A large pool of blood stretched from the entrance to the back of the supermarket, and several scattered body parts had been frozen solid.

"The clothes are on the second floor. Don't worry, it's still very safe here. We've already dealt with several batches, and they don't dare come. As for me? The tribe is still missing a lot of things, so I came by to take a look. When you're done changing, come down and call me. I think there's a lot of work to do."

Li Wenjia walked up the escalator alone.

The automatic staircase had long been out of service. Even if it had survived the bombing of a nuclear warhead, those circuit systems would not be able to withstand several months of high concentrations of ionizing radiation.

He held the handrail and his memory went back to a month ago.

Those memories are like low-quality malt sugar, sticky and astringent, hard to get rid of and annoying.

That was the third, and currently the final, incident in which the expedition suffered heavy casualties. He happened to be on a mission then, similar to the one he was currently on, performing a recovery operation in a supermarket. It was supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable mission, usually assigned to professional soldiers fresh from the front lines.

Unfortunately, that mission separated him from some of his brothers forever.

When they happily returned to their camp, laden with supplies, they found it engulfed in flames. Many tried in vain to extinguish the flames on their comrades, but the flames, like maggots on their bones, spun along the clothing they had used to fight the flames, and burned them themselves.

It was a napalm-like substance made by mutants.

They were originally the lucky ones in the city, and they could have had a better life as human beings, but they chose to become beasts.

The survivors learned from their mistakes and began to become indifferent. They no longer trusted other people they met on the road, even if those people looked decent.

The expeditionary force is willing to fight for the people, but there are also scum among the people and they have to guard against them.

Li Wenjia took a step forward, rested in that position for a moment, then took another step forward. Although he had only known the people of Rat Village for less than two days, he trusted his intuition. Unlike Shattered Star's weather forecasts, his intuition was remarkably accurate, having never been wrong since the beginning of the expedition.

The clothing section was in relatively good condition, having largely retained its pre-war appearance. Mannequins were displayed in the shop windows, wearing a variety of clothing, and they looked more human than the mutants outside.

Li Wenjia walked carefully through the corridor. The glass here was almost all broken, and the ground was covered with glass shards.

He found a cheap underwear store and changed into a pair of the right size. He also stole a few bags of four-in-one suits of the same size. There was no other way. The temperature here was too low. The clothes that were comfortable to wear were not durable, especially after being frozen.

He had nothing else to do, so he quickly returned to the first floor of the supermarket.

There were actually quite a few useful materials scattered around the hall. Li Wenjia pulled out a backpack filled with gold jewelry from an inconspicuous corner. The backpack was stained with blood, suggesting its previous owner hadn't had a pleasant experience leaving with it.

Gold is always useful and remains one of the rarest metals. It's mostly derived from supernova explosions in the universe, so in some young galaxies, it may be completely absent. Of course, in Li Wenjia's eyes, this gold is only valuable as a material; in actual use, its value is even lower than that of steel.

Li Wenjia poured out all the jewelry and then picked out a few gold coins. In fact, a pound of gold was enough to sustain the current expedition team for several months. There was no need for him to bring back such a heavy pile of stuff.

He waited for a while, and then Changgu came out from between the shelves, carrying a few nylon woven bags. He was holding a few woodcutting axes, but his face looked unhappy, as he obviously hadn't found what he needed.

"What are you looking for? I can..."

"No, let's go chop some wood. Winter is coming soon, so we need to stock up."

Changgu distributed the felling axes to everyone. These were ordinary wooden-handled axes, and they were indeed too light and fragile for several supermen. Li Wenjia felt that he had to be careful later, lest this broken thing die instantly before he could chop a few times.

Halfway along the way, Li Wenjia approached Shattered Star and asked him, "So what is he looking for here?"

"He's still thinking about it?" Broken Star showed a surprised expression on his face. "Come closer. It was last time. We killed a few werewolves in there. He must have taken a fancy to their fur."

"Werewolves...they are transformed from humans too!"

"That's true. But he actually doesn't quite believe it. After all, they eat people. They're no longer human."

Li Wenjia smacked his lips, he was left speechless by Suixing's words.

This is actually a classic ethical question: if a companion becomes a monster, how do we define it? Is he still a companion? Or, if a monster and a human can produce normal offspring, are monsters fundamentally different from humans?

Different people will definitely come to different conclusions.

Li Wenjia had only one answer - he would give a fair death to everyone who hurt his friends.

"Hey! Watch the road!" The long bone in front suddenly turned his head, interrupting the philosophical thinking of the people behind him.

They followed a well-trodden path, skirting a moat along the hillside. After another half day's walk, they finally returned to their starting point—near the northern tunnel exit.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!