Chapter 253: Erased? What Happened to Him?
"What's going on?"
Shen Que looked at the puddle of water on the ground and understood that a psionic had come by.
"We spotted these zombies first. Since you helped us deal with them, you can have two crystals, but the rest belong to us!"
A young man in his twenties stepped out from the forest, followed by five or six other young people, both male and female, who stayed a distance behind him.
Some of them stood, others sat, but all of their eyes were fixed on Meng Ci and Shen Que.
They didn't approach but merely observed the reactions of Meng Ci and Shen Que in silence.
However, Meng Ci and Shen Que weren't easily intimidated. Meng Ci crossed his arms, looked disdainful, and rolled his eyes. "Nice try, but no."
The young man, who had been smiling, immediately vanished into a cold glare. "What did you just say?"
His expression, combined with his appearance, did have a somewhat intimidating aura.
Unfortunately for him, Meng Ci and Shen Que weren't people who could be easily scared. They had been through the apocalypse and were long accustomed to facing various dangers and challenges.
"I said you're ugly, but you sure have quite the imagination!" Meng Ci kindly repeated, loud enough for all to hear.
The creature beside him, Eggplant, seemed to understand and howled several times in agreement.
"Damn it! Don't push your luck."
As he spoke, the young man had already formed an ice blade in his hand, clearly ready to fight at the slightest provocation.
The young man wasn't ugly, but he was so emaciated that he looked almost skeletal.
"Thanks, but I already have a face. I don't need yours!"
"If you need one, I can give you a spare."
"Thick-skinned bastard."
With a sharp crack! the young man's ice blade shot toward Meng Ci and Shen Que.
Seeing this, the two nimbly dodged the attack.
At the same time, Shen Que threw a fireball at the young man without hesitation.
But what happened next caught everyone off guard. The two small creatures, Eggplant and Eagle, reacted even faster.
After deftly avoiding the attack, they charged toward the young man.
"Howl!"
"Bark!"
They seemed to be saying, 'How dare you bully our owners? Are you tired of living?'
Meng Ci and Shen Que immediately followed.
The young man's companions, sensing the impending fight, rushed forward as well.
Soon, several groups were locked in fierce combat.
The seven young men had either fire powers or water powers. When their powers clashed, various sounds echoed through the forest, filling it with different noises.
Shen Que, being a reborn psionic, had way better control over his powers than those three kids. So, fighting three-on-one wasn't hard for him.
Meanwhile, Eggplant and his partner were each battling one of the enemies and weren't losing either.
Meng Ci's power allowed him to control various green plants, using them to fight fiercely against two opponents.
Thanks to Meng Ci's higher level, he successfully caused considerable trouble for the two enemies.
When Meng Ci saw one of the psionics trapped by his plants, he quickly made another plant smash the crystal at the back of the guy's head.
These guys had powers but used them for robbing people instead of fighting zombies. They were nothing but scum. Keeping them alive would only cause more trouble.
"My powers! My powers are gone!"
The person didn't notice when the crystal was shattered. When he tried to use his powers again, he couldn't, and panic set in.
"Is it you? Did you two do something to me!"
The person's eyes turned bloodshot as he clenched his fists and demanded answers.
Meng Ci had no intention of answering his question. After all, with so many zombies around, without a large number of psionics, humans couldn't fight against the zombie horde.
If more people knew that psionic powers could be eliminated using crystals, it would cause even greater chaos.
"What! Your powers are gone?"
Hearing this, the others' faces changed drastically and they quickly gathered together.
In this apocalypse, losing powers meant either being bullied by stronger psionics or being bitten by ferocious zombies.
The ice psionic stepped up in front of his friends without hesitation. He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.
"What did you do to his powers?"
Meng Ci snorted, "Since you're not using your powers to kill zombies but for robbing others, it's better to have them eliminated."
Hearing this, the others widened their eyes.
Eliminated? That means they're gone for good.
Is there any way to get them back?
These guys were students from M University. They had formed a team since the heavy rain period and had lost a few teammates along the way.
The trials of the apocalypse had long erased their former innocence and naivety.
Over the past few years in the apocalypse, they hadn't done anything truly evil, but they'd definitely acted selfishly plenty of times.
They were about to make their move when Meng Ci and Shen Que showed up and walked over.
When he saw that there were only two of them, a sinister thought rose in his mind.
He knew that using powers consumed a lot of mental energy.
He decided to hold back and wait for the two to engage the zombies and kill them first.
That way, he could easily reap the rewards of their victory without any effort.
He didn't expect that after killing so many zombies, they still had enough strength to fight them to a standstill and even nullify one of their companion's abilities.
The leader of the group sneered in response.
"After all these years in the apocalypse, shouldn't we look out for ourselves? What, are we supposed to just give everything away?"
"And yet, your methods are even more ruthless!"
Meng Ci rolled his eyes at these words.
"So it's fine when you guys play dirty, but when someone fights back, it's suddenly wrong?"
But Meng Ci didn't want to continue talking with them. The sooner the fight was over, the better.
Moreover, Meng Ci saw that the zombies that had scattered earlier were now returning, drawn by the noise.
Typical, they never learn.
"Ruthless it is!"
"If you want to fight, we're here. Otherwise, scram," Meng Ci said directly.
At the same time, Meng Ci manipulated the green plants underground to rise from the ground.
The young men hesitated; the other guy was too strong, and they weren't sure they could win.
Their mental energy had been greatly depleted from the previous fight.
"Let's go!" the leader called the shots.
The others followed his lead, and when he said retreat, no one objected.
"Shen Que, are you alright?"
Once the group was out of earshot, Meng Ci grabbed Shen Que's arm, his voice laced with worry.
Shen Que bent over, coughing up a mouthful of blood.