Chapter 59: Ability Advancement
Li Ming had Niu Dali drive Zhan Yun and the others back to the small high-rise, once again drawing quite a bit of attention from the surrounding residents. However, when people saw that they were riding in base vehicles and escorted by soldiers, those with quick minds silently added them to the list of people not to be messed with lightly.
After going upstairs, everyone sat down in the living room to discuss the mission. All of them felt they should take part. Although the mission location had evolved zombies and carried a certain level of danger, they already had experience dealing with evolved zombies. With their participation, the risk of this mission would be greatly reduced. This batch of solar panels was extremely important to the base—once solar generators were in place, the power supply problem would be solved, benefiting everyone.
As the saying goes, one survives through adversity and perishes in comfort. They needed to continuously temper their abilities through battle to strengthen themselves. If they relied solely on Su Ruizhe’s spatial ability, hiding in safe places, it wouldn’t be long before they were eliminated by this cruel world.
However, if everyone went on the mission, handling Yu Dongdong and Xiao Hei became a bit troublesome. Xiao Hei’s ability still didn’t show any clear use, and the child was too young—bringing him along would be far too dangerous. But they couldn’t very well leave the child behind every time they went on a mission either.
Zhao Bing and the others had their own duties. Helping out once or twice might be fine, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to keep asking them to babysit. Hiring someone with work points to look after the child was also something they didn’t feel comfortable with. The best solution was still to have the child awaken an ability—at the very least, he would gain some capacity to protect himself.
But should they really let a child awaken an ability?
The chance of awakening an ability by consuming a crystal core was actually only fifty percent. No one could guarantee that a child’s body possessed antibodies capable of resisting the zombie virus, nor could anyone ensure that the child would survive the high fever during awakening—after all, he was still too young.
Moreover, a few days earlier, when Zhan Yun had been using his gravity ability, he had felt a mysterious, indescribable longing to break through further—like he had touched the threshold of advancement, yet couldn’t find the door. He had long since asked Su Ruizhe about how advancement worked. Su Ruizhe had told him that ability users could not advance simply by consuming crystal cores. Ordinary transparent crystal cores only replenished ability energy for those who were already awakened. To further enhance one’s ability, one had to use the crystal cores of evolved zombies in conjunction, which might allow a breakthrough in one go—but it couldn’t be rushed.
Crystal cores were a type of energy crystal formed inside zombies, containing large amounts of zombie virus. The crystal cores of evolved zombies were mutated further, making the virus within them even more invasive. If one rashly consumed an evolved zombie’s crystal core without meeting the conditions for advancement, it was very likely that the virus would overwhelm the body and turn the person directly into a zombie.
Therefore, ability users had to continuously use their abilities and fight to improve their strength and physical condition, so they could withstand the attack of stronger zombie viruses.
The process of advancement was longer and more dangerous than initial awakening. That was why, although Zheng Jiahe was the first in the team to touch the threshold of advancement, he had never found a suitable opportunity to focus on advancing.
They needed time to resolve these issues—these were the real reasons Zhan Yun hadn’t immediately agreed to Li Ming on the spot.
The first issue to resolve was whether Yu Dongdong should awaken an ability. The result was a four-to-four split between those in favor and those against—a perfect tie.
The child was obedient and well-behaved, and everyone in the team liked Dongdong very much, especially Su Ruizhe, who doted on him almost like a real younger brother. Su Ruizhe didn’t want him to take such a risk, so he voted against it. Wu Jing, Zhang Shuoliang, and Song Chengshu had all experienced the pain of awakening themselves and couldn’t bear to let a child risk it, so they also voted against. Zhan Yun, Zheng Jiahe, Cheng Qi, and Cheng Jiao felt the child should be given a chance to grow stronger. It wasn’t that they loved the child any less—just that everyone viewed the issue from a different perspective.
When the discussion reached an impasse, it was Zheng Jiahe who spoke up. “Actually, this kind of thing isn’t for us to decide. We should ask Dongdong himself what he wants.”
Everyone felt that made sense, and they were about to go call Yu Dongdong out.
Before they could even stand up, the door to the child’s room opened. The child stood obediently by the doorway, his clear black eyes wide and bright, and said in a crisp voice, “I want to try. I—I want to become strong like the big brothers.”
Little Yu Dongdong’s thoughts were simple. He didn’t want to be left behind alone all the time. He wanted to fight side by side with the big brothers. Over these past days, he had learned what abilities were, knew they were something very powerful—like the superheroes on TV. He wanted to become strong too, to help the big brothers fight monsters together.
Everyone looked at one another. After a long pause, Su Ruizhe finally walked over to Yu Dongdong, squatted down, and met his gaze. “Dongdong, have you really thought it through? The awakening process is very painful, and if it fails, you might turn into one of those terrifying monsters. Aren’t you afraid?”
Dongdong replied in a soft, childish voice, “Dongdong’s not afraid. Dongdong wants to become strong!”
“Alright then.” Su Ruizhe let out a deep sigh, lifted Dongdong onto the sofa, took a transparent crystal core out of his spatial storage, and held it to the child’s mouth.
Dongdong opened his mouth and swallowed the crystal core in one gulp. He blinked his big eyes and said, “Brother, it’s hot…”
Before he could finish speaking, the child passed out. His body was scorching hot, his little face flushed red with fever. The high fever was clearly miserable—his cute features scrunched together, cold sweat covered his forehead, and his body kept twitching. The sight made Su Ruizhe’s heart ache terribly.
He quickly took out a large number of pears and cucumbers and had Zheng Jiahe juice them into plenty of fruit-and-vegetable juice. Still uneasy, he fed the child three full cups before carrying him back to the bedroom. He put fever-reducing patches on him and, without any concern for diesel consumption, turned on the air conditioner in the child’s room.
He had done everything he could. What happened next would depend entirely on the child’s own fate. Wu Jing volunteered to stay behind to look after the child—she knew that Su Ruizhe still had other matters to attend to.
Su Ruizhe accepted Wu Jing’s offer and returned to the living room.
“So you can awaken an ability just by eating a crystal core?” Cheng Qi asked eagerly. Aside from Yu Dongdong, he was the only ordinary person in the team without an ability, and he had always yearned for one.
Zhan Yun briefly explained the method and risks of using crystal cores, then raised an eyebrow and asked, “You want to try too?”
In truth, he felt that with Cheng Qi’s skills, even without an ability he was no worse than others—but knowing Cheng Qi as he did, he knew this guy would never be content to fall behind.
“Of course! As the older brother, I can’t let Jiaojiao outshine me!” Sure enough, Cheng Qi answered without the slightest hesitation.
Su Ruizhe gave Cheng Qi a crystal core as well. After Cheng Qi fainted, Su Ruizhe fed him two cups of fruit-and-vegetable juice, then had Cheng Jiao help him back to his room to be carefully looked after.
Next it was Zhan Yun and Zheng Jiahe’s turn. They were certain they had already prepared themselves for advancement. Su Ruizhe took pale red evolved crystal cores out of his spatial storage and placed them in their hands. Before letting them take the cores, he had each of them gnaw on an apple and a bitter melon, then drink two large cups of fruit-and-vegetable juice. Only then did he watch them swallow the crystal cores.
Both of them quickly developed high fevers. Zhang Shuoliang helped Su Ruizhe and Song Chengshu carry the two men back to their rooms.
Song Chengshu produced a large amount of ice water, allowing everyone to use towels to wipe down the feverish patients and cool them. While this might not necessarily help them survive the ordeal, it would at least make them feel much more comfortable.
All at once, four people were running high fevers. The rest of the group lost any desire to rest and instead took turns caring for them.
—
The first to wake up was Cheng Qi. He slowly opened his eyes, only to be immediately hugged tightly by his younger sister.
“Bro! You’re finally awake!” Cheng Qi had been unconscious for an entire day, and seeing how miserable he’d looked, Cheng Jiao had been worried sick. Although the siblings bickered constantly, their bond was actually very strong.
“Mm. Big brother’s fine now.”
“Bro! What’s your ability?!” Cheng Jiao asked excitedly.
Cheng Qi took a deep breath, sensing the strange new power surging within his body. Then a streak of golden lightning appeared in the palm of his hand.
Cheng Jiao was instantly stunned. “Ah! Is that lightning-type ability?! Bro, that’s insanely awesome!”
“Hahaha!” Cheng Qi was equally thrilled—his ability looked even more powerful than his sister’s!
The next to wake up was Yu Dongdong. As soon as the little guy came to, he started complaining that he was hungry. Su Ruizhe had no choice but to go fix him something to eat. Instant noodles were the quickest hot food option, so Su Ruizhe went to the kitchen and started cooking them on an induction cooker. But just as he tore open the package, he heard the little guy shout from the room, “Brother, I don’t want the pickled vegetable flavor—I want the braised beef flavor!”
Su Ruizhe froze for a moment and glanced at the Pickled Vegetable noodles in his hand. How could the kid see what flavor he was making from inside the room? Unless…
“Brother, brother, I think I can see really, really far now!” the child’s voice rang out cheerfully.
It looked like a mental-type ability. If it were just visual enhancement, he wouldn’t be able to see through walls. It seemed the little one’s detection range was quite large. Su Ruizhe remembered that once mental-type abilities reached higher levels, they could also possess formidable offensive power. It seemed the child’s luck was truly excellent.
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