Before Xie Lingruo even reached the room, she heard Xie Father and Xie Lingfeng talking. It seemed her mental-type ability was genuinely useful—she really needed to level it up as soon as possible.
When Xie Lingruo pushed open the door, she saw the two grown men hugging each other. Only when they realized it was her did they hurriedly separate.
Backtracking a bit—when Xie Father heard that his eldest son might turn into a zombie, he had nearly lost all control. Fortunately, his child had finally woken up.
The moment his son opened his eyes, Xie Father didn't care about maintaining his strict, stoic fatherly image anymore. He immediately hugged Xie Lingfeng tightly, muttering repeatedly, "Thank goodness you're awake… You scared us to death…"
Xie Lingruo wasn't surprised by the sight. She quickly walked over to her brother, excitedly saying, "This is great, Brother, you finally woke up! Try to find that energy in your mind and aim it at the trash can by the bed."
What could a normally doting brother like Xie Lingfeng do? Of course, he listened to his little sister. He emptied his mind, as she instructed, and tried to release the faint energy inside him.
Suddenly, a sharp wind blade burst from his hand. In less than a second, the trash can was shredded into pieces.
Seeing this incredible display, Xie Father's jaw dropped. But thanks to having already seen his daughter's spatial ability, he wasn't as shocked as he might have been. After a moment, he calmed down.
Xie Lingruo, on the other hand, was thrilled beyond belief. She hadn't expected her cheap brother to be so strong—he had awakened a wind-type ability! That meant a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders.
Now that her brother could help protect their father, she could focus on completing her second task: finding the male and female leads and taking revenge on that group of scumbags.
But for now, their top priority was strengthening themselves—and making their way to Anshi Base, the nearest major national base among the surrounding cities.
In the original plot, the heroine's team had also set out for this base. Unfortunately, because Xie Lingruo had trusted the wrong people, she'd been drained of her usefulness and thrown to a zombie horde, sacrificed so the scum could buy themselves time to escape.
Now that she knew Xie Lingfeng's ability, Xie Lingruo demonstrated her spatial ability to him as well. She had decided to keep her mental power a secret, using the space ability as a cover. Her psychic powers would be her hidden trump card.
This way, she could take revenge from the shadows. Just imagine—if her enemy was running for their life, and suddenly suffered a mental attack, it would be the perfect invisible kill. And best of all, it wouldn't expose her identity.
Sadly, this plan was just a fantasy for now. Mental abilities needed to reach level 2 before they unlocked offensive skills. For now, she could only use them for scanning and sensing.
In short, she was like someone sitting on a mountain of treasure but unable to touch it. Still, she could at least target some of the regular people who had harmed the original host. So, she'd need to pay close attention on the road to the base.
After a brief discussion, the three of them decided to eat a full meal first, recover their strength, and then head outside to practice killing zombies.
Xie Father volunteered to cook. Thankfully, the gas line was still functioning, even though there was no running water or electricity.
After the apocalypse hit, most infrastructure outside of land bases was destroyed. The entire country had ground to a halt, and utilities couldn't be restored.
Xie Lingruo knew that even if the water supply was later restored, it would be contaminated. If ordinary people drank it, they'd mutate into zombies. For ability users, it would slow their ability progression.
So, she took out pre-filled water barrels she had prepared earlier and placed them in the kitchen. Since the house still had food, there was no need to bring out additional supplies.
From what his sister had already told him, Xie Lingfeng knew she'd awakened her spatial ability days before the apocalypse and had already stockpiled resources. So now, his job was to protect the family.
In a world gone mad, no one could afford selflessness. Xie Lingfeng decided to put family above all else, even if that meant temporarily letting go of his ideals of serving and protecting the nation.
While Xie Father was cooking, Xie Lingruo sorted through her inventory in the space, organizing the mess she had gathered in the past few days.
Thanks to her mental power, the task was much easier now. She no longer suffered headaches from extended space usage like before.
Meanwhile, Xie Lingfeng went to the storage room to find the old weapons he had collected, planning to use them in their first zombie battles.
About 40 minutes later, Xie Father served the food: two vegetable dishes, one meat dish, and a big pot of white rice. Compared to survivors outside gnawing on crackers, this was practically a feast in paradise.
They ate quickly. After all that had happened, none of them had eaten in nearly 12 hours.
Still, Xie Lingruo and Xie Lingfeng both noticed something odd—their appetites had grown significantly. It seemed that ability users were all secret gluttons.