The first to figure out how to use the initial superpower was a short-haired woman with freckles. She stood not far from Xiao Cheng, flicking fireballs the size of eggs from her palms. At the same time, the numbers on the back of her hands also emitted a particularly bright light.

The light blue number 66 was projected onto a crimson sky, and the halo reflected back onto her head, like an abstract crown.

Two fireballs, trailing billowing black smoke, traced elegant parabolas as they crashed down directly onto the child zombie's head.

The flames sizzled as they touched the rotting flesh, and the smell of burning flesh instantly filled the air. The zombie roared wildly and swung its arm, extinguishing the fireball completely.

"It really worked!" the players exclaimed with delight.

Although that attack didn't seriously injure the child zombie, it was much better than the previous scraping, at least it gave them hope.

"Those with offensive abilities, stop hiding them! Come with me!" Number 66 shouted, raising his arm and preparing a second wave of fireballs in his palm.

At this moment, the players reached a rare consensus. Not only here, but people in other places followed suit and spontaneously formed small groups.

The hunting grounds were unconsciously divided into many small sections, separating the zombies and trapping them in the players' encirclement. Their numbers began to decrease at a visible rate.

Xiao Cheng had no special abilities and felt out of place among them, so she simply focused on killing lone zombies. Fortunately, she was lucky and killed three in a row, finding white low-level crystals in their brains.

Then she took a breath and turned to run towards the fourth zombie.

Before she could charge forward, a water arrow, with a cunning arc, defiantly darted past her side, then with a muffled thud, embedded itself deeply into the zombie's forehead, before exploding into dust along with its skull.

The water mist from the explosion seemed to come alive, gathering in the air to form a net-like shape, capturing the crystals that had briefly been suspended in the air, and pulling them rapidly toward Xiao Cheng's back.

After being peeled off, the crystal became much dimmer, but it did not disappear immediately as before. Xiao Cheng observed it for a while and then discovered that the water mist had also enveloped a part of the zombie's remaining brain tissue, thus maintaining the crystal's existence.

"Number 99, I thought you were going to be something special." A disdainful voice sounded behind her.

Xiao Cheng hadn't originally intended to delve into the matter of having his monster stolen, but this person's tone was indeed a bit irritating.

She casually kicked aside the writhing bits of flesh at her feet, slowly turned around, and sized up the lean, crew-cut man. Water vapor, swirling around him, enveloped the crystals, while several water jets hovered poised to fire beside him, their arrowheads slowly turning and pointing directly at him.

“I am number 32,” the crew-cut man said bluntly. “Let me see your abilities. If I lose, I can give you this crystal.”

Xiao Cheng was silent for a moment: "Do you think I'm a magic lamp, that I can grant you three wishes? Give up. The only person who can unconditionally grant your wishes is your dear mother."

"That's not up to you." Number 32 snorted coldly, raised his hand high and then brought it down heavily. The water arrow shot towards Xiao Cheng with lightning speed.

Under the cover of the water jets, he slightly bent down to lower his center of gravity, pushed off with his feet, and leaped forward. As he approached Xiao Cheng, a cold glint flashed in his palm, revealing a gleaming scalpel.

"I've been itching to get started because of the rules!" His speed increased, and eventually only a blur could be caught.

A chilling laugh echoed in Xiao Cheng's ears: "You better not disappoint me, Number 99."

This was Xiao Cheng's first real encounter with a player. With the help of her special ability, the pressure from her opponent was even stronger than she had initially imagined.

She could feel the blood in her body gradually spiraling out of control, spontaneously and slightly restless, surging through her veins, trying to break free of her body. Undoubtedly, if Number 32's water-based abilities were to reach a certain level, it would be possible to directly eliminate a person.

The initial differences in special abilities will obviously become more and more significant as the level increases. Players like Xiao Cheng, who have bad luck, will be at a greater disadvantage as they progress, and will basically have no chance of survival.

In the blink of an eye, the water arrow had reached Xiao Cheng, aimed directly at her three vital points: her brow, throat, and heart. Her pupils constricted sharply, and she spun the dagger twice in her palm before unleashing a powerful strike, slicing the water arrow in half at its length.

But this was useless. The water arrows, once the blade had struck, would recombine and regroup, their attack undiminished. At the same time, Number 32 arrived, crouching low and slicing at Xiao Cheng's lower right ribs from a treacherous angle, aiming straight for her carotid artery.

At the critical moment, Water Arrow and Number 32 suddenly stopped moving at the same time. This pause was brief but extremely deadly. Xiao Cheng seized this less than half a second, and with a light flick of the green fluorescent blade, swiftly and cleanly pierced Number 32's right wrist.

Number 32 involuntarily let out a muffled groan, his entire arm instantly went numb, and thick, black blood slowly dripped down, the ominous dark green spreading from the wound outwards.

The scalpel clattered to the ground, quickly engulfed by the shredded flesh, absorbing and corroding into a piece of scrap metal. The water arrow in the air also dissipated, and the water mist ball enveloping the white crystals burst open with a snap, the crystals instantly vanishing and slowly disappearing into Xiao Cheng's body.

"Heh, so this is your initial superpower." Number 32 broke out in a cold sweat from the pain, pulled out a second scalpel, and decisively cut away the green flesh on his wrist, almost exposing the bone underneath.

Then he gritted his teeth and began to squeeze out the blood until it turned from black to bright red, at which point he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"I admit defeat this time." He gave Xiao Cheng a deep look, then crushed the pieces of corpse that had been drawn to the ground by the blood and flesh. "Next time, when I'm stronger, I'll come back for you."

Xiao Cheng: "..." So annoying, I'm being bothered by this weird guy.

Once Number 32 was far away, she sighed helplessly and turned to look at Fang He, who was engrossed in fighting monsters not far away.

I wouldn't say for sure, but there's a 99% chance he was behind it. I wanted to ask him about it back in the safe house, but I got distracted and forgot. Now it seems it's better not to ask, otherwise I'll just be the one who gets upset.

Xiao Cheng once again felt the disparity between people. Fang He stared intently at the zombie, as if he wanted to see its head explode, but showed no intention of coming over to talk to her.

It seems they're determined to pretend to be strangers.

Then let's pretend.

Thinking this, Xiao Cheng ignored the strange and subtle feeling in her heart and turned to run in the opposite direction.