Ji Shiyou knocked on the door. In a fit of impulse that morning, he had asked Mingyue to store all his belongings in her spatial dimension.
Upon returning home, he found it bare, with not even a bed or a quilt, leaving him no way to sleep.
Furthermore, the water had been cut off. During his mutation, his body had expelled impurities.
Combined with the stench of the zombies, he could no longer bear it and desperately needed a bath, so he shamelessly knocked on Mingyue's door.
Coincidentally, Ba Jiu also needed a bath. Mingyue sent the two men, one big and one small, into her spatial dimension, letting them sort things out.
She then went to Ji Shiyou's home and retrieved his bed and quilt from her spatial dimension.
She also found a backpack, selected some men's clothes and daily necessities, packed them, and threw them onto the bed. She didn't want Ji Shiyou bothering her for clothes later.
Hearing Ba Jiu calling her from within the spatial dimension, Mingyue was quite surprised. It turned out she and Ba Jiu could communicate mentally. With a thought, she released them both.
She sent Ji Shiyou back to his own home, while Mingyue went into the spatial dimension to bathe. Afterward, she came out, hugged Ba Jiu, and lay down on the bed.
Zombies didn't actually need to sleep, but Ba Jiu was happy to lie with Mingyue and pretended to sleep with his eyes closed.
Once Mingyue was asleep, Ba Jiu opened his eyes and grinned. He was smiling.
At that moment, the roars of zombies echoed through the neighborhood. Mingyue, in her sleep, seemed disturbed and turned over.
Ba Jiu immediately frowned, closed his eyes, and his mental power spread out in concentric circles, like ripples on water, warning the zombies in the neighborhood to behave.
As a high-level zombie, he possessed a natural suppression over ordinary zombies due to his rank.
The zombies in the neighborhood immediately quieted down. Some, unable to withstand his pressure, even fled the complex.
Hearing the world fall silent, Ba Jiu hugged Mingyue's arm and closed his eyes.
"Did you notice? Last night was unusually quiet. Ba Jiu, did you do something? The zombies weren't making any noise."
Early in the morning, Ji Shiyou came over for breakfast and asked Ba Jiu.
They were going out to collect supplies again today. In the apocalypse, the more supplies, the better.
They had to collect as much as possible while it was still the early stages of the apocalypse and people hadn't fully reacted.
"Ba Jiu, we're going out to collect supplies. You need to pretend to be a human child, understand?
You can't let anyone recognize you as a zombie, or you won't be able to stay with sister."
Putting a baseball cap on Ba Jiu's head and then a mask, Mingyue earnestly instructed him.
She wasn't foolish; she knew zombies were now considered enemies of humanity. She didn't fear the consequences of Ba Jiu being recognized, but she disliked trouble, so it was best if he remained undiscovered.
Ba Jiu ignored Ji Shiyou's words but obediently nodded at Mingyue's instructions, leaving Ji Shiyou feeling dejected.
To conceal the spatial dimension, the three of them each carried a backpack as a cover and headed downstairs with their handy weapons.
With Ba Jiu present, the zombies in the neighborhood kept a wide berth from them.
Collecting supplies was also smooth sailing. The zombies sensed Ba Jiu's presence from afar and avoided them.
Wherever Mingyue went, nothing was left behind. Her spatial dimension was large enough to store everything.
She even took the generator, which would allow them to use appliances like rice cookers, making cooking more convenient in the future.
"This won't do! High-level zombies like Ba Jiu have already appeared.
This means some zombies have evolved. Besides collecting supplies, we need to collect crystal cores.
These are crucial for improving our strength. With Ba Jiu here, zombies don't dare approach us. If we can't kill zombies, we can't get crystal cores.
If we can't improve our strength, we'll be eliminated. Mingyue, can you ask Ba Jiu to stay away from us, or perhaps not scare the zombies away?"
In the apocalypse, strength represented everything. Absorbing crystal cores from zombies was the fastest way to improve one's power. Ji Shiyou suggested to Mingyue.
It wasn't that he didn't want to speak to Ba Jiu directly, but Ba Jiu simply didn't listen to him, so he had to go through Mingyue.
Mingyue also needed to kill zombies to improve her witchcraft. So, she told Ba Jiu to go home by himself, filling his small backpack with snacks.
Although reluctant to leave Mingyue, Ba Jiu walked away in another direction, looking back repeatedly, his reluctant expression tinged with grievance.
Without Ba Jiu, the zombies immediately swarmed them. Ji Shiyou immediately used his gold ability, conjuring a two-meter-long saber, and charged forward, combining it with his strength attribute.
Mingyue didn't make a move, merely following behind and using her witchcraft to smash the heads of the zombies Ji Shiyou cut down, collecting the crystal cores within.
However, it was still the early stages, and many zombies hadn't evolved crystal cores yet. Out of ten, they could only harvest two or three.
But the sheer number made up for it. In two hours, she had collected over twenty.
Abilities weren't inexhaustible; they could also be depleted. Ji Shiyou had supported them for two hours and was already exhausted.
The two of them broke free from the zombie horde and ran for a while before deciding to find a place to rest.
They needed to drink some water and eat something to recover their strength. Seeing a convenience store on the street, they went inside.
The convenience store was open twenty-four hours, so the door was ajar. A woman's corpse lay slumped by the counter, likely the cashier.
It was already dismembered, likely killed by zombies. Perhaps the zombies had killed her and, finding no other living prey, had left. The place was currently safe.
Adhering to the principle of not leaving empty-handed, Mingyue grabbed a few bags of bread and water and threw them to Ji Shiyou, then stored all the goods in the store, along with the shelves, into her spatial dimension.
As they finished eating and were about to leave, they heard footsteps outside. The two of them immediately darted into a small room inside.
"Quickly close the door, push the counter over, and brace the door."
Peeking through the crack in the door, they saw over a dozen people rushing in in a panic, quickly closing the door and moving the counter to block a horde of zombies outside.
The dozen or so people were wearing school uniforms. They looked like students. This was a university town with several universities nearby.
Moreover, it was the third day of the apocalypse. Most survivors had food at home and wouldn't risk venturing out, choosing to stay put.
Only students living in dormitories, unable to bear the hunger, would come out in search of supplies.
However, among them was a man who was clearly not a student. This man was in his thirties, broad-shouldered and stout, standing at least 1.9 meters tall, appearing strong and powerful.
Mingyue recognized this person. He was her company's department manager, named You Kongqiong, who had constantly made things difficult for Mingyue.
Because the original host was timid and lacked flattery, Manager You had assigned almost the entire department's workload to the original host.
Otherwise, the original host wouldn't have died suddenly and been occupied by Mingyue, only to be exploited by Manager You for another month.
"The zombies are gathering more and more. This door isn't sturdy; it will be broken down sooner or later. We must find a way to leave here."
Watching the number of zombies outside increase, and the convenience store door becoming increasingly precarious, Manager You said irritably. He regretted coming out.
He had initially thought that with his robust physique, he could take advantage of the lawlessness and chaos of the apocalypse to get rich. He never expected this.
The backpack behind him was filled with gold and jewelry, the spoils of his looting several jewelry stores. Now, trapped here, he didn't want to die.
"Uncle, what should we do? Those things are coming in."
The students were at most twenty years old. They had been starving in their dormitories and had decided to team up to find food.
Unexpectedly, they encountered zombies before even getting any food and ended up fleeing with Manager You.
Manager You, with his tall and imposing stature and older age, provided a sense of security.
So, a sweet-looking girl with an apple face, wearing a yellow dress, asked him.
"Now, only one person can act as bait to lure the zombie horde away so we can escape.
You, go out and lure the zombies away."