The Chef Rules the Last Days
Chapter 285 - 283: Mutant Rat

Chapter 285: Chapter 283: Mutant Rat

There were more pressing matters at hand, and He Fei could only pray that nothing would go amiss.

With that massive hole, their group didn’t need to climb the wall but merely lay down, bent at their waists, and crawled through.

As Li Qian crawled through, he glanced at the manhole cover on the ground; half of it had been moved aside, but due to the snowfall, the opening was tightly sealed, obscuring any view of the inside.

He composed himself and caught up with their pace.

Crossing the street, a block of residential dormitories came into view—Su Mo briefly looked up and counted six floors, and it was a large building. Before the apocalypse, it likely housed many students.

However, Li Qian, who had been following alongside, furrowed his brows, "There are a lot of zombies inside."

He Fei arrived at the front of a building. Due to the frost, the door was frozen shut. He stopped Niu Mang from trying to force the door open and instead turned to ask Li Qian, "Could it be that during snowy weather, all these zombies consciously enter the buildings to seek shelter?"

His question sounded strange, but Su Mo found it quite reasonable; otherwise, how could one explain the absence of any zombies on the streets?

Li Qian once again scanned the building in front of him with his spiritual power, then said, "Not sure, but these creatures seem to have lost their ability to move. Let’s open the door."

Their purpose for being here was simply to collect bedding and heating supplies; no matter how many, they needed to go in and fight for them.

He Fei gestured to Niu Mang, who then kicked fiercely at the frozen door. The door instantly came off its hinges, raising a cloud of dust and vapor.

As the group entered, Niu Mang set down the makeshift door board, but they hadn’t walked far when they stopped.

The thick snow on the exterior walls made the interior very dark.

On the left side right after entering was a dormitory’s convenience store, then L-shaped corridors on both sides lined with dozens of rooms, and stairs in the middle leading upwards.

Li Qian’s words held true—just on the first floor, there were nearly a hundred zombies scattered around.

At first glance, the scene was horrifying.

"There are way too many,"

exclaimed someone, taken aback by the scene.

The arrival of the group did not affect the zombies. They stood rigid, their pale pupils unfocused, showing no reaction to the fresh meat right before their mouths.

"What do you say? Kill them all?" Niu Mang stood in front of a zombie and slapped its face, receiving no response whatsoever.

"We don’t have enough time to kill so many zombies. Since they’re immobile, let’s collect what we need first and try to get back before dark," He Fei shook his head in refusal,

nobody knew better than him the number of zombies in the dormitory building. Moreover, adding any outsiders, they wouldn’t be able to collect much after killing them all.

Su Mo drew out her Tang Blade and whispered, "I just took a look outside, there are about six floors. How about we split up?"

"We’ll head to the top floor," He Fei agreed, leading his people toward it.

Su Mo chopped down the zombies blocking her path and reached the front of the convenience store, whose door was half-open. The food inside had already been completely looted.

"It seems they cleared it out even before the apocalypse," Zhao Changsheng followed her in, stepping back slightly at the sight of the chaos.

Su Mo closed the door and said to her, "You and Li Qian head to the second floor—grab anything useful you find."

Zhao Changsheng shot Li Qian a glance and, with a huff, obediently went upstairs.

She seemed to still hold a grudge about what happened that night. Li Qian touched his nose and followed her slowly upstairs.

Throughout the first floor, Su Mo and Lu Chen were almost constantly chopping down zombies as they walked.

She could hardly imagine, with the three-meter-wide corridor filled with zombies, that she might not even be able to pass if she turned sideways.

"Lu Chen, this university has more than just one dormitory building," Su Mo couldn’t help but speak up.

Lu Chen chopped off a tightly shut dormitory door handle with the Ice Blade and glanced at her, "Stay close to me."

"Hmm," Su Mo withdrew her gaze and followed him into the dormitory.

In a place unnoticed by anyone, a zombie’s sharp claw slightly moved.

A four-person dorm room, bunk beds with desks underneath, everything was relatively well-preserved, but the person on the bed had long since decayed and stunk.

It was a girl’s dormitory. When Su Mo saw the jump rope tied around the girl’s neck, she felt pity, "She strangled herself to death."

Lu Chen didn’t even look at the person on the bed, but started collecting the mattresses and quilts from the unoccupied beds into his Space.

Su Mo pulled open the small wardrobe next to the bed, and suddenly, several large rats ran out, startling her into a reflexive chop with her knife.

Their speed was very fast, and in the blink of an eye, they scurried into a small hole at the base of the wall. Su Mo only managed to chop one in half.

The rat’s eyeballs burst out blood-red, and even though it was chopped in two, its sharp snout still kept opening and closing non-stop.

Feeling something was off, she crouched down and used the tip of her knife to flip the rat’s head over and called out to the man behind her lightly, "Lu Chen, come look at this rat."

The man crouched beside her, took one look, and said, "It’s mutated."

Su Mo used her hand for comparison, "This rat is almost as big as my palm."

"Let’s go," he pulled her up.

The two left the room and moved to the next dorm. Su Mo passed quilts needed by the students to Lu Chen while saying, "We need to speed things up, who knows how many more rats are in these walls?"

"Hmm,"

Su Mo again pulled open a few students’ drawers. Inside one, there were several small boxes with blue packaging, labeled with the English letters "duR-e."

She paused for a moment, then inexplicably picked them up.

"Do you like this kind? Textured?" The man stood behind her, his voice suddenly husky and tinged with a hint of teasing.

This time, Su Mo was quite composed. She even turned around and shoved the box into his hands, although a blush on her cheeks still gave her away, "Take it, you always... anyway, it’s safer with this."

Lu Chen didn’t refuse, even carefully examining them, his eyes catching the date on the box as he raised an eyebrow.

Expired.

He didn’t say it out loud, just chuckled silently and stowed them away in his Space.

Su Mo turned her back and rubbed her reddened face, walking out of the dormitory.

Outside, Zhao Changsheng had already stacked many gathered quilts at the staircase entrance on the first floor and was directly calling out Su Mo’s name down the L-shaped corridor.

Hearing her call, Su Mo and Lu Chen came around the corner, bypassing the immovable zombies to reach her.

The floor was piled with dozens of scavenged mattresses and quilts, all of which Lu Chen was stowing away in his Space.

Seeing Su Mo’s flushed face, Zhao Changsheng covered her forehead with concern to check her temperature, "Momo, do you have a fever?"

Su Mo brushed her hand away, "No!"

Lu Chen pulled her to his side and asked softly, "What’s the situation upstairs?"

Li Qian, leaning on the staircase railing, said, "Nothing unusual, just a few small rats, but I can’t detect the exact number; like the cockroach swarm, they’ve evolved to block spiritual power."