On another floor...
"If you can't beat him, you can only join him. Right, Jun?"
Jun smiled at the man's words and nodded.
"Exactly, and with your brains, I'm sure you can find a way for our group to get stronger."
Michael grinned widely hearing the compliment.
"Of course, we just need to find the armory on the 7th floor and we're good to go."
"And you know where it's located right? No detours."
"Of course, I wouldn't lie to the group leader. The armory is located at the east wing of the 7th floor. My uncle showed me around when I visited last time."
"Great." Jun clasped his shoulder, "Once we get those weapons, our chances of surviving will increase greatly."
"Right, right..."
Jun stood up and the three people next to him followed.
"Let's go, we got a few more floors to go before we reach the dining floor. Let's hope the adults got drunk early and left early - which should be impossible."
"That's the easy floor. What will cause trouble is the commercial area on the 8th and 9th floor."
Jun continued patting the man's shoulder. "We'll think about it later."
***
The clock hit 12 o'clock and it's midnight now.
Alex just completed his basic exercises and is now undergoing energy control training exercises.
Today what he wants to achieve is a quicker skill swap time in events where different skills are needed for different situations.
After an hour of practice, Alex is finally exhausted.
Using the skills don't tire him out, but actively switching the skills around need concentration and focus that he always need to have so he can't go all out on the training in case something happens.
Next, he decided to further experiment with his energy.
With the regular practice, he noticed some positive changes with his special energy.
The usual transparent hue became more solid white and its glow slightly became ethereal.
That could only mean that he's energy is undergoing changes - and will continue to do so in the future.
"That means somethings are not impossible. I'm just to weak or I don't meet the correct conditions for activation."
Alex struggled to find a word to use but eventually settled with the closest thing he found online - cultivation.
"Cultivation, huh? Maybe that's the key word I need to remember which I'll be using a lot of times."
Alex continued with his experiments.
The mental and spiritual training still bore no fruit, but the material enhancements started showing some improvement.
His energy can now latch to an external item much easier and much longer than before.
Yesterday, he could only force it to barely latch almost halfway on the small crystal stone, but now he had no problems reaching the middle point without exerting too much effort.
Though he doesn't know what he can do by covering the stone with energy, just remembering how he smacked a zombie to the ground with his bare hands gave him a glimpse of the potential applications and the unlimited possibilities of the special energy.
After training some more, he decided to rest a little bit and went to short nap.
When Alex woke up, he felt refreshed and ready to tackle the new day.
He took his laptop and did some light browsing, searching for information and any news about the apocalypse.
He tried to contact his parents but they're still offline.
"I hope they're fine. They're strong and capable, they should have survived."
Alex kept reassuring himself.
His phone's signal is still active and his network is not blocked.
Online news and social media sites are still available and is the main source of information of the current situation.
Though some of them are still not reliable, the general picture is clear.
It's the zombie apocalypse and the world is currently experiencing its first wave.
Mutated animals and zombie variation sightings are becoming common creating new fear and panic on the populace.
Some places are completely overrun while others are holding their ground already establishing an inkling of safezones thanks to military and civilian volunteers.
Government forces are doing their best and some countries have declared martial law and mobilized their armed forces but with bigger land and population, they're having a hard time responding to all of their cities.
"This is the only time I'm happy the Philippines is a group of islands. The population is very limited and a lot of areas are still uncreclaimed land."
One thing is for sure, though caught by surprise, the world slowly recovered its bearing - at least a semblance of recovery on some parts of the world.
As an average survivor, Alex doesn't have the luxury to worry about the bigger picture.
Right now, all he wants is a safe place, some food, bunch of water, and the internet.
The internet is the most important and a lifeline for him. It's his only source of new information and hope.
He also learned the importance of staying up to date since a lot of things could change within an hour or less.
On the center of the town, a rich generation heir already claimed a hotel as their turf and are looking for survivors to come and help protect the place.
They offer a safe and fortified place in exchange for your labor.
It was the first large win announced online and it brought a lot of hope and positivity on everyone.
If it wasn't so far, Alex would have been tempted to go there himself.
Thanfully, he's lucky that his area is still not overrun due to other survivors causing enough ruckus attracting hordes of undead away from him.
Staying put for the win!
The advantage of being alone or having a small group is the ability to remain hidden at all times if they're careful enough
Another harsh truth slowly revealed itself on every passing hour of the apocalypse - the weak gets weeded out while the strong stays to grow and fight another day.
Alex continued to spend most of his time cultivating his energy reserves while researching cultivation topics online.
Not many people are discussing it right now and most threads he found online were a year or two ago, making them somewhat irrelevant.
Especially with questions like if there would ever be a time humanity can cultivate what powers do you want, or what kind of person will you become.
The only thing he could find is definitions of various cultivation on online dictionaries and summaries of cultivation novels.
The first one is vague and too general like how to cultivate plants, how to cultivate a positive life balance, and how to cultivate a good relationship with God.
As for novels, he could understand how the novel authors described cultivation, but the real question is, is it applicable and possible to the real world?
And can he cultivate it?
But after he remembered the special energy and its functions, he had to consider things a bit more seriously.
"I already know my energy is not a normal energy, so I think I can do it. The problem is how do I cultivate? Usually, there's a manual or cultivation method you need to follow... Do I just continue using the breathing technique I created?"
Alex compared the benefits and differences of cultivation he found online to what he's experiencing right now.
A frown slowly formed on his forehead.
They're almost identical!
The increase in strength, abilities, and the special energy which can be attributed to Qi.
"If I look at it this way, everything appears on place. I just need to keep on going, no? But that's a bit too easy. There should be a catch."
The only problem is he's not getting stronger despite using the breathing technique he created and the energy exercises he's been doing.
It's like he's stuck on a bottleneck.
Gasp!
But cultivation has ranks and stages, how do I know where I am right now?
Wait... if I'm pioneering this, shouldn't I be the one creating the names.
I'll just follow the system in the novels I've read.
Body Refining - Mortal, Foundation Building, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, and Immortal.
Nah, they sound so strange...
Alex excitedly worked on writing out the cultivation names finally taking his mind off the pressure.
By the time he finished, it's already mid-afternoon.
"I didn't know naming ranks can be this hard... I don't want to name them level1, 2, and so on, but I want to keep things simple. Right now, I'm..."
"...a Rank 2 Initiate."