Power Outage, Zombies in the Water

A sharp Miao Saber cleaved straight down from the man's brow, splitting him in two. The blood at his brow swiftly spread, staining everything red.

The Miao Saber cut through metal like mud. The man's entire body looked as if it had been sliced open from top to bottom by a laser weapon.

His internal organs were clearly visible.

The two halves of his corpse fell at the doorway.

Jiang You looked at the pool of blood on the floor and frowned slightly.

How annoying. I'll have to clean again.

She closed the door behind her. The zombies had come downstairs anyway, so they would definitely eat the food at the entrance.

She would clean after they finished eating.

She hadn't deliberately cleared the zombies from the hallway. As long as zombies continued wandering around, fewer people would break in.

She turned around and returned to the television. After wiping the blood from her Miao Saber with a towel, she resumed doing frog jumps around the living-room sofa.

It was as if she had merely crushed an ant at the doorway. Her training plan had not been disrupted in the slightest.

While doing frog jumps, she had five-kilogram sandbags tied to each ankle.

First came sandbags, then stones, then iron blocks.

She had her own method of training, gradually increasing the weight on her legs according to her results.

In her previous life, she had awakened her Wind Ability more than a month later. During the early stages of the apocalypse, the Wind Ability seemed pretty powerful.

No, it wasn't just the Wind Ability. During the early stages of the apocalypse, everyone thought any ability was impressive.

But as things developed...

Compared with the power of the Lightning Ability, the rarity of the Water Ability, and the healing power of the Plant Ability... some abilities seemed rather ordinary.

The Wind Ability was one example.

Although beginner-level wind blades had killing power, killing someone with a single strike was still very difficult.

Wind blades were more like knives or swords without much force behind them. They could create wounds and looked impressive, but it was difficult for them to kill with one blow or inflict serious damage.

When natural abilities such as wind, fire, thunder, and lightning were at low levels, the Wind Ability had the weakest offensive power of the four.

That was something she had to admit.

However, once someone evolved into a high-level ability user, everything changed dramatically.

When the Wind Ability reached a certain strength, it could accomplish many things, and its offensive power became extremely violent.

Not just the Wind Ability—even all natural abilities, once they evolved to a certain level, could theoretically possess the power to destroy heaven and earth. The prerequisite was a high enough level and the ability to manipulate a sufficient basic quantity.

Otherwise, it was all empty talk.

Unfortunately, natural abilities were also the most difficult of all ability types to evolve.

Later, people analyzed that the more potential an ability had, the greater the energy required for advancement, like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

This was nature's way of balancing all living things.

When one living creature became too powerful, far surpassing all others, the balance between living things would quickly be broken.

Just like how humanity had overdeveloped, constantly compressing the living space of other creatures on the planet and throwing the entire ecosystem out of balance. Many people guessed that this might be why the apocalypse had arrived.

Nature was reshuffling everything and establishing a new balance.

Therefore, it naturally wouldn't allow that balance to be broken again.

Since her raw power wasn't enough, Jiang You simply took another path.

She mainly trained her speed.

She constantly practiced using the Wind Ability to assist her while escaping, increasing her speed.

Therefore, whenever she faced a life-or-death crisis she couldn't overcome, she would immediately run.

She had some experience when it came to escaping with her life.

If her brain hadn't short-circuited in her previous life and she hadn't spent all her time looking after her uncle's family, her escape speed would have made it difficult for her to get injured.

In this life, she had to train harder. Not only did she need to run faster, but she also needed greater strength.

Jiang You sighed.

She continued with her training plan.

Every day, after eating at home, she either watched television and surfed the internet or trained. She never opened the door for anyone who knocked.

No matter how bloody and chaotic things became outside, she simply acted as if she couldn't see or hear anything.

For now, no one dared to force their way through a door, because everyone was afraid the noise would attract zombies.

Therefore, when someone knocked and begged for help, she didn't open the door. At most, the other person cursed a few times and kicked the door twice before hurriedly leaving. They wouldn't pester her for long.

But in two more days, they wouldn't be so civilized.

After completing her frog jumps, Jiang You began practicing on the standing punching bag in the center of the living room.

Her fists landed on it again and again, and the thudding impacts echoed through the room.

Sweat trickled down from her forehead and flowed along her neck.

Only when the sky turned dusky and red clouds filled the horizon did the day's training finally end.

Jiang You took a shower and lay down on the sofa while the television continued playing in the living room.

But the signal was very poor.

While using a fascia gun to relax her muscles, Jiang You took out her phone.

At that moment, she discovered that someone had changed the original "Owner Group" into the "Wild Boar Group."

The group owner had also changed from the former property-management director to an unfamiliar username.

The group's chat restriction had been lifted.

The group owner posted an announcement.

"Director Zhao is dead. From now on, I'll take over management of the group. Everyone, change your usernames to your building and apartment numbers so it'll be easier to manage mutual aid."

The moment the chat restriction was lifted, the group boiled like water.

Everyone rushed to speak.

"I'm from Building One, Apartment 901. I have no food left at home. Does anyone have extra food? I'll pay double!"

"Double? You think money is everything! There are monsters everywhere outside, and the water is so deep. Who would dare go out looking for food?"

"I have two children and elderly parents at home. Is anyone willing to sell us some food? Any price is fine! Message me privately if you're willing! I'll kneel and thank you!"

"There's a zombie banging on my door. It's terrifying! Can someone come help me?!"

"Why hasn't the government rescue team arrived yet? There are monsters everywhere. Are they trying to let us die? Someone outside my door had their intestines pulled out and eaten by a zombie. It's horrifying! Sob, sob!"

"The official organizations are probably in complete chaos by now. Who has time to worry about you? Everyone, find a way to save yourselves!"

"My parents both turned into zombies. I'm hiding in my room and don't dare go out. What should I do? Who can save me?"

"The water has just risen to below my building. I have a fishing net and have hauled up quite a lot of food. If you need some, message me privately, but you'll have to come get it yourself. I don't dare go out."

"We're all from the same complex. We should help one another!"

"Brother, you're righteous! The world needs good people like you!"

"..."

Most people in the group enthusiastically spoke up—begging for help, asking for food, and playing the good Samaritan.

But only two or three changed their usernames to their apartment numbers.

By then, everyone was clearly on guard. No one wanted to reveal their location.

Unless they were familiar with the person, who knew who was on the other side?

Wouldn't revealing their location increase the danger?

Before long, however, the group owner posted several more announcements, demanding that everyone change their usernames to their building, unit, and apartment numbers.

Jiang You put away her phone, took a large bottle of chilled fruit juice and a bucket of fried chicken from her space, and sat on the sofa to eat them for dinner.

She was eating watermelon and watching the news when everything suddenly went dark. The television screen also went black.

The air conditioner's hum abruptly stopped.

The power was out.

Almost the instant the air conditioner stopped cooling, the temperature in the room began to rise noticeably.

Her phone still had a signal, and the complex group exploded again, with everyone saying that their homes had lost power.

Before long, she heard people arguing and children crying. Then those sounds quickly disappeared.

It was too hot. In weather like this, people could genuinely die from the heat without air conditioning.

Jiang You used her phone to surf the internet. There were now messages everywhere from people offering high prices to buy food.

There were also wealthy people trapped in various places, promising hundreds of thousands or even millions for anyone who came to rescue them.

The rain had stopped for a day, and the water level in the city had begun to drop.

At night, Jiang You went down the stairs, put on her diving suit, and entered the water. During the early stages of the apocalypse, zombies in the water posed little danger as long as she carefully avoided disturbing them.

She turned on her searchlight and swam toward the nearby police station along the route she remembered.

Although there had been torrential rain over the past few days, no zombies had appeared.

Therefore, everyone had merely treated it as a relatively serious natural disaster.

During the day and at night, rescue boats had constantly traveled back and forth across the water, and many people had also dived into the water to rescue others.

But after the zombies appeared that morning, everything completely collapsed.

All day long, there were no more rescue boats traveling back and forth, and the atmosphere of everyone working together was gone.

The city seemed to have suddenly died.

That was why she had waited until the zombies appeared that day, when no one was outside, before diving at night.

The appearance of zombies meant that order had completely collapsed.

Everyone truly realized that this was the apocalypse, not merely a natural disaster.

If her guess was correct, police stations usually kept firearms.

Although she already had a crossbow and arrows, who would complain about having free firearms?

With an oxygen tank on her back, Jiang You moved through the deep water like a fish, nimbly avoiding the zombies floating in it.

The zombies had their eyes closed and drifted with the current, like strands of broken kelp.

She moved very carefully, doing her best to avoid the waters where zombies had gathered.

More than half an hour later, she successfully arrived at the police station.

The station's door had already been broken open. All kinds of items floated in the water—clothes, cups, and corpses.

Jiang You searched carefully and found two guns on several corpses. She also found quite a few bullets in one of the rooms.

After carefully searching inside and outside the police station and confirming that no survivors or threats had been overlooked, she went to another police substation nearby.

She spent the entire night in the water. Whenever she became exhausted, she surfaced and climbed onto a platform to rest for a while.

Then she changed to a new oxygen tank and continued diving.