With Ling Mo's support, the two quickly broke through the zombie horde. At this moment, dozens of zombies had gathered in front of the supermarket; they couldn't afford to stay even for a second longer.
"Bro, follow me."
Gratefully, the boy smiled at Ling Mo, then turned and ran down an alley.
Ling Mo glanced back at the street teeming with zombies and had no choice but to take Ye Lian and follow. As for the girl, she remained incredibly calm, walking at the rear and occasionally knocking down any zombies that got too close.
Seeing the girl's moves up close, what caught Ling Mo's attention wasn't just the extremely fast attack speed, but also the long knife in her hand. Incredibly sharp and with a sense of weight, he wondered how she could swing it so easily and quickly with such slender arms.
More importantly, her expression and gaze when she killed the zombies were too calm, even to the point of being somewhat chilling...
The boy led Ling Mo and another person through the alleys for a good ten minutes, finally diving into a small building before they managed to shake off the large group of zombies.
When the boy stopped to catch his breath, Ling Mo noticed signs that the small building had been deliberately cleaned up. Most likely, it was their living quarters.
"Bro...brother... Thanks a lot." Having run for his life for over ten minutes, the boy's face was completely red, and even his hair was drenched with sweat. Supporting himself with one hand on Ling Mo's shoulder, he said intermittently, "Really... thank you..."
Seeing the boy's condition, Ling Mo wanted to tell him there was no need to strain himself, but his expression seemed so sincere that Ling Mo could only tough it out and nod.
"You're amazing..." As soon as the boy managed to catch his breath, he immediately expressed his admiration, "And your girlfriend can run so fast without changing her expression... Were you an athlete before? But you don't seem to have muscles... You could compete with our Xia Na..."
"Liu Yuhao, are you annoying!" Xia Na, who had been silent up to this point, suddenly frowned and interrupted him, looking somewhat displeased, "Who is yours!"
"Don't be like that, we're classmates after all!" Liu Yuhao said with a chuckle, then turned back and smiled at Ling Mo, "Thanks a lot for today. How about you come upstairs for a visit?" He said, patting the backpack behind him, "We have beer!"
Ling Mo looked back at Ye Lian, thinking thankfully that after her Evolution, she looked no different from an ordinary person at a glance. From Xia Na and Liu Yuhao's reactions, they seemed not to have noticed anything amiss. But considering Ye Lian, he thought it was better to avoid contact with other survivors.
Therefore, after thinking for a second, Ling Mo decisively shook his head: "No thanks, we have other things to do."
"Ah? What could be more important? Come hang out with us." Liu Yuhao was taken aback. In his view, encountering other survivors in the apocalypse was a happy event, and even if they didn't survive together, it was good to share experiences. Especially someone as capable as Ling Mo would certainly know a lot of information they weren't aware of; if he could stay, it would be a great help to them.
As for having other things to do... what else could there be in the apocalypse besides survival?
Xia Na, getting impatient, said: "If they don't want to, don't force it... Huh?" She was in the middle of speaking when she suddenly looked at the short knife in Ling Mo's hand with surprise. After a brief moment of shock, she quickly reached for the knife at Ling Mo's waist, her speed so fast it hardly allowed for any reaction.
Ling Mo also didn't expect her to make such a sudden move, but as her fingers touched the hilt of the knife, he quickly reacted.
With just a slight turn of his body, he evaded Xia Na's attempt at an angle that was remarkably subtle.
This left Xia Na momentarily stunned, while Liu Yuhao also opened his mouth in shock: "Xia Na, what are you doing?"
The miss in her attack caused a slight change in Xia Na's eyes as she looked at Ling Mo, but her tone was rather unfriendly: "Where did you get that short knife from?"
"It's none of your business." Being questioned like this, on top of her rash move just now, also made Ling Mo subconsciously furrow his brows, replying discourteously.
Although not by choice, he had saved them after all; there has to be a limit to being impolite. Seeing how Liu Yuhao was being overly cautious around her, it was clear that she was used to being arrogant due to her overpowering combat strength, but Ling Mo was not someone to be pushed around.
"You!" Xia Na glared at Ling Mo somewhat angrily, but her eyes kept darting to the short knife, obviously showing great interest. After a few seconds of silence, she modified her tone slightly and asked, "Where did you get this short knife from, can you tell me?"
Girls like her rarely lower their guards so quickly; even Liu Yuhao's surprised expression made that clear.
There really wasn't anything worth hiding, and so Ling Mo briefly described how he searched for weapons in the handmade sword and knife store, only making minor changes to the story involving the Mutated Zombie, such as the red gel...
Hearing about the existence of Mutated Zombies, neither of them showed any surprise, which confirmed Ling Mo's suspicions. Surely, the number of Mutated Zombies in the urban area had already grown significantly...
"You went to the Wang Family's store, right?" Xia Na suddenly asked.
"How did you know?" Although the short knife was a finished product, there were no engravings on the sheath or the blade. How could this girl tell? On second thought, Wang's handmade knives and swords were quite renowned in city X; it probably wasn't hard to guess...
Xia Na looked at the short knife with a complicated expression: "So, everyone in the store is dead. Never mind, it's nothing."
"Since it's nothing, could you please stop staring at me..." Being stared at intensely by Xia Na, Ling Mo felt quite awkward and couldn't help but speak up, despite feeling nervous.
Xia Na was momentarily startled, then laughed nonchalantly: "What are you afraid of? Your girlfriend doesn't mind at all, right?" Saying this, she pointed at Ye Lian, who was standing behind Ling Mo, "Isn't that right? Miss Sister."
"I do mind..." Ling Mo felt speechless for a moment. Xia Na seemed to be no older than seventeen or eighteen, and her words were sharp. But hearing her talk to Ye Lian, Ling Mo quickly interjected, "I'm sorry, she can't talk..."
"Ah? Such a beautiful sister is mute? Uh, sorry, sister, don't mind me..." Liu Yuhao first exclaimed, then immediately continued with an embarrassed smile.
Ling Mo didn't know how to explain, so he simply nodded with a bitter smile.
To his surprise, Xia Na looked deeply at Ye Lian and then suddenly grabbed her wrist. If Ling Mo had not promptly stopped Ye Lian's impulse to attack, Xia Na would probably have been torn to pieces in that instant.
She seemed absolutely unaware of the danger she was just in: "Miss Sister, come rest at our home for a bit. You look really pale."
Her tone held a touch of sympathy, and after finishing, she looked at Ling Mo with much softer eyes: "You're quite good. Come up for a sit, I'll treat you to a drink."
Misunderstanding!
Just as Ling Mo was about to refuse, Xia Na had already pulled Ye Lian upstairs, and Liu Yuhao also approached Ling Mo from behind, pushing his back and urging, "Come on, it's so rare to see living people..."