Chapter 564: Rumors

The news that Daniel Hale’s youngest daughter had awakened a superpower took many by surprise. Myra Lawson even paid Sabrina Hale a personal visit.

Sabrina sat on a soft cushion, giggling at the bright green leaves that kept spontaneously sprouting from her palms.

"She’s so cute." Myra felt her heart melting at the sight.

"I know, right? No one expected a child this young to awaken a superpower," Vera Coleman said, still in disbelief.

"It’s a good thing. The humans who survive will only get stronger," Myra noted. "The earlier superpowers awaken, the more opportunities there are for training and growth. This might just be the hope for humanity’s future."

It was just a pity that over the past few months, very few people in the base had conceived new life.

"By the way, Nina, there will be a superpower competition in the base in two days. If the Stellarys Team is free, you guys can go watch," Myra made sure to mention before leaving.

"Is it related to the trip to City A?" Nina immediately thought of the matter.

Over the past few days, the base had issued announcements stating that they would publicly select four outstanding Superpower Users to represent them at the City A headquarters for an assessment. Her spot had already been guaranteed; next came the base’s selection process.

Anyone willing could sign up, and the base would choose suitable candidates through a tournament. The selected individuals would receive superpower training provided by the base before their departure, with room and board fully covered. Word had it that there were quite a lot of applicants.

"Yes, you’re already a guaranteed participant, so you don’t need to compete. Plus, I’d like to hear your feedback," Myra said.

Originally, she had wanted Nina to be a direct judge, but she worried it might cause Nina to make enemies in the base, considering the large number of participants.

"The preliminary rounds are fine, but the final matches are more important." The preliminaries would take a few days, so it wouldn’t matter if Nina didn’t attend those.

Nina pondered for a moment before finally agreeing.

Speaking of the competition, Nina also went next door to Stellarys to ask everyone for their thoughts. If anyone wanted to participate, they could sign up on their own. She specifically thought of Ethan Young.

In her past life, Ethan had briefly made it to tenth place on the combat power leaderboard. However, he had fallen off the ranks after killing someone at the headquarters.

"I want to go to Arisdale Base, but I don’t want to participate in this competition," Ethan answered.

He was still very grateful to Nina. Ever since he arrived at the City D Base, she had not only given him a place to stay but had also arranged for Chase Gallagher to take him out and help search for his enemies—even though they hadn’t found any clues.

"If you want to go to Arisdale Base, just come with me. But whether you compete or not is entirely up to you," Nina said.

She didn’t know what Ethan had gone through in his past life, but from her observations over the past few days, he truly kept a low profile. He disliked standing out and hated showing off. Yet she had always known that Ethan’s strength was not to be underestimated.

According to the system’s Superpower Value, Ethan scored two points higher than Chase. This meant Ethan was on the verge of advancing to an Intermediate Superpower User. Furthermore, he hadn’t even absorbed a Mystic Ice Core yet.

"I’ve still decided not to participate," Ethan replied.

Given the choice, he preferred to keep his head down and search for his enemies. He considered himself a selfish person; representing the City D Base simply wasn’t his style.

"Alright, but while you’re all at the base these next few days, every one of you must continue practicing your superpowers. Make sure to completely deplete your energy every single day." Nina didn’t push the issue any further.

Holden Shaw and Jessica Vance, the strongest members of the team, also didn’t plan on entering the tournament. They felt that having Nina represent Stellarys was enough. Nina left behind the invitation letter Myra had given her so that everyone in Stellarys could go watch the matches.

That same night, she once again stepped through the Teleportation Gate and arrived atop the ruined tower in Crestfall.

Upon hearing her call, the Puppet Zombie quickly appeared before her. This time, it didn’t look like it had sustained any injuries. However, through the system, Nina noticed that the Puppet Zombie’s strength seemed to have significantly increased again.

"You’ve improved," Nina said.

The Puppet Zombie knew no fatigue, slaughtering other zombies day and night. Compared to humans, zombies were indeed far more suited for this apocalyptic world.

Nina tidied up the Puppet Zombie a bit before taking out a Little Zombie Rat and placing it on its shoulder. An hour later, four explosions echoed in the sky above the dark Crestfall.

Nina decided to stay in the Zombie City for four days this time.

As for things back home, she had already given Wayne Warner a heads-up, instructing him to bring out the note she left about going out on the second day. If there was an emergency at the base, Vera could also contact her at any time via the Unlimited Communicator.

Inside Tomorrow Base, Felix Finch had also heard the rumors circulating around over the past couple of days.

"Rumor has it that a couple of days ago, a survivor passing by Crestfall from a distance heard explosions coming from inside. I remember someone mentioning they heard them last time, too," Cordelia said in a puzzled tone.

Explosions in a Zombie City might be normal—after all, zombies could occasionally trigger them. Yet, for some reason, rumors were spreading through the base about a super-powerful Zombie King residing within. It was said that the Zombie King was covered head-to-toe in golden armor, and all the zombies in the city followed its commands.

"Pass down the order: from now on, the spreading of such rumors within the base is strictly prohibited," Felix commanded the subordinates behind him, his expression stern.

Too many rumors would lead to panic. Besides, he didn’t believe there was any Zombie King out there.

However, the base had indeed detected that quite a few zombies originating from Vexford were converging on Crestfall. This was what he had worried about most in the past. Yet, over the last two days, long-range drone reconnaissance revealed that the zombie hordes moving toward Crestfall had vanished.

He even suspected that the zombies had entered Crestfall itself, but then he felt that was highly unlikely. Moreover, Claire Warner had warned him not to casually approach Crestfall, and to avoid even surveying the perimeter as much as possible.

"I wonder when Claire will visit again," Felix muttered to himself. The weather outside was freezing; he feared Claire wouldn’t be showing up anytime soon.

The world seemed frozen over, yet Crestfall was filled with roaring chaos.

Today marked Nina’s third day alone in Crestfall. It was also her second day of acting as human bait to lure the zombies from outside the city.

She had just discovered yesterday that a large number of zombies had gathered outside Crestfall. She deduced that they had been drawn in by the explosions she caused. To prevent those zombies from congregating toward Tomorrow Base, she simply had the Puppet Zombie lead them all into Crestfall.

At this moment, the air was bone-chillingly cold, yet a faint red mist enveloped Nina’s body. The red mist wrapped tightly around her—this was her Fire Element Superpower. Aside from her full-body thermal wear, she had managed to stay outdoors for three hours relying purely on this layer of her Fire Element Superpower.

In the clearing beneath the ruined tower, a massive Diamond Sand Barrier covered the surroundings. Inside the barrier, the corpses of zombies had nearly piled up into a small mountain.

SHNK!

The last few zombies were killed in a single strike with her Gold Spikes. Immediately after, she waved her hand and tore an opening in the sand shield, allowing the zombies outside to swarm in once again.

Inside the sand shield, there were also two special zombies. From their initial stiff movements, they had gradually become much more agile. These two zombies were Dual System Intermediate Zombies that Nina had handpicked from among tens of thousands of infected. She had sequentially turned them into Puppet Zombies.