Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

”Me?”

Zhou Haotian, who was happily chatting about anime with Ke Zhiyu, Liu Tianji, and Wang Zhetao, pointed at his own nose.

”Yes, there’s something I need to ask you. Let’s talk over there so we don’t disturb everyone eating.”

Zhong Xiaoshan beckoned Zhou Haotian to the corner of the dining room.

Zhou Haotian, utterly confused, scratched his head and looked at Liu Tianji with a questioning gaze. Liu Tianji just shrugged, indicating he didn’t understand either...

With no other choice, Zhou Haotian had to bravely walk to the corner.

This scene truly ignited the gossip flames among the people in the dining room, the intensity almost more terrifying than the fiery dragon spewed by a Flaming Zombie.

”Hey, what’s going on here? Could that kid and the ’Second Sister’ really be...”

Wang Zhetao wrapped his arms around Liu Tianji and Ke Zhiyu’s necks, leaning in to whisper.

”Don’t talk nonsense. Maybe the ’Second Sister’ knew him before?”

”I think the ’Second Sister’ is holding something? Hey, hey, look, Zhou Haotian looks surprised. Oh, that seems to be a savings passbook?”

”No, what use is a passbook at this time? Why...how could it be so exaggerated, crying just for a passbook, crying so sadly, what’s going on here?”

A group of people whispered, watching Zhou Haotian standing in the corner sobbing uncontrollably, with a head full of questions.

”Uncle, Zhou Haotian, he...”

”None of your business, eat your meal, stop prying!”

Zheng Ziwen was about to inquire further when Ding Yong Country cut him off directly, burying his head in his meal, ignoring outside affairs.

Zheng Ziwen was very frustrated; he desperately wanted to chat freely with those around his age, but his uncle didn’t allow it, so he could only eat his meal quietly.

Zuo Fengjuan, who was closest to the corner, had already overheard the whole story; her shallow eye sockets reddened involuntarily, thinking of her own experiences, sadness welled up, and tears couldn’t stop flowing, so she put down her chopsticks and left the dining room.

”My grandma and grandpa always asked me to visit, but I thought it was boring, so I didn’t want to go. Boo-hoo, when I was little, my grandparents were the best to me.”

Zhou Haotian flipped through the creased passbook, looking at the rows of numbers and the final line of delicate writing through his tears that deeply pierced his heart.

”Second Sister, I want to know, how did my grandparents pass away?”

Hearing Zhou Haotian’s question, Zhong Xiaoshan fell into reminiscing; that tragic scene made her frown. After weaving a passable lie in her mind, she said.

”Your grandparents turned into zombies and were wandering with a group in the corridor. Brother Su, Xinyu, and I managed to lock them in the underground parking lot!”

”Boo-hoo...my grandparents were so miserable...” With his hopes shattered, Zhou Haotian burst into tears.

”Alright, alright, receiving your grandparents’ blessings is ultimately a good thing. You need to live on, and the way you trained this afternoon wasn’t good enough, you need to work harder.”

Zhong Xiaoshan smiled and comforted Zhou Haotian.

”Yes, I understand, Second Sister. I will not disappoint my grandparents’ expectations. Although money is useless now, I will live to build a family!”

A surge of determination suddenly rose in Zhou Haotian’s heart.

”That’s the spirit. Oh, and you noticed too, Brother Su assigned you to Ju Mumio. She’s strong, so you should learn from her when you have the chance; it will help you.”

After Zhong Xiaoshan finished speaking, waving her hand while nodding and smiling to those around, she left the dining room.

Returning the passbook to its owner was quite gratifying for her, a significant achievement in her heart.

When Zhou Haotian returned to his seat, he was immediately surrounded by curious folks asking questions, but his enthusiasm was gone; he ate a few bites of food before leaving the dining room.

In the evening, Zhang Su first rode an electric scooter around a few Satellite Villages, specifically testing the alertness of the sentinel combat personnel. They were all quite vigilant; no one was slacking off. Then he listened around for intel in the village but only gathered a bunch of dirty jokes and idle boasting.

He especially meandered outside Liu Lan’s residence, but due to the crowd, he didn’t hear anything useful.

Riding back to Celestial Horse Island, he conducted another patrol, finding everything operating normally. Returning to Little Lucky, he parked the electric scooter and walked towards the courtyard gate, suddenly halting with a wary expression.

”Who’s there? Are you idle?”

Zhang Su spoke helplessly; he could clearly sense someone ambushing behind the wall, though there was no hostility or killing intent, probably intending to scare him.

”Your skills are still lacking.”

A cold voice sounded as Ju Mumio, clad in black, stepped before Zhang Su.

”Eh...are you playing tricks on me, lurking here to ambush me, and yet say my skills are lacking?”

Zhang Su was just about to speak loudly when he suddenly remembered that it was already late, quickly lowering his voice.

”If you were skilled, you would have been able to recognize every familiar presence.”

Ju Mumio said softly.

”You can?”

”I can.”

”Alright, I’ll admit you’re a bit better than me in this... Why are you running outside in the middle of the night, aren’t you afraid Yi Xiaoling will get jealous and misunderstand something?”

Zhang Su walked into the yard, took off his gloves, pulled out a cigarette and lit it, then looked up at his house window, a faint light shadowing the curtains.

”These are the blueprints.”

Ju Mumio didn’t hesitate and handed a piece of paper to Zhang Su.

”You’re quite proactive, but it might be a few more days over there with Old Ding...”

As he spoke, Zhang Su took the A4 paper and unfolded it naturally. There were two sheets in total, each depicting a long and a short tachi, with detailed annotations on parts like the blade tail, sheath, and guard, very meticulously.

”You’re really not shy, agreed to make weapons for you, and you come with two at once...”

Zhang Su folded the blueprint, looked up, and found Ju Mumio’s eyes glimmering with a peculiar color while staring at him.

”Hey, what’s with that look?”

”You!” Ju Mumio’s expression was quite peculiar, like witnessing an unbelievable existence, somewhat excited, ”You have night vision!”

”Huh?”

Zhang Su’s heart skipped a beat, caught off guard, quickly took off his toad goggles, and felt a wave of doubts.

”What are you talking about, overthinking it?”

”You’re even trying to affect my mindset!”

Ju Mumio acted as if she was physically attacked, raised her hand to block and stepped back, very anime-style.

Zhang Su scratched his head in distress, annoyed by such keen observers, his secrets getting exposed one by one...

Putting the toad goggles back on, he waved his hand, ”I’m tired, going back to sleep!”

”Can you tell me the magic technique?”

Ju Mumio watched Zhang Su walk upstairs with his hands behind his back, and asked very seriously.

Zhang Su stopped and turned around helplessly, ”Sis, have you heard the term ’innate talent’? There’s no magic technique for this...”

”Innate talent... I get it.”

Ju Mumio nodded, then left Little Lucky like a phantom.

Zhang Su’s mouth twitched, he thought she would accuse him of making excuses or something, never expected she’d believe it so easily?

Of course she’d believe, Ju Mumio understood well what talent meant!

...

The cycle of day and night, peaceful days always pass quickly, three days went by in a flash.

The same skies remained densely clouded, Zhang Su discovered from a specific angle that the clouds hadn’t even moved, the lowest temperature stayed around minus twenty-five degrees, probably due to the thick clouds, the temperature fluctuation between day and night was only four to five degrees!

There were so many differences.

During these three days, life in Satellite Village became more orderly, Jia Shiqin led some skilled craftsmen to expedite the construction of three zombie generators, now each Satellite Village has its own cattle and horse brand zombie generator.

The rumbling sound might be annoying initially, but when electricity flowed continuously, people felt that sound was akin to the sound of heaven.

Sometimes, even just an electric lamp can make a big difference, it’s a product of human civilization.

With electricity, more human power was freed, even deep well water extraction only needed a button press, people could invest more effort into other areas of development, like the transformation of Chuhai River!

This project definitely couldn’t be done by relying solely on combat personnel, on the contrary, combat personnel played a key role only during zombie clearing, later mainly for defense, more work needed to be done by ordinary members.

Large machinery transported to West Camp Village, once deserted, the village became lively again.

However, due to the weather, the progress of construction wasn’t fast, it could only be described as steadily advancing, according to Yuwen’s words, haste makes waste.

After previous large-scale zombie extermination, the number of zombies around Celestial Horse Island has significantly reduced to a very safe level, only less than twenty zombies wandered near the camp during these three days.

Though zombies run like the wind when sensing blood near the camp, under tight sentry protection, they caused no impact, were directly captured alive as reserves for the cattle and horse generators!

This phenomenon made those managing zombie corpses a bit worried.

With the surge in camp population, daily zombie corpse consumption was very large, averaging ten people per corpse, roughly eighty-five corpses used in a day.

With zombie corpses not being replenished, based on current inventories, consumption can be sustained for two hundred days, this period seems long, enough to solve many tricky issues, but the challenge lies in the future filled with unknowns.