AAISBMEBF Chapter 50: Healing Ability
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The sound of packaging being torn was quite loud, and despite there being enough food for over a hundred people, Cui Xisheng felt uneasy hearing it. The noise and the current situation weighed heavily on him.
Zhao Jiake, noticing Cui Xisheng’s frown and less-than-happy expression, thought for a moment and tried to comfort him: "Let them have the food. Meng Jiangtian should be back soon. Once he’s back, we’ll have food again."
"He’ll also help you deal with this," Zhao Jiake continued. "That Liu Anna seemed like a sensible girl, but turns out she’s just a wallflower."
"You don’t need to worry. Meng Jiangtian is on your side. When he comes back, I’ll make sure to tell him what Liu Anna has been up to."
"You better be careful with what you say. She’s Meng Jiangtian's girlfriend. If you plan on reporting something, you should first consider her identity. If things go wrong, and Meng Jiangtian teaches you a lesson, I won’t be able to save you."
"What girlfriend? I don’t think Meng Jiangtian even likes her. She’s just deluding herself," Zhao Jiake scoffed.
Seeing the look on Cui Xisheng's face, Zhao Jiake hesitated, then continued, "Cui Xisheng, are you two in that kind of relationship?"
Cui Xisheng stiffened, glancing at Zhao Jiake before turning his gaze away. Had he been too obvious? Or had Meng Jiangtian let something slip?
Noticing that Cui Xisheng wasn’t reacting as strongly as before, Zhao Jiake's curiosity flared up. He pressed on, "Compared to Liu Anna, Meng Jiangtian treats you more like a girlfriend."
"I saw when the apocalypse first started, and Meng Jiangtian awakened his ability. He threw a wind blade and split a zombie in half."
"It was in the classroom. He protected Liu Anna and carved a path through the zombie horde. We, normal people, could only follow him to escape the building."
"Once outside, he took Liu Anna up to the roof. At the time, I thought they were a couple."
"But he just dropped her off and ran. Soon after, he came back and rescued you. You didn’t see the way he looked at you—it was like he really cared about you. I could tell your relationship was more than just friends."
"You two really kept it hidden well. Meng Jiangtian is a big shot at our university, but I never heard any rumors about him being in a relationship."
"Not hearing anything is exactly right, because I’ve never had a relationship with him. What you saw was just a misunderstanding."
"Liu Anna is his admitted girlfriend. If you want to follow Meng Jiangtian, make sure you’re backing the right person and don’t waste your efforts on me."
Cui Xisheng’s mind immediately flashed to the day they broke up when Meng Jiangtian coldly referred to him as a "friends with benefits." The memory was seared into his mind, and his frustration grew every time he thought about it.
Zhao Jiake noticed Cui Xisheng’s anger growing and wisely chose not to press the issue further. However, he didn’t entirely believe what Cui Xisheng said. It was clear to him that Meng Jiangtian didn’t hide his feelings for Cui Xisheng. If he really helped Liu Anna, that would be a big mistake.
Night fell as expected, and the sounds of zombies growling from below echoed through the area. The apocalypse had lasted for a week now, and all the survivors who could hide had done so.
The zombies downstairs, deprived of food, had started to turn on each other, fighting and tearing each other apart for a share of the meager resources.
Meng Jiangtian stood on the rooftop, watching the zombies below as they fought. Occasionally, a crystal core would roll out of the foul-smelling pile of flesh, only to be trampled back in by another zombie.
The past two days and nights, he had killed countless zombies, and he hadn’t had time to collect any crystal cores—he estimated he had missed quite a few.
After all this slaughter, his violent ability had been greatly reduced. What used to need recharging every half hour could now last a full hour.
He had considered bringing the food from the rooftop back, but it was about an hour's journey each way, so he gave up on the idea.
It had been half an hour since his last battle, and his energy was almost fully replenished. In another half hour, he would need to fight more zombies again to burn off his ability.
Meng Jiangtian frowned, a little tired of constantly slaughtering zombies. Right now, all he could think about was seeing Cui Xisheng again. He wanted to hold him, feel the warmth and softness of his body, anything but the decaying corpses of zombies.
As he gazed down at the zombies below, his irritation grew. He threw wind blades without hesitation, watching zombies collapse in confusion as he did so. Every little bit of energy consumption helped.
Suddenly, while throwing a wind blade, Meng Jiangtian noticed something strange between two buildings: a solitary zombie, crouching and calmly playing with its severed arm.
It must be a zombie. Meng Jiangtian squinted his eyes, watching the creature through the full moon's light.
The reason Meng Jiangtian couldn’t confirm what this thing was, was because it was not like the usual zombies.
Its entire body was rotten, emitting a terrible stench, but its face still looked like an ordinary human. Under the moonlight, Meng Jiangtian could clearly see what this person looked like.
A young and handsome boy, probably only around fifteen or sixteen, but unfortunately, he met the end of the world and passed away at such a young age.
Though the boy’s face looked normal, his eyes were a zombie’s gray, the kind that only zombies had.
The gray eyes stared at his own arm, which was continually regenerating back to a normal human form, but then quickly rotting again because of the zombie virus.
The little zombie seemed to find this constant cycle of regeneration and decay amusing, sitting by the alley between two large buildings, playing joyfully by itself.
Meng Jiangtian observed for a while and suddenly his eyes brightened. Could this little zombie have awakened a special ability?
A regenerative ability might be a healing-type power, which should be quite rare. If one could heal injuries at any time and anywhere, such an ability could be like a second life in the apocalypse.
But looking at the little zombie’s condition, it seemed that this healing-type ability couldn’t eliminate the zombie virus, but it was enough to heal wounds.
Meng Jiangtian was determined to get the little zombie’s crystal core. A wind blade silently passed, and the little zombie’s head tilted as it quietly left the world.
However, the fresh blood from the little zombie's head attracted nearby zombies.
Compared to the stinky blood of their kind, zombies preferred fresh blood. They immediately abandoned their rotten brethren and clumsily ran towards the little zombie.
Meng Jiangtian wouldn’t give them the chance to take the fresh little zombie’s head. Using his space ability, he instantly moved to the little zombie’s side, picked up its head, and, with a gust of wind, flew back to the rooftop.
The fresh blood attracted a horde of zombies downstairs, but without intelligence, they didn’t know how to open the building doors.
Meng Jiangtian used a wind blade to slice open the little zombie's head and extracted a white, round crystal core about the size of a mung bean.
Without the crystal core to support it, the little zombie’s head quickly rotted away, turning into a proper zombie head.
Meng Jiangtian casually discarded the little zombie’s head, which fell downstairs, landing on a zombie's body. The zombie’s rotting arm was directly severed by the falling head.
The unlucky zombie ignored its severed arm, glanced at the little zombie’s head cut in half, and disdainfully turned away.
It had had enough of the rotten flesh of its kind and wanted to find fresh blood elsewhere.
Meng Jiangtian, with his hands covered in blood, held the blood-stained white crystal core, and a stream of water gathered in his palm, washing off the blood from his hands and the crystal core.
Meng Jiangtian had eaten five wood-type crystal cores and awakened the wood ability. Unable to resist his greed, he ate three water-type crystal cores as well.
It was those three water-type crystal cores that nearly caused him to lose control and die from exploding his body.
But surviving through it was worth it. Water was the source of life, and with water abilities, he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of water in the future.
Now, his wood and water abilities had successfully fused, and once he consumed an earth-type crystal core, he planned to plant food for himself with the wood, water, and earth abilities.
After cleaning the crystal core, Meng Jiangtian stored it in his space. His abilities had become excessive, and he couldn’t absorb any more crystal cores for now. He would wait for an opportunity to consume them with the earth ability later.
For humans, the Earth had entered the apocalypse. But for the Earth itself, its rotation was unaffected by the creatures’ fate.
The sun rose and set, and the Earth continued its rotation as usual. A night passed, and the sun finally appeared, warming the land.
Cui Xisheng sat on a mat, leaning against the wall, feeling hungry for the first time. Though there was no food left, Qi Tianshan had still been arranged by the student council president to stay by Cui Xisheng’s side for protection.
The student council president and Zhao Huanrui had gone out to search for food. Without Cui Xisheng’s food, the two of them had to find something to bring back today.
Once they left, it was another whole day, and Cui Xisheng had been hungry for a day. His eyes were fixed on the sky, hoping that Meng Jiangtian would return.
Though Meng Jiangtian was a scumbag and an old pervert, Cui Xisheng had to admit that he needed Meng Jiangtian to survive in this apocalypse.
With Meng Jiangtian by his side, no matter how much he hated him, there would still be a sense of security. Now, hungry and anxious, Cui Xisheng sniffled and even missed that old pervert a little.
His stomach hurt, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of hunger or the baby inside him acting up. Cui Xisheng gently rubbed his stomach, trying to calm the baby down.
Unfortunately, this little troublemaker was just like his father—mischievous. The more Cui Xisheng rubbed, the worse the pain became. He was getting worried, hoping nothing bad happened to the baby.
The sun was about to set, and the two ability users hadn’t returned. It was getting late, and if they didn’t return by now, it seemed like they hadn’t brought back any food.
Just as he thought about the student council president and Zhao Huanrui, the two of them returned, looking exhausted. Not surprisingly, they had returned empty-handed.
When the crowd saw them, there was some stir, but when they saw they had no food, they fell silent again.
"The two of them came back empty-handed again. They stole your food yesterday, and today I’m curious what they’ll feed those people.
Without Meng Jiangtian, they can’t bring back any food. There’s a gap in the abilities of the ability users," Zhao Jiake whispered to Cui Xisheng, sneering. His voice was low so that Qi Tianshan wouldn’t hear.
T/N: Please give support on my ko-fi page, thank you🌸🌸🌸
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