However they’d died, the fact was that those two zombies were dead, and no other zombies had wandered in. Guo Jun and Brother Dong figured they should try to close the warehouse door.
The two of them climbed down together.
They crept over quietly, but a zombie suddenly flashed by outside. They quickly ducked back to hide.
Once the zombie had passed, they dared to come out again and continued creeping forward. They put their hands on the door and pushed together.
The warehouse door was wide and tall—big enough for a forklift to pass through.
It made a lot of noise when opening and closing.
They tried to lift it slightly as they slowly closed it, to keep it from scraping against the floor or making too much noise from the hinges.
Just then, wisps of cold air from the shopping area drifted over.
Even though it was late August, the autumn heat was still strong. Yesterday’s outdoor temperature had been 32 degrees, and the building was still blasting air conditioning like it was summer.
The warehouse, though ventilated, had no AC—it was stuffy and hot.
Brother Dong suddenly felt a chill run through him, and before he could control it, a burst of air rushed out of his nose: “Ah—choo!”
He let out a clear, resounding sneeze! The sound even echoed through the warehouse!
Guo Jun turned on his heel and ran without a second’s hesitation!
A single moment of hesitation would be irresponsible to his own life!
Brother Dong sneezed with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, a zombie’s face was right in front of him! An old lady, face covered in wrinkles!
Brother Dong let out a terrified yelp, fell backward on his ass, scrambled to his feet, and fled in a panic.
Several zombies charged in—and worse, the first two were second-generation zombies.
That bastard Guo Jun had already disappeared somewhere. Absolutely not someone to share hardship with!
At this moment, Brother Dong completely forgot that he himself had been the bastard who’d run off with the supplies and abandoned his colleagues. All that ran through his head was “Bastard bastard bastard I don’t wanna die ahhhhhhhhhhh.”
But when he turned his head, the zombies were right behind him, those gray-green hands about to grab his shoulders!
If those claws scratched him and left bloody marks, he was done for.
In that split second between life and death, what flashed through Brother Dong’s mind was the cold air from the doorway hitting his front while the hot air blasted his back—two streams of air with a huge temperature difference colliding, merging, seeping, and intertwining.
Why he thought of that, he didn’t know or understand, but something that had been pricking at his brain since yesterday suddenly burst open!
In that life-or-death moment, he turned his head and saw the zombie’s claws already at the tip of his nose.
After that glance, he turned back and, with a flick of his mind, split the air in front of him. The air cracked and swirled, forming currents that pushed him from behind.
Brother Dong suddenly felt his body grow light, the floor losing all friction. A sensation of being propelled surged through him.
It was the air currents pushing him.
Brother Dong shot forward like a rocket!
Another wind-element user.
Guo Jun, as it turned out, was hiding on the bottom shelf of a nearby rack. In that short amount of time, there was no way he could have climbed to a higher spot.
He was gripping a crowbar in his hand, knees slightly bent.
Because the bottom shelf only came up to a person’s neck, he had to crouch slightly to fit. His head was pressed against the underside of the shelf above.
He peered out from behind the goods, showing only the upper half of his face.
He saw Brother Dong fleeing in terror, zombies chasing after him. Then, somehow, it looked like a motor had suddenly started up in Brother Dong’s backside and shot him forward?
Guo Jun: “…??”
Guo Jun stared for two seconds, then looked away—and met a pair of pitch-black eyes!
Standing right in front of the shelf, staring back at him through the stacked merchandise.
Guo Jun handled it better than Brother Dong—he didn’t scream. Mostly because he was already crouched with his head against the upper shelf. His body tensed to jump up, but the shelf above stopped him cold.
That instinctive fear response was interrupted.
And a good thing, too!
Guo Jun didn’t think twice—he thrust the crowbar in his hand straight forward, plunging it into the zombie’s eye socket.
A shallow stab like this wouldn’t be enough to kill a zombie. You had to go deeper, straight into the brain, and smash it to pieces.
But just then, Guo Jun’s will to survive was so strong that a spark seemed to pop in his brain. Electricity surged from his palm, snaking like glowing serpents along the iron crowbar and into the zombie’s eye socket, instinctively seeking out the zombie’s brain.
The zombie let out a howl.
Guo Jun had never heard a zombie make that kind of sound before—it almost sounded… pained?
But the howl clearly attracted the other zombies that had lost track of Brother Dong. They turned and headed this way.
Guo Jun took one look and thought, Oh crap, he couldn’t just stay here and wait to be swarmed. He shoved aside the large bags of merchandise in front of him, stepped over the goods and the zombie corpse, and scrambled out.
When he opened his palm, electricity flickered—white, then pale blue—snaking like little serpents across his palm and arm.
And the iron crowbar could conduct it!
He still didn’t fully understand what was happening, but he could feel his body brimming with strange energy in this moment of danger.
Even so, Guo Jun couldn’t take on several zombies at once by himself. He took off running too, yelling as he fled: “I’ll curse your ancestors, Dong Guangchao—get your ass out here and save me ahhhhhhh—”
Brother Dong’s state of mind was pretty similar to Guo Jun’s at this point—he still hadn’t figured out what was going on, but he could feel the power of his new ability.
Realizing the zombies couldn’t catch him, he calmed down considerably.
Hearing Guo Jun’s desperate shouts, he grabbed a crowbar too, split the air with his power, and ran toward him.
Guo Jun felt a gust of wind whip past him, and the zombies behind him all fell over.
Brother Dong slowed down and yelled back: “You finish them off—I can’t control it very well—”
Unlike Zhou Wang, who’d had time to adjust, adapt, and even improve, Brother Dong—though fast—still couldn’t control the airflow well. He’d tried to swing his crowbar while running, but the air currents threw off his aim and he missed, only knocking the zombie down instead of killing it.
Guo Jun ran a few steps to the nearest zombie and stabbed down with his crowbar.
The zombie moved just then, and the crowbar hit its temple. Blue-white electricity enveloped its head, frying its brain in seconds.
Zombie, dead.
Another zombie got up—it looked like a second-generation one.
Guo Jun had killed two in a row and his confidence soared. He gripped his crowbar, ready to take on this second-gen zombie.
The second-gen zombie leaped and lunged at Guo Jun. Brother Dong came whipping by like the wind again and knocked the zombie out of the air with his crowbar, then kept running.
Brother Dong had already figured out that running continuously was easier to control than stopping and starting. Not only did it save the initial startup time for the airflow, but it also kept the currents strong and getting smoother.
So he preferred to keep circling the shelves rather than stop.
“Kill it, kill it!” he yelled.
Guo Jun was pumped. He charged over and stabbed the crowbar into the zombie’s ear. Electricity crackled and sizzled right through the ear canal.
All these zombies let out howls when their brains were attacked—clearly, they could feel pain.
It died in seconds. This was way less tiring than bashing with brute force, and way more efficient too.
All the zombies were dead. Brother Dong finally stopped too, standing next to Guo Jun. They both stood with their hands on their hips, staring at each other, eyes wide.
Brother Dong asked: “What was that?”
Guo Jun raised his hand. Blue-white light flickered and wreathed his palm.
Guo Jun said with certainty: “Electricity!”
He asked: “What’s up with you? Got lightning legs now?”
Brother Dong held his crowbar with both hands and made a “pushing” motion: “Wind from behind pushes me along!”
They fell silent again, staring at each other.
“What’s going on?”
“How should I know.”
Noises came from outside, and the two of them tensed up. Brother Dong zipped over to scout in a flash.
Guo Jun couldn’t help but marvel—that’s really convenient.
Outside, zombies were surging toward the checkout counters, and soon the sounds of battle and clashing weapons could be heard.
It was Jiang Cheng and her team fighting their way in.
“She came. She actually came.” Even though Guo Jun had gained superpowers and was already much stronger than before, his eyes still blurred with emotion.
They now had abilities, but no armor.
Watching the fighters outside—quite a few of them, all wearing protective gear—the two men stood inside the warehouse doorway, peering out through the half-open gap.
Brother Dong had been hiding out in a rural courtyard on the outskirts of town. There were few people and few zombies there. Even before the government called on the masses to mobilize, there weren’t many zombies left nearby.
This was the first time Brother Dong had ever seen a large-scale battle between humans and zombies with his own eyes.
Teams of three, teams of four—some even had five. And why were there a few old folks mixed in?
Hey, those old folks were pretty impressive!
Whoa, they even coordinated? That was some solid teamwork. Someone lured, someone defended, someone attacked. Clean and efficient—take down a zombie in no time!
Brother Dong considered himself a cautious, selfish person, yet somehow, watching this, his blood started to heat up.
Humans really are products of their environment, he thought.
Wait—what was that?
Brother Dong quickly nudged Guo Jun: “Look!”
Two U-shaped forks pinned a zombie in place. A young man stepped forward, spread his hands, and aimed at the zombie’s eyes from a distance, beginning to channel his power.
Thin white threads of electricity sizzled, trying to penetrate the air. But the distance was too great—the young man had to stretch his hands closer and closer until he finally found the range where it worked.
About 15 to 20 centimeters or so. At that distance, the white electricity pierced through the air and struck into the zombie’s eye sockets. The zombie howled, and after a while, finally died.
The young man beamed: “It worked!”
Brother Dong and Guo Jun stood there with their mouths hanging open, staring.
What they saw was unexpected.
First of all, it wasn’t just Guo Jun who had this kind of ability. Maybe it wasn’t just this young man either.
Then Brother Dong elbowed Guo Jun and asked, “Why’s he doing it like that? Why not do it like you?”
He mimicked Guo Jun’s stabbing motion with his crowbar.
Guo Jun couldn’t understand it either.
Iron conducts electricity—just stick the rod in, done.
What was all this? The guy was sweating with effort, his forehead glistening under the supermarket lights.
Little did Guo Jun know—Gao Yuxuan had been done in by his own education.
Gao Yuxuan loved watching foreign movies. He’d seen countless films, and in all those sci-fi movies, no matter whether it was metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, or lightning, everyone used their powers from a distance.
Full cinematic impact. Maximum special effects.
So much so that Gao Yuxuan’s subconscious firmly believed: superpowers must be used from a distance.
Guo Jun watched them capture another zombie to test it out.
He couldn’t take it anymore and stepped out: “Hey! Hey!”
Gao Yuxuan was in the middle of discharging electricity from both hands when Guo Jun suddenly popped out.
Gao Yuxuan was happy to see him: “Master Guo, you’re okay!”
They actually knew each other pretty well—during the disaster, Gao Yuxuan had often volunteered to help people fix electrical circuits.
That was why Auntie Pan thought he was an electrician.
“I’m fine.” Guo Jun said, “But why don’t you do it like this?”
He raised his hand, and the other end of the crowbar pressed against the zombie’s head.
With a crackle and sizzle, blue-white mixed electricity rapidly coiled around it. The zombie howled for just a few seconds before dying.
Several times more efficient than Gao Yuxuan’s test.
Gao Yuxuan: “…”
It was only then that he realized he’d been led astray by sci-fi movies.
Auntie Pan and Zhao Yi were nearby and had both seen Guo Jun use his electric ability.
Auntie Pan boomed in her big voice: “See? I told you—electrician means electricity!”
Gao Yuxuan: “…”
Although I’m not an electrician, Auntie, you just might have discovered a real pattern.
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