Chapter 33

Chapter 33: X-ray Vision? Psychic System Special Ability?

The black man was yelling and flailing his arms wildly, trying to hit people, but there were four or five guys ganging up on him. He still managed to get punched and kicked occasionally. Amidst the chaos, he found time to shout at Gu Ning, “Run! Run!” in surprisingly standard Mandarin.

He also yelled at the guys beating him up, “You savages! Hitting people is illegal! If you’re so tough, go kill some zombies outside!”

Gu Ning had no intention of running. She quietly took out her gun, clicked off the safety, and aimed it at the group.

The sound of the safety clicking off was unusually clear, and it made everyone—both the attackers and the victim—freeze and turn their attention to her.

The black man instinctively raised his hands above his head, looking terrified as he pleaded, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I surrender! I surrender!” All the bravado he had just moments ago was gone.

The attackers immediately recognized Gu Ning. Now that she had her gun pointed at them, they remembered her ruthless, cold-blooded reputation and felt their legs go weak. One of them mustered the courage to shout, “That kid stole our biscuits first! We were just teaching him a lesson!”

Gu Ning wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer. She lowered her gun and gave them a slight nod, signaling that they could leave.

The group quickly regained their composure and scrambled down the slope, passing by Gu Ning in a hurry.

The black man finally realized that Gu Ning was on his side. He flashed a wide grin and greeted her enthusiastically, “Hey! So you’re here to help them too! I thought you were with those guys! Oh, by the way, I haven’t introduced myself yet. Hello, miss, my name is Jack Sparrow. Yes, just like Captain Jack Sparrow. You can call me Jack, but I was born before him—I mean, before the movie character was born—”

Gu Ning looked at this overly enthusiastic black man who spoke fluent Mandarin and didn’t feel like engaging. She gave him a cold nod and walked over to the young girl and the boy.

Jack scratched his head, wondering if the girl might be racist. But he still followed Gu Ning, curious if there was anything he could do to help.

“Can you stand up?” Gu Ning asked the boy, whose face was covered in bruises.

“Yes…” The boy struggled to his feet with the help of the little girl. He pursed his lips and said to Gu Ning, “Thank you.”

The little girl also looked at Gu Ning with gratitude.

The girl looked to be about seven or eight years old, with a bob cut and bangs that were uneven, as if they’d been chewed by a dog. Her face was dirty, but her eyes were strikingly dark and bright.

Gu Ning couldn’t help but say, “I know a safe place. There are many orphans like you there…”

Before she could finish, the boy interrupted, “We’re not orphans!” He pursed his lips stubbornly and repeated, “We’re not orphans. We don’t need anyone’s pity.”

Gu Ning met his stubborn gaze and said coldly, “Oh. Then you should’ve been beaten to death by now.”

The boy just tightened his lips, unable to retort.

“All pride should be built on your own strength,” Gu Ning said, her voice icy. “Until you have the capital to be proud, you should be more practical. Otherwise, not only will you die, but you’ll drag others down with you.” The “others” here naturally referred to his sister.

The boy’s face turned red. He instinctively wanted to argue, but when he opened his mouth, he found he had nothing to say. There was no argument to be made.

Jack Sparrow, who had been standing by unnoticed, looked back and forth between them. He understood every word Gu Ning said, but it took him a moment to piece together the meaning.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Gu Ning suddenly frowned and looked at Jack Sparrow.

“???” Jack Sparrow was completely baffled as to why he was suddenly being told to leave.

Gu Ning said, “I need to talk to them alone.”

“Oh! No problem, I’ll head out then. If you need any help, you can come find me. Maybe I can even give you some food,” Jack Sparrow said to the boy and the little girl.

Then he turned to Gu Ning and said, “Well, see you next time, miss. Goodbye.”

After sending Jack away, Gu Ning turned her attention to the little girl.

Gu Ning didn’t beat around the bush. She got straight to the point: “I saved your brother. Now it’s your turn to tell me what’s going on with your eyes.”

As soon as she asked, she could feel the tension rise in both the boy and the girl.

The boy immediately stepped in front of the girl, shielding her, and looked at Gu Ning with hostility. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Brother, it’s okay,” the girl tugged at the boy’s sleeve and looked at Gu Ning with her dark eyes. “Sister, my name is Xiang Xu. This is my brother, Xiang Yi.”

“Why are you telling her our names?” Xiang Yi, the boy, glared at Gu Ning, clearly unhappy that Xiang Xu had so easily revealed their names.

Xiang Xu ignored him and said to Gu Ning, “Can I look at your eyes?”

Gu Ning’s gaze flickered slightly, and then she crouched down.

The girl walked over and stared into Gu Ning’s eyes for a moment. Then she visibly relaxed and said, “Yours are green. Mine are white. Look.” She pulled her eyelids open a bit to make sure Gu Ning could see clearly.

Gu Ning looked closely and indeed saw a faint white ring around the girl’s black pupils.

So far, including herself, there were already three people who had undergone this kind of mutation. And all of them were in this gathering place. It was very likely that…

“Did you also eat an orb and then become like this?” the girl asked curiously.

Gu Ning nodded.

Seeing Gu Ning nod, the girl’s eyes lit up, and she said more seriously, “After eating that orb, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I found that I could see in the dark, and I could see a white lake inside my body. Do you have the same thing?”

Gu Ning’s expression tightened slightly as she thought of the green ocean in her own space. She asked, “Besides the lake, is there anything else? Like… a door?”

Xiang Xu shook her head in confusion. “No. Just the lake.”

Xiang Yi, who had been silent until now, caught the key point in Gu Ning’s question. He stared at her intently and asked, “You have one?”

Gu Ning shot him a look and said, “Right now, I’m the one asking the questions. You don’t have the right to ask back.”

Xiang Yi was left speechless by Gu Ning’s words. His beautiful single-lidded eyes narrowed in anger. “Who asked you to save me anyway?!”

Gu Ning didn’t even glance at him. “Your sister did. And right now, I’m talking to your sister. If you have any complaints, I don’t mind you stepping aside.”

“You!” The boy was so angry it looked like fire was about to shoot out of his eyes.

“Brother!” Xiang Xu tugged at his sleeve again, her eyes filled with disapproval. The boy, who had been acting like a fighting rooster in front of Gu Ning, finally calmed down after Xiang Xu’s call, though he still couldn’t swallow his anger. He turned his head away, refusing to look at Gu Ning, his profile full of defiance.

“Besides being able to see in the dark, do you have any other changes?” Gu Ning asked.

“I can see things from far away,” Xiang Xu said.

Gu Ning wasn’t particularly impressed by this, as her own eyesight was also excellent.

Xiang Xu continued, “Right now, I can see the school gate.”

Gu Ning instinctively turned to look, then froze. The school gate was less than 400 meters away, and with her eyesight, she could clearly see it. But the problem was, there was a classroom building in the way, blocking the view.

“My eyes can see through the building to where I want to look,” Xiang Xu said, then added shyly, “But right now, I can only see as far as the school gate. Anything farther is too much.”

Gu Ning was half-skeptical. She stared at Xiang Xu and said, “Who lives in room 308 on the third floor of the girls’ dormitory, less than 400 meters from here?”

Gu Ning noticed that after she asked this, the white ring around Xiang Xu’s pupils expanded slightly. Then she heard Xiang Xu say, “There are three people in 308. One has red hair, one wears glasses, and one has a bandage on her head.” She looked up at Gu Ning and smiled. “Sister, am I right?”

Gu Ning felt her throat go dry. She said, “Yes.”

“What about you? Has your body changed in any way?” Xiang Xu asked curiously.

The boy, who had turned his head away, couldn’t help but perk up his ears.

“No,” Gu Ning shook her head. Her situation seemed different from Xiang Xu’s, and she couldn’t help but feel a bit envious. Xiang Xu was like a living radar, able to monitor the surroundings for zombies within a few hundred meters, allowing them to escape before the zombies found them.

She, on the other hand, hadn’t noticed any changes in her body.

This made Gu Ning think of the man in her dormitory. His eyes were golden. What kind of special ability did he have?

That group of people had gathered with others from different dormitories early in the morning and left the gathering place. No one knew where they went.

When the boy heard Gu Ning’s words, he let out a sudden “tsk,” clearly thinking she was deliberately hiding something.

Gu Ning didn’t feel like explaining further. She just said, “If you’re going to put on a show next time, at least be more convincing.”

With that, she turned and walked away.

Only when Gu Ning was completely out of sight did Xiang Yi snap out of it. He turned to Xiang Xu and said, “What did she mean? Did she figure it out? No way! Was my acting that bad?”

Xiang Xu sighed like a little adult and said helplessly, “It was pretty bad.”

Xiang Yi pursed his lips and said to Xiang Xu, “See, she didn’t even hint at wanting us to follow her. She probably doesn’t think much of your ability. And I got beaten up for nothing.”

Xiang Xu gave him a disapproving look and frowned. “Brother, you were too rude.”

Xiang Yi said, “She’s the one with the deadpan face. And she’s so secretive, digging into our situation while keeping her mouth shut. She says she doesn’t have any special abilities. Do you believe her?”

“I do,” Xiang Xu said seriously. “I saw her eyes… She wasn’t lying.”

“You have X-ray vision, not a lie detector. That woman is cunning. It wouldn’t be hard for her to trick you,” Xiang Yi said.

Xiang Xu sighed and looked at Xiang Yi. “We didn’t tell her everything about ourselves either.”

“Anyway, I still stand by my earlier opinion. I don’t agree with following her. I don’t want to have to look at that icy face every day!” Xiang Yi said, pursing his lips.

Xiang Xu sighed like an adult again, then turned to look in the direction Gu Ning had left. The white lake inside her body rippled slightly, and a wave of spiritual power silently surged out, chasing after Gu Ning.

Just as the spiritual power was about to envelop Gu Ning…

Gu Ning seemed to sense something. She suddenly turned around and looked at the empty air.

In Xiang Xu’s eyes, she clearly met Gu Ning’s faint green gaze. Those eyes clearly said, “I see you.” Xiang Xu’s pupils contracted sharply in panic, and she forcibly severed the connection with her spiritual power. Whether it was because the connection was cut or because she was scared, Xiang Xu’s face turned pale.

Xiang Yi, seeing Xiang Xu’s pale face, asked anxiously, “Are you okay?”

“She saw me,” Xiang Xu said, her expression dazed. Then her face suddenly changed, and she looked at Xiang Yi. “Brother, maybe she’s even more powerful than I thought.”

Xiang Yi looked at the serious Xiang Xu and couldn’t find the words to respond.

Gu Ning felt the sensation of being watched disappear and guessed it was the little girl’s doing.

At the same time, a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She found it amusing that these two kids had set up such an elaborate scheme to lure her over. At first, she hadn’t thought much of it, but the boy, who had been beaten to the ground and couldn’t get up, suddenly seemed full of energy, showing no signs of pain.

She really didn’t think much of Xiang Xu’s ability. When she first heard about it, she had been a bit tempted, but after calming down, she realized that in such a small gathering place, there were already three people with mutations. There were probably many more outside. She could easily find more powerful companions. As for the little girl, she was too young—only seven or eight years old. Besides acting as a radar, Gu Ning couldn’t think of any other use for her. And her brother was even more of a hassle.

Though it might sound harsh, her parents were already a burden. She didn’t want to take on two more.

But the ability Xiang Xu had shown still excited Gu Ning. Perhaps this was a new turning point for the world.