Becoming Stronger and Bad News

Chapter 15: Getting Stronger and Bad News

(PS: Only two updates today. I'm sick. After I went back to the hospital for a follow-up check on my depression, I started running a fever that same day. I suspect I caught the flu or something else. Today it's gotten much worse, my whole body aches, and I've been feeling very drowsy. I slept from after lunch until evening. So, only two updates today. I'll take my medicine and go to sleep. I'll resume three updates tomorrow when I feel better.)

Since his finger moved that day, Lu Yuanming hadn't tried anything else.

His soul was still too weak. Just moving a finger had exhausted him. He couldn't even think about making a bigger commotion. So, it was better to rest and recover quickly, absorbing the White Light Particles into his soul to increase its strength. Then, he could travel to the Afterlife again.

The key now was whether controlling his finger to move, causing his parents and the doctor to discover it and become excited, could yield Colorless Light Particles.

Up to this point, Lu Yuanming still wasn't clear about the source of the Colorless Light Particles. Was it necessary to Burn Joss Paper Money as a ritual? Or could it be generated by sincere wishes and chanting?

This was Lu Yuanming's experiment this time.

The Colorless Light Particles were incredibly useful. They could create Food and fresh water, as well as weapons and ammunition. Before returning, in the last moment, he had used the last Colorless Light Particle to create potatoes.

At that moment, Lu Yuanming's only thought was that hunting and scavenging were indeed unreliable. In a situation like this apocalypse, farming (real farming) was the way to go.

In the few days Lu Yuanming had been back in his Original Body, he had been constantly thinking about what to do next in the Afterlife.

First, sending out personnel to explore the surroundings could not stop. Not only could it not stop, but the investment in personnel also needed to be increased.

Second, farming had to begin. It was never too late for this. Potatoes were the grain crop with the highest yield per mu that he knew of from his meager agricultural knowledge. They were also the least picky about soil and required the least water.

This was just an experiment. If this batch of potatoes couldn't be grown, he would think of other methods. But if it was successful, it would be a continuous source of Food, far more than scavenging, prospecting, or hunting.

Regardless of whether there were large stockpiles of Food and fresh water in the New York City of the Afterlife, even if there were no monsters lurking, day after day of searching would eventually deplete everything. Farming, however, could provide a steady stream of grain.

Lu Yuanming hadn't realized it himself, but he had unknowingly awakened a hidden skill of his Huaxia Bloodline.

Thus, Lu Yuanming spent a full seventeen days in his Original Body. Only then did the warmth and sense of growth in his soul finally subside. For safety's sake, Lu Yuanming stayed an extra day. On the eighteenth day since returning to his Original Body, he activated the transfer again and returned to the Afterlife.

The process was unremarkable. When Lu Yuanming came to his senses, he was already standing in an open space. In the distance was the large supermarket where he had encountered the Spider Monsters. Lu Yuanming immediately saw more than ten Spider Corpses lying on the ground. The long legs of these Spider Corpses had all been chopped off, leaving only their plump bodies. Eighteen days had passed, and the bodies of these spiders had already rotted and stank.

Lu Yuanming found no Human corpses here, which put his mind at ease. He was afraid that the Human companions he had finally found would all die here, rendering many of his future plans unfeasible. Without the strength of an organization or a collective, an individual was truly too fragile.

Lu Yuanming immediately set off towards the bank. However, after running only a few dozen meters, he stopped in confusion.

It wasn't anything else, but he felt both too fast and too slow.

It was a very contradictory feeling. His running speed should have been very fast. From where he appeared to his current location, he had run about thirty meters. Based on his perception, it had only taken him about three seconds, which was already a terrifying figure. This included the slow speed during the initial acceleration phase. If it were a 100-meter sprint, he might have broken the world record.

But at the same time, during this run, Lu Yuanming felt a sense of slowing down. He felt that the speed at which the surrounding environment was moving in reverse had slowed down.

"What's going on?"

Lu Yuanming was very confused. He then ran more than ten times consecutively to test it. Gradually, he discovered the reason.

First, his physical fitness has strengthened, and it has strengthened considerably, far exceeding the degree of the first reinforcement. His running speed has reached about eight seconds per hundred meters. His physical strength hasn't been tested, but it has clearly more than doubled compared to before.

Not only that, but his reaction speed and dynamic vision have also improved qualitatively.

Once his movement speed becomes too fast, everything around him seems to slow down like a slow-motion movie. He can clearly see all the surrounding scenes, which is similar to the bullet time he once saw in an anime, though not as exaggerated.

This creates a peculiar sense of contradiction where he feels he is moving very fast, yet the surrounding scenery appears to be slowing down.

Besides these changes, Lu Yuanming also discovered that he had grown taller and larger.

Lu Yuanming's original body height was only 1.73 meters. When he transmigrated into the body of an addict in the USA, that addict's height was around 1.75 to 1.8 meters. After his death and arrival in the afterlife, his initial appearance was that of the addict. However, after the first time he transmigrated back to his original body, the soul's image gradually shifted towards his original body, and his height began to decrease.

But this time, after absorbing a large number of White Light Particles and significantly strengthening his soul before transmigrating back, Lu Yuanming found that his soul had clearly grown taller and larger. Although there were no rulers or similar tools for measurement, judging by visual estimation and comparison with surrounding houses and utility poles, he estimated his height to be around two meters. Moreover, this was not just growing taller like a bamboo pole; his limbs and torso had proportionally increased in size.

The extent of his soul's strengthening this time was truly immense, to the point that Lu Yuanming could hardly believe it.

As Lu Yuanming ran towards the Vault, Colorless Light Particles began to appear one after another from the void, suspending themselves around Lu Yuanming's body. A total of thirty-one Colorless Light Particles appeared, and this number filled Lu Yuanming with both surprise and joy.

Thirty-one!

They could be used to create weapons, to create food, and perhaps for other uses. These Colorless Light Particles were like small, universal wish-granting devices, representing Lu Yuanming's greatest hope for survival in this afterlife.

As Lu Yuanming ran forward with immense excitement, shouts came from the roof of a small building by the roadside. Then, several men and women rushed out of the building, shouting loudly. The person leading them was none other than Father Edward.

Father Edward's appearance was terrible, with extremely dark circles under his eyes and a pale complexion. However, as he ran towards Lu Yuanming, he seemed so excited that he was about to fly. Lu Yuanming quickly went to meet him. As soon as Father Edward reached Lu Yuanming, he immediately knelt down, clasped his hands together, and began to pray, continuously chanting words of thanks for the Lord's mercy and that the Lord had not abandoned them, sinners.

Behind Father Edward were five other people, three men and two women. Lu Yuanming didn't recognize them. These five were not from the bank Vault. They were clearly either people rescued from the supermarket earlier or individuals found during these eighteen days. They stood behind Father Edward with fear and reverence. When Father Edward knelt, they all knelt down simultaneously.

Lu Yuanming immediately helped Father Edward up and said, "I told you I am not a Deity or a Messiah. Please don't call me Lord anymore. And I wasn't abandoning you; I just returned to the world of the living. See, I'm back now, aren't I?"

Father Edward could only sob and cry, continuously chanting about the Lord's mercy and the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day.

Lu Yuanming felt helpless and could only continue to comfort him. After a long while, Father Edward and the five people behind him finally quieted down. Lu Yuanming then quickly asked, "Have there been any problems at the base during my absence? Were the potatoes I gave you planted?"

Father Edward immediately replied, "Our numbers have now reached one hundred and seventeen. When the Lord returned to the world of the living, we organized two more external explorations and finally found a large amount of food and fresh water in a Logistics Warehouse, enough for all of us to eat and drink for at least two months. We have also reinforced the outer walls of the bank and set up several reconnaissance points outside the bank to guard against sudden monster attacks. As for the potatoes, they have all been planted in a park not far from the bank. The seeds gifted by the Lord have mostly sprouted. Those in the team familiar with agriculture tell us that we can expect the first harvest in three months."

Lu Yuanming nodded continuously as he listened. But before he could show a happy expression, Father Edward suddenly said, "John... is dead."

"What?" Lu Yuanming was stunned and quickly asked, "What happened? Didn't John have a firearm? And a powerful Rifle at that, with over twenty rounds of ammunition. How could he have died? Those Monsters clearly fear us; after you kill a few, the others will flee. Could it be that he encountered one of those super-large Monsters?"

Lu Yuanming thought that only encountering such a super-large Monster would make escape impossible, and firearms would be mostly useless.

But to his surprise, Father Edward shook his head and said, "No, John had his throat slit from behind. It was done by the refugees he saved. These people killed John and stole his weapons and ammunition. They discovered the potatoes planted in the park two days ago and also found out that the bank is our base. This group has sent us a message demanding our surrender, or they will attack us and kill every one of us."

"Lord, please call down the fire from heaven and burn these heretics to ashes, sending them into Hellfire!!"