Chapter 19: Target, Broken Bridge Mall

Kong Zhe couldn't help but roll his eyes. At a time like this, she was still thinking about takeout? As soon as Xue Feifei finished speaking, she, too, realized the absurdity of her words. This was the apocalypse—who would be delivering takeout now? Embarrassed, she scratched her head and murmured, "I actually ordered a chicken hotpot earlier, but it looks like I'll never get it now... heh..."

Kong Zhe didn't bother to rely on her anymore. Remembering that the door to the downstairs apartment was still open, he told her he was going to look for food, then headed downstairs. Normally, every household kept some food in reserve; surely not everyone could be as peculiar as this woman.

After rummaging through the apartment on the fifth floor, he gathered what little food there was—enough to last them two days. The next two days passed quietly in the building.

He busied himself dealing with the corpses of several magical beasts. Since their meat was poisonous to humans, he threw it all to the little dog downstairs. The scales from the first fishman he killed were carefully stripped off. These scales were astonishingly light and tough—even bullets couldn’t pierce them. They were perfect for making armor. Kong Zhe threaded them together, following the ancient design of scale armor, and crafted a suit of scale mail.

When finished, the armor covered his torso and limbs entirely, yet weighed only about a kilogram. With his current physical condition, it posed no burden at all.

By the time all was done, it was already the morning of the third day, and the frenzy among the magical beasts had mostly subsided.

Kong Zhe looked out the window. Most of the beasts had found their territories. Normally, once a magical beast claimed a territory, it wouldn’t leave, so there were noticeably fewer below.

But Kong Zhe knew that magical beasts would continue pouring in from the dimensional rifts—each wave stronger than the last as time went on.

He had to venture out to hunt magical beasts, to gain experience and level up—at the very least, to keep pace with their growth.

Moreover, his food was nearly gone. In these two days, he and Xue Feifei had exhausted all the food and water in the apartment. For this reason alone, he had no choice but to go out.

Dressing in his scale armor, securing his broadsword at his waist, and finally wrapping himself in a long, loose white robe that concealed his entire body, Kong Zhe prepared to set out.

He was going to hunt magical beasts, but wished to avoid being recognized. After all, he possessed a supreme artifact; it was best to remain discreet.

Reaching the ground floor, the little dog rushed up to him, barking enthusiastically, as if to report a job well done. Kong Zhe shot it a look—he knew full well this creature had spent most of the past few days sleeping, aside from eating.

Ignoring the dog, Kong Zhe took a deep breath, opened the building’s door, and set off along the route he’d mapped out the night before.

His first destination was a large nearby shopping mall—Broken Bridge Mall, well-known in Gold City and the largest in the vicinity, with shelves fully stocked.

After the apocalypse, the entire world was buried in snow, and magical beasts roamed everywhere. There was nowhere left on earth suitable for growing crops, and all factories had ceased production. High-tech goods became treasures—especially food and medicine. Now, a single piece of candy could be traded for a low-grade leather armor. Such was the value of food. So while the apocalypse was still in its early days and people hadn’t yet started looting in earnest, Kong Zhe needed to act quickly and hoard as much as possible.

Thanks to his ring, Kong Zhe could gather vast quantities of supplies without worrying about storage space.

Since the blizzard two days before, the snow had fallen intermittently. Though it no longer raged as fiercely, the accumulation meant the snow now reached nearly to his knees. Walking was a challenge, let alone keeping alert for magical beasts hidden beneath the drifts.

Stepping outside, the number of visible magical beasts increased significantly. Forcing his way through such a horde was impossible—the noise of battle would attract more, and he would end up besieged on all sides.

The only way was to pick the path with the fewest beasts and pass through as quietly as possible. If he encountered one, he had to dispatch it swiftly, before it could draw others.

Fortunately, with the little dog’s help and the combat skills honed in his previous life, Kong Zhe managed well. Whenever they ran into a lone beast, he and the dog would pounce—beating it down in less than two seconds, leaving no time for it to cry out. In this way, they killed six or seven magical beasts before finally reaching the community’s main gate.

The gate marked a clear boundary—the magical beasts prowling the streets outside far outnumbered those within.

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