Chapter 33: Gathering, The Spatial Girl

The woman in red was stunned. The man beside her yanked her back just as the lucky cat crashed through the convenience store’s big glass window with a loud bang.

The man turned and cursed angrily at Bian Changxi, “Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?!”

Bian Changxi only raised her voice, rebuking the woman in red, “Yang Xiaowen, you made that noise on purpose to stir up the zombies, hoping to slip away in the chaos? You think it’s that easy?”

How many people who dared to scavenge near a big mall were cowards? The fleeing crowd suddenly realized what was happening. A few of the more aggressive ones shouted, “Damn, so it was this woman who screwed us over!”

“Yang Xiaowen, right? If I make it out of here alive, I’ll settle the score with you!”

Yang Xiaowen, still oblivious to the trouble she’d brought on herself, stared at Bian Changxi in shock. “How do you know my name?”

Bian Changxi gave her a cold smile. Seeing that zombies were starting to surround their group, she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

How did she know?

As it happened, Yang Xiaowen was something of a celebrity. In her previous life, there were a few very well-known socialites at the Sucheng base. To put it bluntly, they were high-class hostesses for various factions—slightly more respectable than ordinary prostitutes, but ultimately still providing “special services” to powerful and influential people for the benefit of their own organizations.

Bian Wei from the Bian family was one, and Yang Xiaowen was another. Rivals in the same trade and both beautiful, it was only natural that they became mortal enemies. During her time with the Bian family, Bian Changxi often heard Yang Xiaowen’s name.

If Bian Wei was like a delicate little flower—pure and innocent on the outside, rotten within—then Yang Xiaowen was like a rose stem covered in thorns, always pricking people for no reason. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very smart, so even when she tried to bully others, she often ended up hurting herself as well.

Just like now—Bian Changxi was sure Yang Xiaowen didn’t know her, but she still had to speak up and cause trouble, only to get herself dragged in too. Completely unreasonable.

But that wasn’t all. The real reason Bian Changxi recognized Yang Xiaowen at a glance was because Yang had once tried to seduce Bian Kuang, but he wasn’t interested. Later, she latched onto a military officer and started making trouble for Bian Kuang instead. Rumor had it that she was partly responsible for his death.

Bian Changxi had investigated her for a while, but before she could get to the bottom of things, this arrogant, foolish woman was killed by someone else. So she’d ended up blaming Bian Wei and the Bian family for Bian Kuang’s death.

Seeing her again now, Bian Changxi really felt a rush of old and new grudges.

She ran toward an area with fewer zombies, grateful for their slow speed. The further she went, the fewer zombies followed her. Eventually, when she stopped to catch her breath, she found herself standing on a pedestrian street. She’d only mentioned it earlier to trick Zhang Hu, but to her surprise, there really was a pedestrian street here.

Shops lined both sides, mostly clothing stores. She stood at the entrance and looked around: the place was in ruins, trash swirling in the wind, but there was no sign of people or zombies.

Something felt off. It was too quiet.

She glanced left and right, planning to leave, but then thought better of it. She took a straight-bladed knife from her farm space and strapped it to her back, tied two small knives to her thigh and calf, slung a backpack over her shoulders, and picked up a fire axe. Fully armed, she headed to the nearest shop.

It was a small roasted chestnut shop. The rolling shutter had been forced open, and the cramped space was visible at a glance. The glass display case had been knocked over, the roasted chestnuts inside all looted, with just a few rolling on the floor.

Against the wall, she spotted two large woven sacks. Peeking through the gaps, she saw they were full of chestnuts.

She loved these!

Seeing no danger, she went in, opened the bags, and grabbed a handful. They were all shiny, plump raw chestnuts—one bag of regular chestnuts, one of Chinese water chestnuts. She didn’t hesitate to store them in her farm space. Turning around, she saw an electric chestnut roaster, which she also took, along with the salt, sugar, and paper bags for packaging chestnuts.

Next door was a grilled squid and stinky tofu shop, also ransacked. The squid skewers left in the freezer were soggy, and the tofu looked spoiled, so she gave up on those. But she did find three and a half bags of charcoal—over a hundred pounds—in a cabinet, so she took those too, along with the grill.

It might look greasy and black now, but after soaking in the stream on her farm for an hour, it would be sparkling clean. The farm’s stream was more effective than any detergent, could raise fish and provide drinking water, and was self-cleaning—truly magical.

After a few rounds of collecting, Bian Changxi got into the groove, feeling like a little squirrel gathering food for winter—excited and pleased.

In her previous life, she’d unlocked her jade bracelet’s abilities too late and had never experienced the joy of collecting supplies so freely. Now, anything useful or interesting she saw, she stashed away in her farm.

She went into several clothing stores, gathering a good amount of men’s, women’s, and children’s clothes and shoes. Jiangcheng would soon fall, and all these things would rot with the zombies—what a waste. Whether she needed them or not, she took what she could, though she left most behind for any survivors who might pass through.

The next shop was Urban Beauty, a lingerie store—a small but important stop. Just as Bian Changxi was about to push open the door, a sudden, sharp sense of danger flashed through her. She quickly ducked behind the wall and peeked inside.

Frosted window film covered the glass door in strips, breaking up the view, but she could still see a girl inside, picking through a pile of **. Whenever she found something she liked, she’d grab it—and it would vanish into thin air.

Bian Changxi was a little surprised. A spatial ability user?

She observed the girl carefully: sweater and jeans, a bit over 1.6 meters tall, about the same age as herself. Though her face was smudged and dirty, it was clear she was a pretty girl.

Bian Changxi was puzzled. Spatial ability users had very low combat power, but their powers were rare and extremely useful. They usually needed a team’s protection and were highly sought after—rarely would one be alone. In her previous life, there had been a spatial girl in her team, and she was practically treated like a princess.

Unless… this spatial user was strong enough to protect herself, or maybe…

Bian Changxi touched the jade bracelet on her left wrist.

The girl inside seemed to sense something and turned to see Bian Changxi, her face filling with alarm. She scrambled to grab a steel bar, her defensive intent obvious.

Bian Changxi relaxed a little. The girl was clearly a rookie—very green.

She pushed open the door. “Don’t be nervous—” But suddenly her eyes narrowed. She raised her hand and whipped a small knife from her thigh, sending it flying. The girl, terrified, dropped the steel bar and covered her head, screaming.

She’d just squeezed her eyes shut when she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and was thrown aside. She crashed into a row of clothing racks, scrambled up from a pile of pajamas, and when she opened her eyes, her legs went weak.

The short-haired woman who’d been at the door was now standing in front of her, and across from them was a tall, terrifying zombie with a huge tumor bulging from its left side.

Realizing she’d been in the same room as this zombie for who knows how long, the girl was so scared she almost fainted, sitting there in a daze.

The zombie shook its head, flinging off the small knife stuck in its forehead. The skin split open, revealing blue-black bone, but the wound wasn’t deep. Bian Changxi’s heart sank. The zombie opened its mouth in a silent roar and lunged at her. She leapt forward, gripped her axe with both hands, and brought it down hard on the wound in its forehead."