Chapter 117: Save the apocalypse (23)
An hour later, the members of the nine-person team were devouring seemingly ordinary ingredients that had been turned into incredibly delicious homemade dishes. Tears welled up in their eyes. These tears were partly due to the mouthwatering food in their mouths, and partly due to the expression on Yi Xiao’s face, which seemed to say, “You foolish mortals.”
While fiercely shoveling food into his mouth, Xiao Gou commented to Xiao Mao, “Little Mao, I never thought our Brother Yi Xiao would be such a top-notch leader who excels both in high society and in the kitchen! I used to think that it was a bit of a waste for Brother Ren to follow him. After all, Brother Ren is handsome, talented, strong, and has a great personality. He’s practically a perfect handsome guy in every way. It’s a shame that such a perfect person is following someone who just walks around with a poker face all day. But with Brother Yi Xiao’s cooking skills alone, I think Brother Ren is really lucky.”
Xiao Mao glanced at this daredevil and silently continued eating. Meanwhile, the young man named Jin Yu sitting next to him quickly snatched the last piece of chicken and stared at the daredevil with a dumbfounded expression. It was true that being tall didn’t necessarily correlate with having a sharp mind. It was quite a vexing situation, and this big guy was the epitome of that.
“Yeah, yeah, I used to find Brother Yi Xiao quite intimidating too. But now, it seems that Brother Yi Xiao is actually quite reliable!” This statement came from Song Qiang, a member with water-based abilities. This guy’s intelligence was on par with Xiao Gou’s. No one could have imagined how he ended up awakening water-based supernatural abilities. Thanks to him, having water around had become extremely convenient for the team.
At this moment, Ren Zhu was not eating with the others. He sat beside Yi Xiao, holding a bowl filled with food and eating while glancing at the nearby Zombie King. With a smile, he asked, “Don’t you want to take a few bites? Although your cooking skills now aren’t as impressive as when you were a star chef, they’re still quite good. Did you see how you managed to deal with those troublemakers nearby with just a meal?”
After hearing this, Yi Xiao didn’t show a pleased expression. Instead, he furrowed his brows and replied, “I’m just not agile enough in this body. I’ve never lost to anyone. So what if I was a star chef? Is that really that remarkable? Now, I’m capable of defeating a hundred of him. Why don’t you mention that?”
Ren Zhu was speechless. Was this guy jealous of himself, even across different lifetimes? How was he supposed to respond to this?
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Or do you think that the current me, who’s no longer the useless chef from before, is useless compared to back then?”
Ren Zhu: “…”
Watching Yi Xiao’s gaze turning increasingly dangerous, Ren Zhu finally wiped his face with his hand and said, “Since you remember that you used to be a useless chef, do you also remember that you used to pay my phone bill?”
As soon as Yi Xiao heard this, his body stiffened for a moment. In an instant, he remembered a scene from a past life, a scene that was incredibly foolish and embarrassing. As time passed and his interactions with Ren Zhu grew longer, and as he spent more time with the multicolored crystal and the Yin Yang Tai Chi Stone within Ren Zhu’s body, his memories of previous lifetimes became clearer. He felt that he could tolerate the psychiatrist, the talented star chef, and even the daoist genius from his previous lives, although he felt a bit uncomfortable about them. However, the third lifetime’s arrogant and domineering rich second-generation individual, who wanted to challenge everything under the sky, was completely unacceptable to him. He even suspected that someone had cursed him back then, making him so intellectually deficient at the start of that lifetime.
As for the embarrassing memories he had cursed himself with in each previous lifetime, he gritted his teeth. He didn’t remember any of it.
“I don’t remember.”
Ren Zhu raised an eyebrow. Your expression looks like you’re constipated. Do you think I’m an idiot? Nevertheless, Ren Zhu decided to just shrug and laugh. He didn’t press on any further. If he provoked this guy’s anger, he would probably be the one to suffer in the end. Ren Zhu cast a glance at Yi Xiao’s increasingly normal skin. “Will your skin become normal like an average person’s after a while? Will you stop looking like a zombie?”
Yi Xiao furrowed his brows. “I’m now a ‘flying corpse.’ Don’t compare me to those regular zombies. In some time, my skin will turn into flesh-jade. Although it will appear just like a regular person’s, it will be much tougher and harder than the metal walls in the base.”
After saying this, Yi Xiao was afraid that his partner wouldn’t understand his abilities, so he gave an example. “If in the past, I could only handle you for three days, now I can go a month without feeling any fatigue. Do you understand?”
Ren Zhu: “…”
Ren Zhu expressionlessly slammed the empty lunch box onto Yi Xiao’s head. He decided that this lifetime he would be a vegetarian, forever foregoing meat.
The nine-person team, observing from a distance, almost choked on their food when they saw this scene. They all lowered their heads and mentally exclaimed, “What the heck,” shivering as they anticipated that Yi Xiao might suddenly erupt and attack someone. However, after waiting for a while, nothing significant happened. They cautiously lifted their heads, only to see Yi Xiao looking at the lunchbox with a blank expression. In just a few motions, he rolled it up into a ball and tossed it away. Ultimately, he wasn’t angry.
“…I’m out of words…”
“Indeed, one should always latch onto the boss’s thigh,” Xiao Gou sighed.
Jin Yu pursed his lips and suddenly said, “Every time my mom gets angry, she’ll pick up a cup and splash my dad’s face with water. My dad has to wash the dishes afterward.”
People silently imagined that scene and involuntarily thought of a certain pair of individuals, shivering.
“Are you done eating? Once you’re done, we need to set off. We’re already at the border city between the Jiang Province and Meng Province. If we continue north, we’ll reach the national border and enter Bai Xiong’s territory. Based on the information we heard and the satellite images we received, the largest meteor crater should be in this area.”
As soon as Ren Zhu finished speaking, several people on the other side immediately stood up. Everyone was very serious, indicating that they had finished eating and were ready to contribute their full strength to save humanity.
Ren Zhu looked at their strange, almost hyped-up appearance, but couldn’t figure out the reason. He decided not to bother with it. “Pack up the worm detection devices and backpacks, we’re about to—wait a moment!”
Before Ren Zhu could finish his sentence, he suddenly felt a strong energy fluctuation. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. The energy made him feel scorched and repelled. He quickly turned to look down the street and shouted, “Be on guard, everyone! Something is coming!”
Yi Xiao squinted his eyes and felt annoyed. Someone had voluntarily come to mess with him when his mood was already bad. He levitated and saw a sight that worsened his mood even more—zombies from the entire city were converging on their location as if they had received some kind of command. He gave a signal to Ren Zhu, who nodded in response, and then Yi Xiao flew away.
“…Yi Xiao flew away? Am I seeing things?” Song Qiang couldn’t believe it. “At such a crucial time, how could he just slip away like that?”
As a result, Song Qiang received a slap on the back of his head from Zhou Yun. “If you don’t have enough brains, then don’t speak nonsense. A single slap from him could kill a zombie. Would he need to escape at this moment? His choice to leave now indicates that he must have something more important to do. Such as…”
“To find out who’s controlling these zombies to attack us,” Ren Zhu calmly took over. “We can’t let them trap us here completely. Although this city isn’t a top-tier city, right now there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of zombies surrounding us. Once we’re completely encircled, even if we’re Level 10 Ability users, we won’t be able to break free from their encirclement. Therefore, we need to find a vantage point to deal with these zombies. Then, we’ll wait for Yi Xiao to deal with the creepy psychic zombies or the higher-level worms.”
By now, everyone could already see the zombies swarming in from all directions. Xiao Mao couldn’t help but tremble. He felt like he was developing a phobia for zombie ugly faces. If these zombies were replaced by the disgustingly terrible worms, then he probably wouldn’t be able to look at them directly. “Quick, quick, quick! Let’s leave this place and get to the top of that building ahead. This way, they might climb more slowly!”
Xiao Mao rushed like an explosive cat, swiftly grabbing his rocket flyer and backpack, heading towards the building that was about ten stories high. The others quickly followed suit. At this point, everyone couldn’t help but feel annoyed that the tallest building around, the one with a flat rooftop for people to stand on, only had ten floors. If it was one of the provincial capital’s large cities, there would be at least another ten floors. It would make it even harder for zombies to get close to them, right?
However, these thoughts instantly vanished when they saw a group of power-type zombies using their abilities to collapse a high-rise building. Ten stories were okay. If they fell down from that height, they could still use their defense bracelets to cushion the fall. If it was twenty stories, they would probably fall to their deaths.
Afterward, Ren Zhu and the other people stood on the rooftop, watching the agile zombies climbing up, swiftly dispatching them with the most decisive methods. Among them, there was an obviously cunning zombie that even knew how to provide cover. It hid behind another zombie, and after Zhou Yun used his wind blade to kill the zombie in front, the cunning one instantly jumped out and rushed straight toward Zhou Yun’s face! If it hadn’t been for Liu Mingqing and Ren Zhu’s quick reaction, the zombie might have grabbed Zhou Yun. At this point, the protective energy in Zhou Yun’s bracelet had run out.
“Ah Yun, store up the energy in your bracelet first, it’s too dangerous like this. I can’t let you take risks,” Liu Mingqing said, lips pursed, his expression showing some hidden anger. Zhou Yun originally wanted to kill this wave of zombies first, but when he looked at his expression, his lips twitched. He revealed an embarrassed and grateful smile to everyone, then quickly replenished the energy.
The energy in the bracelets was replenished.
Thankfully, the entire nine-person team was strong, and the floor they were on was high. Even if the zombies wanted to come up, it would take them some effort and time to build a human wall. When Zhou Yun’s defense bracelet could function again, the remaining seven people coordinated quite well.
“It’s not working, the zombies are getting up here faster and faster. We need to quickly find a new location to establish a stronghold. How long has it been since Yi Xiao left? Did he find that infuriating higher-level worm? Did he slap it to death?”
Ren Zhu glanced at the situation below with the zombies, nodded. They indeed weren’t suitable to continue staying here. There were just too many zombies. Even if he used the classroom teacher’s punishment ability, it would be challenging to make all those zombies listen. Moreover… in a situation where it was densely packed with zombies, he probably wouldn’t have anywhere to utilize his skills command for example, running in circles. “Let’s go to the building across the street. Zhou Yun, use your ability to levitate everyone, just in case the rockets suddenly malfunction or run out of energy.”
So, everyone swiftly and efficiently leaped to the rooftop of the building that was more than twenty meters away. They took a slight breath and rested.
“Oh my God, has it only been half an hour? Why does it feel like it’s been a century?” Xiao Gou looked at the multifunctional mechanical watch that Jin Yu had made himself and couldn’t help but wail.
“With this time, shouldn’t you quickly meditate and rest? The zombies won’t feel fatigue like you. What makes them most annoying is this point—they never tire.” Xiao Mao sat down to meditate, and the others followed suit.
Ren Zhu noticed that their complexions had grown quite exhausted in this half-hour. Clearly, the high-intensity zombie killing had taken its toll on them. Although their abilities were impressive, the quantity of zombies was hundreds or thousands of times their number, making them even more formidable. At this moment, they truly understood the power and correctness of the old saying “Many ants can bite an elephant to death.”
“That worm is likely very adept at hiding. It might take Yi Xiao some time to catch it. It fled right in front of us last time, so we might need to hold out for another hour or two. Rest here and recover for now. I’ll handle the next half hour, then we’ll face them together,” Ren Zhu said and walked to the side of the rooftop, observing the zombies rushing toward them with a determined gaze.
Upon hearing this, Daoist Zhao furrowed his brows. “You’re being too impulsive. Even though your ability is powerful, it’s still difficult for you to hold out for half an hour alone. It’s better if the eight of us take turns. This way, we can sustain longer through alternation.”
“Exactly, Big Brother, how could we let you face this alone?”
Before the others could say more, Ren Zhu stopped them. At this moment, Teacher Ren turned his head, revealing a perfect smile:
“I think you might have a slight misunderstanding about my abilities. While it’s true that Yi Xiao is indeed very strong, able to kill a zombie with a slap or punch, you shouldn’t forget that I’m also quite formidable. Strong enough that I don’t need any of you to intervene.”
The seven members of the group looked at the gentle-smiling man in front of them, and suddenly a chill surged up from their hearts. Unexplainable childhood memories emerged from the depths of their minds. Then, they heard the young man utter three words:
“Roll down there.”
The first batch of zombies that had howled and rushed up to them abruptly stopped in their tracks, and without hesitation, rolled down!!!
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