13 Plenty of Supplies, Not Enough Space

After driving the truck back to their base, Noah first moved the roadblocks aside and drove the big rig directly into the residential area. The task of unloading would have to wait until tomorrow; both he and Liu Xiaoyu were exhausted.

Xue Qingyu, lacking strength-enhancing abilities, would find it difficult to help with the unloading. Since the medicines were safe in the truck, protected from rain and sunlight, leaving them there overnight wasn't an issue.

Upon returning to the villa, Liu Xiaoyu was too tired to even make it to her room and collapsed onto the sofa, falling asleep instantly. Having not slept the night before and after a day's exhaustion, not just Liu Xiaoyu but Noah too was barely holding up, sprawling lifelessly on another sofa.

Seeing this, Xue Qingyu covered Liu Xiaoyu with a blanket to prevent her from catching a cold. Then, she approached Noah, softly saying, "You've worked hard." Noah weakly replied that he was okay, though in reality, he felt far from it. His electrokinesis might be powerful, but his energy was not infinite. He felt as if he had been hollowed out, completely drained.

"I'll give you a massage to help you relax," Xue Qingyu offered, squatting down and gently pressing her soft hands on Noah's back. Her hands were soft, her strength gentle, and her massage technique unskilled, but Noah enjoyed it nonetheless.

To think that Xue Qingyu, known in his past life as the cold-hearted "Black Widow," was now giving him a massage filled him with a sense of satisfaction. In his past life, he had to prostrate himself in her presence, too afraid to even lift his head, lest she strike him down with a lightning whip.

Now, the tables had turned... As Noah's thoughts wandered, he also pondered their situation. The three of them were too few in number. While they were not lacking in combat strength, they were sorely in need of manpower for labor-intensive tasks. Having to do everything themselves was too inefficient. Take today's effort to stockpile medicines; with just a few more hands, they could have filled the truck completely.

Contemplating whether to recruit a few individuals with high loyalty to serve as laborers, for tasks like standing guard and moving supplies. Overall, the issue now is having ample supplies but insufficient means to stockpile them. Besides recruiting laborers, he had another, better option: to replicate space-related abilities.

Space abilities are not combat-oriented but are incredibly valuable. Every awakener with a space ability possesses a unique extra-dimensional space that can store anything except living beings. Moreover, this independent space can preserve its contents indefinitely; whatever you put inside remains unchanged, no matter how much time passes, making it a bug-level existence.

However, space abilities are exceedingly rare, and every individual with such an ability is treasured by major powers. In his previous life, Noah had seen only a few of them, and these organizations kept the identities of their space ability awakeners closely guarded. Therefore, information about space ability awakeners was scarce, and encountering one would be a matter of luck. Alternatively, he could wait for some major powers to establish themselves and then search within those groups.

As sleepiness overcame him, Noah gradually drifted off to sleep. When he awoke, it was already midnight. Xue Qingyu was still on the balcony, standing watch and yawning from time to time.

Approaching the balcony, Xue Qingyu greeted him with a warm smile, "You're awake." Noah nodded, "You should go to sleep; I'll take over the watch." Xue Qingyu shook her head, "It's okay, I'm not tired yet. You must be hungry; I'll go cook."

"Thanks," he replied. Xue Qingyu headed to the kitchen and soon brought out steaming dishes: a vegetable dish, a soup, a plate of stir-fried meat, and the soup looked like they had been prepared in advance, just waiting for Noah to wake up and eat. Noah began to eat heartily, while Xue Qingyu sat quietly beside him, smiling gently and occasionally serving him more food.

After dinner, Xue Qingyu cleaned up the dishes and also made a cup of hot tea for Noah. Noah, with his legs crossed, sipped the hot tea while gazing at the profound night sky. Under the moonlight, several dark shadows circled in the air before diving towards Noah's location.

Unperturbed, Noah, through the control of his mind, sent a fork flying rapidly, piercing through the attacking shadows in quick succession. They clattered onto the balcony, struggling for a few moments before lying still. On closer inspection, they turned out to be several large, fierce-looking black bats, as big as face basins.

"These are Level 2 Bloodthirsty Bats that specifically hunt living humans at night, carrying a virus. Being bitten by one would result in infection and transformation into a zombie," Noah explained. "After tonight, the number of such bats will increase exponentially each day. Take our residential area as an example, within three days, the number of bats within this area will exceed ten thousand."

"By the sixth day, the number of bats will far surpass the total number of humans and zombies combined, covering the sky and blocking the sun. At that time, the global population will decrease by sixty percent within just two days."

Xue Qingyu covered her mouth in shock. The cruelty of the apocalypse far exceeded her imagination. If what Noah said was true, was there any hope left for humanity? He was merely stating the facts, while also giving Xue Qingyu a forewarning of what was to come. And he hadn't even mentioned the most despairing parts yet.

Bloodthirsty bats are only active at night, entering a dormant state during the day. However, this doesn't mean the daytime is safe. Most zombies are active during the day, and besides zombies, there are Bloodthirsty Crows, similar to the Bloodthirsty Bats.

Like the bats, the number of Bloodthirsty Crows will multiply exponentially, eventually leading to skies darkened by swarms of crows and bats. One hunts during the day, and the other at night, both with the aim of hunting living humans.

Compared to these crows and bats, zombies can almost be considered child's play. In the face of millions of bats and crows, even the strongest S-grade ability users could perish in an instant. Of course, the crows and bats won't exist forever, they will vanish without a trace after the fourteenth day. Their emergence is more like a giant funnel, filtering out those unfit for survival in the apocalypse, merely setting the stage for an even crueler phase of the apocalypse.

Yes, the apocalypse occurs in many waves, each with its distinct phases. We are just at the first phase of the first wave of the apocalypse. Everything is just beginning. Zombies are terrifying, true, but compared to the bizarre monsters that appear later, they're practically harmless.