While everyone was arguing, Xu Mingfan took the watermelon knife and riot baton back from the boys.
He returned the watermelon knife to Huo Mian and gave the riot baton to his younger sister.
Xu Wanluo gripped the heavy riot baton and suddenly walked over to Huo Mian, reaching out to pat her on the shoulder.
“Xiao Mian, you finally decided to take off those horribly old-fashioned glasses. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not even nearsighted. Why did you insist on wearing glasses? They made you look so ugly!”
Last year, Xu Wanluo had accidentally knocked Huo Mian over and broken her glasses. At the time, she had wanted to quickly compensate her by buying her a new pair, so she had asked about the prescription. She hadn’t expected to discover that Huo Mian’s glasses had plain lenses.
“You look so much prettier now than Chen Yiqian from our department. She has to rely on makeup to keep up appearances. You’re much more attractive as a natural beauty.”
Huo Mian felt a little awkward under Xu Wanluo’s enthusiastic stream of compliments.
She and Xu Wanluo had known each other since middle school, but they had never been particularly close.
Xu Wanluo had always been extremely competitive, and her mother often compared the two of them.
Over time, Xu Wanluo had developed some resentment toward Huo Mian, so they usually didn’t interact much whenever they ran into each other.
Suddenly being treated with such enthusiasm made Huo Mian rather uncomfortable.
She forced a smile and politely replied, “Thank you for the compliment. You’re very pretty too.”
Xu Wanluo had shoulder-length hair styled into loose, lazy curls, giving her a look that could be either sweet or cool. She wore a beautiful white lace maxi dress with intricate, elaborate patterns that gave her a very fashionable appearance.
Seeing the riot baton in her hand, Huo Mian casually asked, “Xiao Luo, are you going out to kill zombies too?”
Xu Wanluo looked confident, her voice filled with pride.
“Of course. I already killed a zombie this morning.”
At this, she paused, and the smile on her face faded slightly.
“My brother said you came here together. Were there many zombies along the way? And how did you know I was here?”
Huo Mian briefly told her about what the two of them had encountered on the way.
After listening, Xu Wanluo blinked her round eyes, which looked just like Xu Mingfan’s, her expression conflicted as she hesitated.
In the end, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked, “Xiao Mian, my brother said you awakened an ability too. Your ability… how did you awaken it?”
Huo Mian shook her head, looking puzzled.
“I don’t know either. I just went to sleep, and when I woke up, I had it. There didn’t seem to be any special trigger or warning.”
When Xu Wanluo heard this answer, the anticipation in her eyes instantly dimmed, replaced by disappointment.
She sighed, a trace of loneliness appearing in her eyes as she muttered softly, “How could it be like this? I thought there would be some kind of method.”
Huo Mian caught her mutter and a strange look flashed through her eyes as her thoughts began to wander.
Zheng Wanyue had mentioned that being scratched by a zombie gave someone a very small chance of awakening an ability, but there was a much higher chance of turning into a zombie. The risk was simply too great.
Ability users, however, would not turn into zombies even if they were scratched by one, because their bodies had already developed immunity to the zombie virus.
Huo Mian was still lost in thought when Xia Yan’s stern voice suddenly came from a distance, pulling her back to reality.
“Everyone, take your weapons! The zombies’ weakness is their heads. Remember to attack their heads, or simply chop through their necks.
“Be extremely careful. If you’re scratched by a zombie, you may be infected and turned into one.
“Men, move out first. The women follow behind!”
Upon hearing this, everyone tightened their grip on their weapons, their eyes filled with nervousness and determination.
The earthen wall outside the cafeteria served as a natural barrier, so there was no need to knock it down.
Xia Yan had the earth-type ability users create an opening in the wall wide enough for two people to walk through side by side, then led everyone out of the cafeteria.
By then, the area outside the cafeteria was a complete mess. The smell of burning filled the air, while densely packed zombie corpses lay scattered across the ground.
Every now and then, a zombie would struggle among the piles of corpses, letting out a faint growl.
Farther away, there were still scattered zombies that had escaped the flames. They seemed to notice the group and excitedly stepped over the corpses of their fellow zombies as they approached.
The zombies didn’t seem particularly intelligent. They would occasionally trip over the corpses beneath their feet, but they quickly got back up and continued stumbling toward the group.
Xia Yan led the boys forward first, beginning to cut down the zombies.
Huo Mian followed behind the boys and swept her gaze around.
Most people were holding mop handles or chair legs, viciously smashing them against the zombies’ heads.
In an instant, zombie brains went flying everywhere.
Some of the boys wielded kitchen knives, chopping several times with sharp “chop, chop” sounds, separating the zombies’ heads from their bodies as though they were chopping bones.
Others held frying spatulas and rolling pins, swinging them viciously at the zombies’ heads until brain matter splattered everywhere.
Huo Mian even saw one boy carrying the flat-bottomed frying pan normally used by the cafeteria auntie to fry eggs. He raised it and slammed it violently into a zombie’s head.
The next second, the zombie’s skull split open, and brain matter mixed with shattered bone sprayed outward.
The constant clanging and crashing sounds filled the air, making the scene look rather brutal.
Huo Mian withdrew her gaze, only to catch sight of a zombie struggling to stand out of the corner of her eye.
She tightened her grip on the watermelon knife and walked over.
The zombie stretched out its charred hand and reached for her leg.
Huo Mian quickly lifted her leg to dodge it, then raised the watermelon knife and viciously hacked at the zombie’s neck.
“Crack!”
Because the zombie’s bones were unusually hard, the blade barely cut through.
The attack on its neck caused the zombie to let out a pained roar. Its arms flailed wildly, desperately protecting its neck.
Huo Mian raised an eyebrow and swung the knife at its arms.
After seven or eight strikes, the zombie’s arms began moving more slowly, occasionally exposing its neck.
Seeing this, Huo Mian immediately hacked at its neck.
One strike after another.
After four or five more blows, the zombie’s head finally rolled to the ground with a “thump.”
After killing that zombie, Huo Mian noticed another one nearby that was barely breathing.
It was sprawled on the ground, its mouth opening and closing to reveal a row of sharp teeth, its face twisted into a hideous expression.
It was this weak, unable to even lift its hands, and it still wanted to bite someone!
Huo Mian stepped forward, swung her arm, and hacked it five times, killing it outright.
At the same time, Bai Ningrong quickly charged toward a standing zombie.
She was five-foot-eight, and even standing before the tall male zombie, her imposing presence was in no way inferior.
Bai Ningrong gripped a baseball bat tightly with both hands. Her gaze was cold and fierce as she took aim at the zombie’s head and swung with all her strength.
“Bang… bang!”
The zombie staggered from the blows before falling straight to the ground.
Bai Ningrong didn’t pause for even a moment. She immediately raised the baseball bat and brought it crashing down onto the zombie’s head again.
“Bang, bang…!”
In no time, the zombie’s head had been smashed into a bloody mess, with brain matter splattering everywhere.
Huo Mian had just finished killing the zombie that had tried to bite her when she looked up and saw Bai Ningrong’s extremely violent fighting style.
She couldn’t help clicking her tongue in amazement.
As expected of the female protagonist of an apocalypse novel. Her ability to adapt was incredible.
Huo Mian looked at Bai Ningrong’s tall, slender figure, then glanced down at her own five-foot-five height, feeling a trace of envy.
She wasn’t short among women, but whenever she stood next to Bai Ningrong, she somehow always seemed a little shorter.
Huo Mian shifted her gaze away from the female protagonist and scanned the surroundings.
Most people in the group were doing their best to kill zombies, but a small number were secretly slacking off.
Whenever they spotted a zombie that wasn’t completely dead, they would deliberately keep their distance.
Some even hid among the piles of corpses that everyone else had already cleared, occasionally moving around to make it look like they were doing something.
Huo Mian frowned slightly, neither approving nor condemning their behavior.
Wanting to stay alive was perfectly normal. But if all they ever did was hide and avoid danger, how would they survive in this brutal apocalypse later on?
She shook her head and stopped paying attention to the others, focusing on searching for living zombies.
The moment she spotted one, she immediately raised her knife and charged…
After killing seven or eight zombies, Xia Yan glanced behind him and noticed quite a few people slacking off.
The corners of his lips pressed downward.
He strode over to those people and ordered them to carry the zombie corpses to the distant lawn.
Those people didn’t dare kill zombies, so when Xia Yan suddenly assigned them the task of moving the corpses, they readily complied.
After making the arrangements, Xia Yan happened to catch sight of Huo Mian from the corner of his eye.
The girl was gripping a watermelon knife, her small face tense as she repeatedly hacked at a zombie’s neck on the ground.
She didn’t hesitate in the slightest!
Perhaps the knife was simply too dull. It took five or six strikes before the zombie’s head finally fell.
A smile appeared in Xia Yan’s eyes.
He suddenly felt that he didn’t understand this girl at all.
He had previously thought she was delicate and fragile, but he hadn’t expected her to be so ruthless when killing zombies.
Seeing that Huo Mian could handle the zombies on her own, Xia Yan shifted his gaze and turned toward the zombies on the outskirts.
They hadn’t been affected by the fire, so they were somewhat stronger than the other zombies.
As an ability user, those were the opponents he should be dealing with.
Huo Mian had just chopped off a zombie’s head and straightened up when she caught sight of another zombie slowly crawling out of a pile of corpses about twenty-three feet away.
Her peach-blossom eyes narrowed.
Huo Mian stepped over one corpse after another, tightened her grip on the watermelon knife, and advanced toward it.
When she got closer, Huo Mian finally saw that it was a male zombie.
The male zombie was tall and broad-shouldered, standing with his back to her. His hair had been completely burned away, and most of his clothes had been burned off. The exposed skin was a charred black, giving him a horrifying appearance.
The zombie seemed to sense something. It stiffly turned around and began staggering toward Huo Mian one step at a time.