Chapter 50: Night Watch
When resting outside, it’s necessary to arrange a night watch.
The men had originally planned to take turns standing guard, but Luna Dawson insisted that everyone, except for Rhonda Dawson, would take a two-hour shift.
Seeing Luna Dawson’s firm attitude, they let her take the first watch. Then, they each slipped into their tents to rest and recover their strength.
Luna Dawson, weapon in hand, sat back in a chair outside the tents. She closed her eyes and released her spiritual power to sense the surrounding movements.
A camping lantern glowed beside her, flickering from time to time and adding a sinister touch to the dead-still night.
In the high-rise residential buildings behind them, there were still a dozen or so living people. But in the building closest to the road, there was no one.
Although the military had done a rough sweep, there were still two to three hundred zombies hidden in various corners within a five-hundred-meter radius.
’Celestia’s population density is just too high,’ Luna Dawson thought. ’It must be incredibly difficult for the country to carry out rescue operations.’
After some time, just as Luna Dawson sensed that everyone in the tents was breathing evenly in their sleep, a few faint, strange noises seemed to come from downstairs. It sounded like something very hard scraping against metal.
A glint appeared in Luna Dawson’s eyes. ’A zombie is coming up.’
Blake Blue had used his Gold Element superpower to weld the glass and rolling shutter doors of the shops downstairs shut when they came up. This was the sound of that zombie scratching at the lock!
Luna Dawson didn’t let her guard down. Gripping her pistol, she attached a silencer and stood before the floor-to-ceiling glass to look out at the road, but she saw no one.
She sensed it!
Right in front of the main entrance downstairs!
CLICK.
It was the sound of the rolling shutter’s lock hitting the floor. Kevin Keane, Blake Blue, and Evan Olson heard the noise and immediately opened their eyes, emerging from their tents. Evan Olson woke up Miles Dawson and Rhonda Dawson.
Luna Dawson quickly stored everything in the room and pulled down the curtain covering the gym’s glass door.
A moment later, a dark figure shot up and began clawing at the glass door with its sharp nails. CLANG CLANG CLANG.
It was on all fours, its mouth split open to its ears, revealing a maw full of vicious fangs dripping with blackish-red saliva. Its glowing eyes were locked onto Blake Blue!
"It’s a First Rank Gold Element! It smells you!"
Luna Dawson’s heart couldn’t help but pound wildly. Other than Evan Olson, everyone present was only at the initial rank. They had planned to distribute and absorb today’s Crystal Cores after getting home, but they never expected a zombie to come knocking.
The words had barely left her mouth when the zombie got to its feet. It placed a hand on the glass door’s lock, melted it, and then pushed off with its back legs, lunging at Blake Blue at extreme speed.
Its sweeping claws stirred up a foul, cold wind. Blake Blue’s pupils contracted slightly as he leaped into the air to dodge. He swung the machete in his right hand with all his might, bringing it down hard on the claws.
"AROOO!"
A claw was suddenly lopped off. As the zombie howled in rage, Blake Blue fired at its head with his left hand. However, a small metal barrier suddenly appeared in front of the zombie, causing the bullet to deflect slightly and miss its mark.
It was clearly enraged by the blow. Staring at the group with blood-red eyes, it dodged their bullets by contorting into bizarre positions.
Blake Blue activated his superpower, erecting a small metal wall to block it, but his power level was too low. The zombie shattered it with its claws!
A tongue of fire rose from Miles Dawson’s hand. He hurled small fireballs at the zombie, but they only managed to burn a few holes in its clothes.
The zombie wasn’t panicked at all; it didn’t even try to dodge their superpower attacks.
Kevin Keane formed a Thunder Net and wrapped it tightly around the zombie’s head. Unfortunately, his initial-rank Thunder System power was too weak; the net was only two or three millimeters thick. The zombie kept breaking free, and Kevin had to quickly reinforce it.
Evan Olson focused for a moment, then a sharp Wind Blade shot through the air, striking one of the zombie’s eye sockets. It let out a bloodcurdling shriek!
As it roared in pain, the group seized the momentary opportunity, raising their guns to aim!
They all opened fire on the zombie. In the face of absolute firepower, any carbon-based lifeform below the Third Rank had to yield. Amidst the hail of bullets, the zombie fell stiffly to the ground.
Everyone let out a deep breath.
Miles Dawson was a little shaken. "Its speed was unnervingly fast, wasn’t it!"
Rhonda Dawson ran over from the wall, gun in hand, and asked in a panic, "Do zombies pick and choose who they eat now?"
Luna Dawson comforted her sister. "Don’t be afraid. It was just attracted by a Crystal Core of the same element. All creatures and zombies with Crystal Cores crave to rank up, down to their very bones."
Blake Blue stepped forward, pried open its skull with his machete, and rummaged around. "Something was definitely off with this one."
In a moment, he picked out two Crystal Cores, both slightly larger than a peanut. He wiped them with a tissue and handed them to Luna Dawson for safekeeping. One was grayish-white, and the other was a faint yellow.
After tossing the zombie’s corpse outside, they locked the glass door again and gathered around the table to examine the two Crystal Cores.
Miles Dawson said, "See? I told you it was abnormally fast."
Evan Olson frowned. "A dual-element zombie... that has to be pretty rare, right?"
Kevin Keane sighed, his tone full of feigned helplessness. "Ah, we’re still too weak. You won’t hold it against us, will you, Boss?"
Luna Dawson shot him a look and played along. "Of course not. Just protect that pretty little face of yours. As long as the face is safe, the kingdom stands."
Seeing that everyone was still in the mood to joke, Rhonda Dawson grew very worried. "Luna, it really is dangerous out there. The zombies are evolving faster than we are."
The zombies were already starting to rank up, but they were all still stuck at the initial rank.
Luna Dawson took out the Crystal Cores she had stored in her space that afternoon. "That’s just because we haven’t upgraded our superpowers yet. Don’t worry, we’ll get stronger."
She had originally planned to distribute the Crystal Cores for absorption after they got home, but seeing the situation now, they needed to increase their combat power first.
She took out enough Gold Element Crystal Cores for Blake Blue to upgrade and handed them to him. Blake Blue couldn’t help but look up, watching Luna Dawson seriously. "Thank you."
Luna Dawson waved her hand and then gave Crystal Cores to Rhonda Dawson. "Sis, you can absorb non-elemental Crystal Cores. We have enough now, so you should upgrade too."
Rhonda Dawson and Blake Blue exchanged a glance, clutched the Crystal Cores, and began to absorb them earnestly.
Nearly an hour later, the twenty-odd Crystal Cores were finally absorbed.
Blake Blue opened his eyes, a new clarity within them.
"It’s amazing. To think something so small could contain so much energy. I’ve upgraded! I feel full of power right now."
He stared at the palm of his hand in a daze as his cheerful, smiling voice filled the air.
Soon after, Rhonda Dawson also opened her eyes. Everyone asked her how she felt.
Rhonda Dawson’s eyes were shining, her unconcealable joy nearly spilling over. "I’ve upgraded too."
Evan Olson clapped Blake Blue on the shoulder and congratulated him, "Congratulations."
The group celebrated for a while longer. Filled with the joy of absorbing the Crystal Cores, they went back to their tents to rest according to the watch schedule.
Lying in her sleeping bag, Luna Dawson desperately stretched her spiritual power outward, pushing it harder and harder—five hundred and ten meters, five hundred and twenty meters...
When she felt she couldn’t extend the distance any further, she had countless threads of her power wrap around the head of a dazed zombie.
The feeling was like an ant trying to shake a tree; she couldn’t constrict it at all!
The threads changed direction, burrowing toward its eyes, nose, and ears.
Luna Dawson’s eyebrow twitched. ’It’s working!’
She spent the next three hours diligently drilling into its brain.
Finally, she was completely exhausted. Only then did she reluctantly slip into her space to catch up on sleep.