Chapter 125: Xu Sa Gets Bitten
That evening, after Lu Weiyi and his team returned, Zhuang Mingxu Sared his plan and mentioned that he intended to hire workers to clear collapsed buildings and prepare the land.
“Cleaning up the rubble will take a lot of manpower, right? Are you paying with supplies each day? Won’t that be a loss?” Ning Yuan asked.
“No need—I can just throw the debris into my spatial storage and dump it elsewhere,” Lu Weiyi said before Zhuang Mingxu could respond. “If that doesn’t work, you can just designate an area around it and pile up the debris there as a wall.”
“That works too. Once it’s enclosed as a private area, it’ll also be easier to sort materials later,” Lin Yimu added. Recently, all their supplies had been dug out from rubble, often covered in dirt. Especially clothes, which needed washing before they could be stored.
“As for the land, we can get an earth-element ability user to turn it over—quick and efficient,” Lu Weiyi added.
“I’ve already planned out the area. We’ll get started tomorrow. You’ve all been out for days—just treat tomorrow as a rest day,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
But Lu Weiyi shook his head. “Let’s go now. We should make the most of the daylight.” After days of early starts and late returns, Lu Weiyi’s fair skin had tanned to a sun-kissed tone. Looking out the window, he said softly, “Who knows what the weather will be like later?”
That same night, Lu Weiyi spent half an hour relocating all the large collapsed debris from the Greenfield community to the outskirts, forming a makeshift wall and leaving just a two-car-wide opening as an entrance.
The next morning, the rest of the team spent an hour clearing the remaining areas. Once the tiled ground was loosened and the park’s vegetation cleaned out, a small combined residential and farming zone was essentially completed.
That same day, Zhang Peng brought word: the military was willing to move people in. Zhuang Mingxu said they could move in at any time, and by that afternoon, he brought over more than a thousand people.
Since there was no rent, Zhang Peng simply had them help with the labor for the rest of the afternoon. With powers and strength combined, they quickly turned the area into properly planned farmland.
Zhuang Mingxu’s farming plan officially began.
Lu Weiyi’s group had spent a few days specifically targeting pharmacies and had grown increasingly coordinated. With more supplies gathered each day, the number of zombies they killed also increased.
After all, their main goal was collecting supplies; killing zombies was secondary. From 40–50 zombies on the first day, it had gone up to over 100 daily, but not much beyond that.
As for crystal cores, they eventually agreed to distribute them based on ability level: B-ranks received 10, C-ranks 5, and ordinary people 3. Even base-supporting ability users like Bai Miao received 3.
Currently, only Lu Weiyi was B-rank; the rest all received 5. Though this seemed unfair to physically capable non-powered members like Lin Yimu, the team relied heavily on higher-level ability users in critical moments—especially since Lu Weiyi basically handled every aspect of their lives. Once the arrangement was announced, no one objected.
Zombies with abilities were rare. Most of the crystal cores were gray, from normal zombies. Less frequently, they found green, colorless, or brown cores (wood, water, or earth types). Fire and metal were nearly all down to luck.
Lu Weiyi’s ideal plan was for everyone to consume crystals matching their own attributes for the best enhancement results. But clearly, that wasn’t realistic. Now, they just took whatever they could get, rotating matching types when available.
Once they’d hit up most of the pharmacies, Lu Weiyi’s group turned their attention to the factories around Qingyuan. Thanks to the space ability, they operated like raiders—taking whatever they found.
Especially with Lu Weiyi’s fast and effortless collection ability, they didn’t even need to haul anything. Once at a site, everyone just had to guard him while he gathered. They could kill zombies with maximum efficiency without risking their lives. By day’s end, they harvested a lot of supplies and killed plenty of zombies.
“Is it just me, or is it getting hotter?” Wu Yue asked, wiping sweat from his forehead onto his shoulder after looting a snack haul from a food processing plant. As he ran back to the vehicle, he added, “Am I imagining things?”
“Nope,” said Xu Sa, already in the driver’s seat. He glanced at his wrist as he started the car. “The temperature’s rising. It’s just after eleven, and I’ve already got sunburn. Yesterday I didn’t start peeling until about one. Normally, the hottest time of day is between two and four, so it’s only going to get worse.”
“It’s that bad?” As several vehicles started up, Gu Qingyue spoke into the radio. “I’m just feeling hot, not burned. Anyone else got sunburn?”
“Me,” Lin Yimu replied.
Chen Zhong: “Same.”
Shen Xing: “Me too.”
After a pause, Li Zhuang’s voice came over the radio. “All of us without abilities. Are you guys feeling anything else?”
“Not for now,” Lin Yimu answered on behalf of the group.
“There’s a meatpacking plant on the next street, right next to a boarding primary school with staff dorms. Some in the base reported seeing child zombies nearby. Should we go now and rest after, or hit it first and find a rest stop afterward?” Li Zhuang asked while looking at the map.
Clearly, the question was directed at the non-powered group, since the heat was taking more of a toll on them.
“…Let’s just go now. We’ll rest longer in the afternoon,” Lin Yimu replied.
“There might be meat,” Xu Sa said with a chuckle.
The group of fourteen still traveled in two vehicles: one car and one large truck. Most of the time, the truck was just for show—it rarely carried actual supplies.
After driving for half an hour along the bumpy road, the group arrived at the entrance of the meat processing plant.
“The front gate is locked,” reported Ning Yuan over the walkie-talkie from the lead truck.
“Leave the driver behind, Antonio will pick the lock. The rest, deal with the zombies that followed us,” Li Zhuang, in the car right behind, instructed. As he spoke, he had Xu Sa drive the car forward a bit and opened the car door. Everyone quickly jumped out, unleashing various abilities on the approaching zombies.
This was a small-scale meat processing plant, covering about a thousand square meters, focused on meat processing rather than livestock farming.
The main gate was made of iron bars. If it were just a person, they could easily climb over, but since they had vehicles, it was safer to drive in and lock the gate again.
Antonio was no stranger to picking locks. Even before getting close, he had already begun manipulating the lock with his ability. By the time he reached the gate, it was open. He pushed the gate open to let the truck in and cautiously peeked inside to assess the surroundings.
“Come in,” he called from the gate once all three vehicles had entered. Antonio stood by the gate, locking it immediately after everyone was inside. Meanwhile, the others grouped up and began dealing with the zombies emerging from the staff dormitory.
Thanks to Lu Weiyi’s almost cheat-like ability, they no longer insisted on killing all the zombies every time. As soon as the retreat signal was given from outside, those closest to the gate quickly pulled back inside.
“I’ll collect the crystal cores, go on ahead,” Lu Weiyi said to Liu Rui, who was about to use his curved blade to dig out the cores.
“Got it,” Liu Rui replied and quickly entered the compound.
Lu Weiyi used his little green vine to sweep through the pile of fallen zombies, collecting all the crystal cores. When he turned around, he saw Xu Sa still lagging behind. As a non-ability user, Xu Sa had to fight zombies at close range, relying solely on his body to dodge their attacks. He often got injured but endured it silently.
Though Lu Weiyi felt for him, this was just how people survived in the apocalypse. Even he got injured from time to time. All he could do was privately give Xu Sa more medical supplies.
“Hurry up!” Lu Weiyi, who was about to retreat, flung out his vine again and extracted crystal cores from a few nearby zombies.
He saw Xu Sa move his lips as if trying to say something, but no sound came out. Xu Sa seemed like he was about to turn and leave, but his movement suddenly slowed, and he collapsed halfway through the turn. At that moment, a small zombie, about half a person tall, suddenly leapt out from behind the four zombies that had just been harvested by Lu Weiyi and lunged at Xu Sa.
Lu Weiyi quickly flung his green vine toward it, but Liu Rui, seeing what was happening, threw out a fire dragon at the same time. The fire and vine collided. The burning pain felt nearly real, and without Lu Weiyi having to command it, the vine withdrew on its own.
“Xu Sa—!”
“Brother Sa!”
Both Lu Weiyi and Liu Rui shouted at once. Antonio hurled a flying knife straight into the little zombie’s forehead, killing it instantly, but the falling zombie’s body hit Xu Sa hard on the back of the neck.
With that zombie’s appearance, twenty or thirty more little zombies poured in from the back door beside the main gate. Lacking intelligence, they crowded into the narrow entry, blocking it temporarily, but some were still able to unleash abilities.
Lu Weiyi quickly used his vine to toss the zombies aside and pulled Xu Sa up, retreating into the plant’s courtyard.
Antonio locked the door again and headed toward the nearest room.
In the small courtyard, about a dozen zombies—likely all former staff from the dormitory—were still present.
They weren’t difficult to deal with, but Lu Weiyi didn’t want to waste time. He swung his vine again, collecting crystal cores while forcefully carving out a path through the zombies. Dragging Xu Sa along, he moved forward. Liu Rui, right behind him, unleashed another fire dragon, clearing out the majority of them. The others quickly finished off the rest.
The meat processing plant had cold storage units and its own power supply, though not all were connected. The moment they entered, a strong stench of rot filled the air. Normally it would’ve made people vomit, but no one had the energy to care. All eyes were on Xu Sa, who had a fingernail-sized black wound on the back of his neck. The blackness was slowly spreading outward.
I hope he’ll be ok