Yu Yao activated Wind Step and, with a clear target in mind, quickly caught up to the zombie. No matter how skilled it was at escaping, it was soon cut down by her blades.
It became the first zombie to contribute a crystal core to Yu Yao.
“Killed a Level-1 Psychic-type Zombie. Gained EXP ×200, Gold ×555, Level-1 Psychic Crystal Core ×1.”
The reward notification quietly entered her mind. Yu Yao inwardly thought, As expected.
No wonder that zombie’s light dot had been slightly larger than the others, and its intelligence noticeably higher.
So it was a higher-level zombie.
High-level zombies not only gradually regained intelligence as they leveled up, but also naturally possessed the ability to command zombies of lower rank.
That was why this group of zombies had relentlessly chased after Luo Mei.
Luo Mei being injured and leaving behind the scent of blood was one reason.
Another reason was that this zombie had sensed that Luo Mei was very likely to awaken a powerful ability, and wanted to devour her to strengthen itself!
But then again, the apocalypse had only just begun, and a Level-1 zombie had already appeared.
It seemed zombie evolution was indeed far easier than human evolution.
……
After killing the Level-1 zombie, the remaining zombies became much easier to deal with.
Ye Zi’ang didn’t want to be a burden. After steadying himself for a few breaths, he tightened his grip on the blade again, gritted his teeth, and desperately hacked at the zombies closing in.
In just over ten minutes, the three of them cleared out all the zombies gathered in the area.
Dozens of zombies plus the Level-1 zombie’s experience allowed Yu Yao to successfully reach Level 6.
As her physique and agility increased further, her physical condition also returned to its peak. The exhaustion brought on by her earlier all-out slaughter vanished completely.
A light breeze swept past.
The girl stood dressed in a black, form-fitting hooded jacket, a few loose strands of hair escaping from beneath the hood and fluttering in the wind.
Her long legs were wrapped in black cargo pants, short boots sharp and dashing.
She wore a mask. Specks of zombie blood dotted her pale forehead. Dual blades in hand, she stood proudly—half Buddha, half demon.
Even with half her face covered, her beauty still struck straight at the heart.
After the dark blood slowly slid off the tips of her blades, Yu Yao calmly stowed both knives back into her inventory slots. The looks directed at her instantly shifted from amazement to shock.
“Y-you—you—where did your knives go?!” Ye Zi’ang pointed at Yu Yao’s now-empty hands, so shocked he couldn’t even speak properly.
Yu Yao turned to look at them. Meeting Ye Zi’ang’s horrified gaze, she explained,
“If zombies can exist, is it really that strange for someone to awaken an ability?”
After the apocalypse, many people awakened abilities. Spatial abilities were rare, but not unheard of.
So from the very beginning, Yu Yao had decided to disguise herself as a spatial-type ability user. It would save her a lot of trouble.
“A-abilities?” Ye Zi’ang clearly didn’t understand what she meant.
Thinking of the faint purple dots representing the two of them on the map, Yu Yao immediately realized—they had awakened abilities without realizing it.
She said, “Try calming down and carefully feeling whether there’s some extra energy inside your body. You might’ve awakened too.”
Ji Yan wasn’t talkative, but he was quick to react. After hearing Yu Yao’s words, he immediately understood and closed his eyes to sense it.
Very quickly, he noticed something unusual within his body.
He raised his right hand, trying to guide that energy toward his palm.
Moments later, the air in Ji Yan’s palm began to distort.
As waves of cold gathered, a finger-length, chopstick-thick ice spike slowly condensed in his palm, floating and spinning up and down according to his will.
A rare ice-type ability.
In the original owner’s memories, the most common abilities were the five elemental types—
Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—as well as enhancements to speed, strength, and the five senses.
Next came mutated abilities such as wind, lightning, ice, light, and dark.
The rarest were healing abilities, psychic abilities, and spatial abilities.
Of course, there were also all kinds of strange abilities.
For example, enhancement abilities—those that could boost others’ combat power, essentially acting like living equipment.
There were also invisibility, transformation, precognition, object manipulation, communication with animals and plants, and many more.
Among all abilities, fire, lightning, ice, and dark types were recognized as having the strongest offensive power.
Ice-type abilities also possessed crowd control and defensive capabilities, making them extremely powerful.
Anyone who awakened these abilities was fiercely sought after by major survivor bases.
Naturally, rare abilities like healing, psychic, spatial, and precognitive types were even more coveted.
When Ye Zi’ang saw the ice spike in Ji Yan’s palm, his eyes widened. His heart surged—and a spark suddenly flickered to life in his own palm.
But it vanished in an instant, leaving only a wisp of black smoke curling upward.
Ye Zi’ang: ???
Seeing this, Yu Yao chuckled lightly.
“Fire and ice. Very strong.”
Thinking about his fleeting little flame, Ye Zi’ang didn’t look too happy.
“Are you laughing at us?”
Behind her mask, the corners of Yu Yao’s lips curved gently.
“It’s normal for abilities to be weak when you first awaken them. As your control and ability level improve, they’ll grow stronger.”
Ye Zi’ang’s eyes lit up.
“Really?”
“Mhm.”
Only then did Ye Zi’ang break into a smile.
“Thank you, Yu Yao.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you for coming to help me.”
There were few people in this villa district, but that didn’t mean there were none.
Yet when she was struggling to clear the zombie horde, only these two young men had overcome their fear and stepped forward to help her.
Regardless of their motives, she felt they deserved her thanks.
Yu Yao’s distant demeanor made Ye Zi’ang glance at her several times. Finally, he couldn’t help asking,
“You… don’t recognize us, do you?”
Yu Yao paused, then answered honestly,
“You seem familiar.”
Ji Yan: ……
Yu Yao’s excessive honesty shattered Ye Zi’ang’s heart into pieces. He widened his eyes and muttered indignantly, cheeks puffed out,
“No way! You don’t recognize us? Then why did people say you had a crush on me? Seriously—weren’t they just getting my hopes up for nothing?!”
Hearing that, Yu Yao’s brow twitched slightly. She did recall something.
During the original owner’s college days, there had indeed been rumors that she had a crush on someone—apparently the student council president, a year her senior.
Looking closely now, wasn’t it this very boy?
Don’t be fooled by Ye Zi’ang’s fear earlier. Back in college, he had been a true campus star—a favored son of heaven.
Good looks, good family background, good popularity, strong abilities.
There were countless girls who liked him. Yu Yao had interacted with him a few times due to school activities.
Since the original owner was rather withdrawn and rarely interacted with the opposite sex, those few exchanges with Ye Zi’ang stood out, and that’s how the rumors started.
And since they were just rumors, and given the original owner’s personality, she couldn’t be bothered to argue or prove herself—so the gossip spread unchecked.
“Just classmates joking around,” Yu Yao said flatly.
She didn’t take the bait. Ye Zi’ang didn’t feel awkward either and quickly adjusted, smiling as he introduced himself.
“My name’s Ye Zi’ang. Your schoolmate—we’ve interacted before.”
Yu Yao nodded.
“Mm. I remember now.”
Hearing that, Ye Zi’ang was satisfied. Then he added,
“That’s good, that’s good. By the way, do you live here too? I’ve never seen you around before.”
“No. I took advantage of the chaos to hide here.”
“Is that so? My family happens to have a place here. Want to come stay at my place? More people means more strength—”
He stopped midway.
Remembering what Ji Yan had said—that more people could actually mean more danger.
And recalling how Yu Yao had slaughtered zombies earlier, he suddenly wasn’t sure whether she needed his so-called “strength in numbers” at all.
……
In fact, Ye Zi’ang and Ji Yan, along with over a dozen student council members, had originally come here for a team-building event. They never expected the apocalypse to arrive so suddenly, trapping them all here.
After sleeping for three days and waking up, five people had turned into horrifying walking corpses—what movies and comics often called… zombies.
Fortunately, Ye Zi’ang’s father was a collector of cold weapons, which allowed Ji Yan and Ye Zi’ang to organize the remaining people to take up arms and fight back.
In the end, after losing another classmate, they survived.
Now only six people remained—four men and two women.
Ye Zi’ang felt that the combat power of the six of them couldn’t even compare to Yu Yao’s. Saying so out loud felt like taking advantage of her.
Yet he also worried that she might be alone and unsupported. If something unexpected happened, having companions nearby would always be more convenient.