Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang moved fast, cutting off the zombies rushing toward Yang Bin so he could focus on the Tier-4 Zombie.
Yang Bin touched his torn shoulder. His expression darkened.
The claw had gone deep enough to scrape bone. His left arm was losing strength.
Then the zombie exploded forward again, closing the distance in an instant.
Yang Bin seized the barbell rod and swung it in a brutal horizontal arc.
The impact landed dead center on its chest. Under Yang Bin's raw power, ribs shattered like dry sticks and the zombie was launched several meters back.
But broken ribs meant nothing to the undead. It scrambled upright almost immediately.
This time, though, it didn't charge. It watched Yang Bin with something close to caution.
Yang Bin held still. Watched it right back.
The zombie broke first. The moment Yang Bin let his gaze drift deliberately to the side, it lunged.
The corner of Yang Bin's mouth twitched upward. Just as the zombie was about to crash into him, he whipped the rod in a backhand arc straight at its skull.
Tier-4 Zombies guarded their heads with near-instinctive ferocity. It shot a hand out to catch the rod mid-swing.
But Yang Bin's strength was too much. The grab failed-and the rod crushed straight through its hand, shattering it.
The zombie didn't flinch. Its other claw raked across Yang Bin's chest, razor nails carving gashes deep enough to show bone.
Yang Bin swallowed the pain, drove a savage kick into its torso to create distance, and brought the rod down at its head again.
The strike that should have split its skull caught only shoulder-the thing jerked its head aside at the last possible instant.
But the force was monstrous. Even a shoulder hit hammered it flat against the ground.
Yang Bin gave it nothing. The instant it pushed up, the rod came down again.
Blood burst in all directions. A Tier-4 skull was hard, but it wasn't harder than fifteen hundred kilograms of focused impact. It caved in like an eggshell.
Yang Bin exhaled slowly, then crouched and dug the crystal free.
He held it up-peanut-sized, gleaming. A Tier-4 Crystal.
He allowed himself a smile.
By then, Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang had finished off the last stragglers outside and jogged over.
Their eyes lit up the moment they saw what was in his palm.
"Brother Bin, eat it! Let's see how strong Tier 4 feels." Chen Hao was grinning ear to ear.
"Mm."
Yang Bin nodded and swallowed the crystal whole.
Energy flooded through him instantly-vast, surging. In his mind, the fourth corner of the first star finally ignited.
Power fed back into every fiber of his body. It felt like stretching after being cramped for days, multiplied a hundredfold.
After a long moment, the absorption completed. Yang Bin clenched his fist and smiled.
"Around 1,500 kilograms."
"Damn. That's enough to flip a car," Hu Wenliang said, impressed.
"Probably. Let's go-check what's happening inside."
"Yeah."
What they found inside was a slaughterhouse.
Corpses everywhere-zombie and human alike. Of the hundred-plus survivors who'd been sheltering here, barely a dozen remained, fighting on sheer desperation. Without Yang Bin's group, they'd have been dead already.
Sixty or seventy zombies still packed the supermarket interior. Among them-two Tier-3 Zombies.
That explained it. A hundred people reduced to a handful this fast? Those two Third-Orders were the reason.
The survivors spotted the newcomers and hope flared in their eyes.
Then they recognized Yang Bin's group. The hope dimmed. They wanted to beg for help but couldn't find the words.
These three had a reputation. "Bandits," people called them. Asking bandits for mercy seemed pointless.
Zhao Kun stared at Yang Bin's trio, something bleak settling across his face.
Once, they'd been teammates-the earliest ones. They'd fought side by side, killed zombies together.
After splitting off, Zhao Kun had told himself he was just as strong.
Reality said otherwise. Any random squad could push his group to the brink. Meanwhile, these three alone made entire teams think twice about crossing them.
That was the gap.
He hadn't planned to ask. Pride wouldn't let him. But then he looked at Old Hei and Skinny Monkey-both bleeding out, barely conscious-and pride stopped mattering.
Zhao Kun clenched his jaw and faced Yang Bin.
"Boss Yang Bin. Can you save us? Save us, and our lives are yours. All of us."
Yang Bin blinked. Only now did he actually look at the survivors' faces.
He'd been focused on the zombies. Hadn't noticed who was who.
Familiar faces.
"Come on," he said. "Two free Tier-3 Crystals waiting in there. We'll talk after."
The three of them plunged into the remaining horde.
Like a tiger among sheep. Every swing of the barbell rods scythed through multiple zombies at once.
Yang Bin was on another level entirely. Everything within two meters of him simply ceased to be intact. The survivors stared, jaws slack.
One of the Tier-3 Zombies abandoned its prey and charged at them.
It made it exactly one lunge before Yang Bin caved its skull in with a single overhead strike. Chen Hao fished out the crystal before the body hit the floor.
Minutes later, every zombie in the supermarket was dead.
Yang Bin's group pocketed the Tier-3 and Tier-2 Crystals. The Tier-1 ones they left-they had more than enough of those.
The survivors watched with naked envy. Two Tier-3 Crystals. Enough to guarantee two people a breakthrough to Tier 3. Who wouldn't want that?
Across the entire school, the known Tier-3 fighters numbered maybe two or three-all squad leaders. Everyone else was stuck at Tier-2 Peak. Tier-3 Zombies were nearly impossible to kill.
Not just because they were strong. Every Tier-3 Zombie traveled with a pack. Without a powerful, coordinated team, you couldn't touch them.
And now these survivors had watched two Tier-3 Crystals disappear into someone else's pocket. The frustration was suffocating.
Even the faintest chance, and they'd have taken desperate risks to grab one.
But there was no chance. These three were too strong. Overwhelmingly, hopelessly strong.
Zhao Kun dragged himself forward, battered and bleeding, and stopped in front of Yang Bin.
"Boss Yang Bin. Thank you." His voice was raw, sincere. "If you'll have me-my life is yours. Whatever you need done, I'll do it. No hesitation. No second thoughts."
Yang Bin studied him, thinking.
He needed teammates. His original standard had been strict: Ability Users only.
But weeks of reality had ground that idea down. Ability Users were rare. And even the ones who existed might not mesh well with his team-or might not want to follow him in the first place.
If he was considering non-Ability Users, Zhao Kun's group was the obvious choice.
They'd fought together before. Whatever else you could say about them, those three had never flinched when zombies came.
Things had gotten tense between them, sure. But Zhao Kun's people had never cheated, never slacked, never played dirty. Decent character, all things considered.
Yang Bin made his decision. He smiled at Zhao Kun and extended his hand.
"Welcome. From now on, we're brothers."