Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
After the two main forces regained their fighting power, Jiang Tao and the others had a heated discussion about how to deal with the metal-ability zombie.\n
Hou Ying listened silently and did not interrupt until the careful Gongsun Jing realized that he was not enthusiastic about the plan, she asked aloud, “Brother Hou, don’t you agree that we should deal with this zombie?”\n
Gongsun Jing and Hou Ying have the most common topic among them. During the two days when they stayed in HaiYe Service Area, they had a lot of communication, and their names naturally changed.\n
They seem to be accustomed to calling others by nicknames. Hou Ying guessed that it was a habit of being a soldier, then later, when they got used to it, they couldn’t change their habit. It is said that Li Xuanyuan’s ID card is not named by this name, because the team called him Xuanyuan, so he simply acquiesced to his name. Another example is Qiao Daye. When he was young, he was rebellious and always referred to himself as ‘your uncle’ and was greedy for other people’s favors. Later, people said that he was the second uncle and that’s how the name came from.\n
After Hou Ying saved the lives of her two comrades, Gongsun Jing regarded him as her own. When she was talking and laughing, she followed Jiang Tao and the others calling him Houzi. Seeing that Hou Ying was uncomfortable, she changed her nickname and called him Brother Hou.\n</ins>\n\nOn the contrary, no one calls him just Houzi anymore.\n
Such a subtle change in attitude, Hou Ying understood that it was because they’re grateful to him for saving Qiao Daye and Li Xuanyuan.\n
After hearing Gongsun Jing’s question, everyone looked at him, so Hou Ying said without concealing, “I do think this approach is a bit too aggressive.”\n
“It’s true that the first thing we need to do is to improve our abilities, but the problem now is that we don’t know much about zombies. I think what we need to do now is not to ascend the sky in one step, but to be practical and stable. No matter what we do, we can minimize the unknown risks.” \n
Having decided to fight as hard as possible to spend the last days with them, Hou Ying also changed his conservative attitude of ‘not seeking meritorious service but seeking no fault’ before and spoke a lot more directly.\n
Hou Ying observed their expressions and analyzed, “Based on what we know so far, it can be concluded that some zombies can also generate abilities, and their abilities will also evolve. So, why don’t we think about it in-depth, what are the reasons for their improvement? Maybe our abilities need the same thing as zombies to improve?”\n
Seeing several people’s approval, Hou Ying continued, “We don’t know why we have abilities, or why we have different types of abilities. In the final analysis, zombies, except that they have no thoughts like the living dead and feed on humans, have the same physiological constitutions as us to a large extent. Since the same thing happens to zombies, we can learn from them.”\n
“To tell the truth.”\n
Hou Ying sighed, “I am different from you. I’m still scared to think about that fuel plant. If I’m not sure, I don’t want you to try your luck.”\n
“Instead of taking such a risky approach, it’s better to practice hands-on the zombies with lower abilities. Anyway, we are now surrounded by zombies. It’s dangerous, but it’s also an opportunity. What’s more, crisis stimulates potential and promotes ability is just our guess. Even if it’s right, we don’t need to rush for this moment, do we?”\n</ins>\n\n“Besides, as we can see now, zombies don’t fight with each other, and their abilities are not promoted by the crisis. All ability zombies can evolve, so instead of finding the most difficult one, we’d better catch some zombies with the same power attributes and different degrees of evolution to do a comprehensive experiment. How did they evolve and whether they have something in common? There are still many problems worth studying. Most of all, we must know what their weakness is, and bullets will eventually run out one day—in fact, you don’t have much in stock, do you? How can we kill zombies with the fastest efficiency and the least loss by using abilities? That’s what we need to determine now, don’t you think?”\n
After listening, the five of them fell into thinking.\n
In fact, when you think about it, Hou Ying’s suggestion is not surprising, what he said is the golden mean. In the face of unknown danger, it is precisely this kind of steady method that can let them save their lives and increase their strength.\n
But such a simple idea, how could they not think of it before?\n
In the final analysis, their biggest problem now is that they have no leader! When they were soldiers, Jiang Tao and Li Xuanyuan were the strongest top soldiers, they were good at charging forward, but not at controlling the overall situation.\n
In fact, this fatal problem has been exposed from the previous careless consideration of Qiao Daye’s road exploration—they are bold and brave, but under the sudden blow of the end of the world, they have also become sharp and aggressive.\n
They don’t have enough crisis awareness, and they don’t have a sense of the overall situation.\n
Although both Li Xuanyuan and Qiao Daye are under 28 years old, they are veterans with more than 10 years of experience in the army, just like Jiang Tao and Liu Zhan. In their special forces, they are all tigers and wolves, they are all king of soldiers, and the captain’s individual combat effectiveness is not stronger than them. But just as the old chief once said, they all need a rope to twist together these powerful but rebellious spearmen, and when necessary, turn them into reins to restrain them in time.\n
Before, the captain was their rope, but now
\n
They looked at Hou Ying, then looked at each other again, and they all wondered for a moment.\n</ins>\n\nNo matter how long Hou Ying has the Seven Orifices Exquisite Heart<sup>1</sup>, he couldn’t guess what they were thinking without the tacit understanding between them. But as a military doctor, Gongsun Jing, who also didn’t know their ideas very well, spoke out, “According to our previous experience, zombies have very strong recovery ability, and there is no physiological reaction such as pain. They can only be killed by blowing their heads up.”\n
Hou Ying knew that it was not the special training habit of the special forces, but their experience in dealing with zombies.\n
However, seeing that they had their own thoughts and didn’t take a stand against his suggestions, Hou Ying simply finished, “Of course, both your plans and my suggestions will take time to complete. But I can’t wait that long
 so now I also want to talk about my own plan. If you take my advice, you can spend a buffer period here and practice with the zombies nearby. And I’ll try to go back to Yecheng and pick up my nephew and friends. If I can come back alive, we’ll join your team. If you decide to take a risk, my support role will not help you much, so I will rush to Yecheng as soon as possible.”\n
He really can’t wait, he is afraid of long nights fraught with dreams, and that Wang Hehe and Ji Yao won’t be able to wait for him to go back.\n
Everyone was a little stunned when they heard this, they had already regarded Hou Ying as their own, and they did not expect Hou Ying to leave the team.\n
Meng Hanghai, who had been listening quietly to the adults, became uneasy. He tightened his grip on Hou Ying’s hand and became sad, “Uncle Hou
” \n
The child already understood that Hou Ying will not take him when he goes to Yecheng. If the adults choose the first plan, he will come back here, and they will have a reunion day. But if it is the second plan, he will not come back when he goes to Yecheng.\n
Jiang Tao said, “Brother Hou, we all think your suggestion is feasible. But if we are going to Yecheng now, how should we go now that our armored vehicle is lost? We can’t get through the siege of zombies with that forklift, can we?”\n
The geographical advantage of this old national road has been taken away by the new national road. If it was not for the situation of escaping from the city that many people chose this road, in fact, it was mainly used to transport heavy industrial goods, and there was not much flow of people. Moreover, HaiYe service area is next to an industrial park. Due to the pollution of factories, residential buildings have gradually moved out over the past ten years. Therefore, there are a certain number of zombies here but there is no need to worry about the influx of large-scale zombies.\n
As Hou Ying said, it’s not very difficult to practice and experiment with the zombies here, even if they only have a few people, as long as they have a careful plan, it will not be very difficult to implement.\n
In fact, they have been convinced by Hou Ying. The reason why they don’t say a word is that they tacitly believe that Hou Ying can replace the late captain as their “rein”. They are considering ways to recruit Hou Ying into the team.\n
Unexpectedly, Hou Ying was still desperate to go to Yecheng despite their heavy losses in a defeat.\n
You know, although Yecheng is not too far from the HaiYe Service Area, they have failed to get the heavy truck and the armored car has been lost. With the beautiful but crispy cars parked in the service area, it is impossible to finish the rest of the highway, which is full of zombies and cars.\n
What Jiang Tao said is the truth.\n
Hou Ying has been worrying about this for the past two days, and he has a little idea. Seeing that they had almost accepted his proposal and that there was a lot of hope for the formation of a team, he also gave them a little insight, “Actually, there is one thing I concealed from everyone.”\n</ins>\n\nEveryone was shocked, for fear that he would say that he’s been scratched by a zombie or did something sorry to them.\n
Hou Ying saw that they seemed to copy and paste the same expression, he felt amused inexplicably, and he became relaxed when he thought it was difficult to be honest.\n
“I don’t think the zombies can smell my flesh.” After saying that, he was amused by his own words. “I was surrounded by four or five zombies in the convenience store in the Jianghai Service Area before. I thought I would never survive
 but those zombies didn’t do anything to me. The same thing happened to me when I was driving in the fuel plant that day. A zombie had already jumped into the car. I almost thought I was going to be bitten, but the result was not dangerous. So I suspect that they may not really be able to smell me.”\n
He didn’t mention it before, but at that time, he rushed into the fuel plant and ran through the zombies who were crazy by the blood of Li Xuanyuan and Qiao Daye. He also held the belief and determination that he would die together, and the process was not smooth sailing.\n
It was only after a few thrills that the zombies chasing Hou Ying with the sound of the car didn’t even mean to snarl at him, which made him lucky not to die on the road.\n
And the two and three flukes made Hou Ying understand that this was not accidental.\n
Several people looked at each other, and Gongsun Jing guessed, “
maybe, this is also a kind of ability?” \n
After they left Hucheng, their contact with the outside world was cut off. Now they know little about the outside world, about the abilities, zombies, and the end of the world.\n
But you can even have such abilities as clairvoyance, wind, hearing, gold, wood, water, and fire, there’s no need to make a fuss about being confused by the smell, right? It’s just like the herbs used to detoxify snake venom must be around the snake, all things grow and restrain each other. Hou Ying’s ability is like a cheating device, but it seems to conform to the law of nature’s development.\n
And they also understood for the first time why Hou Ying had to hide it from them.\n</ins>\n\nIt’s easy to say if this ability is common in the outside world—but as ignorant as they are, they know it’s impossible. And this kind of ability can be extended to “zombie natural enemy”, if it is known by people with ulterior motives, they will definitely want to take it for themselves, and even put him in the laboratory for anatomical research!\n
Qiao Daye said with a smile, “Brother Hou is awesome. If this is true, wouldn’t it be like a walk in the park passing through the zombies, even without wearing armor?”\n
Hou Ying was not in the mood to joke, he doesn’t know if it’s the abnormality of the ability, which makes him panic several times. He has been desperately recalling what he experienced during the most critical two days he passed out, he is afraid that he will become an alien.\n
Gongsun Jing saw that he was not completely sure, so she spoke, “Otherwise, let’s find a way to get Lao Er to catch an olfactory zombie alive and try it. If you can hide from the olfactory zombie, it means that you do have this ability.”\n
“No, what if the olfactory zombie I grabbed back has a higher level of ability than Brother Hou, what should he do?”\n
“If this ability is not a panacea, it’s better to find out as soon as possible, so we can still salvage the situation. Otherwise, it will be a big problem later if we really run into the zombies and are discovered.” Jiang Tao took Qiao Daye’s words and said dumbly, “In that case, it’s better to give it a try. However, even if you have this cheating device and you can go to Yecheng by yourself, but how do you plan to take your nephew and friends over?”\n
Hou Ying was asked.\n
Seeing that he was speechless, Li Xuanyuan snorted coldly, “You haven’t thought about this problem, have you?”\n\n
<hr class="wp-block-separator">\n\n
Translator’s Notes:\n
<ol>䞃çȘçŽČ珑濃 (QÄ«qiĂ o lĂ­nglĂłng xÄ«n) – From the novel “The Romance of the Gods” and is said to make the eyes break through all illusions and communicate to all the things in the world.</ol>\nI don’t know about you but I’m digging this minimalist look of this site (it’s just that I still don’t know how to navigate through this blog and couldn’t find the right theme that satisfies me XD). I think I will not change the theme, for the time being, maybe wait a little while when there are a lot more stories to choose from.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">