Although their village wasn't far from the city, it was usually her parents who went out to buy supplies.
Paige had never even left the village before, so she needed Uziel to lead the way.
Before they reached their destination, the sound of explosions could already be heard loudly.
It was really noisy even at night.
Paige signaled Uziel to find a place to hide, and she would sneak in by herself.
Uziel worriedly grabbed Paige's hand.
Paige gave him a reassuring look. Taking him along would be more dangerous.
Uziel also remembered that Paige's combat skills were now strong, so he quietly hid. At that moment, his desire to become stronger reached its peak.
Paige headed toward the source of the noise. Without Uziel by her side, her speed increased a lot. Though not fast enough to leave afterimages, it was still more than twice as fast as before.
Once she reached ability level nine, she could use her spatial and mental abilities to teleport.
Paige didn't go to the battlefield but dodged patrols along the way and arrived at their main base.
The things she needed were surely kept in one of the warehouses at the base.
Paige moved through different areas and finally found the warehouses.
There were several warehouses holding food, firearms, clothing, weapons, and gasoline.
Paige picked out a set of winter clothes for everyone and took several quilts.
Seeing so many things made her want to take more. In the end, she took two more quilts and more clothes before leaving.
With her habit of taking whatever she could, she knew if she stayed longer without emptying the whole warehouse, she wouldn't be able to sleep well.
Then Paige went to the food warehouse and carried out several sacks of rice and white flour from the back.
She picked rice and white flour because she knew they were the good stuff.
She still remembered the taste of coarse grains and had no desire to eat them again.
Most importantly, since there was good food available, there was no need to settle for less.
Seeing that several sacks were missing without leaving any trace, Paige couldn't help but carry off a few more.
"Maybe it still doesn't make much difference. How about taking a few more bags?"
In Paige's mind, two little figures were fiercely fighting.
The rational one was dragging Paige toward the door, while the greedy one clung tightly to the door frame, yelling, "Take them all, take them all!"
Even when the rational one finally pulled her away, she still left reluctantly, holding a string of canned food in each hand.
The cans weren't actually connected, but it was like they were magnets, sticking together and following her one by one.
"We used to be in the army, and now these people are the army.
So what they have is also ours. Even if we move the supplies, we're just keeping them safe.
Why can't I take everything?" After the people left, the greedy one grumbled at the rational one, unhappy.
"You know that was before. Now we're just civilians.
Also, these soldiers are here fighting zombies.
If you take all their food, what will they eat?
If they're hungry, how will they have the strength to fight zombies?" The rational one put hands on hips and scolded the greedy one.
The greedy one knew it was wrong, so it poked its index fingers together in front of its chest, saying in a small voice, "I'm not saying don't leave them anything… leaving half is okay too."
"Hmph!" The rational one won the argument, folded its arms, raised its chin, and looked down with its nose.
Paige got the supplies she needed and began walking back carefully.
"Did you hear? Xicheng and Wujin were overrun a few days ago." Paige overheard the guards chatting and quietly hid nearby to listen.
The original owner of her body never left the house, so she knew very little about what was happening.
"I heard. Those PN bastards are just... I heard the first thing they did after taking over was burn, kill, and loot. They didn't even spare children or the elderly.
Especially the women. Sigh..." the other person replied with a pained expression.
"Damn it, the more I talk about it, the angrier I get. Now, this place is under my protection.
If the PN soldiers want to enter the city, they'll have to step over my dead body first."
Thinking about the many lives he was responsible for, the young soldier immediately stood tall and firm.
"That's the spirit! Let's protect the people of this place together," another soldier said, patting his shoulder with satisfaction.
Then, the two of them continued encouraging each other for a while.
Paige felt like there wasn't any important information left to hear, so she turned around and left.
These people were just as admirable as she was, brave warriors who lived to protect others.
In her past life, people praised her like this too.
It looked like things weren't too bad. She had experienced dozens of zombie sieges before, and not one of them had succeeded.
Every time, they were able to drive the zombies back. It was just a matter of time.
When she returned, she had to train her powers more. Once she got strong enough, she'd join the army and protect the country again.
Unfortunately, Paige had left too early. If she had heard the rest of their conversation, she would've realized she was too quick to feel reassured.
"But I heard there's a plan to relocate. Do you think it's true?
If the higher-ups give the order to retreat, what should we do? What about the people behind us?" The young soldier looked at the older one and asked.
"The higher-ups must have their own reasons. If there is a relocation, they will surely arrange things for the people.
We're just regular soldiers, we follow orders. The rest isn't something we can control."
The most important thing is, even if we wanted to control it, we couldn't. In this world, just staying alive is already a blessing.
The older soldier comforted the young one. Young people always had that fighting spirit.
Paige received the supplies and went back to find Uziel.
Uziel was still hiding in the same place, nervously keeping watch.
Because Paige's spiritual power had been activated, she could see clearly even at night.
She saw everything Uziel was doing. Honestly, the way he looked so nervous and alert, it was kind of cute.
She walked closer on purpose and made a sound so Uziel could hear it. If Paige suddenly appeared behind him, it would scare him and make him scream.
Uziel saw Paige was empty-handed and paused for a moment. Then he remembered she had some kind of space ability.
So he asked, "Did you get it?"
Paige nodded.
"Then let's hurry back. It'll be morning soon," Uziel said, looking up at the sky.
Paige looked up too but didn't see anything.
The sky in the apocalypse looked like it was covered in a thin fog, nothing could be seen.
There was only day and night. No sun, no moon, no stars, nothing.
By the time they reached the town, the sky was already getting light.
The street looked quiet and empty in the dim light, with just a few people walking by quickly.
Their figures were faint and blurry in the dark light, like lonely dancers in a sleeping city.
At the corner of the street, a breakfast vendor slowly pushed his cart toward them. Steam rose from the baskets on the cart, giving off a delicious smell.
Paige pulled Uziel's arm, her face clearly showing she wanted to eat.
After running all night, she was already hungry. She could smell the meat buns, and they smelled so good.
Uziel looked at Paige and couldn't say no. He walked over and bought two meat buns and three steamed buns.
He handed the two meat buns to Paige and took a steamed bun for himself.
"Let's have one each," Paige said, handing one meat bun to Uziel.
"No, I'll just eat a steamed bun in the morning. Meat buns are too greasy," Uziel shook his head.
Paige gave him a look that said he didn't know what was good. Greasy? They were super tasty.
Paige happily ate the bun in her hand. She didn't expect pork to taste this good.
In her previous life, the meat from mutated pigs was tough and chewy. Only poor people would eat it.
That's why she wasn't very excited yesterday when they talked about hunting wild boars. If she had known it would taste this good, she definitely would have hunted a couple more!
The two of them walked toward the town while eating.
Paige had sharp eyes and noticed a house that had been half-destroyed by a bomb. Inside, there was a bed.
She remembered sleeping on the ground two nights ago, so she pulled Uziel and pointed at the bed on the ground.
"That belongs to someone else." Even though the house was destroyed, and the owner wasn't around now, it still belonged to someone.
"It's already blown up like this. It definitely can't be used anymore.
Besides, didn't you see that the place had already been rummaged through?
The valuable stuff was probably taken by the owner already. What's left is stuff they didn't want."
Even if it wasn't taken by the owner, the house had been destroyed, and people had probably already looted it.
She was just picking up some worthless bed boards and things like that. That shouldn't be a problem, right?
Uziel was convinced by her. Not that he had much choice, Paige had already gone inside.
Beds, tables, stools, cabinets, she took everything, whether it was in good or bad condition, and stored it in her space.
"Stop, stop, stop! Don't clean it out so thoroughly. It'll make people suspicious," Uziel quickly stopped her when he saw she was acting like she was cleaning up the whole place.
In the middle of all this wreckage, a perfectly clean house would look way too obvious.
"Oh," Paige stopped reluctantly.
She almost forgot this wasn't the apocalypse anymore.
So what if the table or cabinet was broken? She could smash it up and use it for firewood. Back when she was on missions and the weather turned bad, she also needed to make fires.
Her space was like a treasure bag, it had all kinds of junk inside.
"So many houses here were destroyed. Let's check out a few more," Uziel said, seeing how Paige was still reluctant to leave and staring at the remaining stuff.
Paige's eyes lit up. That's right, this wasn't an old ruin that had already been searched hundreds of times, but a freshly ruined area.
"Let's go, let's go. Hurry to the next house," Paige said as she pulled Uziel outside.