After nightfall, scattered lights came on inside the park. Through the crow’s perspective, He Xu saw that most people were gathered in the cafeteria area, with only a few patrol members moving around the park.
At 9:50 PM, the operation began.
Li Jun nimbly climbed over the wall. As a former employee, he knew where there were the fewest cameras and where the barbed wire was already damaged.
He quickly disappeared into the night.
Liu Li, meanwhile, circled to the park’s main gate and used prepared firecrackers and an iron bucket to create a huge noise.
Sure enough, the lights inside the park began to move, and voices and footsteps gathered toward the main gate.
“Now’s the time.” He Xu nodded to Xie Zhiwei.
The two climbed over the wall using the drainage pipes on the side. When they landed, it happened to coincide with the sound of the firecrackers, so they would not be discovered.
Meiqiu followed behind them, almost invisible in the shadows.
Following the route Liu Li had provided, they advanced close to the factory walls, avoiding the main roads. He Xu maintained the ability connection the entire time, scouting ahead through Meiqiu’s night vision and monitoring the overall situation through the crow in the sky.
“Turn left. Two patrol members are approaching.” She lowered her voice.
Xie Zhiwei immediately stopped, and the two shrank behind a pile of discarded building materials. The footsteps went from far to near, and the flashlight beam swept across their previous position.
“What was that sound just now?”
“Don’t know. The boss told us to check the main gate.”
“So annoying… I heard two ability users came from outside today. Maybe Old Man Li and his group are back.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? We have three ability users, and guns…”
“And all these people. What can just two ability users do to us…”
The voices gradually faded into the distance.
He Xu and Xie Zhiwei exchanged a glance and continued forward.
The warehouse was deep inside the park, a standalone gray building. Just as Liu Li had said, there were two guards at the door, smoking and chatting.
“I’ll take care of them.” Xie Zhiwei said softly.
“No, I will.” He Xu pressed his shoulder. “Your ability makes too much noise.”
She closed her eyes and extended her ability to the limit.
A nest of sparrows lived under the warehouse eaves, sleeping in their nest at the moment. He Xu gently touched their shallow consciousness and issued a simple command.
Startled flight.
Dozens of sparrows suddenly burst from the nest, flapping their wings and crashing toward the two guards.
“What the hell!”
“Birds! So many birds!”
The guards frantically waved their arms, trying to drive away the flock. At that instant, He Xu rushed out from the shadows, the handle of the fire axe slamming hard into the back of one man’s neck.
The other man reacted and was about to shout when Xie Zhiwei had already appeared at his side. His small hand covered the man’s mouth and nose, and frost quickly covered the lower half of his face.
The guard stared wide-eyed, struggled a few times, and finally went limp.
“He’s unconscious.” Xie Zhiwei said softly, confirming both men were still breathing.
He Xu found a ring of keys at the guard’s waist, found the one marked for the warehouse, and opened the cold storage door.
Cold air rushed out.
Under the dim light, more than a dozen thin figures were curled up in the corner. There were elderly people, women, and two children under ten. Everyone was thinly dressed, shivering in the low temperature.
When they saw He Xu and Xie Zhiwei, they were first terrified, then upon realizing these were not people from the “Management Committee,” a faint hope lit up in their eyes.
“We’re here to save you.” He Xu tried to keep her voice gentle. “Can you walk on your own?”
An old man with white hair stood up tremblingly. “Young lady, you are…?”
“Li Jun sent us.” He Xu said the key name.
Low sobbing rose from the crowd.
“I knew he wouldn’t abandon us…”
Clearly, Li Jun still held prestige in these people’s hearts.
“Quick, hurry.” He Xu urged. “Zhiwei, take them out through the side door. Uncle Li is there to receive them. I’ll stay behind to delay any pursuers.”
“No.” Xie Zhiwei immediately objected. “We stay together.”
“This is a tactical necessity.” He Xu interrupted him. “I’ll create a false impression, making them think the hostages are still here. After you safely send them off, we’ll meet up again.”
Xie Zhiwei stared at her for a few seconds. “Can you promise me?”
“I promise.” He Xu smiled. “Now go.”
The crowd quickly evacuated under Xie Zhiwei’s guidance. He Xu watched them disappear into the night, then turned to face the empty cold storage.
Now, she needed to put on a show.
She took out the prepared recorder from her backpack. This was a treasure she had found in the elementary school music classroom.
He Xu pressed the play button. Pre-recorded whispers, coughing, and children’s crying began echoing through the cold storage, seeming especially real in the enclosed space.
Then she locked the door, put the keys back on the unconscious guard, and hid herself in the ventilation duct on the second floor of the warehouse.
She had just hidden when footsteps arrived.
“What’s going on? Why are the guards down?!”
“The cold storage door is still locked… there are sounds inside. The hostages should still be there.”
“But Old Man Li and his group are definitely up to something! Full alert! Search the entire park!”
He Xu held her breath, observing below through the gap in the ventilation opening.
Five or six people came. The leader was a burly bald man, his arm muscles bulging exaggeratedly.
This was probably the strength-enhancement ability user. Beside him stood a tall, thin man with sharp eyes, likely the speed type.
“Something’s wrong.” The speed-type ability user suddenly said. “Why is there water on the ground?”
He crouched down and touched the ground with his fingers. The places with water marks were colder than elsewhere. Combined with the ability user who had come near the base today…
“It’s an ice-type ability!” The tall, thin man suddenly raised his head. “They’re already inside the park!”
The people other than the bald man had no abilities and began to panic.
Seeing this, the bald man roared: “Don’t panic! We have numbers. Just one natural-type ability user—taking him down is no problem.”
The bald man was called Shi Feng. He had originally been the director of a water plant in the neighboring district. After the zombie descent, he awakened a strength-enhancement ability and was almost invincible.
He came to the west city park, a place with many dangers but abundant resources. Shi Feng killed the previous chairman of the management committee, seized the park, and lived a luxurious life.
The tall, thin man discovered footprints in the direction Xie Zhiwei had retreated. “Report! They went this way!”
Shi Feng: “Chase!”
He Xu’s heart tightened.
A variable had appeared in her plan. She had not expected the other side to notice the traces of the ice-type ability so quickly and respond so fast.
Below, the search team dispersed. He Xu quietly moved backward, preparing to leave from the other end of the ventilation duct.
But just then, a cold voice sounded in the warehouse:
“No need to search. I’m here.”
He Xu’s whole body froze.
That was Xie Zhiwei’s voice!
He walked out from his hiding place and stood in the moonlight in the center of the warehouse.
Xie Zhiwei’s figure seemed especially thin and small in the empty warehouse, but he stood straight, his eyes calm and rippleless.
“Kid, you’ve got some nerve.” Shi Feng grinned. “Just you alone? Isn’t there another female companion?”
“What’s wrong? Did she run away in fear?”
“I alone am enough.” Xie Zhiwei said.
“Truly ignorant of the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth!” The speed-type ability user instantly activated, turning into an afterimage as he lunged at Xie Zhiwei. “Let me teach you what power means!”
But the instant his fingers were about to touch Xie Zhiwei’s collar, ice walls suddenly rose from the ground.
Six ice walls rose simultaneously from different angles, forming a perfect ice prison that trapped the speed-type ability user inside. The ice wall surfaces were smooth as mirrors, with no point of leverage at all.
The speed type frantically pushed against the ice walls inside, but could not shake them at all.
“What?!” Shi Feng was shocked. “This level of control…”
Xie Zhiwei did not give him time to think. He raised his right hand, five fingers curved in a loose grip.
The moisture in the warehouse air quickly condensed, forming dozens of ice needles around the bald man, each as thin as a hanging thread, stopping less than ten centimeters from his body.
“Put down your weapons and have all your people come out.” Xie Zhiwei’s voice had no fluctuation. “Otherwise, the next strike won’t stop.”
The air froze.
He Xu watched all of this from the ventilation duct, her heart pounding wildly. The Xie Zhiwei at this moment was very much like the description in the original work—absolute control over power, cold ruthlessness when facing enemies.
Shi Feng clearly also felt the fatal threat. He slowly raised both hands. “Okay, okay, we surrender… everyone come out!”
Another seven or eight people walked out from the shadows, all members of the “Management Committee.” Looking at their trapped companion and the ice needles hovering around their boss, their faces were pale.
“Put down your weapons and squat by the wall.” Xie Zhiwei ordered.
No one dared resist. In the face of an absolute gap in power, any struggle seemed laughable.
Just when everyone thought the situation was settled, a sudden change occurred.
A cargo box in the corner of the warehouse suddenly exploded, and smoke filled the air.
At the same time, the third ability user finally appeared.
She was a young woman with glasses. With a wave of both hands, all the metal fragments on the ground flew up and shot toward Xie Zhiwei like a rainstorm!
“Zhiwei!” He Xu cried out in alarm and jumped down from the ventilation opening.
But she was one step too late.
Xie Zhiwei did not even turn his head. His left hand maintained the ice needle array, while his right hand waved backward.
All the metal fragments solidified in midair, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of ice, then clattered to the ground.
And the metal controller found that ice had already formed beneath her feet at some unknown point, freezing her firmly in place.
“How is that possible…” The woman with glasses could not believe it. “How can you control attacks from three directions at once?!”
“Even the S-rank ability users in Dawn Base can’t do that!!! What exactly are you?!”
Xie Zhiwei finally turned his head. Because of using his ability, his eyes had turned ice-blue, glinting under the moonlight.
“Because,” he said softly, “you are too weak.”
The instant he finished speaking, the temperature of the entire warehouse plummeted. Frost spread wildly in all directions with Xie Zhiwei as the center, climbing the walls, covering the ceiling, turning the entire space into an ice cave.
All members of the “Management Committee” were frozen from the waist down, unable to move.
Xie Zhiwei walked toward Shi Feng. The ice needles moved with his steps, always aimed at the target’s vital points.
“W-wait!” Shi Feng shouted in terror. “We surrendered! We really surrendered!”
“Too late.” Xie Zhiwei said. “When you bullied those people, did you give them a chance?”
Deep in his eyes, something was surging out.
That was the anger Xie Zhiwei had been suppressing all along—anger at injustice, anger at violence, anger at this cruel apocalypse.
“Zhiwei, stop.” He Xu finally ran to his side and held his hand. “Enough. They no longer have the ability to resist.”
Xie Zhiwei turned to look at her, the ice blue in his eyes receding slightly. “Jiejie, they hurt a lot of people. If we don’t deal with them completely, they’ll hurt even more people in the future.”
“Then lock them up, judge them, let everyone decide their fate.” He Xu held his hand tightly. “But don’t let it be you alone carrying out the death sentence. That will turn you into the same kind of person as them.”
“Their crimes should not be judged by you alone, Zhiwei.” He Xu said softly. “Whoever they treated badly, those people will take revenge on them. Remember the people you rescued? They will give you a good answer.”
A long silence.
The ice needles began to tremble slightly, then slowly dissipated. The temperature in the warehouse gradually rose again.
Xie Zhiwei closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, the ice blue in his eyes had completely faded, returning to the deep brown befitting a twelve-year-old.
“Sorry, jiejie.” He said softly. “I lost control a little just now.”
He Xu hugged him. “You did very well. It was you who saved us, saved everyone. Just remember, the power belongs to you. Don’t let it control you.”
Li Jun rushed into the warehouse with people at that moment, and was stunned by the scene before them.
“Th-this… you two dealt with all of this?”
He Xu nodded. “First tie these people up and lock them in the cold storage. Tomorrow, we are going to hold a general meeting.”
“A general meeting?”
“Yes.” He Xu looked around the warehouse, her gaze firm. “A meeting to decide the future of this park. Everyone has the right to speak. Everyone participates in making the rules.”
She looked out the window. On this chilly night, they had taken back a park.