Yesterday, Su Yu’s protective shield had suddenly undergone an explosive advancement.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan had spent a long time mulling it over when they got back.
Su Yu’s superpower fell under the broad category of psychic abilities, and it was clearly heavily influenced by her inner desires—to the point where one could even say it was extremely so.
The sight of those little zombie children at Gaoxin Elementary School yesterday had been a huge psychological shock.
Even Li Jiangbing had sighed every time he took out one of those little heads.
Su Yu had clearly been under immense mental strain, so much so that she hadn’t even gone to the kindergarten afterward.
They remembered that she was an education major.
She was someone meant to devote herself to teaching—not to killing elementary school kid zombies.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan had actually wondered whether the girl had been on the verge of a mental breakdown at the time. But after they got in the car and secretly observed her, she didn’t seem like it.
Su Yu had held a little girl in her arms the whole way, her expression both gentle and resolute.
If she really had broken down, then she must have already completed an internal reconstruction.
From that perspective, both her superpower and her mental fortitude were remarkably strong.
Her willpower had taken shape and manifested as a protective shield.
This opened up a new line of thinking for Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan.
If psychic-type users could achieve breakthroughs through the collapse and reconstruction of their mental strength, then what about other types of superpower users?
They thought it over and found it difficult.
Zhao Yi: “I can’t exactly go eat dirt.”
Nor could he bury himself in the ground.
But even though Zhao Yi couldn’t eat dirt, Gao Yuxuan could go touch a live wire.
And not just any ordinary outlet. The standard 220 volts in a residential unit was nothing to him. Even though he hadn’t reached that level yet, Guo Jun already had.
Gao Yuxuan felt he needed a big jolt.
He decided to go touch a high-voltage power line.
But he didn’t dare tell Zhao Yi. Zhao Yi had said, “If you’re going to touch a live wire, you have to call me.”
Zhao Yi would insist on observing up close.
But Gao Yuxuan was afraid something might go wrong.
High voltage was no joke.
As an electricity-type superpower user, he was confident it wouldn’t kill him.
But Zhao Yi was another matter.
So he didn’t dare tell Zhao Yi.
He secretly called Guo Jun instead.
Guo Jun found it interesting. “It’s you touching the wire, not me. Might as well give it a shot.”
So the two guys sneaked out in the dead of night.
“Good thing you didn’t go,” Gao Yuxuan said. “The high-voltage arc actually ionized the air. If you’d been there, you’d be dead.”
“Only Brother Guo could withstand that.”
Zhao Yi: “…Brother Guo?”
Gao Yuxuan: “Brother Guo saved my sorry life.”
The two of them had naturally prepared some tools, like an insulated pole.
But they hadn’t expected the arc to be that strong.
Gao Yuxuan got stuck to the line, his whole body crackling and sparking, feeling like he was about to get cooked.
The arc ionized the air, and truly, only Guo Jun could hold up under that. If Zhao Yi had been there, he would’ve been a goner.
Guo Jun used the insulated pole to knock Gao Yuxuan’s hand free, saving his life.
Gao Yuxuan was still shaken: “10 kilovolts is still too much for me. I overestimated myself.”
For an ordinary person, 10 kilovolts would’ve turned them to charcoal in an instant. Luckily, as an electricity-type, he only got his hair fried and his nails blackened.
Zhao Yi: “Give me an interview—how did it feel?”
“Terrifying, just terrifying,” Gao Yuxuan said. “That’s why, no matter what you do, you need a wingman. You never know when they might save your life.”
Zhao Yi: “I meant what it felt like to have high-voltage current passing through your body.”
“Well…” Gao Yuxuan thought for a moment. “How do I put it? It was like I vaguely saw my great-grandparents. And also like I’d gained some kind of freedom, soaring through the sky…”
Song Jingshuo said flatly, “Heaven, you mean.”
Gao Yuxuan: “…You could put it that way, I suppose.”
He continued, “But as soon as the power cut off, I was done for. Man, you guys have no idea—that little electrical room was so hot and stuffy. The two of us couldn’t move, just lying there on the floor…”
“Wait a second.” Song Jingshuo always had a knack for noticing details others missed. “Electrical room?”
Gao Yuxuan: “…Yep!”
Song Jingshuo: “Our neighborhood’s electrical room?”
Gao Yuxuan, with his fried explosion of hair: “Yep!”
Zhao Yi couldn’t believe it: “I turned on the TV this morning to check for announcements, and the power at home was normal.”
“That’s exactly why I went to touch the live wire in the middle of the night,” Gao Yuxuan said. “I’m not stupid. If I’d cut the power during the day, it would’ve affected everyone.”
At night, when the power went out because someone was messing with the electrical lines, no one noticed—it was dead silent.
The two electricity-types lay on the ground until they’d caught their breath and come back to their senses, then started making repairs.
Their whole goal was to not inconvenience anyone.
“The electrical room had all the spare parts, and everything was logically organized,” Gao Yuxuan remarked. “Master Luo’s work ethic is really meticulous.”
Master Luo’s only shortcoming was his lack of formal education. If he’d been able to go to university, he would’ve made an excellent engineer.
Gao Yuxuan added, “We replaced a high-voltage knife switch. And I saw there were enough spare parts. I figured 10kV was too much for me, but not necessarily for Brother Guo. So I suggested he give it a try too.”
Gao Yuxuan shook his head in regret: “Brother Guo was too cautious. He absolutely refused to try.”
Zhao Yi / Song Jingshuo: “…”
Who would want to try after seeing the state you were in?
Guo Jun was currently the strongest electricity-type in both neighborhoods.
He’d also broken through at Gaoxin Elementary yesterday, able to blow zombies’ heads off with a single blast.
As long as he wasn’t completely surrounded by zombies, wearing his armor, he could handle them alone and retreat safely without much trouble.
He didn’t have any urgent desire or pursuit to become stronger.
In fact, Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan weren’t chasing “strength” either.
Their real joy wasn’t about getting stronger—it was about studying superpowers themselves.
It was endlessly fascinating.
As Gao Yuxuan spoke, crackling electrical currents kept popping from his mouth.
When he got excited and spoke too fast, tiny arcs of electricity even shot out from his ears.
Anyway, he was still alive and seemed fine.
Zhao Yi focused on the results: “How do you feel? Did it work?”
Gao Yuxuan looked proud.
He raised his index finger, and a small electric sphere hovered at his fingertip. Thin arcs of current flickered constantly across its surface.
Zhao Yi and Song Jingshuo immediately noticed the difference: “It’s blue?”
The core of the little sphere was white, but the outer layer looked like it was wrapped in a blue film. The flickering arcs were also blue.
Guo Jun’s current had always had a blue tint from the very beginning. Gao Yuxuan’s had always been white.
Now the blue in Gao Yuxuan’s current was very obvious.
Zhao Yi was both surprised and delighted: “It actually worked.”
“Honestly, if Brother Guo had pulled me off a little later,” Gao Yuxuan said, “I think I could’ve gotten even stronger.”
He’d actually experienced what it felt like to be a battery charging.
So much energy, so powerful, surging into his body, racing through his veins.
The source of his superpower deep in his brain—or rather, his superpower’s energy pool—had been forcibly expanded. The pathways through which energy traveled in his body had been forcibly widened.
The current he could unleash was now far stronger than before—not by a small margin.
Gao Yuxuan figured he was now about on par with Guo Jun, able to blow a zombie’s head off with a single strike.
Song Jingshuo said coldly, “How do you know you wouldn’t have just died instead?”
Gao Yuxuan was full of confidence: “I won’t die. I believe in fate. Heaven gave me electricity-type powers, so there’s no way I’m dying from electrocution.”
Gao Yuxuan would never admit that he’d genuinely thought he was a goner at the time.
That strike from Guo Jun knocking his hand off the wire had truly saved his life.
Zhang Lesi came over, surprised: “Cool new look. Why are you still sparking with electricity?”
Gao Yuxuan was speaking with great animation, and as his emotions flared, he couldn’t quite control the occasional small current flickering across his body.
It looked pretty cool.
Zhang Lesi suddenly reached out and poked him with her fingertip.
Zhao Yi shouted and grabbed for her hand!
He caught it, but her fingertip had already touched Gao Yuxuan’s shoulder.
Song Jingshuo then watched as the two of them convulsed together like they’d touched a live wire.
No, no—not “like” they’d touched a live wire. They were touching a live wire.
Gao Yuxuan quickly stepped back, pulling away from Zhang Lesi’s hand.
“Sorry, sorry—I still can’t quite control the leakage.”
Zhao Yi quickly let go too.
The current zapped their fingers like a tiny drill boring into them. Even though it was brief, it still stung.
Zhang Lesi shook her hand and winced: “Are you serious? If you can’t keep it contained, sit farther away from us, got it?”
Gao Yuxuan apologized profusely.
Zhang Lesi easily spotted Su Yu, who was sitting on the ground but craning her neck to look into the distance.
In the distance, the little ones were playing. Someone had found them a ball, and a group of kids were kicking it around.
Zhang Lesi tossed a magazine onto the ground, sat down next to Su Yu, and also looked over: “Everything okay?”
Su Yu: “Jiang Cheng said it’s fine—said Mo Li would keep an eye on them.”
Mo Li was now a big celebrity. When he strutted through the neighborhood with his tail held high, everyone made way for him.
Jiang Cheng had told him to spit out the Cao family member, and he’d turned around and done it.
When Jiang Cheng raised her hand, he shrank down and jumped onto her shoulder.
It was clear he’d developed intelligence, or at least was close to it.
Su Yu: “If Jiang Cheng says it’s fine, then it’s fine.”
Su Yu agreed: “I know. I just can’t help checking on them.”
The little ones were too young and needed looking after. The female residents decided that each day, one of them would sleep in the children’s dormitory with them, just in case anything happened.
They took turns.
Yesterday, Su Yu was the first.
In the middle of the night, she found several kids secretly crying.
“We’ve posted notices in the forums of all their neighborhoods—missing person alerts,” Su Yu said.
The children came from several different communities.
Since their parents couldn’t be reached, Su Yu had posted missing person notices in each neighborhood’s forum, listing the children’s names along with their parents’ names and phone numbers.
In case the parents were still alive but had lost their phones in the chaos, they might see the forum posts and come find them.
Su Yu sighed: “There’s so little information online this time too…”
The internet was a tool only some people used.
Unlike the last outbreak, when many people had been at home, this time a large number of people were trapped outside and couldn’t get back. To go online, you first had to find a working computer.
The amount of information had decreased dramatically.
Mostly it was pleas for help: [My name is XXX, I’m trapped in the XXX Building, please, if anyone can save us…]
And so on.
The topic was heavy. It wasn’t something they could solve.
The two decided to change the subject.
Zhang Lesi: “Don’t you think Zhao Yi’s kind of handsome?”
Su Yu: “…”
Su Yu turned to look at her.
Zhang Lesi: “Don’t you think so?”
Su Yu thought for a moment: “He’s alright… I guess?”
“No, wait.” Su Yu said, “We’ve known him for so long—you just suddenly think he’s handsome now?”
Ever since the first zombie outbreak, Zhao Yi had been a celebrity in the neighborhood and a recognized hero. He’d made an indelible contribution to maintaining the community’s environment.
Zhang Lesi chuckled: “I used to think he was just a quiet workhorse—not my type. But the other day, when I heard him talking about superpowers, I realized he’s actually pretty articulate and quite humorous. Not the bookworm I thought he was.”
Su Yu: “Hanging out with Gao Yuxuan, there’s no way he’s a bookworm.”
Zhang Lesi asked: “Don’t you think he’s handsome?”
Su Yu: “He’s alright.”
Zhang Lesi pressed: “Then who do you think is handsome?”
Su Yu paused.
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