"If you want to stay alive, you have to prove your worth." Lin Xuan squatted down, using the tip of his spear to lightly tilt up Wang Peng's chin. The cold touch of metal made him shudder all over. "From now on, you're no longer some young masters or young ladies. You're my 'porters.' You do whatever I say, understand?"
Wang Peng nodded frantically, his saliva and tears mixing together, looking both ridiculous and pitiful. "Understood! Understood! Brother Xuan... no, Boss Lin! If you say go east, we will never go west!"
Beside him, Wu Tao and Zhao Tianyu also looked as if they had seen a savior, kneeling on the ground and repeatedly agreeing. The two girls, Lin Yutong and Xu Mengya, cowered to the side. Though their eyes were full of humiliation, under the cold muzzle of Chu Wenhai's gun, they didn't even dare to breathe loudly.
Lin Xuan stood up and gave Chu Wenhai an order: [Watch them. If anyone dares to slack off or has any crooked thoughts, cripple them immediately.]
Chu Wenhai roughly poked the back of Wang Peng's head with the barrel of his gun and coldly spat out a single word: "Move."
This bizarre team began to head toward the first-floor supermarket. Chu Wenhai led the way at the front, his movements as precise as a killing machine, making the survivors behind him feel suffocated. Whenever one or two zombies lunged out from the darkness, Chu Wenhai didn't even need to fire; the tactical knife in his hand turned into an afterimage, precisely piercing the zombies' eye sockets or the backs of their heads, bringing out streaks of foul-smelling black blood.
[Ding! Biomass +0.01. Current balance: 0.16.]
[Ding! Biomass +0.01. Current balance: 0.17.]
Lin Xuan listened to the constant notifications from the system, his heart unruffled. Meanwhile, Wang Peng and the others following behind would involuntarily twitch every time they saw a once-familiar classmate slaughtered by Chu Wenhai like a chicken.
At the entrance of the supermarket, the originally closed glass doors were already half-shattered, and a tooth-grinding chewing sound could be heard faintly from inside.
"Chu Wenhai, clear the area," you ordered indifferently.
The soldier's figure flashed as he charged directly into the supermarket. Immediately after, dull thuds and the wails of dying zombies came from within. Five minutes later, Chu Wenhai stood amidst the wreckage and waved to everyone.
Lin Xuan led the people into the supermarket. Half of the shelves had collapsed, and the floor was a mixture of smashed drinks, blood, and organs. You pointed at the compressed biscuits, canned food, and bottled water that hadn't been contaminated yet, then turned to look at Wang Peng's group.
"Pack everything edible and drinkable into your bags. If you don't fill them up, you'll stay outside tonight to feed the zombies." Lin Xuan walked over to a swivel chair by the checkout counter and sat down, resting his steel pipe spear casually on the floor.
Wang Peng, Wu Tao, and Zhao Tianyu didn't dare to delay for a second, scrambling toward the shelves. They frantically stuffed things into their bags, not even caring about the pain when their fingers were cut by broken glass. Lin Yutong and Xu Mengya also suppressed their nausea, picking up scattered chocolate bars from the blood-stained floor.
Mo Xiaotian stood beside Lin Xuan, watching the scene. He couldn't help but swallow hard and whispered, "Brother Xuan, this feeling... is so damn satisfying. When did that grandson Wang Peng ever look us in the eye before?"
Lin Xuan glanced at him sideways without saying a word. This reversal of social hierarchy was indeed pleasurable.
"Hurry up!" Chu Wenhai suddenly let out an angry shout and kicked the slow-moving Zhao Tianyu in the buttocks. Zhao Tianyu cried out in pain, his whole body crashing into a shelf.
"Lin... Lin Xuan, can I rest for a bit? I sprained my ankle..." Xu Mengya plucked up the courage to look at you with a pitiful gaze, her hand inadvertently lifting her skirt slightly to reveal a large area of fair skin.
Lin Xuan just looked at her coldly. Before the apocalypse, a girl with this kind of beauty would indeed have countless boys flocking to her, but now, her cheap charms were worthless in the face of survival.
"Wenhai, if she can't work, let her go to the door to act as bait," Lin Xuan said without looking up.
Chu Wenhai immediately turned around, his thick arm directly choking Xu Mengya's neck and lifting her off the ground. Xu Mengya's legs kicked wildly in the air, her face turning red instantly, her eyes filled with terror and despair.
"No... No! I'll work! I can do it!" Lin Yutong screamed in fear, desperately stuffing things into her bag, afraid that she would be the next one lifted up.
Chu Wenhai waved his hand and tossed Xu Mengya onto the floor like a piece of trash. She coughed violently, no longer daring to have any crooked thoughts, crawling toward the shelves like a dog.
For a full twenty minutes, the only sound in the supermarket was the frantic packing of supplies. Wang Peng and the other two each carried two huge hiking backpacks on their backs and held a crate of mineral water in their arms. The heavy supplies weighed them down so much they couldn't even straighten their backs. Sweat soaked their clothes, mixing with the black blood on the floor, making them look miserable.
"Resource collection complete. A total of 120 kilograms of high-energy food, 15 crates of drinking water, and three boxes of basic medical supplies," Chu Wenhai walked up to Lin Xuan and reported the data precisely.
Lin Xuan stood up and walked over to Wang Peng. He was currently panting heavily, his eyes unfocused, but when he saw Lin Xuan approaching, he forced a smile that looked worse than crying: "Boss Lin... it's... it's packed. Can we go back now?"
Lin Xuan ignored him and looked toward a small door deep in the supermarket that led to the warehouse. His perception told him that something seemed to be peeking out from there.
"Wang Peng, go and open that door." Lin Xuan pointed at the warehouse door, his tone as flat as if he were asking about today's weather.
Wang Peng's face instantly turned whiter than paper. Everyone knew that monsters were most likely to be hiding in such closed warehouses.
"This... this... Boss Lin..."
The rifle in Chu Wenhai's hand pressed directly against his crotch, his voice cold and grim: "Go, or become a eunuch right now."
"I'll go! I'll go!" Wang Peng let out a desperate howl, tremblingly putting down the water crate and holding the water pipe, moving toward the warehouse door one step at a time.
Lin Xuan sat on the swivel chair, watching his back with interest.
Wang Peng's hands, trembling like a sieve, finally touched the cold metal handle of the warehouse door. At that moment, the air in the entire supermarket seemed to freeze, with only his heavy and erratic breathing echoing between the shelves.
"Open the door. Don't make me say it a second time." Chu Wenhai's cold electronic voice urged from behind, like an invisible sharp knife pressed against the small of Wang Peng's back.
Wang Peng let out a roar that was almost a sob and pushed hard. With a tooth-grinding "creak" of metal friction, the heavy warehouse door slowly opened, and a thick smell of mold and a faint stench of decay wafted out. The beam of the flashlight flickered wildly inside the dark warehouse, sweeping over neatly stacked boxes of instant noodles, bundles of mineral water, and several large freezers.
It seemed empty inside, deathly silent.
Wang Peng stood at the door for a few seconds. Seeing that no monster pounced out as expected, his nerves, stretched to the limit, finally relaxed a bit. He turned around, forcing a smile that looked worse than crying, and waved frantically at Lin Xuan sitting by the checkout counter: "Lin... Boss Lin! It's fine! It's safe inside! It's all food!"
At the very moment he relaxed his guard due to the excitement of surviving a disaster, Chu Wenhai's keen perception suddenly caught an unusual airflow.
In the shadows of the shelves above and behind Wang Peng, a figure wearing a blue supermarket uniform hung upside down like a giant bat. It was the supermarket's Stock Clerk—or rather, a mutated zombie with abnormally long, deformed limbs. Its jaw was torn, revealing gums hanging with viscous blood, and its cloudy eyes were locked onto Wang Peng's defenseless neck.
"Roar—!"
A foul wind whistled as the zombie lunged down from above, its withered, hook-like claws aiming straight for the back of Wang Peng's head.
"Ah?!" Wang Peng only felt a chill on his back. Before he could turn around, he was enveloped by a terrifying shadow of death.
At this critical moment, Chu Wenhai, who had been standing by your side like a statue, moved. His movements were faster than the human eye could track, his right hand flashing across the holster on his thigh.
"Swish—!"
A cold gleam flashed in the dim light. It was Chu Wenhai's issued special tactical knife, drawing a perfect straight line in the air and precisely piercing the zombie's temple. The massive momentum sent the zombie's head snapping to the side, and the tip of the knife even penetrated its skull, pinning it firmly to the wooden shelf nearby.
"Plop!"
The zombie's body twitched twice, and black putrid blood dripped from the handle of the knife onto Wang Peng's shoulder.
Wang Peng froze in place, even smelling the nauseating stench of decay from the zombie's mouth. He slowly turned his head and looked at the monster's sharp claws, less than ten centimeters from his neck and still trembling slightly. A large patch of his crotch instantly became wet, and a foul odor of urine spread.
"Mommy—!" Wang Peng let out a distorted scream, his legs giving out as he collapsed onto the blood-stained floor. He trembled violently, scrambling and crawling to get away from the corpse.
[Ding! Biomass +0.01. Current balance: 0.18.]
Chu Wenhai stepped forward slowly, stepped on the zombie's chest, and roughly pulled back his knife. He casually wiped the blood on the zombie's uniform, sheathed it, and then coldly looked down at Wang Peng on the ground.
"Useless." Chu Wenhai spat out these two words as if evaluating a worthless piece of rotten meat.
Wu Tao and Zhao Tianyu were so scared they huddled in a corner, trembling, while Lin Yutong and Xu Mengya covered their mouths tightly to keep from screaming. The way they looked at Chu Wenhai was no longer just with fear, but as if they were looking at a monster.
"Alright, stop embarrassing yourself." Lin Xuan stood up, spun the spear in his hand, and pointed toward the spacious warehouse. "Mo Xiaotian, take them and take inventory of the things inside. From now on, this will be our base." Lin Xuan decided to take this supermarket for himself, regardless of whether they had worked for nothing before.
Lin Xuan looked around. This supermarket was located at the corner of the first floor of the dormitory building. The walls were thick, and there were only a few entrances: the main door and side windows. As long as the windows were sealed and the door reinforced, this would be a perfect apocalyptic fortress. More importantly, the supplies stored here were enough for several people to eat for a year, and there were independent water pipes and a backup generator beneath the supermarket.
"Base?" Mo Xiaotian was stunned for a moment, then nodded excitedly. "Right, right, right! There's food and drink here, much better than hiding in the dorm! Brother Xuan is brilliant!"
"Wenhai."
"Here."
"Take Xiaotian and Xu Mengya to pull down all the rolling shutters of the supermarket, leaving only one emergency exit. Also, throw all the zombie corpses in the supermarket outside and pile them at the door. I want those survivors to know that this place has an owner."
"Furthermore, the stench of corpses at the door can effectively mask our human scent," Lin Xuan added.
"Yes." Chu Wenhai immediately began to act. His terrifying strength allowed him to lift a zombie corpse weighing over two hundred pounds with one hand and throw it out the window like trash. Mo Xiaotian and Xu Mengya also began wearing gloves and masks to help drag the corpses.
Lin Xuan turned to look at the trembling group, his tone cold: "As for you... Wang Peng, Wu Tao, and Zhao Tianyu. You're responsible for moving the shelves to block all the windows. If I find even a sliver of light coming through tomorrow morning, I'll throw you out the window."
"Understood... Understood..." Wang Peng didn't bother to wipe the blood off his face and forced himself to crawl up, enduring his fear. The way he looked at Lin Xuan now was full of humble flattery; his survival instinct had completely overridden his pride.
Lin Xuan then looked at Lin Yutong. Under his gaze, the former Department Belle involuntarily pressed her legs together, her body trembling slightly.
"Go to the warehouse and find some clean mats and blankets. Tidy up the compartment at the very back of the warehouse; that will be my private lounge. Remember, it must be 'clean.' If I smell even a hint of an odor, you'll go sleep with the corpses outside."
"Yes... Lin... Boss Lin..." Lin Yutong lowered her head, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, a complex light flickering in her eyes. A woman like her was smart; she knew that in a world like this, clinging to the strong was the only way to survive, even if that strong person was a tyrant.
Lin Xuan sat back on the swivel chair and opened the system interface to begin studying it.
[Detected that the host has established a primary base: Campus Supermarket.]
[Unlocked Permissions: Base Defense Fortification Construction.]
[Currently deployable: Automatic Turret (300 points), virus detector (20 points).]
Looking at the balance of only 0.18 points, a strange longing surged in Lin Xuan's heart. Slaughter—only more slaughter would allow him to truly gain a foothold in this broken world.
Outside the window, the moonlight was dismal. The rising and falling wails and chewing sounds in the campus echoed in the night sky.
Lin Xuan watched the five figures busy in the darkness, his mind already beginning to plan the next step of expansion.