“What should we do? Should we go there, too?” A long-haired woman asked after looking out the window. Her height was not too tall, yet not too short.

“It’s been five minutes since they had gone inside. Maybe it is safe.” A tall gentle-looking man standing at her side spoke out his thoughts. His eyes were gentle and soft as he gazed at her.

A petite short-haired woman, who stood at the side, frowned. “What if we run into zombies? We might get infected if we go outside?”

“But, Xin Xin, we’re running out of food. There are only a couple bags of chips and bread left, not to mention our lack of water.” The long-haired woman persuaded her friend who refused to leave the house.

This argument had been going on since early morning. That short-haired woman whined and complained all morning, yet did not seem to want to do anything to change their current situation.

“Zhou Zhi is right. We’ll have to leave the house sooner or later. Why not go now when there are others there?” A man, who had been silently reading something on his phone, spoke up in agreement with Zhou Zhi, the long-haired girl. Then he turned to face the gentle-looking man and said, “Guanting, go bring out your bats. We’ll use those to smash those zombies if we run into them.”

“Got it.” Li Guanting left the room and headed towards this storage room.

Seeing that the man had already made the decision, the short-haired woman bit her lip and did not speak any more.

These four people were one of the few who were watching Chrome’s team make their way inside the department store. They had heard zombies roaring in the department store parking and had gone upstairs to look out the window. They were all from the same university. Before D-day came, they were staying at Li Guanting’s house to work on a group project that their professor assigned to them. Because they would stay in the house working on the project for a long period of time, they stocked up on a lot of food and water, so they would not have to go to the supermarket often. However, now they were running out, because they had not restocked their food supplies for a week. They had intended to go buy food at the supermarket today; however, they woke up to people screaming and yelling. They saw monsters walking around outside, and they did not dare to recklessly leave the house.

Zhou Zhi had been dating Li Guanting since they were in high school. After Zhou Zhi met Gong Xinya in B University, they quickly became friends. Yuan Jin was Li Guanting’s senior classmate from one of his courses. Because Gong Xinya often hung out with Zhou Zhi on campus, she got the chance to meet with her crush, Yuan Jin. Yuan Jin was regarded as one of the male Gods by all the women in their university. If Li Guanting, the other male God, was a gentle-looking man, then Yuan Jin was a cold and sharp-looking man.

Yuan Jin was aware of Gong Xinya’s feelings, but he did not reciprocate her feelings and had refused her very clearly; however, she refused to give up.

Li Guanting knew that his senior felt annoyed with Gong Xinya and could only help Yuan Jin by not giving her any opportunities to get close.

Zhou Zhi was initially very close to Gong Xinya; however, these days, Gong Xinya’s temper was bad and often complained behind her back. Coupled with Li Guanting informing her of the things Gong Xinya had done secretly, a knot slowly formed in her heart unknowingly Zhou Zhi.

Gong Xinya was aware that Yuan Jin was trying to keep a distance away from her, and Li Guanting was helping him. Thus, she clung to Zhou Zhi like a lifeboat just to be able to brush her existence in from of Yuan Jin in hopes of getting his affection one day. However, she reached her limit today.

“We’re in luck, Yuan Ge! I found 2 bats in the storage room.” Li Guanting came back holding two metal bats in his hands.

Yuan Jin took one of the bats and swung it. “We’ll make do with this.”

“Are we going to come back to the house?” Zhou Zhi looked towards the two men and asked.

Li Guanting turned to look at Yuan Jin, clearly indicating that Yuan Jin would be the leader of their group.

Yuan Jin thought for a minute before he spoke, “Let’s pack up whatever we can. I’m not sure whether we will leave the city today or not. However, I am certain that we will have to leave here sooner or later. After all, food is limited.”

At this time, Gong Xinya spoke in a soft voice, “C-Can I stay here until you guys are ready to leave the city? I can watch our stuff, and it would be more convenient for you guys to run without carrying things with you.”

Everyone looked at Gong Xinya. Seeing that everyone was looking at her, Gong Xinya lowered her head as tears welled up in her eyes. Her fingers gripped her clothes tightly.

“Xin Xin, we probably won’t come back to the house. Most likely, we will directly leave after finding food.” Zhou Zhi said.

“But…But…” Gong Xinya couldn’t think of a better reason to let them stay.

Li Guanting shook his head and did not bother persuading her. He knew Yuan Jin’s temper. Yuan Jin would not compromise for Gong Xinya. If it weren’t for the professor’s order, he would not have even let Gong Xinya join their group project.

“If you don’t want to leave, then you can stay here. We’ll go.” Yuan Jin said coldly and left the room.

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Gong Xinya clenched her hands tightly. Her nails dug deep into the flesh of her palms. Negative emotions swelled up in her heart, ready to burst at any moment.

Li Guanting said towards Zhou Zhi, “Ah Zhi, go pack up your stuff. We need to leave soon.”

Zhou Zhi looked towards Gong Xinya, and then said to her boyfriend, “Ting Ge, you pack up first. I’ll say a few words to Xin Xin.”

Li Guanting frowned, but still nodded. He knew that his girlfriend was kind-hearted, but Gong Xinya took her kindness for granted. That was one of the things he did not like about Gong Xinya. Hopefully, they could separate from Gong Xinya. Thinking about her pursuit of Yuan Jin, Li Guanting shook his head and left to pack up his stuff.

Now, there was only Gong Xinya and Zhou Zhi in the room.

“Xin Xin, I know that it’s scary outside, but we have to look for food. We can’t just stay here.”

“Ah Zhi, I know that we’re short on food and water, but wouldn’t it be okay to just find food and water, and then come back to the house? Why do we need to leave the city? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until help arrives?” Gong Xinya cried softly. Her eyes lowered to look at the ground, concealing the hidden emotions expressed in her eyes.

“Xin Xin…” Zhou Zhi opened her mouth, but she did not know what else to say. Feeling tired in her heart after trying to persuade her multiple times, she said “Well, Yuan Ge has already made the decision. If you change your mind, find us at the department store. Just don’t wait until the last minute when we might have already left the city.”

After saying that, she left the room without looking back. Gong Xinya had her head lowered; her expression was hidden in the shadows.

“Ah Zhi, I helped you pack up some clothes. You can check what else you need.” Li Guanting handed her a large backpack before she stepped into her room.

“Thanks Ting Ge!” Zhou Zhi smiled brightly at his thoughtfulness. “Have you already packed up your stuff?”

“Yeah. I’ll check to see if there is anything you can use as a weapon to protect yourself.” Li Guanting said as he turned to the storage room.

Zhou Zhi checked the items in the bag: one thick jacket, one set of clothes, extra underwear and socks, phone charger, and some daily necessities. Her boyfriend pretty much grabbed all the essential items that she needed and folded them neatly into the backpack. She kept her phone in her pocket instead of her backpack.

Yuan Jin finished packing his stuff and was waiting for the other two by the front door. Zhou Zhi came to the front door and saw Yuan Jin with a bag full of food and water.

“Yuan Ge, Xin Xin doesn’t seem to be going with us…” Zhou Zhi hesitated for a moment before bringing up this topic.

“I left a portion of food and water for her.” Yuan Jin said indifferently. He did not have any bad feelings towards Zhou Zhi. He knew she was kind-hearted and was considerate towards Li Guanting.

Zhou Zhi sighed with relief. Then she said, “Should we put the food and water into our backpacks so our hands will be free?”

Yuan Jin nodded and started putting some bags of chip and two water bottles into his backpack. He gave Zhou Zhi a large bag of bread and two bottles of water. All that was left was Li Guanting’s share of food and water.

Zhou Zhi was about to go call her boyfriend when she heard him coming.

“Sorry for taking so long.” Li Guanting handed a long metal pole to Zhou Zhi with a smile. “Better than nothing.”

Zhou Zhi took the metal pole and laughed. She motioned for him to turn around with his backpack facing her. She opened the zipper and helped put the food and water into his backpack before zipping his backpack closed.

“Let’s go.” Yuan Jin said as he grabbed his metal bat and walked out of the house.

“Xin Xin, we’re leaving!” Zhou Zhi shouted towards upstairs, hoping that Gong Xinya would change her mind. However, all she got was silence. Zhou Zhi closed the door and walked towards Li Guanting, who was waiting for her outside.

Li Guanting held his metal bat in his right hand and held Zhou Zhi’s hand with his left hand. As they walked further and further away, Zhou Zhi glanced back at the closed door and sighed.

They quickly caught up with Yuan Jin and quietly walked towards the department store that was a block and a half away.

Li Guanting glanced at his girlfriend and gently squeezed her hand. “Gong Xinya made her choice. Since she decided not to go with us, then we’ll go our separate ways.”

“She wasn’t like this before.” Zhou Zhi mumbled. Her friend that she always thought she was close with suddenly changed. She had thought it was because Yuan Jin was being cold to her, but now…

“Silly girl.” Li Guanting released his left hand to caress her head. “Gong Xinya had always been like this. She just concealed it so she could get close to you.”

“Really?” Zhou Zhi asked doubtfully.

“Otherwise, why else would I always tell you not to get too close to her.” He sighed softly. He felt that his girlfriend was sometimes stupid, but who told him to fall in love with this part of her as well.

“Zhou Zhi is kind-hearted and simple. That’s why Gong Xinya had an easy time getting what she wanted.” Yuan Jin suddenly joined in their conversation. “Our world is changing right now. You can’t trust people whole-heartedly nowadays.” The latter sentence was said towards Zhou Zhi.

*************

Inside the department store, Dylan and Yilan killed all the zombies in their assigned stores. Now, they were leisurely, yet swiftly grabbing the clothes they might need. Although they have plenty of clothes from the previous worlds, they had a habit of grabbing stuff and throwing it into their space storage. Anyway, their space storage had plenty of empty space.

Soon, it was time to meet up with Chrome.

“Boss, I picked some clothes for Altyria to wear when she turns to human form.” Yilan held several bags in her hand.

Chrome glanced at the bags in her hand. He had the urge to say: I will only allow Altyria to wear the clothes that I chose for her. However, they were short on time, so he could not personally choose clothes for her. His only comfort was the fact that he chose some small outfits for his little wife to wear in Lylin form, who had been tied up on Chrome’s body again as she refined the world essence in her body.

“Let’s go to the second floor.” Chrome threw the bags of clothes into his space storage and went up the escalator.

“What’s on the second floor?” Dylan asked as he walked up the non-moving escalator.

Yilan glanced at the map of the department store that she found and said, “Some jewelry shops, more clothing shops, and a kit----Woah!.”

Chrome suddenly turned around and swung his unsheathed sword towards Yilan. At the same time, Dylan pulled Yilan back. Chrome’s sword beheaded a zombie instantly. Blood spattered towards Yilan and Dylan, but Yilan put up a water shield just in time.

“Holy s***…I almost had a heart attack!” Yilan patted her chest. “Where did this guy come from?”

Chrome flicked the drops of blood off his sword and sheathed it. “It jumped down from above.” He pointed up to the third floor.

The escalator area was wide open and had nothing covering their heads. The zombie jumped down very suddenly, but Chrome managed to sense it coming.

He lowered his head to check Altyria before saying, “Don’t lower your guard.”

“Aye, aye Boss!” Yilan saluted to Chrome.

“How many zombies are on this floor?” Dylan asked as they reached the second floor.

Chrome glanced around, and then said, “7 zombies. This way.” Chrome walked towards one direction.

His first stop on the second floor was a very important one.

It was…the store that sold kitchenware.