Chu Tian neither admitted nor denied it. Instead, he changed the subject. “Given the current situation, does anyone have any ideas?”
He had already noticed the somewhat subtle atmosphere at the scene.
The group of men in black was still quite united. Apart from one person standing at the edge of the rooftop keeping watch on the situation outside, the other four were gathered together.
What was interesting was that they seemed to be deliberately, whether consciously or unconsciously, keeping some distance from Jia Lunxu’s group. Although they had come together, they weren’t close. Instead, they were much more enthusiastic toward Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu, who had just come up.
As for the young man Lu Zhongxia, whom Quan Xiaoyu had rescued, after seeing Quan Xiaoyu and coming over to thank him, he found a corner by himself, leaned against the wall, and remained silent, distancing himself from his own group.
The people on Jia Lunxu’s side all seemed somewhat distracted, each harboring their own thoughts.
The small leader of the mercenaries shook his head and picked up the conversation. “We’re completely surrounded by zombies. Relying on just ourselves, it would be very difficult to break through.”
He sighed, his expression strange. “This is really something I’ve never seen before. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen zombies this orderly, and almost all of them are level-two zombies. If I weren’t certain that they have no intelligence, I’d really have to wonder…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, because the more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
Chu Tian nodded as well.
They said that overwhelming strength could break through clever tactics. Faced with such a huge number of zombies, especially when the zombies themselves had no intelligence, it really left people at a loss for what to do.
Jia Lunxu was extremely unhappy at being ignored, so he forcibly interrupted the conversation to make his presence felt.
“If they only want to surround us, then we don’t have anything to fear. We have a space-type ability user. The only thing we’re afraid of is if they continue attacking.”
What nonsense!
Chu Tian and the mercenary leader practically complained inwardly at the same time.
He really never forgot to show off their space-type ability user and their supplies.
At this moment, Quan Xiaoyu quietly tugged on Chu Tian’s hand and leaned close to his ear, whispering, “Can we negotiate?”
Chu Tian naturally understood what he meant.
He was asking whether they could use mental power to negotiate with the psychic-type zombie controlling the zombie horde.
Chu Tian nodded slightly and spoke in an extremely soft voice. “We can try.”
“Brothers, have you thought of something?” The mercenary leader saw the two of them talking quietly and asked.
Chu Tian shook his head, deliberately putting on a helpless expression. “No. My little friend just said he’s tired and wants to rest for a while.”
Quan Xiaoyu was embarrassed by Chu Tian’s choice of words, but he could only play along and pretend to be tired, pulling Chu Tian over to sit against the railing.
The others also looked sorrowfully at the situation outside, seemingly having lost the mood for conversation.
Only the small leader’s eyes moved between Wen Tong and Lu Zhongxia.
After thinking for a moment, he still decided to walk toward Lu Zhongxia.
Actually, this time he had come out with a mission from his leader.
Aside from scouting the roads, the reason they had followed Jia Lunxu’s vehicle so closely was because their boss had instructed them to see if they could recruit the space-type and healing-type ability users from that group.
Just now, while they were on the second floor, they had seen everything Wen Tong had done very clearly.
Wen Tong’s behavior had been far too obvious. Perhaps only he himself thought he had hidden it well. In reality, anyone with eyes could see how deliberate he had been.
The small leader disliked people like Wen Tong.
They had lived a life of walking on the edge of a knife even before the apocalypse. To them, teammates were extremely important. While they entrusted their backs to their teammates, they would also fight to the death to protect their teammates’ backs.
Therefore, someone who would stab their own teammates in the back absolutely could not be allowed into the team.
Even if he possessed a space-type ability that made people envious, they still couldn’t let someone like that join and disrupt the team’s stability.
And as for Jia Lunxu and the others, they were cowards to the extreme.
When a teammate was in danger, not a single one of them had dared to step forward and help.
Back when these people were in the church, they had talked such a good game about responsibility and protecting ordinary people. Yet they didn’t even dare protect an important teammate. What could anyone possibly expect from them?
The healing-type young man who had nearly been dragged away by the zombies was still worth trying to recruit.
After being rescued, he hadn’t cried or made a fuss. He hadn’t held anyone back or done anything malicious. He had simply stayed by himself in silence.
To the small leader, this was a good thing.
It was precisely the best opportunity to take advantage of the situation and recruit him.
So he walked over and tried to strike up a conversation with Lu Zhongxia.
Meanwhile, Chu Tian had already sat down against the wall and closed his eyes, looking as though he were resting. But the hand holding Quan Xiaoyu’s had never loosened.
Quan Xiaoyu knew that Chu Tian had already activated his ability and was attempting to communicate with the psychic-type zombie.
So with his free hand, he gripped his katana tightly, standing guard for Chu Tian.
After reaching level three, Chu Tian could clearly feel the sublimation of his ability.
He could now sense his thoughts spreading outward like a huge net.
No wonder his ability was so difficult to level up. No wonder that psychic-type zombie seemed to be only one level above him, yet could almost completely suppress him.
It turned out that with psychic-type abilities, every time one crossed a level, it was equivalent to crossing an entire peak.
Chu Tian’s initial level had already been level two, so only now had he experienced the sensation of leveling up for the first time.
The energy within that zombie crystal core had been different from all the previous ones, and it had been exceptionally compatible with him.
His psychic-type ability focused primarily on offense, with control as a secondary function. He could also sense that the psychic-type zombie he had just fought focused primarily on control, with offense as a secondary function.
Even its secondary ability had been enough to suppress Chu Tian when he was still at level two.
His thoughts spread outward.
This time, Chu Tian quickly found the psychic-type zombie hidden within the zombie horde and soon determined its exact location.
It was hiding among the zombies more than a thousand meters away, completely outside the ability users’ attack range.
Chu Tian began trying to communicate with it, but was met with its merciless resistance.
That overwhelming hatred toward humanity still sent a shiver through Chu Tian, even from more than a thousand meters away.
Quan Xiaoyu watched Chu Tian’s every movement closely.
The moment Chu Tian shuddered, Quan Xiaoyu immediately became tense.
And yet, precisely at this moment, Jia Lunxu, completely oblivious to the situation, brought Wen Tong over.
Before the two could even reach them, Quan Xiaoyu immediately pulled his hand free from Chu Tian’s tightly clasped hand and stood up.
His katana instantly left its sheath.
The blade pointed directly at Jia Lunxu.
At this moment, Quan Xiaoyu was extremely unfriendly.
Because he knew that Chu Tian could encounter danger at any moment right now, while the people standing before them had absolutely no idea what was happening.
“Get lost!” Quan Xiaoyu forced himself not to curse at him to fuck off.
“Xiaoyu, how did you become like this?” Jia Lunxu said with a slightly pained expression. “I don’t know what you’ve been through, and I don’t know whether someone else has told you something. But we used to love each other, didn’t we? You disappeared, and I went looking for you. Then the apocalypse came. I finally managed to find you, yet you’ve become like this. I don’t even know why you disappeared back then, or why you would treat me, the person who used to be your lover, like this.”
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone’s expressions became somewhat strange.
And two people’s expressions changed on the spot.
One was naturally Wen Tong.
Although he knew that Jia Lunxu liked beautiful young men and had a habit of flirting around, saying these things now, right in front of him and in front of so many people, was simply slapping Wen Tong in the face.
After all, within their group, the two of them were the publicly acknowledged couple.
The other was Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu had already learned quite a bit about Jia Lunxu’s ability to disgust people from spending time with him during the apocalypse in his previous life. By now, he had developed a certain tolerance for Jia Lunxu’s disgusting remarks.
The problem was that Jia Lunxu had chosen this critical moment to come over and disgust him.
Quan Xiaoyu had only just more or less established his relationship with Chu Tian, and he was afraid that Chu Tian would be unhappy after hearing these things.
Over the past two days, he had also come to realize something.
Chu Tian wasn’t actually gentle and mild like water.
His modesty and indifference were merely reserved for people and things he genuinely didn’t care about.
Once something involved someone he cared about, he became extremely domineering and completely unreasonable.
Right now, Chu Tian was fighting the psychic-type zombie, yet this person had chosen this moment to come over and cause trouble.
What if Chu Tian became distracted and something happened?
Therefore, without another word, Quan Xiaoyu swung his katana directly at Jia Lunxu’s throat.
Chu Tian had once told him that if he couldn’t win an argument, he should just fight.
Quan Xiaoyu’s action was completely beyond everyone’s expectations.
They had originally thought they were about to witness some dramatic romantic entanglement—a whole emotional spectacle involving a current boyfriend who was jealous enough to try to kill a teammate and an ex-boyfriend who had rescued a younger teammate.
Who could have expected Quan Xiaoyu to attack without saying another word?
And his very first move was a killing blow, with absolutely no intention of showing mercy.
Jia Lunxu’s reaction was quite fast.
He quickly retreated a step and instantly summoned an earthen spike to block the attack.
The earthen spike was barely sliced apart by Quan Xiaoyu’s blade, with the tip of the katana less than a centimeter from Jia Lunxu’s throat.
His first strike failed, but Quan Xiaoyu continued attacking.
For that instant, his attack carried an aura that seemed determined to take Jia Lunxu’s life.
Jia Lunxu’s earth-type ability was currently in the mid-to-late stages of level two, so he was not weak either. He forcibly withstood several of Quan Xiaoyu’s attacks.