Awakening Ability

When Chen Changsheng dragged Elizabeth and several survivors out of the classroom, the zombies also charged out after them. The researchers drawing blood outside the classroom clearly had no experience dealing with such a situation. After a brief panic, they were tackled to the ground by the zombies close behind.

Chen Changsheng took the opportunity to knock over the cabinet containing the blood samples.

Shrill screams filled the campus. Some students who had no idea what was happening curiously poked their heads out of the classrooms, and each reacted differently after seeing what was happening outside.

Some students turned and ran out of the classrooms, fleeing toward the campus gates. Others hurriedly shut the classroom doors, hoping to keep the zombies from getting out.

As for Chen Changsheng and Elizabeth, Chen Changsheng was holding Elizabeth's hand as they fled the campus with a crowd of teachers and students.

The Black Watch soldiers guarding the campus entrance heard what the students told them. They did not believe it at first, but after someone was bitten apart by the zombies, they no longer dared to be careless and immediately raised their rifles and opened fire.

Although the Black Watch soldiers reacted quickly, no one knew yet that the zombies had to be shot in the head. The zombies charged through the rifle fire, knocking the Black Watch soldiers to the ground one after another.

When the onlooking teachers and students saw that even the armed soldiers could not hold them back, none of them dared to stay. They ran even faster, and Chen Changsheng and Elizabeth left the school with the crowd.

However, Elizabeth's bleeding hand was still releasing hormones. Everyone they encountered along the streets they ran through had Original Virus in their bodies, and the hormones stimulated it to begin evolving. Then, lacking sufficient energy, they turned into zombies...

Near Elizabeth's home, Chen Changsheng and Elizabeth parted ways. Chen Changsheng's home was on the edge of town, and he still had a long way to go. After Elizabeth reminded him to stay safe, she went home alone to seek comfort from her family.

Elizabeth was bound to be disappointed, though. Ordinary people could not withstand the stimulation of Elizabeth's hormones. When Elizabeth approached her family, several more zombies would likely appear in the world.

Chen Changsheng did not go straight home. Instead, he ran to the Willow Tree in the woods not far from his house. The area around the Willow Tree remained incredibly quiet, and its emerald branches and leaves radiated an alluring glow. Compared to yesterday, the Willow Tree seemed to have changed even more. Its size had already become especially eye-catching in the forest.

After being in close contact with Elizabeth all the way, Chen Changsheng had absorbed quite a lot of hormones. His body now required increasingly more energy to evolve, so Chen Changsheng decided to first absorb some nutrients from the Willow Tree. With the help of the Willow Tree's massive root network, he could make up for his own lack of nutrients and complete his evolution.

Chen Changsheng tightly embraced the Willow Tree. The fleshy tendrils that quickly grew from his palms pierced through the Willow Tree's bark and connected to the transport channels within its trunk.

As the tendrils on Chen Changsheng's palms connected to the transport channels, the Willow Tree's roots deep underground began absorbing more quickly. Vast quantities of nutrients were taken in by the roots and transported through the channels to the crown.

The leaves in the Willow Tree's crown also fully unfurled. In a short time, it became even taller and more imposing than before, giving off the impression that it could blot out the sky and sun. Under the Willow Tree's rapid photosynthesis, the surrounding temperature even dropped slightly.

After a complicated process of conversion, the Willow Tree transmitted matter saturated with Life Essence. This substance slowly flowed through the tendrils into Chen Changsheng's body.

The Original Virus inside Chen Changsheng evolved even faster under the combined effects of Elizabeth's hormones and the Willow Tree's Life Essence. Chen Changsheng swore that, in both his past and present lives, he had never felt so good.

The changes in the town also attracted the attention of nearby military bases. Huge alarm sirens rang throughout the entire town. The broadcasts repeatedly told the townspeople to stay home and await rescue, announcing that the military was taking control of the town and asking the residents to cooperate.

As the military sealed off the roads around the town, heavily armed Black Watch forces also poured in, attempting to eliminate the zombies and rescue the townspeople.

Of course, that was the official explanation.

Another explanation was that the Black Watch higher-ups believed the zombies that had erupted in the town were an excellent biological weapon. Just imagine: mutant soldiers who feared neither life nor death charging at the enemy with bombs. If used properly, this would become America's next major weapon after the atomic bomb. After all, the US Military had not never been bombed by human bombs.

Therefore, every resident in the town was important material that deserved to be carefully protected.

After Elizabeth released her hormones, her mind gradually began to be influenced by the new Virus Will Aggregate child in her womb. The child now sensed that its safety was under threat, so it took control of Elizabeth's body and began secreting vast quantities of hormones, urging the townspeople to mutate and evolve stronger abilities to protect him.

The Black Watch also discovered that the unprotected townspeople they rescued were mutating in large numbers within a short time, causing enormous losses. After many soldiers lost their lives, the Black Watch higher-ups decided to withdraw from the town first and consider their options later.

Through reconnaissance helicopters flying overhead, the military discovered that the zombies in the town seemed to be gathering at a certain location. That location was Elizabeth's home. The researchers believed Elizabeth's house concealed a tremendous secret.

If the zombies remained scattered, the military could defeat them one by one. If they gathered together, things would be even simpler—a single shell could kill many of them.

The Original Virus had a powerful capacity for evolution, but everything depended on having sufficient time. For now, they were merely simple zombies and posed a limited threat. Besides, there were only a few hundred people in the town. What would happen even if every one of them became infected? Once the army brought in tanks, artillery, and other heavy weapons, no matter how many there were, they would be nothing more than lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

The scientists still rejected the military's proposal to resolve the incident through simple, brutal means because of the secret in Elizabeth's home. After all, this was the first outbreak of Resident Evil, making it highly significant for scientific research.

Therefore, the military temporarily sealed off the town, leaving the residents to fend for themselves. Once the scientists had collected enough data, they would level the town.

In just one day, the hormones released by Elizabeth transformed everyone in the entire town into walking corpses. They quietly guarded the house around Elizabeth.

With a bright baby's cry, Elizabeth gave birth to the child she had carried for three days. The child looked like an ordinary infant, but it was the first Virus Will Aggregate to possess an independent will.

Unlike Chen Changsheng, whose own will dominated Elizabeth, this infant was dominated by the will of the virus. It was still very weak.

With the enormous energy supplied by the Willow Tree, Chen Changsheng's evolution proceeded with extraordinary smoothness. By that night, he had completed his evolution, and his physical attributes had undergone a tremendous leap.

At the same time, the Willow Tree evolved together with Chen Changsheng. In that single night, its roots extended for hundreds of miles.

Its massive crown blotted out the sky and sun, completely unlike the form a Willow Tree should have. Of course, among the towering trees of the primeval forest, the Willow Tree was still unremarkable, so it did not attract the military's attention.

Early the next morning, the Black Watch soldiers advanced toward the town center amid the rumble of tanks. After carrying out targeted executions of isolated zombies, some researchers began collecting samples.

Black Watch troops could be seen in every direction of the town, but judging from the routes they were searching, their final destination was Elizabeth's home.

Under military protection, the researchers searched the empty town house by house, hoping to uncover some important information.

A team of researchers also came to Chen Changsheng's home. Since most of the zombies had gathered near Elizabeth's house, there were mostly researchers in this area.

From a hidden corner, Chen Changsheng extended a long willow branch and wrapped it around a researcher's neck. At the same time, the ground split open, and the Willow Tree's roots wrapped around the researcher. The entire process was incredibly swift and made not a sound.

Beside the Willow Tree, Chen Changsheng sensed the researcher's fear and unease beneath the heavy protective suit. Even so, he showed no mercy. He removed the researcher's mask, placed his palm on the innocent man's head, and used the tendrils in his palm to absorb him completely.

This was the ability Chen Changsheng had wanted from the very beginning: absorb someone else and transform into that person's appearance to walk freely in the world. It truly was a divine skill.

From the researcher's memories, Chen Changsheng found no valuable clues. This researcher was probably just an ordinary low-level researcher. Chen Changsheng was still delighted, though. With this legitimate outer shell, he could safely leave the town and avoid that mushroom cloud.

He secretly slipped into a house and rejoined a team of researchers conducting a search. Relying on the information in the researcher's memories, Chen Changsheng easily gained the others' trust. This was exactly why he had wanted this ability—it was so convenient.

Blending into the team and pretending to search seriously, Chen Changsheng was secretly shocked as well. He had thought his own evolution was already incredibly fast, but he had never expected nature to teach him another lesson.

Damn, those wild animals were truly inhuman. Cats and dogs, the animals closest to humanity, had already been strengthened to the point where they rivaled lions and tigers.

Although they still could not withstand bullets, they could quickly evade the military's concentrated fire. It seemed that evolving flesh capable of stopping bullets would not take long.

Those caught by these animals were in for a miserable fate. Their flesh was torn open, and they would then turn into zombies and endure another round of bullets from their former comrades.

The military also realized that matters were slipping beyond its control. Through the radio of a nearby soldier, Chen Changsheng learned that the military was intensifying its attacks in an effort to find everything of value within a short time and withdraw from the town before sunset.

With time running short, the scientists hurriedly loaded the collected samples onto vehicles and prepared to withdraw. Blending into the main force, Chen Changsheng felt it was wasteful to see the zombies killed by the military thrown onto the roadside, so he used the virus's consciousness field to issue an order to the Willow Tree.

He told the Willow Tree to absorb the corpses. After all, letting the virus go to waste was too regrettable.

The Willow Tree silently drove its roots up from underground and into the zombies' bodies, absorbing the Original Virus and nutrients within the corpses.