Chapter 63: Spicy Stir-Fried Pork Intestines and Phoenix Claws

The urban village remained in a state of ongoing commotion.

As Su Su walked downstairs, she clearly caught the surrounding conversations.

"It's the defense-alert siren! Another zombie horde is closing in on the base!"

"Will they almost breach the base's defenses like they did two months ago?"

"Impossible! With so many ability users in the base, they'll all have to head to the front lines when a horde arrives. The monthly food rations we pay aren't for them to sit around eating for free!"

"Does anyone dare to come with me to kill zombies?"

"Me! Count me in!"

"And me! Let's go make a killing! If we fail, we die in the pile of zombies; if we succeed, we eat and drink to our heart's content for months!"

"..."

Su Su stood at the entrance of the blacksmith workshop as a thin, short figure walked back through the noisy, restless crowd.

It was Granny Niu.

Seeing her return alone, Su Su merely offered a gentle call without prying into Wang Pengfei's fate: "Granny."

Granny Niu had already climbed the steps, gazing into the distant darkness: "The last time was also a zombie horde."

Her daughter had stayed among a group of ordinary people stationed at the outermost perimeter and had died without a whole corpse.

Su Su glanced sideways.

"You will definitely return safely." Granny Niu revealed a rare smile, pulling a greasepaper parcel wrapped in three layers from her bosom. "Scallion pancakes I had someone make. They're still warm. Eat your fill before you go."

Su Su smiled and took the greasepaper parcel. "How did you know I was going?"

She did not live in the Northern District, nor was she a registered ability user in the base. If she truly wanted to avoid going, no one could force her.

"Only by going can you grow stronger." Granny Niu said softly. "Seeing you grow stronger feels almost as if I can see my daughter truly getting what she wanted."

She had, after all, taken in the conversation that happened during the blackout last night.

Su Su's eyes instantly stung with heat.

She understood this feeling of helplessness and bullying better than anyone. While Granny Niu seemed to be speaking of her own daughter, to Su Su's ears, it was no different from speaking of her past life.

"I will."

Her trip to the hunting grounds this time was not only to acquire more high-grade crystals, but also to... prevent the possibility of the City Lord's faction further strengthening their power.

Holding her umbrella and the greasepaper parcel, Su Su found the bus boarding point for Urban Village No. 40-50.

The base encouraged more people to slaughter zombies. Whenever a zombie horde approached, a dedicated bus line was opened in the Southern District to transport anyone willing directly to the hunting zone.

Su Su stepped onto the very last bus. Two-thirds of the seats were already occupied. Seeing her enter, numerous gazes swept over one after another, only to shift away in alarm the moment they brushed against the thick, heavy python.

She chose a seat in the front row, and the passengers boarding after her consciously avoided this entire row.

That was fine; it left an extra seat for Xiao Hei.

Her arms aching from holding it, Su Su could finally drop this dozen-or-so-pound burden... Yet the moment the black snake touched the seat, it slithered back up her arm and coiled around her body again.

"Hiss!"

The black snake coiled tightly, and though she tried several times to pull it off, it wouldn't budge. "Xiao Hei, sit here by yourself for a moment. Once we reach the place, I'll pick you up again."

The black snake refused.

It wished it could press every single scale against the female. The tail end that usually dangled in the air now rested tightly against her calf, tightening every now and then.

"Hiss!"

Its chilling, forked tongue deliberately and knowingly licked the female's cheek.

Su Su: "..."

She helplessly pushed Xiao Hei's head away, treating it simply as weight-training. While other people lifted heavy iron and strapped sandbags to themselves for long periods, she simply had a large python permanently attached to her body.

The weight was entirely the same.

Su Su opened the greasepaper parcel, inside which four or five neatly arranged scallion pancakes lay.

They were still lukewarm. The moment it was opened, an overpowering fragrance drifted through the entire bus, setting off wave after wave of swallowing sounds.

Someone in the back cursed in a low voice, "Damn it, when I finish killing zombies and collecting crystals, I'm definitely going to make someone cook ten of these for me to eat!"

Fragrant carbohydrates required flour, oil, and scallions—all scarce food items within the urban village.

To trade for them cost at least ten tier-one crystals, and even then, it only bought a tiny bit.

Such a pitiful quantity of ingredients had yielded only these few cakes, and Granny Niu had stuffed every single one of them into her hands.

Su Su delicately bit off a small piece. Before she finished chewing, Xiao Hei poked its head over and curiously pierced two fang holes into the remaining piece of cake.

"Hiss!"

The black snake shook its head in disgust and refused to touch the food in the female's hand ever again.

Su Su silently stared at that piece of cake: "Xiao Hei, did you inject venom into it?"

The black snake naturally denied it.

It wasn't that kind of careless snake. The female was so fragile and easily killed; at least when staying by her side, its venom fangs never stored venom.

Su Su tore off the portion pierced by the fangs and forcefully shoved it into Xiao Hei's mouth.

Ever since spending two months together in the snow mountains, she had discovered that after its evolution, its various traits could no longer be viewed through the lens of ordinary cold-blooded animals. Once, it had even accidentally swallowed a large tree branch, activating its supernatural abilities to burn the branch to ashes before it even reached its stomach.

Su Su wasn't afraid of it making itself sick with bad food; she was merely annoyed by its deliberate mischief.

The black snake "painfully" swallowed the small piece of scallion pancake, its spirits drooping miserably before it pitifully nuzzled against the female's embrace.

——Xiao Hei was becoming more and more clingy.

Just as this thought crossed Su Su's mind, the driver's voice rang out in reminder: "The hunting zone has arrived."

The bus came to a smooth halt, and a solemn male broadcast voice echoed inside the vehicle.

"The Southern Base reminds you that you have entered the perimeter of the Eastern Hunting Zone. Do not act rashly or advance blindly; ensuring your personal safety is paramount."

"We wish you a bountiful harvest."

No one dared to be the first to get off. The crowd tacitly watched the woman and the python's retreating figures vanish before standing up one after another.

The moment their feet stepped out of the enclosed bus, the roars of zombies, the angry curses of the crowd, and the colliding sounds of intertwined abilities instantly rushed into their ears like a tidal wave.

The iron mesh, thousands of meters long, merely fenced in the zombie horde and did not obstruct anyone's view outward.

The distance from the Southern District to the Eastern Hunting Zone was even greater, and during the time wasted, the zombie horde had already densely swarmed outside the iron mesh.

Low-tier zombies could not breach this barrier and could only hurl themselves against the wire, inflicting negligible damage. However, tier-three zombies and above were much more ferocious; they would pounce from afar, nimbly stepping on the heads of their own kind to leap directly to heights of over ten meters.

At this time, the numerous ability users stationed in the watchtowers would take the lead in clearing out this batch of tier-three and higher zombies, completely intercepting them outside the wire.

As for the ordinary people arriving successively behind, they could choose to approach the iron mesh and use weapons to pierce the heads of ordinary zombies.

This was no easy task; the gaps in the iron mesh were too small, accommodating only a single sharp spear to thrust outward. It often took a dozen or twenty thrusts to completely puncture a zombie's skull.

At the same time, they had to be on guard against ability-wielding zombies mixed among the low-tier ones... One careless moment, and they could be killed by abilities right through the wire.

Ranged-attack ability users sat securely in the watchtowers, while offensive ability users blocked the special exits for slaughter;

Experienced ordinary people were already charging toward the iron mesh with sharp spears;

In the distance, the sounds of landmines exploding echoed from time to time, and an endless stream of zombies continued to march toward this side. Standing atop the watchtower, one could see that this zombie horde was completely endless.

Drenched in the rain, waving their mutilated arms, they roared and surged forward, dense as an army of ants on a plain, currently attacking an earthen fortress laden with a feast.

Anyone placed in this environment would develop a pessimistic sentiment that the human base might well be wiped out right here.

"Weiran! There are six or seven tier-four zombies at the three o'clock direction! We must stop them!"

Su Su raised her head.

Right on cue, she saw Si Zhe and Lin Weiran fighting shoulder to shoulder on the watchtower closest to her.

"Si Zhe! Here!"

Their tacit cooperation eliminated tier-four zombies one after another.

All the ability users could not help but cast sideways glances in admiration.

This scene was far too familiar. Su Su felt as though she had returned to her past life, thrust into every single zombie horde, large and small.

Atop the watchtowers, the figures of this couple were eternal.

Yet she could only hold a sharp spear, stabbing the heads of low-tier zombies over and over again, gambling with her life for a few mixed or tier-one crystals.

"Hiss?"

The black snake inquisitively licked the female, not understanding why she had suddenly halted her steps.

"It's nothing." Su Su came back to her senses.

She stroked Xiao Hei's head, casting her gaze toward the endless hordes of zombies, and suddenly broke into a bright smile capable of piercing through the continuous overcast rain.

"Xiao Hei, it's our turn to make our entrance."