Chapter 118

Guo Jun and Gao Yuxuan were discussing the problem of precise output.

Guo Jun was eager to master the technique.

“Once the zombies are all dead and things return to normal,” Guo Jun said, “I’ll be able to charge my own phone. I’ll generate my own electricity for all the appliances at home! That’ll save money!”

“Then you’ll need a bank of lead-acid batteries as backup power,” Gao Yuxuan said. “I heard lithium batteries have already been developed, but they can only power small appliances. In the future, though, there’ll definitely be high-capacity battery banks. We’ll have it easy then.”

With suitable energy-storage equipment, people with electrical abilities could live without ever having to pay an electricity bill.

The two of them launched into an enthusiastic discussion about how large a lead-acid battery bank would need to be to support a household’s normal power consumption.

Nearby, Cui Haiyang was eyeing the scrapped van. It had already been burned, so there was no point in wasting it. It was all metal, after all.

Metal was a wonderful thing. It could be reused.

Cui Haiyang pressed a fingertip against the hood, and the hood began to change shape.

The metal shoulder armor Wu Shuchen had made looked pretty good, and Cui Haiyang decided to copy it.

Before long, a shoulder guard formed from the van’s hood had taken shape. It was placed on top of the engine.

The metal had also been refined during the reshaping process, leaving behind neither dust nor impurities. It gleamed brightly, with a look that combined retro style and futuristic sci-fi.

Everyone nearby let out amazed cries of, “Wow!”

Someone couldn’t resist. “Let me try it! Let me try!”

He reached out and picked up the shoulder guard.

A moment later, he dropped it in a hurry. “Ow, fuck! Hoo—hoo!”

He had forgotten that the van had just been through a fire!

Cao Jiacai grabbed the flames away in one sweep, making the van look clean and spotless, but the metal itself had not yet cooled down.

Cui Haiyang had only touched the hood lightly with his fingertip. In reality, it had been the edge of his fingernail making contact, without his fingertip pad touching it at all. He had simply overlooked the danger and forgotten to warn everyone.

He hurried over. “Are you all right? Are you all right? Go find some running water and cool it down!”

But Zhang Lesi came sprinting over in a single bound.

Everyone wanted to improve their abilities, and improving required practice. But how was Zhang Lesi supposed to train?

Now that a ready-made practice subject had appeared, how could she let it go?

“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”

Healing was truly the kind of superpower people desperately needed.

And it really worked.

Under the faint white glow, the injured person said in delighted surprise, “It doesn’t hurt anymore! It works! It really works!”

The others gathered around in astonishment and pulled his hand over to examine it closely.

Zhou Wang looked at the groups of three or five people scattered along Jixiang West Street, chatting noisily among themselves.

He knew perfectly well that zombies were everywhere in the city, that countless people had died, and that many others were still trapped and struggling to survive. Yet somehow, he felt as if they were living in peaceful, tranquil times.

Just then, Jiang Cheng’s phone rang.

In the current circumstances, whenever someone’s phone suddenly rang, it attracted an unusual amount of attention. There was a very good chance it meant trouble.

And sure enough, it wasn’t good news.

The caller ID alone made Jiang Cheng raise an eyebrow.

It was one of the leaders of Yujing Xiangyuan.

Yujing Xiangyuan had never formed a particularly united organization. It had always been divided into several groups, each governing itself.

It was only later, when they began operating alongside the Youth Apartments, that they reluctantly became a temporary force under Jiang Cheng’s overall command.

Jiang Cheng had the phone numbers of several people from Yujing Xiangyuan. When she had sent out the group message, she had sent it to everyone in her contacts, including them.

Whether they had made it back, however, was unknown.

Jiang Cheng answered. “Hello?”

“Jiang Cheng?”

“That’s me.”

“This is Xia Hui from Yujing Xiangyuan.”

“I know. What is it?”

“Jiang Cheng, I’m sorry. I didn’t believe your warning. I’m trapped at my company right now.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Jiang Cheng said.

Xia Hui had nothing to apologize to Jiang Cheng for. He had let himself down. Someone had warned him in advance—a stroke of incredible luck—and he had failed to seize the opportunity.

There was no such thing as a regret pill. And there was no time now to ask Jiang Cheng how she had known in advance.

Xia Hui lowered his voice and pleaded, “My parents are at Yujing Xiangyuan. They’re trapped in their apartment. There are four or five zombies in the hallway on our floor. It’s just the two of them, and they don’t have any armor. There’s really nothing they can do... Jiang Cheng, please. Help me.”

Jiang Cheng did not answer immediately. Instead, she asked, “What’s the situation like in the city?”

“Not good. We’re trapped in an office building. There are a lot of zombies on the streets—packed together.”

“Has anyone awakened a superpower?”

“Huh? You already knew about that? Is it already common knowledge?” Xia Hui said. “Yes. Three of us, including my coworkers, have abilities.”

Jiang Cheng asked, “Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, electricity, or something else? What kind of abilities do you have?”

“By metal, do you mean manipulating metal?” Xia Hui asked. “The three of us can all reshape metal.”

“Three metal-type ability users? What kind of work do you do?”

Xia Hui didn’t understand why Jiang Cheng was asking about such “irrelevant” information at a time like this. But he needed her help, so he answered patiently. “We work in mechanical design and manufacturing.”

Good. Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan’s theory was fundamentally sound.

Of course, they had worked backward from the results, so their conclusions inevitably contained subjective assumptions and skipped over some anomalous data. But at least for now, the general direction and basic framework were correct.

Jiang Cheng asked, “Can you make it back?”

Xia Hui was silent for a moment before answering firmly, “I definitely can!”

“Our floor has already been cleared. We’ve made more than twenty sets of metal armor, as well as weapons.”

“We contacted people on the other floors through the landline. Some of them have abilities too, and everyone is preparing to make a move together.”

“I’m definitely going to make it back alive.”

“But my parents need help right now, Jiang Cheng...” His voice was filled with pleading.

A metal-type ability user was asking for assistance.

Jiang Cheng said, “Which building and which apartment?”

Xia Hui was overjoyed.

A month earlier, he had already witnessed Jiang Cheng’s command abilities and the Youth Apartments’ combat strength. He didn’t know how many people from the Youth Apartments had survived this time, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of panic in Jiang Cheng’s voice. She was as calm and steady as ever, and simply hearing her put people at ease.

Xia Hui gave her his apartment number, then said with ringing conviction, “Jiang Cheng, I owe you one.”

“Don’t say that,” Jiang Cheng replied. “Just make it back alive.”

Xia Hui said, “I will!”

Jiang Cheng hung up and looked up. Everyone around her had gathered in a circle, waiting for her to speak.

Jiang Cheng waved her phone. “We’ve got a job.”

A crowd of people whose superpowers were brimming with nowhere to go began howling excitedly.

Zhou Wang watched it all, feeling dazed and unreal.

At the very beginning, going out to kill zombies had required immense courage and a willingness to face certain death. Every person who stepped outside had been a hero.

The moment they left their homes, the air had been filled with sorrow.

How had things turned into this?

Zhou Wang thought back for a moment. It had probably started when ordinary people got their hands on armor.

The appearance of armor had dramatically reduced the risks humans faced when fighting zombies. It had allowed humanity to shift completely from defense to offense and confront the zombies in direct combat.

The difference between humans and animals lies in the use of tools.

Armor erased the imbalance between zombies—who “weren’t afraid of injury, pain, or death”—and humans, who could be done in by “a single minor wound.”

Zombies had been downgraded from “terrifying monsters” to “damned monsters.”

Humanity was no longer afraid.

“Brother Zhou, come on. Let’s figure this out together.” Jiang Cheng nodded toward the inside of the residential compound’s gate, inviting Zhou Wang in.

Zhou Wang: “......”

Zhou Wang could almost predict that Yujing Xiangyuan was probably in much the same situation as Jixiang Jiayuan—the young people had all gone downtown to work, leaving only empty-nest elderly residents behind.

He already had one such residential compound on his hands. But there was no helping it; his own home was there too.

He really didn’t want to take on another compound like this. He had absolutely no desire to manage any other residential community.

But he had no choice. He still held the position and responsibilities of leader of Jixiang Jiayuan. Since he needed something from the Youth Apartments and had to rely on them, he could only lower his head and comply.

Besides, Little Huang had already hurried through the gates of the Youth Apartments and stopped inside, turning sideways to wait for him.

In the eyes of the young people, helping a neighboring residential compound escape its predicament was perfectly normal. Especially now that everyone had armor and supernatural abilities, and there were genuinely very few zombies in the Technology New District.

The advantage was entirely on humanity’s side.

Under Little Huang’s expectant gaze, Zhou Wang could only step forward and follow him.

The meeting had started at half past nine, and it was now nearly noon. After discussing the matter, everyone decided to go after lunch.

They couldn’t fight on empty stomachs.

They also needed to make some preparations.

There weren’t enough sets of armor for everyone, but now they had metal-type supernatural abilities.

The Youth Apartments currently had twenty-two ability users, five of whom—including Cui Haiyang and Security Guard Little Wang—had metal-type abilities.

Of the six people from Jixiang Jiayuan who had returned alive yesterday, five were ability users, including one with a metal-type ability.

Now that the six metal-type ability users had gathered together, they enthusiastically began manufacturing metal armor.

Their goal was to ensure that everyone had armor and everyone had a weapon.

As for weapons, someone even tried making a crescent-shaped blade.

They sharpened the front edge, found a mop, removed the mop head, and used metal manipulation to attach the blade directly to the mop handle. In an instant, they had a long-handled weapon.

Everyone was already highly experienced at killing zombies. After testing it in their hands, they immediately realized how suitable it was.

Li Jiangbing was the first to give it a try.

With one sweep of the crescent blade, Li Jiangbing chopped through a young tree that had been replanted in the residential compound six months earlier! A long-handled weapon allowed one to maintain a safe distance from a zombie—or a tree.

“!!” Li Jiangbing exclaimed. “This one’s mine!”

Everyone burst out laughing. “Sure, sure. It’s yours. We’ll keep making more.”

Then they discovered that they didn’t have enough suitable wooden handles.

Making the entire weapon out of metal would add too much weight and affect its use.

In the end, Zhou Wang called the people at Jixiang Jiayuan. The homes there were all traditional family-style units, and many households had old-fashioned mops.

They searched from household to household and collected more than thirty handles.

The metal-type ability users made more than thirty crescent blades.

At present, Security Guard Little Wang had the best control among the metal-type ability users.

Most of the metal-type ability users worked in fields related to machinery. Only Security Guard Little Wang was a genuine blacksmith.

He was the only one who had truly worked with iron using the strength of his own hands, rather than relying on machines.

His precision in shaping metal was exceptionally high.

The task of sharpening the weapons was therefore left to him.

The other metal-type ability users didn’t waste their energy on that. They focused their abilities on shaping the blades and increasing their hardness.

Some handled the shaping, while others strengthened the metal.

The rough, unsharpened crescent blade was handed to Young Wang. Holding it in his hands, he thinned and sharpened the crescent edge in no time.

It was then passed to the next person, who secured it to a wooden handle.

Before long, a highly practical long-handled crescent blade was complete.

The ability users naturally formed an assembly line.