Power Outage, Zombies in the Water

A sharp Miao Saber sliced straight down from the man's forehead, splitting him cleanly in two. Blood streamed from where his eyebrows should have been, quickly dividing and staining everything.

The Miao Saber cut through metal like mud, and the man's entire body was sliced open from top to bottom as if by a laser weapon.

His internal organs were clearly visible.

The two halves of his body collapsed at the doorway.

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

So annoying, I have to clean this up again.

She closed the door behind her. After all, if those zombies came down, they'd definitely eat the food by the door.

She'd clean up after they were done eating.

She didn't deliberately clear out the zombies in the hallway. After all, with zombies roaming around, fewer people would dare to break in.

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

It was as if she had just stepped on an ant at the doorway; her training plan was completely uninterrupted.

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

First, it was sandbags, then stones, then iron blocks.

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

In her previous life, she awakened her Wind Ability more than a month later. The Wind Ability seemed quite formidable in the early stages of the apocalypse.

No, not just the Wind Ability. In the early days of the apocalypse, any ability was considered powerful.

But as things progressed...

Compared to the might of lightning abilities, the rarity of water abilities, and the healing capabilities of plant abilities... some abilities seemed ordinary.

Like the Wind Ability.

Although the wind blades of a low-level Wind Ability had destructive power, it was difficult to kill someone with a single strike.

Wind blades were more like swords or blades without much force. They could inflict wounds and looked impressive, but it was hard to deliver a fatal blow or cause significant damage.

Among the elemental abilities like wind, fire, lightning, and electricity, wind had the lowest attack power when at lower ability levels.

This was an undeniable fact.

However, once evolved into a high-level ability user, the changes could be earth-shattering.

When the Wind Ability reached a certain intensity, it could do many things, and its offensive capabilities were incredibly fierce.

Let alone the Wind Ability, all elemental abilities, theoretically, could produce world-destroying power once they evolved to a certain level. The prerequisite was a sufficiently high level and the ability to manipulate a sufficient base quantity.

Otherwise, it was all just talk.

But unfortunately, elemental abilities were also the most difficult to level up among all ability series.

Later, some people analyzed that the greater the potential of an ability, the more energy it required to advance, like an bottomless pit that could never be filled.

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

If a creature became too powerful, far surpassing others, the balance between species would quickly be disrupted.

It was like how humanity's overdevelopment led to the constant compression of living space for other creatures on the planet, causing the entire ecological system to fall out of balance. Many speculated that this might be the reason for the apocalypse.

Nature was reshuffling and establishing a new balance.

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

Since her raw strength wasn't enough, Jiang You decided to take a different approach.

She focused on training her speed.

She practiced constantly, using her Wind Ability to assist her when escaping, thereby increasing her speed.

Thus, when facing a life-or-death crisis she couldn't handle, she would immediately flee.

She had some experience in escaping.

If she hadn't been short-sighted in her previous life and constantly worried about her uncle's family, with her escape speed, she wouldn't have been easily injured.

In this life, she would strengthen her training, not only running fast but also possessing greater strength.

Jiang You sighed.

She continued her training plan.

Every day after eating at home, besides watching TV and browsing the internet, she trained. If someone knocked on her door, she wouldn't open it.

No matter how chaotic the outside world was, she pretended not to see or hear it.

For now, no one dared to force their way in, as everyone feared the noise would attract zombies.

So, if someone knocked for help, and she didn't open, they would at most curse a few times, kick the door a couple of times, and then quickly run away, not lingering too long.

But in another two days, things wouldn't be so polite.

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

Punch after punch landed on it, the bang bang bang of impact echoing through the living room.

Sweat trickled down her forehead and flowed down her neck.

The sky turned dusky red, filled with fiery clouds, signaling the end of the day's training.

Jiang You took a shower and lay on the sofa. The living room TV was still on, but the signal was poor.

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

She noticed that someone had changed the original "Owner Group" to "Wild Boar Group."

In the upper right corner of the page were options like "Switch to Simplified/Traditional Chinese," "Adjust Font Size," and "Reading Background Color."

The group administrator had also changed from the original property manager to an unfamiliar ID.

The group's mute function was lifted.

The group administrator posted an announcement.

"Director Zhao is dead. I will be taking over the management of the group from now on. Everyone, please change your nicknames to your building and apartment numbers for easier management and mutual assistance."

As soon as the mute mode was turned off, the group instantly erupted like boiling water.

Everyone was speaking impatiently.

"I'm in Building 1, Unit 901. We're out of food at home. Does anyone have extra food they're willing to sell? I'll pay double the price!"

"Double the price? You think you're pretty, huh! There are monsters everywhere outside now, and the water is so deep. Who dares to go out looking for food?"

"I still have two children and elderly parents at home. Is there anyone willing to sell us some food? Any price is fine! Please PM me if you're willing! Thank you so much!"

"There's a zombie banging on my door, it's so scary. Can anyone help me!!"

"Why hasn't the ZF rescue arrived yet? There are monsters everywhere. Are they trying to kill us? I saw someone outside my door having their intestines pulled out and eaten by a zombie, it was so scary! Wuwuwu!"

"The official organizations are probably in chaos right now. Who has time for you? Everyone has to find their own way to survive!"

"My parents have both turned into zombies. I'm hiding in my room now and too scared to go out. What should I do? Someone save me!"

"The water level has risen to right below my floor. I have a fishing net and have managed to catch quite a bit of food. PM me if you need any, but you have to pick it up yourself. I'm too scared to go out."

"We're all in the same neighborhood, we need to help each other!"

"Big brother, you're a hero! The world needs good people like you!"

"..."

Most people in the group were actively posting, asking for help, asking for food, or acting as good Samaritans.

However, only two or three people had changed their nicknames to their apartment numbers.

At this point, everyone was clearly wary. No one was willing to reveal their location.

Unless they knew the other person well, who knew who they were?

Revealing their location would only increase their risk factor.

But not long after, the group administrator posted several more announcements, demanding that everyone change their nicknames to their unit and apartment numbers.

Jiang You closed her phone, took out a large bottle of iced juice from her space, and a bucket of fried chicken, and sat on the sofa to eat it for dinner.

As she was eating watermelon and watching the news, her vision suddenly went dark, and the TV screen went black.

The hum of the air conditioner abruptly stopped.

The power went out.

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

However, her phone still had a signal, and the community group exploded again, with everyone saying their power had gone out.

A moment later, she heard sounds of arguing, and children crying, and then these sounds quickly disappeared.

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

Jiang You used her phone to go online. Everywhere online, there were messages about buying food at exorbitant prices.

There were also rich people trapped somewhere, promising millions or even tens of millions for someone to rescue them.

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

At night, Jiang You went down the stairs, put on her diving suit, and dove into the water. In the early stages of the apocalypse, zombies in the water were not a major threat as long as you carefully avoided them and didn't disturb them.

She turned on her searchlight and followed the route she remembered towards the nearby police station.

Although there had been heavy rain in the past few days, no zombies had appeared.

Therefore, everyone had just treated it as a severe natural disaster.

Day and night, rescue boats had been coming and going on the water, and there were also many divers rescuing people.

But after the zombies appeared this morning, everything collapsed.

All day long, there were no more rescue boats coming and going on the water, and no more atmosphere of unity and determination.

This city was as if it had suddenly died.

That's why she waited until today, when the zombies appeared and no one was outside, to go diving at night.

The appearance of zombies meant the complete collapse of order.

Everyone truly realized this was the apocalypse, not just a simple natural disaster.

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

Although she already had a crossbow and arrows, who would say no to more free firearms?

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

These zombies had their eyes closed, drifting with the current like broken strands of kelp.

She moved very carefully, trying to avoid areas where zombies were gathered.

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

The police station's doors had already been broken open, and messy things floated in the water—clothes, cups, and even corpses.

Jiang You searched carefully. She found two guns on a few corpses and then found quite a few bullets in a room.

After thoroughly searching the police station inside and out, ensuring there were no stragglers, she went to other nearby police substations.

She spent the entire night submerged in the water. When she was exhausted, she would surface, climb onto a platform to rest for a bit.

Then she would change to a new oxygen tank and continue diving.

If you can't find the book by its title, you can try searching for the author; perhaps they just changed their name!