Doomsday Awakening GL - Chapter 10
The strongly built man said, “You’ve broken through!”
An Yimu’s eyes flickered. Hearing the man’s words, she remained silent, concluding that this person knew something.
Tang Nengping asked suspiciously, “Breakthrough? What do you mean?”
The man had already been shocked by An Yimu’s actions, so he no longer held his initial thuggishness and hostility. He explained, “This is the name our boss came up with before. An ordinary person can break through after killing more than 20 zombies. At this point, they can see the energy ball in the zombie’s brain and are called a First-Tier Awakener. An energy ball will form in their own head. Once it’s full, they will break through again and be called a Second-Tier Awakener, but we don’t know how many zombies need to be killed for that.”
According to him, the bean-shaped body in her brain should be what he called the energy ball. She was now a Second-Tier Awakener. More than 20? She remembered very clearly that she had only killed 10 zombies the first time. An Yimu looked down at the pink birthmark in the palm of her right hand. It seemed this was the reason her required energy was half that of a normal person. She killed at least 150 zombies the second time to break through, not counting the two evolved zombies. Then wouldn’t an ordinary person need more than 300?
An Yimu frowned and shifted her gaze to Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu. Qianyu should be close to breaking through to First-Tier, but Qiuyu…
“No wonder! Then I’m a First-Tier Awakener now, and my injuries are actually healed!” Tang Nengping exclaimed in surprise.
“Each breakthrough will improve your physique. Correspondingly, your strength, hearing, speed, and sight will increase,” the man said proudly. “My boss and I summarized all this.”
“No wonder Little An’an suddenly became so brave! Ooh! This old lady will slaughter a few more zombies later too!” Nuan Qianyu said excitedly. She often played games and was most interested in things that could be upgraded and evolved!
An Yimu interjected, “I think we should also name those zombies for easier identification.”
“Leave this to me. With my years of experience navigating novels, naming things is a piece of cake!” Nuan Qianyu narrowed her eyes and patted her chest. “The ordinary zombies can be called Initial Zombies. That pitch-black zombie… um, Little An’an, what were its characteristics? I saw you struggled quite a bit.”
“Its entire body was as hard as steel.”
“That awesome? Then let’s call it an Hardened Zombie. The one that grew eight spider legs can be called a Spider-Zombified Zombie. And the really huge one can be called a Giant Zombie. Wait, wait, we also need to distinguish their evolution level! Let’s just put the evolution level in front of the name!”
By this reckoning, the ones they met should be First-Tier Hardened Zombie and First-Tier Giant Zombie, and that one was probably a Second-Tier Spider-Zombified Zombie, or perhaps even higher.
At the very least, its speed of departure was unattainable for An Yimu. An Yimu’s face grew cold. Could it be Third-Tier? That was too terrifying!
“Boss, you’re alive!” The strongly built man suddenly stood up and ran towards the other side, his voice filled with unconcealed joy.
Pfff…
Bl00d splattered everywhere.
An Yimu immediately stood up in alert. Just as the man was about to help up the other man who had looked honest, he was suddenly punched through the heart, losing his breath instantly and collapsing softly to the ground.
An Yimu was greatly shocked. The man whose face was so corroded that it was unrecognizable had turned into a zombie!
“Zombie!”
An Yimu grabbed a piece of rubble and fiercely threw it. As the man raised his hand to swat the rubble away, An Yimu’s figure appeared behind the rubble. She clamped her legs around the head of the transformed man, flung him hard, and snapped his neck instantly.
A surge of milky-white energy, even more than before, flowed through her palm and into her brain.
To prevent the man who had just died from transforming, An Yimu closed her eyes and crushed his skull. After all, he still resembled a person, and she couldn’t bear to strike him.
At the same time, a significant amount of energy, distinctly more than from a zombie, converged into her brain. The bean-shaped body in her brain was now one-tenth full. An Yimu was greatly surprised. Could it be that killing humans could also yield this energy? A chill ran down her spine. If this were discovered, what would become of this world! She suddenly realized that the Chongming City they thought was safe might be in the same situation as here. No, it couldn’t be. That city was their beacon, and their relatives were still there.
Tang Nengping’s face was filled with terror. He hadn’t expected that a person killed by a zombie would transform, and the man he had been talking to was now dead…
“Let’s leave here first, and deal with some Initial Zombies along the way. At least let everyone become a First-Tier Awakener,” An Yimu said calmly.
No one objected. They gathered their food and prepared to leave.
There would only be more, not fewer, zombies in this county town. After helping Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu awaken, they would leave this place. An Yimu was still troubled by the sudden departure of that Spider-Zombified Zombie. What reason made it leave? It was obviously much stronger than them, and An Yimu was not its match. Such an anomaly couldn’t help but worry An Yimu.
The five young people also followed behind them, but they were afraid to speak due to An Yimu’s fierce power.
After Tang Nengping became a First-Tier Awakener, his strength greatly increased, and he could now handle the Initial Zombies. With An Yimu’s help, Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu also successfully awakened, as the number of zombies required for a First-Tier awakening was not many.
Ling Qiuyu said happily, “My physical condition seems a bit better.” Despite this, her physical foundation was too poor, and she still couldn’t kill the Initial Zombies by herself like Nuan Qianyu.
But in any case, the team’s strength had increased somewhat.
Two of the young men also took the courage to kill a few zombies. Everyone craved power, and seeing how powerful An Yimu was made them somewhat envious.
Nuan Qianyu became much more proficient at killing zombies, taking down many more along the way, while An Yimu also helped Ling Qiuyu while dealing with zombies. However, she didn’t find any more evolved zombies, indicating that this type of zombie was still not too numerous.
It was already 6 PM, and they needed to find a place to rest for the night.
Just then, a heavy fog rolled in. Shallow gray smog surged from all directions, practically enveloping the entire county town.
Even with An Yimu’s current strength, which was three times that of a normal person, visibility was only about ten meters.
An Yimu’s internal alarm bells went off. She vaguely felt that this smog was not normal. “We are leaving the city tonight! Turn back the way we came now.”
An Yimu was the strongest person here, so even though everyone was curious, no one objected.
After walking for nearly a hundred meters, a woman suddenly screamed, “Fang Qi! Fang Qi!”
An Yimu frowned. Visibility was near zero, and the woman was screaming loudly. What if it attracted something? She walked to the back of the team and asked, “What happened?”
The woman, her face pale, stammered, “Fang Qi… Fang Qi is gone…”
An Yimu’s heart tightened. She looked around and indeed, one girl was missing. “What’s going on? Did she get lost?”
“I… I don’t know… She was right next to me just now, and suddenly she was gone… I… I…” The woman burst into tears, clearly terrified.
An Yimu returned to the front of the team. “Everyone stick together!” After speaking, she motioned for Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu to move closer to her.
Tang Nengping was also sweating cold and instinctively moved closer to An Yimu.
After walking a few hundred meters more, An Yimu realized something was wrong. They seemed to have been here before?
“Ah!” The woman screamed again.
An Yimu quickly turned around, only to see the woman’s face covered in tears, her hand tremblingly pointing to a spot. “G-gone…”
A young man was gone.
Suddenly, an invisible dread enveloped everyone’s hearts.
An Yimu’s face also changed slightly. She didn’t dare tell the others that they seemed to have walked in a circle. Hardening her resolve, she used the sharp edge of a stone to cut open a wound on her wrist. The bl00d dripped onto the ground, quickly forming a dark red puddle.
“Keep moving!” she ordered, and led the way forward.
After more than ten minutes, An Yimu looked at the pile of dark red bloodstains on the ground with astonishment. They were back where they started!
The wound on An Yimu’s wrist had already begun to heal, but fear still gripped her heart. She wasn’t afraid of zombies, but this smog was too bizarre, and it was not something she could deal with.
“G-gone! He’s gone again!”
An Yimu turned her head in horror. Sure enough, another man was gone. Three people had mysteriously disappeared.
At this moment, the woman was sobbing uncontrollably. The two remaining men also looked around with contorted faces. Tang Nengping’s eyes were wide, cautiously looking into the surrounding smog. Nuan Qianyu’s face was also unwell, one hand tightly gripping An Yimu’s clothing. Ling Qiuyu was thoroughly terrified.
Could it be the legendary Ghost Wall (a localized phenomenon where people walk in circles)?
An Yimu’s visible range was only 10 meters. She didn’t see any other creatures in the fog, nor did she hear any sounds. The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet; not even a single zombie could be found. Zombies? Wait! No wonder that Spider-Zombified Zombie ran so fast! An Yimu silently regretted her position. Now she had no choice but to push forward.
So, the few people continued to follow An Yimu. An Yimu deliberately chose a path they hadn’t taken before and marked the path to prevent walking back.
But a few minutes later, they were back where they started! And another man was gone!
The girl cried and begged, “Please, don’t go any further! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to disappear! Please!”
At this point, even the most slow-witted person realized the anomaly. They had walked for so long but were just going around in circles!
An Yimu’s heart pounded, and her back was covered in cold sweat. Were they all going to perish here? Disappear one by one in this place?
It was too strange… This smog was too terrifying!
But staying put wouldn’t solve anything; it would only make things worse.
An Yimu pulled Nuan Qianyu and Ling Qiuyu close to her, gritting her teeth. “We will definitely get out. Keep moving!”
This time, after only walking more than twenty meters, a corpse suddenly appeared in front of them. It was the girl who had begged them not to move again. The girl was lying on the ground, her body contorted, covered in bl00d, her face a mask of horror and grimace. Bl00d also flowed from her mouth and nose.
The four people’s steps froze there, unable to move any further. Fear choked everyone’s heart.