Jixiang Jiayuan was currently relying on Youth Apartment, one could even say they were dependent on them, yet they’d secretly swooped in and snatched up the pharmacy before Youth Apartment could. That was indeed a bit unsightly.
It didn’t align with the proper conduct of someone asking for favors.
Zhou Wang quickly changed the subject, glancing at Jiang Cheng’s team and asking, “Why are you still carrying forks?”
Several people in the group were holding U-shaped forks.
These things could only serve as auxiliary tools; they couldn’t kill zombies. To kill zombies, you either needed a blunt weapon—like a steel pipe or a spiked club—to smash their heads in, or a sharp weapon—like a cleaver, a machete, a mountain-cleaving knife, or that cool-looking steel knife of Song Jingshuo’s from a minority ethnic group—to sever their necks.
The U-shaped fork could only pin a zombie in place and hold it back.
Jiang Cheng didn’t keep any secrets. Eliminating zombies was a common cause for all of humanity, something everyone had to face together.
She told Zhou Wang, “We’re planning to study the effects of superpowers on zombies.”
“Eh?” Zhou Wang was surprised. “Does it work? I’ve seen that it doesn’t seem very effective.”
“It can be upgraded. It takes repeated practice. It’s the same principle as working out.”
Up to now, the number of superpowered individuals in Jixiang Jiayuan could be counted on one hand.
One was Zhou Wang, who had wind-based powers.
One was a young adult with fire-based powers.
Two elderly women had wood-based powers.
That was it.
Pretty bleak.
Zhou Wang casually asked, “What’s your superpower?”
Jiang Cheng only replied, “Support-type.”
She didn’t say more.
Zhou Wang was tactful enough not to pry further.
Someone in the group suddenly said to the person next to them, “Look, it’s Jiang Cheng’s cat.”
Everyone turned to look, but only caught a glimpse of a receding dark shadow.
Mo Li didn’t take the usual path. He ran along the community’s fence, leaping from one concrete pillar to another. He was incredibly fast; by the time everyone turned to look, he had already darted out of sight.
Judging by the direction, he was heading toward Mai Duoduo.
Someone worried, “Will he be okay?”
Someone else thought for a moment and said, “The zombies have been around for so long now, and Hei Li has always been free-roaming. If something was going to happen, it would have happened already. The kitten runs fast. Don’t worry.”
Another person: “Mo Li seems…”
“Eh? Isn’t he black?”
Jiang Cheng knew Mo Li had gone ahead to Mai Duoduo. She wasn’t worried. The little black cat had long since fully recovered, and had even transformed when she wasn’t looking, taking out four or five zombies in one go—proof of his strength.
As for Zhou Wang… Jiang Cheng thought for a moment. Superpowers had emerged alongside zombies; they surely weren’t useless. She was now dedicated to exploring the applications of each superpower.
“Brother Zhou,” Jiang Cheng suggested, “could you go scout out Mai Duoduo first?”
Zhou Wang: “…”
Zhou Wang pointed at himself with his index finger, seeking confirmation.
“Yes,” Jiang Cheng said. “I was just thinking, what can your wind-type superpower actually do? It can’t just be used for running away—that would be a waste. The supermarket has a large interior space; with one or two hundred people, the density would be low enough to move around freely. And your speed is clearly faster than even the second-generation zombies. I estimate they won’t be able to catch you.”
The speed of second- and third-generation zombies had been enhanced; they ran very fast.
Back when Jiang Cheng and Shen Wei were fighting for their lives in that house, Jiang Cheng had swung her bat blindly into the air in front of her, relying on the second-generation zombies’ lack of reasoning and their tendency to attack in straight lines. Every swing landed.
If it weren’t for that, fighting a second-generation zombie one-on-one would still be quite dangerous. They were just too fast.
Jiang Cheng’s gaze was full of encouragement: “Brother Zhou, how about giving it a try?”
Several people nearby looked over.
Zhou Wang’s mouth twitched. He thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and decided to agree: “Alright, I’ll give it a try.”
Since heaven had given him this gift of speed, he might as well test it. Besides, he was still wearing his armor.
Once tested, he’d have a better idea of his capabilities in the future.
Zhou Wang started running and was gone in a flash.
Everyone let out exclamations of amazement.
Someone reached out a hand, frustrated: “I’ve had a headache this whole time, so why hasn’t my superpower shown up yet? Come on, hurry up and appear!”
It was now basically confirmed that a headache was a precursor to a superpower awakening. Besides Sister Pan, three more people had awakened their superpowers that morning and afternoon.
One of them was a fire-type who, upon awakening, produced a massive ball of flame that instantly dwarfed Wu Jiancheng’s little spark.
His name was Cao Jiacai, a security guard at Youth Apartment. He was in his late thirties, almost forty, making him the oldest among the guards. Xiao Fang was the youngest, only nineteen.
He also received a set of armor and headed toward Mai Duoduo with the others.
This time, all the superpowered individuals—even those with weaker combat abilities—had come out. The main goal was to test their powers.
As the saying goes, “Within three steps, there must be an antidote.”
The zombie virus—everyone now felt it wasn’t quite accurate to call it that anymore, but they’d stick with the term for now—had given zombies their tough, non-decaying physiques, but it had also given humans superpowers that science couldn’t explain.
So could these superpowers perhaps be the very antidote to the zombie virus’s deadly poison?
Everyone had been discussing it all day, and they all felt it was very likely.
Because Cao Jiacai’s fire-type superpower was just too eye-catching. Quite a few people who hadn’t awakened any superpower despite trying everything refused to give up and went around touching fire, burning several people in the process.
As Zhou Wang was running, he spotted the black cat.
This cat was quite famous—people in all the surrounding neighborhoods knew about it: the cat belonging to that girl from Youth Apartment.
The image of the black cat perched on the girl’s left shoulder was just too memorable.
Mo Li was running when he suddenly sensed something. He whipped his head around for a quick glance and saw Zhou Wang catching up.
Without a word, Mo Li suddenly accelerated.
Zhou Wang was astonished. He’d never owned a cat and didn’t know much about them—could cats run this fast? He sped up too, and the man and the cat ran side by side, surprisingly evenly matched.
As they ran, they reached the supermarket entrance, and the black cat vanished in a flash.
Zhou Wang couldn’t just stop for a black cat, so he kept running with lingering confusion, wondering where the cat had gone.
The truth was, people had their own paths, and cats had theirs.
As Mo Li ran, he suddenly leaped up, kicked off a tree trunk, rebounded, and dove straight into a ventilation duct on the building.
He wasn’t taking the same route as Zhou Wang.
The whole process was like lightning—Zhou Wang had only blinked, and Mo Li was already gone.
Zhou Wang had no choice but to keep running on his own.
The supermarket’s main entrance was wide open, and the air curtain unit had been blowing nonstop for two days and nights, still working.
As Zhou Wang passed through the air curtain, he had a new insight into airflow control. He pondered it as he ran, and sure enough, his speed increased a little more.
Just as Jiang Cheng had said, superpowers could indeed be improved!
Zhou Wang ran into the supermarket. Before even reaching the shopping area, he already spotted zombies—security guards, customers, janitors, cashiers.
Some were even familiar faces.
Although Zhou Wang was fast, this was his first time charging into a horde of zombies alone, so he was still a bit nervous. He held his breath, put all his strength into it, and pushed his speed even higher.
The earlier insight from the air curtain airflow had improved his control over air currents without adding any mental strain.
But now, holding his breath and pushing his speed with force noticeably increased the cognitive load on his brain. Still, it was within a tolerable range.
Zhou Wang charged into the supermarket.
Just as Jiang Cheng had said, one or two hundred people was a pretty small number for a large supermarket.
Although facing one or two hundred zombies alone was indeed unnerving, the supermarket’s interior was still quite spacious. The distance between zombies was enough for Zhou Wang to run several laps before any two zombies could even get close to each other.
After just a few strides, Zhou Wang’s fear subsided significantly, replaced by elation—with this superpower, what was there to fear? If he couldn’t win, he could just run!
It wasn’t invincibility, but survival was definitely guaranteed.
Because he was running so fast, by the time a regular zombie reacted to him, he was already far away. The zombie would lose its target and revert to its aimless wandering state.
Second-generation zombies gave chase but couldn’t catch him. Using store shelves as cover, he quickly cut corners and changed direction, causing even the second-generation zombies to lose visual contact and give up the chase.
Zhou Wang’s confidence soared! He couldn’t help feeling eager to try something.
And try he did!
He made his move.
Zhou Wang’s weapon was a rolling pin.
But this wasn’t an ordinary rolling pin—it was one made of ebony.
Middle-aged men seemed to have a genetic predisposition for fondling wood, but woodworking as a hobby was quite expensive, and his wife wouldn’t allow it.
Zhou Wang had used a little trick—he bought his wife an ebony rolling pin, hard and heavy. She found it too heavy and didn’t like using it, so it became his own fidget toy instead.
After the zombie outbreak, Zhou Wang gave his wife the kitchen knife for self-defense and kept the rolling pin for himself.
After all, both blunt and sharp weapons could kill zombies.
Zhou Wang figured he’d use his speed to strike zombies, and in theory, kinetic energy would translate into impact force.
The theory was sound—he did indeed smash a zombie’s skull in one blow. But Zhou Wang forgot that force was mutual. His hand gripping the rolling pin endured the same amount of force.
He could manipulate airflow, but his muscles and strength weren’t enhanced. The moment the zombie’s skull shattered, the rolling pin flew out of his hand.
Zhou Wang sprinted, trying to catch the flying rolling pin in midair. If this were an open square, his speed would have made it no problem—but this was a supermarket.
Zhou Wang watched helplessly as his ebony rolling pin landed on top of a shelf. Unfortunately, the items on top of that shelf were soft, and the wooden rod sank in without bouncing back out.
Surrounded by zombies, Zhou Wang didn’t dare linger. He quickly grabbed a random rolling pin from the kitchenware aisle and rapidly retreated from the supermarket.
The main force waiting outside had deliberately slowed their approach and stayed clear of the supermarket, all waiting for him.
Zhou Wang ran back and finally stopped, bending over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Though running itself was effortless, constantly pumping his legs was still tiring—middle-aged folks just couldn’t handle it as well.
Li Jiangbing was observant and noticed right away, puzzled: “Why did you switch to a different rod?”
The color wasn’t even the same.
Jiang Cheng observed more closely: “Are you running faster?”
Zhou Wang straightened up, planted his hands on his hips, grimaced through a couple of ragged breaths, and finally got his breathing even: “Yeah. When I passed through that downward-blowing air curtain at the entrance, I suddenly got a feel for the airflow. My control improved right away.”
This was valuable experience.
Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan reminded each other: “Write that down! Write it down!”
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