Chapter 136

Chapter 136: Taking Advantage of the Chaos

Although the sky hadn’t brightened, most people in the base still held onto a sliver of hope that it would eventually light up. However, after four or five hours had passed and it was already 3 PM, there was still not a single glimmer of light on the horizon. The last shred of hope had been shattered.

The disappearance of special abilities had only caused panic in a small circle. For ordinary people, some might even feel a bit of schadenfreude, thinking it served those with abilities right. But if the sky never brightened again, the blow to humanity would be catastrophic—like the sky itself had fallen. Without any light source in the darkness, you wouldn’t even know if a zombie had crept up behind you.

Moreover, without sunlight, neither plants nor humans could survive for long.

Even with zombies running rampant, people still had the courage to survive in this apocalyptic world. But without the sun, who would give them the courage to move forward in a darkness filled with danger?

People stepped out of their tents, looking around with blank, fearful expressions. Some even began to cry in despair, feeling like the world had truly come to an end.

Even Gu Ning couldn’t help but feel a twinge of despair. If the evolution of zombies and humans had once made her confident about humanity’s future, now she was starting to wonder if the world had truly reached its end.

Though for a brief moment Gu Ning felt hopeless about the future, as long as she was still alive, she would continue to fight. She never forgot why she had stayed in this world.

Standing on the wall, she exhaled a heavy breath. After four or five hours of non-stop clearing zombies rushing toward the gate, their numbers had been significantly reduced. Gu Ning roughly estimated that there were still about one or two thousand zombies outside, though they were no longer as densely packed. The bodies at the base’s entrance had piled up over a meter high, with a few zombies climbing over them to try and breach the gate. Most, however, were scattered around the outskirts of the base. Gu Ning climbed down the ladder and walked over to Zhuang Chen, saying, “We can start clearing the outside now.”

Zhuang Chen nodded. Considering the exhaustion of the former ability users, they hadn’t been woken up. Instead, the guard teams were organized into groups of twenty, sent out from areas with fewer zombies to clean up the remaining ones. Perhaps the psychic-type mutated zombie’s abilities were limited, unable to control higher-level mutants. Gu Ning had already taken out as many mutated zombies as she could from the watchtower. So, aside from a few evolved zombies causing some trouble, the ordinary ones were manageable. Over twenty squads were clearing the remaining zombies at a decent pace.

Director Zhong wasn’t feeling much relief despite temporarily overcoming the zombie siege. He was still frowning, “Now we have to deal with these zombie corpses. Thankfully, it’s winter, so the cold reduces the risk of disease. If it were summer, with so many bodies piled up, it would be a disaster.” Even without worrying about disease, disposing of nearly three to four thousand zombie corpses would take days, even if they were burned.

Just then, several gunshots rang out!

The sound wasn’t far—it came from the direction of the dormitory building.

Director Zhong frowned, “What’s going on? Who’s shooting?”

Gu Ning’s heart skipped a beat as she thought of something. Without hesitation, she rushed toward the source.

“Director Zhong, I’ll leave the cleanup to you. I’m going to check it out,” Zhuang Chen said before following Gu Ning. Yi Shaoqing, seeing there was nothing left for him to do here, also ran after them.

“Hey! Don’t run off! We’re not done here!” Director Zhong called out in a panic as Zhang Yang and the others also prepared to follow.

On her way, Gu Ning encountered a man carrying a large bag of supplies, running in a panic while looking back. He nearly collided with Gu Ning, dropping his supplies all over the ground. Without even seeing who he was facing, he cursed, “Damn it! Watch where you’re going!” But when he looked up and saw Gu Ning, his expression froze, a flicker of fear in his eyes. He quickly crouched down to pick up his scattered supplies.

Gu Ning’s eyes narrowed as she noticed a few cans of fruit rolling out of his bag.

The man hurriedly tried to gather the cans, but before he could, a foot stepped on his hand. He didn’t need to look up to know whose foot it was. Suppressing the urge to curse, he said politely, “Miss, could you please lift your foot?”

The foot lifted, and he quickly tossed the cans back into the bag, standing up to leave. But before he could fully straighten, he was kicked to the ground.

The bag fell again, spilling its contents. Enraged, the man pulled out a knife and lunged at Gu Ning’s stomach. Gu Ning deftly dodged the blade, grabbing his wrist and twisting it. The man howled in pain, dropping the knife. He continued to wail—

“Gu Ning!” Cheng Ming ran over, his expression darkening when he saw the man Gu Ning had subdued. “It’s this bastard!” He punched the man, knocking him to the ground. Shi Tou quickly followed, pinning the man down as he tried to flee.

“What happened?” Gu Ning asked.

“These guys found out our abilities are gone and decided to take advantage of the chaos to rob us!” Cheng Ming said angrily.

Gu Ning’s face darkened, “Are any of our people hurt?”

Cheng Ming shook his head, “It was chaos earlier. We’re not sure yet.”

“Bring him. Let’s head back first,” Gu Ning said, leading the way toward the dormitory building.

A crowd had already gathered at the dormitory building due to the gunshots. They quickly made way when they saw Gu Ning and the others returning with a captive.

Just then, Third Brother Luo Long and a few others arrived, dragging along several bruised young men.

Third Brother’s face was grim, “We only caught these few. The rest got away.”

Zhang Xiaobai, known for his impulsive nature, was furious. He kicked one of the young men, who was already swollen from the beating, and said to Gu Ning, “These bastards took advantage of us being away and tried to rob us with guns!”

The young man on the ground wailed, “Please spare me! I was tricked into this! I was so hungry I lost my mind! I swear I’ll never do it again!”

Zhang Xiaobai kicked him again, “Talk! Who started this?”

The young man, terrified, began to spill the details of the robbery.

It turned out these people had somehow learned that the abilities of the ability users were gone, and that most of the Three-Linked Team’s main force had been pulled to the gate. The Three-Linked Team’s vast stockpile of supplies had always been a source of envy, but their strength had kept others at bay. Seeing this as a golden opportunity, a few ringleaders gathered a group of young troublemakers from the base, armed themselves, and decided to strike. They had planned to sneak in and steal quietly, but when a child spotted them, it turned into an open robbery.

Third Brother and the others, who had been sleeping, were awakened by the commotion. When they saw the robbers with their supplies, they were furious. The robbers hadn’t expected the Three-Linked Team to still be so formidable even without their abilities. In the chaos, a few managed to escape, but the slower ones were caught.

Out of the eighteen robbers, only eleven were captured, and one had been shot dead in the chaos.

The young man finished his confession, sobbing and begging for forgiveness.

Gu Ning felt a chill. They had been fighting so hard outside, not just to protect their families but also for the tens of thousands of lives in the base. Yet, while they risked their lives to keep everyone safe, some were looting their supplies! In the dim light, Gu Ning’s expression was icy.

Zhuang Chen, noticing Gu Ning’s expression, felt something was off. He put an arm around her shoulder, about to say something to comfort her.

Suddenly, a hand tugged at Gu Ning’s sleeve. A thin, thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy stood there, holding up a plastic bag. His sunken eyes and forced stoic expression betrayed his nervousness. He said stiffly, “Your stuff.”

Gu Ning and Zhuang Chen were taken aback. Gu Ning looked down at the bag and realized it was the one that had been dropped earlier.

“Some got taken, but I managed to grab these,” the boy said, pushing the bag toward Gu Ning. If one looked closely, they could see a bruise on his jaw from the scuffle.

Gu Ning instinctively took the bag.

“I’ve seen you kill zombies. You’re really strong,” the boy said earnestly, like an adult praising her, before turning to leave. A group of boys around his age stood nearby, one of them complaining, “Li Yi, are you crazy? We’re starving, and you’re giving away what we found!”

The boy, Li Yi, simply said, “They’re the ones killing zombies at the gate,” before walking off with his friends, their complaints fading into the distance.

There were many such boys in the base—orphans with no one to rely on, banding together for survival. Director Zhong occasionally gave them small tasks in exchange for just enough supplies to keep them from starving. No one in the base was willing to take them in, not even the Three-Linked Team, which had stopped accepting new children after realizing they couldn’t care for all the orphans.

Gu Ning watched the boys walk away, the bag in her hand. Zhuang Chen, standing beside her, sighed, “This is probably what you meant when you said this is the future of this world…”