Soon, two people walked in from outside, a man and a woman. The man was tall and broad, carrying a fire axe in his hand. His eyes were fierce. The woman was smaller and thinner, wearing a pink frilly dress. She had delicate features and a pair of fuzzy rabbit ears on her head.
“Damn it, this shithole was cleaned out a long time ago. Can't even find a pack of salt,” the man cursed under his breath.
“Keep it down, Ricky,” the woman warned.“Don't attract the monsters.”
The man clicked his tongue in annoyance and glanced around. His gaze happened to meet Clara Bennett's eyes behind the shelves. He was clearly stunned for a moment. The annoyance on his face was instantly replaced by amazement and a hint of greed. Blonde hair, purple eyes, a stunning face, and a curvy figure.
Even in the ruins of the apocalypse, she was breathtakingly beautiful. Not to mention the pair of small horns and the tail behind her. Instead of ruining her beauty, they added an eerie allure.
“Oh, there's one hiding here?”
Ricky grinned and pointed the fire axe at Clara.
“Where'd a pretty little thing like you come from?”
Clara slowly stood up and held the steel pipe across her chest. The woman beside him was stunned for a moment, then spoke, her voice gentler than the man's:
“Hey, girl. Are you alone?”
“This place is dangerous. Why don't you come with us? Ricky here is a Strength-type talent. He can protect you.”
Clara sneered inwardly. Good cop, bad cop. A classic trick in the apocalypse.
“No need.”
With that, she gripped the steel pipe and slowly backed away, ready to leave from another direction.
“Stop!”
Ricky immediately stepped forward, his eyes turning hostile.
“Don't be ungrateful, sweetheart.”
“Leave all your supplies behind, or you won't make it out of here.”
He was confident that with his A-rank talent, taking down one woman wouldn't be a problem. Clara stopped. In those purple pupils, there was no fear, only cold indifference.
“Get lost.”
Ricky's face instantly turned purple with rage. He felt humiliated by a woman.
“You're fucking asking for it!”
He roared, swung the fire axe in his hand, and brought it down at Clara's head. Clara had already been guarding against that move. She didn‘t want trouble, but she wasn’t afraid of it. The instant Ricky moved, she activated Enchanting Gaze. Ricky's fierce gaze instantly turned dazed and obsessed.
“Heh heh... little beauty, so obedient...”
Clara just scoffed. The instant he was controlled, she pushed off with her feet, not retreating but advancing. Two steps became one as she thrust the steel pipe in her hand straight at Ricky's unguarded neck. Blood gushed out like a spring. His movement stopped dead, his eyes wide with disbelief.
He clutched his neck with both hands, opened his mouth, and fell straight backward. The woman beside him screamed at the bloody scene, her face pale as she stumbled back. The woman trembled all over under Clara's cold gaze. Her scream caught in her throat, and with a warm gush in her crotch, she actually peed herself from fear.
“Don‘t... don’t kill me! I didn't see anything! The supplies... we'll give you all the supplies we found!”
She babbled incoherently, pulled a few energy bars and a bottle of water from her clothes, and threw them on the ground. Clara looked at her like that, her eyes not wavering in the slightest. She controlled her first, then without mercy drove the steel pipe straight through her throat. If you don't uproot the weed, it springs back with the breeze. If your control isn't complete, all your effort is wasted.
The apocalypse is kill or be killed. After dealing with the threats, a wave of exhaustion hit her.
“Looks like my limit is two skills before I need to replenish Spirit,” Clara thought.
Then she was too lazy to even grab a cup. She just sucked it straight from the source, no middle step. At a time like this, who cares about formalities? But then a burning hunger hit her, and Clara instantly understood. This talent wasn't creating something from nothing.
Essence Condensation consumed the protein, fat, sugar and other substances stored in this body, converting them into high-energy milk. Drinking it replenished Spirit, but the energy consumed by the body naturally made her feel hungry. It was a closed loop of energy conversion: food -> Stamina/fat -> high-energy milk -> Spirit.
“Perpetual motion machines really don't exist,” she muttered, adjusted her clothes, and looked at the two corpses on the ground.
Two bottles of water and a 8.8-ounce bag of beef jerky dropped from the woman, while Ricky actually had half a pack of Camels, a lighter, and three 2.1-ounce chocolate bars. Clara ate all the beef jerky and chocolate, and only then did the burning in her stomach ease a little. After eating another piece of bread, it finally subsided completely.
“At this rate, the food won't last more than a few days,” she thought.
Right now, the Storage Space only had canned peaches, three loaves of bread, some ration bars, and seven bottles of water. If I keep running into this kind of crap, I'll starve sooner or later. Clara sighed, packed everything away, picked up the bloodstained fire axe from the floor, and gave it a shake.
“This thing right here, now this is a weapon.”
she said, then tightened her grip on the fire axe and turned to walk out of the supermarket. When she stepped out of the supermarket, the sunlight outside was harsh. Clara squinted instinctively. Just as she reached the car and was about to pull open the door. Not far away, three zombies limped toward her.
Their skin was grayish blue, their eyeballs were white, and black bloody drool hung from the corners of their mouths.
Seeing this, Clara felt nothing inside. She thought, “Here they come, here they come. The classic mascots of survival games: zombies.”
As a man who'd watched countless movies, he knew these things better than he knew the structure of his new body. Their only weak spot was the head. And these were still the earliest zombies, perfect for practice and getting used to how this body fought. Thinking this, she didn't panic or back away. Instead, she gripped the fire axe with both hands, lowered her stance, and fixed her eyes on the first zombie's head.
The instant the zombie spread its arms and lunged, Clara moved. A nimble sidestep easily avoided the zombie's bite. At the same time, the fire axe in her hands swung up from below and slammed hard into the back of the zombie's skull.
“Crack.”
With a crisp snap, the zombie dropped. The other two zombies roared and charged. Clara kicked the nearest zombie, sending it stumbling to the ground. Right after, she swung the axe in her hand at the other zombie's temple.
“Squelch.”
The axe blade buried itself in the second zombie's temple. After killing it, Clara didn't stop. She closed the distance in two quick strides and easily finished off the other zombie just as it got back up. The fight was over in less than a minute. Just then, a fingernail-sized shard of blue crystal, glowing faintly, appeared on the last zombie's body.
“What's this?”
Clara picked up the shard, and a system notification appeared before her eyes.
Appraisal🔹Energy Crystal FragmentA crystal containing pure energy.Can be used to power or upgrademechanical creations.5 fragments can be combined into 1complete Energy Crystal Core.
“For upgrading the vehicle?”
Clara felt a flicker of excitement. This was good stuff. Just then, a steady male voice came from behind her.
“Nice axe work. Too bad you used your strength in the wrong place.”
Clara tensed, spun around, held the fire axe across her chest, and her eyes instantly turned cold and wary.
“This guy... when did he get here?”
“I didn't even notice a thing?”