Seeing Xu Mingfan’s childish behavior, the corner of Huo Mian’s mouth twitched slightly.
“Brother Mingfan, now isn’t the time to worry about who’s at fault. The most important thing is to deal with these two zombies.”
Xu Mingfan let out a heavy sigh, his voice dejected. “There aren’t any tools here. What are we supposed to use to kill them? Punch them with our fists?”
Seeing how discouraged he looked, Huo Mian said nothing more. She slowly walked over to the door and stared intently at the male zombie through the crack.
The male zombie’s eyes were completely white, his skin a bluish-gray. Its mouth hung wide open, revealing a set of sharp teeth, while its arms flailed incessantly. Its ferocious, bloodthirsty appearance made it look as though it could swallow her whole at any moment.
Huo Mian’s heart tightened. Her gaze instinctively fell on the metal bar.
As though she had thought of something, she suddenly turned around and hurried over to Xu Mingfan, speaking excitedly.
“Brother Mingfan, quickly! Use your ability to make a longsword.”
Upon hearing this, a conflicted look flashed across Xu Mingfan’s face. His lips parted slightly, but in the end, he said nothing.
He activated his ability. Golden light appeared in his right palm, flickering dimly as though it might disappear at any moment.
He clenched his back teeth and increased the output of his ability.
A moment later, the golden light completely vanished. Lying quietly in his open right hand was a small dagger, no more than fifteen centimeters long by the looks of it.
Compared with the longsword Huo Mian had expected, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Huo Mian: “…”
Xu Mingfan looked up and met Huo Mian’s astonished expression.
His cheeks flushed slightly as he awkwardly explained, “I’ve exhausted my ability. This is all I can manage.”
Huo Mian glanced at the dagger, then shifted her gaze toward the metal bar as thick as an adult’s thigh.
After a moment of silence, she said quietly, “Did you ever think that even if we manage to deal with the zombies outside the door, how are we going to get out of this room?”
Xu Mingfan was completely baffled.
He frowned slightly and instinctively followed Huo Mian’s gaze. When he saw the metal bar on the door, his entire body instantly stiffened.
His eyes widened, his mouth fell open, and he looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
Huo Mian was utterly speechless. She truly hadn’t expected abilities in the early stages of the apocalypse to be this useless.
Huo Mian looked away and turned to Xu Mingfan, curiosity in her eyes.
“How long does it take for your ability to recover?”
Xu Mingfan scratched his head. His hair was already a mess, and after he ruffled it, it looked even more like a bird’s nest.
“This is the first time I’ve completely exhausted my ability. I don’t know how long it’ll take to recover.”
After saying that, he suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked at Huo Mian with anticipation in his eyes.
“Xiao Mian, why don’t you try using your ability?”
Huo Mian was slightly stunned, and her curiosity began to stir.
She actually wanted to know whether her ability would have any effect on zombies.
Huo Mian licked her slightly dry lips and said eagerly, “Then I’ll give it a try.”
She stepped forward, activated her ability, and instantly condensed a small ball of light in her palm. She raised her hand and accurately threw the ball of light toward the zombie’s arm.
The moment the small ball of light touched the zombie’s arm, it disappeared without a trace.
Huo Mian was puzzled. She didn’t know whether the ball of light had dissipated on its own or been absorbed by the zombie.
Before she could figure it out, the male zombie outside seemed to have been completely enraged. It let out a series of even louder “Grrr” sounds.
The noise was shrill and piercing, even more agonizing than the squeal of a slaughtered pig. It drilled straight into their ears, making their eardrums ache.
Immediately afterward, the male zombie went berserk as if it had taken a super-strength pill, violently pounding against the door.
The door shook precariously, as though it would collapse completely the very next second.
The sudden turn of events frightened the two people inside into taking several steps backward.
Xu Mingfan’s face turned deathly pale. He covered his chest with one hand, trying to calm his racing heart.
Still shaken, he looked at Huo Mian and said with lingering fear, “Xiao Mian, your ability is practically giving the zombie a boost. You made it even more violent.”
After saying that, a trace of sympathy appeared in his eyes as he continued, “You really shouldn’t use your ability against zombies anymore. Luckily, this metal bar of mine is thick enough…”
Before he could finish, he suddenly remembered that he couldn’t do anything about the metal bar either. He hurriedly stopped talking, his expression becoming awkward.
Hearing Xu Mingfan’s words, the brightness in Huo Mian’s eyes dimmed.
Ever since learning that she had transmigrated into an apocalyptic novel, deep down, Huo Mian had desperately hoped to possess a powerful ability that could help her fight zombies.
She had never expected that her ability would not only fail to inflict even the slightest harm on zombies, but would instead act like an injection of adrenaline, causing them to retaliate even more violently.
Huo Mian stood silently where she was.
Her ability was merely supportive, which was worlds apart from the powerful ability she had dreamed of having.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The atmosphere around them became oppressive and stifling.
Xu Mingfan glanced at Huo Mian and saw that her eyes were vacant, as though she had completely sunk into a world of sorrow and couldn’t pull herself out.
He couldn’t help feeling somewhat remorseful. Huo Mian had already been dealt a harsh blow by reality, and now he’d said something that made her feel even worse. Of course she would be depressed!
To ease the atmosphere, he hurriedly comforted her.
“Xiao Mian, don’t be discouraged. It’s just that you haven’t discovered what your ability is useful for yet. Once you figure out the right direction, I’m sure it’ll be incredibly useful.”
Hearing Xu Mingfan’s words, Huo Mian’s expression became complicated. There was a hint of gratitude, but mostly frustration.
She wanted to tell him:
“I’m not upset because I don’t know what my ability is useful for.
“I’m upset because I know for certain that a healing ability is completely ineffective against zombies and can even have the opposite effect!”
A healing ability that could originally save people actually made zombies go berserk when used against them.
Who could understand such a huge gap?!
Huo Mian raised her head and forced a smile.
“Brother Mingfan, I know.”
Seeing that she had recovered, Xu Mingfan let out a long sigh of relief.
Huo Mian turned around and began examining the room.
Along one side of the room stood clothing racks filled with colorful clothes, most of them dresses. Bags had been casually placed in the corner.
Men’s clothing occupied only about a third of the space, but every piece had a trendy, youthful style.
Huo Mian’s gaze slowly moved downward until it stopped at the shoe rack.
She looked down at her own feet, then walked over to the shoe rack and picked out a pair of women’s sneakers.
Finding that the shoes were only one size too large, she quickly changed into them.
Seeing Huo Mian changing her shoes, Xu Mingfan finally realized that he was still wearing flip-flops.
Remembering the fall he’d taken earlier, he could still feel a dull ache in the back of his head. A trace of regret flashed through his eyes.
If he’d changed his shoes as soon as he entered the room, he wouldn’t have been chased around so miserably by those two zombies.
For one thing, the male zombie’s arm definitely wouldn’t have been able to reach through the gap.
He walked over and picked out a pair of black sneakers.
Huo Mian finished changing her shoes and stood up. Her gaze inadvertently landed on the clothing rack, and her beautiful eyes suddenly lit up.
“Brother Mingfan, take that clothes rod off and see if we can use it as a weapon.”
As she spoke, she pointed at the rod.
Upon hearing this, Xu Mingfan walked over in a few strides, gripped the rod with both hands, and gave it a few casual twists. He quickly removed it from the wardrobe.
He handed the rod to Huo Mian, a hint of excitement on his face.
“Using a clothes rod to kill zombies will be somewhat difficult, but it’s still better than having nothing.”
Huo Mian reached out and took the rod. It felt heavy in her hands and had quite some weight to it.
She examined it carefully and discovered that the rod was made of oak, with a diameter of about five centimeters.
Huo Mian looked at Xu Mingfan and handed the rod back to him.
“We can turn this into a spear by attaching it to the dagger from earlier.”
Xu Mingfan: “(°o°)!”