Chapter 7 Crystal Core

In her previous life, Ruan Ning had heard that some powerful zombies and superhumans would have an energy crystal condensed in their brains, which was called a crystal core.

This item greatly helps those with superpowers improve their abilities, and even becomes a valuable currency later on. However, very few people knew about it in the early stages, and it seemed that Lin Jiaojiao, the pseudo-space ability user, had been secretly collecting it as well.

In this life, she must seize the initiative. Even if she doesn't need it herself (if she can't awaken her superpowers), hoarding it would still be a huge fortune, or... it could be used as leverage in certain transactions.

She walked to the first zombie corpse she had killed. Its head had been split open with a machete, and red and white matter mixed with dark, foul blood had spilled all over the ground, emitting a nauseating stench.

Ruan Ning remained unfazed and drew a military dagger from his side. A machete was too cumbersome and unsuitable for delicate handling.

She crouched down and first used the dagger to poke at the split head, carefully examining the inside of the wound.

The viscous, partially coagulated brain tissue was exposed to the air, and apart from the blood and necrosis, there were no abnormal energy fluctuations or crystal reflections.

"No..." she murmured to herself, not discouraged.

Early-stage zombies have a very low probability of forming crystal nuclei.

Ruan Ning couldn't find any crystal cores in the brains of the zombies outside, so she went inside the gate to look for the three zombies she had killed earlier.

She walked in and headed straight for the female zombie in the fashionable short skirt. Her skull was dented from being smashed with a machete, and the wounds were a mess.

Ruan Ning crouched down again, took a deep breath (though the smell was suffocating), and carefully probed the tip of the dagger into the damaged skull cavity, gently parting the sticky, suspiciously colored brain tissue. The tip of the dagger touched the inner wall of the skull, making a faint scraping sound.

No.

She proceeded patiently, like conducting a rigorous yet gruesome dissection, meticulously searching every nook and cranny. The stench of decay almost blinded her, but her hands remained steady.

Still nothing.

Then there was the zombie in the suit with the bulging belly. It had been killed by having its ankles severed and its head destroyed; its skull was relatively intact, with only a large gash above its forehead.

Ruan Ning pressed the dagger against the crack, applying slight pressure to widen the wound in the skull. Dark red blood and grayish-white brain matter seeped out along the crack.

She held her breath, plunged the dagger deeper, and began searching.

Sticky, slippery, icy... all sorts of extremely uncomfortable sensations came through the hilt of the knife. Her fingertips turned slightly white from the pressure, but her mind was highly focused, not missing a single unusual feeling.

Sudden!

The tip of the dagger seemed to have touched something hard, unlike the hardness of a skull or the sharpness of broken bones, but with a... warm and smooth texture.

Ruan Ning's eyes narrowed, and she became even more careful. She gently used the tip of her dagger to pry open the viscous tissue covering the hard object, separating it from the brain bit by bit.

A few minutes later, she carefully picked out a crystal about the size of a little fingernail, an irregularly shaped polyhedron, with a dagger.

Its entire body is an extremely faint, almost imperceptible milky white color, and its surface is covered with red and white filth, but there seems to be an extremely faint energy halo slowly flowing in its core.

"Found it!" Ruan Ning's heart skipped a beat.

She immediately took out a bottle of water from the side pocket of her backpack, unscrewed the cap, and carefully rinsed the crystal core clean.

The filth was washed away, and the crystal core revealed its true form.

It's translucent and milky white, like a small, low-quality diamond. When held in the palm of your hand, you can feel a very faint but definitely present cool sensation that slowly seeps into your skin.

“The energy is very weak, it should be a level 1 crystal core,” Ruan Ning judged. “But it proves that crystal cores did appear at the very beginning of the apocalypse, but the probability was extremely low.”

She carefully placed the tiny crystal nucleus into a pre-prepared, airtight small metal box and tucked it into her inner pocket.

Looking at the two corpses on the ground, Ruan Ning's eyes turned cold. One crystal core for roughly ten zombies—the probability was indeed very low. But it also meant that to obtain more, she would need to hunt down more zombies.

This is undoubtedly fraught with danger, but risks and rewards go hand in hand.

After cleaning the dagger and wiping the grime off the machete, Ruan Ning stood up and took one last look at the blood-soaked hall.

Today's practice and exploration yielded far more results than expected. Not only did we improve our practical experience, but more importantly, we confirmed the existence of the crystal nucleus and obtained our first sample.

She knew that she had to steadfastly walk this path of becoming stronger, a path filled with bloodshed and slaughter.

Turning around, she quietly returned to the temporary refuge upstairs, following the path she had come from.

The next day, Ruan Ning continued to go downstairs to exercise.

She chose to go at dusk, when the light was dimmer and it would be easier to hide her tracks. She was still wearing the same neat gear: a machete, a fire axe, a dagger, and a lightweight backpack.

Pushing open the heavy unit door of the apartment building, a more mixed and expansive stench of decay hits you, even more so than in the hallway.

The plants in the community's green belts, neglected, have grown wildly, while some have withered, interspersed with garbage and unidentified filth. The children's slide, where children once played, is now splattered with dark brown stains.

She moved swiftly along the building's walls like a gray shadow, her sharp gaze scanning every corner.

Crack.

She crushed a fallen leaf under her foot, the sound unusually clear in the deathly quiet neighborhood.

Almost simultaneously, a figure suddenly turned around from behind a crooked sycamore tree to the right front.

He was probably an old man walking his dog, still clutching half a broken leash in his hand. Half of his cheek was chewed up, revealing his cheekbone, and his cloudy eyes were fixed on Ruan Ning's direction.

"Hah..." it growled, dragging an unnatural leg, and limped forward at a faster pace.

Instead of retreating, Ruan Ning advanced, her feet propelling her forward like a cheetah! When she was only two or three meters away from the zombie, she suddenly turned to the side, using the momentum of her charge to slash upwards with her machete!

puff!

The blade pierced the zombie's jaw precisely, penetrating its skull! The old man's roar abruptly ceased, his body swayed, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.

Ruan Ning swiftly drew his sword, cautiously glancing around. The commotion seemed to have attracted attention from further away.

Beside the circular flower bed in the center of the residential area, two figures swayed and turned around. One was wearing pajamas, and the other was dressed in a dirty deliveryman's uniform. They hissed and began to stagger towards Ruan Ning's location.

“Lure them over and deal with them one by one.” Ruan Ning quickly devised a strategy. She deliberately made her footsteps heavy as she retreated towards the corner of a nearby building.

The two zombies were indeed attracted and quickened their pace, but their clumsy steps created a slight gap between them as they rounded the corner.

The first to arrive was the pajama zombie. It had barely poked half its body out when Ruan Ning, who had been poised to pounce, suddenly stepped out of the shadows, his fire axe sweeping out with a dull thud!

Bang!

The heavy axe slammed into his temple! His skull caved in instantly, and the zombie collapsed as if its bones had been removed.

Almost at the same time the pajama zombie fell, the deliveryman zombie also turned around, its withered arm grabbing at Ruan Ning's face!

Ruan Ning seemed to have anticipated this, turning his head to avoid the claws and slashing down with his right hand, aiming for the neck!

Sizzle—

This time the cut wasn't deep enough; the blade got stuck in the cervical vertebrae! The zombie roared, its other hand reaching out again!

Despite the danger, Ruan Ning remained calm, released the handle of the machete, leaned back, and lashed out with his left leg like a whip, kicking the zombie hard in the side of its knee joint!

Crack!

The delivery zombie lost its balance and knelt forward. Taking advantage of the moment, Ruan Ning drew the dagger from her waist, pounced forward, pinned its thrashing head down with one hand, and plunged the dagger into its eye socket with the other, twisting it violently!

The zombie's struggle stopped instantly.

Ruan Ning, slightly out of breath, pulled out her dagger, wiped it on the zombie's clothes, and then forcefully pulled the cleaver out of its hole in her neck. Dark red blood gushed out.

"It's a bit of a stretch to deal with two at the same time, especially when the weapon gets stuck." She calmly reflected, "It requires more precise attacks or a more powerful burst of speed."

Instead of immediately searching for the crystal core, she cautiously moved behind the flower bed, using the bushes for cover to observe her surroundings. Only after confirming that no new zombies would be attracted in the short term did she quickly return to the two corpses.

He skillfully flipped open the skulls with his dagger, carefully searching through the viscous brain tissue. Unfortunately, the brains of these two zombies were empty; no crystal cores had formed.

She wasn't disappointed; it was all a matter of probability.

After cleaning up the weapons, Ruan Ning continued to roam the neighborhood like a ghost.

She specifically targets lone zombies, using terrain, shadows, and sound to carry out precise and efficient hunts time and time again.

Sometimes it's a clean, decisive decapitation; sometimes it's a feint followed by a fatal backstab; and sometimes it's using the weight of a fire axe to violently break through defenses.

Her movements became more and more skillful, and her control over her strength became more and more refined. Every swing of her knife and every dodge carried a cold, rhythmic quality.

As night deepened and the blood moon once again revealed its menacing face from behind the clouds, Ruan Ning had already cleared out seven or eight scattered zombies near the main road of the residential area. In her backpack, there was a new, milky-white Level 1 crystal core.

Standing beside the rusty wrought iron gate of the residential compound, she looked out at the more chaotic and dangerous streets. There were clearly more zombies there, and they roamed over a wider area.