Chapter 135: Hunt Time
Amid the banter, a loudspeaker voice rang out clearly: “Zhejiang Wenzhou, Zhejiang Wenzhou — the Jiangnan Leather Factory has gone bankrupt…”
The truck drew closer.
That loudspeaker… The group chuckled and looked toward the distance. Li Zhuang was steadily driving the truck, while Antonio had the passenger-side window cracked open just enough to stick the speaker out. The sound carried clearly, and Antonio would occasionally check the number of zombies following them through the rearview mirror.
When the truck was only a few hundred meters from the dead end, Li Zhuang suddenly accelerated and sped forward. At the same time, Antonio turned off the loudspeaker. The moment the vehicle stopped, both men jumped out, and Lu Weiyi quickly stored the blocking truck into his space.
He used the little green vine to bind them and help them climb up. The zombies, attracted by the scent of blood in the alley, no longer needed guidance and started pouring in directly.
“Attack!” With Li Zhuang’s shout, a variety of abilities burst forth at once, dazzling to the eyes.
Lu Weiyi, still remembering he needed to “teach” Lu Xi, didn’t waste time with the others. He controlled his small green vine, made a sweep through the zombie horde, and in less than two minutes, the forty or so zombies that had been lured over by the two men were lying on the ground.
“…” Everyone looked at each other, then all turned their gazes to Lu Weiyi.
“Lu Xiaoyi, are you showing off?” Xu Sa complained. His control over his power wasn’t that good yet, and he had come here to train. Who knew he’d end up with zero hands-on experience?
Lu Xi hadn’t understood what had just happened at first. But after hearing Xu Sa’s tone, his eyes were practically sparkling with admiration as he looked at Lu Weiyi.
“I’m taking Lu Xi somewhere else, I’ve got things to do. You guys handle the rest,” Lu Weiyi shrugged and added, recalling Zhuang Mingxu’s words, “Today’s pay is double.”
“Stay safe,” said Li Zhuang. He looked over at the pre-assigned teams. “Who’s next?”
Gu Qingzhi glanced at Gu Qingyue, and the two of them stepped forward together. Lu Weiyi drove a car, taking Lu Xi with him down a different road.
“Brother, how did you do that just now? That was so cool!” Lu Xi assumed it was some sort of secret technique and finally got a chance to ask in private.
“I used this to directly extract the zombies’ crystal cores.” Lu Weiyi waved the small green vine in front of him. With the continual supply of jade, its range had already extended to over 400 meters.
“That’s amazing!” Lu Xi was beyond envious.
“How’s your ability level coming along?” Lu Weiyi asked. In addition to the three crystal cores everyone received daily, he had also been giving Lu Xi two more in private to help him upgrade his power.
Lu Xi pursed his lips. “So-so.”
“I told you before to train your mental shield to block attacks. Have you learned it yet?” Lu Weiyi asked.
Lu Xi shook his head, looking dejected. “Brother, I feel like my power is useless. Even Bai Miao is more useful—she may have a weak plant ability, but at least she can grow things. My ability doesn’t seem to have any purpose at all.”
“…” Lu Weiyi glanced at him but made no comment. Honestly, he had thought the same thing in his previous life.
Back then, he’d always been a slacker. With or without powers, Zhuang Mingxu took care of him, so he never cared. If it weren’t for Zhuang Mingxu helping him find a training direction, he probably would’ve died still being useless.
“I’m taking you out today so you can see what a mental-type ability is really good for,” Lu Weiyi said, then chose a small maternal and child healthcare center. “Come with me.”
Lu Weiyi got out of the car and handed Lu Xi a watermelon knife. “When you see zombies, channel your power into the blade—it’ll make cutting easier.”
Lu Xi had killed a few zombies before and wasn’t afraid. He nodded and followed Lu Weiyi. With Lu Weiyi in the lead, most of the zombies were taken out before Lu Xi even got close. Occasionally, one or two would slip past—clearly left for practice.
Eventually, Lu Weiyi led him to the rooftop of a three-story building next to the healthcare center. From there, they could clearly see the courtyard below. In the 300–400 square meter yard, forty to fifty zombies wandered aimlessly, including infant ones not even tall enough to reach their knees. They couldn’t walk yet, crawling clumsily with both hands on the ground.
“I told you before—when mental-type abilities are advanced enough, you can directly extract someone else’s crystal core,” Lu Weiyi said, looking at Lu Xi while gathering mental energy and launching it at Lu Xi’s core.
As soon as the foreign energy approached, Lu Xi sensed it. But he’d been too comfortable for too long and always thought his power was useless, so he hadn’t learned how to resist. All he could do was open his eyes wide as he felt the energy crash into his forehead. His whole body shuddered. That was the feeling of a crystal core being touched by an outside force.
“Feel that? All I have to do is make one more move, and your core will be gone. If I crush it, you’ll be an ordinary person,” Lu Weiyi explained, then withdrew the ability. “If I wanted to extract it, I could do that too. But if I destroy your head in the process, you’d die.”
“Brother… you’re a mental-type ability user?” Lu Xi was stunned.
“Yeah,” Lu Weiyi nodded. “But no one knows.”
“I won’t tell anyone,” Lu Xi promised, then asked, “Any other powers?”
“You already know about intelligence gathering. You can extend a mental thread to follow someone, like surveillance. It’s easy—try it a few times and you’ll get the hang of it.” After saying that, Lu Weiyi looked down at the yard and pointed to a few zombies that had been drawn over by their conversation. “Watch.”
Lu Xi focused on the zombies. Beside him, a wave of power stirred. A moment later, the four or five zombies below seemed to be struck by something invisible—their heads rolled off their necks and tumbled to the ground.
“That…”
“This is a concentrated mental attack technique. I call it Spirit Blade.” Lu Weiyi looked at Lu Xi and directed a Spirit Blade to lightly strike his arm. It was soundless and invisible, but clearly something had touched him—and even injured him. Lu Xi stared at the fine red line appearing on his arm, utterly stunned.
“It can also manipulate objects,” Lu Weiyi added. He casually threw a dagger to the ground. A moment later, the untouched dagger floated into the air, flew into the skull of a crawling baby zombie below, and then returned neatly to his hand.
“That’s attack. Now for defense—first, mental concealment.” Lu Weiyi said as he jumped down into the courtyard. Lu Xi watched nervously as Lu Weiyi walked among the zombies. The zombies didn’t react at all, as if they couldn’t see him. “Mental power can cover the whole body and mask your presence.”
“Next is the mental shield, similar to the concealment, but… stronger.” Lu Weiyi picked his words carefully. He then dropped the mental cover. As a circle of zombies swarmed him, Lu Xi shouted in alarm—only to see Lu Weiyi surrounded by what looked like an invisible membrane that blocked all their attacks.
Then, Lu Weiyi commanded his little green vine to harvest the zombies’ crystal cores in one sweep, climbed back up to the rooftop, and stood beside Lu Xi again.
“Is this what B-level mental abilities can do? Do you still think mental abilities are useless?” Lu Weiyi asked.
Lu Xi shook his head, his eyes sparkling, and declared, “Bro, you’re amazing! I will never think my abilities are useless again. I’m going to level up and become like you!”
“You really need to train hard. It’s been so long now, and Brother Xiong and Wu Yue awakened their abilities later than you, but they’re already better at using them. Recently, when hunting zombies, you should come out with us to practice a bit,” Lu Weiyi said.
“Okay!” Lu Xi was full of determination.
“I’ll handle the zombies inside first. Do you want to practice here or come with me?” Since they were already here, Lu Weiyi decided to take care of the zombies in the women and children’s health clinic, quickly clearing out the pharmacy inside.
“I’ll go with you.” Lu Xi, being at an eager age and not coming from a background that would make him retreat, chose to follow.
*
After a few more days of hunting zombies, Lu Weiyi felt they had enough crystal cores and decided it was time for Li Zhuang and Liu Rui to level up.
The two spent around six to seven hundred crystal cores, which was after they exchanged them for matching attribute cores at the trade hall.
When the others found out they were upgrading, they all waited in the living room, eager to see the effects right away. As soon as the two emerged, they rushed to ask them to demonstrate.
Liu Rui shyly smiled and created six fireballs the size of marbles, which circled around the group.
“Be careful, okay? I don’t want to experience the feeling of having my bones burned,” Song Qi and the others had been sent to the military for a final check-up, and their knee bones had been destroyed, with only marble-sized holes left, just as Lu Weiyi had predicted, resulting in the loss of one leg. Everyone now watched Liu Rui’s fireballs with caution.
Liu Rui chuckled and stored the fireballs away.
Just after watching Liu Rui, a circle of walls suddenly emerged from the ground, enclosing them tightly. The top of the walls reached the floor tiles beneath their feet.
It was Li Zhuang using his ability quietly.
Antonio activated his ability on his hand and punched the nearby wall. With a “thud,” the wall only showed a fist-shaped impression. As Li Zhuang activated his ability again, the wall quickly vanished.
Antonio controlled a flying knife, sending it toward the wall. It disappeared into the wall and, after a moment, he controlled it to return, making the wall return to its original state.
“Why don’t you try?” Antonio asked Liu Rui.
Liu Rui immediately created a fireball and sent it toward the earth wall. The wall absorbed the fireball, and after a brief moment, the wall seemed to be baked dry, with dust falling off.
“The temperature is indeed high.” Li Zhuang waved and showed a piece of earth from the wall. What was once firm soil was now turned into powdery charred earth. “If it were any higher, it might even turn into liquid.”
Li Zhuang removed the earth wall, and the ground returned to its original state as if nothing had happened.
“I’m envious,” Ning Yuan said, looking around. Among the five who awakened their abilities before the snowstorm, only he was still at the beginner level. He asked Lu Weiyi, “When will I level up?”
“You’ll feel it when you reach the peak of the beginner level,” Lu Weiyi responded.
“Practice, practice.”
With this setback, the abilities of the others were even more motivated. Aside from fighting every day, after obtaining crystal cores, they would use up all their energy and then continuously absorb cores to improve their abilities.
