Chapter 89: Team Building
“Tonight, we’re going on an adventure.”
The moment Little Meat Bun wiped his mouth, Song Yuqing announced with a bright smile that all members of God’s Supermarket were about to participate in an official team-building event.
Little Meat Bun let out a massive yawn, shooting Song Yuqing a pointed look. See this? I’m exhausted.
Song Yuqing gently rubbed the panda’s furry head and cooed softly, “Please?”
Oh!
Little Meat Bun’s eyes instantly snapped wide open, and he sat up perfectly straight.
“Where are we even supposed to go for an adventure?” Liu Xiaona asked, peering out into the pitch-black night with a hint of timidity.
“Gaha, gaha!” Gaha pumped a fist and lightly tapped Liu Xiaona’s arm, as if to say, What are you afraid of? You’ve got a high-level zombie right here!
Song Yuqing pursed her lips, her gaze drifting downward. “I want to take you all into the pocket dimension. We’re going to open a door together.”
“Is it the one that leads to Sister Qin?” Liu Xiaona’s interest was instantly piqued.
Song Yuqing shook her head, her voice dropping to a soft murmur. “The place I want to take you isn’t a parallel world. Honestly, I don’t know exactly where that door leads anymore.”
“A brand-new door?” Liu Xiaona blinked.
Song Yuqing shook her head again. “No. It’s the very first door that appeared when I arrived at God’s Supermarket.”
It was the threshold Song Yuqing had crossed when she first discovered her spatial inventory. Behind that door, her parents—already fully turned into zombies—had been frantically gnawing on a severed human head, blood and grey matter smeared across their hands and the corners of their mouths.
Gaha listened intently to the grim tale. Feeling a wave of deep sympathy, she reached out and gently patted Song Yuqing’s head. The gargoyle didn’t fully grasp the concept of “parents,” but she could easily recognize the raw grief behind the words.
Liu Xiaona wiped away a sudden tear. “Good grief, even someone who grew up as an orphan can’t bear to hear a story like that.”
Little Meat Bun touched his own head, lightly patted Liu Xiaona’s shoulder in solidarity, and finally stepped forward to nuzzle Song Yuqing’s arm with his soft, comforting fur.
Once Liu Xiaona and Gaha finished washing the dinner dishes, Song Yuqing locked the storefront. Hand in hand, the quartet stepped together into the pocket dimension.
Inside, the store’s backstock was piled high in a sprawling, chaotic mass, though there was a distinct method to the madness. The area directly blocking the small white door was completely obstructed by supplies. After a coordinated effort, they managed to haul the boxes away one by one, clearing a path to the threshold.
Song Yuqing stared at the plain white frame, her breath catching in her throat as a wave of anxiety hit her.
“Don’t worry,” Liu Xiaona reassured her, squeezing her hand. “We’re right here with you. If your parents are still wandering around out there as zombies, we’ll just turn around and run immediately.”
Song Yuqing let out a soft chuckle. “Are you afraid we can’t take them?”
Liu Xiaona waved her hands dramatically, intentionally trying to lighten the heavy mood. “Oh, absolutely. We’re far too weak. We’d get crushed.”
Whew.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Song Yuqing slowly reached out and swung the white door wide open.
“Roar!”
The exact second the hinges turned, before anyone could even peek at the landscape outside, a loud, sudden bellow echoed through the opening. Startled, Song Yuqing yanked her hand back and scrambled several paces away from the frame, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
Beside her, Liu Xiaona split into a massive, triumphant grin.
“Liu Xiaona!” Song Yuqing huffed, narrowing her eyes as she pointed a finger at her laughing employee, pretending to be utterly furious.
“Gaha!” Gaha ignored the prank entirely, pointing excitedly out the doorway and shouting.
Beyond the threshold lay a desert—or more accurately, a completely desertified city.
Under the cover of night, the skeletal outlines of the metropolis were heavily blurred. Streets that had once bustled with life were now swallowed by an ocean of sand. It wasn’t that a desert storm had blown in and buried the structures; rather, the city’s buildings, infrastructure, and the remains of its citizens had literally disintegrated over time into various grains of coarse dust.
Song Yuqing took the lead, stepping through the portal and onto the barren earth. Strangely, she couldn’t feel a breath of wind, nor was there any of the oppressive heat one would expect.
“Wow, so this is a desert? It’s my first time seeing one,” Liu Xiaona whispered, curiously scooping up a handful of the sand. She blinked in surprise. “Huh, it’s actually freezing cold to the touch. Why is that?”
She had always assumed a desert would be unbearably hot, regardless of the hour.
“The last time I came through here, you could still vaguely make out the shapes of the buildings,” Song Yuqing murmured, looking across the bleak expanse. Things change, and people fade. This place could no longer even be classified as city ruins; it was a ghost of a relic.
They scanned the horizon, but the wasteland was entirely devoid of life. After walking a short distance into the dark, they decided to squat down on the sand to take a breather.
“It’s completely abandoned,” Liu Xiaona noted. “No people, and not a single zombie.”
“Perhaps this is the grim reality for most cities after the collapse.”
An absolute, dead silence fell over the group.
Not caring about the coarse grains slipping into the collar of her jacket, Song Yuqing flopped onto her back to stare upward. Little Meat Bun and Gaha immediately followed her lead, lying flat on the sand to gaze into the night sky alongside her.
“See that one over there? That’s the Morning Star. And those two are Altair and Vega. Oh, and right over there is the Big Dipper…” Song Yuqing pointed aimlessly into the void, showing the panda and the gargoyle.
She was entirely making it up, of course. The sky was a blanket of solid, ink-black clouds without a single star in sight, and the only illumination was a fragile sliver of moonlight leaking through a jagged fracture in the overcast atmosphere.
“Song Yuqing,” Liu Xiaona murmured quietly, her head lowered as she played with the dirt. “You might end up like me—an orphan for the rest of your days. Looking at how far gone this place is, I don’t think your parents’ zombies are going to turn up.”
She wasn’t trying to be cruel or ruin the mood; she simply didn’t want her manager to anchor her hopes to a statistical impossibility.
“Yeah,” Song Yuqing replied softly, offering a faint, compliant smile. “Let’s just rest here for a few more minutes and head back. This team-building event turned out to be a bit of a bust. I promise I’ll take you all somewhere actually fun next time.”
“No way, I’m having a blast,” Liu Xiaona smiled, carefully molding a tiny sandcastle between her palms.
“Gaha!” Gaha cheered, happily burying her scaly feet in the cool drifts.
Meanwhile, Little Meat Bun was busy puffing out his cheeks, blowing frantically on his arms to dislodge the stubborn grains of sand that had wedged themselves deep into his thick fur.
Suddenly, a faint silhouette appeared on the far horizon, trekking across the heart of the wasteland. From their distance, the figure looked like nothing more than a microscopic speck moving through the dark.
Is it a human, or a mutant?
Song Yuqing quickly scrambled to her feet, squinting to sharpen her focus. “It looks like… an old man?”
“What would an old man be doing out here by himself?” Liu Xiaona asked, standing up beside her. “Is there an active survival base nearby?”
“Gaha, gaha.” It’s highly possible.
“Haha!” He’s definitely walking right toward us!
Song Yuqing, Liu Xiaona, Gaha, and Little Meat Bun stood in a tight line, quietly waiting as the solitary figure slowly closed the distance.
He was an elderly gentleman boasting a magnificent snow-white beard and hair, a slender frame, and a pair of remarkably vibrant, piercing eyes. In fact, those eyes held the bright, unblemished clarity of a young child.
“Well, what are you folks doing out here?” the old man asked, coming to a halt roughly five meters away from the group.
The supermarket squad traded bewildered glances.
“We just walked through,” Song Yuqing offered simply. Behind her, Gaha, Liu Xiaona, and Little Meat Bun nodded in unison to back her up.
The old man grinned, winking at Song Yuqing with an bizarre air of familiarity.
Click.
Suddenly, the elder extended both hands, pressing his index fingers and thumbs together to form a perfect, rectangular frame in front of his face, peering at them through the opening. “A family portrait!”
Song Yuqing’s mind raced as she processed the bizarre interaction. Her first thought was a wave of pure relief: He’s not a zombie, thank goodness.
Her second thought was a strange prickle of familiarity: Where have I seen this grandfather before? This feels like serious déjà vu.
Her third thought was pure amusement: What a character! He’s like a mischievous little boy trapped in an old man’s body. No wonder his eyes are so bright and pure.
“Grandpa, where are you traveling from?” Song Yuqing asked, taking a step forward. Sensing no immediate threat from the old man’s aura, Little Meat Bun and Gaha casually trailed right behind her.
The old man blinked, pausing for a long moment as he idly stroked his long white beard, his eyes crinkling into warm crescents.
“I’m making my way toward Base Zero.”
“Base Zero?!” Song Yuqing and Liu Xiaona blurted out in unison, utterly floored.
“No way,” Liu Xiaona gasped, looking around the barren wasteland. “Is Base Zero right around here?”
