Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

’Contribution Points,’ she thought, and swallowed her fury.

”We’re only responsible for search and rescue, killing zombies, and getting you to the base safely. Solve your own problems. Don’t come bothering us.”

Seeing Song Kexin about to slam the door, Dongdong’s mother quickly stuck a foot in the doorway, shouting brazenly, ”Hey! But... but didn’t you say you’d provide food?”

”Look at the time! Isn’t it about time to hand out the food?”

”If you’d handed out the food on time, would they have started fighting over a few scraps?”

’This so-called Starfire Team... from the captain down to the members, not a single one of them has any humanity or knows how to respect the old and care for the young!’

Song Kexin took a deep breath, turned to Xiao Huang Mao, and said calmly, ”Xiao Yuan, give them tonight’s dinner.”

Xiao Huang Mao nodded, walked to the door with a box in his arms, and said, ”Go get Wang Pinglang.”

Dongdong’s mother was displeased. ”What, you think I’m going to embezzle your supplies? Just give them to me, I can hand them out.”

WHOOSH! A jet of flame shot from Song Kexin’s palm. ”Get lost! Go get Wang Pinglang! Don’t you understand what I’m saying? Or do you want a taste of a Fireball?!”

Terrified, Dongdong’s mother quickly pulled her foot back, turned, and ran with her child in her arms, her face drained of all color.

Song Kexin tried to calm herself down, extinguished the flame, and turned to walk into the room.

The living room of this dorm had four rows of double beds, and the bedroom had two rows of bunk beds.

’The men can stay in the living room later. She and her Big Sis will just have to make do in the bedroom for one night.’

Song Kexin rummaged through the bedroom wardrobe and found a pile of brightly colored clothes.

Spaghetti strap tops, crop tops, and the like—there wasn’t a single piece of clothing she found presentable.

Luckily, the drawer next to it was stuffed with vacuum-sealed snacks.

No one could afford to be picky about expiration dates now. Without even glancing at the manufacturing dates, Song Kexin swept bags of all sizes into her own backpack.

When her own bag was full, she started stuffing them into her Big Sis’s backpack.

She then went to rummage through a simple wardrobe nearby, which contained some long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and sweatshirts.

She found a large red, white, and blue woven bag in the room and stuffed all the usable clothes into it.

’Can’t let usable things go to waste. If Big Sis thinks they’re gross because someone else wore them, we can always donate them to the people at the base who don’t have enough food or clothing.’

’It’s better than having nothing to wear!’

When she walked into the living room, she saw Xiao Huang Mao coming out of the kitchen, also carrying a large cartoon-print cloth bag.

”Everything in the fridge has gone bad. Let’s not open it again; the smell is awful. I found a few bottles of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar that are probably still usable, but unfortunately, the rice and flour are full of bugs.”

Song Kexin sighed. ”This is already great.”

Soon, Song Shijun and the others finished clearing the zombies from the building’s hallways. When they came down, they happened to see Wang Pinglang at the door, bowing deeply and holding a large cardboard box.

The box contained over a dozen bottles of water and more than twenty packs of compressed biscuits.

”According to base regulations, the ration is one small pack of compressed biscuits per meal, with two biscuits per pack,” Song Kexin said. ”As for water, it’s half a bottle per person per meal, about 250 milliliters.”

”You can divide it amongst yourselves.”

They had rescued a total of twenty-nine people. The food was distributed strictly according to base regulations—not a fraction less, and certainly not a smidgen more.

Xie Ning wasn’t Xu Yu. She wouldn’t sacrifice the interests of her own team members to satisfy others out of some sense of pity.

In her view, there were far too many pitiful people in the world.

What was so pitiful about these people who could be brought back to the base to continue living as sheltered flowers in a greenhouse?

”MROWL.” With a single slash, Xie Ning dispatched the Zombie Cat that had leaped onto the balcony. She then looked up at the roof.

’The woman with the child was right. In this first district of Canghua Home, only buildings 26 through 30 are large units, each around 130 square meters.’

It was clear that the families in building 30 were all quite well-off.

Xie Ning had swept her way up from the first floor, and her haul was substantial. Kicking down each door brought some pleasant surprise.

This time, Cres had even managed to pull a safe from a crack in the wall. When they opened it, the glittering jewelry and stacks of cash inside were blinding.

”Why did you waste your energy on that?” Xie Ning asked, speechless, as she reluctantly collected the gold and silver jewelry.

Cres, maintaining his cool, handsome expression, said, ”Something’s not right.”

”What’s not right?”

”Don’t you feel it? Besides us, there seems to be something else in this building. But its presence flickers in and out. It feels... ethereal.”

”Zombies?” Xie Ning asked as she ransacked the apartment, scavenging brand-new, unopened daily necessities and food, while also taking any decent-looking small appliances.

She opened a large wardrobe and, with a wave of her hand, cleared out everything inside.

She had piled everything scavenged from the entire building into the villa courtyard, and the heap was now as high as a small mountain.

A quick scan with her spiritual power was enough to give her a headache.

’It’s going to take forever to organize all this stuff later, isn’t it?’

’Maybe I’ll organize it and give it to Zuo Li. I’m not doing this to benefit the people of the base—whether they live or die has nothing to do with me. I’m just helping out my friend Zuo Li.’

Seeing her clear out an entire home in minutes, Cres couldn’t help but roll his eyes. ”It’s not a zombie. Just focus and feel for it.”

”You’re right. I can faintly sense it too...” As Xie Ning opened a door, the hair on her body stood on end.

A person was furtively heading downstairs, carrying an axe over their shoulder. They made eye contact for a split second.

Cres’s hair also stood on end, and he almost instantly used his spiritual power to lock onto the person.

At the same time, an invisible, thin blade shot toward them.

Although Cres couldn’t see the Space Blade, a slight gust of wind lifted the golden hair on his forehead.

”Xie Ning!” he roared.

With a backhand strike, Xie Ning swatted the formless, invisible Space Blade away, her pupils contracting sharply.

From the opposite side came the man’s excited, trembling voice. ”A Space Blade? You can use a Space Blade too. You’re not a Gold Ability User, you’re a Fourth-tier Space Ability User? You’re Space System? No, wait—you’re a Dual System!”

”Hahahaha, Captain Xie, you’ve hidden it well!”

The man was about 165 centimeters tall, a bit chubby, with a large black mole on his chin. He was rather plain-looking.

Xie Ning didn’t recognize the man at all, but he had instantly identified her. It was clear he knew who she was.

Xie Ning’s eyes narrowed, a cold glint appearing within them.

”Who are you?”

The moment the words left her mouth, the short, fat man threw his axe down with a CLANG and charged toward her, laughing wildly.

”Sorry, Captain Xie, but it’s your own fault for being a Fourth-tier Space Ability User!”

Xie Ning watched him with cold eyes, feeling a thin membrane of Space envelop her entire body in an instant. It immediately cut off her hearing, making it impossible to hear what Cres was screaming beside her.

The short, fat man stared at her with excitement in his eyes. The look made Xie Ning feel like a choice piece of meat waiting to be thrown into the pot.

Her eyes were full of ice as she stared back at him.