74: Chapter 74 I thought I could escape this calamity

Xu Wanning slowly put on her shoes. Her legs were still trembling, every muscle was protesting, and her joints creaked.

Having experienced this in her past life, she knew these symptoms would only last ten minutes, so she wasn't anxious at all.

She steadied herself, walked to the bathroom while leaning against the wall, turned on the faucet, and splashed water on her face.

The faucets in the villa were currently connected to the large water tanks they had stored earlier. During their free time, they had been running the water, filling up all sorts of containers, especially the swimming pool in the house, which was completely filled.

It was just in case—if no one among them awakened a Water Ability, they would have trouble with water usage later.

However, judging by her current state, her Supernatural ability hadn't changed; she was still Ice Ability.

Her mind finally cleared a little. She looked up at the mirror. In it, her complexion was terrifyingly pale, her lips were cracked, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was a mess with a few strands stuck to her forehead. She looked like a corpse that had just come back to life.

She took out some bottled water and drank a couple of sips. Her stomach churned, she dry-heaved twice, but managed to swallow it back down.

Suddenly, a sound came from outside. It was a sound she was very familiar with—not human screams, but those of zombies. The sound was distorted and warped, forced out from their throats.

Her feet were rooted to the spot, and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood up.

She walked toward the door, but her hand hesitated on the doorknob. She was terrified of seeing a zombie after opening it; no matter who had mutated, she was afraid.

She took a few deep breaths, then opened the door, gathering Ice Ability in her left hand, ready to deal a fatal blow to a zombie at any moment.

Once the door opened, the outside was empty. She had told everyone before that after they woke up, they shouldn't come out or make any noise; she would come to find them.

Since there was no sound of zombies after she came out, it proved they weren't here, which meant they were outside.

She walked a few steps to the window. On the road outside, there were a few figures swaying.

Their movements were twisted and stiff, swaying with every step, twitching strangely. They were too far away to tell if they were people she knew.

Suddenly, one zombie lifted its head, looked over in her direction, opened its mouth, and let out a long, piercing shriek.

She quickly stepped back, unsure if it was a coincidence or if it had actually seen or heard her.

She went downstairs, pressed her ear against each door to listen, and only knocked after confirming she didn't hear any zombie sounds.

Soon, the grandparents, parents, Second Aunt and her husband, Xu Yu, Zhou Ke, the Lu couple, the Song couple, and the Wen couple walked out.

Seeing that everyone was fine, they all smiled until they wanted to cry.

"Try to see if you have awakened a Supernatural ability. I'm going downstairs to check on them." Xu Wanning walked downstairs with a smile.

Only Grandpa Zhou lived on the first floor. Hearing the commotion above, he walked out himself. "Little Ning, Grandpa is fine."

"That's good, that's good." Xu Wanning went straight to the basement, where Lu Chengyue, Zhiyu, Wen Shuyang, and Song Yunqing were staying.

She knocked on Lu Chengyue's door first. The door was opened instantly, and she was pulled inside and hugged. "Ningning, it's okay, we're all fine."

"Mhm." Xu Wanning was so happy she wanted to cry. It was great; heaven had been kind to them, and everyone was safe and sound.

Wen Shuyang heard the noise and carefully opened her door to look out. Seeing them hugging at the doorway, she came out. "That's great, everyone is fine."

Song Yunqing and Zhiyu had also been guarding by their doors; hearing Wen Shuyang come out, they followed and opened their doors as well.

The group quickly went upstairs to reunite with their families.

Right now, Xu Yu and the others were trying out their Supernatural abilities.

"Sister, look, I really did awaken a Wind Ability." He opened his palm, and a gust of wind swirled above it.

"I, I awakened a Water Ability." A small jet of water sprouted from Lin Wanqiu's finger.

Afterward, Xu Wanning took a tally: Lin Wanqiu and Zhiyu had Water Ability; Liu Meilan and Wen Shuyang had Wood Ability; Song Yunqing had Healing Ability; Xu Yu and Lu Chengyue had Wind Ability; Lu Mingyuan had Earth Ability; Xu Jingping, Grandpa Zhou, and Zhou Ke had Metal Ability; the rest did not have any Supernatural ability.

"I'll go to the auxiliary building to see how they are doing." Grandpa Zhou was worried about his eighteen disciples and wanted to go check on them.

Zhou Ke quickly followed. "Grandpa, I'll go with you."

Everyone sat on the large sofa in the living room. Xu Wanning went over and turned on the TV to see if there was any signal, but there wasn't; it was still just static.

Xu Wanning pointed outside the window. "I just saw zombies outside from the window. The cell phones have no signal; we can only pick up our local area network signal."

Upon hearing there were zombies outside, Xu Yu and Zhou Ke rushed over in perfect unison to look out the window, and sure enough, they saw a few swaying zombies.

"My god, so those are zombies? That's disgusting."

"Oh my god, even though I was mentally prepared, I'm still disgusted."

Xu Wanning walked over. "This is nothing; it'll get even more disgusting later." She turned to look at everyone. "You should all come over and take a look, get used to it. We might have to go out and kill zombies later."

Without killing zombies, there would be no crystal nucleus, and they wouldn't be able to level up.

Relying entirely on the military to kill zombies was simply unrealistic.

Everyone cautiously gathered around, steeling themselves before looking downstairs.

"Ugh." Wen Shuyang almost threw up. "My god, this is just too disgusting."

Her phone vibrated. Xu Wanning opened it to see a message sent in the group chat created by The Great Leader.

[ The Great Leader: Everyone, please report the situation in your homes, as well as the number and names of Ability Users. Those who want to form an Apocalypse squad should submit a list of names and a team name. Cleaning tasks will be released at 10 o'clock. ]

"Everyone, The Great Leader says that at 10 o'clock, tasks for clearing zombies will begin. Let's come up with a name. Those who want to go out and kill zombies can sign up; those who want to stay at home and handle logistics can stay. Please don't force yourselves."

The group was drawn by her voice and gathered back around the large sofa.

"Sister, I'm signing up. I definitely want to go out." Xu Yu raised his hand first.

"I want to go too." Wen Shuyang also quickly raised her hand. Although she was a Wood Ability user, she didn't intend to stay at home forever; she didn't want to be a flower in a greenhouse.

Just as they were talking, Grandpa Zhou arrived with his disciples. Zhou Ke was wiping away tears as he walked, and the disciples' eyes were also red.

"What's wrong?" Xu Wanning glanced over; it seemed like there were fewer disciples.

Zhou Ke burst into tears. "Brother Zhang, Brother Zhao, and Brother Li have turned into zombies. Wuwuwu."

The group, who had been in relatively good spirits, all felt their hearts ache. They had spent so long together and had long considered each other family. They had thought everyone would escape unscathed, but they hadn't expected this.

Xu Wanning remembered the scene of the first time she met Brother Zhao. That time she went to Grandpa Zhou's house, it was him who opened the door for her.

Grandpa Zhou wiped away a tear. "Little Ning, I handled those three myself. Steward Zhang Song awakened a Fire Ability, and he is outside burning the bodies right now."

"Okay." Xu Wanning nodded. "We are going to form a survivor squad to go out and kill zombies. Who among you is going?"