Chapter 134: There’s Always Cannon Fodder Looking to Die
Zhuang Mingxu tugged on Lu Weiyi’s hand and said softly, “I’m fine. Xiao Xi steadied the wheelchair.
Those guys were kicked out of the Li family a couple of days ago. It’s likely Li Ling secretly sent them here.” As for the reason—it was probably to vent anger, while also testing their strength.
“Beat them up and send them back. Just don’t kill them,” Lu Weiyi said. When someone delivers a chance to make an example, you take it.
“We didn’t mean to—”
“Liu Rui, leave one leg each,” Lu Weiyi cut off Song Qi mid-sentence with a cold command.
Liu Rui, standing in front, paused briefly, then summoned three marble-sized fireballs that shot straight at the knees of three men. As soon as they penetrated the skin, he conjured two more for the remaining two.
Song Qi himself was a fire-type ability user. While he was a bit surprised Liu Rui could produce three fireballs at once, he didn’t take them seriously due to their small size. But the moment one touched his skin, it felt like his knee was melting. Before he could speak, screams erupted from either side of him.
“Aaahhh—” Song Qi couldn’t help screaming at the searing pain in his knee. He tried to slap at it, but the fireball had already fused with his kneecap. There was no visible flame, but the air carried the faint scent of roasting flesh.
Five ability users, not even able to react or activate their powers, all collapsed screaming, clutching their legs. The onlookers surrounding them backed away in fear, shocked at the scene.
“What’s going on here?” A group of patrolling soldiers pushed through the crowd and asked.
“They tried to kill someone. In our anger, we figured we’d have a little ability spar. Who would’ve thought they’d fake injury,” Xu Sa replied politely, though his words were not polite at all. “Everyone saw it—we only had one ability user. They had five. One versus five, and now they’re all on the ground crying. If that’s not a setup, what is?”
“He’s right. Five against one, there’s no way they were the victims.”
“Could they really be faking?”
“Why would they fake it against you guys?”
As the crowd buzzed with speculation, hitting right on the mark, Xu Sa smiled inwardly while explaining smoothly, “We’ve had bad blood with them before. Let me fill everyone in.”
Xu Sa launched into a vivid tale—how the five were once scared off, tried to scam their leader for supplies, got caught, and were kicked out. “The Li family leader was kind enough to overlook their shamelessness and even gave them supplies when kicking them out. Who knew they’d still come back to cause trouble?”
“People like that really have no bottom line. Everyone better be careful about teaming up with such people. Who knows when they’ll abandon you and run.”
Liu Rui’s attack didn’t look particularly damaging, and with the group’s shady history, Xu Sa’s story quickly turned the crowd against them. Finally, Xu Sa pretended to be generous and said, “We’ll just give 10kg of rice per person in compensation. Let the military take them away so they don’t embarrass themselves here anymore.”
So in the end, after disabling five men, they only paid 50kg of rice, and even pinned the blame on the other side. Lu Weiyi had to admit Xu Sa’s finesse was impressive.
But—
“We’re just going to let the Li family off that easy?” Lu Weiyi asked Zhuang Mingxu.
“What do you want to do?” Zhuang Mingxu asked with a smile, seeing how furious he was.
“Burn their warehouse,” Lu Weiyi said through gritted teeth.
Zhuang Mingxu shook his head. “That would be too extreme. We’re few in number. If the Li family targets us afterward, we won’t survive well in the base.”
Lu Weiyi wanted to argue, but Zhuang Mingxu continued, “They sent people to cause trouble today. If their warehouse burns down tomorrow, they’ll suspect us immediately, even without evidence.”
Lu Weiyi thought about it and realized it made sense. Still angry, he couldn’t come up with a better solution. In the end, it was Zhuang Mingxu who comforted him. “There will be chances for revenge later.”
*
Lu Xi’s injuries really weren’t serious—just a few bruises from some kicks.
That night, Li Ling sent a gift through a messenger. Xu Sa and Wu Yue received them.
“What’s the Li family trying to pull?” the group murmured in the dining hall as they casually did their own things, occasionally glancing toward the parlor where the two were exchanging pleasantries while subtly probing the messenger.
“Probably just trying to be the first to show submission after seeing our strength,” Zhuang Mingxu said casually as he helped Zhuang Ai Yi play a newly downloaded cartoon.
“Did it feel good to teach them a lesson?” Antonio asked Liu Rui, curiously.
“Not bad…” Liu Rui replied while munching on cucumber-flavored chips, his eyes shining—whether from the chips or from the satisfaction of dishing out punishment was unclear.
“Liu Rui was so cool today,” Gu Qingyue praised.
“Exactly! Just whoosh whoosh whoosh—those fireballs flew out like nothing,” Lu Xi said excitedly, reenacting the scene despite the smell of ointment on him. “Too awesome. If my ability weren’t so useless, I would’ve taken revenge myself.”
“You’re the one who’s useless.” Mental-type abilities were among the most sought-after by major bases in the later stages of the previous life, but to Lu Xi, they were practically worthless. Lu Weiyi shot him a look and said, “Tomorrow, you’ll come with us to hunt zombies.”
He used to think it was enough for Lu Xi to be smart — as long as his powers could help him escape in danger, that would suffice. But now, he realized that wasn’t enough. Who knew what might happen in the future? It was better for him to learn more; who knew what might become useful.
“Okay,” Lu Xi stuck out his tongue. He wasn’t scared anyway. With Lu Weiyi around, he knew he’d be protected.
After sending off the people Li Ling had sent, Xu Sa and Wu Yue came in and immediately chugged down a glass of water.
“Talkative guy — worse than me,” Xu Sa complained.
“What did they want?” Lu Weiyi got straight to the point.
“They said they were here to apologize on behalf of Song Qi and the others, that their personal grudges had dragged us in — very sorry,” Wu Yue chuckled and shook his head. “Probably afraid we’ll retaliate with fire.”
As long as they weren’t looking for trouble, Lu Weiyi was fine with it. He nodded and got up to head to bed.
*
The next morning, the group headed out again at 5 a.m., this time to hunt zombies.
It was Lu Xi’s first time going outside the base since arriving, and he was full of curiosity, constantly looking around on the way.
As they approached the city, Li Zhuang began assigning tasks. “The zombie concentration point will be in the middle of Kangding Road. We’ve been there before — high-rise buildings on both sides have partially collapsed and blocked the road. We can lure the zombies there. Ability users will be stationed in the collapsed buildings on both sides and attack from above.”
“Lu Weiyi, Antonio, Liu Rui, Xu Sa, Ning Yuan, Wu Yue, and I — the seven of us will attack from the buildings. Gu Qingyue, Gu Qingzhi, and Lu Xi will be in one group. Xiong Jie, Chen Zhong, and Li Dongsheng will be in another. Lin Yimu and Shen Xing in a third. These three groups will be responsible for luring zombies. Every hour, bring a batch back. No matter how many, we’ll take care of them all within that hour.”
“Lu Weiyi will give you blood packs and loudspeakers. Use the loudspeakers to attract zombies. Use the blood packs sparingly — and never put them on your body. If the number of zombies exceeds expectations or there’s an emergency, prioritize your own safety and hide. We’ll come find you when we can.”
“For the first batch of zombies, Antonio and I will lure them over and do a demo. If anyone has objections, speak now.”
After Li Zhuang finished, there was silence on the radio. After a moment, Lu Weiyi spoke up, “Lu Xi will follow me. I have something else I need him for later.”
“Okay,” Li Zhuang replied. “We’re heading to Kangding Road now.”
*
Two hours later, the three vehicles reached the dead end of Kangding Road. After clearing the surrounding zombies, Li Zhuang pointed at the collapsed buildings on both sides and said, “You guys go up first and position yourselves. Scatter some blood packs around to draw the zombies in, then attack with abilities from a distance.”
As he spoke, he used his ability to reinforce the collapsed structures, making sure they wouldn’t fall further. “Kid, put away the cars. Replace them with two trucks — in case something goes wrong, they’ll provide more resistance.”
Lu Weiyi had Lu Xi stand firmly by his side, then started putting the two cars into his spatial storage. After storing one, he frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Li Zhuang asked, since Lu Weiyi was usually smooth and quick about it.
“…It’s full,” Lu Weiyi replied.
Worried it might affect the upcoming operation, Lu Weiyi simply pulled two trucks out and parked them somewhere out of the way.
The trading hall at the base clearly listed high-quality jade as a wanted item. From time to time, Lu Xi and Dean would bring a few pieces back, and Lu Weiyi would casually toss them into the space. He could sense the small green vine growing longer and the space expanding, but hadn’t paid close attention to the limit. Now that items wouldn’t go in anymore, he realized his space wasn’t unlimited after all.
Not only was Lu Weiyi surprised — the others were too. Every time they went on a mission, the trucks were just for show. Nothing was ever stored in them — it all went into Lu Weiyi’s space. No matter how much there was, he could easily store it, making everyone think his space was basically infinite. So hearing it was full now left them all a little uncertain.
Li Zhuang was the first to recover, responding calmly, “Go back and unload some stuff later.”
Lu Weiyi nodded, handed Li Zhuang and Antonio the loudspeakers and blood packs they had saved from butchering mutant animals, and the two of them set off first in the truck.
*
“I’ve always been curious — just how big is a spatial ability user’s space?” Wu Yue asked Lu Weiyi as they waited, bored.
“…It’s different for everyone,” Lu Weiyi replied vaguely. He didn’t really know himself, so he made something up. After all, there weren’t many true spatial ability users, and nobody could verify it anyway. “We met a space user back in Yongping City. They said his space was about a hundred square meters. At that point, my space had already leveled up once — it was around seven or eight hundred square meters. Now that my ability has grown stronger, the space is naturally larger.”
“Seven or eight hundred square meters… Does that mean you’ve got that much stored in there?” Xu Sa’s eyes lit up as he asked for the umpteenth time, “Lu Xiaoyi, don’t you need a pet or something? Someone to eat with, drink with, chat with, sleep with — and good-looking too?”
“Scram!” Lu Weiyi said expressionlessly.
“Hahaha…”
