Chapter 3: Counterattack
During these days that Mo Xiu stayed in his room, he wasn’t just eating and sleeping—he was also continuously cultivating the abilities inside his body.
Even though he had already decided that he would no longer toil like he did in his previous life for all those meaningless things, the premise of everything was still survival.
And in the apocalypse, the basic condition for someone not only to survive but to live well was strength.
Even until his death in his previous life, Mo Xiu had never figured out how the apocalypse had truly begun.
It was different from what novels described. There had been no so-called red rain and no widespread climate disasters.
As for whether some damned laboratory somewhere had leaked such a terrifying virus, they had never received any similar news.
Over the years, he had killed countless zombies, yet none of them had crystal cores in their brains.
Only occasionally would one or two differently colored crystals be found inside mutated plants. They looked like irregular gemstones—beautiful and extremely rare—but they were indeed good things that could enhance abilities.
If anything similar to crystal cores existed, it was actually inside ability users themselves—but not every ability user possessed one.
Later, some research institutes released information saying that only ability users at Level 4 or above had a chance of possessing a crystal core.
The methods of advancing abilities were also diverse.
Some relied purely on meditation and talent, almost like absorbing the essence of heaven and earth.
Some people advanced after eating strange plants and somehow leveling up by chance, though the probability was extremely low.
For most ability users, however, combat was the primary method of improvement.
By repeatedly using their abilities, over time they became more proficient at controlling them, and their recovery speed also improved.
Gradually, quantitative change accumulated until it produced qualitative change—and then they would level up.
As for the exact reason, Mo Xiu didn’t understand it either.
He only knew that he himself definitely counted as exceptionally gifted, because he could cultivate purely through meditation.
He could feel the pathways through which the energy flowed in his body, circulating repeatedly. This was also why his abilities improved faster than others.
Mo Xiu could already sense that within the next day or two, both his lightning and wind abilities would reach Level 2.
The next night, Mo Xiu cultivated once again under the moonlight.
A faint halo appeared around the young man’s body—purple representing lightning abilities and cyan representing wind abilities.
The weak lights intertwined, forming a slowly flowing circle around him.
At first, the movement of light and shadow was slow.
But gradually it became faster and faster.
Until suddenly, the circle of light expanded outward, and a burst of strong energy erupted from Mo Xiu’s body.
From that moment onward, his abilities had finally advanced from Level 1 to Level 2, and his attack power increased severalfold.
Opening his eyes again, Mo Xiu spread his palm and looked at the ball of lightning floating above it, flickering continuously.
Then he waved his other hand, sending out a wind blade that left a deep mark in the wall.
Only after testing his newly upgraded abilities did Mo Xiu curl his lips in satisfaction, lie back on the bed, and fall into a peaceful sleep.
Mo Xiu slept soundly that night.
But on the other side, the rest of the group collectively suffered from insomnia.
They gathered together, their anxiety even worse than it had been the past two days.
It wasn’t only because Mo Xiu had refused them—it was also because their stored supplies were running dangerously low.
After all, during this time they had relied on Mo Xiu far too much.
They had almost never gone out to search for food themselves. The survival of the entire group depended entirely on Mo Xiu.
Even if Mo Xiu was strong, supplying food for so many people alone was extremely difficult.
As a result, even though some of them had secretly stored a little food, the amount was very small.
Now that Mo Xiu had quit, it meant they were about to run out of food.
They really wanted to force this useful workhorse back to work.
But whenever they thought about the lightning ability he had demonstrated earlier, they didn’t dare act rashly.
“Brother Xi, what should we do? Think of something! Doesn’t Mo Xiu usually listen to you the most?” a yellow-haired boy said anxiously.
But this time, Xi Wenlin didn’t confidently take charge like before.
Under the current circumstances, he really had no guarantee that Mo Xiu would still obediently listen like he used to.
Still, in his heart, he believed Mo Xiu treated him differently from everyone else.
The reason Mo Xiu had embarrassed him twice recently must have another cause.
After all, it was the apocalypse now. He had been keeping Mo Xiu hanging for so long that perhaps he had angered him.
It seemed that Mo Xiu wanted some real benefits from him.
Thinking about it, Mo Xiu was actually quite good-looking—sunny and handsome. Back in school he had been the male idol of many people.
Unfortunately, he was straight.
But at this point, Xi Wenlin felt he shouldn’t continue being picky.
Survival came first.
With that thought, he gritted his teeth. After everyone else had gone to rest and the night had grown quiet, he carefully tidied himself up and gently knocked on Mo Xiu’s door.
At that hour in the middle of the night, everyone had already fallen asleep—including Mo Xiu, who had gone to bed early.
But the vigilance he had developed in his previous life made him wake up immediately at the sound of the knock.
Looking at the time and the strength of the knocking, it felt unusual for someone to come looking for him at this hour.
Mo Xiu frowned, got out of bed, and opened the door.
Xi Wenlin was standing outside.
For some reason, Mo Xiu found the smile on his face extremely strange tonight.
Especially his outfit.
Not only was the white shirt unbuttoned down to his chest, but he wasn’t even wearing pants—only a pair of boxer briefs.
This was the first time Mo Xiu had ever seen this senior, who always liked to present himself as elegant and refined, dressed so flamboyantly.
“Mo Xiu, can I come in?”
Xi Wenlin blushed and looked at the young man across from him, biting his lip and speaking softly as if he believed himself very charming.
Mo Xiu, however, felt genuinely disgusted.
“Can’t,” he said immediately.
Then he slammed the door shut with a bang.
After returning to his room, Mo Xiu couldn’t help shivering while facing away from the door.
Rubbing the goosebumps on his arm, he couldn’t understand what kind of illness the man was suffering from tonight.
The loud door slam woke up the people living nearby.
They opened their doors one after another and saw Xi Wenlin’s flamboyant outfit—and the ugly expression on his face.
With that appearance, and knocking on someone’s door in the middle of the night, it was obvious what he had intended to do.
Hearing the mocking laughter of some people, Xi Wenlin wished he could dig a hole and crawl into it.
He quickly left with clenched teeth, resentment filling his heart toward Mo Xiu.
He felt that even if he had acted a little aloof before, Mo Xiu shouldn’t have deliberately humiliated him and made him lose face like this.
Xi Wenlin stayed angry the entire night and couldn’t sleep at all.
He decided to teach Mo Xiu a lesson.
Early the next morning, he gathered the rest of the group and proposed that they unite their strength to pressure Mo Xiu.
“Are you crazy? Mo Xiu is a lightning-type ability user. Did you forget that lightning arc he showed last time? How could we possibly be his opponent?” someone protested after hearing Xi Wenlin’s suggestion.
But after thinking about it all night, Xi Wenlin now looked confident.
“One or two of us might not beat him, but what about all of us together?
Xiao Wan, tell them—you’re an ability user too. Is Mo Xiu’s power really that strong?”
The Xiao Wan he referred to was Lu Pingwan, the team’s Level 1 water-type ability user.
Her ability had no offensive power yet. She could only produce about a small bucket of water per day.
“Well…”
Lu Pingwan hesitated.
Her own ability was indeed weak, and producing a small bucket of water was already her limit.
A middle-aged man with a somewhat lecherous appearance—a soil-type ability user—spoke up instead.
“Level 1 abilities aren’t that strong. That lightning arc last time was probably already his limit.
He was just trying to scare us. It was too sudden, so we didn’t react in time.”
After hearing this, the others began to feel more confident.
Although they still feared Mo Xiu’s ability somewhat, compared to going outside themselves to search for supplies and face hordes of zombies and terrifying monsters, dealing with Mo Xiu seemed like the easier option.
However, what they didn’t expect was that after they finished planning everything and arrived at Mo Xiu’s door, it suddenly opened from the inside.
Mo Xiu stood at the doorway, leaning casually against the frame, smiling at them.
In his hand was a solid-looking iron rod.
Lu Pingwan, who had followed them there, quietly stepped back a few steps.
For some reason, she felt that Mo Xiu was even more dangerous than the last time she had seen him.
“Mo Xiu, what do you mean by this?” Xi Wenlin asked, pretending to stay calm.
“Nothing much.”
Mo Xiu smiled and stepped out of the room, pointing the iron rod at a heavy stone coffee table in the living room.
Then everyone saw a large lightning sphere shoot out from the tip of the rod and smash the stone table into pieces.
Everyone stared at the scene in shock.
Mo Xiu himself was quite satisfied. He tapped the iron rod in his hand, thinking that guiding the lightning through the rod made it much easier to aim than throwing it directly.
After finishing, he turned back to look at the people surrounding him and asked casually,
“So, what did you come to see me for?”
Looking at the shattered stone fragments on the floor, the crowd had already lost the confidence they had gathered earlier.
They hurriedly shook their heads.
Finally, someone pushed Xi Wenlin forward and said,
“It wasn’t us who came to find you—it was him! He said he had something to talk to you about!”
Facing Mo Xiu’s half-smiling gaze, Xi Wenlin felt extremely terrified.
The speech he had prepared in his mind completely fell apart.
After struggling for a long time, he finally managed to say,
“N-No… nothing. We just came to ask if you’re hungry.”
“Oh? So you all came specially to check if I’m hungry?”
Mo Xiu raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“If that’s the case, then take out the food you’ve prepared.”
![The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]](https://i3.wp.com/panda-translations.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20250902175028_300_420.jpg?resize=151,215 "The Max-Level Boss Just Wants to Be a Slacker [Apocalypse]")