After breaking through to the third tier, Su Duoduo released her Space Gate, extending its range from one hundred meters to three hundred meters. Unlike before, she no longer needed to jump back and forth several times, nor did it heavily drain her mental energy.
Everyone was waiting at the doorway. Su Duoduo hurriedly bounced over and jumped straight into her sister's arms, excitedly chattering about her new skill. Not a single word was mentioned about her relationship with him.
The little girl was thin-skinned. Ye Xin didn't really care—externally, everyone already knew. Internally, they just refused to acknowledge it, that was all.
"Those who haven't awakened yet, come and receive your crystal cores. I'll make this clear in advance—eating one doesn't guarantee awakening. There's also a chance you'll turn into a zombie. It all depends on whether your will can carry you through. The process will definitely be extremely painful. If you want to back out, now's still your chance."
Seeing no one speak, Ye Xin nodded in satisfaction. "Come up one by one. Wang Jie, you first. Xu Chu, you go last."
There was a reason for this arrangement. Ye Xin wanted to give the mutated crystal core to the skinny Wang Jie. With that kind of courage and resolve, it was only natural he'd favor him a little.
As for putting Xu Chu last, Ye Xin planned to give him something different—this crystal core had dropped from killing the Shadow Scythe. A Superman-type shadow ability, the one most similar to an Element-type power.
He didn't know whether the consumer would inherit it directly.
Not to mention that he himself had never seen this before—Su Momo was also seeing a blue crystal for the first time.
"Is this from an awakened one's body?" Su Momo asked.
"Mm." Since it was a system reward, Ye Xin couldn't explain too much.
"Big bad guy, are we staying here to wait for them?" Su Duoduo asked.
"No need," Ye Xin replied. "Zi Ming, I'll leave these people to you. If anyone mutates, kill them immediately. Can you handle that?"
"Don't worry, boss!"
Taking advantage of this time, Ye Xin led the three girls to a relatively clean dorm room and sat down. Aunt Su Wu followed along the entire time—this was her duty. It was just that, at her age, she seemed somewhat out of place among them.
"Aunt Wu, just sit wherever. We're all family now. I want to establish a guild—a purely awakened organization. We can also take in civilians underneath; as long as they work, it's fine. Do you have any good suggestions?"
"Brother, doing this requires enormous resources," Su Momo analyzed calmly. "At the very least, food and water. Then you need to find a suitable base. After that comes crystal core collection, and later on, distribution of supplies and spoils. To be honest, it's not easy to manage. But if it's you, it'll be easy."
If Ye Xin wanted to create a faction, it would indeed be very easy. His strength was overwhelming. Just leak a little news—through broadcasts or announcements—and people would naturally come to seek refuge. In the apocalypse, not all signals were cut off. Humanity quickly established new base stations to facilitate communication between survivor bases.
The fifth turn of the apocalypse: one week in, foreign races intruded, void beasts emerged everywhere.
The sixth turn: one month in, extraterrestrial meteors fell across the entire Blue Star.
The seventh turn: one year in, countless races stood side by side, and the Epoch Gate opened.
To resist the foreign races, humanity gradually banded together. Small bases all moved toward major strongholds. One year later, everything was divided into four major war zones. They belonged to the Dragon East War Zone, which established thirteen powerful rescue bases. The largest, Tianyang Base, housed over ten million people, with more than three hundred thousand awakened.
"Resources aren't a problem," Ye Xin said. "I'm thinking about where to set up the base."
"Brother, you can go to the largest Yuhai Villa District in Tongnan City," Xie Wan'er suggested. "There's an independent power station there, a reservoir with water purification systems, and a three-meter-high perimeter wall with barbed wire and electric fencing. With reinforced defenses, it's geographically impregnable. Most importantly, Villa No. 1 at the center has a private helicopter."
Xie Wan'er knew the place well because she went home there every holiday.
"Really? A helicopter would be perfect. Aunt Wu can fly," Su Momo said happily. With air transport, many troubles could be avoided. Traveling back to Tiandu wouldn't require going by land.
"It's true, Momo. It's my home. My father holds a high position in S Province. That villa isn't something you can buy with money alone."
"Wan'er, you're a real little rich girl," Ye Xin said with a smile. "How far is it from here?"
"About ten kilometers." Factoring in traffic, it was at most twenty minutes by car, Xie Wan'er estimated confidently.
"Then we'll go to the Jianghai Grand Hotel to pick up our luggage first, and then head to Yuhai."
It sounded simple. With just a few of them, it would be easy to get there—but there were still those nine people.
The group ate while chatting, finalizing their plans. Afterward, Ye Xin went outside to check on the situation. As expected, Old Pig was the first to awaken. He fused with a shadow ability but lost his original third-tier strength, dropping to mid first-tier instead.
"Hahaha, Yezi! I awakened! I've got superpowers too!" Xu Chu slung an arm around Ye Xin's shoulder, showing off. Ye Xin was almost embarrassed for him—what he'd given him was the purest guaranteed awakening. The previous owner had been so powerful, and now this… it was just too shameful.
"Old Pig, with your current combat power, you can handle at most two at the same time. Add one more and you're dead," Ye Xin said bluntly. After the Blood Moon baptism, zombies were extremely strong—but in front of Ye Xin's abnormal strength, they seemed utterly powerless.
"真的假的?Don't scare me," Xu Chu said nervously. "I saw you killing them one sword at a time, super easy."
"Speechless. I'll give you a chance to train later."
One by one, others stood up. First Wang Yongchuan. Second, the short Wang Jie. Third, Liu Hao. Fourth, Cheng Biao. Fifth was the girl Xia Yuhe. Seventh, Dong Li. Eighth, Qiu Lijie. The last three ultimately failed to endure and mutated.
"Wuwu… how could this happen…" Wang Jie had been their classmate. They'd known each other for four years and survived three days of hardship together. He never imagined that today, without awakening any ability, his friend would turn into a zombie.
"Wuwu… Shuyi, wake up… wuwu… Didn't we agree to live together till the end…"
"This is reality," Ye Xin said coldly. "Crystal cores have a ninety percent chance of awakening and a ten percent chance of turning into a zombie. You chose this path yourselves—don't regret it. Who's willing to kill them?"
Everyone present froze at his words. For now, those blood-red eyes hadn't gone berserk only because Su Duoduo was suppressing them.
"I'll do it!"
They shared the same name and surname—meeting in the apocalypse like this was truly fate. Unfortunately… Wang Jie walked up to him and said, "Brother, I'll give you a quick end."
Over these days, Wang Jie had thought a lot. He had transformed from a timid boy into a mature young man. He held his breath and steadied his mind. A stream of quicksand flowed in his palm, slowly gathering into the shape of a spike.
"Ah—!"
A roar burst from his throat, bolstering his courage. It was his first time killing someone—and doing so with an ability. Wang Jie treated it with absolute seriousness. With this kill, his heart was finally set free.
"I'm finally not a coward anymore… hahaha…"
This act inevitably stirred nameless anger in Liu Hao and Cheng Biao. Of course, they also knew that someone had to do it, and there was no one more suitable than someone who hadn't been close to them.
"This Wang Jie has great potential," Ye Xin commented. "He awakened an Element-type ability—Quicksand."
"That woman's not bad either," someone added. "She should be a Spirit-type—Plant Control."
The remaining mutated ones, including Li Fang, were dealt with by Xia Yuhe. She waved her hand, manipulating tree trunks. Branches grew at an astonishing speed, forming vines that pierced straight through the two mutated bodies.
Perhaps awakening had something to do with age. After all, Li Fang was nearly sixty. Ye Xin felt a twinge of regret—maybe he shouldn't have given her a crystal core back then. In daily life, the older generation was often more meticulous than the young when it came to chores. Regret came too late.
"Do you like big ones or something? Why are you staring at her like that?" While he was discussing other girls, Su Duoduo suddenly became unhappy. She rushed over angrily, jumped into his arms, and hooked her small hands around his neck, openly declaring her ownership to everyone.
"No! I like small ones—like you," Ye Xin joked, quickly supporting her little butt with one hand, afraid she'd fall.
"Y-you… you pervert… I'm not talking to you anymore." Su Duoduo's face flushed red. She spat at him lightly, then wriggled free and jumped down.
The two of them acted so naturally and intimately that Xie Wan'er and Su Momo both felt a sense of loss.
A thought even crossed their minds—
Duoduo… (little sister) and him… are they together?
...
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Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
"Game of Thrones: Political Life"
"Game of Thrones: Lannister Kingdom"
"Gods' Apocalypse: What Should I Do When the Loli is a Bit Fierce?"
"My Sister And I are in The Apocalypse"
(End Chapter)