บท 29: Ayame's Awakening!
Hearing Ayame's questions, Winston patiently answered, "From what my father told me, direct consumption is suggested. Just swallow it directly."
"The evolution crystal contains pure viral energy so even if it came from the brain of the E-rank zombie, it will neutralize the zombie virus on it. However, if you can't resist the viral energy contained within the evolution crystal, it will overwrite your DNA and mutate you in a bad direction. Hence, failure means becoming a zombie."
Winston was living up to his role as a special NPC.
Even other players and NPCs wouldn't know about this. Even if they killed an E-rank zombie, they would likely not know of the evolution crystal's existence.
Only those weirdos who read too many zombie apocalypse novels will believe that zombies will have evolution cores or crystals and only they would dissect a zombie just to find it.
But the average normal person would be ignorant of the evolution crystal's existence so Ayame and Kayden had the advantage of having a knowledgeable special NPC.
Weiss wasn't worried about exposing his identity since even if players played this game again, as long as they could earn Winston's trust, Winston wouldn't conceal this from them.
After receiving Winston's answer, Ayame no longer hesitated and directly threw the evolution crystal inside her mouth and swallowed it!
Opening her player status screen, Ayame could see that her humanity attribute was decreasing at a constant pace.
<Player Status>
Player Name: Shiro Ayame
Age: 17
Physique: E+
Strength: E+
Agility: E+
Humanity: 96%
Virus: Currently In Awakening Phase
Special Event Item: None
Surviving Players: 421/1000
<———————>
From what she could see, the Virus stat which was previously "Null" was now in "Currently In Awakening Phase".
Shiro Ayame wasn't certain whether this meant that she had consumed enough evolution crystal to awaken or not.
But she could feel that her body temperature slightly rose at a moderate pace and she started to have a headache.
There was an urge to eat flesh popping up in her mind but Ayame immediately sat in a lotus position, meditated, and resisted it.
As a martial arts master, Ayame had great discipline and a strong mental fortitude, or else she wouldn't be able to withstand those grueling physical training during the process of improving her physical body's strength as well as improving her martial arts.
At this time, Kayden hadn't come down yet and was still surveying the surroundings outside the mansion from the balcony using binoculars.
On the other hand, Winston was protecting Ayame in case a zombie ever entered the mansion's area. After all, Ayame was currently defenseless and all of her attention was focused on resisting the viral energy.
From Weiss' development, the awakening phase would be successful if a human consumed enough evolution crystals and resisted the viral energy. As long as they were conscious during the awakening phase and successfully resisted the desire to eat flesh, they would successfully become an Awakener.
Weiss could control the outcome of awakening using his game authorities and could even influence what superpower a player or NPC would awaken.
However, he didn't want to interfere much since the game mechanism for awakening was set to "awaken the superpower suited for that individual".
So for a musclehead with a straightforward attack method such as using purely brute force, it would be more suited for them to awaken a superpower that increased their physical strength temporarily.
But if Weiss were to use his authority to change that musclehead's ability into that of an elemental ability, then the musclehead whose intelligence was that of a retard couldn't make use of the elemental ability's full potential.
Because of that, Weiss wouldn't interfere with any awakening unless he believed that he needed to.
While Weiss was protecting Ayame using Winston, he saw a zombie climbing up from the zombie corpse blockade, and entering the mansion's area.
"With the existence of E-rank zombies, the mansion gate can no longer stop them. Even if I repair it, another E-rank zombie might break the mansion gate and invade the mansion."
Winston commented as he took out his two pistols and shot that zombie to death.
After thirty minutes had passed, Winston noticed that Ayame opened her eyes. However, Ayame didn't become a zombie which meant that the awakening phase was successful.
Winston felt a powerful aura being constantly released by Ayame and the surrounding space became heavier as if gravity had increased.
Opening her palm, a violet-colored orb appeared on top of it. Ayame threw it towards the zombie corpse hill and it obliterated the zombie corpses.
Examining her current power increase, Ayame breathed a sigh of relief that her awakening was successful.
"Thank you, Winston."
Ayame didn't forget to thank Winston for not only giving her the E-rank evolution crystal but also for protecting her while she was in her awakening phase.
Otherwise, if a zombie were to interfere with her awakening phase, then it would undoubtedly fail since she focused all her attention on suppressing the rampaging viral energy inside her body.
"No need to thank me. Since you have successfully awakened, then killing those E-rank zombies will be a lot more convenient."
Even if Winston didn't make it sound like a big deal, Ayame still decided that she would try her best to protect Winston even if Winston was just an NPC.
Checking on her progress, Ayame summoned the player status.
<Player Status>
Player Name: Shiro Ayame
Age: 17
Physique: D-
Strength: D-
Agility: D-
Humanity: 72%
Virus: E-rank
Ability: Space Manipulation
Special Event Item: None
Surviving Players: 402/1000
<———————>
บท 30: Kayden And Winston's Awakening
With the ability to manipulate space, Ayame became more confident in becoming one of the top 3 survivors in Zombie Survival Online.
After all, the space element was one of the more advanced elements comparable to time. Ayame estimated that only a few would be able to awaken a superpower comparable to hers since most would only awaken those inferior superpowers.
"Winston, I have awakened the space manipulation superpower. It will be a lot easier to eliminate those E-rank evolution crystals now that I have awakened a powerful superpower."
"Although I can't perform space storage and higher space abilities, I can still create orbs that can tear the space of anything as my means of attack. The defense and durability of those E-rank zombies are nothing!"
Since she had only awakened and her virus was still at E-rank, Ayame wasn't powerful enough to use the advanced abilities of space manipulation such as creating a space dimension.
However, Ayame wasn't discouraged since this only meant that the growth limit and potential of her power were higher than most awakeners.
Hearing Ayame's words, Winston nodded in approval, "It wasn't a wrong decision to let you consume our first E-rank evolution crystal. If it was me or Kayden, we might need more than one evolution crystal."
"Also, it isn't nighttime yet. You should be fine on your own now so try to farm for E-grade evolution crystals so that Kayden and I can awaken as soon as possible."
In response to Winston's urging, Ayame nodded her head in agreement. She had already promised that she would do her best in gathering E-rank evolution crystals for Kayden and Winston.
As a woman of her word, Ayame didn't delay it anymore and left the mansion's area.
She easily bypassed the zombie corpse barricade by teleporting directly outside the mansion's gate.
Ayame was very confident that she could survive in the zombie apocalypse alone due to her high stats and martial arts mastery. But with the addition of her space manipulation, Ayame believed that she was invincible in Zombie Survival Online, at least until a zombie evolves to D-rank.
With the departure of Ayame, Winston didn't bother to repair the mansion gate since even if he repaired it, an E-rank zombie was still powerful enough to destroy it.
The zombie corpse barricade was more than enough to block 90% of F-rank zombies.
Winston entered the mansion and stayed on the balcony with Kayden, waiting for Ayame's return. In the meantime, Winston explained to Kayden about the awakening phase and the significance of evolution crystals.
…
Several hours had passed and it was already nighttime.
Ayame has already returned with 9 E-rank evolution crystals.
Winston and Kayden were currently in their awakening phase, resisting the viral energy from affecting their consciousness. Winston had consumed 3 E-rank evolution crystals just to enter the awakening phase while Kayden consumed two.
Kayden was sitting on a pillow cushion on the ground in a lotus position, meditating. On the other hand, Winston was lying on the bed, meditating as well.
If not for the viral energy flowing in Winston's body, it would have seemed like he was sleeping on his bed.
Ayame would occasionally leave the room to clean up the zombies outside the mansion's area to prevent them from disturbing Winston and Kayden.
…
Another hour passed and finally, Kayden opened his eyes and he successfully awakened his superpower!
Several minutes later, Winston also opened his eyes and successfully survived the awakening phase and awakened his superpower.
However, when Kayden awakened his superpower, he had mixed feelings, "My superpower is not for fighting. It's not even for direct support, sigh."
On the other hand, Weiss who was controlling Winston had already known what superpower Winston would awaken. So after awakening it, he wasn't surprised with the superpower he had awakened.
Out of curiosity, Ayame asked Kayden, "What's your superpower then?"
Out of the three of them, Kayden had the weakest combat power so Ayame was curious about what superpower he had awakened.
Spending the days together in the zombie apocalypse had already made the three of them trust each other's back so Kayden didn't have any scruples in keeping his superpower a secret from them.
"My superpower is luck manipulation. I know it's high-end and very powerful if used well, but I kinda want a superpower more focused on combat such as yours."
As a hot-blooded young man, Kayden wanted to have the same experience as Ayame which was to punch and kill zombies on the front lines.
He wanted to stand on top of zombie corpses and let his metal bat be bathed in zombie blood.
However, Kayden knew that the superpower he awakened wasn't meant for combat but more for auxiliary purposes such as decreasing the luck of his opponents and increasing the luck of his allies.
Kayden wanted to be the main damage dealer yet he could only take the role of a support.
Nonetheless, Kayden wasn't that disappointed. He opened the player status screen to check on his progress.
<Player Status>
Player Name: Kayden Flynn
Age: 18
Physique: E-
Strength: E-
Agility: E
Humanity: 69%
Virus: E-rank
Ability: Luck Manipulation
Special Event Item: Space Storage Bracelet (C)
Surviving Players: 387/1000
<———————>
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