Chapter 3: Growth

Lin Xinghai’s arm trembled, not out of fear, not out of nervousness, but out of excitement.

He was blessed with a system.

A semi-transparent screen appeared before him, displaying an option to absorb the Blood Essence.

There was no need for hesitation.

He chose “yes” immediately!

In the next moment, Lin Xinghai felt a peculiar sensation in his arm, as if some form of energy was entering his body through it.

At the same time, he also discovered that the bleeding wound on the back of the zombie’s head had dried up.

Not only the wound but the zombie’s skin turned pale as if its blood was drained.

“What!” Lin Xinghai was taken aback. He pinched the flesh around the wound. Not a single drop of blood could be squeezed out.

“Don’t tell me the Blood Essence is the fresh blood from the zombie’s body!” He speculated in his heart while subtly scanning his surroundings.

Fortunately, no one paid attention to him. After all, the wound on the zombie had been there for some time now, and it would be expected to stop bleeding.

Besides, the zombie’s skin was already pale, so even if it became a bit paler, no one would notice unless they were scrutinizing it.

“Ding! Congratulations to the host for absorbing 1 point of Blood Essence. The status panel function is activated, and the main mission is underway.”

As the system prompt sounded, the dialog box in front of Lin Xinghai became a status panel.

Host: Lin Xinghai

Constitution: 7 points

Strength: 7 points

Speed: 9 points

Blood Essence: 1 point

Genetic Enhancement Degree: 9%

“Could it be that I’m a speed type?” Looking at his status panel, Lin Xinghai muttered.

However, with no one else to compare to, Lin Xinghai had no idea whether his basic attributes were good or bad.

After glancing at the status panel, he looked at the mission section below.

Main Mission: Please collect 10 points of Blood Essence.

Explanation: Blood Essence is the foundation for your growth. The more, the merrier.

Reward: Unlock the appraisal feature.

Mission Progress: 1/10.

After reading the main mission, Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but feel delighted. He thought that completing this mission would be challenging under normal circumstances.

However, zombie corpses were everywhere at this place!

Lin Xinhai stood up calmly and walked toward a zombie corpse not far away.

He did some experiments and discovered that the system would not respond if he interacted with the other parts of the zombie.

Only when he touched the bleeding wounds would the system prompt pop up.

“Judging from this, the Blood Essence isn’t the blood itself but certainly originates from blood.”

Lin Xinghai opened the status panel, revealing the mission progress: 2/10.

Seeing this, Lin Xinghai was filled with enthusiasm. Soon, he had gone through another five zombies, pushing the mission progress to 7/10.

Three more zombies to go before I can complete the main mission.

What he didn’t know, however, was that Roger had been secretly watching him all along.

The purpose of this “first lesson” was not only to put the members of the shelter in their place but also to test their courage.

Courage was necessary for a Mercenary Group that fought zombies.

Given that Lin Xinghai was on his recruitment radar, Roger wanted to assess Xinghai’s bravery meticulously.

Therefore, when Roger saw Lin Xinghai willingly lining up to touch the zombies, he couldn’t help but give a secret nod of approval.

However, when Lin Xinghai took the initiative to touch the second zombie, the expression on his face became subtle.

Roger didn’t expect that this was just the beginning.

Next, Lin Xinghai touched the zombies around him one after another. For every additional zombie he touched, the expression on Roger’s face became a bit more intriguing.

“Does this person have necrophilia!?”

When Lin Xinghai touched the seventh zombie corpse, Roger couldn’t bear it and walked over, “What are you doing?”

Seeing Roger standing in front of him suddenly, Lin Xinghai was startled.

However, he had anticipated his unusual behavior would attract attention. Thus, he calmly explained the reason he had prepared beforehand.

“I’m puzzled. These zombies died from bullets to their brains, but why are the backs of their skulls sliced open afterward?”

Roger’s strange expression instantly changed to one of surprise. For a first-timer touching a zombie, it was impressive enough to stay calm.

However, Lin Xinghai discovered the abnormality and took the initiative to seek the answer.

At this moment, the value of Lin Xinghai in Roger’s heart instantly rose to a higher level.

“Excellent! If you want to survive in the apocalypse, your insight is essential. As for why we cut the back of the zombie’s head, I can tell you the reason, that is…”

“Don’t tell me yet.” Lin Xinghai interrupted hastily, “I want to see it through to the end. I would like to find the answer myself.”

Are you kidding me? I would lose my chance to interact with more zombies when you give me the answer.

Roger was taken aback, showing a look of approval, “You’re better than I have imagined.”

Seeing that he had overcome this hurdle, Lin Xinghai heaved a sigh of relief and hurried to the next corpse.

Soon, he interacted with three more zombies. When the mission progress reached 10/10, the system sounded again.

“Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the main mission. You have unlocked the appraisal feature. You’re given ten appraisal charges.”

Lin Xinghai quickly opened the status panel. He realized that the appraisal feature was added after the display of his attributes.

Appraisal: Consume Blood Essence to inspect the target’s attributes. The stronger the target, the more Blood Essence will be consumed. Remarks: The first ten appraisals do not consume Blood Essence.

Besides the addition of the appraisal feature, the main mission had also changed.

Main Mission: Kill 100 zombies.

Explanation: Taking shortcuts is only temporary. To acquire Blood Essence, you still need to rely on yourself.

Rewards: None.

Seeing the mission’s reward, Lin Xinghai felt a wave of frustration. Why are there no rewards?

Since there are no rewards, why should I complete this mission?

However, to his dismay, he found that he had no choice but to undertake this mission because he was sure to encounter zombies.

If Lin Xinghai didn’t complete the mission, he might not receive any new missions. For him, that was the worst situation possible.

While feeling somewhat frustrated, he noticed new changes on his status panel.

Genetic Enhancement Degree: 9%+

Yes! There was a “+” sign after 9%.

Lin Xinghai immediately tapped on it.

“Do you want to consume 1 point of Blood Essence to improve your Genetic Enhancement?”

Lin Xinghai’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly chose yes!

In the next instant, a warm current appeared out of nowhere, spreading throughout his body, making him feel extremely comfortable.

However, he didn’t have time to indulge in this feeling, as he promptly turned his attention back to the status panel.

Host: Lin Xinghai

Constitution: 8 points

Strength: 7 points

Speed: 10 points

Blood Essence: 9 points

Genetic Enhancement Degree: 10%+

Joy immediately spread across Lin Xinghai’s face. His Genetic Enhancement Degree had risen by 1%, and his constitution and speed had increased by 1 point.

“This Blood Essence is indeed the key to boosting my abilities!”

Having found the method to enhance his abilities, Lin Xinghai didn’t hesitate. He immediately added all the remaining Blood Essence to his Genetic Enhancement Degree.

This time, the emerging warm current was even more intense, as if a ball of fire was burning within his body. However, he could feel his body strengthening at a terrifying pace.

New changes happened in his status panel.

Host: Lin Xinghai

Constitution: 15 points

Strength: 13 points

Speed: 19 points

Blood Essence: 0 points

Gene Enhancement Degree: 19%+

His Blood Essence was now at zero. His Genetic Enhancement Degree had risen from 9% to 19%. At the same time, his attributes had significantly increased.

Seeing the varying increases in his three attributes, Lin Xinghai took on a thoughtful expression.