“Why is it interesting? Because we’ve discovered that the factors influencing superpower attributes are not singular—they’re diverse.”
Gao Yuxuan listed them one by one on the whiteboard—
Occupation.
Background.
Hobbies and interests.
Mental state and inner desires.
Other.
But Zhao Yi said: “First of all, we need to exclude three anomalies—Jiang Cheng, Li Jiangbing, and Song Jingshuo. Or rather, we can just lump the three of them directly under ‘Other.’ The three of them are anomalous data that will interfere with my conclusions.”
The term “anomalous data” drew another round of laughter.
Jiang Cheng didn’t mind.
Li Jiangbing: “Huh?”
Song Jingshuo: “…”
“Sister Pan said it—Gao Yuxuan is an electrician, so he’s electricity-type,” Zhao Yi said. “I work with garbage, so I’m earth-type.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Sister Pan laughed too.
Zhao Yi admitted: “We now believe Sister Pan hit the nail on the head.”
“The first factor influencing your superpower attribute should be your occupation.”
“I’m in environmental engineering, so earth-type.”
“Yu Xuan is an electrical engineer, so electricity-type.”
“Master Guo is a real electrician, so electricity-type.”
“Zhang Lesi—a medical student—no question, she went down the healing branch within the mental-type.”
“Cui Haiyang—mechanical design and manufacturing major—so metal-type.”
“The second influencing factor is your background. Your superpower may not be related to what you do now, but it’s highly correlated with your background and with what you’ve been exposed to since birth.”
Sister Pan raised her hand directly: “Me—country girl, earth-type.”
Everyone laughed again.
Sister Pan’s spirits were clearly much better than yesterday. When people have things to do and keep busy, they can push aside their grief.
Zhao Yi said: “Rural environments give people much easier access to nature than cities. Farmers are tied to the land from birth. So Sister Pan, I actually think you’d be reasonable as either earth-type or wood-type.”
Sister Pan: “I’m no good at farming—my dad would never approve of me. He’s a hundred times better at it than I am. I just mess around with it. I’ll stick with earth, not wood.”
But Zhao Yi said: “Sister Pan, your situation actually fits what we mentioned as the third factor—hobbies and interests—and the fourth factor—inner desires.”
“You yourself aren’t that interested in farming; you’d rather come to the city to work and earn money, right?”
Sister Pan said bluntly: “Right. How much money can you make farming in a year? Working in the city, I get a monthly salary and can actually save up.”
Zhao Yi: “So farming is neither your personal interest nor something your inner desires lean toward. Between earth and wood, your superpower chose earth.”
“Sister Pan’s case is an example of a choice made under the combined influence of multiple factors.”
“It’s a bit like the college admissions adjustment process.”
Suddenly someone raised their hand.
It was a security guard from the Youth Apartment, surnamed Zhao. He had awakened his superpower this morning.
There was another security guard, surnamed Wang, who had as well.
Xiao Zhao said: “I’m also a farmer—earth-type too. But what about him—he’s also a farmer, so how come he got metal-type?”
It turned out that the other farmer-turned-security-guard, Xiao Wang, was metal-type.
These were newly awakened superpowers—wild samples that hadn’t been tallied yet.
Zhao Yi was about to interview Xiao Wang on the spot when Xiao Wang already gave his own answer: “Even though I’m from the countryside too, my great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my father all made iron pots. Our family craft has been passed down for generations. I’m the last generation. Hand-forged iron pots don’t sell anymore—everyone buys branded cookware. Our family couldn’t make a living, so I came to the city to work.”
It was the perfect answer.
Gao Yuxuan silently gave a thumbs-up.
Zhao Yi moved on to the next item: “Hobbies and interests.”
Xiao Huang suddenly raised his hand.
Zhao Yi: “Xiao Huang, go ahead.”
Xiao Huang: “My junior, Wu Shuchen—he’s metal-type. He’s the one who made my iron shoulder armor. His hobby is handcrafts. He said his dad bought him several sets of tools—he can even do welding.”
Another perfect sample.
Gao Yuxuan gave another thumbs-up.
Zhao Yi continued with examples: “Now I want to bring up Auntie Lin and Auntie Qian.”
Everyone looked over.
The two aunties said: “I’m really good at growing flowers, and she’s really good at growing vegetables. During the last zombie outbreak, I switched to growing vegetables too—she gave me the seedlings.”
“Back when the zombies were around, everyone was eating plain white rice and dry steamed buns at home, but we had vegetables to eat. Vegetables were really precious back then.”
“Sigh, there were so many of us who grew flowers and vegetables together—men and women alike—but they’re all gone now…”
The two of them were wood-type. But there was also a wood-type at the Youth Apartment.
Many people from the Youth Apartment couldn’t help but turn their heads to look at Song Jingshuo.
Song Jingshuo was wood-type—it clashed so completely with his vibe that it surprised a lot of people.
Clearly including himself. Look, his face was dark as thunder right now.
“Stop staring,” Gao Yuxuan said, grinning. “Like I said, Jingshuo is anomalous data.”
“We interviewed him—he has zero interest in growing flowers or vegetables.”
Growing flowers was one thing—at least you could call that refined.
But “growing vegetables” paired with Song Jingshuo—no matter how you thought about it, it felt wrong. And yet everyone knew that from now on, Song Jingshuo might very well have to grow vegetables.
Quite a few people were shaking with laughter.
Song Jingshuo had once prided himself on his expression management and emotional self-control. Now, his eyes were practically rolling to the heavens.
His wood-type superpower was clearly heading straight for vegetable farming—all his mystique shattered.
But Zhao Yi felt that this version of Song Jingshuo—the one who could genuinely show his true feelings without pretense—was a lot more likable.
Good for him.
People shouldn’t put on airs all the time—it tends to invite divine retribution.
Zhao Yi: “Alright—occupation, background, and hobbies and interests look like three separate things, but they’re really one and the same.”
“Your job, your background, your hobbies and interests—all of them cause you to be in prolonged contact with a certain element in your daily life.”
“Um, Zhang Lesi—you, uh… let’s temporarily treat ‘patients’ as a kind of element here, okay?”
“Your prolonged contact with a certain element—whether you like it or not—creates an affinity between you and that element.”
“Your cells and your genes react most strongly to that element, with the highest activity.”
“So when the zombie virus acts on you and starts screening and categorizing you, it chooses the most active option.”
Everyone seemed to be pondering this, and after a moment’s thought, they all nodded.
Zhao Yi pointed at the fourth item—”Mental state and inner desires”—and said: “Let’s skip this one for now and talk about ‘Other’ first, because that’s easier to explain.”
“Under ‘Other,’ the most common type is fire.”
Wu Jiancheng perked up and explained to everyone: “I’m in sales—I don’t really have any hobbies.”
As for the other fire-type, Cao Jiacai—though he was also from a farming background—had been sent to a martial arts school at age 6 and lived on campus training year-round. So earth and wood didn’t have a chance with him. He didn’t have any particular hobbies either.
He said: “I just like smoking and drinking.”
For people like them—physically strong with no particular preferences—they became fire-type.
Zhao Yi said: “Actually, we think that within each of us, the elements Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth all run in parallel. All these factors—occupation, background, hobbies and interests—serve to activate a certain element. When you don’t have a particularly strong specific activating factor, we believe it’s random activation.”
“If that’s the case, then Jiangbing and Jingshuo could both be grouped into ‘Other.’”
Li Jiangbing said loudly: “That’s not scientific! That’s not scientific! If it’s random, why didn’t I get activated as fire-type?”
Li Jiangbing was convinced that if he were also fire-type, there’d be no way Cao Jiacai would be the one ruling the roost.
Damn it all.
Gao Yuxuan explained to him: “If you could lock in fire-type, then it wouldn’t be called random.”
Li Jiangbing snorted in frustration.
But Sister Pan interjected: “No, that’s not right—how is Jingshuo’s random? I’ve said it before—he’s in the money business, so he’s wood-type. Isn’t that an occupation?”
This wasn’t the first time Sister Pan had said this.
At first, no one paid much attention and it just passed.
But now that Sister Pan had brought it up again, everyone was paying attention.
Song Jingshuo said: “Sister Pan, what exactly do you mean by that? I can’t quite wrap my head around it.”
“Aren’t you in the money business? Finance, right?”
“Yes, I work in finance.”
“I don’t understand finance and all that,” Sister Pan said. “But my grandfather used to say that in this world, there are only two things that are real and solid—one is making things, and the other is growing things.”
“My grandfather said, the soil doesn’t have grain in it to begin with—we plant the seeds, the crops grow, and then people have food.”
“We sell the grain, and then we have money.”
“Things grow and flourish, and that’s what generates money.”
“My grandfather said, workers make things, farmers grow things—aside from these two, everything else is hollow.”
Everyone: Whoa.
This grandpa had gone straight from farmer to philosopher.
A farmer’s simple worldview, shattering all false prosperity and cutting straight to the essence.
Song Jingshuo’s heart… was finally dead.
“Finally, let’s talk about the last item—this one… um… it’s a bit intangible, so we left it for last.” Zhao Yi pointed at “Mental state and inner desires,” choosing his words carefully.
“As we said, this is the result of multiple factors working together. So your inner desires and mental longings absolutely affect your affinity with a certain element.”
“Xiao Wang—your family has homestead land and cultivated land too, right? See, I guessed right. Farmers all have land, even if you have a craft.”
“But deep down, Xiao Wang, you see yourself as a craftsman who makes iron pots, not a farmer who tills the land. So what you ended up activating was metal-type.”
Zhao Yi: “And Zhang Lesi.”
Zhang Lesi protested: “I just want to change careers! Really!”
Advising someone to study medicine invites divine retribution.
Gao Yuxuan laughed: “Don’t bother struggling—you want to heal the world.”
Zhao Yi said: “You say that now, but why did you choose medicine in the first place? Everyone knows how many years it takes and how hard it is—yet you still picked this major. You must have had an original calling. Right, Lesi?”
Zhang Lesi, embarrassed and annoyed: “Can’t I just regret it?!”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Zhao Yi swept his gaze over a few people in the crowd and said: “Alright, that concludes our summary. Next is Q&A and discussion time. Any questions?”
Regarding this last item—”Mental state and inner desires”—Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan had steered clear of the real typical samples. They used Xiao Wang and Zhang Lesi as examples, brushing past the issue vaguely.
Because last night, they’d stayed together again and analyzed things deep into the night.
“Old Dong—betraying trust, fleeing the scene, and making off with supplies to boot. It’s only natural he’s wind-type!”
The wind-type’s manifested ability was speed.
It fit Dong Guangchao’s character perfectly.
“Xiao Huang, ah… sigh.”
“His dad died the very first day. Sigh. A widow and orphan surviving together, sigh.”
From being the “orphan” in a widow-and-orphan household to becoming the “man of the house” who held the family together—the boy had been forced to grow up at lightning speed in an incredibly short time.
He mingled among the adults, having to listen, understand, accept, and respond in relatively appropriate ways.
At every moment, he was reading the room—self-taught, always on edge mentally.
And so he awakened “danger perception.”
The influence of intense inner desires on the superpowers of Dong Guangchao and Huang Xuetao was far too obvious and typical.
Obvious at a single glance.
But under this theory, one very delicate case emerged.
It was Zhou Wang of Jixiang Jiayuan—respected, relied upon, and even treated with courtesy and addressed respectfully as “Brother Zhou” at the Youth Apartment.
It really made one think.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan downed half a case of sodas, bottle for bottle.
They stared at each other: “How are we going to present this tomorrow?”
If they really laid it out, it would mean publicly exposing Dong Guangchao’s shame.
Poking at Xiao Huang’s wound in front of everyone.
And they had no way to explain Zhou Wang at all.
Too awkward.
Homebodies might be homebodies, but they weren’t stupid. They just disliked social niceties—they weren’t ignorant of them.
In the end, Gao Yuxuan said: “Keep it brief, keep it brief.”
Use Zhang Lesi as a smokescreen and skip over it quickly.
Let everyone figure it out for themselves.
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