Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Scam

Mu Qingrong suddenly felt nauseous and started vomiting during lunch.

It was probably because Mu Qingyu cooked scrambled eggs with tomatoes for lunch.

The red and yellow colors looked nice, and the taste was alright too, but Mu Qingrong suddenly vomited. Mu Qingyu knew that after seeing how energetic she was in killing zombies that morning, he guessed she was only now calming down.

Seeing Mu Qingrong vomiting until she collapsed at the bathroom door, Mu Qingyu remained calm: "You still said you wanted to come with me to collect supplies in this state. Forget it, take a break, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

After she finished speaking, she went back into her room to change into a tracksuit and came out holding a military dagger and carrying a large backpack.

Mu Qingyu was in such a hurry to leave for two reasons. First, she was genuinely concerned about the items in that shopping mall. Second, she also wanted to see what the situation was like in the city.

The zombies had just mutated and were still moving slowly; many people weren't yet aware of the need for free shopping at malls. It was better for her to stay in the city center now, and try to avoid it in the future.

The siblings were arguing just before dinner. Mu Qingrong wanted to go out with Mu Qingyu. He thought he was the real man and should protect his sister. How could he let his sister take risks alone?

As a result, he vomited until he collapsed. When he saw Mu Qingyu leave him behind, he didn't have the strength to chase after her.

Mu Qingyu still had her old, beat-up truck parked in the yard; it was too noisy, so she hadn't driven it out. She had over a dozen electric bikes stored in her spatial storage, so she found a spot and randomly released one. Then she set off on her electric bike.

Electric vehicles are quiet, so they are less likely to attract zombies, and they are also very agile. The roads were fine at first, with few vehicles and zombies.

But the closer they got to the city, the more zombies and broken-down vehicles appeared on the roads.

Mu Qingyu knew without even opening the car doors that the people inside had either turned into zombies and were temporarily unable to get out, or they had turned into zombies and escaped—in the extreme cold of last night, how could anyone survive a car still on the road?

At first, Mu Qingyu could easily deal with some of the zombies on the road, but as the number of zombies increased, she began to try to speed up to avoid these slow-moving zombies.

On her way, she passed a convenience store in the suburbs. The owners, a couple who had turned into zombies, lived in their own small house, so Mu Qingyu casually took some things from inside. That way, even though she returned empty-handed from the mall, it wasn't a complete loss.

There was another gas station before entering the city, and Mu Qingyu wanted to go there to check it out. If no one was there, she would try to get some gas out.

As Mu Qingyu approached the gas station, she knew there was probably nothing to be gained – the gas station was mostly burned, but there had been no explosion.

This action is very similar to Mu Qingyu's act of burning down a demolished house for warmth in her previous life, only starting a fire at a gas station is more dangerous. The low temperature last night must have prevented the explosion.

There are people inside!

Mu Qingyu thought for a moment and prepared to take a detour to leave. Since someone had already occupied this place, she would give it up. She didn't want to get involved with anyone else, but a voice called out to her.

"Miss, miss, don't go! Where are you going? There are many monsters outside that eat people. It's so dangerous!"

It was a child's voice, very innocent.

Mu Qingyu turned around and saw a little boy's head peeking out of the convenience store at the gas station. He had big eyes and looked about nine or ten years old.

Seeing Mu Qingyu turn around, the child blinked her cute eyes and said, "Sister, you should come inside quickly. There are really a lot of man-eating monsters outside, it's very dangerous." Her innocent face showed a hint of anxiety, and she was very sincere.

"No need, thank you." Mu Qingyu's face remained expressionless as she started her electric scooter and prepared to leave.

"Sister, don't go!" Seeing Mu Qingyu about to leave, the little boy panicked and rushed out to block Mu Qingyu's electric scooter. "There really is a monster! You'll die if you go out!"

Mu Qingyu finally smiled, lowered her head and asked him softly, "So, do you think I'd rather die quickly by leaving here, or by going in with you?"

The little boy's face immediately showed extreme fear. He took a step back and involuntarily looked towards the convenience store.

Mu Qingyu followed his gaze and turned around, but there was no movement inside the convenience store. She casually pulled out the military dagger hanging from her waist and called out, "I don't have anything valuable on me, but—I have a military dagger that was just used to stab someone in the head. Do you want it?"

As she spoke, she held the thorn in front of the little boy.

The little boy was so frightened that he fell backward onto the ground, his bottom slamming hard on the floor, but he didn't dare to cry out.

Mu Qingyu avoided him and rode away on her electric scooter. Looking back, the convenience store remained silent; no one came out.

Mu Qingyu sighed. She hadn't expected that people's hearts would already be corrupted so soon after the apocalypse began. Perhaps these people didn't just start turning evil after the apocalypse; that little boy was too adept at it, and perhaps they had been doing bad things even before the apocalypse.

It wasn't that Mu Qingyu had some kind of supernatural insight that immediately told her it was a trap. The main problem was that this kind of tactic—using children, women, or even pets to lure people in—was rampant in the post-apocalyptic world. She had lived in the lower rungs of society for five years; what kind of people hadn't she seen?

Furthermore, the gas station fire was clearly left behind by someone trying to keep warm, while the convenience store remained intact, indicating that someone was controlling the fire—something no child or even a single adult could do alone. Therefore, there were likely many other people there, at least three to five, or perhaps more.

But just now, knowing full well that there were man-eating monsters outside, they let a child go out alone to shout, and casually let a stranger into the place where they were temporarily relying on for survival, a place that still had water and food...

Given all these illogical circumstances, if Mu Qingyu still falls for it, either she's deliberately being fooled with ulterior motives, or she's truly stupid and has wasted her entire past life!

Further along the road after leaving the gas station, there were even more zombies, and some living people started driving out of town. However, the nearby highways were blocked by cars that had broken down the night before. The cars trying to leave the town were scrambling and colliding with each other, causing accidents, and some people were bitten by zombies. Some people started running, and the zombies began to chase them.

The closer they got to the city center, the more chaotic the scene became.

During this time, some people noticed that the large truck was blocked and couldn't move, so some people started to have designs on Mu Qingyu, who was alone—after all, her little electric scooter looked very light and agile.

Mu Qingyu evaded several groups of pursuers, and her desire to explore the mall was shattered.

She rode along a side road into a small village, shaking off the people who tried to steal her bike. Unexpectedly, she discovered that the village was a workshop for electronic components.

It's the kind of industry where every household works in the same field.