Return (9)

Benjamin frantically typed the combination for the entrance of the barracks. He remembered the password of safehous S-3 should be XXXXXX. When he heard the unlocking sound of the entrance, he immediately turned the wheel to the left and pulled as hard as he could. Since he had used up all his spiritual energy, he only had his normal physical energy left. Therefore, it took him quite a while to pull the door open. After he pulled the door, he found a living room that was almost identical to the previous barracks. However, there was no trap door located underneath the dining table. Instead, there was a flight of stairs on the side of the living room heading upwardsw to the roof, with the trapdoor being sealed on the ceiling.

Benjamin decided not to close the main entrance and directly headed upwards to the roof. He opened the trapdoor and took a look around. It front of him, he found a giant long and round unactivated turret that was facing towards the zombie tide. He immediately headed towards the turret, trying to find out how to operate it. When he stood before the turret, he found that he had a bird's eye view of what was going on below. He found Eli a distance away fighting a swarm of zombies. Just as Eli was about to reach for the zombie core, he found something horrible and wanted to shout, but it was too late. Eli had already been stabbed with the zombie's sharp hand.

Benjamin looked down and frantically tried to turn on the turret. There were a few black buttons on the side and a giant red button in the very middle. He knew that the red button must be used to trigger the turret, so the on switch must be one of the black buttons. He pressed all the black buttons and suddenly heard the sound of a machine roaring.

Not waiting to see if the turret is working, he aimed the turret towards Eli and fired.

*

Arnold fell to the ground when the zombie released his hand. The zombie core fell to the hole that was originally his own abdomen, his blood spraying against it. As he laid on the ground, his eyes became blurry. He saw several zombies reaching towards him, trying to tear him apart. The last thing he saw was a giant bright light, and then there was only darkness.

*

Benjamin had no idea that the turret will be so potent. He originally thought it was just a normal projectile weapon, but instead it was actually a plasma weapon. Such technology had only been recently developed! The plasma beam completely incinerated all the zombies around Arnold. Arnold, who was laying on the ground, unlike the other zombies, was unharmed. The fire that was burning the corpses of the zombies startled the other zombies from behind. They started avoiding the fire that spread into a semi-circle, circling around it and directly heading to the direction of the base. The zombies also naturally avoided the barracks.

Benjamin immediately went down and ran towards Arnold. When he arrived, he found Arnold to be completely pale, his eyes were closed and the large circular hole in his abdomen caused the blood to flow outwards. Without checking for Arnold's pulse, he started looking around to see if there was anything to help him. As all the materials that were originally from the backpack were scattered across the ground, it took him a few minutes before he found what he was looking for. It was a box of syringes that was marked "stem-cell version AA". Benjamin was surprised that Arnold was carrying such expensive items with him without his knowledge. Stem-cell medicine were only available to the richest people living at the bottom 2 floors of the base. Benjamin have only seen it being administered to his relatives, he had never actually personally used it before.

Benjamin ran back to Arnold's side. He immediately took out the 2 remaining syringes in the box and stabbed towards Arnold's heart. As Arnold's injuries were too severe, he needed the stem cells to pass through the blood vessels in order to directly heal the wound from the inside. Directly administering them on the organs would not help anymore, since some of his organs were completely gone.

Benjamin was a complete amateur in administering first-aid. If it were any other person, they would have read Arnold's pulse first. Benjamin, however, assumed Arnold was still alive without even checking. This was actually a blessing in disguise, since if he were anyone else, they would have completely abandoned Arnold after reading his pulse. However, Benjamin's stupidity caused a unique situation to arise.

The zombie core that was sitting in the middle of Arnold's abdomen was actually a Level 3 zombie core. He seemed to have unconsciously grabbed a Level 3 core instead of Level 4 when he was back at the laboratory. If it was a Level 5 core, it would not have saved him. However, a Level 3 zombie core have enough spiritual energy to support Arnold's life in place of his heart for at least a year. While the stem cells accelerated the growth of the tissues around Arnold's abdomen, the zombie core started sending wave after wave of spiritual energy through his veins, completely replacing blood as the function of nourishing his cells. The cells wrapped around the zombie core before connecting to the other side, completely enclosing the core within his abdomen.

When Arnold awoke, it was already the next day. The pain from his body was completely gone. He found himself on the bottom bed of the bunk bed of the right side of the barrack's bedroom. Beside him, on the left bed, was Benjamin. "You're awake!" he yelled excitedly. Benjamin immediately jumped up and looked over Arnold while standing.

"I-I'm still alive?" Arnold asked in a surprised tone. His voice sounded coarse as he did not drink any water for the whole day.

Benjamin nodded.

"How did I get here?"

"I pulled you all the way here from outside." Benjamin said. He sounded slightly cheerful, but if Arnold have seen Benjamin's face yesterday, he would have a completely different emotion. Benjamin, who had no more spiritual energy, had to spend an hour pulling Arnold across the open field and into the barracks. Then, he had to lift Arnold up onto the bed with his puny arms. By the time he was finished, he was panting hard and felt like he wanted to die. The muscles on his arms felt like they were burning.

"Where's my stuff?" Arnold kept asking.

"I kept them in the living room. The backpack was already torn though." Benjamin replied curtly.

Arnold nodded. He asked Benjamin to go outside and prepare some food for him. Benjamin gladly complied, he saved his life again after all. If it wasn't for Arnold almost sacraficing his life, he wouldn't be here safe and sound right now.

While Benjamin was away, Arnold talked to Andy. "Andy, what's the situation with my body right now."

"Scanning." Andy said. "Scanning completed. Here are the latest results."

As Arnold saw the medical report he got from Andy, he immediately frowned. Within his body, there was a large zombie core lodged within his abdomen. His blood vessels were connected to the core, with the zombie core acting like a second heart. After leaking most of his blood out of his body, what was left on his blood vessels were only a minimal amount of blood. Andy estimated a content of 10% blood and 90% spiritual energy within his body. The spiritual energy was constantly spent even if he was not doing anything.

"Andy, how did this happen?!" Arnold exclaimed.

"Reporting to Master. The body that Master have received from the lifepod a few days ago was one that is completely perfect for spiritual cultivation. As a result, unlike other organic bodies, the cells within your body can be nourished by spiritual energy with 100% efficiency. When you were facing catastrophic blood loss, the body have automatically switched to using spiritual energy as a replacement for oxygen brought by the red blood cells to nourish the body. Therefore, Master now need not to breathe oxygen to survive."

Arnold furrow his brows. "But the spiritual energy within the zombie core is limited. How long do I have before it runs out? And what happens when it runs out?"

"Reporting to Master. As the zombie core that is lodged in Master's abdomen is a Level 3 core, the abundant spiritual energy within it will allow your body to survive approximately a year, assuming that you do not expel the spiritual energy from the zombie core within you in the future. If you do, the time will shorten. After the complete use of the zombie core, as the spiritual energy have completely replaced the respiratory functions and the immune system, if the spiritual energy is used up, Master will die within a minute."

Arnold's eyes immediately turned grim. "How can I replenish the energy within my core?"

"You can use spiritual cultivation, as per usual, allowing natural spirit energy from the atmosphere to enter your body. However, the energy consumption greatly outweighs the energy absorption and therefore could only extend your life by at most 3 years."

"Another option is to consume zombie cores. A Level 5 zombie core will give you 1 day of life. A Level 4, a month. Level 3, a year. Level 2, 10 years. Level 1, unknown, data insufficient. Master must also remember that whenever you use your spiritual energy for combat, you are literally using your life force as well." Andy explained.

Arnold furrowed his brows. It seemed that he needed to do something in order to get himself a steady supply of zombie cores in the future.