Chapter 195: Zombie Siege
“No worries, I’ll come at night,” Xu Sa cheerfully followed out.
The town was neither too big nor too small. The two walked out of the government building, with shops on both sides. Lu Weiyi released his mental power to scan but found nothing suspicious. Xu Sa looked around and occasionally whispered to ease the tense silence.
The places they walked through were desolate, with few zombies. If they didn’t talk, it would be easy to feel like they were the only two left in the world. Over time, such silence can cause mental issues, so everyone gradually developed a habit of chatting to break the silence.
They walked around the streets near the government, then headed further away. Xu Sa finally sensed something was wrong. He turned to Lu Weiyi, “Do you have something you want to tell me?”
Normally, whenever they came to a place to patrol, Lu Weiyi would go himself. But usually, he brought along Li Zhuang, Antonio, or Liu Rui—the strongest ones. He rarely brought Ning Yuan, who was weaker, let alone himself, the lowest-ranked.
“…” Lu Weiyi glanced at him, unsure how to start.
“Just say it. We’ve known each other for years; what can’t you say?” Xu Sa urged.
“Do you… want to quickly improve your ability?” Lu Weiyi pressed his lips together, deciding to just say it. Whether Xu Sa agreed or not, he wouldn’t force it.
“Of course! Isn’t that obvious? You…” Xu Sa was briefly surprised, paused, then whispered, “You have a way?”
Lu Weiyi lowered his eyes and said nothing.
Meng Da’s team’s crystal cores were now in his hands.
Since his rebirth, Lu Weiyi’s ability hadn’t been weak. He never thought of harvesting crystal cores from the dead powered individuals before.
Back then, Zhuang Mingxu had secretly helped him absorb many crystal cores from other powered people. These were more suitable for humans than zombie or animal cores. At first, he didn’t realize, but over time he understood.
Zhuang Mingxu had been acting in his best interests. Though it bothered him, Lu Weiyi had no right to complain and pretended not to notice even after finding out.
Now with his own team, Lu Weiyi felt throwing away those crystal cores was like wasting resources—his first thought was that if he didn’t use them, maybe his people could.
He originally wanted to secretly give them to his team but worried that if they found out later, it would cause awkwardness and distrust.
Finally, he decided to ask the close friend Xu Sa if he wanted to use them. If not, they could just sell them.
Looking at the hundreds of crystal cores in the space now, Lu Weiyi thought: If only I had known, I should have harvested the cores of those space-type powered individuals when I encountered them. Maybe someone absorbing them could have awakened spatial powers.
When this thought appeared, Lu Weiyi trembled slightly. He suddenly felt like he had changed.
Such acts, similar to dismembering people, had become so normal to him it even felt like a pity…
Lu Weiyi’s face turned pale instantly.
“Lu Weiyi, what’s wrong?” Xu Sa touched him, and Lu Weiyi flinched sharply.
The emotion was obviously off, so Xu Sa abandoned further patrols and took him back to their temporary residence.
“So soon?” Li Zhuang climbed down from the rooftop, jumped down in a few moves, and circled around the two.
“Li, come patrol with me. Lu Xiaoyi is so tired he could just fall asleep,” Xu Sa pushed Lu Weiyi toward Zhuang Mingxu, smiling to cover up.
Zhuang Mingxu grabbed Lu Weiyi’s hand, which was sweaty and cold. He looked dazed and confused—clearly something was wrong.
Zhuang Mingxu led Lu Weiyi into the only room and pulled him onto his lap.
Lu Weiyi only came to after sitting down. Zhuang Mingxu pressed down, “It’s okay. You can rest your leg on me, you know?”
He said something suggestive softly, and when Lu Weiyi regained composure, he asked, “What happened?”
Lu Weiyi rested his head on Zhuang Mingxu’s neck and after a while briefly told him what had happened.
“I… I don’t know why I think this way, I…” Lu Weiyi trailed off, becoming incoherent.
If this had happened before, Zhuang Mingxu would have been happy to see such emotional changes, good or bad. But now, all Zhuang Mingxu felt was heartache.
He was forced to grow up.
His mind couldn’t keep up with his abilities, so going astray was only a matter of time.
Fortunately, he realized it—not too late.
Zhuang Mingxu’s large hand slid down his back, soothing Lu Weiyi’s agitation, softly comforting him until he finally calmed down.
“You’re right not to tell Xu Sa. This can’t be known by anyone,” Zhuang Mingxu said to Lu Weiyi. “The future of a team depends on the vision and behavior of its leader. If you start the precedent of using human crystal cores, that means you accept this behavior.”
“Our squad members come from different backgrounds with different mindsets. Some have too strong a sense of justice, some have too low a moral bottom line. As captain, your job is to keep everyone’s mindset in the middle ground—so the whole team maintains a boundary without being too idealistic. Only then can everyone blend well.”
“If you go off track, those with strong justice can’t accept it and will be wary of you. Those with weak morals will become increasingly ruthless. With conflicting values, internal conflicts will arise sooner or later, and the team will inevitably collapse.”
Lu Weiyi nodded, then took over a hundred crystal cores out of his space. “Should I just throw these cores away?”
Zhuang Mingxu picked one up for a look. Compared to zombie crystal cores, these had purer colors, but there were still some impurities. “These aren’t as clean as the ones you purified, right?”
“Yes, most of us have been upgrading by absorbing zombie cores, so zombie energy has accumulated in our bodies, and the cores reflect that. Though they have less energy than zombie cores,” Lu Weiyi replied.
“If you already have better ones, there’s naturally no need to use these,” Zhuang Mingxu took them and put them in his own space. “Since you took them, I’ll keep them for now. If there’s a chance, we can sell them later.”
Lu Weiyi didn’t argue.
“Don’t overthink it. Everyone makes mistakes when tempted. Besides, this isn’t a big mistake. I’m telling you not to use them because we’re not yet at the point of total desperation. If it ever comes to life or death, anything can be used.” As long as Lu Weiyi survived, even if he betrayed the whole world, Zhuang Mingxu would accept it.
Zhuang Mingxu’s words gave Lu Weiyi’s hesitant heart an invisible backbone, instantly stabilizing him.
Just as the two were about to leave, they heard Li Zhuang returning, telling everyone to pack up and leave.
“What’s going on?” Lu Weiyi opened the door, the dazed look gone from his face, replaced with calm composure.
“Something’s wrong around here. It’s like the people just disappeared—not turned into zombies, and no sign they left,” Xu Sa explained with a frown. “Some shops outside still have their goods neatly arranged, untouched. Cars and daily supplies remain inside homes. It doesn’t look like anyone left.”
“Did you see anything?” Zhuang Mingxu asked.
Xu Sa shook his head. “Nothing.”
The unknown is the most frightening.
Others said nothing and were preparing to pack when Antonio, standing guard in the courtyard, shouted, “A huge group of zombies is coming!”
They immediately rushed out and leapt to higher ground. Lu Weiyi controlled the small green branch close behind. Looking around, they saw several hundred zombies running from the east, spreading to both sides as if to encircle them.
The terrifying part wasn’t the number, but that a few zombies were launching mental attacks from afar—mostly Class B-level powers.
Water arrows and fireballs came pouring in. Those above dodged while firing back, asking, “What should we do?”
Given their speed and the range of their abilities, even if they drove away immediately, escape wasn’t guaranteed.
“Fight,” Lu Weiyi said, then looked at a few ordinary people in the hall. Spreading them out for protection would just distract more people—they had to concentrate.
He quickly lifted Zhuang Mingxu, ordered Lu Xi to carry Zhuang Ai Yi, and with a flick of the small green branch, smashed open the stairwell Wu Yue had blocked, then ran upstairs.
They climbed to the rooftop and told those without combat ability to hide. He threw a few guns to them and instructed Lu Xi, “Stay here to protect. Wu Yue, block the way up.”
“Got it,” Wu Yue said, sealing the stairwell tightly with a dirt wall. They built half-height walls around their guarded positions to block zombie mental attacks.
Lu Xi, Zhuang Mingxu, Lin Yimu, and Dean each guarded one direction, using guns to ambush. Shi Xi held Zhuang Ai Yi close near Lu Xi, ensuring he could protect him at any time.
In just a short while, the zombies had closed in completely, surrounding them.
Although Xu Sa’s lightning ability hadn’t leveled up, its attack power was strong. Facing B-class zombies, it wasn’t advantageous but at least not disadvantageous. But Xiong Jie and Gu Qingyue struggled to hold on. Water and earth abilities weren’t weak, but weaker than metal and fire, especially against stronger enemies. Wood type could only fight evenly with the same level.
This put their dozen or so people at a clear disadvantage against the encircling zombies.
“Brother—” A very fast zombie launched several fireballs at Gu Qingji’s mutated ivy, then took advantage of Gu Qingji’s dodging to suddenly rush toward Gu Qingyue beside him. Gu Qingyue was busy using abilities to shield Gu Qingji from the fireballs and didn’t notice in time to dodge.
The zombie’s blood-stained hands almost grabbed Gu Qingyue’s face, but Lu Weiyi controlled the small green branch, entering directly through the zombie’s eye socket, instantly extracting the zombie’s crystal core. Just before it could touch Gu Qingyue, it collapsed to the ground.
