After Park Su asked the question, Xu Nuo didn't oppose him. Instead, he glanced at him and smiled, "If I hadn't said that, how would they have thought to immediately scramble to gather supplies for their comrades? When Lu Shang breaks through, how could we quietly stay put without having to focus on protecting him?"
Upon hearing this, Park Su understood. Xu Nuo had said that on purpose to scare those people, sending them far away so that he and Park Su could have some peace and quiet.
As expected, the next two days unfolded exactly as Xu Nuo had predicted. The group outside, trying to save the tall, thin man, barely showed their faces. He heard that they had gone to a distant place in search of more food.
As for Lu Shang's breakthrough, the commotion it caused was much quieter than the ones Park Su and Xu Nuo had made during their own breakthroughs. With their enemies absent, when the tall and short, fat men returned, they found that Lu Shang had already reached the third-tier. And neither of the two had any idea.
Xu Nuo received the eighty kilograms of food that the tall and short, fat men had brought, and then released the last four people trapped in the formation.
Seeing their expressions as they looked at the food like they were starving, Xu Nuo coldly said, "This time, I'll let you go because of the food. But if you dare come to provoke me again, next time there won't be any chance of exchanging food for your lives. I promise, next time, I'll make sure you die a painful death."
Although the tall and short, fat men were gnashing their teeth in frustration, they couldn't read Xu Nuo's energy tier. Moreover, they noticed that Lu Shang and Ge Qing, standing behind him, seemed to show them a lot of respect.
These two had always been very arrogant in front of them, but now they were acting in such a way toward Xu Nuo and Park Su. This made them realize that it was highly likely that Xu Nuo and his companions had a higher energy tier than they did.
They also realized that their earlier guesses had been wrong—the person in front of them hadn't been awakening; he had been going through a breakthrough the whole time.
Only this explanation could help them understand why, even now, they felt completely suppressed just by standing before him.
However, back then, just dealing with Lu Shang and Ge Qing, a small team of ability users, had already cost them a significant price.
Now that there were two more ability users, and one of them was still a bit of a mystery to them, it was even less likely they would take action rashly. So, although they hated it to the core, they ultimately didn't do anything excessive.
As for Xu Nuo, from the beginning, he didn't really care about their behavior. If they truly intended to fight, he wasn't afraid. So without even looking at them, he simply turned and walked into the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
The matter here was finished, so he instructed Ge Qing and Lu Shang to prepare and get ready to go see the strange place they had mentioned earlier.
Although Lu Shang wanted to persuade them again, seeing Xu Nuo's calm demeanor, and since Park Su seemed to have no objections, he gave up on that thought.
Since they had confidence in themselves, and he had already taken on a role as their partner—or more like a junior—he naturally had to see for himself just how powerful they were. After all, up until now, he had only seen Xu Nuo's formations, but he had never witnessed their combat abilities. Killing zombies and surviving in the wilderness weren't tasks that could be solved solely with formations.
After packing their things, the four of them used a single vehicle. The place they were going was not close, and part of the route was inaccessible by car due to the overgrown plants, so they had to walk. This had been planned by Xu Nuo, who had prepared for them to camp out.
As a result, they had packed a fair amount of supplies, including tents, which they secretly stored in their spatial rings. During the trip, Xu Nuo and Park Su knew that Ge Qing and Lu Shang were curious about their abilities, so Xu Nuo dealt with the zombies on the main road.
Since Park Su had been with Xu Nuo for more than a month, he had already seen him take down plenty of zombies. He was desensitized to Xu Nuo's superb zombie-killing skills. But for the two newcomers, when they saw such expertise for the first time, they were left stunned and wide-eyed.
Seeing their dumbfounded expressions, Park Su suddenly felt that his past performances had been pretty good.
When they reached the section of the road where the trees were too dense for the car to pass, Park Su parked at the entrance and, after removing the car keys, cast several worried glances at the vehicle.
At that moment, he couldn't help but regret allowing Xu Nuo to agree to team up. Although Ge Qing and Lu Shang had said that whatever they saw wouldn't be leaked, he still didn't want to reveal the spatial ring in front of them. At least, he didn't want to be the first person in the apocalypse to show off such an item.
More importantly, he wasn't as trusting of them as he had thought, since he had only known them for a few days.
Moreover, having such a large spatial ring, which could hold an entire vehicle, was something he had rarely encountered in his previous life after the apocalypse. People might be willing to risk anything for wealth, and who knew if they might get greedy if they discovered he had such a valuable item?
So, after casting a few more concerned glances at the pickup truck, he turned around, deep in thought about leaving. Xu Nuo noticed his reluctance and nearly laughed out loud.
Right in front of him, Xu Nuo set up a small defensive formation around the vehicle and then looked at Park Su, saying, "Is this good? No one should be foolish enough to touch our car now. Let's go!"
Seeing that Xu Nuo had noticed his petty concerns, Park Su felt a bit embarrassed. He didn't respond, simply turning and leading the way down the dense path, walking ahead of Xu Nuo.
Xu Nuo, who had been worried about him, naturally was the first to catch up. Behind them, Ge Qing and Lu Shang, after witnessing Xu Nuo's abilities along the way, had already become convinced of his strength.
To be following such a person, they realized, wasn't a sacrifice at all. In fact, they felt that perhaps they had overestimated themselves. With such abilities, if they could learn just a little, others would certainly look at them in a much more respectful way.
Unconsciously, Ge Qing and Lu Shang's gazes toward Xu Nuo were now filled with admiration.
Meanwhile, Park Su, walking along, used his wood-element ability to control the vines along the way, slowly retracting them. He also noticed that as they moved forward, the vines grew thicker and denser.
Frowning, he asked, "Was this always like this, or did it change after the apocalypse?"
Ge Qing answered, "I've been here once before. This area is a small resort. It had a lot of trees, but they were never this dense.
This park seems to have some issues. When we were investigating the origins of the second-level zombies, we found that many of them seemed to have come from this park.
We originally thought about exploring here, but after we passed the outer forest, we felt that the park was getting stranger and stranger. The further we went in, the weirder the plants seemed to be. There was this constant feeling of being watched, and the danger seemed very high, so we decided to retreat.
However, High, Short, Fat, and Thin seemed to have explored this place before, and they lost five ability users in a single trip. So, although we don't know the specifics of what happened inside, one thing I'm certain of is that there are definitely mutated plants in there.
I heard from High, Short, Fat, and Thin that they died because of a plant, and I suspect that there might be more than one mutated plant inside, because they didn't go very deep into the area.
Before coming here, they probably just wanted to hunt one or two second-level zombies, but they killed one second-level zombie and then encountered mutated plants, resulting in so many casualties.
From what I've seen, second-level zombies seem to stay deeper inside and don't wander out too much. That's why it's hard to find them.
We also suspect that there are more second-level zombies inside than we initially thought. So, are you sure you want to go in? It could be very dangerous."
Ge Qing had already picked up on Park Su's nicknames for those three, and he found them quite fitting. Since he didn't know their real names anyway, he started calling them by the same nicknames Park Su had used, and it felt natural.
The more Park Su listened to Ge Qing's description, the more he believed that there was a high chance of energy stones being inside. But he couldn't be sure—he had never heard of anyone finding an energy stone in a resort before.
However, if he had the chance to find an energy stone elsewhere, he probably wouldn't casually share it with others. After all, when he had discovered the energy stone himself, he had just brushed it off without saying much.
Now, hearing how dangerous it sounded, Park Su thought that if there really were many second-level zombies inside, Xu Nuo, being a third-level ability user, and Lu Shang, another third-level, would be their strongest assets. Ge Qing, a mid-level second-tier ability user, would also be a strong ally.
That meant most of the combat power would rely on Xu Nuo. So, whether to go or not, Park Su once again turned his gaze to Xu Nuo, waiting for him to make the decision.
Xu Nuo didn't hesitate at all and directly said, "Since we've come this far, we'll naturally go in. However, we won't force you to come along. Like you said, it's very dangerous inside.
If it's just Park Su that I have to protect, that's no problem. But if there are too many people to take care of, I can't guarantee that everyone will be able to leave safely."
Being called a "burden," Ge Qing and Lu Shang, referred to as Number One and Number Two, were somewhat annoyed by Xu Nuo's blunt words.
After all, they were both strong ability users—one a mid-level second-tier and the other a third-tier metal element user. They were the kind of people that others would usually want to befriend or curry favor with. How had they suddenly become "burdens" in Xu Nuo's eyes?
As for the "burden Number Three," Park Su, he actually didn't feel any surprise at Xu Nuo's words. After all, in front of Xu Nuo's fighting abilities, he did indeed feel a little like a liability.
Seeing Park Su's indifferent attitude, Ge Qing and Lu Shang couldn't help but wonder if they should join in on the dangerous journey. After all, danger often meant opportunity. They likely wouldn't get another chance to have someone as strong as Xu Nuo accompany them inside, and the risks they'd face would be far less with him by their side.