Chapter 262

Chapter 262

"During the special training period after Tang Yi and Zhou Rongbin moved into their new home and merged their dual-attribute superpowers."

"I'll give you a 200-meter head start. If you outrun me, you win."

On the outskirts of the newly expanded district of the base, Jiang Nian glanced at the young boy who had awakened speed-boosting leg abilities but was still at a beginner level. He then looked at Tang Ji, casually pulled out a rocket launcher, and stood still.

Tang Ji’s superpower quickly enveloped the fleeing boy; his speed visibly dropped. When the boy turned around and saw the rocket launcher, he almost face-planted.

The next second, he stopped abruptly, turned around, and hit the ground kneeling with a *thud*, apologizing:

"My bad, bro. Here, take it back."

With that, he placed the bag of snacks he had just stolen on the ground.

Jiang Nian tutted and exchanged a glance with Tang Ji before leisurely hefting the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and walking over.

"I’m a man of my word. You should’ve kept running. You were supposed to stop after 200 meters—who knows, you might’ve actually gotten away. Kid, you’re dumb."

Tang Ji chuckled at his "mustache-twirling villain" lecturing, stepped forward, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs to restrain the boy. He then called in the nearby patrol team.

Recently, there had been frequent reports of robberies in the makeshift construction huts of the expanded district.

The stolen items were mostly basic stuff, primarily food, taken from regular civilians.

Based on the info we got, the robber was fast and appeared to be a teenager.

Thus, the two of them—who looked harmless—had spent the past few days dressed in plain clothes, carrying food and pretending to be ordinary civilians. It was, admittedly, basically entrapment.

After being observed by hidden eyes for several days, the dumb little fish finally took the bait.

The boy, now handcuffed, sat on the ground—dark-skinned, skinny, short, and covered in dirt, like a scrawny stray, fitting the typical image of a child in the apocalypse.

Jiang Nian put away the rocket launcher, crouched down, opened a pack of waffles, and offered it to him with a smile.

"So, what’s your name and how old are you?"

It had been a while since he’d asked someone like this. Back in school, during fights, he used to ask this often.

"Xiao Hei, 14," the boy answered readily before biting into the waffle in Jiang Nian’s hand and wolfed it down.

Tang Ji jumped in beside him:

"Do you have family? Do they work here? Why did you steal?"

Xiao Hei answered honestly:

"Yeah, they work here. I was hungry, so I took it… Mom says I’m too fast to catch anyway. As long as I don’t steal from superpowered folks or take anything too valuable, people won’t care. If I do get caught, just admit fault—most people won’t kill kids."

Kid was way too honest.

Tang Ji frowned and snapped:

"Your mom taught you well. Listen to her less from now to now."

Jiang Nian stayed silent. After feeding the boy the waffle, he unwrapped a White Rabbit candy and handed it over before standing up with the snack bag in hand.

The patrol team arrived just in time. As Xiao Hei (Little Black, a nickname) was pulled up by the security personnel, he held the candy in his mouth and pleaded pitifully:

"Brother Nian, I was wrong. Let me go, I won’t do it again."

Jiang Nian’s smile faded, his expression turning cold as he stared directly at him:

"I don’t have the authority to let you go. If you know you were wrong, then change. Prevent yourself from making bigger mistakes in the future. At 14, you’re old enough to work, and with your speed enhancement, you’d be perfect for working the pedals on a sewing machine."

With that, he and Tang Ji turned and left without looking back. Mission done—let’s bounce!

A kid like Xiao Hei would shape up just fine after some time in juvenile detention. Honestly, sometimes minors just need school discipline and education to straighten them out.

Munching from the snack bag as they walked, Tang Ji pulled out his notebook and flipped it open:

"Brother Nian, that wife-beater we warned the other day is beating his wife again. Should we go check it out?"

Keeping the base in line meant handling all sorts of miscellaneous issues like this.

A flash of anger crossed Jiang Nian’s face:

"Let’s go. Domestic abusers should be barred from enjoying the base’s shelter resources. They can go out with their fists to fight zombies and earn points."

"I think so too."

...

As the Southern City Base became the largest and most resource-rich human sanctuary in the country, 017 Squad’s rep shot up.

Naturally, this had everything to do with Jiang Nian, the so-called "Hope of Humanity."

Even though communication conditions remained poor, quite a bit of the squad members’ personal information had been leaked to outsiders.

As a result, some surviving "acquaintances" came crawling out of the woodwork.

Huang Qian’s family was one such case—along with the man her parents had forced her to marry before the apocalypse.

The Huang family directly called the Southern City Base’s emergency dispatch, stating who they were and what they wanted. The staff member handling the call immediately notified Cheng Jing.

Cheng Jing, of course, told Huang Qian.

Learning that her family was still alive, Huang Qian felt a split-second of relief, as if something heavy in her heart had finally settled. Unfortunately, the bitter reality soon dragged her back.

In the call room, faced with her family’s complaints, blame, threats, insults, and "emotional blackmail," Huang Qian remained silent—unlike her usual sharp-tongued self, nor did she break down in tears.

The Huangs demanded she hand over enough supplies as compensation for her impulsive behavior before the apocalypse. They said she had brought shame to the family, and if she didn’t compensate them, they would come to the Southern City Base—and the marriage arranged by *parental authority* would still stand.

Honestly, even a kid like Xiao Qi wouldn’t believe such threats.

"I’ll come find you."

After saying this, Huang Qian asked for their address and hung up.

Through Yang Kai, she learned that the base where the Huangs resided had good relations with the Southern City Base, basically a satellite base of Southern City.

So, after having Zhou Li call in some favors to verify the situation, Huang Qian flew over that very night, accompanied by Lu Ningzhou, Cheng Jing, and Zhao Lei.

She didn't bring any 'compensation' supplies but brought extra guns instead.

Jiang Nian and others wanted to accompany her for moral support, but Huang Qian coolly refused:

"They're not worth mobilizing our whole team. Relax, Xiao Nian, I'll knock them down and come back unscathed—not a hair out of place. I'm glad they're alive, but that doesn't mean I forgive them."

She felt relief they were alive—but the hatred remained. It was a conflicted, tearing feeling.

Reassured, everyone went back to their usual tasks.

True to her word, three days later, the four returned unharmed in the aircraft.

Without waiting for questions, Huang Qian openly shared what happened:

This trip was about 'settling old scores.' While she didn’t intend to fight to the death, she also had no plans to compensate them or let them disrupt her life.

The people she met were few—her parents, three brothers, and that old man who was only three years younger than her father, the one they'd once tried to force her to marry.

None had superpowers. When the apocalypse struck, they coincidentally sought refuge at a local military outpost and later latched onto official groups to enter a base, surviving extreme cold and heat—truly fortunate.

After Cheng Jing 'discussed' matters with the base's higher-ups, the negotiation table was set up in the base's zombie research warehouse, now a standard feature in every base.

Huang Qian immediately severed ties with her family, laid her cards on the table.

As a victim of a sexist household, she had long abandoned any hope for familial affection, having run away from home even before the apocalypse.

She had only wished that surviving the apocalypse might have given them some basic human decency.

But no. Hung up on their damn ‘face,’ they blamed her for every misfortune, both pre- and post-apocalypse.

Even now, as a formidable Superpowered, they still spat words like *'worthless burden'* and *'shameless wretch'* with ease.

Her parents cursed her 'ingratitude,' and her three brothers, enraged, tried to attack her.

Cheng Jing zapped them into twitching heaps, and she strung them up over zombies with her vines. After pissing themselves in fear, they finally quieted down.

As for the man who had unilaterally declared himself her husband, upon learning of her relationship with Lu Ningzhou, he called her a ‘loose woman.’

Lu Ningzhou promptly slammed his face into a wall, and Zhao Lei used his metal manipulation to fracture multiple bones and knock out several teeth, shutting him up for good.

She had already held back for family’s sake—otherwise, bringing Jiang Nian along would have meant a world of hurt.

Back then, beaten until she coughed blood, she had jumped out a window in the dead of winter, ready to die in the cold.

"..."

In the end, under the base bosses stepping in and the four's overwhelming power, the Huang family agreed to cut all ties with her permanently.

It hurt, sure. In the apocalypse, separation and death had become routine. Everyone wanted luck on their side, but the whole shitshow only made Huang Qian see things more clearly:

Some parents would never love certain children, even at the world's end.

Some people's stupidity and bigotry wouldn’t change, even if they turned into zombies.

So, it was better for everyone to go their separate ways—no forcing it.

As far as she was concerned, she had died on that freezing winter night.

Most in their team didn’t come from happy families, but wanting something ain’t the same as forcing it. No one urged her to cherish or compromise with her family—only unconditional support and respect.