‘No… no… I can’t be such a coward…’

In an instant, the sharp wind from a knife blew over his head… Guo Yuan’s lifted his head only to see Shen Chen kicking off with his right foot and pulling the Black Blade out from the other zombie’s skull. He then stabbed straight toward the second zombie’s chest. The massive impact made it take a few steps backward. His movements were fast and clean, cold and sharp as a machine.

Guo Yuan’s eyes widened in surprise, and he stared incredulously at a fierce Shen Chen. He couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘Is this… is this still Second?’

Shen Chen hollered in a low voice, “What are you waiting for? Chop its head off!”

“Oh, oh!” Only then did Guo Yuan come to. He hastily escaped, then ran behind the zombie in front of him and used newfound strength to yank out the fire axe. Black Blade cut through the middle, and the zombie’s big head shot into the air.

‘The second zombie is dead!!!!’ Guo Yuan sat on the ground, panting heavily. He finally felt calm after escaping near death. He also felt deep respect for Shen Chen. He had seen how effortlessly Shen Chen killed a zombie, and had therefore underestimated his enemy. He hadn’t expected that when it was his turn, he would nearly be killed by the zombie. It looked like there was a big difference in skill between him and Second.

Shen Chen put away his knife and patted Guo Yuan. His eyes cautiously looking around, he said in a low voice, “We must be alert from now on!”

Although the zombies didn’t have consciousness, the death of their companions and the heavy scent of blood in the air made all the zombies look in their direction. They had made too much of a commotion. All the zombies around them stood up. A dark mass of zombies walked their way with the stench of putrefaction. Twenty-some zombies rushed toward them with waving arms. The scene gave Shen Chen and Guo Yuan goosebumps. Their expressions changed immediately.

“Go behind the counter!” Shen Chen said hastily. He grabbed Guo Yuan, who was trying to charge up and fight against the zombies by force. The two of them raced backwards, killing some blind zombies on their way, and ran to the reception counter.

Only two or three zombies were trapped behind the counter. Shen Chen yanked the door open and kicked a zombie to the floor, then he violently cut two zombies down. Guo Yuan held his own, too. His giant fire axe threw a zombie to the ground.

After the two of them finished off the zombies behind the counter, they faced a bunch of zombies throwing themselves onto the counter with bared fangs and open claws. Fortunately, the zombies hadn’t evolved to learn more movements, so they didn’t know how to climb the counter. Right now, they could only stay blocked by the counter with their huge pungent mouths open, waving their arms, trying to grab either Shen Chen or Guo Yuan. It was like they were delivering their heads to the door to be chopped off. With the advantage of their location, Black Blade and the axe slashed through the crowd of zombies. Each cut knocked a zombie down. The zombies outside the counter weren’t matches for the two of them at all. Half an hour later, dozens of zombies formed a pile of corpses.

Guo Yuan sat on the counter, panting. He was covered in sweat in the middle of winter. Shen Chen tossed a bottle from behind him. “Restore your strength.”

Guo Yuan drank the water and couldn’t help saying, “Second! I’ve never respected you so much! You’re so powerful!”

He only killed around five or six zombies. Shen Chen killed the rest of them. Which meant Shen Chen killed at least a dozen zombies on his own! Was this still the feeble Second he knew? It was like he was on steroids! Guo Yuan’s arms were so sore he couldn’t even raise them, but Shen Chen? He didn’t seem tired at all. This made the naive Guo Yuan admire Shen Chen even more.

But Shen Chen knew that his combat capacity shot through the roof only with the power of Black Blade. His current body, which had yet to go through training, was really a drag. If it were his previous life’s body, he could defeat a dozen zombies, not to mention a hundred.

After taking a short break, they saw a few figures appear not far away. Guo Yuan said with surprise, “It’s Boss and the rest!”

Shen Chen opened the counter door. He leaned against the counter and furrowed his brows. There were a total of six people. Three women and three men. One of them was Third Pan Di. Two of the women were Pan Di’s girlfriend and Boss’s girlfriend. As for the other three, they were complete strangers…

The six of them looked very shabby. Their clothes were all tattered, and they were battered out of their senses, like birds startled by a bow, but when they staggered into the hotel lobby and saw the mountain of corpses piled in the center and dark red blood everywhere, the girls immediately bent over and began vomiting uncontrollably.

Guo Yuan frowned, too. He ran in front of Third and said, “Third… where’s Boss? Wasn’t he with you…”

Pan Di looked very out of shape. He looked at Guo Yuan, pursed his lips, then lowered his head dejectedly. “Boss got separated from us on the way here…”

“F*ck!” Guo Yuan let go of Pan Di, looking like a deflated balloon. He lowered his head, and a lump formed in his throat.

Shen Chen walked over slowly, scrutinizing the six of them. His gaze swept over the six people’s faces several times, then he ordered in a low voice, “Let’s go upstairs first!”

When everyone walked into the hotel room, they all let out a sigh of relief. To the five of them, after more than an hour of fleeing, it was like they had just arrived in heaven. The girls immediately ran into the washing room. The two unfamiliar men sat on the couch and started smoking, which annoyed Guo Yuan. He was about to approach and say something, but Shen Chen slowly shook his head.

Guo Yuan trusted Shen Chen a lot at this point. Seeing that Shen Chen wasn’t going to say anything, he also grabbed a chair and sat to the side, staying silent.

A while later, the girls came out. They had washed off the filth on their faces, put on perfume, and came out refreshed.

Girls are always perceptive. Seeing that Shen Chen seemed to be in a bad mood, their cheerful faces immediately tightened, then they sat in a row on the couch.

Shen Chen coughed lightly and clapped his hands. Third Pan Di and the two strange men’s gazes turned to him. “All right, now that everyone’s here, let’s introduce ourselves.”

The taller strange man furrowed his brows. He didn’t expect a youngster like Shen Chen to give orders to him. This made him snuff out his cigarette and closely study Shen Chen.

He suddenly discovered that Shen Chen was completely different from the college freshmen he had seen. In Shen Chen, he could see a maturity and jadedness that was beyond his age. That sort of aura on a college freshman was truly surprising. But then he chuckled. So what if he’s mature? Could Shen Chen be more mature than himself, who groveled in society for a dozen years?

Third Pan Di pointed to the girl on the couch wearing a white down coat and said, “Second, I must introduce you. That’s my girlfriend, Li Qianqian. The one wearing a red coat is Boss’s girlfriend, Zhang Xiaoya. As for… these three people…” Pan Di was hesitant, because he didn’t know how to introduce them. In the end, he said, “Yeah… we met each other while fleeing.”

“My name is Li Qi. I live in the nearby neighborhood!” Li Qi looked like he was still suffering from the shock and spoke somewhat cautiously.

“I’ll introduce myself!” the taller man interrupted Li Qi, flashing a proper smile. “My name is Zhao Ze. I’m a manager at a company. This is my girlfriend, Li Jing. We were eating together nearby, but you know… It’s a total mess outside, so we fled with this little dude.”

Zhao Ze patted the cigarette ashes off his body, then asked, “Little dude, who are you?” His tone had a hint of superiority. Even his question sounded somewhat judgmental.

One could tell from his outfit that he must have had a rather high status originally. That was why he spoke as if he were above everyone else.

Shen Chen instinctively disliked people like that, so he automatically ignored his inquiry. Instead, he asked, “Third, how did Boss get separated from you guys? Tell me what happened.”

“Boss ran away with us, but after we ran for a while, we realized that he was gone!” Pan Di’s expression was somewhat gloomy. “It was very chaotic at the moment. No one noticed…”

Pan Di’s eyes reddened. He said with a lump in his throat, “What the hell is going on… Why are zombies out here all of a sudden…”

‘Exactly! Who knows what is up with this world?!’ Everyone’s eyes reddened uncontrollably. The commotion that had occurred in the past hour was enough to make them terrified and confused.

“Third, where did you guys get separated?” Shen Chen asked.

Pan Di thought for a bit. “It was when we got close to the hotel, at that restaurant called ellu.”

Shen Chen nodded. It would be easy now he knew the location, but the road was in the downtown area. There was probably a lot of zombies there. He needed to go as soon as possible to rescue Boss.

Just as he was about to get up, he heard the guy named Zhao Ze suddenly stretch his back lazily and say with a yawn, “You guys do your thing. I’m going to sleep now!” Then he stood up, about to walk to the master bedroom.

Shen Chen frowned. He took a cold glance at him. “That bedroom isn’t for you!”

“One room for one night. I’ll give you a thousand bucks. Is that enough?” A playful smile appeared on Zhao Ze’s face. But the disdain and mockery in his tone made Pan Di and Guo Yuan frown, instinctively feeling repulsed.

Shen Chen stared at the cash he handed over. His expression didn’t change. Then he ordered the others, “Third and Fourth get one room. Li Qi and Zhao Ze get one room. The three women will sleep in one room. Everyone go rest for now!”

The implicit authority in his voice made everyone nod.

“Wait!”

Shen Chen raised his head again, frowning slightly this time.

“All right. You’re the one who reserved the room. I won’t argue with you, but there must be food here. Give us something to eat, now!”

Shen Chen’s disregard provoked Zhao Ze. He raised his chin haughtily and threatened Shen Chen with a tone of superiority. “Brat, don’t be so ungrateful!”