Dimensional Supermarket - Chapter 59

Ye Zhou’s nerves are on edge. He feels only nervousness now.

He even stands up while holding the gun.

The moment he does, the zombie he has been aiming at falls to the ground. It collapses without any struggle.

His heart pounds in his chest. He takes a deep breath and slowly smiles.

“Hit it!” Ye Zhou’s eyes shine with exhilaration. He turns to look at Chen Shu. “I actually hit it!”

He’s like a kid who just got a new toy, unable to contain his excitement.

But he still remembers to keep his voice down.

Chen Shu seems a bit surprised. She watches him for a few seconds, silently acknowledging that some people are born with certain talents.

“Boss,” Chen Shu says, “do you want to seriously learn from me? I can take you on as my apprentice.”

Ye Zhou blinks. A champion of all shooting competitions wants to be his teacher? How can he refuse such a great offer?

“Then should I call you Master? Or Teacher?” Ye Zhou asks, a grin spreading across his face.

Chen Shu waves her hand dismissively. “No need to be so formal. Just call me Chen Shu. I’ll feel uncomfortable if you call me ‘Teacher.’”

Ye Zhou hesitates. “That seems kind of disrespectful.”

Chen Shu shrugs. “Oh, respect is in the heart. You don’t need to say it.”

Since she clearly doesn’t want him to call her teacher, Ye Zhou doesn’t push it. “Alright, but I have to pay you tuition. I can’t have you working for free. How much is appropriate per month?”

Chen Shu thinks for a moment. “Two thousand. Just a token amount, though. I’m not here for money.”

The two quickly settle on a teaching arrangement. They’ll practice every morning while out dealing with zombies, but they still focus on their own tasks when back in the supermarket.

Since they only have one sniper rifle between them, Chen Shu will take the lead in ambushing. Her rifle is a bolt-action sniper, which can only load one bullet at a time, making her the main shooter for the time being.

The power of the bolt-action sniper is greater than that of the semi-automatic, but it is slower in terms of reloading. Still, Ye Zhou can’t see any inefficiency in Chen Shu. She returns to the position where Ye Zhou had been earlier, aims, and fires. Her reloading speed is impressively quick, and her shooting angles are flawless. She doesn’t even need to look down. Reloading has become second nature to her.

Each shot pierces a zombie’s head with deadly precision.

Even when soldiers are nearby, Chen Shu never misses. She can avoid hitting her own people without fail.

The more Ye Zhou watches her, the more he admires her skills.

No wonder Chen Shu always seemed so impressive—her accuracy is unmatched.

After the zombies in front are dealt with, Chen Shu turns to Ye Zhou and says, “I remember Yang Guoqin sent a lot of guns, including some bolt-action snipers. You should practice with those. They’re powerful. After you get the hang of them, we can work on burst snipers. The ones Yang Guoqin sent aren’t the best, but if you see a good bolt-action sniper in the system, let me know. I can help you figure out which one to buy.”

Ye Zhou sighs. “I think I’ll stick with the ones Yang Guoqin sent. The ones in the system are way too expensive. Right now, I need more than 10 million to assemble the protective shield, and I don’t know where to get that money.”

Though the money is still his, and the system won’t confiscate it, who knows if he’ll need to spend it once he unlocks certain items?

The photon cannon costs over 10 million, and the protective shield will probably be even more expensive.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be stuck here,” Ye Zhou mutters with a sigh.

The day he can return home feels like it’s still far away. If he weren’t so eager to go home, he would have given up by now.

After dealing with the small group of zombies in front of them, the larger zombie horde behind will soon arrive.

Ye Zhou picks up his rifle and turns to Chen Shu. “I’ll go find them.”

Chen Shu makes an “OK” gesture. “Be careful. Stay close to Zou Ming. He won’t let anything happen to you.”

Ye Zhou nods seriously. “I know. Don’t worry. I’ll stay right behind him. He won’t get rid of me.”

Ye Zhou’s scared too!

Ye Zhou has never been on a battlefield before. Before starting his plane-jumping adventures, the most dangerous thing he had done was bungee jumping. The thrill almost made his heart jump out of his chest, and when he returned to the platform, he almost threw up.

As he walks down the hillside, Ye Zhou keeps his eyes peeled, scanning for any zombies that might appear unexpectedly. Even the smallest sound makes him jump.

The soldiers are scattered around. They aren’t facing the zombies head-on but are instead lying low, waiting for the horde to get closer. Some have already prepared grenades, ready to toss them once the zombies are within range.

Ye Zhou creeps up to Zou Ming.

Zou Ming looks at him and asks in a low voice, “Where’s Chen Shu?”

Ye Zhou answers, “She’s still up there. We only have one sniper rifle, and she’s better with it than me. I’ll practice sniping too. Once I get the hang of it, I’ll be much more accurate with other guns.”

Zou Ming frowns slightly. “Close combat is also important.”

Ye Zhou waves a hand. “We’re in the era of firearms. Beyond seven steps, guns are faster. Within seven steps, guns are even faster.”

Zou Ming just stares at him, unsure what to say.

Ye Zhou whispers, “You should’ve seen Chen Shu earlier. She was like a robot with that sniper rifle—ridiculously impressive.”

Before, he thought it would be great if he could be as handsome as Zou Ming, but now, his goal has shifted to Chen Shu.

He doesn’t know when he’ll be able to practice enough to be as impressive as her.

Zou Ming says nothing.

“Here they come!” Ye Zhou ducks his head as he spots the approaching horde.

Zombies don’t rely on their vision to find people. Otherwise, their eyes would have rotted away long ago. But they don’t seem to rely on their sense of smell either.

No one knows how they track people now.

Ye Zhou peers through the gaps in the trees and grass. He sees the massive wave of zombies making its way toward them. Their clothes are torn, some are naked, and their bodies are covered in rotting flesh. Scavenger birds occasionally land to peck at the meat on their shoulders or heads.

The zombies don’t seem to bother the birds, but the birds quickly fly off after taking a bite.

If you don’t focus on their decaying bodies, Ye Zhou thinks the zombies look almost human. Their speed is comparable, and they move with surprising discipline. Aside from the small group of zombies leading the pack, none of them stray from the formation.

They move like a pack of animals, each with a clear role: some are scouts, some attack, and others cover the rear.

But they will not retreat. Once they start acting, they fight until the very end.

“Are they really alien creatures?” Ye Zhou whispers in Zou Ming’s ear.

Zou Ming feels Ye Zhou’s warm breath on his earlobe, making his ears flush slightly, and they even tremble a bit. He replies quietly, “It’s likely that they are. Otherwise, no virus could defy the laws of nature.”

Compared to viruses, the zombies seem more like the eggs of some unknown creature, reproducing through parasitism and absorbing nutrients.

The wireworm, for example, forces its host to dive into water.

The parasitic crab makes its host, the male crab, feminized, treating the crab like its child. But unlike the wireworm, the parasitic crab is gentler—it doesn’t kill the crab but prolongs its life.

Such creatures exist on Earth, so why wouldn’t aliens have something similar?

When the zombies arrive in grenade-throwing range, several soldiers throw their grenades in unison.

As the grenades explode, flames and smoke erupt. Zou Ming grabs Ye Zhou’s wrist. “Go!”

Ye Zhou follows Zou Ming nervously, still holding his gun, though he no longer feels as panicked as before.

Ye Zhou, who just killed a zombie, is no longer the same person.

Now, he is Ye Sharpshooter Zombie Terminator Zhou.

“Stick close,” Zou Ming orders.

Ye Zhou replies calmly, “I’ll cling like glue. Don’t worry.”

He values his life too much!

Zou Ming doesn’t carry a machine gun but instead the same type of rifle as Ye Zhou.

This time, the rifle is from Yang Guoqin, and it isn’t as poorly repaired as the previous one.

Ye Zhou picks up his gun. For some reason, it doesn’t feel so difficult to use.

After firing two shots, he quickly figures out the rifle’s trajectory. As long as he aims the gun at a zombie’s chin and fires, he can hit its forehead with precision.

Ye Zhou has only fired a gun once before today, with Zou Ming’s help.

But today, he feels unusually relaxed—as if his Ren and Du meridians have been suddenly opened. He focuses entirely on shooting, blocking out everything else around him. After firing the first shot, he immediately aims for the next target.

Zou Ming watches him from the corner of his eye, lips pursed. There is a fierce fire in his gaze.

After Ye Zhou finishes shooting, he quickly reloads under Zou Ming’s cover. The soldiers in front have no fear of this small group of zombies, as they have plenty of ammunition. Ye Zhou’s ears are filled with the sound of gunfire. The rifles aren’t equipped with silencers, so they have used them against the initial wave of zombies without hesitation.

“Got any grenades?” A young soldier approaches Ye Zhou and Zou Ming, his face covered by a mask, and his body wrapped tightly, not a bit of skin exposed.

Ye Zhou looks at Zou Ming, who has no gear other than his gun.

Zou Ming replies, “Two. Is that enough?”

The soldier nods. “Give them to me. I counted about 400 zombies. We should get rid of them before they reach the base.”

Zou Ming hands over both grenades without objection, and they watch as the soldier runs to the other side to throw them at the zombies.

After all, zombies don’t have weapons. If it weren’t for the large zombie horde, they couldn’t cause much harm to fully armed soldiers.

“Let’s move over there too,” Ye Zhou says, loading his rifle. He is still slow at reloading.

Zou Ming nods. “Stay close. Don’t wander off.”

Ye Zhou sighs. “I’m not a kid. It won’t happen. Don’t worry.”

Zou Ming doesn’t respond. He stays behind Ye Zhou. In this place filled with broken limbs and the sound of gunfire, he protects the person who matters most to him.

Soon, the other might not need his protection.

He feels a tinge of regret but also a sense of relief.

He hopes for the other’s success but fears that, if the other does too well, he might no longer be needed.