(Lirean Province- Capitol City)
(Local Police Station)
"Get away! Get away you freaks!" a man hoarsely yelled with a mixture of terror and fear in his voice.
Qin Lan slowly stirred from the ground as she smelled the heavy scent of blood coming from somewhere nearby.
There was a mysterious heavy weight on her chest, and it seemed to be shaking ever so slightly as if it were alive.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of shots echoed through the room along with fearsome growls and screams of panic.
Qin Lan slowly opened her eyes and found herself in what could only be described as hell.
She froze in shock as she realised that the weight on top of her body was the corpse of the middle-aged police office who had tried to help her.
As for the reason why, it was shaking ever so slightly…
An elderly woman was feasting on the corpse and her saliva slowly dripped onto Qin Lan's body as it tore into the middle-aged man's flesh.
She appeared to be completely normal except for her eyes. Her pupils had turned completely black.
Qin Lan slowly reached for the knife hidden in her pocket and waited with bated breath as the zombie bent down to take another bite.
With smooth movements that surprised even her… Qin Lan's hand shot forward and the blade neatly slashed the zombie's throat.
It was as though using a blade was somehow imprinted in her mind and all her body had to do was react to her thoughts.
The knife easily tore through the zombie's exposed neck and its head was neatly lopped off. Qin Lan pushed the corpse off her body and stood up.
She stomped on the head of the zombie, and it was instantly crushed into a messy pulp of brain matter and pinkish flesh.
Why was she so strong?
The original Qin Lan was an office worker who worked full time at her company from morning to night.
She could hardly be called an athletic person and Qin Lan was pretty sure even muscular girls would be unable to crush a human skull using their feet.
Qin Lan tossed that question to the back of her mind and focused on her immediate surroundings for any threats.
Torn apart bodies and partially destroyed corpses lay scattered across the ground and the only remaining survivor other than herself was a police office in the corner of the room.
There were two zombies surrounding the office and they both had several bullet wounds in their bodies.
One of them was a female zombie who appeared to be in her early thirties while the other was a small child.
Bang! Bang!
The police officer mercilessly fired off another barrage from his handgun, but he was unable to prevent the mother zombie from closing in.
"No… no… arghh!" the officer's horrific shriek echoed through the room as the zombie tore out his throat.
The sounds of feeding could be heard, and Qin Lan had to force herself not to throw up on the spot.
She noticed that neither zombie was focused on her and instead had directed all of their attention to the meal in front of them.
This was her chance!
Qin Lan silently approached the pair of zombies with a cold glint in her eyes. She had never killed before and yet…
This all felt oddly familiar.
She approached the easier target first and crouched down before lunging at the child zombie. It did not have any time to react before its head was separated from its body.
The other zombie looked up from her meal with blood still dripping from her mouth and ferociously roared.
She abandoned the corpse of the officer and jumped at Qin Lan with a hungry expression on her face.
Qin Lan easily dodged to the side as the female zombie flailed desperately and made wild movements to grab her.
She stretched out her leg and kicked the female zombie which momentarily threw the monster off balance.
It was the perfect opportunity to strike.
Just as Qin Lan was about to finish off the female zombie, she felt a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest, and it felt as though her body was burning up.
Sui Li quickly accessed the original Qin Lan's memories and discovered than a section of the white wall had disappeared.
She continued to swing her knife downwards and the sharpened blade slashed the throat of the female zombie.
The zombie crashed to the floor motionless, but her decapitated head still blinked and growled at Qin Lan.
Qin Lan let out a heavy sigh of relief and placed a hand over her chest.
She discovered that her heart was beating frantically, and beads of sweat were already beginning to run down her forehead.
With a simple stepping motion, she crushed the heads of both mother and child with a sickening crunch.
Now she needed to check the memories…
Qin Lan rubbed her temples and accessed the section that had recently been uncovered.
To her surprise she discovered that it had to do with the abilities that manifested during the apocalypse.
Broadly speaking abilities fell into three categories.
The first was elemental where the user could manipulate and produce elements such as fire, water, earth, air and even lightning.
Usually, they would only be able to control one element but there were always some unique exceptions.
The second was enhancement abilities which would improve the human physique with examples such as increased regeneration, powerful strength, cat-like reflexes and speed.
The last and final category was the rarest.
It was called special abilities and only a small percentage of the population possessed them.
These abilities could range from teleportation to flight to even spatial manipulation. The usefulness of the abilities in this category varied quite wildly from individual to individual.
The warm fuzzy feeling in her chest was a sign that her gift had just activated.
She was now an ability user which mean that her body was stronger and sturdier than a normal person.
Qin Lan stretched out her hands and felt the warm and fuzzy feeling in her chest intensify as if something was about to burst out.
Unfortunately, the recently unsealed memories did not include what her gift actually was, but Qin Lan instinctively knew how to activate it.
She pointed her right palm at a wall and directed the flow of energy to her fingertips. She punched out and the fuzzy feeling intensified.
The original Qin Lan's request included killing as many people as possible using her ability so clearly it must be something capable of mass destruction.
Qin Lan felt the mysterious energy erupt from her body and waited to see the effect of her gift…
Nothing happened.
Qin Lan furrowed her brows and tried again. She repeated the same movements and could feel her gift working but nothing visible was happening to the wall.
No? Was she wrong with her assumption then?
What on earth was her gift?
Qin Lan wanted to practice some more but quickly remembered that she needed to get weapons and leave this place.
Her brother was still out there, and he probably needed her help.
She walked around the room and collected the guns from the bodies of the killed police officers.
Fortunately, there were quite a few who didn't have time to fire off their weapons so there were still some bullets left in the chambers.
Qin Lan did not venture further into the station since guns were usually stored behind locked doors and she did not know how to break or pick locks.
She found a total of around four guns with roughly thirty shots between them. It was more than enough to protect herself and her brother.
Qin Lan also walked over to the zombie heads and reluctantly dug through their mushy flesh until she found small purplish black crystals.
Apparently swallowing these crystals would enhance her ability but Qin Lan did not have any water, so she wasn't going to put those disgusting things near her mouth.
At least not before washing them first…