Chapter 15: Insight Tags (Please Collect and Vote)

Rustle rustle.

Back home, Zhang Su closed the door and shook the key in his hand with a smile: “Li Ge’s whole family lives together—they’ve got some supplies stashed away. If… if they’re not home, don’t waste it.”

It wasn’t that he hoped Li Ge’s whole family was dead—just that, given the current situation, it looked that way…

Zheng Xinyu stared at the key stained with blood, feeling heavy, then suddenly her expression changed and she pointed to her bedroom: “I forgot—I’ve got wet wipes, lots of them!”

“Wet wipes?” Zhang Su set the key on the shoe cabinet and looked at Zheng Xinyu. “Wet wipes are great—they can replace water for cleaning the body. Why didn’t I think of this before?”

As he spoke, he walked straight toward Zheng Xinyu’s bedroom.

“I was trying to challenge myself to stay in my room for a month without outside supplies, so I had to rely on wet wipes for personal hygiene. I bought a lot—including alcohol disinfectant wipes—and they’re all piled up in the corner, still unopened!”

Zheng Xinyu followed Zhang Su with light steps; the thought of finally being able to clean herself without using water lifted her spirits.

People can endure hardship, but they don’t seek it out—they keep searching for comfortable ways to escape it.

Soon, the two unpacked the delivery box. As Zheng Xinyu had said, there were twenty large packs of regular wet wipes, eighty wipes per pack, plus three hundred alcohol wipes!

“Hahaha…”

Zhang Su couldn’t help laughing and immediately opened a pack, pulling out a wipe to clean the blood from his chin and neck.

Zheng Xinyu was equally delighted. In this desperate time, she longed to be useful—and now she was. Joyfully, she pulled out a wipe and wiped away the blood Zhang Su had missed.

After wiping off the blood, Zhang Su carefully went over the area again with an alcohol wipe. Whether it helped or not, it was at least psychological comfort.

Finished, they’d used about ten wipes—sixteen hundred wipes total—enough to last a long time.

“I’m going to pee.”

Zhang Su walked toward the bathroom and tossed his soiled short-sleeve T-shirt into the trash. It was stained with zombie blood, and with no water to wash it, it was useless. He had plenty of such clothes at home—he wouldn’t go short, and he couldn’t take them anyway if he left.

The moment he stepped out of Zheng Xinyu’s sight and entered the bathroom, subtitles appeared in his mind.

【Collaborated with another person to kill the zombie outside the door within one day, Difficulty: C, Completed, Time: 01:33:25】

“So it only shows up when no one’s watching.”

Zhang Su had wondered before why the challenge hadn’t updated, but with so many things to handle, he hadn’t paid much attention.

“What if…”

He decided to test his theory and turned to leave the bathroom—but found himself stuck in place, locked in a strange space.

“Guess I overthought it.”

At that moment, the previous text faded, and a new line appeared.

【Reward: Insight Tag ×20】

“Insight Tag?”

Twenty was easy to understand—it meant he could use this special ability twenty times. But what did “Insight Tag” mean?

“Big Boss, explain this—how do I use the Insight Tag?”

Zhang Su strained mentally to ask, like a desperate student seeking wisdom—but the scene shifted, the text vanished, and only a single subtitle remained in his mind: 【Insight Tag 0/20】.

As always, no reply came. He also broke free from the time freeze and returned to normal.

“A bit dismissive… Insight Tag, hmm…”

While Zhang Su stood puzzled in the bathroom, his two employees huddled trembling inside Yileiwen Convenience Store.

In the pitch-black store, Wu Lue and a young woman crouched beneath the counter, not daring to breathe.

As Zhang Su had expected, Zhao Xue, who had taken over Wu Lue’s day shift, arrived early as always—but instead of her usual calm smile greeting the day, she now limped into the store, terrified, one shoe lost.

Wu Lue, dozing off, was jolted awake by the sudden commotion. He hadn’t expected that after just a short nap from exhaustion, the world had turned upside down…

Though weak, he wasn’t stupid. Seeing zombies wildly attacking and tearing at passersby on the street, he immediately lowered the roller shutter. This convenience store, which never closed even during the New Year, finally shut down.

“Sister Xue, how are you?”

Zhao Xue, barefoot, huddled in the corner, clutching her ankle and sobbing quietly, her eyes vacant. These past few hours felt like half a lifetime. The constant sounds of car crashes, heart-wrenching screams, and desperate cries for help never stopped battering her mind.

She looked up at Wu Lue’s shadowy outline and whispered weakly: “Is… is there internet?”

“No…”

Wu Lue answered, defeated.

“Wah… I should’ve just run home. I shouldn’t have come to the store. My parents… wah…”

Thinking of this, Zhao Xue began crying softly again.

“Thank goodness you didn’t do that—you’d have died on the way…”

Wu Lue sighed heavily. “When the network came back, I tried calling the police. Couldn’t get through. Things outside must be terrible.”

“Little Wu, what exactly are those flesh-eating monsters?”

Zhao Xue sniffled and asked quietly.

“What else? The zombies from TV shows. Damn, no wonder zombie-themed stuff’s been everywhere these past few years—it was all setup. When the virus actually broke out, people wouldn’t be completely clueless.”

Wu Lue’s wild speculation clearly hadn’t made anyone alert—even with all those zombie stories around.

Zhao Xue’s terrible mood was momentarily stunned by Wu Lue’s train of thought. Her sobs paused briefly as she gasped: “Could this… could this be a terrorist attack by another country?”

“I don’t know…” Wu Lue licked his lips. “Whatever the cause, right now we need to protect ourselves. Sister Xue, how’s your foot? Can you walk?”

Zhao Xue rubbed her swollen ankle. “It hurts the moment I touch it. Swollen badly.”

Her thick socks had protected her soles, but her ankle was badly sprained.

Wu Lue scratched his messy hair, frustrated: “If Brother Su were here, he’d know what to do—he’s great with joint injuries. Last time I had a stiff neck, he fixed it for me…”

“Brother Su…”

Hearing Wu Lue mention Zhang Su, Zhao Xue softly bit her lip. A tall figure with a constant smile flashed in her mind, and her eyes welled up.

“Yes! I remember—Brother Su keeps some bruise medicine in the warehouse. I’ll get it!”

Wu Lue suddenly said, without waiting for Zhao Xue’s reply. He crept slowly toward the storage room, clutching a flat frying pan to himself for comfort.

(End of Chapter)