[All clear! Woof!] Qin Hua sprinted into a tall apartment complex and did a thorough check before sprinting back down and informing the others.

“Thank you, little white.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you, boss.”

People awkwardly thanked her as they still were unsure of how exactly to address her and then moved inside. Lu Chen ruffled her head and the two of them walked in at the end.

After living in underground tunnels for a while, it felt good to stay in the comfort of a modern apartment.

While everyone settled in, Qin Hua ran out and she combed through the entire city searching for another spatial rift. Coco as well was with her as she was her lucky charm.

The others also did not waste their time as they split into the same two groups and went in opposite directions to hunt for mutated beasts.

Things continued smoothly for a while and as night arrived, everyone returned back to take a rest. 

However, just as they returned to the apartment complex, unexpectedly, their things along with other random appliances inside were being taken out and loaded into a truck.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Alex shouted and jumped in front of the two men.

“What do you mean by ‘what are we doing’? Everything here is the government’s property. We just rescued the people from this building last week and now we are here to collect their things.”

“Are you kidding me? What fucking government are you talking about?” Alex was furious.

Lu Chen patted her and pulled her back. “Feel free to take whatever you want, but there are some of our things mixed in.” 

“It would be best if we could take back our things and then we won’t disturb your work.” He turned to look for two elders and the three kids, who had stayed behind. 

Except for them, everyone else had gone out to hunt, as this time they were not really far from each other, and most of these areas were already cleared.

“No. Not possible. Sorry, dude. If you want, then you have to return back to the base and write a letter to the General.” 

The man paused and added after serious thought. “Hmmm… I think you should probably get your things back in a week or so. Nowadays, the processing time has increased a lot.”

“1 week? Fuck! What nonsense are you spouting? Do you want to watch me take back my things in under 2 seconds?” Alex spat out.

They had already moved out of their so-called security zone and yet they were following them to cause trouble?!! This was ridiculous!

“Wait, Alex.” Lu Chen muttered. She was angry but his tone was far more serious and grave. “What happened to the two old men and kids who were staying here?”

“Both of you first stop shouting. You need to learn how to talk to your superior.” 

The man dressed in military attire scoffed at them and then continued to move things to the truck without bothering to answer them any longer.

“Lu Chen. These guys won’t talk! I will handle them!” Alex fisted her hand. “Why don’t you go look inside to see where grandpa Sheng is?”

“Fine. I will leave it to you then.” Lu Chen ignored the several men standing around and looking at them in ridicule and right in front of their eyes, he jumped into the truck.

His movements were so fast that they weren’t even able to react until they saw what he was doing. 

“Hey! Get down!”

“What are you doing?!”

“You don’t have the authority to climb this truck!”

“Do you want to be arrested and sentenced to death for robbery?”

Several men started shouting and dashing towards Lu Chen. However, he calmly gazed inside the truck as if they had nothing to do with him.

And when they arrived closer, he casually turned around to freeze them in their tracks.

“This guy! He is attacking us! He attacked first. Fire! Fire!”

“He attacked us first! We don’t have to hold back! Fire Fire!”

Lu Chen sighed and before anyone could move their fingers, their hands were also frozen in place.

A sharp pain spread through the body as they felt their fingers losing blood supply and becoming stiff. If this continued, they would probably lose their fingers to frostbite!

Everyone started panicking and tried to move but they were not able to do anything as both their hands and feet were stuck.

In the midst of this commotion, Lu Chen already searched the two trucks that were there, and the elder and the kids were nowhere to be found.

“Brother Chen, please do something. Xiao Ji is probably hungry now.”

“Ah. I should have stayed back!”

The three parents in the group immediately started worrying and they pleaded with Lu Chen to do something.

“Alex, did you find anything?” Lu Chen walked over to the frozen soldiers. 

Alex who was still busy dealing with the guy who had spoken to them about rules and procedures wiped the sweat off of her forehead. 

“Yes. It looks like they have taken them to one of the refugee vans nearby.”

“Do you know where that is?”

Alex kicked the bruised body near her feet and the person who was no longer recognizable immediately blurted out the information.

“Near the mall. Near the mall. Please don’t beat me! I was just following orders.” The grown man whimpered.

Alex harrumphed and sent another kick his way, before rushing off towards the said mall. Guan Ye and Luo Zu, go with her. I will stay back here.” The two nodded and quickly ran behind her.

“Now tell me about these new rules and procedures.” Lu Chen stepped forward with a cold chilling smile, approaching the dozen men, still frozen solid.

…

…

…

It didn’t take long to reach the mall and Alex, Guan Ye and Luo Zu first circled around the area to make sure that there was no giant mutated beast or any other hidden danger in the territory.

From the distance, they could see a group of people moving things out of the mall and loading up several trucks. 

Since the military base had a lot of manpower now, they had managed to coordinate the scavenging chores extremely well.

A couple of mutated birds flew down and even these were taken care of quickly by the men. “Not bad.” Alex praised the way they were handling things, but there was still one thing that was unclear to her.

Why were they again and again coming in their way? Couldn’t everyone live peacefully? Was this struggle really necessary?

The three closely looked at the setup and soon spotted the two elderly men and the three kids. There were no other people except for them and two men were standing guard nearby.

“This is not right, young man. We are not criminals. We have our own free will. If we don’t want to come back, why are you forcing us?” Elder Gao Sheng tried to talk to the guards.

He felt responsible for this as Lu Chen had probably trusted him and left the kids behind.

“Yes, these kids’ parents will be looking for them now. Why are you being so heartless and separating kids from their parents? Haven’t we already suffered enough?”

“Shut up and sit, you two old bags. Do I have to explain it to you again and again? Or are you just deaf! Just shut up and sit. We are doing this for your own good.”

The man grunted and then stepped out of the truck because he didn’t want to deal with the endless nagging and whining again.

However, just as he stepped out, suddenly something pulled him aside and before he could understand what was happening, he had already lost his consciousness.

While Alex and Luo Zu stayed behind and watched, Guan Ye entered the mall entrance by himself and quickly took out the men one by one by taking advantage of his stealth ability.

Alex was initially doubtful about his capability, but his actions were swift and smooth and he took care of the whole situation in less than a minute.

And once he was done taking out the trash, he then casually jumped into the driver’s seat of the truck and then drove it away out of the mall.

The truck was big and it made a lot of noise as it vroomed out, so a few people took notice of it and looked confused.

“Hey! What the hell? Who is driving that one? We are not supposed to start yet! The backup hasn’t arrived yet!”

Some even tried running behind the truck but they were too far away and couldn’t reach it in time. And as ran closer to the gate, they also noticed several men lying on the ground unconscious.

“Fuck! What the hell happened here? Someone call the leader!”

Watching everything go down, Alex forcefully slapped Luo Zu’s back in excitement, “Awesome!”

“Ah ah, sis. please, watch it.” Luo Zu wanted to cry.

“Sorry. Sorry!” Alex shrugged and got inside. She noticed that Luo Zu was smiling and chuckling to himself randomly, so she turned to ask him. “Why are you so happy?”

“He He. I left a treasure behind!”