Instead of launching an attack now that the day was almost over, Bai Zemin decided to get a good night's sleep to replenish his Stamina to the maximum. After all, even though he was still almost at full power, all the work he had been forced to do during part of the morning and most of the evening was really mentally exhausting.
Sponsored Content
Besides, fighting zombies in the middle of the night was not something Bai Zemin preferred to do; at least not until he adapted to fighting an endless horde of creatures that felt no pain, fear, and never tired.
While Bai Zemin had fought and killed countless zombies so far, this would undoubtedly be the first time he would be fighting a horde of millions of them.... In fact, this would be the largest battle Bai Zemin was going to experience as far as the number of enemies was concerned.
"Even now I'm not sure if my skin is able to handle the sharp claws of the zombies." Bai Zemin shook his head as he looked at the starry sky above his head with a thoughtful look on his face.
While the skill 'Silver Skin' of Bai Zemin had strengthened his outer skin tremendously to the point where even high caliber bullets could not pierce through it, he was not 100% sure that it could withstand the claws of the zombies since zombies, just like humans and beasts, were constantly evolving.
The weakest zombie now was probably level 10 and zombies of level 12 or higher would not be uncommon either. If not for the fact that zombies were mindless and extremely slow beings that only relied on primal instincts, the zombie race would undoubtedly be the ruler of this world by now. It was only because zombies were so slow that even a normal human had some chance of victory as long as they were careful.
Of course, the current zombies were creatures capable of creating holes in concrete walls with their fists which was a big difference compared to the zombies Bai Zemin faced in college; zombies which could barely break wooden doors with their sharp nails.
"Tomorrow, I will take the opportunity to test the zombies bit by bit. Even I can't do anything against mana infection, better to be safe than sorry later." Bai Zemin made up his mind before closing his eyes preparing to sleep.
He had opened a sizable hole in a thick tree trunk and crawled in there to use it as a temporary shelter. In addition, he had scattered powder from a ground-up plant that was discovered two weeks ago by his faction's botany team in the surrounding area of the main base.
The name of this plant was Sulfur Orchid. Its name came from the shape of its leaves that resembled small stars, as well as the strong smell that was really repulsive.
When the botany team number 3 in charge of studying the effect of this new plant that appeared on Earth after the world began to evolve, they realized that while humans were able to tolerate the strong smell of the plant without problems, the Unclassified beasts really detested the smell to the point where they stayed as far away as possible unless they were really attracted by something especially strong.
While beasts of First Order and up were immune, the effect of the Sulfur Orchid was good enough to keep dozens of soul evolvers and human teams from wandering a bit more confidently into the forests. In addition, another positive point was that during the night they could spread the powder of the plant, which was stronger than the naturally released odor, and although it lasted less than if the plant was alive, it was enough to last at least one night.
...
The next day.
"Whew... I sure slept great." Bai Zemin climbed out of the hollowed out trunk and began to stretch his body while looking at the bright sun.
It was past eight in the morning but Bai Zemin had slept like a baby until a minute or two ago.
The effect of the powder he had dispersed around the area he was staying in had worked wonderfully as throughout the night, despite hearing fierce roars, Bai Zemin had not been disturbed by any unusual creatures.
The powder of the Sulfur Orchid in conjunction with the fact that Bai Zemin was only on the outer perimeter of the forest had helped to avoid First Order and above beasts that only left their territories in extremely rare cases. As for the Unclassified beasts, the plant did the job.
After stretching to release his slightly locked muscles, Bai Zemin put everything back into his storage ring and took up Annihilation of the Falling Sky before looking in a southerly direction with a faint smile.
"Well, let's get some morning exercise." Bai Zemin said as he slowly walked forward.
* * *
Boom!
Bang!
Boom!
Bang!
...
Booms and bangs resounded through the previously silent woodland.
Bai Zemin swung his spear from left to right with masterful skill thanks to his Blood Berserker job which increased his knowledge of weapons such as spears tremendously in a passive way.
Each swing was accompanied by a wind blade that cut through the trees, branches, vines, and roots that covered the path to the south.
After removing these obstacles, Bai Zemin destroyed the annoying concrete road that not even an off-road truck could pass through and opened a large channel that linked up with the road he had been building since yesterday.
Of course, the noise he was making attracted the forest residents who apparently were not pleased with the human "visit".
Roar!
A green-colored shadow let out a strange sound that sounded like a somewhat weak roar. The beast was undoubtedly a creature whose stats were mainly focused on Agility as its movements and the speed at which it charged forward would only allow a level 30 First Order soul evolver to see a flash before their bodies were cut in two halves.
Swoosh!
The green shadow leaped towards the channel but just as it was five meters away from Bai Zemin, a flash of golden light swooshed before the eyes of the beast. As if time had stopped for a second, the creature seemed to stop in mid-leap before a glint of disbelief flashed in its formerly wild eyes.
Splash!
A second later, the body of the beast split in half from front to back and blood splashed everywhere along with the monster's internal organs and guts.
[You have received the Soul Power of First Order Green Claw Cat level 34.....]
Bai Zemin pierced the head of the monster but he did not find any Soul Stone. Then, he waved his spear four times and cut off the four legs of the beast before casually tossing them into his storage ring. After that, Bai Zemin continued to advance as he finished building a descent path for his troops to pass through.
Of course, throughout the process, the noise and explosions continued attracting more and more beasts. However, the highest level of these creatures was 43 at the most so they were all completely slaughtered without mercy by Bai Zemin.
Approximately 40 minutes later and after having gathered a total of 6 First Order Soul Stones and over 200 Unclassified Soul Stones, Bai Zemin finally finished his task.
Moreover, he finally spotted his main target.
This was the same giant bridge that he had seen countless times so far for when he went to visit his loved ones during rest days or summer vacations. However, apart from its colossal size, its majestic and vivid appearance was nowhere to be seen anymore.
Thousands of cars were piled up along the sides of the two hundred meters wide bridge partially covering the view. Some of these cars were wrecked, others had simply been abandoned by their owners during the first day of the apocalypse, and others had been crushed by something that was definitely not human since the condition they were in was not much different from what they would have looked like if a bulldozer had run over them.
Broken glass, light beacons fallen to the ground, shattered billboards, even the checkpoint blocking the entry to the bridge was not unlike a haunted house at this point.
Dried blood, white bones, and even hair stuck to tough pieces of flesh could be seen on the ground as mutant flies between five and ten centimeters long wandered around the area noisily buzzing their wings.
Bai Zemin even saw on the side of the bridge the scales and spines of what looked like it had once been a fish whose size was comparable to a house nearly three meters high and over six meters long.
"These kinds of sights really don't help improve the mood in the morning." Bai Zemin muttered as he walked step by step forward.
His black eyes flashed in a strange way as he gazed at the seemingly endless sea of heads bobbing back and forth a little over 100 meters ahead.
After two months, the corrupted mana inside the zombies' bodies began to corrode their systems to the point where those that had failed to evolve had practically lost any resemblance they may have previously had to a human being except for the fact that they walked on two legs.
Bai Zemin did not know if as the months and years passed the zombies would die on their own. However, if someone were to ask him about it, he would bet an arm that such a thing would not happen.
"... On the contrary, I bet the infecting power of these damn creatures just got even more terrifying now." He clicked his tongue as he slowly began to pick up the pace.
When Bai Zemin was only fifty meters away from the bridge, the first head abruptly turned in his direction.
'Fifty meters?' Bai Zemin was inwardly surprised.
He could still remember that not so long ago, zombies had a maximum detection range of 30 meters! How could it be possible that in a matter of 3 or 4 days these zombies had received such a huge upgrade?! Bai Zemin felt his mind go blank before he associated this phenomenon with yesterday's phenomenon.
The impending evolution of the Earth was slowly but surely affecting the zombies! Except for their numbers, zombies were undoubtedly the weakest race on Earth. However, to compensate for the lack of intelligence, their slowness, and lack of a powerful physical body; these zombies were constantly getting stronger just by the mere act of absorbing mana and corrupting it into their organisms!
Growl...
The first zombie let out a strange growl, and as if it was some kind of alarm, all the surrounding zombies turned their faces to look in Bai Zemin's direction. The completely white eyes revealed that the creatures had no sight but their sense of smell and hearing worked perfectly as they nonchalantly began to walk towards the approaching human.
Any other soul evolver would probably turn around in fear at the sight of the terrifying appearances of hundreds of packaged zombies advancing at the same time like a well-trained army. However, Bai Zemin was anything but an ordinary soul evolver.
He had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of enemies on his own and had annihilated the entire population of a city comparable to the size of a minor country!
By the time the distance between Bai Zemin and the zombies closed to 30 meters, his steps could no longer be called walking; he was jogging.
At 20 meters distance, Bai Zemin's jogging speed had increased to that of a soul evolver with 30 Agility points.
At 10 meters away, he was running while making use of 80 Agility points.
And, not even a second later, Bai Zemin suddenly seemed to vanish from his previous position.
Bai Zemin appeared as if by magic 50 meters ahead, right behind the first wave of zombies. His body was straight and firm as a tower while the golden spear in his right hand rested the back of it on the ground while the tip pointed skyward.
The wind blew at the zombies that had suddenly stopped and an instant later their bodies split into thousands of pieces. Blood, chunks of flesh, rotting organs, guts, brain matter, and dozens of Unclassified Soul Stones fell to the ground at the same time.
"Time to get the crap out of the way."
Bai Zemin's cold voice rang out amidst the growls of the zombies in front of him and around him. The only free place he had was about 4 meters around and the blood path he had opened a moment ago.
However, Bai Zemin naturally wasn't interested in backing down.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh...
The surrounding zombies hadn't even turned around completely after sensing his Soul Power beside them when Bai Zemin turned his body 360 degrees while swinging his spear in a wide golden circle.
Air blades bathed in golden light spread out at lightning speed and the bodies of dozens of zombies immediately turned into a pile of minced flesh in tiny pieces.
Instead of launching an attack now that the day was almost over, Bai Zemin decided to get a good night's sleep to replenish his Stamina to the maximum. After all, even though he was still almost at full power, all the work he had been forced to do during part of the morning and most of the evening was really mentally exhausting.
Sponsored Content
Besides, fighting zombies in the middle of the night was not something Bai Zemin preferred to do; at least not until he adapted to fighting an endless horde of creatures that felt no pain, fear, and never tired.
While Bai Zemin had fought and killed countless zombies so far, this would undoubtedly be the first time he would be fighting a horde of millions of them.... In fact, this would be the largest battle Bai Zemin was going to experience as far as the number of enemies was concerned.
"Even now I'm not sure if my skin is able to handle the sharp claws of the zombies." Bai Zemin shook his head as he looked at the starry sky above his head with a thoughtful look on his face.
While the skill 'Silver Skin' of Bai Zemin had strengthened his outer skin tremendously to the point where even high caliber bullets could not pierce through it, he was not 100% sure that it could withstand the claws of the zombies since zombies, just like humans and beasts, were constantly evolving.
The weakest zombie now was probably level 10 and zombies of level 12 or higher would not be uncommon either. If not for the fact that zombies were mindless and extremely slow beings that only relied on primal instincts, the zombie race would undoubtedly be the ruler of this world by now. It was only because zombies were so slow that even a normal human had some chance of victory as long as they were careful.
Of course, the current zombies were creatures capable of creating holes in concrete walls with their fists which was a big difference compared to the zombies Bai Zemin faced in college; zombies which could barely break wooden doors with their sharp nails.
"Tomorrow, I will take the opportunity to test the zombies bit by bit. Even I can't do anything against mana infection, better to be safe than sorry later." Bai Zemin made up his mind before closing his eyes preparing to sleep.
He had opened a sizable hole in a thick tree trunk and crawled in there to use it as a temporary shelter. In addition, he had scattered powder from a ground-up plant that was discovered two weeks ago by his faction's botany team in the surrounding area of the main base.
The name of this plant was Sulfur Orchid. Its name came from the shape of its leaves that resembled small stars, as well as the strong smell that was really repulsive.
When the botany team number 3 in charge of studying the effect of this new plant that appeared on Earth after the world began to evolve, they realized that while humans were able to tolerate the strong smell of the plant without problems, the Unclassified beasts really detested the smell to the point where they stayed as far away as possible unless they were really attracted by something especially strong.
While beasts of First Order and up were immune, the effect of the Sulfur Orchid was good enough to keep dozens of soul evolvers and human teams from wandering a bit more confidently into the forests. In addition, another positive point was that during the night they could spread the powder of the plant, which was stronger than the naturally released odor, and although it lasted less than if the plant was alive, it was enough to last at least one night.
...
The next day.
"Whew... I sure slept great." Bai Zemin climbed out of the hollowed out trunk and began to stretch his body while looking at the bright sun.
It was past eight in the morning but Bai Zemin had slept like a baby until a minute or two ago.
The effect of the powder he had dispersed around the area he was staying in had worked wonderfully as throughout the night, despite hearing fierce roars, Bai Zemin had not been disturbed by any unusual creatures.
The powder of the Sulfur Orchid in conjunction with the fact that Bai Zemin was only on the outer perimeter of the forest had helped to avoid First Order and above beasts that only left their territories in extremely rare cases. As for the Unclassified beasts, the plant did the job.
After stretching to release his slightly locked muscles, Bai Zemin put everything back into his storage ring and took up Annihilation of the Falling Sky before looking in a southerly direction with a faint smile.
"Well, let's get some morning exercise." Bai Zemin said as he slowly walked forward.
* * *
Boom!
Bang!
Boom!
Bang!
...
Booms and bangs resounded through the previously silent woodland.
Bai Zemin swung his spear from left to right with masterful skill thanks to his Blood Berserker job which increased his knowledge of weapons such as spears tremendously in a passive way.
Each swing was accompanied by a wind blade that cut through the trees, branches, vines, and roots that covered the path to the south.
After removing these obstacles, Bai Zemin destroyed the annoying concrete road that not even an off-road truck could pass through and opened a large channel that linked up with the road he had been building since yesterday.
Of course, the noise he was making attracted the forest residents who apparently were not pleased with the human "visit".
Roar!
A green-colored shadow let out a strange sound that sounded like a somewhat weak roar. The beast was undoubtedly a creature whose stats were mainly focused on Agility as its movements and the speed at which it charged forward would only allow a level 30 First Order soul evolver to see a flash before their bodies were cut in two halves.
Swoosh!
The green shadow leaped towards the channel but just as it was five meters away from Bai Zemin, a flash of golden light swooshed before the eyes of the beast. As if time had stopped for a second, the creature seemed to stop in mid-leap before a glint of disbelief flashed in its formerly wild eyes.
Splash!
A second later, the body of the beast split in half from front to back and blood splashed everywhere along with the monster's internal organs and guts.
[You have received the Soul Power of First Order Green Claw Cat level 34.....]
Bai Zemin pierced the head of the monster but he did not find any Soul Stone. Then, he waved his spear four times and cut off the four legs of the beast before casually tossing them into his storage ring. After that, Bai Zemin continued to advance as he finished building a descent path for his troops to pass through.
Of course, throughout the process, the noise and explosions continued attracting more and more beasts. However, the highest level of these creatures was 43 at the most so they were all completely slaughtered without mercy by Bai Zemin.
Approximately 40 minutes later and after having gathered a total of 6 First Order Soul Stones and over 200 Unclassified Soul Stones, Bai Zemin finally finished his task.
Moreover, he finally spotted his main target.
This was the same giant bridge that he had seen countless times so far for when he went to visit his loved ones during rest days or summer vacations. However, apart from its colossal size, its majestic and vivid appearance was nowhere to be seen anymore.
Thousands of cars were piled up along the sides of the two hundred meters wide bridge partially covering the view. Some of these cars were wrecked, others had simply been abandoned by their owners during the first day of the apocalypse, and others had been crushed by something that was definitely not human since the condition they were in was not much different from what they would have looked like if a bulldozer had run over them.
Broken glass, light beacons fallen to the ground, shattered billboards, even the checkpoint blocking the entry to the bridge was not unlike a haunted house at this point.
Dried blood, white bones, and even hair stuck to tough pieces of flesh could be seen on the ground as mutant flies between five and ten centimeters long wandered around the area noisily buzzing their wings.
Bai Zemin even saw on the side of the bridge the scales and spines of what looked like it had once been a fish whose size was comparable to a house nearly three meters high and over six meters long.
"These kinds of sights really don't help improve the mood in the morning." Bai Zemin muttered as he walked step by step forward.
His black eyes flashed in a strange way as he gazed at the seemingly endless sea of heads bobbing back and forth a little over 100 meters ahead.
After two months, the corrupted mana inside the zombies' bodies began to corrode their systems to the point where those that had failed to evolve had practically lost any resemblance they may have previously had to a human being except for the fact that they walked on two legs.
Bai Zemin did not know if as the months and years passed the zombies would die on their own. However, if someone were to ask him about it, he would bet an arm that such a thing would not happen.
"... On the contrary, I bet the infecting power of these damn creatures just got even more terrifying now." He clicked his tongue as he slowly began to pick up the pace.
When Bai Zemin was only fifty meters away from the bridge, the first head abruptly turned in his direction.
'Fifty meters?' Bai Zemin was inwardly surprised.
He could still remember that not so long ago, zombies had a maximum detection range of 30 meters! How could it be possible that in a matter of 3 or 4 days these zombies had received such a huge upgrade?! Bai Zemin felt his mind go blank before he associated this phenomenon with yesterday's phenomenon.
The impending evolution of the Earth was slowly but surely affecting the zombies! Except for their numbers, zombies were undoubtedly the weakest race on Earth. However, to compensate for the lack of intelligence, their slowness, and lack of a powerful physical body; these zombies were constantly getting stronger just by the mere act of absorbing mana and corrupting it into their organisms!
Growl...
The first zombie let out a strange growl, and as if it was some kind of alarm, all the surrounding zombies turned their faces to look in Bai Zemin's direction. The completely white eyes revealed that the creatures had no sight but their sense of smell and hearing worked perfectly as they nonchalantly began to walk towards the approaching human.
Any other soul evolver would probably turn around in fear at the sight of the terrifying appearances of hundreds of packaged zombies advancing at the same time like a well-trained army. However, Bai Zemin was anything but an ordinary soul evolver.
He had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of enemies on his own and had annihilated the entire population of a city comparable to the size of a minor country!
By the time the distance between Bai Zemin and the zombies closed to 30 meters, his steps could no longer be called walking; he was jogging.
At 20 meters distance, Bai Zemin's jogging speed had increased to that of a soul evolver with 30 Agility points.
At 10 meters away, he was running while making use of 80 Agility points.
And, not even a second later, Bai Zemin suddenly seemed to vanish from his previous position.
Bai Zemin appeared as if by magic 50 meters ahead, right behind the first wave of zombies. His body was straight and firm as a tower while the golden spear in his right hand rested the back of it on the ground while the tip pointed skyward.
The wind blew at the zombies that had suddenly stopped and an instant later their bodies split into thousands of pieces. Blood, chunks of flesh, rotting organs, guts, brain matter, and dozens of Unclassified Soul Stones fell to the ground at the same time.
"Time to get the crap out of the way."
Bai Zemin's cold voice rang out amidst the growls of the zombies in front of him and around him. The only free place he had was about 4 meters around and the blood path he had opened a moment ago.
However, Bai Zemin naturally wasn't interested in backing down.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh...
The surrounding zombies hadn't even turned around completely after sensing his Soul Power beside them when Bai Zemin turned his body 360 degrees while swinging his spear in a wide golden circle.
Air blades bathed in golden light spread out at lightning speed and the bodies of dozens of zombies immediately turned into a pile of minced flesh in tiny pieces.
