Saving Lives

With happy things happening around them, time naturally passed quickly.

Toward the end of February, the temperature, which had held steady for a long time, finally began to change. It rose a few degrees each day, climbing faster as time went on.

By early March, the temperature had risen to minus 50 degrees. The central broadcast announced that base rescue teams were beginning to prepare to set out for locations across the country to help survivors.

Cheng Jing also discussed leaving early with Zhou Li.

They could leave at any time, but they still needed to register their departure. After all, they would most likely work together again, so they needed to maintain the relationship.

Upon learning that they were headed to South City Base, Zhou Li immediately told them to register on arrival as Qingyun City's official rescue team. He also got them a letter of recommendation.

Besides expressing his thanks, he hoped they would not forget to help one another when they met again.

Cheng Jing accepted the favor and reminded him that if the rescue troops failed to arrive on time, they should prepare for disease prevention while remaining wary of zombies.

With the weather warming and so many people dead, an epidemic could easily break out.

After months of consumption, they had little of the supplies they kept out in the open left.

They had also used up some things from their spatial rings from time to time, freeing up space. So, as they prepared to leave, Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian had just enough room to fit the supplies they kept outside into the rings.

They loaded everything else into the vehicles. Even after using some along the way, they would still have a little left to distribute when they reached the base.

Their teammates began to worry that their standard of living would decline once they reached the base. Only Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing remained calm; they had planned for all of this:

With few supplies exposed, they could enter the base without attracting attention. Once they had settled in, it would not be too late to find a chance to tell everyone the truth.

Jiang Nian had already made up his mind to find a way to get a plot of land to cultivate after reaching the base.

However, uncontaminated land was bound to be scarce and expensive, and he might not be able to get any, so he planned to purify it himself, little by little, using his ability.

That was also why he had prepared so many seeds before the apocalypse.

Ready-made supplies would eventually run out. If humanity was to rebuild its home, it first had to solve the problem of food and clothing.

As the temperature continued to rise, the team began making intensive preparations to leave Qingyun City.

They inspected and repaired their vehicles, packed their belongings, planned a specific route, and roughly decided where to stop along the way.

Of course, they did it all discreetly, going about their daily business as usual.

On March 10, the weather was clear, and the temperature had risen to minus 25 degrees.

Cheng Jing and his group said goodbye to Zhou Li and quietly left the west district settlement for South City Base before dawn, traveling in two snowplows and two vehicles of their own.

Zombies were beginning to emerge from beneath the snow. The Qingyun City rescue team and the ability users were about to launch new defensive operations, but none of that concerned them anymore.

The snow was still deep, and even with snowplows and various tools, they traveled slowly.

It was not until ten days later, when the temperature returned to zero, that the snow began melting much faster. But they now had to watch out for active zombies.

After the extreme cold, the zombies had evolved considerably and begun forming crystal cores.

Zombies with abilities were appearing more and more often, and one of their snowplows was wrecked.

In his previous life, the authorities had issued a rule: since no antidote serum had been developed, if an ability user became infected, their teammates and the people around them must not hesitate to act. Of course, it was best if the infected person could rationally end their own life.

That was because an ability user turned zombie was more than ten times as dangerous as an ordinary person.

Zhao Lei, Liao Yu, and Jian Cheng rode in the snowplow, clearing the road ahead. Jian Cheng, whose eyesight had been enhanced, drove, while Zhao Lei and Liao Yu helped clear out zombies and stayed alert for emergencies.

Cheng Jing drove the Hummer in the middle with Jiang Nian and Xiao Ya, while Huang Qian and the others brought up the rear.

"Tell everyone to get ready. Something's wrong up ahead."

Jian Cheng warned them as he watched the road ahead. Zhao Lei picked up the walkie-talkie and notified the people behind them.

As the snowplow gradually slowed, everyone grew tense.

Only when the vehicle slowly drew closer could they make out what was happening ahead:

A group of people had run into a wave of zombies blocking the road. Several people were already dead nearby, and two modified vehicles had been reduced to scrap.

The three survivors were two men and a woman. One man was large and burly, a little older than the others. He wore camouflage work clothes and looked to be in his forties.

The other man and woman looked like college students:

The young man was older, with regular features and slightly long, choppy hair. The younger woman had delicate features and wore her hair in a ponytail. Both wore tracksuits from a Chinese streetwear brand.

All three were ability users, but they were in terrible shape and had been wounded.

The older man's ability was physical enhancement. In battle, his muscles swelled, his movements were agile, and he had great explosive strength. He carried a steel pipe covered in bloodstains.

The young man was a wind-element ability user, while the young woman had a primarily defensive rebound ability.

Objectively speaking, the combination was not very strong in combat, at least not at their current levels. They would have to wait for the wind ability to grow before it became formidable.

They could manage against ordinary zombies, but among their opponents was an offensive ability zombie that could control stones.

After one barrage of flying sand and stones, they were knocked off their feet in no time.

Unlike humans, whose use of abilities was affected by mental power, ability zombies had neither consciousness nor mental power.

They only had another kind of brain wave that could distinguish their own kind from others.

These brain waves allowed them to use their abilities tirelessly until the overload shattered their crystal cores, a phenomenon commonly known as crystal core self-destruction.

The more highly evolved a zombie was, the stronger its brain-wave energy. In a battle of attrition, humans were simply no match for them.

The three people fighting the zombies saw their abilities growing weaker and weaker. Suddenly, they noticed Jiang Nian's convoy and, after dodging a wave of attacks from the ability zombie, turned and ran madly toward them.

They shouted for help as they ran:

"Help..."

"Please save us..."

"..."

A fierce gust rushed at them from behind. Roaring, the ability zombie controlled a dense barrage of rubble and sent it raining down on their heads.

The older man suddenly shoved the two young people forward with all his strength, then summoned the last of his ability and stood behind them.

The two instinctively looked back, only for him to shout at them:

"Run!"

Just as the rain of stones was about to smash him into a pulp, Jian Cheng drifted to an abrupt stop. Zhao Lei jumped out and waved a hand, raising an iron wall to block the barrage, almost against the man's face.

At the same time, a vine wrapped around the man and pulled him backward.

Everyone except Jiang Nian and Xiao Ya got out of the vehicles.

The three survivors took cover behind them. The two young people helped the man, who had overtaxed his ability and was coughing up blood, to one side to rest.

They watched as an earthen barrier and an iron wall rose from the ground one after another, and dense volleys of ice spikes flew toward the frenzied oncoming horde of zombies.

Thorny vines emerged from the earthen barrier, piercing and shredding the zombies. With another flick, they twisted off the ability zombie's head.

That was not all. When the zombie horde touched the iron wall, lightning wreathed in fire traveled through it and burned them directly to ash.

The horde charging up behind them was also engulfed in a sea of fire in an instant.