Chapter 29: Xie Hao Disappeared to Eat
At this point, Lin Han’s mercenary squad could return to ambush them at any second. Given the extreme danger, Xie Hao and Xie Zetian made an executive decision to temporarily squat inside God’s Supermarket. After all, if Song Yuqing was running a retail business, she couldn’t exactly drive away potential customers, right? Besides, they intended to be high-paying, repeat clients.
Liu Xiaona rolled his eyes. “You two are absolutely shameless!”
Xie Zetian casually brushed his bangs out of his eyes, offering a smug smile. “Thank you. You can only become a successful boss in this world if your skin is thicker than a concrete wall.”
Song Yuqing harbored absolutely zero intentions of turning God’s Supermarket into a post-apocalyptic bed-and-breakfast. She strongly urged the cousins to claim the vacant, mutated residence next door instead. She reasoned that the deadly heatwave had already baked the aggressive mutated flora inside into submission. Aside from the occasional stray walker or the risk of a sneak attack from a rival psychic, it was a perfectly safe spot!
However, the harder she pitched the idea, the more guilty she felt.
“Look, it’s literally right next door,” she insisted. “There are free beds, a functional restroom… anyway, it’s definitely better than being packed like sardines in here.”
Xie Hao: “…”
Xie Zetian, however, agreed to the arrangement readily. Having officially established themselves as next-door neighbors, the dictator casually pulled up a chair by the storefront window, leaning his head back and closing his eyes to rest. Xie Hao sighed and took the seat beside him.
“Gah~”
Gaha walked over, clutching a wet rag. She tapped the window frame, politely signaling the two men: Please move aside. This zombie would like to clean the glass.
Xie Zetian opened his eyes, stared at her for a second, and slowly closed them again. He was far too exhausted to care.
Xie Hao, however, stood up incredibly awkwardly, carefully avoiding eye contact with Gaha. He felt deeply embarrassed. So much for love at first sight, he thought. Falling for a zombie is just a cosmic joke!
As dinner time approached, Song Yuqing nudged Liu Xiaona toward the back kitchen to start cooking. But the burly driver deliberately dawdled, aimlessly reorganizing the shelves while casting resentful glances toward the two men by the window.
“Those two are still sitting there,” Liu Xiaona whispered urgently into Song Yuqing’s ear. “Are we seriously going to feed them for free?”
Even with his eyes closed, Xie Zetian’s ears perked up, catching the hushed complaint perfectly. Yet, he remained absolutely motionless in his chair. Yeah, I hear you. But I know how the world works. If I don’t move, you still have to feed me, right?
When Xie Hao overheard the whisper, he frowned. Without a word, he stood up, grabbed his golden broadsword, and marched straight out the front door.
Xie Zetian chose to remain completely glued to his seat.
Song Yuqing looked out the window, watching Xie Hao sprint fiercely down the alleyway, aggressively hacking down every single stray zombie that crossed his path. Curious about what had caught the manager’s attention, Gaha leaned over Song Yuqing’s shoulder to peek outside.
“Gaha?” Is he practicing his form? Or is he just venting his anger?
As a fully sentient, evolved zombie, Gaha possessed absolutely no emotional attachment to the lower-tier undead. In fact, she still vastly preferred the company of living humans; their scent was incredibly invigorating to her.
Song Yuqing raised an eyebrow, turned around, and physically dragged a grumbling Liu Xiaona into the kitchen. Reaching into her spatial vault, she pulled out a massive cut of premium beef and several enhanced tomatoes, instructing him to prepare enough food for six people.
“Are you serious? You’re actually going to give them a free meal?” Liu Xiaona asked, looking entirely reluctant.
“Just wait.”
Sure enough, right as the rich, savory aroma of Liu Xiaona’s tomato beef stew began wafting from the kitchen, Xie Hao returned, sweating profusely as he dragged exactly ten primary zombie corpses to the threshold.
“Here,” Xie Hao panted, pausing to shoot an awkward glance at Gaha before looking back at Song Yuqing. “Ten zombies. Is that enough to cover our food tab for the next five days?”
Song Yuqing nodded with profound satisfaction.
Just as Xie Hao let out a sigh of relief and moved to sit back down, Song Yuqing smoothly pulled two heavy military survival rucksacks from the shelf and set them on the counter.
“Premium survival backpacks. Fully stocked with emergency trauma medicine, purified water, and tactical necessities. Price is ten zombies each,” she announced, holding up five fingers to emphasize the deal.
Without saying a single word, Xie Hao jumped right back out of his chair, gripped his sword, and marched back out into the heat.
Wow, Song Yuqing thought, thoroughly impressed. He doesn’t even try to haggle. What an absolute dream customer.
She began eagerly scanning her own shelves, wondering what else she could upsell him on. Whether or not she shattered her monthly quota of thirty zombies in a single afternoon depended entirely on how hard Xie Hao was willing to grind.
Having remained silent for days, Master Fu suddenly let out a dry, bitter laugh in her mind. “Just you wait. I’ll officially raise your minimum sales target sooner or later. You’re completely exploiting the local economy!”
Deep in the alleyway, Xie Hao was on a relentless hunt. Every time he hacked a walker down, he efficiently dug out the crystal core, absorbing the raw energy on the spot to replenish his stamina. As the kills piled up, his combat rhythm grew incredibly smooth, and the elemental energy circulating within his core expanded significantly.
Before he fully realized it, Xie Hao had ventured deep into the farthest, darkest recesses of the alley network.
Strangely enough, the deeper he went, the fewer zombies he encountered. In truth, Xie Hao had already successfully hit his quota of ten kills, but the rush of absorbing the cores had become highly addictive. He couldn’t force himself to stop. It felt exactly like grinding levels in a video game; he was so lost in the zone that an entire day seemed to slip by in the blink of an eye.
Crouched on the edge of a rooftop overlooking the narrow lane, a zombie with piercing, golden-brown eyes stared intently down at the guard, its muscles coiled and ready to strike. The tattered, blood-stained T-shirt clinging to its frame served as the only testament to its former human life.
“Hiss!”
A bald zombie wearing a loud floral shirt suddenly leaped down from a low brick wall, ambushing Xie Hao from the flank.
Reacting on pure instinct, Xie Hao swung his golden broadsword up, successfully blocking the bald zombie’s strike. But as his eyes met the creature’s golden-brown pupils, a shockwave of terror hit his chest. The physical strength behind the monster’s blow was staggering; his heavy golden blade was nearly wrenched right out of his grip.
This was the absolute first time Xie Hao had ever crossed paths with a variant this powerful.
“Hiss!”
Seizing the distraction, the Zombie King in the tattered T-shirt dropped silently from the rooftop, landing squarely behind Xie Hao. Before the guard could react, the monster grabbed a massive handful of his hair and violently yanked backward.
With a sickening rip, Xie Hao’s toupee was torn completely off his scalp.
Despite the suffocating, blistering heatwave baking the town, Xie Hao suddenly felt an incredibly cold, humiliating breeze brush against his smooth, bald head.
The two golden-eyed variants immediately launched a highly coordinated, synchronized assault, boxing Xie Hao in from the left and right. The guard found himself instantly pushed onto his back foot. Every single walker he had encountered before this moment had been entirely mindless, relying on brute force and predictable lunges. But these two golden-eyed kings were fighting with tactical intelligence—feinting, dodging, and covering each other’s blind spots.
“Ahhh!” Xie Hao roared, burning his elemental reserves to frantically parry the dual onslaught. Spotting a narrow opening, he broke their formation and sprinted desperately toward a fork in the alley.
Back inside God’s Supermarket, Liu Xiaona proudly carried a massive, steaming pot of tomato beef stew out of the kitchen.
The moment the rich, savory aroma hit the air, everyone—except Gaha—immediately swarmed the counter.
Eat! Little Meat Bun smacked his lips, drool practically pooling at his jaws.
Showing absolutely zero manners, Xie Zetian aggressively shoved his way to the front of the line, snatching the very first plate of food for himself.
“Hey! Back off!” Liu Xiaona snapped, glaring at the dictator.
Ignoring the tension, Song Yuqing, Little Meat Bun, Liu Xiaona, and Xie Zetian each grabbed a heavily loaded plate, sitting in a neat row by the front window as they happily devoured the meal.
Gaha wandered over, curiously sniffing the rich tomato beef. She immediately shook her head in disinterest, turned away, and sat down obediently right beside Song Yuqing’s chair.
Because of their enhanced metabolisms, Little Meat Bun and Liu Xiaona finished their massive portions in record time. Almost instantly, their eyes locked onto the two remaining, untouched plates resting on the counter.
One plate belonged to Gaha. The other belonged to Xie Hao.
Chewing on the edge of his spoon, Liu Xiaona looked over at the zombie girl. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to eat your portion?” he asked vaguely.
“Gah.” Gaha shook her head firmly. She wasn’t hungry in the slightest. The energy from the single enhanced tomato she had consumed earlier was still fully sustaining her!
Taking that as a green light, Liu Xiaona and Little Meat Bun immediately lunged for Gaha’s plate, their hands clashing as they aggressively fought over the extra food, neither willing to back down.
“Whoever wins that plate has to go out into the ruins and find Xie Hao,” Song Yuqing announced slowly, taking a casual sip of water.
Still chewing his beef, Xie Zetian nodded vigorously in agreement. “Exactly! The sun is practically setting. Why hasn’t he made it back yet? Someone needs to go check on him!”
“I’ll go!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Liu Xiaona snatched the plate, buried his face in the bowl, and began inhaling the food with the ravenous intensity of a starved dog.
Little Meat Bun silently released his grip on the porcelain, staring at the burly man in absolute disgust. …Honestly, between the two of us, Liu Xiaona is the real wild animal.
In under sixty seconds, Liu Xiaona had completely polished off the extra plate. He let out a loud, deeply contented burp, patted his stomach, and casually strolled out the front door for a leisurely evening walk. Wait, no. I’m supposed to be looking for Xie Hao.
Stepping out of the alley, Liu Xiaona scanned the main street but saw absolutely no sign of the guard. Turning his attention deeper into the narrow lane, he noticed several freshly decapitated, rotting zombie corpses littering the pavement.
Damn. Did he really fight this many?
Liu Xiaona ventured deeper into the dark alley, casually kicking the severed limbs and torsos into neat piles along the wall as he walked.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
Xie Hao’s frantic, desperate shout suddenly echoed from the depths of the ruins. Judging by the acoustic bounce, he wasn’t far away.
Liu Xiaona’s heart instantly tightened. He quickened his pace, breaking into a light jog as he rushed toward the source of the scream.
As the sun finally dipped below the horizon, the alleyway plunged into an absolute, suffocating darkness. The creeping shadows triggered a deep, childhood fear of the dark within Liu Xiaona. He swallowed hard, his hands balling into tight fists as he nervously glanced over his shoulder, terrified that something far more horrifying than a zombie was currently creeping up behind him.
Fortunately, the path remained completely empty. No humans, no zombies, no ghosts.
Liu Xiaona slowly exhaled a shaky breath, whispering a mantra to encourage himself: Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. You’re a high-tier mutant. You’re fine.
“Liu Xiaona…”
A faint, trembling female voice suddenly drifted from the shadows ahead.
Liu Xiaona froze dead in his tracks, every single muscle in his face scrunching together in pure, unadulterated terror.
