Everyone thoroughly enjoyed dinner. For the first time in more than ten days, they finally had a place to stay that gave them at least some sense of security.
On top of that, the extra canned beef and instant noodles, along with the hot food, effectively soothed everyone’s tension and exhaustion.
However, even after dinner was over, the three people who had gone into the room for their meeting still hadn’t come out.
Quan Xiaoyu didn’t deliberately save them any food. After leaving Li Nan in Bai Mingxi’s care, he went to look for them alone.
He had only walked halfway there when the dragon pattern on his neck suddenly began to burn.
An unprecedented, excruciating pain gathered on the mark in an instant and shot straight into Quan Xiaoyu’s brain. He felt the ground beneath his feet tremble, and before he knew it, he had collapsed to the side.
A warning that disaster was coming!
The dragon pattern hadn’t given him a danger warning in a very long time.
And this time, it came with such overwhelming force.
What had happened?
Quan Xiaoyu’s consciousness was still relatively clear, but his body curled into a ball from the pain.
When Chu Tian came this way, what he saw was Quan Xiaoyu curled up on the ground, clutching his head.
Chu Tian was shocked. He immediately rushed forward and pulled him into his arms.
“Xiaoyu, what’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
The three of them had essentially confirmed inside the room that there was nothing wrong with the doctor’s body. Not only that, the strange phenomenon occurring with the doctor seemed to have come from a new ability.
And this strange ability was—
The ability to identify ability users and the abilities they possessed.
It sounded almost ridiculously powerful. From now on, all ability users and their abilities would be completely exposed before the doctor.
But in certain circumstances, it was also somewhat useless, because for the time being, everyone’s assumed common enemy was still the zombies.
As for whether this ability worked on zombies, they had no idea yet. Further investigation was necessary.
And that presented a serious contradiction.
If it did work on zombies, then encountering an ability-user zombie would certainly be very bad news.
Held tightly in Chu Tian’s arms, Quan Xiaoyu wanted to answer, but he couldn’t make a sound. His eyes were squeezed shut, his face contorted in pain, while his mind was filled with vague and chaotic images.
Mushroom clouds rose one after another over a familiar city.
Buildings that had once represented human civilization and pride collapsed amid the flames.
Countless zombies burst rapidly out of the ground from unknown corners. They bared their sharp teeth, stared with pupil-less eyes, screamed with all their strength, and ran with all their might.
In an instant, the entire city was covered with their densely packed figures.
Some were quickly buried beneath collapsing buildings.
Some were blown apart by bombs that had been dropped.
But even more—
After their charred skin had burned away, they revealed even tougher skin and even sharper teeth…
In different places, small numbers of people were crying out in despair.
They had nowhere to escape.
If they hid at home, they would face the danger of being bombed.
If they left—
There were zombies everywhere.
Out in the wilderness, countless birds and beasts were startled. They began fleeing in all directions, rushing toward other cities.
A dark cloud passed over S City.
After splitting into several sections, it drifted toward all directions…
The exact same scene appeared in Chu Tian’s mind as he tightly clasped Quan Xiaoyu’s hands.
S City!
A great disaster!
No—
A massive bombardment!
A suicidal bombardment!
Hundreds of aircraft circled over S City. After dropping all their ammunition, the planes crashed one after another, like moths flying into flames.
Chu Tian’s breathing became rapid along with Quan Xiaoyu’s.
Ouyang Jing, who had come out with Chu Tian, saw that something was wrong with the two of them and was about to step forward when Xiao Ziran suddenly grabbed him.
What Xiao Ziran was seeing through his eyes now was completely different from what everyone else saw.
Quan Xiaoyu’s entire body was glowing with flowing, multicolored light. Blue and rainbow-colored light intertwined across him at the same time.
Meanwhile, Chu Tian was still bathed in the seven-colored light Xiao Ziran had seen before.
However, the blue light surrounding Quan Xiaoyu was continuously flowing along the hand he had clasped with Chu Tian, constantly intertwining and merging with the multicolored light surrounding Chu Tian.
It was as though water and milk were blending together, and the two of them were about to become one.
After a long while, when Bai Mingxi, having heard the commotion, came running over with Zuo Li and Li Nan, Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu finally opened their eyes at the same time.
“Something happened.”
The two spoke simultaneously.
Afterward, they exchanged a glance, and the deep concern in each other’s eyes was unmistakable.
Xiao Ziran, meanwhile, was staring at Quan Xiaoyu, completely absorbed in what he was seeing. For a moment, he didn’t even realize what they had said.
In his eyes, from the moment Quan Xiaoyu opened his eyes, his color slowly changed from blue back to the red Xiao Ziran had originally seen.
The transition between the two was completely seamless.
This was also the first time Xiao Ziran had developed any real interest in Quan Xiaoyu.
With his precise ability to read people, he had already figured it out after their previous encounters.
Although Quan Xiaoyu was powerful, he was a person with absolutely no ambition. Relying on himself alone, he couldn’t accomplish anything significant, nor would he pose a threat to anyone.
So Xiao Ziran had always regarded him merely as Chu Tian’s follower.
He paid a hundred times more attention to Chu Tian, who had always appeared to have little combat ability, than to Quan Xiaoyu, who had consistently been one of the team’s strongest fighters.
Even Bai Mingxi, who had a bit of a personality, and Li Nan, who possessed a special healing ability, had far more presence in Xiao Ziran’s eyes than Quan Xiaoyu did.
But today, Xiao Ziran suddenly realized that Quan Xiaoyu’s role within that little four-person group might not be as insignificant as he had thought.
He had always only seen Chu Tian standing at the forefront.
So was there perhaps someone standing behind the scenes?
Xiao Ziran became lost in thought until Chu Tian slapped him on the shoulder, finally bringing him back to his senses.
“What?”
Xiao Ziran looked at Chu Tian blankly.
Of course, he quickly pushed Chu Tian away as well.
That seven-colored light had nearly blinded him.
“There’s danger. We saw large numbers of zombies and mutated beasts rushing toward J City,” Chu Tian said. He didn’t seem to mind the doctor’s act of pushing him away.
“No, not just J City. All the towns surrounding S City!” Quan Xiaoyu added seriously. “J City is simply the northernmost part of S City. They’re coming from the south, so we won’t necessarily be surrounded. We may still have time to leave.”
Chu Tian shook his head and gave a smile, but his smile was filled with bitterness.
“Perhaps we have a chance to avoid the zombies and mutated beasts coming from the south. But—”
He licked his dry lips.
“The zombies and mutated beasts around J City have also been disturbed. They’re gathering toward J City.”
He gave a bitter laugh and pointed at his own head.
“Using this as my center point, I conducted a scan over the widest possible range. They’re coming. I can feel them.”
What Chu Tian was describing now was something Quan Xiaoyu couldn’t sense.
The way the dragon pattern on his body detected danger was becoming increasingly strange.
But Quan Xiaoyu had no time to study it now.
At this moment, like everyone else, he had only one question in his mind:
What were they going to do?!
Outside J City.
Lei Shi and the others had exhausted themselves and found somewhere to rest.
The procedures for entering the city were too complicated. He had brought too many ordinary people, and too many of them failed to meet the requirements for entry.
After several rounds of discussion, they still hadn’t gotten anywhere.
Wen Tong was dead, and with him went the supplies that had supported their entire group.
Night had fallen. Their stomachs were growling with hunger.
For the first time, Lei Shi experienced the despair of reaching the end of the road.
Several ability users soon couldn’t take it anymore.
They had had enough of the constant sacrifices, only to keep dragging along a group of ordinary people who had no combat ability, no productive abilities, and could only hold out their hands asking for food and water.
They chose to join the Defense Team as ability users and fight for the qualification to enter the city.
At this moment, their gazes toward Lei Shi were filled with exhaustion and disappointment.
The beautiful future Lei Shi had painted for them had never materialized.
They had suffered heavy losses and ended up in a miserable state along the way.
So when they decided to leave and abandon the group, they didn’t even bother to say goodbye.
They weren’t willing to give Lei Shi an explanation.
Nor were they willing to give this so-called team an explanation.
The ability users left.
The ordinary people were bewildered.
Several children were still reaching out and whining to the adults for food.
They were hungry.
Normally, at this time, that handsome big brother would take out food and distribute it among them.
However, their parents were busy negotiating with the guards.
They had heard that children under twelve could enter the city unconditionally.
They hoped that when their children entered, they would be allowed in as well.
At this moment, the only person still beside Lei Shi was Jia Lunxu, who had lost an arm.
Perhaps he was the only person who hadn’t abandoned Lei Shi so far.
However, his gaze was firmly fixed on the entrance to J City.
Quan Xiaoyu!
Quan Xiaoyu!
You’ve got some nerve!
I will repay today’s humiliation and suffering to you a hundredfold, a thousandfold!
I swear!
Author’s Note: The author is promoting the new pre-order novel one more time. I forgot to write the title yesterday.
The author is opening up a pre-order collection for a new novel. Updates will begin in October! If you like it, little angels, feel free to add it to your collection!
《The Ghost Boyfriend Who Fell from the Sky》
A windfall of an inheritance.
But besides money, did a ghost come crashing down with it?!
What followed
was one bizarre and mysterious incident after another,
one terrifying experience after another,
and one hidden story after another,
completely shattering Qi Siyuan’s previously smooth and uneventful life.
WhAt?!
That still isn’t enough?
That dead ghost even says he wants to sleep with him?!