113: Chapter 113 Thinking Too Much

“I'm fine,” Xu Wanning replied. “How are things on your end?”

“Pretty smooth. There are a lot of zombies in the park, and we just finished eating.”

Their meal was just bread and ham sausages. There was no other way; Xu Wanning was the only Space Ability user, and it wasn't convenient for the others to carry anything else if they wanted to eat something different.

“Stay safe,” Xu Wanning whispered, leaning close to the walkie-talkie.

Lu Chengyue chuckled softly. “You too.”

After resting for half an hour, everyone got up to continue killing zombies. It wasn't until four in the afternoon that they headed back. There were still plenty of zombies, so there was no rush.

Upon returning to the building, everyone tacitly went back to their respective rooms to shower first.

Xu Wanning had just been showering in the bathroom for a short while when Lu Chengyue returned. Hearing the sound from the bathroom, he knocked on the door. “Ningning, want to shower together?”

Xu Wanning immediately objected, “No way.” If they showered together, she wouldn't know when they'd ever get out, and they still had to go to the dining hall to eat in a bit.

Lu Chengyue sighed with regret and went to another bathroom to shower. Once he finished and came out, he sat on the edge of the bed, staring intently in the direction of the bathroom.

The moment Xu Wanning stepped out, she met Lu Chengyue's predatory gaze. Subconsciously covering her chest with both hands, she said, “It's, it's time to eat.”

Lu Chengyue rose in silence and approached her step by step, pinning Xu Wanning against the wall. Propping one arm beside her face, he leaned close to her ear and exhaled, “Ningning, let's go a bit later.”

Xu Wanning shuddered. Was this A-Yue? Had he been possessed by something? “W-What's wrong?”

Lu Chengyue tapped his lips. “We haven't seen each other all day. Didn't you miss me?”

Xu Wanning couldn't help but smile. “I did.”

She pressed the corners of her mouth down hard to keep from laughing out loud. She had no idea which genius had given A-Yue coaching to make him act like this.

Lu Chengyue tapped his lips again.

This time, Xu Wanning turned her head to give him a quick peck, planning to leave right after.

Instead, Lu Chengyue directly cupped the back of her neck, bent down, and kissed her. It was so intense that she almost ran out of oxygen.

By the time Lu Chengyue let go of her, she panted for a long while. “A-Yue, what's wrong with you?” He was acting extremely unusual.

Lu Chengyue held her close. “Ningning, today we encountered a zombie with a Fire Ability. At that moment, its fireball was only a meter away from me. If I hadn't upgraded to S-level, I might have died.”

He still felt a lingering fear whenever he thought of that situation. That was also why he had asked Ningning how she was doing at noon.

Xu Wanning raised her arms to hug him. “It's over now, it's okay.”

Lu Chengyue kissed her again. “Let's go down.”

Xu Wanning pulled him along as they went down. “A-Yue, let's do missions together from now on. Since there are only so many zombies anyway, why don't we focus on killing them at The Square? Once the zombies there are cleared out, we can fly a drone around to attract more of them over.”

Lu Chengyue agreed, “Alright.” He had originally planned to bring it up during dinner, but he hadn't expected Ningning to mention it first.

When they arrived at the dining hall, quite a few people were already there. Since gas supply was cut off, most of their family members would come here to eat.

Everyone went to find their own families. Xu Wanning pulled Lu Chengyue along to get their food and sat down next to Xu Jingan, Lin Wanqiu, Xu Jingping, and Qin Qingru. Xu Yu hadn't arrived yet.

Lin Wanqiu patted her daughter's hand. “Ningning, we saw some people passing by from upstairs today. Did you run into them?”

“We did,” Xu Wanning nodded. “The person leading them is named Zhang Yang. He's the son of Uncle Zhang Jiang, who used to be close to Jing City's Great Leader. Uncle Zhang Jiang was hunted down on his way to report the discovery of the Underground Research Institute, and before he died, he told Zhang Yang to lead their people to follow me.

“After we left, they didn't know what to do, so they could only leave as quickly as possible. They wanted to find a safe place, and just like us, they chose Jin City, which had become a zombie city. Who would have thought we'd bump into each other like this.”

“Then why did they leave right after coming?” Lin Wanqiu had been watching from upstairs, worried that they might have come with ill intent.

Xu Wanning took a sip of cola. “I had them go back to pick up their families so they wouldn't be sent to the Research Institute for experiments. They'll be coming back later, and we'll allocate the West District to them.”

Qin Qingru sighed. “I really didn't expect the Underground Research Institute to actually be built. Who knows how many people will be experimented on and subjected to all kinds of torture.”

Xu Jingping poked at his rice a couple of times, his face full of helplessness. “There's nothing we can do. If we had more people, we might be able to put up some resistance. But with so few of us, if we actually went there, we'd only be walking into a death trap.”

Xu Wanning thoroughly disliked this topic. Whenever it was brought up, she would recall the tragic state of the Research Institute in her past life.

Those people had been tortured beyond recognition, reduced to walking corpses who couldn't even die even if they wanted to.

“We'll take it one step at a time. Let's clear out Jin City first, strengthen our defenses, and ensure our own safety above all else. The safety of our group comes first.”

Qin Qingru said with a lingering fear, “Ningning, if it weren't for you, even if we survived the initial stage of The Apocalypse, we probably wouldn't have escaped the clutches of the Research Institute. People without status or power are always the easiest prey.”

Xu Wanning sighed deeply. “That's why I want to establish our own center of power. But it's hard. Human hearts are unpredictable; there's simply no way to guarantee that those who come to seek refuge with us will be of one mind with us.”

Xu Yu walked over with his food tray and plopped down. “Sis, if you ask me, you're just thinking too much. As long as we core figures are of one mind, we can just split up any newcomers and lead them ourselves. There shouldn't be any issues.

“If we find anyone problematic, we can just execute them on the spot to make an example of them. I don't believe they'd dare harbor any sneaky thoughts then.”

Jiang Heng also joined them. “You're the one thinking too simplistically. If only it were that easy. Your premise relies on our combat power being stronger than theirs. But the reality is that while S-level Ability Users are rare, there are quite a lot of A-level Ability Users.

“In a few more days, we'll all become S-level Ability Users, but other survivors will also upgrade, so we won't be able to widen the gap at all.”

Xu Yu frowned. “Then what do you suggest we do?”

“You guys are overestimating them. We only upgraded so fast because we have the right conditions and crystal nuclei. It's not that easy for other survivors; upgrading a single level requires 100 crystal nuclei of the same rank, and it's hard for them to even kill 10 zombies a day.” Grandpa Zhou sat down with Zhou Ke, holding his food tray.

“According to my observations, in Jing City, except for our group and the military squads, the members of other survivor squads haven't upgraded simultaneously.

“They have to hand over a portion of the crystal nuclei they obtain, and the rest are prioritized for the squad leaders to upgrade first. Only then is it the squad members' turn.”

“And the members have to wait in line. Squads like ours that can upgrade simultaneously are very rare. In other words, our team is practically invincible.”

Zhou Ke pulled out a small notebook. “According to my statistics, among our 288 people, we have a total of 127 Ability Users: 115 A-levels and 12 S-levels. Plus, with the ordinary people who can fight and the family members equipped with metal ability guns, our combat power is by no means low.”

Xu Yu clapped his hands. “That's true. When the time comes, we can set up some metal cannons or something around the base. If anyone acts up, we'll just blast them.”