Chapter 28

Chapter 28

On the morning of October 15th, just as dawn broke, ominous low thunder rumbled across the sky, followed shortly by a hailstorm.

The temperature took a nosedive, dropping from over 30 degrees to just a few degrees within a single hour.

With the sudden cold snap, Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing bundled up in throw blankets and curled up on the sofa after breakfast, firing up an offline tablet to watch a movie.

They picked a little-known indie romance flick featuring two male leads. The plot was decent, though it was pretty steamy.

As they watched, both got fidgety. By the time the protagonists in the film were getting intimate, the two had already ended up in bed together.

Just like during their university days, they could never manage to finish anything racy when watching together.

Honestly, lovebirds like them were better off watching cartoons.

Come to think of it, it had been over ten days since they last had some alone time. The night before, Cheng Jing had been too exhausted after returning, so they’d behaved themselves. But now, with the early morning spark ignited, things quickly got heated.

……

The hailstorm came down hard all day long, only stopping in the early hours of the next morning.

On October 16th, after Jiang Nian helped Cheng Jing trim his hair in the bathroom, their team went back out again.

Over the following days, the temperature continued to drop slowly without any sign of warming up.

Despite the preparations at the safe zones, the cold snap still caused plenty of disorder. Moreover, the number of zombies increased, instinctively gathering around places with living human activity.

Zombies now lurked outside the wire fences surrounding every shelter community.

Every day, the sound of rescue teams taking out zombies could be heard, though the gunfire only attracted more zombies.

As a result, Zhou Li ordered a ban on random gunfire near the safe zones, delegating the task of handling nearby zombies to the Superpowered.

Especially those like Cheng Jing, whose Superpower could turn zombies to dust, were most suitable. Thus, their squad was assigned to keep watch around the community.

With the neighborhood now secure and the team staying close, Jiang Nian found time each day to join his squadmates on patrol.

……

The weather grew colder by the day, and eventually, snow began to fall.

The rescue teams continued transferring survivors to various safe zones, though the number of personnel assigned to the task had shrunk considerably.

The rescue center urged survivors to cooperate promptly with the relocations, encouraging those with the means to get themselves there.

Emergency alerts were activated across all districts, pulling out all the stops to gather supplies and ensure those in the shelters could endure the extreme cold.

While more people heeded the call to relocate, there were still plenty who dug in their heels.

Another ten days passed, and temperatures had dropped to minus ten degrees Celsius, with signs of further decline. The focus in every district shifted to weathering the cold.

With manpower stretched thin, Zhou Li called on survivors within the shelters to join forces with the rescue teams, brainstorming solutions and implementing every conceivable method of insulation and warmth retention.

First and foremost, sealing doors and windows became the most basic measure against the cold.

For a time, the sound of hammering rang out constantly throughout every community. The trauma of the toxic rain remained fresh—who knew how much worse this freak weather could get?

……

By November, the temperature had already dropped to minus thirty degrees with no signs of stopping, and the rescue command center announced the arrival of extreme cold.

Those who had previously refused to relocate began to panic after losing aid from the rescue teams. However, with power and communication cut off, many had no choice but to brave the freezing cold and venture outside.

The end result was either freezing to death or turning into zombies.

Some prepared in advance, writing help messages on their necks before going out. After becoming zombies, they wandered around, hoping someone would see and rescue their families.

However, this was a southern city. After heavy snow sealed it in, most vehicles and machinery could no longer function properly.

Superpowered individuals with spatial abilities, responsible for transporting supplies, distributed all available rescue resources to shelters in the four controlled zones. After that, the command center—which also served as a supply station—announced temporary closure to conserve heat.

The entire city seemed to slowly fall into silent hibernation. Even the zombies hid away, and those wandering outdoors turned into ice sculptures.

Apart from superpowered individuals and well-equipped rescue personnel, ordinary people rarely went outside. Thermal-energy superpowered were tasked with guarding the shelters, providing electricity and fire as energy reserves.

Supplies at each shelter were managed and distributed by official personnel, then delivered by superpowered rescue squads every 3 to 5 days.

Just like the earlier recruitment of rescue teams, those handling supply deliveries or joining patrol duties received extra rations as compensation.

Now that the weather was too cold for people to go out and zombies to move, the rescue teams had ample manpower. Many eagerly signed up to become supply couriers or patrol members just to get extra rations.

As a result, Cheng Jing and his team, who already had sufficient supplies, happily passed these jobs to others.

Except for Cheng Jing, who went to Building 1 daily to generate and store electricity for heating, the rest stayed comfortably at home, honing their superpowers.

Among the shelter survivors, some had previously grumbled about receiving meager rations and criticized the zoning policy. But now, with the extreme cold, they all fell silent.

Although the rescue teams stopped searching for survivors due to the freezing weather, those who had refused to relocate were essentially left to their fate.

However, newly empowered survivors actively sought out the shelters, so each controlled zone continued to steadily receive newcomers.

Those who awakened superpowers experienced boosted physical traits, including much greater resistance to cold and heat compared to ordinary people.

Especially superpowered like Cheng Jing, Liao Yu, and Lu Ningzhou, who possessed natural energy-based abilities—they feared neither cold nor heat, born for extreme weather.

...

Every day, Cheng Jing spent half a day at the supply center, returning by lunchtime to avoid exhausting his powers. After all, he still had people close to him to care for.

With Cheng Jing acting as a walking generator, his teammates had no trouble charging batteries and converting them into heaters. They could even try powering air conditioners, but it wasn’t necessary—doing so would attract envy, so it was better to keep a low profile.

With nothing to do and too much free time, teammates frequently visited Cheng Jing’s safe house for meals.

After awakening their powers, their appetites grew significantly. Fortunately, there was enough food to go around.

Everything else was fine—more people meant livelier and happier times—except it interfered with the lovebirds’ intimate moments, as they now had to host guests for three meals a day...

Only when Huang Qian, who lived relatively farther away, protested and demanded to move in with them did Cheng Jing finally stop entertaining guests. He offered to deliver supplies if they were lacking, but refused to let them stay.

After that, in the warm and well-supplied safe house, Jiang Nian lived unrestrained—eating, sleeping, training his powers, and being all lovey-dovey with Cheng Jing.

Compared to the same timeframe in his previous life, he was living comfortably now. While others grew thinner in the apocalypse, he had even packed on some pounds, bearing no scars from the apocalypse.