Cloud Raising Little Zombies: Chapter 20

ZOMBIE EMPEROR CULTIVATION

20. Su Zi’an longingly looked towards Ye You: “Ge? How about we try this?”

As soon as they entered the base, someone nervously approached them.

The man was wearing a suit that was completely out of place in the apocalypse. Keeping a distance of several meters, he stood on the other side of the white lion and asked Director Lin if they needed to rent or buy a house.

A house was definitely necessary—no one wanted to sleep in a car during the apocalypse.

Director Lin stopped the car and looked at the two young men standing beside the white lion, asking for their opinion.

Ye You wasn’t interested in the house and casually said, “You decide. Su Zi’an and I will go for a walk, and we’ll find you after we’re done.”

Director Lin had no objections and wasn’t worried about whether Ye You and Su Zi’an could find him later.

He knew that Ye You had a psychic ability, and during the past two weeks, whenever Ye You went off on his own, he always managed to find his way back.

The white lion stayed with Director Lin and his daughter.

Even though the base had some semblance of order, it was nowhere near the level of pre-apocalypse, and there was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t try to attack Director Lin, who was with a little girl.

Director Lin was just an ordinary person with decent physical skills, and Lin Yinyin’s combat ability was entirely dependent on the mutated animals. They needed the white lion more.

As soon as Director Lin and the white lion left, a yellow taxi immediately pulled up in front of Ye You and Su Zi’an.

“Where would you two like to go? There’s no place in A City Base that I don’t know about—the Central Tower that all ability users must visit, the building where teams pick up missions…” The driver leaned out of the window, enthusiastically introducing everything.

“Take us to the Central Tower,” Ye You said succinctly.

Since it was a must-visit for ability users and was called the Central Tower, Ye You thought of the tall building at the center of the base that he had sensed with his psychic ability, a place where many ability users and crystal nuclei gathered.

That grape-sized, smoky gray crystal nucleus was also inside the building.

He decided to check out the situation first.

Such a unique and familiar color of crystal nucleus—he wondered what kind of ability it would represent.

“Sure,” Su Zi’an agreed and then looked at the somewhat thin driver, asking, “How much is the fare?”

Su Zi’an found the experience quite novel—who would have thought you could still hail a cab in the apocalypse?

The thin driver held up his hand, spreading his fingers, “50.”

Su Zi’an was stunned.

It couldn’t be that the old currency was still in use in the apocalypse. The “50” the driver mentioned was either referring to a currency system unique to this base or to a universally accepted medium of exchange in the apocalypse.

And what was the most universally accepted currency in the apocalypse?

crystal nuclei.

Fifty crystal nuclei, even if they were the lowest-grade D-level ones, was quite an exorbitant demand.

Seeing the look of disbelief on the customer’s face, the thin driver panicked a bit and gritted his teeth, saying, “Forty! How about 40 grams of food?”

Su Zi’an: “Huh?”

“I really can’t go any lower. I have kids to feed at home,” the driver said with a pained expression.

【???】

【I thought he was talking about the base’s currency or points.】

【Looking at the 180 grams of honey-roasted chestnuts in my hand, the 300-gram can of fruit on the table, and the 250 ml of milk, I’m suddenly deep in thought.】

【Take my box of instant noodles! No need to give me extra, just drive me around the base.】

Su Zi’an silently took a pack of biscuits out of his backpack to pay the fare, then got in the car with Ye You.

He had long finished the food he brought when he left school, but with his time-reversal ability, as long as he had a small piece of the original packaging, he could instantly restore it to its full form.

The driver dutifully took them to their destination.

A tall building stood in the center of the base, with a metal sculpture in the plaza in front of it depicting a refined young man.

“It’s fine, we can always find more food,” Ye You said, ruffling Su Zi’an’s hair to bring him back from his daze.

Su Zi’an opened an umbrella to cover Ye You and explained, “It’s not about the food. It’s just the first time I realized I’m actually rich—it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Ye You couldn’t quite understand Su Zi’an’s feeling of being overwhelmed. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have enough crystal nuclei, or they weren’t big enough.

The two walked towards the building’s entrance together.

Ye You sensed several gazes on him, coming from the enforcers stationed at the entrance.

There were only so many ability users in the base, and since they often visited this building, the enforcers usually recognized familiar faces.

Seeing two unfamiliar youths getting out of the car, the enforcers paid extra attention to them.

While the enforcers were watching them, Ye You was also observing the enforcers.

Something seemed off.

These people were all D-level or even C-level ability users; their brain cores were appropriately developed, yet their physical strength was still like that of ordinary humans.

Why hadn’t their physical abilities improved along with their powers?

The enforcers’ gaze only lingered on them for a few seconds before shifting away, either unsure of their identity or having confirmed they weren’t a threat.

With questions in mind, Ye You and Su Zi’an entered the building.

At the reception desk was a young woman who appeared harmless.

Ye You noticed the small, rice-sized white crystal nucleus in her mind—she was a D-level light-type ability user.

However, her breathing and movements conveyed a clear message: her physical strength was at the level of an ordinary human, and even weaker than most.

“Hello, is this your first time here?” The receptionist smiled warmly. “We offer training rooms customized for different types of ability users. The rooms are divided into three levels. Which one would you like?”

“Training rooms?” Su Zi’an had never heard of such a thing before and couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly is a training room? And what’s the difference between the levels?”

The receptionist patiently explained, “Training rooms are designed for ability users to familiarize themselves with their powers and absorb crystal nuclei to level up.

“In the training rooms, there are crystal nucleus converters that can transform the cores into energy, making it easier to absorb.

“The primary difference between the levels is the conversion strength of the converters. A Level 1 training room has a 20% conversion rate, Level 2 has 40%, and Level 3 has 60%.

“The prices are quite reasonable as well: one D-level crystal nucleus per day for a Level 1 room, five for Level 2, and ten for Level 3.”

Ye You used his mental perception to observe a few ability users in action.

They placed crystal nuclei into a device in the center of the room, which then released the energy from the cores. The users, standing or sitting, did their best to absorb the energy in the air.

Even the highest-level training room only had a 60% conversion rate, meaning that from a rice-sized crystal nucleus, only about half of that energy was released. And those ability users weren’t necessarily able to absorb all the released energy, so effectively, half the core’s potential was wasted.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just eat it directly?” Ye You asked.

The receptionist was momentarily stunned before realizing he was talking about consuming the crystal nucleus, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“You must be joking. Eating a crystal nucleus directly would be extremely painful, not to mention life-threatening. If there’s a painless, low-risk way to get stronger, who would choose to suffer?”

Su Zi’an recalled the hardships he had endured over the past half month and looked at Ye You with longing, “Ge? How about we try this??”

Ye You instinctively felt that there was something wrong with the way they absorbed crystal nuclei—it seemed particularly wasteful, at the very least.

Nevertheless, he approached the receptionist and said, “I’d like to book a Level 3 time-based training room.”

The receptionist’s eyes lit up. A Level 3 training room? They must be wealthy, and a rare time-based ability user at that.

“Certainly. Here’s your room key—25th floor. You can take the elevator over there.” She handed them a golden room key and winked at the two of them.

As Su Zi’an accepted the key, Ye You suddenly asked, “This building has 40 floors, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

Though the receptionist was puzzled by his question, she answered truthfully, “The first 30 floors are training rooms, and the top 10 floors are our base leader’s research labs.

“Many of the tools we use here were developed by our base leader, like the crystal nucleus converter, ability testing device, flying drones…”

She rattled off a long list, her eyes filled with gratitude and admiration.

Su Zi’an also thought the base leader sounded impressive, but right now, his mind was occupied with the idea of painless crystal nucleus absorption.

Half-heartedly agreeing with the receptionist’s praise, he quickly dragged Ye You away.

“Ge, do you think we can really absorb crystal nuclei painlessly?” Su Zi’an asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation as they boarded the elevator.

“You’ll know once you try,” Ye You replied, closing his eyes and leaning against the elevator wall, while his mental energy reached into the research labs on the top 10 floors.

Ye You knew that someone with an A-level crystal nucleus was in one of those research labs.

But since that person was at a higher level than him, Ye You didn’t dare probe too deeply, fearing they might sense him.

He roughly “scanned” the area.

There were various instruments, people in white lab coats busily working like machines, humans restrained and suffering from high fevers, and… newly awakened zombies.

【Whoa! I just moved the camera up a few floors, and guess what I saw?!】

【Aren’t those supposed to be research labs with high-tech equipment?】

【No! There were zombies! They were letting zombies bite humans and then feeding those people crystal nuclei!】

【F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck ¹! This feels eerily familiar—are the dog developers planning to cause trouble?!】

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Translator Notes

1. Used 4 different variations of f*ck in Chinese: 卧槽, 操, 草, 艹[↩]