Around 9 a.m. the next morning, everyone gradually woke up. Huang Likai discovered that his girlfriend was missing, but he wasn’t worried at all and simply went off to find food for himself.
It was Chen Teng, who had just returned from guarding the entrance, who asked, “Where’s Yang Ling? Where did she go so early in the morning?”
The two brothers’ eyes kept drifting toward the women. If not for Zhang Qichuan being too proper—and fearing he might lose his position—they would have stopped holding back long ago.
The Storm Squad had already woken up. Hearing this, they exchanged looks. They already knew what had happened that morning and didn’t intend to expose it.
“Boss, you didn’t sleep well?” Xu Zimou looked at Zhou Nuocheng, who was still catching up on sleep, feeling puzzled. The boss never slept in.
Zhou Nuocheng rolled over without answering, frowned, glanced at Shi Ran, then continued sleeping.
Not bad—he’s learned. As long as he stays quiet, he’s still a handsome guy.
At that moment, Zhang Qichuan walked out from a corner of the supermarket and said, “She’s resting in my room. Early this morning when I went out to check the surroundings, she had already woken up and said she wasn’t used to sleeping on the floor. Since I was about to get up anyway, I let her rest in there.”
On the first day, Zhang Qichuan had already said the supermarket wasn’t completely safe. Since he was an ability user, he was responsible for checking the vents every morning. Coupled with his upright demeanor, no one doubted him.
“Oh, Boss, you don’t need to treat her so well. Just tell me if you need anything. I’ll handle it. I’ll go call her now.”
Huang Likai thought Zhang Qichuan valued him more and was even taking care of his people, so he was delighted.
“No need. Let her rest a little longer.” Zhang Qichuan waved it off and went to do other things.
Huang Likai felt even more honored and worked even harder.
Storm Squad: …This idiot really has thick “green glasses” on Zhang Qichuan.
“Do you believe that?” Chen Xin suddenly appeared beside them and asked out of nowhere.
“If not, what do you think?” Gu Ming replied coldly.
“I know you’re not ordinary people. If you don’t want to get involved, leave early. Neither upstairs nor downstairs are good people,” Chen Xin said calmly. “Oh right, his ability is corrosion.”
After saying that, he left.
He didn’t want to drag too many people into this. He only hoped they would be smart about it—otherwise he couldn’t guarantee no one would get hurt.
After he left, Zhou Nuocheng had already woken up. The Storm Squad wasn’t stupid—they realized things weren’t just about an affair anymore; it was likely more complicated.
“Don’t you think… him wearing a school uniform here is very out of place?” Zhou Nuocheng said hoarsely, his voice deeper than usual from just waking up.
Shi Ran suddenly had a flash of insight and finally caught what she had missed the day before.
“He’s an ability user.”
Zhou Nuocheng showed a hint of approval but said nothing, thinking of last night’s incident.
“He’s from Dongfeng High School—you remember, we passed by it. It’s not far, about six kilometers. During the zombie outbreak, high schools weren’t closed, and senior students usually studied late. Most students were still in school when it happened. The campus must have been chaos,” Shi Ran explained.
“Oh! Even if it’s only six kilometers, running here with almost no damage to his uniform… unless he’s Bolt, he must be an ability user,” Ye Shuyao realized immediately.
Xu Zimou also reacted. “True. Even Zhang Qichuan only got here because he was on a business trip nearby and awakened his ability. Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible.”
“Either way, we’re not their target. Once we finish the mission, we leave as soon as possible,” Gu Ming said gravely.
That morning, the Storm Squad helped organize supplies and successfully secured guard duty and night watch for the day.
Trying to perform in front of ability users, everyone was already used to it. Huang Likai was still laboriously sorting food like an ox—no, like a donkey.
“You girls don’t need to be on guard. It’s better if you rest,” Zhang Qichuan said kindly. “Guard duty may involve bloody scenes, you might not handle it well.”
On the surface, he seemed considerate. But after last night’s events, they only saw a hypocritical beast.
Zhou Nuocheng said calmly, “Then we’ll split into groups of three. I, Gu Ming, and Shi Ran will take the first shift.”
The arrangement had already been planned by the team. At night, three would go upstairs while three stayed downstairs. Ye Shuyao would monitor from below and use wind to signal if anything happened.
By afternoon, they finally noticed Yang Ling still hadn’t come out.
Huang Likai lost patience first. “What the hell, she’s just lying around while I do all the work?”
He was about to open the door when Zhang Qichuan stopped him.
“When I brought her food at noon, she looked extremely pained and her eyes were red and dark. She might… have been scratched somewhere.”
Everyone immediately stepped away from the door in fear.
“Boss, then just kill her quickly! If she turns, it’ll be harder to deal with!” Huang Likai quickly declared loyalty.
“I’ll watch her for now. If she doesn’t mutate, killing her would be unjustified,” Zhang Qichuan said.
Huang Likai thought he was too kind—but if he could latch onto someone like that, he could control him easily.
The Storm Squad, who had stayed inside, confirmed Chen Xin’s warning—this wasn’t just an affair.
Meanwhile, Zhou Nuocheng, Gu Ming, and Shi Ran stood guard at the supermarket entrance, occasionally using abilities to kill zombies as practice.
Shi Ran suddenly remembered something—she hadn’t checked whether zombies had crystals yet.
In the novel, crystals only appeared after a phenomenon called “June Snow.”
There was a passage describing it:
When snow fell in June, people wondered if it was the souls of the wronged warning the world. Myths and reality overlapped, and the topic of divine descent spread across the country.
People believed it was divine punishment and hoped that when the snow melted, forgiveness would come and peace would return.
But in truth, when the ice and snow melted, it marked the end of the old peaceful world—and the beginning of a new era of abilities.
If there were truly gods, then perhaps this was just a game they were playing—seeing how many millennia humanity would need to rebuild its home.