After the two armed themselves, Shen Chen brought Ye Xiaoyu to a small supermarket near the gas station. Currently, there was only one cashier trapped at the checkout stand inside the small supermarket, wandering back and forth.
Watching Ye Xiaoyu holding the fire axe in her hands, Shen Chen ordered in a low voice, "I'll leave this zombie to you. You get some practice."
Ye Xiaoyu gulped anxiously. She raised the fire axe and nodded firmly. The supermarket door slowly opened. A "welcome" greeting instantly made the zombie's hideous head turn toward the door, emitting a terrifying growling sound from its mouth.
Ye Xiaoyu stepped back in a flurry, but she heard Shen Chen's deep and strong voice from behind her say, "Don't be nervous. It can't find you."
As Shen Chen said this, the zombie growled a few times, then turned around and no longer paid any mind to them.
"Go. Aim for the zombie's head."
Ye Xiaoyu slowly walked next to the zombie. Although she was prepared, her heart still tightened in that moment. She quickly raised the fire axe and swung down on the zombie's head, but in the end she missed her target… It didn't hit the zombie's head. Instead, it hit its chest!
The zombie instantly let out a mad roar, then it turned around, glaring at Ye Xiaoyu with bloodthirsty eyes. She suddenly felt an absurd fear in her heart, making her hair stand on end. She didn't have a single doubt that the zombie would shatter her in its arms the next second.
"Don't be stupid. What you need to do now is pick up the axe and continue chopping at its head." Shen Chen promptly appeared next to the cash register. He didn't look like he was going to attack the zombie at all. He just brought Ye Xiaoyu out of the zombie's range of attack.
"Listen up. The current world gives you no opportunity to be weak. Chop off its head, then become my companion. If you can't do it, then stay behind." Shen Chen's voice was very stern.
Shen Chen was used to the sight of humans being torn apart by zombies from his previous life. Women, kids—as long as one was a human, he had to pick up a weapon and fight. Otherwise, death was his only end. Weakness and fear would never appear in any Doomsday person, because those who were weak had already died or become zombies!
Shen Chen's stern words provoked Ye Xiaoyu. Ye Xiaoyu suddenly found strength. She yelled and quickly jumped forward, violently yanked the fire axe out, and chopped down on the zombie's head with all her strength.
With a grunt, the zombie's head left its body and fell to the floor. Ye Xiaoyu turned around, half in surprise and half in horror. She couldn't smile, and she couldn't cry.
Shen Chen calmly watched Ye Xiaoyu, who had quickly overcome her psychological barrier. He nodded. "Not bad. Let's go, then!"
Not far ahead was a prosperous intersection. Shops in every tier dazzled in the streets. There were even more people today, on Valentine's Day. But now, the shops' roll-up doors were all rolled down, and the vast number of cars in the wide street piled together like a lot of scrapped cars, sprawled around in every direction, blocking the road to the point where not even a drop of water could trickle through.
Tens of thousands of zombies wandered in the streets, feeding. The heavy odor of blood was sickening. On the side, Ye Xiaoyu grabbed onto Shen Chen's shirt with trembling hands. "Shen... Shen…"
It would be nearly impossible to pass through to get into a certain shop on a street like this. Ye Xiaoyu didn't have any doubt that if she took a single step forward, the zombies would all pounce onto her just like in TV shows. They would tear her apart alive and stuff her into their decaying bodies.
Shen Chen turned around and said softly, "From now on, don't talk. The zombies will discover our aura. Remember, our goal is to get inside a restaurant called ellu."
Ye Xiaoyu stared at Shen Chen, asking with the lightest of whispers, "Shen Chen, can we really get through like this?"
Shen Chen watched Ye Xiaoyu, who was weak and trembling from fear but still trying to feign bravery, and smiled. "Rest assured!"
'Rest assured...' Perhaps it was Shen Chen's confident smile that infected Ye Xiaoyu, but she nodded with a pale face and grabbed the fire axe tightly in her hands.
Shen Chen took a deep breath, cautiously raising Black Blade. He prudently took the first step forward. The zombies around them suddenly turned around. Under the stare of hundreds of zombies, Shen Chen's expression finally changed. Walking through such a dense crowd of zombies, a single mistake would lead to only one outcome—getting eaten to the bones. It was no exaggeration to say that they wouldn't even have the chance to turn into zombies.
He forced himself to calm down, then raised his arms and imitated the zombies' steps, slowly walking forward. One step... Two steps...
The zombies slowly turned their heads around, treating Shen Chen as one of their kind. They continued to wander the streets. Only then did Ye Xiaoyu follow Shen Chen closely, passing through the tens of thousands of zombies in alarm.
After walking some dozen yards, the zombies still hadn't noticed the two of them, which calmed the butterflies in Ye Xiaoyu's stomach. She couldn't help gazing at Shen Chen. 'This guy thought of such a gross way to fool the zombies. He's truly amazing!'
Before she could even finish rejoicing, the next moment a zombie passed before Shen Chen. Suddenly, it paused in its steps, turning its purple face in Shen Chen's direction. It stared at Shen Chen with white eyes.
The zombie halted and studied Shen Chen carefully, examining him. The butterflies in Ye Xiaoyu's stomach immediately started fluttering again. She couldn't control her thoughts at all. Her mind was completely blank. 'What shall we do? It's about to find us out!'
Ye Xiaoyu's steps slowed down, but Shen Chen didn't hesitate at all. He controlled his steps and posture, shuffling toward the zombie.
By then, Shen Chen had gradually closed the distance between himself and the zombie, but the zombie only gazed at Shen Chen with suspicion. It didn't look like it intended to move out of the way. Ye Xiaoyu widened her eyes in despair. 'With their keenness, if his warm hand touches the zombie, they will tear us to pieces! She couldn't continue imagining it. Ye Xiaoyu wanted to scream, but she bit down hard on her lips and didn't dare make a sound.
Shen Chen's arm slowly moved toward the zombie. Ye Xiaoyu was prepared for the worst. 'What if the zombie doesn't leave? What if the zombie recognizes us as humans?' Ye Xiaoyu thought pessimistically. Perhaps... Shen Chen has a solution?' She suddenly gazed at Shen Chen, but Shen Chen's solemn expression and tightly pursed lips made her realize that this time they had encountered a great danger!
Shen Chen's fingertips were about to reach the zombie's body, yet he still calmly walked forward. But Ye Xiaoyu knew he was only probing tentatively. He was betting on the zombie stepping aside right before they touched.
At the same time, Shen Chen felt less nervous than before. He carefully observed the zombie that had paused to examine him, rapidly thinking of solutions in his mind. If he killed it the moment he approached it, he could escape, which would alarm the zombies around them. Both him and Ye Xiaoyu could sink into the crowd of zombies.
'Wait. It's still making a judgement! It didn't try to attack me…' Shen Chen thought to himself. 'It's still making a judgement. That means I still have a chance of fooling it! This is definitely a zombie that hasn't completely lost its human consciousness yet. That's why it knows to suspect and to doubt.'
"Zombies like these are in a sense even more terrifying than normal zombies, because they are still more or less human. But no matter what, they are still zombies by nature. This means that zombie blood does fool them. As long as I make myself a little more convincing, it'll definitely be fooled!" At this thought, Shen Chen's expression tightened. Then he made a growling noise from his throat.
Zombies have their own language, too. Shen Chen recalled how in his previous life he had spent three years doing research while struggling through the apocalypse. Although no one believed him, Shen Chen stubbornly insisted that zombies didn't growl by instinct. Thankfully, after a few years of research, Shen Chen finally distinguished the meanings of different zombie growls. The noise he just made was one of the few zombie growls that he had mastered, a growl indicating a threat to another zombie.
Ye Xiaoyu stared at Shen Chen in shock. She didn't know how Shen Chen had made the noise without even opening his mouth, but she knew very well that it was a noise only zombies could make. The problem was, was growling like that really effective?
But the next moment, her eyes widened. At the growl, the zombie before them started moving slowly. Although it continued to stare at Shen Chen, it started retreating.
Shen Chen's expression was cold, and he continued moving forward determinedly while making growling noises. After walking a dozen steps forward, Shen Chen made a loud noise in his throat. As if hearing a command, the zombie shook and quickly left.
Ye Xiaoyu's eyes instantly lit up. She stared at Shen Chen, her eyes filled with wonder. If not for the fact that Ye Xiaoyu knew Shen Chen must be human, she definitely would have thought Shen Chen was a zombie king like from the novels. Otherwise, how else could he command a zombie?! This was totally beyond human imagination. It was incredible! If they weren't in such a dangerous place, she definitely would have run up and kissed Shen Chen hard!
Shen Chen felt relieved, too, that the zombie was easier to deal with than he had expected. Good thing his mastery over zombie growls had kept the two of them from being exposed. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unfathomable.
He calmed himself down and made a face at Ye Xiaoyu. Ye Xiaoyu nodded at the same time, and the two of them slowly advanced down the street full of zombies. They didn't encounter anything like what had happened before. Both of them let out a sigh of relief. After a while, the two of them arrived before the restaurant. Shen Chen frowned. There were many zombies gathered around the door of the restaurant. There was no way they could get in by force.
Ye Xiaoyu knitted her thin brows, then she asked with her eyes, "What shall we do?"