Just as the system had anticipated, humans finally began to awaken talents. Although a few brave individuals had managed to kill zombies in the initial days of the outbreak, none of them had unlocked any talents back then.
No one knew the exact criteria, but right after the third day of the apocalypse, an unknown threshold was crossed, and the surviving humans who managed to kill zombies gained talents, while those who had not gained them after they killed a zombie.
Though those initial awakeners had awakened better-ranked talents.
That sudden shift was supposed to bring a glimmer of hope to humanity. Instead, it created absolute chaos.
When a human gained a talent, it did not just boost his physical strength, it unleashed his suppressed greed and darkest desires.
Power in the hands of the righteous built shelters, but power in the hands of the wicked quickly turned the ruined city into a lawless wasteland where the living became far more dangerous than the dead.
In a dusty, debris-littered intersection five miles away from the shopping mall, an intense battle was raging. A small squad of heavily armed soldiers was taking cover behind shattered concrete walls.
However, their opponents were not mindless zombies. They were a violent group of opportunistic thugs who had taken over the district.
The leader of the thugs stood atop a flipped-over delivery truck, his arms raised high as if dispensing corrupt blessings.
Around his floating hands, jagged pieces of asphalt and metal debris hovered in the air, humming with kinetic energy.
At regular intervals, he flicked his wrists, launching the heavy debris across the street with terrifying speed. The projectiles slammed into the soldiers’ makeshift barricades, showering them with concrete dust and gravely injuring anyone caught in the splash zone.
Meanwhile, the other thugs advanced under his cover, occasionally unleashing flashes of their own low-tier physical talents to suppress the military squad.
"Any findings?" Captain Robin shouted into his radio, ducking sharply as a dented car door slammed into the concrete right above his head.
"We can’t keep hiding like this! Our mana is running out, and our shields are dropping! At this rate, even if we manage to wipe these bastards out, the ferals in the area will catch us off guard. I am damn sure they are creeping somewhere in the shadows right now!"
"Holy shit, you scared me! Don’t shout suddenly into the channel, man," a young female voice crackled through the earpiece. "Let me focus! He is standing just outside my talent’s effective range. Try to push him closer or force him to step off that truck!"
"Move him closer to where?" Robin gritted his teeth, firing a short burst from his rifle to keep two advancing thugs at bay. "You should move your ass closer instead! That is ten times simpler!"
"Meh, and risk getting my head taken off by a floating rock? No thanks," Angela spat back. "Captain Robin, let me reintroduce myself in case you forgot who I am. I am not a soldier. I am not even an adult! I have zero legal or moral reason to be in this goddamn firefight. You are seriously risking the fragile life of a minor here!"
"You’re the one who joined the squad!"
"Because your leader promised me safety and canned peaches!" Angela snapped.
Angela was a high school girl who had managed to survive the initial outbreak by awakening ’Appraisal’, an S-rank talent that she very wisely kept hidden from everyone around her.
She lied to the military, claiming her talent was merely an F-rank support skill that allowed her to view basic target details.
In reality, her Appraisal permitted her to see full stat breakdowns, hidden traits, and talent ranks of both zombies and humans alike.
She had survived the bloodbath of the early days by fully utilizing her talent to navigate around dangerous mutated zombies and attach herself to strong groups.
Eventually, she reached the Northern Settlement in the Baidu district. There, she volunteered to join this specific squad because its female leader possessed an exceptionally rare, battle-focused S-rank talent.
With Angela identifying structural weaknesses in mutated monsters and guiding the team, their squad had successfully cleared several city blocks.
That was until they ran headfirst into this crazy group of human thugs. These men were not infected, but they were far crazier and more cruel than zombies.
They had attacked the soldiers without a second thought, their lecherous, filthy eyes telling Angela exactly what horrifying fate awaited her if they ever got their hands on her.
The most infuriating part of the current situation was that their powerful squad leader had vanished right before the ambush, separating from the group without leaving a single word.
Angela was both terrified and furious.
"Boss would never abandon us," Robin growled over the radio, reloading his rifle with shaking hands. "She must have a plan!"
"Whatever! I am waiting five more minutes," Angela muttered, crouched behind an overturned dumpster two blocks back. "If she doesn’t show up by then, I am running—"
BANG!
Angela did not even get to finish her sentence before a deafening, cannon-like gunshot echoed from deep within the urban jungle.
A split second later, the head of the thug leader standing atop the delivery truck completely exploded into a fine crimson mist.
The floating debris around his hands instantly lost its kinetic pull, raining down heavily onto the rest of his gang members below.
The unsuspecting thugs shrieked as heavy rocks and metal plates crushed them before they could even react.
Luckily, Robin’s soldiers were so battle-worn and alert that the moment they heard the thunderous crack of the heavy rifle, they instinctively ducked beneath their shields, avoiding the falling rubble entirely.
"That’s boss..." Robin exhaled in overwhelming relief, a wide grin breaking across his dust-covered face.
Angela’s jaw dropped.
She quickly activated her Appraisal, focusing her gaze on the roof of a towering skyscraper situated three compounds behind their position.
Up on the distant roof, a thick plume of white smoke drifted slowly into the air.
Angela suddenly recalled the terrifying nature of their leader’s primary offensive talent.
’Giant Bullet.’
It was an S-rank offensive talent that caused any fired ammunition to exponentially expand in size, weight, and destructive power the further it traveled through the air.
Angela recalled how their squad leader had complained earlier about running low on high-caliber rounds. Everything made sense now.
The leader had not abandoned them at all.
She knew a standard sniper round might not break through the thug leader’s defense, so she had purposely sprinted up a sixty-story skyscraper to maximize the distance, ensuring the bullet would grow into the size of a tank shell by the time it reached the target!
"Eh... ah... I am sorry, Leader," Angela stammered awkwardly into her communicator, her face flushing with mild shame.
"It’s not the time for apologies," a calm, icy female voice sounded through the radio channel. "And don’t get comfortable. Those zombies are coming... and I am officially out of ammo. You guys are completely on your own now."
Robin froze. "Wait, what do you mean by that, Boss?"
"I mean run if you don’t want to die," the leader replied bluntly.
Before the soldiers could even process her words, a low, rhythmic vibration rattled the ground beneath their boots.
A terrifying, collective roar echoed from every surrounding alleyway, followed by the sound of thousands of frantic footsteps rushing toward the intersection.
The loud gunshot had alerted every single infected in the entire district.
Angela peeked over the dumpster, her Appraisal talent automatically scanning the incoming dark wave. Her face turned ghost-white, all the color draining from her lips instantly.
"We are fucked..." she mouthed in complete horror.
Leading the massive horde of thousands of ordinary zombies were hundreds of muscular, glowing-eyed Ferals...