Chapter 92

The second outbreak of the zombie virus came on a weekday afternoon, and the results were far more devastating than the first outbreak, which had occurred on a weekend night.

Government offices across the country were almost completely wiped out.

The reason was that government buildings tended to share the same characteristics: they were tall, spacious, and interconnected, with large numbers of people packed inside.

Hospitals were even worse.

If even Renxin Hospital in the Technology New District had been overrun with zombies, then the large hospitals in the city—with hundreds of people crammed into a single department—were beyond saving.

Patients waiting to be seen were packed into the corridors, and anyone trying to pass through had to say, “Excuse me,” or “Coming through.”

Universities, by contrast, suffered relatively little damage.

The first outbreak had already inflicted such heavy losses on them that few survivors remained. So many students had died. The students who had survived were still undergoing psychological treatment this month.

In fact, even the psychologists could not be sure they themselves weren’t already insane. They had to force themselves to remain calm while providing counseling to others.

Many universities had suspended classes, leaving their campuses empty.

This time, primary and secondary schools were among the hardest-hit areas.

Office buildings and shopping malls were also major disaster zones.

Restaurants fared somewhat better. At that hour, many had only just finished their afternoon break and were preparing to open for business. The evening crowds had not yet arrived.

But there was one place that was a disaster zone within a disaster zone: military barracks.

Jiang Cheng had declared during the previous outbreak that military camps would inevitably become major disaster zones. Later, the facts proved her right.

The government never announced exactly how many soldiers the military had lost, but the painfully slow advance of the troops sent afterward to rescue the cities made it obvious just how severely understaffed the army had become.

Jiang Cheng had even predicted that zombies transformed from soldiers—whose physical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people—would be much stronger than ordinary zombies.

Everyone agreed with that assessment, but without experiencing it firsthand, it was difficult to imagine just how true it was.

Li Feng had never expected to live through a second outbreak in this lifetime.

This time, people had far more experience than before.

During the previous outbreak, no one had known that injuries would lead to infection, so everyone had fought alone.

This time, many people stood back-to-back, guarding against zombies sneaking up behind them.

Even so, many who had failed to form up with their comrades in time were left isolated.

Li Feng was one of them.

He roared as he swung a folding metal stool, knocking a zombie flying to one side.

When the virus erupted again, they had been holding an outdoor assembly. Everyone had been given one folding metal stool.

Those stools had become the weapons in Li Feng’s hands—and the only weapons available.

Weapons were actually difficult to obtain inside a military camp. Guns and ammunition were kept under strict control in the armory. Every requisition required documentation and approval, and two people had to operate the system together before anything could be issued.

Cold weapons were considered auxiliary equipment and were also stored in the armory.

At that moment, setting aside whether anyone could even fight their way across such a large military district to reach the armory, even if they got there, they would not be able to find the two people holding the keys to open its double locks.

They could only use whatever happened to be in their hands.

A heavy blow came from a familiar comrade.

The metal stool flew from Li Feng’s grasp.

Without a weapon, fighting a zombie hand-to-hand meant that even the smallest wound would eventually lead to death.

Li Feng no longer cared. His heart was filled with fury.

This world belonged to humanity. These monsters should never have appeared, much less attempted to destroy mankind.

“Go to hell!”

Li Feng roared and swung his fist.

He knew that the punch would certainly leave him injured. He knew he would be infected. He knew he would die.

Too many people had died since the previous outbreak.

Li Feng had been driven beyond the limits of his anger.

Ever since he had woken up, there had been a spot in his head that throbbed with a needle-like pain. In that instant, his rage ignited that painful point.

It erupted.

It activated.

A vast, searing heat seeped out from within his cells.

Roaring flames sprang up around Li Feng’s fists!

The terrifying part was not merely the size of the flames, but their temperature.

His blazing iron fist slammed into the side of the zombie’s head, sending it flying sideways. In the same instant, the flames engulfed its skull, scorching its eyeballs.

They bored through its nostrils and ears, drilling into its brain.

Even through the skull, the flames burned its brain.

A zombie that would not react even if its arms or legs were severed let out a shrill, agonized howl.

Li Feng had no time to concern himself with the flames on his fists. He leaped forward, tackled the zombie, pinned it down, and hammered its head again and again.

He did not stop until the zombie’s face had been charred black, its brain reduced to carbon inside its skull, and its body had ceased moving completely.

Only then did Li Feng finally stop. He raised his hand and stared at the flames burning around his fists.

The fists wrapped in fire were completely uninjured.

He had no idea what was happening, but he knew that this was his weapon.

Throughout the military camp, ability users awakened and activated their powers when faced with life-or-death situations.

An electric-type ability user sent a current through a zombie’s eyeball and straight into its brain.

A metal-type ability user transformed the metal stool in his hand into a long spike.

A earth-type ability user raised a mound of earth in a moment of crisis, using it as a barrier to block a fatal strike from a zombie.

Unfortunately, when a water-type ability user instinctively created a ball of water to block a zombie’s attack, the attack pierced straight through it. The zombie’s claws sank directly into the ability user’s throat.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

If the people in the Youth Apartment had witnessed the strength of these abilities, they would certainly have been stunned.

Compared with these abilities, the tiny flames, little water balls, weak electric currents, and small mounds of earth in the Youth Apartment were like the difference between an adult and a child.

Ordinary people and soldiers were simply on entirely different levels.

The metal-type ability user gritted his teeth and endured the needle-like pain in his brain, melting one metal stool after another into iron spikes and throwing them to his comrades.

Once the survivors had such offensive weapons in their hands, their combat power immediately soared.

The metal-type ability user was exhausting himself far too quickly. Blood began to flow from his eyes, nostrils, and ears.

But he never stopped.

Every time he used his ability, another comrade received a weapon.

He continued until several people returned from the combat engineers’ equipment room carrying engineer shovels.

Engineer shovels were not classified as weapons, but as tools and equipment, so they were stored in the equipment room.

Everyone knew, however, that military engineer shovels could easily be used as cold weapons.

With long spikes and engineer shovels in hand, the survivors finally no longer had to focus solely on defense. They roared and charged toward the zombies.

The metal-type ability user had exceeded the limits his body could withstand the very first time he used his power.

Something in his brain could no longer support the strain.

It burst.

The ability user collapsed to the ground, bleeding from all seven orifices. He died a heroic death.

The tide of battle turned.

The third-generation zombies did not lack any sense of life and death like the original zombies and second-generation zombies. When they realized that the humans outnumbered the zombies and that the situation could no longer be reversed, they began fleeing one after another.

The surviving soldiers wiped out the second-generation and original zombies.

The battle was shorter than the previous zombie-virus outbreak.

In reality, during the first outbreak, the zombies that had just awakened were all original zombies, so the initial clash ended quickly.

But at that time, no one knew that injuries would result in infection. The real battle only began when large numbers of wounded soldiers started transforming.

People were injured one after another.

People transformed one after another.

At last, someone realized the root of the problem: the zombie virus was transmitted through blood.

After dealing with the zombies, the survivors turned the blades of their engineer shovels toward their wounded comrades.

It was agonizing. It was helpless.

But no one had a better choice.

At last, the armory was opened, and they got their hands on the guns. Ending their comrades’ lives with firearms caused far less suffering than using cold weapons.

None of the wounded resisted. They closed their eyes.

Tears streaming down his face, Li Feng pulled the trigger, shooting each wounded comrade in the head.

He continued until every wounded soldier had been executed.

It was simpler and more brutal than when the Youth Apartment had herded the wounded into the conference room and sealed them inside.

But it was the most effective method.

It stopped new zombies from being created.

The surviving soldiers assembled and took stock of the situation.

Then they discovered that there were no senior officers left. The highest-ranking survivor was only a major.

The major said, “Contact our superiors immediately.”

At this critical moment, the country needed them. Even though they had just endured a battle that had drained them physically, they had to establish contact with the government at once.

There were not many surviving officers, and Li Feng was one of them.

The soldiers dealt with the bodies outside while the officers tried to contact their superiors from the battalion headquarters office.

But they couldn’t get through.

They called one number after another. The officers kept making calls, working their way up the chain of command.

No one answered.

The officers grew increasingly desperate.

The calls had already reached the capital, even the central government, yet still... there was no response.

The major held the receiver, his face blank with confusion.

Everyone looked at one another, bewilderment written across every face.

Even during the previous zombie crisis, the battalion headquarters had quickly managed to contact surviving senior officers, who had then swiftly reached their own superiors.

That crisis had happened on a weekend evening.

Senior officers did not live on the military base, so many of them had survived.

But this time...

Was there no one left to lead them?

The people in the Youth Apartment had no idea that the soldiers’ supernatural abilities had erupted with such overwhelming force. They were still smugly celebrating their own little powers.

But someone as perceptive about survival as Li Jiangbing had already realized that something was wrong.

Other people could use fire, electricity, or even earth to attack or defend themselves. But what could his water do?

Everyone’s abilities were still weak, and most people had not thought that far yet. Li Jiangbing, however, had.

The excitement he had felt when he first discovered his supernatural ability was gone. A faint unease had begun to take root in his heart.

After obtaining walkie-talkies from the property management office, everyone prepared to search the buildings.

As usual, each team was responsible for its own building.

By now, only a few apartments in the complex still had their lights on. When everyone had awakened, it had still been daylight, and most people had already gone downstairs.

After the teams were divided by building, Su Yu saw that Building Two had enough people and called out to Li Jiangbing, “I’m going to Building Three.”

She added, “I need to check on Fu Duoduo.”

Li Jiangbing knew that Fu Duoduo was the little dog He Tian had raised. He had even once balanced the dog on his head and played with it.

“Go ahead, go ahead,” he said.

Then he warned her, “Stay with the others. Don’t go off on your own.”

Su Yu followed the people from Building Three.

Building Three was now without Nie Kuizhang, Peng Ze, and He Tian. They had formerly been the building manager and the residents who took the lead in organizing things.

The residents temporarily selected someone to serve as the building manager.

Su Yu joined them.

As before, they began searching from the top floor down. Su Yu did her part as best she could.

The supernatural ability she had awakened was a protective shield. Everyone still knew very little about it, but that did not stop them from thinking it was amazing.

Su Yu felt that people’s attitude toward her had subtly changed compared with before.

When they reached He Tian’s floor, Su Yu finally saw Fu Duoduo.

She had been thinking that, since He Tian was gone, she would adopt Fu Duoduo.

They had still been chatting through their messaging app before losing consciousness that day.

“If I mutate, come and put me out of my misery.”

That was the last message He Tian had sent her.

Su Yu still remembered the message she had sent just before that—

“I’ve locked Fu Duoduo in the bathroom. She can’t open the door. If I mutate, take her home and raise her.”

Su Yu stared at the blood-soaked bathroom.

Fur and an eyeball.

A bloody handprint on the toilet seat.

Tears streamed down Su Yu’s face.

He Tian had loved Fu Duoduo so much.