Chapter 10

Ye Xiao’s curt remark unnerved the woman. She tried to force herself to say more, but when she met his eyes the words died on her lips.
There was a look that made it feel like there was no room left for negotiation.
When Ye Xiao pressed her shoulder like that, Lin Tantan felt half her body go numb.
Her mind went crazy: Is he defending me? Standing up for me? Oh my god, he’s so handsome!
By the time her heart finished squealing, the woman had agreed to go home and pack, though she wanted company for safety. A few elderly residents still didn’t want to leave, their children hadn’t returned, and they feared the kids would come back and find no one there.
Ye Xiao and the others escorted those people back to their homes, then swept the entire villa complex. They dealt with any zombies they found and shut the entrance gates.
That made the villa area temporarily secure, but whether zombies would soon learn to climb walls or even fly was anyone’s guess. In short, staying was dangerous; following them wasn’t guaranteed safe either. The choice to stay or go was up to each person.
The villa complex was actually far from the city center, sparsely populated nearby, and surrounded by high, sturdy walls, a decent spot. But Ye Xiao and his group had decided to make an office building on the outskirts their temporary base. With limited manpower, a closed office tower was easier to defend than scattered villas.
Other families in the complex also came out to ask to join them. Ye Xiao agreed, but only on condition that everyone follow orders and able-bodied adults pitch in. Those waving cash and demanding special transport were, sorry, turned away.
In the end, more than thirty people agreed to go. Several were young or middle-aged, and with the extra hands the departure time had to be pushed back. Ye Xiao gathered them and assigned tasks, Mei Baisheng’s group would use available tools and materials to build roadblocks to protect those staying behind; others were to scavenge for weapons; and the three best drivers he would personally take to the garage to pick out vehicles.
Lin Tantan trotted eagerly at his heels, asking, "Can you drive?"
"Yes. We cleared some of the roadblocks on the way over," Ye Xiao said. Knowing there were mostly elderly and children here, they hadn't expected them to trek on foot; when planning the route they’d chosen roads passable by car.
Most of the cars in this villa district were luxury models, impressive and powerful, but their low clearance annoyed Ye Xiao. In the end they picked two seven-seat vans whose owners would ride along; squeezed together they could hold a dozen or so people. Then there was a medium-sized refrigerated truck used for transporting seafood, with a cargo area that could fit quite a few, and finally a pickup truck.
Including the people from the Xu family's villa, there were a little over forty of them; this was the best they could do, any more vehicles and they wouldn't be able to manage.
After the vehicles set off, Ye Xiao assigned the three drivers a new task, handing each a hammer or iron bar and a pair of plastic gloves, and told them to smash the zombies' skulls.
"Smash... smash their heads?" Two of the younger ones looked like they'd seen a ghost.
Ye Xiao said, "When we're on the road you three will be driving. If you encounter zombies and I tell you to run them down, you must hit the gas and go. Consider this practice to steel your nerves."
"Run them down too?" The two balked. The older man, however, said nothing and just picked up a hammer. His name was Huang Jianquan; apparently the truck belonged to him. He'd been delivering seafood when people suddenly turned into zombies, and he'd hidden in his truck and survived.
In his thirties and having scraped by in the world for years, he was far more adaptable than the two youngsters. He understood the world had changed, and no one knew what the future held. The men with guns clearly weren't ordinary people, this could be his chance. They were short-handed, and if he performed well, he might earn their favor.
When looking for work you want a reliable company; in these chaotic times you naturally want a dependable leader.
These people were willing to bring along a group of old, weak, women and children, clearly not bad folks. They seemed decent, and probably had some weight behind them...
The more Huang Jianquan thought about it, the more determined he was to make a good impression. He grabbed his hammer and got to work.
Ye Xiao and the others had been shooting zombies in the head, each skull already blown to bits. Stifling his fear, Huang Jianquan struck twice and split open the monstrous head.
Ye Xiao encouraged him, "That's it. Be careful not to get any of that stuff on your skin. There's something in the skull, pick it out."
Huang Jianquan followed instructions and picked out a brown object. "Th-what is this?"
Ye Xiao said, "There's a special kind of energy in these. It's currently thought to be linked to superpowers."
"Su-superpowers?"
Ye Xiao then sent a gusting blade of wind that sliced the head off a nearby zombie.
Not only Huang Jianquan, but the two young men and several others gasped. No one saw exactly how Ye Xiao had done it, but knowing it was superpower enough, they immediately revered him and obeyed more readily. The two youngsters and a few onlookers enthusiastically continued smashing heads.
Ye Xiao told them that how to use the stuff found in zombies' brains hadn't been researched yet, and they shouldn't try it lightly. Whatever they dug up should be handed over to him.
Since the four of them had killed the zombies in the first place, there was little argument about the crystal cores belonging to them.
Of course some would secretly hide a few, but Ye Xiao didn't mind. He didn't have many demands, be obedient and stay safe on the journey, and that was enough.
Then he turned and met a pair of sparkling eyes; Lin Tantan's admiration threatened to overflow. "How did you know there was that stuff in the zombies' heads? And how did you know it was linked to, uh, superpowers?"
Ye Xiao almost wanted to say, I learned it from watching you.
But telling a girl, I watched you on the surveillance footage for a long time, didn't feel quite right.
He hesitated. "I..."
"Oh, I shouldn't have asked, any ordinary person who thinks about it would figure that out," Lin Tantan exclaimed in surprise. Ye Xiao actually knew that crystal cores shouldn't be used recklessly, so perceptive and cautious. Ahhh, no wonder he's a man trying to become strong!
She silently praised her idol to the heavens, oblivious to Ye Xiao's odd expression as he signaled for her to come aside. "Well, I also found some of those things, and I have a little idea about how to use them, do you want to hear?"
Even Huang Jianquan knew to behave; of course she couldn't be left behind!
And she wanted Ye Xiao to learn about crystal cores as soon as possible!
Ye Xiao's gaze flickered as he looked around. "Find somewhere to talk."
Then they went to the Xu family's villa.
At the moment the Xu villa had only a housekeeper with a young girl; the Xu elders had gone to help other families.
The two sat in the living room while Lin Tantan, like someone showing off treasures, pulled out all of her savings.
A transparent colorless core, a black dark-type core, a purple lightning-type core, and a green wood-type core. She had originally had two more, a wood and a metal core, which she had absorbed.
These were all the spoils she'd gathered since crossing over yesterday, seven cores in total. She thought she'd done well, after all she hadn't been out specifically to collect cores.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, Ye Xiao fetched a bag and opened it. Reds, yellows, purples, greens, so bright it almost blinded Lin Tantan. There must have been a hundred or two inside, in every color!
Ye Xiao said these were casually dug up along the road on their way last night.
Casually, dug up.
Casually...
Lin Tantan clutched her chest.
Ye Xiao looked at her, asking what was wrong.
Lin Tantan said, "It's nothing, just a bit of liver pain."
Ye Xiao: "..."
Ye Xiao selected ten crystal cores and laid them out on the table one by one. "I've observed them, these things basically come in these ten colors."
The ten on the table were gold, green, blue, red, brown, teal, purple, white, black, and transparent/colorless.
They correspond, in order, to Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Darkness, and the None type, the ten system categories of abilities. These are basically the mainstream powers in the apocalypse. The first nine are easy to understand; even the oddly behaving mutated powers can generally be slotted into one of those nine categories.
And the "None" type isn't really a single power so much as a category: time, space, sound waves, mirror images, clairvoyance, illusions, intangible, colorless powers without a concrete physical manifestation are all lumped in here, and each one is extremely niche.
Of course Lin Tantan couldn't just dump all of this on Ye Xiao at once, really, even without her pointing it out, people here could figure it out over time. She chose to demonstrate it herself.
She picked out the gold and wood cores and said, "I've tried. I can absorb the energy from these two types; the others I can't. I did try taking in other energies, but it felt very dangerous, so I stopped right away."
It's extremely perilous for ability users to absorb the wrong energy: at best you'll be injured or your power ruined; at worst you'll literally explode, or even turn into a zombie. Zombies and ability users are both altered by this strange energy, just in opposite directions. What Lin Tantan described, accidentally taking the wrong energy, stopping and emerging unscathed, is impossible.
She remembered some unofficial account saying Ye Xiao had also suffered early losses when dealing with crystal cores. After Mei Baisheng died, Ye Xiao, probably spurred on by that, wanted to get stronger and cooperated with some scientist or whoever to test different cores using his wind-type power. Fortunately he was lucky and only came away with some injuries.
In fact, in the early days of the apocalypse, far too many ability users were ruined by their ignorance of the crystal cores.
She stared at Ye Xiao, hoping he'd get the point and stop making those feel-your-way-across attempts.
Ye Xiao frowned slightly. "You... in future, don't do such dangerous experiments."
Lin Tantan: "..." She was the one being lectured in return.
Well, at least that proved he'd listened.
Ye Xiao said again, "So you're saying you can absorb two colors?"
"Mm." Saying that made Lin Tantan excited inside, but she nodded demurely on the surface, then stretched out her hands, gold sparkles danced on her right hand, soft green light on her left. "I have two superpowers."
She didn't dare blurt out that she had five powers, she didn't want to scare anyone. Dual-type ability users do exist in the apocalypse; beyond that is rare, and someone with five types is pure fantasy.
Ye Xiao showed no particular expression, but his eyes were bright and focused. He'd been wanting to talk to someone with powers for a long time; he didn't expect the first person he'd meet to have two powers. What moved him most was that Lin Tantan shared her experiences and abilities so openly.
He drew a small breath, about to show his own goodwill, when he saw the gold light on Lin Tantan's right hand condense into a thin golden needle that pierced the thick glass coffee table, leaving a smooth, rounded hole. The green light on her left hand wound itself into a thin cord.
Lin Tantan looked around, seeming not to find anywhere to tie it, so she looped it around Ye Xiao's wrist, which was lying on the table, and gave it a tug toward her.
She had quite a bit of strength.
Ye Xiao looked up in some surprise and saw that the young girl's last traces of modesty had snapped. Her face was all smiles, as if it read: I'm amazing, praise me, praise me!