Chương 30: A Survivor

"Ah!" Just as Claire was descending the stairs, about five or six meters away from door 401, she let out a startled shriek, as if she had just seen a ghost. And the ghostly figure that had suddenly materialized in the doorway of 401 had indeed scared the living daylights out of her. The relentless, guttural howling of the zombie horde downstairs already had her nerves pulled taut as piano wire. Suddenly being ambushed by Vince—who was covered head-to-toe in a blood-drenched white hazmat suit—was the final straw.

She reflexively raised the bag of dried noodles in her hands, ready to smash it over his head.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's me, it's me..." Seeing her wind up, Vince hurriedly took two steps forward to stop her. Hearing his voice, Claire blinked hard. Only then did her brain register that the terrifying white silhouette was actually Vince.

"You...! You scared me to death!" Flustered and angry, Claire wanted to march over and punch him, but she was too disgusted by the foul gore caked on his suit. She settled for standing a meter away, glaring at him fiercely.

"I wasn't trying to scare you..." Vince defended himself, genuinely feeling wronged.

"I've been standing right here since you walked out of the apartment. Did you really not see me...?" Seeing his earnest expression, Claire realized he wasn't joking. Clutching the bag of noodles to her chest, she thought back carefully. She actually did have a vague impression of him. The figure in the white isolation gown had been standing there the moment she left the apartment, and he might have even waved at her. So why on earth hadn't she noticed him? Claire racked her brain but couldn't make sense of it.

She ultimately chalked it up to extreme stress causing a lapse in her perception. She let out a long sigh, didn't bother greeting him, and continued walking dejectedly downstairs, hugging her noodles.

"..." Vince watched her retreating back and mentally un-equipped the [Stealth Crystal].

"Good stuff..." Through this little field test, Vince had essentially figured out the crystal's mechanics. It didn't turn him invisible; rather, it applied a perception filter that made observers completely ignore his existence to a certain degree. According to the item description, this effect applied to zombies as well! After all, zombies counted as "observers." This perfectly explained why he hadn't noticed that tiny nightstand when he first walked into the bedroom.

"Incompletely Crystallized..." Based on the attributes, this was likely the lowest possible tier of crystal—it hadn't even finished forming. This was probably because he had violently interrupted the Pale Banshee's mutation process while it was still "incubating" inside the cabinet. Thinking back on the numbers: a normal human had 100 HP, and a regular zombie had 300 HP. Didn't those bizarre, non-integer Health Bars indicate a "growth phase"?

If that was the case, what would the HP of a fully matured, completely crystallized mutant be? 1000? 2000? Or even higher...? Using Claire as a test subject yielded excellent results. However, considering a zombie's heightened sensory perception toward living humans, the actual effectiveness of the crystal out in the field was still up for debate. During his brief test, roughly two minutes had passed. Checking his UI, the [822] energy points had ticked down to [820]. Royal Road is the home of this novel.

Visit there to read the original and support the author. It seemed the remaining energy corresponded directly to minutes of usage. 820 minutes meant a little under 14 hours of active stealth. It was surprisingly durable. He definitely needed to test the crystal's effectiveness against actual zombies when he got the chance. If it worked flawlessly on them, I could waltz in and out of the apartment complex like it was completely empty...

To think that mutated zombies don't just drop premium loot, but also harbor these incredible treasures inside their bodies. Lost in his fantasies, Vince looked up and saw the faded "Good Fortune" sticker on the door of 402 across the hall. Suddenly, a realization hit him like a freight train!

"Oh, crap!"

"Claire! Quick, bring me the keys to 402!" Vince roared down the stairwell as he bolted up the steps toward his apartment! The Pale Banshee wasn't the only mutated zombie I killed!... [Sharpness Crystal] [Energy Level: Incompletely Crystallized— Damaged (Remaining Energy: 52)] [Quality: Common (Incomplete structure, cannot be fused)] [Equippable] [Sharpness: Equipping this item imbues attacks with sharpening energy. Consumes the crystal's internal energy upon attacking. (The degree of sharpness scales with the crystal's energy level and quality.)] Fighting through the putrid stench, Vince had painstakingly dug through a pile of rotting flesh in the corner of the 402 bedroom until he finally found this fingernail-sized "glass bead." Back when he had blown the top of the spider-girl's skull off with a single spear thrust, he had completely missed the crystal flying out. I hadn't expected the energy to dissipate this rapidly!

It had only been two days, and it was already down to a pitiful 52 points of energy... Vince wanted to cry, but tears wouldn't come. Still, some energy was better than none. Now that he had stored it in his spatial inventory, the energy drain should theoretically halt. Eager to test its power, Vince equipped the crystal, gripped his short spear, and thrust it directly into the concrete wall beside him!

Normally, even with his massively enhanced strength, a full-power thrust would only chip a small crater into the plaster. Pushing deeper meant hitting reinforced concrete; no matter how sturdy a curtain rod was, it couldn't penetrate that. But with the crystal equipped, the spear cleanly pierced over ten centimeters deep into the solid concrete in a single strike! And the spearhead didn't suffer a single scratch!

In an instant, Vince realized that the fundamental mechanics of these crystals were entirely different from his potion drops! Whether it was the Feral Potion he had used or the others sitting in his inventory, their effects directly buffed his biological body. But zombie crystals were different. The crystals manipulated an external energy field to directly alter physical reality! Wrapping the user in energy to erase their presence. Wrapping a weapon in energy to grant it supernatural sharpness!

Previously worried about how to effectively scale his combat power, Vince suddenly saw a brand new horizon. In fact, his earlier anxiety about the massive horde downstairs potentially spawning a mutated zombie shifted into a faint sense of anticipation. Honestly, spawning one or two more mutants right now wouldn't be the worst thing in the world......

"What are you looking at? Spot a beauty in the zombie horde?" Claire walked out of the kitchen, having finished preparing dinner. She saw Vince sitting by the window, idly fiddling with the radio dial while staring blankly at the sea of undead below.

"Even the most beautiful zombie in the world couldn't compare to the beauty I have right here at home..." There were no beauties among the zombies, and Vince didn't even turn his head to look at the beauty in his home. He was entirely engrossed in figuring out how to deal with the horde downstairs. Although she knew Vince was just giving her a smooth, perfunctory line, Claire still couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from curving upward, a warm ripple spreading through her chest. Vince wasn't in a rush to eat.

It was only 6: 00 PM; it just looked dark outside due to the heavy overcast sky. Furthermore, having personally dissected the grotesque Pale Banshee today, his appetite wasn't exactly at its peak. The horde downstairs was incredibly tempting. Just imagining the sheer amount of loot and Max HP they represented made his mouth water. But he couldn't kill them. Even if he toggled on god-mode, with this many zombies, his iron pipe would bend into a pretzel long before he finished slaughtering them all.

Vince scrolled through his spatial inventory, trying to see if he had any magical items that could turn the tide. After agonizing over his options, the only things that seemed remotely useful for AoE damage were the [Gasoline] and [Diesel] drops... A fire attack? The thought flared up, but he instantly crushed it. Unless he could magically summon the eastern wind like Zhuge Liang, launching a fire attack directly beneath his own apartment was a surefire way to cremate himself.

Suddenly, an anomalous Health Bar flickered at the very edge of his vision, instantly locking his attention! A yellow [63/100]!

"A survivor!" Vince shot up from his chair, pushed the window open, and peered into the distance. Claire quickly trotted over, squeezing in beside him to look out.

"Where?!" But all she saw was the dense, writhing mass of zombies below. There wasn't a living soul in sight. Vince reached out, pointing at a dark silhouette roughly a hundred meters away, just squeezing out from a gap in the neighborhood fence.

"There!"