PSW - Chapter 97
Chapter 97
Lian Langxi withdrew her hand and rolled her eyes. “She can cook other things, I guess, but there’s no guarantee she won’t send an ability user to the hospital.”
Oh, maybe not a hospital. After all, Yun Lingjian was a healing ability user herself. She could have her guests eat while being treated.
“I heard that before the apocalypse, she cooked for a friend and sent them straight to the hospital. It was even on the news back then. They didn’t name names, but everyone in our circle knew who it was, right?”
“The mushrooms weren’t cooked through, and I was starving so I ate too fast.”
“So she didn’t put it back in the wok to heat it up again, cook it thoroughly, and send you to the hospital a second time?” Lian Langxi laughed out loud. She looked Chu Yi up and down for a moment, as if she hadn’t expected Chu Yi to be that very friend.
“…Her other dishes are… edible.” Chu Yi pursed her lips, looking a little annoyed. “Are you going to eat this scallion pancake or not?”
“Tsk, you’re the only one who can talk to me like that. If it were anyone else-” Lian Langxi curled her lip. “Hurry up and give it to me. I’m doing her a favor by being willing to taste her cooking.”
Chu Yi: “…”
“This rain… I’m afraid it won’t stop anytime soon.” The downpour fluctuated between heavy and light, even stopping briefly at times, but it would always start again. And it wasn’t ordinary rainwater; it was this special kind of rain.
The concentration… probably hadn’t changed much.
Yu Yinan was eating a steaming bowl of instant noodles. A layer of spicy red oil made the noodles look even more delicious, and the aroma filled the entire house. Hearing what Zheng Yi said, she looked up. “So, are we setting off today? Leaving Fengxi?”
She took out a hand-drawn map of Fengxi that she’d been working on in her spare time. “This main road heading east goes directly to Pujie.”
“Focus on your noodles.” Zheng Yi reached out, folded the map, and materialized a salted duck egg out of thin air. She tapped it on the table, carefully peeled the shell, and placed it in Yu Yinan’s bowl.
The salted duck eggs from the system store were much larger than ordinary ones and perfectly cured. The moment the tip of a chopstick poked into it, the golden, translucent oil oozed out.
“Aren’t you having any?” Yu Yinan lifted her bowl and picked up the salted yolk, bringing it to Zheng Yi’s lips.
“I’m full. You eat it.” Although she said that, when Yu Yinan stubbornly held it out, Zheng Yi still lowered her head and took a bite.
After eating and drinking their fill, they tidied up their belongings and set off for Pujie.
Zheng Yi hadn’t caught a mutated plant in a long time and was actually missing the fruit trees on Sugui Mountain. Now that they’d been through the third major downpour, they should be bearing even more fruit, right?
The heavy rain continued to fall.
The ability user on duty at the outpost couldn’t help but yawn. He stared into the vast curtain of rain, wearing a full raincoat. Only when he couldn’t fight off sleep would he touch the rainwater, letting the pain jolt him awake.
Sentry duty was now one of the most sought-after jobs. It was safe and required almost no effort. Just by standing guard for a day, you could earn contribution points. Many ability users scrambled to sign up for it on time every day, and many still couldn’t get a spot.
Just as he reached out to catch some rainwater and washed his face, enduring the stinging pain, he suddenly glimpsed a dark, churning mass flickering in the distance. Thinking he was hallucinating, he wiped the rain from his hands and face, rubbed his eyes hard, and looked again. The dark, churning thing hadn’t disappeared. Instead… instead, it was getting closer?
Fuck, what the hell is that?
A jolt went through him. He frantically rang the large bell at the outpost, striking it five times before scrambling down the ladder. “The north! Something’s approaching the shelter from the north! A huge group of something!” He wasn’t a reconnaissance-type ability user. His eyesight was only slightly better than an ordinary person’s, so it was limited. In a situation like this, reporting it immediately was the most important thing.
One alarm after another began to sound. It wasn’t just the north, not only the north!
A zombie horde! A boundless, terrifyingly numerous zombie horde! The zombies roared under the pouring rain, their strength and speed having taken a qualitative leap. They surged toward the shelter, endless and relentless!
These were all enhanced zombies. They were organized, premeditated, reappearing during the third downpour to launch their attack. Behind them, there had to be an even more powerful mutated zombie, one that was controlling, directing, and planning all of this.
“Level one alert!” Inside Humanity’s Light, all ability users were summoned. Earth-type ability users, wearing raincoats, joined forces to erect large earthen canopies, trying to block the rain and reduce its effect on the ability users.
All the raincoats and waterproof plastic sheets in the shelter were brought out, and a rain-blocking defense line was hastily constructed. The ordinary people who had been hoping to find opportunities during this downpour also got busy, helping to transport various materials and items.
“Zhao Haiyue and the others aren’t back yet?” Yun Lingjian rushed into the office building with a panicked expression, running right into Zhou Xiyue, who was hurrying out.
“Why did you come without an umbrella?” Zhou Xiyue frowned slightly, taking off her own jacket and draping it over Yun Lingjian’s shoulders. “They’re not back. I hope they don’t try to return right now. But with a horde this size… if they run into it, they should be able to avoid it.” After all, the horde was clearly heading for the shelter.
She walked out quickly, opening an umbrella. “You go back and rest for now. If there are casualties later, you’ll be exhausted.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the warehouse, to get all the munitions we’ve collected.” If not now, when? If they just kept hoarding them, the items would lose their purpose. Yun Lingjian could already make simple homemade guns and cannons, but they weren’t very stable and lacked materials. As long as the shelter could survive the horde, they could slowly gather materials and supplies in the future. “Zhou Xiji has already led the ability users out of the shelter to establish the first line of defense. I don’t know if they’ll have time to set up multiple defensive lines.”
A zombie horde…
How long had it been since they’d faced a zombie horde? The shelter hadn’t even fully recovered from the effects of the heatwave. This third downpour had come too suddenly, and this horde had appeared at such a… critical time.
It made sense. The rain was a tangible buff for the zombies. They didn’t know pain, and there was no issue of them being distracted. They were already “dead.”
What did this zombie attack signify? That as zombies continued to evolve and mutate, they could develop “intelligence.”
A zombie horde…
“The ordinary people are the last line of defense,” Zhou Xiyue said resolutely. “We need to get all the modified vehicles ready. I’m confident we can hold them off, but if it comes to the worst… put all the children in the vehicles. We’ll send out as many as we can.”
It was a pity Chu Yi wasn’t here. Zhou Xiyue found herself missing Chu Yi’s abilities at that moment. She pursed her lips and added, “Lingjian, you prepare for this. If any high-level personnel or ability users in the shelter try to flee… don’t stop them. Let them go, just write down their names for me.”
“She doesn’t need to stop them, I will!” Zhou Xiji, soaked to the bone, walked over. He frowned and said harshly, “If anyone dares to desert at a time like this, I’ll kill them before I kill the zombies!”
“What’s the use of a list? I want their heads!” Zhou Xiji looked at Zhou Xiyue. “Sister, don’t worry about these things. Leave it to me. Hurry to the basement and bring out the munitions. Distribute them to everyone registered who knows how to use a gun, even the ordinary people.”
“Iron bars, knives, crowbars—gather any usable weapons and all kinds of metal products. Have the metal-type ability users help modify them.”
“Everyone must fight, except for the children!”
Zhou Xiyue pursed her lips but still replied, “I understand.” The situation was critical. She wasted no more time, quickly thrusting the umbrella into Yun Lingjian’s hands and running toward the underground warehouse in the rain.
“Go on, get busy. We’ll have to trouble you to treat the wounded later.” Zhou Xiji watched Zhou Xiyue leave, then spoke to Yun Lingjian in a softer tone before striding toward the south gate.
The zombie horde was endless, a seemingly bottomless sea of them, swarming forward in a dense mass. From a distance, black dots could be seen climbing onto rooftops, leaping between the tops of buildings, and rapidly approaching. As if under command, they didn’t rush to attack. Instead, they surrounded Humanity’s Light Shelter from all sides. They didn’t even launch an immediate assault, but gathered far beyond the hastily built defense line, waiting for the main force to arrive.
The rain grew heavier.
“A zombie horde? How can there be a zombie horde?!” From Pujie to Aochuan, Chu Yi and her group hadn’t delayed at all. The round trip had taken about three days. The moment they reached the junction between Pujie and Aochuan, they sensed something was wrong. That churning mass in the distance, the figures leaping between buildings—they were all zombies!
The zombies that had vanished after the second downpour had returned during the third!
No, it wasn’t as simple as just returning. They… they were launching a premeditated attack on a human base.
Humanity’s Light… Chu Yi gritted her teeth. She looked at the terrifying number of zombies, at the heavy rain beating against the windshield, and closed her eyes. “I have to go back.”
“We’d have to cross the horde. There are only three of us.” Lian Langxi’s expression also grew grim. Her team members were all still in Humanity’s Light. After working for the shelter for so long, it was unrealistic for her to just turn and leave without a second thought. But… but this horde was beyond anything she could have imagined.
Even in the early days of the apocalypse, Lian Langxi had never seen so many zombies! This couldn’t possibly be just the zombies from Pujie’s urban area. In the span of a single rainstorm, just how many cities’ worth of zombies had gathered to reach this scale?
“Forcing our way through won’t work, and it wouldn’t be very meaningful either,” Zhu Lanyuan said calmly. “Even if we could break through the horde and get into the shelter, what good would it do? By then, our abilities would be nearly depleted, and we wouldn’t be able to offer much help. A horde of this scale, attacking during a downpour no less, must have a commander zombie directing it.”
Chu Yi glanced at her, then surveyed the massive horde. She closed her eyes, rubbed her temples, and sighed. “Then let’s find that intelligent zombie and kill it.”
“I’ll find it.” When she opened her eyes again, her pupils beneath her glasses were glowing with a purple light.
“Switch seats. You take the front passenger seat, I’ll drive,” Zhu Lanyuan said decisively. “Lian Langxi, put a layer of defense on the car.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
Soon, they had adjusted their strategy. Chu Yi moved to the front passenger seat. Zhu Lanyuan stepped on the gas, rapidly approaching the horde, allowing Chu Yi to scan the zombie crowds, carefully extending her ability to sense any differences.
“They’re all clearly enhanced zombies…” The zombies after the first downpour had also been enhanced, but it wasn’t very obvious for most of them. This “clearly enhanced” meant they had all significantly increased their strength and speed, and their bone density had also been greatly improved. Chu Yi murmured, then suddenly thought of something and turned to Lian Langxi. “Wait, where’s the highest point in Pujie? A high point close to the shelter, with a clear view of its location.”
“Sunset Tower.”
“Let’s check there first!”
The horde soon launched its assault. Zombies with fewer enhancements acted as the vanguard, surrounding the shelter from all sides and charging the defense line.
They didn’t waste munitions for now, but all consumable projectiles like explosives and even simple, handmade Molotov cocktails were used. The elemental ability users were divided into three groups, rotating in waves to maximize their combat effectiveness and hold off the first wave of the horde.
“These zombies are just cannon fodder. It’s doing this on purpose, sending these types to wear us down.” But they absolutely could not let the horde break through into the shelter. Once the horde poured in, the ability users’ powers would be greatly weakened in the heavy rain. After all, not everyone could concentrate and use their abilities as usual in the downpour.
Zhou Xiji took a pair of binoculars and stood in the outpost, gazing into the distance. If only he could find the location of the zombie hiding behind it all… In this situation, where was the breakthrough point?
He quickly stopped thinking about it, took a moment to recover some mental energy, and then charged to the front lines to help fend off the endless first wave of the horde.
Even knowing it was a deliberate attempt to wear them down, they couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. The shelter was in a fixed location, and there were so many ordinary people, even children, inside. All their hard work, all their various supplies… it wasn’t something they could just abandon at a moment’s notice.
Meanwhile, Chu Yi’s group had made it to the vicinity of Sunset Tower. A large number of zombies were entrenched in this area, most of them high-level. They were clearly waiting for the enhanced zombies to be depleted before charging into the shelter in one final push.
Chu Yi’s purple eyes scanned the entrenched zombies one by one, and she knew: they had probably come to the right place. Even if the leader wasn’t here, this area was filled with more powerful mutated zombies.
The three of them hid behind a building, holding their breath. Zhu Lanyuan lowered her voice, “There are too many, and they’re all enhanced zombies…” This was completely different from what she had imagined. She had thought the commander zombie would have mutated for intelligence, making its abilities slightly weaker, allowing for a smooth assassination. But she never expected the zombies here to be just as strong as the enhanced ones attacking the shelter.
Tsk, they really should have established a clear ranking system for these zombies. Unfortunately, the apocalypse had only just begun. They hadn’t even figured out or established a ranking system for ability users, let alone for the zombies that had disappeared right after the second downpour.
“Wait,” Chu Yi gritted her teeth. “This is only the first wave. The shelter can hold out. We’ll wait for the stronger zombies to leave, or… wait until I find that special one.”
The first wave was just to wear them down. The real crisis was yet to come.
“Alright,” Zhu Lanyuan agreed. Lian Langxi, sizing up Sunset Tower, also whispered, “I’ll gather some metal and stockpile it here. I can build a metal staircase later, and we can go straight up the tower.”
Humanity’s Light Shelter… Zhou Xiyue, Zhou Xiji. You have to hold on.
While Humanity’s Light Shelter was struggling to defend itself, Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan were just leisurely driving into the Pujie region.
This time, Yu Yinan was driving. Zheng Yi leaned back in the passenger seat, bored, gazing at the heavy rain outside. She traced patterns on the fogged-up window, her fingertip getting wet with condensation, touching the raindrops on the other side of the glass.
The moment they drove into Pujie, Zheng Yi seemed to sense something in the torrential downpour. She suddenly sat up straight and rolled down the window. A fine mist of rain drifted into the car, but Zheng Yi closed her eyes, carefully sensing something through the curtain of rain…
“What’s wrong?” The instant Zheng Yi moved, Yu Yinan glanced over nervously. Even while driving carefully, her peripheral vision was always on Zheng Yi’s every move.
Zheng Yi didn’t answer right away. Her mental energy spread out through the curtain of rain. The vast downpour formed a subtle connection with her, and with the armored vehicle as the center, she brought nearly half of Pujie into her mental net.
“The zombie horde that disappeared has returned.” Zheng Yi opened her eyes with a smile. She popped a Stamina Recovery Pill into her mouth, and in the next instant, her mental energy expanded outward even more wantonly, utterly domineering. Soon, following the pouring rain, she “saw” a special zombie. Its skin was smooth, almost transparent, so much so that she could see its rotten internal organs and white, jade-like bones through it. That wasn’t important. What was important was its unusually large head, almost two to three times the size of an adult’s! The entire head was perfectly round, like a white jade skull.
The moment she “saw” it, the special zombie also “looked” over. It gazed into the vast downpour, as if it had sensed Zheng Yi’s prying eyes. In that instant, the white, jade-like head emitted a faint, eerie blue glow, much like the color of the meteor that had streaked across the night sky at the start of the apocalypse.
Zheng Yi could no longer “see” it. The detection range was too great and the consumption too high, causing a slight stinging pain in her brain. But her expression was now one of excitement. “Interesting.”
“There, there, Jiejie. I’ll drive.” Zheng Yi said with a light laugh, having Yu Yinan stop the car. She swallowed another Stamina Recovery Pill, pushed open the door, and walked directly into the rain to switch places with Yu Yinan.
Host: Zheng Yi
Saint Points: 12097
Backpack Slots: 11
Special Abilities: Water/Healing (High-level)/Personal Space (Beginner-level)
She had plenty of Saint Points now, and with the Stamina Recovery Pills, she could enjoy the battle to her heart’s content.
“Did you find something special?” Yu Yinan quickly moved to the passenger seat. Zheng Yi slammed her foot on the gas without hesitation, and the vehicle’s speed instantly shot up, almost reaching its maximum. The sudden acceleration threw Yu Yinan back in her seat, but she quickly adjusted.
“A special zombie,” Zheng Yi said with a smile. “It should have thoughts, and intelligence, right?”
“It’s the one that gathered this horde. Humanity’s Light Shelter is in trouble. As a Saint, I naturally have to step up and help them~”
Yu Yinan nodded in understanding. She hadn’t yet seen the scale of the horde. Judging by Zheng Yi’s reaction, Yu Yinan thought it was probably just a “small problem” and didn’t pay it much mind.
It wasn’t until they drove deeper into Pujie, passing over an elevated highway, that Yu Yinan saw them from the car window—the dense, innumerable black dots in the streets below…
“This is… this is a zombie horde?!” The horde from when they first rescued Li Yunhan and the others was nothing compared to this. This horde blotted out the sun and sky, almost submerging the entire city. Looking down from above, it was a breathtakingly apocalyptic scene.
“Yep.” It was a shame that purifying zombies didn’t award Saint Points. Otherwise… this would be a great deed of merit.
Just as Zheng Yi and her group were heading toward the special zombie’s location, Zhao Haiyue and the others, hiding near Sunset Tower, suddenly noticed the zombies in the area moving strangely for no apparent reason.
“What’s going on? Is the first wave of the siege over? So soon?” Lian Langxi found it hard to understand. The cannon fodder zombies weren’t all dead yet. Had they entered the second phase? Or… had the shelter not even survived the first phase? What had happened? What was the new variable…
“Oh my god…” In that instant, Chu Yi saw the “white jade” zombie leap down from the top of the tower. Its large, round, lightbulb-like white jade head was emitting an eerie blue glow. The moment she looked at it, Chu Yi’s purple eyes met the strange zombie’s gaze, and a sharp pain shot through her head, as if she’d been struck hard on the back of the skull.
“That’s it! That’s it!” Ignoring the pain, Chu Yi gritted her teeth, used her full power, and looked at the special zombie again. “It’s found us!”
“Fuck, the high-level zombies are surrounding us!” Zhu Lanyuan had noticed even without Chu Yi’s warning. The zombie was too unique and conspicuous. The moment Chu Yi spoke, the mutated zombies that were already near Sunset Tower became agitated and charged toward them at a terrifying speed. “Lian Langxi!”
“Go!” A metal staircase materialized out of thin air. Lian Langxi quickly stepped onto it, and layers of metal rippled as she rapidly closed in on the special zombie.
“It’s trying to escape!” Chu Yi shouted. Stepping onto the metal staircase, she focused her mental energy. The light in her purple eyes seemed to pierce through the rain as her invisible mental power rapidly coalesced and attacked the special zombie. “I’ll hold it down! Ignore the other zombies, kill it first!”
Black, viscous, corrosive liquid shot out in an instant. Zhu Lanyuan ran quickly along the metal staircase as countless streams of the liquid rose up on either side of her, forming corrosive black walls that intercepted the zombies trying to pounce on them. Lian Langxi flicked her wrist, and a sharp spear appeared in her hand, which she immediately thrust forward.
“Roar!” A continuous wave of zombie roars rose and fell, accompanied by an indescribable fluctuation of mental energy that echoed in their ears like some ancient, delirious whisper.
In that instant, the massive wave of the horde charging toward Humanity’s Light Shelter paused. They all threw their heads back and let out long howls. The rising and falling roars echoed throughout Pujie, forming a bizarre psychic web unique to the zombies.
The eerie blue glow from the special zombie’s head flared brightly. A massive wave of mental energy crashed down on them. Zhu Lanyuan’s and Lian Langxi’s movements froze, their minds momentarily blanked by the impact of the psychic tide.
Chu Yi, however, let out a low growl. The stabbing pain in her mind was accompanied by two streams of bloody tears. The purple glow in her eyes was even tinged with crimson. As the psychic tide swept over them, she took a forceful step forward and desperately held it back.
How could this be… A mutated zombie’s mental power… how could it be so strong? Was it… because of the response from the other zombies? What was the principle behind this? A psychic network?
It’s only been… a little over five months. Why? Why would a zombie evolve to this degree! It’s not fair. Her body, bent under the pressure, forced itself upright again. The taste of blood filled Chu Yi’s mouth. She stared intently at the special zombie glowing with eerie blue light. The moment the other mutated zombies closed in to attack, she forcibly unleashed her ability again, meeting their eyes one by one. “Stop, now!”
The group of mutated zombies that were closing in, their claws about to tear into Zhu Lanyuan’s body, froze for an instant. They stood stunned for a moment, and in that moment, Zhu Lanyuan and Lian Langxi finally recovered from the psychic shock. They both unleashed their abilities, killing the mutated zombies that had gotten close.
“A mental-type zombie? How can a zombie have mental powers-” Zhu Lanyuan found this fact hard to accept. Could zombies awaken special abilities too? They were already dead! What kind of bizarre virus was this? “We can’t beat it. Let’s retreat for now.”
Lian Langxi cursed under her breath. Her massive metal blade clashed violently with a zombie’s claws. With a roar, she forcefully severed the zombie’s arm, and countless metal spikes pierced through its head. “Chu Yi, get on-” She was about to tell Chu Yi to get on her back, but in that instant, the special zombie let out that strange roar again.
The immense and suffocating psychic tide crashed down on them once more!
And this time, Chu Yi vomited a large mouthful of blood. Thick blood streamed from her eyes, nose, and ears. She was a wretched sight, like a vengeful ghost, forced to her knees by the suffocating psychic tide. The mental agony was so intense it felt like it was about to tear her apart.
The zombie head glowing with eerie blue light seemed to fix its gaze on her again. In the next moment, countless enhanced zombies swarmed up the metal staircase, charging toward them.
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