Everyone rushed into the cafeteria in a swarm: “Is it Mayor Zheng?”
Mayor Zheng had built up tremendous prestige during the last zombie outbreak, and the surviving citizens held him in high regard.
Unfortunately, the person appearing on the TV screen wasn’t that mayor—who had risen to the occasion and performed admirably—but a young woman in her twenties, quite good-looking.
She lifted her eyes, and their sharpness startled the children.
【…named Jiang Cheng…】
【…Science and Technology New District… Jixiang Jiayuan…】
“Science and Technology New District—Jixiang Jiayuan?” While the adults were grieving over the complete annihilation of the government, a middle school girl suddenly said, “Huang Xuetao lives in that neighborhood.”
The middle schoolers all turned around: “Really?”
Clearly, they were all very concerned about this person named “Huang Xuetao.”
The high schoolers asked: “Who’s that?”
Wu Shuchen reminded them: “He’s our student council president—the senior who led us to fight zombies. He can sense danger in advance. We told you about him.”
The high schoolers: “Oh—him!”
Wu Shuchen said: “He went back to save his mom. I don’t know if he made it.”
Wu Shuchen greatly admired Senior Huang Xuetao—he had that fledgling attachment thing going on, and he kept hoping with all his heart that Huang Xuetao had managed to save his mother.
Even though Wu Shuchen himself couldn’t reach his own parents anymore.
S City TV Station, News Studio.
Jiang Cheng looked straight into the camera ahead—straight at everyone watching this live broadcast.
【By now, I believe you’ve all noticed—this wave of zombies is different from the last one.”】
【Zombies with clear signs of intelligence have appeared—they flee, deceive, ambush, and sneak attack. We call them “third-generation zombies.”】
【Today, at the TV station, we even encountered a mutated zombie. We can’t classify it yet. But I believe this is not an isolated case.”】
【But don’t panic because of this.”】
【Because—superpowered individuals must have emerged among you as well.”】
【While the zombies are mutating, we humans are also evolving.”】
【Currently known superpower types include the five elemental types—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—plus two non-elemental types: Wind and Lightning, as well as the special psychic type.”】
【Regardless of which superpower you have, please note the following: superpowers can be improved and advanced through constant practice and repeated use.”】
【High-frequency use effectively increases your control precision. Extended use or pushing to your maximum output raises your upper limit.”】
【The side effects include: headaches, nosebleeds, eardrum pain and bleeding, eye pain, and bleeding from the eyes. Typically, headaches and nosebleeds occur first; eye bleeding comes last.”】
【So far, we have not seen any cases of death from bleeding from all seven orifices. However, we recommend using eye pain and double vision as your practice limit.”】
【The above is a summary of experience from all superpowered individuals in the Science and Technology New District. We hope it helps you.”】
【Here, I want to say this to all superpowered individuals—”】
【Heaven has granted us the opportunity to evolve. It has given us superpowers—not so we can hide in corners and survive by the skin of our teeth.”】
【I call on all superpowered individuals to do everything you can to help protect others.”】
【I especially call on Metal-type superpowered individuals to step forward—use your abilities to provide armor for as many people as possible.”】
【Yes, the armor I’m wearing right now. This was made by our Metal-type superpowered individuals.”】
【The zombie virus is highly transmissible through blood. This is unfair to humans.”】
【Armor allows us humans to fight zombies on equal footing.”】
【For every additional set of armor you make, you gain one more comrade-in-arms—and humanity gains one more soldier.”】
【Heaven has given each of us a purpose. Metal-type superpowered individuals—you bear a great responsibility!”】
【Finally, with no survivors in the city government and no contact possible with any higher authority, the Provisional Government of the Science and Technology New District is currently the only government in existence.”】
【Until a higher-level formal government emerges, we will do our best to shoulder the responsibilities of government.”】
【Currently, the city center has a massive zombie population. The Science and Technology New District has largely completed its clearance work and has many vacant housing units.”】
【Survivors with nowhere to go may take refuge in the Science and Technology New District.”】
【For those trapped and in need of rescue, the following three numbers are emergency hotlines.”】
Jiang Cheng announced three phone numbers.
Today, at the city government headquarters, they had collected a large number of phones to take back and use—phones that had belonged to the deceased government employees.
During mealtime, they’d found some chargers and started charging them.
Gao Yuxuan finally got the chance to try charging phones with his ability.
He’d actually wanted to try for a long time, but he only had one phone himself. Phones weren’t just expensive electronics—they were also vital communication tools.
He hadn’t dared to experiment with his own phone—if he broke it, he’d be in serious trouble.
Now, with so many ownerless phones all at once, he finally had something to practice on.
During the meal, he fried three phones before finally getting the feel for it and stabilizing his ability to charge them consistently.
When he tried increasing the output, he found it charged even faster than using a wall charger—he was basically a living fast-charger.
Jiang Cheng picked three phones from the large pile and announced those three numbers as the hotline.
【These three numbers will be active starting tonight. We haven’t completely wrapped things up here yet, so we don’t have time to answer calls.”】
【Please send your rescue requests via text message if possible. Include your location, surrounding conditions, and the number of survivors.”】
【We have limited manpower. We will not answer mobile phone calls—only landlines.】
Those with mobile phones could send text messages for help.
Only those who had lost their phones would have to resort to using landlines to call for assistance.
【I call on this: if there are any survivors in the district governments, please gather your forces as soon as possible.】
【I also call on all survivors: Heaven helps those who help themselves, and Heaven saves those who save themselves.】
【Please make use of everything around you and unite together.】
【Above all—please, survive first.】
The children at No. 14 Middle School all shed tears.
Heaven helps those who help themselves, Heaven saves those who save themselves.
Yes. Yes. That was exactly what they were—people who helped themselves, people who saved themselves. And that was why they were still alive!
The boys and girls wiped away their tears and rallied.
“Come on—let’s practice our superpowers!”
“There are so many of us! We don’t need rescue!”
“Right!”
The parents and teachers exchanged glances.
They’d wait and see.
It wasn’t that they didn’t dare to move, or that they didn’t trust the resolute-looking young woman on TV.
It was just that this was an organization formed by a few residential neighborhoods—how much capability could they really have?
They’d wait and see.
The adults carried the weight of protecting so many minors—they couldn’t make decisions lightly.
For now, the school seemed like a stable safe zone.
Downtown office buildings—many survivors were still trapped inside.
In one company inside an office building, over a dozen people were holed up.
The company had been burglarized before. The boss, in a fit of anger, had installed a steel security door outside the main entrance—and that door had become a life-saving barrier when the second outbreak hit.
More than twenty survivors were trapped inside this company.
These past days, they’d been drinking from a few jugs of drinking water and the boss’s luxurious aquarium.
For food—tomatoes and celery.
All the office plants were leased—they belonged to a horticulture company, and maintenance was also handled by that company.
It just so happened that on August 29, the horticulturist had finished maintaining the plants in several other companies in the same building and had come to this one—and ended up trapped here along with everyone else.
This middle-aged uncle from the countryside had awakened a Wood-type superpower.
Even luckier: the administrative auntie had seen someone selling vegetables on the roadside on her way to work that morning. Morning vegetables were cheap and fresh, so she’d bought a bag of tomatoes and celery.
The Wood-type uncle began propagating the tomatoes and celery to feed everyone.
But by the second day, he couldn’t keep it up.
If this had been Song Jingshuo, with no one to guide him, he’d have been completely baffled.
Fortunately, the uncle wasn’t a big-city finance guy. He’d originally joined the horticulture company because he was good at growing things.
After some thought, he figured it out—rapid propagation had exhausted the nutrients in the potted soil. They needed fertilizer.
The boss had also survived.
The uncle gave the boss a choice: everyone’s piss and shit—or the arowana fish in your tank.
The boss didn’t want to eat shit, so with a heavy heart, he chose to sacrifice his beloved arowanas.
Employees: The boss has immeasurable merit.
And so, they made it through seven days.
On the seventh day, everyone sat in the reception area, watching Jiang Cheng speak on the TV on the wall.
The boss sighed and stood up: “Alright. Time to save ourselves.”
“But—we only have one Wood-type superpower. How are we supposed to save ourselves? We don’t even have proper weapons, let alone armor.”
Armor was the most important thing.
You could grab a chair and sort of call it a weapon.
But without armor, humans and zombies weren’t on equal footing.
“Ahem!” The boss said, “If we don’t have armor, then let’s make some.”
The boss placed his hand on an abstract-shaped metal chair—and the chair began to deform, slowly taking the shape of armor.
Employees: “…”
The boss: “Actually, I just discovered I have superpowers.”
Employees: “…”
Like we believe that.
All that cunning was usually spent on office politics.
There was no businessman without a few tricks up his sleeve—keeping his trump card hidden until the very last moment.
What a sly fox.
The materials for making armor and weapons were already available.
Because the company had a fitness room, and all the equipment inside was metal—more than enough.
Don’t forget—working out is also called “pumping iron.”
The boss was a fitness enthusiast.
But as everyone watched the boss laboring away making armor, someone said: “Even with armor, it’s still dangerous. Could we make something like a turtle shell—a shield we can carry over our heads as we move?”
“That would be so heavy. Can we even walk with that?”
“What if we put wheels from the office chairs on it?”
“Huh?” The boss stopped, thought for a moment, and said, “Let’s try it!”
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