Facing Yu Qin’s questioning, Lin Zhuo Ran suddenly felt that the person before her had become very strange.
“If you’re not going to pack these supplies, just leave them here!”
With these words, Yu Qin stuffed her backpack full and turned to walk in another direction. Seeing, reading.
“Sister Zhuo Ran, I’m doing this for your own good.”
Yu Qin didn’t know that Lin Zhuo Ran was also aware of the truth behind the Lighthouse. She thought Lin Zhuo Ran had been deceived and looked at her with disappointment, as if she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t making progress.
Xu An saw some hardware accessories and thought they might be useful, so she put them in her pocket.
“What are you taking these things for? That Yu Qin seems a bit off,” Zhou Hai Mei said, looking at the items before her with boredom and a lack of interest.
“How is she off?” Xu An continued to walk forward, asking casually.
“I don’t know, I just have a feeling that young girl isn’t very friendly towards you.”
“Maybe she’s being territorial, I can understand that.”
Xu An replied absentmindedly. Compared to Yu Qin, she was more interested in the talking Er Ya at the moment.
But no matter how she asked, Er Ya refused to speak again.
Moreover, she didn’t think Yu Qin could cause much trouble.
“The struggle for supplies on the surface is already fierce. It’s understandable for her to be protective of her resources. Here, the harsh environment already affects crop growth, let alone the fact that the population on the surface is several times larger than that on the Lighthouse. With more mouths to feed and less food, competition is inevitable.”
“Yu Qin is considered good. You haven’t seen those who would kill someone for a pack of instant noodles just to compete. That’s what’s truly terrifying.”
Xu An spoke with great composure, while Zhou Hai Mei looked at her with curiosity.
“How do you know about the plight of people fighting for supplies on the surface? You haven’t seen it yourself.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu An realized she had let slip a detail. She tried to change the subject.
“That’s how it always plays out in post-apocalyptic movies. I used to love watching them.”
Xu An kept smiling, pulling Zhou Hai Mei along, babbling about anything and everything to steer the conversation away.
“Speaking of which, I haven’t watched a movie in over a year either.”
There were cinemas on the Lighthouse, but the movies shown there were not only expensive but also all classic old films.
At first, some people, out of sheer boredom, wanted to revisit classics or reminisce about the days before the apocalypse by watching them.
But as time went on, no matter how classic old things were, watching them repeatedly would eventually become tiresome.
A moment later, Lin Zhuo Ran caught up.
Xu An glanced at her but didn’t see Yu Qin behind her.
“Where is your companion?”
Lin Zhuo Ran looked a little uncomfortable, fiddling with her fingers and saying, “Don’t worry about her.”
Xu An didn’t press the issue further. Some things were best left for the people involved to handle themselves.
“Oh, right. That willow tree you mentioned that can attack, can you take us to see it?”
After they had moved away from the bombing zone, Xu An finally felt at ease.
She hadn’t been particularly curious about the attacking willow at first, but after seeing the strange giant zombie today, she suddenly felt the urge to see other mutated plants.
“What do you need mutated plants for?”
Lin Zhuo Ran asked out of simple curiosity, “Did the people from above ask you to find them?”
“Yes, you could say that.”
Lin Zhuo Ran understood and didn’t ask any more questions.
“Then you might have to stay with me for a few days. I need to take Qin Qin back to the bunker first, and then I’ll take you.”
Xu An had no objections. “I’m fine with that. Can we visit the bunker?”
She asked with a hint of curiosity. In her previous life, they had discovered bunkers, but due to the destruction caused by the great earthquake, the bunkers were affected by ground fissures.
Countless mutated underground monsters crawled out from the cracks, entering those seemingly safe and sturdy bunkers.
What was originally the safest fortress in the apocalypse had become the most dangerous place.
“I’m not sure. There’s an entry fee required there. Do you have any supplies with you?”
“Can food be exchanged?”
Lin Zhuo Ran nodded. “Yes, two jin of food per person.”
“That’s a bit expensive,” Zhou Hai Mei mused, calculating the supplies she had brought. Although she wasn’t short of a few jin of rice and flour, she had rushed out and didn’t have much food on her.
Xu An: “It’s okay, I have it.”
After discussing it, the three of them decided to continue searching the supermarket for any other findings.
Half an hour later, Xu An was lost in thought looking at a map.
“Does anyone know how to read this thing?” The directionally challenged Xu An let out another sigh from the depths of her soul.
“You can’t understand it?” Lin Zhuo Ran and Zhou Hai Mei spoke in unison.
Their eyes held a hint of disdain. It was the apocalypse, how could someone still not know how to read directions?
Directionally challenged Xu An looked at the two opposite her with a puzzled expression.
Putting on a helpless act, as if to say, 'I'm directionally challenged, and there's nothing I can do about it.'
“Fine.”
The two were speechless and each picked up a map to study.
“The attacking willow is about a two-hour drive from the bunker, deep in a forest. Will you be staying overnight at the bunker? If so, we’ll go first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Does the attacking willow become active at night?” Xu An suddenly interjected.
“Yes, the attacking willow’s offensive power is stronger at night, and the entire area is shrouded in mist, making visibility poor. It’s easy to fall into traps set by animals.”
Zhou Hai Mei looked surprised. “Animals set traps? Have they all become spirits!”
“On the surface, both animals and plants are developing towards sentience. Not only have plants developed self-preservation instincts, but they have even started to cooperate in teams. Mutated monsters will settle around mutated plants, complementing each other.”
Zhou Hai Mei was full of surprise at all of this. Xu An, after listening, simply shook her head slightly and continued searching.
This was nothing yet.
By the later stages of the apocalypse, zombies, humans, and mutated flora and fauna would form a tripartite world on Planet Blue.
Once they had collected enough, the group left the mall.
Since the giant zombie monster had finally died, the inexplicable sense of pressure in Xu An’s heart had vanished. She knew there should be no more zombies in the vicinity.
She had asked Er Ya what that monster was all about.
The explanation given was that a mushroom had awakened a trace of consciousness in this blood monkey, and this monkey desperately wanted to devour zombies to upgrade itself and become stronger.
It had even embedded countless severed limbs and fragments into its own body, thus becoming so enormous.
Xu An listened with disgust but also subconsciously realized that after gaining sentience, these monsters didn’t seem to be pleasant.
It was either, like the rabbit-headed monster before, that their ferocity was stimulated, or, like the blood monkey not long ago, their desire to devour was continuously amplified.
As the group walked out of the mall, Xu An immediately saw Yu Qin sitting in the car.
She looked at Lin Zhuo Ran, who had a cold expression, and couldn’t quite figure out what was going on between the two.
However, since Yu Qin hadn’t driven away, it seemed they hadn’t completely fallen out yet.