this chapter is brought to you by mio
as translator, proofreader and editor!
Jiang Ci couldn’t help but recall a movie she had seen before, where a child on an island killed all the other adults. That particular scene had left a deep impression on her, and now the scene before her eyes seemed to overlap with the one from that movie.
Naturally, Jiang Ci couldn’t treat these children as ordinary kids. After exchanging a glance with Song Jinchuan, she immediately released Hui Hui from her backpack.
The children’s eyes lit up when they saw the tortoise Jiang Ci had released. An animal of that size probably wasn’t a mutated beast.
Although tortoises didn’t have much meat, every little bit still counted. They stared intently at Hui Hui, clearly about to charge forward.
But in the next moment, a tongue of flame suddenly shot out from Song Jinchuan’s palm, creating a barrier between them and the children—a silent warning.
The children on the other side were indeed intimidated. They paused, hesitating, seemingly afraid to advance.
However, in the next second, the child holding a gun pulled the trigger without hesitation, moving so quickly that Jiang Ci didn’t even have time to react.
Hui Hui immediately erected a solid earthen wall in front of Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan, blocking the bullet.
The gunshot seemed to act as a trigger. Jiang Ci heard the group of children charging toward them, their weapons slashing chaotically at the earthen wall in front of them.
They used all their strength, clearly determined to kill the two of them.
Song Jinchuan began to counterattack with his abilities, mixing wind and fire to create a small tornado of fire, causing the children to scream and scatter in all directions.
The flames inevitably burned them, and as their piercing cries filled the air, even Song Jinchuan’s typically expressionless face during combat showed how conflicted he was.
In the apocalypse, children were usually the ones being protected and nurtured. After all, they represented the hope of the world.
Perhaps realizing they were outmatched, the group of children quickly dispersed and ran away. They seemed organized and capable of assessing the situation, suggesting that this wasn’t the first time they had done something like this.
Song Jinchuan’s tornado of fire chased them far away until they disappeared from sight.
“Can a base handle something like this?” Jiang Ci asked with a frown.
“Yes,” Song Jinchuan replied. “Once the base is aware of the situation, they’ll send a specialized team. If the children are beyond saving, they’ll be humanely destroyed. If there’s still hope, they’ll be taken back for detention and reeducation.”
Jiang Ci didn’t have time to deal with them now, as they still had an urgent delivery to make. She and Song Jinchuan agreed to report the incident to a base when they returned.
The two mounted their electric scooter and continued forward. Jiang Ci glanced back, her mind still unsettled.
Lost in thought, Jiang Ci felt as if only a moment had passed before they arrived at the next city with a red dot.
The city was vast, with complex road conditions—full of slopes, descents, and numerous staircases. It seemed to be an old district with a rich historical background.
Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan had been searching for the location for nearly an hour before they finally arrived at the delivery spot.
It was a five-story building that resembled a shopping mall, with shattered windows, pitch-black interiors, and walls that were almost entirely stripped of their plaster.
Jiang Ci double-checked the delivery address—it was indeed the right place.
“Something’s not right here,” Song Jinchuan frowned deeply. The level of his ability was quite high, allowing him to sense the presence of other ability users.
Although it wasn’t unusual to find ability users here, what was truly strange was the eerie silence.
pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:
Meanwhile, inside the building, a group of people lurked in the shadows, secretly observing Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan outside.
“They actually came. It seems what they said was true.”
“Everyone, stay hidden and stick to the plan.”
On the top floor, a muscular man sat in the dark. His exposed arms were covered in intricate tattoos, with even his face marked with black lines.
In his hand, he was tossing a seventh-level crystal core up and down. Beside him, a few survivors were discussing Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan, who had just arrived downstairs.
When the man heard them mention Song Jinchuan—the top figure of Bright Base, who had inexplicably left the base and now followed the boss of the hotpot restaurant—he let out a derisive laugh. He tossed the crystal core up for it to land directly in his mouth. A chilling crunching sound followed as he bit down and swallowed the crystal core whole.
Crystal cores were indeed useful for upgrading abilities, but because the energy they contained was too primal, they were usually not consumed directly. Their energy had to be extracted and diluted first before consumption.
Soon, veins bulged on the man’s forehead, as if he were enduring immense pain, yet his expression remained largely unchanged.
After a while, the energy was fully absorbed, causing the man to slowly exhaled a breath of foul air.
He extended his hand, and a black, liquid-like substance began to flow from his palm. His words were filled with arrogance, “Who cares whether he’s the top figure or not? Just kill him.”
The black liquid dripped from his palm onto the ground, corroding a large hole in the floor.
This ability was particularly eerie, unrelated to the typical elements like metal, wood, water, fire, or earth. It belonged to a special category of abilities.
The other survivors in the room couldn’t help but cheer in hushed tones at the man’s powerful display.
However, the survivors huddled in the corner trembled at the sight. Their wounds from the corrosion hadn’t healed yet, and although the pain left their faces pale, they dared not make a sound.
They hadn’t initially wanted to order takeout to be delivered here. After all, Boss Jiang was a good person, and they didn’t want to harm her.
But the man’s ability was too bizarre, tormenting the survivors to the point where they wished for death. In the end, their delivery order was forcibly discovered.
Now, upon hearing that Jiang Ci and the others had arrived, they felt a mix of worry as well as a glimmer of hope.
When Jiang Ci heard Song Jinchuan say that something might be wrong, an alarm went off in her mind. She wanted to turn around and leave immediately.
But the survivors who had ordered the takeout were in grave danger. If she left, they would surely be doomed.
So, she and Song Jinchuan stepped into the dark, ominous building together.
For this, Jiang Ci spent some points to apply a protective shield to both Song Jinchuan and Hui Hui. She thought highly of her two companions, getting along with them exceptionally well. Hence why she didn’t want to replace them.
The moment the protective shield was applied, Song Jinchuan felt a strange sensation, as if his body had changed. It was an indescribable feeling, as though neither weapons nor supernatural abilities could harm him.
As soon as they stepped into the building, the survivors hidden on various floors began to stir quietly.
The sound of footsteps grew closer and closer. Just as the survivors were about to take action, they were nearly blinded by a sudden burst of intense light before they could even see who it was approaching.
Jiang Ci was wearing a headlamp she had exchanged from the system, illuminating the space around her with its range being over ten to twenty meters, making her surroundings as bright as daylight.
“This lamp is quite useful. I must say, after turning on this light, I don’t feel as scared anymore,” Jiang Ci joked with Song Jinchuan.
As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Ci heard several screams.
Having hidden in the dark for so long, the sudden exposure to such bright light inevitably injured the eyes of several survivors.
The moment those sounds were made, wind and earth-based abilities simultaneously erupted from Jiang Ci’s side, followed by even louder screams.
They hadn’t expected their plan to be completely disrupted. Now, they could only cover their wounds and flee in disarray, leaving their fallen teammates behind without a second thought.
Song Jinchuan and Hui Hui worked together to subdue the remaining survivors, ensuring they had no chance to alert others.
The survivors ambushed on the first floor were thus wiped out by one person and one tortoise.
Jiang Ci checked her delivery map, “Let’s go. The survivor who ordered the delivery is on the top floor.”
With the protective shield Jiang Ci had provided, Song Jinchuan and Hui Hui used their abilities more recklessly. Combined with Jiang Ci’s powerful headlamp, they were practically unstoppable.
There were also many survivors hiding in the shadows on the second floor, but they were all exposed by the light.
The survivors on this floor were armed with guns, and soon, the sound of gunfire echoed in Jiang Ci’s ears.
Although in an instance, Song Jinchuan was unable to dodge in time and was hit at point-blank range, he still wasn’t injured at all. It was only then that he truly felt the power of the protective shield.
As they moved up floor by floor, the survivors lost their previous confidence and arrogance, fleeing in panic to the top floor to report the carnage below to the muscular man.
“All our brothers on the first and second floors are dead, and now the third floor is about to fall,” the survivor’s voice trembled. Having witnessed the deaths of his teammates, he could no longer remain as calm as before.
Hearing this, the survivors huddled in a corner couldn’t help but smile. It seemed they were saved!
Boss Jiang originally appeared delicate and fragile, and she seemed to have never used any abilities. Who would have thought she could be so formidable?
The muscular man slowly stood up from his seat, cracking his neck, the sound of his bones grinding against each other echoing through the room.
“Brother Niu…” The survivor who had just spoken hadn’t even finished his sentence yet when the man called Brother Niu suddenly swung his hand, forcefully twisting the head of the person in front of him a full 360 degrees.
As Tie Niu walked out, the body behind him slowly crumpled. The survivors behind him dared not speak, fearing they might provoke this god of death.
Song Jinchuan was still fighting against the survivors on the third floor when, suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a large mass of black energy rushing toward him at lightning speed.
Song Jinchuan quickly used his ability to counter it. The moment he retreated, Hui Hui seamlessly stepped in to fill the gap.
As soon as their abilities clashed, Song Jinchuan knew his opponent was certainly no weakling. Moreover, he had never encountered such an ability in the apocalypse before.
The clash of black and orange energies erupted on the third floor. Since they were evenly matched, each collision produced a deafening sound.
When Tie Niu fought, he didn’t care whether his companions were nearby. Many survivors were caught in the crossfire, and without Hui Hui even needing to act, they had already collapsed to the ground.
Seeing that almost everyone around had fallen, Jiang Ci picked up Hui Hui and prepared to head upstairs.
what are your thoughts abt the children in the apocalypse? i’m curious bc i had mixed feelings, but i guess without the government making judgement on sentencing, etc, makes sense for the base to step in instead
