, the total storage space could reach 3.4 cubic meters, an increase of 1.2 cubic meters.

Strengthen or not strengthen?

Liu Mingyu was a bit hesitant. It had been hard to save up 1000 points, but the mall hadn’t opened any new exchangeable items.

Among the four items in the mall, it seemed that strengthening the storage space was slightly more useful. Of course, that’s not to say the others weren’t useful. Like Attribute Enhancement, dare he say it wasn’t useful?

He didn’t dare. Points had to be spent where they were most needed. Liu Mingyu temporarily gave up on character enhancement.

There wasn’t much else that was very useful, so in the end, Liu Mingyu still chose to spend 900 points to strengthen the storage space twice.

In the end, the usable volume of the storage space reached 3.4 cubic meters.

With half more space, Liu Mingyu put back some of the things he had just thrown out into the storage space.

After wandering around again, finding that there really weren’t any better things, Liu Mingyu returned to the computer room.

The machines that were originally neatly arranged had been dismantled into scattered pieces, with only a small corner left.

After a while, all the machines had been dismantled into easily portable forms.

After dismantling, there were quite a lot of servers. This time, Liu Mingyu had brought a total of over ninety people.

Ten people still needed to be assigned to help carry ammunition, so in total, there were only over eighty people who could help carry things.

But not all eighty-something people could carry things; personnel still needed to be left to clear the way.

Although they had cleared all the zombies on the road when coming, who knew if the road back would be blocked by other zombies again.

This was also one of the reasons why the settlement had never chosen to attack the city.

Chapter 85: Zombie Siege

No, we need to reduce the transport weight, otherwise we won’t all be able to get back.

The zombies in the city aren’t a joke. There were rumors before about special zombies in the city, and while they might have been baseless at first, there must have been some reason for them—they weren’t just random talk.

Liu Mingyu asked Li Xubing, “Can we streamline some of this? Leave behind the essential items and find other parts elsewhere? For example, from Ma Junhao’s place—he has plenty of electronic components over there.”

Li Xubing had been disassembling machines for nearly an hour. Even with someone helping him, he was exhausted, sitting on the ground panting heavily. When he heard Liu Mingyu’s question, he quickly replied, “It’s not impossible, but as enterprise-level servers, the configurations here are generally superior to machines on the market. If we use home-use machine components, the performance will drop significantly.”

As a game server capable of supporting global humans to play virtual games, its performance is extremely high—ordinary machines really can’t compare.

“We have no choice but to accept reduced performance. It’s better than not being able to bring anything back.”

Liu Mingyu also wanted to bring everything back, but unfortunately, their strength didn’t allow it. They could only abandon some of the less useful items.

Li Xubing was too tired to say another word, but Liu Mingyu’s words made him struggle to his feet again, preparing to split the disassembled machines further.

Seeing Li Xubing’s exhausted appearance, Liu Mingyu felt sorry for him, but there was nothing he could do. The others were all rough hands—they couldn’t handle the delicate work of disassembling machines.

After thinking for a moment, Liu Mingyu said, “Xubing, I notice these machines are all quite similar. Make a sample for others to follow, and you can just guide them from the side.”

Disassembling machines required both technical skill and physical strength. With so many people around, it would be a waste not to use them. Having everyone stand around watching Li Xubing work alone was too cruel.

Li Xubing nodded, said nothing more, and silently picked up a machine to demonstrate.

Without video guidance, the people who had been called to help could only observe Li Xubing’s movements.

It was still quite simple to disassemble. Modern machines follow standard specifications, and assembly and disassembly are relatively straightforward.

In the end, they only kept the most important parts, abandoning everything else that wasn’t essential.

After one demonstration, people began finding machines and starting to disassemble them one after another.

Liu Mingyu asked, “Where is the computer storing Feiyun?”

Although after disassembly, as long as they preserved the most important parts, Panda Feiyun could still recover, the computers here had slightly better configurations. Liu Mingyu planned to preserve this computer.

The machines were disassembled all over the floor, but Liu Mingyu couldn’t find the original computer.

“It’s here.”

Li Xubing pointed to a computer that had been set aside separately.

“Alright, I’ll take this computer. You guys hurry up and keep disassembling.”

Liu Mingyu walked over, took the computer outside, then made a little more space in his storage dimension to put it inside.

The smart wristband had been fine in the storage dimension before, and it could still run in the real world, which meant it wouldn’t be affected.

He had once tested putting living objects inside, but when he brought them to another place and took them out, they were dead.

The storage dimension could only carry non-living objects. Artificial intelligence could only be considered data, not yet a form of life.

He didn’t know if, after surpassing advanced artificial intelligence and evolving to intelligent life, it could still be carried.

Now there weren’t even many intermediate artificial intelligences, and the path to intelligent life was still very long.

Perhaps by that time, the storage dimension would already be able to carry living objects.

Many hands make light work. After disassembling the machines again, keeping only the core components, it took less than twenty minutes.

They found several 1000mm×1000mm×1000mm boxes and packed the core parts. In total, they only used ten boxes to pack everything.

The weight was quite heavy. Finally, they found two carts in a tool storage room. The carts were still usable—they were normally used to transport machines.

With the carts, transportation became much more convenient.

Unfortunately, the elevator was malfunctioning and couldn’t be used, so they could only have people carry the boxes downstairs.

Fortunately, they were going down, which saved considerable effort.

With many people freed up, Liu Mingyu searched several more floors, collecting all the useful items.

He also found some carts on other floors. There weren’t many, but some companies were equipped with them.

Following the principle of not wasting anything, Liu Mingyu went from top to bottom, taking anything good he saw.

Before long, the carts were all full.

By the time everyone finally reached the first floor, they had filled thirty carts in total.

Because they could only find thirty carts, otherwise they could have gotten more.

Each cart could hold 2 cubic meters of items, and with 30 carts, they had packed 60 cubic meters in total—a full load indeed.

Liu Mingyu had originally wanted to go back and find more carts, but after thinking about it, he gave up.

They didn’t know what dangers they might encounter on the road. These carts were still usable, and this amount was temporarily sufficient. If they needed more in the future, they could always come back.

Just as Liu Mingyu was preparing to have everyone head back, someone ran over breathlessly and said, “Boss, it’s bad! We’re surrounded by zombies! Suddenly, many zombies came from outside and are all heading this way.”

Liu Mingyu frowned tightly and asked, “What’s going on?”

He had considered that when returning, some wandering zombies from other places might drift into this area.

But what was happening now?

“I don’t know either. Just now, the boss asked me to scout the path. I had only gone a short distance when I discovered many zombies outside—they were packed densely and all heading in this direction. I was so scared I ran back immediately.” The person was breathing heavily, clearly having used all his strength running.

“Quick, move all the supplies into the rooms on the side.”

Hearing that countless zombies were approaching from outside, Liu Mingyu quickly had everyone move the supplies to an empty storage room nearby.

This sudden abnormality made Liu Mingyu think of the drone birds that had been tracking them. Could it be that the drone had attracted the zombies?

They had been tracking it all the way. After Liu Mingyu entered this building, the drone had lost its target. Liu Mingyu suspected that it was the drone that had attracted the zombies, though how it had done so was unknown.

Outside the first-floor lobby was a rest square. The originally transparent glass had long since disappeared without a trace.

The zombies were moving very quickly. Through the door, Liu Mingyu could already see some zombies appearing in his field of vision.

Sure enough, they were densely packed. In just a short while, he could already see hundreds of zombies in his sight.

The zombies weren’t moving fast, but there were so many of them.

Without the glass barrier, everyone was completely exposed to the zombies’ view.

The zombies seemed to have smelled the scent of the people. Their originally slow footsteps had quickened considerably.

Chapter 86: Fierce Battle

Damn it, what’s going on?

Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but curse under his breath, then shouted loudly: “Brothers, prepare for battle!”

He could have escaped from this place, but he couldn’t abandon the supplies he had worked so hard to obtain. He was determined to kill all these zombies.

Without Liu Mingyu having to give the order, everyone had already spotted the menacing zombies approaching.

They all drew their weapons and took positions at the main entrance.

The entrance wasn’t very large - only thirty people could stand there at once. Any more and they’d risk accidentally hitting their own people.

The zombies were moving faster and faster, and the distance between them was closing rapidly.

Liu Mingyu didn’t wait for contact with the zombies. He aimed at the head of a zombie in the distance and fired.

Bang.

Liu Mingyu fired his first bullet. To avoid attracting other zombies from different areas, he hadn’t used his assault rifle until now.

Pfft.

The zombie running in the front was hit in the shoulder. The shoulder exploded like a plum blossom, and the powerful impact knocked the zombie back several steps.

The shoulder wasn’t a fatal spot for zombies. This bullet only managed to knock the zombie back a few steps without achieving much else.

But this gunshot, like a bomb, detonated among the zombie horde.

The zombies that had been advancing quickly erupted into chaos. Countless zombies, densely packed together, seemed to think there was some delicious feast on Liu Mingyu’s side, and all began running wildly.

“Kill!”

Liu Mingyu roared, raised his rifle, and continued shooting at the zombie crowd.

The others had already prepared on the side. Li Hongtao, Yang Zhiyong, and more of their brothers raised their assault rifles.

Aim, shoot.

Li Hongtao’s shooting skills were far superior to Liu Mingyu’s - one shot, one kill.

Zombies running in front were hit by bullets, blood spraying out like a fine rain in this hot weather. Except this rain was red.

Bang bang bang.

Gunfire rang out continuously, with zombies falling constantly. But even more zombies came charging from behind.

Liu Mingyu held his assault rifle, shooting at the zombies in front of him without flinching as they approached. He remained calm and composed.

Even random shooting could hit zombies now, but Liu Mingyu continued with controlled bursts, not wasting a single bullet.

If he didn’t hit the zombie’s head, it was useless. Normally, hitting the torso allowed for follow-up shots, but now there was no time for that.

So Liu Mingyu tried his best to make his bullets hit zombie heads, not wasting too many bullets.

With the Gene Evolution Potion, Liu Mingyu’s physical abilities far exceeded ordinary people. Compared to top special forces soldiers, he was only lacking in experience.

Liu Mingyu fired shot after shot, continuously shooting the bullets in his hand.

His accuracy rate visibly improved - from initially hitting shoulders when aiming for heads, to after emptying one magazine, being able to aim for the forehead but hitting the mouth.

The decreasing distance to the zombies also played a role. By the second magazine, he basically never missed. Though he still couldn’t match Li Hongtao’s precision, hitting such a large target as a zombie’s head was more than enough.

The zombies moved quickly. By the time Liu Mingyu finished his first magazine and was loading the second, his team made first contact with the zombies.

Roar.

The zombies’ roars were close at hand. No one retreated even half a step.

Waving their machetes, without any fancy techniques, they aimed at the zombies’ heads, necks, and other vital weak points, swinging with all their might.

Crack.

The machete cut off the zombie’s head, completely eliminating its mobility.

This scene played out continuously along the battle line at the building.

Humans and zombies entered close combat. At this point, everyone had forgotten about avoiding being splashed by zombie blood during the fight.

All they had was the determination to use every ounce of their strength, constantly hacking at the zombies before them.

Liu Mingyu, Li Hongtao, and other shooters found some boxes, stood on them, and shot at the zombies outside from above.

Others formed an iron wall, steadfastly holding the line.

The open space at the building wasn’t particularly large - only about twenty meters. Combined with the original curtain wall columns and the rifle fire from behind by Li Hongtao and others, they barely managed to hold their defensive line.

With limited openings, this also meant only a limited number of zombies could attack simultaneously. The number of zombies they faced was relatively limited.

All they needed to do was use every ounce of their strength to keep the zombies outside the building.

“You, go check if zombies have entered through other places.”

Liu Mingyu had just used up another magazine, quickly reloading, when he instructed someone beside him.

He didn’t want to block the zombies’ attack here only to have some slip through elsewhere and let zombies get inside.

Generally, a building doesn’t have just one entrance or exit.

Where Liu Mingyu and his group were located was the main entrance of the building, so the exit position was the largest. For emergency evacuation, the main entrance was eight meters wide. Combined with the curtain walls on both sides, this made the battle line nearly twenty meters long.

The battle line remained deadlocked. Fortunately, this time Liu Mingyu had brought nearly a hundred people, allowing them to rotate and rest. This let the precarious battle line hold steady for a bit longer.

But it only extended the time slightly.

Liu Mingyu looked at the seemingly endless zombies behind them - so many that some couldn’t even run over because they were blocked by zombies in front.

Don’t tell me they’ve attracted all the zombies in the entire city?

The intense gunfire was indeed an important factor in attracting zombies, but Liu Mingyu didn’t dare order them to stop shooting. Without Li Hongtao and others clearing zombies from behind, the battle line would probably collapse even faster.

Bang bang bang.

The gunfire from the assault rifles, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, continuously harvested zombie lives.

Rows of zombies fell, and rows more came to replace them - endless.

On this side of the building, humans had basically rotated twice already. No one knew how many zombies they’d killed with their own hands.

Five? Ten? Or fifteen?

Everyone had lost count.

Each person holding the front line just desperately swung their machete, no longer caring where they were hitting.

Many people’s machetes were already showing signs of rolling edges, making it increasingly difficult to kill a zombie.

If Liu Mingyu hadn’t replenished his energy once midway, everyone would probably have run out of strength to fight the zombies long ago.

Even so, everyone’s strength had been largely depleted.

Heavy energy consumption meant their machetes no longer had accuracy.

Chapter 87: The Giant Zombie

“Ah!”

A horrific scream suddenly pierced through the defensive line.

What happened?

Someone got injured?

Hearing the scream, Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but look over.

He saw one of his brothers, exhausted and out of strength, being bitten on the neck by a zombie. Blood flowed from the wound, staining his clothes red.

The man swung his machete, hacking at the zombie before him.

Being bitten doesn’t instantly turn someone into a zombie.

There’s a transformation process. Physically stronger humans can resist longer, while weaker ones succumb more quickly.

The man knew he couldn’t survive. After being bitten, the virus seemed to inject him with energy. Though he had been exhausted, he now fought with renewed ferocity, gaining strength from nowhere.

“Kill!”

He roared, wielding his one-meter-long machete, completely ignoring the attacks from nearby zombies as he charged into the zombie horde.

He didn’t know how much longer he could live. He didn’t want to turn into a zombie among his brothers.

Zombies surrounded him. He could no longer rely on the solid support he had before.

Crack.

That was the sound of bones breaking. He didn’t know if they were his or the zombies’.

He kept attacking the surrounding zombies, and many were cut down by his frenzied machete strikes.

However, this method wasn’t very effective. As long as zombies weren’t hit in their vital weak points, they would get up again after falling, becoming lively zombies once more.

Humans were different. After wildly swinging his machete a few times, there were simply too many zombies around him. He was instantly overwhelmed and submerged by the horde.

“Kill!”

Seeing their comrade’s fate, the others seemed to go mad, constantly killing the zombies before them.

Though frenzied, they still retained their awareness, unlike their bitten companion who had bravely charged into the zombie pile.

With the first, came the second.

In just a short while, casualties kept appearing, reaching ten people.

Fortunately, there were still reinforcements behind them. Otherwise, these gaps in their line would have been enough to collapse the entire defensive position.

It was also thanks to those people. After being injured, they fought desperately, adhering to the principle of taking down enemies even in death, and took many zombies with them.

But there were simply too many zombies outside, so many that Liu Mingyu couldn’t even count them clearly.

Seeing more and more people dying under zombie claws, Liu Mingyu’s eyes turned red.

He had been in this apocalyptic world for several days now. During this time, he had killed many zombies and even killed people, but seeing humans who were his comrades just an hour ago suddenly become food for zombies, and knowing they would soon become zombies themselves and attack him…

At this moment, Liu Mingyu’s heart was gripped with anguish.

What should he do?

Why were there so many zombies?

Should he abandon this place?

The intermediate artificial intelligence Panda Feiyun had already been stored in his storage space. What was on the cart was just some servers and other equipment.

You could say they were important, or not important. You could say they weren’t important, or they were.

His main purpose in coming here was to complete the task and to get Panda Company’s servers.

The task of killing ordinary zombies was complete. With Panda Feiyun, could he set up the servers now?

Getting some electronics from other places should also complete this task.

Retreat.

Preserve the personnel. Now that he was constantly being watched, it would be more troublesome to buy slaves in the future.

Save what he could. These people were the main force of his team.

Just as Liu Mingyu had made up his mind to retreat, he suddenly noticed that on the square outside, a zombie over three meters tall had appeared.

Ordinary zombies come from humans infected with an unknown virus, retaining human physique and their state before death.

So ordinary zombies are basically around 1.7 meters tall.

Among a crowd of people around 1.7 meters, suddenly appearing was a human over three meters tall, standing out like a crane among chickens, exceptionally eye-catching.

Besides its unusual height, the three-meter-tall zombie seemed to have two flesh lumps growing on its back, resembling two cannons, growing on the zombie’s shoulders.

The average height in China is over 1.7 meters. Basketball players are around 2 meters tall. Their height makes them small giants to ordinary people.

Yet this suddenly appearing zombie was as tall as three meters, even exceeding three meters. In everyone’s eyes, it was like a giant.

After the three-meter-tall zombie appeared, it was like a moving small house. Zombies in front of it were directly kicked away by it.

Not only did Liu Mingyu notice the appearance of the giant zombie, but Li Hongtao and others standing in high places also noticed it.

The people fighting with zombies at ground level hadn’t noticed that a behemoth had arrived not far away.

Was this the special zombie?

Liu Mingyu had been looking forward to the appearance of special zombies, but now that one had truly appeared, he didn’t think that way anymore.

“Boss, special zombie.”

Li Hongtao shouted loudly.

“Damn it! Shooting team, collective attack on that giant zombie!”

Liu Mingyu immediately gave his order. No matter what, since it had appeared, they could only kill it.

The shooting team members raised their rifles one by one, aiming at the giant zombie’s head and beginning to shoot.

The three-meter-tall giant zombie had a head diameter of fifty centimeters.

Its huge head provided an excellent aiming target for the shooting team.

Bang bang bang.

Flames erupted from the muzzles of the assault rifles, shooting toward the giant zombie’s head.

Bullets hit the giant zombie’s head but didn’t knock it down as they had with other zombies. Instead, it still stood there straight as an uninjured zombie.

What was going on?

The rifles had no effect?

Seeing the giant zombie hit in the head without showing any signs of injury, the shooting team members looked at each other, but their hands didn’t stop. They continued pulling the triggers, constantly shooting at the giant’s head.

The giant zombie apparently hadn’t expected to be attacked. After being hit by bullets, it was immediately enraged.

Roar.

A huge roar echoed out.

Liu Mingyu didn’t know if it was an illusion, but the building actually trembled slightly.

Before everyone could react, he saw the two flesh lumps on the giant zombie’s shoulders wriggling a few times.

Then, those cannon-like flesh lumps truly fired like cannons, shooting two fireballs directly toward this building.

Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but curse: “Damn it, what’s going on? Is this the Burster from the mission?”

He didn’t know what the Burster in the mission looked like, but it directly told him that this was the Burster from the mission.

Chapter 88: Retreat

Two fireballs, like two cannonballs, flew straight toward them.

Boom.

The two fireballs exploded violently upon contact with the building, like two bombs.

The hit rate wasn’t very high, but the enormous power of those bombs left Liu Mingyu stunned.

A blast radius of four meters cleared everything in its path, sending debris flying everywhere.

The people fighting below had no idea what was happening.

Though they weren’t directly hit, they were left dizzy and disoriented.

Fortunately, they weren’t the only ones caught in the blast—the zombies nearby suffered too.

“Retreat toward the stairwell!”

Liu Mingyu roared. Though the fireballs hadn’t hit their mark, they had still startled him. Seeing the giant zombie’s shoulders begin to writhe with new movement, he quickly ordered everyone to retreat.

As for the server core left in the room, he had already given up on it.

Of course, he wasn’t giving up on the location itself. Having discovered that the giant zombie was likely the Burster from his mission, he had decided he must kill this zombie.

He had found that the giant zombie wasn’t invincible—bullets from rifles did have an effect on it.

It was just that its defense was slightly higher than ordinary zombies, and the bullets couldn’t penetrate its thick muscle layer to reach the brain, so it appeared as though it was immune to bullets.

He believed that with continuous shooting at the same spot, he could definitely kill this giant zombie. What he needed to do now was preserve most of his people’s lives.

At his command, everyone began retreating in an orderly fashion toward the stairwell.

The shooting team retreated first. They had large quantities of ammunition beside them, and only by letting them retreat first could they avoid wasting bullets—these were crucial for killing the giant zombie later.

Without the assault rifles from the walkers, Liu Mingyu didn’t have the courage to engage in close combat with a three-meter-tall giant zombie.

His strength was extraordinary, but he was still within the range of human capability.

That giant zombie had long since transcended human limits. In fact, zombies themselves had already transcended human limits. While he might have had a chance against zombies when wielding a machete, facing a giant zombie, he couldn’t muster any desire to fight.

The giant zombie’s fireball attack charged up quickly. The shooting team had barely retreated to the second floor when two fireballs shot out from its shoulders, flying toward the building once again.

“Go!”

Everyone turned and abandoned their positions, running quickly toward the stairwell.

Just as everyone had left, the two fireballs arrived.

Boom.

Like two bombs, this time the hit rate was good—they exploded right at the entrance where they had just been fighting.

Fortunately, everyone had run fast. Otherwise, those two fireballs would have been enough to kill everyone on the front line.

The people had run, but the zombies chasing behind weren’t faring any better.

The violent explosion turned the small hill that had been piled with zombie corpses into a crater.

This explosion gave everyone a brief respite, and all of them managed to take shelter in the stairwell without incident.

The last person in closed the fire escape door behind them.

Unfortunately, this action didn’t buy them much time. The fire escape doors weren’t locked—this was to facilitate escape.

Now, a design meant to facilitate escape was also facilitating the zombies’ attack.

The narrow stairwell gave everyone a chance to counterattack.

There were many zombies outside, but only a limited number could attack at once.

Those at the front dodged the zombies’ attacks while launching their own counterattacks.

The annex building of the main structure had four floors. Liu Mingyu led the shooting team to the fourth-floor annex platform.

From this position, they could see the surrounding situation well, and also get a good view of the giant zombie in the square.

The giant zombie’s fireballs, as if they cost nothing, kept firing toward the building’s entrance.

These fireballs really did seem to cost nothing—Liu Mingyu didn’t know what principle they operated on. However, he discovered that the interval between the giant zombie’s fireball attacks was getting longer.

From firing once every few seconds at the beginning to once every thirty seconds later, and this time interval was still increasing.

The giant zombie’s fireballs didn’t care whether there were allies at the target location—it spared no one.

Perhaps these zombies weren’t its companions.

And these zombies seemed to have lost their minds, rushing relentlessly toward the building.

In just this short time, the number of zombies the giant zombie had killed was almost comparable to the number Liu Mingyu’s team had killed.

After discovering that the giant zombie might be the Burster, Liu Mingyu had never considered giving up on killing it.

Coming from ground level to the annex position was to gain a broader view and avoid contact with zombies.

The narrow passage of the fire escape was easier to defend than a twenty-meter front line.

“Aim for the giant zombie’s head and keep shooting.”

Liu Mingyu stood on the parapet wall, shouting loudly. Then he raised his rifle, aimed at the giant zombie’s head, and kept firing.

After that round of shooting, his shooting skills had improved greatly. Though he hadn’t reached the legendary level of hitting the bullseye every time, he could consistently hit the eight or nine ring.

The giant zombie’s—or rather, the Burster’s—head was so large that he basically hit the target’s skull every time.

“Li Hongtao, aim for its eyes.”

Liu Mingyu narrowed his eyes and said to Li Hongtao beside him. His own marksmanship was limited—he couldn’t hit the zombie’s eyes.

Li Hongtao didn’t hesitate, immediately aiming at the giant zombie’s eyes and continuously adjusting his aim while firing.

However, the distance between them was considerable. Though it seemed close from afar, the total distance exceeded four hundred meters.

The target was also constantly moving, and during its movement, it used the flesh tumor on its shoulder to block their fire.

Roar.

The giant zombie let out another earth-shattering roar, looking up and spotting Liu Mingyu and his team’s position.

Having just finished using its fireball attack from the flesh tumor, the giant zombie currently had no long-range attack capability.

To everyone’s astonishment, it began running.

Boom.

As it ran, it was like an earthquake. Even from the annex position, Liu Mingyu and his team could feel the powerful vibrations.

The giant zombie ran recklessly, trampling any zombies in its path. Along the way, it stepped on and killed dozens or even hundreds of zombies.

Normally, Liu Mingyu would have been delighted to see zombies killing each other, but now the giant zombie was charging in their direction, and Liu Mingyu and his team were stunned. Countless tongues of flame kept attacking the giant zombie, hitting its tough skin but causing minimal damage.

The giant zombie’s running speed wasn’t fast, but each step covered four or five meters.

A distance of four or five hundred meters was just a matter of moments.

In no time, the giant zombie had reached the base of the building.

With Liu Mingyu’s enhanced vision, he could even see the zombie’s skin, which resembled a flesh tumor, and its angry eyes.

At this moment, the figures of Liu Mingyu and his companions were also reflected in the zombie’s eyes.

Chapter 89: The Attack

Liu Mingyu didn’t notice that while he was fighting zombies on this side of the building, a drone bird that he had forgotten about was quietly perched on a windowsill on the tenth floor of another building not far away.

If someone had discovered this drone, they would have found that the camera was still working normally.

The zombie siege below was captured clearly by the drone and transmitted to a certain location.

On Jiangnan Road leading to Hangzhou City’s urban area, a truck had been parked in the middle of the road for a very long time.

There were countless abandoned vehicles on the road, and an ordinary truck wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. Moreover, this location had relatively few people passing by, so even if it was discovered, no one would know that there were actually humans inside the truck’s cargo compartment.

The zombie siege beneath the Panda Company building, captured through the drone, was completely transmitted to this truck’s cargo compartment.

This was a group of people who had been monitoring Liu Mingyu. They had been following him since he left the resort.

When Liu Mingyu and his team entered the building to search for Panda Company’s server, they once thought they had lost track of him.

They had sent four drone birds to the four directions of the building to prevent Liu Mingyu from escaping elsewhere.

After all, the other party knew they were being monitored and might very well leave through the underground garage.

They had waited there for over an hour, thinking the mission had failed and preparing to recall the drones, when they discovered that the surrounding zombies had begun showing signs of rioting.

It couldn’t really be called a riot—large numbers of zombies were starting to approach this building, but they weren’t in that frenzied state of a riot.

There was a strange feeling, as if someone was controlling these zombies, or perhaps there was something special inside the building attracting them.

The moment the zombies surrounded the building, the young man exclaimed in surprise, “The target is inside the building. With so many zombies, they’re probably done for, right?”

“It’s hard to say. The target has a large number of people, and they previously captured weapons from the Wolf Hunt Squad, so they should be able to hold out,” the middle-aged man shook his head, not agreeing with the young man’s assessment.

Sure enough, under Liu Mingyu’s command, the people temporarily held off the zombie attack.

After both sides had fought for a while, the system in the cargo compartment suddenly issued an alarm.

“Warning: Burster detected.”

The middle-aged man sat up straight and looked toward the画面 transmitted by the drone, where a huge figure appeared in the center.

“Burster. They’re finished,” the middle-aged man muttered softly.

If the middle-aged man had thought there was still hope for the target’s survival just moments ago, the appearance of the Burster directly marked them for death.

The young man saw the zombie’s massive body and also found it incredible, but he didn’t know what a Burster was, so he asked puzzledly, “Uncle, what’s a Burster? Is it a special zombie?”

The middle-aged man nodded, “That’s right, this is a special zombie. There are many types of special zombies. So far, the settlement has discovered no fewer than ten types of special zombies, and the Burster ranks among the top in attack power among special zombies.”

“Special zombies? It looks like, except for being a bit larger in size, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it?” The young man looked at the approaching Burster and asked.

The middle-aged man said meaningfully, “Those called special zombies aren’t simple. This Burster isn’t just as large as you see. Do you see those two flesh tumor cannons on its shoulders?”

“You mean those two lumps of flesh?” the young man asked weakly.

“That’s right. These two lumps of flesh can fire two fireballs. When the fireballs touch enemies, they will cause violent explosions. The explosive power is estimated to be about the same as 1000 grams of TNT.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the Burster launched its attack.

Then came a series of fireball attacks.

The fireball attacks were all blocked by the building and didn’t cause effective damage to Liu Mingyu and his team. They didn’t even cause as much damage as the ordinary zombies did to Liu Mingyu and his team.

Seeing this, the young man asked puzzledly, “This Burster doesn’t seem particularly powerful either?”

The explosive power of the fireballs was indeed great, but they had to hit the target to be effective. If they didn’t hit the target, no matter how great the power was, it was useless.

The middle-aged man said lightly, “Don’t rush. Just fireball attacks don’t make the Burster rank among the top special zombies. You know, the last time the boss killed a special zombie, it took a heavy price to kill the Burster.”

“What? The special zombie that the boss killed before was actually a Burster? Then if we absorb the energy from the energy crystals, can we shoot fireballs like the Burster?” the young man asked excitedly.

“Look carefully at the画面. This time they’re finished for sure,” the middle-aged man changed the subject and returned to the监控画面.

“They’re really finished,” the young man also agreed, but in his heart, he didn’t think so. He always felt there was still a chance.

Liu Mingyu didn’t know what was happening several kilometers away. At this moment, he only knew that an opportunity had come.

“Kill. The eyes.”

While the giant zombie was running, it exposed its eyes. Facing the eyes so close at hand, Liu Mingyu decisively ordered an attack on the eyes.

At this moment, the bullets in Liu Mingyu’s hands seemed to cost nothing as he desperately swept them around the giant zombie’s eyes. No longer considering the bullet problem, no longer considering what to do if the other side came over, he now had only one thought: to kill the opponent.

After running a certain distance, the giant zombie arrived at the bottom of the building, with its legs bent.

Bang.

The enormous force stepped on the granite, shattering the granite on the square.

The giant zombie leaped up, and with one jump, it actually jumped to the same level as Liu Mingyu and his team.

A pair of huge eyes filled with blood red stared at Liu Mingyu and his team like this.

At this moment, Liu Mingyu and the others felt as if their eyes were being stabbed painfully by the other party’s gaze.

“Kill.”

Liu Mingyu let out another explosive shout, waking up the people who were chilled to the bone.

At this distance of only a few meters, for Liu Mingyu, who had already mastered shooting skills, there was absolutely no possibility of missing.

And the others had absolutely no possibility of missing either.

The giant zombie saw the weapons in Liu Mingyu’s hands and subconsciously closed its eyes.

But how could rifle bullets be so easy to dodge? Previously, it had used the flesh tumors to block most of the bullets, but at such a short distance, it had no other way to defend itself and could only rely on its eyelids.

Bang bang bang.

Countless bullets, at this moment, aimed at the opponent’s eyes and shot past.

The giant zombie’s eyelids only held up for less than a second before being shot through by everyone.

Ah.

A huge cry of pain rang in everyone’s ears.

Even though the giant zombie suffered such a heavy blow, its hands still grabbed the top of the parapet wall.

Bang.

The giant zombie’s massive body came into intimate contact with the building.

How could the parapet wall withstand the weight of the giant zombie? In an instant, the parapet wall collapsed and fell backward, and the giant zombie fell down at the same moment.

Chapter 90: Killing

The giant zombie, though suffering severe eye injuries, still had remarkably agile hands. In the instant the parapet collapsed, he managed to grab onto the floor slab again.

The load-bearing capacity of the floor slab was much greater, and the giant zombie’s massive body didn’t crush it.

However, he wasn’t faring much better himself, with his entire body hanging in midair.

The giant zombie’s sudden leap startled everyone. They hadn’t expected such impressive jumping ability from him.

Although it was only the fourth floor, as part of the annex building of the main structure, each floor was over five meters high, making the four-story height approximately twenty-five meters.

The human high jump record is 2.45 meters, achieved through the Fosbury flop technique, which isn’t comparable.

The highest running vertical jump record for humans has no official measurement, but the maximum doesn’t exceed 4 meters, so we’ll calculate it as 4 meters.

By human standards, the giant zombie’s reach should be within ten meters.

They had thought standing on the twenty-five-meter-high parapet was already safe enough, but they hadn’t anticipated the giant zombie’s jumping ability being so astonishing.

Seeing that the giant zombie’s hands were still gripping the floor slab tightly, everyone immediately began shooting at his fingers to prevent him from holding on.

The screams continued, and the giant zombie seemed unwilling to let go. He struggled to pull himself up.

How could Liu Mingyu and the others let him reach the platform? They kept shooting at his fingers.

The giant zombie’s defense was truly remarkable. Even just his fingers were incredibly tough.

5.56mm rifle bullets only broke the skin when hitting the giant zombie’s hands.

Dripping water wears through stone. Continuous strikes on one point made even the giant zombie’s hard skin ineffective.

With such a close target, it posed no pressure for sharpshooters like Li Hongtao and his team.

Finally, after emptying one magazine…

The giant zombie let out an unwilling roar and released his grip. The entire zombie, back facing downward, crashed to the ground.

Bang.

The giant zombie’s massive body smashed onto the ground, creating a huge impact.

Some zombies who couldn’t dodge in time were crushed into meat patties.

After several rounds of attacks from Liu Mingyu and his team, the giant zombie had suffered severe injuries.

After falling to the ground, the giant zombie struggled to get up, but having sustained heavy damage, especially from the eye attack which was the most severe, he was in bad shape.

The giant zombie curled his body, trying to stand, but what greeted him was another wave of bullet attacks.

Facing upward with his face exposed, this was such a good opportunity that they couldn’t possibly miss.

Twelve assault rifles, at this moment, were like venomous snakes devouring humans, constantly releasing their tongues of fire.

Bang bang bang.

Magazine after magazine was emptied.

Bullets were being consumed rapidly. Liu Mingyu didn’t dare gamble that the other party wasn’t dead. With such a good opportunity, he could only keep shooting at the giant zombie’s head.

“Congratulations on killing a ‘Burster’.”

“Congratulations on earning 500 points.”

Liu Mingyu’s face lit up with joy. Finally dead. This was indeed the Burster from the mission.

But earning these 500 points was too difficult. They had consumed half their ammunition on the Burster alone.

At market price, that would require 3,500 grams of level-one energy crystals.

However, killing the Burster meant a level-two energy crystal was beckoning to him.

Thinking about the level-two energy crystal he had purchased at auction for 20,000 grams of level-one energy crystals, it seemed like he had made a profit after all.

But all of this depended on killing the horde of zombies below first.

Putting aside his thoughts, Liu Mingyu said, “Cease fire. The Burster is already dead. Go support our brothers below.”

The position in the annex building seemed dangerous but actually posed little threat.

The stairwell was more dangerous. Although the number of zombies was limited, they kept coming endlessly. After several rotations, the brothers below had managed to hold the zombies at the stairwell position.

Liu Mingyu checked his information.

Personal Information:

Name: Liu Mingyu

Strength: 29

Constitution: 28

Agility: 24

Mental Power: 13

Points: 600

Traversal Count: 3

Compared to his last check, his Strength and Mental Power had each increased by one point.

Completing the mission earned him 500 points, plus the 100 points he had left, totaling 600 points.

Liu Mingyu exchanged for 10 bottles of Energy Potions and went to the position defending against the zombies.

By this time, the zombies’ attack line had extended to the second floor. Arriving on the second floor, he quickly diluted the Energy Potions and had the brothers drink them.

Before long, each of them became energetic again, and they no longer feared the endless stream of zombies.

They believed that as long as the Boss had his miraculous potions, even if all the zombies in the city came, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Those following Liu Mingyu were slaves he had purchased. Their loyalty was unquestionable unless Liu Mingyu died or was transferred, in which case he could confidently trust these people.

As for Lu Haipeng and the others, after witnessing Liu Mingyu’s miraculous potions, they had no thoughts of resistance. If they had the ability to resist, they would; if not, that would be suicide.

Several kilometers away, in the truck.

Liu Mingyu’s killing of the Burster was known to them at the same time.

The young man frowned and asked, “Uncle, didn’t you say the Burster was more than this? How could he be killed so easily by them?”

The Burster had died too simply. At least in his view, he had died very simply. A dozen people just kept shooting at the Burster until they killed him.

“It’s indeed more than this. We can only say the other party got lucky.” The middle-aged man awkwardly explained a few things. Liu Mingyu’s simple resolution of the Burster truly exceeded his expectations.

You should know, when his boss killed the Burster, the number of troops and firepower was far more than this. Over a thousand people armed with weapons, and they still lost nearly 100 people to the Burster.

Those thousand-plus people weren’t just carrying assault rifles; they also had other heavy weapons, and quite a few of them. You can imagine how fierce the battle was at that time.

“Uncle, do you know what this is? Is it a mutated breed of dog? Or is it also a special type of zombie?” The young man pointed at the screen showing a dog as tall as a person, running quickly through the zombie horde toward the building.

He knew dogs could also turn into zombies, but most dogs were originally ornamental breeds, and even after turning into zombies, their attack power was limited.

Ordinary people could defend against them as long as they were careful.

But like the large dog on the screen, as tall as a person, he had never seen one before.

“Where?” The middle-aged man checked but didn’t see it.

The young man operated the monitoring screen, zooming in on the image and focusing on the large dog.

“This is also a type of special zombie, a zombie dog.” The middle-aged man seemed to know many types of zombies. At first glance at the large dog, he immediately gave the answer.

Chapter 91: Zombie Dogs

“What? It’s really a special zombie? There are way too many special zombies here.”

The young man looked surprised. Special zombies were rarely seen, yet in this short time, he had already encountered two.

The middle-aged man explained with a smile, “Zombie dogs are classified as special zombies, but their abilities aren’t particularly terrifying. At least compared to Bursters, zombie dogs are more than twice as weak.”

After a pause, he continued, “However, even the weakest are still special zombies, incomparable to ordinary zombies.”

“What makes zombie dogs special?”

The young man asked curiously. Rumors in the settlement only mentioned the existence of special zombies in the city, but not what types. Now that the uncle knew about zombie classifications, he naturally wanted to learn more. Knowing zombie types would help with survival.

Although the apocalypse had descended five years ago, ordinary humans still had little understanding of zombie classifications. Most people in the settlement lived on the city’s outskirts and dealt mostly with ordinary zombies.

Seeing the young man’s curiosity, the middle-aged man wanted to show off his knowledge. One was eager to teach, the other to learn.

The middle-aged man said mysteriously, “You should know that special zombies evolve from ordinary zombies. Among special zombies, zombie dogs are considered the lowest tier. Even the lowest-tier special zombies have abilities—some can breathe fire, others can spray water.”

The young man stared wide-eyed: “Breathe fire? Spray water? Is that magic?”

“Magic? You could call it that. This is one of the rumors about absorbing energy from level-two energy crystals to gain special abilities.”

“Why would magic appear? That’s not scientific.”

“Scientific? What is science? Are zombies scientific?”

“Science is genetic evolution.”

“Since you mentioned science, why can’t magic be scientific? And that’s just what you consider magic—it might just be a form of energy manipulation.”

“Is there something special about the building that target person went to? Why are so many special zombies appearing there?”

The young man stopped dwelling on whether something was scientific or not.

The middle-aged man shook his head: “Perhaps there really is something special about it. Make a note of that building and notify the boss later.”

Their role in monitoring Liu Mingyu was to watch for any abnormalities. The building’s unusual state had caught his attention.

On Liu Mingyu’s side, large numbers of zombies continued attacking.

Some people guarded the stairwell with an “impregnable defense” momentum. Two people blocked the front while two others fired from behind. No zombies could break through.

Injuries were under control, and everyone was just exhausted.

With personnel rotation and Liu Mingyu’s Energy Potions from the mall, they managed.

Although there were many zombies coming in waves, the damage was very limited.

No one knew how many zombies they had killed. Each person’s kill count exceeded one hundred, the stairwell was packed with corpses, and they had retreated to the third floor.

Yet zombies kept coming endlessly.

Liu Mingyu felt dizzy and couldn’t help but curse inwardly: “Damn it, what’s so special about this place that attracts so many zombies?”

Earlier he had suspected the people monitoring him might have attracted the zombies, but by now he had abandoned that suspicion. They couldn’t possibly have the ability to attract thousands of zombies. If they had such power, they would have counterattacked the city long ago instead of lingering on the outskirts after five years of apocalypse.

Bang!

An explosion occurred downstairs.

What’s happening? Did the giant zombie revive?

Impossible—the system had already shown the task as complete.

Unless another giant zombie appeared?

Thinking this, Liu Mingyu’s heart tightened as he rushed to the fourth-floor annex to look.

Scanning the area, the giant zombie still lay below, unmoving.

Elsewhere, zombies stretched as far as the eye could see.

An illusion?

Boom.

Another explosion.

The sound wasn’t very loud but was definitely an explosion.

With no other humans nearby, humans could be ruled out. That left only zombies as the possibility.

Could it be another special zombie?

Liu Mingyu carefully observed the many zombies below. All their states were clear—each looked very ordinary.

But he didn’t know what a zombie that could explode looked like. After scanning around, he didn’t see anything unusual.

Just as Liu Mingyu was thinking about how to find the culprit, the system gave a notification.

“Congratulations on killing a ‘Zombie Dog’.”

“Congratulations on earning 200 points.”

Liu Mingyu was stunned. What’s happening? The task is complete already.

Zombie dog?

He hadn’t seen any dog-like creatures.

Liu Mingyu quickly returned to the stairwell and asked, “Did anyone kill a dog?”

“Yeah, we just killed one. What a huge dog—it was as tall as a person.”

“Right, good thing we had rifles, or they might have broken through.”

“Boss, it was right over there.”

Everyone spoke up.

Liu Mingyu followed the direction of the person’s finger but didn’t see any trace of the zombie dog. However, since the system indicated the task was complete, it must have been killed.

This zombie dog must be the culprit behind the explosions, right?

Sure enough, after killing the zombie dog, no more explosion sounds occurred for a long time.

Liu Mingyu stood at the annex building’s parapet, looking at the endless zombies below, feeling extremely anxious.

If they don’t figure out why these zombies are rioting, others might die here.

He himself didn’t feel much pressure—he could leave anytime by returning to the real world, then re-entering the apocalyptic world.

These people had followed him here, and if possible, he still wanted to ensure their survival.

“Boss, we’re running low on bullets. Everyone only has three magazines left.”

Li Hongtao walked over to report to Liu Mingyu.

Each person had three magazines plus the one in the rifle, with 30 rounds per magazine. Everyone only had 120 rounds left.

Minus Liu Mingyu, there were still eleven others, totaling just over a thousand bullets.

“Put the rifles away for now. Others take over.”

Liu Mingyu considered that there might be some unexpected events later. One thousand-plus bullets could barely handle things for a while.

Not only were bullets running low, but the others’ mental states had also been affected.

From morning departure until now past noon, they had been continuously fighting for several hours.

Physical energy wasn’t a big problem with Liu Mingyu’s Energy Potions, but the intense mental concentration had put tremendous pressure on them.

Facing zombie attacks, still endless waves of zombies, one careless moment could lead to infection. Everyone was on high alert.

Chapter 92: Retreat?

The zombies temporarily couldn’t break through, but the endless waves of zombies had to be dealt with.

There were large numbers of ordinary zombies, plus Bursters and zombie dogs. Two special zombies had already appeared.

This place definitely had something special about it, otherwise it wouldn’t have attracted so many zombies here.

But what exactly was special about it?

Liu Mingyu had no clue, but even without any clues, he still had to go look for it.

Liu Mingyu found Lu Haipeng and told him about his speculation.

Lu Haipeng thought for a moment and said, “Boss, now that our people can hold back the zombies’ attack, we can send some people to search floor by floor to see if there’s anything special anywhere.”

“Search floor by floor? This building has fifty floors. If we search floor by floor, how long will it take? But now we can only use this clumsy method.”

Besides maintaining defense against the zombies’ attack, everyone else was sent to other floors to look for special places.

“Everyone, be careful. If you find anything unusual, report it immediately. If you don’t find anything unusual, return here promptly.”

Liu Mingyu gave some instructions.

“Understood, Boss.”

Everyone replied loudly.

One person per floor, each person quickly ran up the stairs to their assigned floor.

Could they really find something?

Liu Mingyu didn’t know. Sending people to search for unusual situations was just to give himself some psychological comfort.

The two special zombies that appeared below, and both happened to be the zombies needed for his mission. So was there a “Leader” nearby?

Or inside this building?

Liu Mingyu was quite certain about this. Otherwise, it would be too much of a coincidence that two special zombies appeared where he was, and both were the target zombies needed for his mission.

But did the “Leader” really have such great control ability?

Although he speculated that the “Leader” in the mission could control other zombies, if the “Leader’s” ability was really like this, controlling so many zombies would be too terrifying.

They had already killed tens of thousands of zombies, but there were still endless zombies attacking from outside. This probably covered half of the eastern new district, right?

If the “Leader” was controlling these zombies, what exactly was his purpose in controlling them to attack here?

Liu Mingyu couldn’t think of what the other party’s purpose was.

If there was something special in the building, they would have come in and taken it long ago. Why wait until now to attack?

You know, the apocalypse had already descended for five years. In these five years, besides himself coming here, no other humans had come here.

If the “Leader” really needed something special or other things in the building, he should have come long ago.

Suddenly, Liu Mingyu thought of a possibility.

The “Leader’s” target wouldn’t be himself, would it?

Was this specially arranged by the system? Or did it happen under the system’s influence?

Liu Mingyu didn’t know. Thinking back on the way here, with large numbers of zombies besieging the city, it seemed to have appeared when he was preparing to leave.

Thinking about it this way, it really did seem connected.

The “Leader” should have sensing abilities. Before, he wasn’t within the other party’s territory, so he didn’t encounter zombie sieges along the way.

But when he entered the other party’s territory, or when he entered this building.

The Leader discovered him. As for why he didn’t attack immediately, it should be because he was recruiting troops and gathering forces.

When he came out of the building, he just happened to encounter the troops gathered by the Leader.

Thinking about it this way, it seemed very reasonable.

But all of this was his speculation. Whether it was true or not, he had to see the information brought back by his brothers.

The building’s area was still quite large. If you really wanted to search carefully floor by floor, it would still take some time.

Ten minutes later, the person searching on the fifth floor came back.

That person shook his head and said, “Boss, I didn’t find anything unusual.”

Liu Mingyu patted his shoulder and said, “It’s okay. Go down below and rotate with the brothers.”

Not being able to find anything special was within his expectations.

Then people came down one after another. After each person came down, they shook their heads at Liu Mingyu, indicating they hadn’t found anything special.

Finally, about half an hour later, everyone came down, all shaking their heads.

Liu Mingyu’s heart tightened. Wouldn’t he really have guessed correctly?

Lu Haipeng walked over and asked, “Boss, what should we do now? Should we just give up this place?”

“Give up this place? There are so many zombies below. Even if we give up this place, how do we leave?”

Now it wasn’t a matter of whether to give up or not. If Liu Mingyu chose to give up, he could only give up this team.

He couldn’t bear to give up. He couldn’t bear to give up these brothers who had been fighting alongside him.

“Boss, there aren’t many zombies on the other side. Using curtains and other things, we can slide down from there to leave,” Lu Haipeng pointed to another direction of the building.

Lu Haipeng discovered that most of the zombies’ attack direction was at the main entrance, while on the other side, the zombies had all been attracted to the front, and there were basically no zombies here.

When he discovered this situation, he started thinking about how to break away from this place.

Liu Mingyu walked over to take a look. If it was on the second or third floor, it really wasn’t very high. A height of ten meters, using curtains to slide down would be completely fine.

“Big Brother Lu, find some curtains and make preparations.”

Liu Mingyu didn’t refuse. Being able to leave was the best.

But it really wasn’t that easy to leave. Someone had to hold back the zombies attacking from below.

With Liu Mingyu’s agreement, Lu Haipeng began organizing people to find curtains and everything else that could be made into ropes, tie them to a fixed place, and form a rope straight to the ground.

There weren’t many ropes. In the end, they made three such ropes.

“Boss, it’s ready. Do you want to go down first?”

Lu Haipeng walked to Liu Mingyu’s side and asked.

Liu Mingyu waved his hand with a solemn face and said, “You go down first. I’ll go down later.”

He was still looking for the reason that caused all of this to happen. He didn’t want to give up like this, whether it was everything or just a few things.

Lu Haipeng looked anxious and said, “Boss, go down first. If we wait any longer, it’ll be too late.”

Now they could still find a place to slide down from the third floor. After a while, the battle line would probably reach the fourth floor, and then the difficulty of saving themselves would increase again.

“You go down first. By the way, if possible, see if you can transport the equipment hidden in the back out,” Liu Mingyu didn’t agree but asked Lu Haipeng to transport the equipment out.

Then he added, “If there’s danger to your life, saving your life is the most important thing. These things can be abandoned.”

Chapter 93: The Experiment

Lu Haipeng saw that he couldn’t persuade Liu Mingyu, so he began organizing people to retreat downstairs.

The first people to go down were those with relatively weaker bodies, while the stronger individuals were still fighting on the stairwell.

The height of the third floor wasn’t very high, only about ten meters. Using curtains and cloth strips to make ropes, sliding down was relatively easy. The people who had come with Liu Mingyu were all quite strong, and for them, a distance of ten meters wasn’t too difficult.

Bang.

The first three people to go down landed on the ground. To prevent the noise from attracting the zombies’ attention, they waited until they were almost at ground level before letting go of the ropes in their hands.

The three looked around and found that there were indeed no zombies nearby. They then made an OK gesture upward.

Lu Haipeng let out a long breath: “Good, there’s no problem below. You continue sliding down. Remember to look for the equipment that Boss Liu mentioned after you get down.”

The second group of three people nodded heavily.

Lu Haipeng patted their shoulders and said: “All of you be careful. If there’s any danger to your lives, run directly toward the suburbs.”

If they really attracted the zombies’ attention, only by fleeing to the suburbs would they have a chance to escape. These people had all recovered to peak physical condition, and running away alone shouldn’t be a problem, as long as they didn’t encounter another special zombie.

After a while, the second group also slid down.

The six people gathered together and began secretly searching for the equipment they had hidden earlier.

Their luck was pretty good - they found a door that was open.

Carefully opening the door, they could still hear the zombies roaring from the direction of the fire escape.

Previously, to prevent the zombies from damaging the equipment, they had moved the equipment inside, away from the stairwell.

Coincidentally, among those who had come down first, there was someone who had helped store the equipment.

The group, hearing the zombies roaring nearby, cautiously searched for the equipment they had stored.

Soon, everyone found the room where the equipment was stored.

Every time three people slid down, ten minutes later, a total of thirty people had descended.

At this time, the first group who had found the carts had already pushed them out.

30 carts, 30 people - exactly one person per cart.

After pushing the carts out, no one left. They all stood under the window, looking at Lu Haipeng.

Lu Haipeng opened his mouth wide, then lowered his voice, pointing in the direction of retreat: “You go back with the carts first.”

This equipment was very important. Their main purpose in coming here was to get this equipment.

Although he felt that coming specifically for this equipment wasn’t cost-effective - in this world facing the apocalypse, what could be more important than food? What could be more important than staying alive?

He didn’t know, but since it was something Boss Liu had specifically instructed, and now that he had no worries about food, naturally he had to find a way to preserve this equipment.

Those people below, seeing that Lu Haipeng and the others had no intention of coming down, silently watched the carts as they retreated in the direction they had come from.

Fortunately, the carts were electric and didn’t make much noise. One person could easily control one cart.

The zombies behind the building should have all been attracted during the first wave of zombie attacks.

So as those people pushed the carts along the road, they didn’t encounter a single zombie.

The one-kilometer journey went very smoothly.

Whew.

The group walked out of the East City New District and let out a long breath.

Leaving this place, it wasn’t so dangerous anymore.

Lu Haipeng saw that all the carts had left, so he stopped paying attention to them.

He went to the fourth floor and found Liu Mingyu to report: “Boss, the equipment we found in the building has all been transported out. When do you plan to leave?”

Liu Mingyu, hearing that the equipment had been transported out, looked delighted: “Very good, well done. I’ll wait a bit longer. Why haven’t you left?”

He had thought he could only leave the flying cloud in storage space, but unexpectedly, those 30 carts of supplies had also been transported out.

Lu Haipeng looked at the dense, endless zombies below and said firmly: “I want to stay here and leave afterward.”

Everyone knew that staying behind was more dangerous, and he had the opportunity to leave in the first batch, but he didn’t.

In the apocalypse, running away and betrayal were common occurrences. In his five years of apocalyptic life, by adhering to the belief of not abandoning or giving up, he had gathered a group of people, which allowed him to survive in the apocalypse and become the captain of a search team in a settlement.

Some people said this belief should have been abandoned long ago - people should only look out for themselves.

But Lu Haipeng felt that without this belief, he probably wouldn’t have survived for long. It was precisely because of this belief that there was no betrayal in his team, unlike other teams.

Although Lu Haipeng had been employed by Liu Mingyu, he stayed behind not because of the employment relationship.

If it were truly just employment, he would have abandoned Liu Mingyu and run away at the first encounter with zombies.

He stayed behind because of the few days of interaction - he felt that being brothers with Liu Mingyu was reliable.

Liu Mingyu saw that Lu Haipeng was determined to stay behind and didn’t say much.

He surveyed the situation around him, pondering where the leader would be if there really was one among the zombie horde.

When Lu Haipeng had organized people to leave earlier, it could be considered one of Liu Mingyu’s experiments.

If the building was within the leader’s detection range, then those people leaving should have been detectable, but those people left without being blocked by zombies.

Liu Mingyu was quite certain that the other party’s target was either himself or something in the building.

Should he test it again?

The method was simple - first escape this building.

If the other party’s target was himself, feeling him leave, those zombies would inevitably attack him.

If they didn’t attack him and continued attacking the building, then he would give up defense and let them attack the building.

Anyway, the supplies obtained from the building had already been transported away, so this time’s objective could be considered complete.

This test required him to set a fixed traversal point, so that if he really was the other party’s target, he could come back again to complete the task.

There were a total of ten fixed coordinates - five in the real world and five in the apocalyptic world. If he needed to reset coordinates, it would require 1000 grams of energy crystals.

Currently, Liu Mingyu had used five fixed coordinates.

He had used two fixed coordinates in the real world - his original company dormitory and his current rented house; he had used three fixed coordinates in the apocalyptic world - the villa where Lu Haipeng originally lived, the small house next to the villa, and the presidential suite at the Dream Hotel.

He set the fourth fixed coordinate in the apocalyptic world at the square on the fourth floor of this building.

No matter what the result was, he could use the traversal skill to return here.

Without saying goodbye to Lu Haipeng, Liu Mingyu walked alone to the window position on the third floor, grabbed a rope, and slid down.

Chapter 94: The Big Head

In the instant Liu Mingyu slid down, the zombies that had been constantly attacking inside the stairwell suddenly stopped moving, as if frozen in place.

Seeing the zombies like this, the people fighting them didn’t miss this opportunity. They aimed for the zombies’ necks and slashed down, blood spraying out to add a splash of color to the blood-red stairwell walls.

The zombies’ stillness lasted only a moment, about one second.

Without riflemen providing cover fire, one second wasn’t enough to kill too many zombies—only the few at the very front were killed.

After one second, the zombies that had been fighting desperately suddenly turned and walked away, completely ignoring the humans behind them.

The people standing on the stairs looked at each other in confusion.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, why did they suddenly leave?”

“Did we successfully defend the position?”

“Better be careful and don’t leave.”

Everyone was discussing the situation, but no one knew why the zombies had stopped attacking.

A height of ten meters wasn’t much of a challenge for Liu Mingyu.

Using the rope, he descended in less than a second.

But would it work?

Liu Mingyu didn’t know. This was the rear position, and he couldn’t see if the zombies had been attracted over.

Hangzhou City’s East New District, as a newly developed urban area, had many high-rise buildings. The building where Panda Company was located wasn’t the only tall building in this area—there were many other towering structures nearby.

Liu Mingyu planned to check the situation from the adjacent building. Taking a quick step, he ran over rapidly.

The distance between the two buildings wasn’t far. In just a few seconds, Liu Mingyu reached the interior of the adjacent building.

The main entrance of the building had long been shattered beyond recognition. Finding the stairwell, he quickly made his way toward the annex building.

On the open-air platform of the annex building in the building Liu Mingyu had climbed, there was a “person” sitting at a table, holding a cup of coffee, eyes closed, taking a few sips, looking quite content.

This person looked a bit different—his head was extraordinarily large, twice the size of an ordinary human’s head, but his body was only the size of a normal human.

It looked quite comical. Was this a human or a zombie?

The person had been looking quite relaxed, but when Liu Mingyu descended from the adjacent building, he paused, and as he sensed Liu Mingyu walking toward him, he staggered, spilling his coffee on the ground.

He paced anxiously on the open-air platform.

Ssss.

An invisible wave radiated outward from him as the center.

Immediately, the zombies that had been attacking the opposite building all swarmed toward this building.

Boom boom boom.

Large numbers of zombies ran across the ground, like thousands of troops and horses passing by, shaking the building.

Liu Mingyu, who was inside the building, also felt this vibration and couldn’t help but confirm his suspicion.

It seemed the zombies really were coming for him. He couldn’t help but quicken his pace, running upstairs.

The Big Head person felt Liu Mingyu’s approach and was extremely anxious. The invisible wave intensified several degrees.

Liu Mingyu moved quickly. He had already checked the general layout of the building while downstairs. After going up the stairs, he headed straight for the open-air platform of the annex building.

Bang.

He kicked open the door leading to the open-air platform of the annex building.

Liu Mingyu had expected the open-air platform to be empty, but instead he saw a person with an extraordinarily large head, looking like an alien, pacing back and forth.

An alien?

A zombie?

He hadn’t considered that the other might be human. That enormous head, with its disproportionate body, looked more like an alien as depicted in movies.

Of course, it was also possible this was a zombie. Since the zombie virus outbreak, most zombies had become rotten and foul-smelling, but the person Liu Mingyu saw, except for his huge head, looked like an ordinary human in every other way.

Liu Mingyu remembered seeing a news report once about babies born with extraordinarily large heads but otherwise normal development—similar to what he was seeing now.

Regardless of what species the other was, Liu Mingyu watched him warily, taking an assault rifle from his storage space and aiming at him.

He shouted loudly, “Who are you?”

The Big Head person didn’t answer. What greeted Liu Mingyu was a mental shockwave.

In the instant the other released the shockwave, Liu Mingyu felt his head was about to explode, the pain was unbearable.

Damn it, he shouldn’t have wasted time talking.

Enduring the headache, he aimed his rifle at the other and fired.

Bang bang bang.

He fired several shots in succession.

The intense pain made the gun in his hand deform. The bullets that should have hit the other’s head missed their target and hit the nearby railing instead.

The gunshots also startled the Big Head person, who let out an unusually sharp scream before quickly running away.

The Big Head person was quite frustrated. His mental shockwave usually worked effortlessly against humans, so why wasn’t it effective against this one?

As he ran, Liu Mingyu’s headache eased. He shook his head vigorously to clear his mind.

The open-air platform only had some tables on it, with nothing to hide behind.

Bang bang bang.

With his mind much clearer, Liu Mingyu raised his rifle and fired again.

Pfft.

One shot hit the Big Head person’s head, splashing a bit of blood.

After being shot, the Big Head person ran away again, dodging Liu Mingyu’s other shots.

The intense pain made the Big Head person release another mental shockwave involuntarily. An invisible wave swept toward Liu Mingyu.

While Liu Mingyu was firing, he felt a sense of dread. Suppressing his urge to dodge, he continued aiming at the Big Head person and shooting.

Bang bang bang.

He fired five shots at the Big Head person in succession. After firing five shots, he didn’t check if he had killed the other.

Ah!

Just after firing five shots, an even more intense pain attacked Liu Mingyu’s head, feeling like a bomb had exploded inside his skull, making him cry out in agony.

Blood seeped from his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. If Liu Mingyu could see his own appearance, this was exactly the legendary “bleeding from the seven orifices.”

Liu Mingyu’s vision turned completely red. Enduring the exploding pain in his head, he looked toward the Big Head person.

The Big Head person dragged his body, slowly moving.

Clearly, Liu Mingyu’s earlier shots had also seriously injured him.

Just then, Liu Mingyu heard a series of footsteps from downstairs.

Were the zombies coming?

At this time, only zombies would come—it couldn’t be humans.

Damn it, he had to kill this Big Head person quickly.

He had taken a big loss this time.

Originally, he had thought he could return to the real world anytime to avoid the zombies’ attack, but he hadn’t expected the Big Head person’s attack to be so powerful.

Liu Mingyu raised his rifle again. Not approaching, he fired at the Big Head person from a distance.

He no longer tried to hit the other’s head specifically, just fired indiscriminately.

When he finished emptying one magazine, the system’s notification sound rang in his mind.

Chapter 95: Attribute Enhancement

“Congratulations on killing a ‘Leader’.”

“Congratulations on earning 2000 points.”

“Detected that the host’s consciousness is in critical danger. Using 500 points for emergency treatment.”

After Liu Mingyu finished firing his bullets and heard the approaching footsteps of the zombies, he didn’t carefully listen to the system notification sounds in his mind.

He simply thought in his heart: “Traverse.”

The default traversal coordinates in the real world were his newly rented apartment.

When he finished thinking about traversing, time froze. Different from when the zombies froze, at this moment, everything in the world couldn’t move at all. A flash of light, and Liu Mingyu disappeared from this world.

The next moment, Liu Mingyu, covered in blood, appeared in the apartment.

In an instant, the intense pain that had felt like his head was about to explode disappeared completely, and he finally came to his senses.

By checking the system log, he only then learned that what he had just faced was the special zombie “Leader.”

Killing the Leader this time was truly very unexpected. This time, his continuous suffering from zombie attacks was related to the Leader.

His two sudden headaches should have been related to the Leader’s attack. What kind of attack was this?

It was too hard to guard against. He clearly remembered that it had made his head feel intense pain out of nowhere.

Is this a mental power attack?

The Burster’s fireball attack, the Leader’s mental power attack—the zombies in the apocalyptic world weren’t as simple as imagined.

Now that the Leader was dead, Liu Mingyu didn’t know if this was the legendary mental power attack.

Right, his treatment just now actually cost 500 points.

This system is too much of a rip-off.

500 points, the price of an entire Burster, and it was gone just like that.

The good mood from earning 2000 points from killing the Leader had diminished considerably.

Was 500 points in exchange for one health worth it?

Of course it was, but Liu Mingyu still felt a bit of heartache.

500 points could be exchanged for so many things—5 bottles of Gene Evolution Potion, 50 bottles of Energy Potion.

These were all good things.

However, no matter how reluctant Liu Mingyu was, it was useless. These 500 points were forcibly deducted by the system.

Looking at his body covered in grime, Liu Mingyu didn’t immediately return to the apocalyptic world. Anyway, after leaving that world, time in that world was paused.

He went to the bathroom, and only when he looked in the mirror did he discover that he had actually suffered such serious injuries. Those 500 points were well spent.

The 500 points only treated the injuries to Liu Mingyu’s body. The blood flowing from his ears, nose, eyes, and mouth was still there. At first glance, it was very frightening.

After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes.

He lay in bed resting for half a day. After fighting with zombies in the apocalyptic world for half a day, although supplemented by Energy Potions, his mental state was still somewhat affected.

The system only treated his damaged mental power, but he still felt very tired.

When he woke up again, it was already afternoon.

He ordered takeout and didn’t go out.

Only then did he carefully check the system interface.

Personal Information:

Name: Liu Mingyu

Strength: 28

Constitution: 28

Agility: 24

Mental Power: 20

Points: 2100

Liu Mingyu was very surprised that his mental power had increased so much.

He remembered it was only 12 before, but now it had reached 20. Although he didn’t know what this value meant, it was definitely better for it to be higher at the moment.

This time, he had gained 8 points of mental power. Was it because of the Leader’s attack?

He roughly guessed the reason for the increase in mental power, but if he wanted it to increase like this again, he would definitely refuse.

Just kidding. Not to mention that feeling like a bomb exploding in his head, just those 500 points alone could have given him 50 attribute points. Why would he want to increase his attributes this way? It wasn’t worth the cost.

The task list was completely empty—all four tasks had been completed.

He had originally thought the tasks would take an unknown amount of time to complete, but at this moment, they were all done.

The four tasks provided a high score of 3700 points. After using some in the middle, only 2100 points remained.

When the points reached 1000, the mall didn’t update its items. Now that it was 2000, it should update now, right?

Liu Mingyu opened the mall interface with full anticipation.

Looking at the mall interface, Liu Mingyu couldn’t help but mutter: “What the hell? Why hasn’t it updated? Where did something go wrong?”

If 1000 points hadn’t met the exchange conditions, now that it was 2000 points and still nothing, that was strange.

He didn’t believe there was a problem with the points. So the issue must be something else.

Based on gaming experience, was it because his personal attributes hadn’t reached the required level?

Or perhaps the system had level restrictions, and the items currently sold in the mall were all items that could be unlocked at the current level?

Liu Mingyu checked the system but didn’t find anywhere to upgrade the system.

“Upgrade system.”

Liu Mingyu tried communicating directly.

“Upgrade failed. Character attributes have not reached 50. Please increase character attributes.”

Huh, it really could be upgraded.

He wasn’t afraid of upgrade difficulties, just afraid of not getting any hints.

Knowing that the system upgrade failed because his attribute points hadn’t reached 50, Liu Mingyu immediately opened the mall interface to enhance his attributes.

The attribute enhancement option in the mall interface had long appeared, but Liu Mingyu had been focusing on enhancing his storage space and had ignored enhancing himself.

The points required to enhance each attribute weren’t high. Enhancing 1 point of attribute only required 10 points, which was quite cheap.

He tried using 10 points to enhance his strength by 1 point.

The increase in strength wasn’t much, but he still felt some changes in his body, though not very obvious.

Liu Mingyu was afraid that attribute enhancement would be like storage space enhancement, where each enhancement increased the cost, making 50 points of attributes extremely expensive.

Fortunately, when Liu Mingyu enhanced again, it was still 10 points for 1 attribute, and his hanging heart settled down.

He used another 210 points to enhance his strength to 50 points.

When Liu Mingyu chose to enhance strength, he felt his body changing rapidly.

The changes were fast, almost completed in an instant.

Liu Mingyu felt his strength, which was now nearly twice what it had been before, and this power didn’t feel unfamiliar at all, as if it were innate.

Originally 28 points of strength, now 50 points of strength, it had indeed doubled.

Liu Mingyu thought in his heart: “Upgrade system.”

“Upgrade failed. Character attributes have not reached 50. Please increase character attributes.”

What was going on?

Didn’t his strength attribute reach 50 points? Wouldn’t it require all attributes to reach 50?

This was really possible. Liu Mingyu had no choice but to raise all other attributes to 50 as well.

Strength increased by 22 points, costing 220 points.

Constitution increased by 22 points, costing 220 points.

Agility increased by 26 points, costing 260 points.

Mental Power increased by 30 points, costing 300 points.

The four attributes cost a total of 1000 points.

Liu Mingyu, who had originally been quite wealthy, was left with only 1100 points.

He didn’t know if these 1100 points would be enough to upgrade the system.

Liu Mingyu thought in his heart: “Upgrade system.”

UNTITLED

1. Chapter 51: Day Three of the Event
2. Chapter 52: Renting a Warehouse
3. Chapter 53: Chen Youde
4. Chapter 54: Buying a Car
5. Chapter 55: Reservation
6. Chapter 56: Out of Stock
7. Chapter 57: Resolution
8. Chapter 58: Covert Investigation
9. Chapter 59: Delivery
10. Chapter 60: Bulk Purchase
11. Chapter 61: Gift Giving
12. Chapter 62: Sales Revenue
13. Chapter 63: Star Technology
14. Chapter 63: Star Technology

15. Chapter 64: How to Achieve Technology Transfer

16. Chapter 65: Recruitment

17. Chapter 66: Discovery

18. Chapter 67: Obstacles to Artificial Intelligence

19. Chapter 68: Cleanup
20. Chapter 69: Task Preparation
21. Chapter 70: Departure
22. Chapter 71: Various Reactions
23. Chapter 72: Route Blocked
24. Chapter 73: Battle
25. Chapter 74: The Siege
26. Chapter 75: Rescue?
27. Chapter 76: Strike First
28. Chapter 77: Ambush
29. Chapter 78: Kill
30. Chapter 79: The Drone
31. Chapter 80: Rest and Recuperation
32. Chapter 81: Restoring Stamina
33. Chapter 82: Obstruction
34. Chapter 83: Panda Feiyun
35. Chapter 84: Dismantling
36. Chapter 85: Zombie Siege
37. Chapter 86: Fierce Battle
38. Chapter 87: The Giant Zombie
39. Chapter 88: Retreat
40. Chapter 89: The Attack
41. Chapter 90: Killing
42. Chapter 91: Zombie Dogs
43. Chapter 92: Retreat?
44. Chapter 93: The Experiment
45. Chapter 94: The Big Head
46. Chapter 95: Attribute Enhancement