"The Black Tiger Base is over twenty kilometers from here-not exactly close. It took us three days on foot just to reach this area!
I'm a freshman at the police academy, and my brother was a discharged special forces soldier. We were originally survivors at the Black Tiger Base, but because of me... we had no choice but to leave..."
Zhang Jingyu explained to Liu Yang.
"A police academy cadet? A beauty like you would've made one hell of a stunning officer after graduation," Liu Yang teased, a relaxed smile on his face.
He might already have a few beauties by his side, but he had never met an ultra-gorgeous police babe before!
"N-No, that's not..."
Zhang Jingyu blushed instantly at his compliment.
"Why did you two have to run from the base in the first place? Wouldn't staying inside have kept you safe?" Liu Yang pressed.
"It... it was all because of me. Black Tiger, the base leader, took a liking to me and wanted me to submit to him. But he's dark, old, and ugly, and he already has thirteen wives! There was no way I could agree.
My brother was even angrier than I was. He had a falling out with them right on the spot and dragged me out of the base. If it weren't for me, my brother... he wouldn't have... sob, sob... If I'd known, I should've just surrendered to Black Tiger! sob..."
Zhang Jingyu broke down into tears again as she recalled her trauma.
"Who's stronger-the leader of Black Tiger Base, or your brother?" Liu Yang asked, cutting straight to the crucial detail.
"Probably Black Tiger. His ranking on the Yellow Ranking is higher than my brother's was. But in a fight to the death, even if my brother died, Black Tiger wouldn't have walked away clean-he would've been critically wounded at the very least.
And once he was severely injured, the other factions in the base would've definitely tried to usurp his position. The potential loss was too high, so he didn't dare push us too hard when we left," Zhang Jingyu explained truthfully.
"Yellow Ranking? What's that?" Liu Yang asked, caught off guard.
"It's a leaderboard for ability users. Supposedly, only ability users who pass the test at the Testing Stele can get ranked. I'm not an ability user myself, so I don't know all the details.
I only know that every time an ability user passes a test, the stele grants them a reward. This blade was the reward my brother received for passing his."
Liu Yang was inwardly stunned.
He had never heard of anything like this.
It had only been a few days since the zombie outbreak, and an ability user leaderboard had already emerged?
More importantly, passing tests at the stele granted rewards?
No wonder that blade didn't feel like a man-made weapon-it was created by this so-called Testing Stele!
"Where can I find one of these steles?" Liu Yang asked.
If passing a test offered rewards every single time, he certainly wanted to take a shot at it.
"Word is that steles have appeared all across the globe. Black Tiger Base was actually built around one, so there's a stele sitting right in the center of their territory.
Though I really don't recommend going there. The people in Black Tiger Base are vicious and powerful. You'd be better off finding a new stele and building your own base!" Zhang Jingyu warned him.
Liu Yang nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Well, let's set that aside for now. Our priority is collecting supplies."
As they talked, the two arrived at the entrance of a supermarket.
Before stepping inside, Liu Yang turned to Zhang Jingyu and reminded her, "When the apocalypse hit, this supermarket was probably packed with shoppers, which means it's likely crawling with zombies now. Once we go in, stay calm and don't scream. Got it?"
"Mm! No problem! My brother and I ran into plenty of zombies over the past few days. I'm not as terrified as I used to be." Zhang Jingyu nodded rapidly.
"Good."
With that, Liu Yang gripped his blade and led the way through the supermarket doors.
Sure enough, dozens of zombies were wandering aimlessly through the aisles.
However, Liu Yang was no longer the man he used to be. His strength and speed were already several times greater than the human baseline, and now, armed with a peerless blade, charging into a horde of zombies felt like a god of war taking the field!
"Slash!"
He swung the dark blade forward, slicing the nearest zombie smoothly in half.
What an exquisite weapon-slicing through flesh like a hot knife through butter!
Liu Yang grew more exhilarated with every swing, slaughtering dozens of zombies in a matter of minutes.
His raw attributes were already more than ten times higher than a normal human's; all he had lacked was a top-tier weapon. Now that he had one, it was like giving wings to a tiger.
He couldn't put it down-this blade was practically tailored for him!
"So incredible... So strong! He's even stronger than my brother!" Zhang Jingyu watched from the side, her eyes wide with astonishment.
Her brother had been a veteran special forces soldier with exceptional foundational skills long before the apocalypse. After awakening as an ability user, his boosted physical capabilities had made him even more formidable.
Yet compared to Liu Yang right now, her brother couldn't hold a candle to him.
Even as a normal human, Zhang Jingyu could clearly discern who possessed superior speed and raw power.
Liu Yang completely outclassed her late brother in every stat!
Over the next ten minutes, Liu Yang slaughtered over three hundred zombies, practically clearing out the entire supermarket.
He still felt unsatisfied.
Cutting through zombies with this blade was as effortless as slicing fruit in a game of Fruit Ninja.
"Not enough zombies to go around. Still, now that the floor is clear, it's time to loot!"
With a single thought, Liu Yang swept the food off the display shelves into his [Dark Space].
"Chocolates, candies, biscuits, snacks? Mine!"
"Milk, beverages, cigarettes, premium liquor? Taken!"
"Bulk rice, mung beans, soybeans, black beans, potatoes? Swept!"
"Packaged foods, bread, vacuum-sealed rations? Stored!"
"Fresh meat, vegetables, fruits? All mine!"
"Cured meats, dried fish, dried goods? In you go!"
...
In no time at all, Liu Yang had stripped the retail floor clean.
Zhang Jingyu stared at his actions, her beautiful eyes practically bulging out of her head.
"H-How are you doing that?!"
With a mere wave of his hand, entire piles of food vanished into thin air like magic. Where was he putting it all?
"That's my secret," Liu Yang chuckled.
Although Zhang Jingyu couldn't comprehend how he was doing it, she became utterly convinced of one thing: Liu Yang was an extraordinarily powerful ability user, far superior to her brother!
Before long, Liu Yang had swept every single shelf clean. He didn't even spare toilet paper, clothing, towels, cookware, cutlery, or household daily necessities.
After all, his [Dark Space] was a massive spatial domain measuring 30m × 30m × 30m = 27,000 cubic meters.
If filled entirely with water or rice, it could hold roughly 27,000 metric tons!
With 27,000 tons of rice, even if Liu Yang took in a thousand female survivors, it would feed them for a hundred years. Clearing out a single supermarket wouldn't even come close to filling his capacity.
Better yet, items stored in his [Dark Space] didn't need to be organized or stacked neatly. He could dump them all in a giant pile, and whenever he needed an item, a simple mental pulse would retrieve it instantly-no manual searching required.
Stacking it sky-high inside the space was perfectly fine.
Having looted the retail area, Liu Yang set his sights on the supermarket's storage warehouse.
The warehouse would undoubtedly hold far more stockpile than the display shelves!
He just needed to locate where the warehouse doors were.
"Let's go find the supermarket warehouse next," Liu Yang said to the future police babe.
"Mm-hmm!" Zhang Jingyu nodded obediently, falling into step right behind him.
Having witnessed his terrifying power, she was thoroughly convinced that staying close to Liu Yang was her best ticket to survival. She would do whatever he commanded without hesitation.