Chapter 38 - Missions
TRIGGER WARNING: Cannibalism and suicide mention. Grump (from discord) pointed out that this might be pretty depressing especially with the COVID going on.
Early in the morning, Yu Xuguang had excitedly hurried to Base Two.
Even though he had been beaten up twice yesterday, Yu Xuguang was already used to fighting with people before his rebirth, so he didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Moreover, with so many living people who could converse with him, he honestly felt quite happy.
Yu Xuguang had arrived at Base Two rather early. He greeted those wind ability users who stayed in the base, and as he jogged a few laps, he waited for Nie Yi to come. Unexpectedly, he waited for a long time, but Nie Yi didn’t come, and he didn’t even see Zhang Zihai.
“Don’t you guys go on missions together with Zhang Zihai? Where’s Zhang Zihai?” Yu Xuguang finally flagged down a fire ability user to inquire about the situation.
“You’re talking about Zhang ge? He went on a mission with Nie shao today,” the fire ability user immediately responded.
So it turned out that they went on a mission. He had wanted to have some interaction with Nie Yi, but Nie Yi left just like that… Most of Yu Xuguang’s original good mood immediately disappeared, and later he couldn’t help feeling rueful.
It was already said that Nie Yi often left the base to gather supplies during the beginning of the apocalypse, and it seemed to be true. Instead, it was himself who hadn’t done anything meaningful during the beginning of the apocalypse…
Yu Xuguang felt a little sorrowful, but soon raised his spirits and continued to train.
On the whole, only water ability users who had reached level four and above could condense water into ice, but it wasn’t like there weren’t exceptions. He was now hoping that he could be the exception.
While Yu Xuguang worked hard in cultivating in the base, Nie Yi and the others had already entered the urban area of B City, located near B City’s secure base.
This time, the number of people who went out wasn’t many, so they only drove two trucks, one large and one small. Because this current team wasn’t the same as before, where no one could drive a truck, Nie Yi didn’t drive, instead sitting in the carriage of the large truck. He observed the situation around them, killing those zombies who gathered around them at the same time.
The others were like him. They each held a metal rod; if a zombie tried to climb up the truck, they would immediately strike its head.
“Boss, why didn’t we pick a shipping container truck when we left?” Zhang Zihai couldn’t help saying. Previously, when he went out for a mission, he always sat in container trucks. He could comfortably lay in it and sleep, and it really was comfortable.
“What if, one day, a zombie’s fingernail can cut open the shipping container? Rather than think of every way to avoid danger from the beginning, to the point that you’ll end up with no means of responding to danger, it’s better to directly face it from the very start, to temper yourself,” Nie Yi said, throwing out a fireball and disposing a zombie that wanted to come closer. At the same time, he did his best to revolve the water ability in his mind, striving for his water ability to upgrade as soon as possible.
What Nie Yi had said was right, and Zhang Zihai couldn’t help wanting to nod and agree. But when his gaze landed on that youth nestled in a beanbag, his head couldn’t nod.
Nie Yi’s words sounded nice to hear, but what he did wasn’t the same as what he was saying…
“Boss, since you want to train yourself, then why can that Qi Jingchen lie down?”
“Is he the same as you? He naturally has me to protect him; if you can find someone willing to protect you, then you can also lie down to the side,” Nie Yi said.
Zhang Zihai really couldn’t find any such person, and could only shoot an envious look at Qi Jingchen.
A beanbag for one was placed in the area near the front of the carriage. This beanbag was very, very soft, allowing one’s entire body to sink into it, and even had a small footstool for someone to support their feet on.
Qi Jingchen really was sunken in it, holding the coffee can with the lettuce in it. He was drowsily wanting to sleep under the influence of the truck’s shaking. It really made the onlookers envious.
This person was also really odd. It was fine to plant anything, but why did he stubbornly want to plant lettuce? However, this lettuce growing on its own there really did make people like it when they looked at it. Zhang Zihai couldn’t help taking a few more glances.
“Want to exchange pointers?” Nie Yi suddenly said.
Zhang Zihai immediately retrieved his gaze. He definitely wouldn’t dare provoke a vinegar jar&#k2026; No, a vinegar vat.
“Boss, the road ahead is blocked.” Ping Shengchao, who had been keeping an eye on the situation in front, abruptly spoke up.
Ping Shengchao had dyed his hair blond before the apocalypse; after a month, his black hair had grown long, and now his hair had become half-black and half-yellow.
Right now, there weren’t any hairdressers, as everyone had basically taken an electric hair clipper and gave themself a crew cut. Many had even shaved their heads like Zhang Zihai. But Ping Shengchao stubbornly refused to part with his hair, so he adopted the use of a hairband and tied up the hair on his forehead, making a small pigtail.
“Pigtails, we’ll go down and clear a path!” Zhang Zihai said.
Ping Shengchao didn’t respond, climbing down the truck in advance. Seeing this, Zhang Zihai directly leapt down from the truck.
As a result… Seeing that Zhang Zihai had jumped down from the truck, Ping Shengchao unexpectedly turned over and climbed back up.
“Pigtails, what’s up with you?” Zhang Zihai stood by the road, stunned.
“Baldy, I didn’t say I was going to clear a path. If you’re going, hurry up,” Ping Shengchao sneered at him. This man had actually given him a nickname!
“…”
In the end, it was still Shao Zhenglan and the other earth ability user who took up the task while Zhang Zihai had only killed a few zombies and ran behind the car for a long time.
“Boss, the furthest we’ve reached previously was here.” After another period of driving, Ping Shengchao spoke up. They had often headed out at the rear of the military, but had never dared to go too far.
“Let’s keep going,” Nie Yi said. Ping Shengchao and the rest had always returned on the same day and had never spent the night outside. However, he intended to stay out here for three days, and thoroughly train this team.
Their fleet continued forth until the afternoon, as they encountered more and more zombies. There also weren’t piles of zombie corpses surrounding them, proving that the military hadn’t yet cleared this place up.
Nie Yi had specially prepared a tablet with a map of B City. Although there was no way to digitally navigate with the signal more or less completely messed up, they could still find their objective through the various markers.
His current goal was the community hospitals and pharmacies in this area.
In his last life, Nie Yi had been to this area and swept through these community hospitals. Even though he didn’t quite remember the specific route and needed to rely on the map, the journey could still be considered somewhat easy and familiar.
With him leading the way, they soon found the first community hospital.
The community hospital was in the middle of a non-gated community. The large truck couldn’t drive in, so Nie Yi had them park it to the side. Then, a group of people drove the smaller truck to the vicinity of the community health service station.
This sort of small-scale health service station generally only had a few doctors and common medication. However, during the apocalypse, the most useful medicines were these common ones— At this time, no one could go for treatment if they had a serious illness.
There was a flourishing street next to this community. As such, there were many zombies wandering around. Those zombies had also been attracted by the sound of their truck and the scent of fresh meat.
Nie Yi walked ahead of everyone as he carried Qi Jingchen. He was clearly carrying someone, but he released fireballs without the slightest obstruction; almost every zombie that neared him had their heads roasted by fireballs.
The ten ability users from Base Two who followed Nie Yi were people with relatively powerful abilities. Even though they acknowledged Nie Yi’s strength, they were still a little discontent with Nie Yi holding Qi Jingchen while carrying out the mission of killing zombies. After all, Qi Jingchen could only be a deadweight.
But when they saw Nie Yi kill off the surrounding zombies so effortlessly while carrying him, they couldn’t say a word. At the same time, Qi Jingchen’s demeanour astonished them.
When Nie Yi had carried Qi Jingchen off the truck and walked into the zombies, they had thought that a person like Qi Jingchen would likely be frightened to the point of screaming. In the end…
The zombies were throwing themselves over unceasingly, and those like Qian Mingfeng who had never left the secure base before had paled, yet Qi Jingchen still had that lazy expression, as if he didn’t mind everything that was happening around him.
This person who was even picky when eating, unexpectedly wasn’t afraid of zombies…
Qian Mingfeng suddenly felt that he was a little useless. He released his wind ability and blew aside zombies as he opened fire nonstop. Even though he often couldn’t strike their heads due to his inexperience, he still disposed of quite a few zombies.
And right then, Nie Yi had melted the door lock with his fire ability.
A large hospital would still have many people at night. Clearing out such a place while also taking away the things inside wasn’t something their small team of about twenty people could do, but this sort of community hospital wouldn’t have anyone, and the things inside would be more convenient to move.
After entering, Nie Yi said, “Qi Yaoyao, lead the people to collect medicine.”
For the past few days, Qi Yaoyao had been following Xu Nan and the others to kill zombies and had also come along today. However, she was still young and had no fighting power, therefore, hadn’t the slightest advantage against zombies; she might as well do something else.
Nie Yi had picked Qi Yaoyao out, while Xu Nan selected a few ordinary people without much fighting strength and had them collect the medicines. As for the rest, they continued to battle against the zombies who were rushing forward in a steady flow.
Along with the passing of time, the zombies surrounding them increased.
Before, when Nie Yi had led his people to rush back to S City from the southern area, or when they had rushed from J City to B City, they had done their best to avoid places with a large number of zombies. On top of that, there were still many other survivors alive at that time, and their existence had attracted lots of zombies, thus they had never come across this many zombies.
This was precisely the time when the might of abilities could be reflected.
Before, Qian Mingfeng’s wind ability had always been believed to be useless. But now, when he released a large gust of wind, he could blow away numerous zombies encircling them. When a fire ability neared a zombie’s head, it could instantly burn it to death, let alone a thunder ability, which was entirely deserving of the title of strongest attack power.
Of course, the most useful were earth abilities. With the emergence of a few earthen walls, they could break the zombies apart, then slowly dispose of them.
Speaking of which, if it wasn’t for the fact that they had decided to kill more zombies, they could absolutely create a few more earthen walls and block all those zombies.
“We’re done collecting,” Qi Yaoyao said while gasping after she and the others made many trips back and forth to move all the medications.
“Let’s go!” Carrying Qi Jingchen, Nie Yi was the first to head out once again.
In the following period, they handled everything this way, successively emptying out a good number of community hospitals and pharmacies. In passing, they had also gathered some other supplies.
But their greatest gain was actually everyone’s improving cooperation— Now, Zhang Zihai and the other ability users all had varying degrees of improvement towards their use of abilities.
Before, even though Zhang Zihai and the others had come out for missions, they had the protection of regular soldiers, so they basically didn’t have to use their abilities while the soldiers opened fire. Now, the situation of facing zombies made them learn many more things. Zhang Zihai, who had been somewhat hyperactive, had also calmed down— These zombies used to be people, and killing them wasn’t something that made anyone happy; it even made them subconsciously despair.
Even Nie Yi now felt a little downcast, as he could sense that the zombies had become stronger. This change wasn’t obvious; if it wasn’t because he had spiritual strength, he might not have even sensed it. But the zombies had definitely become stronger, and slowly, they’ll become those monsters from the final days of the apocalypse.
“So it’s still better to die early,” Qi Jingchen suddenly said.
“Don’t think that way!” Nie Yi promptly threw aside his gloominess and continued to kill the zombies.
Soon, the sky darkened.
“Let’s find a place to rest,” Nie Yi said. When coming out for missions, the most important thing was definitely to find a good resting stop, selecting a safe area to stay in.
Nie Yi looked everywhere, and quickly selected a large hotel nearby.
This sort of hotel’s construction quality generally was pretty good; the doors and windows were secure, the interior also had a spacious meeting room for everyone to rest in, and the entrance was also convenient to park their cars.
The large truck drove over and soon arrived in the vicinity of the hotel. It was just at this time they suddenly heard cries for help, and also found that this hotel was surrounded by many zombies.
There were survivors inside!
The apocalypse had been happening for over a month ago. Half a month ago, Nie Yi and the others could hear all sorts of cries for help on their journey, but they hadn’t heard any today at all…
This aspect was because B City had already arranged for the military to evacuate the residents at the very start. Even though they needed the residents to walk out of their homes themselves, and even drive their own cars to follow the military, the majority of the people had departed. On the other hand, because a month had passed, even if there were some survivors who hadn’t evacuated, they had already starved or died of thirst.
At that time, Qi Jingchen had the filling rice from his home, but some only had some snacks. The most miserable were those who co-rented apartments with others, and were trapped in their own rooms. If they didn’t have the courage to kill the zombies, then they were unable to evacuate with the military. They weren’t even able to save up on water during the start of the apocalypse, and ultimately could only die from thirst.
Even if they had stored up enough food and water, it was still very hard to persevere till now. Against a world filled with zombies, they generally would become more and more desolate as the days passed, and finally, they might even choose suicide.
“There are still living people in the hotel!” Zhang Zihai excitedly said. After seeing so many zombies, he was very glad that he could save a few survivors.
“Let’s go take a look,” Nie Yi said. In truth, he was too lazy to take the initiative to save people, but if it came to saving people when he was able to, there were only benefits without any disadvantages.
The doors to the hotel were sealed tight, but to Nie Yi, they were exceedingly simple to open. After they entered, Shao Zhenglan immediately erected an earthen wall outside while the metal ability users fused the iron side door that had been split open with the metal door frame.
They had barely taken a few steps when they came across multiple zombies. When they killed all the zombies, they realised that the cries for help seemed to come from the kitchen.
When they neared the kitchen, Qi Jingchen, who had never reacted, suddenly furrowed his brows as his fingers wrapped around the coffee can tightened.
Nie Yi had always divided a part of his spiritual strength and placed it on Qi Jingchen, so naturally he discovered Qi Jingchen’s strange behaviour. At first, he was a little puzzled, but when he opened the kitchen doors, he immediately understood the reason.
The kitchen had seven living people. Four of them were standing, and seemed to be in pretty good condition; the other four were tied up and tossed in a corner. What was more terrifying was that there were even a few skeletons there.
Skeletons with their flesh completely picked clean.
Nie Yi’s eyes instantly reddened, while Qi Jingchen’s expression cooled as well.
Baobao Notes
Sorry guys, I’ve decided to switch to British English… That’s actually how I spell things, but I learned most of my English reading novels, so sometimes I’m not quite clear as to which is British and which is American.
Also small note but idk how, but I read Gan Jun’s name as Gan Shu sometimes. I really don’t know how… That’s what I get for not translating for a period of time ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚