In the deserted hunting zone, there was no need to worry about speed limits. Su Su floored the gas pedal, heading in the direction where Xiao Hei had disappeared.
However, along the way, she never caught sight of that enormous python again.
Even its traces had vanished.
Su Su drove aimlessly through the city, searching. By now, she was approaching the core area of the hunting grounds, where zombies were becoming more and more numerous. Several times, she had to turn back from a street blocked by densely packed zombies, standing in the rain like a tide, forcing her to take detours.
If not for her ability taking effect, they would surely have chased after her car.
By the time it was two or three in the morning, the rain showed no signs of letting up. Su Su had already circled the entire outer perimeter, yet she still hadn’t caught sight of Xiao Hei.
Given the situation, either it had hidden deep within the hunting ground’s central region, or it had deliberately shrunk itself to avoid her.
Su Su was utterly exhausted.
She drove the off-road vehicle back to the outskirts and parked in an abandoned open-air factory. The torrential rain pounded against the windshield, rolling down in streams like a cascading “waterfall.”
The wipers came to a stop, and the outside world blurred.
Her stomach let out an untimely growl.
Su Su snapped back to her senses and instinctively reached for the emergency rations in the car.
Her fingers, however, touched a thermal container inside the bag.
It was the dinner Granny Niu had packed for her.
Unscrewing the lid, she saw a plastic container filled with tomato and egg soup. Beneath it, three or four meat buns were tightly packed.
Inside the bag, more than a dozen boiled eggs rolled around.
Su Su’s eyes turned red.
The grievances she had deliberately pushed aside and the warmth of being cared for surged into her heart at the same time. She took small sips of the slightly warm tomato and egg soup, forcing herself to finish a meat bun even though she had no appetite.
With some carbohydrates in her stomach, the exhaustion she had been enduring finally hit her like a wave.
She would continue searching tomorrow.
With that thought in mind, Su Su leaned back against the seat and gradually drifted into a light sleep.
Being in a dangerous environment and unable to find Xiao Hei, she didn’t sleep well. Strange dreams kept coming one after another.
The most absurd one—she dreamt that Xiao Hei had turned against her, standing by Si Zhe and Lin Weiran’s side. At their command, scorching flames shot toward her.
Su Su woke up in fright.
When she opened her eyes, the storm had finally stopped. The sky outside was overcast, the dim light filtering into the car.
Her breathing was rapid, her gaze dazed, taking a long time to recover.
The dream was absurd, but it was a reflection of her inner anxiety and fear.
Su Su used some bottled water for a quick wash, then started the car again, continuing her search for the missing python.
As usual, after wandering around the outskirts for a while, Su Su gritted her teeth and drove straight into the core area of the hunting zone.
Traces of the pre-apocalyptic prosperity were still faintly visible around her. However, the once clean and tidy streets had become riddled with potholes, now filled with puddles left by the heavy rain. Many shops in low-lying areas were half-submerged in water.
But the impact of the rainstorm went far beyond that.
The last time she came here with Brother Wang and the others, most of the zombies they encountered were at Tier 2 or 3, and they had to search patiently just to find traces of a Tier 4 zombie.
But now—
Nearly all the zombies wandering the area were at least Tier 3. Every so often, a Tier 4 zombie could be spotted mixed among them.
They resembled a rampaging gang of teenagers, aimlessly advancing under the leadership of a few high-tier zombies.
If a particularly keen-sensed zombie caught the scent, it could lead its companions along the correct route toward the southern base, forming a new zombie horde.
With white light clearing the way, Su Su’s car cut through the area as if it were an uninhabited wasteland.
Where could Xiao Hei be hiding?
If it truly refused to see her, shrinking itself down to the size of a palm and hiding, she could stay in the hunting zone for a lifetime and still never find it.
Did it really not want to see her?
“Roar!!”
Suddenly, not far away, a series of howls and roars echoed through the air.
It sounded as if the zombie horde had encountered something unexpected.
Su Su’s heart stirred. She quickly turned the steering wheel, heading straight for the concentration of zombies.
“Hiss!!!”
The familiar black snake was now only a dozen meters long, trapped at the center of the zombie horde. Blazing blue flames engulfed batch after batch of encroaching zombies. Its appearance was terrifyingly ferocious, but rather than being attacked by the zombie horde, it seemed to have deliberately provoked them—venting the violent energy raging within.
So it really had shrunk itself on purpose!
Su Su drove straight into the horde, mowing down over a dozen zombies. When she was only a few hundred meters away, the black snake finally noticed the roar of her engine. It immediately abandoned the fight and slithered away at full speed.
“Xiao Hei!” Su Su’s frustration boiled over after its repeated evasions. “What are you running from?!”
Hearing her voice, the black snake only sped up.
Seeing that it was about to disappear from her sight once again, Su Su gritted her teeth and unleashed a surge of dense white light, which instantly shot into the black snake’s body.
Being of the same Tier 5 level, Su Su’s ability had a restraining effect on Xiao Hei.
Its speed finally slowed.
Realizing that it was being controlled, the black snake let out a series of savage hisses, violently struggling to break free, even at the cost of injuring itself internally.
Xiao Hei was this stubborn—Su Su dared not use too much force.
She had no choice but to withdraw part of her ability, slowing Xiao Hei just enough to keep it from escaping her sight.
An off-road vehicle chasing a giant black python.
Before long, they arrived in front of an underground parking garage.
The barrier at the entrance had long since been damaged. At this moment, it stood raised high, leaving an unimpeded path into the parking garage.
However, as soon as Su Su drove in, she found her way blocked by a chaotic mess of abandoned vehicles, trapping her at the outermost edge of the parking lot.
Perhaps the apocalypse had broken out too suddenly—everyone had been desperate to drive away. Some drivers must have mutated into zombies mid-escape, causing their vehicles to crash uncontrollably into one another, sealing off the road for everyone behind them.
Su Su hesitated for two seconds before decisively slinging her backpack over her shoulders and opening the car door. She would continue searching for Xiao Hei on foot.
“Xiao Hei, are you here?”
Her voice traveled through the vast underground space, bouncing off the farthest walls before echoing back in a unique reverberation.
The silence was absolute, leaving only the sound of her own footsteps.
Before the apocalypse, this had been the parking garage of a large shopping mall, constantly bustling with people. It was divided into four sections—east, west, south, and north—meaning the number of zombies here should be high, not low.
Su Su remained on high alert, ready for zombies to appear at any moment.
Yet strangely, after searching through two sections, she hadn’t encountered a single one.
Instead, the dusty floor bore several sets of disorderly sliding tracks.
Su Su’s gaze sharpened. She quickly followed the tracks, her steps swift as she traced them forward. Before long, the trail led her to an emergency stairwell.
Two silver-colored metal doors stood tightly shut.
She tried pushing the doors. Even with all her strength, they didn’t budge an inch.
Were they locked?
But the tracks led directly to these stairwell doors.
“Xiao Hei!”
“You’re inside, aren’t you? Open the door! Why won’t you open the door?!”
Su Su’s face turned red from exertion, but the heavy metal doors refused to move.
“Xiao Hei!!”
Unwilling to give up, she banged on the doors, almost certain now that Xiao Hei was hiding inside.
It was probably right behind the door—how could her strength possibly compare to that of a giant python?
After multiple failed attempts, Su Su put her hands on her hips in frustration. “If you don’t open up, I’m leaving!”
Still, there was no response from behind the doors.
As if there was no snake inside at all.
Su Su spun around and stormed off, deliberately making her footsteps loud and hurried, as though she were truly walking away in anger.
Only when her footsteps completely disappeared did a sorrowful hissing sound finally rise from behind the tightly closed iron doors.