Chapter 17 Team Up?

The middle-aged man had initially wanted to slip away, afraid of being harmed by Li Chenzhou. But upon realizing that Li Chenzhou harbored no hostility towards them, he instead desired to follow him.

The reason was simple: he had personally witnessed Li Chenzhou slaughtering a large number of zombies. Having such a person by his side would undoubtedly provide significant protection for him and his son.

"Sorry! I can't take you with me!"

Li Chenzhou refused without hesitation, turned again, and resumed his slaughter.

"Um... brother, we won't cause you any trouble by following you! Besides..."

The middle-aged man was persistent, speaking again, but Li Chenzhou didn't even turn his head, completely ignoring them.

Watching Li Chenzhou relentlessly kill zombies, the middle-aged man sighed, shook his head helplessly, and looked down at his son:

"Let's go! Xiaohan!"

His son, Xiaohan, looked at his father, then at Li Chenzhou, and without a word, cautiously walked away with his father...

When they exited the mall, they indeed saw that the plaza was clear of zombies. Moreover, a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy was sitting leisurely on a bench outside the main entrance, eating bread and drinking water.

Seeing the water bottle in the boy's hand, Xiaohan's eyes lit up, and he actually let go of his father's hand and ran over.

The boy was naturally Duan Lei. Beside him was a backpack with its zipper open, revealing food, water, ropes, and other miscellaneous items inside.

Xiaohan ran over and immediately spotted the water in the backpack. Being a child, he hadn't eaten or drunk anything since last night, so he reached out to grab the bottled water.

"What are you doing?"

Duan Lei frowned, grabbed Xiaohan's wrist, and asked.

"I want to drink water!"

Xiaohan glared at Duan Lei, justified.

"This is mine!"

Duan Lei said sternly, then turned to look at the middle-aged man who was approaching quickly.

"Little brother, I'm sorry! My child is young and doesn't understand!"

Seeing Duan Lei's unfriendly gaze, the middle-aged man said quickly:

"He hasn't had a drop of water since last night; he must be parched! How about... you give us a bottle of water?"

"No matter how thirsty you are! You can't just take other people's things, right?"

Duan Lei looked coldly at the middle-aged man and pointed to a small store nearby:

"If you want water, go get it yourself there!"

"There... there might be zombies!"

The middle-aged man looked at the store hesitantly, then glanced at the backpack and surveyed the surroundings:

"Little brother, are you... alone?"

"I'm waiting for someone!"

Duan Lei nodded towards the store.

Seeing Duan Lei's gesture, the middle-aged man's expression changed immediately. He naturally thought of Li Chenzhou. So, this boy was with that person! No wonder he could wait here so leisurely.

"Little brother! Look, the world has become like this. My wife died right before our eyes last night and turned into a zombie!"

The middle-aged man looked cautiously at Duan Lei:

"In this kind of world, I think it's better for everyone to stick together. There's strength in numbers. How about... we team up? We can take care of each other. What do you think?"

"We don't need to team up! You should leave quickly! While there are no zombies!"

Duan Lei said indifferently.

"Um! The one inside killing zombies is with you, right? After he's done killing the zombies, you definitely won't be able to use up all the food and water in this mall. I can help you carry some, so I'll definitely be useful to you!"

The middle-aged man was still persistent, continuing to speak.

"I said, we don't need to team up! If you want food and water, you can wait on the side and then go get it yourselves. We won't stop you! But we won't take you with us!"

Duan Lei refused again.

Seeing Duan Lei's firm attitude, the middle-aged man had to shut his mouth. He pulled Xiaohan, who still wanted to reach for the water, to the side and then looked towards the mall.

Duan Lei's words reminded the middle-aged man that he needed food, water, and necessary weapons. Before, he had only been thinking about leaving that dangerous place as quickly as possible!

"Xiaohan! Dad will take you to find water and food!"

Remembering that there were shops selling food and water along the way when they came out, the middle-aged man simply took his son and returned to the mall.

At this time, Li Chenzhou's slaughter was nearing its end. After all, there were only three hundred or so zombies. At his current speed, killing them all would only take a few minutes, given his physical attributes.

The middle-aged man also saw the ground around Li Chenzhou covered with zombie corpses. Moreover, he even saw a familiar figure among those corpses.

"Mommy!"

Xiaohan also saw the corpse and immediately cried out, rushing over. The middle-aged man quickly followed and grabbed Xiaohan:

"Xiaohan! Don't go over there! She... she's not Mommy anymore!"

"No! That is Mommy!"

Xiaohan cried and struggled, wanting to go to his mommy. The middle-aged man suddenly thought of something and didn't stop him anymore. He pulled Xiaohan to his wife's corpse.

The woman had turned into a zombie first and then been killed by Li Chenzhou, so half of her head had been cut off. The middle-aged man endured the pungent smell of blood, grabbed the backpack from the woman's body, and took out a set of keys from it—their car keys.

Xiaohan, who had originally wanted to find his mommy, was frightened by the woman's corpse and didn't dare to approach. But he looked at his mommy's corpse, then at Li Chenzhou, who was killing the last few zombies, and suddenly pointed at Li Chenzhou and shouted:

"You killed Mommy! You're a bad guy!"

"Pfft!"

After killing the last few zombies, Li Chenzhou looked around and, finding no more living zombies, turned to leave. As for the little boy's accusations, Li Chenzhou completely ignored them, pretending not to hear them.

Having killed more than three hundred zombies, Li Chenzhou's unease had lessened somewhat because he hadn't found a single strengthened zombie among them.

If strengthened zombies had appeared among these zombies, even just one, it would have been enough to prove that this apocalypse had significant deviations from the apocalypse of Li Chenzhou's previous life, which would not be good news for Li Chenzhou.

However, Li Chenzhou was not complacent. He still needed to leave the city as soon as possible and find a suitable place to settle down, quickly clear zombies, and accumulate slaughter points. Only when he could exchange for that spatial battle car would they truly gain a foothold in this apocalypse...

"Listen up, anyone who's still alive, the zombies are being summoned now and don't have time to eat people. Take this opportunity to leave quickly, or you won't have a chance to leave later."

Li Chenzhou sheathed his battle blade, raised his head, and shouted loudly. There were definitely other survivors in the mall, but they were afraid to leave because of the zombies, so Li Chenzhou simply reminded them.

As for whether anyone believed him and whether they had the courage to leave their hiding places, Li Chenzhou couldn't care less. Opportunities always had to be seized by oneself...