Chapter 52: Wu Dashan! 

Lu Yusi didn't answer Huang Ming right away. Instead, she seemed lost in thought, as if carefully choosing her words. 

A brief silence followed. 

*"Huang Ming!"* she finally said. *"Do you think there might be others like you out there—people who've awakened supernatural abilities? Doesn't it strike you as strange? Everyone else is dead, yet he's still alive. You should be careful."* 

The moment the words left her mouth, Huang Ming swiftly pulled his foot back, putting a full two meters between himself and the man on the ground. A spatial barrier materialized in front of him as a precaution. 

Liu Shuang'er and Gu Anqing exchanged a glance, realization dawning on them. Their expressions darkened with worry as they stared at the screen. 

Lu Yusi was, after all, a genius in biology. Her instincts about these things were razor-sharp. If she hadn't pointed it out, Huang Ming might never have noticed the anomaly. 

*"You don't need to panic,"* she continued. *"This is just a theory. But if I'm right, he must have awakened an ability just like you. Probably something related to physical endurance—otherwise, he wouldn't have survived this long."* 

Huang Ming's gaze remained locked onto the man lying motionless on the ground. After a tense pause, he asked: 

*"Yusi, do you have any idea why some people develop these abilities? What's the trigger?"* 

*"My guess is that it's connected to the zombie virus,"* she replied. *"But the key factor seems to be a near-death experience. Both conditions have to be met."* 

The moment she said it, Huang Ming's mind flashed back to his previous life—back to the moment Gao Weiwei had scratched and infected him. He had turned into a zombie, died… and then *awakened*. Not just with spatial manipulation, but with a *second chance at life*. 

Had he somehow unlocked a time-based ability as well? Otherwise, even with spatial powers, he should have stayed dead. 

This was his deepest, most dangerous secret. He couldn't risk telling the others—not even his three senior sisters. His survival might depend on keeping it hidden. 

*"Huang Ming,"* Lu Yusi urged, snapping him out of his thoughts. *"Test his character. If we save him, we might learn a lot."* 

Before he could respond, she pressed the point: *"We should help him."* 

Huang Ming studied the man—weak, barely clinging to life—and finally spoke: 

*"Who are you? How are you still alive?"* 

*"Water…"* the man croaked, his voice dry and cracked. 

Huang Ming pulled a bottle of water from his spatial storage, twisted off the cap, and set it down in front of him. 

The man struggled, limbs trembling, before finally managing to sit up. With shaky hands, he grabbed the bottle and gulped it down in one go. 

Huang Ming waited, letting him recover slightly—though he kept his spatial barrier up, just in case. 

Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence. 

The man remained seated, motionless. Huang Ming leaned against a stone pillar, patient. 

Ten minutes passed. 

Then, finally, the man spoke again, his voice weak and hoarse: 

*"My name is Wu Dashan. I'm 43. Used to be a traffic police captain. When the outbreak hit, I was at the station handing over my shift. That's the only reason I survived. As for how I'm still alive… I don't know. But I've been getting weaker every day. If I hadn't run into you, I doubt I'd have lasted much longer."* 

*A police captain?* Huang Ming thought. *Probably decent morals, then.* 

*"What's your plan now?"* he asked, testing the waters. 

Wu Dashan didn't answer immediately. Instead, his eyes swept over Huang Ming—taking in the combat gear, the helmet hiding his face, the layers of gore clinging to his suit. Then he glanced outside, at the sea of zombies, and seemed to reach a conclusion. 

He'd been surviving in this hellscape for a while now. The station's supplies had run out fast with so many mouths to feed. But this guy in front of him? Moving freely through the hordes, armed to the teeth—he was clearly someone *special*. 

Wu Dashan wasn't stupid. He knew an opportunity when he saw one. 

*"Can I follow you?"* he asked bluntly. *"Just give me food. That's all I ask."* 

Huang Ming raised an eyebrow (not that Wu Dashan could see it). He hadn't expected such a direct offer. 

*"Can you follow orders without question?"* 

Wu Dashan didn't hesitate. *"As long as you're not sending me to my death, I'll do whatever you say."* 

Huang Ming let the silence stretch, drawing out the tension. Three minutes passed before he finally spoke. 

*"Fine. You're with me now. Name's Huang Ming. I'm a student at Tianhai University. You're older, so I'll call you 'Old Wu.'"* 

As he spoke, he pulled two sandwiches and a carton of milk from his spatial storage and handed them over. 

Wu Dashan stared, stunned, at the food materializing out of thin air. His hands shook slightly as he took it, half-convinced he was hallucinating. 

*"Eat,"* Huang Ming said. *"It's yours. Get your strength back first."* 

*"Th-thank you,"* Wu Dashan stammered. *"Call me whatever you want. Never thought someone so young could be this capable."* 

He tore into the food like a starving man, his mind racing. 

As a former cop, he had sharp instincts. It was obvious Huang Ming had some kind of power. But he knew better than to pry. At 43, he wasn't some naive kid. 

While Wu Dashan ate, Huang Ming used his spatial ability to collect the zombie corpses he'd killed outside earlier. He dumped them unceremoniously nearby, then pulled out a spare set of combat gear—identical to Li Chang'an's—and tossed it to Wu Dashan. 

*"Put this on. Once you're ready, use this knife to smear some zombie blood on yourself. Then we're heading back to campus."* 

He stabbed the blade into a zombie's thigh, leaving it there for Wu Dashan to retrieve later. 

Wu Dashan watched, wide-eyed, as Huang Ming worked. The display of power left him speechless—but only for a moment. He quickly shook it off, downed the last of the milk, and stood up, joints popping as he stretched. 

Now that he was upright, Huang Ming got a proper look at him. 

Short-cropped hair. A weathered, sun-darkened face. A lean, muscular build, evident even under the black compression shirt. Camo pants and heavy-duty boots completed the look, hiding what were likely equally powerful legs. 

*Definitely ex-military,* Huang Ming thought. *Way more capable than that fatass Li Chang'an.* 

The man had potential. 

And Huang Ming intended to use it.