After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret

Ever since the extreme cold set in, the zombies from Vexford—which was originally quite a distance away—had inexplicably begun gathering toward the remote suburbs.

Felix Finch worried that if those zombies swarmed around Crestfall, they would likely disrupt the city’s fragile equilibrium. In his mind, Crestfall currently resembled an intricate setup of dominoes stretched to its absolute limit. Every single piece teetered on the breaking point. It appeared balanced, but the slightest touch would trigger a total collapse. Once the zombies broke free, the base would undeniably face a catastrophe.

”Nina Jacobs reinforced the perimeter around Crestfall once more before she left. However, we still shouldn’t let anyone get near there for the time being, just in case it triggers something,” Claire Warner said.

She had once roughly estimated the total zombie population inside Crestfall to be around nine million. Lately, Puppet Zombies had been indiscriminately slaughtering their own kind within the city walls, reducing the horde by nearly two thousand every day. Combined with her own presence and her Instant Detonation Skill, Crestfall’s zombies would likely be completely wiped out before the extreme cold weather ended. It was just that she couldn’t explain all this to him.

”Understood.” Felix had escaped from the valley himself, so he naturally knew the horrors that lurked within. Even the most trivial incident could provoke a zombie rampage throughout the city. That was one of the reasons he had never dared to let anyone approach the area, not even deploying drones to scout.

Nevertheless, Claire’s calm explanation put his mind much more at ease.

That night, Nina rested at the top of Crestfall’s high tower.

The safe house was incredibly warm. Watching the System Experience bar slowly creep up by single digits, Nina grabbed herself a bottle of juice. With a light tap of her fingertip, buildings packed with zombies everywhere were hit with Instant Detonation. Over fourteen thousand zombies were blown to pieces in the blink of an eye, and the System Experience bar nudged forward just a tiny bit more.

She also noticed a considerable amount of new weapons in her system storage grid, gifted by the system over this recent period. Most of these were rewards for unlocking various titles, with The Best Defender providing the most. They spanned all elemental types. Nina casually pulled out an object that looked like a seed. She had four of these in her system storage.

”Locking Dragon Seed? Looks like a Wood Element weapon.” Because the item looked so inconspicuous, Nina hadn’t paid it any attention before. She tried using her power to accelerate its growth and discovered that the seed could sprout thick wooden chains out of thin air, coiling like horned dragons. The wooden chains were incredibly difficult to sever, making it an excellent weapon for subduing enemies.

”I’ll spend tomorrow killing zombies here for another day and head back in the afternoon,” Nina muttered to herself. Zombies were a resource, too. She was only four points of Superpower Value away from upgrading to an Advanced Superpower User, so she needed to work hard.

There wasn’t a single living person within a hundred miles of Crestfall.

After daybreak, Nina stood alone in a city teeming with millions of zombies. With a wave of her hand, she brought down a sky full of fiery rain. The fiery downpour transformed a massive stretch of the ground into an absolute sea of flames. However, there were simply too many zombies; the moment the front ranks were reduced to ash, the ones behind instantly filled the gaps.

Nina then began experimenting with her Wind and Fire Tornado again. The interior of the Wind Dragon Vortex was packed with roaring flames. The vortex before her seemed to possess a magnetic pull, violently sucking in the surrounding zombies one after another. Wind and fire fueled each other, and she noticed that her Fire Element Superpower moved much faster when boosted by her Wind Element Superpower. The flames heated the airflow and intensified the wind pressure, while the resulting high-temperature heatwaves instantly carbonized the zombies. Furthermore, combining the Wind Element with the Earth Element or Gold Element could produce even more devastating offensive power.

Nina tirelessly experimented and depleted her energy. She lost count of how many zombies she had killed. It wasn’t until her Superpower and physical stamina were completely drained that she finally used the Teleportation Gate to return to her home at the City D Base.

The cloakroom door was still shut tight. After confirming there was no one outside, Nina finally stepped out.

Three days passed in this manner. Had she not been afraid of arousing her family’s suspicion, Nina would have wanted to live straight out of Crestfall for a whole month. With the safe house acting as her fallback, this kind of intensive training was extremely beneficial for improving her Group Attack Ability. Even though her Superpower Value had only sluggishly increased by one point, Nina knew exactly how much weight that single point carried.

That afternoon, a knock sounded on the door of one of the training rooms at the City D Base. Seeing the person leaning against the doorway, the eyes of the young man practicing his Superpower instantly lit up.

”Nina!” Ian Chandler bolted toward her, his increasingly handsome features brimming with sheer joy.

”Still practicing? I’ll wait for you,” Nina said.

The City D Base had established numerous indoor venues for people to practice their Superpowers. When she arrived just now, she noticed that the regular venues were already displaying ”full capacity” signs. The floor Ian was on appeared to be exclusively reserved for the base’s rescue teams.

”There’s no need. I’ll just do some extra training tonight.” Ian had already strode out of the room.

”Alright. I brought some pastries Walsh made for you.” Nina had also brought some milk tea brewed by Vera Coleman. Upon opening it in the breakroom, the warm, sweet aroma instantly wafted through the air.

Ian took a sip and felt a wave of comfort wash over his entire body. The young man’s clear, handsome eyes crinkled into crescents; the corners of his mouth hadn’t dropped since Nina showed up.

”I’ve saved up quite a few Crystal Cores lately. I’ll send them all over to you later.” Ian waved his hand, and several large crates packed to the brim with Crystal Cores instantly materialized on the carpet.

Nina didn’t refuse. In return, she reached into the tote bag that held the pastries, took out three bottle-cap-sized seeds, and placed them on the table.

”Speaking of which, I haven’t had the chance to give you a present for upgrading to Intermediate. I’m not sure if this will suit you,” Nina said. She believed the Locking Dragon Seed was perfectly suited for Ian, who possessed both the Space Element and Wood Element.

”I like anything you give me.” Ian didn’t know what they were yet, but when he scooped up the three seeds, the Wood Element Superpower within his body seemingly reacted at once. ”This is...” He instinctively felt that these items were far from ordinary.

Nina smiled and said, ”I remember your Space Blade. If you place this inside the Space Blade and combine it with your Wood Element Superpower, perhaps it’ll yield an even better effect?” These were only her hypotheses. Whether it would actually succeed depended entirely on Ian.

The strange seeds were rapidly grown in Ian’s hands. Looking at the thick wooden chains directly in front of him, Ian’s eyes filled with awe. What surprised him even more was that by utilizing his Wood Element Superpower, he could revert the chains back to their original seed state!

Seeing Nina’s encouraging gaze beside him, Ian stepped out into the corridor and waved his hand, firing off a Space Blade several meters away. After a few attempts, the empty air a short distance away looked as if it had been inexplicably torn open, and a tangle of interlocking wooden chains drilled out from the rift.

Nina waved her hand and condensed a Stone Spike. The wooden chains instantly wrapped around the Stone Spike and dragged it into the spatial fissure! Immediately after, an identical spatial rift appeared in another spot. By the time the wooden chain emerged again, the Stone Spike had already been crushed into gravel!

Even Nina hadn’t anticipated an outcome quite like this beforehand.

”Not bad,” Nina said. To break conventions by turning a Space Superpower into a lethal strike and coupling it with the restraining forces of a Wood Element Superpower was no easy feat.

”It’s because you’re a great teacher,” Ian replied. Gripping the three seeds, he was just about to ask where they came from when a round of applause echoed from the other end of the corridor.

”Truly worthy of being called a young prodigy.”

Nina raised an eyebrow and looked over. The person speaking was none other than Amelia Vance.