Crystal Core

Biodata

Power Progression

Documented Core-Assisted Upgrades

Advancement Requirements

• Costs vary by individual: Bai Yaoyao used twenty-five ordinary cores for spatial level two, while Keke used twenty-four for her wood ability’s upgrade 20 22.
• Higher levels demand substantially more energy: Reaching level three takes more than ten times as many cores as reaching level two, though the exact number is not fixed 22.
• Level four requires higher-grade material: Level-zero cores no longer work for this breakthrough. Around one hundred level-one cores may be needed, and a level-four core is essential 22.
• From level four onward: Advancement requires a core of the level being pursued 22.
• Multiple abilities multiply the cost: Each ability needs resources to advance, making dual- and triple-ability users particularly expensive to develop 13.

Appearance and Classification

• The first level-zero core Xiaomi retrieves is transparent, attractive, and slightly smaller than a tiny baby’s fist 15.
• A speed-mutated zombie’s core is pale yellow 16.
• Higher-level cores become prettier; Peiqi specifically remarks on the brightness of the level-four specimen 48.
• Cores emit energy fluctuations that Bai Yaoyao can sense even inside a bag 28.

Functions and Use

Energy Absorption

• Method: Hold a core and concentrate, using an ability to connect with the energy inside. Bai Yaoyao initially instructs her squad to hold cores in both hands 20 26.
• Safety: Cores are not poisonous and can be absorbed directly; soaking them in spring water is unnecessary 15.
• Type compatibility: Matching-category cores are easier to absorb. Other categories remain usable but take about three times as long, without significantly different effects 16.
• Spatial advantage: Inside her space’s cabin, Bai Yaoyao absorbs cores more than three times faster than normal. Testing a core outside reveals both slower absorption and reduced effect 20.

Limits of Core-Based Growth

• Cores raise ability levels but do not replace fighting experience. Bai Yaoyao warns that users strengthened solely through cores can lose to lower-level opponents trained in combat 21.
• With enough cores, almost anyone can reach level three; advancement beyond that also requires talent and combat experience 31.
• Newly awakened abilities still require practice and control, even when their users have received core energy 13.

Extraction and Handling

• Manual retrieval: A dagger or knife is inserted into a dead zombie’s brain to extract its core 15.
• Assisted collection: Little Crook uses its branches to stab, scoop, and gather cores rapidly; Doggie can retrieve them with a claw 21 34.
• Inconsistent yield: The squad’s initial sweep kills thirty-six zombies but produces only fourteen cores. Zombies without cores are comparatively weaker 15.
• Destruction risk: Bai Yaoyao avoids using a bomb against a horde because an explosion powerful enough to destroy the zombies would probably destroy their cores too 21.
• Storage: Bai Yaoyao sorts her growing collection into large boxes by tier 46.

Trade and Mission Payments

Cores serve as both advancement resources and a means of payment. Bai Yaoyao explicitly tells a rescued mother that even level-zero cores will function as currency once she reaches the base 49.

• Early in the apocalypse, the authorities possess substantial core stockpiles because their troops can rapidly kill zombies with firearms. Supplies are more urgently needed at this stage 35.
• Level-three cores are relatively rare and valuable; Meng Qilin initially intends to pass his collection to his superiors 35.
• Bai Yaoyao retains lower-level cores for later exchanges rather than discarding them once her squad outgrows their immediate usefulness 45.

History and Story Significance

Previous Timeline

The Huaguo Capital Base announces that obtaining cores from ten different types of Emperor-Class Zombies could enable development of a zombie vaccine. Collecting them proves exceptionally difficult, especially with the elusive Time Zombie among the threats 1.

Before dying, Bai Yaoyao barely touches the Spatial Emperor-Class Zombie’s core. After rebirth, she suspects it caused her spatial ability to mutate into an enormous enterable space containing a house and farmland. The connection remains her theory rather than a confirmed explanation 1.

Early Apocalypse

During the squad’s awakening, a mysterious figure places two cores in Bai Yaoyao’s hands and helps her absorb their energy, then tosses additional cores toward her companions. She subsequently discovers strength and psychic abilities alongside her existing spatial ability 13.

Core collection becomes a central objective of the Dark Night Squad. Bai Yaoyao first distributes enough for everyone to pursue level two, then prioritizes higher-level cores for offensive fighters, defenders, and healers according to the squad’s needs 19 27.

At H University, she teaches Li Pengliang’s group where cores are found and how to absorb them. The students later credit the squad with revealing that cores can strengthen abilities 26 29.

Exploitation and Later Collection

Wang Jianbin’s group deliberately infects captives, waits for them to become zombies, and kills them for cores. The Dark Night Squad discovers the bound victims and bags containing at least three or four hundred cores after killing him 28.

Big Meow gives Bai Yaoyao several hundred stored cores, including three or four level-three specimens, after she arranges its owner’s burial 42.

The squad eventually obtains a level-four core through a combined attack on a fleeing zombie. Bai Yaoyao intends to use it with her saved cores to attempt spatial level four; the breakthrough itself is not shown in that chapter 48.