Blueprints

Finishing absorbing the essence of the zombie he had just killed, he heard a mechanical voice accompanied by a sound reminiscent of a small bell.

"Interesting..."

He had never experienced anything like this before, so it was highly intriguing. He couldn't deny that it had caught his attention; after all, killing a few zombies wasn't really fun. The only satisfying part about killing them was obtaining a bit of essence.

Ethan craved something that would truly make him feel alive!

He wanted epic confrontations against beings of immeasurable power, where he would be on the brink of death constantly. Battles that would force him to exert all his effort, not just to survive, but also to emerge as the undisputed victor!

Previously, he used to enjoy killing powerful demons, but these zombies were so weak that even a pathetic human could deal with them...

Zzzt!

He recalled the blueprint inventory mentioned by that voice, and in an instant, the blue circular panel appeared.

There wasn't much to see, aside from hundreds of empty slots. The only ones that contained anything were the first three, which displayed small drawings of rolled-up white papers.

Ethan assumed that these were the three blueprints he had just acquired.

He attempted to select one using his mind, but nothing happened. So, using one of his fingers, he selected the first blueprint.

Zzzt!

Immediately, a smaller second panel appeared next to the first one. Ethan tilted his head from side to side, as if trying to comprehend it. He nodded and said, "Yeah, I don't understand shit."

In the blueprint, intricate drawings of tiny metal pieces could be observed, meticulously detailed. These accurately depicted pieces seemed to form a complex mechanism. Alongside the illustrations, there were numerous numerical annotations indicating the dimensions and technical specifications of each component.

These numbers, arranged in different sections of the blueprint, provided precise information about the size, location, and characteristics of each piece of the mechanism.

Of course, to Ethan, they were just meaningless scribbles.

The only thing he managed to understand was what was written at the top of the blueprint, 'Motion Detection Electro-Trap (F-Rank).'

This was easy enough for him to comprehend; it seemed to be a device capable of electrocuting its target.

"Not bad, I suppose."

He felt somewhat disappointed and glanced at the other two blueprints, named 'Light Tactical Vest (F-Rank)' and 'Compact Plasma Pistol (F-Rank).'

Ethan truly didn't understand what the voice wanted him to do with these blueprints. He knew nothing about creating technology!

"Aaaagghhhh!"

"Nnnnngggghhhh!"

"Uuuurrrgghhh!"

Suddenly, several guttural roars echoed nearby—it was the zombies from the bar, who had already finished devouring or savoring their prey.

Originally, there were only five, but now there were eight!

Some of the people who had been considered as food had turned into hunters. They were now missing limbs, with skinless faces and all sorts of bloody wounds.

Others might have vomited at such a scene, but Ethan was not one of them and never would be.

"Well, I was curious to see how good this body is," he murmured with excitement. Ignoring the blueprints, causing the screen to disappear, he gathered all his strength in his legs without hesitation.

Whoosh!

He lunged at a zombie, a middle-aged man in a suit missing an arm and with a mangled face.

With a swift and fluid motion, Ethan unleashed all his strength into his right leg, turning his foot into an unstoppable sword. A horizontal arc formed in the air as his leg became a deadly projectile!

"Uuurrgg-"

Bam!

Craaack!

Without a shred of mercy, his kick sent the zombie flying as if he were a puppet without strings, crashing with an impactful force into a wooden table!

"Grooo..."

The zombie struggled to move, but he only managed to do so for a few brief seconds before becoming still forever. His head was grotesquely deformed, clear evidence that it had been forcefully crushed, shattering everything inside.

"Even though I know I'm exerting all the force my body can muster, I encountered no resistance when almost making its head explode, as if its skull had been decomposing in a swamp for years, weak and fragile."

Whooosh!

While speaking to himself, Ethan leaped with surprising agility!

In a quick and coordinated movement, he unleashed all his concentrated strength into his right elbow, directing it precisely toward the head of a zombie that was too close to him.

Crunch!

A sinister burst resounded in the air!

The impact was devastating. His elbow forcefully penetrated the skull, shattering bones and tissues.

The zombie's head split grotesquely, with pieces of flesh, blood, and bone fragments splattering around. The disfigured zombie collapsed to the ground, motionless.

"They're so weak!" he exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

Ethan longed to test his strength and revel in the fight, but he was taken aback by how feeble they were. They were much more fragile than he had previously thought; with just a minimal effort, their heads exploded into a thousand pieces!

"Weak beings like these don't deserve to exist!"

His fists crashed into the bodies of the zombies. Each impact made bones crack and shattered heads and limbs with a deafening noise.

But that wasn't enough for Ethan.

Craack!

With savage ferocity, he grabbed the heads of two helpless zombies and smashed them violently together. The sound of skulls breaking echoed in the air as flesh and bone fragments scattered like macabre confetti.

It was an exhibition of excessive strength and cruelty.

Without showing any mercy or compassion, Ethan continued his frenzied dance of destruction. He tore apart the limbs of these pitiful creatures, all the while smiling.

Each technique Ethan executed was more brutal than the last.

He broke bones, shattered torsos, and crushed skulls with ruthless ferocity. There was no limit to his thirst for slaughter, and the zombies were mere practice dummies in his eyes.

When he was finally surrounded by the mangled corpses of these few zombies, Ethan stood tall, his gaze filled with great satisfaction.

"Though they are extremely weak, theyare not bad for blowing off some steam!"

Ethan surveyed the pristine and opulent bar that had transformed into a nightmarish scene of terror. Most of the tables and chairs were smashed to pieces. The bloody and gleaming glass shards reflected the carnage around them.

Crimson stains splattered the walls and floor, while the dismembered remains of zombies were scattered everywhere.

Ding!

[You have obtained eight F-rank blueprint fragments. Please check the blueprint inventory to see what kind of blueprints you have acquired.]

"Huh?"

Ethan had already grown accustomed to the robotic voice, but something caught his attention this time. He was sure he had heard "blueprint fragments" instead of just blueprints.

Driven by curiosity, he opened the blueprint inventory and saw that eight additional slots were filled with small pieces of torn paper.

Upon selecting one, his suspicions were confirmed. It was indeed a blueprint that read 'Basic Underwater Laser Gun,' but it was only a very small fragment of it. The same applied to the other blueprints.

They were so tiny that compared to a complete blueprint, Ethan estimated that he would need at least ten fragments to assemble one.

However, he knew that he would have to be very lucky for the next zombies he killed to drop fragments of the same type of blueprint. He saw this possibility as highly unlikely.

"Whatever," he muttered, not wanting to waste any more time in this bar. Ethan approached the scattered demon essences around the place.

With satisfaction, he absorbed the last essence, feeling slightly stronger.

However, even after absorbing a total of ten essences, he felt that they were nothing compared to the essence of the first demon he had killed.

If Ethan were to compare them, the essence of that little demon was like a massive tree loaded with juicy fruits, while the ten essences extracted from the zombies were like a tiny sprout barely reaching ten centimeters in height...

The amount of these green essences he would have to consume to reach the same strength as in his previous body was unimaginable.

Could it be millions? Or perhaps hundreds of millions?

It could even be a much larger number than he could conceive!

Ding!

[You have obtained eight F-rank blueprints. Please check the blueprint inventory to see what kind of blueprints you have acquired.]

"?"

Ethan heard a sound he did not expect to hear at this moment. Shouldn't he have already received the rewards for exterminating those zombies? He looked at the wooden floor, now covered in death.

Zzzt!

He curiously checked the blueprint inventory.

Surprisingly, the eight blueprint fragments had disappeared, replaced by eight complete blueprints.

"This situation is becoming more and more confusing..."

"Gggrrrruuuuhhhh!"

A roar echoed in the distance. Ethan tore his gaze away from the blueprints and, leaving the bar, furrowed his brow as he realized that a horde of hundreds of zombies had formed without him noticing, rapidly approaching his location.

"This is getting complicated. My body doesn't have the endurance or strength to kill so many zombies."

Reluctantly, he began to run, skillfully dodging the zombies in his path. There were too many of them in this place; a glance in any direction revealed hordes of zombies.

He observed as they clustered together, as if they were a hive mind.

However, that didn't worry him in the slightest. They were so slow that unless he deliberately stood still, they couldn't even graze a single hair on his body. The threat these creatures posed to Ethan was practically insignificant.

At this moment, the zombies were secondary. His first objective was to tear apart the bastard who had caused his death in the past.

Matthew was going to die, no matter who or what stood in his way!

Fortunately, not even five minutes had passed since they left the bar. He should be able to catch up to them without any problem.