Courtyard House: I fish in the heavens, a professional bird abuser.

The second large-scale looting operation began on the third day after the seedlings sprouted.

The target was a town further and larger than Pine Valley—a town that, according to old Tom, used to be a tourist town with gas stations, motels, and even a small clinic.

It is about 35 kilometers from the camp.

It takes more than six hours to walk there.

But He Yuanchao did not intend to walk.

During their last raid on Pine Valley, they stole a black Chevrolet pickup truck from a parking lot. The truck had been parked in an open area outside the camp as temporary storage.

"I'll drive there. It'll take less than two hours round trip," He Yuanchao said.

As for the personnel, he chose three people to accompany him—Alice, former policeman Jack, and hunter Old Tom.

Jill and Payton stayed behind.

Before setting off, He Yuanchao pulled Claire aside and spoke to her alone for a few minutes—although Claire's convoy had not yet joined (that's a later plot point), someone needed to keep an eye on the manpower arrangements in the camp.

He Yuanchao drove himself.

The pickup truck bounced violently on the mountain road, and the suspension system emitted a series of teeth-grinding creaks.

His driving skills are undeniable—in the world of "Bright Sword," he drove tanks, armored vehicles, and even those three-wheeled motorcycles captured from the Japanese. A civilian pickup truck is like driving a toy to him.

Alice sat in the passenger seat, clutching the Beretta in her hand, her eyes fixed on the rapidly receding gray landscape outside the car window.

Jack and Old Tom were in the back seat, each holding a gun and keeping watch on both sides.

The trees on both sides of the mountain road have begun to turn yellow—autumn has arrived.

Occasionally, one or two overturned vehicles and scattered debris can be seen on the abandoned highway, but there are very few zombies.

This area is indeed far enough away from Raccoon City.

Approximately forty minutes later.

The town came into view.

He Yuanchao parked the car at an intersection on the outskirts of the town and first used the system radar to perform a full scan.

There are many more red dots than in Songgu Town.

There are about a hundred of them, scattered in various corners of the town.

"The zombie density is moderate to high," He Yuanchao said. "Unlike last time, we can't force our way in. We have to use 'silent looting'."

"What does 'silent looting' mean?" Jack asked.

"No shooting. No sound. Don't alert any zombies. Go in, grab what you need, and leave. Keep quiet the whole time."

Old Tom nodded. "Just like hunting."

"almost."

He Yuanchao mentally reviewed the distribution of zombies marked by the system's radar and planned out several "safe corridors"—routes with the lowest zombie density and the most obstructed view.

"We'll split up. Alice and I will go to the left side of the main street, while Jack and Old Tom will go to the right. Our targets are the warehouses at the gas station, clinic, and motel. Take whatever else we can, but quiet is the first principle."

"Never fire a shot under any circumstances. Go around zombies. If you can't get around them—" He Yuanchao patted the cold iron dagger at his waist.

"Use this. One cut is all it takes. No more fuss."

The four people got off the bus.

The pickup truck stopped at the corner of an alley, a secluded spot where it wouldn't be easily spotted even if zombies passed by.

He Yuanchao and Alice crept in along the left side of the wall of the main street.

This street was much wider than the one in Songgu Town, with two- or three-story shops and residences on both sides. Most of the doors and windows were closed, indicating that the residents had evacuated at some point—but the evacuation was not thorough, as suitcases and abandoned personal belongings were scattered along the road.

He Yuanchao's steps were extremely light.

He was wearing soft-soled tactical boots that he had found in Songgu Town, which made almost no sound when he stepped on the asphalt road.

Alice was the same—her body, enhanced by the T-virus, made her movements eerily light, so much so that even the rustling of her clothes when she walked was negligible.

The two people walked through the abandoned streets like two silent shadows.

The first target – a gas station.

It's located at a corner in the middle of the main street. Two gas pumps are still standing, but they've clearly stopped working. The convenience store's glass door is half shattered, and it's dark inside.

He Yuanchao scanned the interior of the convenience store with the system's radar—there were two red dots inside.

Two zombies.

Wandering around inside.

He Yuanchao did not go in.

He went around to the back of the gas station.

There is a storage room there.

The storage room door was made of sheet metal and locked. He Yuanchao took out a wire from his pocket—a standard lock-picking tool—and poked it a few times in the keyhole.

"Click".

The lock is open.

Push the door open and go inside.

The smell inside wasn't pleasant—the storage room, sealed off for who knows how many days, reeked of decay. But the items on the shelves were still there.

Two barrels of diesel fuel.

Each barrel contains twenty liters.

He Yuanchao's eyes lit up.

Diesel fuel is a hard currency in the apocalypse—it's needed for generators, vehicles, and even for starting fires for heating.

He carried the two barrels of diesel fuel to the doorway, intending to load them onto the truck on the return trip.

Besides diesel fuel, there were some car repair tools, a few boxes of engine oil, and an unopened box of emergency food in the corner—compressed biscuits and bottled water.

Take them all.

The second target – the clinic.

On a side street at the eastern end of the main street, He Yuanchao and Alice cautiously made their way there. They passed several zombies along the way—the kind that stood motionless on the street corner in "standby mode," and wouldn't be activated unless they made a sound.

The clinic is a white two-story building.

A faded sign hangs at the entrance.

He Yuanchao tested the door.

Locked.

He didn't want to break down the door—it would be too loud.

Alice walked to a nearby window and used the tip of her saber to pry open the latch. The window opened silently.

Two people climbed in through the window.

The first floor of the clinic houses the waiting room and treatment rooms.

The medicine cabinet still had a considerable amount of stock—antibiotics, painkillers, fever reducers, adhesive bandages, bandages, disinfectant alcohol, and iodine.

As He Yuanchao stuffed things into his backpack, he mentally ticked a box – these medicines were lifesavers for the camp.

There was a small freezer in the corner of the examination room—and it was still running.

He Yuanchao opened the freezer door.

Inside were several boxes of injectable medications that needed to be refrigerated—insulin, adrenaline, and some other items that He Yuanchao couldn't name but which were labeled as "high-value medical supplies" by the system.

Pack everything up.

The second floor houses the doctor's office and a small operating room.

The instruments in the operating room caught He Yuanchao's eye—scalpels, hemostatic forceps, sutures, and operating lights.

These items are of immeasurable value in the camp.

In case someone is seriously injured and needs surgery—in the past, we could only leave it to fate, but now at least we have the tools.

He Yuanchao disassembled all the equipment that could be taken apart and put it into his backpack.

The third target—the motel's warehouse.

The harvest is greatest here.

The warehouse was in the hotel's backyard, locked with iron chains. He Yuanchao used a dagger to pry open the lock—the sharpness of the cold iron dagger made ordinary iron chains as fragile as noodles.

The warehouse was filled with more than a dozen boxes of supplies—boxes of canned food, blankets, pillows, sheets, and even a small heater.

All loaded onto the truck.

The biggest discovery was in the basement of the town government building.

A perfectly intact diesel generator.

Its power is twice that of the one He Yuanchao moved back from Songgu Town.

Old Tom and Jack were responsible for carrying the generator up from the basement. It took them a lot of effort—the thing weighed over two hundred kilograms.

While He Yuanchao was helping out, he secretly added a few key parts from the system space and installed them—two parts of the original generator had rusted due to prolonged inactivity, and it wouldn't ignite at all if they weren't replaced.

The search operation lasted approximately two hours.

The four of them gathered everything they could carry next to the pickup truck.

The supplies were piled up into a small mountain.

He Yuanchao glanced at the truck bed—if all these things were stuffed in, the truck bed would have to be piled up to the top of the cab.

"There's too much stuff," Alice said. "This car can't hold it all."

He Yuanchao walked to the parking lot of the motel.

He scanned the area with the system's radar—in the corner, there was a white Ford van that looked fairly intact.

I tried the car door.

It's open.

The key is not in the ignition port.

He Yuanchao squatted down, pulled open the plastic cover under the steering wheel, and skillfully connected two wires.

"Buzz—"

The engine is working.

Two cars are enough.

He had Jack drive the van, while he drove the pickup truck.

After the two vehicles were loaded with supplies, they drove back along the same route they had come from.

Alice sat in the passenger seat of the pickup truck.

The setting sun slanted in from behind the mountains, turning the abandoned road into a warm orange hue.

The distant mountain ridges revealed a deep blue outline in the setting sun.

Desolate, magnificent, with a desolate feeling unique to the end times.

He Yuanchao held the steering wheel with one hand and rested his other hand on the car door.

The wind blew in through the half-open car window, making his hair sway in waves.

Alice turned her head and glanced at him.

The orange light shone on his profile, adding a touch of warmth to his jawline, which usually looked cold and hard.

She didn't say anything.

He Yuanchao remained silent.

The two cars were driving side by side on an empty highway.

Behind them is an abandoned town that is being forgotten.

Ahead lies the home where seventy people are waiting.