Chapter 143: Chapter 143: Collecting Crystal Cores
Song You’ai saw it too. Quick-witted, she pulled her daughter a step back and shouted a warning to the two men fighting on the ruins, "Watch your feet."
The two men were at a critical moment in their fight. They were tearing at a package of soda crackers, refusing to let go for dear life, regardless of whether they had already crushed the crackers to bits.
One of them, a larger man, flew into a rage out of humiliation and threw two punches, roaring, "Let go! Let go."
Beneath the soil, a furry hand twitched again. It suddenly pushed up a mound of dirt and, with a BANG, burst out from within.
A few scattered screams rose up from nearby.
Li Xiang turned her head and saw a not-quite-human monster covered in fur climbing out of the ground.
"Li Xiang, get back!" Li Dawei roared, dragging his sister backward.
The large Mouse-man that had crawled out of the mound of dirt strangely had several whiskers on its mouth and scraps of tattered fabric hanging from its body.
Its body was covered in long fur, and its muscles bulged.
With a ROAR, the large Mouse-man seized the two brawling men and bit down on one of their necks.
The surrounding crowd witnessed this bloody scene firsthand and, scared out of their wits, screamed and fled.
The other man frantically struggled free of the Mouse-man’s giant hand, scrambling and crawling backward, losing control of his bowels and bladder.
He didn’t want the soda crackers anymore; he didn’t want anything. The man fled for his life, tripped on the rubble, and fell, splitting his head open. Despite the bleeding, he pushed himself up and continued to crawl backward desperately.
Song You’ai’s hands trembled in fear. Just as she was about to pull her daughter back, Xie Ning had already shot forward, rushing toward the Mouse-man.
The Mouse-man wasn’t tall, but its entire body was covered in a layer of long fur, making it look fat and large, with bulging muscles on its arms.
Without a second thought, Xie Ning drew the Heavenly Blade and swung at the creature’s head.
Her moves weren’t flashy; every strike aimed for a vital spot.
Song You’ai was frantic. She started to run after her, but caught sight of Li Dawei and his sister and quickly shouted, "Li Dawei, didn’t you awaken a Strength Ability? Get up here and help! Let’s kill it!"
Li Xiang clutched her brother’s arm tightly, shrieking, "Brother, brother, let’s go back! Go back! Don’t go, don’t go!"
Li Dawei’s legs were trembling with fear at the sight of the large Mouse-man. How could he possibly dare to go up there?
Hearing his sister screaming desperately beside him, he nodded quickly, grabbed Li Xiang, and turned to run.
Song You’ai saw that the surrounding crowd had all scattered, not a single person willing to step forward and help. She couldn’t help but curse furiously, "All you know how to do is run, run, run! You don’t even have the courage to work together to kill a zombie rat. How are you going to survive in the future?"
But who was listening to her roars? The crowd fled in every direction, panicking and not watching their path, wishing their parents had given them two more feet.
The Mouse-man took a slash to the head from the Heavenly Blade. Blood covered its face as it let out a hiss-like howl.
Xie Ning retracted her blade and narrowed her eyes, a slight numbness tingling in her fingers.
The force behind her strike wasn’t small, yet the Mouse-man’s head was this hard.
’What did this mean?’
’It meant the virus had indeed upgraded and mutated. The Mouse-man was now likely Second Order.’
Seeing the beast pounce toward her daughter, a fierce light ignited in Song You’ai’s eyes. She rushed forward in a few steps, raised her Metal Knife, and started hacking wildly at the back of the Mouse-man’s head.
The Metal Knife was like striking an iron plate. CLANG! CLANG! Two blows only managed to cut a bit of the Mouse-man’s fur, but it provoked the beast’s ferocity, causing it to whip its head around.
The Mouse-man’s fist was about to smash into Song You’ai’s head when a mahogany stool suddenly shot out from the side, blocking its left arm.
Xie Ning leaped forward, a cold glint forming in her eyes.
A Metal Spike shot out, twisting into an incredibly sharp cone that plunged straight into the back of the Mouse-man’s head.
The Mouse-man let out a screeching howl, its body convulsing violently as it shrieked.
"Ge?" Mrs. Xie Ning gasped, turning to look at the lean, dark-skinned man who had suddenly used a stool to block the attack for her.
Ge Liang grinned at her. "Help me out, quick!"
In his other hand, he was holding a table, using it to pin down the Mouse-man’s flailing arm.
Xie Ning smoothly drove the metal cone deep into the Mouse-man’s skull and gave it a vicious twist.
Song You’ai charged forward with her knife, gritted her teeth, and swung. The Mouse-man’s head flew off, rolling across the ground.
The headless body actually still had a neurological stress reaction, twitching violently for about half a minute before it finally went rigid and collapsed.
The three of them, their faces and bodies spattered with blood, looked at each other in their somewhat sorry state and couldn’t help but laugh.
"Dad!" Ge Yan came running over. "Dad, Aunt Song, are you all okay?"
She was holding half a bottle of mineral water. "Quick, come wipe your faces. Is it okay for that blood to get on your skin?"
"It’s fine. We’re all Superpower Users, so our bodies should be able to handle it," Xie Ning said. She took a small pack of wet wipes from the small cloth bag slung over her shoulder and handed them to Uncle Ge Liang and her mom.
Ge Liang wiped the bloodstains from his face, took the mineral water from Ge Yan, and drank a mouthful. "This weather’s getting weird. It’s getting hotter and hotter."
Xie Ning was deftly digging a Crystal Core out of the Mouse-man’s skull.
This Second-order Crystal Core was clearly a size larger than a First Rank one, looking about the size of a marble.
Ge Yan shielded her eyes with her hand, not daring to look at the Mouse-man’s smashed skull. "Ningning, what are you digging for?"
Xie Ning turned and showed them the marble-sized object in her hand. "Zombies above First Rank sometimes have these Crystal Cores in their heads. We should collect them after a fight. They might be useful later."
Ge Yan scrunched up her face and nodded. "Dad, from now on, let’s check inside any powerful zombies we kill."
"Alright," Uncle Ge Liang nodded.
Xie Ning walked over to Ge Liang and his daughter. "Uncle Ge Liang, there are probably more mutated Mouse-men under the ruins. How about we search together?"
"Okay," Ge Liang readily agreed. "We can’t leave these monsters on our estate. There’s no telling how many people they’ll kill."
Xie Ning walked over to the corpse whose neck had been bitten through by the Mouse-man, plunged her Heavenly Blade into its head, and said expressionlessly, "Let’s go."
’She wasn’t acting out of some noble sentiment, and she certainly wasn’t doing it for the safety of the other residents in the complex.’
’She was just purely thinking about whether she could pick up a few more Crystal Cores.’
’She had already checked two or three of the dead rat corpses on the ground, but there were no Crystal Cores.’
’Perhaps it was because they hadn’t evolved to First Rank yet, or maybe disgusting, ugly things like zombie rats simply don’t have Crystal Cores?’
Xie Ning, Song You’ai, Uncle Ge Liang, and his daughter searched through the ruins of Buildings 94 and 92 and, as expected, rooted out four or five more Mouse-men of various sizes from under the ground.
Ge Yan recognized one, her eyes widening in horror. "Isn’t that...? Were these people bitten by rats and turned into this?"
"What else?" Song You’ai swung her knife, lopping off a Mouse-man’s head. She panted heavily. "Ningning, you were right. I need to train. To-today, when we get back, I’ll start running the stairs with you."
