Chapter 8: Scalded and Howling
Madness. It was absolute madness.
Wang Jiafu rubbed his eyes in sheer disbelief, desperate to convince himself he was seeing things.
The warehouse that was supposed to be packed to the ceiling was now half empty.
Zhang Qiang’s face darkened instantly. “Leader Wang, is this the explanation you promised us?”
Wang Jiafu went pale as a sheet.
“I… this…”
“You can’t even guard a stash of rations, and you call yourself a leader?!”
“When Shen Chengyin was leader, he hoarded base supplies for himself, and now look at you, Wang Jiafu! Two rotten birds of a feather, neither of you worth a damn!”
“Exactly! He definitely pocketed those rations himself!”
Everyone knew the only hard currency in the apocalypse was food. Zombie crystal cores were only useful to ability users; ordinary survivors cared about nothing but grain.
This shameless bastard Wang Jiafu had the audacity to steal the public reserves!
Wang Jiafu was choked with fury, unable to utter a defense. He was positive this half of the warehouse’s supplies had vanished right under his nose, completely without a trace. The only person capable of pulling off something like that was a spatial ability user.
As far as he knew, Hope Base had only ever had one spatial ability user: the dead Shen Chengyin.
No, that was impossible.
Could an outside spatial ability user have slipped inside the base?
Before he could piece the thought together, Zhang Qiang’s blazing fist was already hurtling straight toward his face.
Crack! The blow landed dead-center. Wang Jiafu dry-heaved a mouthful of sour bile as his clothes caught fire, scalding him so badly he began howling like a beaten dog.
Zhang Qiang was a fire-element ability user and an ex-soldier with real combat grit. That single punch nearly knocked half the life out of Wang Jiafu.
Wang Jiafu frantically summoned his ability to extinguish the flames. A pathetic trickle of water dripped onto his chest, just barely snuffing out the embers clinging to his shirt.
“You’ve got it all wrong! The supplies in the warehouse were just moved elsewhere for temporary storage—they aren’t missing!” Wang Jiafu scrambled to explain. “We’ve been bringing in too many scavenged goods lately, so we’re preparing to open a new warehouse facility!”
No one here was an idiot. Watching Wang Jiafu squirm and stammer, it was glaringly obvious he was lying through his teeth.
Zhang Qiang spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the floor. “Fine. We’ll give you one day. Tomorrow, I’d better see where that half-warehouse of grain actually went.”
Wang Jiafu nodded frantically.
The tide had already turned. Having no desire to stick around for petty drama, Su Han shook his head and slipped away from the crowd.
In just twenty-four hours, where was Wang Jiafu going to pull half a warehouse of provisions from?
Instead of feeling relieved, he was actually curious to see what scheme the man would cook up next.
As he broke away from the throngs of people, Su Han caught sight of Zhao Guang’s retreating figure. Remembering that this was the water user who had supposedly slandered Shen Chengyin, he immediately hurried after him.
Perhaps because of the chaos today, the guards who normally trailed Zhao Guang were nowhere to be seen. Quickening his pace, Su Han finally intercepted him in a secluded alleyway.
“Zhao Guang!”
The moment Zhao Guang saw Su Han, what little color remained in his face drained away.
The scrawny young man pressed timidly against the brick wall, managing a strained, uneasy smile.
“Why are you here?”
“Just came to watch the show. You saw what happened back there, right?” Su Han probed in a casual, nonchalant tone. “That Wang Jiafu is a real piece of work, embezzling public rations from the entire base!”
Zhao Guang didn’t dare speak freely, giving only a faint, muffled hum of acknowledgment.
“Pity I arrived too late to know what our previous leader was like. Everyone says he was rotten to the core, but I don’t buy it.”
A faint spark ignited in Zhao Guang’s eyes. “Why don’t you believe it?”
“When I got to Hope Base, Leader Wang had only taken over for two days. Yet all the survivors here were fed, clothed, and living in peace—it was completely different from the other hellholes out there. If the former leader had been as wicked as they say, how could he have kept this place running so smoothly?”
Listening to Su Han’s words, the corners of Zhao Guang’s lips curved into a faint, bittersweet smile.
“Yes… the former leader was a truly good man.”
Su Han’s tone whipped around like a switchblade: “Whoa, look at you, defending the guy who supposedly tried to get you killed and calling him a good person. Are you crazy?”
Zhao Guang realized his slip of the tongue, but being inherently clumsy with words, he couldn’t formulate an excuse in time. Flustered and tongue-tied, he stood frozen where he was.
Why is this guy like this?
Su Han pressed on, “Zhao Guang, I heard you have a sister. Pretty girl, isn’t she?”
That single question struck Zhao Guang like a blow to his rawest nerve. The young man went on high alert instantly.
“Who told you that?”
“Know-It-All from the mission hall.”
“What business is it of yours?”
Glaring coldly at Su Han, Zhao Guang spun on his heel and strode away.
Su Han didn’t stop him, watching the young man’s departure with a pensive gaze.
A beautiful sister, paired with a water ability that possessed zero offensive capability… Zhao Guang’s vulnerability was plain as day.
Was Wang Jiafu using the sister as leverage to hold him hostage?
When Su Han returned to the villa that night, Shen Chengyin had already turned in.
Standing at the bedroom door, Su Han knocked lightly. Regardless of whether Shen Chengyin was actually listening, he babbled on about everything he had seen and heard today.
“Zhao Guang definitely has some kind of hidden grievance. If we can track down his sister, unraveling this mess will be a whole lot easier.”
Finishing his piece, Su Han waited in silence for Shen Chengyin’s response.
The man merely rolled over under the covers, his voice bone-chillingly cold:
“You’re being noisy.”
Su Han: […]
Fine. Might as well be talking to a brick wall.
Not keen on annoying him further, Su Han gave a parting reminder before heading out: “A new batch of people is moving into the villa tomorrow. I’m afraid you’ll have to squeeze into my room and share a bed with me for now.”
Hope Base was still processing hundreds of incoming survivors every day. In the opening months of the apocalypse, infrastructure couldn’t keep pace with the influx; cramming people into available housing was simply standard procedure.
Shen Chengyin didn’t answer. Su Han wasn’t sure if the man had even registered it, but considering the male lead’s sharp wits, a minor inconvenience like this shouldn’t be something he needed to fret over.
The next morning, Su Han woke early, eager to see what theatrical excuse Wang Jiafu would offer the survivors to explain away the missing provisions.
The streets were eerily desolate, practically devoid of foot traffic, save for two or three heavily armed patrol squads making the rounds.
Security was noticeably tighter than usual. Su Han was on his guard instantly.
Shifting his path, he skipped the administration building and made a beeline straight for Hope Base’s mission hall.
Right now, that was the ultimate rumor mill in the entire compound.
Sure enough, the moment he stepped inside, a blast of sweltering heat thick with stale sweat hit him square in the face. The hall was packed to the gills.
The second Know-It-All caught sight of Su Han, he shoved frantically through the dense crowd, stumbling all the way to the boy’s side.
This time, without Su Han even needing to dangle an incentive, the scrawny man blurted everything out in sheer terror.
“Zh-Zhang Qiang is dead…”
The faint smile on Su Han’s face froze solid.
“What?”
“Zhang Qiang is dead—killed by an intermediate mutated zombie! His roommates found the corpse this morning. It had been gnawed down to practically nothing but a skeleton!” Know-It-All’s voice trembled uncontrollably as he spoke.
Zhang Qiang was easily in the upper-middle tier of combat strength across the entire base. And now, a formidable primary ability user of his caliber had been snuffed out without a whisper. Right inside the base walls, no less.
System 111, quiet for so long, suddenly sounded an alarm: [Something is wrong. This is way too early.]
In the original plot, humanity didn’t encounter intermediate zombies until a full year into the apocalypse, when ability users as a whole had advanced to intermediate ranks.
Su Han realized the discrepancy instantly.
“With that kind of slaughter going on, Zhang Qiang’s roommates didn’t hear a damn thing?”
Know-It-All nodded vigorously. “That’s the most terrifying part… They didn’t hear a single sound!”
