Five years ago, that was 2025, multiple rainbow-colored lights suddenly appeared on the Earth's atmosphere before crashing down the surface.
On that same day, the rainbow-colored light fully engulfed Earth. All creatures lost consciousness, when they woke up, they found that the world was no longer the same.
The human population was reduced to half while the other half turned into mindless zombies, eager to eat the humans alive.
The animals also started to evolve, they became more ferocious, more powerful, bigger, and more intelligent. Insects multiplied in size as they became even more terrifying.
Countless plants gained sentience as they strived to be more powerful becoming cannibals that preyed on anything that passed by.
...
"BOOOOM! BOOM!"
The horrible explosion blasted an entire 2 story building, the great shockwave sent all kinds of debris flying in all directions.
Not far from the explosion, Rodney hid behind a towering tree. He wore a standard military outfit with a vest and had 7 magazines strapped around his waist. A pistol holstered on the side of his right leg and a knife on his waist.
Although he looked cool, his outfit looked quite old and tattered.
The tree trunk was big enough for 2 people to hug, shielding him from any shrapnel. All kinds of debris bounced off of the tree.
"Pak!" Rodney did not even flinch when a large piece of meat slapped the tree trunk. The smell of rotting flesh assaulted his nose, but not even a single muscle twitched from his face.
He just clenched his AK 47 calmly while silently counting how many seconds have passed.
Only after the sound settled before Rodney emerged. He scanned his surrounding in fear of being ambushed by another undead.
His movements indicated that he was a well-trained soldier. He slowly navigated his way towards the building that just exploded.
The smell of rotten flesh did not bother Rodney in the slightest. After five years of such smell, he already became numb.
Suddenly, his ears twitched and he tilted his head to the side. A wooshing black ink, the size of a baseball went speeding past his ear. He did not need to look back to know the effect of the black ink.
Without hesitation, Rodney rolled to the side and took cover behind an intact concrete. When he looked at his previous location, a black paste was already there, sizzling while slowly shrinking to the ground.
Rodney finally frowned. He did not expect that the five grenades were not enough to obliterate the undead fatty.
Unexpectedly, he sneered. He waited for another 4 seconds and,
"Bang!" The concrete he was hiding behind trembled followed by a sizzling sound.
At that moment, Rodney sprang up, aimed at the figure above the second floor, and pressed the trigger.
His mouth produced a crazed grin as he bombarded the figure with his AK 47 until his magazine was out. He again shrunk back against the concrete and reloaded. All his movements were practiced, taking only 2 seconds to remove and replace his magazines.
He did not care if he missed 3 or 4, with the 15-meter distance, it would surely hit the body. He did not even bother with the ticklish recoils as he secured his rifle against his chest.
"Roaaarrr! Bag!" A scream echoed before another thud echoed on the other side of the concrete.
In that instant, he again sprung up and started shooting. He could see the disgusting zombie being battered up by his bullets.
If this was just an ordinary zombie, it would have already died with two bullets in the head. Unfortunately, this was a mutated undead.
And fortunately, the fat zombie upstairs had lost its legs from the explosion. Otherwise, Rodney would have to run.
A zombie that had eaten many humans and cores of any type would evolve into a stronger zombie. They would get bigger and bigger and sometimes even develop some special abilities.
For example, the big guy above who keeps spitting acid-like black pastes. Although this ability is one of the common types, it is still very powerful against ordinary humans. After all, a spit that could corrode the earth and sink as deep as 5 centimeters before losing effect, is that not powerful?
Fortunately, it takes a little over 5 seconds for the zombie to form such spit, leaving Rodney a full 5 seconds to bombard it with bullets. Shells after shells fell to the ground and the adrenaline rush inducing smell of gun powder made him laugh.
Only after the sixth magazine run out did Rodney confirm that the zombie upstairs was already dead.
Still, he waited for another half a minute and used his ears to hear if something is still going on.
At this moment, his crazed smile disappeared as he went back to the calm young man again. However, his eyes still appeared expectant as he cautiously climbed up the second floor of the building.
The 2 story building was halved thanks to the undead zombie shielding the explosion with its back. The stairs were destroyed so he had to climb using the window.
Still, with his strong physique, it was not that difficult at all.
When Rodney saw the mangled corpse of the evolved zombie, he took out his knife and hurriedly cut open its already battered head.
He heard the blade of the knife tink and he smiled before he used his hand to take out the object inside its head. It was a red-colored, round object, the size of half of a baseball that shone with a yellow hue.
This is the core of the evolved zombie. It is also what's keeping it alive. All the nerves would be connected to this core to keep the zombie alive.
Except for humans, all evolved creatures have cores like this.
"Hahaha! It is actually near Yellow Level! So that was why it was so hard to kill!" Rodney could not help but laugh with the unexpected harvest. It took him 5 days stalking this zombie. He wasted 5 grenades and 9 clips of his AK 47.
3 clips for baiting it in this isolated place and the other six to finally kill it.
He never thought that with this 4 meters tall and 2-meter wide zombie was actually nearing the Yellow Level.
Just like the color of the rainbow, the color of a core would determine the level of evolved creatures.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. Seven colors, seven levels.
Five years passed since that fateful day. And each year, a round of evolution would occur. Meaning, five rounds of evolution.
It indicated that the most powerful evolved creature right now is Blue Level.
Thankfully, the rainbow-colored light that came every year seems to have a rule of its own. People learned that only those creatures that are on the verge of evolution would be evolved to the next level.
That means that this evolved zombie that Rodney just killed would only evolve once the rainbow-colored light appears again no matter how many humans or cores it would eat.
And right now, it is only the 6th month of the fifth year. It would take another 6 months for another round of evolution.
Rodney clenched the core. Although it looked like it would break from the slightest force, this is actually way, way tougher than a diamond. To date, Rodney had not heard of anyone able to break this thing while the energy inside of it still remained.
That's right, although humans lacked cores, they could absorb the energy contained within the cores with a thought. And unlike the other creatures who are limited by their cores, humans did not have limitations. As long as one absorbs enough cores, they would evolve endlessly.
Each evolved people could awaken abilities. Be it the ability to manipulate Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Wind, Lightning, Healing, and many more.
Unfortunately, such people were rare. Almost one in a thousand could have such luck.
Still, even if one does not awaken abilities after evolving, the core could still strengthen the physical ability of a human to a dangerous level.
Rodney, as a Red Level, has a strength 10 times of a normal adult 5 years ago. Mind you, it took him 2 years and 100 Red Level Cores to evolve to Red Level. And 3 years to reach the peak of the Red Level. It would only take little more Red Level Core to finally breakthrough to Orange Level.
Orange Level Cores contains 100 times more energy than Red Level Cores. So this Orange Level Core is already enough for him to evolve to Orange Level. Not to mention that the Core is already nearing Yellow Level.
After all, only evolved creatures have colored cores. And Red Level creatures are already 10-15 times stronger than ordinary humans. It was only thanks to his hidden armory that he manage to live well to this point.
Orange Level is already 20-30 times stronger than ordinary humans. Yellow level is already 40-50 times stronger. Green... Firearms are already no longer effective. You can just imagine how terrifying the higher levels are.
...
Rodney raised the core against the sun while a smile blossomed from his lips. Unlike before, the clouds were white and the sun is not as scorching.
'I can finally evolve to Orange Level!' He thought. Just as he looked down, Rodney noticed a glint coming from the blasted stomach of the fat zombie.
Thinking that it was another undigested core, Rodney excitedly grabbed the shining object.
However, just when he grabbed the object, he felt his finger getting cut smoothly. This only happens when an object is extremely sharp. He did not even feel the pain until it throbbed a little a second later.
He was surprised but still grabbed the object and was surprised to see that it is actually just a diamond. He was about to throw it away when he felt a jolt in his head and he heard a voice.
"Super Soldier System initiated. Displaying System Panel."
Suddenly, a semi-transparent blue screen appeared in front of Rodney displaying a game-like interface that Rodney had not seen in a long time.
Although he was shocked, Rodney immediately calmed down. But his heart still raced when he read the content.
SUPER SOLDIER SYSTEM
Name: Rodney Fernandez
Level: Red Level Soldier
Evolution Energy: 961/1000
Strength: 103
Agility: 102
Stat Points: 10
Skill Points: 100
Storage: 0/ 20
Skills: Expert Firearm Skill (170/200), Advanced Knife Skill (115/150), Advanced Throwing Knife Skill (90/150) Expert Boxing Skill (100/200)
Special Skills: ...
"Forming Gift Pack based on existing Skills! Ding! Gift Pack is already in the Storage. Rodney, you can withdraw or store anything inside the storage. Please be reminded that you currently have a 10 kg weight limit in each slot. You can also combine two or more slots to increase the weight limit. A slot will only store things with similar properties. Please work hard to unlock more System Functions!"
"Hahahahah!" Rodney laughed loudly again. Fortunately, this place is isolated so there are no evolved creatures nearby, otherwise, he would have been attacked with his loud and boisterous laughter.
After he calmed down, he finally noticed that the diamond he held earlier was now gone. Instead, he saw a semi-transparent text above the Core in his right hand.
[Orange-Yellow Level Core: Absorb / Store]
When he thought about storing the Core, it suddenly disappeared, only to appear in a different slot in the Storage.
Storage: Gift Pack, Orange-Yellow Level Core - 2/20
Apparently, the gift pack was as heavy as 10 kilos. While the Orange-Yellow Level Core was only half a kilo. Rodney grabbed a fist-size concrete and stored it.
However, when he tried to store it in the same slot as the Orange-Yellow Core, it did not work. Rodney also tried storing a large concrete weighing over 10 kilos but it did not work. He had to combine to slots before it worked.
"200 kilos is my storage limit. This is going to be very useful." Rodney murmured to himself while he thought about not needing to carry a bag in the future.
Rodney turned his attention to the Gift Pack.
Rodney clicked on the Withdraw button and a huge box wrapped in a red gift wrapper instantly appeared, floating in front of him.
When he held the box, a text appeared on top.
[Gift Box: Open / Store]
With even needing to press the button, Rodneys thought of opening the box triggered the Open.
To Rodney's surprise, the box spun like at great speed before suddenly popping. The red wrapper disappeared to who knows where, before revealing a brand new AK 47 that shone with a black metallic sheen while its wooden parts looked tough and shiny. He also recognized the destructive beauty, the Dessert Eagle.
He saw the 35 stacks of 30 round AK 47 magazines as well as the 20 stacks of magazine for the Desert Eagle.
"Holy!" Rodney could not help gulping. Cartridges were expensive, costing 1 Red Level Core to 100. To think that the system would gift him over 1200 cartridges in just a pack.
That's a total of 12 Red Level Cores. Adding the magazines, that's a total of 24.
There's also a knife and a 12 throwing knives as well as a pair of golden-colored knuckles with pointy edges. It looked dangerous.
1 x Orange Level AK 47
1050 x Orange Level AK 47 Cartridges
35 x Orange Level AK 47 Magazines
1 x Orange Level Desert Eagle
170 x .50 Desert Eagle Cartridges
20 x Desert Eagle Magazines
1 x Orange Level Combat Knife
12 x Orange Level Throwing Knives
'Store them all except for the AK 47 and a Magazine.' With a thought, all of the items were stored. After all, this place is still just 20 km away from the stronghold. Some people like him might pass by and see his strange ability.
He held the brand new AK and was surprised by the weight. It was already triple the weight of the normal ones. It was the same with the magazine.
Still, with his strength, it actually matched. His strength made the normal ones as lite as straws.
"Haha, nice!"
After fiddling with his new gun for a full minute, he stored it in his storage, filling all the slots.
It was then that he turned his attention to the Orange-Yellow Core.