Zhao Yin had killed Lin Tianfeng. His great vengeance was complete.

It felt as though some invisible shackle had shattered in the void, and his entire being grew lighter.

Two lifetimes as a man had forged his heart into iron and stone. Yet in this moment, his thoughts drifted unbidden to those three women.

They were still alive somewhere in this world. He just didn't know where.

If fate allowed him to meet them again, he would do his best to give them a good life. But if not...

If not, Zhao Yin had no intention of wasting too much effort searching.

After all, his own survival came first.

Without formidable strength, even if he found them, he couldn't protect them. They would only walk the same doomed path as before.

Suddenly, Zhao Yin caught the conversation of the mall survivors he'd spotted earlier-roughly five hundred meters away.

"So they're brother and sister."

Zhao Yin let out a dry laugh. The little girl was cursing him out.

He didn't care. People cursed him now. More would curse him in the future.

He dismissed the siblings' chatter and turned his gaze toward Lin Tianfeng's remains. The man had been reduced to a pulp of meat. The woman was utterly spent, yet she still hacked away, one slow stroke at a time.

"That's enough. Give me the knife." Zhao Yin ground out his cigarette butt, walked over, and extended his hand.

The madness drained from the woman's face. She raised her head slowly, staring at him with hollow eyes, as if she hadn't heard a word.

Zhao Yin bent down and snatched back his butcher knife. He wiped the blood clean on the woman's chest, then reversed the blade and slid it into the paper sheath strapped to his left arm.

Without another word, he turned and walked away.

Killing Lin Tianfeng had already cost him nearly an hour.

It was past two in the afternoon now. Only about ten hours remained until the zombie outbreak at midnight.

He had to find as many Star Crystals as possible before then.

Suddenly, his footsteps halted.

That woman had followed him.

"I'm not giving you food. Find your own supplies!" Zhao Yin commanded.

In his eyes, a woman like her was destined to die in tonight's outbreak. Feeding her would be a waste.

She said nothing. She simply stared at him from a distance, her face caked with dust and dried blood. Under the dim yellow sunlight, her body trembled without cease.

"Get lost, or I'll kill you!" Zhao Yin spat coldly, then turned and continued forward.

Within a one-kilometer radius, as long as nothing blocked his line of sight, any Star Crystal on the surface would be visible to him.

Half an hour later, a glint of crimson appeared three hundred meters ahead. Zhao Yin quickened his pace.

Sure enough-a Star Crystal lay half-buried in the soil, refracting faint blood-red light under the sun.

Zhao Yin grabbed it and cracked it open with his bone cleaver.

Three seconds later, a bottle of Nongfu Spring appeared in his hand.

Disappointment flickered across his face.

This water was the most worthless item a Star Crystal could yield. F-grade garbage.

He'd drunk plenty of it in his previous life. Its only effect was replenishing a full day's worth of hydration.

Better than nothing. Zhao Yin tossed the bottle into his backpack and pressed on.

Over the next hour, he found no more Star Crystals.

The time was now 3:30 PM.

Irritation gnawed at him. There weren't nearly as many surface crystals as he'd hoped. In his previous life, high-level zombies had been everywhere-because they could sense crystals buried underground.

But Zhao Yin? If anything covered a crystal, even if he stepped directly on it, he couldn't detect it.

Suddenly, he heard something. He stopped and looked back.

That woman was jogging toward him.

"What the hell do you want? You really want to die?" Zhao Yin was already in a foul mood. He spun around, charged at her, and kicked her to the ground. The bone cleaver rose, its edge hovering at her throat.

"You avenged me. Let me follow you." The woman was calmer than he'd expected. Exhausted and parched, her voice came out hoarse: "I can be your granary."

Zhao Yin's face went black.

His wrist flipped. The flat of the blade cracked across her cheek, leaving a bloody gash.

"Get the hell away from me!"

This damned woman dared to waste his time.

Zhao Yin suppressed his killing intent, turned, and strode away.

But he had to constantly scan the ground around him, so his pace wasn't fast. The woman caught up again soon enough.

When he looked back, she retreated. When he walked forward, she followed.

Zhao Yin's head throbbed. This woman had no fear of death whatsoever.

"Fine! You want food? I'll give you food!" He refused to waste another second on her.

They'd had contact, after all. He didn't want to kill indiscriminately.

He pulled a salt-baked chicken leg and a bottle of Dongpeng energy drink from his backpack and hurled them to the ground.

"Take them. Go as far as you can and die somewhere else. Don't follow me again!"

Ordinary supplies like these were plentiful back at the villa.

For reasons unknown, regular food in the apocalypse couldn't be preserved for long, no matter the method. It rotted rapidly.

That was precisely why Zhao Yin hadn't stockpiled large quantities beforehand.

Since it wouldn't last anyway, giving her some meant nothing to him.

He made up his mind: if this woman dared follow him again after taking the supplies, he would kill her without hesitation.

Zhao Yin stalked off, cursing under his breath.

Behind him, the woman stepped forward and picked up the chicken leg and drink. Gratitude flickered across her face-then faded into hollow despair.

Five minutes later, Zhao Yin confirmed she was no longer following. He exhaled quietly.

Soon, another Star Crystal appeared ahead.

His gloomy mood evaporated. He snatched it up and smashed it open.

A pitch-black butterfly knife materialized before his eyes.

Another piece of equipment!

Joy surged through him.

Click.

Zhao Yin flicked the butterfly knife open and slashed forward. The blade carved through a chunk of meteorite.

The cut was flawless-smooth as a mirror.

The butterfly knife was only F-grade, but anything produced by a Star Crystal was guaranteed quality.

According to statistics from his previous life, the odds of obtaining equipment from a Star Crystal were less than one in a thousand.

Yet out of his four crystals-excluding the one that had carried the SSS-grade ability-the remaining three had yielded two pieces of equipment.

Had his luck finally turned around in this life?

Zhao Yin tucked the butterfly knife at his waist and continued searching. About half an hour later, he found another Star Crystal.

He extended his senses briefly. The "food supply" still hadn't followed.

He cursed under his breath. Jinx.

Without her trailing him, his crystal-hunting speed had picked up considerably.

This time, the crystal yielded a filled bread roll.

Zhao Yin had eaten this kind of bread in his previous life. It could sustain a full day's energy, and more importantly, it accelerated wound recovery.

In a critical moment, it could save his life. This was exactly what he needed most right now.

He placed the bread carefully into his backpack and resumed his search.

Forty minutes later, he obtained another Star Crystal.

It yielded another bottle of Nongfu Spring.

Sure enough, equipment wasn't easy to come by...

Soon, the crimson sun sank below the horizon. The sky turned dim and heavy.

The smoke in the air had completely dissipated.

Without sunlight to refract off them, Star Crystals became far harder to spot.

As night descended, even if crystals were present, they looked no different from ordinary stones.

Zhao Yin now had three Star Crystals in his pocket-all found in the last stretch.

To save time, he hadn't cracked them open on the spot.

Now, he smashed them all at once.

The first yielded a pack of instant noodles. Effect: fills the stomach, resists severe cold.

The second yielded another bottle of Nongfu Spring.

"Another goddamn Nongfu Spring!" Zhao Yin couldn't help but curse.

That made three bottles. He ignored it and turned to the final crystal.

He cracked it open.

White light rose again.

Zhao Yin's breath caught.

Through the fading glow, he could just make out the silhouette of equipment taking shape.