G Province was a very large province in Huaxia.
After the Morning Light Squad left that food processing factory, they headed north, passing through several cities along the way.
On the fifth day, they arrived at a city in the central part of G Province. It was a very, very small prefecture-level city under G Province. Whether in terms of population flow or economic development before the apocalypse, it could not compare at all with B City, the provincial capital.
However, small cities had their advantages too. For example, after the apocalypse, small cities clearly fell much more slowly than large cities.
The zombie evolution speed here was also slower. There were not many mutated zombies, and most of them were only Tier One mutated zombies. Even Tier Two mutated zombies were hard to find here, let alone Tier Three or Tier Four zombies.
Compared with the Tier Two and Tier Three mutated zombies they had encountered before in S City and B City, these zombies could be dealt with without much effort. Along the way, even after reaching the city centre, they handled things with ease. They were not worried at all about being surrounded by zombie hordes or attacked by powerful zombies. The pressure this city brought them was not even as great as the pressure B University alone had brought them.
It was also after entering this city that Ruan Ning clearly realised that she could actually deal with these zombies on her own.
Previously, in the big cities, the zombies she encountered while following the team either came in huge groups or were stronger than the last. She could not feel her own progress at all, nor could she be of much help when killing zombies. Only after coming to this small city did she suddenly realise that her abilities had actually been slowly trained up. Although she still could not compare with high-level ability users with strong offensive power, she was at least much stronger than many ordinary people.
She had to thank the male lead big boss for his completely unreserved guidance these past few days. That was why she had improved so much. As for her marksmanship, even if she could not claim to hit every shot now, she could hit moving zombies around eighty to ninety percent of the time. This had greatly improved her survival ability.
Inside the car.
“Brother, are we really going to follow those people to some base?” Ruan Ning asked in confusion.
Gu Yicheng’s face was grim, and a dark depth flashed through his eyes. His meaning was unclear as he said, “Go. Why wouldn’t we go?”
After receiving his answer, Ruan Ning suddenly felt a little afraid. Her mouth moved, then closed again. Her almond-shaped eyes blinked, and she did not dare continue asking.
As for why Ruan Ning had asked that question just now, it had to be traced back to an hour earlier. At that time, they had been collecting supplies in a shopping mall. To survive in the apocalypse, the supplies needed included many kinds of things. It was not enough to only have food.
For example, now that the weather was getting colder and colder, things like padded coats, down jackets, cotton boots, thick quilts, stoves, pots and pans for cooking, and all sorts of other items had to start being prepared.
Previously, whether in B City or S City, slightly larger shopping malls were all in the urban areas. There had been far too many zombies there. Also, their focus at the time had been on finding people, so they could not spare too much energy for other matters. Because of that, they had never deliberately gone to a large shopping mall to collect supplies.
But in a small city like this, things were different.
With their team’s overall strength, collecting supplies here was clearly much more convenient and safer than in the other two large cities. The supplies would not differ just because they were in a different place.
Ruan Ning happily wandered through the mall. Since they were not in a rush, she did not miss a single shop that interested her and went into them one by one. There were quite a few zombies in this place too, but their strength was generally not high. She and Gu Yicheng collected supplies separately. He arranged for a few people to go with her. After everyone dealt with the zombies together, she began putting the things they needed into her space.
The mall’s surveillance equipment had long since stopped working, so Ruan Ning was not worried that anyone would discover this scene.
This mall had four floors in total, and there were many types of supplies. Especially clothes—Ruan Ning deliberately took a lot. Now that water sources were contaminated, she did not know whether clothes washed in that kind of water would have any side effects if worn on the body for a long time. So the clothes Ruan Ning had changed out of before had never been worn again. Clothes were now even more lacking for her than food. This time, she could finally take enough.
Fortunately, everyone was busy trying to survive and only cared about taking food. Even though people had already been to this mall before them, they had mostly swept through the supermarket downstairs. Most of the clothing stores upstairs had escaped disaster, leaving behind many items that no one had taken.
When the apocalypse broke out in this world more than a month ago, it had already entered autumn. Therefore, many clothing brands had released winter collections early. Although these clothes were not especially thick and placed more emphasis on style, they were still much warmer than the coat Ruan Ning was currently wearing. She did not waste them either. Whether she could wear them or not, she collected quite a lot and put them into her space.
This trip to the mall satisfied Ruan Ning’s greatest regret since obtaining her space: not being able to spend lavishly and sweep through a shopping mall. Now, although she did not need to spend money, being able to put everything she wanted into her space could be considered indirectly fulfilling that wish.
By the time Ruan Ning and the others had almost finished collecting things, they encountered a group of people in the mall. They had also come to collect supplies.
Although Ruan Ning had always remembered that she could not let outsiders see her face, it was impossible for her to wear a mask every moment of the day. Sometimes, she would take it off to get some air.
Especially after she had integrated into the team, perhaps because she now had the male lead Gu Yicheng as her backer, Ruan Ning felt much more reassured. She was no longer as frightened every day as she had been before, afraid that because of this eye-catching appearance in the apocalypse, someone would take a fancy to her, and because she could not beat that person, she would be forced to become a man’s plaything and end up in a tragic ending like biting her tongue to kill herself.
If it was not absolutely necessary, who would want to wear a mask every day, covering their face and looking like they had a bad cold? Wearing a mask was ultimately not as comfortable as not wearing one. After so long, Ruan Ning had long since stopped liking that kind of appearance.
Just like this time, Ruan Ning had been in a relatively relaxed mood while collecting supplies in the mall. Since, aside from zombies, she had not seen anyone else, she had not worn her mask.
But even if she was seen, it did not matter. With the other members of the Morning Light Squad around, she was not worried at all that this group would do anything to her. It was just that among them, there was one man who was especially enthusiastic toward her and insisted no matter what on inviting them to their base.
Of course, Ruan Ning would not agree to go to this so-called safe base he mentioned. She was not familiar with this man, and besides, she was not the one who made decisions in the team. After all, she was not alone now; she had so many teammates. But what surprised her was that Gu Yicheng, who stood beside her and could make decisions, actually agreed just like that.
Ruan Ning kept feeling that from the moment he agreed to go to the safe base, the male lead’s mood seemed a little off. But she could not guess why it was off, and he did not seem at all like he wanted to go check out that base, despite what he had said.
But if the big boss did not say anything, Ruan Ning did not dare ask, did she? She was a poor, young, helpless little girl and could not withstand his anger.
Speaking of which, Ruan Ning had recently become used to acting freely in front of Gu Yicheng, and it had been a long time since she had felt this nervous.
But at this moment, her strong survival instinct told her that she absolutely could not continue asking Gu Yicheng why this time! Otherwise, she would die very miserably.
Ruan Ning remained silent the whole way. However, the more she did so, the more she felt that the low pressure coming from beside her was about to drown her.
QAQ, sob sob sob. It was not like she was the one who provoked him. Why did she have to endure this? And she did not even know what was wrong with him.
…
Just like that, after driving through the urban area for around half an hour, they finally followed that group of people to a safe base and stopped.
That was right. This small city also had safe bases, and from what that group said, there seemed to be several of them. However, they all seemed to be small in scale.
From the outside, one could tell that the base they had brought them to could not compare even with the safe zone in S City, let alone the well-managed Base Three in B City.
They called it a safe base, but in reality, it was just a slightly larger hotel. By setting up a fence beside the hotel and stationing a few people at the gate, it had become a base.
Ruan Ning did not mean to look down on this small base. She just did not quite understand why Gu Yicheng insisted on coming here to take a look. Was this base different from other places in some way?
“Miss Ruan, take your time.” Just as Ruan Ning was about to get out from her side of the car, she saw that among the group who had led the way in front of their vehicle, a young man had specially walked over to open the door for her. He even thoughtfully shielded the door frame for her, afraid she might accidentally bump into it.
“…”
This overly enthusiastic behaviour made Ruan Ning feel especially uncomfortable. Especially since she was not the only one in the car; several teammates and two elders were watching her.
Ruan Ning felt a trace of awkwardness. She coughed lightly and said, “…Um, I can get out by myself.”
Since she thought that she had already been seen before anyway, and wearing a mask now would not be very useful, Ruan Ning did not put it on this time and got out just like that.
“Miss Ruan, you’re really beautiful. You’re the prettiest person I’ve ever seen,” the man said, his mouth as sweet as honey, throwing out all kinds of compliments.
“…”
Even someone like Ruan Ning, who had never dated before, could tell that this man might be interested in her. However, they had only met once, so the source of this fondness was probably nothing more than attraction to her appearance.
Ruan Ning felt irritated. If this person had not actually done anything to her, she would have already been unable to hold back from exploding.
But he was like a peacock spreading its tail, constantly praising himself beside her, talking about how impressive he was, how many ability users their base had, and how they definitely would not regret joining their base. Oh, and he was dressed like a flashy peacock too. In the apocalypse, he was actually even wearing perfume. Even she, a girl, was not like him!!
Before getting in the car earlier, Ruan Ning had already tried to maintain a certain distance from him, and her attitude could not be described as particularly good either. She had thought he had understood what she meant and would stop bothering her. Unexpectedly, she had underestimated just how thick-skinned this person was.
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