EOTWR Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Doctor Li came over and gave Ai Wei a check-up, changed the dressing on his wound, and said, “The wound is healing very well. There are no problems. Just rest for a while, and it should be fine.”

Previously, the bullet had been embedded in Ai Wei’s shoulder, even fracturing the bone. But after Ai Wei’s body was modified by his ability, his recovery was amazing. Even after being shot, he made it through the critical period after developing a fever.

“Is your leg okay?” Ai Wei asked Xia Junchi, “Is everyone else okay?”

“We’re fine. Apart from you being shot, the others only suffered minor scrapes.” Xia Junchi looked at his wound, and said with heartache, “My leg is fine too. Just focus on recovering.”

Ai Wei couldn’t help but smile, and said, “That’s good.”

Before he lost consciousness, he was very worried that something would happen to Xia Junchi and the others. Now that he saw everyone was safe and sound, he was relieved.

It turned out that after Xia Junchi hid him that day, he quietly went up to the second floor. At that time, Han Lu and Doctor Li were trapped in a room on the second-floor corridor, and the four intruders were smashing their door. Because of the commotion and because Xia Junchi was very careful, they didn’t notice him at all.

Xia Junchi shot them a few times in a row, and they fell to the ground.

Afterward, Doctor Li and Han Lu came out of the room. Doctor Li removed the bullet for Ai Wei, and Han Lu assisted him. After treating Ai Wei’s injuries, Doctor Li examined Xia Junchi’s leg. Then, they were too tired and went to rest.

When they woke up, they dragged all the corpses in the villa out to bury them and cleaned the villa inside and out.

Ai Wei had been unconscious for a day and a night. Because his injury made it difficult to move him, the group could only continue to stay in the villa.

They also reviewed the surveillance video from that day and saw that Wang Zhi was among the people who had broken into the villa.

Wang Zhi knew that they had set up some traps to deal with the ability wolves, but because they were wary of Wang Zhi’s devious mind, Wang Zhi didn’t know about all the traps.

In the video, Wang Zhi was walking in the front of the group. A few seconds after entering the villa’s hall, he stepped on the water on the ground and was electrocuted to death.

Although he deserved it, they had spent some time together after all. Seeing a living person die like that, everyone felt bad.

In addition to those who died and a few who escaped, they also captured one person in the villa.

This person was named Hong Yuan. When attacking the villa, he was lured into a trap by Han Lu and locked in a cage. He was luckier than his companions who were electrocuted or shot, at least he saved his life.

He was still locked in the cage in the basement, and everyone was having trouble deciding what to do with him.

If they kept him, they would have to feed him. The food in the villa was enough for them to eat for a long time, but if they added an adult man, the food would probably be used up quickly.

But if they just let him go, they were worried that Hong Yuan would come back to take revenge in the future, after all, they had killed so many of Hong Yuan’s companions.

Letting him go was naturally out of the question. For now, they could only keep him locked in the cage and decide later.

Ai Wei had been sleeping for so long, and the wound on his back was very painful, so he naturally couldn’t sleep. The pain was really unbearable. He had to protect himself in the future and not get injured so easily again.

The ability wolf didn’t seem to be planning to let them leave. There were often wolf shadows flashing outside the villa, as if they were watching them, not letting them leave. It looked like they were waiting for the ability wolf to recover and launch another attack.

Everyone wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, but with the ability wolf watching them, they didn’t even dare to leave the gate of the villa. Inside the villa, they could use water and electricity to form a protective barrier, but outside the villa, they only had guns and bows and arrows. Moreover, with the speed of the ability wolf, their chances of hitting it were very low.

Helpless, they could only send a distress signal to the nearest Safe Zone. Fortunately, the Safe Zone agreed to send an ability-user army to rescue them, which relieved them.

Then, they rested and waited for rescue.

Ai Wei was shot and his injury was the most serious, so he could only lie on the bed to recover. Xia Junchi’s leg hadn’t healed yet, but he could already do some simple rehabilitation exercises. The two of them had switched places, and now it was Xia Junchi’s turn to take care of him.

Wiping his face, wiping his body, and changing his dressing went without saying. Xia Junchi also massaged his legs from time to time because he wasn’t moving all day. When he took care of Ai Wei, his expression was serious and gentle. Aside from the pain from the wound, Ai Wei quite enjoyed it.

His wound ached for two more days, and then it didn’t hurt so much. Doctor Li had been paying attention to his condition and was surprised by how quickly his injury was healing. He also said that his body not only improved in fitness, but his body’s healing ability had also increased several times. At the current rate of recovery, his injury would be fully healed in less than a month.

In the past two days, he didn’t have the strength to cultivate his ability. So he spent most of his time online, and he didn’t stop contacting Ai Yi. Besides Ai Yi, he also spoke to his brother-in-law and his nephew, Yang Yang, several times. However, Ai Yi’s husband was too different in age from him, and they didn’t usually talk much. Now, on WeChat, they only exchanged a few simple pleasantries. Yang Yang used to get along with him, but since the zombie outbreak, Yang Yang’s personality had changed a lot.

He had spoken to Yang Yang several times, and Yang Yang not only became more silent, but even his thoughts became very negative. Originally, a sunny boy, he now didn’t like to communicate with people. If you said ten sentences to him, he would only reply with one at most.

Ai Wei felt that Yang Yang should have been too stimulated by the arrival of the apocalypse and developed psychological problems. Many people find it difficult to remain calm when faced with such a huge change. But now there was no way to find a psychologist for Yang Yang, so he could only comfort him and encourage him to cheer up and live well.

According to Ai Yi, the Safe Zone was becoming more and more crowded, and many people had to squeeze into one room. Daily necessities were also a bit scarce, but food was plentiful. After all, China was a major grain-storing country. There was already a lot of grain in the major granaries. Now that 90% of the population had become zombies, the remaining people had even more grain to eat.

In addition, many mourning activities were being held online.

With more than half of the population dead, almost everyone who survived had relatives and friends who had become zombies, or relatives and friends who had died on the road to escape in conflicts with humans. Someone was the first to mourn the deceased relatives online, and then there was the second and third. Therefore, for a long time after that, the Internet was full of news and posts mourning the dead. This kind of mourning activity greatly comforted the living who had lost their loved ones, and even the people in Youran Mountain Villa were infected by this atmosphere of mourning.

Because they had mobile phones and computers, and plenty of food and water, most people would stay safely in their communities and not run around. Many people had nothing to do all day long, either playing on their phones and computers at home or chatting and exercising in the community. Except for the death of more than half of the population, life didn’t seem to have changed much.

After the initial half month, people’s fear and pain of death decreased a lot, and more people began to want to survive well. Originally, there were still ordinary people and ability users who wanted to go out to kill zombies, but because of the isolation policy, no one could enter or leave the community casually, so those who wanted to kill zombies could only join the army first. As a result, a large number of civilian ability users joined the army, and the army’s speed of eliminating zombies became even faster.

As time went by, more and more zombies were cleared out. The range of the Safe Zone also became wider and wider. The high walls built by the Safe Zone also had more and more circles.

Perhaps, in a few months, or a year or two, the army will have completely solved the zombies in the city, or when humans develop a zombie virus vaccine, humans will no longer have to worry about the threat of zombies.

But that was all in the future. What was worrying now was that not only were there ability users among humans, but zombies were also showing signs of evolution.

When the army was eliminating zombies, some zombies used abilities. Moreover, as time went by, the zombies’ abilities became stronger and stronger. Not only that, but the zombies that had eaten living people also became more and more agile. Some zombies could only walk stiffly at first, but after eating people, not only did their bodies regain vitality, but even their intelligence gradually recovered.

The appearance of intelligent zombies caused the human army to suffer a great loss. Because they would disguise themselves as living people, and then ask the soldiers for help as if they were trapped, and then kill them and eat their brains when they came into contact with the soldiers, and then run away. After several soldiers were killed by zombies, humans became more vigilant against these intelligent zombies.

This prompted the army to speed up the elimination of zombies. Now, it was difficult to see zombies within a hundred miles of the Safe Zone, and some intelligent zombies had to hide in the deep mountains and forests.

Seeing the news about intelligent zombies, the people in Youran Mountain Villa felt a little creepy. After all, Youran Mountain Villa was located on the edge of the deep mountains and forests.

When Ai Wei was chatting with Ai Yi, he talked about the topic of intelligent zombies.

‘Now there are already ability zombies among the zombies. If these zombies continue to evolve, I don’t know what they will grow into.’ Ai Wei said worriedly: ‘Zombies only eat human flesh, if… I mean if, zombies become so smart, will they raise humans like humans raise chickens and ducks, and keep humans in captivity to provide them with food…’

This worry was what he thought of when he was daydreaming. Although it was a bit creepy, it wasn’t impossible. Thinking of that scene, he couldn’t help but feel goosebumps.

‘……’

Ai Yi was silent for a while, and said: ‘You’re overthinking it. The zombies are almost all killed. How can they keep humans in captivity? Compared to zombies, I think humans are more terrifying.’

When Ai Wei heard her say this, he couldn’t help but ask: ‘What’s wrong? Sister, did you encounter something?’

‘It’s nothing. I just feel that those zombies were originally humans, but it’s a bit too cruel to slaughter them so bloodily.’ Ai Yi said after a moment of silence.

“But if you don’t kill the zombies, humans will be eaten.” Ai Wei didn’t think so, and said: “If humans want to survive, they must be enemies with zombies. Otherwise, can you name a zombie that doesn’t want to eat people?!”

Some of Ai Wei’s colleagues and friends had also become zombies, so he could understand her feelings and couldn’t help but sigh.

“In short, take good care of yourself.” Ai Wei said.

‘I know, I know. You must protect yourself too. Don’t rush to the front in everything. I only have you as my younger brother. If something happens to you, my family will be all alone.’ Ai Yi said.

‘Don’t worry, Sister, I’ll take care of myself.’ Ai Wei said: ‘By the way, how is Yang Yang doing recently? I talked to him several times, but he didn’t say a word. Has he not adapted to his current life? Sister, you should also enlighten him occasionally. I think he’s changed a lot recently.’

‘Yang Yang is busy now. He goes to work with your brother-in-law during the day, and he goes to sleep when he gets home at night. He doesn’t play on his phone much anymore. Don’t worry, he’s fine. Many people have changed now. It’s not surprising that Yang Yang will change a bit after suddenly encountering such a change.’ Although Ai Wei heard her say this, he still felt that something was wrong with Yang Yang. He also sent Yang Yang a WeChat message, but after a long time, Yang Yang didn’t reply to him either.

He looked at the last message Yang Yang had replied to him. The time showed that the message was replied to more than a week ago. And below was a long string of messages that Ai Wei had sent him. It had been so long, even if he was busy, he should have replied to at least one of the messages.

‘Sister, in short, pay attention to Yang Yang. I think something’s wrong with him.’ Ai Wei said.

‘What could be wrong?! Don’t overthink it. Just take good care of yourself and don’t worry me.’

Ai Wei sighed when he saw that Ai Yi was still so unconcerned, and then said: ‘I’ll go to the Safe Zone in a while.’

‘The Safe Zone is far away from you. Be careful on the road and prepare more.’ Ai Yi said.

‘I know.’ Ai Wei closed WeChat and couldn’t help but feel worried. He thought that when he went to the B City Safe Zone, he had to go see Ai Yi’s family as soon as possible.

Because there were ability wolves on the side, everyone didn’t dare to relax day or night. At least one person would be left to watch the surveillance. After Ai Wei’s last life-and-death duel, the increase in his ability suddenly accelerated a lot.

He could even twist his divine sense into a line to touch the leaves. Although the leaves were very light, this progress made Ai Wei very happy. Because it proved that divine sense could touch real objects, as long as he worked hard to become stronger, he believed that he would be able to do more with mental power in the future.

Ai Wei spent time every day using his mental power to monitor the ability wolf, one was to prevent the ability wolf from attacking, and the other was to exercise his mental power. The area covered by his mental power became wider and wider. As the range of divine sense coverage increased, and he became more and more proficient in the use of mental power, he could lengthen his mental power to extend the length, following the ability wolf’s figure into the depths of the jungle.

This ability wolf came near Youran Mountain Villa every night, and returned to the forest during the day. Ai Wei’s mental power followed it for a long time, and he finally followed the wolf den with his mental power.

This group of wolves lived in a cave not far from the edge of the forest. The cave looked like it was dug out with wolf claws. It wasn’t deep or big. There was also a litter of wolf cubs in it. An adult wolf stayed in the cave to watch over these little wolves, and the other wolves were responsible for hunting, bringing back some food for the mother wolf and the little wolves who were watching the house every day.

Ai Wei’s divine sense brushed over these little wolves one by one and found that one of the three little wolves actually had abilities and could spit out weak fireballs.

The pack of wolves didn’t realize that their every move was exposed to Ai Wei’s ability monitoring. Ai Wei’s divine sense looked at these wolf cubs, and then turned his divine sense to the outside of the cave, checking every inch of the nearby area for anything strange.

He suspected that the reason why the ability wolf had become stronger so quickly was because it had eaten some mutated fruit with strong energy. If he could find mutated plants near the wolf den, he could confirm this.

His divine sense turned over every inch of the grass leaves, tree trunks, stones, sand, etc. on the ground, but after searching for a long time, he didn’t find a mutated plant.

Just when he felt that his mental power was a little tired and wanted to take it back, the mother wolf guarding the cave suddenly left the cave entrance.

The mother wolf sniffed in the air, and then stood on a high place to look left and right. It seemed that it was sure of the situation nearby, and then jumped to the ground and ran in one direction.

The mother wolf watching the little wolves would not leave the little wolves easily. What was this mother wolf going to do?

Ai Wei immediately cheered up, stretched out his mental power, and followed the mother wolf’s footsteps. Fortunately, the mother wolf didn’t run far, only a dozen meters before stopping.

It was pacing anxiously in front of a grape tree. The shape of the grape tree was no different from ordinary grape trees. However, it had strong ability fluctuations, so it should be a mutated plant.

Many mutated plants had already been discovered. It was not strange to see a mutated grape at this time. However, considering the ability wolf’s speed of ability increase, and that this mutated grape tree was near the wolf den, Ai Wei decided to observe this mutated grape tree more.

He saw the mother wolf staring at the mutated grape tree. After a while, it seemed to have made up its mind and suddenly pounced on a bunch of grapes on the vine.

This mutated grape tree had many bunches of quail-egg-sized grapes hanging on it. It was already the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, and some of the fruits on the grape tree had already ripened. The mother wolf was very fast, and its action of pouncing on the mutated grape tree was very neat. However, just as it was about to bite a bunch of grapes, a vine on the grape tree suddenly swung over and whipped it several meters away.

The mother wolf howled miserably a few times, but quickly got up from the ground and stared at the grape tree. And the grape tree also held up a grape vine, like holding an arm, threateningly facing the mother wolf.

The mother wolf stared at the grape tree and moved two steps to the left. As it moved, the grape vine seemed to have eyes and also turned 20 degrees to the left. The mother wolf moved two steps to the right, and the grape vine turned 20 degrees to the right again.

A wolf and a vine confronted each other for a few seconds. Suddenly, the mother wolf pounced on the grapes again like lightning.

“Snap”, the grape vine accurately whipped the mother wolf away again.

The mother wolf “howled” a few times. After getting up from the ground again, it reluctantly stared at the grape vine for a while, and then turned around and returned to the wolf den.

After the mother wolf left, the grape tree retracted its vine and returned to the appearance of an ordinary grape tree.

This was simply a grape spirit that had opened its intelligence!

Ai Wei, who had perceived all this through his mental power, couldn’t help but marvel. The existence of mutated plants was no longer a rare thing. The Safe Zone had even begun mass-producing mutated sweet potatoes. But this mutated grape still refreshed his understanding of mutated plants. Watching how the mutated grape repelled the mother wolf, he couldn’t help but suspect that this mutated grape was intelligent.

Moreover, he also suspected that the reason why the ability wolf could quickly become stronger in a short period of time was because it ate the mutated grape.

It was also very tiring to release the mental power for a long time. Ai Wei took back his mental power, rested for a few hours, ate something, and then released his mental power again, wanting to monitor the ability wolf to see if it would eat the mutated grape.

Although the mutated grape tree had driven away the ordinary mother wolf, it was really not certain that it could stop the ability wolf from eating its fruit if it faced the ability wolf.

However, the ability wolf wasn’t always wandering around Youran Mountain Villa. Ai Wei’s mental power searched around, but he couldn’t find the ability wolf.

He didn’t know if the ability wolf would come over today. Ai Wei simply kept his mental power next to the grape tree. If the ability wolf went to eat the grapes, he could also discover it in time.

However, the distance between the grape tree and Youran Mountain Villa was a bit far. Keeping the mental power so far away, Ai Wei would feel tired after a while. He could only watch for a while and rest for a while, but fortunately his hard work was not in vain. When it got dark, he finally sensed the ability wolf coming to the grape tree.

Ai Wei immediately cheered up and covered the grape tree and the ability wolf with his mental power to see how the ability wolf would treat the mutated grape tree.

He saw that unlike the mother wolf’s full concentration and vigilance, the ability wolf leisurely walked to the mutated grape tree, and then, without encountering any resistance, bit off a bunch of grapes from the grape tree.

When it bit off that bunch of grapes, Ai Wei sensed that the grape tree emitted a very unwilling and resentful emotion. It seemed that it didn’t want to offer its fruit at all, but it had to submit because of the ability wolf’s power.

It seemed that this mutated grape had been severely punished by the ability wolf before, so it was so obedient in front of the ability wolf.

It really had become a spirit!

Ai Wei marveled at the intelligence of this mutated grape. It could not only fight wolves, but also knew how to cater to humans, or rather, cater to wolves, with completely different attitudes towards ordinary wolves and ability wolves. This showed that it could distinguish between wolves and wolves, or rather, the difference between ordinary wolves and ability wolves.

With such a treasure, Ai Wei didn’t believe that the ability wolf’s rapid increase in strength wasn’t because it ate its fruit!

After discovering such a treasure, Ai Wei’s heart couldn’t help but heat up. If… if he ate the fruit of that grape spirit, his ability would definitely increase rapidly.

However, that grape spirit was near the wolf den. It was too difficult to approach it in the ability wolf and the wolf pack’s territory. The wolves’ noses were very sensitive. Not to mention approaching the grape spirit, even if they left Youran Mountain Villa, the ability wolf could smell it.

Thinking about the grape spirit’s combat power, one grape vine could knock a wolf flying, and Ai Wei couldn’t be sure if he could beat that mutated grape.

However, he couldn’t beat the mutated grape, but he could ask the people who came to rescue from the Safe Zone to dig up the mutated grape. Then, using the information he knew, he could always exchange some grapes with those people. If the Safe Zone had mutated grapes, they could also use them for research, and maybe they could cultivate more mutated grapes.

The Safe Zone soldiers had more advanced weapons, stronger abilities, and combat methods. They should have a way to deal with that ability wolf and the mutated grape, right?

On the third day of requesting support, the people from the Safe Zone finally arrived.

That day, Ai Wei was observing the ability wolf with his mental power, but he suddenly noticed three military trucks driving over on the road in the distance.

Moreover, after some training, his ability could already sense the difference between ability users and ordinary people. Now he could tell that all ten people in the car were ability users.

These people were all wearing military uniforms, and the car was also equipped with various weapons. It seemed that they were soldiers who had come out from the Safe Zone.

The convoy stopped at the gate of Youran Mountain Villa. The nearby wolf pack hid in the dense forest from a distance, watching the movement here. The ability wolf also looked at the convoy, its eyes gleaming with cold light.

Ai Wei opened the gate for them before they could get out of the car and ring the doorbell. After the three military trucks entered the gate, he quickly closed the gate again.

The car stopped in front of the villa, and then ten soldiers wearing protective clothing and gas masks got out of the car.

Ai Wei opened the door and welcomed them in.

The leader took off his gas mask, revealing a rather majestic face.

“Hello, my name is Lu Feng. Is this the rescue you requested?” Lu Feng said.

“It’s me.” Ai Wei said.

“According to your description, that ability wolf is very dangerous. We must eliminate it first.” Lu Feng went straight to the point without much small talk: “Please tell us all the information you know about the ability wolf.”

Ai Wei thought that this person was really a doer. He didn’t say any extra words and was going to kill the ability wolf.

However, he could understand. After all, the soldiers’ mission to kill zombies and mutated animals was very tight now, and the crystals of mutated animals could improve the ability of ability users. Many ability users would desperately kill zombies and earn crystals to cultivate, taking advantage of the fact that the zombies hadn’t been killed yet. Lu Feng came here this time, and in addition to taking them to the Safe Zone, he wouldn’t let go of the ability wolf’s crystal.

After figuring this out, Ai Wei didn’t say any more nonsense and led Lu Feng and his group to the screening room.

There were many surveillance cameras in the villa, and they were all the most advanced surveillance equipment, so they captured a lot of high-definition ability wolf images. Because the ability wolf was too fast, Ai Wei had to slow down the video speed several times before everyone could see the ability wolf’s images clearly.

“That ability wolf is very fast, very strong, and is still getting stronger. A few months ago, it could only follow behind our car, but now, it is estimated that its speed can easily surpass the car.” Ai Wei said.

Lu Feng and his men looked at the ability wolf in the video, their expressions very solemn.

In the LCD video that filled the entire wall, the ability wolf was not only as fast as lightning, but also very powerful. One paw could flatten a car. Even special soldiers who often fought with mutated animals rarely saw such strength.

However, this also indirectly showed that the mutated grape did have the effect of improving abilities. After all, the ability wolf didn’t often have the opportunity to improve its abilities other than eating the mutated grape.

Ai Wei originally thought that they would discuss how to hunt the ability wolf, but Lu Feng only looked at the images a few times, asked Ai Wei some information about the ability wolf, and was about to set off to hunt the wolf.

Ai Wei…

He felt a little uneasy…

“Wait.” Ai Wei stopped them and said: “I am also an ability user. My ability can figure out everything within hundreds of meters. Let me go with you, with me, you can quickly find the wolf pack.”

Lu Feng stopped when he heard the words and asked, “What is your ability?”

Ai Wei then explained his ability to him.

Lu Feng’s eyes gradually lit up when he looked at Ai Wei, and suddenly asked: “Do you have any intention of joining the army?”

Ai Wei was stunned for a moment. He really hadn’t thought about joining the army.

He had participated in several military training sessions at school, but the military training for students was still incomparable to that of soldiers. He didn’t think he could endure the hardship of the army. Moreover, if he joined the army, wouldn’t he have to separate from Xia Junchi?

Even if Xia Junchi also joined the army, Xia Junchi didn’t have any abilities, so it was likely that he wouldn’t be assigned to the same team as him! So, although the army was the place where he could improve his abilities the most, he really didn’t want to join the army.

However, before Ai Wei could answer, Lu Feng began to persuade: “There are the best ability cultivation methods in the army. If you join the army, I can guarantee that your ability will increase by one level within two months. Moreover, if you follow the army to hunt zombies and mutated animals, you can not only receive contribution points issued by the government, but also receive the crystals of mutated animals or zombies. I hope you can consider it carefully. This is a good opportunity for ability users.”

Throughout China, countless ability users had appeared so far, but the place with the highest ability user awakening rate was still the army. After all, soldiers had better physical fitness than ordinary people. And because soldiers’ immunity was generally stronger than that of ordinary people, the probability of zombies appearing in the army was lower than that of ordinary people.

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