Rebirth of the Last Days: Double Pets

After that, Bai Qi explained her ability to her.

It was a mental power ability, a very rare type, even rarer than healing abilities. Because it was so uncommon, he had never encountered it before, which is why he initially overlooked it.

In the early stages, this ability allows the user to sense the presence of things within a small range. Later on, it can be developed to control what is sensed—even people, zombies, and animals. As long as the target’s willpower isn’t strong enough, they can be manipulated through this mental power ability.

In the three years after the apocalypse began, Bai Qi had only heard of one other person with a mental power ability: a doctor at the research base in City A. It was said that this doctor used her mental power to capture many ability users for research. This caused much debate within the base. Some argued that experimenting on living humans was a violation of humanitarian principles, while others supported her, saying that in the apocalypse, sacrificing a few was necessary to save the majority…

Bai Qi didn’t want anyone to know that Tang Ruo had a mental power ability, largely because of the existence of this doctor. Even though he had been reborn and had more opportunities, it would still be difficult for just the two of them to go up against the government. In the apocalypse, without sufficient power, it was crucial to keep a low profile and not draw attention to themselves.

As Bai Qi was explaining, Tang Ruo suddenly reached out and covered his mouth.

Bai Qi: “…”

Then he saw Tang Ruo mouthing the words, silently, “Someone is coming.”

The person arrived quickly, and Tang Ruo immediately sensed that the person at the door was likely a speed-type ability user, just as Bai Qi had mentioned before. Bai Qi gently removed Tang Ruo’s hand from his mouth, then took her hand and led her toward the door, opening it.

The young man outside looked a bit embarrassed when the door suddenly opened, revealing a man and a woman who seemed to have anticipated his arrival.

“Do you need something?” Bai Qi asked directly, already guessing that in this post-apocalyptic world, knocking on someone’s door usually meant asking for supplies.

As expected, the young man hesitated before speaking, “I… I was hoping to borrow some water and food.”

Originally, he had intended to ask the three strong men for help, but when he saw Bai Qi earlier, standing there clean and tidy, he knew Bai Qi must have a good supply of resources. It had been over a week since the apocalypse began, and very few people could maintain such cleanliness.

Bai Qi raised an eyebrow, “Borrow with no intention of returning?”

It seemed the young man was new to such a situation. Judging by his attire, he probably came from a wealthy family before the sudden outbreak.

The young man’s face flushed red, “I… I…” He knew he probably couldn’t repay anything now, and as for the future… he couldn’t even guarantee he had one, let alone repay any debts.

Tang Ruo noticed the young man’s discomfort. She looked him over but didn’t plan to interfere. She didn’t understand this world well, nor did she think her wisdom or experience was enough to judge someone’s character. Since she didn’t really know, she decided to leave everything to Bai Qi.

After a moment, seeing that the young man had nothing more to say, Bai Qi offered, “If you bring me the heads of the eight zombies downstairs, I’ll give you a bag of biscuits and a bottle of mineral water. How about that?”

The young man looked up, a bit incredulous, “Really?”

Bai Qi said, “The stuff is downstairs. You’ll know if it’s real when you bring it up.”

The young man nodded and was about to head downstairs when Tang Ruo called out, “Wait a minute. Zombie blood can be infectious, so be careful.”

After the young man left, Tang Ruo asked, “What do you need the zombie heads for?”

Bai Qi turned and led her back into the room. “I want to see if there’s a crystal core inside.”

As the door was closed, Tang Ruo asked, “What’s a crystal core?”

Over the past few days, they had been fighting zombies upstairs, but she hadn’t seen Bai Qi show any interest in cutting open zombie heads.

“It’s something that can upgrade abilities. Zombies use it to evolve.” This was something he had only learned after entering the H City base in his previous life. As a result, his ability had leveled up much later than others.

After finishing breakfast, they tidied up, and soon, the young man returned with the zombie heads. He was quick but lacked the strength to carry them all at once, so he carefully brought them up one by one to avoid getting infected by the zombie blood.

In fact, as long as the skin isn’t broken and there’s no direct contact with the blood through wounds, the virus won’t spread. Otherwise, if every drop of blood splattered on the skin caused infection, humanity would have had no chance of survival.

Bai Qi, keeping his word, pulled out a bottle of water and a bag of biscuits from his bag and handed them to the young man.

The young man’s eyes lit up as he received the biscuits. “Brother, can I bring you another eight zombie heads to trade for more biscuits?”

He had expected a small packet, but Bai Qi had given him a large sharing pack, the kind that costs over 20 yuan at the supermarket.

Bai Qi shook his head and said, “Sorry, we’re leaving today.”

The young man, a bit disappointed, left with the biscuits and water.

Bai Qi then moved the eight zombie heads to another room and skillfully opened them up. Inside, he found that three out of the eight zombies had small crystal cores.

Under the sunlight, the crystal cores were smooth and lustrous, not at all like something that would come from the disgusting bodies of zombies.

Although Tang Ruo had been watching as Bai Qi extracted the zombie heads earlier, she realized that when Bai Qi did it, the process didn’t seem particularly gross. After all, Bai Qi had performed this procedure thousands of times over the past three years, and he was so skilled that he could now use an ice blade to extract the zombie brains without spilling a single drop of blood.

Curiously, Tang Ruo asked, “Is this the crystal core?”

Bai Qi responded with a simple “Hmm,” and then rinsed one of the cores with water and handed it to her. “Place your finger on it and try absorbing one.”

Tang Ruo extended her index finger and pressed it onto the core. A cool sensation spread across her palm, and as she took a deep breath, the cold feeling traveled from her finger to her heart. She then clearly felt a small surge of power coursing through her mind.

“It really does seem to work.”

Bai Qi smiled and told her to keep the remaining crystal cores. “Whenever you feel fatigued from using your ability, absorb one. It takes about 500 level-one crystal cores to evolve from level one to level two.”

Tang Ruo, now even more curious, asked, “So crystal cores have different levels too?”

“Yes, zombies evolve and have different levels, so crystal cores also vary in level.”

After tossing the zombie heads out the window, Bai Qi intended to take Tang Ruo outside for some combat practice.

Any theory needs to be tested through real-world application to be truly effective.

Of course, before heading out, they needed to check if there were any crystal cores in the zombies they had fought yesterday.