New Discoveries

"When did I become so strong?"

Alex grew and was raised in a good family.

Good in a sense of decent living conditions and has upright upbringing.

He knows right from wrong and can choose to do right.

Every action is always your choice even if it's inaction.

Alex never picked a fight before but never shied away from it.

That's why he knew he was weak compared to some people and always keep to himself. It doesn't mean he's a coward, he just doesn't feel like being in pain for no reason.

It's good to say that Alex knew what his body was capable of and what he isn't.

Just activating the energy in his body almost doubled his strength.

Unfortunately, he can't keep the state active for more than a minute, so he had to finish things fast.

He pulled back and prepared for a powerful overhead swing.

Once the zombie faced him, he launched the attack.

CRACK!

The target's head caved in and it fell down with blood leaking on its forehead.

Alex cancelled the active skill and started gathering energy in his hands.

He just thought of a new idea and he really wanted to know if it will work.

Two zombies were left and one is already disabled.

Alex didn't wait for the other one to stand up and performed his new experiment.

Unlike before, he didn't coat his skin with protection but used all the gathered energy in his hand at once.

This resulted in his hand and wrist coordinating a powerful and swift strike to the back of the zombie's head.

BAM!

The zombie's head forcefully dislocated and bounced off several times on the road.

"Hoo-lee!"

Alex gasped.

Active skills use a lot of energy but they pack quite the punch!

With this discovery, as long as he doesn't get surrounded by more than 5 zombies and isn't on constant battle, he could easily survive and become stronger.

As long as he can recuperate in between fights, he can keep doing this all day!

He massage his wrist to alleviate the slight pang of pain and used his newly developed skill to finish the disabled zombie on the ground.

This could have been a nice scene of a watermelon squashing on the beach with beautiful women all around but it wasn't.

After the deed was done, he felt strange wisps of energy enter his body from the air.

The feeling was short but thanks to him focusing on his surroundings, he made a new discovery.

Dead zombies were giving him some kind of energy.

No!

It's more like he was absorbing something from them.

Due to constant practice and passive and active exposure to the special energy, his senses slowly adapted and picked up vague traces of the energy in the air.

The air... is brimming with energy.

Energy from dead bodies, energy from trees, energy from the moon.

There's so much energy in the air and it's all invisible!

"What the heck is going on?" Alex thought loudly. "Why didn't people notice this before?"

Alex focused before he got sidetracked again.

"I'm not out here to think things through, I'm out here to get experience and try to clean the neighborhood."

"There should be less zombies now and they'll be spread out, so I can hunt them down easily."

"But I'm not gonna risk fighting big groups, so I need to find the wandering ones. I need to watch out for other variation too. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen all the zombie variations, and they have strange powers too. Too weird I haven't met one after the first two, but actually... let's keep it that way."

Alex moved on to the next block and kept repeating the cycle on every household.

With the new burst skill which he named 'Power Smash', fighting became a lot smoother and his confidence soared.

Every fight he had recuperate to rest and gather energy.

He also named his other skills throughout his fights.

His breathing technique became his official cultivation technique. Since he needs to inhale for 7 seconds, hold breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 7 seconds, he named the technique Three-Seven Breathing Technique.

As for his strengthening skill, since he can activate it for a temporary boost of strength and agility, he decided to call it PowerUp.

Energized Skin for adding a layer of energy protection on his skin and slightly increasing his defensive and offensive power.

True Sight for enhanced sight since he can see what the average eyes cannot see.

Sonar for enhanced hearing since he can detect movements by sound alone.

Aromancy for enhanced smell but he prefers to call it Disgust since that's the only sensation he felt after using it through the day.

Flavor Change for enhanced taste since he can alter a substance taste.

Relieve Pain for enhanced touch since he can temporarily block the pain from external injuries mostly from getting hit, tussled around, and rolling around.

Though he felt he could do more with each skill, everything is enough for now and he could experiment more on what to improve to make them better.

As for benefits of naming them, his body could easily remember what to do by naming the skills.

It's much faster to recall and gather energy since he know the exact purpose why he gathered the energy and where to gather energy.

He didn't even need to shout the name and just use it internally.

After some time, the sun rose and the world became slightly brighter.

Alex stopped at a corner and watched the scene in front of him.

As thr horizon lit up, one could see dozens of random clothes lying around in the middle of the road.

If one looked closely on them, one could find dusts on the clothes and some dusts being carried away by the wind.

At thid point, Alex should have basically cleared the street and yet he could see five zombies roaming around aimlessly.

Since he cleared the street by household, he knew these five came from somewhere else.

"Alright, I didn't think I could do this clearing operation until morning but I actually did. Did all those stamina training I did previously finally paid off?"

Alex grinned knowing the real reason. Even now he could still feel the warm and gentle feeling that keeps on energizing his body as he cultivated the Three-Seven Breathing Technique.

"I wanted to clear the supermarket but this street alone took most of my time. I guess I'll do it later in the afternoon after I get some sleep."

Alex rested for a bit more and watched as the sun slowly brightened the world.

The golden rays of light hit the street and fell on the zombies.

Nothing happened at first but after a few minutes, they jolted and made some erratic movements suddenly becoming more active.

The zombie group looked around and slowky found him.

Getting ignored previously, Alex believed nothing will change and became shocked as the zombies simultaneously bellowed at him.

"Raaaaah!"

Like kids getting excited seeing their favorite toys, they dashed and roared forward with intense fervor.

"They're more excited than usual. Did something happen?"

Alex was about to take a step forward when he noticed the zombies are almost in front of him.

"They're running much faster than before?"

Alex was stunned.

He could still outrun them if he focused on running, but their speed almost doubled compared to before.

"Oh, no! Don't tell me that zombies are much stronger in the morning?"

Is that why he could move unhindered and fought everything with ease before?

Alex didn't have time to dawdle and quickly gathered energy to his feet as he ran towards a white van.

He used Sonar to watch the zombies chasing him from behind and used the new skill he just learned when the zombies almost clawed at his back.

The gathered energy on his feet exploded and sprung him up in the air.

High Jump!

He landed on the roof of the van and steadied his footing.

Seconds later, the van shook as the zombies caught up and slammed head first to the van.

"Damn!" Alex cursed.

This is the fourth time he used the skill and after several usage, he found the biggest flaw with it.

It's actually a flaw on every active skill that uses burst energy as foundation of the skill.

They deprive the body part of special energy after the burst skill!