Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Xie Ning gritted her teeth.

Ji Taixian distinctly felt Ms. Ning’s gaze on him, sharp as a dagger, sending a chill up his spine...

Song Shijun announced with a grin, ”I’ve reached First Rank!”

As he spoke, a small Wind Vortex formed in his palm. ”I think my destructive power has increased by quite a lot.”

”I’ve reached First Rank too! Me too!” Song Kexin said, eagerly showing off by summoning a Fireball, which immediately earned her annoyed glares from the family.

”Put it away, put it away! Are you trying to bake us to death?!”

Xie Ning nodded, a gratified look on her face as she glanced at her younger brother and sister.

’As expected of my brother and sister. They’re talented!’

Just then, Song Youzhi came down from upstairs with a strange look on his face.

”I think I’ve leveled up too.” He reached out to pull over a chair, and as he’d half-expected, it shattered into splinters in his grip.

The circle of people around him stared, dumbfounded. They all nervously scooted their stools closer together, afraid this Hercules might casually give them a squeeze and turn their limbs to splinters...

Song Youzhi scratched his head. ”I think I’ve advanced to Second Order. I’m having a little trouble controlling my strength. But don’t worry, I’ll go out with Xiao Gu and the others tomorrow to fight some zombies and get some practice. I should be able to control my power soon.”

As he spoke, he sat down on a nearby stool. With a loud CRACK, it immediately shattered into a pile beneath him.

Song Youzhi earned a look of severe disdain from Old Mrs. Song.

The old woman shot him a look that felt like tiny, piercing darts. ”I think you’ll be sleeping in the living room tonight. Don’t go wrecking the bed in your room. And for dinner, I’ll get you a stainless steel basin to eat out of.”

The group burst into laughter, making Song Youzhi flush beet-red.

Song Yaoguo’s heart swelled with pride. ”Our family has twelve members, and half of them have superpowers. The world may be a difficult place, but it hasn’t been unkind to our Song Family.”

”Old man, enough with the dramatics. Hurry up and figure out what we’re eating tonight.” Old Mrs. Song’s single sentence shattered the slightly somber mood, bringing everyone back to the present.

Their aunt smiled. ”Alright, those of you practicing superpowers should go practice. I’ll go prepare the vegetables. We’re having vegetable and meat wontons tonight.”

”It’s too hot, I don’t have much of an appetite.”

”You should eat a little something.” He Shuping patted her son’s shoulder. ”Go on.”

Xie Ning slowly walked upstairs, still able to hear her youngest aunt and uncle sighing with worry.

”If it keeps getting hotter like this, people are going to start dying from the heat,” Song Youyi sighed, glancing at the indoor thermometer.

”Yeah, and the industrial fan uses a lot of power...”

”Don’t worry about that.” Old Mrs. Song immediately said with a smile, ”Xiao Gu told me. We can just use the storage batteries without a second thought. He said he can recharge our power packs for the batteries later. Xiao Gu’s superpower is so incredible; I’m sure he can do it.”

The old woman had an almost magical, unquestioning faith in Xiao Gu. Xie Ning continued up the stairs, her face expressionless.

After a quick ”combat shower,” Xie Ning came out of the bathroom, towel-drying her dripping hair.

Song Kexin was in the other room practicing her fire superpower again. From time to time, the sound of a video lecture could be heard.

A small smile played on Xie Ning’s lips. With a flip of her hand, she produced the Second Order Spiritual-type Mutated Crystal Core from a velvet pouch.

Aside from that one, only four Speed-type Mutated Crystal Cores from zombies remained in the small cloth bag.

Currently, her Space Ability was at Third Rank and her Gold Element was at Second Order, while her Spiritual Ability was only at First Rank.

So she was quite eager to level up her Spiritual Ability.

However, absorbing a single Second Order Spiritual-type Mutated Crystal Core wasn’t enough to reach her saturation point.

Xie Ning opened her eyes, a hint of regret in her heart. ’It seems I’ll have to wait.’

Unlike regular Crystal Cores, which could be absorbed by anyone, these Mutated Crystal Cores had to match the user’s specific ability type.

Therefore, the four Speed-type Crystal Cores were useless to Xie Ning. She had no choice but to store them away for now.

There was still some time before dinner, so Xie Ning made nearly twenty Metal Knives.

She secretly had Future pull up a diagram for a Modern Crossbow. By the time she had finished copying about half of it, it was time for dinner.

Xie Ning was still in the zone. After quickly eating her wontons, she rushed upstairs to continue.

Everyone just thought she was eager to practice her superpower and didn’t think much of it.

Xie Ning locked herself in the small partitioned room of the suite, and once she started tinkering, she kept at it until the early hours of the morning.

She managed to cobble together a small crossbow, along with five matching metal arrows. But the more she looked at it... the more crude and unpresentable it seemed.

She checked the time on her phone—it was almost one in the morning.

It was only then that Xie Ning remembered that Song Kexin was locked out of the room.

She tiptoed out and saw that the aunt and niece were already fast asleep in the outer room.

Her mom was snoring like thunder, but Song Kexin was out cold...

Thankfully, the 1.5-meter bed was just big enough for them to sleep soundly. Xie Ning didn’t disturb them. After a trip to the restroom, she came back and quietly went to bed.

The next day, the temperature soared to thirty-eight degrees Celsius.

September twenty-second. For late September, approaching October, the temperature was obviously abnormal to an extreme.

Although they had planned to check out the container terminal that morning, Xie Ning couldn’t drag herself out of bed.

She finally dragged herself out of bed at half-past nine. When she went downstairs, she was met with Song You’ai’s piercing gaze. Xie Ning cleared her throat. ”The bed’s nice.”

Her family members unanimously agreed.

”The bed really is great. It’s a resort villa, after all. I slept well, too.”

”Sis, what’s the plan for today?” Song Shijun asked. ”We want to kill some zombies and get some practice too.”

”Take me with you! You guys can do the killing up front, and I’ll handle cleanup!” Ji Taixian chimed in frantically, his mouth full of bread.

Wang Zongxuan glanced at him, stunned by his shamelessness.

Xie Ning waved a dismissive hand. ”Here’s the plan. Mom and I will go scout ahead today. We’ll take the rest of you tomorrow.”

”Where to?”

”I knew you had a plan, Sis!”

Xie Ning ignored their chattering and pulled a crossbow from her Space, handing it to Wang Zongxuan. ”Try this out in a bit. If it sucks, give it back. I’ll just recycle the metal.”

She then handed him five small metal arrows.

Wang Zongxuan’s eyes lit up instantly. He stroked the small crossbow, practically unable to let go of it.

”Thank you, Ms. Ning.”

Xie Ning, however, felt her creation was a bit crude and ugly. She said sheepishly, ”Just give it a try. If it’s no good...”

”It’ll definitely be good.” Wang Zongxuan stood up eagerly. ”It feels so good in my hands. I have a feeling it’s a perfect match for me.”

Ji Taixian pouted, his eyes following Wang Zongxuan with unconcealed envy. ”Sis, you made a crossbow just for him.”

’He’s getting special treatment!’

Xie Ning patted his shoulder. ”Tai Xian, organize all that junk in your Space today. If we get a chance tomorrow, I’ll take you out to do some ’cleanup.’”

”You got it, Sis!” Ji Taixian beamed, his eyes curving into crescents.

After finishing two bowls of warm millet porridge, Xie Ning headed out with her mom, a white steamed bun clenched between her teeth.

It was already almost ten o’clock. The mother and daughter pair planned to reach the container terminal before eleven.

The RV had barely started moving when Song You’ai glanced in the rearview mirror and gritted her teeth. ”Li Dawei and his people are like stubborn ghosts—they just won’t leave us alone!”