Chapter 114

Jiang Cheng immediately raised an objection. “What about the military? Forget brainpower for now. In terms of physical fitness alone, every soldier is unquestionably fitter than ninety-nine percent of us. And yet a considerable number of soldiers still mutated into zombies. That’s what happened last time, and I doubt this time will be any better. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Li Feng.”

At the mention of Li Feng, Zhao Yi let out a sigh as well. He and Li Feng knew each other too. Even though they had learned to face life and death, they still hoped their family and friends could survive.

Zhao Yi explained, “First, let’s only discuss cases where there was no failure. For now, we’ll define turning into a zombie as failure. As for why someone fails, that’s outside the scope of our discussion.”

“The mutation must occur at the genetic level. Everyone knows that genes are said to belong to the realm of the divine.”

“At such a highly complex level, there are countless possible causes of failure. Anyone who’s worked in a laboratory knows that sometimes all it takes is opening a door one extra time, or letting an incubator’s light shine on the samples once too often, and months of work can be ruined.”

“The more complicated the experiment, the easier it is to fail.”

“What we’re discussing here is this: if we define ‘not turning into a zombie’ as the passing grade, then above that passing grade, there’s another benchmark. Only when your overall score reaches that benchmark do you have a chance of obtaining a superpower.”

“Pay attention—I said a chance.”

“In other words, passing the benchmark doesn’t guarantee that you’ll gain a superpower. We only inferred the existence of such a benchmark by observing the results.”

“This can explain why people below the benchmark can’t obtain superpowers.”

“But why some people above the benchmark still don’t gain superpowers is something we can never know. For now, we can only attribute it to a ‘random luck factor.’”

“If you pass the benchmark, you have a chance of obtaining a superpower. If you don’t, your chances are zero.”

“According to this theory, we can say that although all soldiers are physically strong, a considerable number of them will still fail and mutate into zombies.”

“But among the soldiers who don’t fail, just like with us, only those who possess that random luck factor will obtain superpowers.”

Someone in the crowd said, “Then being strong is pointless, isn’t it?”

Zhao Yi had been waiting for someone to say that. He immediately pointed at the speaker. “No, no, you’re wrong.”

“That brings us to the second topic we need to discuss: how physical fitness affects the strength of superpowers.”

“Although we don’t have many observable samples, the contrast between them is striking.”

“Take fire-based abilities. Everyone can see that Cao Jiacai is stronger than Wu Jiancheng.”

“We all know Jiancheng is no weakling. Who would dare say he’s weak? Just look at his height and build! Who would dare?”

“So Yuxuan and I specifically interviewed Cao Jiacai, and that’s when we learned that although he looks ordinary, he actually came from a martial arts school. He’s been practicing horse stance since he was a child.”

“Jiancheng, you tell us. If you and Cao Jiacai went head-to-head, who would win?” Zhao Yi called directly to Wu Jiancheng.

Wu Jiancheng said, “Aren’t you setting me up? I grew this way; I didn’t train this way. Against someone who’s actually trained, don’t drag me into this.”

Cao Jiacai had now become the focus of the entire gathering.

He heard people discussing and praising him. After listening to others describe his background, some of the female residents even let out little “Wow~” sounds.

It was enough to make his whole body tingle.

Cao Jiacai’s face practically glowed.

Cao Jiacai and Wu Jiancheng made a good comparison, so Zhao Yi offered another pair. “Aunt Pan and I both have earth-based abilities.”

“It took me an entire night of practice to reach the level of strength and hardness that Aunt Pan achieved the moment she awakened her ability. She completely crushed me.”

“I spent another whole morning struggling just to make the concrete floor bulge a little, while Aunt Pan can raise stone spikes directly.”

Aunt Pan cut in, “That’s only because I failed when I tried to make earth spikes.”

Everyone finally laughed again.

“Yuxuan and Master Guo—we jokingly call ourselves the difference between a little snake and a giant python.”

“Brother Zhou from Lucky Garden and Old Dong from BuyMore ran a lap at the same time, and Brother Zhou was a full eight seconds slower. Eight seconds!”

Brother Dong had originally planned to go home that day, but after hearing Zhou Wang say that the people from the Youth Apartments were going to discuss superpowers, he decided to stay and listen.

But after listening for a while, he started wondering: Why is Zhou the one being called ‘Old Zhou’ even though he’s older, while I’m the one being called ‘Old Dong’ even though I’m younger?

Tsk.

“When everyone is lucky enough to draw the winning ticket and become a superpowered individual, differences in physical fitness don’t just affect the initial strength of their superpowers. They also affect the speed at which those abilities develop.”

“Being physically strong is absolutely not pointless. Absolutely not.”

Zhao Yi continued, “I can’t help wondering: with physiques like those of Cao Jiacai, Aunt Pan, Master Guo, and Master Dong, their abilities are already that much stronger than those of ordinary office workers like us. Just imagine how powerful the abilities awakened by soldiers in military camps must be.”

“Just how powerful could they be?”

Zhao Yi was now completely obsessed with superpowers. Every word he spoke was filled with genuine emotion, and he was exceptionally good at drawing others into his enthusiasm.

After hearing him say that, everyone couldn’t help letting their imaginations run wild for a moment.

No one questioned this point anymore.

The examples were right there among them. The people he had named were sitting nearby, close enough to see just by turning their heads.

The differences were visible to the naked eye.

Those who had already obtained superpowers silently made a note to themselves: practicing their abilities wasn’t enough—they also had to train their bodies.

You need a proper stage before you can put on a good show. That was the principle.

It was both scientific and logical.

The next topic was: “Next, let’s talk about the classification and origins of superpowers. This part is really interesting.”

Gao Yuxuan wrote on the whiteboard while Zhao Yi explained beside him. “First, we’ll classify the basic superpowers according to the traditional Five Elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. We now have all five.”

“Huh? What? Why are they the same as the Five Elements?”

“Don’t get cause and effect backward, class!” Zhao Yi was so immersed in his lecture that he even called them “classmates,” which prompted a wave of laughter.

“It’s not that superpowers are conforming to some human cultural tradition. Rather, the elements of nature were observed by our ancestors, recorded, and classified into the Five Elements.”

“The five types of superpowers are also associated with the elements and substances of the natural world, so naturally they correspond to our ‘Five Elements.’ Got it now?”

The person who had asked the question was Little Fang, one of the security guards. He suddenly understood. “Oh, I see.”

Everyone laughed good-naturedly. Zhao Yi continued, “Besides metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, there are also special types of superpowers.”

“Take Brother Zhou and Master Dong’s wind-based abilities. In truth, wind isn’t included among our Five Elements, but that’s simply a matter of classification. Other countries have descriptions similar to our Five Elements, but theirs consist of four elements. We’ll call them the Four Elements.”

“They are wind, fire, water, and earth.”

“Wind is also an objectively existing element of nature. It’s just that our ancestors didn’t include it in their system of classification. Foreign cultures, meanwhile, didn’t include wood and metal in theirs.”

“But in essence, wind is the same as the Five Elements.”

“So, strictly speaking, there are only four people with truly special superpowers: Jiang Cheng, Little Huang, Su Yu, and Zhang Lesi.”

“Let’s set Jiang Cheng aside for now. I can’t explain her ability, so we’ll have to treat her as a unique exception.”

Someone below made a wisecrack. “Set aside the highest scorer?”

The remark drew a wave of laughter.

Zhao Yi continued, “Although the superpowers of Little Huang, Su Yu, and Zhang Lesi manifest in completely different ways, they have something fundamental in common.”

Zhao Yi pointed to his own head. “All three of their abilities are related to the mind, not to natural elements. So we’re going to classify all three as ‘mental-type’ superpowers.”

Little Huang, Su Yu, and Zhang Lesi each thought it over. They decided the classification made sense and accepted it.

The categories of superpowers were now:

Metal, wood, water, fire, earth—and wind.

Mental-type.

Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng was thinking too.

She was beginning to suspect that her space ability wasn’t actually part of the evolution caused by the zombie virus.

Perhaps she had brought it with her from the old world to this one.

In other words, she might not be a superpowered individual at all. Maybe she had simply happened to possess a personal space and gotten mixed in with the superpowered people.

Natural elements and mental abilities could both be explained through logic and science.

But space was impossible to explain.

There was no way to explain it from any angle.

Unless there was another space-type superpowered individual, proving that spatial abilities were also caused by the zombie virus.

And there was another possibility—

Could it be that both the space and the zombie virus had been brought into this world by her, a transmigrator from another world?

Now that would be interesting.

Jiang Cheng suddenly felt someone watching her.

She turned her head and saw that Cao Jiacai was sitting on the ground as well, his triangular eyes staring at her through the gaps between the people.

Staring straight at her.

Jiang Cheng narrowed her eyes.

She remembered now. Cao Jiacai had secretly watched her before.

But as the leader of the provisional committee, Jiang Cheng was always the focus of attention. Countless people watched her, and she had never paid attention to an insignificant nobody like Cao Jiacai.

Besides, she remembered that whenever her gaze happened to fall on him, Cao Jiacai would immediately look away, refusing to meet her eyes. Like a guilty thief.

But now, when Jiang Cheng looked over, Cao Jiacai didn’t avert his gaze. Instead, he stared at her even more brazenly.

It was like a provocation. Like an invasion.

His superpower had given him courage.

Jiang Cheng didn’t look away either. She met his eyes calmly.

Under the sunlight, her eyes gleamed like shattered ice.

There was no panic or flustered fear in the face of a man’s malicious, violating stare—the kind one might expect from a young woman.

There was only sharpness and coldness.

Even the black cat perched on her shoulder looked over coldly with a pair of green eyes.

Damn it, why does she look like some kind of enchantress?

Cao Jiacai cursed inwardly.

In his mind, all those city girls whom he couldn’t suppress, didn’t deserve, and could never reach—girls he normally wouldn’t even deign to look at properly—were damnable enchantresses.

They all deserved to be subdued by exorcism.

And he was the exorcist now.

Even so, Cao Jiacai, who fancied himself a righteous exorcist, still turned his face away awkwardly under Jiang Cheng’s calm gaze.

He didn’t dare look back.

“Next, let’s talk about why you have this particular superpower instead of another one.” Zhao Yi grew excited. “That’s the most interesting part.”

Gao Yuxuan said, “Exactly!”