A few hours ago, in the void outside the world.
Finally my [Scan] reached the world with flickering light.
While activating [Calculate], I used [Transfer] to send a special stone I created. It is a precious stone that's been especially created to be extremely hard without changing the amount of energy it contains. Just like usual, I've granted that stone with [Scan], so I can see its surroundings. As for the destination of this stone, it is the interior of that flickering world.
Activating this [Transfer] cost me 70.000 points which makes my heart ache.
After the stone I sent arrived inside the world, I started to sense the amount of energy inside. With a brief [Scan], I found the energy container inside the world's materials to be slightly lower than the cultivation world. But, still much higher than the materials inside the Martial Arts world.
During that time, I've also seen the surrounding of that stone. It is part of a modern city filled with tall buildings, and looks exactly like Earth where I come from. That is if one ignores some torn limbs and bloody scenes that occasionally happen in the city.
Currently, the stone I sent has arrived at a female underwear store nearby a three-way junction.
This view makes my heart skip a beat, or at least it should've done so if I have a heart.
Of course it's not because of being located in an underwear store. With [Scan] that's basically an x-ray, I've seen all kinds of underwear in the cultivation world.
What makes my heart skip a beat is the familiar world that looks exactly like earth.
While I am in shock due to the familiar scene. A few seconds later, the stone lost contact with me. Luckily, I can still feel its existence, which means the stone hasn't been destroyed by lightning or other means.
I decided to wait for a few hours and see whether the stone will be destroyed. Although I am incredibly anxious upon finding a world that might be Earth. But what I am going to do next will involve a lot of points. If things turned south due to my anxiety, I won't be able to recover from this financially.
Three whole hours quickly pass by and the stone is still intact. I can't use my skill through it, but the stone is still among the list of things I've anchored. Which means it hasn't been destroyed.
Finally, I decided to spend 1.111.110 points to attach that stone with all of my skills. This is a massive bet, I bet that once I've anchored all of my skills on a target, I'll regain my connection with them even if they are located far away from Ren Qingquan. Although I called it a bet, I've gathered enough information to be more than 90% sure things will work as I intended.
Once I added one million points to the stone and granted it with my [Anchor] skill, I can feel my connection with it strengthened. If the connection I have with Ren Qingquan is equal to that of a family, and the level of connection I have with other subsystems hosts is equal to acquaintance. Then, the level of connection I have with the stone has turned into that of a best friend.
Soon, it feels like I can activate the skills I granted on the stone once more. I followed along the connection I have with the stone and activated the stone's [Scan].
The [Scan] activated and I saw the modern city once more. As the level of this [Scan] has increased compared to before, the view radius of things I could see has increased. It has now reached 5 kilometers in radius just like the [Scan] Ren Qingquan has.
From the result of [Scan], I found out this world is currently in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Within the five kilometer radius of my [Scan], around 90% of humans have turned into zombies roaming around.
Just like the Cultivation World, this world is also filled with energy. But the density of energy is much lower and differs greatly from spirit qi. Compared to spirit qi, the energy in this world is much... staler? I’m not entirely sure how to explain the difference.
I also concluded this world is incredibly similar to the Earth I come from. As for how I reached that conclusion, it's because there are some subtle differences between this world and Earth. Of course I wasn't talking about some conceptual or philosophical thing. What I mean by subtle difference is like the McWo*a*d restaurant a few hundred meters away from me.
That's right, it is McWo*a*d, and not McDo*a*d. Just like the one from Earth which I come from, the McWo*a*d is also a fast food restaurant chain with considerable size. There are more than ten of them within my scan's radius.
Not only that brand, there are also several other familiar brands that have slightly changed from the one I remembered. It makes me feel like I am walking inside a store that sells off brand products.
Once I finished ridiculing the situation I am in, I started to feel disappointed and a bit relieved. Disappointed because this world isn't the Earth I know of, and relieved because that means Earth hasn't turned into a hell full of zombies ... yet.
Now then, it's time to get serious.
First and foremost, I must look for a suitable host. Although I could control the stone to move through using [Transfer] and [Create] by creating a repelling force of wind or something similar. But such wastefulness makes my heart ache.
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I've also found a suitable target as my host among the people I've scanned before, so there is no reason to not choose a host.
As for the target, she is a twenty something years old woman. The reason I've decided on her, mainly because she is a human and not a zombie. I am not racist and such, it's just that the zombies I saw are all pretty much mindless. Having such a host will be extremely bothersome. Furthermore, she is the strongest one among the people in my surroundings.
Most people are still at the level of a mortal without much supernatural power. The occasional people with supernatural power are only around Martial Apprentice level or early Body Tempering stage in terms of cultivation level.
As for that woman, she has reached the level equal to the early stage of Martial Grandmaster level, which is around the late Body Tempering stage in the Cultivation World.
It's still low in my opinion, but that's much better than the surrounding alternative.
I first granted the woman with four of my skills, which are [Scan], [Transfer], [Create], and [Devour]. As for why I granted her four skills at once, it's because I am already used to attaching those four skills on anyone I have a good opinion on.
At this time, I missed Ren Qingquan. If he is the one who granted people with subsystems, I would be able to ask for a reimbursement from him.
Once the skill has been granted, I send the screen I've prepared toward her. Luckily, this area used a language that's mostly similar to English. I merely need to use [Calculate] on a few words which differ from the English I know.
[Ding! Host detected. Binding the /#?%√! System.]
[First mission: Collect the system's core.
Reward: Activating system function.
Punishment: Losing the system.
Time limit: 1 day.]
Below the screen, I attached a picture of a shiny round metal around the size of a thumb. It's exactly the picture of this stone I have granted with all of my skills. As for why it's shaped like a metal, it's because the stone I sent is merely around the tip of a pinky finger in size initially. But after I granted it with one million points, I coated the stone with the strongest metal I could create to make it stronger. I don't want this expensive stone to be destroyed from some random attack.
Next to the image, there is also a map with blue, golden, white, and red dots on it. Which show the location of humans, myself, the woman, and zombies respectively. I've also added a vague outline depicting the city's landscape.
Finally, I've also left the system name with a glitch-like symbol so I can fill it in later once I learn more about the world without making it seem abrupt.
I am so darn smart!
***
Inside a small restaurant, I saw the woman I've chosen paused for a moment upon seeing my screen. On the side, one of her companions called her. "Alicia, what's wrong?"
Alicia shook her head, "Nothing. Edward, can you go with Reynald and the other to check the food storage first? I need to do something for a jiffy."
Edward doesn't ask many questions and readily agrees. Before leaving toward the food storage room, he reminded Alicia. "Be careful and don't wander too far."
Hearing Edward's reminder, she nodded and separated from her group. I saw her jump toward the small restaurant's roof and looked around.
Her eyes occasionally narrowed as she focused her sight in several directions. I soon found out the direction she looked at is the place I've marked with red dots and located nearby to her. Which means there are zombies in those areas.
Is she testing whether the map I sent is real? She is quite smart.
After Alicia finished testing the map, she seemed to half believed in it and started moving toward the golden dot which marked the location I am at.
The golden dot, which is the stone I possessed, is located around five hundred meters away from her current location. It's neither far nor near. The only problem is the zombies located between both of us.
As she is an expert that has equaled a Martial Grandmaster in terms of life level, Alicia arrived at my location after eight minutes of running. That's already including the detour she took when evading the location filled with too many zombies.
Once she arrived at the three way junction near my location, I saw her looking at the surroundings before entering the underwear store I am in.
As the stone host I possessed is quite small in size, I decided to spend one point's worth of energy and created a light. I shone the light toward Alicia's sight.
When she saw a beam of light I shot, Alicia quickly turned her head and looked toward my location before slowly walking toward me. Once she saw me, she quickly took the metal coated stone and placed it in her pocket.
[Congratulation, you've finished 'First mission: Collect the system's core'. Activating mission function and point devouring function.]
After I sent her a congratulation, I gave her a new mission.
[Ding! You've received a new mission.
Mission: system calibration 1
Details: kill 10 zombies.
Reward: unlocking system shop.]
This mission is used to check whether a zombie's soul can be devoured. That's right, while scanning the zombies in this apocalyptic world, I found out they also have souls!
Once I gave her that mission, I saw Alicia's expression turn weird. As the one I granted with all of my skills is a stone, I am unable to hear her thoughts. At this time I truly hope I have the ability to read someone's thoughts.
Alicia went outside of the underwear store while opening the map. Upon finding a lone zombie, I saw her control some kind of energy inside her body and blasted it toward the zombie.
Comparing it to the energy spread throughout this world and gathered inside zombies, which gives me the feeling of staleness, the energy Alicia used gives me quite the opposite feelings. It has a sense of vigor, just like the vital energy gained by Martial Artists from the Martial Arts World. Yet there are still a lot of subtle differences.
Upon finding a new energy, of course the first thing I do is name them!
Because it is quite similar to vital energy, let's name the energy Alicia used as life energy. As for the energy gathered inside the zombies and spread throughout the world, I'll name them death energy.
After I check whether it is possible to devour the soul inside the zombies, I'll start experimenting on life energy and death energy.