Bang!
This time, although Kevin Zhou smashed the zombie's skull, he didn't blow it apart. Instead, the rebound force made his palm tingle and go slightly numb.
"A zombie's skull is tougher than a normal person's! Use the power technique I taught you!" Ian Song barked.
"Kill!"
Kevin Zhou nodded, let out a cold shout, and swung the steel pipe at the zombie's skull again.
Splat!
The zombie's skull shattered on impact. Seeing the mix of red and white brain matter, Kevin Zhou nearly threw up, but he forced himself to hold it in.
"You two, toss this zombie out the window!" Ian Song ordered, pointing at Jimmy Zhu and Mark Mao.
Both nodded, fighting down their disgust, and threw the zombie's corpse out the window.
A short while later, Ian Song went out again. This time, he dragged back two more zombies, both with their limbs already broken by him.
"Who wants to go next?"
Ian Song swept his gaze over Leo Liao, Ray Wang, Jimmy Zhu, and Mark Mao.
"Me!"
"Me!"
Leo Liao and Jimmy Zhu stepped forward. Under Ian Song's guidance, they smashed open the zombies' skulls.
After tossing the two corpses out the window, Ian Song caught two more zombies and had Mark Mao and Ray Wang handle them.
With the first three as examples, Mark Mao and Ray Wang had already overcome much of their fear and completed the task smoothly.
"Next, I'll bring back a zombie that's completely intact for you all to kill together! Don't let me down!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Ian Song walked out of the dorm. A moment later, he came back in, gripping a zombie by the back of its neck.
Seeing the zombie struggling in Ian Song's grip and letting out guttural howls, all five roommates turned pale.
The night passed in the blink of an eye.
Under Ian Song's special training, all five roommates managed to kill a live, struggling zombie on their own.
While out hunting zombies, Ian also gathered some food and water.
After a night of intensive training, Kevin, Leo, Jimmy, Mark, and Ray were all exhausted. They ate, then collapsed onto their beds and fell asleep.
Half of the twenty-four-hour protection period had already passed. If he could hold out for just eleven more hours, he’d complete the mission.
As dawn broke, even the zombies rampaging across campus grew quiet.
Using his Clairvoyant Vision, Ian discovered that the zombies hadn’t disappeared—they were hiding in shadowy corners. Still, a few continued to wander the campus.
Ian’s Clairvoyant Vision couldn’t cover the entire campus yet. Within its range, there were only a few hundred survivors, but more than ten thousand zombies within a six-kilometer radius.
While Kevin and the others slept, Ian left the dorm and cleared out all the zombies on their floor.
“Huh? What’s that?”
After smashing a zombie’s skull, Ian found a thumb-sized red crystal.
He picked up the red crystal and activated his Omniversal God-Eye.
The Omniversal God-Eye was a seventh-grade divine ability, able to appraise any unknown object. He’d won it in his second lottery draw.
But the God-Eye had a limit—only three uses per day.
A flash of light, and new information appeared in Ian’s mind: Evolution Crystal—can be consumed directly to enhance physical strength and, at higher levels, mental power.
“This is awesome!”
Knowing what it did, Ian rinsed the Evolution Crystal clean and tossed it into his mouth.
The crystal melted instantly, turning into a rush of heat that spread through his body.
The warmth faded quickly.
Ian checked his system interface and saw a slight increase in physical strength, but no change in mental power.
Looks like this Evolution Crystal is too low-level to make much difference for me. Still, for ordinary people, it’s a great way to evolve.
Now that he knew what the Evolution Crystal could do, Ian started collecting them from the zombies he’d killed on that floor.
He’d killed about a hundred zombies on this floor, but including the one he ate, only eight Evolution Crystals turned up.
So not every zombie grows an Evolution Crystal.
Back in the dorm, Ian woke up Kevin, Leo, Jimmy, Mark, and Ray.
“Eat this!”
Ian tossed an Evolution Crystal to each of them.
“What is this?” Mark Mao asked, curious.
“It’ll make you stronger!”
All five of them instantly perked up and popped the Evolution Crystals into their mouths.
“Hey Ian, where’d you get this stuff?” Kevin Zhou asked after swallowing the crystal.
“Dug it out of a zombie’s skull.”
“Ugh! Gross!”
Hearing that it came out of a zombie’s head, all five of them gagged. But the crystal melted instantly, so even if they wanted to spit it out, it was already gone.
Soon enough, the crystals took effect—their bodies started shaking violently, and sweat poured out of them...
It took nearly an hour.
Only then did all five fully absorb the Evolution Crystals.
“Water!”
Kevin Zhou, feeling weak, reached out to Ian.
Ian handed out five bottles of water, one for each roommate.
“Got anything to eat?” Kevin Zhou asked.
Ian handed out some food as well.
After eating and drinking, the five of them looked much more lively.
“How do you feel?”
Ian looked at his five roommates and asked.
“I feel like my whole body’s full of power!” Leo Liao said, swinging his fist enthusiastically.
Ian beckoned him over. “Come on, hit me with everything you’ve got!”
“Alright!”
Brimming with confidence, Leo Liao threw a punch at Ian’s chest. Ian didn’t dodge, letting the blow land squarely.
“You… Are you okay?”
Seeing Ian stand there unfazed, Leo was a bit surprised.
“Don’t worry, you can’t hurt me,” Ian said calmly, which left Leo a bit deflated despite his new strength.
“The rest of you, give me your best shot too!”
After taking a full-force punch from each of his five roommates, Ian calculated that Leo and Kevin’s punching power had increased by about fifty kilograms.
A normal adult’s punch is around fifty kilograms.
So Leo and Kevin’s strength had grown by fifty percent—a solid improvement.
Mark Mao, Ray Wang, and Jimmy Zhu didn’t gain as much—their strength only increased by thirty percent.
Corpse-transformed zombies get about a one-third strength boost, so now Mark, Ray, and Jimmy can match them, while Leo and Kevin have surpassed them.
“I’ve got two more Evolution Crystals here. Kevin, Leo, you guys take them!”
“Thanks!”
“Thank you, Ian!”
The two took the crystals and popped them in their mouths without hesitation, while Mark, Ray, and Jimmy looked on enviously.
An hour later, Kevin and Leo had absorbed another Evolution Crystal each.
After more water and food, Ian tested them again.
This time, the results surprised Ian—Leo’s strength grew by another thirty kilograms, while Kevin’s increased by twenty.
Thinking it over, Ian realized the difference was probably due to their physical fitness.
Leo worked out all the time, while Kevin exercised too, but he wasn’t as strong as Leo.
That explained it.