When the others saw that there was nothing left for them to show off with, they redirected their abilities to attack the remaining zombie sharks.Only Qin Shimu—well, better call him Da Lin!—was unable to do ranged attacks because his beast transformation was that of a bear. So, he could only sit in the helicopter and fire with a photon gun.
After obtaining the shark’s head, Mo Xiaobai extended another vine, thrusting it inside and rummaging around. Soon she pulled out a shiny white crystal core. Looking closely, faint blue threads shimmered within it—this must be a wind-type crystal core.
After putting the core away, Mo Xiaobai joined the zombie-shark hunting team. Vines continuously sprouted from her hands, stabbing into the sharks’ heads and stirring them violently.
Before long, all the zombie sharks on the sea surface were dead, and the thick, stinking blood polluted a large area of water.
Mo Xiaobai and the other wood-type ability users began using their vines to pull the dead zombie sharks out of the water and throw them onto transport ships.The other teams in charge of “corpse retrieval” moved away from the area to continue their own work.
The retrieved zombie shark corpses were handed over to other ability users—those unable to fight—who would open their skulls and search for crystal cores.After inspection, the remains were burned by fire-type ability users.
According to Little Fuwa, mutant zombies were guaranteed to have crystal cores.Level-one zombies had a certain probability of containing one, while newly transformed zombies—those without any rank—almost never did.
Though most of these zombie sharks were freshly transformed, there was always a chance!
After Fang Yu used his psychic ability to scan the surroundings and confirmed that there were no more zombie beasts nearby, everyone retreated back to land for temporary rest.
A section of the mountain slope near City L had been cleared out to serve as a rest station.Whenever ability users were nearly depleted of energy, they would return here to recuperate.Even helicopters had nearby open areas designated for rest and resupply.
Inside Nirvana Squad’s tent, the team passed around the freshly acquired wind-type crystal core.
“According to Little Fuwa,” Mo Xiaobai began explaining, “crystal cores are divided into ordinary cores and ability cores.Ordinary ones are gray and filled with impurities—they need purification before use, but any ability user can absorb them.Ability cores, on the other hand, vary in color depending on their element. When absorbed by someone of the same attribute, they provide far better enhancement.”
“The basic colors correspond to metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—gold, green, blue, red, and yellow respectively. The deeper the color, the higher the grade.Zombies don’t have beast-type abilities, so beast-type users can only absorb ordinary cores.Mutation-type abilities produce white crystal cores, but the color within differs: purple for lightning, blue for wind, gold for light, and black for darkness.”
“As for special-type abilities, their crystal cores are completely transparent, like diamonds, but the color inside varies: white for space, black for time, green for healing, gold for psychic abilities, and so on.”
While the others examined the wind-type crystal core, Mo Xiaobai relayed everything she had learned from Little Fuwa.
“The ones I just mentioned are the known types of ability cores. When an ability user obtains a core matching their element, they can sense it instinctively. So it’s actually easy to identify.Absorption is simple too—just hold the core, channel your ability power into your palm, and the energy will flow from the core into your body.”
Then Mo Xiaobai handed the newly obtained wind core to her younger brother, Mo Chengyu, since he was the only wind-type user in the team.
No one objected—after all, the rest couldn’t use it anyway.
Mo Chengyu was already at late tier-two; after absorbing the core, he immediately advanced to tier three.
After that, Mo Xiaobai went to check the zombie shark corpses to see if any other crystal cores had been recovered.
Luck was quite good. Out of nearly 500 unranked zombie sharks, they found 10 ordinary crystal cores, and even recovered the body of the psychic mutant zombie shark that Luo Yifan had killed earlier—its core was successfully extracted as well.
They hadn’t expected to find that corpse, since they hadn’t known about crystal cores at the time and didn’t think to recover it right away.
Mo Xiaobai reported the results to Luo Yifan, then took the newly obtained crystal cores and boarded a plane bound for the central command base.
After Mo Xiaobai left, Luo Yifan led the team to patrol around City L, checking for any remaining zombie beasts and investigating the nearby forests for signs of infection or mutation.Now that the zombie virus had begun spreading, there was no telling whether other species might also become zombified or mutated.
Other coastal cities had likewise seen zombie-beast appearances, but they were manageable—mostly unranked, with a few tier-one cases, and rarely any mutations.None were as terrifying as City L, where a tier-two mutant zombie beast had appeared on the very first day.
Meanwhile, after Mo Xiaobai arrived at central command, she reported everything she knew about crystal cores and handed them over to the research institute for study.She also used her Merit Points to exchange for the Crystal Core Purification Formula in the Merit Mall.
After that, she returned home to celebrate her birthday with her parents—today was her birthday, after all!
Among the General Public
When ability users appeared in coastal cities to “retrieve corpses” and dispose of zombie beasts, the live broadcasts from those cities were cut off.No one knew what kind of situation might unfold, so the broadcast was halted to prevent panic.
Then came nationwide broadcasts of expert explanations—detailing the nature of the current disaster, the government’s measures, safety precautions for civilians, and plans for the near future.They also reported on the disaster situations in other countries and China’s humanitarian assistance to its allies.
At 7:00 p.m. on the 21st, during the national news broadcast, the anchor summarized the day’s events and publicly released the research institute’s findings.The unidentified virus had officially been defined as a Zombie Virus, sharing characteristics similar to those seen in zombie films.
They also aired footage of the battles between ability users and zombie beasts in various coastal cities, confirming that humans were also at risk of infection.Though the details were still under study, it was likely similar to the zombie-beast contagion.
Based on the current research, the government provided the following public health recommendations:– Exercise regularly to strengthen immunity.– Keep distance to avoid cross-infection.– Maintain hygiene and diet, and avoid open wounds to prevent viral entry.– Drink purified water only, as the ocean was confirmed to be contaminated with the virus, and tap water safety could no longer be guaranteed.
The government promised to supply purified drinking water through water-type ability users, enough for the entire nation for at least one month.Citizens could redeem water through the Contribution Value website—1 contribution point for one person’s week of drinking water.
The news also revealed the existence and value of crystal cores, as well as purchase and exchange channels now available on the Contribution Mall.Alongside this, the research institute published its classification of zombies from level 0 to 3, explaining their potential abilities, weaknesses, and how civilians should respond when encountering them.Citizens were encouraged to hunt level-0 zombies if their safety could be ensured.
The Contribution Mall introduced a new line of redeemable weapons—mostly long cold weapons such as swords and blades.
Once the news aired, the entire country was in an uproar.What they had thought to be an ordinary virus turned out to be a zombie virus.The thought of its terrifying spread sent everyone rushing to check their doors and windows, sternly warning their children never to drink unboiled water.
Meanwhile, redemptions for melee weapons in the Contribution Mall skyrocketed, and even combat uniforms saw heavy demand—though the latter were too expensive for most people.
For a time, food delivery workers became the busiest people in China—second only to the ability users still fighting along the coast.