Esper Shockwave

The car hummed to life and turned onto another road.

Wang Tao suddenly felt that firing those shots had been useful after all. At the very least, they had drawn all the nearby zombies away, allowing him to drive a little faster.

Only after getting far away from that street did Wang Tao finally let out a long breath.

Then he took the painkiller from the military medical kit and injected it into his arm.

That hammer blow from the Terror Brute hadn't hit him directly, but the Shockwave had struck him solidly, taking more than eighty points off his Health Bar. His injuries hadn't healed to begin with... and now his whole body hurt terribly.

Fortunately, he was wearing thick clothes and had books stuffed against his body, which had blocked some of the damage.

It was also lucky that he was dressed so heavily. Otherwise, he might have gotten burned while collecting the loot.

Looking at the holes burned into his clothes, pants, hood, and face mask, Wang Tao felt fortunate. He had nearly been disfigured again...

The painkiller worked well, and he soon felt much more alert.

Only then did he have time to inspect his loot.

Killing this Terror Brute had increased his maximum Health Bar by another 40 points.

It had reached 54/380, nearly breaking four hundred. But he had lost quite a bit of health during the fight, so he was still badly injured.

As before, Wang Tao stored the Terror Brute's weapon in his Space Backpack. The package dropped by the Terror Brute contained a Strength Potion (Small) *1 as well, but there was no blueprint this time.

Finally, there was the thing he had come for—

Tier 1 Crystal Core - Shockwave

Quality: Excellent (80%)

Purity: 50% (Side Effect: Light-sensitive eyes)

This crystal core wasn't white and translucent like the previous one. It was a red, translucent crystal! Compared to the last crystal core, its specific stats had changed. The previous core's quality had been "Common (20%)," while this one was "Excellent (80%)"! Quality affected fusion success rate, which meant that fusing this red crystal core had an 80% chance of success!

That success rate was incredible. Unless he had unbelievably bad luck, it was practically guaranteed.

Of course, Wang Tao was aiming for a 100% success rate. He definitely couldn't fuse this one directly; he wanted to gather ten and synthesize them—wait! Wang Tao suddenly froze.

The first Shockwave crystal core had a 20% fusion success rate, while this second one had 80%. Didn't that add up to exactly 100%? He hurriedly checked his Space Backpack and saw that the slot containing Zombie Crystal Cores had changed.

Tier 1 Crystal Core - Shockwave

2/10 (Can be synthesized)

Can be synthesized!

So that "10" didn't mean that synthesizing required a minimum of ten crystal cores. It meant that he could synthesize a maximum of ten crystal cores at once?!

As Wang Tao thought about synthesizing them, another prompt appeared.

After synthesizing "Tier 1 Crystal Core - Shockwave," its attributes will be:

Quality: Common (20%) + Excellent (80%) = Epic (100%)

Purity: 50% + 50% = 100%

Impurities: None

Side Effects: None

"After synthesis, the quality will become 100%, and the purity will become 100% too! Maximum stability, no impurities, and even the side effects are removed! What am I waiting for?"

Wang Tao didn't hesitate and immediately chose to synthesize.

Whoosh—

The slot in his Space Backpack holding the crystal cores burst with rainbow-colored light, and an orange Zombie Crystal Core appeared.

Tier 1 Crystal Core - Shockwave

Quality: Epic (100%)

Purity: 100% (No side effects)

Seeing the orange Zombie Crystal Core in his Space Backpack, Wang Tao felt his heartbeat quicken.

But Wang Tao still had his reason. He knew that it wasn't appropriate to fuse it now. It would be better to wait until he got back.

However, just as Wang Tao took the crystal core out of the Space Backpack to admire it—

He suddenly felt as if he had been starving for days, with a delicious feast placed before him. Instinctively, he took a bite.

Then... he swallowed the beautiful orange crystal core.

"..."

"Holy shit!"

Only after swallowing it did Wang Tao come back to his senses.

He quickly pulled over and felt around his body, trying to see if anything had changed.

"Feels a little warm..."

Wang Tao felt his body heating up slightly, but that was all. Nothing else happened.

That faint warmth continued for three minutes.

Then Wang Tao felt as though he had gotten a little stronger, though not by much.

He hurriedly checked his attributes.

His maximum Health Bar hadn't changed, but his current health had increased by 10 points, becoming 64/380.

Below his Health Bar, a Mana Bar had appeared—100/100.

Seeing the Mana Bar, Wang Tao suddenly had an epiphany.

This Mana Bar was an energy bar! Releasing Shockwave required this energy! Then, beside the Space Backpack icon, a small fist icon appeared. Inside the fist was a ripple-shaped symbol—Esper Ability - Shockwave.

"Do I really have an esper ability now?"

Wang Tao found it somewhat unreal.

Mainly because he didn't feel any major changes in his body...

As he thought about it, Wang Tao casually threw a punch at the car window.

Thud—

It had clearly been a punch thrown into empty air, yet a visible ripple appeared as though he had struck the surface of water!

The ripple was about a meter in diameter.

At the same time, his Mana Bar dropped by 10 points.

Then he punched the air again, but this time nothing happened.

"I see!"

Wang Tao had figured out how to use his esper ability. As long as he thought about using Shockwave, he could activate it. If he didn't want to use it, then it was just a normal attack.

He could also roughly control how much energy he used. Just now, he had intended to use the least possible energy, and it had consumed 10 points.

He could use less or more energy at once.

But he had a vague feeling—using less energy required extremely precise control over the ability. He couldn't do that yet. And if he used too much energy at once, he might collapse from exhaustion or even damage his body. The most energy he could use at one time seemed to be around 20 points...

So if he wanted to wield this ability as naturally as an arm, he would have to study and practice more! If espers with the same amount of energy and the same ability fought head-on, the one who had mastered their ability better would definitely win...

But no matter what, Wang Tao was now a genuine esper!

He was so excited that he wanted to shout a few times. After all, what man hadn't dreamed as a child of having the power to soar through the heavens and burrow through the earth? Although he couldn't do that yet, he believed that as long as he kept growing stronger, he might have a chance someday! With that excitement in his heart, Wang Tao finally returned to Happiness District one minute before the Stealth Potion wore off.

"Hm? What's going on?"

Wang Tao suddenly frowned.

He noticed that something was wrong. Why were the zombies in the Residential Area Courtyard gone?

There had clearly been more than twenty zombies in the courtyard. When he had left, they hadn't followed him out.

Could someone have come out and lured the zombies away?

No, the zombies had entered the building! When Wang Tao saw that the unit entrance below Building 4 was actually open, his expression immediately darkened.