Sharing The Breathing Technique

Alex fell in a dilemma.

It's not like there's anyone stopping him.

But if he did, what's the consequence?

If everyone becomes strong, can they still cooperate with each other?

If a bad person learns how to cultivate, will he choose to help other people or cause more chaos?

If everyone knows that zombies can get stronger and smarter, will it affect their mindset or is it a good thing that they know what they are facing?

Alex kept thinking about his decision. There is a lot of pros and cons he need to consider.

Then he remembered the calls for help.

People struggling to survive, hidden on various places.

"What am I thinking? It's been three days since the zombie outbreak. People need strength more than anything else."

"I can't be selfish at this time. The best thing I can do is share my cultivation method, so people can at least become stronger even while hiding."

"As for the skills, I'll just inform them of the benefits of cultivation - it has passive regeneration and nourishes the body!"

With that, he decided he'll publish the details and hope for the best.

He quickly logged to his online account and wrote an article.

He explained the breathing technique as best as he can. He didn't have time to explain the specific details, so he focused on the gist of it.

It can make your body strong, improve stamina, and increase energy.

That's the gist of it.

There are other minor details he added but they are not the focus.

He copied and pasted it on the top social platforms using his accounts and hoped people can use it to survive.

After he posted the article, he switched to his hacking program and connected to the traffic system.

Instead of immediately connecting, the program started a loading bar.

"Did my connection become slower?" He glanced at the prepaid stick plugged in on the side of the laptop.

"I guess I'm consuming my data too fast. Multiple live feeds and hours of recorded video can easily consume a lot of data."

Alex left the program running and looked out the window.

"It's noon. The sun's high and it's bright outside. Should I leave now and go back to my apartment or wait until it's night so I can continue clearing the area?"

Alex surveyed the road. He saw the van, the houses in front of him and the trees on the sidewalk.

He can't see the supermarket, but the houses in the street are clear and empty.

The van has a few scratches and dents but it's not scrapped or anything.

It should still be driveable and can be used to escape if it has keys on it.

For now, everything's peaceful and quiet.

The only thing moving was the leaves swaying as the wind passed by.

"Should I practice driving? I don't need to care even if I ran over zombies, right?"

"No, I'll do it next time. I'm not sure if the neighborhood is clear and I can easily get surrounded. If that van gets surrounded, then I'm good as dead."

"I'll wait until it's dark and the zombies are less active and much weaker."

"For now, I'll go and check if I can get lucky and find some clues about mom and dad."

Alex closed the curtain but left enough space for light to come in.

He went back and checked the traffic system.

It's still loading.

"What the heck is happening?"

A few more minutes later and the loading bar disappeared and connected him to the network.

The system opened and a warning popped out.

"Warning, the system has detected an unauthorized connection."

Alex's brow twitched.

"Did their system detected I'm an unauthorized user? That shouldn't be it, I used a legitimate account. Oh, it must be my location. But for them to block my access, it needs user input. That means... someone is still alive in their office!"

Alex tried hacking again using the old man's credentials but the security's too tight. He's second attempt also left more traces and on his third attempt, the old man's login credentials has been denied.

He sighed and decided to give up.

"Well, that goes a night of hard work. On the good side, I know that my parents are alive somewhere. I wish they call me, so I know what's going on."

"It's still better than nothing, so I guess it's fine."

Alex opened his browser and checked the internet.

The first article about the breathing technique caught a lot of attention.

"What the?"

"This guy's crazy!"

"Is he drunk?"

"Doesn't he know it's already the apocalypse?"

"Lol."

"Wow, what a joke. You want me to breathe air to survive? That's the best advice you can give us?"

"This article is a scam! I bet the author is laughing behind his computer!"

"Breathing technique, my ass."

Alex facepalmed.

He's not sure whether he's disappointed or angry.

Thankfully, he found some positive comments on his post.

"This is an interesting post. It looks promising and I think it's worth trying."

"It's only been a few days and yet people are trying to scam other people."

"Breathing technique? Interesting."

"Hey, this is great! I've been thinking the same thing! I can feel something different when I'm fighting the zombies and this post confirms it! I'm gonna try this breathing thingy!"

"I'll try it too. I hope it works."

Alex smiled happily knowing some people are willing to try it out.

The post continued to get views and easily became the most talked about topic for the afternoon.

It's either a lot of people are trapped on their homes, or most survivors are hiding from zombies and has some idle time.

Either way, Alex didn't mind it.

Though it's not a skill, it's still helpful to the people struggling out there.

He looked out the window and noticed the clouds have gotten thicker and the atmosphere has become darker.

"Oh, looks like it's going to rain."

A few hours later, it did.

Then the worse thing happened while he was watching a tutorial on how to drive cars.

His internet stopped working.

The video buffered and never played again.

When he refreshed the page, the webpage just kept on loading.

"Another one down. First the TV stopped broadcasting news, next I got kicked out of the traffic management system. Now, my internet is used up. Could things get any better?"

On the dark sky outside, Alex half-expected a lightning to come out but it never did.

The rain just continued to pour down. With no internet to pass time, he chose to exercise.

He went down the kitchen and ate another canned corn.

Then he did some stretches, jumping jacks, jogging around the living room, and some push-ups and sit-ups.

"Hmmm. Not bad. I should have done this more often."

He can feel his body getting warmed up and the flow of energy inside him circulating.

Alex continued to exercise and practiced a few basic attacking movements.

When it got late, he meditated and cultivated the Three-Seven Breathing Technique.

It helped ease his muscles and the pain from exercising.

"I'll go out tonight and clear the zombies in the supermarket. After that, I'll clear the zombies on the way home."

Alex felt hungry again and ate another can of corn and went back to the bedroom to cultivate.

...

Alex opened his eyes and checked the time.

It's almost midnight.

The rain has stopped and the moon is out.

"Time to move."

He slowly moved and opened the door.

Outside was quiet and the moonlight was illuminating the streets.

There are puddles on the sidewalks and the sound of cicadas echoed.

As expected, the zombies he encountered were back to being at regular speed and has poorer vision compared to the ones in the morning.

Alex noticed something strange on his encounters with them. The zombies were always idle and looking up at the sky.

After several encounters, he finally decided to investigate the issue.

He used True Sight and had a terrifying discovery.

The zombies can attract the energy in the surrounding and absorb them in their bodies!

"They can absorb the energy too? What the heck is going on? Are they cultivators? Or is absorbing energy a normal thing in the new world?"

He can't tell.

But if he has to guess, it's probably both.

Alex didn't want to dwell on this matter for too long, so he went back on his plan.

The supermarket was near, so it didn't take him too long to get there.

Unlike yesterday, there are more zombies surrounding the building today.

Most probably, the zombies that were inside had come out after hearing the rain.

The remaining zombies inside can be seen gathered around the doors and windows.

All of them idly looking up and absorbing the energy from the moon.

Alex didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

Unfortunately, it was a hard truth that is better to accept early than suffer later on if he ignore it.

Since Alex passively cultivated the Three-Seven Breathing Technique, he didn't notice that he can get absorb more energy at night compared in the morning.

"If the energy can also nourish their bodies and they continue absorbing it, they'll reach the threshold some time soon and possibly evolve, becoming stronger and faster."

Alex had a big problem.

He wants to stay safe and slowly clear the neighborhood, but it seems like he had to bring the plan forward as fast as he can.

Now that he learned zombies can cultivate and become stronger, he had no reason to idle around and wait for things to worsen.

He needs to cultivate more and become stronger faster.

Passively cultivating isn't enough anymore. He needs to hunt zombies and absorb their energies while they're still weak.

Alex became more determined than ever to clear the area.

First, he'll clear the zombies surrounding the supermarket.

After that, he'll clear the zombies on his way home.

The next day, he'll clear the zombies on the neighborhood.

Alex planned the whole operation in his head and decided on the first steps he needs to do.

He needs a way to lure the zombies to a secluded spot.

"Hmmm... bait."

"I could try throwing something, but I need to br careful to only attract some and the rest should hopefully ignore it."

He looked around for something he can throw and saw the small rocks on the side of the road.

He picked up several small rock the size of a coin and used them for throwing.

He threw the first rock and missed by a large margin. He was targeting the zombies head but it was a few feet to the right.

The rock didn't even attract any attention even after making some noise after hitting the ground.

Alex tried a few more times but the results were the same.

The zombies didn't even budge and continued to absorb the moonlight energy.

"What the hell am I doing wrong? Am I that bad at throwing?"

Alex angrily threw another rock while aiming at the zombie's wide torso.

And as if heavens finally pitied him, he finally hit the target in the back of its head.

"..."

Alex felt embarrassed but he had to prepare for battle as the zombie that got hit became angry.

The zombie roared after getting interrupted from absorbing energy.

A zombie nearby also lost its trance-like state and huffed and growled. It looked around and followed the roaring zombie moving away from the group. It saw Alex as they get closer and it's movements became more animated.

Alex readied himself.

Relieve Pain!

PowerUp!

Then when the zombie lunged at him, Power Smash!