Splitting into teams

Bai Yaoyao swallowed the last bite of her egg-stuffed flatbread and said, "We weren't very efficient yesterday, so today we'll split into teams right from the start.

"Monkey, Xiaomi, and Chenxuan will be with me.

"Stone, A-Dai, Dada Juan, and Keke will be one team.

"Fat Brother, Lulu, Xiao Shiliu, and Peiqi will be another.

"I've arranged these teams based on our abilities. Let's try this setup today and adjust right away if anything comes up. We'll set out together in a bit and clear three streets at once.

"Any other questions?"

"Nope! Let's do this!" Keke said excitedly. Keke had just gotten a vine and tested it, finding that it could be controlled perfectly with an ability, and was eager to see how it performed in actual combat.

Lulu suddenly said, "Yaoyao, you can have Dog Brother back. We don't want him on our team!"

Bai Yaoyao glared at Doggie, who was still yawning.

Looking utterly bewildered, Doggie ran over to Lulu and howled in protest.

Lulu completely ignored Doggie, took a strategic sip of water, and sat down beside Bai Yaoyao.

"Fine, Doggie will join our team," Bai Yaoyao said helplessly.

"Stone, Fat Brother, you'll each lead a team. Safety comes first. Nothing else matters. Fire a signal flare if anything happens," Bai Yaoyao added after a moment's thought.

"Don't worry!"

"Got it!"

Once she finished speaking, Bai Yaoyao brought out the vehicles, and they all set off together. Before leaving, they made another circuit of the villa complex and cleared out the zombies that had newly appeared nearby.

Today, they planned to head to University Town. Schools had dense populations and relatively open grounds, with plenty of zombies, making them good places to grind kills.

"Have you noticed how many more zombies there are on the road today than yesterday? We're not even downtown yet, and the car can barely get through," Monkey said as he drove.

In the passenger seat, Bai Yaoyao rested a gun on the car window and occasionally fired to eliminate zombies that refused to obey traffic rules.

Firearms were only useful at this stage. Once zombies reached level three, guns wouldn't do much. Even several direct hits wouldn't kill one, and by the time you fired them, the zombie would already be right in your face.

Besides, Fat Brother had bought nearly two billion worth of weapons and ammunition, so there was no need to conserve bullets.

If they saved them for later, they wouldn't even be able to break an Ability User's skin.

"Monkey, I'll give you tomorrow off. See if you can modify the vehicles and reinforce them," Bai Yaoyao said, pained by the dents the zombies had made.

"No problem. I'll do it when we get back tonight. It's nothing difficult."

As soon as they reached the area near University Town, everyone had to get out. There were too many zombies. Yesterday, they had sometimes needed to break down doors to find them; today, almost all the zombies were roaming the streets.

Bai Yaoyao brought Little Crook out and introduced the tree to Doggie. "This is your little brother. Look after Little Crook, okay?"

"Awooo, woof, woof, awoo, woof, woof, woof, awoo!"

"Rustle, rustle, rustle!"

They fought their way forward as they walked. Bai Yaoyao sent Little Crook to help the other three, providing crowd-control support and picking up Crystal Cores along the way.

Her psychic ability had reached level two, allowing her to control zombies briefly.

With all three of her abilities active, she killed zombies faster than the three people and one tree combined.

"Damn, did Sister Yao take something? She's on fire!" Xiaomi said, baring his teeth.

"Let's pick up the pace! There are three of us and a tree. Fine if we can't keep up with Sister Yao, but how are we losing to Dog Brother too?"

"Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle! (Dog Brother is invincible!)"

Hearing Little Crook's rustling cheers, Doggie seemed to recharge and tore into the zombies with even greater enthusiasm!

It took three whole hours of fighting before they reached the entrance to University Town.

They rested there for a while, ate some beef jerky to recover their strength, and waited for the other two teams.

While they were waiting, several students suddenly ran out of nearby H University. At the sight of Bai Yaoyao's strange group of four people, one dog, and one tree, they froze for a long moment.

The group looked so intimidating that the students dared neither approach nor run away.

"Hey, buddy, are there many zombies in your school?" Bai Yaoyao asked.

"Lots... Th-there's also one that breathes fire!" said the boy at the front, who wore a blue denim jacket. He held tightly to the hand of the girl beside him.

Bai Yaoyao was delighted. Another special zombie! She could dig out its core for Lulu. A-Dai's team had enough damage output, so she wasn't worried about them. The dark ability was powerful enough, and with the speed ability providing support, there was nothing to worry about.

"Could you tell me where that fire-breathing zombie is?"

"We saw it when we came out just now. It was outside the cafeteria. Go straight after entering the school, pass two intersections, then turn right, and you'll be there," the boy answered immediately.

After a moment's thought, he added, "I don't know if it's still there now."

Bai Yaoyao nodded and tossed him a Baseball Bat. "Your payment."

The boy quickly picked it up and said excitedly, "Thank you! Um... is there anything else?"

Bai Yaoyao waved him away.

At her gesture, the students hurried off without looking back. One even lost a shoe and only dared come back for it after checking that Bai Yaoyao's group showed no signs of moving.

"Haha, Sister Yao, are we really that scary? Look how badly we frightened those kids," Xiaomi said with a laugh.

In truth, the members of their group weren't very old either. Stone was the oldest at twenty-six, while Bai Yaoyao and Fat Brother were both twenty-one. Xiaomi, Monkey, and several others were under twenty, and A-Dai, the youngest, was only sixteen. Some of them might not even have been as old as those students.

"Brother Xiaomi, maybe you should wipe the blood off your blade, throw away the zombie head you're holding, and move the zombie corpses around you before saying that." Chenxuan also handed over a tissue.

Xiaomi took the tissue and wiped his mouth.

"You wait for the others. I'll go check out that fire-breathing zombie." Bai Yaoyao was afraid it might wander off if she delayed too long.

"Take Dog Brother and Little Crook with you," Monkey said.

"Woof, woof, woof! (Dog Brother will protect you!)"

"No, Brother Doggie and Little Crook will stay with you," Bai Yaoyao refused. Neither had an advantage against a zombie with a fire ability, so they wouldn't be much help.

"All right. Be careful, then."

"Yeah, don't worry!"

After entering the campus, Bai Yaoyao immediately activated her psychic power and carefully scanned every corner. She discovered that this school was rather unusual: there was definitely more than one special zombie.

Distinct energy fluctuations came from several directions. She first headed to the location the boy had described and, sure enough, spotted a zombie with a fire ability attacking the cafeteria's roller shutter.

Faint sobbing came from inside the cafeteria. People on the fourth floor were throwing tables and chairs down, trying to knock the zombie over, but they fell too slowly to pose any threat to it.

Bai Yaoyao kept masking her presence with psychic power, planning a sneak attack.

When she got within about twenty meters, Bai Yaoyao stopped. Her current maximum teleportation range was roughly ten meters.

A zombie with a fire ability had strong attacks but weak defenses. If she timed it right, she could absolutely kill it in a single strike.