18: Chapter 18 Talent Awakening

Mo Yufei remained calm, his thoughts racing. His eyes swept over the crowded zombies beside him, secretly locking onto the empty space above the zombie lord. In an instant, his consciousness dove into his Storage Space, fixing his gaze on the heavy excavator inside.

This was a piece of heavy equipment he had gone to great lengths to collect, and it was extremely precious.

Mo Yufei silently prayed, hoping he wouldn't damage the excavator; it was his prized possession.

At this moment, the zombie lord was immersed in the state of expanding its mental control.

The zombie lord's Mental Energy continuously spread deeper into the Urban Village, frantically gathering scattered zombies to grow its horde, completely unaware of Mo Yufei mixed in among them.

Just as its Mental Energy reached its limit and it was completely off guard, Mo Yufei suddenly activated his Storage Space ability!

Without any warning, a behemoth tore through the air out of thin air. The heavy excavator, its tracks still caked with mud, suddenly appeared directly above the zombie lord and slammed down the next second.

Sensing the lethal crisis above, the zombie lord jerked its head up. For the first time, its sentient eyes showed terror and bewilderment. Just as it tried to muster its will to resist or dodge, it was already too late!

"Boom—!!"

A deafening roar exploded as the heavy body of the excavator slammed into the zombie lord, causing the hard ground to instantly crack and cave in, sending gravel flying.

The surrounding controlled zombies instantly lost their mental control and fell into chaos, letting out hoarse roars while retreating in the face of the sudden, massive sound.

The zombie lord that had awakened its ability couldn't even let out a complete scream before it was crushed by the multi-ton excavator. Its body instantly twisted and deformed, and it ceased all movement.

The cold mental presence that had shrouded the entire area instantly collapsed and vanished without a trace.

The zombies that had been firmly controlled froze for a moment, their murky eyes rolling aimlessly, having completely lost their command and restraint.

The next second, stripped of their mental suppression, they were instantly drawn by the increasingly loud music and loudspeaker noise from the plaza.

Without a moment's hesitation, the dense horde of zombies lost all formation. Dragging their stiff limbs, roaring and pushing, they rushed crazily toward the plaza, the source of the sound.

Mo Yufei walked over to the corpse of the zombie lord. Seeing the undamaged excavator, he smiled with satisfaction and stored it back into his Storage Space.

He bent down, gripped the deformed head of the zombie lord with both hands, and following the crack at the neck, pried it open with force, tearing the skull apart.

A fist-sized crystal core, emitting a faint, ghostly purple glow, was firmly embedded in the center of its brain.

As the light shimmered, one could seemingly feel a massive surge of Mental Energy remaining within it.

Mo Yufei took out the crystal core. It felt ice-cold in his hand and was full of energy; he could even feel it vibrating slightly, as if a trace of undying consciousness still lingered within.

Staring at the crystal core, a flash of burning envy crossed Mo Yufei's eyes.

He knew all too well how powerful this psychic ability was. To be able to freeze an entire city's horde or a whole area's zombies with a single thought—this level of control was truly a heavenly talent in The Apocalypse.

Settings from novels flashed through his mind: some humans awakened abilities by consuming zombie crystal cores, and special ability users could directly plunder and awaken the abilities of others by consuming high-level crystal cores.

The prerequisite was that the host's soul strength had to be sufficient to suppress the energy and will within the crystal core.

Mo Yufei looked down at the lord-level crystal core in his hand and calculated silently. Most of his current crystal cores were just used for system upgrades; using this crystal core's ability just for a system upgrade felt like a waste.

If he could consume the crystal core directly, and if he could gain this mental control ability...

Mo Yufei steeled his heart and, without further hesitation, took the ghostly purple psychic crystal core and tossed it into his mouth.

However, the scene he expected from novels—where the crystal core would dissolve upon entry and turn into a warm current flowing into his body—never happened.

The crystal core was hard and ice-cold, showing no signs of melting. It was like holding a cold stone in his mouth, completely motionless.

Feeling the motionless crystal core in his mouth, Mo Yufei recalled the Soul Fire Perpetuity talent granted to him by the system.

He stopped chewing aimlessly, stood quietly in the messy alley, closed his eyes, and concentrated all his Mental Energy, locking it tightly onto the ghostly purple crystal core in his mouth.

The originally cold and hard crystal core suddenly emitted a faint purple light the moment it touched his condensed Mental Energy.

A gentle yet massive wave of mental energy, guided by his Mental Energy, slowly peeled away from the crystal core and silently merged into the depths of Mo Yufei's soul.

Mo Yufei savored the feeling. It was exceptionally wonderful—like the satisfaction of doing craft work—leaving his whole body tingling with a sense of pleasure.

Every wisp of energy precisely aligned with the texture of his soul; there was no violent impact, only gentle nourishment and integration.

Soon, the pure mental energy within the crystal core belonged entirely to him.

Mo Yufei quietly felt the overflowing mental energy in his soul and looked down at his zombie body. His skin tone remained a deathly gray, his limbs showed no signs of increased power, and there wasn't even the slightest feeling of muscle tension.

He understood in his heart that this body was merely a thoroughly dead zombie shell, its flesh long having lost all vitality. The mental energy he had just absorbed had no effect on his physical body at all; it had all merged into the depths of his soul.

Immediately, he moved his consciousness and summoned the system panel, and a light blue screen appeared before his eyes.

Physical Stats (Changes based on current status)

Strength: 0, Constitution: 0, Speed: 0, Mental Energy: 251, Endurance: 0.

All physical attributes were zeros, which made his eyelids twitch. His gaze suddenly landed on the last category: Mental Energy.

Mental Energy: 251

The moment he saw the number, Mo Yufei's mouth twitched uncontrollably, and he couldn't help but curse inwardly.

"Damn it, it's not much, but it's exactly one more than 250. This number is just too mocking!"

Calming down and perceiving carefully, within his vast, spreading consciousness, he soon realized the unique application of this Mental Energy.

He could imprint a wisp of his original soul aura into the minds of other creatures, just like a Soul Contract in novels.

When facing low-level creatures like zombies with low intelligence and chaotic consciousness, he didn't need their consent at all. A sweep of his consciousness could forcibly imprison their will, directly controlling their actions and thoughts, using them completely as puppets—almost identical to the way the zombie lord had controlled them just moments ago.

But it was completely different when it came to humans.

Human souls were complex, their thoughts numerous, their emotions messy yet resilient, and their mental defenses were layered and intertwined.

To leave a Soul Contract mark, the other party had to be submissive in their heart, have no resistance, and willingly accept it.

Once the other party had even a hint of resistance, guard, or hostility, the consciousness mark could not take root; forced infusion would only lead to it collapsing directly, making mental control impossible.

Realizing this rule of the ability, an extremely bold and crazy idea instantly formed in his mind.

The military had been clearing out the zombies section by section, bombing them area by area, but the efficiency was slow and the harvest was limited.

But now, he possessed a consciousness that covered most of the city and could ignore distance, allowing him to directly and forcibly control all low-intelligence zombies.

Since that was the case, he didn't need to stay in one place waiting for bombings.

He could directly use mental control to gather all the zombies scattered across most of the city and bring them together to a single, empty location.

When the military's high-altitude firepower coverage arrived, he could wipe out the entire dense horde of zombies in one go.

A single bombing could only collect a small pile of crystal cores. If he controlled the zombies of the entire city to gather in one place, when the bombing arrived, he could directly harvest a massive amount of crystal cores from the entire city's horde—the quantity would be unimaginably terrifying.

Moreover, with the zombies all gathered and taken away by him, the city would become extremely safe, and survivors wouldn't notice anything amiss, only thinking that the military's clearing efforts were effective.

He would just consider it his contribution to the country.

More importantly, he didn't need to take risks by getting close or expose himself; he could just control them from afar with his consciousness.