Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

Having passed through the circular corridor, Malin slowed his pace in front of the door at the end. He and the leader of the Punishers faced each other with their guns raised, watching the adjacent passages. After confirming with the purple flashlight that there was nothing abnormal, Malin and the leader turned around, pointing their guns down the corridor behind them to ensure no creatures lurked there. Then, Malin left the World Tree Sapling Fio and Blood Roar behind to establish a support point—so when they returned after grabbing the items, they wouldn’t need to worry about wandering zombies appearing here.

Since the circular corridor ahead was closed, Malin could only lead his people through the corridor to the Central District.

The circular corridor seemed to be the employee passage used for supermarket restocking. At the end of the passage, they found a closed door.

Malin sent the Sapling Lorrin under the crack of the door to slip in and confirm there were no zombies or anything else nearby. Malin then took out Melo’s battering hammer and, with the help of the Silent Barrier, broke open the door with one strike.

Because he controlled his strength well, the fragments did not scatter far. Malin put Melo down, who turned into a hound and went ahead.

"What’s this, something edible?" A half-human picked up a bag from the shelf and took a look, "Completely illegible writing."

"It’s not food, those are packs of 100 gaskets, used for insulating when repairing some machinery," Jason explained, while swiftly flying forward, "I’ve scanned the item already."

Malin followed him and soon saw the energy core covered in intricate patterns, something completely foreign to him. Regardless, now that they had found it, Malin picked up several and threw them straight into his Semi-Plane.

"If we had the time, I’d really like to clean out this place," Malin lamented his actions, feeling like he had entered a treasure mountain but left empty-handed.

"But we don’t have time, Malin," Jason said while turning towards the other side of the hall. His directional pulse scan helped them locate the zombies. It seemed they had heard something and were moving towards them but couldn’t lock onto a scent. The scent-masking agent also effectively blocked their senses to some extent, so they were moving very slowly.

Malin gestured towards the doorway. Lulu was the first to dive into the corridor, followed by two half-humans. As the Punishers of the Church of Justice were retreating, an accident occurred—a shell landed on the top of the hall, tearing off a large piece of the ceiling and letting sunlight flood into the entire hall.