The vanished night patrol squad

The apocalypse had gone on for so long that everyone was used to death. Even inside the rescue station, people died every few days. Only those close to them would grieve; everyone else mostly watched with indifference.

After all, no one knew how long they would live themselves. Who had the leisure to worry about others?

However, the people who died in the settlement area were usually ordinary people:

Some had underlying illnesses due to their physical condition, which could trigger other complications during the prolonged extreme cold and cause sudden death.

Others broke down under the immense pressure and went outside to seek death. These were all normal occurrences.

By contrast, ability users had their bodies and minds transformed and strengthened when their abilities awakened, so they would not die for no reason.

Thus, when the squad of ability users assigned to patrol the settlement compound at night vanished overnight, panic instantly spread throughout the entire western district.

The incident occurred in the compound next to Cheng Jing's, a place called Jiahe Court.

The night patrol squad had fourteen members in total: seven official ability-user rescue team members and seven hired ability users, working together in pairs.

At around two in the morning, the patrol members all reported that nothing was amiss, but they failed to appear for the shift change at eight the next morning.

According to the tracking data from their satellite phones, they had all gone to the basement after sending their reports.

Every basement entrance inside the compounds had been sealed and welded shut. The only way in was from outside the compounds.

After the area had been divided into controlled zones, the perimeter of every compound designated as a settlement had been fenced in again with wire mesh. The zombies in the basements had also been cleared out by ability users, and those that had been missed were keeping quiet in the depths of the darkness because of the weather.

The night patrol squad had official team members with them, so they could not have entered the basement without good reason.

Yet the final signals from all the satellite phones carried by the fourteen-person squad had come from the basement.

The situation was unusually serious. Zhou Li called Cheng Jing and the others and invited them to the scene, and Jiang Nian went along as well.

They then found fourteen crushed and damaged satellite phones beside a load-bearing pillar not far from the basement entrance.

There were also extensive bloody drag marks on the ground, with the blood trails disappearing into the dark depths of the basement.

For safety's sake, Zhou Li did not let anyone venture deeper recklessly.

With the situation unclear, it was best to be cautious around a place where fourteen ability users had disappeared. Given how things stood, the chances of finding anyone from the night patrol squad alive were zero.

So, after surveying the outer area of the basement, Zhou Li personally picked up the broken satellite phones in a box and led the team away.

When they came out of the basement, no one had any idea why the fourteen-person squad had gone down there.

But what frightened them even more was that not one of the squad's fourteen ability users had managed to escape or send a distress message!

Everyone returned to the command center with grave expressions. Zhou Li asked Cheng Jing to stay behind alone, and the others left one after another.

Because Cheng Jing had taken part in many decisions, Zhou Li had developed a subtle sense of reliance on and trust in him.

As Huang Qian and the others left, they speculated about all the possibilities. Only Jiang Nian remained silent.

Aside from Cheng Jing, no one knew that he had an ability, much less a rather special one, so even if he had discovered something, he had not shown it.

Although the basement had been filled with a strong stench of decay, he had still detected an unusual aura of an ability.

Every ability user's ability fluctuations were different, even among individuals with the same attribute. Ordinary people found such subtle differences hard to distinguish and needed the help of an innate talent like the one that came with his ability.

After parting from Huang Qian and the others and returning to their respective safe houses, Jiang Nian took out his phone and sent Cheng Jing a message:

[Brother Jing, I know what happened.]

Rather than having him discuss it and make blind guesses with Zhou Li, it was better to have Brother Jing come back early and ask him.

After sending the message, he turned on the heater, took out some snacks, and dug in.

About half an hour later, Cheng Jing came back and moved over to sit beside him.

Jiang Nian casually popped a bite into his mouth, then asked:

"How are Zhou Li and the command center planning to handle it?"

"They'll strengthen Jiahe Court's defenses and gather more ability users to investigate together. They're starting a gradual search of the compound and its surroundings now, and then they'll check all the residents."

Cheng Jing spoke a little indistinctly with food in his mouth. When he finished, he asked him:

"What did you find?"

He knew that Jiang Nian was particularly sensitive to ability fluctuations because of his unusual awakened ability:

For example, he and other ability users could sense when someone had used an ability, but Jiang Nian could tell how many people had used theirs. From the lingering fluctuations, he could determine the number of ability users.

Even when so much time had passed that the fluctuations were too weak for others to detect, Jiang Nian could still sense them.

Jiang Nian wiped his mouth and said slowly:

"Although there were fourteen people in the dead ability-user squad, there was only one ability aura in the basement. In other words, only one person used an ability down there. In this situation, it was most likely left by the killer who murdered the night patrol squad."

"There are only two possibilities that could explain this. Either all fourteen ability users were killed in one blow before any of them could react, or they were already dead before they reached the basement. But whichever it was, the killer is no ordinary opponent."

"One person killed fourteen people without giving them any chance to call for help. Even I couldn't do that."

Cheng Jing's expression darkened further. He was among the first to awaken abilities, and he had rare dual attributes suited to powerful attacks. He had plenty of combat experience and had advanced quickly, so he had considered himself pretty capable.

But even he could not make fourteen ability users with combat experience fall without resistance in a single move.

Jiang Nian wagged his index finger.

"Maybe the killer picked them off one group at a time. The night patrol worked in pairs, patrolling different points, didn't they? First, the killer dealt with two of them, then used a phone to lure another pair over and harvest them. Afterward, the killer destroyed the phones. Under current conditions, there's no way to recover the data from them."

He had heard of this sort of thing in his previous life. It was merely a dirty, straightforward tactic used in struggles between groups of ability users at the base.

As for the phone passcodes, if this guess was right, they could simply ask the killer when the time came.

"True..."

Cheng Jing understood, then asked:

"Can you tell from the lingering ability whether the killer was a human or a zombie?"

Jiang Nian shook his head.

"No. Ability attributes are very stable. When their users turn into zombies, their abilities aren't contaminated, so there's no way to tell. At least, in my previous life, I never heard of anyone's ability mutating after they turned into a zombie."

Then he continued:

"But this time it was definitely a human. Zombies at this stage haven't reached the point where they can kill with conscious, logical thought. Even in the later stages of the apocalypse, very few zombies retained human consciousness. Those that did were all zombie king level. In our current situation, if a zombie king really appeared, no question, we'd be wiped out for sure."

"What do you think we should do?"

Cheng Jing asked, letting out a breath. He and Zhou Li had just been guessing that a zombie with an ability was responsible, which would have been terrifying. Now that Jiang Nian had said it was impossible, he felt a little more at ease. Otherwise, he would have sent Jiang Nian out of the western district that very night.