Chapter 72: Night Out, You Lead, I Follow (Part 1)

The soldiers waited until Liu Meng had beaten the scrawny man enough—both of them were exhausted—before dragging the smaller man away. Although this was a private fight, the nature of it was too vile, the impact too negative; it looked like the military would have to step in.

Liu Meng, a grown man, slumped there in a daze, staring at his unconscious brothers, lost in thought. After a long while, he finally rasped, asking Bian Changxi, “Is there any hope?”

Bian Changxi was packing up to leave. Hearing this, she shook her head. “Ask Dr. Lu.”

Liu Meng sniffled. “Miss Bian, that kid egged me on to cause you trouble, but I really don’t know anything about how Zhang Hu died. How can they just go along with his story and make a mess of things? I swear, I never had any bad intentions.”

Bian Changxi glanced at him. “If I said Zhang Hu’s death had nothing to do with me, that’d be a lie. But in this world, if you want to bully others, you have to be prepared to be bullied in return. Zhang Hu wasn’t as skilled as others, so he shouldn’t have messed with me. My conscience is clear. Even if you really did gather a bunch of people to take revenge, I wouldn’t be afraid.”

Liu Meng fell silent. Bian Changxi said nothing more, helping to load the wounded onto the vehicle and heading with them to the medical area at the train station.

After something like this, she didn’t feel like hunting for crystal cores anymore.

By evening, news that a wood-type ability user had died from misusing a white core—his body exploding—had spread like wildfire throughout the new district. It turned out crystal cores could actually kill people. Panic set in, especially among ability users, who now didn’t dare use crystal cores at all. In fact, up to now, very few people even knew how to use them. When their energy ran out, most ability users just relied on food and rest to recover. Those who realized crystal cores had special uses weren’t exactly eager to be the first to try.

Of course, there were some who had successfully used crystal cores by luck, but now they were even more terrified, keeping their heads down and waiting for the military and researchers to figure things out.

Since both the private fight and the white core incident were somewhat connected to Bian Changxi, she was called in for questioning. Fortunately, she was released without any trouble in the end—after all, neither incident was really her fault.

She returned to her assigned quarters with two egg yolk pies and a 200ml bottle of water (the standard ration for low-level medical teams like hers; since she’d temporarily refused Yue Fushan’s offer, she didn’t get any extra perks). Wei Xiaodong wasn’t back yet, so she had the whole room to herself. She locked the door and went straight into her farm space.

After a full day’s work, she was filthy. She bathed in the creek, changed her dirty clothes inside the space (but kept the same outfit on outside), ate a little, and walked a few laps around the farm and chicken coop. Earlier, she’d secretly pulled some weeds and tossed them in for the chickens and ducks, but they pecked at them listlessly. There wasn’t much she could do—her grain reserves were low, and it didn’t look like she’d be able to restock anytime soon. She couldn’t just keep feeding them rice and meat, could she?

She tossed the dozen or so white cores she’d collected today into the creek, gazing at the farm and imagining what it would look like in the future, a little regretful as she left.

Night was falling fast. She tidied up her bed and lay down to sleep.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when a heavy knock jolted her awake. It was pitch black—she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. She flicked on her flashlight and opened the door to find Wei Xiaodong standing outside, hair disheveled.

Wei Xiaodong always looked a bit wild, but tonight her expression was especially grim, the darkness behind her making her look even more unsettling.

“Sleeping so soundly, huh? Guess killing someone didn’t bother you at all,” she said, glancing at the bed with a mocking tone as she entered.

Bian Changxi frowned. “I didn’t kill him, and I didn’t force him to use the white core. I’ll let you say that once, but if I hear it again, I won’t be so patient.” Besides, she’d warned her not to try it lightly—what good was it if she didn’t listen? Was she supposed to pour her heart out to anyone who asked, or broadcast the rules for using crystal cores with a megaphone?

She had actually considered spreading the information in some way—not out of kindness, but because she felt that anyone able to use crystal cores ahead of others was generally a capable person, bold and willing to take risks. In the apocalypse, people like that were the backbone of humanity’s survival. The more there were, the better off everyone would be.

Besides, the knowledge she had about crystal cores came at the cost of countless failed experiments and tragic deaths in her previous life.

This was different from not warning people about toxic zombies.

The problem was, she’d noticed that every day since a few days ago, people had died from misusing crystal cores, but the military always arrived in time to cover it up as a fight or an accident. She’d even seen a couple of fresh corpses with Gu Xu—just like today’s victim—anyone could tell it was a strange way to die.

She suddenly realized the military didn’t want this fact getting out.

And why would they? With so many ability users and so many crystal cores collected, surely they’d already figured things out. They were probably glad to let civilians take risks, providing them with plenty of cases and data for research.

So why should she bother? Gu Xu had warned her not to let on that she knew anything.

But today’s “accident” happened right in front of everyone, so the military would have to give a reasonable explanation.

Sure enough, the next day the military issued a public notice, announcing the types and colors of crystal cores and their possible corresponding ability types. They also introduced an exchange system. Since some survivors hadn’t turned in the obviously useful crystal cores after killing zombies, there were still some in private hands, but not everyone’s matched their own ability type. The military now provided a platform where anyone could exchange their crystal cores for the type they wanted—at a rate of ten white cores for one colored core.

“That’s outrageous! Ten for one? Zombies that drop white cores aren’t any easier to kill than those that drop colored ones—why?” Those with some experience started complaining.

“Come on, if you have a colored core, you can trade it for ten white ones. I heard the ratio of colored to white is about one to ten anyway. Nothing to be done about it.”

“Heh, if you don’t want any cores, you can trade them for supplies. Colored ones get you ten times as much. It’s all about luck if you want to get rich.”

Bian Changxi looked at the notices plastered everywhere. Although she found the ten-to-one rate hard to accept—since the drop rate really was about that, but the demand for white cores was much higher. In the future, white cores would be humanity’s main energy source; you couldn’t just value them by quantity. Still, overall, she was happy the exchange platform existed.

It meant that even if she couldn’t get a green core herself, she could trade white ones for it. If the military wouldn’t trade, she could still make private deals.

What a blessing—green cores were exactly what she needed most.

She made a round at the train station, completed her medical duties—two more of yesterday’s burn victims had died, and the remaining two were barely hanging on. She gave them a bit of energy, then went to check out the crystal core exchange site. A crowd had already gathered. With her straight-bladed knife and backpack, she headed for Zone B.

She had no choice—for the sake of her farm, she’d thrown almost all her white cores into the creek, keeping only five as backup. She’d need to get five more to trade for a green core.

Thinking of this, she felt a pang for all those white cores she’d tossed away.

There were more people in Zone B now, almost as many as during yesterday’s group task. With the exchange platform, the military had officially recognized crystal cores as a currency. Even if you didn’t need them, you could trade them for supplies.

One white core could be exchanged for enough food to last an adult one to one and a half days.

Most people formed small teams to hunt zombies together. If they were lucky and skilled, each person could get a core in half a day, but if something went wrong, it could cost a life.

Sure enough, not long after Bian Changxi entered, she heard screams from several directions.

Someone noticed she was alone and whispered, “Who’s that girl, coming here by herself?”

“Oh, I know her—she’s that wood-type ability user.”

“That’s her? Is she that tough?”

Bian Changxi ignored them, quickly leaving the areas with people. Still, she didn’t dare venture too deep into Zone B alone. The outer parts had been cleared several times, so zombies were scarce, but deeper in, there were still plenty.

Yesterday, she’d crouched in a safe spot, letting her human scent lure zombies over. Today, she didn’t plan to do that—she needed five white cores as quickly as possible. Green cores were rare, and she’d seen over a dozen wood-type users just the other night. If she was too slow, there might not be any left for her.

She moved quietly down a street. Passing a small restaurant, she heard the sound of rodents gnawing inside. She crept in; it was dim, so she waited for her eyes to adjust before weaving through the overturned tables and chairs.

Unlike the four-story building she’d stayed in before, this place had clearly been occupied during the apocalypse—maybe even still operating, since it was close to Zone A. There were still chopsticks, spoons, and little bottles of soy sauce and vinegar on the tables.

She stood outside the kitchen curtain. The gnawing stopped instantly, as if something inside had tensed up. She drew her straight knife, picked up a porcelain spoon, and tossed it in. Immediately, there was squeaking and scuffling.

Mutant rats—and not just a few.

She took two steps back. Two rats the size of buckets, pitch black and filthy, with bristly fur, shot out.

They were even bigger than before—like two mini tanks charging at her.

Bian Changxi leapt back onto a table. Treating people the night before had drained her energy, but she’d noticed her physical strength had improved dramatically—maybe the energy flowing through her body while healing others had also nourished her own body.

The two rats smashed into the table legs, tipping it over. Bian Changxi jumped down, stabbing her straight knife almost vertically at the neck and back of one mutant rat. The blade slid off, leaving only a shallow cut.

She frowned. The hide was really thick.

The mutant beast squealed in pain, its pointed head whipping around to bite at Bian Changxi’s ankle.

PS:

Thank you to 彼岸の花殇 and 棋开 for the safety charms!"