Chapter 525: You're Collecting Water!
Chapter 525: You're Collecting Water!
Zhao Ru is startled. Could An Ran’s jinx have come true?
She says, “I’m still useful. When the weather warms up, I can control several water zombies at once. So when it’s time to carry, you’ll still have to carry me back.”
“Hehe, all right!”
As the two chat and laugh, Zhan Lian and Luo Feifan return, driving a pickup truck loaded with some collected supplies.
An Ran sees that Doll is asleep, so she puts on a down jacket, grabs a thermos, and heads out.
Just as luck has it, she runs into Xu Li’er standing across the street.
Xu Li’er is with a group of women, their expressions reluctant. These women are the water-based ability users under Fatty’s command.
At that moment, they are lining up, some holding babies, others with swollen bellies, taking turns filling a large pot in the open space with water. As the weather grows colder, hot water becomes essential.
Fatty has collected thermoses along the way and distributed them to everyone, so each person has one or two for personal use.
Once the water in the large pot boils, it is poured into thermoses and bags to prevent freezing in the cold.
Xu Li’er’s reluctance comes from pride. She doesn’t want to share her water.
A water-based ability user and one who has slept with Fatty several times, she should be treated like a prized member of the group. Since the apocalypse began, has she ever felt this powerless? In the freezing weather, she is treated like an object, summoned and dismissed at will.
But now, to please Fatty, she has no choice but to obey, though her compliance seems forced.
Just then, she sees An Ran approaching with a thermos. The water-type women around Xu Li’er all greet her politely. An Ran nods and stands by the large pot, waiting for the water to boil.
Xu Li’er’s eyes flicker as she leans over and says, “Hey, An Ran, are you getting water?”
“Yeah.”
An Ran, clutching the large thermos, gives a neutral nod, standing on the ice with a somewhat indifferent expression. She watches as a fire-type ability user from Fatty’s group approaches, pressing his hands against the pot to heat the water.
The pot is enormous, spanning several square meters. Fatty has Zhan Lian help forge it. When the team is on the move, it is placed on the vehicle’s roof. When they stop, it can be used to boil water for cooking or making rice.
The fire-type ability user is an elderly man, perhaps in his sixties. Fatty had originally been raising him to beg at large gatherings of survivors. But one day, on their westward journey, the man suddenly awakens a fire-type ability.
His ability isn’t as strong as Luo Feifan’s, who has fought through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. But the man is old, and it would be risky to train him for combat. So instead, he mostly helps the team by boiling water.
Because the pot is so large, it takes a while for the water to boil. People continue lining up to add water.
An Ran takes a closer look and notices something odd: even when all the water-type women combine their efforts, it isn’t as much as Zhao Ru can produce on her own.
Why is that?