Chapter 9 Supplies

“I won’t go with the rescue team.”

The girl standing in front of him fell silent for a moment before saying it.

Li Chen didn’t respond right away.

She had asked him whether she should leave with the rescue team—then, after a pause, she said she wouldn’t go.

He said nothing, and the atmosphere between them quietly sank into stillness. Mo Chu didn’t know why, but unease crept into her chest.

She had the strange feeling she had said something wrong. Yet she couldn’t figure out what it was. Still, when she looked at Li Chen, a faint sense of guilt rose in her—she didn’t even know where it came from.

Fortunately, after a moment, Li Chen finally spoke.

“If you’re not going with the rescue team,” he asked calmly, “where are you going?”

The moment he spoke, Mo Chu instinctively relaxed a little. She lifted her eyes to him. The young man still looked pale, his gaze deep and unreadable, like a dark pool with no bottom.

But facing his question, she hesitated.

After a brief pause—out of a trust that had carried over from two lifetimes—Mo Chu thought it through and said quietly, “I want to go to Hai City.”

Hai City was thousands of miles from here.

In a world without high-speed trains or cars, and with zombies roaming everywhere, no one could say what dangers lay along the way.

But this wasn’t a decision made on impulse.

She understood the risks. She knew exactly what it meant for a healer-type ability user to travel alone across more than a thousand miles without any companions. And still, after careful consideration, she had chosen Hai City.

It wasn’t because she had friends or family there.

In fact, two years before the apocalypse, her parents had both died in a plane crash. She had long since been alone in the world.

She was going to Hai City because there was something there she couldn’t ignore.

—Oil.

In the third month of the apocalypse, a survivor zone called White Isle had been established on the outskirts of Hai City, built around what had once been the largest oil field in the region.

By the first year of the apocalypse, White Isle had already become one of the most powerful survivor bases on the continent, entirely because of that resource.

At the beginning, everyone fought over food, clean water, weapons, and awakened abilities. No one had realized how important oil would become. But in truth, its importance in this world far exceeded imagination. Without oil, a survivor base could barely function.

White Isle rose on that single advantage. It had almost nothing else—but it had oil. And because of that, it expanded year after year, unstoppable.

Mo Chu had arrived at White Isle in the third year of the apocalypse. With her rare healing ability, she had gradually taken root there and rarely wandered again.

And in the end, she had died in White Isle.

Whether it was because of its special status as an oil-based stronghold, or because of the strange attachment she felt toward the place where she had once been buried in her previous life, she wanted to go back and see it again.

In contrast, the survivor base in Lin City was the opposite.

The first base in Lin City had been established and controlled by the military. At the beginning, it had been orderly and stable, but over time, its lack of resources—an inherent flaw in its rushed construction—had become obvious.

It eventually reached a point where ordinary people had to hunt zombies for food. A first-tier zombie was only worth a single pack of biscuits.

Back then, she and Chu Ming had been there too.

It was also during that time that Chu Ming’s true nature was exposed—he threatened her with food, forcing her into submission.

Later, other survivor bases in Lin City were established one after another, easing the pressure on the first one, and things gradually improved.

Eventually, she left Lin City. Much later, she heard that the military had retaken a grain warehouse occupied by a horde of zombies, finally saving the city.

With her memories of the previous life, none of this was a secret to her anymore.

That was why she had chosen Hai City after careful thought.

But she knew the reason for her decision. If Li Chen asked her, what would she say?

She was still struggling with whether to make up an excuse—something like going to Hai City to find relatives—when Li Chen suddenly said in a calm voice:

“Then I’ll go with you.”

Mo Chu looked up in shock.

Seeing her undisguised surprise, Li Chen gave a faint smile.

“I’ll go with you.”

He… was going with her?

He hadn’t even asked why she was going to Hai City, and he had already decided to follow her?

To be honest, Mo Chu had never considered that they would travel together.

First, she had saved Li Chen simply because she wanted to save him. It was gratitude, and also instinct—but she had never thought he would accompany her afterward. In her mind, Mo Chu was Mo Chu, and Li Chen was Li Chen. After this rescue, they should each go on with their own lives, with no reason to intersect again. And who could guarantee that just because he had liked her in the previous life, he would like her again in this one?

Second, she had no right to ask someone to silently follow her for over a thousand miles.

While she was still hesitating, she heard him ask softly, “You… don’t want me to?”

Mo Chu paused, then asked, “Don’t you need to look for your family?”

“I don’t have family,” the young man said evenly.

That silenced her.

Only then did she suddenly remember—Li Chen and Chu Ming had once been close.

Before everything fell apart between them, even Chu Ming had personally said they were not brothers, but closer than brothers.

No family… and betrayed by the one he once trusted most.

Mo Chu let out a quiet sigh in her heart.

Li Chen spoke again.

“Can I go with you?”

She didn’t know whether it was pity for the infamous “future tyrant,” or simply that she couldn’t find a reason to refuse. After a brief hesitation, she actually said, “Yes.”

The moment she spoke, she gave a wry smile inwardly.

She had never thought that after being reborn, she would have the courage to travel with the future demon king.

She looked up.

The so-called great villain of the future was watching her intently, his gaze so focused it made her heart give a faint tremor.

Fine. If he wanted to come, so be it.

He might be the terrifying tyrant of her previous life, but even if he stayed by her side out of gratitude for now, there was no way he would remain with a mere healer forever.

After they finished discussing their plans, the night had already deepened.

Mo Chu had been awake for two days straight. Now that Li Chen had awakened and her mind finally relaxed, exhaustion caught up with her all at once.

Sleepiness washed over her.

Before she fully drifted off, she vaguely felt someone lift her up and place her onto something soft. She turned over slightly—and fell into deeper sleep.

The next morning, before dawn had even broken, she faintly sensed movement in the warehouse.

This time, she immediately sat up alertly.

Then she saw Li Chen.

He was fully geared up, carrying a large backpack, clearly ready to leave.

Mo Chu blinked. “Li Chen, where are you going?”

He turned back slightly, his expression carrying a hint of apology.

“Sorry. I woke you.”

“It’s fine,” she said, shaking her head. “Are you going out?”

He pointed to the backpack on his shoulder, speaking unhurriedly.

“The rescue team will enter the city today. While they evacuate survivors, they’ll also take resources. If we’re not going with them, we should gather as much supplies as possible before they arrive.”

Mo Chu instantly woke up completely.

A faint regret rose in her chest—she had gotten too used to being “Doctor Mo” in her previous life, and had neglected the most basic survival thinking.

She jumped up from the mattress and only then realized she had somehow ended up lying on it instead of leaning against the wall where she had fallen asleep.

But she didn’t have time to think about that.

She grabbed her hair roughly, slung on an empty backpack, and said, “Come with me. I know a good place.”

She led him to the supermarket she had cleared out the day before.

Along the way, more and more survivors had appeared on the streets. Most of them moved in groups of seven or eight strong men. When they encountered zombies, they swarmed them together, managing with relative ease. It was no longer like the early days of the apocalypse, when people could only helplessly wait to die.

People were adapting.

As the streets filled, Mo Chu silently prayed the supermarket wouldn’t be looted clean.

At the very least… leave something for her.

But when they arrived, she found the supermarket exactly as before.

Untouched.

No signs of looting. No changes. Even unusually clean.

Too clean.

There wasn’t a single zombie inside.

It had been the same yesterday. Aside from a few human and zombie corpses, there were no living zombies in the store. Despite the abundance of supplies, there were no signs anyone had taken anything.

At the time, she had thought she was just lucky.

But twice in a row?

That was no longer coincidence.

Especially since the group they had driven out last time definitely wouldn’t have given up so easily.

Something was wrong.

Li Chen noticed it too. His hand lifted slightly, instinctively shielding her behind him.

Mo Chu grabbed his arm and shook her head. Their eyes met. He stepped slightly in front of her and together they entered the supermarket, pretending nothing was unusual as they began collecting supplies.

Mo Chu’s hands moved quickly, but her mind stayed alert.

Then—behind a shelf—she heard a faint sound.

Her grip tightened instantly on Li Chen’s arm.

In the next second, Li Chen raised his hand. Threads of fire flickered into existence as he stepped forward and turned the corner.

And then they saw it.

A golden retriever.

It was more than twice the size of a normal dog, its eyes a translucent, eerie red. It was clearly not an ordinary animal.

Mo Chu recognized it immediately.

A mutated beast.

An awakened animal.

Right now, this rare mutated golden retriever was looking at her excitedly, tongue out, tail wagging furiously, trying to squeeze past Li Chen to rub against her.

As if it were happy beyond measure to see her.