The urban village was boiling with excitement.
As Su Su descended the stairs, she clearly took in the surrounding conversations.
“It’s an enemy alarm! Another zombie horde is approaching the base!”
“Will it be like two months ago, when they almost broke through the base’s defenses?”
“Impossible! With so many ability users in the base, they have to go to the front lines when a zombie horde arrives. The rations we pay every month aren’t just for them to eat for nothing!”
“Anyone daring enough to go kill zombies with me?”
“Me! Count me in!”
“Me too! To hell with it, let’s go big! If we fail, we die in a pile of zombies; if we succeed, we feast for months!”
“……”
Su Su stood at the entrance of the forge as a short and thin figure wove through the restless, noisy crowd and returned.
It was Granny Niu.
Seeing her return alone, Su Su only called out softly without inquiring about Wang Pengfei’s fate: “Granny.”
Granny Niu had already stepped onto the stairs, gazing far into the distant darkness. “Last time, it was also a zombie horde.”
Her daughter had stood with a group of ordinary people at the outermost perimeter and perished, her body never recovered.
Su Su turned her head slightly.
“You will definitely come back safely.” Granny Niu rarely smiled. She took out an oil-paper-wrapped bundle from her arms, wrapped layer upon layer. “I asked someone to make you scallion pancakes. They’re still warm. Eat your fill before you go.”
Su Su smiled and accepted the oil-paper package. “How did you know I was going?”
She didn’t live in the North District, nor was she a registered ability user in the base. If she really wanted to avoid it, no one could force her to go.
“Going is the only way to become stronger.” Granny Niu spoke softly. “Seeing you grow stronger feels like seeing my daughter finally getting what she wanted.”
The conversation from last night, during the blackout, she had heard it after all.
Su Su’s eyes suddenly stung with emotion.
More than anyone, she understood this feeling of powerlessness, of being trampled upon. Granny Niu seemed to be speaking about her daughter, but to Su Su’s ears, wasn’t she also speaking about her past life?
“I will.”
This time, her trip to the hunting grounds was not only to obtain more high-grade crystals but also… to prevent the city lord’s faction from further strengthening their power.
Holding an umbrella and the oil-paper package, Su Su found the designated bus stop for urban village residents numbered 40–50.
The base encouraged more people to kill zombies. Every time a zombie horde approached, a special bus route was opened in the South District to transport all willing participants directly to the hunting grounds.
Su Su boarded the last bus in line. Two-thirds of the seats inside were already occupied. As she entered, many gazes scanned her. But the moment their eyes landed on the thick, powerful python beside her, they quickly averted their gazes in shock.
She chose a seat in the first row.
Afterward, as more people boarded, they all instinctively avoided that row.
Perfect. That left an extra seat for Xiao Hei.
Su Su’s arms were sore from carrying the weight, and she was finally able to drop the dozen or so pounds she had been holding… However, just as the black snake touched the seat, it slithered back along her arm and coiled around her again.
“Hiss!”
The black snake tightened its grip. She tried pulling it off a few times but failed. “Xiao Hei, sit beside me for a while. I’ll carry you again when we get there.”
The black snake refused.
It wished it could press every inch of its scales against the female. The part of its tail that usually hung freely in the air now firmly rested on her calf, occasionally tightening its grip.
“Hiss!”
Its cool forked tongue even deliberately flicked against the female’s cheek.
Su Su: “……”
She helplessly pushed Xiao Hei’s head aside, resigning herself to treating this as weight training. Others lifted weights and tied sandbags to their limbs—she had a full-grown python wrapped around her.
The weight was about the same anyway.
Su Su opened the oil-paper package, revealing four or five neatly stacked scallion pancakes.
They were still warm. As soon as she unfolded the wrapper, the intense aroma filled the entire bus, triggering waves of audible gulping sounds.
Someone in the back cursed under their breath: “Damn it, after I kill some zombies and collect crystal stones, I have to get someone to make me at least ten of those!”
These fragrant, carb-rich pancakes required flour, oil, and scallions—rare ingredients in the urban village.
To trade for them, one would need at least ten Grade 1 crystal stones, and even then, they’d only get a small portion.
Yet, with such scarce ingredients, Granny Niu had given all she had to Su Su.
Su Su took a refined bite. Before she could finish chewing, the black snake stretched its head over and poked two fang marks into the remaining piece.
“Hiss!”
The black snake shook its head in disgust and refused to touch the food in the female’s hand again.
Su Su silently stared at the pancake. “Xiao Hei, did you inject venom?”
The black snake adamantly denied it.
It wasn’t one of those careless snakes. The female was so fragile and easy to kill—at the very least, whenever it was near her, its fangs never stored venom.
Su Su tore off the part with the fang holes and forcefully stuffed it into Xiao Hei’s mouth.
After spending two months together in the snowy mountains, she had discovered that its evolution had changed it in ways that defied the traits of cold-blooded animals. One time, it had accidentally swallowed a thick tree branch, but before it even reached its stomach, it activated its ability and burned the wood to ash.
She wasn’t worried about it eating something bad and getting sick—she was just annoyed that it kept causing trouble.
The black snake mournfully swallowed the small piece of scallion pancake, its entire demeanor turning sluggish and lifeless. Then, looking utterly pitiful, it slithered back into the female’s embrace.
—Xiao Hei was getting clingier by the day.
Just as that thought crossed Su Su’s mind, the driver’s voice came through.
“We’ve arrived at the hunting grounds.”
The bus came to a steady stop, and a serious male voice rang from the broadcast.
“Southern Base reminds you: You have now entered the Eastern Hunting Zone. Do not act recklessly or rush forward. Ensuring your survival is the top priority.”
“Wishing you a bountiful harvest.”
No one dared to be the first to get off the bus. They all tacitly watched as the woman and the python disappeared from view before gradually standing up one after another.
The moment they stepped out of the enclosed bus, the roars of zombies, the angry curses of people, and the sounds of abilities clashing together surged into their ears like a tidal wave.
A massive iron fence, stretching for several kilometers, enclosed the zombie horde but did not obstruct anyone’s view beyond it.
The Eastern Hunting Zone was farther than the South District, and during the time it took to travel there, the zombie horde had already gathered densely outside the iron fence.
Low-level zombies couldn’t breach the barrier and could only throw themselves against the iron mesh, causing insignificant damage. However, Tier 3 and above zombies were far more vicious. They could pounce from a distance, agilely stepping on their own kind’s heads to leap directly to heights of over ten meters.
At such moments, the ability users stationed in the watchtowers would take the lead in clearing out these Tier 3 and above zombies, preventing them from breaching the fence.
As for the ordinary people arriving later, they could choose to approach the fence and use weapons to pierce through the heads of the regular zombies.
This was no easy task—the gaps in the iron mesh were too small, allowing only a single spear to thrust outward. Often, it took ten or even twenty strikes to finally pierce through a zombie’s skull.
At the same time, they had to remain vigilant—low-tier zombies could sometimes hide evolved ones among them. A moment of carelessness, and even with the fence in between, one could be killed by an ability attack.
Long-range ability users remained seated in the watchtowers, while offensive ability users blocked the specialized exit points, engaging in slaughter.
Experienced ordinary people had already grabbed spears and charged toward the iron fence.
From time to time, the distant sounds of landmines detonating rumbled through the battlefield. The endless tide of zombies kept advancing, and if one were to stand atop the watchtower, they would see the horde stretching endlessly beyond the horizon.
Drenched in rain, they waved their damaged limbs and howled as they surged forward, densely packed like an army of ants swarming across a plain, attacking a “fortress” laden with a grand feast.
Anyone standing in this scene couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of despair, as if the human base might be wiped out entirely.
“Weiran! Six or seven Tier 4 zombies at three o’clock! We have to stop them!”
Su Su looked up.
She happened to catch sight of the nearest watchtower, where Si Zhe and Lin Weiran were fighting side by side.
“Si Zhe! Over here!”
The two worked in perfect sync, eliminating one Tier 4 zombie after another.
All the ability users around them couldn’t help but take notice.
This scene was far too familiar.
For a moment, Su Su felt as though she had been pulled back to her past life, standing amidst every zombie horde she had ever encountered.
There, on the watchtowers, that couple’s figures were always present.
And she… she had only been able to grasp a spear, stabbing low-tier zombies over and over again, risking her life just to obtain a few miscellaneous or Grade 1 crystal stones.
“Hiss?”
The black snake curiously flicked its tongue against the female, puzzled as to why she had suddenly stopped moving.
“It’s nothing.” Su Su snapped out of it.
She patted Xiao Hei’s head and turned her gaze toward the endless zombie horde.
Suddenly, she smiled—bright and dazzling, as if it could pierce through the relentless storm.
“Xiao Hei, it’s our turn to take the stage now.”