"What is it?" Luo Xin asked again when no one had bothered to respond the first time he asked.

The pale opal crystal sat in the center of his palm while he turned it beneath the living room lights. The thing wasn’t particularly impressive to look at. It was smooth, slightly translucent, and about the size of a large marble. If Commander Li hadn’t watched Yuche pull dozens of identical crystals out of hidden storage boxes, he would have assumed it was some kind of decorative stone.

The medic frowned when nobody answered immediately.

"I’m serious," he continued. "What is this?"

Zhenlan looked up from the floor where he was helping sort the boxes. "You don’t know?" he asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

The question sounded genuine.... Commander Li couldn’t hear any mocking or sarcasm in the question, like they should already know what was going on. But there was nothing that Li hated more than being behind the eight ball.

Especially in situations that involved life and death.

Luo Xin frowned, cocking his head to the side as he looked at the other man. "Should I? Is this one of those zen crystal things? Because I can’t really say that I believe that a crystal can change my life force or whatever it is supposed to do."

Zhenlan blinked for a second before he looked toward Chenghai.

Chenghai was just as lost as to what was going on and he looked at Yuche to see if he knew. Feeling everyone’s eyes on him, Yuche looked up from where he sat beside Rouxi before slowly looking around the room.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Commander Li realized what was happening.

None of Rouxi’s people understood why the question was being asked.

None of his people understood why everyone suddenly looked confused.

"Apparently," Commander Li said dryly, "we’ve reached another subject that everyone forgot to explain to the government. Or is this one of those ’above my paygrade situations’?"

Lingyun snorted. "In our defense, Rouxi is usually the one that handles how much people should or should not know."

"Rouxi handles people by insulting them until they understand," Commander Li replied.

"Exactly. It’s her love language," agreed Lingyun, nodding his head sagely.

Commander Li regretted responding almost immediately as he looked at the puppy with the lovesick look on his face. Lingyun was looking entirely too pleased with himself as his attention drifted back to Rouxi.

Across the room, Rouxi remained exactly where they had left her.

Blankets and towels had been layered beneath her to keep her off the hardwood floor. The vines wrapped around her body shifted occasionally, adjusting themselves around her injured leg and shoulder. Luo Xin’s healing energy had already been exhausted and it would take him a good six to eight hours before he could work on her again.

Needless to say, Luo Xin wouldn’t be able to really fix her anymore than he currently had.

Commander Li found himself looking away first, the sight of her broken body on the floor still bothered him.

"Back to the beginning then," Chenghai sighed. "Zombie Cores 101."

Zhenlan nodded as he tossed the crystal that was in his had back into the box and walked over to one of the wing back chairs. He sat down and got comfortable. "When the meteor hit, everybody paid attention to the zombies," he started, and Li’s men started to get comfortable, correctly assuming that this was going to take a while.

Commander Li crossed his arms and nodded his head. Of course everyone was paying attention to the zombies. They had been trying to eat people. Who cares about the rain?

"They missed the rain," Zhenlan continued as if reading Li’s mind. That got his attention.

"The rain?" asked Sun Ming.

"The meteor storm changed things," Zhenlan explained. "The rain accelerated it."

Commander Li remembered that storm. Everyone did. The rain had arrived quickly and disappeared just as quickly. At the time, most people had been too busy surviving to think much about it.

But Rouxi had told him and his men to go outside in it if they dared.

And they did. That happened the last time they were here.

"If you already had abilities before the rain," Zhenlan continued, "your powers evolved. But the zombies evolved too." He reached into one of the open boxes and picked up a blue crystal. "And this was the result."

Commander Li looked at the single crystal for a moment before turning his attention to the dozens of other boxes spread throughout the living room.

There were hundreds of them, if not more. Different sizes, different colors, and apparently, every single one had come from a zombie.

The realization made several soldiers visibly uncomfortable. Tan Wei looked like he was reconsidering touching any of the boxes, while Wang Junjie actually took half a step away from the nearest container.

Lingyun laughed at his reaction.

"What?" Wang Junjie asked defensively.

"Absolutely nothing," purred Rouxi’s joker, but the look on his face said everything his mouth didn’t. The fire user was laughing at all of them.

Now Commander Li was beginning to understand why Rouxi threatened people so often.

"Different colors represent different mutation types," Zhenlan continued. "Water. Fire. Air. Metal. Earth. Healing. There are others, but those are the most common. I assume that by now, you at least know what type of base powers you have."

Luo Xin looked down at the crystal in his hand again, then toward Rouxi, then back toward Zhenlan.

A look of horror slowly appeared on the medic’s face.

"Wait."

Nobody liked that tone.

"Wait?" repeated Commander Li.

Luo Xin pointed at the crystal. "You are telling me this is a healing core?"

"Yup."

"And you’ve known that the entire time?"

"Yes."

Luo Xin’s eye twitched.

Commander Li immediately decided this wasn’t going to end well.

"You watched me spend the last several hours trying to repair a shattered spine."

Nobody answered.

"You watched me nearly collapse from overusing my powers."

Still nobody answered.

"You watched me bleed from my nose."

Lingyun wisely looked away.

Chenghai suddenly became interested in the window.

Even Yuche refused to make eye contact.

Luo Xin pointed at the crystal again.

"And nobody thought to mention that I was holding a healing core?"

For the first time all evening, Commander Li almost felt sorry for Rouxi’s group.

Almost.

"I assumed everyone knew what they were," Zhenlan admitted.

"Why would we know?"

"Because everybody knows."

"No," Commander Li said patiently. "Clearly everybody does not know."

That shut the room up.

For several seconds, only the crackling fireplace and the rustling vines around Rouxi could be heard.

Then Zhao Rui raised a hand and Commander Li stared at him. "We’re not in school."

The younger man lowered it. "Can I still ask a question?"

"Yes." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Good. How do they work?"

That, Commander Li thought, was the important question.

Not where they came from.

Not what color they were.

How they worked.

Because if these crystals could actually make people stronger, then everything changed.

Soldiers needed supplies, vehicles needed fuel, and apparently power users needed crystal cores.

The problem was that Commander Li had absolutely no idea what any of that meant yet.

Zhenlan picked up another blue crystal from the nearest box.

Then he smiled.

"That part is easy."