Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Taking Over the Supermarket

”Welcome to the apocalypse...”

As Chen Xing’s words faded, the once-silent streets suddenly erupted into chaos.

The awakening of people was intermingled with the awakening of zombies. One by one, they opened their blood-red eyes and lunged at the dazed crowds beside them.

Humans who were bitten would close their eyes in pain, only to snap them open an instant later, transformed into another monster, and pounce on another human.

This process repeated itself, and in a short time, the number of zombies on the streets grew, while humans could do nothing but flee for their lives.

Chen Xing sat several hundred meters high, looking down on the ant-like humans below. Yet, it was as if she could clearly see the expressions on their faces, shifting from confusion to shock, then to despair, and finally, to complete degradation.

Ignoring the grisly details, she raised her eyes to look into the distance.

Everywhere she looked was an undeniable scene of hell on earth.

In her past life, she had been one of those helpless people, struggling desperately just to survive.

She had sought help, had believed that people were inherently good, but who had ever come to save her? She had trusted her friends, and in the end, hadn’t it led to a miserable death?

In this life, she would no longer rely on others, much less make any friends.

’In my limited experience, friends are just tools for betrayal.’

This time, she wouldn’t give anyone the chance to betray her.

She would be alone, free of all attachments.

She had just pulled some snacks from her personal space and popped them in her mouth when she heard a knock on the glass door behind her.

She didn’t even turn her head.

’It doesn’t matter if it’s a person or a zombie.’

Her current position was on the roof of the top floor. Even if the glass door was broken down, it would be impossible for anything to climb up to her.

For safety, she had removed anything that could be used to climb onto this small rooftop after she got up. ’Unless it can fly?’

’In my last life, zombies that could leap several meters high didn’t appear until a year later.’

’These Basic Level Zombies don’t have that ability yet, and it’s even more impossible for humans.’

She leisurely took out a few packs of crackers and started eating as the banging on the glass door behind her grew louder and louder.

As the glass door shattered, Chen Xing instinctively tried to turn around, but her body was suddenly frozen in place, unable to move at all.

This feeling of powerlessness made her extremely uneasy.

For a full five minutes, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move an inch.

She could perceive the outside world; she could sense the zombies swarming in through the shattered glass door. After they bit and killed the few people who had fled up here, they began leaping toward her, their eyes fixed on her menacingly.

But at that moment, she could do nothing but breathe.

Just as she was growing frantic, a change occurred within her personal space, and she instantly regained control of her body.

Leaping up from the edge of the railing, she looked toward the horde of zombies.

’Not many, only about twenty or so.’

She didn’t rush to deal with them, instead quickly entering her personal space.

The space, which had been full just moments ago, had now expanded in a large circle around the spring, doubling in size.

And she could clearly feel that her body was much stronger than before.

’This space is amazing!’

’Not only does it upgrade automatically, but it enhances my body as well.’

’Now that I have more room, I can keep gathering supplies. I need to get as much as I can while people are still confused about what’s happening. If I’m too slow, I won’t even get the scraps.’

Exiting her space, Chen Xing appeared with a fire axe in hand and leaped down, instantly surrounded by zombies.

In her past life, she was used to fighting her way out of zombie hordes. This small number was no challenge for her, especially since they were just Basic Level Zombies.

She dealt with the zombies with ease, and after collecting their Crystal Cores, she headed into the building.

When she had taken the elevator up earlier, she had seen a directory in the lobby indicating that the third and fourth floors of the building housed a large supermarket.

Right now, people were only thinking about how to stay alive; they hadn’t yet started worrying about food and shelter.

Slashing her way through, she entered the elevator and pressed the down button.

’The power should still be on for a little while. No need to waste my energy.’

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor with a DING.

Chen Xing braced herself for a crowd of zombies at the doors, but when they opened... it was unexpectedly quiet.

There weren’t just no zombies; there wasn’t even a single person in sight.

It was the middle of the afternoon; it was impossible for a supermarket this large to be empty.

She slowed her pace, making her footsteps as quiet as possible, and followed the signs toward the supermarket entrance.

When she was still about a dozen meters from the supermarket’s rolling shutter, a flurry of chaotic footsteps sounded from behind her. At the same time, the shutter in front of her suddenly began to descend.

Chen Xing was speechless. ’Someone’s trying to take over the supermarket? Whoever it is, they’re quick on the uptake, thinking to occupy such an important location right at the start of the apocalypse.’

Without looking back, she sprinted toward the rolling shutter.

Just as the door was about to close completely, she dove and rolled underneath it.

’It’s a good thing my body upgraded along with the space, and that I drank the spring water. Otherwise, I never would have made that.’

As the shutter slammed shut, the sound of zombies ramming against it echoed from the outside.

Chen Xing got to her feet and looked warily toward the aisles of shelves.

Several people emerged from between the shelves. Judging by their uniforms, they were all supermarket employees.

Seeing that it was just a woman, they didn’t consider her much of a threat. The man in the lead, who looked like the manager, snatched the fire axe from Chen Xing’s hands. ”Lock her up for now.” He let out a breath of relief.

One of the women, still trembling and not yet recovered from her terror, didn’t forget to object. ”If we keep her, we’ll have to share our food with her. We should just throw her out!” In her eyes, everything here already belonged to them; there was no need to share with anyone else.

It was chaos outside now. Even though the supermarket had a lot of food, if it was like the movies and monsters were running rampant, it probably wouldn’t last long. Not sharing meant a better chance of survival for herself.

Hearing this, the others agreed that they shouldn’t share with anyone else. ”She’s right! If we let her stay, she’ll definitely try to steal our supplies!”

”I just said to lock her up. Who said anything about giving her food?” the manager said, shoving Chen Xing. ”I’ll go lock her away. Don’t you dare open this door without my permission!”

The others seemed to understand his implication and no longer objected.

Chen Xing walked forward cooperatively. She noticed a young man at the very back of the group whose eyes were bloodshot. He was swaying, and his whole body was trembling. It was obvious he had been bitten by a zombie.

However, she wasn’t kind enough to warn them.

’Once chaos breaks out here, I won’t even have to lift a finger. These people will all be done for.’

She had walked less than a hundred meters when she heard a blood-curdling scream from behind her.

The man pushing her immediately spun around, only to see that the woman who hadn’t wanted to let Chen Xing stay already had half her face bitten off. The red-eyed zombie then lunged toward another person.

The manager panicked, abandoned Chen Xing, and ran for the supermarket escalator.