The Shelter

Long Ming glanced around at the street-facing shops; ninety percent of them had already been hit by their own people, leaving behind probably not even scrap. He jogged toward an old apartment building ahead marked with a checkmark. Entering the building by the stairwell, he found the doors on both sides of the first floor tightly locked. Lacking lockpicking skills, Long Ming decisively gave up on them and headed up the stairs to the second floor, where he saw the door to the east apartment sitting ajar. He reached out and pushed the door open, producing an ancient, rusty creak. Stepping inside cautiously, Long Ming found the apartment in total disarray: a glass coffee table lay overturned on the floor, shattered into fragments scattered everywhere. He walked over and began rummaging through the living room cabinets to see if he could find anything. His luck was actually pretty good—he found a household toolbox. Long Ming popped open the toolbox and discovered an electrical test pen (blue). He stashed the test pen into his backpack and walked to the doorway of the master bedroom. Though thick with dust, the master bedroom was largely intact. Long Ming walked in and began searching the nightstand and wardrobe. An hour later, the surrounding buildings had all been swept, and Long Ming's group reunited at the intersection. "How did it go?" Xiao Qi asked. "So-so. This area doesn't seem that rich. I only found this!" Yun Yu sighed, then pulled out a 100-gram gold bar. "Not bad at all!" He Zhong praised with a smile. "Your loot is nothing. Look at this!" Tang Ye bragged as he pulled a pair of binoculars from his backpack. "You really hit the jackpot. That thing will easily sell for at least 100,000 Yiwei coins." "That was the price two days ago! It's gone up again recently!" "Tch." Yun Yu scoffed, though envy was written all over her face. Xiao Qi said to Tang Ye and the others, "All right, put your stuff away. Let's keep searching ahead!" "Understood!" Yun Yu and the others nodded firmly. Long Ming followed Xiao Qi and the rest as they continued foraging, feeling a bit emotional. His first time running an instance had turned out to be so relaxed—all he had to worry about was scavenging. A fifty-fifty split really wasn't a bad deal. Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a multistory building, Mila stood looking down from above. Teams of combat personnel were busy clearing out solo players below. A gunshot or two echoed from time to time. Though they preferred not to waste bullets, they inevitably ran into stubborn solo players with guns who refused to listen, leaving them no choice but to shoot back. "Sister Mila, something feels off," a tall, lean young man said with a solemn expression. He wore a black combat suit, bore a faint scar on his forehead, and held a bolt-action sniper rifle. "What is it, Liang Feng?" "We've been clearing the area for quite a while now, but aside from players, we barely saw any corpse monsters," Liang Feng warned uneasily. "I know. Tell the people below to stay alert." Mila had noticed the anomaly as well, but she couldn't afford to worry too much about it right now. Her only priority was to scavenge enough supplies and evacuate as quickly as possible. The Fifth Combat Team had ranked dead last in performance several times already. If this kept up, she wouldn't even know how to answer to Luo Xue. "Understood." Liang Feng nodded. Just then, Cao Jie hurried over and spoke to Mila excitedly. "Sister Mila!" "What happened?" Mila turned to ask him. "Tang Jin found an abandoned hospital, but there's a bit of trouble. A small guild of a dozen or so people is holed up inside." "Let's go. Clear them out." "Right away!" Cao Jie responded immediately. Meanwhile, in a dim underground shelter, countless corpses lay strewn across the floor. *Creak, creak...* The locked security door suddenly began to turn, and then the heavy door was slowly pushed open. "Cough, cough... It stinks! What kind of hellhole is this?" "All right, quit whining! A place sealed this tight is bound to have a ton of valuable loot inside!" "Hell yeah. If we can loot some valuable gear like Old Qiu did, we can hit Red Romance tonight and have ourselves a good time." "Tch, Chen Yue, why is your mind always on women? Sooner or later, you're going to die on a woman's belly." "Heh, fine by me!" Two solo players holding pistols walked inside, buzzing with excitement. When they stepped in and saw the ground littered with corpses, they jumped in fright. "Holy shit!" "What are you screaming for? You scared the hell out of me!" "Why are there so many corpses?" "They're just dead bodies, what's there to be afraid of?" "Maybe we should find another place?" "Are you an idiot? Corpses are the easiest place to loot valuable stuff. We're rich!" "Really? All right, let's search them then." The two nervously made their way toward the corpses. Chen Yue and Zhao Gu soon reached the bodies. Fighting back their revulsion, they reached out to search the remains. "Holy crap, a gemstone necklace!" "Haha, I found a luxury watch!" "We struck it rich this time!" The two stuffed their finds into their backpacks and excitedly pressed deeper inside to loot. As they found more and more loot, Chen Yue was grinning from ear to ear. Just then, several corpses lying on the floor suddenly began to move, their joints producing stiff, scraping pops. Zhao Gu's ears pricked up, and he asked Chen Yue uneasily, "Chen Yue, did you hear something weird?" "What weird noise? Don't try to trick me into slowing down just to distract me!" Greed was written all over Chen Yue's face. Around them, however, deformed corpses with rotting faces snapped open crimson eyes. They staggered to their feet, letting out chilling, guttural groans. "Holy shit, run!" At the sight, Chen Yue's hair stood on end, and he spun around to flee. Unfortunately, it was already too late. Countless zombies swarmed forward, instantly surrounding the pair. *Bang! Bang!* Chen Yue and his partner fired frantically into the horde. Zombies dropped as bullets struck home, but it was futile; even more zombies surged over them. In an instant, Chen Yue and Zhao Gu were tackled to the ground and torn to pieces alive. Agonized screams tore through the underground shelter. Meanwhile, on the dilapidated street. Long Ming walked up to a wrecked luxury car, pulled open the door, and rummaged through the glove compartment on the passenger side. Before long, he found an exquisite genuine leather wallet (blue). Long Ming stashed it into his backpack. Next, he popped the trunk, and his eyes lit up. Inside sat a crate of liquor and several bottles of mineral water. Long Ming deftly grabbed the bottles of mineral water, checked the seals, and after confirming they were intact, shoved them straight into his backpack. *Bang—* Just then, a succession of gunshots echoed from the distance. Long Ming paused. While an occasional shot had rung out earlier, they had never been this dense. He walked over toward Xiao Qi and the others not far away. Xiao Qi was looking into the distance with a deep frown. "Sister Qi, sounds like a fight broke out ahead. Did they run into monsters?" Yun Yu asked with excitement. "Maybe," Xiao Qi replied, uncertain herself. "Don't worry, even if there are monsters, I'll protect you," Tang Ye said flatteringly. "They didn't run into monsters. They're probably clashing with other players," Long Ming said calmly. "Oh? How would you know?" Tang Ye asked, his brow furrowing as he looked at Long Ming. Long Ming didn't bother to explain; in truth, he had deduced it from the rhythm of the gunfire. "Sister Qi, if they're fighting players, are they fighting over some good spot? Let's hurry and check it out!" Yun Yu suggested curiously. "No. It's too dangerous. Combat is up to Big Sister Mila and the fighters; our job is strictly to scavenge resources, unless we receive an explicit call for backup from Sister Mila." Xiao Qi's tone was firm, leaving no room for argument. "All right... If only I could become a professional combatant too," Yun Yu said wistfully. Xiao Qi led Long Ming and the others as they continued scavenging along the street. Suddenly, Long Ming stopped in his tracks. "What's wrong?" Xiao Qi turned to him in confusion. "Nothing, it just feels a little off." "What feels off?" "Instead of burning off, this morning mist is getting thicker. Visibility is dropping," Long Ming said with a slight frown. "Bah, I thought you were going to say something important! It's just a bit more fog, what's the big fuss? Besides, even if something happens, the combat team will deal with it. We just need to rake in the loot!" Tang Ye dismissed Long Ming's words without a second thought. "Enough. It never hurts to be careful," Xiao Qi chided Tang Ye. "Got it." Tang Ye hadn't expected to be reprimanded, and he glanced at Long Ming in annoyance. Long Ming didn't care about Tang Ye's glare in the slightest. Just then, Li Gao came running over in a rush. "Xiao Qi!" "Brother Li, what brings you here?" Xiao Qi asked, a bit surprised. "We secured a major hospital! Captain Mila wants you to bring everyone over right now!" Li Gao told her. "Great!" Delighted by the news, Xiao Qi immediately gave orders to Yun Yu and the others. "Scatter and notify all the squads to assemble! Sister Mila's team secured a major hospital!" "Awesome, I'll go tell the others right away!" Yun Yu and the rest scattered excitedly. Hearing this, Long Ming was quite surprised as well. He hadn't expected them to take a large hospital. It looked like the returns from this joint operation were going to be off the charts.