Chapter 27

Hearing that those people had developed powers, Lin Tantan was pleased. Having abilities was ideal, the strongest combatants in the apocalypse were the ability users. Whichever faction had more ability users could dominate. After finishing her meal she went to see them.
The residential complex was called Tianhe Jiayuan, divided into four districts. They were in the South District, which alone had eleven apartment blocks lined up neatly. Each building was tall, but occupancy was low.
Yesterday Bai Cheng had organized teams to clear the zombies roaming the South District, then locked the other buildings and focused on clearing out Buildings One and Two. Both were large towers with eight units per floor; people were currently only living up to the eighth floor. Yesterday over seven hundred people had been moved in from the office building.
Among those with fevers, some had family with them and had already awakened their powers, so they lived with their families. Nine who hadn’t awakened were still isolated, each in a single room on that floor: 304, 305, 306.
Lin Tantan went to visit and found everyone in good spirits. Only two still had fevers; the others’ fevers had mostly subsided, though they were weak and looked likely to awaken soon.
It seemed the energy work she’d done earlier had been effective.
A round-faced, baby-faced girl asked, “Miss Lin, have I passed the dangerous period?” Since learning that fevers could turn people into zombies, the girl had nearly frightened herself to death, living on edge for days. Waking up and finding the fever gone felt like getting a second chance at life.
Lin Tantan nodded. “You should be.” In front of strangers she didn’t act as absolutely certain as she did with Ye Xiao and the others, as if she knew everything.
She’d decided that outside, she only needed to pretend her power had awakened early and was strong, perhaps even dual-typed, so she would seem naturally gifted and experienced.
Besides, the lab downstairs in the office building could still contact the Academy of Sciences in the capital. She’d heard the Academy was actively researching crystal cores, abilities, and zombies; with more equipment and experts they’d surely make progress. Then she could attribute what she knew to having earlier access to core information.
Though Lin Tantan spoke cautiously, the baby-faced girl relaxed as if she’d swallowed a calming pill, her anxious look disappeared.
After a while, the four who had already awakened their abilities arrived one after another. Knowing Lin Tantan was visiting the isolated patients, they couldn’t stay put.
As it turned out, these people held Lin Tantan in special regard. Back at the sports hall she had been the one in charge; Ye Xiao had hardly appeared or spoken. During the chaotic retreat to the west side of the city they’d been locked into small offices and heard that most of the leaders were gone. An old man was barely holding things together; the place was so packed you couldn’t turn around, noisy everywhere.
The next day, when Bai Cheng and the others returned from the university town, they did drop by to see them, but didn't say much. The day before they'd gradually awakened their powers and were completely bewildered. Bai Cheng neither could nor had time to instruct them; he only asked once, and they were already eagerly waiting for Lin Tantan to hurry back.
They hadn't forgotten, Lin Tantan was the first to say that a fever meant isolation, that you needed to replenish energy when running a fever, and she even used her ability to run through their bodies. They didn't know exactly what she was doing; in any case, after her energy passed through them they all felt much more comfortable and relaxed. Each of them felt the same, it was no illusion.
Besides, everyone knew Lin Tantan's power was strong, so in their eyes she became a reliable figure who understood abilities and could really help them.
Lin Tantan didn't know what they were thinking. Watching the four of them was like watching bamboo shoots break through the soil; she was eager for them to grow quickly into sturdy, straight green bamboo that could be cut down to build houses.
Faced with their eager, inquisitive faces she cleared her throat. "All right, I'm not an expert, but I do have a bit more experience than you. Show me your abilities one by one and I'll take a look."
She spoke modestly, but the four were excited. They glanced at one another, they'd already been talking privately, and now a woman in her thirties who exuded the air of a powerful woman pushed up her glasses and said, "I'll go first."
The woman's name was Fan Fang. Before the end of the world she managed a small company, and logically she shouldn't be intimidated by twenty-year-old girls, but in front of Lin Tantan she behaved like a student earnestly seeking guidance from a teacher.
She reached out, brought her hands together, furrowed her brow and pressed her lips as if straining; her hands trembled hard. Soon a thin white sliver of something appeared between them.
Lin Tantan peered closely, it was ice, an ice-type ability.
Not bad.
Even though she'd pushed herself to the limit she had only managed to condense such a thin sliver. It might look useless, but the main reasons were that she hadn't yet adapted to this type of energy, she used the wrong technique, and she simply didn't have enough internal energy.
She placed ten crystal cores on the coffee table, and as she had earlier asked Ye Xiao, she asked this woman, "Of these ten, do you sense any of them?" She couldn't, of course, directly say, "You should absorb the white one."
But Fan Fang looked over the crystals and shook her head bewilderedly. "I don't know," she said. "I don't seem to sense any of them."
Well, that's not surprising, not everyone is a prodigy like Ye Xiao.
Lin Tantan wanted the bamboo shoots to grow fast. In history, when the army arrived some ten-odd days later, Ye Xiao and the others had clashes with them; she hoped that by then these ability users might be of some use.
But if she left someone of Fan Fang's aptitude to figure it out on her own, even without running into trouble it would take a month or so before she got the hang of it.
Lin Tantan said, "Give me your hands."
Fan Fang hurriedly extended her hands. Lin Tantan said, "Don't resist my energy."
Wood-type energy, which has healing effects, is gentle, but Lin Tantan's wood energy can also suppress zombie energy, so it can be domineering, especially when it's entering someone else's body for purposes other than healing.
After awakening, Fan Fang had become much more sensitive to such energy. Now she felt like opening the door to a tiger; goosebumps prickled all over her, and she couldn't help resisting the other's energy.
But her ice energy was too weak to have any effect.
Lin Tantan quickly withdrew her hands, her expression grave as if pondering. She looked at the crystal cores on the table, and after a few moments took out the white one. "Try absorbing this," she said.
Fan Fang, unabashed, asked, "How do I absorb it?"
"Use your energy to pierce through it, then, like pulling yarn, draw out the energy bit by bit."
Fan Fang looked thoughtful and took the white crystal core off to one side.
The second person had been impatient to go, but when it came to his turn he seemed a little weak-kneed. He was a young man in his early twenties, a student; his ability was earth-type, and he directly formed a lump of earth.
Lin Tantan said, "Try shaping it into something."
He looked embarrassed. "I've been trying to make earth constantly, but now I can't produce any."
Okay, so he's out of energy. Lin Tantan theatrically picked out a brown earth-type crystal core for him.
The third was a water-type; she produced a cup of water for Lin Tantan. The process went smoothly and she seemed relaxed. Lin Tantan smiled, "How much water can you release at once?"
She was a bit ashamed. "Only about three times this amount."
"That's fine. With more energy you'll probably be able to release more water." Then Lin Tantan handed her a blue water-type crystal core. "You can try shaping the water into spheres or arrows." The woman looked thoughtful.
It was the fourth person's turn. He hesitated and said, "M-my ability is different from theirs."
Lin Tantan asked, "How is it different?"
"I-I think I can see through things."
All the women present, including Lin Tantan, were speechless.
The men present didn't look much better.
Because they'd heard ability users were here, everyone, those whose fevers had and hadn't broken alike, came to take a look; in such a short time they weren't too worried about feverish people turning into zombies. So the living room was packed with a dozen or so people, and the looks directed at this young man were not friendly.
The young man blushed and hurried to explain, "I can't see through clothes, I can only see through about two sheets of paper, and if I stare too long it gives me a headache."
All the women who had instinctively stepped back, and Lin Tantan as well, breathed a sigh of relief. Then Lin Tantan didn't know whether she should even pick a crystal core for this guy.
People with x-ray or clairvoyant-type powers were absolutely the worst kind: you never knew what they were peeking at. Even if someone had decent morals, who could say what they might be looking at when they couldn't control their ability?
Lin Tantan looked a little conflicted. “Well, uh, having an ability is always a good thing. If used properly it can be very useful, but you have to learn to control it.” The boy nodded repeatedly.
Lin Tantan exhaled and found him a crystal core. This was an unaligned power, so of course he needed to absorb a colorless, transparent crystal core, but she made a point of saying, “Keep in touch with me. Tell me how your ability is progressing… especially if you get to the point where you can see through fabric.”
The boy was utterly ashamed, and the other girls looked at him as if he were a future lecher.
The four of them went off clutching the crystal cores Lin Tantan had picked for them to study; the others watched for a long time, green with envy, even a creepy power like X-ray vision would be fine. They still didn’t know whether they’d get abilities.
The doll-faced girl sitting on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest suddenly said, “I think I… I have an ability.”
Everyone looked at her. She opened her hand and a little bright green sprout pushed up from her palm, it looked utterly adorable.
Lin Tantan’s eyes lit up. Wood-type? Wood-type is great!
Wood-type powers branch into many directions. Two main ones are like Lin Tantan’s, the healing type, and the planting type. In the apocalypse, both are especially prized: the former heals wounds and saves lives, the latter can be used for farming and production; every place and settlement has a hard need for them.
In fact, planting-type wood users are even more valuable, because some water-type users also have healing abilities, but they’re generally not as good as the wood-types.
But in any case, wood-users are particularly coveted. By contrast, fire, ice, lightning, and metal types are mostly focused on combat, if you don’t have one, there’s another to replace it; they’re interchangeable.
Not to mention, powerful wood users can also develop fighting capabilities. Take Lin Tantan, she can use her power like straps and ropes, right? She isn’t short on combat ability, and a pure wood-user would almost certainly develop extra functions for themselves.
Lin Tantan smiled and asked the doll-faced girl, “How tall can you make that sprout grow?”