The Second System

An Yang forced down his nausea and cleared the food out of the bedroom. Just as he wanted to retreat, he suddenly spotted an irregular crystal on the floor. It looked like a gallstone, yet it was crystal-clear and stained with dark red blood.

His expression suddenly turned peculiar.

Judging from the bloodstain trails on the ground, this crystal-clear stone had rolled out of the male zombie's brain.

No way.

An Yang's gaze flickered. Gritting his teeth and making up his decision, he turned around and abruptly split open the head of the other, female zombie. Sure enough, there was also a crystal-clear, irregular crystal, slightly smaller than the male zombie's.

This... there really is this stuff? Could it be this cliché?

An Yang gently kicked the two crystals. The dark red blood stained the floor. He then grabbed a few tissues to wrap the crystals up, wiped them clean, and picked them up to examine them, his expression thoroughly conflicted.

If I eat this, will I suddenly get some kind of superpowers...?

Hesitating for a long time, he still didn't dare to swallow it. He retreated from the bedroom and closed the door tightly.

An Yang seriously doubted whether the place he was in was a natural world or a origin world whose carrier was some apocalypse novel. This was just too coincidental.

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

If he hadn't experienced the baptism of the three preludes, to say nothing of whether he dared to face them, even if he killed these two zombies, he would be vomiting uncontrollably right now and would find it hard to stay in this presidential suite any longer.

Besides, killing people and dissecting them were two entirely different things!

The sky outside gradually grew dark, and the meaningless roars of zombies drifted over.

An Yang had originally felt hungry, but after personally splitting open the heads of two zombies, his appetite was swept away clean by the bloody heads and yellow brain matter.

At this moment, toying with the two crystals that had been washed several times, he actually sensed a faint trace of gas inside them. He didn't know what the "evolutionary power" and "superpowers" described in novels were like, but either way, this gas felt very familiar to him.

It was like a person's vital energy and spirit.

It was precisely what Nie Xiaoqian sucked out of him every night, what the Thousand-Year Tree Demon yearned for at the cost of harming others, and the very target of his initial cultivation of Kunlun Art.

Could these two crystals be the condensed vital energy and spirit they had during their lifetime?

An Yang frowned as he thought this, feeling the more he thought about it that it was very likely.

According to Kunlun Art, vital energy and spirit was a kind of power possessed by everyone, and also one of the fundamentals supporting a person's survival. These zombies could no longer be considered living people, so it was completely normal for the vital energy and spirit within their bodies to solidify into a whole due to some reason.

Since he knew this point, he didn't know whether this stuff could be eaten, but eating it definitely didn't have the effect of making people evolve.

From a certain perspective, vital energy and spirit had an effect on every practitioner, regardless of whether they were demons, monsters, or orthodox Taoist cultivators—except that evil demons or those with improper motives relied on forcible seizure and plunder, while Taoist cultivators relied on their own accumulation.

Kunlun Art did not record any method to directly strip vital energy and spirit from the bodies of living people, but these zombies' vital energy and spirit had already condensed into solids, so spending some effort should allow them to be converted for his own use. Only, he didn't know if this would lead to deviation in cultivation, or if it could precisely accelerate the progress of his training.

Screw it. Anyway, apart from strengthening my physique and dealing with Xiao Qian, Kunlun Art doesn't have much use. Now that Xiao Qian is not by my side, half the meaning of cultivating is already gone.

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

Outside the window was not the pitch-blackness he had imagined. The Great Calamity had not completely stripped a technological city of its power supply; there were still quite a few residential buildings, shopping malls, and billboards glowing with lights. Only, the usually bustling night was now deathly still, and the bustling traffic on the roads was reduced to a scattering of haphazardly abandoned vehicles.

A wasteland!

Slow and stiff figures wandered under the dim streetlights, searching for fresh flesh and blood panting in the hidden corners, striking fear into people's hearts like ghosts.

Every now and then, a loud roar came from afar, triggering a chain reaction of endless roars. Closely following them were human screams, presumably from unfortunate survivors discovered by the zombies!

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

As daylight gradually broke, An Yang slept naturally until he woke up on his own.

After all, he had not experienced the despair of the Great Calamity, nor had he tasted the terror of zombies. It wasn't until he remembered that this was an apocalyptic world full of zombies and heard the faint roars coming from outside that his drowsy eyes regained clarity.

A faint fragrance drifted from the quilt, which should have been the scent left behind by the female zombie during her lifetime.

Thinking of that female zombie gave An Yang a wave of nausea. He hurriedly got up, left the bedroom, casually washed up, and went to the living room. Picking up a bag of biscuits and a bottle of milk on the sofa, he decided his first morning in the apocalypse had to be flavorful. Anyway, there was plenty of dry rations in his Portable Space, and the snacks in the suite could sustain him for two or three days.

Pulling back the curtains of the floor-to-ceiling window, he found the industrial city severely polluted, preventing him from seeing any blue sky or white clouds.

The cell phone inside his Portable Space suddenly trembled, a long string of text surfacing on the screen accompanied by a cold voice.

Beep. Second System detected, target location being determined... Target location determination complete, locating... Location complete, please check, Chosen One.

An Yang was stunned, quickly reacting.

Second System? Could there be more than one cell phone!

Simultaneously, the cell phone screen shifted, displaying a huge 3D map, presumably the province where this city was located. An arrow indicated his current direction, and a blue coordinate stood on the other side of the map, which must have been the location of the so-called Second System, with a few lines of data underneath.

723.5 kilometers?

So far away!

Also, what on earth is this Second System?

As soon as his voice trailed off, lines of text flickered across the cell phone screen.

There is more than one Time-Space Travel System. This system is the Time-Space Travel Main System, with its main functions being the construction of mission plans, selecting time-space travel worlds, and leading the Chosen One to conduct time-space travel, etc. It can regulate the remaining major systems, but the major systems are actually relatively independent, possess their own processing mechanisms, and are scattered outside.

Oh... meaning the Second System discovered now is another sub-system?

Not entirely correct. The major systems are relatively independent; they can communicate, coordinate, and influence each other, but they are not completely a single whole. If the Chosen One understands it this way, then this system is merely a sub-system as well.

Oh...

An Yang looked thoughtful, as if he understood a little bit.

Then should I go and find this Second System?

Entirely up to the personal will of the Chosen One.

Ah... What use is this Second System? To give me an extra cell phone?

The cell phone fell silent for a moment.

It is currently unclear which system this system belongs to. The major systems have varying functions, but all of them are very powerful. The Second System will definitely be beneficial to the Chosen One.

I get it. I'll call you when I need you.

Without a sound, the cell phone screen went dark.

An Yang put away his cell phone and sat on the sofa to ponder.

Survive in the apocalypse world for one year, kill 5,000 zombies, and find the Second System.

723.5 kilometers. It's probably not going to be easy for a single person to get across. It's too far, and there are zombies everywhere!

On the other hand, the first two missions are the most crucial ones; without completing them, there's no way to go back. The first mission will be no problem as long as I survive, but the second one doesn't seem like something that can be accomplished by idling away. Even if averaged out, I would have to kill over a dozen zombies every day.

After thinking for a while, An Yang realized he couldn't stay in the suite. For one, food was limited, and he had to go out to look for food; for another, he still had missions on his shoulders and must continuously kill zombies. Before that, he first needed experience fighting zombies.

Moreover, he still wanted to find the Second System, which required him to make himself strong enough to guarantee traveling alone for over seven hundred kilometers in this zombie-infested world.

Making brief preparations, An Yang carried the Cold Steel Battle Knife to the door, pulled the room card out of the wall, carefully pressed his ear against the door to listen, and only swiftly opened the door when he confirmed there was no movement.

Looking around once, sure enough, nobody was there.

An Yang stepped out of the room and found the heavy carpet on the ground covered in dark red blood. It seemed a tragic scene had once played out here as well, causing his nerves to instantly tense to their absolute limit.

For survivors, the greatest threat from zombies was not sharp fangs and claws, nor was it the madness without pain or thought, and even less was it powerful strength; rather, it was the virus they carried. Thus, humans were naturally at a disadvantage when facing zombies, and even he was no exception.

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

Clank—

Roar!

With a low roar, the zombie that heard the noise suddenly appeared from ahead. It was a middle-aged woman wearing a cleaner's uniform. Spotting him instantly, she lunged at him crazily.

An Yang's speed was twice that of an ordinary person, and his reaction time was also twice that of an ordinary person. How could she possibly pounce on him? He keenly dodged this zombie, and with a simple, brutal downward slash of the battle knife in his hand—

Splash!

This zombie's cranium was split directly open, turning into two halves all the way down to her neck. Driven by the impact, she crashed into the wall and then limply collapsed onto the ground.

An Yang gently flicked the tip of his blade, and an irregular crystal popped out. He wiped it clean against the floor with his foot, then picked it up to pocket it and continued downward.

The hotel was large and had a great environment, resembling a small park, yet it was very quiet. Presumably, most guests were in their rooms, and the ones outdoors when the Great Calamity broke out were probably mostly hotel staff members, such as waiters, cleaners, and security guards. Furthermore, they couldn't have been too densely packed unless they were having a meeting before the Great Calamity happened.

Possessing Intermediate Combat Mastery, Intermediate Firearms Mastery, and Intermediate Melee Weapon Mastery, An Yang did not lack the skills to kill people, but zombies were not equivalent to people; they were monsters that wouldn't die even if their hearts were pierced. What he lacked was the experience of fighting zombies, how best to avoid getting infected by them, and how to kill them with the simplest and most effective methods...

Speaking of training these skills, this hotel was undoubtedly an exceptional place.

PS: Ah... What should I say? Um... Well, lately people always keep saying that the updates for this book lack strength, and people always worry that this book will be dropped midway. Let me explain here: I have an old book approaching two million words that is wrapping up and will end at the end of the month. Let's see... just a few days left. Although the old book's performance is very poor, alas, I have too much integrity, so even though I opened a new book, I still insist on prioritizing updates for the old book, which resulted in the new book only having one chapter a day these past few days.

Even though the old book's performance is very poor, I still haven't given up on it. I've written it for over a year to finish it, so the new book will absolutely not be abandoned. Everyone can read it with peace of mind and let it fatten up. If the updates are too slow and make everyone angry, I just want to weakly say... Smash me to death with recommendation votes and tips!

Then there is the fact that the update speed of this book is truly too slow. Not to mention you readers can't stand it, even I can't stand it either. If readers are really having a book drought, I would like to recommend a fine book of the same time-space travel genre written by a good buddy of mine. It's exceptionally good—Monster King. I hope everyone can go check it out under this book's name, muwah!

Also: A new book is not easy; I kindly ask everyone to give it plenty of support.