The Second System

An Yang suppressed his nausea as he cleared the food from the bedroom. Just as he was about to back out, he noticed an irregular crystal on the floor—like a stone, yet translucent, stained with dark red blood.

His expression twisted into bewilderment.

Judging by the trail of blood droplets, this translucent crystal had rolled out of the male zombie's brain.

"...No way."

An Yang's gaze flickered with uncertainty. Gritting his teeth, he made up his mind, turned, and split open the female zombie's skull with a single stroke. Sure enough, there was another irregular, translucent crystal, smaller than the male's.

"This... it actually exists? This can't be that cliché, can it?"

An Yang lightly kicked the two crystals, their dark red blood staining the floor. He grabbed a few tissues, wrapped them up, wiped them clean, and then held them in his hands, scrutinizing them with a deeply conflicted expression.

"If I ate this... would I suddenly gain superpowers or something..."

After hesitating for a long time, he still didn't dare swallow them. He backed out of the bedroom and shut the door tightly.

An Yang seriously doubted whether he was in a natural world or an Origin World based on some apocalyptic novel's fantasy. This was too much of a coincidence.

After a long while, he slumped onto the sofa, his face pale. He finally understood the meaning of the Prelude.

If he hadn't gone through the baptism of three preludes, let alone facing and killing these two zombies—even if he had killed them, he'd be vomiting uncontrollably by now, and it would be hard to stay in this Presidential Suite.

Besides, killing someone and dissecting them were two completely different things!

Outside, the sky gradually darkened, and the meaningless roars of zombies drifted in.

An Yang had been feeling hungry, but after personally splitting open two zombie skulls, his appetite was completely wiped out by the bloody heads and yellow brain matter.

Now, fiddling with the two crystals he had washed several times, he sensed a faint gas inside them. He didn't know if the "evolutionary power" or "supernatural abilities" described in novels were like this, but this gas felt familiar to him.

It was like a person's essence.

The same thing Nie Xiaoqian sucked from him every night, the same thing the Thousand-Year Tree Demon harmed people to obtain, and the original reason he had started cultivating the Kunlun Art.

"Could these crystals be the condensed essence of their former lives?"

An Yang frowned, thinking along these lines. The more he thought, the more plausible it seemed.

According to the Kunlun Art, essence was a power everyone possessed, one of the foundations sustaining life. These zombies were no longer living people, so it made sense that their essence had solidified into a whole due to some reason.

Now that he knew this, he had no idea if he could eat them, but swallowing them definitely wouldn't grant him evolutionary powers.

From a certain perspective, essence was useful to every cultivator—whether demon, ghost, or orthodox practitioner. The difference was that evil demons or those with ill intentions seized it by force, while orthodox cultivators relied on their own accumulation.

The Kunlun Art didn't record a method for directly extracting essence from living people, but since these zombies' essence had already solidified into solids, with a bit of effort, he could probably absorb it for his own use. Whether this would lead to qi deviation or actually speed up his cultivation progress was unknown.

"Whatever. The Kunlun Art has no use beyond strengthening my body and dealing with Xiaoqian anyway. Now that Xiaoqian isn't around, half the meaning of cultivation is gone."

Thinking this, An Yang walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window.

The view outside wasn't the pitch-black darkness he had expected. The Great Calamity hadn't completely crippled the power supply of a tech city. Many residential buildings, shopping malls, and billboards still had lights on, but the once lively night was now dead and silent. The streets were empty of traffic, with only wrecked cars scattered haphazardly.

A wasteland!

Under the dim yellow streetlights, slow, stiff figures wandered, searching for fresh, breathing flesh hidden in the corners, like ghosts that struck fear into the heart.

In the distance, a loud roar triggered a chain reaction of howls, followed immediately by human screams—likely unfortunate survivors discovered by zombies!

After watching for a while, An Yang grew tired. He went into the first bedroom to rest. After sleeping a bit, he got hungry again, got up, and found some bread to eat.

The sky gradually brightened, and An Yang woke up naturally.

He hadn't experienced the despair of the Great Calamity or the terror of zombies. It wasn't until he remembered this was an apocalyptic world full of zombies and heard the faint roars outside that his drowsy eyes regained clarity.

A faint fragrance lingered on the blanket, likely the scent left behind by the female zombie before she died.

Thinking of the female zombie made An Yang nauseous. He quickly got up, left the bedroom, washed up casually, and went to the living room. He picked up a bag of cookies and a carton of milk from the sofa. The first morning in the apocalypse had to be enjoyable. After all, there was plenty of dry food in his Portable Space, and the snacks in the suite could last him two or three days.

He pulled open the floor-to-ceiling curtains. The industrial city was heavily polluted, and he couldn't see blue skies or white clouds.

Suddenly, the phone in his Portable Space vibrated. A long string of text appeared on the screen, accompanied by a cold voice.

"Beep. Second System detected. Target location in progress... Target location complete. Positioning in progress... Positioning complete. Please check, Chosen One."

An Yang was startled but quickly recovered.

"Second System? Could there be more than one phone?"

At the same time, the phone screen shifted, displaying a massive 3D map—likely the province this city was in. An arrow marked his direction, and a blue coordinate stood on the other side of the map, presumably the location of the so-called Second System. Below it were several lines of data.

"723.5 kilometers?"

"That far!"

"And what exactly is this Second System?"

As soon as he spoke, lines of text flickered on the phone screen.

"The Time-Space Travel System is not singular. This system is the Time-Space Travel Main System, primarily responsible for constructing mission plans, selecting time-space travel worlds, and leading the Chosen One through time-space travel. It can regulate other major systems, but each major system is relatively independent, possessing its own processing mechanisms and scattered externally."

"Oh... so the Second System discovered now is just another subsystem?"

"Not entirely correct. Each major system is relatively independent. They can communicate, influence, and coordinate with each other, but they are not a complete whole. If the Chosen One understands it that way, then this system is also just a subsystem."

"Oh..."

An Yang seemed to grasp it a little.

"Then I should go find this Second System?"

"It is entirely up to the Chosen One's personal will."

"Ah... what use is this Second System, to give me another phone?"

The phone was silent for a moment.

"It is currently unclear which system this belongs to. The functions of each system vary, but they are all very powerful. The Second System will certainly benefit the Chosen One."

"I understand. I'll call you when I need you."

Without a sound, the phone screen went dark.

An Yang put away the phone and sat on the sofa, thinking.

"Survive one year in the Apocalypse World, kill 5,000 zombies, and find the Second System."

"723.5 kilometers. It won't be easy for one person to get there—too far, and zombies everywhere!"

"The first two tasks are the main ones. If I don't complete them, I can't go back. The first task is fine as long as I survive, but the second doesn't seem like something I can just coast through. Even on average, I'd need to kill over ten zombies a day."

After thinking for a while, An Yang realized he couldn't stay in the suite. First, food was limited—he had to go out and find more. Second, he had tasks to complete and needed to keep killing zombies. But before that, he first needed experience fighting them.

And he also wanted to find the Second System. He had to make himself strong enough to travel over seven hundred kilometers alone through a world infested with zombies.

After a brief preparation, An Yang picked up the Cold Steel Battle Knife and walked to the door. He pulled the room card from the wall, pressed his ear to the door to listen carefully, and only opened it quickly when he was sure there was no sound.

He looked around. Sure enough, no one was there.

An Yang stepped out of the room and found the thick carpet stained with dark red blood. It seemed a tragedy had occurred here. His nerves immediately tightened to the limit.

For survivors, the greatest threat from zombies wasn't their sharp teeth and claws, nor their mindless, painless frenzy, nor their strength—it was the virus they carried. So humans were naturally at a disadvantage against zombies, and he was no exception.

As he approached the corner near the stairwell, An Yang suddenly heard a faint scraping sound. He stopped in his tracks and tapped the wall with the back of his blade.

"Dong~"

"Roar!"

With a low growl, a zombie attracted by the noise appeared from ahead. It was a middle-aged woman in a cleaner's uniform. The moment she spotted him, she lunged wildly.

An Yang's speed was twice that of an ordinary person, and his reflexes were also twice as fast. There was no way she could catch him. He dodged the zombie nimbly and brought his blade down in a simple, brutal chop.

Pfft!

The zombie's skull was split open, cleaved in two all the way to the neck. The impact slammed it against the wall, and it crumpled limply to the floor.

An Yang flicked the tip of his blade, and an irregular crystal popped out. He stepped on it, wiped it against the floor, then picked it up and put it away before continuing downstairs.

The hotel was large, with a nice environment like a small park, but it was very quiet. Most guests were probably in their rooms. When the Great Calamity struck, those outside were likely mostly hotel staff—waiters, cleaners, security guards—and they wouldn't have been too densely packed, unless they were in a meeting when it happened.

With Intermediate Combat Mastery, Intermediate Firearms Mastery, and Melee Weapon Mastery, An Yang didn't lack killing techniques. But zombies weren't the same as humans—they were monsters that wouldn't die even if their hearts were pierced. What he lacked was experience fighting them: how to best avoid infection, and how to kill them in the simplest, most effective way...

And when it came to honing these skills, this hotel was undoubtedly an excellent place.

PS: Ah... what to say? Well... lately, some people have been saying this book's updates aren't consistent, and others worry it might be dropped. Let me explain: I have an old book close to two million words that I'm finishing up, and it'll be done by the end of the month. Counting down... just a few days left. Though the old book's performance is poor, alas, my integrity is too strong. Even after starting this new book, I've insisted on prioritizing updates for the old one, which is why the new book has only had one chapter a day lately.

The old book's results are bad, but I never gave up. I kept writing it for over a year until it's finished. So this new book will absolutely never be dropped. Everyone can rest assured, read on, and fatten it up. If the slow updates make you angry, I only want to weakly say... hit me with your recommendation tickets and tips!

Also, the updates for this book are really too slow. Not only can the readers not stand it, even I can't. If you're really suffering from a lack of reading material, let me recommend another good time-travel book here, written by my good buddy—it's excellent: Monster King. I hope you'll check it out under the banner of this book, mwah!

P.S.: A new book isn't easy, so please give it your support.