Chapter 47: Precious Peas
A dark-skinned young soldier who looked especially honest and simple grinned excitedly at Zhan Yun. “That was an ability just now, right? What type is your ability? How could it be so powerful—able to suppress those incredibly strong zombies all at once?”
“Yeah, yeah! Little brother, do you have an ability too?” Others crowded around Su Ruizhe, firing questions nonstop. That huge brute they hadn’t been able to hurt no matter how they shot at it had been taken down by just a few shots from Su Ruizhe—its whole body collapsing as if it had fallen apart. It was truly astonishing.
“Oh right, why didn’t that handsome kid come along?” someone exclaimed. “I bet he has an ability too.” They were clearly talking about Zheng Jiahe.
Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe were completely surrounded by soldiers asking all kinds of questions. They didn’t even know which one to answer first and felt an overwhelming amount of pressure.
Just then, a tall, upright officer in his forties with a buzz cut walked over. “Hey, hey, hey! What kind of behavior is this? All of you, back to your posts!”
“Commander Zhang!” The soldiers immediately snapped to attention and saluted. Like gourds with their mouths sawn shut, they didn’t dare make another sound and quickly returned to their respective positions.
“You two, please come with me,” Commander Zhang said, leading them inside.
They went upstairs and stopped outside a room. Commander Zhang lightly knocked on the door and called out loudly, “Reporting!”
“Come in,” a deep, steady voice answered from inside.
Commander Zhang led the two inside. The room was small, furnished with only a table and three chairs, with a pile of miscellaneous items stacked in one corner—clearly just hastily cleared out. Inside, a burly middle-aged officer was waiting for them. There was a scar at his temple, and his stern demeanor, along with the insignia on his shoulder boards, made it clear he was of high rank.
“Regimental Commander, the two distinguished guests have arrived,” Commander Zhang said, introducing them. “Gentlemen, this is our Regimental Commander Jiang.”
“Hello, Commander Jiang.”
“Hello, hello. Please, have a seat.” Commander Jiang smiled and motioned for them to sit. “I am Jiang Xuzhou, regimental commander of the Fourth Army’s Independent Regiment. May I ask your names?”
“My name is Zhan Yun. This is Su Ruizhe.”
Once everyone was seated, Commander Zhang stepped out and closed the door behind him.
“I’ve already heard what happened. We truly owe it to the two of you for stepping in earlier—otherwise our casualties would likely have been even worse.”
“You’re too kind.”
“Gentlemen, time is short, so I’ll be straightforward. You’re ability users, aren’t you?” With only the three of them left in the room, Commander Jiang asked bluntly.
“Yes,” they answered without evasion. “I can manipulate gravity, and he can manipulate plants.”
When they had taken action earlier, they had already been prepared to expose their status as ability users—though they had kept their second abilities hidden.
In the future, the status and standing of ability users would only continue to rise. Registering themselves with the government now would bring more benefits than drawbacks, and they believed the government was already aware of the existence of ability users anyway.
“As expected. Then you should also be aware of crystal cores, correct?”
“Crystal cores?” Zhan Yun asked calmly in return.
“That’s right.” As he spoke, Commander Jiang took a transparent crystal core from his trouser pocket and placed it on the table. “This is a crystal core—an energy crystal extracted from a zombie’s head. However, the zombies you killed earlier didn’t have this kind.”
Zhan Yun’s pupils contracted slightly, and his muscles tensed almost imperceptibly.
“Please don’t misunderstand,” Commander Jiang said quickly. “I have no ulterior motives. Those zombies were killed by you, and it was only right for you to take their crystal cores. I simply want to determine whether there are differences between the two types of cores. I trust you’ve also noticed that those zombies were somewhat special.” His tone was sincere and earnest. “I swear on a soldier’s honor that I bear no ill will toward either of you.”
Su Ruizhe gently squeezed Zhan Yun’s hand and spoke directly. “Yes. We believe those were evolved zombies. Their speed, strength, and physical toughness were several times that of ordinary zombies, making them extremely difficult to deal with.”
Su Ruizhe felt an inexplicable sense of goodwill toward the Fourth Army. In his previous life, when he had been imprisoned in a secret laboratory, he had heard of the Fourth Army’s reputation.
At the time, L City Base was under the Fourth Army’s jurisdiction, and inspection teams were frequently sent there. The Fourth Army strictly forbade human experimentation, so whenever their personnel came to inspect, the researchers would be especially cautious and would reduce the time they spent tormenting him in the secret lab.
Because of this, Su Ruizhe was willing to believe that Jiang Xuzhou truly meant them no harm.
“These are the crystal cores from those zombies.” Su Ruizhe took a pale-red crystal core out of his pocket and placed it beside the transparent one on the table.
The pale-red core was slightly larger than the transparent one. Its faint red hue carried a mysterious air, making it look almost like a beautiful piece of art—hard to imagine its origin.
“Are all evolved zombie crystal cores this color?” Jiang Xuzhou picked it up and examined it carefully. Aside from the difference in color and size, the two cores looked largely the same.
“Yes. There were five in total—all pale red.”
Jiang Xuzhou pondered for a moment, then nodded and handed the pale-red core back to Su Ruizhe. “I understand. Thank you. But I’d like to ask one more thing. When you killed those zombies earlier, it seemed you were also using a gun. How is it different from ours?”
“The difference is the bullets,” Su Ruizhe said. He took a small cloth pouch from his pocket, pulled out a few peas, and closed his left hand around them. When he opened it again, the peas had transformed into emerald-green bullets.
Jiang Xuzhou’s eyes widened in astonishment. He picked up one of the bullets and examined it closely, discovering that aside from its color, both the feel and the shape were exactly the same as a normal bullet.
“So this is your ability?”
“Yes. My ability seems to be the weaponization of plants.”
“These are just ordinary peas?” Jiang Xuzhou studied the plump, full kernels, which looked extremely fresh.
“Yes, just the most ordinary peas. I’m maintaining them with my ability, so they still look very fresh.”
Jiang Xuzhou nodded in understanding, then asked excitedly, “May I ask how many peas you still have? Would you be willing to share some peas and a few bullets with me?”
He felt that perhaps certain elements in the peas had a suppressive effect on evolved zombies. If he handed them over to the researchers after returning, it might lead to important discoveries.
“That’s fine. These were seeds I kept before the apocalypse, so there aren’t many. I can give you half. As for the bullets, you can take all of these,” Su Ruizhe replied. After returning to the vehicle earlier, he and Zhan Yun had already discussed the matter. Neither of them had expected Su Ruizhe’s pea bullets to cause such significant damage to evolved zombies. They suspected it might be related to chlorophyll and certain vitamins contained in plants.
They couldn’t selfishly keep this secret to themselves. The appearance of evolved zombies proved that zombies were constantly evolving. If humanity’s pace of progress couldn’t keep up with the zombies’, extinction would be the only outcome. So they decided that the fact that chlorophyll and certain vitamins in plants and fruits could suppress the zombie virus—something that would eventually be discovered anyway—should be disclosed to the government, allowing it to prepare in advance.
It was still the early stages of the apocalypse. With some effort, vegetable and fruit seeds could still be found. Whether through soilless cultivation or ability-assisted growth, the key was to ensure that Su Ruizhe didn’t become the “only” supplier.
“Oh, right—eating some fruits and vegetables during ability awakening might also help,” Zhan Yun added at just the right moment. Since they had decided to show goodwill toward the government and the military, they might as well do it thoroughly—it was just a matter of adding one more reminder.
Jiang Xuzhou took their words very seriously. After thanking them repeatedly, he also shared some information about the survivor base. The base had just been established and was still in a trial operation phase. While it claimed to accept all survivors unconditionally, surviving there would still depend on one’s own efforts—the base would not support freeloaders. Jiang Xuzhou told them that if they wanted better conditions at the survivor base, they would need to contribute a certain amount of supplies. That night, they would be entering City A for search-and-rescue operations. If they were willing, they could go along with the unit; gathering more supplies would always benefit them.
Zhan Yun immediately expressed that he had friends in City A, so he was very willing to head there with the troops that night. After chatting a bit longer, Jiang Xuzhou personally saw the two of them off and ordered that Zhan Yun’s group be assigned a separate room to rest. Finally, he had this important information transmitted to the Southern Theater Command via radio.
The military arranged a north-facing room for Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe. Being out of direct sunlight, it was cooler. They covered the windows, laid bamboo mats on the floor, and made the arrangements with great care.
Not long after the two entered the room, Song Chengshu and the others arrived as well, carrying large bags and following several soldiers.
The daytime heat was oppressive, so everyone spent most of the day sleeping. At noon, the military only provided survivors with some water and biscuits. It wasn’t until evening that they cooked some porridge.
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