Currently, researchers’ understanding of awakened abilities was still not precise enough, and no clear grading standards had been established. From Xin Xiaoru’s experience in her previous life, He Guying and Zhao Changyue were roughly at the stage of just becoming familiar with their abilities, entering the level of a second-tier awakened.
He Guying and Zhao Changyue had originally been enforcers trained by the Watling organization. Their physical strength was high, their muscles powerful, and after awakening their abilities, their inherent advantages were greatly amplified.
If He Guying’s ice ability was still mainly a support-type magical attack, freezing zombies so their heads could be blown off to extract crystal cores, then Zhao Changyue’s ability was far more direct. His ability allowed him to jump, and combined with his already enhanced strength, he functioned like a semi-strength-type awakened. He could leap three stories high from a standstill, launch himself straight toward a target like a human projectile, and destroy it.
In the early stages, he and others with enhanced physical abilities performed more impressively than other awakened, acting as the main damage output. But as levels rose, abilities like He Guying’s ice magic would become more dominant as main output, while physically strengthened individuals would transition into support or ambush roles.
The two teenage girls and Li Dayuan, along with the other awakened, had never gone through base training. Being suddenly thrown into a military-camp-like environment left them completely dazed.
Xin Xiaoru didn’t feel the slightest guilt. She sat in the RV, smiling, and waved at them: “Train well, and when you come back, we’ll have hotpot.”
Then she drove off with the RV.
He Guying and Zhao Changyue went off to train, leaving Xin Xiaoru alone in the RV for a while.
She didn’t stay idle for long. Taking advantage of the time, she patrolled outside the base to see if there were people she could rescue, picking up whatever stamina points she could.
Passing hardware stores, auto and bicycle repair shops, or generator repair shops, she would check the situation. If there were no zombies, she would quickly grab whatever she could.
The RV, parked outside the shops, acted as her eyes. If zombies approached, her mind would be alerted. She would return to the RV before the zombies arrived and fly away immediately.
Time passed steadily and methodically, and before she knew it, mid-October had arrived.
Yicheng had endured four months of intense heat and drought, and water sources everywhere were insufficient.
Nan Shuisu, who had come from Zaoyue City, had a water-type ability. She and He Guying, with his ice ability, hadn’t been hunting zombies recently. Their “training” every day consisted of exhausting their abilities, constantly producing ice and water to supply everyone.
At the farm, 62 acres of land had already been planted. To prevent evaporation, every vegetable plot was covered with a shading and heat-insulating canopy.
Even using every possible method, the water was still insufficient.
Xin Xiaoru drove the RV daily to nearby rivers and reservoirs to fetch water. The RV and the separate extra-dimensional inn were connected: as long as the RV had water and electricity, the inn would automatically have both.
However, water levels in the reservoirs and rivers were dropping day by day. In another month or so, this water might be gone, leaving only Nan Shuisu and He Guying to maintain the supply.
Youzhuang itself wasn’t too bad: only about forty people and sixty acres of land. But Yicheng had four million people and six hundred thousand acres, ten thousand times the population and farmland of Youzhuang. Every high-ranking official in Yicheng was worried sick.
The Yicheng base couldn’t rely on sudden rainfall to solve the problem, so they made a decision: to use the entire base’s resources to raise the level of one water-type awakened. This awakened, while continuously leveling up, had to produce the maximum amount of water every single day.
He Guying and Nan Shuisu were both tempted, they wanted to compete for this spot. But they were from Youzhuang, only cooperating with the Yicheng base out of friendliness, training together. The crystal cores they earned from fighting zombies wouldn’t be sent to the trade city base, and likewise, the base wouldn’t give them this spot.
So the two could only let it go with regret.
Xin Xiaoru quickly ran some calculations in her head. If each person drank 1,200 ml of water a day, four million people would require 4,800 tons of water daily. Producing that much water would require the top-tier awakened, those evolved to the front lines, over two or three years. Creating an awakened of that strength in a short time? Impossible.
The base clearly didn’t have full confidence either. They were simultaneously trying to increase the strength of their water-type awakened while sending truck after truck to nearby areas to fetch water, also seeing if temporary pipelines could be repaired to divert water.
Seeing this, Xin Xiaoru joined the main force, taking He Guying, Zhao Changyue, and the little boy Fang Fang, who was exhausted from all the prior training, and went out to collect water, taking the opportunity to fight zombies along the way.
Fang Fang, once in the cool RV, immediately showered and washed his hair, then leaned into a corner and quickly fell into a deep sleep. He Guying and Zhao Changyue, despite their heavier training loads, still had energy to train Xin Xiaoru inside the RV. She focused on improving her strength, stamina, and zombie-fighting skills as much as possible. Even though she wasn’t fighting zombies daily and spent 90% of her time inside the RV, having a strong body was essential for survival if she ever had to face danger outside.
The journey to fetch water wasn’t smooth. The noise from the large trucks attracted many zombies. If a truck encountered rough terrain, mountains, collapsed roads, or bridges, it could stall, leaving zombies to close in.
The awakened had to clear obstacles or set up temporary roads while simultaneously fending off zombies swarming in front and behind.
This was when the off-road RV, long used as a bedroom in the extra-dimensional space, became invaluable. Modified with spikes all around, as long as it had fuel, the RV could plow through hordes of zombies, a true killing machine.
After ramming weakened zombies, the awakened would leap out to finish them off, aiming for headshots to collect crystal cores before the zombies could recover.
In this way, the convoy staggered across many areas, even passing through neighboring city bases.
However, every base they approached was struggling. Two bases showed strong hostility, driving the convoy away and forbidding them from collecting water or repairing pipelines nearby.
To avoid conflict, the convoy had to retreat and fetch water along the way instead.
This amount of water was only a tiny fraction of the Yicheng base’s daily consumption. After returning, each department held emergency meetings, studied maps, and discussed solutions, but in the end, they had no concrete results.
For a time, Yicheng was plunged into a state of oppressive, hopeless water shortage.
Xin Xiaoru’s mood wasn’t great either.
Since her rebirth, she had subtly stirred a butterfly effect: Yicheng had reduced the impact of zombie mutations under pressure, significantly improving human survival rates.
She felt some pride, she had quietly changed the trajectory of a city.
But now, it seemed Yicheng’s efforts were in vain. They had survived the two worst radiation events and avoided total zombie outbreak crises. The base was dozens of times larger than in her previous life. Yet resources were limited; the number of people who could be sustained was fixed, and the rest would still die.
If that was the case, what did all Yicheng’s pressure and effort really amount to?
Her warnings to Yicheng, did they only give hope and then amplify despair?
The RV was parked on the rooftop. Xin Xiaoru looked down at the lifeless base and the withering farmland, dying from lack of water, feeling frustrated.
“Master, there’s a dispute at the Youzhuang extra-dimensional RV hotel,” the system’s voice announced. “The people living in tents want to get water from the hotel. One person agreed to bring some out, but others stopped them. They’re currently arguing.”
Xin Xiaoru was already irritated, and hearing that people were still fighting made her even more annoyed, but she had no choice but to go check.
On the way, the system relayed the situation: a heated argument had almost turned into a fight.
The problem was that water was limited. The water Xin Xiaoru had transported was divided: purified water was only for drinking and washing, while unpurified water went into a large tank on the open ground for irrigation and farming.
Only people with beds in the hotel could manage, just barely, to have an extra basin of purified water each day to bathe.
A middle-aged woman living in a tent approached a young man in the hotel, saying she hadn’t bathed in a long time and wanted to use some water. The young man, acting purely out of kindness without expecting anything in return, gave her a basin.
Others in the hotel didn’t say anything at first.
But after a few days, everyone realized that the hotel’s clean water was limited. The amount was based on the 30 actual residents of the hotel. If someone outside used water, it meant one resident inside would have none.
So today, when the middle-aged woman went to fetch water again, the others weren’t happy.
“If you want to be generous, be generous yourself! Why use someone else’s water?!”
“You can help others if you want, but keep your own!”
At first, the young man felt guilty, but being criticized from all sides made him angry: “The boss never said the water inside is only for the people inside. Why are you so anxious? Making your own rules to trick me? Which idiot listens to your nagging?!”
Those who hadn’t used any water in previous days immediately lost their temper. They pounded on the beds, stood up, and shouted: “Stop pretending! Don’t you see that only our 30 people live here? People outside can’t get in! Oh, you think they can still use the water inside? Did your brain fall out of your ass? Didn’t your parents teach you anything?!”
The young man, whose parents had turned into zombies, suddenly had red eyes: “Who the hell are you talking about?!”
Both sides quickly started to scuffle.
That’s how arguments go: even if most people know who’s right and who’s wrong, once emotions flare, words get extreme, and the conflict drifts away from the original dispute, turning into pointless emotional venting.
The hotel rules forbade fighting inside. A single punch wouldn’t hurt the opponent but would send vibrations through your own arm, making it numb.
So the two sides dragged each other outside to continue the fight.
System: “Originally, the middle-aged woman trying to get water has retreated to her tent.”
Xin Xiaoru: “……”
Looking at the glaring, blinding sunlight outside, Xin Xiaoru felt it was perfect weather to make an example of someone.
By the time the RV flew back to the hotel, the fight between the two people had already come to an end.
Seeing Xin Xiaoru arrive, everyone felt a bit uneasy.
“B‑Boss, you’re here…”
Xin Xiaoru stopped the vehicle and didn’t get down to stand in the sun. She said directly, “Zhang Cuiliu, Wu Guiquan, you can’t stay here anymore. Get in the vehicle. I’ll take you away.”
Zhang Cuiliu was the middle‑aged woman who had urged the young man to fetch water earlier, and Wu Guiquan was her husband.
The couple, who had been hiding in their tent and secretly watching, trembled at her words. Wu Guiquan hurriedly shoved his wife forward. “Quick! Talk properly, explain it clearly to the boss!”
Zhang Cuiliu rushed out, about to drop to her knees at the slightest provocation.
Xin Xiaoru said, “Don’t bother kneeling. Even kowtowing won’t help. Get on the vehicle yourself, and I can still take you somewhere safer. If you don’t, then hoe all the uncultivated land on this mountain for me, and afterward I’ll dump you in any nearby town to fend for yourselves. Choose one.”