BANG!~
That was the sound of a gunshot.
The zombies in the Department Store were stirred into a frenzy by the noise.
Lin Jiao and Xu Bin immediately walked to the railing and looked down. The gunshot had come from below.
Lu Feng hurried forward as well. On the fourth floor, he saw a man covered in filth fleeing for his life, a dense horde of zombies swarming behind him.
What shocked Lu Feng was that among the zombies, a gray, calf-sized monster was shoving them aside as it charged toward the man.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The man fired several more shots. The bullets hit the monster, but they only slowed it down, failing to kill it.
The gun was useless against the monster. It only bought the man enough time to make a desperate dash for the stairwell.
"A Mutant Beast!" Lin Jiao muttered, her expression souring.
These Mutant Beasts were the main reason she, Xu Bin, and the other survivors were trapped here.
The continuous gunshots agitated the zombies in the Department Store even more. Two other sharp shrieks rang out—clearly the other two Mutant Beasts Lin Jiao had mentioned.
"Damn it, he's running upstairs! Let's go!" Xu Bin's face changed abruptly.
Lu Feng also sensed the commotion below and followed Xu Bin upstairs.
The agitated zombies on their own floor had even noticed them and were now charging in their direction.
This was a real pain in the ass.
"AHH—"
A blood-curdling scream soon echoed from below. The man was clearly a goner.
An unknown amount of time passed before silence fell once more.
「Eighth Floor.」
Lu Feng, Xu Bin, and Lin Jiao finally peeked their heads out cautiously.
"Damn it, it's on the sixth floor," Xu Bin cursed under his breath.
Lu Feng also saw the Mutant Beast. It was gnawing on the man's corpse.
What a fucking helpless situation.
It was like that movie trope: 'If nothing goes wrong, something is about to go wrong.' They had made it all the way to the jewelry store's entrance, just about to grab the goods, and then this thing shows up.
A gun couldn't handle it. He highly doubted the steel blade in his hand, or the axe and steel spike in Xu Bin's and Lin Jiao's hands, would be any match for it either.
From the looks on their faces, he could tell they had no intention of fighting it.
Besides, he couldn't guarantee they wouldn't alert the Mutant Beast while moving things on the same floor.
They'd probably be discovered the moment they went down.
If this Mutant Beast charged into the jewelry store, it would be game over. He'd have no choice but to have Lin Jiao and Xu Bin find another gold shop in the Department Store.
"Boss, this is a bit hopeless," Lin Jiao said, shaking her head.
"I refuse to believe we can't deal with it," Lu Feng said viciously, turning to head back upstairs.
Once he reached the Qingfeng Tea House, he willed himself out of the game.
The man's gun couldn't kill the Mutant Beast simply because it lacked firepower.
Hadn't one of the Mutant Beasts been killed with guns by the group that came in with Lin Jiao and Xu Bin? Although it took them all their ammunition, it proved that Mutant Beasts could be killed.
「Back in his apartment.」
Lu Feng left and headed straight for the tea house.
Finding enough firepower in the Department Store of "After the Apocalypse" was impossible; otherwise, Lin Jiao and the others would have found it long ago.
That meant he had to find a solution in the real world.
When he arrived at the tea house, Da Fei was out, busy with matters at the tea factory.
However, Yang Ming was there, brewing tea at a table in the main hall with some of his men. His presence was key to keeping things in order; when the other "brothers" came to the tea house, they would instinctively behave themselves.
To Lu Feng's surprise, that guy Chen Bo was also there.
'Has he given up on his own tea house now?'
"Young Master Feng, you're here?" Chen Bo was the first to greet Lu Feng.
Of course, it wasn't that he had abandoned his own tea house. The main reason was the news Lu Feng had shared. He was anxious, wanting to be the first to know when the "goods" arrived.
He couldn't very well keep calling to ask Lu Feng, could he? That would make it seem like he was rushing him. His only option was to hang around the Qingfeng Tea House with Yang Ming and wait for news.
"Cousin, Boss Chen, let's talk in the office," Lu Feng said, heading upstairs.
'To get enough firepower in the real world, my first thought was explosives. Xianlin Town is full of mining operations, so there's industrial dynamite. My cousin and Chen Bo should be able to get some. But dynamite is contraband. Buying or selling it is illegal—a minimum three-year sentence. It's not worth the risk.'
So, he thought of something else.
Gas canisters. Years ago they were common, and the explosive power of a full one was no less than dynamite.
In many countries, they are even modified for use as bombs.
A 15-kilogram canister has an explosive yield equivalent to 150 jin (75 kilograms) of TNT.
Of course, to make a gas canister explode, it had to be full, and you had to rig it. That way, with the valve fully open, the instantaneous ignition would cause it to expand beyond its capacity and detonate!
Therefore, as long as he could get his hands on a few rigged gas canisters, he could definitely blow that Mutant Beast to smithereens.
However, with the switch to natural gas, gas canisters were slowly being phased out. Even buying one required real-name registration. It would be a hassle for him to get them himself, so he had to rely on his cousin to go through some gray channels.
That's why this wasn't a topic to be discussed in the main hall.
Yang Ming and Chen Bo followed him upstairs.
Seeing Lu Feng's expression, they both knew something was up.
"Xiaofeng, what's wrong?" Yang Ming asked.
Lu Feng got straight to the point. "Cousin, I need you guys to find a way to get me a few full gas canisters. And they need to be rigged so they can be ignited to explode instantly. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Yang Ming asked, puzzled, "Xiaofeng, what are you planning to do?"
Lu Feng couldn't reveal the real reason, of course. "Cousin, I can't get into the specifics. I can only say that it's very important."
"Alright, I won't ask then," Yang Ming nodded. "There should be people who know how to do this. I'll have them sent over to your place once they're ready."
Seeing Yang Ming take on the task, Chen Bo also refrained from asking questions or prying further.
He'd been in this game long enough to know that pestering someone about something they didn't want to talk about was incredibly annoying. He had no desire to irritate this God of Wealth.
After leaving the matter with his cousin, Lu Feng left the tea house, returned to his apartment, locked the door, and entered the game again.
Lin Jiao and Xu Bin were still in the corridor outside the Qingfeng Tea House, observing the floor below.
Thanks to the Department Store's circular design, they could vaguely see parts of the sixth floor from there. The Mutant Beast happened to be in one of those visible spots.
Lu Feng looked down and also saw the Mutant Beast lying motionless. It seemed to be resting after a full meal.
When Lin Jiao saw Lu Feng reappear, she asked, "Boss, I don't know why you care so much about Gold and all that, but with this Mutant Beast here, we should give up on the sixth-floor jewelry store."
"If we take care of it, we won't have to give up!" Lu Feng said, his eyes fixed on the Mutant Beast.
Lin Jiao and Xu Bin were clearly startled by his words.
'Take care of the Mutant Beast? What kind of joke is this?!'
Lin Jiao immediately said, "Boss, you're really overestimating me and Xu Bin. With the weapons we have, the most we can do is become another full meal for this Mutant Beast."
Xu Bin nodded vigorously. "And with my build, the two of us should be enough for two meals. The beast didn't even finish that poor bastard's corpse before it fell asleep. Its appetite is limited."
"..." Lin Jiao stared at him, speechless. 'Was that what I meant? This guy is actually getting serious about calculating the Mutant Beast's appetite? How ridiculous.'
"You two don't need to do anything. I'll figure out a way to handle it myself." As Lu Feng spoke, he started heading downstairs. 'Even if my cousin gets me the gas canisters, I first need to find a place to set up a trap for the Mutant Beast. I can't just charge at it carrying a gas canister, can I?'
Hearing Lu Feng's words, Lin Jiao and Xu Bin froze, staring at him in disbelief.
'What did we just hear? This mysterious boss said he's going to take on the Mutant Beast by himself?'