Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Eternal Night

With Ji Jiuzhe taking the lead, the chaotic situation quickly became calm and orderly. Gu Ning pulled Zhuang Chen aside and recounted the encounter with the mutated zombie, mentioning how it could block bullets. Zhuang Chen’s expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

Zhuang Chen’s face turned serious: “It seems this mutated zombie is indeed controlling the other zombies. I’ll go talk to the captain and see if he has any ideas.” She then went to find Ji Jiuzhe at the front. Ji Jiuzhe tilted his head to listen to Zhuang Chen, his sharp features half-lit and half-shrouded in shadow, making it hard to discern his expression. He glanced over, but Gu Ning was no longer standing there; she had disappeared somewhere.

From her conversation with Xiang Xu, Gu Ning learned that she had regained consciousness when the mutated zombie controlled her because Xiang Xu had used his spiritual power to sever its control over her.

“Its spiritual power is too strong; I’m no match for it,” Xiang Xu said, his usually confident face now showing a hint of frustration.

Gu Ning patted his head, her eyes glinting coldly, and said, “It’s fine. Once I kill it, you can eat its crystal core and become just as powerful.”

She walked to the railing and looked down. The sea of zombie heads below hadn’t diminished much. The earth wall summoned by Third Brother still stood, its spikes now filled with impaled zombies.

Gu Ning’s gaze darkened. She still couldn’t feel her special ability. The sudden closure of her space felt like a boulder pressing on her chest. Not only could she not use her ability, but the passage between the two worlds was also gone, along with the vast supplies stored in her space. Fortunately, she had always kept some supplies and medicine in their residence, enough to last a few months.

What made Gu Ning most anxious was the thought that if her space never reopened, did that mean she could never return to the other world?

Meanwhile, in the other world, Ji Jiuzhe hung up the phone after hearing the automated message that the number he dialed was out of service.

“What’s wrong?” Ji Qige leaned over, quickly spotting Gu Ning’s name on the screen. He immediately said, “Oh, couldn’t wait to call your little apprentice after the meeting? Where’s she staying? Let’s pick her up for dinner. She calls me ‘Seventh Brother,’ after all. I should play the host—hey! Why are you walking so fast?” Ji Qige hurried to catch up with Ji Jiuzhe.

At a red light, Ji Jiuzhe dialed Gu Ning’s number again, only to hear the same automated message.

Ji Qige glanced over and asked, “What? She’s not answering?”

Ji Jiuzhe frowned, his intuition telling him something was wrong.

When the car started again, Ji Qige immediately noticed the increase in speed.

“You didn’t let Gu Ning stay at your place, did you?” Ji Qige teased as the car headed in a familiar direction. But when they entered the villa area, Ji Qige fell silent, his expression one of shock. Ji Jiuzhe rarely let anyone close, and bringing Gu Ning to headquarters was surprising enough. Now, he had actually let her stay at his home—not some vacant property, but his own residence.

Ignoring Ji Qige’s dramatic expression, Ji Jiuzhe opened the door and entered.

The spacious living room was empty. A fruit bowl with washed fruits sat on the table, vegetables were soaking in the kitchen, and half-cut ingredients were on the counter. The rice cooker was in keep-warm mode. It looked like someone had been preparing a meal but disappeared halfway through. Everything was tidy, with no signs of a struggle, suggesting she had left on her own.

Ji Qige followed, looking at the kitchen scene and remarking, “Your little apprentice can cook too. Looks like she bought a lot of groceries. I’ll stay for dinner then. But where’s the chef? Gu Ning!” He called out a few times, but there was no response.

Ji Jiuzhe didn’t say a word, quickly heading upstairs. He knocked on Gu Ning’s door twice, and when there was no answer, he pushed it open to find the room empty.

After searching the house, Ji Qige’s smile faded, replaced by a serious expression. Gu Ning was gone, and she had disappeared in the middle of cooking without leaving any note. Though he had only met her once, someone chosen by Ji Jiuzhe couldn’t be so careless.

Ji Qige pulled out his phone and said, “I’ll call headquarters and have them check Gu Ning’s call records and review the surveillance around here. Don’t worry; maybe she just remembered something urgent and left for a bit. She’ll be back soon.”

Ji Jiuzhe glanced at the half-cut meat in the kitchen and the rice cooker in keep-warm mode before heading back to his room to open his computer.

Both the front and back doors had surveillance cameras.

He pulled up the footage from 5:00 to 6:30 PM.

At 5:45 PM, Gu Ning returned by taxi, carrying two large bags. She entered through the front door, and there was no sign of her leaving until 6:30 PM.

Ji Qige’s expression darkened. They had searched the entire house but found no trace of Gu Ning. Yet, the surveillance showed she hadn’t left through the door. Unless she climbed out a window, but what could make her leave in the middle of cooking and choose to exit through a window? It didn’t make sense. But even that was more plausible than Gu Ning vanishing into thin air.

He noticed Ji Jiuzhe’s expression, which was rare. Ji Jiuzhe rarely showed his emotions, so if even Ji Qige could tell something was wrong, it must be serious.

But even Ji Qige found the situation bizarre.

Five hours had passed since the apocalypse began. It was now 11:00 AM. Due to the dam and continuous attacks, most of the zombies surrounding the city had been killed, but people’s hearts remained heavy.

“The sky’s not right,” Third Brother said, the cigarette in his mouth bobbing as he spoke. He looked at the dark sky and said, “It should’ve been light by now.”

Gu Ning also looked at the horizon. Normally, even without the sun, the sky would be light by now. But today, there wasn’t a hint of light. It was as dark as night. Though the days had been getting shorter, yesterday the sky had brightened by 10:30 AM. It couldn’t have shifted by half an hour so suddenly, and there was no sign of it brightening. It felt like midnight, dark and oppressive.

The fires used to light the base at night had been replaced.

“Could it be that the sky will never light up again?” someone from a resting squad muttered.

The words were soft but clear.

Everyone who heard it felt a chill run down their spines.

Gu Ning also felt a cold shiver and exchanged a glance with Zhuang Chen, both seeing the horror in each other’s eyes.

Third Brother took a deep drag of his cigarette and said to Gu Ning with a bitter smile, “If that’s true, then what we’ve been fearing has come to pass.”

Over the past few months, as the days grew shorter, they had worried that one day the sky would darken and never lighten again. But even if it came true, it happened too quickly.

The fireballs lighting the area cast flickering flames on people’s faces, making them look like cold statues.

Gu Ning suddenly thought of her inexplicably closed space. Could it be related to this?

At that moment, Xiang Xu, who had been standing beside Gu Ning, suddenly grabbed her hand. Her face was pale, and her voice trembled with a hint of a sob, “Sister Gu Ning… I can’t feel my spiritual power anymore.”

Before Gu Ning could react, chaos erupted at the entrance. Screams and agonized cries filled the air! Gu Ning’s pupils contracted sharply as she turned to look. The crowd scattered, revealing a girl lying on the ground, covered in blood, with an evolved zombie tearing into her.

“Xiao Ai!” The Green Tree Team cried out. Captain Liang Le rushed over, trying to activate her special ability, but she suddenly stopped, her face filled with panic and confusion. “Where’s my ability?!”

At that moment, the evolved zombie stood up from Xiao Ai’s body and lunged at the stunned Liang Le! The girls from the Green Tree Team screamed, instinctively trying to use their abilities, only to find them gone. They couldn’t feel anything.

Gu Ning quickly raised her gun, aiming at the zombie’s head.

Before she could pull the trigger, a small knife flew from her right, slicing through the air. She paused, watching as the knife embedded itself perfectly in the evolved zombie’s forehead. The zombie collapsed onto Liang Le. Wang Sheng pulled the stunned Liang Le away as the zombie’s body hit the ground with a thud.

Ji Jiuzhe walked over and pulled the knife out.

The sight of the bloodied body and the evolved zombie’s corpse left the area in dead silence.

Soon, someone broke the silence with a trembling voice, “I’ve lost my ability.”

Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, chaos erupted.

“I’ve lost mine too.”

“Mine’s gone.”

Every ability user in the base, whether from Zhuang Chen’s team, Ji Jiuzhe’s team, or the Three-Linked Team, discovered in panic that their abilities had vanished! The endless pool of energy within them was gone.

Zhang Xiaobai’s face turned pale. Thinking of the supplies in Gu Ning’s space, he asked with a sliver of hope, “Gu Ning, what about your spatial ability? Has it disappeared too?”

Gu Ning nodded grimly.

The Three-Linked Team thought of the supplies in Gu Ning’s space, their faces turning ashen.

Third Brother crushed his cigarette underfoot and said with forced calm, “At least we still have our guns and ammunition, and enough supplies to last us a while. Maybe our abilities will come back by then.”

But no one felt any better. While the space was useful, Gu Ning’s healing ability was far more critical. Though the team rarely needed her to use it, her healing ability was like an insurance policy—as long as someone wasn’t dead on the spot, they could be saved. Now, that insurance was gone, and the loss was more painful than losing the supplies.

Ji Jiuzhe, Zhuang Chen, and the Three-Linked Team, though shaken, weren’t completely defeated. They still had survival skills beyond their abilities. Cheng Ming was grateful that, after developing their abilities, Third Brother and Gu Ning had insisted they continue physical training, close combat, and marksmanship practice.

Other ability teams weren’t as confident. They had reveled in the power their abilities granted and hadn’t bothered with the survival skills ordinary people needed. Many hadn’t even killed a zombie before gaining their abilities, leaving them with zero practical skills. The Green Tree Team, with its many female members, was particularly terrified, their beautiful faces filled with deep fear and unease.

At the same time, it wasn’t just the Central South Base in panic. People worldwide discovered their abilities had vanished without warning—or perhaps not without warning, given the dark sky.

Compared to the fear of eternal night, the loss of their abilities was even more devastating for those who had grown accustomed to their power. And with so many zombies outside, despair was palpable.

This day, later known as the Eternal Night, was also called the Nightmare of the Ability Users.

Though their abilities were gone, the zombies outside remained. Even more despairing was that while the ability users had lost their powers, the evolved zombies retained theirs. Fortunately, most of the evolved zombies had been killed during the night’s battle.

“Where are you going?” Zhuang Chen asked coldly.

Several teams were quietly trying to leave.

Liang Le turned to Zhuang Chen, her usual spark gone, her entire demeanor dim. She gave a bitter smile, “Our abilities are gone. What’s the point of staying here?”

Zhuang Chen’s icy gaze swept over the other teams, “Are you planning to go back and wait for death? If these zombies break in, we’ll all die.”

Third Brother added, “You may have lost your abilities, but you’re still better at killing zombies than the average person. The base is surrounded by zombies; there’s no escape. We’re all on the same ship now. If we don’t work together, we’ll all die when the zombies break in.”

The other teams looked uncertain.

Aside from the Three-Linked Team, Zhang Ji’s team also showed no intention of leaving.

At that moment, Yuan Ge, the captain of the Survival Team, gritted his teeth and said, “They’re right. If the zombies break in, we won’t escape either.” His team, full of young, passionate members, quickly agreed to stay.

The other three teams were still hesitant.

“Captain, let’s stay too,” Li Xin, the wood-type ability user from the Green Tree Team, suddenly drew her knife and said, “The more people, the stronger we are. Even without our abilities, we’ve fought zombies up close. We’re better than ordinary people. If we don’t stand up now, even if the base holds, will we go back to how we were before?” The rest of the Green Tree Team’s expressions shifted at her words.

“With or without abilities, I don’t want to go back to how things were,” one girl said, stepping forward to stand firmly beside Li Xin.

Li Xin continued to Liang Le, “Captain, you once told me that even in the apocalypse, women shouldn’t rely on men to survive. If we leave today, can we still say that? Even without abilities, we can still kill zombies!” To prove her point, she walked toward the gate. The iron net outside had long been crushed, and a new earth wall had been erected. Many zombies had climbed over the wall using the bodies of their fallen comrades and were now clawing at the gate. Li Xin mustered her courage and stabbed a zombie through the head, piercing it completely. She turned back excitedly, calling to Liang Le and the others, “Look—” Before she could finish, her head jerked back! She screamed as a zombie grabbed her ponytail and yanked her toward the gate. Other zombies surged forward, their hands reaching for her, pinning her against the gate as they tried to bite through the bars.

Though Li Xin had seemed brave, being grabbed like this made her scream in terror! The Green Tree Team rushed to rescue her.

Gu Ning was faster, slashing down without hesitation. Several zombie hands holding Li Xin were severed, and Gu Ning stabbed the remaining zombies in the face. The Green Tree Team quickly pulled Li Xin free and dragged her away, her legs giving out.

Liang Le asked, “Li Xin, are you okay?!”

Li Xin, still shaken, forced herself to stay calm, “I’m fine.”

Gu Ning pushed aside the zombie she had stabbed in the head and crouched beside Li Xin, lifting her collar to reveal a bloody scratch on her neck.

Liang Le’s face paled at the sight. It must have been from the zombie’s claws. Ability users were immune to ordinary zombie viruses, but now that they had lost their abilities… She looked at Gu Ning.

“It’s a zombie scratch,” Gu Ning said gravely.

Li Xin finally felt the pain and her heart sank. Though she tried to stay composed, her voice trembled as she grabbed Gu Ning’s hand, “I don’t want to turn into a zombie. If I start to change, please…”

“Don’t worry. You won’t die,” Gu Ning said calmly, fixing Li Xin’s collar before calling out to Yi Shaoqing, “Yi Shaoqing! Bring the antidote!”

“Was she bitten?” Yi Shaoqing ran over with a case. He always carried the antidote for emergencies.

Gu Ning said, “No, she was scratched. She’s infected.”

Yi Shaoqing opened the case, revealing dozens of green antidote vials.

“What’s this?” Liang Le asked. Director Zhong hadn’t informed the ability teams about the antidote, so only the Five-Star Brigade, the Three-Linked Team, and Director Zhong knew about it.

“An antidote for the zombie virus,” Gu Ning explained. “But it only works for ordinary zombies.”

“An antidote has been developed?” Zhang Ji and the others crowded around, their eyes fixed on the case containing at least thirty or forty vials.

Yi Shaoqing took out a vial and a new syringe, then closed the case and handed it to Zhuang Chen before administering the antidote to Li Xin.

“Thank you,” Li Xin said, tears welling up but not falling.

Yi Shaoqing said, “If you hadn’t been brave enough to step forward, I wouldn’t have given it to you.” He winked at her and added with a smile, “That’s a compliment.”

Li Xin smiled through her tears and thanked him again, “Thank you.”

Yi Shaoqing stood up and told Liang Le, “She might feel dizzy for about ten minutes. Take her aside to rest.” He then took the case back from Zhuang Chen, waved it at the eager onlookers, and said with a smile, “If you still want to leave, feel free.”