Chapter 99. System: Do Zombies Have A Soul?
A few hours ago, in the void outside the world.
Finally my [Scan] reached the world with flickering light.
While activating [Calculate], I used [Transfer] to send a special stone I created. It is a precious stone that's been especially created to be extremely hard without changing the amount of energy it contains. Just like usual, I've granted that stone with [Scan], so I can see its surroundings. As for the destination of this stone, it is the interior of that flickering world.
Activating this [Transfer] cost me 70.000 points which makes my heart ache.
After the stone I sent arrived inside the world, I started to sense the amount of energy inside. With a brief [Scan], I found the energy container inside the world's materials to be slightly lower than the cultivation world. But, still much higher than the materials inside the Martial Arts world.
During that time, I've also seen the surrounding of that stone. It is part of a modern city filled with tall buildings, and looks exactly like Earth where I come from. That is if one ignores some torn limbs and bloody scenes that occasionally happen in the city.
Currently, the stone I sent has arrived at a female underwear store nearby a three-way junction.
This view makes my heart skip a beat, or at least it should've done so if I have a heart.
Of course it's not because of being located in an underwear store. With [Scan] that's basically an x-ray, I've seen all kinds of underwear in the cultivation world.
What makes my heart skip a beat is the familiar world that looks exactly like earth.
While I am in shock due to the familiar scene. A few seconds later, the stone lost contact with me. Luckily, I can still feel its existence, which means the stone hasn't been destroyed by lightning or other means.
I decided to wait for a few hours and see whether the stone will be destroyed. Although I am incredibly anxious upon finding a world that might be Earth. But what I am going to do next will involve a lot of points. If things turned south due to my anxiety, I won't be able to recover from this financially.
Three whole hours quickly pass by and the stone is still intact. I can't use my skill through it, but the stone is still among the list of things I've anchored. Which means it hasn't been destroyed.
Finally, I decided to spend 1.111.110 points to attach that stone with all of my skills. This is a massive bet, I bet that once I've anchored all of my skills on a target, I'll regain my connection with them even if they are located far away from Ren Qingquan. Although I called it a bet, I've gathered enough information to be more than 90% sure things will work as I intended.
Once I added one million points to the stone and granted it with my [Anchor] skill, I can feel my connection with it strengthened. If the connection I have with Ren Qingquan is equal to that of a family, and the level of connection I have with other subsystems hosts is equal to acquaintance. Then, the level of connection I have with the stone has turned into that of a best friend.
Soon, it feels like I can activate the skills I granted on the stone once more. I followed along the connection I have with the stone and activated the stone's [Scan].
The [Scan] activated and I saw the modern city once more. As the level of this [Scan] has increased compared to before, the view radius of things I could see has increased. It has now reached 5 kilometers in radius just like the [Scan] Ren Qingquan has.
From the result of [Scan], I found out this world is currently in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Within the five kilometer radius of my [Scan], around 90% of humans have turned into zombies roaming around.
Just like the Cultivation World, this world is also filled with energy. But the density of energy is much lower and differs greatly from spirit qi. Compared to spirit qi, the energy in this world is much... staler? I'm not entirely sure how to explain the difference.
I also concluded this world is incredibly similar to the Earth I come from. As for how I reached that conclusion, it's because there are some subtle differences between this world and Earth. Of course I wasn't talking about some conceptual or philosophical thing. What I mean by subtle difference is like the McWo*a*d restaurant a few hundred meters away from me.
That's right, it is McWo*a*d, and not McDo*a*d. Just like the one from Earth which I come from, the McWo*a*d is also a fast food restaurant chain with considerable size. There are more than ten of them within my scan's radius.
Not only that brand, there are also several other familiar brands that have slightly changed from the one I remembered. It makes me feel like I am walking inside a store that sells off brand products.
Once I finished ridiculing the situation I am in, I started to feel disappointed and a bit relieved. Disappointed because this world isn't the Earth I know of, and relieved because that means Earth hasn't turned into a hell full of zombies ... yet.
Now then, it's time to get serious.
First and foremost, I must look for a suitable host. Although I could control the stone to move through using [Transfer] and [Create] by creating a repelling force of wind or something similar. But such wastefulness makes my heart ache.
I've also found a suitable target as my host among the people I've scanned before, so there is no reason to not choose a host.
As for the target, she is a twenty something years old woman. The reason I've decided on her, mainly because she is a human and not a zombie. I am not racist and such, it's just that the zombies I saw are all pretty much mindless. Having such a host will be extremely bothersome. Furthermore, she is the strongest one among the people in my surroundings.
Most people are still at the level of a mortal without much supernatural power. The occasional people with supernatural power are only around Martial Apprentice level or early Body Tempering stage in terms of cultivation level.
As for that woman, she has reached the level equal to the early stage of Martial Grandmaster level, which is around the late Body Tempering stage in the Cultivation World.
It's still low in my opinion, but that's much better than the surrounding alternative.
I first granted the woman with four of my skills, which are [Scan], [Transfer], [Create], and [Devour]. As for why I granted her four skills at once, it's because I am already used to attaching those four skills on anyone I have a good opinion on.
At this time, I missed Ren Qingquan. If he is the one who granted people with subsystems, I would be able to ask for a reimbursement from him.
Once the skill has been granted, I send the screen I've prepared toward her. Luckily, this area used a language that's mostly similar to English. I merely need to use [Calculate] on a few words which differ from the English I know.
[Ding! Host detected. Binding the /#?%√! System.]
[First mission: Collect the system's core.
Reward: Activating system function.
Punishment: Losing the system.
Time limit: 1 day.]
Below the screen, I attached a picture of a shiny round metal around the size of a thumb. It's exactly the picture of this stone I have granted with all of my skills. As for why it's shaped like a metal, it's because the stone I sent is merely around the tip of a pinky finger in size initially. But after I granted it with one million points, I coated the stone with the strongest metal I could create to make it stronger. I don't want this expensive stone to be destroyed from some random attack.
Next to the image, there is also a map with blue, golden, white, and red dots on it. Which show the location of humans, myself, the woman, and zombies respectively. I've also added a vague outline depicting the city's landscape.
Finally, I've also left the system name with a glitch-like symbol so I can fill it in later once I learn more about the world without making it seem abrupt.
I am so darn smart!
***
Inside a small restaurant, I saw the woman I've chosen paused for a moment upon seeing my screen. On the side, one of her companions called her. "Alicia, what's wrong?"
Alicia shook her head, "Nothing. Edward, can you go with Reynald and the other to check the food storage first? I need to do something for a jiffy."
Edward doesn't ask many questions and readily agrees. Before leaving toward the food storage room, he reminded Alicia. "Be careful and don't wander too far."
Hearing Edward's reminder, she nodded and separated from her group. I saw her jump toward the small restaurant's roof and looked around.
Her eyes occasionally narrowed as she focused her sight in several directions. I soon found out the direction she looked at is the place I've marked with red dots and located nearby to her. Which means there are zombies in those areas.
Is she testing whether the map I sent is real? She is quite smart.
After Alicia finished testing the map, she seemed to half believed in it and started moving toward the golden dot which marked the location I am at.
The golden dot, which is the stone I possessed, is located around five hundred meters away from her current location. It's neither far nor near. The only problem is the zombies located between both of us.
As she is an expert that has equaled a Martial Grandmaster in terms of life level, Alicia arrived at my location after eight minutes of running. That's already including the detour she took when evading the location filled with too many zombies.
Once she arrived at the three way junction near my location, I saw her looking at the surroundings before entering the underwear store I am in.
As the stone host I possessed is quite small in size, I decided to spend one point's worth of energy and created a light. I shone the light toward Alicia's sight.
When she saw a beam of light I shot, Alicia quickly turned her head and looked toward my location before slowly walking toward me. Once she saw me, she quickly took the metal coated stone and placed it in her pocket.
[Congratulation, you've finished 'First mission: Collect the system's core'. Activating mission function and point devouring function.]
After I sent her a congratulation, I gave her a new mission.
[Ding! You've received a new mission.
Mission: system calibration 1
Details: kill 10 zombies.
Reward: unlocking system shop.]
This mission is used to check whether a zombie's soul can be devoured. That's right, while scanning the zombies in this apocalyptic world, I found out they also have souls!
Once I gave her that mission, I saw Alicia's expression turn weird. As the one I granted with all of my skills is a stone, I am unable to hear her thoughts. At this time I truly hope I have the ability to read someone's thoughts.
Alicia went outside of the underwear store while opening the map. Upon finding a lone zombie, I saw her control some kind of energy inside her body and blasted it toward the zombie.
Comparing it to the energy spread throughout this world and gathered inside zombies, which gives me the feeling of staleness, the energy Alicia used gives me quite the opposite feelings. It has a sense of vigor, just like the vital energy gained by Martial Artists from the Martial Arts World. Yet there are still a lot of subtle differences.
Upon finding a new energy, of course the first thing I do is name them!
Because it is quite similar to vital energy, let's name the energy Alicia used as life energy. As for the energy gathered inside the zombies and spread throughout the world, I'll name them death energy.
After I check whether it is possible to devour the soul inside the zombies, I'll start experimenting on life energy and death energy.
Chapter 100. Random Nonsense Go Brrrr-
While I spent my time lost in thought, Alicia successfully killed the zombie.
The life energy Alicia blasted from her body has turned into a kind of telekinetic force which easily pierced through the zombie's head, which is the body part that contains most of the zombie's death energy.
Even though that zombie's level is equal to Martial Apprentice stage. But against Alicia who is much stronger, the zombie is still killed with one hit.
Upon sensing the zombie's death, I granted a nearby pebble with [Devour] and activated it.
The pebble devoured the zombie's soul and rewarded me with 0.02 points worth of energy (tax not included).
Because the pebble merely has one skill, the amount of points it received is merely 1%. Which means if I absorbed it using the stone I've granted with all of my skill, that soul will give me 2 points of energy.
It's not much but it's honest work.
Anyway, while devouring the soul, I also scanned the process and felt a slight difference in its 'taste'. If a normal dead soul's signal gives off a gentle and soft feeling, the one released by the zombie gives off a spiky feeling. Nevertheless, a soul is still a soul. As long as it can be converted to points, it is a good soul.
With the first test finished, I've made sure I can still devour the soul like usual. I started my second test.
By using the same pebble, I activated its [Devour] and swallowed the zombie's corpse.
***
While Alicia is running toward the location of a second lone zombie, she suddenly turns her head due to a flash of lightning which is followed by a loud booming sound.
That's right, my second experiment results in failure and the pebble I granted with [Devour] got struck by lightning and turned into dust.
When she saw lightning struck the location where she killed the zombie previously, Alicia asked me about it. "System, do you have the function to answer a question? What's going on with that lightning?"
[System is calibrating and testing the world's limit.]
Alicia asked once more. "Will I get struck by lightning while doing this zombie killing mission?"
[No.]
Although I replied concisely, to be honest I am not too sure. But if I answer her question with 'probably' instead of a concise 'no', Alicia might stop doing my mission altogether. Which is a big no for me.
Alicia soon arrived nearby the second lone zombie. This time I saw her use the fire axe which she always brought since before and slashed it toward the zombie instead of using her life energy and blasting it as a telekinesis thingy like before.
As for the reason, is it because the consumption for that telekinetic power is quite big? I previously sensed she lost around one fifth of her life energy doing so. Although it is recovering every moment, only a few seconds have passed since before.
Anyway, the result of this attack which used a fire axe is extremely effective.
Due to Alicia's massive strength, although that zombie has responded to her sudden attack with a claw slash. Her axe directly slashed through the zombie's rotting arms.
Without giving the zombie any chance to regain its footing, Alicia swung her axe once more and decapitated that zombie.
Once the head got decapitated, I saw the zombie's head still moved on its own.
With trained movement, Alicia used her axe and split the zombie's head into two halves. Once its head split into two, the zombie finally stopped moving.
I granted a nearby rock with [Devour] and swallowed the zombie's soul.
As this zombie hasn't even reached the level equal to Martial Apprentice, the amount of points I got from it is negligible. But it doesn't matter, I am using this zombie for a different thing.
Activating the [Devour] located inside that rock, I controlled it to absorb the death energy inside the zombie. This time, I ignored the zombie's flesh and other parts and merely focused on the death energy.
I don't want to just absorb the death energy spread throughout the world because it's not as dense as the one inside the zombie's body. Although the difference is extremely minimal, it still decreases the amount of loss I took from granting the rock with [Devour] in case it got destroyed.
Yeah, I am just that stingy.
After [Devour] touches it, the death energy doesn't immediately get converted to points. It resisted for a split second before finally getting swallowed by [Devour].
Is it because the zombie's will exists in the dead energy? Or is it due to something else?
The moment after I absorbed that death energy, a bolt of lightning struck the rock out of the blue. The size of this lightning is much thinner than the one that struck the first stone.
Has the world ran out of energy, which is why this lightning strike is much weaker?
After some thought, I decided to test it on the next zombie. With that, I sent another notification to Alicia.
[For the next zombie, please decapitate it and leave the head intact for a minute.]
While reading the request, Alicia went toward the location with red dots on the map. This time, instead of targeting a lone zombie, Alicia has targeted a group consisting of three zombies. Among the three of them, there are two zombies at the level of a normal mortal and one equal to Martial Apprentice.
Just like before, Alicia first used her fire axe and decapitated one of the weaker zombies while using her telekinetic power to target the Martial Apprentice level zombie's head. Her power easily blasted through the zombie's head and destroyed it.
As for the last one, she kicked it in the calf and slashed it with her axe.
Once Alicia destroyed the three pitiful zombies, I came into action.
Like usual, I used [Anchor] on a stone and granted it with [Devour]. First, I devoured the zombie's souls. Then, I targeted the death energy gathered within those zombie's shattered heads.
Right after I devoured those things, a lightning struck the stone I granted with [Devour]. It seems the world doesn't allow me to devour the dead energy, what a pity.
On the side, Alicia still hasn't left and watched as the lightning struck that stone and obliterated it.
This time, the size of that lightning is exactly the same as the second one. Compared to the first lightning bolt, it is much weaker.
The few lightning bolt strikes remind me of the good times in the cultivation world where Ren Qingquan and I abused the lightning strike bug.
After I am done testing a few things and gaining Alicia's trust, I'll start abusing this lightning strike bug once more.
***
For the next few zombies required for Alicia's mission, I placed some requests on it, just like the third, fourth and fifth zombies. Throughout the slaughter, Alicia just silently followed after the mission I wrote.
Once she finished the mission, I only got a few small results. For example, although all of the zombies gathered most of their death energy inside their brain. The exact location of that position slightly differs from one zombie to the other.
The place where death energy gathers is also the weak point of those zombies. That means, I can add some kind of weak point recognition function as my [Scan] could detect the location where those death energies gather inside the zombies.
There is also another important finding.
Throughout Alicia's mission to kill zombies, I've triggered a total of six lightning strikes. Except for the first one which is quite thick in size and contains a considerable amount of energy. The other five are around the same size. It is extremely thin and merely has enough power to destroy the stone I created.
With the death of the last zombie, or obliteration as they're already dead since turning into a zombie as I sensed no heartbeat. I sent a notification to Alicia.
[Congratulations, you've unlocked the system shop. You can collect points from killing things and absorbing their soul. To enter the system shop, you may press the 'Shop' button in the main menu.]
Alicia opened the main menu and went to visit the system shop I just opened. When she saw the list of items sold in the shop, I could see her expression turn into one of confusion.
That's understandable as the things I sold inside are items from the cultivation world. Any sane person will be confused upon seeing items like 'Evasion Talisman' or 'Millenium Dew Branch'.
Alicia saw the messy things sold inside and asked me. "What the hell are those items?"
[Ding! The system is initially designed to assist in cultivation and helping the host to achieve immortality. So, most of the items sold inside are related to cultivation.]
I started spewing nonsense without batting an eye.
Alicia took my nonsense and asked in curiosity. "Cultivation? You mean the story where a person will meditate and absorb things for all their lifetime to mutate and gain the ability to never shit and pee?"
I don't know what kind of messed up explanation it is. But she's kinda right, so I just agreed.
[Although the host's explanation is a bit messy, you're basically right.]
I saw Alicia lost in thought for a whole minute and pressed a button to purchase an item. What a pity, she hasn't collected enough points, so all she got is a notification.
[Insufficient points]
Alicia asked. "How do I gain points to purchase things?"
[The host may kill creatures and collect their souls. As long as they're within a certain distance from the system's core that you collected previously, you'll receive a notification.]
Alicia asked an important question, "Is it possible to gain points from killing zombies?"
[Yes]
"Then where are the points from the previous time I killed those ten zombies?"
Hmm... What kind of reason should I give her?
I spent some time thinking and decided to forgo giving any reasonable reason. I just told her I used it.
If she doesn't like it, she can come here and beat me up in the consciousness space. That is if she can even enter it in the first place.
[The points gained from previous missions were used by the system.]
"Mmhm. Then, let me test the points." Alicia nodded and then she opened the map once more. This time, she targeted a pair of zombies at the Martial Apprentice stage and quickly killed them.
Once she killed the pair, I sent a notification to Alicia.
[Soul found, do you wish to devour it? Yes/No]
After she pressed the 'Yes' button, I sent her a message which was followed by another question.
[You've gained 2 Points! Do you wish to activate automatic soul absorption mode? Yes/No]
Alicia once again pressed on 'Yes'. With some points on her hand, I saw Alicia open the shop once more.