Chapter 337 - 167: Night Talk

Chapter 337: Chapter 167: Night Talk

The sound was monotonous and dull, but in the silent night, it became a strange sort of company.

Xu Mo kept turning the dial, searching aimlessly.

SHHH... SHHH...

Just as Xu Mo was about to turn off the radio, a melodious song suddenly flowed from the speakers. A gentle female voice filled the silent car.

Xu Mo’s hand paused.

The song was clear and sounded a little familiar, as if he’d heard it before in Jiang City.

Xu Mo glanced down at the radio frequency and silently committed it to memory.

’I knew it.’

Xu Mo had tried tuning the radio over and over before, but he could never pick up that signal. He’d almost started to think the music he heard that night had been a hallucination. But now he was sure—it wasn’t a hallucination. The signal was real.

’But at this time of night... three in the morning.’

’If you’re broadcasting music at this hour, do you want people to hear it, or not?’

Xu Mo kept listening. The song ended quickly. After a few seconds of silence from the speakers, a man’s voice came on.

"Hello, hello, hello? Is anyone out there?"

The voice was a little hoarse, tinged with an unidentifiable emotion. Was it anticipation? Nervousness? Or something else?

"Let me introduce myself..." the voice went on. "My name is Liu Zhengyi, I’m twenty-eight, and I’m a second-grade..."

The voice trailed off.

’A second-grade what?’ Xu Mo’s brow furrowed slightly. ’A teacher? A student? Why is this guy using the radio like it’s a telephone?’

’A normal person wouldn’t introduce themselves like that. This Liu Zhengyi guy is either talking nonsense or he’s lost his mind.’

And just as he thought, what Liu Zhengyi said next grew more and more bizarre.

"When I was in second grade, I had a dog. It died. My mom said it died of old age, but I know it got hit by a car. I buried it under the locust tree in the backyard..."

"My hometown is in..."

"Then the zombies came. I don’t know how it happened. I just woke up one day, and the world outside was full of man-eating monsters. I hid in my dorm for three days and three nights. I was so hungry I was dizzy, and in the end, I couldn’t take it anymore. I rushed out to find food..."

"I found food! I really did! In a little convenience store, there were tons of instant noodles and water! I hauled a huge bag back with me, enough to last for a long, long time!"

"But... but..."

Liu Zhengyi’s voice began to choke with sobs. The crying continued for about a minute before his voice came back on the air. This time, his tone was calmer, but it was a calm laced with a heartbreaking exhaustion.

"Sorry... I kind of lost control of myself."

"If any of you are listening, please don’t hold it against me."

"It’s just... I haven’t talked to anyone in so long. I just want to talk to someone. Anyone at all."

"If no one’s listening, then I guess I’m just talking to myself."

Xu Mo continued driving.

On the radio, Liu Zhengyi began to tell his story.

It was about a camp, one formed spontaneously by survivors after the apocalypse began.

Liu Zhengyi didn’t say where it was located. But based on his description, it must have been a small town or county seat, with enough buildings and resources to house a fair number of people.

The camp was founded during the first month after the apocalypse. By then, the most chaotic period was over. The zombies had either wandered off or been cleared out by the survivors. Those who remained began to band together for survival. They cleared out a relatively safe area, set up simple defenses, and started trying to live on in this broken world.

At first, everything was fine.

The camp had over a thousand people—men and women, young and old. Everyone had a job. Some were in charge of hunting, some farming, some standing watch, and others taking care of the children. Even though resources were scarce and life was difficult, everyone knew they could only survive by sticking together.

"It was really good back then." Liu Zhengyi’s voice was filled with nostalgia. "I was on watch duty. Every day, I’d stand on the highest roof and just watch the zombies in the distance. It was tiring, but I felt at peace, because I knew there was a group of people down below waiting for me to come back and eat with them."

"We’d all eat together. We’d cook whatever grain we could scrounge up. Sometimes we even got to eat meat. It was tough, but as long as it had some flavor, it was great."

"The children would run around the bonfire while the adults sat nearby, chatting. Someone would tell stories, or someone would sing. I still remember those songs..."

Liu Zhengyi hummed a few bars. The tune was old, and Xu Mo couldn’t recognize the song.

"But then... things changed."

Liu Zhengyi’s voice grew heavy.

"Someone awakened a Superpower."

Xu Mo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’A Superpower User!’

’Superpower Users... they’re definitely a special case in the apocalypse. They have powers ordinary people lack and can do things ordinary people can’t. Sometimes, that power is a lifeline. Other times, it’s the root of all chaos.’

"The guy’s name was Zhang Qiang, a young man in his twenties," Liu Zhengyi continued. "He awakened a power—super strength. He could smash a zombie’s head in with a single punch. At first, everyone was thrilled. They felt the camp was much safer with him around."

"But gradually, he started to change."

"He thought that because he had powers, he should be the one calling the shots. He thought that all of us normal people were relying on him for protection, so we had to listen to him. He started ordering people around, and if anyone disobeyed, he’d fly into a rage."

"Someone who wasn’t convinced argued with him. The very next day, that person was kicked out of the camp."