Chapter 8: Rescuing a Woman

It is the third day since the apocalypse began.

Liu Yang checked his remaining food supplies: 15 bottles of 250ml milk, 70 sausages (20g each), 12 loaves of bread, and 8 vacuum-packed chicken legs. If they rationed these carefully, it should last the three of them about seven days.

However, Liu Yang was a man with a keen sense of crisis. Although the food would last for a week, he had to hurry and continue scavenging. As time passed and other survivors grew hungrier, they would be more likely to risk entering the convenience store. That store was the sole source of food for the entire residential complex. If he didn't get there soon, someone else might beat him to it.

But to continue scavenging, the dozen or so zombies at the entrance were an obstacle that had to be cleared first.

Standing at a third-floor window, Liu Yang looked down at the zombies below. With a slight shift of his focus, an ice needle instantly condensed in the air. He aimed at a zombie’s head and fired.

Nothing happened to the zombie.

Liu Yang’s eyes widened. "Damn it! This ice needle attack is powerful, but the range is way too short! That zombie couldn't have been more than 20 meters away; how did it miss?"

Liu Yang reached a conclusion: with his current mental energy and Level 1 cryokinesis, his effective range for the ice needle was only about 10 meters. He couldn't control it beyond that distance. Unlike a bullet, the needle was too light; once it lost his telekinetic control, its inertia wasn't enough to cause damage.

"It seems this skill isn't invincible after all... I'll have to risk opening the door and attacking through a crack," Liu Yang muttered, shaking his head. Thankfully, zombies had low intelligence; if he opened a narrow gap, they might not even notice him.

Liu Yang did the math. He could generate a maximum of five ice needles at once, enough to take down five zombies. The cooldown between charges was 15 minutes. There were 15 zombies outside, meaning he needed two more reloads. That would take half an hour. In just 30 minutes, he could clear the area and safely scavenge the convenience store.

Having finalized his plan, Liu Yang began his simulation. In the simulation, he went behind the villa's front door, opened a crack, and peeked out. The zombies hadn't noticed him and were still wandering aimlessly. Without hesitation, he fired an ice needle.

"Thwack!" The needle struck a zombie accurately, shattering into countless ice crystals inside its skull. An instant headshot!

Seeing this, Liu Yang grew excited. The power of the ice needle was exactly as he had hoped. He fired a second, third, fourth, and fifth needle. Five zombies dropped, all killed by headshots. The remaining zombies stood there, oblivious to what had happened to their companions. Their intelligence was indeed pitiful.

Liu Yang then entered his 15-minute cooldown period. Hiding behind the door, he wore a smug expression. "With this cryokinesis, dealing with zombies is much safer and more efficient. I don't have to resort to close-quarters combat; even with my enhanced stats, I might not walk away unscathed if I had to fight a dozen at once. Plus, in melee combat, zombies get excited when they see a living human and start howling, which attracts more of them. Using the ice needle allows me to take them out silently."

Just as Liu Yang was waiting for his mental energy to recover, a woman suddenly crept out from a villa not far from the convenience store. Clearly, by the third day of the apocalypse, she was starving and desperate to try her luck.

She saw there were no zombies near the convenience store entrance and crouched as she moved toward it. However, just as she neared the door, the zombies at Liu Yang’s villa entrance spotted her. They let out a roar and charged. Hearing the noise, the other zombies followed suit.

The woman was terrified. "Ah!" she shrieked, turning to flee back to her villa. But how could a woman who hadn't eaten in three days outrun crazed zombies? The first one caught up to her, tackled her to the ground, and began tearing into her. Her agonizing screams echoed through the entire complex, drawing countless zombies from the distance. Soon, the woman was picked clean, leaving nothing but bones, while dozens of zombies gathered at the entrance of the convenience store.

Seeing this, Liu Yang cursed. "That idiot woman! In this situation, she had to go screaming and attracting so many zombies—now even I can't scavenge for food!"

Originally, there had only been 15 zombies at his gate, and he had already cleared five. If he had just waited another half hour, he could have cleared the rest and scavenged successfully. Now, there were dozens of zombies at the store. His ice needle only had a 10-meter range; hiding in his villa, he couldn't hit them at the store entrance. He couldn't kill them from the shadows. To take down those dozens of zombies, he would have to face them head-on, which was too risky. Even for him, facing dozens of zombies meant a high chance of being killed if he got surrounded.

It was all that idiot woman's fault.

Liu Yang ended the simulation and started a second one. In this version, after killing the first five zombies, he didn't wait for the cooldown. He grabbed a fire axe and charged out. His strength and speed were enhanced, and he had immunity to the zombie virus; even against ten zombies, if he used a hit-and-run strategy, his odds were high. Getting a minor injury didn't matter since he wouldn't turn.

He swung the axe like a god of war. In less than a minute, he had finished off ten zombies. Knowing the noise might attract more from afar, he rushed toward the woman. Seeing a strong man covered in black zombie blood charging at her with an axe, she froze in terror. "Who... who are you? What do you want?"

"I'm your damn savior! Get moving, you idiot!" Liu Yang snarled. If he hadn't been worried that her screaming would attract more zombies, he wouldn't have bothered with melee combat. Now he was covered in foul-smelling zombie blood—it was disgusting.

Scolded, the woman didn't dare speak. She let him drag her back to his villa. Meanwhile, the noise of the fight had attracted another 20 zombies, which now surrounded his front gate.