Fu Erdie wanted to go to her grandmother’s home in the city centre as soon as possible.
Aside from needing to find a container for the house, she also wanted to look for one of her two closest friends, Cen Xiyang.
Ever since the apocalypse began, Fu Erdie had never been able to get through to Cen Xiyang’s phone.
The office building where Cen Xiyang had been working overtime was on the route to Fu Erdie’s grandmother’s home. Fu Erdie could observe the situation in the business district on the way and act according to circumstances.
After becoming an ability user, Fu Erdie could see the basic direction of the roads even at night. Even without streetlights, she would not be completely blind. Zombies, on the other hand, had poor eyesight and most likely would not notice two people flying in the sky at night. So Fu Erdie preferred entering the city at night.
However, night was not completely without danger. After all, she and Sang Wenhao could only barely make out the outlines of things. They might accidentally encounter some unknown danger and fail to notice it in time because the light was too dim.
After weighing everything, Fu Erdie decided to act at night. Although she was anxious, considering that Sang Wenhao had been busy all afternoon, she still wanted him to rest for a day, recover his energy, and set out tomorrow night.
But Sang Wenhao shook his head. “You need rest because this was your first time being involved in a massacre with so many people. You had a stress reaction and needed a blank buffer period mentally. I passed that stage long ago in University Town.”
“After coming here, I’ve slept very peacefully every night. I don’t need extra sleep now. If we’re leaving, we can set out at any time.”
Fu Erdie hesitated, then decided to first distribute and absorb the crystal cores from the afternoon before deciding whether to leave.
Among the twenty-one crystal cores, the metal-type crystal core definitely belonged to Sang Wenhao, while Fu Erdie herself wanted the healing-type crystal core.
In addition, she set aside two speed-type crystal cores and two ordinary strength-type crystal cores. She and Sang Wenhao each took half, and the remaining fifteen crystal cores were given to the plants.
Fu Erdie worried that the plants might start arguing and fighting, and was considering whether to assign them directly. But then she saw Pothos take the crystal cores and begin presiding over the distribution among the plants.
Dandelion received the wind-type crystal core. Succulent received the stone-type crystal core. Pothos kept the absolute strength-type crystal core belonging to the ability team’s boss.
The fire-type crystal core went to Millet, the water-type crystal core went to the house, and the earth-type crystal core went to Potato.
The remaining nine ordinary strength crystal cores were given to Tomato, Cucumber, Spider Plant, Gardenia, Peach, Bamboo, and a series of other plants.
Some plants did not receive any, so Pothos poked Fu Erdie and pointed at them.
Fu Erdie understood and comforted them, “My ability can help everyone grow and advance. I’m not sure how long push-and-pull training will take to give those of you who didn’t get a crystal core this time the same amount of energy as one crystal core, but when I train my ability every day, I’ll definitely bring everyone along. Don’t rush. One by one.”
The cubs became happy!
The principal was going to train with them!
Didn’t that mean the principal would be with them both day and night?!
No, the principal was very busy during the day and might not be there, but at night, they could replace Mozi and Pothos and sleep together with the principal!
Happy!!!
The cubs without crystal cores were visibly cheerful and excited.
Tomato and Cucumber, the two battle-loving ones, stood in place, stunned.
They had clearly received rewards, so why did winning feel worse than losing?
“…”
Nooo! We also want to replace Pothos and sleep with the principal!
In the blink of an eye, the cubs did not start fighting because they had failed to get crystal cores. Instead, they started fighting because those who had received crystal cores were trying to force them onto the other cubs.
Fu Erdie: …
The first winner was Gardenia. It released its indiscriminate fragrance attack, paralysing all the cubs. Then, taking the opportunity, it forced its crystal core into the cabbage’s heart.
Cabbage: ???
The cabbage’s leaves were layered one over another, and it flailed for a long time, unable to get the crystal core out of its heart.
Gardenia successfully rose to the top and produced a flower, excitedly tucking it into Fu Erdie’s hair.
For the next few nights, the principal belonged to it!
Fu Erdie did not know whether to laugh or cry, leaving the battlefield behind for the cubs to settle on their own.
She and Sang Wenhao went to the balcony of 16-1 to absorb the crystal cores.
Absorbing crystal cores was like eating. Although one could finish eating very quickly, the digestion speed differed depending on the food.
Sang Wenhao could immediately digest the metal crystal core, but absorbing the speed and strength crystal cores would take several days.
He absorbed the metal core skilfully, then looked at Fu Erdie, wanting to see if anything special had happened.
In the end, Fu Erdie had already finished absorbing hers. Only scattered fine sand from the crystal cores remained on her body and the floor.
“How does it feel?” Sang Wenhao asked.
“My ability expanded by two times.” Fu Erdie said uncertainly, “It seems like I can directly digest all three types of crystal cores?”
Sang Wenhao was surprised and held out his hand. “Can you use it on me?”
Fu Erdie took his hand and sent in her ability. Almost instantly, the metal flying chaotically inside Sang Wenhao’s energy body calmed by more than half, leaving only small metal blocks slowly sliding across the “ground.”
The two looked at each other, both surprised and delighted.
“Could it be that you can smoothly absorb crystal cores of every attribute?” Sang Wenhao said. “Why don’t we deal with that plant-type ability user now and try his crystal core?”
Fu Erdie was somewhat tempted.
But it was now eight in the evening. If they set out immediately, they could still try to make a round trip into the city, stopping briefly at the business district where Cen Xiyang was to search for traces of her. If they dealt with the plant-type ability user now and then studied the crystal core matter, it would probably delay them for a while.
She still decided to go out first.
There were three purposes for this trip. First, to bring back things that might become carriers for the house. Second, to familiarise themselves with the route and understand the situation around her grandmother’s home and Cen Xiyang’s office building. Third, to get a sense of their first long-distance flight together.
For a long flight, if Sang Wenhao had to keep holding her the whole time, his hands would definitely become very tired. Fu Erdie found a metal box among the various scavenged items, just barely big enough for a person to sit in, roughly the size of a large storage box.
Sang Wenhao took it and made the box thinner and larger. With the two of them sitting one in front and one behind, it was not too cramped.
They could have used a larger iron plate to transform it, but their combined weight was already around two to three hundred jin. Adding a larger iron plate weighing one to two hundred jin would be a bit too burdensome. A passenger-carrying tool should be as light as possible.
The two sat inside and used their abilities at the same time. The metal box took off.
Not bad. It was very stable, and the consumption was controllable.
A bit of dandelion fluff passed beside them and cleverly landed inside the metal box.
Fu Erdie smiled. “Do you want to go out with us? Then come along.”
Before setting off, Fu Erdie took two monitoring devices that could automatically save video footage.
The metal box swayed a few times in the air. After confirming that it was stable, it slowly rose to the rooftop and wandered higher in the night sky.
The two flew toward the city centre.
The city’s broken walls and ruins were even more tragic than they had imagined. Blood flowed everywhere. Broken limbs, corpses, and overturned vehicles were packed together on the ground. A rotten stench and swarms of flying insects shrouded every corner of the city.
Fu Erdie asked softly, “Is University Town like this too?”
“About the same.” As Sang Wenhao controlled the metal box according to Fu Erdie’s directions, he pointed with one hand toward a relatively clean building. “Places that look slightly better, like that, usually mean there are people inside.”
From Fu Erdie’s perspective, those supposedly slightly better buildings were actually worse than the uncleaned residential units.
The bloodstains had not been cleaned up, probably because they were using blood and severed limbs to cover the scent of humans. Inside the building, some relatively clean areas could vaguely be seen. But most of the surroundings were still full of messy clutter.
They probably did not dare make noise either, so they had not tidied up.
The two flew neither quickly nor slowly for two hours before reaching the business district where Cen Xiyang was located.
In the darkness, without light, the business district was no different from any other area. Fu Erdie was afraid of alerting ability zombies or ability users, so she did not dare act rashly. She only took out binoculars and quietly observed several relatively clean buildings from high in the sky.
She remembered that Zhao Xiaolu had once gotten through to Cen Xiyang on the phone. She had mentioned that the security system in Cen Xiyang’s office building was pretty good. The building doors had been closed immediately, and the normal people had worked together to deal with the zombies and the people who mutated one after another. After that, they survived on the supplies in the cafeteria.
However, the little food in the cafeteria clearly could not support so many people. They still had to come out to search for supplies.
Fu Erdie speculated on all kinds of possible situations Cen Xiyang might be in. Finally, among the many similar-looking office buildings, she spotted the one where Cen Xiyang was.
The metal box circled that building several times and roughly locked onto the third floor, where there were signs of activity.
After pondering for a moment, Fu Erdie confirmed two landing spots for the surveillance cameras. She asked Sang Wenhao to control them, placing the first camera in an inconspicuous spot on a relatively tall tree, aimed at the third floor.
The other camera was hidden in the weeds and bushes, aimed at the entrance that showed signs of people going in and out.
After finishing this, they continued toward her grandmother’s home.
Her grandmother lived in an old residential building without an elevator. The entire building, from top to bottom, was full of zombies. There was not a single living person, and no ability users standing guard.
Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao quietly descended from the sky to the balcony outside her grandmother’s home, drawing the attention of some zombies.
But as the wind blew back and forth, the zombies only felt that the enticing scent was sometimes close and sometimes far, sometimes above and sometimes below. Confused, they could not determine the direction.
Fu Erdie looked at the dandelion fluff in the corner of the metal box and gently touched it. “Thank you.”
The dandelion seed fluff was too small. Fu Erdie always felt that if she used even a little more strength, she might poke it flying, so she quickly withdrew her hand.
They landed on the balcony and opened the door from the outside, leading from the balcony into the bedroom. Everything before her was so familiar, yet so difficult to face.
Grandmother had said that her uncle-in-law had turned into a zombie. She, her aunt, and her cousin had locked him on the balcony.
Now, he should still be on the balcony of the bedroom on the other side.
Fu Erdie passed through the familiar room and came to the bedroom in the other direction. Through the transparent window glass stained with patches of blood, she saw her uncle-in-law, still raging as a zombie.
Fu Erdie let out an almost inaudible sigh. “Please help me deal with him. Thank you.”
She had never liked her uncle-in-law. He always lied about matters big and small, and because he cared about saving face, he would boast and bring quite a few small troubles to the family.
But there had been no major trouble. He was just an ordinary person with many small flaws.
Metal pierced through him, and her uncle-in-law instantly collapsed to the ground, lifeless. Fu Erdie thought for a moment and decided to let him rest in peace.
She emptied out all the dead potted plants in the house and scattered the soil over her uncle-in-law’s corpse, covering him with a thin layer of earth. Then she placed the dandelion in the soil on top, waiting for it to grow here.
It was not that Fu Erdie did not want to carry her uncle-in-law into the mountains and bury him. But if he was buried outside, he would eventually turn into a handful of earth and become nutrients for some unknown plant.
Rather than benefiting other plants, it was better to let Dandelion absorb him.
Fu Erdie’s bedroom was a small room of ten square metres. The bed, desk, and wardrobe were all old. Some had even been bought when her grandmother was young. As long as they had not completely broken, they had been repaired and continued to be used.
Fu Erdie used a piece of cloth to gently wipe the dust from the room.
Seeing this, Sang Wenhao picked up a cloth and wiped the living room.
There was no water here, so they could only roughly sweep the dust onto the floor.
On the table was a photo frame: a family photo of Fu Erdie and her grandmother taken when she was young.
His heart moved, and he placed the photo frame on the table.
Continuing to tidy up, he saw an old-fashioned clock that had already stopped.
Sang Wenhao placed it together with the photo frame on the table.
As they tidied and searched, more and more “containers” that seemed suitable were found, eventually piling into a small mountain on the table top.
Fu Erdie looked out from the bedroom and smiled. “With this many, it’ll take several trips to move everything, right?”
Sang Wenhao shook his head. “After absorbing the metal crystal core this time, my ability increased a lot. With your support too, I can make a larger metal box and bring more things back. Don’t worry. I have a good sense of the route now.”
Fu Erdie thought about it and agreed. She had not used much of her ability either. Moving dozens, or even a few hundred jin, of items back would not be a problem.
So she joined in searching for various “containers.”
Before setting off, Sang Wenhao combined the newly found iron cage from her grandmother’s home with the previous metal box. He stretched the metal box larger and thinner, then used the iron cage to support and reinforce it.
In the end, they returned fully loaded with enough things to fill a car.
On the way back, Fu Erdie stopped in the business district for ten minutes. There were no new discoveries, so she only let the cameras continue recording, then returned to Senyu Residential Complex with Sang Wenhao.
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