C62 Tang Bing Obtained a Skill Point from the Trial.

With his silenced pistol in hand, Tang Bing felt a surge of confidence.

He dispatched the oncoming zombies with close-range headshots, racking up experience points and an assortment of materials.

His progress in the "Brave Trials" quest now stood at 3/10, proving to be a relatively easy task.

The mall was filled with innumerable shelves and cash registers, ripe for a thorough search that would undoubtedly yield a wealth of loot. But rescuing others was the immediate priority, and Tang Bing couldn't afford any delays.

Only a few steps in, two more zombies charged at him.

Despite having drawn most of the zombies away, the building still harbored a considerable number of roamers.

Without a moment's hesitation, Tang Bing raised his gun and fired, taking them down silently. He then made a beeline for the staircase.

Climbing the stairs to the thirteenth floor was no small feat. The physical exertion was challenging enough, even without the constant threat of zombie encounters.

Tang Bing ascended with deliberate caution, reloading his pistol whenever the coast was clear to ensure his weapon was always ready.

The building was teeming with roaming zombies; he encountered about five or six on every floor. They were dressed as store employees and shoppers, and he suspected more were lurking unseen in the corners. To avoid drawing their attention, he moved with utmost stealth.

By the time he reached the third floor, he had completed the objective of eliminating ten male zombies.

A notification popped up: "You have passed the Brave One's trial and earned three skill points!"

He invested these skill points into Dexterity without a second thought, boosting his attribute to an impressive 45 points. In plain terms, he was superhuman.

Continuing his ascent, Tang Bing couldn't help but long for the convenience of an elevator. Unfortunately, with the citywide power outage, such luxuries were out of reach.

After overcoming numerous obstacles, he finally arrived at the floor where the mother and daughter were sheltering.

In the process, his relentless dispatching of wandering zombies had elevated him to Level 11.

He allocated the newly acquired skill points to Dexterity once again, unwavering in his belief that lightning-fast reflexes were essential for survival, a conviction reinforced by his encounter with the speed-type mutant zombie.

With 50 points in Dexterity, Tang Bing was considerably powerful—tenfold his original attribute. Of course, this was primarily because his baseline Dexterity was quite low.

Having scoped out the location from outside, Tang Bing quickly identified the office where the mother and daughter survivors were hiding. He swept through the area with his gun at the ready and soon reached the office door.

The curtains were drawn shut, obscuring any view inside, and the door was locked, with an eerie silence beyond it. Tang Bing circled the office cautiously, ensuring no zombies lurked nearby before gently knocking on the door.

There was no answer. The survivors were likely uncertain whether it was a human or a zombie outside. After all, even zombies sometimes knocked on doors by accident, and the survivors couldn't afford to take any risks.

"Tut tut tut!" Tang Bing checked his surroundings once more before knocking lightly again. Lowering his voice, he called out, "Is Teacher Lin there? I've been sent by Qin Mengli to escort you to safety!"

At last, there was a stir inside the office. A curtain was drawn back, and a girl around Tang Bing's age glanced out. Seeing no zombies, just Tang Bing, she tapped on the window.

Tang Bing gestured towards the office door, catching her attention. She nodded and whispered, "Just a moment! There's a lot of furniture. My mom and I need a little time to move it."

"Make it quick!" Tang Bing understood the women's lack of strength and their hunger made the task challenging. But he couldn't afford to wait outside indefinitely—if other zombies detected him, it would spell disaster.

The sound of furniture being shuffled around inside the office was surprisingly loud, putting Tang Bing on high alert. He quickly loaded his silenced pistol and kept his fire axe at the ready.

With his back to the office door, he kept a watchful eye on his surroundings. As he had anticipated, the noise, though not loud, was enough to carry across the empty floor and echo, potentially drawing the attention of zombies. While the thick walls of adjacent floors might muffle the sound, the zombies on the same level were already converging.

Dozens of zombies, drawn by the noise, converged on the scene from all directions, causing Tang Bing's expression to darken.

Simultaneously, the office door behind him swung open. The mother and daughter survivors caught sight of the approaching horde and called out to Tang Bing, "Quick, get inside!"

"Once we're in, it won't be easy to leave!" Tang Bing called back without looking. "Go back and hide, and whatever you do, don't open the door. I'll take care of these zombies first, then I'll come to you!"

"But that's too risky!" the young girl protested anxiously.

"I've survived worse," Tang Bing replied quietly. "Close the door and wait for me inside!"

Despite their desire to convince him otherwise, the mother and daughter, seeing the zombies closing in, shut the door in a panic.

As they did, Tang Bing's peripheral vision was in overdrive, scanning his surroundings. He then broke into a sprint, outpacing the encroaching zombies with astonishing speed.

The zombies, fixated on him, pursued him in a frenzied chase.

Once the door was secured, the mother and daughter cautiously parted the curtains to peek outside. But Tang Bing was already out of sight, his swift escape obscured by the shelves. All they could see were the retreating figures of the zombie pack.

Their concern for Tang Bing grew; if their rescuer fell, their own hopes would vanish. Weak from hunger and exhaustion, they had barely managed to move furniture earlier, let alone venture out to assist.

Moreover, they knew they'd be no help against the zombies; they'd likely only serve as a distraction.

While the survivors fretted, Tang Bing had already drawn the zombies a considerable distance away. As he ran, he occasionally paused to take aim and fire.

With agility at fifty points, the zombies stood no chance of catching him. Unless completely surrounded, Tang Bing was unafraid. He could even afford the luxury of taking his time to aim and fire several shots in succession before spinning around and dashing off again as the zombies nearly reached him.

However, the combination of movement and distance compromised his accuracy. Headshots were a challenge; more often than not, his bullets found other parts of the zombies or missed entirely.

If he couldn't land a headshot, the zombies wouldn't go down.

Luckily, Tang Bing's pistol still had a decent supply of bullets! With considerable effort, he finally managed to take out all the zombies chasing him, using a kite-flying technique!

His luck held out—he actually found a blueprint for cane sugar, which could be used to make sugar from sugarcane.

But for the moment, the blueprint was pretty much useless.

After all, he could easily find plenty of sugar in any supermarket.

Why bother with the hassle of growing sugarcane and processing it himself?

Yet, when the city's supplies were nearly exhausted, it might just come in handy.

Tang Bing reloaded his gun and hurried back to the office door.

Along the way, he took out some bread and mineral water—taking items from his virtual backpack in front of the survivors was not an option.

"Knock, knock!" He rapped on the office door again, then softly called out, "Can you open the door?"

Hearing his voice, the worried survivor and her daughter exchanged glances, their faces lighting up with relief.

The younger girl quickly pulled the door open, gesturing for Tang Bing to come in. Once he stepped into the cluttered office, she promptly locked the door behind him.

"Did Mengli send you?" The older, plumper woman looked distressed. Her voice was feeble as she asked, "You seem familiar. Have we met before?"

"Is that food?" The young girl's eyes fixed on the black plastic bag in Tang Bing's hand, and she licked her parched lips with a longing gaze.

Both mother and daughter bombarded him with questions, catching Tang Bing off guard. But he quickly recovered, setting the black plastic bag down gently and opening it. "Here's some bread and water to tide you over," he said.

The young girl let out a gasp of delight and eagerly grabbed the food from the bag. She handed half of the bread and water to the older woman and then frantically tore into the packaging, shoving the food into her mouth.

"Huihui, slow down," the older woman said with a look of concern, her voice barely above a whisper. She shakily opened her own package and bit into the bread with vigor. As she chewed the dry bread, large tears rolled down her cheeks.

Why the tears? Tang Bing was somewhat taken aback.

Noticing Tang Bing's puzzled look, the plump woman finished chewing her bread and swallowed it down, following it with a sip of mineral water. She then apologized to him with genuine remorse, "I'm sorry! My daughter and I have been starving for so long, we almost couldn't make it. This bread used to be junk food to us, something we'd never touch. But now, having even a bite feels like the greatest joy in life!"

"Uh-huh," the young girl mumbled, her head still down as she eagerly crammed more bread into her mouth, nodding vigorously.

"You've been hungry for too long; eating too much at once isn't good for your health!" Tang Bing cautioned them kindly.

"Thank you!" The woman, slightly nodding, turned to her daughter and said, "Huihui, did you hear that?"

"Oh!" Huihui looked up, her cheeks bulging with bread, resembling a squirrel hoarding acorns.

"By the way," the woman said, her complexion improving after a few bites, "thank you for risking your life to come here, and for the food. My name is Lin Leyan. I used to be a university professor."

"I'm aware, you were Qin Mengli's homeroom teacher in college!" Tang Bing acknowledged. "I was actually in the same year as Qin Mengli, just in a different department."

"That explains why you look familiar!" Lin Leyan exclaimed, "What's your name?"

"Tang Bing."

"Tang Bing?" Lin Leyan paused to reflect, "Ah, I remember now! You're the boy who had a crush on Mengli, always following her around, right? Are you two together?"

"No," Tang Bing's expression dimmed, and he quickly steered the conversation elsewhere, "Teacher Lin, you remember me? I don't recall ever meeting you!"

"I caught glimpses of you seeking out Mengli a few times, but we never spoke," Lin Leyan answered.

"Oh," Tang Bing nodded. He had indeed been as persistent as a plaster with Qin Mengli back in college, so it wasn't surprising that Teacher Lin was aware of it.