Chapter 35 – Encounter in Broad Daylight

The situation was critical. After the young man finished speaking, he anxiously looked at Ling Mo. Since Ling Mo had been the one to respond earlier, the young man instinctively felt that this seemingly unremarkable young man was the leader of the group.

“Where is your camp?” Ling Mo asked, frowning.

The young man was somewhat taken aback that, in such a dire situation, Ling Mo was still considering these questions. Usually, when encountering a group of survivors, people would stick to them like glue! He had proactively invited Ling Mo and the others partly out of guilt and partly because he was impressed by their combat skills.

Although there weren’t many zombies on the way to the side gate, a few had still emerged to block their path. The young man had originally thought that these people would either be unable to fend them off and retreat or would at least suffer some losses.

But to his astonishment, this seemingly weak group—two girls, two boys, and one young man—turned out to be incredibly strong fighters! These scattered zombies didn’t pose any threat to them at all! Such a group was clearly not a burden but rather a valuable addition.

“Ginkgo Community! So, do you want to come back to our camp with us?” the young man asked eagerly.

Ginkgo Community wasn’t far from here, just a couple of streets away. However, it seemed like this group had just left their camp, so why were they planning to return so soon? Ling Mo didn’t hold back from asking this question directly.

The young man hurriedly explained, “You misunderstand. We left two days ago to scavenge for supplies in the area. Today, we decided to take a risk and come here to find something, but it turned out to be very dangerous. Now that we’ve hit a snag, we’re planning to return to camp immediately to avoid further casualties.”

So that’s how it was…

Ling Mo nodded and glanced back at Ye Lian and Xia Na. At the moment, Xia Na seemed calm, just like Ye Lian, and their true identities were not apparent from their appearance. However, for safety’s sake, Ling Mo subtly manipulated Ye Lian to take a baseball cap from the backpack and put it on Xia Na.

This small action went unnoticed by the young man because Ling Mo was talking to him at the same time.

“Alright, we’ll go back to the camp with you,” Ling Mo said.

“Great! Let’s go.” The young man showed a hint of joy. For a camp, new members usually meant one of two things: an extra mouth to feed or additional help. In the young man’s eyes, Ling Mo’s group was clearly the latter, and such people were always welcome.

The other members of the group had no objections to Ling Mo and his group’s temporary joining. Most of them even nodded at them as a gesture of welcome. Observing these people up close, Ling Mo got a better understanding of the team. The group consisted of both men and women, all appearing quite young. The oldest seemed to be just over thirty, while the youngest looked about fifteen or sixteen.

Although they had just experienced a life-and-death struggle, their expressions were not fearful, just sweaty and exhausted. The only one with a heavy expression was a girl around twenty years old. Her eyes were red, but no tears fell.

As they moved forward with the group, Ling Mo overheard the young man whispering comforting words to the girl. He learned that her older brother had just been pulled back through the window by zombies as he was jumping to delay them. He was likely nothing but bones by now.

After abandoning their plan to search for supplies, the group detoured from the main street into an alley. Ling Mo was initially puzzled, but seeing the young man’s familiarity with the route, he felt slightly reassured.

There weren’t many zombies in the alley. The alley was nestled between two residential complexes, with walls on both sides and few obstacles other than the occasional abandoned vehicle. After about five or six minutes of traversing the alley, the group turned onto a relatively narrow street where the number of zombies began to increase.

The group’s orderly fighting style, along with Ling Mo occasionally stepping in to relieve pressure, allowed them to pass through the street quickly. Soon, they arrived at Ginkgo Community. Unlike the high-end community across from No. 3 High School, Ginkgo Community, although also a high-end development, was newly built with few residents. This meant the environment was relatively clean, with only a few zombies within the community.

However, there were still a few zombies visible at the main gate, which was due to the location—right next to a bustling commercial street.

The camp the young man mentioned was in an elevator apartment within the community. The apartment entrance was well-constructed, providing some protection. While it wouldn’t hold against a large group of zombies, it was sufficient to fend off a small number. There were guards behind the door, and upon seeing the young man return with strangers, they merely scrutinized Ling Mo and his group without saying much.

“We all take turns guarding here. There are also lookouts upstairs. If anything goes wrong, they’ll organize us to either evacuate or hide,” the young man explained, noticing Ling Mo’s curiosity.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered one of the apartments. To Ling Mo’s surprise, no one lived there. A woman with glasses helped the returning group remove their backpacks and pulled out a notebook to inventory and record the items they brought back in detail.

“Wait here for a moment,” the young man told Ling Mo before going over to remove his own backpack. Ling Mo stood by the door and observed for a while, noticing that they had indeed brought back quite a few items. Besides various foods, there were miscellaneous medicines, clothes, and even some feminine products.

After the woman finished recording, she had the young man sign the list before indicating they could leave. The supplies were then sorted and moved to the inner room by the woman. From a distance, Ling Mo saw that the bedroom had been converted into a storage room. As the door opened and closed, he could glimpse the considerable stockpile of supplies inside.

The young man emerged with a slight smile. “Uh… I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier, but I’m not actually authorized to let you join. We need to ask our leader first. But don’t worry, our leader is a really nice person. I’ll take you there now!”

Ling Mo nodded indifferently. Suddenly, his eyes flashed as he asked tentatively, “What was that just now?”

“Oh, just some registration. We have three teams here, each taking turns going out to search for supplies. When we return, we log everything, and the team leader signs off on it. By the way, I’m Li Yu, the leader of Team Two.” A hint of pride flickered in Li Yu’s eyes.

After the others came out of the storeroom, they returned to another apartment, while Li Yu led Ling Mo and his group up to the third floor.

Ling Mo was quite interested in meeting this so-called leader. After all, setting up a survivor camp like this in such a short time was no small feat.

Before meeting the leader, Ling Mo’s mind was filled with various speculations. However, he never expected that when the door on the third floor opened, the person standing before him would be a seemingly frail young girl.

But that wasn’t the main point… What truly made Ling Mo’s eyes widen and left him momentarily stunned was that he actually recognized this girl!

The girl he had thought died in Wang’s Sword and Knife Shop—his neighbor’s little girl, Wang Lin!

When Wang Lin looked up at him, Ling Mo almost instinctively blurted out, “What the hell…”