Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

”Maidservant? *You’re* the maidservant!” Xie Ning grabbed the bird’s neck and gave it a sharp twist. ”Speak. Who are you?”

”Spare me, Emperor! Spare me, Emperor! This slave knows his mistake.”

Everyone: ”...”

”This is what you get for watching palace intrigue dramas all day, you stupid bird.” Xie Ning thumped it on its head. ”Tell me, if I let go now, would you dare run?”

”This slave wouldn’t dare! This slave wouldn’t dare!”

Xu Yu stared at the scene, dumbfounded, almost thinking she was hallucinating.

The Mutated Bird had gone from being wildly cool and domineering to a groveling slave in a matter of seconds.

It was just too ridiculous.

Xie Ning calmly let go, her eyes smiling as she looked at the frozen figures of Lin Yiyi, Xu Yu, and the others. ”My apologies, Miss Xu, but this damn bird has already acknowledged a master.”

She unhurriedly took a clothes-drying pole out of her Space and gestured for the parrot to stand on it.

The parrot, which had intended to flutter its wings and land on her shoulder, inexplicably became withdrawn. It reluctantly hopped onto the pole, its little beak chattering, ”What is this? Is this master supposed to stand on this thing?”

”Or would you prefer a cage?” Xie Ning looked at it with a smile. ”I can personally handcraft you a luxurious, grand metal birdcage!”

”Thank you.” The parrot bobbed its head. ”No need.”

’Compared to being locked in a cage, a stainless steel retractable clothes-drying pole isn’t so bad. At least it’s spacious...’

Lin Yiyi clenched her fists and shook her head repeatedly.

’Looking at the situation, could it be true? Did Xie Ning really tame the Mutated Bird a step ahead of me?’

”Impossible!” Xu Yu’s voice suddenly shot up. ”You’re not a Beast Taming Superpower User, how could you possibly...”

Her voice died away as she stared into Xie Ning’s teasing, smiling eyes. She managed to force out, ”You? You formed a spiritual link with it?”

So Xie Ning wasn’t just a Sixth-rank Superpower User; she also had the Space System and Spiritual System, making her a bona fide Three-System Superpower User!

The idea that she had spiritually linked with the Mutated Bird wasn’t entirely impossible, then.

’But... a Spiritual Ability User can form spiritual links with animals? How can they cross species like that and just steal the job of a Beast Taming Superpower User?’

Lin Yiyi bit her lip, feeling extremely unwilling to accept this.

She cautiously took two steps forward, approaching the parrot’s clothes-drying pole, and secretly extended a tendril of spiritual power toward the Mutated Bird to test it.

’I’m the one and only Beast Taming Superpower User in the entire Jingji Base.’

’How could I let someone else steal my job of taming beasts?’

’If I, Lin Yiyi, can make this mutated parrot switch its allegiance to me in front of everyone, wouldn’t that mean...’

’...that the idol of the entire base could be someone else?’

”Ah!” Lin Yiyi suddenly flinched and took half a step back.

The reason was simple: the moment she’d tentatively extended that wisp of spiritual power toward the Mutated Bird, she was hit with a surging Spiritual Attack from it.

”Yiyi,” Zhuang Lei and Xu Yu exclaimed in alarm.

The damn parrot, perched on its pole, squawked at her twice, its little beak rattling like a machine gun. ”Insolent wench! Scram from this palace’s sight!”

”Sneaking around and harassing this palace? Trying to subdue this palace? In your dreams! Guards, guards, guards! Protect this palace! Protect this palace!”

Everyone: ”...”

Alright, this damn bird really knew how to tailor its attitude to the person.

A moment ago, its most outrageous line was, at worst, calling Captain Xie a maidservant.

But with someone else, it came right out with ”insolent wench”...

The onlookers really wanted to ask the damn bird just how many palace intrigue dramas it had watched. It was quite the drama queen.

Xie Ning turned, holding the clothes-drying pole. ”Can the laser protection shield be opened?”

”It can. The sandstorm outside the city walls is pretty strong right now. We’ve already swapped out Li Dawei’s team.”

”What about Li Xiang?”

Zhai Ruobai said quietly, ”Miss Li’s superpower is quite special. We were hoping she would stay on the city tower and hold on a bit longer, and Miss Li has already agreed.”

Xie Ning paused, then the corners of her lips curved up. ”I didn’t expect Miss Li to put in so much effort when it counts.”

’In the past year or so, the Li siblings have really matured. At least now they’re acting like decent human beings...’

Just as Xie Ning was thinking this, she looked up and saw Li Dawei and his group walking over, covered in dust. As they walked, they kept wiping the dirt and frost from their faces and heads with towels. ”Holy shit, the meteorologists are saying this weird phenomenon can’t really be explained by science anymore.”

”They’re advising us to just lock ourselves in our homes for a day or two and see how things look then.”

”If it can’t be explained by science, then what’s the explanation? A monster attack with flying sand and rolling stones?” Xie Ning loved to bicker with Li Dawei; her day wouldn’t feel right if she didn’t get a few jabs in.

Li Dawei wiped the dust from his nose and shot her a sidelong glance. ”Captain Xie, I heard you just subdued a bird monster? You tell me, can that bird monster be explained by science?”

”Animals aren’t allowed to become spirits after the founding of the nation! And you’ve just subdued a parrot spirit.”

”You’re the parrot spirit! Your whole family are parrot spirits!” the parrot flapped on its pole. ”Insolent slave! Address this palace as Bird God! And stop your damn yammering.”

Li Dawei’s teammates all looked up and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

”Go to hell,” Li Dawei retorted, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. ”Captain Xie, subduing the Bird God is a happy occasion. How about a ’finder’s fee’ for all of us who witnessed it? You should treat everyone to a meal!”

”Absurd!” Before the expressionless Xie Ning could speak, a just-woken Cres came bouncing over and shouted, ”How could *I* possibly treat you to a meal? Don’t even think about it! The day you kick the bucket, I might show up to feast at your funeral, though!”

Xie Ning: ”...”

’That really does sound like something I would say. Cres, this little saboteur, is giving a perfect imitation.’

”Alright, stop goofing around,” Uncle Ge Liang said with a serious face. ”What should we do now? Do we listen to the experts and go hide for a couple of days?”

”We can’t completely trust the experts. The zombie tide outside the city hasn’t retreated yet. What if the sandstorm clears up in half a day and the zombies attack again? We’d be caught completely off guard.”

”How many Gold Ability Users do you have here? Do you know how to make Golden Slippery Exploding Balls?”

The crowd turned to look at Xie Ning with baffled expressions.

Seeing their foolish looks, Xie Ning couldn’t help but sigh. ”Don’t you people ever research your own superpower techniques?”

”Gather all the Gold Ability Users. We need to make more Golden Slippery Exploding Balls.”

”I have a good idea.”

”Since the zombie tide can’t attack with this dust storm raging, we’ll use the chaos to make them kill each other.”

”Go get Yu Tianfeng.”

No one knew what Captain Xie was planning, but they followed her instructions nonetheless, some going to fetch people, others gathering as ordered.

Xie Ning scanned the several hundred Gold Ability Users who had gathered and nodded. ”All Third Rank and above, step forward. The rest of you, stay behind and learn.”

She began teaching the Gold Ability Users in the front row while continuously demonstrating the technique.

In less than a second, several marble-sized balls, fused into existence, clinked softly as they dropped into an iron box she had casually created.