Chapter 9: Base No. 27
The heavy metal reinforcement frame of God’s Supermarket stood out starkly against the surrounding row of dull, tiled houses. During the day, the metal would gleam brilliantly in the sunlight, reminding Song Yuqing of the grand supermarket she had seen in the parallel world.
When will the store I manage become that grand? she wondered.
She actually regretted not asking Sister Qin for a bit more help before they left—specifically, to forge a massive metal sign for God’s Supermarket and hang it at the mouth of the alley to attract customers.
Well, maybe next time I get the chance, she thought.
Twenty kilometers away, at Survivor Base No. 27, Sister Qin, Liu Xiaona, and their companions were abruptly halted outside the wire fence by several armed men.
“Entry fee is ten crystal cores per person,” a man with a missing arm barked, half-reclining lazily on a camp bed.
Sister Qin and her crew blinked in surprise. They had absolutely no idea about this rule. Along the way, they had absorbed every single crystal core they managed to harvest to level up their abilities, leaving themselves with a balance of zero.
“Can we come in on credit first?” Liu Xiaona asked, sweat pouring down his face. After traveling on foot for so long, the five of them were completely exhausted.
The one-armed man rolled his eyes, let out a disdainful snort, and pointed toward a military-green tent pitched right against the base fence. A crudely painted wooden sign hung over the entrance: Labor Registration Office.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sister Qin asked, her tone dropping into an unhappy edge.
“Tsk. Just another bunch of freeloaders with no cores…”
“What did you just say?!” Liu Xiaona flared up instantly, his temper rising. Ai quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him back to prevent them from causing unnecessary trouble before they even got inside.
“What? You want to throw down?” The one-armed man stood up, squinting at Liu Xiaona with sudden, dangerous interest as he deliberately cocked his rifle, the metal clicking sharply.
Sister Qin’s hand instinctively drifted to the hilt of her golden blade, lifting it slightly.
“If you want to live at this base, you need to learn to follow the rules,” a beautiful young woman smoothly interrupted, stepping out from the tent with a pleasant, narrowed-eye smile. “Thanks, brother. Go ahead and take a break. I’ll take over and explain things to them.”
The one-armed guard shot Liu Xiaona and Sister Qin one last look of pure disdain before lazily flopping back down onto his camp bed.
The girl affectionately looped her arm through Sister Qin’s, guiding the group inside the tent. The interior was sparse, containing only a desk, a folding chair, and a heavy, ruggedized military laptop.
“My name is Chen Ke. I’m a clerk for the base supermarket, responsible for refugee registration and labor coordination,” the girl introduced herself, slipping smoothly into the chair. “Go ahead and tell me your names and status.”
“The base supermarket?” Sister Qin echoed, a sudden wave of worry hitting her. Base No. 27 was the closest major settlement to God’s Supermarket. With an official trade hub already established inside the base, it made Song Yuqing’s remote alley shop look entirely insignificant. Who would be crazy enough to travel through a dangerous wasteland just to trade supplies out there?
“Yes. The entire infrastructure of this base relies on the supermarket’s supply chain,” Chen Ke explained proudly. “If any of you have awakened special abilities, you can sign up for the Zombie Hunter Team. The base will provide free food and lodging, and your job will be to venture out, clear the undead, harvest crystal cores, and turn them over to the supermarket management. If you don’t have abilities, your only option is to sign up for hard labor. Housing isn’t provided for laborers, and the supermarket distributes food rations strictly based on your daily physical output. Do you all understand?”
“Understood! We all have special abilities. We want to sign up for the hunter team!” Aunt Zhang nodded rapidly, like a chicken pecking at grain.
Through Chen Ke’s explanation, Sister Qin and the others learned that on the night of the meteor shower, a total of thirty official survivor bases had been rapidly established across the country, each assigned a specific number. Some were state-run, official government sanctuaries, while others were privately organized strongholds. Base No. 27 fell squarely into the private category.
Sister Qin and Liu Xiaona exchanged a quiet, heavy look of bitter regret. How had they been so blind to the existence of the official, national bases? They had bought their regional maps and intel from a strange girl wearing thick glasses who constantly kept a parrot perched on her shoulder, and she hadn’t mentioned a thing about government sanctuaries.
Sister Qin gestured for her four companions to step outside the tent, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Should we stay here at Base 27, or should we keep moving and look for a national base?” Personally, she was heavily inclined to keep moving until they found a government-run facility.
“We’re already here, so why don’t we just settle in first?” Aunt Zhang pleaded. She was older, her joints ached from the grueling trek, and she desperately craved stability.
“I agree with Aunt Zhang,” the young wind-type user chimed in quietly.
“What’s left to discuss? The perks for the Zombie Hunter Team are actually quite good,” Chen Ke said, strolling out of the tent to join them. She tilted her head, giving them an innocent, helpful look. “If you sign the supermarket contract today, management will upfront your entry fee of ten crystal cores, and you can move into the tents immediately.”
Aunt Zhang, Ai, and the wind-user immediately cracked under the pressure, eagerly stepping back inside to register their information.
Sister Qin knit her brows, remaining dead silent. Her gut told her something was profoundly off about this entire setup.
“Sister Qin, what do you want to do?” Liu Xiaona asked quietly. He had already made up his mind: wherever Sister Qin went, he would follow.
“We’ll sign for now. If things turn sour, we leave immediately.”
Once Chen Ke finished logging their files, she led the group deeper into the compound. As they walked, they passed crowds of ordinary refugees hauling heavy timber, digging defensive trenches, and building structures. Every single face was a mask of pure, skeletal exhaustion. Right next to the muddy construction site, rows upon rows of thin straw mats laid out on the bare dirt served as their designated “homes.”
“It’s a good thing you guys are superhumans,” Chen Ke remarked casually. “Otherwise, you’d be sleeping out in the dirt like the rest of them.”
As they walked, Liu Xiaona noticed a little boy, easily under the age of ten, staggering out of a bunker trench while carrying a massive basket of heavy soil. He was skin and bones, his legs trembling violently under the weight. Unable to watch, Liu Xiaona stepped forward to help him lift it, but the boy instantly recoiled, staring at him with a look of absolute horror.
Chen Ke pursed her lips, her voice entirely devoid of sympathy. “I can help him today, but I can’t help him forever. If he stops working, he gets thrown out.”
“Why?!” Liu Xiaona demanded, his chest tightening. “He’s just a child!”
“Because this base doesn’t feed useless dead weight.”
Liu Xiaona fell silent, his fists clenching. Sister Qin patted his shoulder gently, wanting to offer some words of comfort, but found she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
“What an absolute sin,” Aunt Zhang sighed, shaking her head.
Chen Ke brought them to the residential sector, which consisted of endless rows of military-green, house-shaped tents. Each unit was crammed with six cots, leaving barely any breathing room.
“This is your block.”
Ai’s lips twitched in immediate disgust. She absolutely loathed the filth and lack of privacy.
“What’s that area over there?” Sister Qin asked, pointing toward a secure sector situated directly behind the tent city. There stood rows of pristine, beautifully manicured luxury villas.
“That’s the executive residential zone for the base director and upper management. The headquarters for the base supermarket is located over there as well,” Chen Ke explained, her eyes flashing with a deep, covetous longing as she stared at the villas.
Just then, a team of zombie hunters marched past them, hauling a blood-soaked burlap sack overflowing with harvested crystal cores. A foul, overwhelming stench of rot wafted over the group as they passed.
“Don’t tell me it’s impossible to take a proper shower in this place?” Liu Xiaona asked, covering his nose and mouth in revulsion.
“For regular hunters? Yes. Only the residents of the villa district get daily running water for showers.”
For the first time since the apocalypse began, Liu Xiaona felt incredibly grateful for his water-type ability. At the very least, he could generate his own clean bathwater.
“Oh, by the way—as official members of the hunter team, your superpowers are legally classified as assets of the base supermarket. You are strictly forbidden from using them for personal matters or unauthorized projects,” Chen Ke added, seeing right through his thoughts.
Liu Xiaona and Sister Qin exchanged a sharp look. Both of them arrived at the exact same conclusion: they could not afford to stay in this base for long.
The moment they dropped their rucksacks onto their designated cots, Sister Qin and Liu Xiaona immediately slipped away toward the villa district to scope out the base supermarket. Chen Ke had already tried to pressure them into immediate labor details alongside Aunt Zhang and the others, but Sister Qin and Liu Xiaona possessed the raw grit to ignore the intimidation and do things their own way.
Watching their retreating backs, Chen Ke quietly pulled out a small notepad, wrote down their names, and made a mental note to report their insubordination directly to her supervisor.
Back in Chen Town, Song Yuqing was currently squatting at the threshold of God’s Supermarket, staring blankly down the empty street.
Nothing. Not a single living soul.
The town had fully transformed into a macabre playground for zombies and mutated flora. The local undead had quickly learned to avoid her shop entirely, terrified of the strange, high-tech athletic wear she had brought back from the parallel world.
A full week had passed since her encounter with Sister Qin’s squad, and she hadn’t crossed paths with a single human being since. If it weren’t for her occasional arguments with Master Fu, her throat probably would have seized up from disuse.
“Master Fu, what are we supposed to do? The foot traffic here is absolute garbage.”
“Nothing to be done. Just sit tight.”
“Master Fu, how much time do I have left again? Fifteen days, right?”
“Incorrect. You have exactly fourteen days and eight hours remaining.”
I can’t just sit here and wait to fail, she resolved. Song Yuqing packed a survival kit, stuffed a massive load of store supplies into her spatial inventory, and decided to head toward the survivor base to drum up business herself. If she was lucky, she might run into Sister Qin, Liu Xiaona, and Ai again.
Master Fu didn’t do anything to stop her. With the absolute protection provided by her parallel-world gear, the odds of her encountering any real danger were incredibly low.
“Well, when a bird grows up, you have to let it leave the nest and explore,” the voice sighed dramatically. “Go ahead. I’ll be right here waiting for you.”
“Tsk. Whatever.”
Song Yuqing locked the front door of God’s Supermarket and set off down the highway toward Base No. 27.
She had absolutely no idea that Lin Han was currently sitting inside a heavily reinforced, armored SUV parked down the block, watching her departure through a pair of tinted windows.
Lin Han couldn’t help but let out a malicious laugh. He had finally waited out the clock. Song Yuqing was officially gone!
