Ch 100: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Song Kaiji practically crashed into his own car, a metal spike the length of a forearm piercing through his left shoulder blade. It was only thanks to his slight shift when grabbing Huang Mao’s corpse that the spike hadn’t impaled him straight through the chest.

The metal ability user across from him clicked his tongue in regret. “Missed the mark. You’re fast.”

Shen Qing, Zhang Sujuan, Li Aiguo, and the other ordinary people had been stuffed under the car seats to avoid getting caught in the battle between ability users. But seeing Song Kaiji’s state, Zhang Sujuan was the first to scramble out, dragging him behind the seat for cover.

Shen Qing’s hands trembled as he reached toward the wound but didn’t dare touch it. “What do we do? We don’t have a single healing ability user in our group.”

Before setting out, Qu Weiwei had considered hiring one, but every healer she contacted refused. They could make plenty of money safely working in the base hospital—why would they risk their lives on missions? All they had been able to do was stock up on basic wound treatment supplies in Song Kaiji’s storage space.

But now, they didn’t even dare to treat it rashly. The wound was larger than the opening of a drink bottle, and from Shen Qing’s past experience handling prey, pulling out the spike recklessly could cause massive bleeding—especially since they were still in the middle of a fight.

When Song Kaiji first teleported back, his vision had gone black, golden sparks bursting at the edges of his sight. It took him a moment to regain clarity, gritting his teeth through the pain. “Forget about me for now. Stay down and stay safe.” His left arm was practically useless, but his right was still functional.

With Zhuang Ye and Huang Mao dead, only five enemies remained. They were on high alert, afraid Song Kaiji would teleport behind them for another sneak attack.

Ge Bingbing’s ability had surged after absorbing the crystal core, allowing her to hold off their opponents for the moment and even land a few minor injuries. Seizing the opportunity, Song Kaiji called Qu Weiwei over and pulled out several grenades.

“Zhuang Ye is dead. No one can counter your ability anymore. Wrap these in your vines and send them to their vehicle. Have Wenjie set up a metal barrier in front of us for cover…”

As he spoke, he pressed a hand to the spike in his chest. “No. That metal ability user needs to die too. If Wenjie loses control of his metal, we’ll all go up in flames along with them.”

The cars were too close together—Zhuang Ye had used vines to drag their vehicle earlier. If the explosion went off now, they’d all be caught in the blast.

“Wenjie, cut off both ends of this spike for me. I’ll make one last move.”

Tang Wenjie traced his fingertips over the metal spike, and its ends snapped off instantly, leaving only the section embedded in Song Kaiji’s body to block the wound. But he frowned. “You can’t teleport again. That metal ability user still has control over this metal. If you get too close, they could reshape it inside your body…”

Song Kaiji would die instantly.

Qu Weiwei, her entire body still aching from the strain on her abilities, forced herself to stay upright. “Xiao Tang is right. Don’t move for now. Bingbing and I will handle the metal ability user.” Ge Bingbing had already proven she could kill an opponent in one strike—if she worked with Qu Weiwei, there was a real chance they could take out one more.

Qu Weiwei extended her hand toward Song Kaiji. “More crystal cores.”

Song Kaiji hesitated for a moment before waving his hand, summoning a small mountain of crystal cores before them. Alongside the pile were the severed heads of Zhuang Ye and Huang Mao.

He looked at Qu Weiwei.

“…Do you want to try?”

Zhuang Ye and Qu Weiwei had the same ability, yet Zhuang Ye’s level far surpassed hers. Judging from Ge Bingbing’s improvement, if Qu Weiwei absorbed Zhuang Ye’s crystal core, just how much stronger would she become? Gaining two or even three levels instantly wasn’t out of the question!

Qu Weiwei froze for a few seconds, staring at Zhuang Ye’s lifeless face. His eyes remained open, frozen in shock and disbelief, yet the light had already faded, leaving only dull emptiness. Her heart waged a fierce battle within her. She reached toward Zhuang Ye’s head for a moment but quickly withdrew her hand, closing her eyes tightly. “… Set it aside for now. If there’s no other choice, then I’ll use it.”

Had Song Kaiji directly handed her the crystal core, she might have taken it. But seeing Zhuang Ye’s severed head so plainly before her made it harder to accept—especially knowing she’d have to extract the core herself.

She just couldn’t overcome the mental hurdle. Looking away, she grabbed a handful of zombie crystal cores, handed some to Ge Bingbing and Sun Cheng, then sat down to absorb them.

However, after absorbing only a few, something felt wrong.

At first, Qu Weiwei assumed she had simply exceeded her limit. Back at Red City Base, she had only absorbed around ten cores a day while using her ability to accelerate plant growth, which was already sufficient. Today was an exception—she had taken in two full handfuls, likely twenty or more. If she weren’t expending large amounts of energy in battle, she would have worried about her body reaching its breaking point.

Yet something else was happening. The rush of energy flooding her meridians felt different. It didn’t just stretch them to their limit—it burned. The pain was sharp and searing, and her body felt unnaturally rigid.

Looking down at the crystal core in her hand, Qu Weiwei realized it looked strangely familiar—it was the mutated zombie core!

She remembered this core being of the metal attribute, one that had greatly attracted Tang Wenjie. Song Kaiji had originally planned to save it for Tang Wenjie once they returned to Red City Base. In the rush of battle, neither she nor Song Kaiji had noticed it had been mixed in with the regular cores. Now, it was already coursing through her body.

Qu Weiwei’s fingernails slowly turned golden. The burning sensation in her meridians became unbearable, her vision darkened, and before she could react, she coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed.

“Weiwei!” The others were horrified.

Before their eyes, Qu Weiwei’s left arm visibly began to transform, starting from the fingertips. A metallic sheen spread up to her wrist, while her regenerated right arm—the one that had grown back—took on an entirely different transformation. Its surface turned rubber-like, eerily similar to the mutated zombie they had encountered at the gas station.

Even in unconsciousness, Qu Weiwei writhed in agony, her limbs twitching involuntarily.

The mutation was spreading, creeping up past her elbow, inching toward her shoulder.

Then, just as suddenly, her eyes snapped open.

She could feel the transformation overtaking her. A deep, primal fear gripped her—if she lost consciousness again, she might never wake up as herself. That terror drove her to bite down on her tongue so hard she nearly severed it, forcing herself to stay awake.

It was sheer willpower.

As her consciousness sharpened, the metal and rubber textures receded, retreating slowly until the only trace left was a faint golden glow at the tips of her fingernails.

Qu Weiwei was drenched in sweat, her entire body soaked as if she had just been pulled from water. Large beads of sweat rolled down her face and neck. She gasped for air, struggling to sit upright. Her tongue throbbed with pain, yet she couldn’t help but mutter, “… I feel terrifyingly strong.”

Meanwhile, across from them, ever since Zhuang Ye and Huang Mao had been killed, the remaining enemies had fallen into chaos.

None of them had ever encountered someone who could teleport. Though Song Kaiji had been severely wounded by the metal ability user, who could say he wouldn’t risk everything for one final exchange of blows?

No one wanted to die. No one wanted to be the one Song Kaiji took down with him.

As they struggled to fend off Ge Bingbing and Sun Cheng’s attacks, each of them kept a wary eye on their surroundings, and the thought of retreat began to take root in their minds.

“Should we just withdraw? Brother Zhuang is dead—his head’s been taken,” one of them muttered, staring at the enemy vehicle’s window. Song Kaiji was holding Zhuang Ye’s severed head.

“Why would they take Brother Zhuang’s head? They must know about the secret of ability users’ crystal cores! If they absorb Zhuang Ye and Huang Mao’s cores, we won’t stand a chance!”

The existence of crystal cores in ability users’ brains was not widely known. These men had only discovered it after devouring human flesh. Their leader had been bold enough to test it, and that was how they had realized the benefits. But how had the other side learned about it?

… Were they also cannibals?

Panic took root in their hearts. Some even regretted coming along—if only they had stayed back at the mountain base instead of following Zhuang Ye here!

“If Second Boss is really dead, then his core is probably already inside one of them.”

They had never questioned their own actions before. Eating people, consuming their cores—it had seemed natural. But the moment they realized they could become the prey instead of the predator, fear overtook them.

They had to leave. They feared their leader’s wrath, but they feared death even more. None of them wanted to continue fighting.

Only one man remained still—a bald, burly figure seated at the back of their vehicle. He stared intently at Song Kaiji through the car window, his eyes dark and calculating.

“Give me five minutes,” he said.

“What the hell are you doing?” someone snapped, shoving aside Zhuang Ye’s headless corpse from the driver’s seat to start the engine. “You can’t fight—why are you making things worse? Five minutes? In battle, even one minute can change everything!”

The bald man closed his eyes in deep concentration. “Then three minutes. Just listen to me. Brother Zhuang was my brother—I can’t let him die in vain.”

He licked his teeth and added, “And who knows? We might get a feast out of this.”

---

After absorbing the mutated zombie’s crystal core, Qu Weiwei’s ability had surged by two full levels. More importantly, she could now wield three distinct variations of her power.

The first was her original plant-based vines. The second was a new metal-coated variant, strong enough to resist powerful attacks and almost impossible to sever. The third resembled the transformation she had experienced—rubberized vines, flexible, durable, and highly elastic.

Qu Weiwei stared at her right hand, running her ability through her veins. Slowly, her right arm shifted back into its rubber-like state. However, her left arm remained unchanged.

Was it because her right arm had regrown?

She tested her control over the metal aspect, only to find she couldn’t directly manipulate metal objects. Similarly, Tang Wenjie was unable to control her metal-coated vines. It wasn’t true dual-ability evolution—her wood-based ability had simply mutated.

Song Kaiji, pale from blood loss, looked on. Perhaps sensing that Qu Weiwei’s evolution meant their battle would soon end, he relaxed slightly, even finding the energy to joke. “Do you think the vegetables you grow from now on will have dangerously high metal content?”

Qu Weiwei: “…”

She shot him a look but didn’t waste words—her tongue hurt too much to bother responding.

“I’ll weave an elastic net with rubber vines,” she said instead. “Bingbing can layer it with an ice shield. That should be enough to block the blast wave—we won’t have to take out the metal ability user first.”

With their strategy set, Tang Wenjie and Sun Cheng kept the enemy occupied while Qu Weiwei positioned herself by the side of the vehicle. Carefully, she extended a thin metal vine, inching two grenades beneath the enemy’s car.

Song Kaiji leaned in to watch.

The rubberized vines moved with unnatural dexterity, almost like fingers. As Qu Weiwei activated the grenades, she suddenly noticed something odd—the fingers on her right hand seemed to be stretching slightly longer.

Suppressing her unease, she pulled the pins and immediately deployed a thick net of rubber vines. At the same moment, Ge Bingbing raised an ice shield.

“What the hell are they doing?” The enemy squad instantly sensed something was wrong.

“Stop wasting time, can we still retreat—?”

Before the explosion even went off, Song Kaiji felt a sudden chill down his spine.

A stranger’s voice whispered behind him.

“You didn’t think you were the only space ability user in the world, did you?”

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