Crystals

Chen Jian'an had been watching the whole time, but he had stayed seated.

At the sudden turn of events, he shot to his feet.

He should have been stunned, but seeing his precious son in such a miserable state made him instinctively lunge at Chen Luo.

Chen Jian'an screamed himself hoarse. "Chen Luo, what are you doing?"

Chen Jian'an grabbed the purple clay teapot he drank from and swung it at Chen Luo.

Chen Luo sneered and thrust the stun baton toward Chen Jian'an.

Chen Jian'an instinctively tried to block it.

Heh, what, do you think you're an insulator? Electricity won't work on you?

Chen Jian'an collapsed on the spot, his head slamming hard into the coffee table.

Some things hurt just to look at.

Seeing the blood pouring from the back of Chen Jian'an's head, Chen Luo sucked in a breath.

"That really hurts."

Chen Jian'an passed out too.

"Aah!" An utterly agonized scream rang out.

As the zombie gnawed on Chen Fei's face, the excruciating pain actually brought him back to consciousness.

By then, however, the Maid Zombie had him pinned firmly to the floor.

In this situation, if Chen Luo hadn't shocked Chen Fei first, his strong, fit body might have given him a chance to fight back.

But Chen Luo had shocked him, leaving his whole body numb and weak, while the zombie was far stronger than him, even though the Maid Zombie had been a woman in life.

The Maid Zombie ignored Chen Luo. Filling her stomach came first.

Chen Fei struggled as he pleaded, "Chen Luo, Dad, save me."

Chen Luo made a show of surprise. "I don't have a bastard son like you. Your dad's lying on the floor."

Remembering what had happened before he passed out, Chen Fei started to curse. "Chen Luo, you son of a-"

He never finished, because the Maid Zombie clamped her mouth over his.

Then she tore hard, ripping off his entire upper lip and leaving a bloody mess.

Chen Luo clicked his tongue. I can't keep such an exciting spectacle all to myself.

Chen Luo turned and went to the kitchen, brought out a basin of water, and splashed it over Chen Jian'an's face, then slapped him hard across the cheeks.

Chen Jian'an slowly came around, only to see a sight that filled him with rage and horror.

Not a single patch of skin on his son Chen Fei's face remained intact. Even if he could be saved, his face was ruined for good.

Chen Jian'an struggled to get up and save Chen Fei, but Chen Luo turned down the stun baton's voltage, making it strong enough to numb Chen Jian'an without knocking him unconscious.

With water soaking Chen Jian'an's body, getting shocked felt absolutely wonderful.

Chen Jian'an struggled several times, and Chen Luo forced him back down every time.

Chen Jian'an actually begged for mercy. "Chen Luo, Chen Fei is your own cousin! Hurry and save him. I admit it, I secretly cheated you out of your shares, but Chen Fei knows nothing about it. He's innocent!"

Chen Luo snorted coldly. "What else have you done to me?"

If it had only been about money, Chen Luo wouldn't have gone this far.

The murder of his parents was a blood feud. No revenge could ever be enough.

Chen Jian'an's heart lurched. Could Chen Luo have found out about that?

Chen Luo grabbed Chen Jian'an by the neck and lifted his head, giving him a clearer view of how Chen Fei was being eaten.

As Chen Fei's breathing grew weaker and his pained cries faded, Chen Jian'an roared, "Chen Luo, if you save Chen Fei now, I can still choose not to call the police. Otherwise, you're doomed!"

Even now, Chen Jian'an hadn't realized the apocalypse had arrived. He merely thought the maid had contracted some horrific disease or that Chen Luo had drugged her.

Chen Luo ignored him, occasionally brushing the stun baton lightly across Chen Jian'an's face.

By now, Chen Jian'an had fallen into despair. Chen Luo was determined to kill both him and his son.

"You heartless animal! You're actually going to murder your own uncle and cousin! You're worse than a beast!"

Chen Luo's face twisted as he slapped Chen Jian'an hard. "You're the heartless one! My father saw that you'd accomplished nothing and kindly brought you into the Chen Group, but you murdered him behind his back. How do you have the nerve to say that?"

The Maid Zombie had already bitten through Chen Fei's neck. Chen Jian'an no longer had any hope.

He had lived his entire life for this son. Even after becoming rich, he had placed great hopes in Chen Fei and raised him with strict discipline.

Now, it had all come to nothing.

Chen Jian'an went completely mad. "I'm his older brother! His own older brother! I helped him achieve so much, and what did I get? Only ten percent of the shares! Did he think he was tossing scraps to a beggar? He deserved to die!"

"And you-with today's technology, you'll never get away with this."

Chen Luo's gaze turned icy. His father had invited a wolf into his home. At the value of the shares back then, ten percent had been worth 1.5 billion. What employee could ever get 1.5 billion worth of shares?

Even one percent would have been a pipe dream.

Human greed knew no bounds.

A single zombie couldn't eat two people in such a short time, and Chen Luo couldn't control the Maid Zombie and make her gnaw on Chen Jian'an.

Electrocuting him to death would be letting him off too easily.

Chen Luo took out the dagger he had prepared in his ability space and drove it straight through him, leaving an entry wound and an exit wound.

He kept stabbing until Chen Jian'an showed no signs of life.

In the meantime, Chen Fei had been bitten to death. Hearing the commotion, the Maid Zombie, who had eaten her fill somewhat, lunged at Chen Luo with a snarl.

Chen Luo had seen more zombies than he could count, let alone ones of this lowest rank.

Without the slightest panic, Chen Luo turned the stun baton's voltage back up to maximum.

An electrical buzz sounded.

A scorched stench wafted up. This time, Chen Luo shocked her for several seconds.

The Maid Zombie screamed a few times before falling silent and passing out.

Zombies could feel pain too, but unlike normal people, pain didn't frighten them. Apart from the urge to eat humans, they had no other emotions.

They knew pain, but not fear.

Killing them wasn't particularly difficult either.

Anything that could kill a human could kill them. The only troublesome part was that even having their intestines spill out or losing half their face wouldn't stop them from fighting.

Paralysis and unconsciousness worked on them just the same.

Chen Luo couldn't be certain whether the Maid Zombie before him was truly dead, but it didn't matter. He crouched down, drew his dagger, and plunged it between her eyebrows.

Now she was truly dead. Zombies had a weak point too: the spot between their eyebrows. Driving a sharp weapon deep into it would kill them outright.

Chen Luo didn't stop there. Instead, he kept stirring the dagger inside the Maid Zombie's brain.

Red and white fluids spurted out. It was revolting.

Yet Chen Luo's expression remained calm.

In his previous life, Chen Luo had vomited many times. After throwing up over and over, he had gotten used to it.

Chen Luo wasn't some pervert deliberately desecrating the Maid Zombie's corpse. He was trying to extract the crystal between her eyebrows.

After the apocalypse began, both Esper Ability Users and zombies would grow a crystal between their eyebrows.

The crystal's size and color varied according to the type and strength of its owner's ability.

Fire Esper Ability Users and zombies had red crystals, while Wind Esper Ability Users and zombies had blue-green crystals.

If Dharma King awakened an ability, his crystal would be purple. The crystal extracted from Dharma King's head back then had been dark purple and the size of an egg.

The Maid Zombie before him, however, was of the lowest rank and had yet to evolve an ability, so hers was pale white.

Someone with a Space ability like Chen Luo would have a transparent crystal.

There was no misunderstanding here: Chen Luo had never seen his own crystal. He had seen them inside the heads of other Space Esper Ability Users.