nycdaug Chapter 2 Superpower
Chapter 2 Superpower
Li Chenglong took a few quick steps and leaped onto the wall of his courtyard house. He reminded his sister to be careful, then looked into the alley. He spotted two zombies, an old man and a young boy, in the alley. He recognized them; they were Grandpa Liu and his grandson from next door. Grandpa Liu was a Vietnam War veteran, very healthy, and often came over to chat with Li Chenglong about their wartime experiences. Over time, the two had become close friends despite their age difference. The two zombies noticed Li Chenglong crouching on the wall and roared as they charged, their hands raised high but unable to reach him. Although Li Chenglong hesitated, after a moment's thought, he gritted his teeth, jumped down, kicked the older zombie to the ground, stomped on its head until it burst, and then, with a swift motion, beheaded the younger zombie.
Just as Li Chenglong breathed a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt two faint warm currents rush into his body. Startled, Li Chenglong quickly investigated and discovered a vortex-like mark on his stomach, constantly absorbing the two energies. While it resembled a vortex, it looked more like a small dragon coiled together, with the energy continuously converging towards its mouth. Li Chenglong studied it for several minutes without finding anything, so he gave up trying to figure it out.
Li Chenglong was about to leave, but then he remembered there were many more zombies outside, and he was only one person with a dagger; he was outnumbered. So he went into Grandpa Liu's house. A few days ago, when he chatted with Grandpa Liu, Grandpa Liu proudly mentioned that he had a Maiguo entrenching tool, which he had captured years ago and maintained daily, making it look brand new. Li Chenglong tiptoed into the house, first closing the gate, then gently pushing open the door with his left hand while holding the dagger in his right. At that moment, an elderly zombie suddenly rushed out from behind the door. Li Chenglong decisively pushed the door open, knocking the zombie down, then rushed over and plunged his dagger into the zombie's eye socket, ending its life. Only then did he have time to examine the zombie closely and realize it was Grandma Liu. Li Chenglong couldn't help but feel sad. Grandpa Liu was a retired veteran, Grandma Liu was a textile factory worker, and their son, Liu Dongliang, was the head of the police station in Qing'an Town. Moreover, Grandma Liu often came to their house to help Li Xue cook when she was busy. Such a beautiful family had been destroyed like this. "Damn this apocalypse!" Li Chenglong roared and slammed his hand on the table, shattering the solid wood table with a single blow.
What was going on? Li Chenglong looked at his palms and found that his hands were enveloped in wisps of light. He then slammed his palm against the door again, creating a large hole. "Have I awakened a superpower? A superpower from a post-apocalyptic novel?" Li Chenglong muttered to himself. Just then, his phone rang. Li Chenglong picked it up and saw that it was a call from the Jinghai Base. He quickly answered. A female voice came through the phone: "Are you really from the Donghai Base?" Li Chenglong replied, "Yes, I am. My discharge certificate number is..." The female voice continued, "A unit from our Jinghai Base is heading to the city. We should be able to reach the First People's Hospital of Jinghai City in a day, but we will only stay for two days. Your Qing'an District is a bit far from Jinghai, so we probably won't be able to get there. If you have the chance, please come and meet us. Also, the United Front Work Department just released the operational guidelines for dealing with zombies and alien species an hour ago. I'll send them to you right away." Li Chenglong quickly asked, "Do you know where the Donghai Base is?" The female voice paused for a moment and said, "The Donghai Base is still in the same place, but I heard they were attacked by some alien species and a large number of zombies. The base was also hit by several spheres, and many people turned into zombies, so the losses were quite significant." Li Chenglong gritted his teeth and said, "Thank you for the information. If I have the chance, I will definitely meet up with you. Take care." The female voice then said abruptly, "I'll wait for you," and hung up the phone. After making the call, Li Chenglong received a document forwarded by the woman from the United Front Work Department. The document essentially stated that all departments should unite under the unified command of the United Front Work Department, obey orders, and work hard to win the battle against the zombies and alien beasts. Several other publicly available news items also caught Li Chenglong's eye.
Major General Sun Tianlong, the spokesperson for the Xia Kingdom regarding the zombie outbreak, issued a mobilization letter to all the people of Xia. The letter detailed the locations of Xia's eight major military bases and sixteen smaller military bases. It also explained that the zombie virus could spread through water and bodily fluids, and that high concentrations of the virus could also spread through the air, but low concentrations would not. It further stated that to defeat zombies, destroying their brains was essential—information highly effective against humans. After reading the letter, Li Chenglong finally had a general understanding of the current situation and began to study his special ability. He first carefully observed the dragon on his stomach and noticed that it seemed to have grown three scales. "Does killing zombies increase the number of scales? What will happen when the dragon's scales are fully grown?" Sun Tianlong wondered. Then, he concentrated his mind, channeling the energy within his body into his hands. His hands and forearms emitted a glowing light, like light blades. Li Chenglong went outside and found some firewood that Grandpa Liu used for boiling water. With a single chop, the wood split in two.
However, this phenomenon didn't last long. Li Chenglong felt dizzy and fainted in the yard. About an hour later, he slowly woke up, feeling weak all over. He tried to summon his power but found it empty, and the three scales had dimmed. "So it has the same function as a battery," Li Chenglong said. After resting for a while, he noticed the dragon scales gradually regained their color, and then the three tiny wisps of gas reappeared. Li Chenglong was overjoyed: "It didn't disappear!" He was about to practice again to hone his ability, but then he saw it was already noon and, remembering his sister was still at home, he immediately headed to the supermarket.
The streets were a mess, littered with wrecked cars and mangled corpses. Perhaps because Qing'an was a small town, there weren't many zombies. Li Chenglong, utilizing his special forces skills, silently eliminated over a dozen zombies along the way. He felt a dozen more surges of power flowing into his body; though small, they were better than nothing. Fortunately, his sister's supermarket wasn't far from home, and Li Chenglong rushed there. However, upon arriving, he found the tempered glass door smashed open with something, and the goods inside almost completely looted. Li Chenglong, armed with an entrenching tool, crept inside and found two zombies gnawing on a corpse. Next to the corpse was a large bag, its contents scattered on the floor. Li Chenglong quickly dispatched the two zombies and picked up the bag. He had packed a lot of chocolate, Snickers, sausages, and other food, and slung the bag over his shoulder. Suddenly, he noticed a crystal-like object, about the size of a soybean, fall from the brain of a slain zombie. If Li Chenglong hadn't been a special forces soldier for many years and had such keen senses, he wouldn't have noticed it. Li Chenglong picked it up and examined it in his palm: "Could this be the legendary crystal core that appears so often in novels?" But he didn't think much of it, put the crystal core in his pocket, and left the supermarket.
As soon as Li Chenglong stepped out of the supermarket, he heard a gunshot or two. It was almost impossible for ordinary citizens in Xia Country to own guns; those who did were usually government officials. Since the base's people wouldn't be here, it must be the police. Li Chenglong immediately rushed over and found over thirty zombies, led by a noticeably taller one, attacking several policemen. Li Chenglong charged forward, taking down two zombies with two shovel strikes, then threw his dagger, piercing the skull of another zombie. The policemen were stunned, wondering where such a skilled fighter had come from. Even the zombies were momentarily stunned. Then, the tall, red-eyed zombie turned and charged at Li Chenglong. One of the policemen, who appeared to be a leader, finally recognized the newcomer: "It's a human! Don't fire by mistake!" Seeing the zombies rushing towards Li Chenglong, he quickly led the other policemen to provide cover. Li Chenglong wanted to test the strength of this more advanced zombie, but the weight on his back made it difficult for him to move freely. He casually took off his backpack and threw it to a policeman, saying, "Keep this safe for me, I'll deal with this zombie." In his haste, he didn't even see who it was, and it landed squarely on a petite policewoman. Given Li Chenglong's strength as a superhuman, he actually knocked her down. Li Chenglong had no time to worry about that; he engaged the advanced zombie in combat. The zombie was tough, and several blows from an entrenching tool only slightly scratched it. Li Chenglong threw away the slightly deformed entrenching tool, and instantly, wisps of light enveloped his arms, astonishing all the policemen. The policewoman rubbed her forehead, stood up, and said to her superior, "Captain Wang, is this the superhuman or awakened one we mentioned earlier?" Captain Wang replied in surprise, "It should be, but he seems much stronger than the superhumans mentioned in the report. He should be an awakened one." Li Chenglong transformed his hand into a light blade and engaged the advanced zombie in battle again. As the old saying goes, magic must be used against magic. The advanced zombie gradually couldn't withstand the onslaught and roared, spitting out a fireball. Li Chenglong immediately dodged, the fireball destroying a nearby car. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Chenglong charged forward and chopped off the zombie's neck with a single chop. A surge of energy gathered within Li Chenglong's body, instantly adding eight more scales to his stomach. Just as Li Chenglong was absorbing the energy, the other ordinary zombies were also killed by the police.
Captain Wang approached and said, "I am Wang Yousheng, the deputy captain of the Longxing County Armed Police Brigade in Qing'an Town. Thank you very much for your help. You are an Awakened One, right?" Li Chenglong asked, "I am Li Chenglong, a retired soldier. May I ask what you mean by Awakened One?" Captain Wang thought for a moment and said, "This is what we learned from our superiors before leaving the police station. It is said that a mysterious person gave us a document that details that although most of us humans will turn into zombies under the influence of the virus, there is a very small possibility of evolving into superhumans or Awakened Ones. Superhumans have a special ability, such as releasing fireballs, ice arrows, water streams, or rocks. Awakened Ones are different; they all..." It has its own unique patterns and can awaken extraordinary powers. We were ordered to investigate here, but on the way, we were accidentally targeted by a level two zombie. With our pistols, we could only deal with level one zombies, so we fought our way here.” Li Chenglong was surprised: “Zombies are divided into levels?” Deputy Captain Wang said: “Yes, according to the information from that mysterious person, currently, people with superpowers and awakened individuals are divided into 12 levels, and zombies are also divided into 12 levels. The zombie we just saw was level 2, but it's about to evolve into level 3. It seems it has eaten quite a few people.” Li Chenglong chatted with Captain Wang for another two minutes. Fearing that the gunshots would attract more zombies, Captain Wang hurriedly led the police away. As they left, the policewoman threw her bag to Li Chenglong, glared at him, snorted, and walked away. Li Chenglong shrugged, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and checked whether the level 2 zombie had a crystal core. He found that there was actually a cyan crystal core. Although Li Chenglong did not know what the crystal core was currently used for, he still rinsed it with water, put it in his pocket, and went home immediately.
On his way home, the woman called again, giving Li Chenglong a more detailed explanation of the mysterious person and the information. Li Chenglong asked, "Do you know about crystal cores?" The woman was a little surprised: "How come you found crystals? According to the mysterious person, ordinary white crystals can only be used to make bullets for zombies, but high-grade crystals can grant ordinary people the power to evolve, turning them into superhumans or even awakened beings. Crystal cores come in eight colors: white, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. The darker the color, the higher the theoretical awakening ability. Our base has killed no less than 20,000 zombies and dozens of mutated beasts, and we've only found a little over 100 white crystals and five or six awakening crystals." Li Chenglong said, "I only found one white one, but I'll keep an eye out for others later." The woman whispered at the end, "By the way, after our research, we discovered that level one superhumans can resist ordinary zombie viruses. This news hasn't been made public yet." Li Chenglong's pupils suddenly contracted, he said thank you, and hung up the phone.