Ch 99: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Song Kaiji became intrigued. “Mom, did you also awaken a spatial ability?”

He began to suspect that ability awakenings might not be entirely random and could be related to genetics. Otherwise, why would he awaken a spatial ability, and now his mother had seemingly done the same?

Then there was Ge Bingbing. Her name literally meant “ice,” and she had awakened the extremely rare ice-type ability. Was that really just a coincidence? But names obviously had nothing to do with genetics.

The more he thought about it, the more tangled it became. Song Kaiji scratched his head in confusion.

Zhang Sujuan waved her hand, making sure no one else was paying attention to them before lowering her voice. “It’s not an ability… it’s this pendant.” She pulled out a deep red pendant from around her neck and showed it to Song Kaiji. “I got my leg broken, and when my blood smeared on it, I felt something strange. But at the time, I was under that psychic ability user’s watch, so I didn’t dare test it. If they thought I was an ability user, they’d have eaten me too.”

She stroked the jade pendant, the bloodstain on it now impossible to remove. “This is a family heirloom from my mother’s side. Your grandma gave it to me. When I first got married, I thought that if I had a daughter, I’d pass it on to her. But I never had one, so I figured I’d give it to your wife or a future granddaughter. But then you went and got yourself a boyfriend.”

Song Kaiji had read plenty of web novels before, so he immediately recognized it as a “spatial artifact” like those often described in stories. Given how much effort Shen Qing put into transporting food from the ancient world to this one, wouldn’t this pendant be perfect for him? “What does it matter if it’s a boy? A boy can still be my wife.”

The only issue was that his mother had already bound the pendant with her blood. Could Shen Qing still use it?

“You can talk about that once you get his mother’s approval,” Zhang Sujuan said, stuffing the pendant back into her clothes. When she first activated it, she had thought the pendant was an incredible treasure. Back then, everyone in their family—herself, Li Aiguo, Li Aiguo’s older brother and sister-in-law, Li Liang, and Li Li—were all ordinary people. Having a spatial storage item could drastically improve their quality of life.

But now, with Song Kaiji already possessing a spatial ability that was far larger and more useful—not to mention his ability to teleport—her pendant suddenly seemed rather insignificant. The pendant’s space was only about the size of a bedroom, roughly ten square meters with a height of two or three meters at most.

It was, in short, a bit underwhelming. But no matter how small it was, it was still a family heirloom. If the two kids were serious about their relationship and not just fooling around, it would eventually end up in Shen Qing’s hands. As much as they had been taking advantage of Shen Qing’s resources—eating his food and relying on his supplies—she and Li Aiguo, as parents, couldn’t just freeload without showing some sincerity.

Song Kaiji was still in the stage of thinking purely about love, but as parents, Zhang Sujuan and Li Aiguo had to consider things more practically.

Li Aiguo, meanwhile, sighed, feeling a bit left out. “So I’m the only one in the family without any special skills?” His wife had a spatial artifact, and his son had an actual spatial ability. But he, who had once been the head of the household and the rock his family depended on, now felt completely useless.

“How could that be?” Song Kaiji immediately wrapped an arm around Li Aiguo’s shoulders. “My dad will always be my hero! Who knows, maybe in a while, you’ll awaken an amazing ability too. Look at how much fortune the heavens have given our family—there’s no way they’d leave you out!”

Just as he finished speaking, the car’s lights suddenly went out. The next moment, hurried footsteps sounded outside as Shen Qing, Qu Weiwei, and the others who had been outside for fresh air all rushed back into the vehicle.

“What happened?” Those who had stayed inside were confused, but the abrupt darkness made everyone tense up instinctively.

Sun Cheng was the one who had turned off the lights, his expression grave as he stared toward the distant highway. “There’s a car coming… from the direction of Zizhou. It’s getting closer.”

Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei huddled together, whispering as they debated whether to take down the barriers that kept zombies away from their resting spot. “It’s so dark right now. If they’re just passing by, they shouldn’t notice us, right? I placed a lot of vines outside. If they don’t look carefully, they’ll just think it’s part of the mountainside.”

“I’m just worried they’re not passing by,” Tang Wenjie said, frowning. “That would make us an obvious target. It might be better to take down the barriers, turn off the lights, and make it look like we’re just another abandoned vehicle. We’ve passed plenty of those on the road.” He hesitated. “But the fact that they’re driving at night with their headlights on, not even afraid of mutant plants or animals ambushing them… they must be really powerful.”

Shen Qing’s heart sank. “Could it be the people from that factory coming after us?” Those people were all high-level ability users.

“We ran before they could even start chasing us down the mountain. How would they know we were headed in this direction?” Qu Weiwei asked. She and Tang Wenjie got out of the car to start dismantling the vine barriers. However, just as she retracted a couple of vines, she suddenly felt the remaining ones resisting her control.

That sensation was all too familiar—she had just experienced it earlier that day. But now, the loss of control was even stronger.

Qu Weiwei’s face went pale. “This is bad!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, one of the vines completely broke free from her influence and lashed out, striking her and sending her flying three or four meters.

Ignoring the pain in her body, Qu Weiwei scrambled back toward the car, shouting, “They really are after us! It must be that Zhuang Ye figured something out—get out of here, now!”

But it was already too late. They had only managed to drive a few dozen meters when metal spikes shot through the air, puncturing the tires. Fortunately, an abandoned vehicle on the roadside blocked part of the attack, preventing the car from overturning, but the damage was done—they could no longer move.

Song Kaiji had two extra cars in his spatial storage, but there was no time to switch vehicles.

Meanwhile, back at the factory, the twenty-something members of the gang had stormed the service area, only to find that half of their prey had already escaped. Frustrated, they hurried back to the mountain, only to discover that their base had been emptied. The factory was completely abandoned.

The four ability users who had stayed behind were now reduced to two—the other two had either gone after the escaped prisoners or were too scared to return and face their leader’s wrath. The remaining two, trembling in fear, explained what had happened:

“…By the time we realized, most of them had already escaped. Sen Ge never issued an alert, so we went to check on him, but he was already gone… We think the prisoners must have taken him.”

The others were bewildered. “But why would they take Sen Ge? A bunch of half-starved prisoners dragging him around would only slow them down.”

No one could understand what had happened. How had they managed to capture Yang Sen without giving him a chance to make a sound? Why hadn’t he used his psychic ability to warn them?

Regardless, the escapees were just a bunch of runaways—they could always capture more. But Yang Sen was crucial to their operations. They couldn’t afford to lose him.

Their leader’s expression darkened. Without warning, he unleashed two streaks of violet lightning, instantly reducing the two guards to charred corpses. The remaining gang members fell silent in terror as he cracked open their skulls and extracted their ability cores. The two who had fled earlier had, in hindsight, made a very smart decision.

“A bunch of worthless refugees—there’s no way they could have run far,” the leader said as he absorbed the cores. “Split into three teams. One stays on the mountain to search. The other two take the highway in both directions. It’s tough to drive at night, so even if they found a car, they shouldn’t have gotten too far. I want them dead or alive. Even if Sen Ge is dead, his core will still be valuable.”

If someone else had been leading the team sent toward Red City Base, things might have gone differently. But unfortunately, Zhuang Ye was among them.

As soon as he saw the familiar arrangement of vines on the roadside, everything clicked in his mind. “So that’s how it is.”

He recalled how Chen Jiaxi had frequently come to talk to him earlier. She must have had some kind of special ability, similar to Yang Sen’s. With all the pieces falling into place, he realized what had happened: those people had come to find their parents. Somehow, they had managed to bypass Yang Sen’s psychic surveillance, sneak into the factory, and successfully rescue their family members.

And that young man had a spatial ability.

That meant Yang Sen wasn’t captured—he was dead. His corpse had been taken away, leaving no trace behind.

“Zhuang Ge, what’s with that smile? How can you be smiling right now?” a blond-haired gang member beside him muttered. “Sen Ge was one of us. And the boss just killed two of our own—how messed up is that?”

The boss had killed countless outsiders, eaten human flesh, and done unspeakable things, but none of that had ever bothered the gang. However, killing their own? That was different. Because it meant that any one of them could be next.

This blond-haired man had always been close to Zhuang Ye, so he dared to voice his concerns. “What if… we ran too? If Sen Ge can’t be found, or if he’s already dead, who knows what the boss will do? That factory isn’t even safe anymore without him. But we’re strong now—we could easily survive in a base somewhere.”

Zhuang Ye considered it for a moment.

But after eating human flesh for so long, how could he go back to stale biscuits and expired canned food?

“No, if we bring back Sen Ge’s core, the boss won’t blame us.”

Or… he could take it for himself.

Yang Sen had been one of their strongest members. If Zhuang Ye absorbed his core, his psychic ability could surpass level ten. He might even become stronger than their boss. If that happened, he wouldn’t need to hide in someone else’s shadow anymore—he could start his own empire.

“Sen Ge’s core?” The blond man was startled. “How do you know he’s—”

“I don’t just know that. I also suspect his core is right behind those vines.” Zhuang Ye smirked and flexed his fingers, easily wresting control of the vines from Qu Weiwei. “Little beauty, this time, I won’t hold back.”

Inside the car, Chen Jiaxi panicked, gripping the window frame as she frantically assessed the situation. The pursuers had only sent seven people, not their full force of twenty-something. But every single one of them was powerful—the weakest among them was on par with Ge Bingbing, their strongest fighter.

There was no escaping. The power gap was simply too vast.

Unless…

Chen Jiaxi spun around and grabbed Song Kaiji. “You still have that psychic’s head, don’t you? Dig out his core and absorb it!”

Song Kaiji was stunned. “How do you know…? That’s a human core, I—”

But Chen Jiaxi immediately changed her mind. “No, not you.” Song Kaiji’s spatial ability wouldn’t help in combat.

She scanned the group and locked onto Ge Bingbing. “You do it!”

Chen Jiaxi had long set her sights on the crystal core inside Yang Sen’s brain. From Zhuang Ye’s fragmented memories, she had learned about the benefits of absorbing human brain cores, especially for those with the same type of ability. So she had kept an eye out, waiting for the right moment. When Song Kaiji came down from the mountain, she caught a glimpse of Yang Sen’s severed head inside his spatial storage. She had planned to wait until he disposed of the body, then secretly retrieve the core for herself.

She knew that Song Kaiji and the others would never absorb a human brain core, but she was different. Her ability had no offensive capabilities—it was far too weak. Although Song Kaiji had mentioned that the base authorities were highly interested in psychic ability users, she remained uneasy. After all, her ability wasn’t about intelligence enhancement but rather reading other people’s memories. That probably wouldn’t be useful for something like vaccine research.

What would they even use her for if she went to the base? To spy on people’s secrets?

She desperately hoped that absorbing Yang Sen’s crystal core would trigger an evolution in her ability, making her similar to him. That way, her family’s life in the base would be much better.

Before the apocalypse, Chen Jiaxi had been part of the elite, wealthy and socially powerful. How could she resign herself to struggling at the bottom?

But now, seeing the hesitation and resistance on the faces of Ge Bingbing and Song Kaiji, she was furious. She slapped them hard, gritting her teeth. “Wake up! If we don’t absorb it, we’re all going to die here! The only thing I regret is that my ability has no attack power—otherwise, this wouldn’t even be your decision to make!”

The vehicle suddenly jolted violently. Outside, Zhuang Ye, who had summoned vines at least twice the thickness of Qu Weiwei’s, had wrapped them around the car and was slowly dragging it toward him. His voice drifted over.

“We meet again. Looks like the friend searching for their family has found them. So, don’t you think it’s time you return our second-in-command?”

Ge Bingbing, stunned by Chen Jiaxi’s slap, finally steeled herself. She had family and a child waiting for her back at Red City Base—she could not afford to die here! At the very least, either she or Sun Cheng had to survive, or their whole family was finished.

She clenched her teeth and, together with Chen Jiaxi, grabbed Song Kaiji. “Take it out! However many you have, bring them all out!”

Song Kaiji’s eyes went blank for a moment, his mind reeling. But then his vision refocused, and he slowly retrieved Yang Sen’s severed head. His internal struggle was immense, but at this point, even if he had to “lose his dignity,” he couldn’t just stand by and watch everyone die for the sake of principle.

Along with the head, he also took out a large number of crystal cores. Ge Bingbing went straight for Yang Sen’s core, leaving the others. Meanwhile, Song Kaiji shoved handfuls of cores into the hands of Tang Wenjie, Qu Weiwei, Sun Cheng, and the others.

“Hold on. Weiwei, you have to wrest control of the vines from Zhuang Ye!”

The battle between both sides intensified, filling the space between the two vehicles with flashes of various abilities. Qu Weiwei’s ability was completely overpowered by Zhuang Ye’s. Even when she tried to reclaim control, she could only cause minor disruptions at best. Tang Wenjie repeatedly slashed at Zhuang Ye’s vines with his signature metal blade. The enemy team also had a metal ability user who kept countering him with metal needles, making the fight a deadlock. Meanwhile, Sun Cheng’s flames were completely suppressed by an opponent with wind abilities, snuffing them out the moment they ignited.

Qu Weiwei didn’t question Song Kaiji’s plan. She merely gripped the crystal core tightly, forcibly absorbing it while pushing her ability to the limit. The pain from her overstrained energy channels was excruciating, but she gritted her teeth and held on.

Zhuang Ye, noticing her persistence, grew irritated. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a faint green crystal core—one of their spoils from the massacre at the service area that he hadn’t had time to absorb. Now that he used it, his power surged dramatically.

Qu Weiwei was overwhelmed instantly, her body bending backward in pain, her lips splitting as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Zhuang Ye smirked. Just as he was about to press his advantage and finish her off, a chilling sensation crept up his spine.

In the final moments of his life, Zhuang Ye finally realized how they had managed to escape Yang Sen’s psychic surveillance.

Teleportation.

Huang Mao’s eyes widened in horror as he saw Song Kaiji standing behind Zhuang Ye, a blade having sliced cleanly through the man’s neck. Zhuang Ye’s head tumbled to the ground, leaving his body standing for a brief second before crumpling lifelessly.

“Zhuang Ge!”

Song Kaiji wasted no time. He swiftly stored Zhuang Ye’s severed head in his spatial storage. At the same time, Ge Bingbing’s eyes gleamed with a blue light as she finished absorbing Yang Sen’s core. Her abilities surged immensely, and with a simple gesture, a sharp ice spike pierced straight through Huang Mao’s heart.

Song Kaiji had initially planned to retreat immediately. But seeing that, he reached out once more—he had to retrieve Huang Mao’s corpse. Not only could they use his crystal core, but they also couldn’t afford to leave it for the enemy to claim and grow stronger.

It only took a heartbeat of hesitation, but it was enough for the remaining enemies to react.

Just as Song Kaiji grabbed hold of Huang Mao’s body, a sharp pain flared in his shoulder, hot blood seeping down his back.

Biting down against the pain, he forced himself to finish storing the corpse before teleporting back into his own vehicle.

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