Chapter 55: The Abilities That Appeared in Those Years
“Using it every day can make it stronger,” Antonio said, controlling a palm-sized thin blade to fly around the group. The distance was clearly much further than before, and it looked more agile.
Liu Rui’s eyes lit up as he watched. He also wanted to create a fireball that he could control, but as soon as he reached out, it became a fire dragon, directly setting Xu Sa’s quilt on fire.
“Damn it, brat, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Xu Sa threw off the quilt, immediately becoming completely naked. Liu Rui panicked and grabbed the quilt to put out the fire. Dean and Antonio simultaneously reached out to cover each other’s eyes. Xi Shi was embarrassed and directly looked away. Xiong Jie whistled a lewd tune nonchalantly. “Not bad development, Little Xu.”
“You look at everything, don’t you know to learn from others and avert your eyes from what is improper?” Xu Sa said, looking around and finding everyone staring at him with teasing expressions, even Lu Weiyi was no exception.
“Damn it, don’t you have one yourself?” Even with a thick skin, being stared at naked by a group of men was a bit awkward. Looking around and finding nothing to cover himself, Xu Sa simply directed Liu Rui to bring over the half-burnt quilt again.
This commotion instantly livened up the quiet atmosphere.
“When did you all develop your abilities?” Gu Qingji asked.
“I was bitten by a zombie, fell unconscious for two days, and had it when I woke up,” Antonio answered first. This wasn’t a secret; Lu Weiyi and Li Zhuang knew.
“Oth… other… peo… people… hit… hit…”
“Other people were robbing us. He wouldn’t let go and got beaten down. Then suddenly he had it,” Xu Sa answered for Liu Rui. “He was saving that to find a doctor for me. He probably was pushed to the limit.” Xu Sa patted Liu Rui’s head and murmured, “Silly.”
Liu Rui chuckled and replied, “Yeah.”
Everyone looked at Li Zhuang. Li Zhuang thought for a moment. “I… just inexplicably had it.”
“I was looking for things at the time, and a half-collapsed house fell down.” Li Zhuang’s ability appeared relatively early, not many days after the zombies appeared. He went out to find supplies, and a half-collapsed house suddenly fell down. His ability appeared, slowing it down for a moment, and he escaped.
“Also at a critical moment,” Lin Yimu said, looking at Lu Weiyi.
“I…” Lu Weiyi wasn’t a wood-type ability user, and he didn’t know how wood-type ability users awakened. He thought about making up a critical moment.
“Hmm?”
“Had it after a sleep.” In the end, he didn’t make it too complicated. The more complex the lie, the harder it was to make it believable. It was better to keep it simple. He didn’t know himself, so others could think whatever they wanted.
It didn’t seem like there were many commonalities. Gu Qingji asked again, “What about the time? Did your abilities appear at the same time?”
“About six days ago,” Antonio wasn’t very sure which day it was exactly.
“The eleventh day after the earthquake,” Liu Rui was still calculating, but Xu Sa had already said the exact time for him.
“Four or five days after the earthquake, I guess,” Li Zhuang also forgot the specific time.
“The second day after the earthquake.”
As soon as Lu Weiyi said this, everyone looked over, as if wanting him to say more.
“After I separated from him, I went back and slept for a day and a night, and I had it when I woke up,” Lu Weiyi nodded his chin in Xi Shi’s direction.
Xi Shi nodded, as if to prove that his timing was correct.
“The times are also different.” Gu Qingji’s gaze swept over the four people. Li Zhuang and Antonio clearly looked like the sturdy type, while Lu Weiyi and Liu Rui seemed a bit weak. There didn’t seem to be any connection.
“It’s probably random, but not very practical,” Li Zhuang had used it a few times privately and just felt it wasn’t very useful, so he basically treated it as non-existent later.
The appearance of early-stage abilities was indeed random, and there didn’t seem to be any commonalities. However, once the heavy snow passed, all the early-stage ability users who survived the sudden mutations after the snow had a faster ability upgrade speed than others. In the end, the top-level ability users in various bases basically all included early-stage ability users.
After all, they were people who could adapt and transform zombie energy, so their bodies’ adaptability was inherently stronger than ordinary people. But that heavy snow did indeed claim the lives of many early-stage ability users.
After Li Zhuang finished speaking, he noticed that everyone’s expressions were a bit subtle. He glanced at the other three and added, “Okay, mine is just not very practical.”
That’s because you don’t know how to use it.
In his previous life, a powerful earth-type ability user could directly bury people alive in concrete and control various bricks and stones effortlessly. He was an important ability user for traveling and organizing food buried by the earthquake.
“You can try controlling earth spikes or something like that.” Once he could control these attacks, controlling earth and stone displacement would be easy. Then he could help clear collapsed areas.
Lu Weiyi very cleverly gave a suggestion.
“It can still be like this?” Li Zhuang tried to use his ability, and a sharp pain came. He spread his hands. “Used it all up.”
“It should recover tomorrow,” Antonio replied, looking at Lu Weiyi. “Can my ability have other uses?”
“You can try to metalize your body for defense, reduce the size of the metal you control to consume less ability energy, and naturally the controllable distance will be longer.” Because Zhuang Mingxu was a metal-type ability user, Lu Weiyi knew more about metal-type abilities and couldn’t help but say a few more words.
“The body can metalize?” Antonio didn’t quite understand.
“The human body doesn’t contain metal. Body metalization is just a way of saying it. It can allow surrounding metal to cover the necessary parts of the body for defense at critical moments. If you’re strong enough, you can cover your whole body,” Lu Weiyi explained and suggested, “You can carry more metal on you in the future.”
“Yeah, you also need to be careful that the metal you carry isn’t used by metal-type ability users to control and directly kill you,” Lu Weiyi said to the others.
“Is it that serious?” Xiong Jie didn’t quite believe it.
Lu Weiyi glanced at him and said to Antonio, “The ring on his hand.”
Antonio looked over and simultaneously manipulated the metal invisibly. Several non-ability users didn’t notice, but the other ability users could feel a kind of indescribable energy in the air moving towards Xiong Jie.
“It’s tight,” Xiong Jie said in surprise. In a moment, the ring on his hand visibly cut into his flesh.
“It can be even tighter.” After demonstrating the effect, Antonio returned it to its original state for him.
“If that was on the neck…” Gu Qingyue touched his neck, feeling a bit scared.
“Little friend knows a lot,” Li Zhuang somehow thought of the uprooted fruit tree and the vanished vegetable garden and watermelon field.
“Appeared early, studied a lot,” Lu Weiyi didn’t accept his probing.
“This is really like some novels,” Gu Qingji was a bit annoyed that he didn’t have an ability and asked Lu Weiyi, “What is that plant of yours? Does it have any use?”
“I don’t know. It seems… to be a peach tree.” The only living thing in Lu Weiyi’s space was that tree, and it had formed after he ate a peach himself.
“Pea… peach?” Dean’s emotions had calmed down by now. With Antonio constantly translating for him on the side, he understood what everyone was saying and now looked at Lu Weiyi inquisitively.
The others immediately looked at Lu Weiyi, and Gu Qingji also asked curiously, “I saw in some novels that wood-type abilities can indeed directly make plants… bear fruit…”
Under Lu Weiyi’s death glare, Gu Qingji still finished his sentence.
“Won’t.” He wasn’t a real wood-type ability user. His little green branch couldn’t even pierce a zombie’s head to get a crystal core; at most, it was a bit sturdier than ordinary plants.
However… if it was sturdy, he could probably directly strangle necks. It seemed that a string of them could strangle quite a few.
Lu Weiyi cheered up again.
After discussing for a while, they didn’t come to any clear conclusion. They arranged the night watch, and everyone went to rest.
Midnight.
Outside the residential area where Lu Weiyi lived in Wutong City, a car so broken it looked like it could fall apart at any moment screeched to a halt. A man covered in blood and with tattered clothes stumbled out – it was Ning Yuan, the person Zhuang Mingxu had mentioned.
The guard at the gate was startled awake by the screech of the sudden stop. After hesitating for a long time, he dragged the man into the safe zone.
After Zhuang Mingxu asked him to leave with Zheng Xin, he initially disagreed with going to find Lu Weiyi. In his opinion, it would be more reliable to directly return to Qingyuan City to seek help and have Wu Yue bring people to rescue Zhuang Mingxu.
But Zheng Xin said that the distance to Wutong City was closer, and they could make a round trip overnight, within a day. Zhuang Mingxu’s side seemed to have supplies and wouldn’t be in immediate danger, so they could wait. However, if something happened to Lu Weiyi because they were late, Zhuang Mingxu would probably try to kill himself.
Thinking about it, it made sense. After all, if Lu Weiyi got into trouble because he was a day or two late, Zhuang Mingxu would dare to turn against him directly.
Even though Ning Yuan was unwilling in his heart, he still agreed with Zheng Xin’s suggestion.
Who knew that as soon as they left Dongshan County, Zheng Xin would attack him.
At the moment he was thrown down to feed the zombies, Ning Yuan had two thoughts in his mind besides anger: he absolutely couldn’t die, and he had to live to make Zheng Xin experience the feeling of being pushed into a pile of zombies.
Fleeing the zombie pile while fighting and running, Ning Yuan was bitten all over. Dazed, he stole a car and drove almost entirely on willpower.
Driving straight until the road ended, Ning Yuan didn’t even turn unless he encountered an impassable road, then he would choose another one and continue driving. After a hazy morning, his mind gradually cleared, and he realized he had survived.
Turning back to Qingyuan was no longer realistic, so Ning Yuan could only head towards Wutong City.
He finally arrived after a day and a half of sleepless driving.
Early in the morning, Ning Yuan woke up startled from his exhaustion. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw two people pointing and gesturing at him. Before he could react, the two people took a few steps back as if they had been frightened.
“You…” His throat was so hoarse that he only let out a breathy sound.
“Buddy, are you alive? Are you conscious?” one of them asked first.
Ning Yuan cleared his throat and nodded. He looked around and saw the broken car he had driven outside the gate.
“Are you here to seek refuge in our safe zone? Let me tell you, our safe zone…”
“Does he look like he has any supplies?”
Before the boastful words could be spoken, he was interrupted by another person.
“We don’t take people without supplies,” the speaker’s expression immediately changed.
Before Ning Yuan could speak, another person asked, “Hey, have you been bitten by a zombie?”
As soon as these words came out, the other person quickly took a few steps back again.
“It’s okay if he’s been bitten by a zombie?”
“Are you sure he won’t bite people?”
“But he looks very conscious right now.”
“How can you be sure he won’t bite you when he’s conscious?”
The two of them started arguing again.
“Um, excuse me, I’m looking for someone,” Ning Yuan remembered Zhuang Mingxu’s situation and hurriedly got up to interrupt them.
“Looking for someone? Who?”
“Lu Weiyi.”
“Who did you say you were looking for?” someone asked.
Ning Yuan looked in the direction of the voice and then noticed another man in the guardhouse not far away. He was short and fat with a smiling face, and it was Liu Jie, who had been in Lu Weiyi’s team.
“Lu Weiyi,” Ning Yuan replied.
“Tall, very handsome, doesn’t like to smile, doesn’t talk much,” Liu Jie asked.
“Yes, that’s him. Would it be convenient to take me to see him? His family is very worried about him.”
“One just came a few days ago, and now another one. His family really cares about him, sending them in batches,” Liu Jie said, his tone tinged with envy. “You’re too late, he’s already left.”
“Left? Where did he go?” Ning Yuan asked anxiously.
“Returned to Qingyuan. He even left a message on the wall outside the residential area,” Liu Jie replied.
“Oh, you’re looking for that person? That person was amazing. When he left, he took two whole trucks just for food,” the person standing and listening to them speak recalled and clicked his tongue twice. “If you had come a few days earlier, you might have even gotten some to eat.”
Ning Yuan didn’t listen to him continue. He asked where the message was and turned to walk out of the residential area. A large row of green characters came into view at a glance. Knowing that Lu Weiyi was doing quite well, he didn’t know whether to be relieved or to feel that this trip was not worth it for Zhuang Mingxu.
But Zhuang Mingxu was still waiting to be rescued. Ning Yuan didn’t waste any time, found the mark left by Lin Yimu, and chased after it.
This is so exciting!!!!!!