Chapter 105 — Ambush
Two days later, another plant-type ability user left the team. One of the remaining plant-type users privately told Luo Xun and the others that on the very night he discovered his ability, he had gone to Captain Guo and said he didn’t want to leave the squad, asking if the captain could help keep him here.
After all, although he had awakened an ability, most ability users in the military had already reached Level Two or higher, while he was still just Level One. A newly formed team would also need time to coordinate and adjust, and the higher-ups might not even notice someone as ordinary as him.
Yes—ordinary. Among normal people his ability might seem impressive, but if placed together with a large group of ability users, he was nothing special.
Moreover, he had heard that among those recently discovered ability users, quite a few were plant-type. Having one more or one less wouldn’t make any difference.
After he raised this request, it was said that Captain Guo also spoke with the other plant-type ability user. No one knew what exactly was discussed, but the result—well, just look at who remained in the team now.
The metal-type wall-building squad had lost two members and now had thirteen people left. The higher-ups felt that this number was already equal to a normal squad’s size—excluding Luo Xun and the other external helpers. Besides, since new ability-user squads were currently being formed and some special ability users were needed to assist with experiments, manpower was temporarily insufficient.
Fortunately, their current workload was not too heavy, and there were not many places that required extra hands. Apart from some small metal materials and purified metals that needed to be carried manually, most transportation was handled by vehicles, so losing two people was not a big problem.
Li Tie and his four companions, along with Zhang Su, were only called for ability testing on the fourth day after Luo Xun and the others had finished their checks. Strictly speaking, Li Tie’s group was not part of the formal military establishment; they were more like temporary workers recruited for the job. That was why they had to wait until all official military personnel had been tested before it was finally their turn.
The five of them went eagerly and returned not too disappointed—none of them had awakened abilities, exactly as expected. Zhang Su, however, was confirmed to possess a Level Two wind-type ability.
But it was said that the colleagues and soldiers who had worked with him before were utterly shocked when they saw the result. His wind ability hardly looked like a normal Level Two wind ability.
After all, even now many ability users in the base had reached Level Two, especially in the military. Yet wind-type abilities… were notoriously useless at Level One. The wind they produced was just wind at best—perhaps they could compress it into something like an air cannon to strike a target.
But Zhang Su, even at Level One, could slice people apart alive! Let alone at Level Two!
Because of this, many people secretly suspected that Zhang Su might have been a Level Two—or even Level Three—wind-type ability user from the very beginning. When they saw the test result now, they instead wondered whether the machine simply couldn’t detect abilities above Level Two.
Of course, they only kept such thoughts to themselves. After all, no Level Three ability users had appeared yet, so it was possible that the device simply couldn’t detect abilities above Level Two. But if anyone said this out loud, it would offend the experts and scholars in the base who had developed the equipment. No one was foolish enough to question them openly.
A week after the device had been fully tested within the military, the Research Society officially announced the development of equipment capable of detecting ability levels.
The news was broadcast everywhere and promoted throughout the streets.
Starting that day, the device would provide free testing for everyone in the base. The military had taken out six machines at once. But the moment people heard the news, enthusiasm surged, and long lines immediately formed at every testing site. From morning till night, there were always crowds waiting.
Every ability user wanted to be among the first to wear that special identity badge proving their status and distinguishing them from ordinary people. Meanwhile, every ordinary person hoped that once they stood on that machine, their identity would instantly change—that they would become a powerful ability user, able to move freely in the base, show off before relatives and friends, and trample on those who had bullied or looked down on them in the past.
Amid this wave of testing abilities and replacing identity badges, perhaps only ability users like Xu Mei and Song Lingling—who didn’t want trouble and already knew their own levels—could remain calm.
At the same time these detection devices suddenly appeared, another piece of news quietly began spreading through the base.
In the near future, there might be a zombie siege.
It was said that because humans had previously launched large-scale purges with heavy weapons against the zombies occupying the city center, the zombies might retaliate. Their targets would be the Southwest Base and the Eastern Base on the outskirts of A City.
The rumor spread like wildfire. Many people discussed it privately, and some claimed the information came from a mental-type ability user with precognition abilities.
As the rumor spread, it became more and more exaggerated. Eventually some people even claimed that the zombies preparing to besiege the city were led by the legendary Zombie King, who could command all zombies and would bring “divine punishment” upon humanity.
Listening to these increasingly outrageous rumors, Luo Xun and Yan Fei felt helpless—but this was the only method they had.
Luo Xun couldn’t prove that his “premonition” would definitely come true, nor could he prove that his words represented the future, and he certainly couldn’t guarantee that the event would or would not happen.
After all, since his rebirth, although many small things—especially matters involving himself or those around him—had changed, the overall situation had not.
For example, A City had still ended up with only two bases. Several bases of different sizes in M City had still fallen one after another.
Even the completion times of several major research results in the base were roughly the same.
The only clear difference Luo Xun remembered was that now, because metal-type ability users had strengthened their abilities—and with Yan Fei’s strong support—the base had begun constructing metal bridges extending from the center in all directions. This had never happened in his previous life and was the most obvious and significant change since his rebirth.
Precisely because Luo Xun himself was uncertain, he couldn’t say whether the Eastern Base might fall during this crisis. Naturally, he dared not assert that these events would definitely occur again.
Moreover, he and Yan Fei had recently been paying close attention to the situation outside the base, yet they had heard no reports of zombies suddenly increasing in number nearby.
As for the rumor currently spreading inside the base, it was released secretly by Yan Fei after careful consideration.
He had no way to contact the high-ranking leaders in the base directly. Even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to explain how he knew the information or prove its authenticity.
Although everyone now had mobile phones and the base network had been successfully established—allowing people with devices to connect and send emails to officials—if Yan Fei wanted to avoid being traced, he had to leave absolutely no clues.
After much thought, he decided this was the best approach.
This way, teams that went outside the base for missions would pay closer attention to related signs—such as sudden increases in zombie numbers or strange zombie movements. Once such information appeared, the base authorities would have no choice but to respond.
Of course, this method also had drawbacks. For example, in the future someone who wanted to overthrow the current leadership might use the same tactic to stir up endless rumors inside the base.
But for now, the two of them had no better way to achieve what they wanted.
The ability testing and the rumors continued until the end of the month. By then, more than four-fifths of the base population had already undergone testing.
From the current ratio, those who had access to internal information noticed something astonishing: among people previously believed to be ordinary, the proportion of newly discovered ability users in the military was far higher than among civilians.
Why was that?
Did the military have some method to increase the proportion of ability users? Or were people with ability potential more likely to have joined the army before the apocalypse?
Ordinary people couldn’t figure it out, but the Research Society had one hypothesis—physical fitness.
Those with stronger physical condition before the apocalypse were less likely to turn directly into zombies afterward and more likely to awaken abilities.
In fact, the population structure of the base already hinted at this. Most people in the base were young adults. Elderly people, frail children, and many women had turned into zombies during the first wave of mutations.
Those who developed abilities were mostly young adults who had already possessed strong physiques or special talents.
Of course, this was also related to the fact that many frail or sickly people simply couldn’t escape the city and reach the base. Therefore, it was only speculation.
For now, this theory circulated only within the Research Society and among high-level officials. Aside from a few well-informed individuals, most people didn’t even know about the ratio.
Even so, no matter how high the proportion of ability users in the military was, it could never exceed the total number of ability users across the entire base.
After all, those with strong survival abilities and powerful powers were more likely to make it to the base alive. People with poor health or old age rarely had the chance to reach it.
Near the end of the month, Xu Mei and Song Lingling finally took Xiao Xinran to the testing machines.
When the results came out, the surrounding crowd gasped in shock.
Three women—one of them even a child—and all of them were ability users!
If not for the clear colors showing they were Level Two ability users, and if not for the killing aura they displayed—which proved they were not delicate women living off men in the base—someone would have long since tried to recruit them, or even coerce and lure them away.
Even so, after they replaced their identity badges, many people still tried to recruit the three ladies.
Unfortunately, Xu Mei and Song Lingling were not easy to deal with. After one man had his hair burned into a charred mess and another was drenched head-to-toe by a water ball, everyone quickly backed off and no longer dared provoke these two thorny roses.
At the end of the month, after discussing it together, Luo Xun and Yan Fei decided to leave the base once more.
According to Luo Xun’s memory, the Eastern Base of A City should have fallen in early August, and about half a month later the Southwest Base—where they were—would also face a zombie siege.
But now there was no news at all. There wasn’t even any report of unusual zombie movements outside.
None of the teams that went out for missions had mentioned zombies increasing somewhere, nor had anyone reported zombies suddenly becoming stronger.
Although the rumor the two of them had spread earlier was still circulating inside the base, most people treated it as nothing more than a story, an urban legend. Even those who believed such a possibility might exist continued going about their daily lives as usual when no actual signs could be seen.
“This time when we go out, we’ll judge according to the situation. If the number of zombies is high, we won’t go too far from the base and won’t stay out too long either.” Luo Xun sat together with his teammates in Li Tie’s room—this place had already become the squad’s regular meeting room. “Everyone has heard the rumors going around the base. Even if they’re just rumors, it’s always safer to be cautious. Being more careful during this trip won’t hurt.”
Everyone had no objection to Luo Xun’s words. After all, they only left the base to hunt some crystal cores for the team’s ability users, earn a bit of extra income, and train their combat awareness. Li Tie and the others were all in the military, so they had already heard the speculation that physical fitness might be related to awakening abilities.
Because of that, the five of them were now even more enthusiastic about killing zombies.
Although they were not ability users yet, what if killing more zombies improved their physical fitness and they awakened abilities in the future? And even if they never became ability users, saving up more crystal cores and points was still a good thing.
Compared with Yan Fei, Zhang Su, Xu Mei, and the other ability users who absorbed the crystal cores after every battle, Li Tie and the others—ordinary people who had no use for the cores—treated them entirely as pure profit.
Usually, whenever they needed something, they would exchange crystal cores with the team’s ability users for points, then use those points to buy things outside. But even so, how much could they actually spend?
Among the five of them, aside from Wang Duo—the henpecked one who handed over all his wages without complaint—the others could all be considered middle-class white-collar level. Their current savings were already enough for them to marry a wife in the base.
Unfortunately, the four bachelors either secretly set their sights on the two beauties in the team and planned to quietly pursue them, or simply lacked that sort of awareness and hadn’t even realized they could start looking for girlfriends now.
For example, Wu Xin, who was often absent-minded, and He Qiankun, who had become used to feeling inferior because his plump figure made girls treat him like a “best girlfriend” rather than a potential boyfriend.
“No problem! We’ll listen to the captain!” Li Tie shouted loudly.
In truth, the five of them were not particularly brave. Fighting some nearby zombies outside the base was fine, but if they actually encountered a zombie siege… well, they would much rather hurry back. They didn’t have the ability to sacrifice themselves resisting a tidal wave of zombies.
As for Zhang Su and the three women, they had no objections either. The meeting ended, and everyone returned home to prepare for the next day’s expedition.
For safety reasons, Luo Xun did not drive his modified dual-purpose vehicle this time. After sorting things out, they decided to bring three vehicles instead. That way the personnel in each car could be reasonably distributed, with both ability users and ordinary people together to handle unexpected situations.
After accepting a mission and leaving the base, the convoy followed the same route as last time toward the area where they had previously fought.
Along the way, only a few scattered zombies wandered through the ruins and streets. The situation looked about the same as when they had come out before.
When they passed the bank that had long turned into ruins and reached the place where they had stayed last time, the scattered zombies nearby looked no different either—just as if, after they left each time, zombies had slowly wandered into the area by chance.
“Looks like there’s nothing unusual?” Han Li, inside the car, held up binoculars and scanned the surroundings.
After carefully checking the nearby area, Luo Xun finally decided, “After inspection, we’ll enter the place where we hid last time.”
The inspection was naturally done by Yan Fei. After thoroughly checking everything once, he confirmed that all the hidden trenches and bowl-shaped metal bases underground were intact. Only after everyone repeatedly confirmed the surrounding situation did they drive into the place they had once stayed.
Yan Fei pulled out the metal materials hidden in the trenches and once again constructed a ring of metal walls, adding the metal they had casually collected along the way to reinforce them.
After clearing away the nearby zombies—there were more Level Two zombies this time—they let Yan Fei and the other ability users recover their powers. Only then did Luo Xun take out the blood packs again to lure zombies.
Perhaps because few people passed through the southern area now, the number of zombies had decreased as well. After everyone finished burning this batch of zombies, the sky had not even turned dark yet.
Leaving the steel-enclosed wall, everyone began cleaning up the corpses and collecting crystal cores. After roughly estimating, the harvest this time was only about five thousand cores at most.
Xu Mei frowned and asked Luo Xun, “Captain, should we go deeper?”
Although around eighty percent of the five thousand cores were Level Two, the harvest was still much worse compared with previous months.
Luo Xun hesitated as well. Going deeper into the city would certainly yield more crystal cores, but the safety issue…
After thinking carefully and glancing at the completely dark sky, Luo Xun had just begun to say, “Let’s stay here for now—”
“Captain! Something’s coming! Something’s coming! A lot of them!!”
Han Li, standing on the metal observation platform erected by Yan Fei, suddenly shouted loudly. His face turned pale as he pointed toward the northeast.
Everyone quickly rushed to the small window facing that direction and looked outside. In the dim ruins far away, they saw countless small red eyes flickering in the darkness.
Hearing the distant squeaking sounds, Yan Fei’s face also changed. “Zombie rats!”
“Seal the top! Make all the windows half their current size!” Luo Xun’s expression instantly turned serious as he issued orders.
Sealing the roof and adjusting the windows were all Yan Fei’s tasks. As soon as he heard the command, he immediately mobilized the nearby metal. A metal dome rapidly spread across the sky from all directions, covering the entire metal “bowl.”
Luo Xun was not idle either. Together with Li Tie and the others, he quickly carried out buckets of leftover gasoline and mushroom juice from the vehicles and placed them beside the wall.
Outside, the squeaking sounds grew closer and gradually merged into one overwhelming chorus.
Taking advantage of the moment before the zombie rats arrived, Luo Xun quickly instructed everyone, “When I give the order, pour the mushroom juice and gasoline through the pipes Yan Fei made into the trenches outside. When the time comes, Xu Mei will ignite it. Zhang Su, you must keep supplying air to us and make sure smoke doesn’t come inside! If any of the oil holes catch fire, you’re responsible for putting it out!”
After seeing Zhang Su and Xu Mei nod, he turned to Song Lingling and said, “You’re responsible for adding water to those big barrels whenever needed and cooling everyone down.”
In this situation, no clever tactics would help.
All they could do was pour mushroom juice, pour gasoline, and burn them all to death!
The zombie rats moved astonishingly fast. Before Luo Xun had even finished speaking, the squeaking outside had already reached the trenches.
Groups of zombie rats fell into the trenches with plopping sounds.
But who knew how many zombie rats were out there? Once the trenches were filled, they would rush straight to the metal wall!
Before Luo Xun’s thoughts had even finished forming, loud thump, thump sounds crashed against the metal plates beside them.
“How did they get across?!” He Qiankun’s face turned pale, his voice trembling.
Zhang Su narrowed his peach-blossom eyes. “There’s wind… wind-type ability…”
Before he could finish speaking, a small fireball suddenly struck one of the small windows!
“Damn! Is there no justice left?! Even zombie rats have evolved abilities now?!” Wang Duo spat angrily, forcing down the fear in his heart.
Luo Xun, however, became calmer.
“For now, stay away from the windows. Song Lingling, check the situation outside through a water barrier later. If the trenches are almost full, everyone get ready to pour the mushroom juice!”
Either they die, or the rats die.
Before exhausting their last bit of strength, Luo Xun would never give up, and everyone here had to fight to survive.
Every face was tense.
Song Lingling didn’t look through the window facing the rat horde directly. Many rats had already rushed up the smooth, rounded wall. Some even clung to the metal windows, frantically scratching with their tiny claws, creating a harsh scratching noise mixed with constant thumping.
Instead, she went to the window on the opposite side to check. A curtain of water formed before her as protection. After seeing the situation outside, she called out loudly to Luo Xun and the others:
“Captain! The trench at the back is already half full!”
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
