’Scolding your own father’s ghost is never a good idea.’
’Even Huo Yuanjia saw his family ruined and his life lost, so it was only normal for you to die.’
Qi Suian learned of Zombie Chunyu Bao’s death through his sources. He could only sigh; there was nothing to be done for someone who got in the way.
Losing favor alone wouldn’t have been a death sentence. The main issue was that this Young Association Leader was both capable and ambitious. After rallying his remaining forces, he might have actually succeeded.
So, to nip that danger in the bud, he was eliminated.
’Before long, all the Zombie People will likely turn into zombies.’
’Without the drugs to suppress their second consciousness, their bodies can only return to their original owners.’
When they chose to turn themselves into the zombie species, the true owner of their bodies became the zombie spawned by the Profound Virus infection.
So, theoretically speaking, what the Zombie People did was a form of possession.
Even though the bodies originally belonged to them, they had been abandoned and inherited by someone—or something—else.
You can’t just abandon something, and then, after someone else brings it back to life, decide you want it back.
It’s a nice thought, but reality is cruel.
Facing so many disadvantages, the Zombie People’s only possible fate was to become full-fledged zombies.
Even if a few Zombie People had the willpower to constantly suppress their second consciousness, its influence would still seep into their minds and sense of self, and they would inevitably be assimilated in the end.
Besides, people like that were incredibly rare.
As for how Qi Suian knew all this, it was because he had been capturing Zombie People and dissecting them, of course.
That’s right. The dissected Zombie People were his sources of information. They were single-use, unfortunately, but at least he could kill two birds with one stone.
After dissection, they could be thrown into the Melting Furnace to provide evolutionary energy for the Tai Sui God.
Qi Suian couldn’t help but marvel at this. These zombies provided a massive amount of evolutionary energy—far more than the various metals and minerals he had been using before.
In truth, burning zombies didn’t provide the most evolutionary energy. The energy he got from burning himself and then exploiting a death-and-respawn bug—now *that* was what you’d call a feast.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t use that method often. Qi Suian didn’t have time to personally serve as fuel; he had a mountain of things to learn and research.
For instance, developing his ability, cultivating his A-rank virus talent, and studying the various techniques and technologies of the Divine Prayer Association.
Just because the Tai Sui God was strong didn’t mean he was. Even though he could only rely on the Tai Sui God for now, he couldn’t allow himself to become dependent. He still needed to learn and grow.
’The number of survivors who died wasn’t that high, actually. Only about thirty percent were killed in this recent turmoil.’ Qi Suian glanced at the survivor count. Then again, with a population of several hundred million, thirty percent was still a massive number.
The reason the death toll was so low was, of course, because Zombie Chunyu Hu hadn’t launched an all-out assault. Instead, he had focused on breaking through specific points.
He swept through one area at a time, so the only survivors who suffered were in limited regions. Those across the ocean or in remote areas, for instance, were completely unaffected.
It wasn’t going to be easy for Zombie Chunyu Hu to wipe out hundreds of millions of survivors.
Even if it were hundreds of millions of scarecrows just standing there waiting for him to kill them, it would still take a considerable amount of time.
Moreover, the true cause of such a high death toll was the Divine Prayer Association and the other zombies. Zombie Chunyu Hu spent most of his time hunting down humans or zombies suspected of having obtained the ’Mandate of Heaven’.
To him, obtaining the Mandate of Heaven and combining it with the Source of Profound Virus was a far more important goal.
’Wait a second. I’m pretty sure I completed that mission within twenty-four hours,’ Qi Suian suddenly recalled the mandatory mission he’d been given. ’The Apocalypse Game isn’t going to flake on me, is it?’
There should have been a notification for success or failure, but there was no response whatsoever.
’I can’t open it. It’s been sealed off...’ Qi Suian realized he couldn’t open his quest log. It was just like his inventory bar—it had become a static, unclickable image.
’I get it. The system is having another conflict.’
Whatever feature Qi Suian used, the Apocalypse Game would seal it off.
The mandatory mission was a feature Qi Suian had now used, so naturally, right after the mission was issued, the feature itself was sealed.
So, even though Qi Suian had completed the mission, he couldn’t turn back into a survivor because the quest log had been sealed.
And the reason he wasn’t executed for failure was also due to a logical conflict.
The system was probably supposed to execute him when the time limit was reached, but because his inventory was sealed, the execution command failed completely.
’So you’re all about making empty promises, huh?’
’Still, it’s a good thing it didn’t turn me back into a survivor. I would have taken a huge loss if it had.’
As for why he killed Zombie Chunyu Hu within twenty-four hours despite not wanting to become a survivor, it was because he had already learned a painful lesson about what happens when you refuse a gift from the heavens—you suffer the consequences.
So, in Qi Suian’s eyes, the twenty-four-hour deadline wasn’t from the Apocalypse Game, but from his own ’plot armor.’
If he exceeded that time limit, Zombie Chunyu Hu would become even harder to kill.
The last time, he hadn’t taken the Source of Profound Virus in time, which had caused the situation to spiral out of control. If he had waited for a better opportunity this time, there was no telling if one would even come. Zombie Chunyu Hu certainly wasn’t going to wait around for him, content to stagnate.
When they first met, Zombie Chunyu Hu was still a Corpse King. After obtaining the Source of Profound Virus, he became a Corpse Emperor. If it had remained in his possession, becoming a Corpse Emperor wouldn’t have been out of the question.
As he was mulling this over, a cool sensation suddenly bloomed in Qi Suian’s mind.
’My ability... has been born.’
’It’s actually a passive ability?!’
’The Source of Profound Virus is here, so it directly bypassed the restriction... I’ve gained the unknown effect that’s supposed to only be obtainable after complete infection.’
Qi Suian was a bit surprised; he’d thought it would be an active ability. It had also appeared on his attribute panel.
[D-Rank Ability: Spirit Enhancement]
Unsurprisingly, the moment this panel appeared, it was sealed by the Apocalypse Game.
But a seal was just a seal. It didn’t stop Qi Suian from using or developing his ability.
It was his ability, not the Apocalypse Game’s. At most, the seal just meant he couldn’t view the detailed information, just like with his virus talent.
’A 10% increase to my Spirit attribute... This is... pretty good.’
Qi Suian could feel that the increase came from the viral crystal that had formed from his mutated Pineal Gland.
So, it didn’t mix with his own Spirit attribute, but was instead an additional enhancement.
As he developed and improved the ability, the enhancement ratio would continue to grow.
After a deep self-dissection, Qi Suian also discovered a hidden danger in this ability.
Namely, his physique had to be able to withstand it. Otherwise, if the gap between his Spirit and Physique attributes grew too large, his Spirit would spiral out of control and endanger his physical body.
These two attributes were two sides of the same coin, complementing each other. They absolutely could not become imbalanced.
’Great, another project to work on.’
’Luckily, it’s less difficult than the virus talent. At least there’s a clear path to follow. I can just develop it step by step.’
Qi Suian felt the site of his dissection wound, where a mass of flesh squirmed and grew, beginning to repair the injury.
The Profound Virus detected that Qi Suian was injured and immediately rushed to repair the damage, preventing him from dying.
He was only able to dissect himself to investigate the structure of his ability thanks to the protection of the Profound Virus.