The last remark had hit a nerve. Cao Jiacai suddenly slammed a fireball onto the ground with a loud whoosh, his face flushed with rage. “So I’m wrong for saving people?! Screw this! You guys can handle it yourselves! Don’t come crying to me later!”
He grabbed his rolling pin and stormed off furiously.
Security guards Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhao exchanged uneasy glances, then chased after him. “Brother Cao! Brother Cao!”
Three superpowered individuals gone in an instant. Two of them were quite strong, and the other was currently the most powerful person in the entire neighborhood.
The onlookers murmured among themselves.
Gao Yuxuan kept comforting Zhao Yi. “Forget it. There’s no point arguing with someone like that.”
They were never on the same level to begin with. Superpowers had elevated Cao Jiacai onto the table.
But as a person—from his worldview to his understanding—he hadn’t changed at all. His bigotry and resentment toward the wealthy were plain for everyone to see. People simply pretended not to notice, choosing to coexist despite their differences.
The fundamental reason was that Cao Jiacai’s superpower was simply too strong. No one could do anything about him.
This time, even Jiang Cheng probably couldn’t. She couldn’t very well expel the most powerful superpowered person in the whole neighborhood, could she?
That’s assuming she could even pull it off.
What was that cleaner’s surname again? A few men had grabbed him by the arms and dragged him right out of the neighborhood gates. Even begging on his knees hadn’t helped.
But with Cao Jiacai, a single blaze would send waves of heat blasting from a distance—no one could even get close.
If Jiang Cheng issued an eviction order and Cao Jiacai refused to leave, then Jiang Cheng’s authority—her dignity—would fall flat on the ground.
After that, it’d be hard to say whether anyone would still listen to her.
Back when everyone had comparable combat strength, and the strongest, Li Jiangbing, stood with Jiang Cheng, she had relied on her intellect to win people over and keep everyone in line.
Now it was different.
After superpowers emerged, the fighting capabilities of Jiang Cheng, Li Jiangbing, and Song Jingshuo had all dropped to the second tier.
At the top of the pyramid was Cao Jiacai. No wonder he was so arrogant.
Jiang Cheng managed the neighborhood well, maintaining relative fairness and giving people a sense of security.
But honestly, everyone felt a twinge of regret that not a single one of their trio had a combat-oriented superpower.
If only one of them—Jiang Cheng, Li Jiangbing, or Song Jingshuo—had one.
The news of the conflict was brought to Jiang Cheng by security guard Xiao Fang, who had run over to tell her.
Since they were sweeping through the buildings, everyone had split into teams across different blocks.
By the time Jiang Cheng arrived, she could only see Cao Jiacai’s furious retreating figure in the distance. She asked, “What happened?”
Zhao Yi had calmed down by now and explained the situation to Jiang Cheng. He said, “It wasn’t just the risk of the building catching fire—several people got burned just now. If Le Si hadn’t rushed over to treat them, it would’ve been serious.”
Extensive burns are a very grave condition. If not managed properly, the victim can die from infection.
This isn’t just about ancient times with backward medical care—this is the modern era. Even with today’s medical standards, massive burns are still that dangerous.
Fortunately, Zhang Lesi had her superpower.
Zhang Lesi corroborated, “Yes, it was very serious.”
When it came to her field, there was no room for jokes. Zhang Lesi was extremely stern and firmly supported Zhao Yi.
Cao Jiacai simply didn’t care about other people’s pain or lives.
The people who had been singed were still shaken. “That was terrifying. For the first time, I truly realized how dangerous fire is.”
“Before, when I watched TV shows and saw fire blocking the way, I’d always think, why don’t the protagonists just dash through it?”
“Now I know—with a fire like that, even from several meters away, your skin starts to hurt!”
“Damn, that hurt like hell earlier. Thank goodness Lesi showed up.”
Admiring strength is a common human instinct.
Cao Jiacai was so strong that it was only natural for many people to want to team up with him.
Even if no one was afraid of zombies anymore, that didn’t mean there was zero danger. Deep down, people always felt that if the leader was powerful, their own risks would be smaller.
Some people abandoned Li Jiangbing and chose to join the team with Cao Jiacai.
Damn it—who knew Cao Jiacai would turn out to be more dangerous than zombies?
Zombie teeth couldn’t bite through armor. But Cao Jiacai’s fire had melted and warped two people’s plastic armor. One person’s metal armor got so hot that they had to endure the searing pain and yelp while struggling to tear it off.
And Cao Jiacai just chuckled.
Zhang Lesi explained, “And it’s not just about the skin. In a high-temperature fire environment, a person might look perfectly fine on the outside, but they can drop dead at any moment. Simply put—the skin looks unharmed, but the internal organs are already cooked. There’s no saving someone like that.”
And precisely because there were no external injuries—no burns, no singes—it was even easier to overlook.
At a fire scene, medical personnel would naturally prioritize those with burns or smoke inhalation. Everyone would overlook the hero who dashed in and out of the flames, performing acts of bravery.
Even the hero themselves would think they were fine. Then suddenly, they’d collapse and never get back up.
Only medical workers truly understood this danger.
Seeing Jiang Cheng fall into contemplative silence, Zhao Yi actually regretted it.
A shut-in is just introverted, not stupid. Zhao Yi had clashed with Cao Jiacai out of momentary anger, but he also understood that the situation for Jiang Cheng had shifted subtly compared to before.
Jiang Cheng’s combat power wasn’t enough to suppress Cao Jiacai.
In just a few days, as his superpower grew, Cao Jiacai’s attitude had become increasingly arrogant. Zhao Yi knew all too well—people like that were about to start challenging the leader’s authority.
Conflicts between a top salesperson and a manager were common in many companies. Once tensions escalated, either the sales star left or the manager did.
Unless the boss had lost their mind, they’d usually side with the sales star and let the manager go.
Just now, his conflict with Cao Jiacai had only accelerated that escalation.
After calming down, Zhao Yi regretted it.
No one’s superpower could match Cao Jiacai’s yet. They shouldn’t have accelerated the confrontation—at least not until everyone had time to develop and refine their own abilities.
Then they could deal with Cao Jiacai later.
Clashing now was only putting Jiang Cheng in a difficult position.
He regretted it. Hanging his head, he admitted, “Jiang Cheng, I’m sorry…”
Jiang Cheng raised her eyes, surprised. “What do you have to apologize for? You did nothing wrong. Whether it’s the building or people, you can’t just act so recklessly. Thank goodness Le Si was there.”
But she also said, “At least nothing serious happened today.”
And with that, the matter was closed.
Of course it was closed—what else could be done?
Though everyone understood, some still felt disappointed in Jiang Cheng.
Of course, they could sympathize: what else was Jiang Cheng supposed to do? Roll up her sleeves and throw punches at Cao Jiacai?
Sympathy aside, that didn’t stop disappointment from creeping in.
Zhou Wang watched coldly from the sidelines.
See? This was exactly what he’d been worried about.
Unity had cracked.
A leader who isn’t strong enough themselves—that’s like an unstable foundation.
With people’s hearts wavering, would they scatter?
The zombie corpses were piled together.
Before, even if they helped neighbors kill zombies, the residents of the Youth Apartments wouldn’t handle the cleanup.
But now, looking around, all they saw were old men and women. Ah, forget it—might as well see it through.
Wu Jiancheng asked, “Should we burn them?”
If they were going to burn them, he could help.
Jiang Cheng didn’t interfere in matters like this—she left the decision entirely up to Zhao Yi. She waited for him to make the arrangements.
But Zhao Yi held his chin and fell into deep thought.
This time was different from before. The emergence of superpowers had changed many things, including everyone’s way of thinking.
Burning large numbers of corpses had been a last resort back then.
Because manpower, material conditions, and the environment were all limited. Yet they had to deal with the bodies somehow.
At the time, everyone was trapped inside the neighborhood, so they ended up burning them right there in the complex.
Even after the disaster ended, people with sensitive noses complained that the little plaza at the Youth Apartments still stank.
It wasn’t impossible—large amounts of corpse fluid had seeped into the ground. Even though it had later been burned off and evaporated, residual substances might still be releasing odors.
Now that superpowers existed, Zhao Yi overturned all his previous methods. He wanted to bury the bodies underground.
He himself had an earth-based superpower, and with Sister Pan—the strongest earth-type user around—digging pits wouldn’t be a problem. It wouldn’t require a lot of manpower or hours of labor.
The key issue was where to bury them.
He called over someone with a civil engineering background, stomped the ground, and asked, “How deep is this surface from the roof of the underground parking garage?”
The civil engineering guy said, “The total thickness is between 1.5 and 2 meters. No less than 1.5 meters. That’s city regulation—otherwise, the trees in the neighborhood wouldn’t have enough soil to root, they’d die, and a strong wind would blow them over.”
“That thickness includes both the soil cover and the garage roof slab. So if you’re only considering the soil cover, it’d be less than that.”
Someone chimed in, “Then that’s definitely not enough!”
This person said, “For burying bodies, 1.5 meters is the depth threshold. If you don’t reach that depth, you might as well forget it—bury them and you won’t hear a peep at first. But we humans might not smell it, but stray cats and dogs will. They’ll dig through the soil and pull the corpses right back out.”
“And if it’s less than 1.5 meters, you won’t solve the maggot problem either. After a while, you’ll see—good grief—from that patch of buried ground, maggots will come crawling out one by one.”
The people nearby nearly threw up just from hearing that.
Zhao Yi / Civil engineering guy: “…”
Gao Yuxuan dry-heaved a couple of times and eyed the man suspiciously. “Buddy, what’s your major? Forensic science?”
“Hehe.” The man grinned a little creepily. “Nothing to do with my major. I’m a fan of crime thriller and detective fiction.”
If nerds had factions and categories, then Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan would belong to the sunny, clean-cut type.
They worked hard, earned decent money, and had good daily habits—their homes were tidy and cozy. As adults, they managed their own earnings free from parental control, spending freely on their hobbies.
They had bright display cases at home filled with beloved figurines. Some large ones could cost thousands or even tens of thousands.
No problem—worth it.
This other guy, though, was clearly the damp, gloomy type of nerd.
The kind who, while reading crime novels, would turn off the overhead light and use only a desk lamp to create a dark, eerie atmosphere.
A bit creepy.
But creepy as he was, he still provided useful advice at a time like this.
The civil engineering guy said, “That won’t work. Not only is the soil cover too shallow, but you also have to consider all the utility pipelines buried underground. Some are fine, but the main concern is contaminating the drinking water.”
That was a very important issue.
Jiang Cheng said, “What about the street-side park outside the west gate?”
The west gate referred to the west entrance of the Youth Apartments.
Jiang Cheng added, “Another option is under the road.”
If you peeled up the asphalt, the natural soil layer lay right beneath. In the tech district, there was no subway, and there wouldn’t be an underground parking garage directly under the road—just solid crust.
In the end, they chose the street-side park outside the west gate.
Because asphalt was even harder to deal with than cement—it would drain too much superpower energy.
Jiang Cheng said, “Pile them together—keep it compact—and I’ll store them in my space.”
Zhao Yi: “Ah!”
Jiang Cheng: “?”
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