After Sang Wenhao brought Fu Erdie up to the sixteenth floor, she collapsed into bed and fell asleep.
It was not a peaceful sleep. She seemed to have many bizarre, dazzling dreams, but when she woke up, she remembered nothing.
While she slept, Sang Wenhao, the plants, and even—
The rubbish was naturally corroded and digested by the plant cubs. As for the damaged walls, Succulent plucked off a bit of its fleshy leaf and wrapped it layer by layer over the damaged areas, then Sang Wenhao sealed the outermost layer with metal, hoping the steel bars inside that section of wall would not be corroded by the outside world.
Fortunately, it was not a load-bearing wall. Even if it really collapsed, it would not be a fatal problem.
From the entrance of Building Seven to Building Five, the whole path was covered in traces of smoke and fire. Some places were still burning.
Sang Wenhao carried buckets of water down from the sixteenth floor, putting out the fires one basin at a time. The open flames were gone, but hidden embers might still remain. He asked the dandelions in Buildings Five and Six to keep watch and warn them in time if they discovered new flames.
Aside from the plant-type, the twenty-two ability users left behind twenty-one crystal cores.
Most of the crystal cores were undamaged and could be taken out and placed directly on the table without issue. But a few had been shattered during the fight. Any broken crystal core had to be wrapped in something lightproof before it could be removed from the zombie’s brain.
The plants had been reminded by Sang Wenhao, so they methodically separated the intact crystal cores from the others, then placed them all together on the table in 16-1, waiting for Fu Erdie to wake up and distribute them.
By the time Sang Wenhao and the plants had finished cleaning up this large “battlefield,” the afternoon had already passed.
When Fu Erdie woke up, the little old lady was stir-frying the last dish and called for her to wait at the dining table in 16-8.
Fu Erdie nodded and sat by the table in a daze.
She felt a little muddled now. Even after sleeping for two hours, she was still very tired.
It was a kind of mental exhaustion and confusion that came from nowhere, not something that could be resolved by absorbing the energy of several ability users.
Sang Wenhao and the little old lady brought a plate of food and a pot of rice to the table, and the three of them began enjoying their victory dinner.
Fu Erdie’s thoughts drifted away. Unconsciously, she bit down on her chopsticks, then heard a crack…
The chopsticks split.
Fu Erdie: …?
She looked at the cracked chopsticks, her almond eyes widening slightly. Had she used that much force just now?
Unconvinced, she bit the end of the chopsticks again, neither too lightly nor too heavily.
Only then did she discover that her strength had increased by so much. The chopsticks cracked again.
She reached out, wanting to try it on the dining table, but the little old lady hurriedly stopped her and ran to the storage room to bring over an unused brick.
Yes, a brick, not a wooden board.
Fu Erdie felt that the little old lady was overestimating her. But when she used force… the brick actually cracked with a shallow line.
Although it did not crumble on the spot, it was still astonishing.
She exchanged glances with the little old lady and Sang Wenhao, and immediately wanted to go downstairs to test her attack power. But the little old lady held her back.
“You didn’t even eat properly this morning. If you don’t eat now, are you made of iron?” As she spoke, she stuffed a new pair of chopsticks into Fu Erdie’s hand. “Eat first. Test later.”
Fu Erdie obediently agreed.
Sang Wenhao looked at Fu Erdie, who had regained a little spirit, and quietly let out an almost imperceptible breath of relief. His brows relaxed slightly.
After dinner, Fu Erdie did not let Sang Wenhao carry her down. Instead, she took the stairs herself, feeling the stretch and lightness of her body.
Her speed was much faster. She had not become thinner. In fact, because her muscle ratio had increased, she had even become heavier. But she had never gone downstairs as easily as she did now.
After skipping down several floors, she stopped at the highest point of another stairwell turn. Taking a deep breath, she jumped from a standing position straight toward the lower turning platform. The twenty-plus steps in between seemed to vanish beneath her feet, and she successfully landed at the bottom of the stairs.
“Sang Wenhao!” Fu Erdie happily wanted to share her joy with the person on the stairs. But when she turned around, she found that he was standing right behind her, his hand still frozen in the motion of reaching out to support her, not yet withdrawn.
The two of them were very close. Fu Erdie could feel the warmth of his body and his clean, plain, almost boiled-water-like presence.
Fu Erdie lowered her eyes slightly, a little uncomfortable, avoiding his gaze. She nodded in thanks, stepped around him, and continued downstairs.
Sang Wenhao felt inexplicably down.
He followed Fu Erdie for only a few steps before his hand softened. There was now another hand in his palm, a full circle smaller than his own.
Before he could finish being stunned, he heard Fu Erdie’s crisp voice.
“Let’s go.”
Before he could sort out what he had just felt, a silly smile had already appeared on his face unconsciously.
After realising his expression looked a little stupid, he secretly cleared his throat, restored his features to normal, and held Fu Erdie’s hand as they went downstairs together.
The plant-type was still tied up at the entrance, guarded by Tomato, and was now weak all over.
When he saw Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao coming over, he thought they were going to interrogate him or do something inhumane to him. He held his breath and waited for them to approach.
But who would have thought that these two people did not notice him at all!
They ran outside hand in hand, passing him like a gust of wind.
Plant-type ability user: ??? Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
“Pah, shameless couple!”
He cursed angrily in his heart, but did not dare make a sound.
He watched them walk farther away, then find a place and begin… hitting trees?
Since the apocalypse began, more than half of the original plants in the residential complex had already died. Fu Erdie found those dead trees and tested how much strength she could exert.
Although the dead trees had become relatively brittle because of the high temperature, they were still solid wood in the end.
Fu Erdie raised her fist, which Sang Wenhao had already wrapped in cloth, and punched the tree trunk.
With a bang, the trunk split from the impact, and the tall crown slowly toppled over.
The two of them moved aside, then quickly went to find an even bigger dead tree for the experiment.
As the tree diameters grew larger and larger, she finally stopped temporarily when she reached an old tree nearly one metre thick and could no longer break it.
Sang Wenhao found the Potato that had been blown away by the violent wind during the afternoon battle and let it eat the tree stump, while he stood beside Fu Erdie and listened to her analysis.
“When I push and pull with you all, I can gain attribute bonuses. When I use my ability on enemies, I don’t gain other abilities, but it directly strengthens my own physical constitution.”
Fu Erdie held Sang Wenhao’s hand and used her ability.
Sang Wenhao could increase her strength. Under this bonus, when Fu Erdie punched the old tree with a diameter of one metre, she finally broke it.
“And after absorbing an enemy’s energy completely, my condition can return to full, and my capacity expands to a large extent. In future battles, as a reserve battery for you and the plants, I’ll also be able to last much longer.”
Fu Erdie was very satisfied.
Although her ability was complicated, and it had taken half a year since the apocalypse began for her to understand what was going on, from now on, she finally had a clearer idea of how to look for her parents… No, not just them. Her grandmother, little aunt, Zhao Xiaolu, Cen Xiyang, and the others too.
She was a battery. And under a normal push-and-pull state, rather than blindly outputting, she could last for a very long time. This meant she could help Sang Wenhao use his ability for extended periods, and Sang Wenhao could also carry her flying over long distances.
But if they wanted to go farther, relying only on flying would not work. They also needed the house, this powerful source of healing.
Whether it was settling down to rest, eating, or sleeping, the house was a strong guarantee. If an accident happened, it could treat them in time. Not only that, Sang Wenhao’s body, which might not withstand long-term use of his ability, could also be adjusted and healed promptly.
So if she wanted to find her family and friends, she had to return to her grandmother’s house first and find a container that could carry the house.
In the past, going from her home to her grandmother’s house required one or two hours by bus, or forty to fifty minutes by taxi.
Later, after the apocalypse descended, the distance between her and her grandmother’s home in the city centre was no longer a matter of a one- or two-hour car ride. It had become countless unpredictable dangers and innumerable zombies across the city.
But now, with Sang Wenhao’s flying ability and herself as a long-lasting battery, the two of them could completely shuttle back and forth through the air above the city!
She just did not know whether there were mutated plants with especially long reach in the city, or mutated birds.
According to Sang Wenhao’s half-year of observation in University Town, there temporarily were not.
“Actually, mutated animals and plants with obvious differences are very rare. The plants in Building Seven are already the strongest non-human mutants.”
Hearing Sang Wenhao’s words, the potato seedling gnawing at the tree stump beside them could not help puffing up its chest and raising its head, looking proud.
Fu Erdie laughed when she saw this. “Yes, you’re all the strongest cubs.”
In that case, their movement through the city could already be considered smooth and unobstructed.
Unless someone also used a sniper rifle to shoot them…
The possibility was not high. Government-issued guns definitely would not be handed out casually.
But what if they had been seized by an ability-user team?
Fu Erdie felt that was possible, so they still needed to remain alert and cautious.
After finishing the ability experiment, Fu Erdie only noticed the plant-type ability user when she walked back.
She said, “Tomato, if you want to play with him, play for a while. See whether he has completely lost his ability. If he has, then continue playing. If not, let the little ones play with you and see how to deal with his ability. Just be careful not to play him to death.”
She walked past the plant-type ability user and headed inside. “Little Tomato, later I’ll give you a packet of expired biscuits and a bottle. Feed him three biscuits and half a bottle of water every day. Just keep him alive.”
Tomato happily nodded and smugly tugged at Cucumber’s vine.
See! It was stronger than Cucumber! Now the principal had entrusted it with an important task: guarding and feeding food!
Cucumber: ???
The little ones started fighting again.
The plant-type took the chance to wriggle outward, only to see a Pothos leaf silently rise in the corner, its tip pointing straight at him.
Plant-type ability user: …
Sorry, I was wrong. I’ll go back and play dead now. Living one more day is one more day.
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