After we returned to school, we submitted our reports and then went to our dormitories to clean up and everything. Once I was done, I checked my digital calendar on my smartphone. Good. The weekend was coming, so I could pay a visit to my family at home in a couple of days.
I couldn't wait.
Also, I had yet to test out my new Ability. Though I didn't want to give it away just yet (I love keeping readers in suspense), suffice to say, it was a life-saving ability right now. The next unlockable Ability along the same branch cost a whopping 250 points, so it was going to take me a while to get there. For now, I decided to spread the newly acquired 50 points evenly, along with whatever zombies I killed along the way.
So my stats were about 40, while I had 26 for the second Ability. I could, of course, divert 100 points into unlocking a different Ability – Regeneration looked very tasty – but I really wanted to know what the second unlockable Ability along the evolution branch I had chosen would be. If the first Ability was already such a crucial life-saving one, then what was the second, third and other stuff along the branch?
There were two other Abilities beyond the second one, and from what I could see, the third cost me 500 Kill Count points and the fourth was 1,000. There was no fifth Ability along that evolution branch, surprisingly enough, but I shuddered to think what it would have cost. 2,000 points? Ugh…
The other evolution branches had varying points for unlocks, so it wasn't always a matter of 100 becoming 250. It depended on what the next Ability was. Though Regeneration started at a steep 100, the next 4 along its branch was 200, 300, 400 and 500. I could look into unlocking that one soon enough.
I was getting way ahead of myself, though. I should focus on trying to get as many points as possible. It took me about a week just to gather the 100 Kill Count points I needed to unlock the first stage of my current Ability, though I did also gathered about another 200 for the other stats. At this rate, it might take me a few months, if not years to unlock everything. Then again…what was I expecting? Instant gratification? Accelerated growth like the ones I saw in system stories? This might be a "cheat" but it wasn't a cheat in the sense that it would allow me to immediately become a god.
Where would you get such a convenient and good thing in life? In the end, I had to earn it by working hard and putting in as much effort as possible. There were no shortcuts in life, people simply didn't become gods overnight. Hell, people would probably need years to get to the current level I was at. I shouldn't be complaining…that said, I wasn't the one whining about it. I was looking at the section right beyond the fourth wall, where the existences from a supposedly higher dimension observed my life from the screen of a computer or smartphone and made snarky comments about me being weak even though I already surpassed most of my peers. Or that my progress was too slow. You know, the usual complaints.
Well, they were none of my business. My life was my own to live, and not for other people to decide or judge. That said, there were a few things I could do to ease my progress, and one of them was to get better weapons.
Checking my account balance on my smartphone, I smiled. The missions I had accepted had rewarded me with credits upon completion, and while they weren't as much as I would like them to be, they were enough for me to improve my current condition.
And so I went home during the weekend.
"Zhi Ming! You're back!"
"Good to see you, son."
Mom welcomed me with a hug while Dad nodded at me approvingly. He shook his head.
"It's been a while. Let's have dinner tonight! My treat!"
"Thanks." I felt bad, not wanting my parents to spend any more money than they needed to, but I understood that we were going to have to eat anyway. Might as well get this over and with…and admittedly, I looked forward to whatever meal my dad was planning on buying.
Since I rarely came back home, Dad brought us to a nice little restaurant that served fish curry and some traditional dishes. It was delicious, but I could hear some tension in the place when we were seated at the table.
"Seems like there will be a recession…"
"Yeah, the production facilities in District 4 are suffering disruptions. They say a few of the factories are being closed down."
"Now? Right when there's a new wave of zombies approaching the barrier?"
I felt a chill run down my spine.
"Dad, how's your factory doing?" I asked, remembering that he worked as an executive in one of the factories, supervising the workers and handling logistics. Dad smiled, but I could see some of the worry in his eyes.
"Not very well…as you probably have heard, there's a few disruptions to the supply chain and we can't manufacture anything without materials. We're working hard to acquire new raw materials, but with the ongoing zombie attacks…"
"You have to outsource from other districts?" I asked, not ignorant of what that implied. Dad nodded.
"Yeah, and it's going to be costly. We're in for a tough time, to be honest."
That wasn't good. Suddenly, my meal began to weigh heavily in my stomach.
"Don't worry," Dad assured me, seeing through my glumness. "We'll pull through, as we always have. And this meal isn't that expensive. I can still afford it. Nothing bad is happening…yet. As long as the zombies don't get through the walls, we should be safe. We can still construct buildings and the like. There is always a demand for construction, what with the zombies and mutants wrecking parts of the districts. The only issue is how to expand our territory."
Dad's company handled construction of furniture, installation of windows and other miscellaneous home items. I was glad he didn't oversee the fabrication of shield generators – that was a lot more dangerous. It did pay a lot better, but the risks were exponentially higher. Workers were often attacked by zombies and mutants while constructing the shield generators beyond the barrier, even when escorted and protected by evolvers.
On the other hand, the construction and installation of miscellaneous stuff like furniture and windows didn't pay a lot, and so it wasn't as if our family was doing well financially.
"Don't worry," Dad assured me. "You're an evolver. We're counting on you to help us once you graduate."
"I'll do my best," I promised. Now that I had the Evolution Tree, I was determined to use it to make my family's life as good as possible. I just needed to hang in there and survive until graduation. And then continue surviving as an actual evolver when deployed in increasingly dangerous missions.
"But don't force yourself," Mom reminded me, perpetually worried. "I heard that those monsters out there are growing stronger. If it's too dangerous, you can always quit. There are other jobs. Don't overdo it, okay?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine." I smiled sincerely. Especially with the new Ability I had just unlocked, I shouldn't have to worry about danger or death too much.
If all went well, I might actually become the god of death. Not literally, but that was the name of my new Ability. Hades. I would leave the existences beyond the fourth wall to wonder what exactly that entailed, but boy, do I love keeping them in suspense.
After dinner, we returned home. My parents, unsurprisingly, went to bed early, but youngsters like me and my brother stayed up a bit later. That was when I approached my brother for a favor.
"Zhi Yong, you mind helping me?"
"Yeah, bro? What's up?"
My younger brother might not be an evolver, but he was an engineer who studied at one of the more specialized institutes. He looked up from his workbench, having been tinkering with some gadget that I didn't recognize. He glanced at my guns.
"You need me to repair your guns again? Modify them?"
"No, not really. Thanks for building them for me, though." Yeah, my guns were actually built for me by my brother, and I was proud of them. That was why I was asking him for help. "I've been developing new skills, so I kind of need new weapons. You have anything heavier?"
"Hmm…" Zhi Yong paused and thought for a moment, then he nodded. "So a rifle?"
"Yeah."
"I'll see what I can come up with. How much heavier do you want it to be? Or you're going for rate of fire?"
"I prefer high burst damage. So something like a cannon." I pushed my glasses up my nose. "I guess it'll be like a sniper rifle, but I would prefer area of effect splash rather than pinpoint damage."
"So something like a rocket launcher?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm, I'll see what I can come up with." Zhi Yong nodded thoughtfully. "Give me a day or two."
"Take your time," I assured him. Before I left him to his experiments, though, I had one last question. "Oh, you remember all those role-playing games you used to play?"
"I still play some of them," Zhi Yong said, not looking up and still fixated on the gadget before him. I still didn't recognize it, though it resembled some sort of cylinder. A grenade, maybe? Or maybe not a weapon. "Why?"
"I kind of encountered this new system…" I summoned it and tried to have it float around, but Zhi Yong didn't see anything. Apparently I was the only one who could see it. Frustrated, I left it hovering nearby and tried to describe it in words. "I don't know what happened…it appeared after I touched a machine and now it shows me all these numbers and stats. And unlockable Abilities. An Evolution Tree."
Zhi Yong finally looked up at me incredulously. "Sounds like you've been reading too many system novels, bro. You really should spend less time on the Internet."
I barked out in laughter. "I don't want to hear that from you!"
Zhi Yong shrugged. "Well, I'm not the one seeing imaginary systems floating around in thin air."
He really couldn't see it, huh? I wasn't surprised, though I was disappointed. My brother was the only one I trusted regarding this weird thing. I didn't know who else to share it with. If there was anyone I could count on not to betray me, it would be my family.
"Well, anyway, I'll work on the new rifle." Zhi Yong raised an eyebrow, suddenly amused. "You aren't asking for a heavier weapon because you saw this new system, are you?"
"Yeah, well…" I hesitated. That was partly the case. My improved strength, endurance, willpower and spirit meant that I was more powerful than before, and I had a lot more evolution energy than I used to. So I needed to upgrade my weapons, or get something that suited my new constitution more. I had a feeling that the pistols weren't going to cut it. Of course, I was going to keep them – the more weapons I had in my arsenal, the better. Furthermore, rifles were unwieldy in combat. As I had learned from the soldiers in the 41st millennium, I could fire pistols at pointblank range in close combat, but I wouldn't be able to do so with rapid fire or heavy weapons.
Not unless I was piloting a walker or driving a vehicle bristling with weapons. But obviously I couldn't afford such things. Yet.
Speaking of which…
"Oh, right…here are some credits. Spend them however you want to get whatever materials and stuff you need." I called up a window from my smartphone and began transferring the credits I had from my missions to my brother's account. Zhi Yong's eyes widened when he saw the notification in his smartphone.
"Where did you get so much money from, bro?!"
"I completed a couple of missions over the last week, and so they paid me for it."
"They pay so much for Starlight trainee missions? Really?"
"Yeah, these were voluntary ones with higher risks." I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Don't tell Dad and Mom, but I had to fight warrior-category mutants."
"How the heck did you defeat them!?"
I grinned and waved the two pistols he gave me. "Two of them, I shot to death. One, I blew up. The last one, I chopped off its head with a sword."
Zhi Yong gaped at me. "You defeated four warrior-class mutants? Are you serious?"
"Why would I lie to you?" I accessed my account on my smartphone, then spun the holographic window to show my achievements to him. He shook his head, then his expression turned determined.
"I'm going to work on that rifle for you immediately," he said and turned back to his workbench, shoving the cylindrical thing out of his way and opening up a new window to draw a schematic. "Give me a day, and I'll make those pistols look like a joke."
"All right…I'm counting on you then."
Bowing my head gratefully, I left my brother to do whatever it was that he did when designing new weapons.