Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

And that’s why an auntie will always be an auntie.

Song You’ai landed two solid punches on the young translator’s back. THUMP! THUMP!

She even showed some restraint, avoiding his head and aiming for the fleshiest parts...

Terrified by her aggression, the young man covered his head and shrank to the side.

Lu Wei waited until Song You’ai was finished before gently pulling her away. "Alright, Auntie, that’s enough. Please, calm down."

"Sir," he said to the translator, "while we’d love to help our friends from R Country, we simply don’t have the means."

"Due to limited resources, our vehicles are already packed full with our own rescued countrymen. Why don’t you try finding someone else to help you first?"

"That’s right! There are so many cars here, just go find someone else to hitch a ride with!" Song You’ai nodded, chiming in. "But there’s one thing you need to remember: have a better attitude. If you’re asking for help, you need to act like it. Don’t behave as if everyone owes you something! Your people from R Country aren’t any more noble than we are!"

Left speechless by Song You’ai’s tirade, the translator in the white suit angrily turned and stalked back to the group from R Country.

Xie Ning stood to the side, listening to their grumbling, before slowly walking over to Song You’ai. "Mom, I’m going to go scout ahead for news."

"No need." Gu Chen walked over, shaking his head at her. "There’s a problem up at the Tongjiang Tunnel. It’s blocked by a large horde of zombies. No one can get through for now."

Xie Ning nodded. They hadn’t taken the Tongjiang Tunnel on their way here, so the trip had been smooth. She never thought they’d ’hit the jackpot’ on the way back. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Just then, a young soldier hurried over and saluted. "Captain, it’s Team B. They’re trapped in the tunnel."

"Ah, so it is them." Gu Chen wasn’t surprised at all.

Even the good-natured Lu Wei couldn’t help but roll his eyes. "So Yang Yiling’s team really got themselves stuck here? What do we do now?"

A rescue was necessary, of course, but with so many ordinary civilians crowded around, a full-on fight could lead to collateral damage.

"Stay here, don’t move," Gu Chen instructed them before taking two teammates and heading forward again.

When he returned, twenty minutes had passed.

"Little sister, I’m afraid I have to ask for your help again." Gu Chen walked quickly up to her, a wry smile on his face.

Xie Ning was already prepared. At his words, she nodded, shouldered her backpack, and said, "Let’s go."

Gu Chen turned and ordered Lu Wei, "Go evacuate the crowd up front. Yang Yiling’s team is trapped inside the tunnel. It’s still unclear why the zombies haven’t charged out."

Lu Wei nodded. With no time to deal with the white-suited translator who was still looking to argue, he quickly gathered a few people and rushed to the front of the traffic jam to evacuate the crowd.

"We’re going deep into the tunnel to investigate," Gu Chen said as he handed her a palm-sized military flashlight and placed a helmet on her head.

"Once we’re inside, you stick close behind us."

Xie Ning hummed in agreement and followed them at a brisk pace.

Along the way, many cars were haphazardly blocking the main road, and some Power-type Superpower Users were tirelessly moving them.

With all this commotion, if there really were a lot of zombies in the tunnel, it was impossible they wouldn’t hear the noise and charge out.

So, this tunnel was definitely strange.

Gu Chen led a team of ten, including Xie Ning, into the dark tunnel.

All the lights were out. They could hear the roars of zombies from deep within and faintly see some flickering flashes of light.

Xie Ning’s expression was grave. She pulled out Metal Spikes one after another, quickly weaving them into a mesh grid.

She held the grid in her arms, and as she poured her superpower into it, the mesh gradually elongated.

The young men from the special operations team glanced at her, somewhat astonished.

"What are you gawking at? Help her!" one of them quickly ran over to help Xie Ning hold the metal grid, and the others hurried up to lend a hand.

The group carried the nearly man-high grid and moved quickly forward.

It wasn’t until they reached the spot where Team B had run into trouble that they saw the scene before them.

The tunnel floor was carpeted with zombie corpses, but that wasn’t all. There were still two to three hundred living ones.

At that moment, they were howling and clawing frantically at a large earthen mound up ahead.

That large earthen mound looked a bit like... a burial mound.

"What’s going on?" a young soldier asked nervously. "Why is there a grave mound here? Don’t tell me Wu, Qiangzi, and the others have been buried alive!"

"This was likely created by an Earth Ability User on their team, who used up all their superpower to make this defensive earth shelter," Xie Ning said, staring ahead and subconsciously clenching her fists.

"If that’s the case, they are very likely still alive."

Someone nearby glared irritably at the comrade who had just made the inauspicious remark. "If you can’t say something helpful, then shut up."

This was the first time since her rebirth that Xie Ning had faced so many zombies at once.

She wasn’t exactly scared; in fact, she felt a thrill of excitement...

Just then, a sharp, piercing shriek came from within the horde of zombies that were frantically digging at the mound.

Xie Ning pressed a hand to her head as a familiar wave of dizziness washed over her.

"It’s a Spiritual Zombie! Be careful!" Xie Ning gritted her teeth in realization, pulling two swaying young soldiers behind her.

’So that’s why. No wonder these zombies hadn’t left the tunnel to attack anyone else. They were being controlled by a First-stage Mutated Zombie and forced to stay here.’

Moreover, Xie Ning felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity from this mutated zombie.

The hairs all over her body stood on end.

At the same time, she kicked out, sending the heavy metal grid flying.

Releasing a surge of her Gold Ability, she commanded the grid to expand, instantly blocking the tunnel from floor to ceiling and separating them from the roaring horde of zombies.

Gu Chen released a current of electricity that went SIZZLE! CRACKLE!

The zombies, large and small, which the Spiritual Zombie had directed to turn and lunge at them, immediately began to smoke and burn upon contact with the metal grid, and the sound of sizzling skin and roasting flesh filled the air.

Seeing this, the young teammates’ faces lit up with joy and excitement.

’The captain and the girl’s teamwork is perfect!’

They could wipe out the charging horde of zombies without losing a single soldier.

Xie Ning was also a little shocked. Gu Chen’s control over that powerful electric current was too slick; it didn’t seem like a skill one could master just a day or two after awakening.

Especially since the current even had a chain reaction, conducting from one zombie to the next, causing a mass electrocution event.

’Is this something a newly awakened Superpower User can do?’

’This Captain Gu is truly impossible to figure out.’

An enraged roar erupted from within the zombie horde.

Clearly, Gu Chen and Xie Ning’s slick maneuver had infuriated the First-stage Mutated Zombie.

THUD! A few zombies slammed heavily against the metal grid, their bodies nearly bursting through it.

Xie Ning, who was controlling the grid, stumbled back two steps and couldn’t help but cough a few times.

Gu Chen quickly reached out to steady her, his eyes flashing with anger as he turned his head.

He drew a pitch-black dagger from his waist. With a flick of his finger, the dagger instantly grew several feet in length.