The middle-aged man looked at his emotionless daughter and felt his face stiffen.
It all happened on the day that the disease broke out. His wife, his daughter's mother, couldn't survive the infection. She wasn't able to recognize the breathing rhythm in time, so she suffocated and became a zombie.
Due to the trauma of her mother's death, his daughter Lan Shan was afflicted with depression. If this was still a peaceful society, he would be able to find her a decent psychologist to help her cope and gradually return to a normal mental state.
However, in this apocalyptic hellscape, within this heavily infested area, where would he find such a person to even start her treatment?
There would surely be some in non-infected areas, but from what he learnt from radio transmissions, the government had fully closed off every infected area, forbidding both entry and exit for any person.
While that was the case, it was quite simple for those who wished to enter, all they needed to do was bribe the soldiers a little bit in order to be sneaked inside, after all, it's hard to prevent everybody from courting death.
On the other hand, a person from inside the infected zone wanting to get out was a lot harder. There was a formal way to do this, of course, as long as you could prove yourself uninfected through a series of rigorous tests and undergo disinfection, you could return to the peaceful zone, but any infected would be beaten unconscious and sent back without mercy.
Not even soldiers or officers dared to perform any shady maneuver regarding this. The upper echelons had issued very clear directives regarding how unforgivable such actions were: regardless of what rank you are, if any infected person is found outside of the infected zone, every personnel involved will be shot and killed on the spot without going to military court.
In other words, it was next to impossible for them to leave the infected zone at this point in time, the middle-aged man couldn't do anything except interact regularly with his daughter and hope to find some way to help her escape from her trauma.
"There's a supermarket up ahead, let's go find some food" the middle-aged man held his daughter's hand tightly, as he wasn't good with words, he could only forcefully change the subject and bring his unresponsive daughter to the supermarket ahead of them.
It had only been a bit more than three days since the incident, so food and other supplies were still relatively plentiful, but not too long later, food would become a precious resource.
Perhaps I should gather a few people, form a base and cultivate some edible food.
While eating a slice of white bread, the middle-aged man had such a thought, but he didn't really have a specific plan or course of action in mind. After all, he was originally just a blue-collar worker, he didn't really understand how to manage people.
"Hm? This sensation, is a zombie approaching us?" after the middle-aged man achieved the first stage of release, not only did he obtain an [Origin] ability, but his [Origin] also started to derive more power for his soul, increasing its quality and greatly heightened his senses of perception.
The roof of the small supermarket was directly broken through as a man dressed in all-black clothing slowly stood up. Under the demon-like mask, a pair of wild beast-like eyes aggressively eyed the middle-aged man, staring at the Disasforce sword in his hand.
"It was you who took what belonged to me, wasn't it?"
As the dust spread, Chen Di Xi's mask slowly parted to reveal his face.
A human?
The middle-aged man wielded his sword and shielded his daughter. The other party was covered in something that gave off a thick aura of mutated germs, but as he spoke and revealed his face, he was also giving off a human aura.
"I didn't take anything from anybody. I even traded the food in this supermarket with money, even if the owner isn't currently here" the middle-aged man could clearly sense the malice coming from the other party and tried to explain. If possible, he didn't want to get into conflict with anybody.
"That Disasforce weapon in your hand is mine" Chen Di Xi stated: "That was prepared for none other than myself, but you took it from me when I was just a bit slow"
"You're joking, aren't you?" the middle-aged man's expression became displeased.
Disasforce weapons are clearly first-come-first-serve, who would prepare these things for anyone else?
That was nothing but a weak excuse to steal my Disasforce weapon.
From how he came in by breaking through the ceiling, as well as the strange skintight bodysuit around his body, the middle-aged man recognized that this wasn't someone to be trifled with. If the other side demanded anything else, he might have already given it up without a fight. In fact, before he formed a connection with this Disasforce weapon, he might have actually given it to him without hesitation.
However, now that he had formed a connection with the Disasforce weapon and even achieved the first stage of release, once his connection with the Disasforce weapon was severed, there would be severe consequences. He wouldn't necessarily die, but if a weapon attached to his soul was taken away, it would be the same as suffering a heavy cut on his soul.
His [Origin] ability would be rendered unusable, his soul fallen to an incredibly weakened state. In this apocalyptic environment, falling into that kind of situation would be no different from death.
The middle-aged man didn't want to die, not to mention, how would his daughter survive in this hellish environment if he died?
Drawing the Disasforce longsword from its sheath, he pointed it at Chen Di Xi and signaled his daughter to hide somewhere far away, then spoke with a serious expression: "Leave, or I will show you my power"
"So, you really have released your [Origin] huh?"
Despite having guessed this ahead of time, Chen Di Xi still felt a faint sense of regret. He obtained the Biomass Gear forging method from being the fastest progressing practitioner, so if he had been the first to release his [Origin], he might have gotten another reward, right?
"Then there's no other way, regardless of what happens, I want that Disasforce weapon" Chen Di Xi had a general understanding of what would happen to those who had their Disasforce weapons stolen away, but he didn't care. The strong would prey on the weak, this was the same in both their previous civilized world and this current apocalyptic world, the only difference was that the civilized world had rules to obscure its vicious nature.
Chen Di Xi's mask moved on its own and once again covered his face, slightly crouching down, with the support of his Biomass Gear, he shot like a cannonball towards the middle-aged man.
Since he managed to achieve the first stage of release so quickly, the middle-aged man wasn't a slouch either, the heightened senses brought by his improved soul allowed him to perceive Chen Di Xi's movements and hurriedly dodged away, the sword in his hand slashed at Chen Di Xi without form or technique.
In the civilized world, both of them were normal people who hadn't been through any official combat training, so their fight would naturally not have any strategy or technique to speak of.
Relying on his excellent senses, the middle-aged man evaded Chen Di Xi's attack, then slashed the other party once in his panic. As the middle-aged man didn't know any swordsmanship and had acted in a hurry, he couldn't exert any force and caused basically no damage to Chen Di Xi who had Biomass Gear to protect himself.
As Chen Di Xi saw the gash on his armor gradually healing itself, he calmed himself down. He thought the first person to achieve the first stage of release would be some sort of impressive fighter, but it turned out he was only an amateur as well.
In a fight between amateurs, the one who had the better defense had the natural advantage, after he confirmed this, Chen Di Xi continued to rush towards the middle-aged man, causing the middle-aged man to start feeling cold feet.
I'm not used to it yet, but I can't do anything but use my [Origin] ability now.
As the middle-aged man held the longsword tightly in both hands, rays of light began to appear from it.
