Was there really anyone who, even in their unconscious, did not wish to be stronger?
In the past, human beings would try to acquire more money and when they finally had that money, they would want more. When they had enough money to make their lives as luxurious and comfortable as possible, human beings would seek political power or military command... The human mind always wanted more and was never really satisfied even after achieving its past goals.
This was even more so in this new world after the arrival of the Soul Record on Earth.
In this new apocalyptic world, the possibilities of becoming stronger were literally everywhere; all one had to do was to pick up any weapon and go out into the streets to fight zombies or any other existence that would allow them to evolve regardless of whether they were weak or strong.
However, while the possibilities of being stronger were everywhere, this rule also applied to the possibilities of dying. A person had to be mentally prepared for the fact that, at the moment of leaving, he or she might never come back.
While everyone wanted to be stronger, while everyone wanted power, to receive respect, to eat the best food, and to enjoy the praise and longing gazes of beauties; very few were willing to take the risk involved in attaining such successes.
Just now, Bai Zemin had given Fu Xuefeng the opportunity to become far stronger, but he failed to appreciate it and missed out.
Acquiring a weapon, especially a rare grade treasure, was far more important than even having food or safe shelter; because with a weapon of such caliber, even a normal human being would acquire the power to fight zombies or other creatures, evolve, and acquire food or shelter with their own hands.
Fu Xuefeng was not willing to kill? Sure, Bai Zemin would not force him. But even if he knelt down and begged crying tears of regret, it was too late. Such opportunities were not easy to obtain and since he chose his morality above all else, then he had to take responsibility for his own choices and consequences.
Feeling Fu Xuefeng's envious and regretful gaze upon her, Cai Jingyi gritted her teeth and raised the dagger with trembling hands.
"W-Wait! I beg you not to kill me!"
The student's eyes were wide open and the terror in his face was so great that he seemed on the verge of going mad. But how could he not be terrified? This was about death! His death!
"Just imagine what would have happened if you didn't have strength." Bai Zemin's voice sounded behind her, encouraging her and giving her bravery, "If your luck was bad, maybe you would be dead. If your luck was... shall we say, good? You might have been abused by scum like him."
Hearing his words, Cai Jingyi bit her lip and stopped hesitating. Under the terrified gaze of the student and the shocked look of the others, her arm waved at a speed difficult for normal people to follow. The young student felt pain in his chest and as he looked down he saw blood begin to ooze from a small puncture; right into his heart. He looked up and momentarily met the eyes of his killer before the light in his gaze faded and his lifeless body collapsed on the ground.
Cai Jingyi's face lost all color and she brought a hand to her mouth as she looked at the red blood staining the ground. She took several unsteady steps backward, but two firm arms clung to her and kept her from falling to the ground.
"Good job. Now you have not only avenged those who died for his act of selfishness but also gained strength. Isn't that good?" Bai Zemin praised and encouraged her.
"Y-Yes... That's true..." Cai Jingyi could barely speak and nodded. While it was true that Bai Zemin's words were laced with all sorts of manipulations, the reality was that she was willing to hold on to them at this moment.
After calming his subordinate and under the watchful eyes of everyone, Bai Zemin took out another item from his backpack.
The object was a pair of gloves with pointed knuckles that seemed to be able to break a rock with their hardness. This pair of gloves was actually the second item he obtained from the Shadow Tiger's final orb; obviously, Bai Zemin was out of luck since he possessed better gloves.
[Power Gloves (Normal Grade Treasure): Able to break through the defenses of any enemy below level 15. When equipped, it automatically increases Strength by +3].
"Zhong De, do you want them?" Bai Zemin waved the gloves and asked as he looked at the big man.
While the gloves were not so good, the amount of stat points was equivalent to almost two levels; two initial levels might not seem much, but after level 15 leveling up was not so easy and required quite a lot of effort. Therefore, 3 stat points were really good from that point of view.
After a second of hesitation and seeing Cai Jingyi stroking her new weapon now more calmly than before, Zhong De nodded and took a step forward.
He said nothing and directly punched on the chest of another survivor who had incited the chaos, destroying his heart into pieces directly along with several bones. The male student spat blood and with eyes filled with disbelief collapsed lifelessly just like his previous companion.
Unlike Cai Jingyi, his face turned pale but his reaction was much calmer. He picked up the gloves and equipped them before falling silent again.
Seeing that he was a man of few words, Bai Zemin chuckled and praised, "Well done, Zhong De."
"Kang Lan, the next opportunity that comes your way will be for you as long as it is something that suits your style of evolution." He did not forget about his last subordinate and the only healer in the group.
Kang Lan took a deep breath and nodded firmly. She felt a little jealous that she didn't have the opportunity to acquire a treasure but at the same time she was relieved that she didn't have to kill a person. Such conflicting feelings caused her to unconsciously feel a little relieved to have more time to adjust to all the sudden change.
After the death of two more survivors, the other four who had caused trouble were naturally terrified. However, before they could utter a single word, a shadow appeared before them and crushed their necks in a second, ending their lives without hesitation and without unnecessary explanation.
After finishing off the main source of the problem, Bai Zemin looked at the survivors and this time he did not care in any way about the looks he was receiving.
"All of you, let me say this for the first and only time to you..." His voice as cold as his eyes echoed in the subway: "From this damned second on, if any of you dare to cause the slightest trouble or disobey, you will be whipped until you feel your flesh fall off your bodies! Don't you want to work? Don't you want to help? Sure! Then stay obediently in the corner and don't stand in my way!... If any of you dare to obstruct me even once, depending on the le level of trouble caused, I will personally take it upon myself to end your dog's lives!"
The face of everyone present turned pale and they all nodded repeatedly. Although none of them had particularly done anything wrong, they were secretly reminding each other over and over again to be careful not to break any of the rules laid down as the consequences were too serious to bear.
Seeing everyone nodding obediently, Bai Zemin casually concluded, "If any of you are dissatisfied then you can get the hell out of here right now. Neither I nor anyone else will stop you."
Some people seemed hesitant to hear his final words. Especially some hot-blooded male students who were not willing to be treated like dogs. However, the hot blood of these people cooled down as they remembered the danger outside and obediently swallowed all their disaffection.
Seeing no one saying anything and no one standing out to leave, Bai Zemin coldly sneered before looking at Chen He and the rest.
After the previous matter settled down, the survivors moved the bodies to a corner by direct orders from Bai Zemin himself; even those who were disgusted or afraid of blood as well as scared of seeing the lifeless bodies were forced to work this time.
Because everyone knew that the mood of this new God of Death was not good at this very moment, they all obediently swallowed their complaints and dragged the bodies deep into the subway parking lot in groups to avoid attracting other creatures.
Bai Zemin looked at the corpses with some regret. Actually, he wanted to use one of those guys as a test specimen to experiment with the mutated plant to make sure it was a real treasure and not a time bomb; however, in the end, he decided not to do it.
The reason was simple: he did not want Shangguan Bing Xue and the others to know about the existence of the plant; at least not yet. If he took the plant out at that time the secret would be revealed and if he dragged one of the subjects away it would be suspicious. Therefore, his hands were temporarily tied as far as this matter was concerned.
...
"So, can you explain what happened? I hope you have a good reason for having gone out alone or otherwise..."
After walking far enough away from the other survivors without any combat capability, Bai Zemin looked at Chen He and narrowed his eyes.
All the chaos before, from a certain point of view, was closely related to Chen He. Therefore, if he could not give a good explanation now it was highly probable that Bai Zemin would not be able to restrain himself and would end up, at the very least, beating him for being irresponsible.
Chen He wanted to talk to Shangguan Bing Xue about what had just happened, but he could also feel strong pressure coming from Bai Zemin's body so he wisely decided to leave the matter for another time.
He took a deep breath and felt, for the first time in his life, small. Small as if he was a little puppy being observed by a hungry and wild lion.
"The reason I went out was to explore the road. Although during the past few days we tried to clear most of the surrounding strong creatures, if one sneaked into the perimeter casualties could happen and the chaos could become fatal." Chen He explained carefully.
After a moment of silence, Bai Zemin relaxed slightly and nodded. If that was the motive, then it made perfect sense; after all, a zombie did not represent a danger, but a mutated cat or dog did represent extreme danger due to its fast movement speed.
If even one of those creatures managed to sneak in among the survivors, even Bai Zemin himself would have a hard time preventing human deaths. No matter how strong he was, at the end of the day he was only one person and could not take care of nearly five hundred people. Even with the addition of the other evolved ones in the group it would be an incredibly arduous if not impossible task.
"So? How do I end an exploration trip in a four meter tall ape beating you up?" Bai Zemin asked casually.
Chen He blushed slightly and couldn't help but reply, "It didn't beat me up, it didn't even touch me!"
"Whatever." Bai Zemin waved his hand and rolled his eyes. The giant ape didn't beat you up but it sure made you run all over the place like a chicken in a barnyard. He thought secretly.
"Anyway." Chen He coughed and secretly looked at Shangguan Bing Xue before continuing. His expression turned extremely serious and there was even a tinge of fear in his eyes as he said, "At first, there was no problem. Just some normal zombies that were stuck inside some buildings and the like... However, after approximately two hours passed and just as I was approaching the exit, I noticed that the atmosphere was starting to change."
"The atmosphere... was starting to change?" Shangguan Bing Xue remarked uncertainly and looked at her childhood friend strangely.
Bai Zemin also frowned and for a moment thought that perhaps Chen He's head really had been hit by the giant ape after all. However, he soon realized that this was not the case.
Chen He's expression was terribly serious as he said firmly, "Not only had the mood suddenly become much heavier, but even the surroundings were no longer the same! The buildings from before were surrounded by tall grass to the point of almost reaching my knees, the trees seemed to have grown at least two or three times the normal size..."
The more they listened, the more Bai Zemin and the rest were surprised. Everything Chen He was mentioned seemed to be something out of a fantasy or science fiction movie and if it were in the past anyone would treat it as a joke.
However, what was not possible in this world? Each person even had a status window where they could see their personal stats and even become monstrously powerful by defeating other existences and learning magical skills. Talking about common sense in this new world wasn't necessarily a smart thing to do.
"Besides, I think I might have found the source from which all those damn bugs and weird mutated monsters come from." Chen He concluded and in the end couldn't help but curse under his breath.
Bai Zemin's face finally changed and he took a step forward as he hurriedly urged, "What did you see?"
Bai Zemin had always felt that something was wrong with this place.
Ever since the appearance of the Blazing Beetle, he had realized that First Order creatures were not existences that mankind could casually face. To defeat monsters such as those possessing strange skills, probably only a properly armed army could defeat them.
However, in this place alone, Bai Zemin and his group had already faced four such existences; five if one counted the Fast Mantis that was in the process of evolving.
If the university alone was already like this, then wouldn't the outside world be in an even worse catastrophic situation? But from Chen He's words, the situation seemed to have an explanation and a logical reason.
"Out of curiosity and to get some information, I went a little deeper into the forest." Chen He explained slowly, narrating the events that happened a few hours ago, "At first I was surprised that there was no danger at all... But when I got to what I think must be the center of the place, I saw a large number of terrifying monsters next to a... A strange creature that appeared to be a silkworm. I think that silkworm is the main problem here since they all seemed to be protecting it."
Terrifying monsters? A silkworm-like creature? Bai Zemin looked at each other and noticed the same confusion as well as shock and fear.
"Chen He... Those terrifying monsters you speak of, could it be that they are..." Shangguan Bing Xue looked worried about something and didn't even finish her question properly. Still, everyone understood what she meant.
"They are." To the horror of most, Chen He nodded firmly and slowly said, "Just from the aura alone, they are definitely First Order. All of them!"
Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Liang Peng's faces turned extremely ugly upon hearing Chen He's words.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Liang Peng had experienced the power of a First Order creature first hand so they knew how terrifying those beasts were. While it was true that both of them had since become far stronger after absorbing the Soul Power of the Anti-Magic Zombie and other creatures, the fear still lingered.
Although Chen He had not said how many First Order creatures there were in that strange forest he mentioned having found in the middle of the university, only three or four of those monsters were enough to cause problems for the current group... As for if there were more than that amount and they attacked all together, then it would be difficult to survive.
Even Bai Zemin himself had no confidence in facing many First Order existences unless he himself completed his own evolution.
If it was two or maybe three at the same time, then he could somehow manage if he put his life on the line during combat. However, more than that number was beyond his ability, which made him feel helpless.
It's still not enough... I really am still too weak. If only I could kill several tens or several hundreds at the same time, how good would it be? Bai Zemin secretly sighed.
If Lilith knew his thoughts she might die due to anger. He was already the biggest anomaly she had ever seen in her entire life or heard of since the appearance of the first intelligent being, but he still seemed to be unsatisfied.
"How many of those creatures did you see? Even if you don't know the exact number you should have a rough idea, shouldn't you?" Bai Zemin asked after a moment's consideration.
While knowing the truth could sometimes become demoralizing, if a person sank into fantasies of lies then it was only a matter of time before they died in this world.
To survive, Bai Zemin understood that not only strength was needed but also to be realistic and accept things as they were no matter how difficult they were. Otherwise anyone could end up being devoured not by an enemy but by oneself.
Chen He took a deep breath and looked at everyone present before saying with a tinge of fear in his voice: "At the very least... there should be about seven creatures of the First Order... As for the maximum number, my estimate is around a dozen."
"Seven minimum and a dozen maximum...?" Liang Peng muttered in disbelief, remembering the speed and combat prowess of the Anti-Magic Zombie that nearly cut him in two.
Everyone held their breath and looks of despair flashed in the eyes of some of them.
Although Fu Xuefeng and the rest had no idea how strong a First Order creature really was, they could remember the oppressive feeling coming from the dead body of the giant beetle and the blue-skinned mutated zombie. Besides, it didn't take a genius as the expressions on the faces of those who had faced such beings said enough to make words unnecessary.
After several seconds of uncomfortable silence and under an oppressive atmosphere, Bai Zemin's voice called out:
"It seems we need to prepare a few things before we leave if we want to get the other survivors out of this place. Otherwise, the chances of even one of them surviving will be practically 0%."
If Bai Zemin wanted to leave alone then he was confident that except for Agility-based First Order creatures like the Shadow Tiger, no other creature or existence could really stop their footsteps unless one of them had a strange skill. However, if he wanted to go off on his own he would have tried it long ago instead of staying here trying to raise a power by himself.
Shangguan Bing Xue also calmed down after a deep breath that accentuated her perfect body even more. She nodded and spoke calmly, "That's right. It looks like we need to adjust a few things."
Even without Bai Zemin saying anything, she had already understood a few things and various ideas were constantly forming in her mind.
After a brief discussion, the group called the survivors together again and a group of them began to set to work on the task assigned by Bai Zemin.
While the survivors were doing their part, Bai Zemin met with Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, Liang Peng, and the rest to discuss some final outlines of the plan. If the plan succeeded then they could probably retreat without casualties, but if the plan failed then it would be difficult for the vast majority of them to survive.
* * *
Because Bai Zemin and the rest were somewhat tired after working all day modifying the ten buses and because the sun had already begun to descend on the horizon, they all went to sleep after dinner.
With the start of day number eleven since the arrival of the Soul Record on Earth, the ten buses were fully loaded.
The end seats were removed and the freezers were filled with meat and all kinds of perishable food. On top of the freezers were placed the bags of food, and the survivors who now numbered just over four hundred after the previous day's massacre, were able to settle in with ease and comfort.
One of the buses carried only three things; the corpse of the Shadow Tiger, the headless body of the Platinum Ape, and the body of the Fast Mantis. Although it was somewhat problematic to carry the Silver Ape's body inside, on top it was easy and with Liang Peng and Zhong De working together they managed to lift the beast's body without any problems.
In fact, there was even enough space left over to carry all the clothes they had obtained from the male and female dormitory earlier as well as other types of utilities.
Unlike the female dormitory, which had several survivors thanks to the strange behavior of the First Order Anti-Magic Zombie, the students who had barricaded themselves in the male dormitory had not been so lucky.
Two days ago, when Bai Zemin and the rest arrived at the male dormitory, the doors had been broken down and the survivors inside had already turned into zombies or had simply been eaten by other zombies or some other creature.
The buses were started by their respective drivers and slowly and orderly began to move. The engines roared in sync, attracting the attention of the distant zombies who with overwhelmingly slow speeds began to stagger toward the scene.
The small convoy of ten vehicles circled the main street on the north side of the university that connected to the south side and the only exit from the facility that allowed buses to pass.
Although the road had already been cleared once for the most part, it was impossible to wipe out all the zombies considering their numbers unless one was willing to spend several days searching and hunting; therefore, occasionally a few zombies would appear in the middle of the road. However, the drivers, who were normal survivors, did not bother with them and simply continued to push on without altering the course in the slightest.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...
The buses, which had been modified and reinforced using the First Order Blazing Beetle's shell, viciously hit the zombies and sent them flying several meters.
Some zombies had their skulls directly crushed by the heavy collision while some luckier ones got back on their feet with some ignored bone fractures or simply crawled on their hands after losing mobility in their lower bodies.