EOTWR Chapter 22
by VolareThinking of this, Xia Junchi felt a pang of heartache, but couldn’t help feeling a little relieved.
After Ai Wei hugged him, one hand very smoothly slipped into his clothes, feeling his pectoral muscles.
However, he just wanted to seek comfort at this time, so he didn’t have any other actions.
Looking at the quiet and dependent look of the person in his arms, Xia Junchi suddenly had the illusion that he was holding a baby.
He stroked Ai Wei’s hair and kissed Ai Wei’s forehead.
Just as the atmosphere was quiet and beautiful, Xia Junchi suddenly pulled his hand out of his clothes and put on a serious look.
Ai Wei’s heart was being comforted and healed, but was suddenly stopped and interrupted, and immediately looked at Xia Junchi with a resentful expression.
Xia Junchi also knew that it was a bit inhumane to push him away at this time, but he had to do so.
“Someone is coming in,” he said.
After he awakened his ability, his five senses became very sharp. And after a period of time together, he could already distinguish the footsteps of his teammates.
As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the ward was suddenly opened. Qi Fei, Zhou Yu, Xie Ning and others poured in, carrying gifts such as milk and biscuits in their hands.
“Xiao Wei, are you feeling better? We are all thinking about you! We all came to see you as soon as we finished our exercise,” Qi Fei said excitedly as soon as he came in, sitting next to Ai Wei.
Ai Wei, whose good deed was interrupted… I thank you for visiting me.
He forced a smile and said, “Much better, nothing uncomfortable.”
Looking at his smile, Qi Fei always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so he didn’t take it seriously and continued, “You really had a big outbreak the day before yesterday. If you hadn’t solved so many mutated rats by yourself, we probably wouldn’t have been able to come back in one piece!”
“Yeah!” Another teammate, Jin Ming, said, “I didn’t expect you to look so ordinary, but you are a hidden weapon of mass destruction!”
Ai Wei couldn’t remember the situation at the time, and was stunned when he heard them say this.
Could it be that he solved those mutated rats?
He recalled the situation at the time, and then, he remembered the scene of those surging mutated rats, suddenly falling down in large numbers and screaming miserably.
It turned out that under the fear at that time, he launched a mental stab to attack the mutated rat swarm, and those mutated rats were all attacked by him.
His mental stab couldn’t kill the mutated rats, but it could still cause severe pain in their brains, temporarily losing their ability to move. Of course, some mutated rats were directly stabbed into imbeciles by his mental attack.
The group of mutated rats was about to catch up with them, but after being blocked by him, they were thrown off again.
However, mental stab attacks consume ability, and he launched such a large-scale mental stab attack at once, and his ability was also severely overdrawn. So after the attack, he also fell down.
Ai Wei understood what was going on when he recalled this.
He couldn’t help but let out a breath, and still felt a little lingering fear when he recalled the scene at that time.
However, being able to launch such a strong mental stab attack was also greatly beyond Ai Wei’s expectations.
Usually, he can only launch three mental stab attacks at most, and his ability will be exhausted. This time, he knocked down a large area of mutated rats in one breath, which is definitely an extraordinary performance.
Could it be that fear stimulated his potential?
Thinking of this, Ai Wei wanted to release his mental power to test whether his mental power had become stronger. However, as soon as his mental power was released, he felt a headache.
“Um…” He groaned in pain and reached out to cover his head.
“What’s wrong with you?” Xia Junchi asked, supporting him when he saw this.
“A bit of a headache… I just tried to release my mental power, and I felt a headache,” Ai Wei’s face became a little pale again, and said, “However, it only hurt for a moment, and it doesn’t hurt anymore now.”
Xia Junchi frowned and said, “I told you to rest well, why did you release your mental power? The doctor said that you should rest well during this period and not use your ability.”
Zhou Yu also said when he saw this, “Just have a good rest, some people in our Safe Zone have had their abilities severely overdrawn before, and the crystal core in that person’s brain almost cracked. If you use your ability before the crystal core is completely repaired, there may be a result of crystal core fragmentation. At that time, let alone the crystal core, you may not be able to save your life.”
There are also crystal cores in the bodies of ability users, and most ability users have crystal cores in their brains. When the crystal core is broken, it will produce an explosion, especially some abilities with more explosive attributes, such as fire-type abilities, thunder-type abilities, etc. When the crystal core is broken, the energy that erupts may directly blow up its owner.
Ai Wei also knew this, but he didn’t expect his crystal core to shatter just now. Now hearing Zhou Yu say this, he couldn’t help but feel a little scared.
Hearing Zhou Yu say this, Xia Junchi couldn’t help but feel a little scared, and asked the doctor to check Ai Wei again. Fortunately, Ai Wei immediately stopped using his ability when he felt uncomfortable, so the crystal core was not damaged much, and it should be fine after a few days of rest.
“You should rest well these few days, and return to the team after you have recovered your ability,” Lu Feng said, looking concerned when he saw him, and his eyes were like looking at a treasure.
After yesterday’s battle, Lu Feng realized more deeply how useful Ai Wei’s ability was.
Ai Wei’s ability can see places they can’t see, and can also release such a large-scale destructive power. If there was no Ai Wei yesterday, they would probably have lost most of their teammates in the mutated rat swarm.
Although Ai Wei’s ability is not very destructive now, Lu Feng believes that as long as he trains him more, he will definitely become very strong!
Thinking of this, Lu Feng’s eyes on Ai Wei became more gentle, earnestly instructing Ai Wei to take good care of his injury, keep a happy mood, and not worry about anything else.
Looking at Lu Feng’s tender gaze, Ai Wei couldn’t help but feel a little creepy, and couldn’t help but wonder if Lu Feng had taken a fancy to him??
It shouldn’t be, he remembers that Lu Feng seems to have a wife, so this should be an illusion, an illusion!
Lu Feng should just cherish talents, that’s why he is so concerned about him.
Ai Wei responded and asked, “What are you going to do with those mutated rats?”
“Yesterday we sent drones into the mutated rat’s cave to check the situation inside the cave, but the drones were shot down by the mutated rats not far after entering,” Lu Feng said, “Those mutated rats saw the miniature drones flying in, and probably thought they were flying insects, and pounced on them and bit them to pieces.”
Mutated rats have sharp five senses and are very smart. It is probably impossible to use drones to enter the rat’s nest to investigate their situation.
However, without entering the rat’s nest, drones can still understand the situation of the mutated rats outside. For example, in just a few days, they have discovered that at least a dozen litters of mutated rat pups have been born in the town. Each litter has at least a dozen rat pups, and some litters have as many as 20 rat pups.
This is just what they have observed. In the underground rat holes that drones can’t reach, I don’t know how many pregnant mutated rats have given birth. Such a strong reproductive ability is chilling to think about.
In order to survive, this group of mutated rats has eaten everything that can be eaten in the town. Even the plants and animals near the town have been wiped out, and because of the existence of the mutated giant rat, they even have no natural enemies.
Many powerful mutated cats, mutated dogs, and even some mutated birds appeared after the end of the world, and they also eat mutated rats. But the natural enemies of these mutated rats are killed and dragged into the cave by the mutated giant rat as soon as they approach the town. Mutated animals also have a certain IQ. After discovering that there is danger near the town, they automatically stay away from the town.
This has led to the mutated rats in the town having no natural enemies and breeding crazily. If left unchecked, this group of mutated rats, which is growing geometrically, will probably expand to farther places for food, and will threaten human survival sooner or later.
Therefore, the Safe Zone now attaches great importance to the existence of the mutated rat swarm.
“I have reported the situation of the town to the higher-ups, and the specific plan depends on what the higher-ups arrange,” Lu Feng said, “Your ability is very useful, take good care of yourself, we need your ability now.”
There are a large number of mutated rats, but if heavy weapons are dispatched, coupled with so many ability users in the Safe Zone, it will not be difficult to solve them. But that giant rat is very powerful, and even a two-meter-long mutated cat can become its food. To kill it, they still need to know more about its information.
And Ai Wei’s ability is very beneficial to understanding the mutated giant rat or the entire mutated rat swarm. In addition, it will take time for them to transfer heavy weapons and enough ability users, so the action is scheduled for three days later.
By then, Ai Wei’s injury will have almost recovered, and he can return to the team.
Before that, Lu Feng hoped that Ai Wei could overcome his fear of mutated rats. At least be able to remain calm in the process of annihilating the mutated rats.
Ai Wei felt a chill down his spine when he thought of those mutated rats as big as golden retrievers, but he knew that he had to go, so he nodded stiffly and said, “I will try my best.”
Looking at his firm eyes despite his fear, Lu Feng couldn’t help but show a gratified smile. He patted him on the shoulder and said, “Take good care of yourself, we are all waiting for you to return to the team.”
Ai Wei勉强扯出了一個笑容，如果可以，他是真的不想面對變異老鼠。不過，身在末世，有些東西總是要克服的。
即便是他十分恐懼的變異老鼠，他也願意試着去克服這份恐懼。從小到大，他面對過很多困難，雖然不是每一個困難他都能克服，但大部分的困難他還是能靠努力解決的。現在既然他想要往上爬的更高，就要克服比以前更多的東西。
衆人又說了幾句話，便告辭了。等他們走後，夏俊馳看着艾維，問道：“你面對那些變異老鼠沒問題？”
艾維點了點頭，道：“到時候我就坐在車裏，給大家當個探測器，報告變異老鼠的情況，應該不會太靠近變異老鼠的。”
只是，話雖這麽說，到時候他要釋放異能，就不能離變異老鼠群太遠。這樣一來，就很難保證不會遇到變異老鼠。
而且，就算是躲進車裏，那些變異老鼠的爪子也可能會把車皮抓破。
夏俊馳也知道這一點，所以雖然聽他這麽說，還是忍不住擔心。
He thought for a while and said, “Since you want to participate in this task, you have to overcome your fear of rats first. How about this, I’ll catch a small, non-mutated rat first, and you can try to touch it.”
Ai Wei thought this was a good idea, so he agreed. However, the Safe Zone has already been cleaned several times, and there is no trace of rats. If you want to catch small rats, you can only go outside the Safe Zone.
Ability users have much higher immunity to the zombie virus than ordinary people, and because the team often has to go out to perform tasks, they live in a special residential area. This residential area has a separate city gate, surrounded by high walls, and it is much more convenient to enter and exit than ordinary people. Each time you come in, you only need to be quarantined for two hours and then disinfected.
Xia Junchi set up a few rat traps outside the city, but when he went to check them the next day, he saw that one of the rat traps had been violently destroyed by something. There were still some blood stains on the cage, and it looked like a small animal had entered, but other mutated animals had destroyed the cage from the outside and eaten the small animal.
Some of the other rat traps caught some small animals, but some caught nothing. It wasn’t until the third day that he caught a gray rat with a pointed head and a long tail.
That gray rat was considered big among ordinary rats, but compared to those mutated rats, it seemed very small.
Ai Wei was startled when he saw it for the first time, but soon, he was able to restrain his fear and observe the gray rat.
This rat looked very wretched, especially its long tail, which made his scalp tingle. However, after experiencing the mutated rat swarm, this wretched gray rat seemed much smaller and harmless. Looking at it, Ai Wei even felt a strange sense of security.
After all, compared to those mutated rats as big as puppies, this gray rat not only seemed very small and petite, but also posed no threat to him at all.
He even tried to touch the rat with a stick.
The rat was placed in a bucket, anxiously circling around the bucket, trying to climb out. When it was touched by the stick in Ai Wei’s hand, it also made a hissing sound in a grumpy manner, scaring Ai Wei.
“As long as you can stay rational and not make mistakes,” Xia Junchi encouraged him.
So Ai Wei took a deep breath and went to tease the gray rat again.
Half an hour later, Xia Junchi looked at his pale face and said with some reluctance, “Why don’t I find you a cat to boost your courage?”
Hearing this, Ai Wei, who was fighting with the gray rat, suddenly lit up and said, “Are there any cats here?”
“I saw a litter of kittens in the woods when I was catching rats yesterday,” Xia Junchi said.
But Ai Wei shook his head again and said, “It’s dangerous outside, you’d better not go out.” It took a few days to catch the rats, and I don’t know how long it will take to catch a cat. And he always felt that it was not safe outside, and he didn’t want Xia Junchi to go out more.
He thought for a while, and suddenly his eyes lit up and said, “That’s right, I can watch cat videos! I can fight rats while listening to cat meows.”
After saying that, he opened his mobile phone short video with great energy, and started swiping various internet celebrity cat videos. He also swiped and downloaded a lot of cat videos.
Seeing him like this, Xia Junchi stopped mentioning catching cats.
Xia Junchi had to train during the day, so he could only come to accompany Ai Wei at night. Fortunately, Ai Wei’s injury was not serious. After staying in the hospital for a few days and taking medicine that could heal crystal core cracks for two days, he was almost well.
This kind of medicine that can heal crystal core cracks is the latest research result of the Safe Zone. Because the production is not much, it is temporarily not open to the public. Ai Wei can use it for free because it is a work injury.
After not using his ability for a few days, he thought he would be a little rusty, but when he released his ability, he found that his use of ability was not only not rusty, but also stronger than before.
Not only did the range covered by his ability double, but even the power of the mental stab was much stronger than before. This made Ai Wei feel very happy. He felt that he should have overdrawn his mental power before, but it made his mental power break through.
This speed of improvement was much faster than his previous training, which made him feel a little comforted. At least the fear he had faced when facing the mutated rats before was not in vain.
However, if possible, he still doesn’t want to be in contact with those mutated rats again. But his ability is special and indispensable to the entire operation to eliminate the mutated rat swarm, so he had to bite the bullet and go.
Fortunately, after a few days of training, he also had a certain psychological resistance to rats.
In view of the strong reproductive ability of the mutated rat swarm, the Safe Zone started to eliminate the mutated rat swarm for the second time, intending to completely eliminate it. For this reason, many heavy weapons and advanced ability users were transferred from other Safe Zones, which was a very large scale.
Ai Wei was originally facing the mutated rat swarm as if he was facing a great enemy, but after seeing the planes circling in the sky, the tanks rolling on the ground, and so many excellent ability users, he couldn’t help but have more confidence in this mission.
This is the formation to fight against the mutated rat swarm! With so many powerful combat forces, he doesn’t believe that he can’t destroy that group of mutated rats.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but get excited. Because his ability was special, he was assigned to the command post this time to provide information and was separated from Xia Junchi.
Ai Wei released his mental power and checked the situation in the town. After finding nothing unusual, he marked the places where the mutated rat swarm gathered and the location of the mutated giant rat.
A few days passed, and the mutated rats in the town seemed to have multiplied even more. There was still no living thing here except for the mutated rats. Due to the lack of food, the mutated rats had even started to cannibalize each other.
That scene made Ai Wei feel very uncomfortable, but he still maintained his calm and rational mind, and completed his mission very well.
After making preparations, the bombers began to go into battle, bombing the places where the mutated rats were concentrated. Others surrounded the entire town. Waiting for any stray fish to run out, they will be killed.
The ordinary mutated rats suffered heavy casualties under the bombardment of the bombs, and many mutated rats were directly bombed to death. But there were still many who were not bombed to death, and they were frantically fleeing in all directions, trying to escape the bombardment range. The army surrounding the town immediately engaged in battle with these mutated rats when they saw them coming out. For a time, the sound of gunfire, hacking, and various ability releases were mixed together.
The urban elite troops who came this time were also very well-equipped, and it was no problem to deal with ordinary mutated rats. Soon, many mutated rat corpses were piled up outside the town.
However, the most feared thing for everyone was still the giant mutated rat.
And soon, the giant mutated rat came out under the bombardment of the bombs.
The bomb that bombed the mutated giant rat was the most powerful ground-drilling bomb in China. The powerful bomb head directly penetrated the ground, penetrated the hind legs of the mutated giant rat, and then exploded underground, causing considerable damage to the mutated giant rat. So when this mutated giant rat came out, its whole body was already covered with blood. It ignored its companions who were covered by death, and immediately wanted to escape.
However, waiting for it was the perfectly coordinated and combined kill of the ability users.
In just a few minutes, the mutated giant rat was killed. And several people on the Safe Zone’s side were injured in the battle. Fortunately, the injuries were not fatal, and they were quickly sent to the Safe Zone’s hospital.
Ai Wei looked at the overwhelming bombardment, listened to the deafening roar. Seeing that the mutated giant rat, which was once so strong that it made him feel desperate, was killed in an instant, he couldn’t help but feel his blood boil, and couldn’t help but be filled with awe and pride for this powerful force.
This is China’s weapon, the power of human technology. Even in the end of the world, with such powerful military protection, he also believes that humans will be able to rebuild their homes and live well.
After the bombing ended, drones began to check the battlefield, and killed any mutated rats that were not dead.
Ai Wei’s mental scanning did not stop either. He did not let go of any corners of the town, as well as various tunnels and places where mutated rats could be hidden.
In the end, this war between the Safe Zone and the mutated rat swarm only left a few mutated rats for research, and all the other mutated rats were eliminated by the Safe Zone.
Ai Wei relaxed a lot after solving the mutated rats.
God knows, he dreamed of being chased by huge mutated rats these days. Now he can finally have a good night’s sleep.
In the days that followed, he and Xia Junchi spent their time in busy training and doing tasks.
The Safe Zones cleared by humans are becoming more and more numerous, and the number of zombies in China is decreasing. As time goes by, some low-level zombies gradually turn into mummified corpses and lose their ability to move, making them easier to clean up. But relatively, some advanced zombies are becoming more and more powerful and difficult to deal with.
In a small Safe Zone in the south, there was even an incident of a zombie disguising itself as a human and entering the Safe Zone to eat people. Many people died in that incident, most of whom were ability users. After all, ability users have crystal cores that advanced zombies like. Since then, the various inspections in the Safe Zone have become more strict.
Ai Wei and Xia Junchi have also become more cautious when doing tasks. However, it is worth mentioning that many new things have appeared after the end of the world. For example, the tree trunks of mutated plants that are harder than steel, the animal skins of mutated animals that are extremely easy to cut, and the juices of various mutated plants and animals with corrosive properties that exceed sulfuric acid by many times, etc. Scientists use these things to make armors with stronger defenses and weapons with greater lethality, which improves their defense and attack power.
With these weapons and equipment, they can be much safer when going out to do tasks.
Originally, many people in Europe and the United States opposed killing zombies, but after the zombies became more and more powerful, and there were more and more powerful zombies, which seriously threatened the survival of the living, they also launched a massacre of zombies.
The whole world launched a vigorous action to eliminate zombies. For a time, the number of zombies decreased greatly worldwide.
In September, the wheat near the B City Safe Zone began to be harvested.
Now China has sufficient grain reserves, but grain will deteriorate. After two years, a batch of grain will not be edible. In order to maintain grain reserves, the Safe Zone still organizes grain harvesting teams to selectively harvest some crops in the fields.
In fact, after the zombie outbreak, not many farmers would go to the fields to do farm work, but many of those crops still ripened.
Some farmland that is easy to hide people, such as corn and sorghum, are directly abandoned. And short mature crops such as peanuts, potatoes, rice, and wheat are harvested by humans using machines. The surrounding rural areas of B City Safe Zone mostly grow wheat. After this batch of wheat is harvested, it is inspected to make sure that it is not infected with the zombie virus, and then it is collected into the granary.
Ai Wei has been paying attention to various news in the Safe Zone. Seeing that the Safe Zone has harvested a lot of grain, he feels much more at ease.
In November, Ai Wei finally received a call from Ai Yi.
Since Ai Wei discovered Ai Yi’s abnormality last time, Ai Yi has not contacted Ai Wei again. Ai Wei looked for her for a long time, but only found her discarded mobile phone. Now that Ai Yi suddenly called, he immediately came to life.
“Xiao Wei, it’s me,” Ai Yi’s voice came from the phone.
“Sister, where have you been these days? Why haven’t you contacted me? What happened to you? Tell me quickly!” Ai Wei asked a series of questions.
Ai Yi was silent for a moment before saying in a calm tone, “I’m in a cave on Maple Leaf Mountain.”
“Why did you run to the mountains?” Ai Wei frowned and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I…” Ai Yi suddenly cried and said, “I was bitten by Yangyang… Yangyang ran away…”
Ai Wei’s heart sank. Ai Yi said that she was bitten by Yangyang… Could it be that Yangyang turned into a zombie?
And after Ai Yi was bitten by Yangyang, wouldn’t she also turn into a zombie? His brain buzzed, and he almost couldn’t hold the phone.
Ai Yi was still crying on the phone and said, “It’s all my fault. Actually, when the zombies broke out, your brother-in-law turned into a zombie. In order to protect me, Yangyang was bitten by his father, and then he turned into a zombie… I, I tied him up, found a deserted place to hide him, and caught some animals to feed him. Later, the Safe Zone came to eliminate the zombies. I was afraid that he would be killed, so I took him to the mountains…”
Zombies will become more and more shriveled and weak if they can’t eat living things, and finally become skin and bones until they lose their ability to move. But with Ai Yi’s feeding, Yangyang didn’t shrivel at all, and his strength became stronger and stronger.
Ai Yi initially tied him with ropes, but later changed to iron chains. But now even iron chains can’t hold him back. Just now, Yangyang broke free from the iron chains and bit her. She hugged Yangyang and rolled down the hillside, and finally broke free from Yangyang.
However, after being bitten, she felt more and more uncomfortable.
The incubation period of the zombie virus is not fixed. Some people turn into zombies a few minutes after being bitten. There are also very few people who turn into zombies two days after being bitten. It has been half an hour since Ai Yi was bitten, and she felt that she was about to become a zombie.
She doesn’t want to become a zombie.
During the time she took care of Yangyang, she watched her lively and cheerful son turn into a zombie with only eating people in his mind. At the beginning, she still hoped that her son could regain his sanity, and under her care, her son did indeed develop some wisdom. At that time, she was so happy that she almost cried, and felt that as long as she persisted, one day her son’s wisdom could become like before.
In order to let her son regain his sanity, she also risked catching mutated plants and animals for him to eat. It was only because she had seen on the internet that advanced zombies all rely on eating crystal cores to upgrade. If her son upgrades to a certain level, maybe he can become like humans.
However, reality is cruel.
Although her son possessed some wisdom, he was still extremely eager for human flesh. She will never forget the hungry look in her son’s eyes every time he looked at her, wanting to bite off a piece of her flesh. After spending a few months under such eyes, her psychological endurance was almost reaching its limit, and most of her hope had been worn away.
If she is going to become like that, she would rather die.
Before she died, the only thing she couldn’t let go of was Ai Wei. So she made this call to Ai Wei.
“I shouldn’t have hidden Yangyang in the first place. Now that he’s run away, I don’t know what trouble he’ll cause. You tell the people in the Safe Zone to pay attention. If you can find Yangyang, do… do whatever you need to do. He’s already dead, it’s just that I can’t accept it…” Ai Yi said here, breathing a little difficultly, and said, “Xiao Wei, you… you take care of yourself…”
After speaking, without waiting for Ai Wei to say anything else, she hung up the phone.
“Sister, sister…”
Ai Wei called anxiously a few times, but only a busy beep came from the phone.
He had some premonition of Ai Yi’s plan, but he couldn’t stop anything.
After the zombie outbreak, many of his friends and colleagues turned into zombies. After entering the army, he became a little numb from killing zombies. But now that he learned that his relatives had turned into zombies, he was still extremely sad.
He couldn’t imagine how Ai Yi had spent these days? What would she feel like to watch her son, who had turned into a zombie, still want to eat her every day?
But now is not the time to think about these things. He must hurry to find Ai Yi, and he must report Yangyang’s matter. He must let the people near Maple Leaf Mountain pay attention.
Seeing that he went out to answer a phone call and came back with red eyes, Xia Junchi asked, “What’s wrong with you? What happened?”
Ai Wei told him about Ai Yi and Yangyang and said, “I want to find my sister.”
Before, Ai Yi hadn’t contacted Ai Wei for a long time, and Xia Junchi felt that something might have happened to her. Now hearing Ai Wei say this, he didn’t feel too surprised and said, “I’ll go with you.”
So the two reported the information to the Safe Zone, and twenty minutes later, they went to Maple Leaf Mountain with a small team.
Maple Leaf Mountain is very large, and the mountain is very rugged. In addition, Ai Yi went to the deep mountains, so after the people drove to a place, they had to get out of the car and walk.
The technician located Ai Yi’s mobile phone, and Ai Wei’s mental power was always covering all directions around them, so they quickly found Ai Yi’s body.
Ai Yi had lost a lot of weight. Her originally delicate and exquisite clothes had now turned into ordinary short-sleeved trousers covered with blood, which was completely different from the fashionable and beautiful Ai Yi in Ai Wei’s memory.