Still hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? I'll just go on a killing spree and looting!

The bridge was covered with rubble and twisted steel bars, making it impossible for cars to pass.

Lin You stepped on the brakes and looked around, trying to find another way to go around.

Unfortunately, there were no roads around.

The road we came from didn't branch off in any other direction, and even the one we just came from might not lead to the tunnel.

Not wanting to waste precious time, Lin You jumped off the driveway. "Let's walk there."

The two got out of the car.

Lin You wrapped a small waist bag around her waist and put the emergency supplies kit that she had packed in the trunk earlier around her waist.

There are some emergency food and medicines inside, enough for one person to use for about a day.

Mu Xue picked up the shotgun and placed her hand on the SUV.

The SUV flashed and disappeared from Mu Xue's hands, clearly indicating that Mu Xue's abilities had improved very quickly.

Lin You couldn't help but think how right it was that she hadn't killed Mu Xue directly, but instead spared her.

Otherwise, in situations like this, you'd definitely be in a lot of trouble.

The two men walked around the collapsed bridge and waded across the dry riverbed beside it. The mud at the bottom of the river had cracked from the sun and crunched underfoot.

After crossing the river, there was a gentle slope covered with withered wild grass and brambles.

The sunlight shone from the side, casting long shadows of the two people.

Lin You walked ahead, her pace neither too fast nor too slow.

After walking a distance, she looked back in the direction she had come from, and found it quiet behind her with no one following her.

"What are you looking at?" Mu Xue asked.

Did Lin You tell Mu Xue that she was checking if the old Taoist priest was behind her?

Lin You always felt that the old Taoist priest had ulterior motives, but she couldn't figure out what he wanted.

Telling Mu Xue this bluntly would make this silly girl so worried that she couldn't sleep.

"It's nothing."

Lin You withdrew her gaze and continued walking forward.

This is a tunnel that goes through the mountain, with two lanes in both directions, and its length is recorded on the map as being over 500 meters.

The cement walls at the tunnel entrance were covered with dark green vines and moss, and there were several fresh claw marks on the edge of the opening.

Unlike the hooks of a dinosaur, these were finer and denser scratch marks, as if left by many small beasts scratching at the same time.

"Sister Lin, what are these marks...?" Mu Xue asked in a low voice.

"It should be a burrowing beast. It might be a mutated mole or bat." Lin You squatted down and measured the width of the claw marks with her fingers. "The distance between the claws is less than three centimeters. A single individual wouldn't be very large, but these marks usually indicate group activity. Dozens, or even hundreds. They hide in the tunnel during the day to avoid the light and come out to hunt at night. If we were surrounded by them in the middle of the tunnel, attacked from both sides, we wouldn't even have a way to retreat."

Mu Xue thought of a creature and subconsciously said, "A bat?"

Lin You looked up at the tunnel above.

The mountain at the top of the tunnel is not very thick, but the slope is steep. It would take at least two hours to climb up, and you might also encounter other strange beasts on the ground.

Mu Xue raised her shotgun. "Taking a detour will take an extra day. We'll have to fight our way through."

"It depends on what kind of species they are." Lin You stood up and launched the drone directly.

The drone disappeared into the tunnel, and soon Lin You saw the light on the other side on her phone; the drone was moving very fast.

They passed through the tunnel in less than a minute and were not attacked.

Was that Taoist priest lying to me?

Lin You hovered the drone for a while, and finding nothing unusual, she then flew it back.

Everything seemed perfectly safe.

Lin You frowned and thought about it, but she was still worried. After all, encountering danger in the tunnel was no joke.

The reason why someone can survive for five years in the apocalypse is mainly because they are cautious and daring.

Lin You took out a small bag from her tactical waist pack, and inside were several pieces of sulfur.

This is something Lin You prepared to use to repel snakes and insects when camping in the wild; she never expected to use it now.

Most cave-dwelling creatures are afraid of light and pungent odors, and sulfur can interfere with their sense of smell.

Lin You wrapped the sulfur fragments in a cloth, then picked up a stone and crushed them.

He handed the powder to Mu Xue and said, "Sprinkle it on your body and make sure it's evenly distributed."

Mu Xue wrinkled her nose and began applying sulfur powder to her hair, neck, and other areas.

Lin You quickly finished all of this, then broke off a dry branch from the roadside, cut off the twigs with a knife, found two spare pieces of clothing, and wrapped them together to make two simple torches.

He reached out to Mu Xue and said, "Give me some gasoline."

Mu Xue flipped her hand and a small can of gasoline appeared in her hand.

They poured gasoline on it and sprinkled some sulfur powder on top.

Lin You took out a lighter from her waist bag and lit it; the gasoline-soaked clothes instantly burst into flames.

Although not very bright, it was enough to illuminate a range of several meters in the dark tunnel.

A pungent smell filled the air.

Lin You took the lead and explained survival skills after the apocalypse to Mu Xue.

"Use torches to clear the way, and smear sulfur on the soles of your shoes and trousers. The cave-dwelling beasts are afraid of fire and irritating smoke. If the creatures in the tunnel are mutated moles, their eyesight has deteriorated significantly after the gray fog mutation, and they mainly rely on their sense of smell and vibration to hunt. Sulfur can mask our scent, and the smoke from the burning sulfur will disrupt their senses. Don't fire your guns; gunshots will be amplified tenfold in the tunnel, alerting all the beasts in the tunnel."

Lin You switched the torch to her left hand and drew her mantis knife with her right. "But if the creatures in the tunnel aren't moles—for example, echolocation-based mutant bats—they won't be afraid of sulfur or fire. If we hear a high-frequency scream after we go in, we should immediately extinguish the torch, crouch down, and not move. Mutant bats use sound to locate themselves, and they will mistake stationary objects for walls or rocks."

Mu Xue's face turned a little pale. She checked the shotgun ammunition again, subconsciously took out tear gas and flashbangs from her spatial storage, and then looked up at Lin You.

"Sister Lin, do you think this thing will work?"

Lin You glanced at it and said, "It's useful. Don't forget to throw it out if you encounter any danger."

"You said 'if.' What if it were something even worse?"

Lin You was already about to go in when she heard this and frowned. "What do you mean by a worse situation?"

Mu Xue hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Like spiders or something?"

Lin You remained silent for a moment, not wanting to pay attention to Mu Xue; the girl's words always made people nervous.

Lin You held the torch high and shone it deep into the tunnel.

The firelight reflected off the tunnel walls, making the scratch marks appear increasingly dense, and the outlines of several abandoned cars could be seen dozens of meters deep inside.

The car body was torn apart by something, and the seats were dragged out and torn to pieces, scattered all over the ground.

However, there was no obvious animal droppings or food scraps on the road surface near the tunnel entrance—indicating that they were not feeding in this section of the tunnel, but rather had built their nests deeper inside.

"The worst-case scenario is that there's a Mother deep inside the tunnel. If a cave-dwelling alien beast has a Mother, the entire swarm will build a nest around her. The Mother is usually larger, more aggressive, and won't leave the nest—she'll use pheromones to summon all the worker beasts to protect her. If we disturb the Mother in the middle of the tunnel, both ends will be blocked by worker beasts. In that case, you can pray we have enough Molotov cocktails."

Mu Xue looked up at the top of the tunnel.

Every few tens of meters along the tunnel wall is a ventilation shaft, sealed with iron railings.

The iron fence was badly rusted, and in an emergency, it was theoretically possible to cut through the fence with a bone dagger and climb into the ventilation shaft.

However, the ventilation shaft was so narrow that only one person could pass through at a time. If a strange beast caught up from behind, the person at the back would be dragged down alive.