Chapter 6

She has always been afraid of the man in front of her. The ferocity, savagery, and violence he exudes make him almost impossible to approach. But he is brave and strong. Especially this morning, in front of the hardware store, Xinyan suddenly discovered a special charm in him.

But, he actually touched my face! Pinched my flesh!

Thinking about this, Xinyan couldn't help but clench her teeth hard and grip the steel pipe in her hand, her eyes subconsciously focusing on the vital parts of Su Hao's body, especially between his legs.

"If you dare to touch me again, I'll turn you into a eunuch—"

Xinyan's face turned red as she silently repeated these words. But even she didn't understand why she didn't act now, but had to wait for the next time?

......

In the guest room on the third floor, two zombies were cleared out. For these isolated monsters, Su Hao quickly obtained the hormones and silver bones from their bodies. The broken corpses and severed limbs were thrown out the window, landing on the road outside.

The tap water supply had long stopped, but the building had an independent underground water extraction system. The water tank on the roof was large, and the huge solar panels not only provided hot water 24 hours a day but also supplied ample electricity.

The anti-theft cage outside the window was exceptionally sturdy, with steel bars at least five centimeters in diameter. Su Hao calculated that to forcibly destroy this layer of protection, one would need the physical strength of a second-stage enhanced person, which is equivalent to a thousand kilograms of impact force.

Returning to the hall, he reinforced the already locked back door with chains. Su Hao lowered the roller shutter and drew the curtains, turning the place into a completely enclosed space.

"This place is even safer than I imagined."

Su Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead, walked to the sofa, and sat down. He took out a plastic bag containing cold steamed buns and braised meat from his backpack and threw it to Xinyan, who was standing opposite him, saying, "Eat something first, we still have a lot of work to do."

......

The basement cleanup was much simpler than Su Hao had expected.

The vault was a small room of about fifty square meters. The heavy circular gate was open, and six blood-covered zombies were wandering around. They all wore black bulletproof vests and steel helmets, with "Security Guard" metal plaques on their chests. Two male corpses in bank uniforms lay in front of the vault, their internal organs and limbs torn apart. Next to them, a transport truck marked "Kunming Security" had its rear door open—obviously, the virus outbreak occurred while a cash transfer was taking place.

There was no gold, no new red banknotes, only dozens of numbered canvas bags. They were filled with old, damaged currency, mostly one-yuan notes.

Stepping over the blood and flesh splattered by the fire axe, Su Hao stripped the bulletproof vests from the recently killed zombies, choosing the smallest one and handing it to Xinyan.

On the ground were four 97-type riot shotguns, and over two hundred rounds of ammunition were found on the zombies and in the truck. In addition, the transport compartment contained five riot shields, as well as the same number of police batons and stun guns.

Su Hao took off his jacket and put on the bulletproof vest. Seeing Xinyan fiddling with the weapon she had just obtained, he couldn't help but smile faintly and asked, "Do you know how to use it?"

The girl shook her head.

Su Hao walked behind Xinyan, held her hand that was holding the gun, leveled it, and said in a calm and steady tone, "This gun is a close-range weapon, so you don't need to aim too precisely. You need to recock it after each shot. Although the police rounds aren't very powerful, they are still much better than a steel pipe."

Through the bulletproof vest, Xinyan could still feel the warmth of Su Hao's body. The strong, masculine sweat smell kept her nerves taut. She didn't know if Su Hao had noticed his beard brushing against her neck, which was itchy... Strangely, she didn't find his actions repulsive.

......

The steel door leading to the ground floor slowly opened. With the power supply guaranteed, the magnetic card found on the bank employee's body made the underground parking lot's closure mechanism resume operation.

The "Chevrolet" car parked by the roadside had been abandoned—the key was still in the steering column, and in terms of safety and sturdiness, it was far superior to ordinary civilian vehicles. In this era of gradually collapsing order, as long as you have the ability to possess, you are the master of everything.

Su Hao drove fast, the engine roaring and the tires screeching as they rubbed against the ground. He calmly avoided various obstacles on the road, occasionally driving onto the sidewalk and charging through. Xinyan, sitting in the passenger seat, could only grip the handle, her face pale, silently cursing this traffic rule violator.

Zombies were walking around the alleys and street corners, searching for food in the sunlight. The speeding transport truck made them excited. These terrifying creatures opened their mouths full of sharp teeth, stretched out their arms, and staggered from both sides of the road, but were scattered into red flesh and blood under the impact of the truck, which was traveling at over eighty kilometers per hour.

Su Hao replayed every detail of the blueprint in his mind. He used his sharp eyes to search the road ahead, silently noting the areas with the densest concentration of zombies and the locations of useful buildings. Malls, gas stations, supermarkets... Soon, the transport truck had entered the community road connected to the main road. In front of a street-side garbage recycling station, Su Hao stepped on the brake and stopped.

This was a temporary, simple building. The blue roof and white thin walls stood out against the gray surroundings. The open windows and doors emitted the distinctive smell of rotten vegetables and garbage.

Xinyan watched as Su Hao got out of the car and dragged a wooden box with wheels from the garbage room. The box was over three meters long and over one meter high. When the lid was pried open, she felt as if her heart was being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, unable to beat or breathe.

This was the second supply box Su Hao had sent from the future. Besides a few sharp hunting knives suitable for cutting, the rest were all firearms and ammunition.

Fortunately, the box was not damaged during the transmission—two SA80s, two FNC assault rifles, a Barrett rifle disassembled into parts, four Browning pistols, and over 2,600 rounds of various caliber ammunition, all intact.

Su Hao's choice of landing point was incomprehensible. No one would think that a supply box full of guns and ammunition would be buried deep in a dirty, smelly garbage room. The box's interior was specially treated to prevent leakage. If he hadn't determined a safe and secure base, he wouldn't have rushed to retrieve these weapons.

The process of moving the weapons to the car took over ten minutes.

Xinyan felt surprised and shocked. She, accustomed to thinking according to the logic and norms of the civilized world, knew very well what these things meant. She felt fear and panic again. But she didn't know what to do, so she could only follow Su Hao's instructions, expressionless and numb, moving back and forth between the car and the wooden box.

Sitting in the driver's seat, turning the key, and starting the engine, Su Hao looked at the setting sun in the distance, turned around, squinted, and looked at Xinyan sitting next to him.

"I'm not a bad person. I'm just doing what I should do."

After saying this, he slowly released the clutch and pressed the accelerator with his right foot. As the car speed increased, a cool breeze blew in from the open window.

Whether you believe it or not, this was Su Hao's explanation.

At least, for now.

......

The night fell heavily.

Dinner was abundant: golden hook cabbage, dry-fried potato strips, fried luncheon meat, pickled mustard and fermented black beans, and a tomato and egg soup.

Looking at the food on the table, Su Hao felt a bit dazed. He rubbed his eyes hard, making sure he wasn't dreaming.

He remembered that on the way back to the bank office, Xinyan and he had picked up some rice, flour, canned food, and other items from a small supermarket. There was only one cabbage, and the leaves were very rotten. There were only a few potatoes. As for the pickled mustard and fermented black beans, they seemed to be a famous brand of this era, called "Lao Gan Ma" or something else...

Su Hao was sure he hadn't taken any eggs or tomatoes. At that time, he was busy carrying rice and cooking oil to the car. Clearly, this was Xinyan's doing.

It was too luxurious—in the future world, only important figures had the privilege to enjoy such delicacies. For ordinary people like himself, food was merely a necessity for survival.

In Su Hao's memory, "food" was not a broad, general term. To a large extent, it referred to hard, black coarse bread, salty and tough cured meat, and five-milligram vitamin pills.

Xinyan brought two bowls of rice. Induction cookers, woks, rice cookers... These things could be found in many supermarkets and appliance stores. The small solar generator on the roof, though not very powerful, was enough to maintain normal lighting and various living facilities.

Su Hao picked up the bowl and ate the rice in large mouthfuls. He ate quickly and carefully. If a grain of rice fell on the table, he would pick it up with his fingers and eat it.

"Make more rice tonight. We'll be very busy tomorrow and may not have time to cook."

Xinyan nodded silently. She understood what Su Hao meant—living wasn't just about filling your stomach. Clothes, bedding, medicine... To stay in this building, they needed to collect more supplies from the city.

Watching Su Hao devour the food, Xinyan suddenly lost her appetite. She put down her bowl, took out her beloved Nokia phone from her pocket, and tapped the touch screen with her slender fingers. The black screen immediately displayed colorful icons. However, the small triangle in the upper right corner, representing the signal strength, was still missing.

Su Hao swallowed a large mouthful of delicious food and drank some soup. He looked at Xinyan with a sympathetic gaze and noticed that her eyes were full of confusion and helplessness, completely unlike the fearless, fierce, and ruthless girl who had fought her way out of the underground parking lot to survive. Perhaps only now did her behavior truly match her age.

Xinyan was not yet twenty. By the standards of this era, she was still a college student who hadn't graduated. However, in the future world filled with blood and death, women of her age were usually mothers of three or four children, or even more.

He put down his chopsticks, extended his right hand, and pointed clearly at the mobile phone in her hand, saying in a commanding tone, "Give it to me!"

Xinyan's reaction was noticeably slow. After hesitating for a moment, she handed over her phone.

Su Hao took it, placed it in front of him, and then took out a Browning pistol from the holster by his leg. He skillfully turned it in his palm, held the gun, and pointed the handle at the girl, pushing it directly into her hands.

"This is a world you have never imagined and cannot describe with any words. Don't ask me why the outside world has become like this, or when the disaster and nightmare will end. I don't know the answers, just like you. But we must survive. Forget about the most beautiful and fragile things. Zombies and monsters have no aesthetic sense. Black and white mean nothing to them. Beautiful women and old ladies are just meat to them. This is a damned, dirty, despicable, and dark era. We may never be able to change anything, but we can only adapt to the increasingly worse environment. Forget about your phone and the police! There will be no rescue. Instead of living in emptiness and illusion, it's better to kill a few more monsters. Remember—no matter when, knives and guns are the best and most trustworthy companions."

......

It was late at night.

Su Hao carried an SA80 assault rifle loaded with bullets and patrolled every corner of the building.

The entrance to the hall was sealed. The bottom of the roller shutter was firmly fixed with wire and steel nails, and heavy sofas and cabinets formed the second barrier to block the door. Thick curtains with mosquito nets blocked the light and any prying eyes from outside.

Several steel pipes as thick as arms were firmly propped against the back door. On both sides of the corridor connecting to the hall, Su Hao had placed combination cabinets moved from other rooms. They were stacked at a special angle, with the upper and lower connection points not fully joined, filled with useless documents and waste paper. In an emergency, removing the metal brackets between the top cabinets and the wall would cause these heavy objects to collapse like building blocks, instantly filling the entire corridor.

As long as the power supply was stable, the ramp connecting to the ground could be used without obstruction. The bodies of the dead and the remains of the zombies were moved out, and the area now served as a warehouse for food and various supplies. Using the magnetic card found on the dead employees, Su Hao placed most of the firearms in the vault. The thick concrete walls and metal protection layers made it very safe.

A long, sturdy hemp rope was installed on the roof. Su Hao would only use this last escape route as a last resort.

He chose room 206 as his resting place. It was at the core of the building, allowing the fastest response to emergencies.

The fungal hormones collected during the day were placed in the vault. Under the bright light, Su Hao focused on weighing the drugs with a balance and continued to prepare the high-concentration solution.

Xinyan lived in the next room.

Outside the window, the chirping of crickets and the buzzing of cicadas could be heard.

Occasionally, the distant howls of zombies wandering in the darkness could be heard.

......

The sky was not yet fully bright when Su Hao woke up from his sleep. He opened his tired eyes and looked at the phone on the bedside table. The screen showed the time as 8:16.

The leftover rice and pickled mustard and fermented black beans were mixed and formed into rice balls. Xinyan made many of these. Besides breakfast, they could also serve as lunch.

She took a shower and changed into a gray sportswear set from the mall. Her face was free of dirt and grime, and without makeup, her skin looked very fair.

Watching her put on the bulletproof vest and carefully load the gun and ammunition, Su Hao stuffed the remaining rice balls into his mouth, rubbed his hands, picked up a riot helmet with a mask from the sofa, and handed it to her, saying seriously, "Let's go! We still have a lot to do."

The road was still empty. Following the route from the previous day, Su Hao drove the transport truck, stopping in front of various shops to load the necessary supplies.

At the pharmacy, he filled a burlap bag with vitamin capsules, bandages, medical cotton, antibiotic tablets, and surgical instruments like hemostatic clamps and scissors.

The shoe store's door was open. He tore off the packaging boxes in the warehouse and stuffed dozens of breathable and protective sports shoes into the bag, throwing them into the truck.

Although it was summer, it didn't stop him from entering a store with a "Clearance Sale" sign, specializing in "Erdos" down jackets. He swung his hunting knife to cut off the limbs of the two zombies wandering inside, quickly extracted the fungal hormones, and called Xinyan to load the clothes she liked onto the truck before leaving.

This city was not as peaceful as it appeared. Zombies, lacking active thinking, were easily attracted by other animals. A rat or a sparrow could make them gather in a corner for a long time. Once they couldn't get food, they would scatter and look for other targets.

Su Hao had to collect more things as soon as possible. Besides the zombie groups, many foods would rot, and the shelves, without personnel management, would be covered in dust... To get them, he had to act quickly and early.