Yang Bin and the others took a wide detour before finally reaching the Walmart Supermarket.
Even with the detour, they still ran into plenty of zombies along the way. Fortunately, the team was strong enough that anything short of a full horde was manageable.
The place lived up to its reputation as one of Star City's premier supermarkets-at least ten thousand square meters of floor space.
The front entrance was sealed shut.
Yang Bin activated True Vision Eye and peered inside. Sure enough, it was occupied. And not by a small group.
But the supermarket was massive, and he couldn't get a full headcount.
His ability could reach far in open terrain, but obstacles cut the range drastically. Right now, he could see through roughly four or five walls at most.
Yang Bin's expression darkened. He hadn't seen everything, but he'd seen enough to piss him off.
These people were living better than his team.
Not only were they set for food and supplies-they'd captured a group of women to use however they pleased.
From the state those women were in, it had been going on for a long time.
"Brother Bin, what's it look like in there?"
"A bunch of evolvers. And a bunch of women they've beaten half to death." Yang Bin's voice was flat. Cold.
"Shit! More scumbags! Brother Bin, let's bust in and put them down!" Chen Hao snarled.
"Can't go through the front. The Rolling Shutter Door is reinforced anti-theft, there's a layer of iron mesh behind it, and they've stacked Shelves against the whole thing."
"Then how do we get in?"
"Second-floor window."
"Got it."
They moved to a spot beneath a window. Yang Bin crouched and launched himself upward, hands catching the second-floor ledge. He wrenched the window open and slipped inside.
The others followed one by one.
Tier-3 and Tier-4 evolvers-a two-story jump was nothing.
Once inside, they could already hear laughter drifting up from below.
The team moved quickly toward the stairs.
When they reached the ground floor and saw what lay before them, every one of them went rigid with fury.
Fifty or sixty shirtless men sat around below, eating and shooting the shit like they owned the world.
Tattoos on every one of them. Knife scars on more than a few. The kind of men who'd been trouble long before the apocalypse gave them permission.
Not far from them, over a dozen women lay on the bare floor. Naked. Covered head to toe in bruises-barely a patch of unmarked skin between them.
Their eyes were hollow. Their faces blank. Nothing left but numbness. Whatever had been done to them had gone on long enough to break something fundamental.
As Yang Bin watched, one of the men stood up, apparently done eating. He strolled over to the women, grabbed one by the arm, and started dragging her toward him.
"You fucking animal! Let her go!" Old Hei roared.
His voice cut through the space. Every head below snapped toward them.
"How the hell did you get in here!" A heavily tattooed man glared up at them.
A cold light passed through Yang Bin's eyes.
"Kill them all."
"Done!"
Chen Hao and the others drew their weapons and charged.
"Motherfucker-you're dead!"
"Kill them!" the leader barked.
Dozens of men scrambled to the Shelves behind them, pulling out machetes, then surged forward to meet Chen Hao's group.
All evolvers. All Tier 2. The leader had reached Tier 3.
None of it mattered against Chen Hao and the others.
The only issue was reach. The enemy all carried machetes, and Zhao Kun's group only had Fire Axes-too short. Against this many blades swinging wild, they'd have trouble defending.
But Chen Hao didn't give them the chance. He plowed straight into the front line, Barbell Rod sweeping in a brutal horizontal arc. The first few heads simply exploded. They'd raised their machetes to block-pointless.
Tier-4 Chen Hao swung with over a thousand kilograms of force. These Tier-2 thugs might as well have been holding cardboard. Blades snapped. Skulls caved in regardless.
The sight made the crowd flinch, but these were men who'd lived by violence their whole lives. They didn't run. More of them piled toward Chen Hao.
Hu Wenliang surged forward to join him. One Tier 4, one Tier-3 Peak-their Barbell Rods whirled in overlapping arcs, swatting away everyone who came close.
"Doesn't seem like they need us..." Skinny Monkey muttered.
"That settles it. First thing after this, I'm hitting a gym for some Barbell Rods." Zhao Kun's tone was dead serious.
"Yeah. Non-negotiable."
BANG.
A gunshot split the air mid-slaughter, freezing everyone in place.
The leader stood at the back, a pistol in his hand that hadn't been there before. Muzzle aimed squarely at Chen Hao.
Chen Hao and Hu Wenliang stopped. They stared at the wisp of smoke curling from the barrel, and something primal tightened in their chests.
Strength was one thing. A gun was something else entirely. They had no idea if their bodies could take a bullet.
"Go on then! Keep killing!" the man sneered.
"Didn't expect you little shits to have some bite. But I don't care how strong you are-can you stop a bullet?"
No one answered. All eyes stayed fixed on the pistol.
"I want to find out."
Yang Bin stepped forward, placing himself in front of Chen Hao and the others.
"Brother Bin-"
Concern flashed across their faces.
"What did you just say?" The man blinked, certain he'd misheard.
"You think this gun is fake?"
"No. I know it's real." Yang Bin's gaze locked onto the muzzle. Steady. Curious. "That's exactly why I want to test it."
They'd have to face firearms eventually. He wanted to know-at Tier 4, could he handle it?
"You're out of your goddamn mind!" The man's face twisted. "Fine. You want to die? I'll oblige!"
He squeezed the trigger.
BANG.
The bullet tore toward Yang Bin's head.
To the naked eye, it was invisible-just sound and consequence. But under True Vision Eye, the trajectory traced a clear line through the air.
Yang Bin's hand flicked up.
Caught it.
A sharp, burning sting across his palm. Nothing serious.
He opened his hand.
A single bullet sat in his palm, still warm.
Every pair of eyes in the room went wide. Jaws dropped. Silence.
Catching a bullet bare-handed. What the hell was this guy?
"Brother Bin is a goddamn legend!" Chen Hao's eyes were practically glowing.
"What the fuck-" The leader's face contorted.
"Bullshit! I don't buy it!"
He pulled the trigger again.
BANG BANG BANG BANG-
Four shots in rapid succession.
Yang Bin's hand blurred through the air-once, twice, three times, four.
Then he extended his arm. Turned his palm over. Opened it.
Clink. Clink. Clink. Clink.
Four bullets hit the floor, ringing out like dropped coins in a silent room.
To everyone else, it was awe.
To the man holding the empty gun, that small, clear sound was a death knell. The color drained from his face like someone had pulled a plug.