AAISBMEBF Chapter 80: Strange Abilities
After lunch, everyone ate quietly with their own thoughts. The restaurant waived the bill for the three of them—who would dare to actually charge Liu Shenghui in the safe zone?
However, Liu Shenghui insisted on paying. He gave a long-winded, formal explanation, essentially stating that as a manager, he would never abuse his power.
While saying this, he kept glancing at Cui Xisheng's expression, but unfortunately, Cui Xisheng was focused on his family and didn't show the admiration that Liu Shenghui had expected.
In the end, the restaurant owner couldn't argue with Liu Shenghui and accepted the money.
Liu Shenghui then took the three of them back to the Ability User Service Hall.
Since Meng Jiangtian was an ability user, the safe zone had assigned him a two-bedroom apartment. It wasn't free, though—it would cost a thousand contribution points per month.
This month was free, but starting next month, the rent would be two thousand contribution points, to be paid in one lump sum.
Meng Jiangtian and Cui Xisheng originally planned to each take a room, but Liu Anna insisted on sharing a room with Meng Jiangtian.
Happy with the arrangement, Meng Jiangtian moved into a room with Cui Xisheng, leaving Liu Anna regretting her decision and unknowingly bringing the two closer together.
Though the apartment wasn’t large, it was well-decorated with complete furniture and appliances, so they could move in right away.
Cui Xisheng chose the spacious and bright master bedroom. Ignoring Liu Anna's eager gaze, he took off his shoes and lay on the soft bed.
The large double bed was far more comfortable than a narrow gym mat, and Cui Xisheng lay there for a while, showing off to Liu Anna. Soon, his eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep.
Meng Jiangtian pulled Liu Anna into the second bedroom. Though it was smaller, the lighting was still good.
Liu Anna, who hadn't had a good bath in a while, took a seductive hot shower.
When she came out, wrapped in a towel, she was preparing to seduce Meng Jiangtian, but when she entered the living room, it was completely empty. Meng Jiangtian was nowhere to be seen.
She stood by the door of Cui Xisheng’s room for a while, listening for any sounds, but the room was quiet, and she couldn’t tell if Meng Jiangtian was inside.
She turned the doorknob, but the door didn’t open. After standing there with a dark face for a moment, Liu Anna reluctantly returned to her own room to change clothes.
Cui Xisheng was fast asleep, and it would take him some time to wake up. Meng Jiangtian was worried that Liu Anna might try to do something to Cui Xisheng, so while Liu Anna was in the shower, he entered the room, locked the door, and left a note for Cui Xisheng to be careful and not to open the door easily. He then flew out through the window.
The safe zone was still unfamiliar, so Meng Jiangtian wanted to get to know the area better. He figured that if something unexpected happened, he wouldn’t panic when it was time to escape.
He found a secluded spot and flew high into the air to look down over the entire safe zone. It was a large area, but to accommodate more people, the buildings were a bit too dense. From above, the streets were completely obscured by the buildings.
Meng Jiangtian tried to memorize the layout of the safe zone, trying his best to keep the map in his mind.
To the south of the safe zone, a lush green farm caught his attention.
What surprised him was that the farm wasn't inside the safe zone but outside the high wall, surrounded only by wire mesh.
Zombies weren't interested in crops and wouldn't damage the farm. There weren’t that many zombies outside the safe zone, so the farm was relatively safe, and it didn't take up residential space. However, it would be dangerous to go outside to harvest the crops.
Flying over the farm, Meng Jiangtian saw a drone flying ahead of him.
With a wave of his hand, the space around Meng Jiangtian folded, hiding his presence.
The drone flew a few laps around the farm to confirm it was safe before a group of ability users dared to leave the safe zone. Three large trucks sped toward the farm.
Once the trucks entered the farm, a group of people disembarked—some ability users and some ordinary people. The ordinary workers went to harvest the ripe crops, while the ability users worked in teams of three to stimulate crops that hadn’t matured yet.
The Earth, Wood, and Water abilities were used in tandem: the Water user watered the crops, the Wood user provided energy, and the Earth user quickly integrated the Water and Wood abilities into the soil to nourish the vegetables.
Meng Jiangtian carefully observed how the three ability users coordinated. He had already devoured the Water and Wood abilities and only needed the Earth ability. Once he obtained it, he would be able to grow his own crops.
As he watched the crops grow rapidly, Meng Jiangtian decided he would need to find a time to eat a few Earth ability crystal cores.
In the apocalypse, everything else was trivial—eating enough food was the real priority.
Once the crops were harvested, the Earth ability user began plowing the soil again, planting new vegetables.
One of the trucks was filled with seeds, and while the workers were busy with the soil, Meng Jiangtian quietly went over to the truck and took a handful of every kind of seed. He couldn’t tell exactly what each type was, but he took a little bit of everything. He would figure it out later when they started to grow.
After watching for a while and finding nothing else particularly interesting, Meng Jiangtian left the farm.
Back in the safe zone, Meng Jiangtian decided to explore the area more thoroughly by walking through the streets himself.
The streets were crowded with people, and shops lined both sides, but Meng Jiangtian noticed that not many people were actually buying things.
After all, it had only been eight days since the apocalypse began, and no one had enough contribution points to shop.
Most of the people on the streets were ordinary folks looking for work. Without the threat of zombies, people still needed to eat.
Along the way, Meng Jiangtian also saw many ordinary people coming from the rooftops. When they saw him, they quickly veered away as if he were a plague.
The safe zone provided these people with three days’ worth of food, which would be recorded on their identity cards. They would have to repay it later, with interest if they were late.
The safe zone would also assign them work, but if they didn’t want to accept the assigned work, they could find their own jobs. However, they only had three days to find something; after that, if they ran out of food, they would have to rely on themselves.
The streets were arranged according to the layout of the world before the apocalypse, and there was nothing particularly new or exciting.
That afternoon, Meng Jiangtian wandered through the streets and alleys, familiarizing himself with every road.
He didn’t try to hide his movements, and for the entire afternoon, he was exposed to the street’s surveillance cameras.
In an office, Liu Shenghui watched Meng Jiangtian strolling around the streets on the monitors.
"General, he's walked down three streets already. What is he up to?" Liu Shenghui asked, looking tired after watching for so long.
"He's familiarizing himself with the area. This kid is quite cautious. Keep an eye on him and don’t let him see anything he shouldn’t," Liu Shenghui replied, glancing at the monitor before returning to his paperwork.
"Understood."
Meng Jiangtian spent the whole afternoon walking around, while Liu Shenghui and Zhou Yao watched him on the screen.
Whenever he went into more secluded areas, Zhou Yao and Liu Shenghui would focus intently on the monitor until Meng Jiangtian moved on.
In the evening, after walking enough, Meng Jiangtian headed back.
"General, he's heading back now," Zhou Yao said, feeling a sense of relief.
Watching the screen all day had been tiring.
Liu Shenghui put down the documents in his hands and glanced at the monitor. Meng Jiangtian had finally returned near the house assigned to him.
Watching as Meng Jiangtian lingered around the area near his home, Liu Shenghui gently stretched his waist and said to Zhou Yao, "Just keep an eye on him until he gets back. We can take a break now."
Zhou Yao nodded eagerly, his eyes fixed on the screen, hoping that Meng Jiangtian would return home soon.
As he kept his gaze on the screen, Zhou Yao saw Meng Jiangtian turn a corner, but when he switched to the camera for the next street, he was shocked to find that Meng Jiangtian didn’t appear.
Zhou Yao suddenly froze, looking back at the monitor of the corner where Meng Jiangtian had disappeared, but still, there was no sign of him.
"General, Meng Jiangtian is gone," Zhou Yao said in a panic, looking toward Liu Shenghui.
Liu Shenghui quickly rushed to the monitor. After scanning the many small grids on the screen, he couldn’t see Meng Jiangtian. His heart skipped a beat, and he immediately instructed Zhou Yao, "Send people to find him. Inform the laboratory to close all exits. No one is allowed in or out for now."
"Understood." Zhou Yao hurriedly ran out.
Meanwhile, around two street corners, Meng Jiangtian stood still, his expression serious. In front of him was complete darkness, a darkness so thick that he couldn’t see his own hand.
He had been casually walking when, upon turning a corner, the bright street ahead suddenly went pitch black. He wasn’t sure where he had stepped, and all surrounding sounds and sights vanished.
At the same time, Meng Jiangtian felt a strange ability energy. Although he couldn’t see anything, he could sense the position of the ability.
In the darkness, Meng Jiangtian closed his eyes and focused on sensing the energy. It was clear and precise, and his head turned toward its source.
"Sure enough, it's a level 3.8 ability user. No need for sight to find me," a seductive female voice came from the direction of the ability in the darkness.
"Are you looking for me?" Meng Jiangtian asked calmly.
The other person didn’t immediately attack, meaning they weren’t planning on fighting. It seemed they had something to discuss with him.
"Yes, I have something to discuss. But this isn’t the right place to talk. Let’s go somewhere else. There are cameras all over this street, and my ability can conceal us. Just follow my lead."
"You don’t say anything, and you expect me to just follow you?" Meng Jiangtian responded skeptically.
"Don't you care about Cui Xisheng's health issues?"
Meng Jiangtian suddenly opened his eyes wide in the darkness, still unable to see anything clearly, but he narrowed his eyes and looked toward the source of the ability. He coldly sneered, "What could be wrong with his body?"
"Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. It’s something that will make you ecstatic. But if you let him continue as he is, you will lose him for sure. You probably won’t believe me now that I’m telling you this, so let’s not talk about it tonight."
"You can try sending some of your ability into Cui Xisheng’s abdomen when you get back. It will benefit him, and you’ll find that he’ll love you even more. If you want to know more about his problem, come back to this corner tomorrow. I’ll be free and can wait here for you all day."
With that, the blackness in front of Meng Jiangtian suddenly dissipated, and he was back on the busy street, his face serious.
They had barely been here for half a day, and it seemed like someone already knew all their secrets. Moreover, those people seemed to know them better than they knew themselves.
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