Chapter 115: The Search

Chapter 115: The Search

After some playful bickering, the three of them became serious again and continued to discuss the matter at hand.

Bai Mu took out another map of City C from his space, with his previous markings and numbers labeled beside them.

"There are a total of seven suspected targets. We should try to find the correct one within five days and locate the exact position of the Gold Den. Let's start with the first hospital today."

The hospital was large, but after Bai Mu's careful elimination of areas swarming with zombies, little remained.

After being away for some time and now returning to City C to deal with the zombies in the hospital, Xiao Hua had one thought—they'd gotten stronger.

Two months ago, the zombies in the hospital were just numerous, slightly stronger than those in other places, but still limited.

Two months later, the number of zombies wasn't as overwhelming as before, but their quality had significantly improved.

To put it bluntly, there were no zombies below mid-level two here, with level three zombies being common and level four zombies not rare either.

After a round of combat, the others also clearly felt the difference.

The zombie levels were generally high, and Zhao Ye's area attacks weren't very effective, only serving as interference and weakening.

Zhao Ye was extremely frustrated and had to give up area attacks for single-target attacks, "Damn, did these zombies take some kind of catalyst? Why are they all so strong?"

Xiao Hua suddenly rushed forward, cutting off the head of a level four zombie with a single strike, ignoring the crystal nucleus in its brain, and immediately retreated, continuing to stand at the front of the team, swinging her ice blade.

She heard Zhao Ye's complaint and, without stopping, responded, "This is like raising a gu—no wonder they're so strong!"

The zombies they were seeing now had survived layers of brutal fights. While human survivors varied in strength, the zombies had gone through survival of the fittest, and those that remained were all high-quality.

Zhao Ye understood this logic, but he couldn't help but sigh, "If this keeps up, humans definitely can't beat the zombies."

Xiao Hua stayed quiet for a while, then nodded, her tone heavy, "Even I, a top-tier enhanced individual in the apocalypse, can't handle these damn zombies, sigh."

Zhao Ye's first reaction was to refute Xiao Hua, telling her not to be so narcissistic and to be careful of being beaten, but before he could speak, he realized that what she said was true.

Xiao Hua wasn't just a top-tier enhanced individual in the apocalypse; according to the information they had gathered, she was likely the number one enhanced individual in the apocalypse.

So he resentfully closed his mouth.

Once this topic was brought up, the previously somewhat cheerful atmosphere became heavy, and everyone lost the mood to chat, focusing on dealing with the zombies.

One by one, the zombies were killed, and room by room, the wards were searched.

Xiao Hua and the others meticulously checked inside and out for half a day, but still couldn't find the entrance to the Gold Den.

The nine of them squeezed into an office for a quick break, replenishing water and energy, and recovering their powers.

Bai Mu handed over a bag of bread, which Xiao Hua took, tore open the packaging, and stuffed the bread into her mouth, mumbling, "Shall we continue to the next one?"

"Continue," Bai Mu took the opportunity to pull out the map and made a decision after a few seconds, "Next, a supermarket."

Xiao Hua let out a light "hiss," as it was another place swarming with zombies. It seemed Bai Mu was planning to tackle the big ones first.

But that was fine too.

Once everyone had mostly recovered, Bai Mu led them to the next spot.

For the next three days, the group of nine moved around various places in City C, repeatedly clearing out zombies to search, only to return empty-handed each time.

The hospital—nothing.

The supermarket—zip.

The clinic—nada.

The residential area—zilch.

The convenience store—bupkis.

After three straight days with no leads, Xiao Hua even had a moment of doubt, wondering if they had already found the place but missed it due to carelessness.

But after some thought, she still felt it was unlikely. They had been careful and thorough, so it was improbable they’d make such a simple mistake.

Still, these three days weren’t entirely without gains. For every zombie they took down, they harvested a Crystal Nucleus, ranging from Second to Fourth Level. They wouldn’t run low on Crystal Nuclei for the next two months.

On the fourth day, the nine of them, as usual, chose a place to search carefully.

Bai Mu had already gotten the group on their feet, ready to push open the door and set off, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, standing still and deep in thought.

Xiao Zui, who had been following behind Bai Mu, also stopped upon seeing this. “What’s wrong? Is there something off?”

Bai Mu swiftly pulled a map from his storage space and studied it for a while before finally looking up. “We’re skipping the hospital today. We’re heading somewhere else.”

Xiao Zui asked, “Why the change?”

Xiao Hua cut to the chase. “Where are we going instead?”

Bai Mu’s finger pointed to the most remote red mark on the map, a steely glint in his eyes. “The gas station.”