Director Yu watched helplessly as his boss was dragged off by those people.
Someone came over to greet him too—the electric-type young men he’d met yesterday. He asked nervously: “D-do I have to go with the combat team too?”
Some of the young men said: “You’d better train more first.”
Others said: “Why not just go into battle? The adrenaline might push you to break through.”
In the end, they didn’t let Director Yu go—not only was his superpower still a bit weak, but he was also a little overweight. They were afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Most survivors were trapped in high-rises in the city. Taking the elevator wasn’t safe, so they had to climb the stairs floor by floor.
Just the stair-climbing alone would be too much for Director Yu.
The young men instructed him: “While we’re away, you have to run on your own. You absolutely must run.”
His stamina and lung capacity had to improve.
Everyone said: “Even if zombies are chasing you, you’d need it to escape!”
They were curious: “How did you survive last time?”
Director Yu chuckled: “I was on vacation last time.”
He’d found a grassland ranch resort with very few people.
There were only two or three zombies, and everyone worked together to kill them. Then they learned the whole country had fallen, and the tourists were too afraid to leave.
The resort had plenty of food stockpiled—and more importantly, a whole flock of sheep.
Later on, they ate mutton every single day. To this day, Director Yu still didn’t really care for lamb.
It had scarred him.
—
President Xu was dragged by the metal-types to a young man named Cui Haiyang: “This is the guy. He’s decent.”
Cui Haiyang’s eyes lit up. He immediately started manhandling President Xu—squeezing his arms and patting his chest: “Big bro, nice muscles.”
Cui Haiyang waved his hand: “You’re on my team.”
Just like that, President Xu was assigned.
President Xu ate breakfast, received his armor and crescent-blade shovel, and listened as Cui Haiyang briefly outlined his job duties.
To be fair, metal-types were absolutely the model workers among superpower users—good for both offense and labor.
On the road, their main job was maintaining the sharpness of the vehicles’ “blades,” keeping them in prime condition so that any zombie bold enough to charge in would have its head fly right off.
Cui Haiyang said: “We metal-types do more, so we earn more. Every day, on top of the combat team performance points, we also get fixed bonus points. If there’s overtime, we get overtime points too.”
“…” President Xu said, “There’s overtime?”
“Yeah. Like when something’s needed urgently. Or when a big batch of people suddenly shows up and we have to rush out a bunch of armor, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Let me tell you—metal-types have the highest value. Work hard, Brother Xu.”
The combat team really did have good perks. At the vehicle door, the driver handed each person two chocolate bars.
For replenishing energy during battle.
President Xu tucked them into his pocket.
As a newcomer, President Xu wasn’t used to fighting with superpowers yet.
Cui Haiyang: “No worries. With those muscles, you don’t even need superpowers.”
President Xu reached out and tugged at the chains draped around Cui Haiyang’s armor: “What’s with the look?”
This young man named Cui Haiyang had chains wrapped around his armor—giving off a post-apocalyptic punk vibe.
Cui Haiyang grinned: “You’ll see when the time comes.”
—
When they arrived at their destination and entered the building, President Xu gripped his crescent-blade shovel tightly.
Though he was older, he’d been a gym-goer for years—he didn’t want to be looked down on by these young guys.
But he was also afraid of life-threatening danger, and part of him wanted to hang back and slack off.
He was torn.
Inside the hallway, some office doors were wide open, and zombies came shambling toward the noise.
President Xu started getting nervous.
Cui Haiyang walked in front, slapped his hand against his body, and flicked two fingers forward. Several chains shot through the air like snakes.
They wrapped around a zombie’s neck and whirred at high speed—and its head dropped right off.
The headless zombie collapsed to the ground.
It turned out those weren’t chains—they were chainsaws. Saws!
President Xu’s mouth hung wide open. So superpowers could be used like this?
This—this was—
All thoughts of slacking off and avoiding danger vanished!
His blood was boiling!
What did I build these muscles for? This is exactly what they’re for.
President Xu charged at the zombies with his crescent-blade shovel, yelling “Ahhhh!”—and before he even reached them, the blade automatically extended and thrust forward.
A head hit the floor!
What a rush!
The stronger superpower users like Cui Haiyang were each leading their own teams today.
Cui Haiyang led one team, Guo Jun led one, Sister Pan led one, Gao Yuxuan led one, Su Yu led one, Wu Jiancheng led one.
Everyone had now come to accept that superpower users, at least within the combat teams, would take the lead. Ordinary people would follow.
Li Jiangbing was also a superpower user, but his ability wasn’t combat-oriented, so he didn’t lead a team. He stuck with Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng’s superpower wasn’t combat-oriented either—but she had Moli. And Moli’s combat prowess was so formidable that no superpower user dared claim they could match it.
After all, Director Guo had died in Moli’s jaws.
Today, Zhou Wang and Xiao Huang were also kept by Jiang Cheng’s side, not sent out as separate team leaders. Because the destination for Jiang Cheng’s team today had a mutant zombie.
The distress message said: “It’s like a spider—it can climb walls and walk on ceilings. It’s incredibly fast!”
As soon as Xiao Huang entered the building, he sensed it: “A bit dangerous.”
But nowhere near as dangerous as Director Guo.
Were they incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky? On their very first day out, they’d encountered Director Guo—which had raised everyone’s threshold dramatically.
Even Brother Dong had come along today.
Because the distress message mentioned “fast,” Jiang Cheng had Zhou Wang bring Brother Dong too.
Brother Dong had rested for two days and was starting to feel a bit more energized.
As long as you lived among people, you could absorb a little of their vitality.
Two wind-type superpower users quickly located the “spider zombie” mentioned in the message.
It really did look like a spider—it had eight legs. Actually, no—six legs and two arms.
Those six legs were real human legs. Two of them still had pants legs hanging off them, though the fabric had rotted away from the body—clearly they belonged to its own body.
The other four legs were bare human legs, two of which appeared to be female.
When the zombie crawled on the ground, its belly faced down and its back faced up.
Two arms in front, six legs bent downward in the back—it really did look like a spider. The person who’d sent the distress message hadn’t been wrong.
It couldn’t spin webs—it wasn’t a real spider after all. But it could scale walls, and when crawling upside-down on the ceiling, it still moved like a blur, effortlessly defying gravity.
Watching the zombie zip across the ceiling, Li Jiangbing grew anxious and kept urging Moli: “Go on, little one—go! Get it!”
Moli only glanced at it and replied: “Meow~”
Jiang Cheng fell silent.
Li Jiangbing asked: “What did he say?”
Jiang Cheng said: “He said ‘it’s not worth my time.’”
Li Jiangbing: “…”
Was he really turning his nose up at a zombie for not being strong enough?
Sure enough, Moli wasn’t needed. Though the spider zombie was fast, Zhou Wang and Brother Dong were fast too.
They chased it like the wind, hacking off one leg after another. The spider zombie grew slower and slower, until finally its head was severed too.
Thoroughly dead.
Everyone gathered around the monster and sighed: “How could a person turn into something like this?”
Jiang Cheng also stared at the deformed zombie.
If a “god” was testing her, was it also this “god” that was mutating humans into monsters?
This “god” couldn’t even be satisfied with ordinary zombies—it was starting to create grotesque things out of sheer morbid curiosity.
During the midday break, she pulled out her silenced phone and saw a missed call from the property management office—probably Yang Xinyan.
Jiang Cheng called back: “…Is that so? That’s great. Okay, give me the phone number, I’ll call them.”
After hanging up, Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow: “Besides us, someone else has also established a provisional government.”
Everyone was surprised.
She dialed the number, and it was picked up immediately: “Hello?”
Jiang Cheng said: “Hello, this is Jiang Cheng from the Tech District.”
The voice on the other end sounded delighted: “Hello, Jiang Cheng—we’ve finally reached you.”
Jiang Cheng: “Could you tell me about your situation over there?”
The other person composed themselves and said: “We’re in Shilong District. We’ve confirmed that no one from the Shilong District government survived. We’ve already established the Shilong District Provisional Government. As for what to do next, we were hoping to get your advice and assistance.”
Jiang Cheng asked in detail about their situation.
They had gathered over a hundred people, half of whom were colleagues from the same state-owned enterprise. The rest had banded together over the past few days.
They’d already taken control of an old residential community and settled in when they saw Jiang Cheng’s live broadcast. They didn’t want to keep hiding—they’d decided to step up too.
The city government building had already been visited by Jiang Cheng and her people. And since what Jiang Cheng had established was also a district-level government, they’d followed suit.
Today, they’d gone to the Shilong District government building and confirmed there were no survivors. They’d established the Shilong District Provisional Government right there on the spot, modeling it after the Tech District Provisional Government.
Jiang Cheng asked: “Do you have a sustainable food source?”
The other person said: “Yes. We emptied a supermarket and stockpiled a lot of supplies. We also have a wood-type superpower user—she’s already started planting vegetables.”
As long as they had a wood-type user who could provide a sustainable food source, they’d have a foundation for growth.
Whatever else they lacked would gradually come.
Jiang Cheng said: “How about we meet? At the TV station.”
The other person sounded surprised.
Jiang Cheng explained: “First, an in-person meeting is more convenient. Second, we’ve received a massive number of distress calls. Today, we’ve already expanded our teams and split into seven groups to rescue survivors. But given the size of the entire city of S, we’re still too thin on the ground.”
“Now that you’re here, I’d like to ask you to take over rescue operations in Shilong District. If possible, let’s meet at the TV station. If everything checks out, we’ll do a live broadcast, announce your information publicly, and officially hand over Shilong District’s affairs to you.”
“I also hope this will encourage more capable people to step forward.”
“Since the government is gone, we’ll establish one ourselves.”
The voice on the other end seemed to catch fire: “Alright, Jiang Cheng—see you at the TV station!”
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