Chapter 24: Ability Users
The ground beneath everyone’s feet began to shake. Instinctively, they huddled together, watching in horror as more and more vines burst up from underground. Thick and thin alike, they split the ground into jagged cracks.
No one could tell whether these vines that grew of their own accord came from Wu Heng’s body or from deep beneath the earth.
But no matter their origin, the fear in everyone’s hearts swelled just like the frenziedly spreading vines.
The vines started climbing along the edges of the building, stretching upward without pause. Balconies, windows, and walls were gradually swallowed in green, until every inch of the building was covered, tightly cocooned in a living shell.
Lin Mengzhi held his breath, staring at the scene before him. His heart pounded wildly, because he had more or less guessed what Wu Heng intended to do.
The taste of blood seeped between Wu Heng’s teeth, his face paling rapidly.
The vines at the rooftop visibly quivered, then loosened with an unsteady sway before beginning to retract.
As they fell back and drew away, the already-crushed residential building collapsed, floor by floor.
By the time the vines had fully withdrawn and disappeared without a trace, the building they had just enveloped was no more than a heap of steel and concrete rubble.
The silence was absolute.
The first to come back to her senses was a middle-aged woman from the third floor. She stumbled forward two steps, lips trembling uncontrollably.
“I’m calling the police, I’m calling the police…” she muttered.
There was almost no need to guess—it was Wu Heng’s doing. The boy had destroyed their homes, their property, and the only safe haven they had in this apocalypse.
And the reason he had taken such vicious revenge was merely for a bit of food, and because of an old woman who wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway.
“Wu Heng, how could you do this? We already listened to you and came downstairs, but you destroyed our house. What good does this do you?”
“You expect us to go where now? It’s full of zombies out there!”
“My whole house is that one apartment—you’ll pay for it.”
“Your parents are still inside the house!”
Wu Heng tugged at the corner of his mouth. “My parents are in my stomach.”
Several loud gulps echoed.
A man’s face swelled with rage. He rolled up his sleeves, shoved people aside, grabbed a shovel from the ground and shouted, “I’ll kill you!” Raising the shovel high, he strode toward Wu Heng.
“Boom.”
A blazing flame hovered in Lin Mengzhi’s palm as he stepped in front of Wu Heng. “Who are you trying to kill?” he demanded.
The man skidded to a halt, staring at Lin Mengzhi as if he were a monster.
Lin Mengzhi continued, “It’s already generous of us that we didn’t make all of you die with her. You killed my grandma—wasn’t that enough? Now you want to keep killing?”
“My grandma wasn’t unkind to you, was she? She’d give you food if it was ready—she’d even pick up the trash that fell from your floors and put it away. You steal things and that’s one thing, but she’s blind and old. You hurt her and left her; so many zombies came into the room…” Lin Mengzhi choked up and could not finish.
He stared at them with eyes rimmed red. “Today I’m here—no one will hurt A’Heng.”
Wu Zhi crouched by his feet and carefully tugged at his trouser leg. “Me too. Don’t hurt me.”
The man slowly lowered the shovel, his gaze fixed on the fire in Lin Mengzhi’s palm. He broke down, “We didn’t mean it, we really didn’t!”
“I don’t care whether you meant it or not—wrong is wrong, and you must pay for it!” Lin Mengzhi’s voice went hoarse; he forced himself not to hurl the flame at them.
The man clamped his mouth shut and turned his head away. The others behind him chose silence as well.
Above and below, sky and earth alike fell utterly silent.
Wu Heng’s body was still in a state of collapse. Having just used his ability, he had nearly hollowed himself out completely. With no food, no energy core of the same type, he sat on the ground without even the strength to stand.
His palm was pressed against the ground at his side. When his gaze swept casually downward, he caught sight of thin, white, whisker-like strands sprouting from beneath his hand.
They burrowed into the earth.
Very soon, Wu Heng felt the dizziness and weakness in his body improve slightly.
He thought to himself that these white tendrils were most likely the roots of the poppy—having lost too much energy, it had gone into self-sustaining mode, slowly drawing the nutrients it needed from the soil.
Now there really was no difference between him and a plant, Wu Heng mused.
The silence outside didn’t last long. Suddenly, a crackling sound of electricity filled the air.
At first, no one paid attention. But in the midst of the intermittent static, a woman’s coughing suddenly broke through.
And the static wasn’t just here beside the ruins—it spread throughout the entire residential district, throughout every corner of Hanzhou, almost all at once.
“Good morning, citizens of Hanzhou. I am Guan Yingxue, the mayor of Hanzhou.”
“Next, I will broadcast an important announcement. I ask every surviving citizen to listen carefully to every sentence, every word I say, and to remember them all. Because this concerns the life and death of each and every one of us.”
“A week ago, an unknown virus swept across the globe. Not only humans were infected—everything in the biosphere was not spared. Whether humans themselves, the plants and animals all around us, even the microorganisms in the air—all had some chance of being infected. And once infected, the chance of rescue is currently confirmed to be zero.”
“As of today, the entire nation, and indeed the entire world, has fallen to this disaster, without exception. This morning, we received notice that from now on, each region will be managed by its local government.”
Although the broadcast was broken and intermittent, the mayor’s voice had undoubtedly given everyone hope. Everyone was waiting for her to announce a way to deal with this disaster.
The signal vanished for a long while. When it finally returned several minutes later, it was still Guan Yingxue speaking.
“But the reason humanity is humanity is because no matter what circumstances we face, we can adapt quickly to survive in new environments. In this disaster, every species on Earth has undergone signs of mutation—including humans.”
“After discussion, we have made a preliminary classification of mutations into two categories. One is distortion, which ultimately turns into bloodthirsty zombies craving living beings. The other is evolution.”
“So far, known evolutionary directions include the five elemental systems—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Subdivisions of these systems are still being studied. Apart from the five elements, senses such as hearing, smell, and vision, as well as physical traits like muscle, speed, strength, and skin, may evolve differently depending on the individual. Unfortunately, not everyone will evolve. The probability of successful evolution is extremely, extremely low. For now, we refer to those who succeed as Ability Users.”
“Now, our government sincerely extends a call for recruitment to all Ability Users. We hope you will aid us in Hanzhou’s reconstruction, and help restore life to our homeland!”
When her words ended, the broadcast once again fell silent.
Among the crowd, people gradually began to react.
“Evolution? You mean, like superpowers in movies?”
“I don’t feel any different—I didn’t evolve!”
“Then what about ordinary people? What are we supposed to do?”
“So in the government’s eyes only ability-users matter, and we ordinary people are left to die?!”
People had been hiding in their homes for nearly a week. During that time, both the government and the army had seemed to vanish into thin air. Now, when they finally resurfaced, the news they brought struck like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, and once more a heavy shadow fell over every citizen of Hanzhou.
…
“Mom! Mom! Let me in!” Outside the glass door of Hanzhou’s main broadcast control room, a short-haired girl wept and pounded on the door.
Inside, Mayor Guan Yingxue signaled the nearby ability-users to keep the power flowing. She shook her head. “I have one last thing to say.”
“Mayor…” A young man began to activate his ability with one hand while the other gripped a handgun.
Guan Yingxue dug her fingers into the edge of the desk. Her eyes had already lost some of their color, but her expression remained resolute. “I don’t have much time left. If it’s a distortion, whether I finish speaking or not—deal with it.”
Even the cries of her only daughter outside the door did not make her turn around. She only showed a flicker of emotion, then said, “I entrust her to you—Hanzhou and all its citizens, I entrust to you.”
The young man wiped his tears and nodded through his sobs.
Soon afterward, Guan Yingxue’s voice returned to the broadcast.
“I am not originally from Hanzhou, but I have served in the Hanzhou municipal government for nearly twenty years. From the day I chose to be a public servant, I resolved to give my last drop of blood and tears for the people.”
“Hanzhou now faces this catastrophe. I cannot turn back fate; I can only watch the city I have protected for twenty years become unrecognizable. I truly, truly wish for each of you to live on— I—”
Guan Yingxue could not hold back and turned her head; she managed only to say “live on.”
Outside the door, the girl could only see her mother’s lips forming words.
The broadcast that had held the entire city’s attention ended with a gunshot and one final cry of “Mom!”
—
The sky was heavy with clouds; the sun drifted in and out.
People who had been hiding at home, because of that broadcast, finally began to venture outside again—carefully and in small groups.
It was obvious that every organization, official or otherwise, was facing collapse and confronting the same—or even worse—difficulties as everyone else.
In times like these, no one could rely on anyone or any group except themselves.
Wu Heng dug quite a lot of supplies out of the ruins and stored them in his space. Most of it wasn’t food, but daily necessities.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t him personally doing the digging—the vines were the ones busy at work.
“Hey! Where did the stuff I just dug out go?!” Lin Mengzhi, covered in dust from head to toe, turned around only to see that the things he had worked so hard to uncover had disappeared the instant Wu Heng waved his hand. He thought for a moment he’d just witnessed magic.
Wu Heng pointed at his chest. “In my heart.”
A blank look crossed Lin Mengzhi’s face. “That sounds kind of cheesy.”
“……”
Wu Zhi giggled from the side. “Brother Mengzhi, you’re making a fuss over nothing again.”
“You’ve seen this before?”
Wu Zhi leaned in mysteriously. “Doraemon does the same thing.”
The little girl’s childish words, oddly enough, cleared up Lin Mengzhi’s confusion.
He didn’t ask further. Once he realized Wu Heng had some kind of invisible pouch, he threw himself into the ruins with renewed energy, digging up anything useful for Wu Heng to stash away.
A growing pile of junk formed at Wu Heng’s feet. He glanced over it and carefully picked out a few items to keep.
At that moment, a vine pulled an album out from under the rubble and handed it to Lin Mengzhi.
Seeing his family’s photo album, Lin Mengzhi nearly burst into tears.
Piece by piece, the three of them armed themselves. Wu Heng’s short blade had been lost back at the kindergarten, so he settled for a kitchen knife for now, and even tucked his own box cutter into Wu Zhi’s hand.
“These clothes down here are useless—too dusty to wear,” Lin Mengzhi said, hugging the photo album as he jumped down from the rubble.
Wu Heng wasn’t worried. “We’ll get some from the mall.”
“Yes, yes!” Lin Mengzhi snapped back to himself. “Given the situation, of course we can just take them straight from the mall!”
Once they had more or less sorted out their gear, the three of them bowed several times to the small mound in the courtyard before setting off to leave.
Not far away, a family of three who had been watching the whole time suddenly held the little girl’s hand and ran toward them.
“Wu Heng, Mengzhi, Mengzhi, wait, wait for us.”
The little girl in the man’s arms still had a clear slap mark on her face. It was the same family from the fifth floor.
The woman’s attitude had changed a lot. She hunched slightly and asked, “Wu Heng, um… are you leaving? Where are you planning to go?”
“Don’t know.” Wu Heng’s tone was indifferent. “Just wandering around. The world’s a big place.”
By now, this family had already realized the existence of ability users. They had seen firsthand how different these two boys were, and they knew these must be the ones the mayor had spoken of.
“Wu Heng, I have a presumptuous request—”
Lin Mengzhi’s face hardened. “Then don’t make it.”
But the woman kept her eyes on Wu Heng. She quickly pulled the little girl out of the man’s arms and held her herself, speaking anxiously:
“Children shouldn’t have to pay for adults’ mistakes. You saw just now how well-behaved and sensible my daughter is. I don’t ask for anything else—just please, I beg you, can you take her with you? Anywhere is fine. Let her stay with Wu Zhi, they’re about the same age anyway, they could keep each other company.”
“No! I want to stay with you!”
Before Wu Heng could even respond, the little girl burst into tears, clutching her mother’s neck tightly and refusing to let go.
“Why are you making this so hard on me? If you stay with me and your father, how many days can you live…? You—”
Wu Heng cut her off. “I won’t take her.”
The woman was shocked. “Why not?”
Wu Heng thought for a moment and said, “Troublesome. And besides, she can’t be eaten.”
Hearing the words “can’t be eaten,” and recalling that Wu Heng had said earlier that Wu Shiming and Zeng Like were in his stomach, the woman’s face drained of color. She stumbled back two steps involuntarily.
Seeing that the family of three had clearly abandoned their initial plan, Wu Heng’s expression stayed cold as he walked past them with his backpack. Lin Mengzhi and Wu Zhi quickly hurried to follow.