45: What are you doing?

In a critical moment, Xu Qing risked his life. Just as he was about to be caught by the small zombie, he sidestepped and raised his machete.

This time, he aimed for the small zombie's neck and successfully chopped off its head.

Seeing its head hit the ground, the cold sweat on Xu Qing's face finally subsided.

"Phew."

"Phew."

"I'll never underestimate a zombie just because it looks weak again!"

Xu Qing wiped the sweat from his face, a look of lingering fear on his face.

Seeing his exhaustion, Su Mianmian tossed him a bottle of spirit spring water.

"Replenish your stamina."

"Some zombies look weak, but are actually very strong."

"Some things you see with your eyes aren't the truth."

Su Mianmian said seriously.

Her words were not only for Xu Qing but also for everyone else.

In the apocalypse, the most useless thing was compassion.

Su Mianmian certainly didn't want them to lose their lives because of their pity.

"I understand."

"I'll never have such thoughts again."

Xu Qing grabbed the bottle and stood up.

His hand was still trembling slightly. It was his first time being so close to a zombie, and he was a bit scared.

After drinking the spirit spring water, he felt much better.

"I wonder if this zombie has a core."

"Xu Qing, check its head."

Su Jinxuan said playfully, his arms crossed.

Xu Qing: "..."

He glanced at Shi Xu, who gave him a look that said, "Why are you looking at me? Get to it."

Xu Qing shook his head and squatted down to check again.

He suppressed his nausea, used his knife to cut open the small zombie's head, and stirred inside.

The people present, seeing him search for a core like that, all turned their heads away.

Su Mianmian opened her mouth, wanting to say that wasn't how you find a core, but Shi Xu pulled her. She looked up at him and saw him shake his head, as if he didn't want her to interrupt.

She closed her mouth, deciding not to speak.

Xu Qing stirred until he himself felt like throwing up. Just as he was about to announce there was no core, his knife suddenly hit something hard.

His eyes lit up, and he used his knife to pry it out.

A core stained with putrid blood was pried out and fell with a "ping" at Shi Xu's feet.

Su Mianmian knew he had mysophobia, so she took out water and rinsed it.

As it was rinsed, the core revealed its original appearance.

"A colorless core."

"Xu Qing, do you want to try it?"

Su Mianmian saw it was a white core and lost interest.

She preferred colored cores.

"Boss, why don't you try it!"

Xu Qing looked at Shi Xu, trying to please him.

Shi Xu shook his head and casually placed the core in his hand.

Seeing this, Xu Qing could only try it himself.

Following the method Su Mianmian had given him, he carefully sensed the core's power, drawing that power into his body and mixing it with his original power.

After absorption, the core turned into powder.

Xu Qing opened his eyes and released his ability.

The fire, which had originally been a small flame, had become a slightly thicker flame after upgrading.

The color of the flame also intensified.

The others, seeing how effective Xu Qing's single core absorption was for his ability, were all filled with fighting spirit.

"Abilities are easy to level up early on; using your ability more can also upgrade it."

"It gets harder to level up later."

Su Mianmian saw their envious expressions, shook her head, and said with a chuckle.

Shi Xu nodded in agreement. When he first awakened his ability, it was very weak, but he practiced a lot, and now his ability was almost at Level One.

If Su Mianmian knew about Shi Xu's terrifying ability upgrade speed, she would surely be overwhelmed.

The group moved forward again. This time, there were no dangerous zombies; most were just newly turned.

Su Mianmian and Shi Xu dealt with a few for practice, and the rest were left to the others.

Arriving at the base of a tall building, Su Mianmian looked at the fifty-plus-story building and silently turned to Shi Xu.

"We're going to the thirty-seventh floor."

"I've already cleared it out there; it's enough for all of us."

Shi Xu seemed to understand Su Mianmian's unspoken question and explained.

Su Mianmian nodded; she was very satisfied with the floor Shi Xu had chosen.

Not too high, not too low, just right.

There weren't many people living in these tall buildings yet. When Su Mianmian and the others went up, they didn't see many people or zombies.

After the rain, people from nearby would probably come over.

Thinking of this, Su Mianmian shook her head, a look of annoyance on her face.

The elevator was unusable. When everyone climbed to the thirty-seventh floor, except for the extremely fit Shi Xu, everyone else was more or less tired.

Just as Su Mianmian was about to say something, she suddenly heard a sound.

It sounded a bit like a chainsaw.

She glanced at Shi Xu, as if checking if he had heard it too.

Shi Xu nodded at her. He instructed Xu Qing and the others to protect Mother Shi and the others, while he himself led Su Mianmian and Su Jinxuan towards the source of the sound.

As the three of them went over, they saw two men and two women using a chainsaw to saw through the anti-theft door Shi Xu had specially installed.

"Why is this door so hard to saw open?"

"Do you think there are really good things inside?"

The man sawing had been at it for a long time without seeing any marks. He stopped, wiped the sweat from his face.

"Whether there's anything inside or not, we have to go in and see."

"Maybe there's a lot of money in there."

"Otherwise, why would they put in such a good anti-theft door?"

The woman next to him said firmly.

After she finished speaking, she nudged the man who had stopped, signaling him to hurry up.

Although the man had many complaints, remembering what the woman said, he continued to saw.

Su Mianmian and the other two listened for a while from behind. After realizing they were simply trying to commit burglary, they all felt helpless.

Had these four people not seen the zombies outside?

They were still thinking about stealing money?

Su Mianmian couldn't stand it anymore. She pretended to cough, attracting their attention.

After seeing them look at her, she crossed her arms and said coldly, "What are you doing?"

The four people panicked when they saw someone approaching.

The man holding the chainsaw didn't even have the strength to hold it anymore.

"We... we... we forgot our keys."

"The power's out, so we can only open the door like this."

One woman, who still had some sense, explained tremblingly.

The others quickly nodded in agreement.

"How come I didn't know that my home belonged to you people?"

"Do you want me to break your legs and kick you out, or do you want to leave yourselves, quickly?"

Shi Xu looked at the four coldly.

These people didn't have much courage; going out was suicide.

He couldn't be bothered to dirty his hands.

Su Mianmian thought the same way. These people still hadn't recognized reality. What would happen when they encountered zombies was obvious.

She looked at their expressions, full of disdain.

"You... you say it's yours, and it's yours?"

"Do you have a property deed?"

When the woman heard the house was theirs, she didn't believe such a coincidence could happen. These people probably also wanted the money inside the house.

She was fiercely protective, as if the house were hers.

Seeing this, Su Mianmian almost laughed in anger.

"If you don't want to die, then leave quickly."

"Otherwise, you won't even know how you died."

She looked at the four mysteriously and smiled.

The four felt provoked. They all puffed out their chests, and one strong man even said defiantly, "I think it's you who won't know how you died, you bitch!"

Su Mianmian saw that they wouldn't listen to her "kind advice," and she sneered.