Chapter 9: Abilities (2)

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

An Sheng’s current task was figuring out how to utilize the power within his body. To be honest, he was completely clueless about this aspect.

Sitting quietly on his bed at home, An Sheng focused on every part of his body. He genuinely wanted to understand what differences existed between his current self and his former self. Previously, being constantly immersed in tense and fearful situations, he hadn’t carefully examined these sensations.

Now that things had quieted down, he recalled that before the mutated monster appeared on the third floor, he seemed to have clearly sensed something. The chill running down his spine and the sensation of his hair standing on end remained vividly etched in his memory. Could this be his ability—a warning against unknown dangers?

An Sheng’s speculation wasn’t entirely accurate, but it wasn’t far off. The reason he had sensed the impending crisis beforehand was because when those infected underwent physical mutations, their bodies released large amounts of pheromones.

An Sheng himself was also among the infected, and his body was extremely sensitive to pheromones, which granted him this early warning ability. During his loss of consciousness, his body had undergone significant changes.

The alterations in his skin and pupil color, along with the enhancements in strength and speed, were all results of his physical mutation. But how could he activate this power? An Sheng carefully recollected the circumstances at that time.

Back then, An Sheng had been attacked by the mutated monster, suffering broken ribs and even lung damage—this was his condition before losing consciousness. According to Old Zhang’s account, after his body mutated, he killed all the mutated monsters and completely recovered from his injuries.

From this information, An Sheng concluded that in his mutated state, his speed and strength were exceptionally powerful, and his recovery ability reached an almost abnormal level. It seemed as if he had become superhuman, or one might even say he had directly transformed into a demon.

Synthesizing these known facts, the key elements were: danger, injury, and loss of consciousness. An Sheng believed that the method to trigger his transformation and obtain power lay within these key factors.

Thinking this, An Sheng couldn’t help but smile wryly. This was practically self-abuse! To become stronger, he had to willingly expose himself to danger, intentionally get injured, or even lose consciousness—wasn’t this just asking for trouble?

However, he soon accepted it. He understood the principle that one must give as much as one receives. Since that state was so formidable, it undoubtedly came at a significant cost. No matter how dangerous it might be, he had to give it a try.

An Sheng was no saint or savior. The survivors in the Tube-Style Apartment Building needed his strength, and didn’t he need it himself? In such a catastrophe, ordinary people found it incredibly difficult to survive. If he could learn to wield his power, his chances of survival would greatly increase.

Once he made up his mind, he acted immediately—that was An Sheng’s nature. He decided to test whether he could activate his power. How would he test it? Actually, it was quite simple: the first and second floors of the Tube-Style Apartment Building and the open grounds were full of his test subjects—those zombies!Though he needed to utilize combat with those zombies to find a way to awaken his own power, he couldn’t blindly throw his life away. After waking up, An Sheng had roughly observed the current situation in the Tube-Style Apartment Building – there were at least several hundred visible zombies. Old Zhang and the others speculated this was because the building housed over a hundred survivors. These zombies seemed extremely sensitive to the Qi of living people within a certain range, in other words, the zombies all had noses like bloodhounds.

An Sheng had no intention of jumping directly downstairs to fight so many zombies – this wouldn’t be awakening power, this would be seeking death!

Fortunately, the staircase to the third floor was blocked off, preventing zombies from coming up. The area between the fourth and third floors was also semi-sealed. He could lure small numbers of zombies to the third floor and temporarily block the passage to the fourth floor, thus avoiding having to deal with large hordes simultaneously.

Of course, An Sheng couldn’t accomplish all this alone, so he went to find Old Zhang.

“Brother Zhang, this is my plan. You’ll need to find people to help me.”

Old Zhang asked with some concern: “Is there really no other way? This seems too dangerous.”

Looking at Old Zhang’s worried expression, An Sheng could only shake his head helplessly.

“I’ve considered and tried every possible method. Honestly, I really don’t know what else to do. I don’t even know how to awaken my power, since I haven’t personally experienced it – everything I know comes from what you’ve told me. I think combat might be the only way.”

After remaining silent for a long while, Old Zhang stood up and left his room. Soon he returned with several men. After explaining An Sheng’s plan to them, Old Zhang asked: “It’s dangerous, but if we just wait here we’ll die anyway. Who’s willing to go?”

The men all fell silent. Everyone has reservations about life-threatening situations. The selfless, fearless heroes shown in TV dramas do exist, but they’re extremely rare – otherwise their deeds wouldn’t be so celebrated.

“I’ll go!” A bald man in his thirties stood up. Though An Sheng didn’t know his name, he recognized him – this man ran a butcher shop downstairs. Though he looked fierce, he was actually quite kind-hearted.

Baldy continued: “I’m the only one left in my family. If anything happens to me, there’s nothing left to worry about.”

“Count me in too!” This time it was a fifty-something man with graying hair – Little Old Man. An Sheng didn’t have much impression of him.

Little Old Man pulled out a crumpled pack of White Pagoda cigarettes from his pocket, lit one, took a deep drag and slowly said: “We all know in our hearts that no rescue team is coming for us. Hiding here isn’t a solution either. Though we still have food and drink now, what about later? If Xiao An can transform into what he was that day, maybe we can all survive. Xiao An, I want to ask you for a favor.”

“Uncle, please go ahead,” An Sheng said, suddenly feeling embarrassed at being asked for help.

“If I die, please take care of my wife and daughter. When we saw you killing those monsters that day, to be honest, we were all quite terrified. Don’t blame everyone for avoiding you these past few days – that scene was just too horrifying. But I don’t think you’re a monster. You don’t eat people and you kill monsters. You’re powerful – you can save us!”The Little Old Man rambled on at length, but An Sheng listened attentively. He could sense the sincerity of the person before him and the trust placed in him. To be honest, An Sheng found the feeling quite pleasant.

An Sheng stood up and replied earnestly, “Uncle, don’t worry. If I can find a way to control this power, I’ll do my utmost to protect everyone!”

The Butcher, the Little Old Man, and Old Zhang worked together to clear a path from the third floor to the second floor, while the others guarded the staircase leading to the fourth floor as a precaution.

The plan was straightforward: they would cooperate to lure a small number of Zombies to the third floor, where An Sheng would engage them in combat. To ensure everyone’s safety as much as possible, Old Zhang and the others crafted some makeshift armor and weapons. Though crude, these items proved practical.

With all preparations complete, the four of them—An Sheng and the others—ascended the stairs to the third floor. The barricade of piled-up debris stood before them, and behind it, the growls of Zombies could still be heard. Though fear gripped each of them, they knew that to survive, they must overcome their dread and fight bravely! While crises and fear can shatter one’s spirit, they also serve as potent medicine to make people stronger.