At this moment, the middle-aged man hesitated slightly, holding the bag in his hand, and looked at Lu Heng.
"There are nineteen level-one crystals there. You need to absorb twenty to evolve into a tier-one ability user. Hurry up. A soldier shouldn't be dawdling. Didn't you have the resolve to face death for a just cause earlier?"
Provocation sometimes works well for impulsive and spirited individuals. As expected, after hearing this, the man glared at Lu Heng, quickly opened the bag, grabbed the crystals, and threw them into his mouth one by one.
"Mmm."
After consuming the last crystal, the middle-aged man clutched his head and suddenly squatted down, his expression one of extreme pain.
It seemed to have worked. However, Lu Heng also needed to keep a close eye on the others, lest those fools mistake this person for being infected with the zombie virus and accidentally kill him.
It wasn't surprising that Lu Heng thought this way, as these people here had never witnessed such a thing.
Ignorance is not always a mistake, but ignorance can sometimes lead to grave errors.
Fortunately, these soldiers would not easily attack their comrades. They would likely only open fire if he truly mutated.
However, Lu Heng had already heard the sound of a gun being cocked somewhere, and it was likely aimed at the middle-aged man.
"Old Li! What's wrong?" Commander Sun quickly walked up to Old Li, trying to lift his head to see what had happened.
They had seen clearly just now that Old Li was fine after consuming nineteen crystals. It was only after all twenty crystals were consumed that he started to feel unwell.
"Don't move him. He'll be fine in a moment. This is the normal process of advancing to tier one. Every ability user has to go through this."
Lu Heng controlled the vines to block Commander Sun, who wanted to check on Old Li, and provided an explanation.
"This is normal?"
"Yes, don't you remember? That thing was dug out from a zombie's brain."
"Ugh..." Someone nearby started to vomit.
"Heh. You're starting to vomit already? Later, when everyone else has improved, will you eat them? Or do you plan to be useless?"
The malicious man was back online.
"Ugh... I, I just had a sudden upset stomach, I didn't... ugh..."
"Sigh."
Lu Heng shook his head. This was probably a new recruit, otherwise why wasn't someone else vomiting?
"Actually, I don't have many low-level crystals on me. These level-one crystals are currently the common currency in the apocalypse."
"Our previous money is no longer valid?"
"Sigh, after all this talk, how many people are there here? Why is someone speaking up here, and another vomiting there?"
Lu Heng spoke while pointing with his finger, and his direction was very accurate. He pointed to the exact locations of the people who had spoken and vomited.
"Thirty people," Commander Sun replied truthfully.
He had also seen that Lu Heng's pointed directions were all correct. If Lu Heng wanted to figure out how many people were here, it probably wouldn't take long. Moreover, Lu Heng had been telling them about the outside world for quite some time, so there was no need to hide certain things.
"Let's do it this way."
Lu Heng had actually counted the number of people here through mind-reading, but he wanted to see if these people were honest. He didn't want to waste any more words on overly cunning individuals.
"Just a coincidence, sigh."
"Hmm, something has appeared in my head?" Old Li, who had recovered and was no longer in pain, looked at Lu Heng with some confusion.
"Yes, a crystal has grown in your brain."
"You... why didn't you say so earlier? Then I've also turned into a monster?"
"Didn't I just say? You still have your own thoughts, so you are not a zombie. You have just evolved. The sign of your evolution is that there is also a crystal in your brain."
"Really?"
"You are now a strength-type tier-one ability user. Try to feel the energy fluctuations within your body." 138 Reading Network
"I feel like my body, bones, muscles, and organs have been reshaped. My strength seems to have increased significantly."
After speaking, Old Li looked around and found something he definitely couldn't move by himself before.
"Ha!" With a shout, he was afraid that he might be weaker than before after half a year of lacking exercise.
Their time hiding here, due to ventilation and sunlight, had led them to reduce many training activities. They only performed simple auxiliary training daily, and coupled with the lack of nutritional supply, eating only canned food daily, their physical condition was certainly not as good as before.
"Hahaha, I lifted it!"
With both hands, he lifted the large box, which was full of ammunition and made of metal. The box was labeled as weighing one hundred and twenty kilograms.
To show his strength to the people around him, Old Li temporarily forgot that he had consumed a crystal and become a strength-type ability user, which allowed him to lift objects he couldn't move before.
"Old Li, you're amazing!"
"Incredible, Brother Li!"
"Wow, that's really something."
Amidst various exclamations and congratulations, Old Li swayed the large box for a long time, even thinking of shaking it. However, he remembered that it contained ammunition and placed it back on the ground.
"Commander, I, I stole your ability. What, what should we do?" Old Li put down the box and awkwardly ran his messy hair.
"You consumed the crystal, so it is your ability. Commander Sun might not necessarily have a strength-type ability after consuming the crystal. Everyone's triggered ability form is different."
"Really? Do you have any more crystals then?" Old Li looked at Lu Heng with a simple-minded expression.
"I've already said that this thing is currently circulating currency in the apocalypse."
The implication was that this was money, and they currently had none.
"Then we'll go get them ourselves. Didn't you say there were many zombies outside? I don't believe it. With so many guns, I can't get those crystals." Old Li rolled up his sleeves, his strength a bit too much, and ripped the military uniform, which was still quite sturdy, in half.
"Oh dear, I haven't adjusted to this strength yet."
"If you go out with guns, you really won't be able to get crystals. Haven't you thought about it? How long have you been hiding?"
"What about it? We killed all the zombies before, otherwise we wouldn't have survived."
What Old Li said was not wrong. They were indeed quite strong, but that was in the past. Now, the zombies outside had also evolved. Except for a very small number or those who had just been infected and turned into zombies, most had become higher-level zombies.
With the guns in their hands, it was truly difficult for them to easily kill high-level zombies anymore.
"You also have a gun in your hand right now, can you kill me?" Lu Heng spread his hands, indicating that he seemed to be a person with no power to fight back at the moment.