Seeing that cold-looking man take the lead, Zhou Zhi assumed that he was the group's leader. Although she was very curious about the little creature wrapped around his bosom, she could not bring herself to ask, after all they were not familiar.

Half way up the escalator, Chrome suddenly stopped. Everyone behind him also stopped. Dylan and Yilan immediately became alert.

Li Guanting noticed their actions and pushed Zhou Zhi behind him. Yuan Jin held the metal bat ready in his hand.

Just when Yuan Jin's group thought it was a false alarm, they heard the roar of a couple zombies coming towards them.

Chrome unsheathed his sword and walked towards the zombies. Yilan and Dylan stood in a distance. They saw Chrome's gesture: He wanted to test these people.

Not failing their expectations, Yuan Jin and Li Guanting also ran towards the zombies with their metal bats. Yuan Jin swung his bat and hit a zombie's head, causing it to fall on the ground. Another zombie ran close to Yuan Jin but was hit by Li Guanting to the side.

"Aim for its head!" Yuan Jin faced towards Li Guanting and shouted.

He turned back towards the zombie that he had hit to the ground. It was slowly standing up. Yuan Jin aimed for its head once again. He smashed its head until he saw the zombie stop moving.

Li Guanting also aimed for the zombie's head after hearing Yuan Jin's shout. He used all his strength and swung his bat at the zombie's head, treating the head as a baseball. To his surprise, the zombie's head went flying towards Dylan and Yilan. Before he could warn them, he saw the man casually flick his hand and deflect the flying zombie head.

At the same time when Yuan Jin and Li Guanting were fighting, a zombie had quietly made its way behind Zhou Zhi, who was watching Yuan Jin and Li Guanting fight. Suddenly, she heard a low growling voice behind her. She quickly turned around and saw the zombie stretch out its hand towards her. Her heart was pounding against her chest, and she was stiff with fear. When she brought her hands to her chest, she remembered that she was holding the metal pole. Although the metal pole was a little short and this, it was still a weapon. She grit her teeth and whacked the zombie's arm away.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down. Yuan Jin and Li Guanting were fighting zombies, she should not drag them down. She tightened her hands on the metal pole and repeatedly hit the zombie until it fell to the ground. Immediately, Zhou Zhi aimed for its forehead and used the metal pole to pierce it. After seeing that the zombie stopped moving, she removed the metal pole from the zombie with trembling fingers. She was slightly panting from hitting the zombie, but it was also because of the mixture of emotions she was feeling.

Dylan and Yilan appeared to be doing nothing, but they were watching the newbies fight, ready to take action if something went wrong. Chrome had leisurely beheaded 3 zombies within 3 seconds and was watching the them fight, quietly assessing them. Seeing that all three of them fought and did not ask for help, he nodded.

A couple seconds after Li Guanting had seen Dylan deflect the flying zombie head, he heard the sound of a zombie behind him. He turned around to see his girlfriend whacking the zombie a couple times with the metal pole he gave her and then stab its forehead when it fell down.

He immediately ran towards her. "Ah Zhi, why didn't you tell me? What if you got hurt?" He saw the thin layer of sweat on her forehead and helped her wipe it. Luckily, he didn't get dirty after sending a zombie head flying, so he use his hands.

Zhou Zhi smiled at him and said, "You and Yuan Jin were fighting zombies. I can't add to your burden...At the very least, I should be able to protect myself so you can fight with ease."

Li Guanting felt touched with his girlfriend's words. After making sure that she had no injuries, he held her hand and walked towards the group.

"You okay?" Yuan Jin looked at Zhou Zhi with slight worry in his eyes. Although he did not show it, after spending so much time with Li Guanting and Zhou Zhi, he treated them as his brother and sister.

"I'm fine Yuan Ge." Zhou Zhi gave him a smile.

"Wah, the way you whacked that zombie was so inspiring~" Yilan laughed. "It's not a bad way to vent out your frustrations, right? When I first fought against a zombie I did not do as well as you. My brother had to come save me." Yilan showed a sad face.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Zhou Zhi blushed, but she also felt that her body lightened up. She did not feel the stuffiness in her chest when she left the house.

She extended her hand and introduced her group, "I'm Zhou Zhi. This is my boyfriend, Li Guanting and our senior, Yuan Jin. We're all from the same University."

Yilan shook her hand. "I'm Yilan. This is my brother, Dylan. The cold-looking guy over there is our Boss."

Chrome scanned the surroundings and did not sense any more zombies. The third floor was the electronics floor. They did not need anything from the third floor, so Chrome continued up to the next floor. The group followed quietly behind him. Dylan walked right behind Chrome. Yuan Jin stayed at the rear with Li Guanting. Zhou Zhi and Yilan were both whispering to each other.

Chrome rubbed Altyria's ears gently and checked the task menu.

Main Task

* Survive for 3 years in this apocalyptic world. Remaining time: 1095 day(s).

Branch Task

* Kill all zombies in the department store (28/34)

Chain Task

* Assist Yuan Jin and his friends get food on the fourth floor. (Incomplete)

*Thump thump thump*

The sound of their footsteps, along with the whispers from the women, echoed in the empty department store as Chrome thought to himself. Six more zombies left. They should all be on the 4th floor.

One by one, they stepped onto the 4th floor and glanced around.

*Ding*

Chain Task

* Assist Yuan Jin and his friends get food on the fourth floor. (Complete)

Yuan Jin and Li Guanting saw that they had arrived on the 4th floor, but did not immediately go find food. Since Chrome and his group brought them along, they would let them get food first.

Chrome nodded towards Yuan Jin and walked towards one of the stores selling snacks. Dylan turned towards Yuan Jin and his group and said, "You guys can go find food. Be careful for the zombies though."

Dylan and Yilan ran towards the store where Chrome disappeared into. Yilan turned around and waved at them before heading inside. Yuan Jin, Li Guanting, and Zhou Zhi were left standing near the escalators.

"Let's go." Yuan Jin turned and walked towards one of the restaurants. Li Guanting and Zhou Zhi followed behind. Inside that fast food restaurant, there were some sealed snacks on the shelves and plenty of water bottles in the fridge. They stuff as many as they could in their backpacks and headed towards a bakery.

The store's window was broken, so they had to avoid the glass shards on the ground. As they walked inside, they could smell something rotting.

"Is there a zombie somewhere in here?" Zhou Zhi asked as she gripped the metal pole in her hand.

Yuan Jin frowned slightly and said, "Most likely. Don't wander off alone. Check the store carefully."

Li Guanting walked behind his girlfriend as they walked towards the back of the store. When he glanced at the floor near Zhou Zhi's feet, he noticed a hand on the ground.

"Ah!" Zhou Zhi felt something pull her ankle, causing her to fall forward.

Yuan Jin turned around to see Zhou Zhi falling towards him and the zombie on the ground. He caught Zhou Zhi, and at the time, Li Guanting had swung his metal bat down at the zombie's arm, breaking it. After stabilizing Zhou Zhi, Yuan Jin slammed his metal bat at the zombie's head.

Li Guanting held her in his arms, "Ah Zhi, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That really caught me off guard!" The hand that grabbed her ankle had loosened, and she shook it off. "He he, even though Yuan Ge just told us to be more careful..." She stuck out her tongue.

Li Guanting crouched down to look at her ankle. Seeing that there were no punctured skin, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"We were used to seeing zombies on their feet, so a surprise attack from the ground was not something we expected." Yuan Jin said.

They continued looking around the store. Li Guanting stayed by her side during the entire time.

"Look! There are some boxes of crackers over there." Zhou Zhi pointed at the several boxes that she spotted.

"We can only fit half of these boxes in our backpacks." Li Guanting said after packing his backpack to the fullest. "Maybe we should throw some clothes out."

"Yeah, the post said that food and water is the most important. I also agree with that." Yuan Jin said while taking out an extra pair of clothes. After taking them out, he was able to fit 4 more boxes of crackers.

Li Guanting and Zhou Zhi did the same. They also managed to fit one more water bottle into their backpacks.

On the other hand, Chrome and his team tossed some snacks into their team storage. They did not need food, but there were several snacks that they craved. They went from one store to another killing the rest of the zombies in the department store. After killing off the last zombie, the system sounded.

*Ding*

Branch Task

* Kill all zombies in the department store (34/34)[Complete]

They walked out of the store and went to the escalator. Yuan Jin and his friends were there waiting for them.

"Thanks for the help." Yuan Jin said as looked at Chrome.

Chrome nodded. He was about to turn and head down the escalator when he saw Yuan Jin's hesitant face.

Yuan Jin took a deep breath and then said, "I know that this is a bit unreasonable, after all we are just strangers to you, but can you escort us to D Military Base? My father is the Commander there. I'll make sure to reward you once we get there."

*Ding*

Chain Task

* Escort Yuan Jin and his friends to D Military Base

Chrome slightly puckered his brows. Dylan and Yilan were also somewhat confused. Shouldn't they have the choice to decline the task?