Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Hugo Cheney Was Always Useless

Sierra Sullivan hesitated for a moment, then asked tentatively, "Candice Tate, if I gave you another seed, could you still grow this many watermelons? On the condition that you don’t feel dizzy or unwell doing it."

Although Candice Tate was young, she could still understand the practical implications of the question.

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she thought about it seriously for a moment before saying, "I can! I think I can still take five... no, six seeds!"

Sierra Sullivan was once again stunned to hear this.

Even though Candice Tate said so, Sierra Sullivan didn’t dare to take her completely at her word.

The two of them discussed it and decided to test it one seed at a time.

Sierra Sullivan stayed by her side, constantly observing Candice Tate’s condition.

If anything seemed wrong, she would stop her immediately.

Sierra Sullivan was nervous the whole time, terrified that Candice Tate would exhaust her Superpower and cause some harm to her small body.

Candice Tate, in contrast, was calm from beginning to end, the expression on her pale, delicate little face completely relaxed.

As time ticked by, the number of watermelon vines and watermelons on the ground grew and grew.

It wasn’t until Candice Tate finished accelerating the growth of the eighth seed that she stopped and waved her small hand. "Sierra, I’m tired!"

Sierra Sullivan looked at Candice Tate’s little face and could indeed see a hint of fatigue.

’It seems she really is tired.’

But she was still a ways off from completely depleting her Superpower.

Sierra Sullivan guessed that Candice Tate could probably handle ten seeds right now.

That might not sound like a lot.

But with Candice Tate’s Superpower-accelerated growth, a single watermelon seed could yield ten watermelons, each one bigger than Sierra Sullivan’s head.

Right now, there were a full eighty large watermelons on the floor of the room!

Most importantly, Candice Tate was still so young!

At such a young age, and not long after her Superpower had awakened, she was already this capable.

In comparison, Hugo Cheney, who was also a Wood Ability User, could still only grow a plate of green vegetables.

The difference was night and day.

Candice Tate waited for a long time, but Sierra Sullivan didn’t speak. A hint of nervousness crept into her wide eyes.

"Sierra, did I not do a good enough job?"

Her words snapped Sierra Sullivan back to reality, and she immediately shook her head.

"Of course not! Candice Tate, you’re absolutely amazing! I was just wondering what to do with all these huge watermelons!"

She couldn’t just put them into her dimensional space in front of Candice Tate.

Candice Tate tilted her head. "Can we give them to the people outside to eat?"

"What?"

Sierra Sullivan had heard Candice Tate clearly but didn’t immediately grasp her meaning. She asked subconsciously, "Why would we give them to the people outside?"

"They’re... pitiful."

Candice Tate lowered her eyes.

Sierra Sullivan could no longer see her expression, but she could see the roots of her eyelashes glistening with unshed tears.

"They’re pitiful, just like Mommy was."

Candice Tate’s voice was quiet.

But to Sierra Sullivan’s ears, it was deafening.

Children are young, and their way of thinking is always simpler.

Candice Tate only thought that the people living in the stairwells were pitiful for having nothing to eat, so now that they had watermelons, she wanted to give them some.

But she didn’t know that if she took these watermelons out to those people, she wouldn’t receive any positive feedback.

Eighty watermelons seemed like a lot, but it all depended on how many people were eating them.

Taking this many watermelons out wouldn’t even be enough for the people on two floors to each get a single slice.

Most of the time, the problem isn’t having too little, but having it distributed unfairly.

If no one had any, there would be no problem.

But if some people had some and others didn’t, it would lead to unpredictable consequences.

And those consequences were not something Candice Tate could bear right now.

If Candice Tate were a little older, Sierra Sullivan would have been willing to explain all this to her.

But right now, Candice Tate was simply too young. If she told her all this, would she really understand?

Just as Sierra Sullivan was thinking this, Candice Tate suddenly looked up at her.

"Sierra, is it not allowed?"

Sierra Sullivan was a little surprised.

She was still trying to figure out how to explain it to Candice Tate, but the girl had already guessed the answer.

’Who says little kids don’t understand things!’

’They’re clearly the most sensitive of all!’

’The moment an adult goes silent, they know they’ve been rejected.’

"Right now, no, we can’t." Sierra Sullivan stopped agonizing over it. It was better to be direct than to beat around the bush.

The apocalypse was full of dangers; there simply wasn’t enough time to let Candice Tate grow up slowly.

"Why not?" Candice Tate asked, tilting her head.

"Because there isn’t enough. Think about it, how many people did you see when we came upstairs? And that was just the ones outside; in reality, there are many more inside their rooms. And it’s not just this one building, there are many other buildings, and every single one might have just as many people.

If they all knew you had watermelons, and you gave some to others but not to them, they would feel it’s unfair. They’d think you were playing favorites, and they would force you to grow lots and lots of watermelons for them.

But your ability isn’t strong enough yet. You can’t do that; you can’t satisfy everyone. In a situation like this, the best thing to do is not to reveal what you can give them.

Candice Tate, you have to remember, you’re only helping them; you don’t owe them anything. Wait until you have the ability to protect yourself, and then you can think about helping them, okay?"

Candice Tate listened intently the whole time.

She might not have understood the meaning of those words right away.

But she tried very hard to commit every word to memory and nodded forcefully.

"Sierra, I’ll remember!"

Candice Tate pressed her lips together and gave an embarrassed smile. "So, can we eat the watermelons now? I want you to have some, Sierra! And I want Jayce to have some too!"

"Of course we can!"

Sierra Sullivan was also very curious to know what a Superpower-grown watermelon tasted like.

Sierra Sullivan stood up and carefully stepped over the watermelons, heading for the door.

As soon as she opened the door, Sierra Sullivan saw Jayce waiting not far away.

"Jayce, come quick!"

"What’s wrong?"

Jayce grew nervous and immediately walked over.

"Time to eat watermelon!"

"Watermelon?"

By the time Jayce voiced his confusion, he had already reached the doorway and seen the floor covered in watermelon vines and, nestled among them, dozens of large, round watermelons.

He didn’t even need to ask to understand what had happened.

When he looked at Candice Tate again, his expression became complicated.

He never thought such a small child could have such a powerful Superpower!

Compared to her, Hugo Cheney seemed even more useless!

’No, scratch that.’

’Hugo has always been useless!’

Sierra Sullivan went to the kitchen to get a fruit knife and a cutting board, then started slicing a watermelon on the table.

The moment the blade touched the rind, the watermelon split right open.

And in that same instant, a sweet fragrance filled the air.