Roar— Seeing the prey in front of them trying to escape, the surrounding zombies surged forward like a tide.
"Hold on tight!" Anthony growled. Before Bella could understand what was happening, she felt her body suddenly lifted into the air.
"Ah!" Bella screamed in fear, which excited the approaching zombies even more. Fortunately, as she was falling, she landed in a strong embrace. For a moment, she felt dazed, her emotions fluctuating like riding a roller coaster. Before she could calm down, a reprimand came from beside her.
"Shut up! Do you want us all to die here?" Anthony suppressed his anger and whispered sternly.
"I..." Bella felt wronged. Didn't she even have the right to be afraid? Before the apocalypse, her family was well-off, and her parents doted on her.
In college, because of her outstanding appearance, admirers would line up from the classroom to the school gate. When has she ever been treated like this? Tears welled up in her eyes like broken beads.
However, Anthony paid no attention to Bella's emotions. In his view, tears were the least valuable thing in the apocalypse. Carrying Bella, he rushed towards the door of a nearby house, pushed his way inside, found the stairs, and ran up while holding onto the railing. When he spotted a bedroom, he immediately went in.
He closed the door, locked it, and then threw the woman on his shoulder onto the bed. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he was familiar with the terrain here; otherwise, they would have been in trouble. But now was not the time to rest.
Anthony turned his head. He saw a young girl half-lying on the bed, her skirt lifted up due to the sudden weightlessness, exposing her perfectly round thighs to the air. Her curvy buttocks were wrapped in a pink Winnie . Combined with the girl's beauty, which could rival that of an internet celebrity, in ordinary times, it would have undoubtedly attracted countless admirers' howls.
But in Anthony's eyes, all of this was worth less than a piece of bread. He still remembered at the survivor camp in Linxian city, when food was scarce and survivors went without meals, many women would sell their bodies in exchange for half a bag of expired instant noodles. He said in a displeased tone, "What are you staring at? Get up and help!"
"Why... Why are you so mean? I haven't offended you, have I?" Bella couldn't stand Anthony's rudeness anymore and cried out.
"Heh." Anthony sneered and disdainfully replied, "Why? Because I saved you. If you say one more useless word, I'll throw you out to feed the zombies!" If this woman continued to be troublesome, he wouldn't mind sending her to an early rest with his machete.
"You..." Bella wanted to retort, but before she could speak, she noticed that Anthony's gaze suddenly turned ice-cold.
"You can try." Anthony's voice was cold. Bella immediately shut her mouth. She was scared because she could tell from Anthony's eyes that if she spoke again, she would truly die.
Seeing the woman in front of him obediently quiet down, Anthony pointed to the nearby chair and said, "Move that chair over here."
Bella nodded, although she didn't know what Anthony meant, she immediately did as he said. She positioned the chairs as instructed by Anthony, wedging them against the door. His plan was simple: use the chairs to block the door, creating a gap wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways.
"When the zombies charge at the door, hold it back for me. Otherwise, both of us will be done for," Anthony instructed, taking a deep breath. He opened the door at a 30-degree angle. As soon as the zombies inside the room caught sight of the living humans, one of them lunged forward. The door trembled as the zombie slammed into it, and the tremendous force caused Bella's palms, pressed against the chair, to ache, but she remembered Anthony's words and pushed back with all her might.
Seeing that they couldn't break through the door, the zombies tried to squeeze through the narrow opening. Anthony's eyes flickered, and he swung his hatchet. With a "thud," a pale head rolled to the ground, and the dark red blood spattered on the door, frightening Bella, who trembled all over.
For a sophomore student like her, this scene was too intense. After dealing with one zombie, Anthony adjusted his position. Another zombie charged forward, and Anthony swung his hatchet again, decapitating another head. Following that, Anthony beheaded over forty zombies in a row, leaving a pile of slain corpses outside the door. The floor was stained black and red with their filthy blood. The remaining zombies were slowed down by the bodies, making their movements sluggish.
"Huff... Huff..." Anthony, with his exceptional physique, still found the intense battle challenging. However, the remaining zombies posed no threat to him anymore.
"You stay here," Anthony instructed Bella, who was already exhausted. He briskly opened the door and went to the stairs, slashing at the zombies still climbing up.
An entire hour passed. Anthony was panting as he gripped his hatchet. He had exerted most of his strength, but the outcome was satisfying. Zombie heads were scattered all over the floor. A quick glance revealed at least sixty of them, which meant his harvest from this trip was enough to support him even after upgrading the Spirit Pool.
Next, Anthony began cleaning up the battlefield. He collected a total of 108 ordinary zombie crystals, including the 78 he obtained now and the 30 he had previously obtained. Before Bella could react, Anthony turned around and rushed downstairs. He had saved the woman out of necessity, but now that the danger was gone, Bella's life had nothing to do with him.
This residential building was close to the base. "Scan successful, please enter, master." The base gate opened, and Anthony swiftly darted in.
Almost immediately, he threw all the ordinary zombie crystals into the conversion room. Remaining energy points: 115.78. Looking at the three-digit energy points, Anthony exclaimed, "System, upgrade the Spirit Pool for me!"
"Ding! Upgrade successful."
"Second-level Spirit Pool: Each consumption of 1 energy point converts 2 cubic meters of Spirit Pool. Drinking it once enhances body attributes by 0.5. It can be strengthened twice a day, with the second strengthening effect halved. Consuming vegetation irrigated by the Spirit Pool increases body attributes by 0.2 each time, once a day. There is a one percent chance of awakening latent extraordinary genes in the human body, becoming an Awakened."
Anthony looked at the description with excitement. He hadn't expected that after upgrading, the water in the Spirit Pool could not only enhance human attributes but also have a chance to unlock extraordinary genes and become an Awakened. It was truly unexpected for him. You see, in a survivor base with a population of a thousand, there would be at most two Awakened individuals and ten Semi-Awakened individuals.
Such a ratio could be considered very low. The Linxian city Survivor Base where Anthony was previously located had nearly three thousand survivors, including five Awakened individuals and thirty Semi-Awakened individuals, making the ratio one in six hundred.
The condition to become an Awakened was consuming zombie crystals, which was known to all survivors in the base. After ingesting the zombie crystals, the energy within them could awaken the latent extraordinary genes in the human body, manifesting different abilities. Some could control fire, while others possessed immense strength. Their physical qualities were twenty times that of an average person. However, everyone knew that knowing didn't mean everyone dared to try. Those who successfully awakened were extremely rare. The probability of failure was high, and failure meant being assimilated into a zombie by the zombie virus contained within the crystals, which was equivalent to death.
There were also individuals who, after ingesting zombie crystals, didn't awaken any abilities. They were referred to as Semi-Awakened individuals, possessing physical qualities ten times that of an average person. The risks of becoming a Semi-Awakened individual were not lower than becoming an Awakened individual, and sometimes even greater. Therefore, having a one percent chance of becoming an Awakened individual was already a tremendous stroke of luck for Anthony. "With the Spirit Pool, perhaps I can become a true Awakened within six months."