The next day was another bright, sunny day. And it was Saturday.
Such a great Saturday should have been spent jogging and having a picnic in the forest park, going on dates and falling in love, or hanging out with friends shopping and watching movies.
Yet the remaining four hundred or so residents of the Youth Apartment had all gathered in the small square.
Compared to the gathering over two months ago, everyone was visibly more relaxed.
Zombies—that was just how it was. Once you got used to them, they weren’t scary anymore.
And if they weren’t scary, it just came down to whether you could beat them or not. Who lived and who died.
Especially this time—the city center was the hardest hit, while the suburbs had it much easier.
The New Tech District counted as near-suburb. Brother Dong’s place was in the outer suburbs.
People from Jixiang Jiayuan trickled over sporadically, just like before—their organization was much worse than the Youth Apartment’s.
Now it was all elderly folks, and even more so.
But seeing a sea of old people at a glance was pretty depressing. The Youth Apartment residents found they couldn’t even muster any anger.
The most they could do was share a bit of soup when they had meat, just to ease their consciences.
Li Jiangbing walked around with a bottle of water, offering it for people to smell: “It’s pure water. I distilled it.”
He held it out for Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan to sniff. Both leaned in and took a good whiff at the bottle’s mouth, then nodded approvingly: “No smell at all. It’s just water.”
Li Jiangbing corrected them: “Pure water.”
To be fair, before this he had only ever controlled water—using regular tap water. It was Jiang Cheng who suggested he distill pure water, something he’d never even thought of before.
But the moment he actually succeeded—the instant the “water” separated from everything else—he felt something in his mind click open.
Li Jiangbing knew his superpower had leveled up.
Sure enough, after distilling pure water a few times, his control over regular tap water had improved drastically in both strength and precision.
He could now form a water shield with a one-meter diameter in midair.
Too bad a toothbrush thrown at it would still punch right through.
Here he was, a fitness coach, and the superpower he’d awakened wasn’t even combat-class.
What a letdown.
Zhao Yi wanted to taste it.
Li Jiangbing, still possessing a shred of conscience, casually pulled the bottle back: “I’ll practice more and make something even purer for you later.”
He turned and went over to Song Jingshuo: “Take a sniff, just take a sniff.”
Song Jingshuo didn’t take it. He stared at the bottle of seemingly pristine water for a moment, then looked up: “What did you extract it from?”
Sharp as a tack. Li Jiangbing kept a straight face: “Just regular liquid.”
The two locked eyes for a moment.
Song Jingshuo and Li Jiangbing couldn’t have been more different—in appearance, education, profession, personality, and temperament. In peacetime, they’d almost certainly never have become friends.
But now, they knew each other as well as they knew their own guts.
Li Jiangbing wore an expression of utter righteousness, his gaze piercing.
Song Jingshuo cut straight to the truth: “Pee?”
Zhao Yi / Gao Yuxuan: “…!!!”
When Jiang Cheng came downstairs, she saw a bunch of guys chasing Li Jiangbing around and beating him up.
Gym rats don’t run, so Li Jiangbing was wheezing as he ran, still defending himself: “I already distilled it! It’s pure water! Do you even know what pure water is?! Did you go to college for nothing?!”
In the end, he got pinned to the ground and thoroughly trounced.
Everyone had become pros at these meetings by now. Many brought their own little stools; those without brought magazines to sit on cross-legged.
One elderly resident from Jixiang Jiayuan fanned himself and said, “This reminds me of watching outdoor movies back in my hometown as a kid…”
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan wheeled the property management’s whiteboard out to the small square and also commandeered their electric loudspeaker: “Ahem, testing, testing—okay, everyone find a spot to sit. Let’s begin.”
Mo Li spotted Jiang Cheng’s arrival, jumped down from a tree, and landed on her shoulder. Jiang Cheng reached back and scratched his little head.
The main speaker was Zhao Yi: “I’m guessing superpowers are what everyone cares about most right now. Yu Xuan and I studied them for a day and put together some findings. Of course, since our sample size is limited, this might not be entirely accurate—so use your own judgment, and feel free to add to it. We just hope it can be of some help to everyone.”
He started by saying, “A moment ago, I heard someone say they awakened a superpower last night. Anyone else? Raise your hand so I can see.”
Seven people in the crowd raised their hands, and one of them was actually an elderly gentleman from Jixiang Jiayuan.
Zhao Yi asked, “Uncle, may I ask—do you usually exercise?”
Someone from the Youth Apartment shouted out in reply: “Uncle fought zombies alongside us yesterday!”
The old man said proudly, “I can do eighty pull-ups in one go. How many can you do?”
Laughter rang out, accompanied by whistles and applause.
This was a textbook case of a “park-exercising grandpa.”
“I can’t compete with that. Thank you, Uncle,” Zhao Yi said. “Could the other six people please stand up so I can take a look?”
The other six rose one after another, two of whom were security guards from the property management. Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan scanned them, exchanged a glance, and nodded at each other.
“Alright, please sit down.”
“Seeing that your situations haven’t strayed beyond our predictions puts my mind at ease. It means our probability of being correct has gone up a bit more.”
Then came the main content.
Gao Yuxuan wrote on the whiteboard: What is my superpower?
Zhao Yi said, “Rather than ‘What is my superpower?’ what everyone should really be paying attention to first is ‘What kind of people—or which people—can have superpowers?’”
Gao Yuxuan wrote on the whiteboard again: What kind of people can have superpowers?
This was exactly what everyone cared about most. Why do you have a superpower and I don’t? Why does he have one and I don’t?
What’s the real reason—where do we differ?
“Based on our observations and summaries, superpowers are affected by many factors, but the basic prerequisite for having one is the same for everyone,” Zhao Yi said.
“That prerequisite is a physical foundation carried by the body.”
“Our hypothesis is that the zombie virus actually acted on everyone indiscriminately. All of us were infected with the zombie virus.”
“This virus transformed us. Some people failed the transformation—yes, yes, you’re right—those who failed became zombies.”
“As for the rest—those who didn’t become zombies—none of them are failures. It’s just that the degree of transformation, or the level of success, varies.”
“Those who succeeded the most manifest superpowers.”
“Those who didn’t succeed as much at least remained human. In fact, many people may have already experienced physical improvements that are just too subtle to notice.”
“Has anyone noticed that I’m not wearing glasses today? The glasses I’ve worn since middle school—I don’t need them anymore. My severe myopia has been repaired.”
“Anyone else experience the same?” he asked. “If so, raise your hand.”
Several voices called out “Yes!” from the crowd, and a few people raised their hands here and there.
Among them was an elderly person who said, “I noticed it yesterday—I can see clearly now without my reading glasses.”
For Zhao Yi, this was another piece of evidence: “See—it acts on everyone without discrimination. Regardless of gender, regardless of age.”
“But,” he said, “among so many people—men, women, young, old—everyone has a different constitution, so the effects vary.”
“Superpowers,” Zhao Yi concluded, “can only manifest in those who are physically strong and healthy.”
Before anyone could start discussing, he added: “And by ‘body’ here, we mean two parts: the torso and limbs count as one part, and the brain counts as the other.”
Gao Yuxuan drew a human silhouette on the whiteboard and used a red marker to circle the area below the neck, then circled the head separately.
Li Jiangbing was a bit confused: “What does that mean?”
Gao Yuxuan waved him over through gritted teeth: “Jiangbing, come here.”
Still feeling guilty about that bottle of water, Li Jiangbing obediently went over to serve as their human mannequin.
Zhao Yi said, “Everyone, look—Jiangbing is a classic example of a physically strong and healthy person, and here I’m talking about the torso and limbs.”
The crowd burst into laughter.
Zhao Yi continued: “Jiancheng is another one.”
Wu Jiancheng had been the building leader of Building 1 during the last zombie outbreak. He was a tall, sturdy man.
Zhao Yi: “And the property manager, Cao Jiacai—he came from a martial arts school background.”
Cao Jiacai looked around with a smug expression.
Zhao Yi: “And that uncle just now—he can do 80 pull-ups. A lot of people in our compound probably can’t match that.”
The old man comforted them: “I was in the military. You’re different—you’re all bookish kids.”
Zhao Yi: “And Sister Pan—yesterday, Yu Xuan arm-wrestled her and got completely destroyed.”
The crowd burst into laughter again.
Gao Yuxuan craned his neck and said, “You guys have no idea how strong Sister Pan is! Try it yourselves if you don’t believe me!”
That only made them laugh harder.
Sister Pan said, “How could you office workers compare to someone who does manual labor every day?”
Zhao Yi patted Li Jiangbing, who went back to his seat.
Zhao Yi said, “Everyone I just listed proves our first point—strength in the limbs and torso, meaning physical strength.”
“But,” he shifted gears, “apart from them, there are also people like Yu Xuan and me.”
He was even roasting himself now, and everyone was cracking up.
Zhao Yi usually came across as a quiet homebody, but when it came to his area of passion, he could hold his own with ease.
After all, he was a top student by background—just a homebody, not stupid.
And that was exactly what he was about to address next.
“Besides the two of us who don’t like exercise, there are also some female comrades.”
“Su Yu, Zhang Lesi, and Auntie Lin and Auntie Qian.”
Auntie Lin and Auntie Qian were the two wood-type superpower users from Jixiang Jiayuan.
“I asked around—Auntie Lin and Auntie Qian both enjoy square dancing and both like traveling. Though they’re older, they’re in much better shape than most people their age. Of course, they still can’t compare to the younger folks.”
“As for Su Yu and Lesi—they’re both healthy, but definitely not what you’d call strong. At best, they’re on the same level as Yu Xuan and me. Same for the aunties.”
“Among us here, Jiangbing could probably knock all of us out with one punch. So why do we get to have superpowers too?”
Zhao Yi began to unravel the mystery: “Everyone knows Lesi—she’s an intern doctor, a graduate student. As for Su Yu—may I ask your educational background?”
Su Yu answered, “I have a Master’s in Education.”
“And Auntie Lin and Auntie Qian?”
The replies came back—one was a university professor, the other a high school teacher, and a distinguished senior teacher at that.
“One last example—classmate Xiao Huang.” Zhao Yi called out to Xiao Huang. “Xiao Huang, tell us—which school are you from?”
Xiao Huang: “No. 14 Middle School. It’s a key junior high in S City. I’m in the advanced class, and my grades have always been in the top five of my grade.” The sharp kid had fully grasped what Zhao Yi was getting at and proactively said everything that needed to be said.
Zhao Yi pointed at the whiteboard with his pen: “Our conclusion is this—one of the fundamental prerequisites for acquiring a superpower is physical condition.”
“Among us, some are very strong and others aren’t as strong, but not a single one is frail or weak.”
“However, this physical condition doesn’t just refer to the strength of the torso and limbs—it’s a combined assessment of the body and the brain as a whole.”
“If your body is strong and healthy enough, you qualify for a superpower.”
“If you’re not that strong but you’ve reached a healthy baseline, then you get a bonus score—and that bonus is the degree of your brain’s development.”
“Xiao Huang is the most typical example among us. He hasn’t had his growth spurt yet, he’s thin—junior high kids are all this thin. But his brain is definitely top-notch.”
“So you see—he’s an underdeveloped junior high student, but his bonus score is high enough. He made the cut.”
“You don’t have to be strong, but you can’t be weak.”
“I don’t see this as a virus anymore. I see it as evolution.”
“You can be not strong enough, or not smart enough. But you can’t be both not strong and not smart.”
“In this evolution, the weak and the inferior don’t make it. Only the strong and the smart are selected.”
“This virus might be a filter for humanity.”
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