Chapter 158: Ning Yuan Levels Up
“You leveled up?” Li Zhuang asked.
Ning Yuan smiled. “I think so.” Among the five who had awakened powers before the heavy snow, he had been the only one who hadn’t leveled up yet. Though he never said it, he had been extremely anxious.
Now, he finally experienced what the others had described. He stretched out his hand and sent the surging energy inside him into the ice spikes. Under his control, the spikes moved as if they were alive, weaving skillfully through the zombies. Even when blocked by other water-type zombies, he could immediately detect them and use his stronger powers to crush them.
The falling raindrops were now being controlled by Ning Yuan, condensing into a curtain of water that surrounded everyone on the truck. Through the water curtain, they could see the previously incoming ice spikes and icicles now flying toward the surrounding zombies instead.
“That’s satisfying,” Xiong Jie said with relief, wiping the blood from a cut on his forehead.
“Impressive,” Xu Sa commented.
“Brother Yuan, mighty as ever!”
*
With no more zombies appearing ahead and the surrounding ones falling one after another, the tide of the battle had clearly turned in their favor.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Just as everyone was teasing Ning Yuan, none of them noticed that the truck had stopped at some point. Lu Weiyi was now walking leisurely toward them under an umbrella, calling out to the people on the truck.
No one was sure who he was talking to. As everyone looked at each other in confusion, they suddenly saw the smile on Ning Yuan’s face freeze and turn to shock before he collapsed straight to the ground.
The water curtain, no longer sustained by his ability, instantly turned into a torrential downpour, soaking everyone through. But no one cared about that right now—they all rushed to Ning Yuan’s side, calling out his name.
Lu Weiyi had sensed a strong energy surge from the back of the truck earlier and had guessed that someone was about to level up. Since only Ning Yuan had asked him for crystal cores, he quickly dealt with the zombies in front and had Lin Yimu stop the truck to go help.
Just after the zombies were cleared, a burst of energy as powerful as a full-on upgrade exploded outward. Lu Weiyi cursed under his breath and rushed over. Even so, he hadn’t made it in time.
“What’s wrong with him?” Wu Yue asked Lu Weiyi.
“Showboating gone wrong,” Lu Weiyi replied. He manipulated his little green branch to clean up the last few zombies, then had it dig for crystal cores. Climbing onto the truck, he took out several bags of crystal cores and placed them all around Ning Yuan.
It was as if some invisible force was drawing them in—each core instantly turned into a puff of powder. Lu Weiyi kept replenishing them nonstop.
“What’s going on?” Li Zhuang asked.
“When you guys leveled up, you used crystal cores to break through. Afterward, your bodies stored a large amount of energy. But Ning Yuan was already running on empty when he leveled up. He didn’t have enough stored energy, and on top of that, he used all the energy he’d just absorbed. That overdraft caused his body to crash.” Luckily, Lu Weiyi had purified crystal cores now. Otherwise, Ning Yuan would’ve had to rely on natural recovery, which would not only take a long time but might also harm his future upgrades. Still, this situation was going to consume a lot of crystal cores.
Lu Weiyi kept helping Ning Yuan absorb energy throughout the ride back to the villa base. Even by the time they got there, Ning Yuan still hadn’t woken up, though the speed at which he was absorbing the cores had slowed. And this was after consuming more than 500 cores.
Zhuang Mingxu had originally planned to talk to Lu Weiyi about the Ji family, but with all this going on, it was once again forgotten.
*
Ning Yuan didn’t wake up until after midnight. Thanks to the large number of crystal cores he had absorbed, he looked radiant—hardly like someone who had just gone through an apocalypse.
At breakfast the next day, he immediately began showing off his new ability to the others.
“You burned through almost twice as many cores as anyone else,” Lu Weiyi said, cutting down his bragging. Since they started hunting zombies, the group had been collecting more cores daily, but per Zhuang Mingxu’s advice, Lu Weiyi only distributed a fixed amount to each person—and he no longer required them to pay back any cores used for leveling up.
Seeing Ning Yuan get smug again, Lu Weiyi reminded him with a hint of pain.
“I swear I’ll work like a horse from now on and earn a ton of cores to make up for it!” Ning Yuan knew he’d overreached and nearly harmed his foundation, so he lowered his tone and bowed in apology.
Lu Weiyi wasn’t really trying to scold him; it just didn’t look good if he said nothing in front of everyone. “Anyone else close to leveling up?”
“Me,” said Gu Qingji. He was among the first wave of awakened after the snowfall.
Lu Weiyi nodded and looked toward Lu Xi.
“I…” Lu Xi scratched his head and shook it. He didn’t feel like he was close.
“Mental-type abilities level up slower,” Lu Weiyi reassured him.
“…Me,” said Li Dongsheng, a bit hesitant. His wood-type ability wasn’t as combat-effective as Gu Qingji’s, and his plant growth wasn’t the strongest either, so he had a relatively low presence in the team.
Lu Weiyi nodded again and looked to Wu Yue.
“Shouldn’t be long now,” Wu Yue replied, feeling his ability was nearing saturation.
“Have you three reached mid-B level yet?” Lu Weiyi asked the already-upgraded group.
They looked at each other. Finally, Antonio, who had leveled up first, responded, “Feels like we’re still a bit short. What about you?”
“I’m almost ready to level up.”
“What—”
“A level?!”
Everyone in the living room looked at Lu Weiyi in shock, scanning him up and down in disbelief. Even Zhuang Mingxu looked surprised—he hadn’t spoken with Lu Weiyi about abilities in a while and didn’t know he was that close to an upgrade.
Lu Weiyi nodded. He had always absorbed more crystal cores than the others, so it made sense he would level faster. “If none of you are there yet, I’ll start preparing my own upgrade stash.”
“How many crystal cores does it take to reach A level?” Based on everyone’s tracking, they had saved over ten thousand cores by now. And Lu Weiyi was like a hoarding mythical beast—always taking and never giving back, stockpiling everyone else’s supplies and cores.
“I’m not sure,” Lu Weiyi said, shaking his head. In his previous life, Zhuang Mingxu had provided him with a few white nucleus crystals and two B-level mental-type zombie cores, so it hadn’t taken many. But he’d heard of others spending thousands to level up. “Better to over-prepare. It’ll only take more and more as we go higher.”
“Looks like we really need to keep hunting zombies in bulk,” Wu Yue said.
“Exactly. You need countless crystal cores to upgrade.” Lu Weiyi fully agreed. In his previous life, the higher-ranking teams had fewer and fewer ability users as they climbed—partly due to energy instability, but also because they couldn’t gather enough cores to support everyone’s upgrades.
“How about we start camping out like the other teams? Right now, we waste at least three hours a day just traveling back and forth. We could easily hunt over a hundred more zombies in that time. If we add in a night shift, we could bring in several hundred,” Wu Yue suggested. “And with this recent rain off and on, a lot of time’s being wasted.”
Those without family in the base naturally had no objections. In the end, everyone looked toward Lu Weiyi. He didn’t care and simply turned to Zhuang Mingxu, waiting for him to make the decision.
Yun Lu had been asking around, hoping to see Lu Weiyi. Zhuang Mingxu, of course, knew this. After thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, “Alright. Don’t just focus on killing zombies—try to set aside time to collect some supplies as well. The continuous heavy rain will speed up the spoilage of materials buried under collapsed debris. This strange weather might last a while, so it’s better to stock up as much as we can.”
“Will you be okay at the base?” Lu Weiyi asked Zhuang Mingxu.
“What’s there to be afraid of? It’s not like anyone here is bored enough to keep causing us trouble,” Zhuang Mingxu replied. Their team didn’t mingle with others except for military contacts and rarely took on any missions issued by the base. They just kept to themselves, and no one paid them much attention.
Zhuang Mingxu smiled and added, “Don’t stay out too long in one go—three days should be enough. That way, if you bring back supplies, I can arrange people to sort them.”
“Shall we leave tomorrow? Give Brother Xi one day to prepare some food to take with us. I really don’t want to gnaw on those dry biscuits again,” Antonio said with a disgruntled look at the thought of instant meals.
“Sure. Whatever you want to eat, just let me know—I’ll prepare everything today,” Xi Shi said good-naturedly.
Everyone casually ordered a chaotic mix of dishes. Lu Weiyi also left them with some extra supplies, and the group finally set off.
Since they would be staying out overnight, Yun Lu—who had been stationed by the villa gate—had even less chance of seeing Lu Weiyi. This gave Ji Lin the perfect opportunity to approach her.
The two were around the same age: one had the status of being Lu Weiyi’s “sister,” and the other was eager to get close to him. They clicked instantly without needing to flatter each other. Within just a couple of days, they acted like best friends. This naturally made Yun Lu completely believe the things Ji Lin “accidentally” let slip.
*
One afternoon, Zhuang Ai Yi was building with LEGO in Zhuang Mingxu’s temporary office, while Zhuang Mingxu was out in the fields with Bai Miao, inspecting and recording the growth of potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Having finished half the laundry, Yun Lu pushed the rest onto her mother, Guan Tong, then returned to her room to grab a bag of chips that Ji Lin had given her—ones she’d been reluctant to eat.
“Ai Yi?” Yun Lu called sweetly from the doorway.
Zhuang Ai Yi looked up and said, “Auntie, my Big Daddy isn’t here. You can go look for him in the fields.” Since Lu Weiyi didn’t visit often, most people who came here were looking for Zhuang Mingxu.
Yun Lu had already heard from Ji Lin what “Big Daddy” meant in this context and found it disgusting. But she also noticed that Lu Weiyi seemed to treat Zhuang Ai Yi well, judging from all the toys piled around. Besides, she didn’t care about a kid getting in the way. “I’m not here for him. I saw you playing alone—can I join you?” she asked.
“No need,” Zhuang Ai Yi replied. But when he saw her coming in, he put down the LEGO and cautiously took a few steps back. “Don’t come in. Big Daddy said not to let strangers near me.”
Yun Lu, still quite young herself, felt a little awkward. She waved the chips in her hand and said, “Then how about we go outside and share these chips?”
Most kids would like snacks, Yun Lu thought, assuming Zhuang Ai Yi was no exception. But she had clearly overlooked the fact that he was the only child in the most well-supplied team—and the son of Lu Weiyi. Chips and snacks were available to him in abundance; one bag meant nothing to him.
