The strength-type ability user’s lips moved. With difficulty, he asked, “Are there no ordinary people in your residential complex?”
Fu Erdie said, “No.”
Technically, there was Granny Zhang, but the “ordinary person” she was and the “ordinary people” the strength-type user meant were not the same concept.
“I’m not a government organisation, nor am I a charity base. I said from the start that I’m just living in my own residential complex. I don’t need ordinary people, and I don’t even need ordinary ability users. The people I accept are either useful to me, or relatives and friends I like. As for everyone else, I was never interested in bringing them back and supporting them.”
The strength-type user slumped to the ground and asked with the last of his unwillingness, “Then… don’t you need people to do hard labour?”
Fu Erdie stood there, looking down at the strength-type ability user in a way that carried a faint sense of superiority. It made him extremely uncomfortable, yet all he could do was look at her with hope and pleading.
After a long while, just as the invisible pressure was about to break his mentality, Fu Erdie finally crouched down and looked him in the eye. “Do you feel it? Even though I haven’t done anything and am just standing here properly, you already feel like I’m bullying you.”
“I’m not—”
“The hard labour you’re talking about, I can do it. My boyfriend can do it. My friends in the residential complex can do it too. But when we do it, it looks perfectly normal. If it were handed to you, even if it was also a normal thing, because you can’t adjust your own mindset, you would see it as pressure and oppression. Then you’d wallow in self-pity and mock us behind our backs as so-called ‘people above others.’”
The strength-type user opened his mouth to argue, but in the end, he realised that it was indeed true.
He was so powerless, yet he always wanted to become an irreplaceable member. He did not have the awareness of being a subordinate or bottom-level labourer.
However, his ability and the skills he had possessed before the apocalypse all destined him to only ever be a subordinate.
The strength-type user sat on the ground, his face ashen.
He knew that he had completely lost his chance.
The group began driving back.
Fu Erdie told everyone about her plant-type ability and her “home space” ability. Only then did everyone learn that the lump of box van sitting on top of the electric scooter was actually Fu Erdie’s “ability.”
Professor Zhao suddenly felt a lingering fear. If she had not provoked that group into leaving, sooner or later, they would have developed crooked thoughts and tried to steal that ability box van.
After all, whose ability was so strange that it would actually be exposed outside the body?!
And it looked so easy to steal too.
Of the nine-person team, four had left. The five who remained were either people like Professor Zhao and Zhuang Licheng, who understood the situation clearly, or people like the short-haired woman and the sports student, whose character could be trusted, as well as He Xuan, who had both qualities. They absolutely would not get any crooked ideas.
As for the people who had already been driven away, it was not that they might try to snatch this exposed ability. They definitely would. That group of people was just that stupid and overconfident!
Fortunately, the hidden danger had been removed in advance. They were safe now.
The group set off again.
If Fu Erdie had travelled at her previous speed, she could have returned home in a day.
But now that they had the newly added five-person team’s minibus, the road sections they could previously cross by flying could no longer be flown over.
Either they had to clear a path, or they had to forcefully fly while carrying a ten-ton minibus…
The latter was obviously far too tiring, so they could only choose the former.
In fact, with Sang Wenhao’s ability, clearing the way was much easier. Fu Erdie estimated that the congested sections along the road would take about one accumulated day to clear, and travelling would take another accumulated day. In that case, they could reach C City in two days.
From H City to C City and then to D City, the three cities were all on the same route.
However, because these people were all newcomers, unlike Cen Xiyang, whose background she knew thoroughly and whom she could bring straight home and leave alone, Fu Erdie still needed an observation and adjustment period with them. So when she went to D City, they would go together too.
While clearing the road again that day, Fu Erdie went onto the minibus and talked to Professor Zhao about this matter, asking whether she had any information about the D City base.
Fu Erdie had imagined that, as one of the top technical personnel of the H City base, Professor Zhao would have heard at least a few scattered things about other bases. However, Professor Zhao’s answer was far beyond Fu Erdie’s expectations.
“The bases are actually keeping in contact through telegraphs?!”
Professor Zhao nodded and pointed to her backpack. “When I left, I took a lot of chips, all kinds of them. I also have the main parts needed for a telegraph. Actually, I can connect a circuit board right now and make a simple version of a telegraph. If you need it, I can make it at any time.”
It turned out that after the apocalypse, most communication technology could no longer be used, so telegraphs, which did not require satellites or base stations, had been brought back into proper use.
When the various bases were still under government control, they used telegraphs to build a communication network. Even after the bases were later taken over by ability users, those that could preserve their telegraphs mostly kept them. By using specific frequencies at specific times, they could contact corresponding bases.
Professor Zhao watched Fu Erdie’s pleasantly surprised expression and added, “Through the telegraph, we learned some information and confirmed the classification of ability levels, as well as the method for making an ability detector. I have chips here. As long as we implant a transparent, attribute-less crystal core into a chip for testing, we can obtain an ability user’s level value.”
Fu Erdie’s heart stirred. She took out a transparent crystal core. “Attribute-less crystal core? Do you mean this?”
They had killed quite a few zombies along the way. Naturally, not all of those zombies were ordinary zombies.
Among the ability zombies they had killed, Fu Erdie had, through a strange coincidence, defeated a zombie that had only seemed a little stronger than the others and obtained this transparent crystal core.
When Zhao Shansi saw the target crystal core, she instantly breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s it. Actually, an attribute-less crystal core is a crystal core that possesses the ability to devour other abilities faster. Ability zombies that have it can level up more quickly by eating their own kind or eating ability users. Every attribute is a sharp tool for upgrading to it. At the same level, an attribute-less ability zombie doesn’t count as strong. But because its level rises quickly, it can easily suppress others through level advantage. So once one is discovered, it will be dealt with first. The crystal core obtained after killing it can be rapidly and fully absorbed by anyone, just like a crystal core of the same attribute. If it isn’t absorbed, it can be used to identify an ability user’s ability level.”
Fu Erdie narrowed her eyes slightly and quickly caught one key piece of information from that long explanation:
An attribute-less ability zombie could fully absorb crystal cores of every attribute. And whether Fu Erdie was in her residential complex or out in the wild absorbing crystal cores, she could absorb them all completely without distinction.
Could she also be attribute-less?
Fu Erdie thought about it and felt that whether it was the telegraph or the detector, both had to be made as soon as possible.
The detector could allow her to understand everyone’s strength more objectively, while the telegraph was essential for communicating with other bases in the apocalypse.
Especially the D City base.
Fu Erdie handed the transparent crystal core to Zhao Shansi and told her to go ahead and make it whenever she had time. If she lacked any metal parts, she could fly with Sang Wenhao to places with electrical appliances nearby while they were clearing the road and dismantle things to find them.
Zhao Shansi said that she had all the core parts and only lacked some wires. It would be enough to have the sports student fetch them. The sports student was already very skilled at dismantling wires, and they could be taken from those scrapped vehicles.
Fu Erdie then returned to the topic of the D City base.
“My grandmother is there. I want to bring her home as soon as possible. I can prepare a thank-you gift and pick her up, but I don’t know whether the D City base is the kind of base that will demand an outrageous price, or simply refuse to release people until they’ve squeezed them dry.”
“Of course, most importantly, I want to ensure my grandmother’s safety. I don’t know whether I should be direct, find the D City base, and explain my purpose, or secretly sneak in and ‘steal’ my family out.”
Fu Erdie knew nothing about this and sincerely asked for advice.
Professor Zhao thought for a moment and said, “The D City base has quite a rich stockpile of weapons, so after they established walls and a base at the beginning, they continued to expand using those weapons. Now, they’re already much larger than the area of just over two thousand mu they were confined to at the start. I heard they’re already at more than four thousand mu. The situation there doesn’t count as particularly terrible. However, when they use the telegraph to contact the outside world, they have always wanted to use crystal cores to buy food. It’s probably because they have too many ordinary people and not enough food. H City is a major grain-producing city, so after receiving the telegraph, they travelled a long distance to trade a batch of supplies. Aside from the dangers encountered on the road, there were no other problems.”
“The people responsible for the trade went to inspect the D City base, and later they also led some people from the D City base back. Then the other side’s people were responsible for transportation, and another batch of grain was traded. Overall, it was fairly decent.”
Hearing this, Fu Erdie felt much more settled.
It seemed that, for the time being, things were not too bad. She had time to prepare both openly and secretly. On one hand, she could use normal methods and directly go to the D City base to explain that she was looking for someone, while also preparing a “thank-you gift.” On the other hand, she would still need to find a way to sneak into the base and secretly investigate.
If she could openly bring her grandmother out, that would be best. If not, she would try to quietly take her grandmother and the others away.
After Fu Erdie made up her mind, she calmly brought Professor Zhao back to the box van where the house was located, charged her computer, and began importing programs to make the telegraph and the ability detector.
After they cleared a long stretch of congested road, Professor Zhao first made the simpler detector.
She wiped the thin sweat from her forehead, relaxed her brows, and handed the detector to Fu Erdie. At the same time, she said, “Among He Xuan and the other four, except for the sports student, Pan Feizhou, who is a first-rank ability user, the others are all second-rank. Generally, the top ability users in a base are third-rank. The currently known strongest ability user is fourth-rank, and there is only one.”
Zhao Shansi saw that Fu Erdie looked like she was about to test it immediately. “Do I need to avoid watching?”
“No need.” Fu Erdie took the circuit board detector and directly input her ability according to Zhao Shansi’s instructions.
The ability detection device displayed 0.
Before Professor Zhao could be surprised, Fu Erdie entered the electric scooter and asked Sang Wenhao, who was in the driver’s seat, to try.
The value on the display device jumped upward and showed 3.
Fu Erdie took his hand and input her ability.
After flashing briefly, the display jumped to 4.
While still holding Sang Wenhao’s hand, Fu Erdie tested her own ability.
This value also changed from the initial 0 to 4, leaving Professor Zhao beside them completely stunned.
What surprised her even more was that when Fu Erdie let go of Sang Wenhao’s hand, the value returned to 0. When Fu Erdie touched the dandelion, the value became 3. When she touched the potato, the value was also 3. When Fu Erdie touched the house, the value became 4.
It seemed that her ability could not manifest directly, just as it had not been directly discoverable at the start. It needed another linked mutant organism. Only through the support of the linked target could she increase the other party’s level and have it reflected in the value.
Fu Erdie guessed that the true level of the potato, the house, and the others should be one level lower than the detected value. In other words, the potato and the dandelion were second-rank, while the house was third-rank. As for her own level, perhaps because her attribute was the same as the transparent crystal core’s, it could not be detected.
“Thank you, Professor Zhao.” Fu Erdie finally had a more direct understanding of their combat power. She nodded sincerely in thanks and activated her ability, letting the house heal all of Professor Zhao’s injuries, both internal and external.
Professor Zhao thanked Fu Erdie in return. Her expression was calm as usual, but her heart was extremely excited.
She was forty-six this year, which counted as young for a professor. But compared with truly young people, besides the gastrointestinal problems caused by starving during the apocalypse, she also had more or less some long-term issues from sitting too much, such as lumbar and cervical spine problems, floaters from staring at computer screens for too long, and occasional dizziness after insomnia.
She had had them checked before. They were all minor problems. Either there was no real treatment and she just had to rest more, or they could be treated and relieved but would soon relapse.
But after Fu Erdie’s operation, she could clearly feel that all those non-fatal yet uncomfortable ailments clinging to her body like maggots on bone had been completely cleared away.
Leave a Reply