Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

As Xie Ning entered the lobby, she saw the woman with short, curly hair ladle out a bowl of greasy meat congee. A wide smile spread across her face as she offered it to Beichen, preparing to ”accidentally” brush the back of his hand.

Beichen, however, took a small step back. He didn’t take the bowl of meat congee, which had a layer of oil floating on top, and asked flatly, ”Do you have any plain congee?”

The woman with short, curly hair grinned at him. ”Plain congee won’t fill you up. This is much better—it’s got big chunks of meat in it.”

”No, thank you. Just give us two sets of bowls and chopsticks. We’ll have some plain congee,” Xie Ning said, walking up to Beichen’s side at just the right moment and ignoring his accusing glare.

’Shameless woman! She ran off by herself last night and left him, a poor little lamb, in a den of wolves. His virtue was nearly compromised.’

Xie Ning pulled two vacuum-sealed soy-braised eggs from her bag, handing one to Beichen and squeezing the other into her congee bowl.

The plain congee was extremely watery, but at least it didn’t have a strange taste. The water used to cook must have been produced by a Water Ability User.

Xie Ning and Beichen each had two or three bowls, filling themselves up about halfway. Then, under the group’s eager and expectant gazes, they followed Martin and the other Superpower Users out of the first basement level and toward the residential buildings.

On their way, they passed a Stupid Bird Post Station next to the gatehouse, where Xie Ning saw four or five people standing guard at the entrance.

Martin smiled and explained to her, ”This Stupid Bird Post Station is full of goods, but it was also full of zombies. We could never figure out how to take them all out at once. But then, last week, your father sent fighter jets to bomb Zone 3.”

”The huge explosion drew a lot of zombies over there, including the ones from our post station. They all ran off after the sound.” Martin gave a simple, honest laugh. ”You could say it’s fate. Your dad did us a huge favor, and we’ll be sure to pay it back to you in the future.”

Xie Ning let out a breath of relief. ”Well, thank you so much, then.”

As they spoke, the group entered one of the residential buildings.

As Xie Ning passed the first, second, and third floors, she saw that the electronic keypad door for each apartment was lying bent and twisted on the ground. A single glance told her they had been knocked down by a series of heavy blows.

Martin sighed. ”We had no choice. Knives and axes couldn’t get through these thick doors. The three of us—me, Chai Lei, and Gong Pingfan—had to punch them open one by one. You have no idea, Miss Huang, it was incredibly time-consuming.”

”This is a luxury high-rise, designed to be high-end. There’s only one apartment per floor, with private elevator access, and each unit is about two hundred square meters.”

Gong Pingfan, whose hands were covered in chilblains, licked his lips, his eyes filled with longing.

They had spent days exerting all their strength and had only managed to open four doors. To their dismay, three of them were newly renovated homes. Aside from brand-new appliances and furniture, there was basically nothing inside!

That was why, even now, Gong Pingfan hadn’t managed to get his hands on a single decent down jacket, which left him feeling bitter and resentful.

”Is that so,” Xie Ning said, giving them a sympathetic look. ”Well, let me give it a try.”

The group went up to the fifth floor. Xie Ning fiddled with the door for a long time, her face turning red and cold sweat beading on her forehead, but she still couldn’t get it open. At this, the expressions of the others soured.

”Useless!” Ma Xiaotian had just blurted out the word when her dad, Martin, clamped a hand over her mouth and pulled her back.

Only then did Ma Xiaotian remember the terrifying scene from last night when that woman had beaten her to a pulp.

But she was just so angry.

’Useless woman! She tricked us, saying she was a Gold Ability User. What kind of Gold Ability User is as worthless as her?!’

”Sorry,” Xie Ning said, turning to Martin with a pained expression and forcing a smile that was uglier than a crying face.

Martin was seething with rage, but he had to force a smile and comfort the young heiress. Inwardly, however, he was cursing the Huang Family’s ancestors eighteen generations back!

”It’s all right, Miss Huang.” Martin gave an awkward smile, exchanged a look with the short-haired Chai Lei and Gong Pingfan, and once again resorted to violently dismantling the keypad door.

Xie Ning retreated to Beichen’s side, only to hear him whisper through gritted teeth, ”You just try leaving me behind again tonight!”

Xie Ning patted the young man’s arm reassuringly, but her gaze remained fixed with great interest on Chai Lei and Gong Pingfan as they used every ounce of their strength to finally push the keypad door down.

Ma Xiaotian let out a shriek of excitement and rushed inside, but the four of them were soon dumbfounded.

Xie Ning followed them in, blinked, and said, ”Ah! I get it now. This Kowloon Warehouse Mansion must have been a new development, so a lot of these apartments haven’t even been renovated yet.”

Gong Pingfan couldn’t take it anymore. ”Ma, why don’t we try the building next door?”

This building felt cursed; every door they’d opened had led to nothing.

Martin nodded. As he led his people downstairs, he glanced at Xie Ning. ”Miss Huang, how about I have Xiaotian take you two back first?”

’This woman is useless. Her only value now is as a bargaining chip to trade at Chaoyang Base.’

”It’s fine, it’s fine.” Xie Ning pretended not to understand and waved her hand dismissively. ”The scenery in this complex is quite nice. Besides, it’s still early. Can we... just wander around a bit?”

Martin wasn’t worried about the two of them escaping. He had his men guarding the only front and back entrances.

So, he put on a simple, charming smile and nodded. ”Of course you can. But please be back before noon, or you might not get any food.”

”We know, we know,” Xie Ning said, thanking him repeatedly as she watched Martin and his group go downstairs and leave.

”There’s something really wrong with these people, isn’t there?” Beichen asked with a frown. ”They have a Water Ability User on their team, but we haven’t seen them at all since yesterday.”

Xie Ning casually fiddled with the lock, opened the door, and stepped inside. As she closed it behind her, she paused for a moment, a faint smile playing on her lips as she gently shut it.

Beichen raised an eyebrow, not missing her subtle movement.

”Heh, Martin and his crew have the worst luck,” Beichen sneered, looking around the lived-in apartment.

”Yup,” Xie Ning said, cheerfully running into the kitchen and coming back out with a small bag of flour. ”The wife in this family must have loved baking. There are a lot of ingredients in the kitchen.”

”Too bad this opened bag of flour has weevils in it. Ugh, what a waste.”

As she spoke, Xie Ning suddenly lifted the bag of flour and tossed its contents toward the spot next to Beichen.

WHOOSH! In an instant, a thin layer of flour coated the clean floor, and with it, two eerie rows of footprints appeared, leading toward the door.

”Are you an idiot?” Xie Ning asked, letting out a soft laugh.

’I, Xie Ning, closed that door with my own hands. Who could possibly open it besides me? The brainless fool actually tried to run for the door.’

Beichen drew the metal dagger from his waist and stabbed it into the person’s back—a vicious and precise strike.

”Ah!” A short man with blood streaming down his back suddenly materialized out of thin air, collapsing to the floor. His eyes were wide with terror as he struggled on the flour-dusted ground.

”So he knew to send someone to follow me and check things out. Martin isn’t completely stupid after all,” Xie Ning said, her face devoid of expression as she stepped on the man’s bleeding back. ”What do you want with us?”

”If... if I tell you, will you spare me?”

Xie Ning shook her head and smiled. ”I’m afraid not. Monsters like you, who devour your own kind, deserve to die.”