Eve ignored Fan Ming's expression of having seen a ghost and said softly, "We just saved your life. In exchange, can you tell us the address of the mall?"
She looked at Fan Ming with a smile, her eyes curved into crescents.
Fan Ming hesitated: "This..."
It's not too much to ask, but...
He couldn't help but ask again: "Are you really going?"
He teamed up with other homeless people. There were eight of them in the group, but he was the only one who escaped. The rest were trapped in the mall.
The screams of those people as they escaped were still clearly echoing in his ears. Even though they were just temporary teammates, Fan Ming still felt a sense of grief. His face turned a little green. "Aren't you afraid of running into zombies?"
Eve smiled and said, "It's okay, but we need food more."
She hadn't had a drop of water for nearly twelve hours, and the dry air in the wilderness had caused her lips to crack and chapped.
"Okay," Fan Ming had no choice but to give in, "Then I'll tell you the route."
He was about to speak when Eve held out her hand. "How about this?" She pulled out a red gem the size of a fingernail from her pocket and placed it in Fan Ming's palm. "I'll give you a core crystal. Take us to the mall."
When she took out the nuclear crystal, Fan Ming's eyes widened.
"Nuclear...nuclear crystal?!" he asked in surprise. "Are you serious?!"
Eve raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, we need you to accompany us," she said, rubbing the edge of the core crystal with her thumb. "But we only want you to take us to the mall, so I can only give you a small piece."
Hearing this, Fan Ming subconsciously glanced at the nuclear crystal in her hand.
Although the nuclear crystal is not big, its quality is very good - the purer the nuclear crystal, the more energy it contains. The piece in Eve's hand is like a clear ruby.
If such nuclear crystals appeared on the exchange, they would have been snatched away long ago.
Fan Ming couldn't help but look at Eve again, who had an expression that said, "It's just a small stone, you can play with it casually."
he:"……"
So ordinary, really so ordinary.
"...Okay!" He gritted his teeth and said with determination, "I'll take you there!"
But Eve said, "Wait a minute, I want to talk to my brother about something."
Fan Ming: “?”
But he was the sponsor after all, so he readily agreed: "Okay, but try to do it early, otherwise the zombies will come out in the afternoon."
Eve also understood this, nodded, and raised her hand: "I'll give this to you first."
The nuclear crystal flew through the air, drawing a deep red parabola. Fan Ming hurriedly caught it, spread out his hands, and found that it was the nuclear crystal.
He held the cool little stone in his hands, a look of surprise on his face: "This... are you giving it to me now?"
Nuclear crystals are precious resources after all. He was originally afraid that Eve was deliberately deceiving him, but he didn't expect that she would give it to him so easily.
"It doesn't matter," Eve smiled, "You wouldn't lie anyway, right?"
Fan Ming was about to answer when she added, "But if you want to run away with the money, don't blame us for being rude."
After she finished speaking, Qi cooperated and took a step forward, pressing towards Fan Ming with great oppression.
Fan Ming: shivering.jpg.
He swore to the heavens: "No, no! I will definitely take you there!"
Having achieved her goal, Eve gently tugged at Seven's sleeve, and the latter immediately retracted his fangs and stood obediently behind her. Eve said, "Then you take a rest for a while, and we'll call you later."
What else could Fan Ming say? He said dryly, "Okay."
Eve took Qi to the other side. After making sure Fan Ming couldn't see what was happening there, she lifted her sleeve and offered her arm to Qi: "Come and drink some blood."
Qi looked at her with confused eyes and stood still.
Eve: "...Don't want to drink?"
Hearing the impatience in her tone, Qi took two steps forward and carefully held Eve's arm. He did not bite her immediately, but looked at Eve inquiringly. Only when she glanced back at him did he slowly put his fangs against Eve's skin.
Eve took out a piece of rock candy and put it in her mouth. The moment Qi bit her skin, she also bit the rock candy into pieces.
Suddenly, a sweet taste spread in the mouth.
Eve slowly put the candy crumbs in her mouth, waited for Qi to suck on them for a while, and then shook her arm: "Alright."
Qi Gongjin put away his fangs and helped Eve lick the dripping blood. Eve casually pressed the wound and used a little magic power, and the small bite healed instantly. She put down her sleeves, thought for a while, and took out two nuclear crystals from her pocket.
When she escaped from the base, she threw away most of the nuclear crystals in order to divert the soldiers' attention. Now there are only seven or eight left in her pocket, and they are not very big.
Eve quickly absorbed the magic power of the two nuclear crystals and stuffed the remaining nuclear crystals into her pocket.
Although magic power is very important, she cannot use up all the nuclear crystals. After all, nuclear crystals have become an extremely important resource after the end of the world. She can use these energy stones to do many things. For example, she glanced at Fan Ming, who was rolling gravel around boredly - to find a good guide.
Eve asked Qi: "Are there any other wounds on your body?"
Qi shook his head, and she said, "Let's go then."
Qi half-knelt down, letting Eve put her arms around his neck and gently lifted her up. Fan Ming came over and saw this scene, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "Aren't you going to walk by yourself?"
Eve gave him a strange look. "Why should I walk when he's here?"
Fan Ming: “…”
If he was her brother, he would definitely beat the kid's head off.
But it was a consensual thing after all, so Fan Ming wisely turned off the microphone. After a while, he couldn't help but remind him, "If you leave now, it will take about an hour to walk, and you won't get to the mall until noon. Are you sure you still want to go?"
Noon is the time when zombies come out to look for food. Fan Ming doesn't want to run into a group of hungry zombies as soon as he goes there, so he tries to persuade Eve to wait until night.
In the end, he only heard one sentence: "The more zombies, the better. Leave now."
Fan Ming: “???”
……Grass.
***
In the endless wilderness, three figures were on their way, and the leader among them stopped first.
Fan Ming pointed to a place not far away and said, "That's the shopping mall."
Looking in the direction of his finger, a light gray circular building appeared in front of Eve. The outer layer of the entire building was made of a material she didn't know, and it reflected a dazzling light in the sunlight.
"How strange," Fan Ming scratched his head, "Why didn't I see any zombies along the way?"
Eve: “Uh-huh.” Because they had all been cleaned up by her zombie minions in advance.
"That's enough," she said to Fan Ming, "We can walk the rest of the way by ourselves."
But Fan Ming hesitated.
"I..." He grunted for a while before saying, "Can I come with you?"
Eve: “?”
A faint blush appeared on Fan Ming's dark skin: "There are fewer zombies now, so..." He wanted to take the opportunity to go into the mall and take a look. Wouldn't it be a profit if he could get some supplies?
And there are two people with special abilities beside him, which is much better than going through it alone.
Seeing Eve lost in thought, he quickly promoted himself: "I'm very familiar with the layout of this mall. I can lead you to all the supplies without taking any detours, and we can also minimize contact with zombies!"
After he said that, he realized that these conditions were nothing to a psychic who could fight zombies, so he could only stare at the silent Eve anxiously.
The latter crossed his arms and thought for a while, then happily agreed: "Okay."
Fan Ming was overjoyed: "Really?!"
Eve smiled and said, "Yes, it just so happens that we need someone like you."
Her knowledge of this world was limited to the base, and she had no idea about the concepts of "shopping mall" or "department store" mentioned by Fan Ming, so it would be much easier if she had a guide.
Of course, Fan Ming didn't understand what she meant and could only mumble a blank, "...Huh?"
Eve had no intention of explaining and winked at him. "Let's go, then," she added, "Be sure to follow us. If you fall behind, we won't help you."
Fan Ming quickly perked up and roared with full energy: "Okay!"
After roaring, he belatedly covered his mouth - zombies have very keen hearing, and if you make too much noise, they will be attracted to you.
Eve found him very amusing and chuckled softly before saying to Qi, "Let's go."
For some reason, Qi first glanced at Fan Ming before taking a step forward and walking in front.
The three of them slipped in silently through the half-open glass door of the shopping mall.
"Listen to me," Fan Ming said in a low voice as soon as he entered the mall, "Let's go to the pharmacy on the second floor first to see if there are any medicines there. After that, we'll go down to the basement - there's a department store there. Let's not stay too long, just grab a few cans and leave."
To be fair, what he provided was the fastest and most effective solution for ordinary people, but Fan Ming didn't know that the person standing opposite him was a witch who controlled zombies.
Eve: "I'm very hungry now, let's go to the department store first."
Fan Ming: “…” He slowly typed a question mark.
"No, no, no," he waved his hands repeatedly, "You got it wrong. Medicine bottles are easier to carry than cans, so we need to go to the second floor first..."
Eve: "That's okay. We can split up here—you go to the second floor, and we go to the basement."
Although her tone was gentle and she had an apologetic smile on her face, what she said left no room for compromise: "Sorry, I don't like traveling on an empty stomach."
Fan Ming: "But...but..."
He subconsciously looked at Qi, hoping that this "brother" could persuade his sister, but unexpectedly Qi's attitude was even more direct than Eve's - he walked straight around Fan Ming and headed towards the escalator.
Fan Ming: “…” Damn, he has it so hard.
Eve smiled at him and said, "See you later."
She turned and followed Seven toward the escalator.
Fan Ming still felt that what Eve did was inappropriate and wanted to stop her. Just as he stretched out his hand, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and his pupils suddenly shrank.
"……careful!"
Eve only heard a scream from behind her, and before she could come to her senses, she was knocked to the ground by Fan Ming.
"howl--!"
Qi roared from his throat and pounced on Fan Ming in an instant. Fan Ming was knocked to the ground by him. Qi was about to raise his claws to attack, but Fan Ming was terrified and pointed behind him: "There are zombies! Get out of the way!"
Qi Yi was stunned.
“Ouch!”
The second roar sounded, and suddenly a dark shadow emerged from the shadows at the corner to their right, and two red lights flashed from the dim light - a zombie rushed out obliquely, roaring and pounced on Eve who was lying on the ground!
Qi finally reacted and immediately turned around to stop it, but the zombie was much faster than him. He had only taken a step when the zombie had already rushed in front of Eve.
The sharp iron claws grabbed her neck straight down!
At the critical moment, Eve fell backwards suddenly. At the same time, a zombie rushed out from behind her and ran straight towards the attacker like a cannonball.
"Bang!"
The two zombies collided in the air, making a dull sound.
"Don't attack its head!" Eve raised her upper body and yelled at the second zombie.
Upon hearing this, the zombie's claws, which were originally aimed at the attacker, suddenly turned halfway and grabbed the attacker's neck.
The two zombies started fighting.
Seeing this, Qi rushed to Eve and carefully picked her up.
Eve landed unsteadily, scraping a large piece of skin off her elbow, revealing bright red tender flesh.
Seven let out a series of soft whimpers from his throat, leaned over to Eve's elbow, and licked it gently.
"It's okay," Eve immediately pushed Qi's head away, as Fan Ming was nearby. "It's just a minor injury."
"You...how could you..."
As soon as she finished speaking, Fan Ming's trembling voice sounded behind her. Eve turned around and met a pair of shocked eyes.
Fan Ming looked incredulous.
"Eve, you... you just controlled the zombies...?!"
The author has something to say:
Did you know that the shelf life of instant noodles is only six months!!!
I originally wanted to ask them to get instant noodles, but I felt embarrassed to let them eat something that was more than two years old orz...
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