Chapter 40 - Old Friend
n
n
n
nZombies had no intelligence. This was something recognised by all humans in the last ten years of the apocalypse Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen had experienced in their last life.
nOver the passage of time, zombies will become stronger and stronger. Their entire body will have a dense, dark energy that prevents people from being able to touch them at all, but they never had any form of intelligence.
nIn other words, if it weren’t for the worsening environment and the continuous extinction of normal plants and animals, there was a possibility that humanity could have really killed off all the zombies.
nAnd since zombies had no intelligence, it was really strange for them to suddenly retreat… Among all the battles Nie Yi had with the zombies, the zombies would instinctively dodge his attacks, but never had they retreated before he had even attacked.
nTo be honest, zombies were actually really stupid. Such a reaction usually wouldn’t have happened at all…
nNie Yi looked at the retreating zombies, his eyes flashing. He rapidly created fireballs to make it look like he was using the fireballs to repel those zombies.
nHis fireballs were very harmful to level one zombies, but for the level two zombies who were more nimble and could even dodge, even if he did hit…
nWhen a fireball struck the face of one of the level two zombies, it sprayed out an endless stream of black fog. Soon after, the flame was actually extinguished…
nHowever, Nie Yi’s strategy definitely wasn’t just this.
nYet another fireball landed on the zombie’s face. Right when the zombie wanted to put out the flame before him with the same method as before, it didn’t expect the fireball to actually explode! The strength of the explosion destroyed half that zombie’s face in an instant!
nWith a single attack, Nie Yi dealt with one of the zombies that had made the military team suffer a huge loss. It instantly boosted the morale of the people in that team, and they began to help Nie Yi dispose of those zombies around him, lest those zombies bother Nie Yi.
nIn response, Nie Yi relaxed with a quiet sigh. Even though he was powerful, presently, he was not incredibly so. Furthermore, to avoid showing off too much, he didn’t go all out when attacking. Under these circumstances, having people to deal with the surrounding zombies was incredibly helpful.
nGetting rid of a level two zombie would probably incite the hatred of the surrounding zombies. However, it didn’t. The remaining two zombies unexpectedly didn’t take the initiative to attack him, continuing to attack the other people around him instead.
nNie Yi looked at Qi Jingchen in his embrace and was even more certain that it had something to do with Qi Jingchen.
nQi Jingchen had once said before that because he had the dark ability, zombies would generally ignore him. But Nie Yi never expected that Qi Jingchen, whom level one zombies would merely ignore, would actually be avoided by level two zombies…
nRecalling his past life, when Qi Jingchen had swaggered off with him from the middle of the zombie crowd while all the zombies turned a blind eye to him, Nie Yi didn’t feel that all of this was strange. Naturally, he also secretly made a resolution to never let too many people discover Qi Jingchen’s oddness.
nWhen the entire world was enveloped in dark energy and everyone had endless abhorrence towards darkness, the existence of a dark ability user was a sin in itself…
nMany thoughts flashed through Nie Yi’s mind, yet his motions didn’t stop at all as he speedily killed off the few remaining level two zombies.
nZhang Zihai threw out a large fireball and charred the three level-one zombies in front of him, then walked to Nie Yi’s side as he rapidly rotated the ability in his mind to restore his ability as quickly as possible. “Nie shao, how did you do that just now? How did the fireball explode? Can you teach me?”
n
n
n“You should first learn how to use less ability to kill more zombies before you think about this,” Nie Yi said. However, he didn’t say that even if Zhang Zihai trained his fire ability to the pinnacle, he wouldn’t be able to do the same as what he just did.
nThis method of exploding the fireball was his unique skill, using the repelling properties of his water and fire abilities. He had used his fireball to wrap around the waterball in the middle, leaving some spiritual strength to ‘ignite’ the water ball. When the water ball and fireball collided, it would explode and trigger a small range of rioting energy and explode to injure zombies.
nWithout the aid of the level two zombies’ black fog, the battle strength of the level one zombies weakened a lot and their two teams broke out from the encirclement of the zombies.
nJust that, originally Nie Yi and the others could directly rush back to the secure base, but now they had to find a place to cultivatek2014; After the trouble just now, all the ability users had used up their abilities. After being chased and killed for so long, the soldiers were also drained, and even the fuel in their vehicles wasn’t enough.
nFinding a place to park, the water ability users in Nie Yi’s team immediately took out buckets and filled them with water for everyone to clean themselves up.
nCurrently, the attack ability for water ability users wasn’t strong, so they had been staying in the truck with the ordinary people to protect the people they had rescued. They didn’t use much of their abilities at all.
nThose soldiers were dirtied all over, and some had been stained when they directly fought against the zombies. They didn’t have time to care about it at all, but now they were eager to clean themself up, lest they accidentally turn into a zombie because of this small inattentiveness.
nAfter they had cleaned up, they took out a good number of cups for the water ability users to fill it with water and drank it all up with glugging sounds.
nAfter they finished drinking, the person who was likely the leader of the group said, “Thank you all. If it weren’t for you, I’m afraid that our entire team would’ve been annihilated.” This person seemed like a tough guy, but after he said this, the rims of his eyes reddened.
n“Don’t mention it. What happened to you guys?” Nie Yi asked. While they were showering just now, he had already taken down Qi Jingchen’s sofa and placed it properly, allowing Qi Jingchen to rest on it.
nThat person was very grateful to Nie Yi and immediately said, “We had gone to H City secure base up north to meet someone. When we headed there, even though we encountered many zombies, none of them was too dangerous. When we were returning, we also assumed that there wouldn’t be any problem, but unexpectedly, we ran into those zombies that could spray black fog.”
nEven though there was a lot of level one zombies, they weren’t strong at all. Their team had seen a lot of these before and weren’t afraid, to the point that when those level two zombies had neared them at first, they didn’t care at all.
nAt that time, their team also had a few ability users. They had been preparing to rest, so two earth ability users had erected earthen walls around them to block off zombies.
nThis was something they often did, and they were used to it. There wasn’t much danger either and as a result… Those level two zombies sprayed a few mouthfuls of black fog towards the soldiers protecting the earth ability users. They unexpectedly turned those soldiers into zombies, even killing those two earth ability users.
nFollowing that, they were continuously chased and killed by those zombies.
nThey had very few ability users in their team. Besides the two earth ability users, they only had a water ability user and a fire ability user, but their fighting strength wasn’t strong, so they could only let the ordinary soldiers face off those zombies…
n
n
nAnd then, those ordinary soldiers were sprayed by a few mouthfuls of black fog and turned into zombies, reversing around to chase and kill them.
nTheir team numbers instantly shrank by a lot as the zombies surrounding them increased.
n“Back then, there were about five or six zombies. We used bombs to kill off some of them, but there were still some remaining. Now, our ammunition is also used up…” that person looked at Nie Yi with a wry smile.
n“Those zombies probably evolved,” Nie Yi said.
n“We thought so as well. I initially wanted to split the team and find a way to pass this information to the secure base. However, all the people we sent out ended up being killed by those zombies,” the man said.
nThere already weren’t many people left in their team. If they hadn’t met Nie Yi, he reckoned that they could only hold on for a little while longer.
n“Nie Yi?” someone suddenly said. Nie Yi raised his head and looked over, and couldn’t help frowning.
nThe person who called his name was an acquaintance— Li Bi.
nLi Bi was the same as Shao Zhenglan, one of the people who knew Nie Yi since young. However, Nie Yi didn’t have much contact with Li Bi, and the two of them were even enemies in their past life.
nAt that time, Li Bi had returned to the secure base around this time as well. However, he didn’t encounter any danger on his journey. Then, after he entered the base, he took over the munitions factory in B City secure base. Later on, all the weapons in B City were distributed by Li Bi.
nEven though he wasn’t an ability user, he was extremely talented in designing weapons.
nAt first, Li Bi didn’t have much conflict with Nie Yi, but later, Yu Shuo somehow got closer and closer to Li Bi, and it was unavoidable for Li Bi to begin dismissing him.
nNie Yi wasn’t like Qi Jingchen, only thinking about death with no concern over revenge. Whether it was Qi Jingchen’s or his own enemy, he didn’t have the slightest bit of goodwill towards them.
nWhen he saw Li Bi now, he already felt some regret saving them. He blamed the fact that there were too many people surnamed Li; even when he had heard the address ‘Li shao’, he never imagined that it was Li Bi.
n“Nie Yi, it’s been a while. Thanks so much for saving my life.” Li Bi extended a hand, his face filled with gratitude.
nNie Yi blinked, and quickly extended his hand. He made a gesture that didn’t even touch Li Bi and retrieved it, but his expression was very sincere. “Don’t mention it, this is what I should do.”
nFor Qi Jingchen’s safety, he must be prudent and maintain appearances.
n“Why are you acting like I’m dangerous?” Li Bi asked, amused.
n“Apologies, my lover is rather jealous.” Nie Yi’s expression became much more sincere.
nWhen he said this, everyone noticed Qi Jingchen. Those people who had been rescued previously were puzzled by Nie Yi’s behaviour of killing zombies while carrying someone, and now that they saw Qi Jingchen lying lazily on the sofa, they were even more bewildered.
n“I didn’t know you liked men.” Li Bi raised his brows, a little astonished.
n“I’ve always liked men,” Nie Yi calmly admitted, then looked over at Qi Jingchen with a tender gaze.
nIn times of peace, there would be traditionalists criticising people’s sexuality and such, but during the apocalypse, the matter of homosexuality seemed to be very common. There was even a secure base down south that later had a female leader who kept many men by her side…
n“No wonder you’d run off back then.” Li Bi sat by Nie Yi’s side. Seeing Nie Yi arrange many ingredients beside him, he inquired, “You’re planning to cook?”
n“Yep.” Nie Yi prepared a basin of water and began to skilfully wash the vegetables, using his fire ability to cook rice afterwards.
n“It looks very delicious. I’ve only eaten rations during this journey; could I have a taste?” Li Bi lied through his teeth— Boiled vegetables? It’d be weird if it was delicious!
n“Sorry, my lover’s health is weak. This is for him to eat.” Nie Yi gave Li Bi an apologetic smile. Cooking for Qi Jingchen was something he was perfectly happy to do, but cooking for others… What for?
nWhen Nie Yi left the base, he had brought many vegetables and grains. This was what he was cooking for Qi Jingchen, but…
nAfter Qi Jingchen took a mouthful of vegetable soup, he immediately spat it out. “Disgusting.”
n“Then drink some congee.” Nie Yi immediately carried over the grains boiled into congee at his side. Fortunately, Qi Jingchen ate a few mouthfuls this time but soon didn’t want it either. “I don’t want anymore.”
n“Next time, I’ll definitely take a mission in the outskirts.” Nie Yi was immediately regretful. If he had known earlier, he would’ve brought a case with grown vegetables and placed it in the truck…
n“En.” Qi Jingchen nodded. Presently, there were probably a lot of vegetables in the outskirts. What a pity that for the sake of the environment, the city outskirts didn’t allow pigs to be raised, and no one really raised chickens or ducks…
nZhang Zihai and the others were long used to Qi Jingchen’s behaviour, but those rescued soldiers all choked in amazement. Li Bi’s eyes even had some unconcealed surprise.
nHowever, they had just been saved by Nie Yi, so everyone didn’t say anything.
nAfter resting and reorganising, the party quickly rushed to the secure base, and finally arrived at the base at dusk.
nNie Yi’s identity card was already enough for him to enter directly, but the others in the team couldn’t… They ended up compromising; everyone sucked on a piece of experimental strip, and those confirmed to have no zombification entered the base.
nAs they entered, Nie Yi realised that there were many people who had rapidly gathered around upon seeing them.
nSome of these were beggars, some wanted to sell themselves, and some also wanted to join them…
nThe population in the secure base was increasing; even though there were enough rations being distributed, there was no fish or meat, and the vegetables were also decreasing. Moreover… Some people were just unwilling to work hard, always wanting to cheat and slack off.
nThose people knew that people who could walk through the special channel were generally people with status and position, so naturally, there wasn’t a lack of people trying their luck with them.
n“Back off, or else don’t blame me for being rude!” Nie Yi had seen this situation very often in his last life, and coldly spoke at once. Then, he was the first to head in while Shao Zhenglan and the rest all followed behind.
nAfter staying outside for three days, they weren’t like some teams who were dispirited and listless. On the contrary, they were quite lively with ample morale, making those who wanted to get closer afraid to do so.
nLi Bi was left behind just like this, but he wasn’t angry. After registering his information at the registrar, it wasn’t long before someone specially came to pick him up.
nNot only was Li Bi very talented in developing weapons, but he also possessed many precious data. It was because of this that B City secure base had dispatched so many people to pick him up.
nAnd the reason why they didn’t send a helicopter and chose to go by land was because, besides picking him up, there was also a lot of specialised equipment that had to be brought along. Unfortunately, they had encountered level two zombies and those equipment were all left midway…
nLi Bi and the rest didn’t tell Nie Yi about this, while the secure base had already begun to organise manpower to immediately bring back those things.
nAfter Li Bi departed, those people who were keeping watch in the vicinity of the special channel to try their luck to join them began to slowly disperse. The last to leave was a girl who didn’t apply much makeup but still looked very beautiful.
nThis girl looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, precisely the age that aroused people’s fondness. She didn’t have any makeup and appeared even purer, causing people to want to properly ‘love’ her.
n“Guan Jiayu, I never thought that you actually couldn’t find any business tonight ah…” Someone at the side laughed in schadenfreude.
nGuan Jiayu shot a look at that person before lowering her head and hurrying away, but her eyes were filled with anger and resentment.
nJust now, she had wanted to go attract those people, but she didn’t imagine she would actually see Qi Yaoyao among them.
nShe had been defiled by those people, and now she even had to sell herself in order to eat better, while Qi Yaoyao? She actually could walk alongside those bigwigs!
n
n