In her previous life, Ruan Ning had heard that some powerful zombies and psychics could form an energy crystal in their brains, called a crystal core.
This thing greatly helps psychics improve their abilities and even becomes hard currency in later stages. But in the early days, very few people knew about it. Lin Jiaojiao, that fake space ability user, seemed to be secretly collecting them.
This time, she had to seize the opportunity first. Even if she couldn’t awaken her own abilities, hoarding these would definitely be a huge fortune—or… could be used as bargaining chips in some trades.
She walked over to the corpse of the first zombie she had killed. Its head was split open by the machete, red and white matter mixed with dark blood flowing onto the ground, emitting a disgusting smell.
Ruan Ning showed no emotion as she pulled out a military dagger from the side of her leg. The machete was too heavy and cumbersome for precise work.
She squatted down and first used the dagger to poke at the split skull, carefully examining inside the wound.
The sticky, partially solidified brain tissue was exposed to the air. Besides bloodiness and necrosis, there was no abnormal energy fluctuation or crystalline reflection.
“None…” she murmured, not discouraged.
Early zombies probably had a very low chance of crystallizing a core.
She hadn’t found any crystal cores in the few zombies outside, so she went inside the main entrance to check the three zombies she had killed earlier.
She first approached the female zombie in the fashionable short skirt. Its skull had been dented by the machete, the wound a mess.
Ruan Ning squatted again, took a deep breath (despite the suffocating smell), and carefully inserted the tip of her dagger into the broken skull cavity, cautiously prying apart the sticky, suspiciously colored brain tissue. The dagger’s tip scraped softly against the inner wall of the skull.
Nothing.
She patiently and meticulously searched every corner like conducting a rigorous but disgusting autopsy. The stench almost made her unable to keep her eyes open, but her hands remained steady.
Still nothing.
Then she moved to the suited zombie with a big belly. It had died after its ankle was chopped and its head destroyed. The skull was relatively intact, only a large gash above the forehead.
Ruan Ning pressed the dagger against the crack and gently pried the skull open wider. Dark red blood and gray-white brain matter seeped from the gap.
Holding her breath, she plunged the dagger inside and started searching.
Sticky, slippery, cold… all sorts of extremely unpleasant sensations transmitted through the dagger’s handle. Her fingertips turned slightly white from the grip, but her focus was sharp, missing no detail.
Suddenly!
The dagger’s tip seemed to touch something hard, different from the hardness of the skull or the sharpness of broken bones—something… smooth and warm?
Ruan Ning’s eyes sharpened as she became more careful. She gently used the dagger tip to pry away the sticky tissue around the hard object, separating it bit by bit from the brain.
After several minutes, she carefully picked out a crystal roughly the size of a small fingernail, irregular and polyhedral in shape.
It was an extremely faint, almost imperceptible milky white color, covered with red and white grime on the surface, but its core seemed to have a very weak energy halo slowly flowing inside.
“Found it!” Ruan Ning’s heart stirred.
She immediately took a bottled water from her backpack’s side pocket, unscrewed the cap, and carefully rinsed the crystal core clean.
After the grime was washed away, the crystal core revealed its true appearance.
Translucent, milky white, like a low-quality small diamond. Held in the palm, she could feel a faint but real cool sensation slowly seeping through her skin.
“The energy is very weak, probably a level 1 crystal core,” Ruan Ning judged. “But it proves that at the very beginning of the apocalypse, crystal cores had indeed appeared—though the chance is extremely low.”
She carefully placed the tiny crystal core into a small, airtight metal box prepared in advance and stored it in her pocket.
Looking at the two corpses on the ground, Ruan Ning’s eyes turned icy cold. One crystal core roughly per ten zombies—that probability was indeed low. But it also meant to get more, she needed to hunt more zombies.
This was undoubtedly dangerous, but risk and reward coexisted.
After cleaning her dagger and wiping the grime off the machete, Ruan Ning stood up and gave the bloody lobby one last glance.
Today’s practice and exploration had yielded far more than expected. Not only had her combat experience improved, but more importantly, she confirmed the existence of crystal cores and obtained the first sample.
She knew that this bloody and murderous path to becoming stronger was one she must walk steadfastly.
Turning around, she silently retraced her steps back upstairs to the temporary shelter.
The next day, Ruan Ning continued her training downstairs.
She again chose evening time, when the light was dimmer—better for hiding her movements. Still dressed in her sharp gear: machete, fire axe, dagger, and light backpack.
Pushing open the heavy apartment unit door, a stench more mixed and open than the hallway hit her.
The community’s greenery was overgrown and unkempt; some plants had withered, mixed with trash and unknown filth. The children’s slide, once a place of play, was splattered with dark brown stains.
She moved swiftly like a gray shadow, hugging the building’s walls, eyes sharply scanning every corner.
Crack.
She crushed a dry leaf, the sound unusually clear in the silent community.
Almost simultaneously, from behind a crooked phoenix tree to the front right, a figure suddenly turned around.
It was once probably an old man walking a dog, still clutching a half-broken dog leash. Half of his cheek had been bitten away, exposing the cheekbone. His cloudy eyes stared fixedly in Ruan Ning’s direction.
“Hoo…” it let out a low growl, dragging an unnatural leg, limping as it hurried forward.
Ruan Ning didn’t retreat but stepped forward, pushing off with her feet, her figure darting out like a leopard! When she was still two or three meters from the zombie, she suddenly sidestepped, and with momentum, swung her machete in a slashing arc from bottom to top!
Puff!
The blade precisely embedded itself into the zombie’s lower jaw, piercing directly into the skull cavity! The old man’s roar abruptly stopped, his body swayed, then fell heavily to the ground.
Ruan Ning quickly withdrew her blade, cautiously scanning the surroundings. The noise seemed to have attracted attention from farther away.
By the round flower bed in the center of the community, two figures staggered and turned around. One wore pajamas, the other a filthy food delivery uniform. They growled and began staggering toward Ruan Ning’s location.
“Lure them here, take them out one by one,” Ruan Ning instantly devised a strategy. She deliberately made heavy footsteps and retreated to the corner of a nearby building.
Sure enough, the two zombies were attracted and sped up, but their clumsy steps caused a slight distance to open as they rounded the corner.
The pajama zombie arrived first. As it poked out half its body, Ruan Ning, already poised, suddenly stepped out from the shadows. The fire axe swept across with a heavy gust of wind!
Bang!
The heavy axe slammed into the temple! The skull instantly caved in, and the zombie collapsed softly as if its bones had been removed.
Almost simultaneously, the delivery zombie limped around the corner, its withered arms reaching straight for Ruan Ning’s face!
Ruan Ning seemed to anticipate this, turning her head to avoid the grab, and her right hand swung the machete downward! The target was the neck!
Shing—
This strike wasn’t deep enough; the blade got stuck in the cervical vertebra! The zombie growled, and its other hand continued to reach out!
Ruan Ning remained calm. She loosened her grip on the machete handle, leaned back, and whipped her left leg like a whip, kicking hard on the zombie’s knee joint side!
Crack!
The delivery zombie lost balance and knelt forward. Seizing the opportunity, Ruan Ning drew the dagger at her waist, lunged forward, pressed one hand on its thrashing head, and stabbed the dagger forcefully into the eye socket, twisting with strength!
The zombie’s struggle stopped instantly.
Ruan Ning caught her breath slightly, withdrew the dagger, wiped it on the zombie’s clothes, then forcefully pulled the machete stuck in the neck free. Dark red blood gushed out.
“Handling two at once is still a bit much, especially when the weapon gets stuck,” she calmly reflected. “Need more precise attacks or stronger burst power.”
She didn’t immediately search for crystal cores but cautiously moved behind the flower bed, using the shrubs for cover to observe the surroundings. After confirming no new zombies were attracted shortly, she quickly returned to the two corpses.
Using the dagger skillfully, she pried open the skulls and searched carefully in the sticky brain tissue. Unfortunately, both zombies’ brains were empty, with no crystal cores formed.
She wasn’t disappointed—it was a matter of probability.
After cleaning her weapons, Ruan Ning continued prowling the community like a ghost.
She specifically targeted lone zombies, using terrain, shadows, and sound to carry out precise and efficient kills one after another.
Sometimes it was a swift decapitation; sometimes a deadly backstab after a feint; other times using the heavy fire axe to violently break defenses.
Her movements became more and more skilled, her control of strength more refined. Every slash, every dodge carried a cold rhythm.
As night deepened and the blood moon reappeared, grimacing from behind the clouds, Ruan Ning had cleared about seven or eight scattered zombies near the community’s main road. Her backpack now held a new, also milky-white level 1 crystal core.
Standing beside the rusted iron gate of the community, she looked out at the even more chaotic and dangerous street outside. The number of zombies was obviously greater there, and their roaming area was wider.