17: Chapter 17 Conflict

"Holy shit!"

Chen Ze couldn't help but curse.

It was mainly because this talent was too overpowered; it was simply top-tier among growth-type talents.

By taking damage, one could grow. As long as he had enough survival coins, he could completely avoid killing zombies and let the durability value grow infinitely!

What he didn't expect even more was that the random punk he killed actually possessed an S-grade overpowered talent.

"What's wrong, Mr. Chen?"

Hearing Chen Ze speak, Wang Yalan was startled, thinking something unexpected had happened.

Chen Ze could hardly hide his excitement, but since it wasn't convenient to reveal too much about his talent, he simply said,

"It's nothing, nothing. This person's talent was quite good, which caught me off guard."

As he spoke, Chen Ze immediately activated his Devour skill. Instantly, the heart of the fortress in his hand vanished, and his Blockhouse gained its first practical talent: Tycoons Armor!

"Oh, I see."

Wang Yalan nodded and didn't intend to press for more details.

Chen Ze took note of her reaction. This little young wife was not only beautiful and delicate in her thoughts, but also very tactful; she didn't try to get to the bottom of things, which increased the favorable impression Chen Ze had of her.

"Let's go. I saw quite a few shelters that had been breached by zombies over there from the Blockhouse, so let's head in that direction."

Chen Ze pointed and led the way forward.

Wang Yalan quickly followed, keeping a suitable distance from him—enough to look out for each other, but not so close as to hinder their movements.

The two hadn't walked for more than a few minutes before the first breached shelter appeared before them, with several misty spheres of light floating quietly in the air above the ruins.

To their surprise, the entire building looked as if it had been crushed by a massive shredder; all the steel bars and concrete had been reduced to thumb-sized fragments.

It was as if some terrifying, immense power had decomposed them at a fundamental, rule-based level—this was definitely not something zombies could accomplish.

"It must be the result of the durability value being completely exhausted."

Chen Ze felt that perhaps only the system could achieve this.

Wang Yalan was frightened enough to cover her mouth; she stared at everything before her in terror, unable to help but feel lingering fear.

'If, if Chen Ze hadn't acted last night, would my home also have become ruins like this?'

Chen Ze looked at Wang Yalan's terrified expression, and his own heart felt heavy.

Everything yesterday had gone too smoothly, so much so that Chen Ze hadn't truly witnessed the cruelty of this world. The scene before him now was like a bucket of cold water, ruthlessly waking him up.

The apocalypse was far more dangerous than he had imagined; he had to become stronger as quickly as possible.

Chen Ze took a deep breath, suppressing his inner anxiety, and walked toward the spheres of light.

He reached out and touched the first one, immediately receiving a system prompt.

"Congratulations on obtaining 20 units of Stone! f-grade backpack detected, do you wish to collect?"

"Yes!"

The next moment, 20 units of Stone appeared directly in his backpack. Fortunately, stone could be stacked, occupying only one inventory slot.

Upgrading the Fortress required a full 100 units each of Stone, Wood, and Steel.

He had originally been worried, as he hadn't seen zombies drop these things, but he hadn't expected them to be looted from other people's shelters.

The remaining two spheres of light were, as expected, the other two items, providing 8 units of Wood and 12 units of Steel, respectively.

Besides that, the original furniture of this shelter was relatively well-preserved.

Chen Ze's Blockhouse lacked clothes and food, not to mention pots and pans; he didn't even have a bed to sleep on, so this was a stroke of luck for him.

"A double Simmons mattress? Collect!"

"Rice, flour, grain, and oil? Collect!"

"Huh? How are there still a few packs of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes in this fridge? Collect!"

Like someone discovering treasure, Chen Ze excitedly stashed these supplies one by one, and in no time, his first backpack was completely full.

The f-grade backpack had a capacity of 20 slots. Except for the large bed which took up 4 slots, everything else basically only needed one slot, but there were just too many different kinds of items.

"I've packed so many things, and yet the weight hasn't increased at all. Items produced by this system are truly impressive!"

Chen Ze exclaimed.

Just as they were preparing to leave and continue searching, Wang Yalan suddenly tugged on Chen Ze's sleeve.

"Chen Ze, look over there!"

Chen Ze looked in the direction Wang Yalan was pointing and saw three men walking out of a nearby house, now jogging toward them.

"Damn it, who are you? Who told you to take our stuff?"

The leading man ran up close and immediately pointed at Chen Ze's nose, starting to curse.

"That's right, this is our shelter! Even if it was breached by zombies, the materials that dropped should be ours!"

A tall, thin man following behind also spoke up, holding a steel bar over a meter long in his hand.

The three of them were aggressive, wearing expressions as if they were completely in the right. However, when Chen Ze had collected the supplies earlier, he had clearly seen three corpses; it was obvious they were not the only surviving owners of this shelter.

To Chen Ze's surprise, Wang Yalan, a weak girl, did not hide behind him like an ordinary girl would. Instead, she silently drew her club, seemingly prepared to fight at any moment.

"Mr. Chen, what should we do?"

Wang Yalan asked.

Chen Ze gently patted her back to signal her not to be nervous, then looked at the three people opposite him and sneered.

"Heh, this shelter is yours? Then what about the three people who died inside?"

Seeing their lie exposed, the three showed no shame at all; instead, their faces turned ferocious.

The leading man was burly, holding a gleaming kitchen knife in his hand, and licked his lips with his tongue.

"If I say it's ours, then it's ours!"

"This is the apocalypse now! Hand over the supplies you got immediately, or believe it or not, I'll chop you into mincemeat!"

After the man finished speaking, another person behind him also spoke up.

"Brother Lei, why waste words with them? This kid is empty-handed and doesn't even have a weapon. Let's kill him, and won't all his supplies be ours?"

"Look at the backpack on him. I've seen it at the exchange; that's an f-grade backpack! One of those costs 200 survival coins—that's worth a whole night of killing zombies for us!"

Only now did Chen Ze realize why the three men in front of him were so bold—it turned out they saw him empty-handed, without any weapons.

But these idiots had no idea that his arisaka type 38 rifle and f-class tang dao were all in his backpack; he could take them out at any moment if he wanted to.

Chen Ze's lips curled up slightly, revealing a cold sneer.

"So, you guys aren't planning to let me go today, huh?"

"Idiot, you finally know fear now? Haha, leave the backpack and the chick, and get lost!"

The tall, thin man completely misunderstood the sarcasm in Chen Ze's words, thinking he had chickened out, and walked over while brandishing the steel bar.

This person swaggered forward, not taking Chen Ze seriously at all.

But just as he was about to reach out and snatch Wang Yalan's backpack, Chen Ze moved.

An arisaka type 38 rifle flashing with a cold glint abruptly appeared in his hands. The pitch-black muzzle, like an endless abyss, was aimed straight at the tall, thin man.