Even as I ran along the corridor, I passed through stragglers. The zombies knew no fear, much like a certain breed of genetically enhanced super soldiers from the 41st millennium, hurling themselves at me without any regard for their own wellbeing. Driven insane by an endless hunger and insatiable craving for living flesh, they lashed out, their slavering jaws poised to sink into my skin.
I smashed them aside, bludgeoning them with the dented piece of pipe and shooting them pointblank. Fortunately, there weren't many of them here in the corridor, just a few who wandered here by mistake. Apparently the majority of zombies had fallen into the same cavernous space as I had. It appeared that most of them had been buried under debris, their heads crushed by the rubble, so there weren't as many zombies as when my class was first attacked.
The only thing I had to worry about was the grotesque, though. It was on a completely different level, and even trebling my Strength and Willpower wasn't enough to take it down. I needed something else…but what?
An Ability. But where was I going to get the Kill Count points to gain an Ability?
"Huff…"
Pulling away from the last of the zombie corpses, I staggered into an empty room and fell. Good, the coast was clear. It was bereft of any enemy presence, and there were a few furniture I could use. Slamming the door shut, I surveyed my surroundings. The lights, like everything else in this facility, were broken and nonfunctional, but I could at least rest atop one of the chairs.
"…what do I have so far?"
Apparently, I had killed like 66 zombies so far. I called up my stats and noted that each attribute was at 4, while my Ability was at 3. Whoops, math was not my strong suit. I had been describing my stats as being trebled or tripled, but they had in fact been quadrupled. Well, I was more of an arts student than a science student. My major lay in history and literature. You know, because military tactics and the like.
Assigning the values, I distributed them evenly. Though I was tempted to pump all the points into Willpower and maybe Spirit, I was aware that a low Endurance would see me dead. The grotesque might still be able to kill me with a single blow if I neglected it. I also needed a high Agility to continue evading and keeping ahead of the clumsy monstrosity.
There was an argument to be made that I should put all my points into Agility and max out my evasiveness, much like a certain evasive healer who was transported to another world, but I didn't like the idea of gambling on one attribute. If I ended up fighting against an opponent who ignored evasion and had an ability that would surely hit no matter how swiftly I moved, I would simply be screwed.
And while I depended mostly on Willpower and my ability to channel my evolution energy into my guns for optimal killing power, I was aware that there would be times when I would be stuck in close combat – like now. Being able to shake off zombies and smack them away would be a lifesaver.
"Let's go with balance for now."
I put 11 points into each stat. Now my Strength, Endurance, Agility, Willpower and Spirit stood at 15 each, while my Ability had 14 points. Still far from unlocking my ability, but I didn't complain. Even if I had put all my Kill Count points into Ability, I would only have 84, still short of the 100 I needed. Not to mention, I would probably have died in the cavern back there, dragged down by the zombies or perhaps pulverized by the grotesque.
It was only thanks to the combination of enhanced physical and evolution abilities that allowed me to escape that otherwise lethal predicament.
My exhaustion melted away when my Endurance and Spirit improvements took effect. I still wasn't sure if 15 was enough for me to fight a grotesque, but I looked forward to trying. However, I wasn't reckless or cocky to go charging into battle. I needed to prepare, just in case the grotesque was still far beyond my current ability.
"First of all, I need a better weapon," I murmured, staring at the broken piece of pipe in my hand. I tested it out, and I could actually feel a sonic boom rippling out of the swing. This thing wasn't gong to last very long if I continued using it at the current rate. I actually needed an evolver weapon to maximize my current strength, but it would do.
Rising from the chair, I stretched myself and strode back toward the door. Thinking hard, I evaluated my options and nodded to myself. "Let's see if I can find anything useful in this place."
Given the sheer number of machinery lying around in the remnants of this building, I bet there were a lot of exotic tech and equipment scattered somewhere. The place seemed like some sort of research facility, bearing computers and machines that I had never seen before. Though most of it were in ruins, I hoped that there would at least be a few useful ones still intact somewhere.
Pushing the door open, I returned to the corridor and explored the place. By now, there weren't any zombies left because I had cleared them out on my way here. this place also looked abandoned, and until the chasm opened up – either by Qi Ren's earth techniques or some other reason hidden by whatever hallucination spell that was cast on me – it hadn't been touched by any living or undead creature for decades. There weren't even any skeletal remains of the people who used to live or work here.
No, I might be mistaken. I had been slaying zombies indiscriminately without bothering to differentiate between them. Perhaps only a fraction of the zombies were those who fell with me from above. The rest might have always dwelled in the bowels of this underground facility, waiting for fresh meat to drop from above.
It didn't really matter. Zombies were zombies. I would either find something useful or I wouldn't.
My glasses continued to illuminate everything in a sickly green light, the night vision function allowing me to make my way through the corridor without bumping into anything. I passed through rooms, often peeking inside, but not seeing anything within. Or at least nothing useful.
That all changed when I entered a chamber near the end of the corridor. It was almost as huge as the cavernous space I had fallen into. In the center was a colossal machine that was largely intact, despite the wear and tear. Cracks ran along its hull and broken glass revealed meters and innards of bulbs within. But the cabling and wires were largely connected, with only a few rubber casings having torn off to reveal fraying copper.
"What's this?"
I stepped closer to the thing, studying it in detail. The levers and buttons had been shifted to a dormant mode and switched off, but the moment I pushed them, the machine began to hum. Lights flickered on, temporarily blinding me, but my glasses automatically cycled from night vision to default mode.
Then I realized the machine was a generator. Perhaps some time long ago, it had been shut off. The invasion from the undead and mutants, perhaps? The staff might have tried to evacuate, shutting down the building before they left. I wondered why.
Studying the generator, I then noticed the warning label by the side. Wiping the dust that now clung to the wording in puffs, I squinted and read them. As the words sank in, I began laughing.
"So that's how it is."
This was a plasma reactor…an experimental one. The warning was to caution the operators to keep the temperature low, to ensure the cooling systems were working properly. If the generator went out of control, it might result in a catastrophic explosion.
I could certainly use this.
Approaching the sector where the coolant supply was supposed to be, I saw that it had shattered. Whatever fluids were contained within had dried up a long time ago. Glancing past the tubing, I saw the surface of the generator already glowing red-hot. I could even feel the heat from here, the air shimmering around it as the generator kicked into overdrive.
I didn't have much time left. I should get out of here before the plasma generator blew. Hurrying toward the exit, I paused when I caught sight of a dusty floorplan or map next to the door. I wiped the dirt off it again and tried to memorize it, using my glasses to capture an image of it for reference. Automatically I could call up the map and overlay it over my sight, guiding me to the top.
The elevators were probably out of commission, but I could see the stairs leading upward. I had best hurry. I didn't know how powerful the explosion from the overheating plasma generator would be, but it certainly should be able to wipe out the grotesque along with all the zombies in the vicinity.
That was when something drowned out the roar of the generators. The grotesque lumbered into the chamber, snarling when it caught sight of me. It came from one of the larger entrances, a shaft that looked as if it was designed for transporting machinery and containers. That was how the massive monstrosity could fit its bulk through the archway.
"Heh. I was worried you wouldn't show up."
Flexing my hands, I approached the grotesque. It bellowed and charged at me, dismantling pillars and snapping wires along the way. The whir of the generators appeared to grow louder from the destruction, as if something inside it had snapped. A translucent haze drifted over the colossal machine.
The heat intensified. I could feel perspiration clinging to my back, even as I flipped away.
The grotesque roared and threw another punch, but I dodged it. Landing on its fist, I ran along its misshapen arm and lunged forward, swinging the pipe. It connected with the head of the grotesque, and I reveled in my Strength that had been raised to 15.
The pipe disintegrated.
"Whoa!"
With a distorted howl, the grotesque crashed back, its head pulped and smashed into an unrecognizable bleeding mass. Its many eyes blinked rapidly, and the hands and feet that hung out of its swollen bulk waved helplessly at me, as if trying to seize me. I pulverized a few of them with a couple of kicks, planted my foot on its distended belly and propelled myself away.
Just in time too, for the grotesque clasped its mutated hands and swung it down to clobber the ground. It only succeeded in smashing a huge cable, flattening it against a crater.
Vaulting over another strike, I drew my guns and fired, twin bolts lancing into the grotesque and punching through its bloated bulk. It staggered, the evolution energy now finally able to deal massive damage. However, it was disgustingly resilient, much like the plague-ridden legionnaires who had fallen to Chaos during the Heresy.
Even with more powerful shots, I couldn't fell it just yet. Maybe I would eventually wear it down after a hundred or so shots, but I had neither the time nor the evolution energy to sustain such a lethal barrage. Still, I was pleased to see that my abilities had improved tremendously.
Combat against the grotesque was no longer as one-sided as before. I could fight back now. I could even hurt it!
Blazing another volley of bright bolts from my guns, I brought the roaring grotesque to its knees. It snarled and dragged itself forward, its fused, fleshy fingers scrabbling against cracked machinery and ruptured cabling alike. It howled when electricity coursed through its body, but it endured the pain and pulled itself forward, swaying back to its feet.
By now, I had shifted my aim. Aware that I didn't have the time to whittle it down to nothingness, I decided to fire at something else instead. Making use of the targeting systems in my glasses, I cut through a couple of suspended wires with precise bolts of azure energy. There was a metallic groan, and then a whole portion of gadgetry that was held up by the arcane mechanisms of the generator crashed downward.
The grotesque, for all its speed, wasn't very agile or responsive. It swaggered past wreckage, only for the falling components of the machine I had just blasted apart to rain down on it, burying it under rubble. It bellowed and thrashed about, but the weight of several tons of metal pinned it to the ground, immobilizing it. Several cylindrical metals impaled its shifting mass, their jagged edges punching through flesh, muscle and bone and lodging deeply in the ground.
"Catch you later, buddy," I said, leaving a parting shot that melted its hideous face and rocked it backward, still flailing under the debris. Then I turned and ran back into the corridor, heading toward the stairs that I saw on the floorplan.
Behind me, the grotesque raged impotently, even as the whine of the shuddering, overheating generators grew louder.