"What just happened?!" I asked myself as I wiped the sweat off my brows. Now that I finally had the time to breathe, the System bombarded me with notifications that I almost got overwhelmed by it. At first, I thought that maybe I should just tell the System to shut up but I knew that would be disadvantageous for me. Albeit being rather annoying because of its monotonous voice, I didn't complain about it since they were basically perks I receive after I gained enough experience points.
I looked at the pile of rabid humans that I defeated before letting out another sigh. Ever since I got separated from Luo Zehn and those survivors from the Si Shelter, hordes upon hordes of rabid humans confronted me as if they didn't want me to breathe. By the time I realized why I've already defeated all of them.
And after fighting against them, I've reached level ten! I also understood a few things about the System and rabid humans. Honestly, there were a lot of things that I don't know yet.
First was how this Subordination works. Once I've defeated a rabid human, a prompt would come out in front of me asking whether I'd like to turn the rabid human into my subordinate or not. I don't know why the System gave me this sort of skill but it had been helpful in subduing hordes of humanoids. Even though I could only turn twenty of them every time I fight a horde, they've been a great help.
But there was a downside to it, however. As it turned out, summoning a lot of them drains my qi energy and if I use it long enough, I'll be too exhausted that I wouldn't be able to keep awake. At one point, I almost dozed off while fighting a horde of rabid humans and that traumatic experience made me not rely on my rabid human subordinates too much.
Secondly, I finally found how to take care of this thing called the bad egg that the System gave me. Apparently, when I pour qi energy into it, cracks appeared on its surface. The more I poured, the more the cracks get bigger. Maybe if I'm patient enough, I could hatch the bad egg in no time BUT! I can't afford to waste qi energy at such a crucial time. Rabid humans could attack me at any moment after all.
Next was my Qi Core. The more I cultivated, the more I could feel myself reaching the bottleneck of what I could handle. It's all because of my Virus Qi Core and my original Qi Core. The two of them weren't really compatible when it comes to cultivation so I had to carefully tread the cultivation path as carefully as I can. One wrong move and I'd either explode or straight up revert into a mindless rabid human again.
Finally, the one thing that I noticed the most in my travels was the rate the virus was evolving. If I could compare it to cultivation, the mutation of the virus is much faster, therefore producing stronger rabid humans. It had only been more or less a week since I woke up and I've already had close encounters with rabid humans on par with those in the Immortal Realm. At this rate, they might even surpass the strength of a cultivator in the Dao Realm, which is only two steps away from Immortal Realm.
But for now, they shouldn't be a problem. I know quite a lot of masters and teachers back in my days who were also on the verge of the Dao Realm. If it were them, then they won't have a problem dealing with super high-leveled rabid humans. And also, five years of slumber is such a long time, maybe there are geniuses who appeared while I was roaming around the city as a mindless rabid human.
Not that I would count on it though.
I stared at the half-eaten fish in front of me, then my eyes wandered towards the makeshift campfire that I made. Because of all the things that happened the past day, I didn't even notice that it was already in the middle of the night. From an onlooker's point of view, I may look like a normal person camping in the middle of the forest. Honestly, without the rabid humans in the picture, I'm probably dwelling in the most peaceful setting I've ever had. With a campfire in front of me, the gentle swaying of the trees and rustling leaves, and the occasional breeze that passed through my face, it was quite a relaxing moment.
If only the rabid humans aren't here.
But then again, I wouldn't have enjoyed this if they hadn't appeared. The reason why these forests became even lusher was because of the lack of human interaction therein.
"Now, this is not the time to daydream, Yongrui. You have a mission." I told myself as I opened the panel that the system gave me. Just like before, the Status Page and the Inventory Page was still existing in the panel but right now, there's an additional section called Shop. When I clicked on it, a bunch of items came flooding the screen. Different types of weapons, potions, cultivation materials, as well as elemental technique scrolls were there.
"Whoa! What's this?" I exclaimed as I checked every section of the shop. There were a lot of things on sale that I don't even know where to look first. My heart was beginning to pound quicker as I checked every item out. Fortunately, there was a sorting function in the shop that lets you sort by grade or by price, which made it a lot easier to find the things I was looking for.
"Vast array of weapons and high-grade cultivation materials that I couldn't even dream of getting before. This shop's the real deal. Now, the only problem is how do I earn money specifically for this shop?"
"System, how do I earn money here?" I asked after seeing a big fat zero beside an icon of a coin at the top of the shop.
"By killing, specifically humans." The System urgently answered.
"Wait, are you serious?!"