Chapter 101. Breathing Makes Me Stronger
This time, with enough points in hand, Alicia went and started shopping. It didn't last long as she quickly found something to purchase. Coincidentally, it is actually the small dagger made out of Third Princess's unknown metal. The one Ren Qingquan previously purchased to beat a wolf in Martial Arts World.
Seriously, till this day I still don't know the name of that metal.
Once Alicia pressed the purchase button, I created the metal on top of her hand.
When she saw a dagger suddenly appear in her hand, Alicia almost threw it away.
While grabbing the handle of that dagger and observing it, I heard Alicia mutter. "This is just like a game. Kill monsters to get money, then purchase some equipment in the store. What's next, kill monsters to level up?"
Well, after I learned more about this world, I indeed thought of adding the leveling function. But it looks like Alicia is merely talking to herself and doesn't require any answer from me, so I decided to keep silent.
After testing the power of that dagger I created by piercing a concrete building nearby, Alicia nodded in satisfaction.
Although the dagger I created can't do something like cutting concrete like tofu, it is still sharp and strong enough to easily pierce it.
When she was done playing around, Alicia looked at her handwatch, "an hour has passed by already? Guess I'll need to return."
Alicia's journey back to the restaurant is pretty chill. With the map I gave her, she easily evaded places where a lot of zombies gathered. Soon, the small restaurant came into view.
Once Alicia returned to the small restaurant, I saw Edward and another teenage boy standing inside the small restaurant.
When he saw Alicia, Edward asked. "Alicia, where did you run off to for so long? It's an hour already!"
"Nothing much, I was just testing something. I might tell everyone about the test later. Also, why are you alone with the student council president here? Where are Reynald and the others?"
The student council president replied. "While looking for Miss Alicia a few minutes ago, the others found another restaurant nearby. Most of them went there to gather food while the two of us are left here to wait for you."
Once the student council president finished speaking, Edward spoke. "I thought the business you wanna do is something like collecting cosmetics or going to the toilet. That's why I readily agreed."
"Sorry about that. Well, now that I've returned, let's meet up with the others." Alicia stretched her body and opened the map I gave her. She saw a building nearby where a few blue dots had gathered inside. Those dots are most likely the other human from her group
Seeing as there are no red dots which symbolizes zombies nearby those groups, and they all seem to be in a safe position. Alicia just casually followed after Edward and the student council president.
Upon arriving at the new restaurant, I saw dozens of people busy packing and storing foods into backpacks. Most of the backpack has been filled to the brim with food or edible ingredients.
Once they saw Alicia's three man group, one of the man come forward while pointing at three backpack and said, "Just in time, we've also filled yout backpack"
"Sorry about the wait." Alicia apologized as she, Edward, and the student council president went towards the backpack and wore it. Then, I heard her ask, "Reynald, how much longer are we going to stay here?"
Reynald replied, "There are still some ingredients inside. But the bag we brought has been filled to the brim. We'll just take the leftovers with us the next time we go out to forage for food. Most of the people in this city have either died or turned into zombies anyway. So, we don't need to worry about it getting stolen."
Although this Reynald guy has no filter on his mouth. But damn, do I agree with his decision making skill. What a pity he is pretty weak and barely touched the Martial Apprentice stage. Otherwise I might have chosen him as my host instead of Alicia.
A few minutes later, everyone finished packing and brought their backpack and walked toward a direction while chatting in a low voice.
With Alicia subtly guiding everyone, they easily evaded any large group of zombies and safely arrived at a school.
On the school's plaque, the word 'Small Pigeon City High School No. 2' is written. The Small Pigeon City is most likely the city's name, which sounds frickin silly.
Alicia's group, which consists of fifteen people, went into the school. Inside, I sensed slightly more than 200 humans, with most haven't reached the Martial Apprentice stage and only 5 at the Martial Apprentice stage. Furthermore, I sensed no zombies within the school grounds. Which means this school is already a safe place.
The fifteen people from Alicia's group went inside and chatted with a few people while handing the food they've gathered.
As Alicia has arrived at a relatively safe place, I decided to busy myself experimenting things once more while leaving only some attention to the outside world and listening to their talk.
The first thing I do is organize the information I've gained these few hours.
My gut feeling is telling me this word's power level is pretty low. So low to the point Alicia's Martial Grandmaster level self might be counted among the strongest here.
From the short talk I heard when Alicia's group traveled and the one they currently have, the zombie apocalypse started merely a month ago. Before that, this world was exactly the same as Earth with no supernatural power.
Those who have awakened supernatural power are called awakeners by the people inside Small Dove Highschool No 2. But as the school has lost contact with the outside world for quite some time, it's unknown whether the name awakener is used globally or not.
Among the awakeners in Alicia, she has awakened on the second day. Which is the fastest among every awakener there, and also the reason I suspect Alicia is among the strongest in the world.
Especially when I found everytime those awakeners breathe, some of the dead energy in the world will get inside their body. Then, their power will slightly increase. Which is a case of turning stronger with every breath, Literally.
It is quite similar to Cultivation in the Cultivation World. But, even cultivators still need to circulate their spirit qi to increase their power. As for awakeners, they merely need to frickin breath!
As for zombies, the case is quite similar. But instead of breathing, I saw every time those moving corpses walk past a place, the density of dead energy will slightly decrease as some of it is absorbed into their body. Although some death energy is spent when they move, the gain still outweighs the loss of energy.
This also results in a similar case to awakened human's breathing being stronger. To be more specific, those zombies turn stronger every time they walk. Which is why they often roam about randomly.
Random roaming is a way for zombies to cultivate and become stronger.
Luckily, the rate of those zombies gaining power through walking is much slower than awakener. But, with how many zombies there are compared to humans, the future for everyone in this world is quite bleak.
But no worry everyone, this great me has come to save the day! As long as no super boss suddenly spawned out of nowhere, I should be able to help kill every single zombie in this world!
***
As I go to my flight of fancy while organizing the information I got, I focused myself on the twelves awakened inside the school ground, which include Alicia. After some comparison, I found even though they breathe death energy in and repel them out at almost similar pace. The amount of power everyone gained from that act differs from one another.
This difference should mean their talents. Just like spirit roots in Cultivation World, their speed of and absorbing death energy should be the way to differentiate an awakener's talent. Of course it is just my speculation. But with this much information, I am already pretty sure about it.
If the speed of power increase per breath is indeed a show of their talent, then Alicia can be said to have monstrous talent. The kind that can make everyone doubt life.
Awakening on the second day, coupled with her extremely high power increase per breath. It is no wonder Alicia could reach Martial Grandmaster within a month without using any cheat.
This gives me melancholic feelings. I am reminded of Ren Qingquan who has genius martial arts but trashy cultivation talent. Even with me as a cheat, he still took quite a long time to reach the Martial Grandmaster stage in the Martial Arts world with his so-called genius martial arts talent.
Now then, I guess my next step is to test whether cultivation methods, martial arts, etc can be used to increase the speed and push Alicia's already insane progression speed even further.
As for immediately creating energy inside her body to push her level just like what I do to Ren Qingquan, that must wait for once I've understood how absorbing death energy affects someone's life level.
While I am planning, my focus suddenly got pulled toward the attention I left on Alicia's group. As for the reason, it's because Alicia has just gone and told everyone about me!
With a casual face she dropped a bombshell, "Oh, by the way. While we're outside, I got the ability to convert zombie souls to items. It even comes with the bonus of a five kilometer wide map."
Damn it, I just praised your talent and now you went to spread your secret like a moron? Did I accidentally choose a female version of Ren Qingquan as my host?
Chapter 102. Can't Think Of A Chapter Title
"Eh?" Hearing Alicia's sudden bombshell, everyone stopped talking and could only let out a stupefied sound.
The student council president was the first one to unfreeze and asked. "Miss Alicia, why don't you hide it? Those abilities sound overpowered."
See, even this boy understood such a basic thing!
Alicia shrugged, "Well, you guys will know about it anyway. After all, there is no way I won't use this ability, and a slip or two will definitely happen. So, I'll just take the initiative to say this."
After she told her reason, Reynald asked a question. "What kind of items can you create?"
Alicia scrolled through the shop while answering them. "There are quite a lot of things. For example, there are food, ingredients, plants, metals, weapons, medicines, and magical items straight out of xianxia novels."
Everyone nodded along when they heard the first few items mentioned. But when they heard the last items, everyone froze in confusion. "What?"
Alicia repeated it once more and everyone still had a confused look.
One of them finally decided to ask, "What do you mean by items from xianxia novels?"
"There are talismans, formation, cultivation manual, pills, and others." Alicia then continued, "Most of them are quite expensive to create though."
Then, I saw the group discard their previous topic and started discussing Alicia's newly gained ability.
As they are discussing, it is my turn to be confused this time.
How the heck does everyone's reception turn pretty chill upon seeing a power that's basically creating something out of nothing. This is too unscientific, unhumanity, or whatever the word is.
With the exception of the few children of luck, those people I granted with subsystems in the Cultivation World have a much more interesting reception than this.
Is this the side effect of having their world view broken too often within a short time?
***
At this time, one of them suggested. "Alicia, how about you try to create something for us to see?"
She nodded and asked while scrolling the shop, "How about I purchase some food?"
"I'm in the mood to eat chicken, so I'll create a rotisserie chicken." Without waiting for others to agree, Alicia spent her last remaining point on a rotisserie chicken.
Meanwhile, I activated [Create] and crafted a rotisserie chicken with a plate included.
As they're currently in an apocalyptic world, food is extremely important. I especially made the rotisserie chicken extremely big. It is the biggest rotisserie chicken I can craft with one point worth of energy.
Everyone shall praise my generosity!
When the chicken suddenly appeared in front of them. Everyone, even Alicia , is surprised.
A woman called Berth asked, "Is that... Chicken?"
"Ain't this chicken a bit too big? Are you sure it is a chicken?"
I thought they're awed by the chicken that suddenly appeared, but it seems I was wrong.
Although the chicken I created is quite big, around twice as big as a normal chicken. But, it is in essence still a normal chicken. I even created it based on Fatty Zhang's recipe and tweaked it a little to make them tastier. For example, I added a few herbs that can enhance taste, and also a part of extremely low level spirit plants.
Although everyone is in doubt whether the chicken I made is edible. But, as a chicken I've especially created, its tasty smell kept on spreading and caused everyone's stomach to growl.
"Let me test this chicken." The student council president couldn't hold it anymore and tore a piece of the chicken. Once he bit on it, an expression of bliss appeared on his face.
He then began describing the taste of my chicken. "The chicken is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Every inch of meat is incredibly juicy and spread evenly throughout my mouth. The herbs and seasoning is just strong enough to push the chicken's taste without being too strong and overwhelming it. I also feel all of my body relaxed and strengthened with every bite."
While looking at the student council president's face that looks like he is high on illegal drugs, I feel a bit disappointed. It seems my cooking skill hasn't reached a good enough level to make clothes explode.
***
Once those people saw the student council president's expressions, they looked at the rotisserie chicken with weird eyes.
Edward looked suspiciously, "Is that chicken drugged?"
Alicia shrugged while trying to pick at the chicken, "Probably not?"
Then, the same sequence of events that happened to the student council president before happened to Alicia too. But compared to him, Alicia merely makes a delighted expression instead of an euphoric one.
She then nodded at the others before picking another piece of chicken and swallowing it.
Everyone finally tested it and took a bite of the chicken and started making a moaning sound of delight.
If it's only the student council president, I could still push it to his overreaction. But with so many people wearing that weird expression after eating my chicken. I suspect the ingredients I mixed might've resulted in a hallucinogenic effect.
Luckily, after I scanned everyone, there doesn't seem to be any adverse effects. Instead, their body became slightly stronger with the help of my rotisserie chicken.
Once the chicken has been eaten clean, Alicia bids everyone farewell. "Well then, I'll go to one of the empty classrooms and isolate myself for today. Just in case I accidentally got bitten."
While Alicia walked toward a classroom to isolate herself, I contemplated something.
After learning more about the world, I decided to push forward the plan I have created in the Cultivation World before. It is a plan to create a force with me as the core. Their main function will be to help me collect energy and knowledge. The child of luck plan can be said to be a watered down version of this plan.
As for why I don't do it in the Cultivation World, it's because the water there ran deep. I don't want to see Ren Qingquan suddenly die because a random expert disliked my force and finally used some weird technique to pinpoint his location.
The last time when he is hunted by a bunch of Divine Transformation experts, I can only barely save him. If a Void Unity level expert or above makes a move, then he'll be dead meat.
This Apocalypse World is a different news altogether. Except for the crimson meteors which is an unknown variable with unknown strength, the creatures inside this world have only recently met with the supernatural path. Even if they cultivate like crazy, I doubt there will be anyone who has reached the level equal to Qi Refining stage at this time.
With the things I've learned in Cultivation World, I should've been able to flip this kind of weak world upside down several times over as long as I am willing to pay the price.
Moreover, even if the plan fails and the stone I spent one million points on is destroyed, I still have Ren Qingquan as a failsafe. Although if that indeed happens, my heart will ache and I'll be depressed for several months.
***
At this time, Alicia arrived at an empty classroom and locked the door before she sat while .muttering. "From everyone's expressions, it seems sharing that information is the right step. With this knowledge, they should've prioritized my safety even when foraging for food outside."
Then, Alicia opened the system screen and asked, "Except for that shop thing and the real time map, is there anything else you can do?"
I smiled with my nonexistent face upon hearing her question. it's good that she asked this now. If it's been before, I would have delayed things out.
But now, I've chosen my plan for this world and decided a suitable name for myself in this world.
[Ding! Synchronization has fully completed.]
[The Apocalypse Shelter System has turned on. The system will help its user to create shelters amidst the apocalypse and restore the civilization's order.]
[Ding! Personal Status panel opened, sub shelter core creation function opened, sub shelter shop function opened, map function opened, mission function opened ...]
The function I've opened for her is basically a copy of Ren Qingquan. The only difference being Ren Qingquan's subsystem function has been changed into a sub shelter core creation function.
Once I had sent her all of the notifications, Alicia calmly said, "I just asked you a question, there is no need to overreact like that."
(ー_ー*)
Although she said that, her body is honest as she already scrolled through the newly given functions.
She quickly skimmed through them as I quickly introduced their basic function before stopping in the mission panel.
On it, I've placed a few missions that reward her with some points that come from my pocket.
For example, there is a mission to research zombies, a mission to train in a martial arts technique, a mission to train in a cultivation technique, and a mission to collect knowledge from the modern world.
Although the points awarded are merely in one digits and only a few missions reward thousands of points. They are still points that come from my hard work.
I need to repeat the fact that those points come from my own pocket a few times to show how much my heart aches from this.
As Alicia lay on the floor and scrolled through the mission to collect modern day knowledge, she asked me. "How do I submit this mission, do I need to recite it for you?"
[The host merely needs to stand within 5 meter distance of a book or items and press the mission's submit button. The amount of points awarded change depending on the items. The same item or knowledge can only be submitted once.]
Alicia slowly stood up while asking. "How is the amount of points rewarded decided?"
[System will appraise the complexity and usefulness of the information and items. Items like guns will reward more points than a chopstick or fork.]
As she read the answer I sent, Alici arrived near the classroom's air conditioner. She opened the mission panel and pressed on the submit button.
[Ding! You've scanned an air conditioner. Awarded 0 points.
Note: Rewards below one point will be accumulated until reaching one point.]
Once Alicia scanned the air conditioner, she walked toward the table and chairs in the classroom and submitted the mission several times. As those items are pretty much worthless, the amount of points she got hasn't reached one point.
When there isn't anything else that can be scanned, Alicia leaves the room.
She first visited the place where her ally had gathered before and saw everyone still hasn't left and is busy discussing something.
When those people saw Alicia, all of them focused their gaze on her.
Edward asked, "Eh? You've returned so fast? Did you forget something?"
Alicia shook her head, "Nope. I just got bored and wanna walk around the school. I am also trying to test my newly gained ability."
Edward nodded, "Ohhh."
Reynard who stood next to Edward stared at Alicia and said, "Just like the rule all of us decided before, please bring along two or three other awakeners that aren't part of the foraging party and return to a classroom before night. Anyway, I'll be taking my leave first. I feel incredibly tired today."
As Reynard bid everyone farewell and left. Alicia nodded and randomly chose three people who had awakened, which consisted of one teacher and two students.
To be honest, I don't think those three can do much if Alicia indeed turns into a zombie. With their strength difference, she can wipe them out within a dozen seconds at most.
Once she had three awakeners following her, Alicia went to randomly walk around the school. After passing through several corridors, she looked a bit thoughtful and walked towards a direction.
From [Scan], I saw her moving toward the place where most of the people in the school gathered, which is the canteen. But before she arrived there, Alicia stopped and entered one of the classrooms.
Once she opened the door to that classroom, neatly stacked pieces of papers could be seen. On the paper, many words can be seen. Those papers are placed inside several plastic bags, probably to make escaping with them easy.
I curiously scanned those papers and saw a lot of random information both useful and useless.
The useless ones include something like yoga technique, several recipes for foie gras, methods to court the opposite sex, or other messy things.
Meanwhile, the useful information is incredibly useful and includes things like methods to make guns and gunpowder from different eras, information on how to create a simple electricity generator, an encyclopedia of edible plants, how to identify ores, how to make a simple compass, etc.
I suspect the information stored inside this room can easily push a civilization from stone age or bronze age into the industrial revolution era.
When night almost arrived, Alicia returned to the classroom where she isolated herself. The day's travel netted her 100 points. Most of which come from the classroom full of paper.
Although I lost 100 points, the information I gained today is definitely worth it.
As expected, traveling to another world is indeed extremely beneficial!
Chapter 103. System: This Thing Is Bad For My Nonexistent Heart
The next day, once morning starts, most people inside the school have woken up.
During the night, Alicia has been testing the system function I opened for her and already got used to most of it.
Once she woke up, I saw her open a screen and check her current status.
[Name: Alicia
Shelter: Small Dove Highschool No. 2
Population: 227
Points: 100
Sub shelters: 0]
After seeing the amount of population remains the same, Alicia requested. "System, check the locations of awakeners in the school ground."
I marked the location of those awakeners on her map and notified her of it.
[The location of awakeners has been marked in the map.]
She opened the map and saw eleven marks. Including herself, the location of all twelve awakeners in the school has been marked.
While watching the map, I saw her focus on one of the marks that is walking toward the direction of her classroom and almost arrived.
Just in time, a knocking can be heard from the door and the student council president's voice can be heard. "Miss Alicia, are you awake?"
"Yeah." Alicia replied while opening the door.
Hearing Alicia's answer, the student council president said. "Well, it's good that you haven't been zombified. For today's meeting, everyone is planning to continue to test your abilities."
Once he said that, the student council president brought Alicia along to a classroom where several familiar people had gathered. Along the way, the student council president seems to be quite unfocused.
Sitting at one of the classroom chairs that has been arranged into a circle, Alicia began looking at the others and silently waited for the meeting to start.
When the people that I saw yesterday, and a few more other people I am not familiar with entered the classroom. Their meeting finally started.
Without much nonsense, they immediately talk about important things.
The first one to ask a question is Reynald, one of the people that joined Alicia to forage for resources yesterday. "Alicia, can you still create things today? Or do we need to hunt for some zombies?"
Alicia looked at the 100 points she had and replied. "No worries, there is still some power remaining that can be used to create some cheap things."
Edward suggested. "Then, how about you try to create those xianxia items mentioned before? To be honest, I am quite curious about it. It is immortal cultivation we're talking about. With some spells, we can easily cleanse the zombies or even return them into a human."
On the side, everyone's eyes also shone and looked at Alicia.
Under everyone's eyes, I saw her start secretly scrolling through the list of items before choosing the restoration pill, which is a pill I secretly scanned from Ren Qingchen and also once purchased by Su Ping when he fell from the cliff.
After Alicia spent 10 points to purchase the pill, I immediately created the pill at the table in front of her.
Everyone looked at the pill that suddenly appeared and started spreading medicinal aroma.
Edward curiously looked at the pill and asked "What is the effect of this pill?"
Alicia simply read the description of the medicine, "It can quickly heal injuries."
Upon hearing the effect, Edward said, "Should we eat it to test the effect?"
Berth who sat opposite of Edward quickly warned him. "We mustn't eat any random medicinal pill. After all, there might be some kind of side effect."
Everyone fell into a chaotic discussion until one of them said, "How about we use those rabbits that's kept in the school grounds?"
Others also chimed in,"I agree! Luckily, we haven't used those emergency rations!"
Everyone ignored the last sentence and asked a random student outside to bring a few rabbits.
While waiting, I saw Alicia seem to decide on something and said, "Actually, just the night before, I've awakened a few other abilities. One of them allows me to store items into storage space where time doesn't pass inside. There is also another storage space where time inside passes at twice the normal speed."
She also demonstrated her ability by storing a table located next to her.
When everyone saw it, they just stared at Alicia silently.
Edward asked in concern. "Alicia, don't you think you've awakened too many abilities? Did you eat some kind of weird food recently?"
Alicia just rolled her eyes at Edward's question and ignored him.
Due to Edward's stupid question, everyone begins to discuss how to utilize the storage ability. After all, both storage spaces sound extremely useful.
Finally, with a knock from the door, a student brought the rabbit they've been waiting for.
Reynald stood up and took the rabbit from that student by pulling at its neck ASN asked the surrounding people. "Did anyone here bring a weapon?"
Alicia wishes to lend her fire ax to him. But thinking that might be too much, she decided to lend her dagger instead.
Reynald feels the dagger at Alicia's hand to be quite unfamiliar and asks. "Is that dagger also something you created?"
"Mmhm." Alicia nodded as she handed the dagger to Reynald.
Reynald took the dagger and stabbed the rabbit before feeding the Restoration Pill Alicia bought from me.
With the stab wound on its body, everyone began to focus their sight on the rabbit.
When they saw the wound quickly turn into scab before disappearing, and even the bald patch of fur at its wound has been regrown. I heard one of them say, "Damn, the old talkative principal would've loved this magical hair growing pill."
Everyone ignored that word and waited for an hour while staring real hard at the rabbit. Once an hour passed by and they saw the rabbit is still extremely active, they finally accepted the existence of my super awesome pill.
Once the test is done, Reynald asked, "Alicia, do you have other abilities you've awakened? Can you just tell us all of the abilities you've awakened at once? This step by step reveal is quite bad for our heart and takes too much time."
Alicia nodded and opened her mouth. Yet, before she could answer Reynald's question, the student council president who've been silent the whole time suddenly asked, "Miss Alicia, the ability you awakened, is it actually a system?
"Huh?" Due to the sudden change in topic and the surprise it caused, Alicia's expression froze in surprise.
After the initial freeze, I saw Alicia's eyes start darting around. a habit I realized she has whenever she is thinking. At the same time, my mind went blank from the sudden surprise.
A few moments later, she answered the student council president. "That's right, it is indeed a system. It has just finished initializing last night, which allows me to access its whole function."
"Eh? Am I right?" This time, it is the student council president's turn to be shocked.
Alicia then asked "How do you guess that? I only plan to mention my ability as a system when I've collected enough points to create another system, because I don't think you guys will believe me readily. Furthermore, explaining this will be quite bothersome."
Student council president replied to Alicia's question with a bright red face from excitement. "I guessed it from your abilities. The power to kill zombies to create things doesn't sound much alone. But when it allows you to create xianxia items, have the ability to detect five kilometers around you, and the power to store things that you just mentioned. It all makes me recall those systems I've read about before. Those abilities sound like the system shop, system map, and the system storage that's usually seen."
Edward who sat next to the student council president also clapped his hand. "That's right, how come I never realized it. I've also seen you do a few secretive motions of scrolling an invisible screen before activating your ability. I thought it was simply your hand twitching, but now that I think of it, are you just scrolling through a list of items?"
Wha- what the heck??!!!! These guys are as scary as Ren Qingchen but for a whole other reason.
Don't you think connecting such a clue to a system is simply too wild? Do your parents know you have such a jumpy thought process?
At this time, Reynald asked. "What's this system the three of you keep mentioning?"
Berth on the side also questioned. "Is it some kind of new secret technology? I never knew Edward and Alicia are into such a thing? Guess I need to change my perception for both of you from a novel junkie to a tech geek too."
This!! This is how a normal NPC in those systems novels should've acted. Just which bat shit insane novels have a side character realizing the main character has a system.
I feel tired from retorting to all this mess, just let me rest for a damn minute. My nonexistent heart can't take the pressure from these two days with Alicia. Although she is smarter than Ren Qingquan, both she and the people around her seem to be especially good at giving me surprise.
The student council answered, "the systems that three of us talked about are something famous in the online novel world. There are varying types of systems from one that merges with the world and turns it into a game-like world, or one that's more personal and works as a cheat for the protagonists."
After that, the student council president goes on and on about systems.
Meanwhile, as someone who's also an online novel junkie of similar caliber to Ren Qingquan in my previous life, I've already know all of those and simply spent my attention on other things. Like sorting the influx of knowledge I constantly receive, or managing my business in the cultivation world.
The talk went on for five whole minutes before the student council president finally stopped.
Although I spent most of my attention on other things, from the attention I left on Alicia's surroundings, I saw Berth keep on side eyeing Alicia and Edward during the student council president's explanation of System. Her side eyes got especially intense when the student council president said the system comes from online novels.
Even without mind reading ability, I could guess what she is thinking right now from her expression. It should be something along the lines of 'As expected, they're still the novel junkie I know of' or 'Guess I don't need to add the technology geek title on them.'
Chapter 104. Rejected From Music School
After all the messy talk about system, the student council president drank some water before asking, "Anyway, miss Alicia, what's the name of your system?"
Alicia rubbed her chin and answered, "If I remembered correctly, the system introduced itself as the Apocalypse Shelter System."
The student council president nodded, "Then, does the system say anything else when introducing itself?"
Alicia replied, "it said it will help me to create shelters amidst the apocalypse and restore human civilization."
Before the student council president could ask another question, Reynald cut him off, "Does the system's name even matter? How about we skip to the important part and just learn about its abilities?"
Edward, who sat next to the student council president, shook his head. "Of course it's important! If it's just like those novels, then the system's name definitely contained some information. For example, I can conclude this zombie apocalypse will most likely last for a long time."
"But that's just an assumption based on fiction." Reyald narrowed his eyes. "A wrong assumption is worse than no assumption at all as it will narrow your viewpoint."
With Reynard's words, the room fell into an awkward silence before Berth said, "What Reyanld said is quite right. We can use your knowledge of fiction as a basis but let's not entirely depend on it. After all, the place we're in right now is reality."
She then asked "Alicia, does your system have other abilities except for the one you've shown us?"
"Mmhm." Alicia nodded while opening my screen. "Except for the ability to create things by gathering points from the dead, the ability to store things, and others you've seen. There are also mission panels containing missions that reward me with points upon completion, the ability to create sub shelter cores, and the power to teleport by using points. Furthermore, those abilities could be upgraded by spending a certain amount of points."
Berth caught on to an important point and asked, " I can understand teleportation and mission ones. But what does the ability to create sub shelter cores do?
Alicia replied, "From what I understand, it seems to grant others a small part of the system? By spending 1.111 points I could let others use the system too."
The student council president's eyes quickly shone, "Then how about we go to hunt for zombies today and collect more points? There should still be quite some time before evening arrives. Also, can you let me be the first one to get that sub shelter core, please?"
Upon hearing they're going to hunt for zombies, my nonexistent heart finally regained its vigor.
Yess! Go and work to collect some points for me!
While I finally felt happy, Alicia glanced at the others.
Seeing no one denied the student council president's request, Alicia promised him. "Alright, once I've gathered enough points, I'll give you the first sub shelter core I created."
With Alicia's agreement, I listened to them talking for a few more minutes before they finally concluded their meeting.
Once everyone left the classroom, they separated into two teams. Most of them joined Alicia and went to hunt for zombies, while the few remaining guarded the school ground.
***
While the sun is high above the sky, Alicia stood in front of several awakened that's fighting against dozens of zombies.
Controlling her telekinetic power, she easily pierced the head of a zombie and caused its brain fluid to spew out. Meanwhile, she gripped the fire ax on her right hand tightly and swung it toward an approaching zombie. Her swing easily decapitated the zombie and turned it immobile.
Once she killed that zombie, I also saw the others around her had finished killing the zombies surrounding them.
When the area had been cleaned from zombies, Alicia opened her status screen.
[Name: Alicia
Shelter: Small Dove Highschool No. 2
Population: 227
Points: 1114
Sub shelters: 0]
While Alicia checked her status, I opened [Scan] and saw the hard work of Alicia's group during the last week.
As this is reality and not a game with respawn mechanics, Alicia's zombie hunt has caused the area within one kilometer of the school to be clean of zombies.
That's right, Alicia's group has spent a whole week before they finally collected enough points to create their first sub shelter core.
Even with the help of my map and the power of ten awakened, collecting 1.111 points is still extremely difficult. The main problem stems from the world's weak strength where there aren't any traces of creatures at Qi Refining or Martial Saint level and above.
To be honest, the sheer length of time required almost made me wanna give her a discount for the first purchase of sub shelter core. But I held back and chose to patiently wait.
This time I didn't do so due to my stinginess, but instead to spend some time sorting the data I've obtained while learning more about the world Alicia is in.
As I've previously said, this world is pretty similar to the Earth I knew. To be honest, the similarities are almost uncanny.
Perhaps because I am not too knowledgeable in history while on my original Earth. But, according to what I found, most of the histories in the world prior to World War 2 remain pretty much the same.
The inhabitants of this world also called their planet as Earth. They also have Albert Einstein, Shakespeare, etc.
The reason I said things are pretty much the same prior to WW 2 is due to a certain historical fact from Earth that I still remembered. To be more specific, It should be an event that happened years before WW2.
Just like the Earth I come from, Alicia's Earth also has an Austrian funny mustache man that got rejected from a school. But instead of being rejected from an art school like the history I am familiar with, the one in Alicia's Earth got rejected from a music school.
I seriously thought that was troll information Alicia's group accidentally printed. But, after I cross checked it with a few other sources, I concluded that to be a real fact.
Starting from that point in time, the butterfly effect began and things diverged from the Earth I am familiar with.
To be honest, I don't quite understand how such a trivial fact could greatly affect the world and turn it into one I am unfamiliar with.
The butterfly effect from that change even caused the map on this earth to slightly differ from the Earth I come from. But, as geography also isn't my strong point, I don't know the exact change nor what caused that difference.
Wait, the topic has changed too far. I seriously need to control my thought process from being this jumpy.
I quickly held the reins for my thoughts before sighing upon realizing something.
Guess my 'explaining to nothingness' sickness has relapsed and turned even worse than the last time.
At this point, I am already helpless and decided to accept that Illness as a part of me. At least with this illness I can cope with the loneliness caused by the lack of normal human communication.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Returning to the topic, Once Alicia saw the 1.114 points on her screen, she called to the others. "I've gathered enough points."
Everyone's face quickly changed upon hearing Alicia's words. Especially the student council president. His face can be seen turning red from all that excitement. If not for [Scan] detecting his condition as normal, I afraid he might suddenly get a heart attack or something.
As Alicia looks at the student council president's excited face, she said. "Let's first return to the school ground first. I'll grant the sub shelter in a safe place in case doing so will cause me to enter a weakened state or even start a disturbance that will attract those zombies."
Everyone nodded at Alicia's suggestions and returned back to the school ground. With her guidance, they easily passed through the area not inhabited by any zombies.
Once they arrived at the school ground, Alicia's group went towards the classroom that's used as a meeting room. "Let's call the others to join too."
"Let me gather everyone!" The student council president excitedly went and gathered the teachers that remained in the school ground to join the meeting.
Once everyone arrived, they observed Alicia and the student council president.
Under everyone's observation, Alicia casually scrolled through the illusory screen I created before stopping in front of the Sub shelter core creation function.
When she pressed on it, I sent her a notification.
[Do you wish to spend 1.111 points to generate a basic sub shelter core?]
[Please select a person or items to be bound by the sub shelter core. Once the person or item is destroyed or killed, the sub shelter core will also disappear. Please note, some system functions like skill enlightenment modules require the system to be bound to a person.]
[Warm reminder: If the host wishes to bound the sub shelter on items, it is recommended to purchase a super hard metal alloy in the shop.]
That skill enlightenment module is a nonsensical name I decided for [Calculate]'s ability to help someone comprehend skills. Just like how Ren Qingquan can understand techniques with the tap of a button.
To do so, I need to bound the user with [Calculate]. Otherwise, they'll still need to comprehend those techniques on their own.
Of course as the amount of skills I anchored at them is much lower than Ren Qingquan. There will also be more limitations to the skill's difficulty level and learning speed. Yet, compared to learning things from zero, this ability alone is already a massive cheat.