Chapter 46

Chapter 46

With good things happening around them, time naturally flew by.

As the end of February approached, the long-frozen temperatures finally began to change, rising a few degrees daily, with the rate of increase accelerating as time went on.

By early March, the temperature had climbed to -50°C, and central radio announced that base rescue teams were preparing to depart for various regions across the country to aid survivors.

Cheng Jing talked to Zhou Li about leaving early.

They could leave at any time, but checking out was still required, since they would likely need to work together again in the future and needed to maintain good relations.

Upon learning their destination was Southern City Base, Zhou Li immediately told them to check in as part of Qingyun City's official rescue team upon arrival and got them a recommendation letter.

Besides thanking them, he hoped they'd help each other out next time they met.

Cheng Jing took him up on the offer while reminding him that if rescue teams ran late, they should watch out for zombies and prep for disease outbreaks.

Thawing weather meant more corpses, which could easily trigger plagues.

After months of use, their visible supplies were running low.

Also, occasional use of items from their storage rings had freed up some space, so Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian took the chance to restock what they could from outside.

The rest were loaded onto vehicles to be taken along, with some left to share.

While their teammates began worrying about their quality of life dropping at the base, Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing remained calm—they’d planned for this:

By not showing off too many supplies, they could slip into the base quietly. Once settled, they could find an opportunity to reveal the truth.

Jiang Nian had already decided that after arriving at the base, he would get some farmland for planting.

But clean land would be hard to come by—it was sure to be scarce and expensive. So he planned to purify it slowly using his powers.

This was also why he had stockpiled a large quantity of seeds before the apocalypse.

Stockpiles wouldn't last forever, and rebuilding human civilization required solving food and shelter first.

...

As temperatures continued to rise, the team worked hard to prepare for leaving Qingyun City.

They inspected and repaired vehicles, packed luggage, planned their exact route, and roughly identified places to stop along the way.

Of course, they did all this quietly, keeping up their usual routines to avoid attention.

On March 10th, under clear skies and temperatures rising to -25°C, Cheng Jing’s group said goodbye to Zhou Li and quietly left the Western District settlement before daybreak, heading for Southern City Base with two snowplows and two of their own vehicles.

Zombies were beginning to emerge from beneath the snow, and Qingyun City’s rescue teams and superpowered individuals were about to launch new defensive operations—but that was no longer their concern.

The snow remained thick, and even with snowplows and tools, their progress was slow.

Ten days later, when temperatures reached freezing, the snow melted much faster, but now they had to watch out for active zombies.

Having endured the extreme cold, the zombies had evolved significantly, grown crystal cores.

Superpowered zombies appeared more frequently, and one of their snowplows was destroyed.

In their past life, the authorities had issued a regulation stating that if no cure serum was developed, teammates and those around an infected superpowered individual must not hold back—though it was ideal if the infected could end it themselves with a clear mind.

This was because a Superpower Zombie was ten times deadlier than an ordinary one.

Zhao Lei, Liao Yu, and Jian Cheng were clearing the road in front using a snowplow truck. Jian Cheng, whose vision had been enhanced, was at the wheel, while Zhao Lei and Liao Yu helped remove zombies and watched for sudden threats.

Cheng Jing drove the Hummer with Jiang Nian and Xiao Ya in the middle, while Huang Qian and the others were at the back.

"Tell everyone to be ready—something's off up ahead."

Jian Cheng, keeping his eyes on the road, warned them. Zhao Lei picked up the walkie-talkie to alert those behind.

As the snowplow truck gradually slowed down, the group grew tense.

It wasn’t until they got closer that they saw the trouble ahead:

A group of people had encountered zombies blocking the road, several nearby were already dead, and two modified vehicles were turned to scrap.

The three survivors—two men and a woman—included a burly, older man in his forties wearing camouflage workwear.

The other two, a young man and woman, looked like college students:

The young man was slightly older, with regular features and slightly long, tousled hair; the young woman was smaller, with delicate features and a ponytail. Both wore sportswear from a certain domestic streetwear brand.

All three had superpowers, but right now they were in bad shape, visibly injured.

The older man’s ability was body enhancement—his muscles bulged in battle, giving him agility and explosive strength. He wielded a bloodstained steel pipe.

The young man was a wind-type superhuman, while the young woman had a defensive rebound ability.

Truth be told, their combo wasn’t that strong—at least not at their current level. Wind-based powers only got deadly once leveled up.

They could handle normal zombies, but their current opponents included not only regular ones but also a powerful offensive-type Superpower Zombie capable of manipulating rocks.

In the storm of rubble, they were quickly overpowered.

Unlike humans, whose use of superpowers was limited by mental stamina, Superpower Zombies had no mind or mental limits.

Instead, they ran on a different brainwave frequency that allowed them to distinguish allies from enemies.

This brainwave let them use their powers tirelessly until their core overloaded and blew—commonly known as a crystal core explosion.

The more evolved the zombie, the stronger its brainwave energy—making humans no match for them in battle.

As the three fighting the zombies felt their powers fading, they suddenly spotted Jiang Nian’s convoy. After dodging an attack from the Superpower Zombie, they turned and sprinted toward them, screaming for help:

"Help...!"

"Save us...!"

"..."

A blast of wind roared behind them as the Superpower Zombie howled, flinging a hail of broken rocks at them.

The older man suddenly shoved the two kids ahead with all his strength, burning his last bit of superpower to shield them from behind.

The two instinctively turned around, only to be sharply rebuked by him:

"Move!"

As the hail of stones threatened to crush him into pulp, at the last possible second, Jian Cheng jerked into a sideways slide. Zhao Lei leaped out of the car, and with a sweep of his hand, threw up an iron wall barely inches from the man’s face, blocking the onslaught.

At the same time, a vine shot out, snatching the man backward just as the stone rain crashed against the metal barrier.

Everyone except Jiang Nian and Xiao Ya piled out of the vehicle.

The three survivors, who'd barely escaped death, scrambled behind them for cover. The two young men supported the blood-spitting, power-drained man and led him aside to rest.

They watched as earth walls and iron barriers erupted from the ground one after another, while a barrage of thick ice spikes tore through the frenzied swarm of zombies.

Barbed vines burst from the earthen defenses, piercing and shredding the undead before twisting violently and snapping the Superpower Zombie's head clean off its shoulders.

It wasn’t over yet. When the zombie horde slammed into the iron wall, fire-laced lightning surged through the metal, instantly incinerating them into ash.

The next wave of zombies surging forward was swallowed by flames just as quickly, vanishing into a roaring inferno.