Chapter 34: Upgrade (Inverted V Begins)

Chapter 34: Upgrade (Inverted V Begins)

"Shenchi!"

Someone pulled Shenchi up, and Shenchi instinctively tried to break free. But in that moment, he heard the doctor's warning in his ear. Shenchi covered his stomach with his hand, his whole body trembling.

That person supported Shenchi's limp body with his arm and carried him away from the area enveloped by tear gas.

Cao Kun, who had been hesitant to use his fire abilities for fear of hurting Shenchi, had tears streaming down his face as he yelled at Shenchi, "Use your ability to protect yourself, you idiot!"

Use your ability to protect yourself...

Shenchi never expected that upon hearing these words, his immediate reaction would be to retreat into the space.

Shenchi, Shenchi, after two years, is what you've learned still just to run away?

Cao Kun watched Shenchi, who was both vomiting and laughing, and said sternly, "Stop laughing; it's ugly."

Regaining his composure, Shenchi looked at the man who found him ugly and laughed, "Before you say that, Mr. Cao, please take a look in the mirror first."

A thin layer of ice covered Shenchi's skin, not very noticeable, but it isolated the residual tear gas in the air, gradually reducing the lingering symptoms, though the nausea persisted.

Zhang Meng's car was nowhere to be seen, and they were now a considerable distance from the center of chaos. Cao Kun spotted his tricycle among the cars and ran over to bring it.

One minute was enough for Cao Kun, who wasn't severely affected by the gas, to recover.

The small tricycle stopped in front of Shenchi. As he stepped into the vehicle, Shenchi suddenly turned around. He saw a ragged, pale, and thin woman waving a broom at a limping zombie. From the blood on its body, it seemed freshly bitten, but this wasn't why Shenchi hesitated.

The frail woman was picking up stones from the roadside and attacking the zombie while screaming hysterically at a five-year-old child behind her, "Run! Baby, run! Baby! Baby!!!"

However, the child was clearly terrified, frozen in place, eyes blank, unable to cry or leave.

Just as the woman smashed the zombie's head open with a stone but was about to be clawed, an ice arrow whistled through the air and pierced the zombie's forehead. The zombie froze, then fell heavily to the ground, narrowly missing the woman.

Shenchi lowered his hand and got into the vehicle.

Five minutes later.

"Baby, baby, baby..."

In the backseat of the tricycle sat the pale, thin woman, repeating "baby" incessantly since she got in.

Cao Kun, looking at Shenchi with his back to the woman, gritted his teeth and said, "It was me who let her in the car, so why is she so gentle with you?"

A few minutes ago, Shenchi had killed the zombie and was about to leave. The child had been taken away by his parents, but the woman, who had been acting tough, suddenly became agitated and followed the family, crying.

When she saw Shenchi standing in front of her, she clung to him, calling "baby" repeatedly. Shenchi went wherever she followed, and when he got into the car, she tried to get in too. When she couldn't, she chased after him, shouting "baby," sobbing heartbreakingly.

Shenchi sat in the passenger seat, coldly watching without any intention of letting her in. It was Cao Kun who recognized her and brought her into the car, even though Shenchi had made sarcastic remarks.

Despite all this, the woman stared at Shenchi with a gentle expression, and when she noticed him frowning and feeling nauseous, she carefully leaned forward to massage his temples, soothing him with a voice so tender it could drown anyone.

"Maybe it's because you look hideous." Shenchi asked curiously, "How do you know her?"

Shenchi asked this because he noticed the woman's mental state was unstable, and Cao Kun wasn't one to meddle without reason.

Cao Kun replied, "She's a famous madwoman in our town. They call her Xiao Yu. No one knows where she came from, but she runs around town every day, calling 'baby' for over twenty years. She lost her child to kidnappers and went insane. Unlike other mentally ill people, she doesn't attack others; she just searches for her son."

"In such chaos, I wonder how she managed to get here from the town." Cao Kun glanced at the woman massaging Shenchi through the rearview mirror.

When he was seventeen, he was once beaten up by a dozen people on the street. Everyone else avoided them like the plague, but this foolish woman charged in bare-handed, yelling "baby" desperately and trying to drive away those bullying him.

Shenchi remarked, "She doesn't seem to remember you."

Cao Kun nodded, "Yes, it's always like that."

Shenchi glanced at him and asked, "What about her husband?"

Cao Kun shrugged, "No idea. Most rumors say he's dead, or that he ran off with another woman. All hearsay, really. Damn, it's giving me a headache!"

Shenchi gave him a cold look, then slowly closed his eyes, feeling the pressure and warmth of her fingers. Whether it was psychological or effective, he felt much better.

Shenchi peeked at the woman named Xiao Yu. She looked down, smiling, her eyes filled with contentment and affection.

The number of zombies attacking Jiu Zhou City wasn't large, but due to yesterday's incident, the government had issued clear regulations for such emergencies.

The regulations stated that if high-level zombies approached within ten kilometers of the barbed wire perimeter, an alarm must be sounded to alert the city's residents to prepare for emergency measures.

Jiu Zhou City divided the alert levels into three categories:

Level Three, the lowest, required only temporary evacuation of the local area;

Level Two required everyone to pack emergency bags and seek shelter in bomb shelters, with combat potentially imminent;

Level One, the highest danger level, indicated the city's armed forces were losing control, necessitating the evacuation of all residents, with the possibility of everyone being mobilized.

Shenchi and Cao Kun handed the woman over to the patrolling soldiers, who would ensure her proper accommodation.

Then they headed to the command center. Soldiers recognized their red guild badges and waved them through.

As they used the military knives provided by the soldiers to kill zombies, they also helped those hiding under the city walls move to nearby bomb shelters.

Inside the bomb shelter, it was chaotic. Soldiers and Self-defense Corps members guarded the entrance. Shenchi slashed at the zombies that slipped through, gradually noticing that some wore thick coats, sweaters, and even hats and gloves under their clothes.

"It seems the zombies from the north are moving south." Shenchi decapitated a clean, well-dressed child with one strike, recalling the time of the first zombie outbreak.

On the other side, Cao Kun threw fireballs as he walked, noticing the same phenomenon among the corpses wearing shorts and t-shirts, with several wrapped tightly in winter clothing. This was clearly not a good sign.

Others, including reconnaissance soldiers monitoring the infected's movements via satellite, had also noticed this trend.

Subsequently, the national leaders initiated a global conference, issuing one command after another down to various communication bases.

The corpses were incinerated one by one. Cao Kun had absorbed a Level 2 bead last night, so his powers wouldn't be depleted anytime soon.

He even tried lining up seven fireballs in a row, smashing them into the zombies one after another like playing billiards, burning their heads to ashes within seconds.

Someone noticed Cao Kun's actions and stopped him. Cao Kun's fire was straightforward and brutal, burning the heads or entire bodies to nothingness, making the beads easy pickings. Logically, assigning the task of burning corpses to him would be more efficient, but he was told that the military would handle the incineration, and they were only responsible for moving the bodies.

This action further confirmed Cao Kun's suspicion that the beads enhanced the abilities of power users.

After the battlefield was cleared, those who weren't injured gathered at the designated location for a brief rest before the instructors began the day's training.

The Self-defense Corps' training program included armed cross-country running for five kilometers, military boxing, live ammunition drills, applied shooting practice, basic tactical formations, elementary terrain studies, weapon maintenance, basic battlefield first aid, wearing gas masks, wilderness survival training, common cold and hot weapon usage, and conventional drills on three defenses.

It also covered epidemic prevention measures, political education, psychological counseling, emergency organization of public evacuation, analysis of zombie characteristics, and the most effective ways to kill them.

The five teams of the Self-defense Corps were taught separately due to significant differences in their foundational knowledge, leading to varied pacing and emphasis in their instruction.

For example, Shenchi and Cao Kun's Team A focused primarily on intensive knowledge acquisition. This knowledge was already fully mastered by Shenchi from his past life, so he wasn't particularly interested. However, he was intrigued by the systematic military boxing.

In contrast, Cao Kun excelled in all subjects, performing no less impressively than any seasoned special forces veteran. Jin Shufan, too, demonstrated exceptional physical strength and combat skills.

These two did not hide their intense animosity towards each other, and gradually some opportunistic members of the Self-defense Corps began taking sides, causing the conflict to escalate, leading to several warnings from higher-ups.

For power users, the Medical Team regularly sent personnel to conduct comprehensive health checks and record data, with the expectation that power users would cooperate without harming themselves.

Sometimes Shenchi would spar with his neighbors, occasionally combining his powers for better results.

During this period, they often exhausted their powers during the day and absorbed crystals at night, leading to noticeable improvements in their abilities over time.

A week later, Shenchi and Cao Kun both advanced to Level 2.

At the same time, Jin Shufan became a Level 2 metal power user during a mission.

Author's Note:

Upcoming work: "When My Dorm Mate Turns into a Woman"

Qiao Fan disliked his roommate, finding him pretentious. On the surface, he acted like a model student, but secretly engaged in fights and brawls.

Yu Jingyu also disliked his roommate, thinking him too soft for a guy, prone to crying and clinginess, acting like a little girl.

One day, in a public restroom at a supermarket.

Qiao Fan's cheeks were flushed red as he tugged gently on Yu Jingyu's sleeve, "Isn't this too embarrassing? Do I really have to wear this?"

Yu Jingyu: "Doesn't it hurt when you run?"

Qiao Fan looked down, "But it's so obvious... there's even a cleavage..."

Yu Jingyu: "..."

—

Yu Jingyu gazed at Qiao Fan, whose eyes were reddened, and said, "Fan'er, cry for me again, will you?"

Yu Jingyu: "I want to see."

Qiao Fan: No way!

—

In the dormitory, Yu Jingyu watched Qiao Fan, who had just finished showering and was still flushed red, climb two steps of the bed ladder and beckoned him with a finger, "Fan'er, come closer, I have something for you."

"What is it?" Qiao Fan leaned in, only to find Yu Jingyu grabbing his neck and about to bite him—

Qiao Fan jumped, but Yu Jingyu didn't loosen his grip, "I'm leaving a mark on you so you won't dare go to the bathroom anymore."

As Qiao Fan struggled, Yu Jingyu's nose brushed against his neck, sending an electric shock through him.

Qiao Fan shuddered, "Mmm..."

"The little crybaby has a secret."

"Only the campus heartthrob knows."

"Campus heartthrob top who flirts daily vs. milky-flavored crybaby bottom"