After I Fully Prepared for the Apocalypse, the Ungrateful Cried with Regret-Chapter 67: Is It Possible This Is Man-made?
"Everyone, stay alert! Don’t leave any blind spots!"
Chester Pearson stood on the roof of a car, his gun aimed at the dozen or so zombies running toward them in the distance.
His aim was true, hitting the zombies’ vitals every time.
After taking care of all the distant zombies, he jumped off the car and handed his weapon to a team member beside him.
He had actually been practicing his Fire Element Superpower day and night. The Fireballs he produced weren’t small, but their impact force was less than a tenth of Nina Jacobs’.
A zombie snarling at a team member in front of him only staggered when hit by his Fireball.
However, his provocation succeeded in drawing its attention.
"Don’t shoot. Leave it to me,"
Chester Pearson said.
"Control of your Superpower has to be maintained from start to finish. It’s not over just because you’ve fired it off. You’ve only completed the step of generating the Superpower."
Nina Jacobs began her live tutorial from the sidelines.
"...Besides generating it, you also have to manipulate it, and convert and focus its energy.
A Superpower is fundamentally a form of energy from the laws of nature.
It’s not a bullet, and it’s not just a tool..."
Nina Jacobs’ words were a sudden revelation for Chester Pearson.
The other Superpower User team members around them also silently committed her words to memory.
Just then, Chester Pearson’s next Fireball finally set the zombie’s head ablaze.
"That’s already very good. Just keep practicing."
Nina Jacobs saw the excitement on Chester Pearson’s face.
The rest was up to Chester Pearson himself.
’Manipulating and applying the laws of nature, huh...’
Chelsea Walsh stared at the zombie in the distance, paralyzed by her Thunder Element Superpower, and suddenly understood something.
After a brilliant flash of lightning, the zombie collapsed.
"I did it!"
Chelsea Walsh shouted excitedly.
It was the first time she had killed a zombie using her Thunder Element Superpower.
Without relying on anyone else, and without using a weapon.
The other Superpower User rescue team members all looked over with envy.
Immediately after, the head of the zombie Chester Pearson had set on fire suddenly burst open with a POP.
’I killed it!’
Chester Pearson was ecstatic.
"...That was a little too disgusting."
Leo Hale thought Nina Jacobs’ Fire Element Superpower was easier on the eyes.
At least hers burned everything away.
"You think so?
It saves us a bomb. Perfect."
Chester Pearson was still reveling in the joy of using his Superpower to blow up a zombie’s head.
Nina Jacobs could tell that Chester Pearson had gotten the hang of it.
"Everyone’s method might be different,
but every technique comes down to two things—conserving your Superpower and maximizing its effect,"
Nina Jacobs added.
Although Ian Chandler didn’t say anything, he also firmly committed Nina Jacobs’ words to heart.
The group protected Ian Chandler in their center, allowing him to clear the road safely until they reached the outside of the mall.
"My God..."
Seeing the dense horde of zombies packed inside the mall’s glass doors, everyone’s expression turned grim.
"Damn it, who locked all these zombies inside?"
Chester Pearson hadn’t expected to run into this kind of situation.
It looked like there were at least several thousand zombies locked on this floor.
This was simply not a mission that a small team of just over thirty people could handle.
Besides, there surely couldn’t be any living people left inside the mall.
"What floor is the supermarket on?" Nina Jacobs asked.
"The second floor," a rescue team member replied.
"I’ll climb in."
Chester Pearson and Nina Jacobs had the same idea.
But they had only brought one Space Superpower User with them today: Ian Chandler.
"I’ll go with you."
Nina Jacobs thought for a moment. Malls usually had jewelry stores.
Besides, she had a strange feeling about this mall.
Leo Hale and Chelsea Walsh wanted to go up too, but Nina Jacobs refused.
The more people who went, the easier it would be to attract zombies.
"Then you two have to be careful.
We’ll be waiting for you down here,"
Chelsea Walsh said worriedly.
"You too. If things go south, run immediately. We have a way to escape."
Nina Jacobs nodded.
The remaining rescue team members also had a mission here.
They had to attract the attention of the zombies inside the first-floor glass doors.
That would make it safer for the group on the second floor.
"Are you coming too? It could be dangerous up there."
Nina Jacobs asked, seeing that Wayne Warner was still following her.
Wayne Warner looked at her and nodded.
His resolve was firm.
"Alright, then let’s go together."
’Wayne Warner won’t listen to Leo Hale and the others anyway, so it’s better if he comes with us.’
The eaves they had to climb were over two meters high.
Chester Pearson seemed quite skilled at climbing walls, scrambling up as nimbly as a monkey.
Just as Nina Jacobs was about to use her momentum to get up, Wayne Warner unexpectedly lifted her up with one arm.
"..."
She had never received this kind of treatment in two lifetimes.
"Your bodyguard is pretty sharp,"
Chester Pearson said as he pulled Ian Chandler up as well.
"Yep, life is looking up,"
Nina Jacobs said, half-joking.
"I’ll grow as tall as Wayne Warner one day,"
Ian Chandler said with a hint of envy in his eyes after Chester Pearson pulled him up.
"Alright, be careful now."
This wasn’t the time for chatting.
It was impossible to see inside through the mall’s glass windows.
But Nina Jacobs had a feeling there was something behind the glass.
They couldn’t just climb in recklessly.
She had already activated her "Five Senses Enhancement," so she could hear things more clearly than the others.
But the sound was strange. It wasn’t the open-mouthed roar of a zombie.
’Could it be a person?’
Chester Pearson wanted to peek in and check, but Nina Jacobs stopped him.
Nina Jacobs had Ian Chandler take out a selfie stick and a fully charged phone.
The selfie stick, holding the phone, was slowly extended through the mall window. After a moment, Nina Jacobs pulled it back out.
The phone had been set to record with both front and back cameras.
The recorded video left them shocked and filled with lingering fear.
"Zombies?"
Chester Pearson stared at the phone’s screen in disbelief.
Behind the window, including on the floor, there were at least twenty-odd zombies scattered about.
The strangest thing was that these zombies seemed to be fixed in place, both on the ground and behind the window.
If they had climbed in through the window, they would have landed directly on top of those zombies.
"Nina, have the zombies gotten this smart?"
Ian Chandler stared at the dark, gaping window, a chill running down his spine.
"Is it possible this was man-made?
Take a closer look."
Nina Jacobs watched the video twice; a theory was already forming in her mind.
The zombies’ feet had been bound and then secured in place with ground locks.
Even a mutated zombie couldn’t have done that.
A zombie couldn’t possibly use a ground lock.
The only ones who could do this are humans.
"That’s right. This is a trap."
A trap aimed at people like them.
"No wonder. No wonder so many zombies were locked up on the first floor.
Is someone trying to harm us?"
Chester Pearson clenched his fists, his expression furious.
If not for Nina Jacobs’ caution, he would have just jumped right into the zombies’ mouths.
"To be precise, it’s not aimed at just us,
but at everyone who comes here,"
Nina Jacobs said.
All the entrances and exits on the first floor were blocked, and it was filled with a large number of zombies.
To get into the mall, they would naturally think of the second-floor eaves with their open windows.
Little did they know, this was playing right into a trap someone else had set.
It wasn’t that she was clever; she had just seen this kind of trick countless times in her past life.
"Why?"
The two asked in unison, and even Wayne Warner looked at her.
"Think about it. What’s our purpose for coming here?"
"Supplies..."
Ian Chandler was the first to realize.
Someone didn’t want them to take the supplies from inside this mall.
