Chapter 107

The impact came from the side!

Little Huang’s eyes flew open, but he couldn’t see a thing. It had happened too fast. Everything around him had turned into horizontal streaks of speed.

Glass shattered!

A fall!

Weightlessness!

Then, miraculously, the descent slowed!

It was as if some force had risen from the ground to catch him.

Only after landing safely did Little Huang see the blue sky.

High above, at the third-floor window, Huang’s mother was crouching on the windowsill, looking down.

The next second, she jumped after him!

Little Huang’s pupils contracted.

But his body suddenly lifted into the air again.

Zhou Wang and Brother Dong, both wind-type ability users, dragged him away at full speed.

Little Huang watched helplessly as his mother leapt from the third-floor window and broke her leg when she hit the ground. She let out a hoarse roar in his direction.

“Faster, faster!” someone shouted.

A large number of zombies came rushing out of the building.

But with the two wind-type ability users going all out, not only had they used an upward current to cushion their own fall from the third floor and land safely, they were still too fast for the zombies to catch even while dragging along a half-dead person.

A minibus was parked outside the courtyard, its door open. The people inside were shouting at them.

The Development Zone government offices stood on the outskirts of the Science and Technology New District’s residential area, quite a distance from Maidoduo. They had to drive there.

But it had been Thursday, a regular workday, when the zombie virus broke out in the afternoon. The residential area in the Science and Technology New District was nearly deserted. It wasn’t like last time, when there had been plenty of abandoned cars sitting in the streets with their keys still inside. Anyone could simply climb in and drive away.

When Zhou Wang received a call from Longlong's Grandma and learned that Little Huang had gone alone to the Development Zone government offices, he froze for a moment.

He knew perfectly well that his wife and child hadn’t come back. Most likely, they were dead.

His own child was gone. Now there was another child he had to save.

He looked around, rapidly sweeping his eyes over everyone nearby.

Before anyone had time to react, he grabbed Brother Dong by the collar. “Old Dong! Come with me to save someone! Hurry! It’s a child!”

There was no abandoned car with keys conveniently left inside.

But that didn’t matter. Everyone immediately fixed their eyes on the minibus by the roadside.

Cui Haiyang picked the lock.

Gao Yuxuan started the engine.

Song Jingshuo took the wheel because he was an excellent driver.

Everyone piled into the vehicle. “Hurry, hurry!”

Song Jingshuo shifted gears, slammed down on the accelerator, and sent the minibus shooting away in a reverse drift.

The vehicle would make too much noise, so they didn’t stop too close to the building. They left it outside the government compound. Land in the development zone was much cheaper than in the city, and there were dozens of meters between the compound’s main gate and the entrance to the main building.

But that distance was nothing to the two wind-type ability users.

Brother Dong was yanked out of the minibus by Zhou Wang, and the two of them charged into the building like a pair of gusts.

Damn it, what terrible luck! What did this have to do with him? He didn’t even know the kid.

But people were swept along by their circumstances.

Everyone had started moving, taking part in the rescue. Even many of those who hadn’t joined them had crowded outside the entrance to Maidoduo to watch them leave.

That made it impossible to back out.

A person could slip away quietly, but not when everyone was watching.

Still, Brother Dong was now one of the stronger ability users, and his mindset was no longer what it had once been. He grumbled inwardly about his bad luck, but obediently followed along.

Once they got out of the vehicle, the two of them rushed into the building like twin gusts of wind.

As for Huang’s mother’s job, Zhou Wang might have understood it even better than Little Huang did.

He and Huang’s mother were both successful, middle-aged professionals. Whenever they ran into each other and exchanged pleasantries, they didn’t talk about what they had eaten that day. They talked about work, policy changes after the disaster, prospects for their industries, and things like that.

He knew that Huang’s mother was the Director of the Science and Industry Promotion Bureau in the Development Zone government.

But he didn’t know where her office was or which floor it was on.

Fortunately, they found it smoothly.

They were one second away from being too late!

At the instant Huang’s mother pounced on Little Huang, the two of them also lunged forward. Using the speed granted by their wind-type abilities, they seized Little Huang before Huang’s mother could reach him.

The three of them crashed through the window and fell from the third floor together.

Jiang Cheng had said he would find Zhou Wang someone with the same type of ability and have them talk.

And, as it turned out, people with the same type of ability really could come up with something to talk about.

Before Zhou Wang received the call from Longlong's Grandma, Brother Dong had suddenly wondered aloud whether their wind-type abilities could let them fly.

The two of them had given it a try.

Flying was impossible.

Using air currents to fight gravity—with their weight, no less—was pure fantasy. One of them had a beer belly, while the other was built like a solid block of muscle. They were simply too heavy to fly by relying on air currents.

But they had realized that when falling from a height, they could use an upward current to cushion the descent and slow themselves down.

Brother Dong had immediately said, “Now that’s useful!”

They might not be able to fly, but it was perfect for escaping with their lives when cornered.

For example, jumping out of a building.

How could that not count as tempting fate?

Just over half an hour later, they really were jumping from a building.

Dragging the practically unconscious Little Huang at a run, they fled with a swarm of zombies pouring out of the building behind them...

“Hurry!” Gao Yuxuan roared.

Brother Dong and Zhou Wang shoved Little Huang into the minibus.

Gao Yuxuan and Cui Haiyang pulled him in from the other side with all their strength.

Then Zhou Wang squeezed into the rear compartment, while Guo Jun ran around to the front and climbed into the passenger seat.

Bang—screech—

One sound was the car door slamming shut.

The other was the minibus flooring the accelerator and executing a high-speed drift.

The people who hadn’t fastened their seat belts were thrown around, their heads banging against the windows.

Once the vehicle steadied, they looked out through the rear window and saw that they had already left the zombies from the government building far behind.

“Good Lord...” Brother Dong collapsed into the passenger seat, exhausted.

Zhou Wang was no better.

The entire charge into the building might have looked brief, but with that density of zombies, their abilities had been burning through their stamina in explosive bursts.

Brother Dong gasped for breath. When his nose began to itch, he raised a hand and wiped it, coming away with blood.

Song Jingshuo glanced at him in the rearview mirror as he drove. “Check yourself over.”

Everything had happened too suddenly. Zhou Wang’s emotions had swept everyone along. Besides, they had just finished slaughtering a large number of zombies and were still running on adrenaline. When Zhou Wang called out, everyone acted on impulse.

Zhou Wang had an emotional bond with Little Huang and was single-mindedly determined to save him.

Brother Dong had been dragged into the whole thing in a daze, like a duck being herded into line.

But once the two of them had gone inside, the three people in the minibus had calmed down.

Song Jingshuo said, “Prepare yourselves for the possibility that we came all this way for nothing.”

If the child had even one small wound, not only would this trip have been pointless—they would have to deal with him themselves.

Cui Haiyang sighed. “At least we’ll have a clear conscience.”

Little Huang had always stayed by Zhou Wang’s side. And he was Old Huang’s son.

Nearly everyone on the Temporary Management Committee of the Youth Apartments knew him.

After Old Huang died, Little Huang had continued staying with Zhou Wang, and people often saw him there. Under those extraordinary circumstances, it was obvious that Zhou Wang had been deliberately looking after the widow and her orphaned child.

As a leader, he could truly be called compassionate and loyal.

So everyone really did understand his desperation at that moment. His urgency to save the child had infected them.

They had followed him. Even if the child couldn’t be saved, at least they could say without shame, “We did everything we could.”

But if they hadn’t gone, they might spend the days and nights ahead wondering, If I had gone that day, maybe...

After Song Jingshuo’s warning, Cui Haiyang and Gao Yuxuan immediately examined Little Huang from head to toe.

Once Little Huang’s adrenaline faded, his body gave out, and he slipped into a state of exhaustion.

But fortunately, Cui Haiyang said in amazement, “The kid doesn’t have a single injury.”

How had he managed it? He had charged into a nest of zombies all by himself, rushed straight to the third floor, and come out without a scratch.

Then they thought of something. “He made it back alive from the school. He must have awakened a superpower.”

Gao Yuxuan said, “His armor is pretty unusual.”

The armor issued by the government was all made by a fracture-brace factory, using the same white plastic. The kid’s shoulder guards were styled after the standard armor, but they were actually made of metal.

Cui Haiyang felt them over and said with certainty, “This was modified by a metal-element superpowered person.”

He praised it. “Quite a skilled craftsman.”

Not only had they perfectly imitated the design, they had also left plenty of ventilation holes, just like the original. Even the edges were smooth and rounded, as if they had been polished, so they wouldn’t be sharp or cut anyone.

This metal-element superpowered person had been extremely meticulous.

Gao Yuxuan said, “If that’s the case, could the children awaken superpowers too?”

Slumped in his seat, Zhou Wang turned his head and asked blankly, “Really? Can they?”

How he wished his child could awaken a superpower too—enough to survive, and to bring his mother home.

But the adults knew that was only a dream. The fact that Little Huang was still alive was already a miracle.

Old Huang’s wife had already become a zombie.

“Yuxuan,” Song Jingshuo said. “Call Jiang Cheng. Tell her we’re all right now. Little Huang is safe too.”

Gao Yuxuan gave an “oh,” then pulled out his phone and made the call.

Jiang Cheng checked the time. Another day had passed.

She took out her phone and glanced at her call history. Six or seven hours had passed since Li Feng had called her.

After thinking it over, Jiang Cheng tried calling him back.

A stiff electronic voice came through the phone: “The subscriber you have dialed is outside the service area. The subscriber you have dialed is outside the service area. The subscriber you have dialed...”

Was he dead?

So many people had died. Li Feng wasn’t particularly important to her.

Jiang Cheng calmly ended the call.

But when her gaze swept across the area, she saw many familiar faces. She had to admit that, despite her naturally cool disposition, there were still some people who were different.

For instance, there were people who had received her warning text messages but hadn’t believed them and never returned.

Jiang Cheng neither grew angry at their disbelief nor grieved their deaths.

But if Li Jiangbing or Song Jingshuo had refused to believe her, she really would have been angry.

Without realizing it, the transmigrator had formed ties with other people in this world. They shared neither blood nor sexual relations.

But this... was actually pretty nice.

Jiang Cheng looked at Li Jiangbing, who was making a great deal of noise in the distance, and the corners of her lips curved upward.