The Featherfall Ring looked like an ordinary silver band with a tiny pair of wings attached to it.
Its attribute bonus was so poor that it was almost as if it had no attributes at all.
Yet it was still rated as a Gold Grade item.
The reason was its attached skill.
With the Featherfall skill, as long as he gained a level or two and slightly improved his physique, Chi You could jump from a building over ten stories tall without hesitation. At worst, his feet would feel a little numb. Otherwise, he would be completely unharmed.
In the apocalypse, this ability was practically Divine Grade.
Especially for Chi You, who had personally experienced the skill’s usefulness and had been saved by it countless times in life-and-death situations, even rating it as Sub-Legendary Grade would not be excessive.
Chi You put on the ring.
As for the skill book, he still didn’t meet the requirements to learn it.
However, just as he was about to put the card into his pocket, a semi-transparent interface suddenly appeared.
[Learnable Skill Detected: Frost Strike. Learn?]
Chi You froze.
Learnable?
How was that possible?
“Learn.”
He spoke suspiciously.
To his surprise, the card instantly shattered into particles of light and merged into his body.
A new notification appeared immediately afterward.
[Skill Learned: Frost Strike]
It actually worked!
Chi You’s eyes widened.
What was going on?
This made no sense.
Wait!
Suddenly, Chi You realized something.
He silently summoned his status panel.
After seeing the attributes displayed on it, a smile slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Then his shoulders began trembling.
Finally, unable to suppress himself any longer, he burst into loud laughter.
The reason was simple.
The skill section, which should have been completely empty, now contained four skills.
…
-Status Panel-
[Player: Chi You]
[Level: 1]
[Experience: 0/20]
[Card Inventory: 0/20]
[Title: None]
[Attributes: (Average adult male = 10)]
[Strength: 14.3 (Base 13 + 10%)]
[Agility: 11 (Base 10 + 10%)]
[Constitution: 13.2 (Base 12 + 10%)]
[Spirit: 28.5 (Base 25 + 10% + 1)]
[Free Attribute Points: 0]
[Resistance: Frost Resistance 30%]
[Skills:
Blade Mastery LV10 (Max Level)
Unarmed Combat Mastery LV7
Special Forces Combat LV3
Lockpicking LV7
Frost Strike]
…
Compared to his previous life, the Strength, Agility, and Constitution attributes were unchanged.
His Spirit attribute, however, had more than doubled.
That was probably due to spending several years as a wandering soul and the benefits of rebirth itself.
The most obvious difference was the skills.
These four skills were unmistakably the skills he had possessed in his previous life.
Even their levels were exactly the same.
So it worked like this.
Since the Apocalypse Game generated its data by scanning the human body, and that data included things like Spirit, it naturally followed that people who had already mastered certain skills before entering the game would receive corresponding skill entries after the game began.
For example, locksmiths could obtain Lockpicking.
Boxers could gain Combat skills.
Special forces soldiers could receive Combat Mastery, Well-Trained, and similar abilities.
This was not a secret.
Even so, Chi You had never imagined that the skills he had spent an entire lifetime tempering and improving could be carried over into his new life.
Of course, there was a reasonable explanation.
These were not active skills.
They were passive skills based on muscle memory, experience, and accumulated knowledge.
In his previous life, it had taken him a full two years to raise Blade Mastery to its maximum level.
And a max-level Blade Mastery could genuinely be described as miraculous.
[Skill: Blade Mastery]
[Level: LV10 (Max Level)]
[Type: Passive Skill]
[Description: You possess a superior understanding of blade weapons, ensuring optimal use of force to kill enemies.]
When using blade-type weapons, stamina consumption is reduced by 50%.
Reduces equipment requirements for LV10 blade-type weapons.
Reduces blade weapon durability loss by 50%.
When using blade-type weapons, attacks gain additional damage equal to 20% of Strength and 10% of Agility.
Earlier, Chi You had been somewhat depressed about having to train his max-level skills all over again.
It felt like finally finishing the college entrance examination, barely getting into the university of his dreams through extraordinary performance, only to open his eyes and find himself back in his first year of high school.
Now, however, he had saved an unimaginable amount of time and effort.
“Right, there’s also that notification panel from earlier.”
Chi You remembered the panel he had swiped aside while hiding in the restroom stall.
When he had glanced at it, it appeared to contain explanations about the Apocalypse Game.
Since he had already read it once in his previous life, he hadn’t bothered reading it immediately.
Now that things had settled down, it was a good time to check whether anything had changed.
He dragged the notification panel back into view.
[Welcome to the Apocalypse Game]
[Congratulations to all players reading this notice. You have survived the first round of selection.]
[At present, 90% of all living creatures have been transformed into zombies. Every species has reached the same 90% conversion rate. Please rest assured.]
[The zombie virus can spread through blood, scratches, bites, and saliva. Ordinary methods cannot purify the zombie virus.]
[Water sources are also one of the transmission methods of the zombie virus. Do not drink water from unverified sources.]
[To assist players in surviving, small insects such as ants cannot carry the virus.]
[Likewise, to help players survive, every surviving player will receive one resource supply drop every day at midnight.]
[Each supply drop contains one 300 mL bottle of water and one 60 g whole-wheat bread.]
[Please protect your resource supplies from being stolen by other players.]
[The zombie virus permanently contaminates the soil, making crop cultivation impossible.]
[Zombie habits and weaknesses must be discovered independently.]
[Killing zombies grants experience. Leveling up increases your four primary attributes. Recite “Status Panel” to view your personal information.]
[Zombies have a chance to drop cards, which may contain various resources.]
[All modern human technology, including firearms, electronic devices, communication devices, and vehicles, has become unusable.]
[Zombies will continue evolving over time, and mutant zombies may appear.]
[All other rules must be discovered by players themselves.]
[Finally, we wish everyone the best of luck surviving until the end, and hope you enjoy the game.]
The announcement ended there.
Chi You quickly scanned through it.
After confirming that it was identical to the version from his previous life, he immediately closed it.
Carrying Ice Jade, Chi You walked out of the restroom.
The moment he turned a corner, he came face-to-face with a zombie.
To be honest, even after surviving for so many years in the apocalypse, Chi You still could not help but think the same thing whenever he saw these lowest-tier zombies.
Classic.
There was simply no other word for them.
Their appearance was so stereotypical that resisting the urge to comment on it was impossible.
Grayish-white skin.
Dark purple veins bulging beneath the flesh.
Pale eyes streaked with black blood vessels.
Black gums.
A staggering gait.
They looked exactly like the most basic zombie enemies from movies and video games.
Ironically, these ordinary zombies were responsible for the greatest number of player deaths.
Especially during the first few minutes of the apocalypse.
Nobody had any psychological preparation.
Your friends.
Your companions.
Your family.
Even strangers who had just brushed past you.
All of them could suddenly transform into zombies and immediately attack the living around them.
Most people never even had time to react.
Those whose brains were eaten died instantly.
Those who were merely bitten suffered an even crueler fate, enduring the agony of infection before eventually joining the zombie horde themselves.
Then there were the people driving vehicles.
The instant all vehicles failed, the lucky ones merely crashed into roadside barriers or walls.
Many others plowed directly into crowds of people, causing even greater casualties.
That was why, although the announcement claimed that 90% of humanity had transformed into zombies, less than ten minutes after the apocalypse began, the number had already risen beyond 95%.
By the end of the apocalypse, the true number of survivors was probably less than one in ten thousand.
Perhaps even fewer.
“Roar!”
As Chi You’s thoughts drifted, the zombie spotted him.
With a ferocious roar, it lunged forward.
However, before the roar had even finished, a dazzling trail of icy crystals flashed through the air.
The zombie instantly froze in place.
Chi You sheathed his blade and calmly walked past it.
A burst of frost erupted.
A perfectly straight ice-blue line spread across the zombie’s neck.
Then came a dull thud.
Still wearing the expression of a roaring monster, the zombie’s severed head dropped straight to the floor.