Power and desire followed humanity like shadows, no matter the era.
In the apocalypse, malicious thoughts grew unchecked. Under the law of the jungle, the strong pursued even greater strength, as well as absolute control over the weak. Plunder and profit-seeking became natural, even “necessary for survival.”
The weak submitted to the suppression and judgement of the strong. Those who could not adapt disappeared. Those who survived, unable to see any future, grew increasingly exhausted in body and mind.
The weak who recognised reality became decadent, ruined, mad, and despairing. Those who could not recognise reality hated everything in the world. They saw the selfishness of the strong as evil, and the kindness of the strong as something natural, merely a sign that their humanity had not yet disappeared.
People divided themselves into clear camps and classes. Different groups hated one another.
The fourth-rank ability user cultivated by the base was called Liu Yingyao. He was only twenty-two. After one year of the apocalypse, the pure fire in his heart had not yet been extinguished. His eyes reddened, and he wanted to rush out to fight.
But he could not.
“The zombie king’s location still isn’t clear. If you go and something happens to you now, everything will be over!” the officer beside him said, holding him back.
If not for his instinct to obey orders, Liu Yingyao would already have rushed out regardless and fought the zombies outside.
Seeing that Liu Yingyao had been steadied, the base’s decision-makers nearby continued paying close attention to the battle, listening to reports.
A solemn-looking middle-aged man in his fifties remained barely steady while everyone else’s expressions grew worse and worse. He kept watching the distant battle through binoculars. “Are we certain all the base’s ability users refused to go out and fight?”
“We’re certain… Leader.”
The middle-aged man slowly said, “Control these ability users’ families. Use helicopters to suspend them over the battlefield. Count once every ten minutes. If an ability user fails to force out an ability zombie of the same rank every ten minutes, drop one relative.”
The secretary responsible for passing on orders was shocked.
If they did this, even if they survived this crisis, the ability users would never again work for the base. This would be a complete rupture.
The leader continued, “If threats are useless, then kill the ability users directly and push their relatives outside the base walls.”
Some people, like the secretary, still held expectations for the usefulness of ability users, and their hearts pounded in fear.
Others, especially those whose training comrades had died on the battlefield, only felt satisfaction.
Why should they be risking their lives here while those ability users and their families stayed safely at home?
Only… “There are more ability users than our people. Can we control them?”
Someone from the technical department immediately reacted. “Those people, especially the third-rank ability users, are afraid of death. They had us build thick walls and iron gates around their villas. The iron gates are electric. We can modify the program, then cut the power and lock them inside.”
The specifications of the villa walls were almost the same as those of the villas or courtyards many small bases found outside. Ordinary people or first-rank zombies could not push them open, so the ordinary relatives of ability users could not push them open either. They could only be controlled through the electric switch.
Since they were electrically controlled, the technical department had room to manipulate them. With a slight modification to the circuit settings and power cut, the people inside — a group of ordinary people completely unfamiliar with technical work — could only obediently be bound.
The base indeed did not have many ability users from the army or government system. But the base had many people.
If each person held a gun and aimed at so many people in the villas, no matter how powerful the ability users were, they could not protect all their relatives at the same time.
Not to mention, they still had Liu Yingyao, a fourth-rank ability user. Controlling the three third-rank ability users in the base would not be a problem.
Liu Yingyao also had brothers on the battlefield, so after hearing the order, he said nothing and immediately went out to seize people.
After the order was passed down, someone nearby could not help saying, “Once the zombie tide settles, how are we supposed to end this… sigh.”
“Resolve the problem first. Then talk about ending it.” The leader’s back was straight. “My opinion is that we don’t end it. If the ability users are unwilling to contribute, then they can get out. If they don’t get out now, then when the day comes that our weapons are exhausted, the ones getting out will be us.”
“No, perhaps they’ll keep a few hundred people behind to work like slaves and maintain the base’s basic survival level. The rest of us will be pushed out to feed the zombies, or become zombies ourselves.”
“Once we survive this crisis, letting them leave will already count as parting on good terms.”
Screams and curses echoed through the base. Some relatives who refused to believe it tried to resist and were killed on the spot.
Some ability users were alone, with no family to threaten, but they also had no intention of going to suppress the zombie tide. So every one of these people was stripped of their possessions and driven out of the base.
One third-rank ability user had no family, and his ability-user team were all loners too, belonging to an elite group. Naturally, they were unwilling to leave with nothing.
They raised loudspeakers and shouted, organising the other scattered ability users with no family to oppose the base, causing considerable unrest and casualties.
The fourth-rank ability user Liu Yingyao quickly wiped out this third-rank ability-user team, but he did not have time to control all the smaller ability users in time, and many people died.
Once the turmoil stabilised, the base really did as they had said. They used six helicopters to suspend several hundred people and fly toward the six zombie tides. If the ability users failed to keep up or did not contribute, the ropes around their family members would be lowered.
Their family members would land “safely” on the ground, whole and intact— into the zombie horde.
On this day, everyone in the base completely abandoned their original titles and labels. They called themselves only riflemen, fighting solely for the base’s survival.
*
The addition of ability users quickly turned the brutal battle around.
The number of targets the ability zombies had to chase increased, and they jumped out from all kinds of corners, only to slam headfirst into guns and bombs.
Although the two-million-strong zombie tide had a relatively high ratio of ability zombies and even had a fourth-rank ability zombie, the situation was ultimately brought under control quickly.
The strange thing was that the zombie king never showed itself.
By the time Fu Erdie’s group had flown the box van for two hours and reached D City Base, the fighting in the other directions had already ended, yet the zombie king still had not appeared.
This led to a very awkward situation: aside from a small number of people who had killed zombies and obtained intact crystal cores on the spot, the others did not dare casually touch the crystal cores.
In the end, some ability users took the risk and searched corpses in certain areas according to memory. Only then did they nervously find a small number of crystal cores. As for the many other ability zombies killed by other people or bombs, they did not dare check them one by one.
When Fu Erdie entered the city, she found the base busy counting something from top to bottom, continuously moving supplies from the ability-user residential area to a special storage place.
And in the ability-user residential area, aside from the staff and ability users who clearly belonged to the base and were moving back and forth, there was no one else.
She raised her brows.
The person leading the way hesitated briefly, but still said nothing and dutifully led Fu Erdie and the others to the base decision-makers’ office building.
Clearly, this had already exceeded the reception standard of their previous visits to the base.
Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao exchanged a glance and quietly protected Han Zhi and Cen Xiyang, who was holding the zucchini, between them.
The group was led to a clean, spacious room with a good view.
At one end of the room was a set of solid-wood office furniture. In the middle were a large sofa and coffee table for receiving guests.
The four of them sat in the guest seats. Before their seats had even warmed, a middle-aged man in his fifties wearing a suit walked in.
He gestured for them not to stand, had his secretary stand beside him, and introduced himself. “My name is Rong Le’an. I am the leader of D City Base, and currently the overall person in charge of D City.”
Fu Erdie: “…”
The rest of the ability-user team: “…”
Weren’t they just a small team that could not even really be called a base, cooperating with D City? How had they suddenly ended up meeting D City’s big boss?
If this were before the apocalypse, it would be like going to a government office to handle some matter — or not even handling anything, merely consulting or visiting — only for the person receiving you to be not a grassroots civil servant, but the provincial governor.
It felt confusing and disorienting.
Although the leader had told them not to stand, Fu Erdie still stood up and shook hands with Rong Le’an. “I’m the principal of Senyu Residential Complex. My name is Fu Erdie.”
Rong Le’an’s polite handshake was so precisely timed it was as if he had practised it with a stopwatch. Not one second too long, not one second too short. It showed formality and respect without excessive enthusiasm.
After both sides introduced themselves, they sat down. Rong Le’an said, “I know young people nowadays don’t like beating around the bush, so I’ll first explain my intention. I want to establish a long-term trade with Senyu Residential Complex — or rather, with you, Butterfly Principal.”
Hearing the term “Butterfly Principal,” Fu Erdie’s toes curled against the floor for a moment. She quickly reacted. “We’re only a small group. The scale of our trade with D City is, at most, dozens or a hundred employees, or an equipment rental fee of ten thousand jin of grain a month. Ten thousand jin of grain isn’t even enough to satisfy one day’s food needs here. I’m afraid there isn’t much more valuable room for trade.”
Rong Le’an had expected Fu Erdie’s wording. He did not interrupt and listened patiently until she finished before saying, “An ordinary residential complex would not have a fifth-rank ability user. Don’t you agree?”
His voice was like the man himself: steady, serious, with little change in tone or expression.
But this sentence was like a thunderclap, blasting Fu Erdie into a daze.
Her expression remained calm. Pretending not to know anything, she said, “There are already fifth-rank ability users now? I didn’t know. But even if there are, they’re not in our complex.”
A barely noticeable smile appeared on Rong Le’an’s solemn face. “I believe you are one. If you are not yet, then our base can do everything in its power to assist you and make you become fifth-rank.”
Fu Erdie looked deeply at him.
Sang Wenhao had already raised a metal shield, taking a defensive and counterattacking stance in front of Fu Erdie.
Rong Le’an’s secretary and the guards standing in the corners instantly became alert.
Neither side directly drew guns or revealed metal blades. Some people did not even understand what had happened, only that the atmosphere had suddenly become tense, on the verge of erupting.
Fu Erdie looked into Rong Le’an’s eyes. “You said you wouldn’t beat around the bush, but it seems like you’ve gone in a very large circle.”
Pretending ignorance was useless now. Clearly, the D City leader before her had already determined that her ability was above fourth rank.
Had he inferred it, or was there a traitor in the complex?
No, it should be the detection device.
Fu Erdie patted Sang Wenhao, signalling for him to put away the metal shield. “D City Base’s detection device really is impressive.”
Seeing that she had understood, Rong Le’an’s face showed a faint, polite smile. “Our infrastructure and technology have continuously developed while preserving as many technical talents as possible. A technical team of over a thousand people can make the detection device detect ability fluctuations hundreds of kilometres away, and can also detect the ability condition of attribute-less ability users.”
“If it were another base, seeing someone whose ability was not detected by an ordinary instrument, yet who possessed an ability, they would definitely think their instrument had a problem, or that the other party had some kind of concealment method. But when we failed to detect you the first time you came to our base, we did not doubt our instrument. Instead, after the technical department investigated and researched, we confirmed your identity as an attribute-less ability user.”
Rong Le’an lowered his head slightly in apology. “No offence intended. We have no malicious intent.”
Fu Erdie neither nodded nor shook her head. She only thought: as expected, technology was important in any background.
“Then you used another crystal core to specifically test my ability?”
Rong Le’an said, “Yes.”
He clapped his hands and had a subordinate outside bring in a detection device about the size of a tablet, clearly much more refined and sophisticated.
This detector did not require Fu Erdie to input ability, nor even to touch it. From a distance, it directly displayed the level of the attribute-less ability user in the room — that is, Fu Erdie.
Level five.
Looking at that number, Fu Erdie lightly tapped the armrest of the sofa.
Beside her, Cen Xiyang and Han Zhi looked at the detector in disbelief, then at Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao, whose faces were calm.
So Fu Erdie really was already level five?!
When had that happened?!
Fu Erdie was currently thinking: what was D City Base’s purpose in doing this now?
To win her over?
But how could they win over an ability user who had little relationship with D City?
“What trade do you want?” Fu Erdie asked directly.
Rong Le’an said, “We will use all the crystal cores we currently have left, the crystal cores obtained from the battlefield just now, and future information about incoming zombie tides, in exchange for plants grown by your plant ability — plants that can produce food every day by being fed rubbish.”
Fu Erdie’s gaze moved from the detector back to Rong Le’an’s face. “So Xu Qi told you about my plants.”
Rong Le’an did not deny it. “These plants are too important to us.”
In the meeting room, Rong Le’an truly laid everything out openly and explained D City’s situation in full.
“We have thirty thousand mu of land. In ancient times, under low productivity but without pollution, it could barely support thirty thousand people. But now, with land pollution, natural disasters, and man-made calamities, a year’s harvest is only two million jin of grain. Yet our thirty thousand people work hard for a year and consume twenty million jin of grain. This gap is far too large.”
As he spoke, his gaze toward Fu Erdie held a trace of hopeful brightness. “Your plant ability can save people.”
Fu Erdie frowned.
Twenty million jin — that was ten thousand tons.
Thirty thousand people did not sound like many, but once their needs accumulated, the number was this huge. Most importantly, production was only one-tenth of demand.
“I heard from Xu Qi that the grain distributed in Senyu Residential Complex is picked by employees from the plants in their own rooms. Calculated that way, on average, each plant can produce seven or eight liang of grain per day. If people are not doing heavy labour, then owning two plants would be enough to eat their fill.” Rong Le’an spoke sincerely again. “We need this trade. If the cooperation is pleasant, we can also continue cooperating in the future using intelligence about zombie tides.”
“After all, for us, zombie tides are completely and utterly bad things. But for you, they are good things that allow your plant ability to advance, aren’t they?”
Fu Erdie was just about to reply when hurried footsteps came from outside. After the office door was knocked on, it was suddenly pushed open.
“Leader! That zombie king has appeared and swept away the hundreds of thousands of zombies in the southeast direction, along with all the ability users who were still there at the time!”
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