But Gao Yuxuan’s “distance-channeling” wasn’t entirely wrong—it was just that his ability wasn’t strong enough for it yet.
Security guard Cao Jiacai’s fire ability was leagues ahead of Wu Jiancheng’s from the get-go. Wu Jiancheng couldn’t help but keep an eye on him.
After the second outbreak of the zombie virus, the property management company had a total of ten survivors:
Manager Wang, Yang Xinyan, Auntie Pan, two cleaning staff, and five security guards including Cao Jiacai and Xiao Fang.
Not a large group, but the rate of ability awakening was quite impressive:
Auntie Pan was Earth-type.
Cao Jiacai was Fire-type.
Two other security guards were Earth-type and Metal-type respectively.
Four ability users out of ten people.
Of course, grouping people by “homeowner” vs “property management” to talk about ability awakening rates didn’t make much sense.
The virus didn’t care whether you bought an apartment here or worked here.
The fact was, compared to homeowner Wu Jiancheng, security guard Cao Jiacai’s ability was overwhelmingly stronger.
And unlike Gao Yuxuan, whose thinking was constrained by certain preconceptions, Cao Jiacai had been testing his ability nonstop ever since it awakened. He quickly discovered that wood could conduct fire.
His original weapon was something like a baton provided by the property company—probably plastic, which gave off a terrible smell when heated.
He tried a steel pipe too—it conducted electricity but not fire.
Finally, he tested a mop handle, and the flame transmitted from one end to the other in an instant!
He’d found the right material!
His current weapon was a mop handle with the mop head removed.
As the saying goes, length gives advantage. When a zombie lunged at him with its gaping maw, he thrust the long stick right into its mouth. Not only did it serve the same blocking and isolating function as the U-shaped fork, but the flames rising from his hand also shot into the zombie’s mouth like a fireball traveling along the wood.
That zombie howled as flames poured out of its eye sockets, ears, nostrils, and mouth.
Its brain was cooked through in no time, and it dropped dead.
Wu Jiancheng: “…”
Wu Jiancheng frantically searched the supermarket for a mop!
Turns out the entire row was full of those newfangled plastic mops!
He circled behind the shelves and finally found a traditional mop. Then he found scissors and pliers to remove the mop head.
At last, he had a bare wooden stick. He tested it—the flame traveled through it perfectly. As smooth as electricity through a wire or water through a pipe.
Wu Jiancheng abandoned his steel pipe for the wooden stick and killed two zombies with his fire ability, delighted. But when he turned around—
Cao Jiacai had leveled up again.
Cao Jiacai pointed his long wooden stick at a zombie running toward him, still at a distance, and launched a fireball.
The fireball slid along the long stick like an airplane taxiing down a runway—and as soon as it left the stick, it actually accelerated!
Bam! A fireball shot straight into the zombie’s mouth. Who could blame it—zombies always had their mouths wide open, ready to bite. A clear and obvious target.
Though to be fair, Cao Jiacai’s aim really was excellent.
But this was exactly the kind of distance-channeling that Gao Yuxuan had been sweating over trying to achieve.
Wu Jiancheng turned back and tried it himself. After fighting for a while, the fireballs he could produce were already bigger than yesterday or this morning. When he tested distance-channeling, the fireball did leave the stick—but it visibly shrank the instant it detached.
Wu Jiancheng pushed his ability with all his might, his brain throbbing with stabbing pain.
He glanced at Cao Jiacai—why did he look so relaxed?
Cao Jiacai was starting to find the long stick a bit cumbersome.
He switched to a rolling pin.
The shorter stick was indeed more agile. Every time Cao Jiacai extended his stick, a fireball flew out; every time he extended it, another fireball flew out.
He was like a wizard straight out of a foreign movie.
Guo Jun / Gao Yuxuan: “…”
The two electric-types exchanged a glance, reading each other’s minds, and started experimenting.
Guo Jun outperformed Gao Yuxuan again. His blue-white current didn’t form into balls like fire—instead, it crackled and discharged from the tip of his crowbar.
He could also control whether it shot out as a single line for maximum range or spread into a web like a shield.
Gao Yuxuan lagged far behind—the electricity from his steel pipe was much shorter.
He also noticed: “Why is your color different from mine? Have you measured the voltage?”
Guo Jun: “If I had time to measure voltage, I’d rather go to the bathroom first.”
He’d been holding it for a whole day and night.
Gao Yuxuan carried a voltage tester on him at all times. He pulled it out immediately and measured: “Holy crap, 110V!”
No wonder the color was different. Gao Yuxuan had been practicing all morning and had only reached around sixty or seventy volts.
“How long ago did your ability awaken?” Gao Yuxuan asked, unwilling to give up.
Guo Jun thought for a moment: “Not even half an hour, I think?”
Gao Yuxuan: “…”
Gao Yuxuan was determined to find the pattern!
This was exactly what he and Zhao Yi had been researching!
By now, there weren’t many zombies left in the supermarket.
Mo Li had gone to find Jiang Cheng as soon as he saw her come in, communicating through telepathy: [People, people.]
Jiang Cheng followed Mo Li with her team, killing zombies and rescuing two people from an office.
Mo Li: [People.]
Following him again, she rescued someone trapped in the restroom.
Mai Duoduo was a large supermarket with plenty of space. They’d rescued a dozen or so survivors from various spots.
Mo Li had led the way to several of them.
Even Song Jingshuo praised him: “That cat is pretty smart.”
By now, there were only a few zombies left—kept deliberately for the ability users to practice on.
Cao Jiacai’s fireball shots drew cheers every time.
Zhao Yi sighed to Auntie Pan: “Indoor combat isn’t friendly to us Earth-types.”
There was no soil indoors—just concrete floors.
Auntie Pan: “Oh, really?”
She crouched down and placed her hand on the ground.
The group herded a zombie toward them with their weapons.
It was then that they finally spotted a third-generation zombie hidden among the others.
The third-gen zombie, having gained some intelligence, saw it was surrounded and being driven. It turned and spotted Zhao Yi and Auntie Pan standing still.
It charged straight at them.
Zhao Yi gripped his steel pipe, ready to fight. He was a bit nervous—during the previous disaster, because he’d had so many miscellaneous duties, Jiang Cheng had kept him in the rear handling logistics. He rarely fought on the front lines. He didn’t have much combat experience.
Suddenly, Auntie Pan let out a roar. The concrete floor beneath her instantly erupted into a stalagmite-like formation.
It tripped the third-gen zombie perfectly, sending it tumbling and sliding right to Zhao Yi’s feet.
Zhao Yi: “…”
Someone yelled: “Hit it!”
Zhao Yi scrambled and finished the zombie off.
Auntie Pan stood up and agreed with Zhao Yi’s earlier comment: “You’re right—indoors really isn’t great for us. Better outside.”
Zhao Yi: “…”
Auntie Pan added: “I was trying to make a spike to pierce right through it. Look at that sorry thing you made.”
Back in the countryside, some farmers used ground spikes or animal traps to keep wild beasts away.
Zhao Yi now felt like the whole world wasn’t friendly to him.
Because he’d tried it as soon as he entered the supermarket—the concrete floor could only barely bulge up into a dish-like shape. And it took immense effort.
The hardness of the material itself would backfire on the user’s brain. Pushing too hard caused intense pain in his head—he felt like he was about to get a nosebleed again.
Zhao Yi had already observed that in terms of abilities, college students vs. manual laborers—college students lost completely.
Both he and Gao Yuxuan had master’s degrees!
—
City S, Guangxiu District, No. 14 Middle School.
The students hiding in the first-floor classrooms were the first to get weapons.
The first-floor windows let outsiders see in, so the kids had been smart enough to pull the curtains shut. With the front and back doors barricaded, they all sat along the walls beneath the windows. At night, they just lay down and slept right there.
The next day, they heard all kinds of sounds outside. Shadows of zombies kept passing back and forth across the curtains. No one dared to open them, afraid the zombies would spot them and break in.
There were zombies in the hallways too—they had nowhere to run.
After student council president Huang Xuetao’s broadcast, there’d been no more word. The first-floor kids waited anxiously.
Until someone suddenly tapped on the glass: “Is anyone in there?”
The kids opened the curtains to a heavenly sight—outside the window were a few senior students from ninth grade, all panting and carrying bundles of iron rods.
“Open the window—we’re giving you weapons!”
“We’re about to charge into the teaching building! Be brave too—everyone work together from inside and out to clear out the zombies in the hallways!”
“Got any tape? Here’s some tape—wrap workbooks around your arms!”
Every kid got an iron rod. Heavy in their hands, it instantly filled their hearts with resolve.
Blood surging, they shouted: “Okay! Together!”
There were no adults left at No. 14 Middle School. A group of children had taken their survival into their own hands.
In the hallway, the students faced their dean—and tears streamed down their faces.
The dean—mockingly nicknamed “Fatty Shi” by everyone—had much of his flesh torn and devoured by other zombies. His once-round, plump figure was now pitted and gouged, with bones and internal organs exposed in some places.
But even the exposed parts had been transformed like the rest of his skin—the wounds were no longer bleeding or festering, the bare flesh seemingly solidified.
He had become one of the zombies.
The students wept: “Dean Shi, we’re sorry.”
Crying and apologizing, the children raised their weapons and charged forward…
The fighting lasted until 1:00 PM, when the kids of No. 14 Middle School regained control of their campus.
Gathering in the schoolyard, it felt like a dream—they had actually killed zombies and won, all without any adults.
They hugged each other, cried, and celebrated.
But what now?
No one knew who made the first suggestion: Let’s go rescue the high school!
This was the middle school campus of No. 14. The high school was just one block away—very close.
When there were special circumstances, like renovations to the teaching buildings or the cafeteria, the two campuses would borrow each other’s classrooms and dining halls.
And sixty percent of the high school students had come directly from this middle school.
The proposal was immediately met with approval.
The young are easily fired up—fresh off a victory, they start dreaming of being heroes.
Everyone was abuzz with excitement and unanimously decided to rescue the high school!
But Xiao Huang chose to step back.
“I’m sorry, but my father is already gone. My mother only has me. I have to go save her.”
“You all keep going.”
The middle school’s rescue operation had been led by Senior Huang Xuetao, and everyone now trusted him deeply. They were all reluctant to see him go.
Wu Shuchen blurted out: “Senior, wait for me!”
The boy, who still looked like a little kid, pushed himself to his limit—even making his nose bleed—and used his ability to forge iron shoulder guards for Senior Huang Xuetao, modeled after the adult armor designs. They would protect his shoulders, the back of his neck, and his ears from a zombie’s sudden lunge and bite.
The senior had the ability to sense danger, but if he was going to rescue his mother, there was no avoiding it—he could only charge straight into harm’s way.
Xiao Huang’s eyes stung a little.
He was reluctant to leave these classmates too. But he knew he wasn’t a superhero—their strength lay in unity and courage, not in whether he was the one leading them.
His classmates helped him strap on the shoulder guards. Someone contributed their shoelaces to tie them in place.
They saw him off at the bike shed.
Xiao Huang swung onto his bicycle, tucked the blood-stained iron rod into the back of his waistband, and looked back at everyone one last time.
“Goodbye,” he said. “Take care.”
Who would have thought they’d be uttering those words at this age?
No one could foresee their fate.
Some of the students were crying: “You take care too.”
Watching Xiao Huang ride off until he disappeared, the kids who’d just cried wiped away their tears: “Let’s go! To the high school!”
With workbooks strapped to their arms and iron rods in their hands, the children bravely stepped out of the campus. They fought and killed zombies in the streets along the way.
Before they’d even made it off the block, they ran into high school students coming from the opposite direction.
Both sides were stunned.
High schoolers: “Where are you going?”
Middle schoolers: “We were coming to save you! Where are you going?”
High schoolers: “We came to save you!”
The high school campus was in much better shape than the middle school.
Many high school girls were even a head and a half taller than boys like Wu Shuchen—high schoolers’ bodies were nearly fully developed. You could even say that high school was the physical peak of many people’s lives.
The high school’s self-rescue had started with the baseball team.
Because they had baseball bats, they had the weapons they needed to begin fighting back.
Then abilities awakened one after another, quickly refined and thrown into battle.
Thanks to these fighters, several high school teachers had survived—they had adults on their side.
The older and younger students met halfway, as if finding long-lost family, laughing and crying together.
Many high school girls looked at the first-year middle schoolers like they were little babies.
It really tugged at their hearts.
The teachers asked: “Have you eaten? Do you have any food?”
Only then did the middle schoolers realize they were starving, their stomachs aching. The high schoolers couldn’t help but laugh and shake their heads.
“Come on, let’s go to the high school.”
“Our cafeteria auntie is still there—she’s cooking right now!”
“Come with us—let’s go eat!”
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