Read Novel Full Chapter 534: Power Upgrade
Chapter 534: Chapter 534: Power Upgrade
People did not fully understand what the base was planning, but they could guess the leader’s intention.
Since the antidote research was progressing, it became increasingly clear that the leader no longer wanted zombies destroyed unnecessarily.
However, this new rule created an entirely different problem.
Killing zombies had been easy. Capturing them alive was not.
Hunters struggled. Transporting even one struggling corpse-like creature required coordination, restraints, and risk.
That was, however, until a strange ability appeared.
A man named Eli awakened an unusual superpower, the ability to knock a zombie unconscious.
At first, the ability had seemed useless. Even if he could render a zombie unconscious, his physical strength was too weak to destroy it.
He had always required others to finish the job, which made his power seem laughable.
But once the new rule took effect, Eli’s ability became invaluable.
He began developing what people soon called zombie bombs.
These devices, when thrown, released a pulse that instantly incapacitated nearby zombies without killing them.
The creatures would collapse into a motionless state, allowing teams to bind them safely.
The first time one detonated, the dull thud echoed across the ruins, followed by the eerie sight of multiple zombies dropping simultaneously like puppets with cut strings.
Soon, transport vehicles began arriving in large numbers at the western side of the base.
A separate containment zone was constructed there, reinforced with layered barriers, insulated cages, and mechanical restraints designed to ensure no zombie could ever escape.
Surveillance systems monitored every movement. Locks were checked repeatedly. Armed patrols rotated constantly.
The security was so tight that even a fly would not have been able to slip inside unnoticed.
With these developments, even Ivy’s way of dealing with zombies had changed long ago.
Instead of eliminating them, she began storing them within Silas’s temporal storage.
The storage system did not erase contamination or freeze existence as some assumed.
It created isolated partitions, completely separated spaces that functioned independently.
When Ivy asked whether zombies could be stored safely, Silas agreed, adapting the structure to prevent cross-interference.
As a result, an enormous number of zombies were quietly relocated into those sealed partitions.
To outsiders, it appeared as if the western containment zone held them all.
In reality, much of the load had already been transferred into Silas’s temporal storage, hidden behind what looked like ordinary logistical operations.
The arrangement functioned almost like an artificial illusion layered over reality.
Still, not everyone could afford the new zombie bombs.
Seeing this limitation, Ivy devised another idea: expand the wall perimeter and involve ordinary citizens.
Once the defensive walls were extended, even untrained individuals were allowed to participate from safe positions atop the barricades.
Using modified crossbows, they could launch zombie bombs at distant targets. After firing their assigned quota, they would leave the cleanup to specialized teams waiting below.
The system created an unexpected surge of employment.
Some people handled bomb loading. Others specialized in retrieval and binding of unconscious zombies.
Transport crews moved restrained bodies. Maintenance teams repaired equipment. Entire work divisions formed around what had once been simple hunting.
It was, in an ironic way, the birth of a new economy.
Even Ivy felt a rare sense of satisfaction watching it unfold. ’If survival must continue, then it must continue with structure.’
Yet while Ivy focused on building a future, someone else sensed that her own power might soon become crucial to the base.
Alana.
For days, she had felt an unfamiliar pressure building within her body, like energy pressing against an invisible barrier.
At first, she assumed it would take another month to stabilize.
But the sensation intensified rapidly. Her pulse grew louder in her ears. The air around her seemed to hum faintly whenever she moved.
Then, far sooner than expected...
She broke through.
When Alana began testing her healing powers again, she immediately sensed that something had changed.
The energy flowing through her palms no longer felt like a gentle stream. It was stronger now, deeper, like a warm current rising from the earth itself.
When she placed her hand over a wounded volunteer, she could feel more than just the injury.
She could sense disturbances inside the body, imbalances, weaknesses, things that were not visible to the eye.
Her breath caught. ’This... this isn’t just healing wounds anymore.’
She tried again, focusing carefully, guiding the warmth outward. And that was when she realized... She could now cure diseases.
The discovery left Ivy stunned.
When Alana reported the results, Ivy’s first reaction was disbelief, but that disbelief quickly turned into urgency.
Recently, Ember’s health had been deteriorating, something Ivy had only begun to notice through small, worrying details recorded by the household logs.
Ember had started complaining of stomach pain.
At first, everyone dismissed it as menstrual cramps. It seemed ordinary, harmless even. But when the pain did not subside, they conducted a thorough medical examination.
The results revealed something far more serious.
A tumor.
The word alone filled the room with suffocating silence.
Everyone was worried. Even Ivy, who had faced countless horrors without flinching, felt a chill crawl down her spine.
She had never known about this in her previous life. Or perhaps... she had simply never noticed.
Thinking back carefully, Ivy recalled many moments when Ember had quietly refrained from eating in her previous life.
She would refuse expired food no matter how hungry she was, even during times when they had nothing else left. Ivy had once thought her sister was simply being picky.
Now she understood.
’She wasn’t being difficult. She was in pain.’
Even if the tumor had once been treated, it must have left hidden complications that were never fully resolved.
But regret was useless now. What mattered was finding a cure.
And that was precisely when Alana arrived.
Alana walked into Ivy’s office with a calm but excited expression. "My power has upgraded. I think... I can cure diseases now."
Ivy studied her for a moment, skepticism flickering across her face. Powers evolving so suddenly were never something to trust blindly.