"We have to keep hunting. Otherwise, we will fall behind." Alex stated. None of them were sure what was going to happen tomorrow, so they needed to become as strong as possible.

"I know that madam. " Luo Zu gritted his teeth and replied with a tone of mockery. "What I am trying to say is… this is night time!!!" 

He then lowered his tone and added. "Beasts like that might be on the prowl." He even made an eye gesture signaling at Qin Hua.

Alex opened her mouth, about to respond to him, but Lu Chen responded first. "No one is forcing you to come. You can follow or stay back. It's totally up to you."

He didn't see any point in trying to explain these things over and over again.

If people still hadn't realized what was happening around them even now, then they probably wouldn't last in this world anyways.

"Mister Lu Chen, I am really not trying to be disrespectful here. I am only trying to help and offer my opinion. At times like these, taking into account everyone's perspective might be more useful than you think."

Luo Zu put on a dignified pose and then prepared to talk in length. He was sure that he had the ability to convince and win over these bunch of younglings.

However, before he could say anything a loud bark interrupted him and a pitch-black husky was staring directly at him. It looked more like a feral demon wolf than a dog this time around.

[Woof! Shut your trap and stop yapping!]

Luo Zu instantly closed his mouth shut tightly and looked down at his dagger, sweating profusely. He could try reasoning with humans, but what could he possibly say to this monstrosity???

He also didn't have the guts to stay back so he could only silently cry inside. It looked like they were going out to hunt in the night after all.

Everyone packed up their things, and they wore bulging backpacks of different shapes and sizes.

"Umm… Should we take turns and carry Su Yan?" Alex suggested as she as well walked over to stand next to Lu Chen.

Carrying an unconscious person around was going to be extremely cumbersome and not to mention dangerous, especially considering that they might have to face deadly threats at every corner.

But they also couldn't just leave him by himself.

"I think that might be our only option." Lu Chen rubbed his chin in deep thought staring at his friend. 

He then turned around to ask the newcomers. "Can you guys lift him? You all absorbed a few mana cores from the zombies earlier right? You should be strong enough?"

Ah…

Umm…

…

All of them hesitated and looked at each other, no one willing to open their mouth. Lu Chen sighed and further added. "I will personally protect anyone who does this."

His eyes scanned the people in front of him and clearly, no of them were still eager to accept the role. He also didn't want to shove it on someone forcefully as that might do more harm than good.

But while he was still mulling over this problem, Qin Hua quickly summoned out her shadow clone and her original body gripped Su Yan by his shirt, quickly tossing it on the back of her clone.

Though her size was much smaller compared to what she was before, there was no issue in her shadow clone being a mount to Su Yan.

Besides, as an added bonus, she got to continuously use the skill and work towards leveling it.

"Ah!" Lu Chen was shocked.

He looked at the ferocious dog again, his face breaking into a warm smile. 

At this point, there was no doubt that she was single-handedly carrying the whole team and on top of that, she also took care of all these miscellaneous things.

He sighed and squatted next to her, bumping his forehead with her head which was now only slightly bigger than his. "What am I going to do without you…"

Qin Hua snuck out of his grasp and quickly ran outside as she barked. She was already maxed out on her quota of embarrassment for the day! No more!

Acting as a horsie for someone? How shameful!

Woof! Woof!

Lu Chen chuckled and bent down to properly adjust Su Yan's position. He made sure that his friend was seated safely on the weird black projection. 

He did not know what it was. The weird thing was somehow tangible but also intangible at the same time. 

Its appearance was also extremely similar to Qin Hua so he had a few theories as to what it could possibly be. But at the end of the day, he trusted her judgment so he didn't think about it too much. 

The group then walked out with Qin Hua leading them at the front. They had hardly taken a few steps when she suddenly stopped.

"What? What? Zombies?" One of the two women panicked and asked.

Qin Hua shook her head. It seemed like none of them had heard it, but she had heard it! A small meowing sound at a distance!

She cast a sideways glance at Xu Meilin whose face was unnaturally sad and wilted like a flower. She then sighed. [Fine. Fine. I will go get that damned cat. I owe it one anyways.]

She barked and then quickly jumped into a nearby shadow which was not difficult to find as it was night time and everything was dark except for the light from a few street lamps.

And while everyone was still wondering where she had gone, she returned back with the same lightning speed. But this time she had a cat gripped softly in her mouth.

Meow! She dropped the tabby at Xu Meilin's feet not bothering to be gentle with it and then quickly turned around, pretending to not hear the muffled cries and joyous reunion.

The newly joined members were extremely puzzled, but Lu Chen and Alex had wide smiles on their faces. It turns out that the ferocious demon dog was a big softy on the inside!