Chapter 8: True Heart for True Heart
A rogue zombie suddenly broke through the earthen wall erected by the red-haired girl. Baring its rotting teeth, it lunged straight at Song Yuqing.
Sister Qin’s reflexes were razor-sharp. With a swift swing of her massive golden blade, she cleanly lobbed the creature’s head off its shoulders.
Song Yuqing’s heart skipped a beat in sheer terror.
Glancing down at the fallen, headless corpse, she decided to treat this as her first official transaction with Sister Qin’s group. She quickly retrieved a bottle of water and a pack of instant noodles from her backpack and shoved them into Sister Qin’s hands.
“One zombie buys you one bottle of water,” Song Yuqing explained. “I’m throwing in the instant noodles on the house, since fate brought us together.”
Sister Qin raised an eyebrow, looking entirely incredulous.
“I’m a water-type mutant, so I can generate my own drinking water,” Liu Xiaona said, rubbing his large hands together eagerly. “Can I swap the water for another pack of instant noodles?”
“Sure,” Song Yuqing agreed, completely unbothered by such a minor detail.
“What else do you sell at this supermarket of yours?” Liu Xiaona asked, his excitement growing.
“A lot. Follow me and you’ll see for yourself.”
Brimming with curiosity, Liu Xiaona shot Sister Qin a highly expectant look, silently begging her to agree.
Sister Qin hesitated. As the group’s leader, she had guided them through hell, fighting off multiple bands of ruthless robbers along the way. While the woman in front of her didn’t seem malicious, she couldn’t afford to drop her guard.
“Come on, let’s just go take a look,” Liu Xiaona urged, tugging at Sister Qin’s sleeve and acting surprisingly coquettish for a burly man. “I think she’s a lot like you, honestly. You’re outwardly dominant, and she’s quietly powerful. Either way, she doesn’t seem like a bad person. Besides, we’re still a ways off from the survivor base, and our food rations are completely gone.”
“Fine. Let’s go take a look.” Sister Qin sighed, utterly incapable of resisting Liu Xiaona when he acted like a pleading child. It was just too weird a sight to ignore.
Secretly delighted, Song Yuqing bent down to pick up both the zombie’s severed head and its body.
“Follow me.”
“Ugh, gross!” Liu Xiaona recoiled in disgust. “Zombies are absolutely filthy. Why are you dragging that thing with you?”
Song Yuqing offered a faint smile. “You’ll understand in a minute.”
The group followed her back down the alley. Along the way, the surrounding horde of zombies was kept at bay by the thick earthen barricade erected by Ai, the red-haired girl.
When they finally reached the entrance to God’s Supermarket, Sister Qin and her crew felt thoroughly cheated. It looked like a dilapidated shack. Where was the supermarket they were promised?
But the moment Song Yuqing pushed open the shabby wooden door, the group gasped. Inside, the shelves were practically overflowing with supplies. Since the outbreak, shopping malls and grocery stores everywhere had either been overrun by the undead or violently plundered by survivors. It was virtually impossible to find a stash this perfectly organized and fully stocked.
Liu Xiaona pointed at a self-heating bento box on the shelf, practically yelling, “Hey! Can I trade my instant noodles for this instead?”
“No problem.”
As she spoke, Song Yuqing casually used her wrench to crack open the skull of the zombie she had dragged back. She noticed that the crystal core inside was slightly darker than the ones she had seen previously.
Right in front of Sister Qin and the others, Song Yuqing let the crystal core dissolve into her palm, absorbing its energy.
“Wait, what is that?” Sister Qin asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
“It’s a crystal core. It enhances your energy and levels up your superpowers,” Song Yuqing explained, pausing to wipe her hands. “Next time you guys come to buy supplies, you can dig the cores out and keep them for yourselves. The supermarket only requires the actual bodies for currency.”
Song Yuqing had quickly realized a crucial fact: the stronger these superhumans became, the more zombies they could hunt. The more zombies they hunted, the better her store’s monthly performance would be. If she crushed her sales quota, she could comfortably live out the apocalypse inside God’s Supermarket.
While Sister Qin and Liu Xiaona were still trying to process the revelation that zombie brains contained power-leveling crystals, Song Yuqing nonchalantly tossed the headless corpse and its severed head into the humming security gate.
Ding~ Intermediate zombie.
Ah, so it was a mid-level variant, Song Yuqing thought. No wonder it managed to bust through Ai’s earth wall!
Curious, Sister Qin and the others crowded around the glowing security gate, staring at it in awe.
“It’s the supermarket’s proprietary zombie appraisal system,” Song Yuqing explained smoothly.
“Did it… did it just vaporize the body?” Liu Xiaona’s eyes were wide as saucers.
Grrrrmble…
Liu Xiaona’s stomach chose that exact moment to let out a thunderous growl.
Sister Qin shot him an exasperated look, then smiled and shook her head.
“Since that was an intermediate zombie, its trade value is double that of a primary one,” Song Yuqing noted. “I’ll throw in an extra bento box for you guys.”
“Can we eat in here?” Liu Xiaona asked, swallowing hard.
“Of course.”
Song Yuqing pulled up five chairs, arranging them by the front window so Sister Qin and her team could sit comfortably and eat their hot meals side by side.
While they ate, Song Yuqing noticed that the shop interior seemed unusually dim for broad daylight. Looking out the window, she realized the thick earthen wall Ai had erected outside was blocking the sunlight.
Maintaining a massive structure like that took continuous focus and drained stamina. It had to be exhausting for the girl.
“Ai, right?” Song Yuqing called out gently. “You don’t need to keep that wall up anymore.”
Sister Qin paused mid-bite. “?”
Ai blinked. “Huh?”
“What do you mean she doesn’t need to keep it up?!” Liu Xiaona protested with a mouthful of food. “That’s our only protective shield!”
Channeling her best impression of Master Fu’s arrogant tone, Song Yuqing declared, “As long as you are inside God’s Supermarket, you are absolutely safe.”
Half-skeptical, Ai slowly dissolved the earthen wall. Beside her, Sister Qin gripped the hilt of her golden blade, her muscles tensing as she prepared for the inevitable zombie swarm.
But as the dirt crumbled away, the undead didn’t rush the storefront as expected. Instead, they hit an invisible barrier, milling aimlessly in the alley while maintaining a strict, terrified distance from the convenience store.
Seeing the bloodthirsty monsters completely paralyzed by fear, staring blankly at the shop without daring to take a single step closer, the five survivors let their jaws hit the floor.
Still chewing, Liu Xiaona whipped his head around and shot Song Yuqing an enthusiastic thumbs-up. “You’re a total badass!”
Sister Qin slowly relaxed her grip on her weapon, a look of profound understanding crossing her face. “No wonder you had the guts to open a convenience store in the middle of a warzone.”
“It’s a supermarket, actually,” Song Yuqing corrected her deadpan.
“Well, whatever it is, it’s the greatest supermarket on earth!” Liu Xiaona praised, rapidly unpacking his bento. In less than a minute, he had practically inhaled his half, reluctantly passing the rest of his portion to the young wind-type user. The remaining three team members happily shared the other two boxes, unbothered by the meager rations.
“Still hungry?” Song Yuqing asked, the gears turning in her head. “Why don’t you guys go out and kill a few more zombies?”
She was silently doing the math. If she played her cards right, this squad of heavy hitters could easily drop twenty zombies at her doorstep in one go.
Sister Qin: “…”
“Say less! I’m going back in!” Liu Xiaona leaped to his feet. He was eager to test out his water-type ability, twisting the moisture in the air into high-pressure water whips designed to decapitate the undead.
As soon as the others finished their noodles, they all eagerly got up. Leaving their heavy backpacks with Song Yuqing for safekeeping, they jogged back into the alley and began happily slaughtering zombies just past the store’s boundary line.
Watching them, Song Yuqing felt a sudden itch. Since she had absorbed several crystal cores herself, her internal energy should be roughly on par with theirs. Seeing how effortlessly they were tearing through the horde, she felt tempted to join the fray.
“Don’t even think about it,” Master Fu’s voice abruptly echoed in her mind, thoroughly bursting her bubble. “Every ounce of energy you absorbed went straight into expanding your spatial void. Your actual physical combat power is practically zero.”
“Seriously? Then what about me?!” Song Yuqing protested mentally, her lips twitching in annoyance.
“You? The stronger your spatial ability gets, the better you become at protecting yourself.”
“How?”
“By hiding inside it.”
Song Yuqing: So my ultimate power is just being a super-coward.
Master Fu showed no mercy. “Who told you to pull all-nighters every single day before the apocalypse? Your physical stamina is absolute garbage!”
Truth be told, Master Fu believed it was sheer, dumb luck that Song Yuqing had managed to outrun the initial zombie swarm on the night of the meteor shower. Back then, the newly infected were sluggish and weak. If she tried to run from today’s evolved horde, she would be torn to shreds in seconds.
An hour later, Sister Qin’s squad returned, dragging ten headless corpses behind them. Eight were primary zombies, and two were intermediate variants. It had only been a week and three days since the meteor shower, yet the undead were already rapidly evolving.
But what about the humans?
Sister Qin clearly shared Song Yuqing’s train of thought. Walking up to the security gate, she carefully ran a hand along its metallic frame. “Can this thing detect a superhuman’s ability level too?”
Song Yuqing blinked. Master Fu had never mentioned that feature.
“Let’s test it out,” Song Yuqing said. She was the first to step up, slowly extending her hand through the gate. The white light washed over her skin, feeling like a faint, static tickle.
Ding~ Intermediate spatial ability.
Wow, Song Yuqing thought. Master Fu really does keep secrets.
Thrilled by the prospect, Sister Qin and her crew eagerly lined up to pass their hands through the scanner.
Ding~ Intermediate metal ability.
Ding~ Primary earth ability.
Ding~ Primary wind ability.
Ding~ Intermediate fire ability.
Ding~ Intermediate water ability.
Sister Qin beamed with pride. Her little squad was genuinely formidable!
“Think about it,” Song Yuqing analyzed aloud. “You guys didn’t even know about absorbing crystal cores until today, yet you’ve naturally reached intermediate levels. That proves that pushing your limits in live combat also forces your superpowers to evolve.”
Liu Xiaona nodded vigorously. “That makes total sense!”
Sister Qin looked at Song Yuqing, her eyes brimming with genuine admiration. Who wouldn’t respect someone this sharp, capable, and completely transparent?
“Song Yuqing, let’s be friends,” Sister Qin said, extending her hand. She didn’t just respect Song Yuqing’s mysterious strength; she respected her character. Song Yuqing had freely shared life-saving intel about the crystal cores and the leveling system instead of hoarding the knowledge or using it to exploit them.
“I’d like that.”
Feeling the warmth and sincerity in Sister Qin’s gaze, Song Yuqing firmly shook her hand. “Once you guys get settled at the survivor base, make sure you come back and shop at God’s Supermarket.”
“Don’t you worry about that!” Liu Xiaona promised, heavily thumping his own chest. “We’ll be your best promoters! We’ll tell everyone!”
Seeing that the sun was beginning to set, Song Yuqing offered to let them crash inside the supermarket for the night. However, Sister Qin politely declined. She was determined to reach the nearby survivor base as quickly as possible.
“Are you guys really in that much of a rush?” Song Yuqing asked, not fully understanding the urgency. What difference would one day make?
“You haven’t heard?” Liu Xiaona sighed heavily. “We caught a radio broadcast two days ago. Word is the base is already severely overcrowded, and leadership is debating whether to close the gates and stop accepting refugees entirely. We’re terrified of getting locked out, so we need to get there and secure our spots ASAP.”
If it weren’t for that looming threat, Liu Xiaona never would have agreed to travel after dark. Who knew what mutated horrors crawled out of the woodwork at night?
Understanding their desperation, Song Yuqing didn’t push the issue. Instead, she walked over to the hardware shelf and pulled out a heavy-duty, military-grade flashlight.
“I know Aunt Zhang can use her fire to light the way,” Song Yuqing said, handing the flashlight to Sister Qin, “but it’s risky to let her drain her energy reserves just for illumination. You’ll need her combat-ready if you run into trouble before reaching the gates.”
“Thank you,” Sister Qin said softly, accepting the heavy flashlight.
Watching the exchange, Liu Xiaona frantically patted down his pockets and rummaged through his rucksack, desperately trying to find something of equal value to give Song Yuqing in return. Finding nothing, he hung his head in defeat.
But Sister Qin was different. She had the power to give Song Yuqing a far more practical parting gift.
Stepping outside, Sister Qin channeled her intermediate metal ability. She manipulated the surrounding ambient ores and scrap iron, weaving a thick, heavily reinforced metallic exoskeleton over the entire structural frame of the dilapidated convenience store.
“Just in case,” she smiled.
It was an incredibly heartwarming gesture—a display of genuine, hard-earned camaraderie in a broken world.
Standing in the doorway, Song Yuqing watched Sister Qin, Liu Xiaona, and the rest of the squad disappear down the ruined street. As the shadows lengthened, she looked back into the quiet, empty expanse of God’s Supermarket, a sudden, heavy wave of loneliness washing over her.
