10 With Great Power Comes…

"A sneak attack?!" Pang Fei shouted from below the stage. "How despicable!"

"Isn't that cheating?!" Nian Qing howled. "Zhi Ming has just only gotten up the stage! At least wait for him to get ready first!"

"Qi Ren obviously planned to ambush Feng Zhi Ming from the start," Lou Qian observed calmly. "That's why he came so early."

"Oh no!" Lisa was looking worried for some reason.

Ignoring the peanut gallery, I focused on the opponent before me. Despite Qi Ren's attempt to take me by surprise, his movements seemed so slow. I was watching him move inch by inch, millisecond by millisecond, as if I was watching a video in slow-mo.

My Agility stat was now 33, which meant that I was faster than almost every single student in the academy. And Qi Ren was not known for his speed anyway, he was more of a power guy. Which meant that I just needed to avoid his fists…

Wait, with my Strength and Endurance stats of 33, did I really need to evade his punch? Perhaps this was an opportunity for me to test out my new stats and see how they measured up in reality. Having them measured in numbers meant nothing. What did 33 even mean? Was I 33 times stronger than an average human? Was it a high or low number?

I knew for sure that they allowed me to compete against a warrior class mutant now, but what about a human evolver opponent?

So I simply raised my hand and caught the punch. Brown energy enveloped me and detonated, cracking the reinforced concrete beneath my feet. Wisps of energy blew about me, and earth spikes erupted. I simply used my other hand to smash them to debris, showering the area in broken stone and dust.

"What?! Impossible…!"

Qi Ren's eyes bulged when he saw that I had stopped both his punch and earth techniques. Still grabbing his fist, I then lifted him up and slammed his body against the ground with such force I actually carved a crater into the dirt.

"Ugh!?"

Blood spurted from Qi Ren's mouth and the brown protective aura of energy that wreathed his body cracked. He tried to get up, but his limbs wobbled and he fell back down to earth. I then kicked him in the chest, shattering his ribs and sending him flying. He skidded a few meters away, his head dangling unconsciously and his eyes rolling up in their sockets.

I watched him flop about for a few seconds before cocking my head to the side. Pushing my glasses up my nose, I sighed.

"That's it?"

Silence. Qi Ren simply lay on the ground, unresponsive. I narrowed my eyes before shaking my head in disbelief.

"After bragging so much and insulting me, you couldn't even withstand a single blow? How disappointing."

Having each stat at 33 was probably overkill. I didn't expect to overwhelm an evolver so easily. Then again, evolver cadets weren't exactly the best opponent to test my new strength against. Normally we couldn't even fight against a warrior class mutant, so if I had reached the level where I could kill an aberrant easily, it made sense that Qi Ren would be no match for me.

If I wanted to become stronger, then I needed to go out back to the wasteland outside the fortress city and hunt more zombies and mutants. Checking my Kill Count, I briefly wondered how many points a human evolver would be worth, but chided myself for it.

I was not some psychopathic murderer, and even if it increased my strength, I would never resort to killing a fellow human just to buff my stats. That was a line I would never cross. Unless I had no choice, like in a situation where the other party was going to murder me and I was forced to fight back. But even then, I would rather leave them to the law.

Once I went down a slippery slope, there wouldn't be any turning back.

The medics ferried away Qi Ren, handling his unconscious body roughly. Apparently he wasn't very popular among the other students, mostly because he and his gang enjoyed bullying the weaker cadets. He looked down upon those with little combat ability, such as the healers, so they now reveled in manhandling him now that he was at their mercy.

I didn't feel sorry for him at all.

Hopping off the stage, I wandered over to Pang Fei. "When's our next mission?"

"We just got one a couple of days ago, and after encountering a grotesque, we probably won't have any missions for a while. Class 3 too…they ran into an aberrant as well. You should know, they say you're the one who killed it."

"Yeah, I know."

"Normally warrior category mutants aren't supposed to appear this close to the training grounds of the academy, but with two of them showing up, the higher-ups are concerned. Something's happening with the mutants. Are they planning a large-scale assault on the walls soon?"

"What do you think?" I asked. If there was anyone who I could rely on to get the essential information out of the tons of rumors floating around, it would be Pang Fei. However, he shook his head.

"Satellite imaging shows nothing. No increasing congregations or mutant musters so far. It might just be an anomaly. After all, it's not unusual for minion-class zombies to be led by a single warrior-category mutant. They could just be migrating. It's not like zombie habitats are fixed, or that they never change territory."

"So we won't be getting any new missions for a while?" I asked, feeling disappointed. How was I going to increase my Kill Count then?

I could sneak out of the fortress city, but that was easier said than done. There was no way out, no way through the walls. I could try to sneak out of the heavily guarded gate, but then there was the barrier to contend with. And if I somehow snuck outside, I would find it more difficult to get back in. And it wasn't as if the wasteland was a hospitable place – I could survive there for a few days, but I would need to return to the fortress-city for food and water. There was nothing edible in the wastelands – the only food we could eat was fabricated by plants inside the cities.

After a few days, I would need to return after finishing my rations. There might be people who mistakenly believed there was a paradise out there, free from the restrictive laws of the cities, or that we could live off the land.

They were delusional. What kind of food or stuff from the land could you expect from a barren place populated by zombies and mutants? Whatever plants that survived out there had mutated from the pandemic that caused the apocalypse in the first place. And obviously it wasn't a good idea to eat zombie flesh unless you want to turn into a zombie yourself. Evolvers were supposedly immune to whatever virus or curse that turned humans into the walking dead, but undead flesh was too toxic for consumption. Even for us.

So yeah, it was not a good idea to jeopardize my place here in the city just so I could increase my Kill Count. This wasn't a game. I had great responsibilities here. My friends and family were here. And I needed to eat, no matter what.

"Well, give it a week," Pang Fei said optimistically. "If the higher-ups see that there aren't any major incidents or events, they'll resume the practical training regimen again. We'll be back out there hunting zombies before you know it!"

"Let's hope so," I said with a sigh.

The mission came sooner than I thought. Just a couple of days after my conversation with Pang Fei, Teacher Jiao Guan called me to the principal's office. Xiao Zhang, the principal, was waiting behind his desk, his fingers steepled and his expression grave as he watched me enter his office.

"Student Feng Zhi Ming?" he said. It wasn't a question, but I nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"I've read the reports." He leaned back in his chair and consulted the computer screen on his desk. Floating holograms flashed about, and he brushed a few of them aside to focus on one. "It says here that you've defeated two warrior-category mutants – a grotesque and an aberrant?"

"Yes, sir. I got lucky with the grotesque, though. If it weren't for he abandoned generator…"

"Indeed…satellite observations of an explosion seem to collaborate with your report. But you also defeated an aberrant in front of class 3, as well as one-sidedly defeated Qi Ren in a duel a couple of days ago." He looked up at me, his eyes narrowed behind his relatively small, rectangular glasses. The lenses gleamed along with his bright blue eyes. "I'm curious as to your sudden increase in strength. Prior to this, you might not be weak, but you were ranked like five hundred-something out of the entire school of one thousand students."

In other words, I was smack average, yet I had performed feats that surpassed those of even the top students. It indeed seemed suspicious.

"Yeah, well…" I scratched my head. "I probably awakened something after fighting the grotesque."

Xiao Zhang relaxed. Evolvers awakening additional abilities after a while weren't completely unheard of.

"What kind of new abilities did you awaken?"

"I'm not sure. I'm still in the midst of testing them out."

"Hmm…do let us know when you get more details." Xiao Zhang nodded, looking satisfied. I could tell that he was pleased. It was only natural. The more talented or stronger students he had in his school, the better the reputation of the Fourth Evolver Academy. I wasn't sure how prestige worked among the districts and fortress-city, but apparently it had a bearing on the amount of resources we received from the government.

"Was there any other reason why you wanted to see me, sir?" I asked, not believing that he summoned me just to confirm what he had already read in his reports. Xiao Zhang nodded, and then glanced at Instructor Jiao, who looked a little hesitant.

"In light of your performances, we have a little suggestion for you." He spun one of the holographic screens about and floated it over to in front of me. I scanned through it and saw that it was a mission request. "If you don't mind, I would like you to lead a team into the wasteland and hunt down this warrior-class mutant that has been plaguing the old district outside the barrier. they are getting awfully close to the fortress-city, and since the main evolver corps are being stretched thin trying to investigate the recent rise in warrior-class mutants appearing nearby – you and your classes have encountered them, so you know what I'm referring to – we have been issued some requests to send cadets to take on a few of the missions. Normally I wouldn't sanction this, but given that you've defeated two warrior-class mutants, and after discussing with Instructor Jiao, I have confidence that you'll be able to handle it."

"So there's a swarm of minion-class Cyclops Rats, which might be led by a Warrior-class mutated Colossal Rat," I said, reading the mission briefing in detail. "The priority objective is to eliminate the Colossal Rat while exterminating as many Cyclops Rats as possible."

"That's right."

I considered the mission for a while. Cyclops Rats were basically zombie rats, their bodies having grown bloated and swelled to the size of wolves. Rotting fur, decaying flesh and plague ridden, they could bring untold damage to non-evolver humans, particularly with the diseases they carried. Yet for all their undead nature, their claws and teeth had mutated to be very lethal, even to evolvers.

The Colossal Rat, on the other hand, was about three meters tall – and that was when it was on fours. It was sort of like their king, though there was probably a commander-ranked mutant called the Colossal Rat King, so it wasn't there. It was more of a sub commander with incredible speed and strength, and in some ways it was more troublesome than the grotesque or aberrant, despite not being as durable as them. It made up for its lack of tenacity with its cunningness, which it put to full use when leading its troops of Cyclops Rats.

Such a prey would definitely be worth a lot of Kill Count points.

"Consider it done," I said as I suppressed a grin. "I'll be taking on this mission."