Ch 71: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Song Kaiji felt a slight pang of guilt, thinking that the boss was suddenly checking on his ability progress.

After all, among the three ability users in their team, he was the only one who hadn’t leveled up since joining. Qu Weiwei had originally been a level-three wood-type ability user, but after joining the team and gaining access to abundant resources, she quickly leveled up to four by consuming a large number of crystal cores. Not to mention Tang Wenjie—this freak of nature—who, despite only being a level-two metal-type ability user, had absorbed a significant amount of healing ability energy when he awakened, making his actual combat strength equivalent to a level-four.

Only Song Kaiji remained stuck at level two in his spatial ability, unable to progress.

But it wasn’t entirely his fault. Unlike elemental-type abilities, which could be improved simply by training and killing zombies to gain experience, Song Kaiji had no idea what the correct way to train a spatial ability was. Was he supposed to keep storing and retrieving objects over and over?

Before meeting Shen Qing, he had already tried that method, and while it wasn’t entirely useless, the results were negligible.

His ability had leveled up slowly, almost randomly, from one to two. In fact, most spatial ability users in Hongcheng Base were below level three. The few who had reached mid-to-high levels had never publicly shared their training methods—after all, in this world that was gradually reverting to survival of the fittest, one’s own strength was crucial, but reducing potential threats was just as important.

So even though Song Kaiji diligently absorbed crystal cores every day, his progress was still slow, and he hadn’t even figured out the key to leveling up.

He mumbled, “I’m still at level two. My space is ten meters by ten meters, so about a hundred square meters, with a height of two meters.”

When he had first awakened his ability, his space had been just one cubic meter—one meter in length, width, and height. Upon reaching level two, it expanded to its current size. If he reached level three, it would grow to one hundred meters by one hundred meters with a height of three meters, and so on. Right now, it wasn’t particularly large, but since he didn’t have that much personal inventory, it wasn’t even half full yet. It was more than enough for their current needs—even if Shen Qing wanted to pick up two extra vehicles, they would fit just fine.

Shen Qing didn’t know what a “square meter” was, nor did he fully understand meters—his world only had measurements like inches, feet, and yards. However, he had previously heard Song Kaiji mention that their rented apartment was over seventy square meters. From this, he guessed that this was a way to measure area, and Song Kaiji’s space must be a little larger than their apartment.

The key advantage of spatial storage was that it didn’t require room for people to move around inside, so items could be stacked tightly together, maximizing storage capacity. Shen Qing nodded in satisfaction—when they reached the school library, they should be able to take all the books with them.

“I’ll work hard to level up and expand my space as soon as possible…” Song Kaiji’s voice grew weaker as he spoke, feeling more and more self-conscious. Shen Qing snapped out of his thoughts and gave him a reassuring smile. “No rush. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We’re already doing great, aren’t we?”

Though none of them had reached their full potential yet, their well-coordinated tactics allowed them to move freely through hordes of zombies without a scratch. Shen Qing was already quite satisfied with that.

After resting in the bookstore for a bit and allowing Qu Weiwei to recover by absorbing several crystal cores, the group repeated their previous tactics and continued toward the school.

There were fewer zombies inside the school than on the streets, likely because the government had previously conducted a cleanup operation. However, they remained cautious, fearing that a zombie might suddenly lunge at them from some hidden corner. Tang Wenjie continued holding up the metal cage, adjusting its size and shape as they moved.

No one had been to this school before, so they had no idea where the library was. They could only search floor by floor. Since the outbreak had occurred on a weekday, the school must have seen its fair share of brutal battles—dried bloodstains marked the hallways and classrooms.

Xing Ye followed them as they searched, glancing regretfully back at the bookstore entrance. Earlier, when they had been inside, they had used crossbows to kill quite a few zombies outside the store. However, after Qu Weiwei had finished absorbing energy, they had left for the school without taking the time to extract those crystal cores.

Of everyone here, Xing Ye was the one who needed money the most, so it pained him to leave them behind. But since he was only a temporary hire for this mission, he had to prioritize Shen Qing’s objectives and didn’t feel comfortable suggesting they go back.

However, as he glanced back, he suddenly noticed something strange. “Xiao Song, look behind us. Are those zombies… digging out crystal cores and eating them?”

The group was stunned. They quickly walked forward to the second floor and looked out toward the bookstore. Across the narrow street, they could clearly see that while most of the zombies had followed them into the school and were now gathered around the metal cage, a few had lagged behind—perhaps because they had fallen behind or because the crystal cores were more enticing than human prey.

These stragglers were clawing at their fellow zombies’ skulls, occasionally fighting over the cores. Their movements seemed disturbingly human-like, causing the group’s faces to pale.

“In the zombie novels I used to read…” Qu Weiwei muttered, “doesn’t this mean that zombies can absorb crystal cores and evolve?”

The apocalypse had been progressing strangely—human evolution seemed too fast and smooth, while the zombies had remained stagnant for too long. For example, Qu Weiwei was already a level-four ability user, and there were even higher-level ones in Hongcheng Base. Yet, the zombies still behaved the same way they had at the beginning of the outbreak.

Right now, high-level ability users could easily crush zombies in one-on-one fights. Zombies only had the advantage of sheer numbers, their lack of fear for death, and their highly infectious nature.

The research institute had long believed that once they developed a vaccine against the zombie virus, humanity’s victory would be imminent, and reclaiming the cities wouldn’t be a pipe dream.

But what if zombies were evolving too? What if they developed abilities of their own? Or worse—what if they gained intelligence, like those terrifying depictions in fiction?

Watching those zombies greedily stuffing crystal cores into their mouths, everyone’s mood grew heavy. Could it be that zombies had already evolved in some places—in the city center, in other towns, in places they hadn’t yet seen?

Tang Wenjie’s face darkened. His metal spikes shot forward, piercing through the skull of one of the zombies devouring a crystal core. The nearby zombies froze for a moment. Before they could even attempt to dig out their fallen comrade’s core, they were struck down one after another by more incoming spikes.

It seemed that only those few zombies were interested in devouring crystal cores. The other zombies, whether because they were too far away or simply uninterested, continued to surround the iron cage, stretching their arms toward the fresh flesh inside, paying no attention to what was happening over there.

“Let’s work harder today and kill all the zombies here, taking every single crystal core,” Song Kaiji said in a low voice. By now, it wasn’t just about collecting the cores—it was about preventing other zombies from consuming them and evolving.

No one had any objections. Although it would be tiring, if zombies could truly evolve, they would regret not taking action while they had the chance. Because of this unsettling discovery, the group became even more cautious, quietly discussing whether they should report this to the base when they returned.

Before long, they found a small library on the first floor of the second teaching building.

It was only about the size of four classrooms, nothing compared to the libraries at their university. Unlike the bookstore outside the school, which mostly sold textbooks, exercises, and test papers, this library was filled with classic novels, fiction, and even some magazines and comics.

After tidying up the space, Tang Wenjie followed their usual procedure and sealed the doors and windows with iron mesh, intending for them to rest here for a while. Because of this, Song Kaiji didn’t immediately store the books in his space. Shen Qing started searching through the shelves and, to his delight, actually found a copy of The Three Character Classic.

It was slightly different from the one he carried. Shen Qing glanced back at Song Kaiji and the others, seeing them busy setting up the table for their meal, and quickly took out the copy given to him by Tongsheng Miao for comparison.

Apart from differences in paper and font, the characters on the cover were almost the same—“Three Character” matched exactly, but the character for “Classic” looked very similar yet had subtle differences. Shen Qing examined the contents, noticing that many of the characters were alike but not entirely identical. Unable to make sense of it, he pondered for a moment before discreetly tucking Miao Tongsheng’s book into the bookshelf as well.

“Dinner’s ready,” Song Kaiji called, pulling food out from his space and setting it on the table. While the others were accustomed to it, Xing Ye’s eyes widened—such a feast would have been impressive even for a pre-apocalypse picnic! Just how wealthy was this team?

Song Kaiji turned his head to look for Shen Qing and saw him standing by the bookshelf near the window, bathed in sunlight, his entire figure seemingly glowing. “Do you want some juice? Mother Tang made carrot juice. I’m not really a fan—watch out!”

Song Kaiji’s eyes widened in shock.

Shen Qing stood by the window, and just outside, a lush wisteria vine swayed gently, its green leaves vibrant, with clusters of purple flowers hanging down. At first, Song Kaiji thought it was just a trick of the light or a passing breeze—but then he realized it was winter. The fact that the wisteria hadn’t withered was already strange enough—how could it still be blooming?!

He watched in horror as a green vine slithered through the gap in the window, lunging straight toward Shen Qing. In the next second, Song Kaiji teleported instantly in front of him, drawing a Tang sword from his space and slashing at the vine.

The mutated wisteria, seemingly attacking a human for the first time, recoiled immediately after missing its strike. The severed portion writhed painfully on the ground. But as soon as Song Kaiji landed his attack, the Tang sword slipped from his grip, and he collapsed backward.

Shen Qing rushed forward to catch him. “Song Kaiji!”

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