Lin Ran locked the door behind her and sat down beside the bed.
She closed her eyes and tried to sense her spiritual power—something every awakened person instinctively did after the apocalypse arrived.
But what shocked her was that there was no colorful crystal core in her mind like the ones described in the novel.
A metal-type ability user would form a golden crystal core in their mind.A water-type ability user would have a deep blue core, like the sea…
Yet she clearly possessed five elemental abilities, and still, the depths of her consciousness were completely empty.
No crystal core meant one thing—
Her abilities would never be able to level up.
Her earlier guess had come true, but she felt no joy.
Lin Ran sighed, a cloud of worry weighing on her heart.
A Level-1 ability had extremely limited combat power. It might be enough to deal with ordinary zombies.
But once the zombies evolved and upgraded, she would have no power to fight back.
She would only be waiting for death.
The novel had never mentioned such a situation. She had no clue what to do, as if she were trapped on a road with no exit.
Should she try dying once… and see if she could transmigrate into another book?
But what if she ended up in some famine survival novel, starving and struggling just to live? Wouldn’t that be even worse?
Or worse yet… what if she returned to her original world?
The doctors had already determined she only had one month left to live.
Help…
What should she do?
Just when she was almost ready to give up, something in the depths of her mind suddenly stirred.
A strange sensation appeared without warning—like someone far away was using lightning-type abilities, and the vibration echoed clearly within her consciousness.
Subconsciously, she looked out the window.
Sure enough, Zhou Wangye stood outside the villa, lightning flashing in his hand as he precisely struck the staggering zombies.
Behind him stood He Sheng, concentrating as he controlled a fire axe. Under the influence of his metal ability, the blade glowed coldly as it flew through the air, harvesting zombies.
Every time He Sheng attacked, Lin Ran could clearly “see” a stream of metal-type energy faintly flowing inside her mind!
Her heart trembled as she focused all her consciousness inward.
Finally, in the core of her spiritual world, she discovered a crystal core.
It was completely transparent, tiny like a mung bean.
It had been so difficult to notice earlier that she had overlooked it.
At that moment, the people downstairs continued their ability training, and the transparent crystal core kept resonating subtly with every different ability being used.
They trained extremely hard. Whenever their abilities ran out, they immediately meditated to recover.
Later, they began digging out zombie crystal cores and absorbing them.
Zhou Wangye was the first to break through. At the moment his lightning ability advanced to Level 2, Lin Ran clearly felt that the lightning energy inside her transparent crystal core rose together with his.
Suppressing her excitement, she flashed into the ring’s spatial dimension.
Facing an ancient tree in the distance, she tried to mobilize lightning energy.
What she released was no longer a simple beginner lightning arrow, but a jumping chain of lightning.
It was clearly the sign of a Level-2 lightning ability.
A bold thought suddenly rushed into her mind—
She hadn’t awakened five elemental abilities at all.
What she had awakened was a copying ability!
That was why, earlier in the living room, she could copy other people’s abilities onto herself.
But the original novel had never mentioned such an ability.
Thinking carefully about it…
In the book, the heroine’s spatial dimension had no spirit spring, and the original host never awakened abilities before dying…
All clues pointed to the spirit spring water she drank last night.
That’s right!
Because she drank spirit spring water that didn’t exist in the original novel, she awakened a copying ability that also never existed in the novel.
Not only that—
The abilities she copied would upgrade automatically whenever the original owner’s ability improved!
The next moment, she clearly felt her metal ability also break through to Level 2.
He Sheng truly lived up to being a retired soldier. His physical condition was excellent, and he broke through only slightly later than the male lead.
An hour later, the fire ability and wood ability also advanced.
Finally, at twelve noon, Gu Xiangwan reached Level 2 as well.
Lin Ran checked her spatial ability. Her storage space had expanded to 500 cubic meters.
And as all five elemental abilities became Level 2, her copying ability also advanced to Level 2.
She was basically winning without doing anything.
Her cheat ability was truly huge.
She no longer complained about transmigrating into an apocalypse novel.
Why would she need to cling to someone powerful?
She herself was the powerful one.
A super thick golden thigh!
She happily rolled around on the bed—until someone knocked on the door.
Zhou Yi’an stood outside holding a bag.
“Inside are zombie crystal cores.”
Afraid she might dislike them, he quickly explained,
“I already washed them. They’re not dirty.”
“Sister Ran, later you can hold the crystal cores in your hand, use your spiritual power to sense them, and absorb the energy inside to help you level up.”
“There are eighteen of them. Even if you’re… well… you should still be able to reach Level 2.”
Lin Ran’s mouth twitched.
Normally, absorbing ten crystal cores of the same level was already enough to level up.
If the cores matched your ability type, or if your spiritual power was strong, you would need even fewer.
Yet Zhou Yi’an had given her eighteen.
She didn’t know whether to thank him for his sincerity… or something else.
Well, she was supposed to be a beautiful but foolish “vase” character anyway.
“Alright, I’ll absorb them now.”
Zhou Yi’an still looked worried.
“I’ll stay here and guard you. If anything goes wrong, I can notice it in time.”
Lin Ran didn’t need to level up at all, so she chased him away.
“Do you think I’m stupid like everyone else?”
Zhou Yi’an hurriedly shook his head.
“Absolutely not, Sister Ran!”
“Then go out. I can do it myself!” Lin Ran pointed proudly toward the door.
Zhou Yi’an had no choice but to leave.
“I’ll be in the next room. If anything happens, call me!”
“Okay, okay, I know!” Lin Ran said impatiently as she shooed him away.
An hour later, Lin Ran opened the door and discovered Zhou Yi’an and Aunt Lan standing outside guarding it.
Their concerned expressions showed they were truly worried about her.
Before they could ask, Lin Ran said,
“I’ve already successfully leveled up.”
Her voice also attracted the others.
Gu Xiangwan spoke first.
“My space is now 500 cubic meters. We’re discussing going out this afternoon to search for supplies. May I ask how large Miss Lin’s space is now?”
Lin Ran glanced at her coldly.
“None of your damn business.”
She had already decided she would no longer tolerate Gu Xiangwan.
She wasn’t some ninja turtle who endured everything.
With such a huge cheat ability, continuing to suffer silently would be an insult to the god of transmigration.
Gu Xiangwan froze. Lin Ran had been friendly to her earlier that day, and she had forgotten how sharp Lin Ran’s tongue could be.
Looking aggrieved, she turned to Zhou Wangye, as if saying: President Zhou, look at her…
But Zhou Wangye ignored it and instead looked at Lin Ran.
“Since you’ve successfully leveled up, you’ll go with us this afternoon to collect supplies outside the resort.”
“I refuse,” Lin Ran replied immediately.
The irritation in Zhou Wangye’s heart rose again.
He knew Lin Ran had just been pretending to behave earlier.
“You can’t be so selfish. You used the zombie crystal cores everyone worked together to obtain. Now that you’ve leveled up, you refuse to contribute.”
He spoke directly. Subtle words wouldn’t work on Lin Ran anyway.
Xie Jilan hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over.
“Ranran isn’t selfish. She’s worried about my safety and wants to stay in the villa to protect me.”
Zhou Wangye snorted coldly.
“She’s only a Level-2 spatial ability user who still needs others to protect her. How could she protect anyone? That excuse doesn’t hold.”
Lin Ran raised her eyes to look at him. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was perfectly clear.
“I can go out and collect supplies. But I don’t want to act together with you…”
“I’m honestly afraid that halfway through the trip, if big brother gets unhappy, he’ll just throw me into a pile of zombies.”
As soon as she said that, Zhou Wangye felt a strange tightness in his chest.
Why did it feel like…
Lin Ran had become even more infuriating than before?