"How tired I am of all this…" Lin Wei whispered hoarsely, staring upward at the ten-meter-tall zombie towering over him. The giant had just crushed his last remaining ally as if the man were nothing more than a pathetic insect. The sickening crunch of bones still echoed in his ears, mixed with a death cry that had ended far too quickly.
The battlefield was a literal sea of blood. Crimson sludge soaked the ground for dozens of meters in every direction. Bodies of humans and torn-apart zombies lay tangled together, some crushed beneath the giant's enormous foot, others ripped to pieces by ordinary undead. Severed limbs, spilled entrails, and shattered weapons created a scene straight out of hell. The air was thick with a nauseating stench of iron, rot, and burnt flesh. In the distance, sporadic gunshots and screams could still be heard, it was the remnants of other squads trying to retreat. But Lin Wei already understood: for him, the battle was over.
He lay on his back, crushed by the weight of his own helplessness. His legs wouldn't obey him, his left arm was broken in several places, and dark blood slowly seeped from a deep wound in his side. He no longer had the strength to stand. Even breathing hurt.
Now all he could do was wait.
The zombies had already smelled him. Their low, hungry growls drew closer from every side. Lin Wei stared into the darkening sky and wondered how it would all end. The best-case scenario — if this ten-meter freak crushed him with a single step. Quick and relatively painless. The worst — if the smaller zombies began eating him alive. First the legs, then the arms… He had seen it happen before. He had heard the screams of those who were "lucky" enough to die that way.
"System," he called out quietly.
A semi-transparent holographic window instantly unfolded before his eyes, glowing with cold blue light. Even in this state, the interface worked perfectly, as if mocking his situation.
[Name: Lin Wei.]
[Ability: Sealed.]
[Level: 20.]
[Skills: Intermediate Sword Mastery (Master).]
[Description: A nobody who has failed to unseal his ability for five years.]
Lin Wei smiled bitterly with the corner of his cracked lips. That last line had always been especially "pleasant." The System never missed a chance to remind him of his failure. In the first months after the System appeared, those words cut like a knife. Now he had simply grown used to them.
Five years.
Five damn years since the zombie apocalypse began, when the System descended upon Earth and split humanity into two categories: those who awakened power, and those who remained ordinary meat. Lin Wei belonged to the second group. Or rather, to an even rarer and more pathetic subgroup — those whose ability existed but remained sealed.
Most people never received any abilities at all. They had to survive using weapons, numbers, and luck. Those who awakened their powers immediately became true gods of the new world. And people like him… they had to "fulfill a condition." No one knew in advance what it would be. For some it was "kill a hundred zombies with bare hands," for others — "spend a night alone in a city of the dead," and for some it was as ridiculous as "eat a bowl of instant noodles under the full moon."
Lin Wei had tried everything.
He had killed zombies by the hundreds. He had meditated. He had attempted rituals he'd read about in old books and rumors. He had run marathons across infected territories. Nothing worked.
The limit of the human body was Level 20.
Every survivor knew this. Level 20 was the maximum an ordinary person could reach. Beyond that was a wall. To cross it and become a superhuman, one needed an ability. It was what provided that qualitative leap, turning a person into a being of an entirely different order. A single "awakened" individual could be worth an entire squad of regular fighters. And if the ability was truly powerful… thousands would follow such a person.
Lin Wei had reached Level 20 long ago. Since then, he had been stuck in place. He grew physically stronger, honed his swordsmanship to the point where he could cut down ordinary zombies with a single strike. But it wasn't enough. It was laughably insufficient. When creatures of Level 30, 40, 50, and even higher roamed the land, Level 20 was nothing more than a child among wolves.
He closed his eyes.
The zombies were already right beside him. He could feel their rotting breath and hear the clicking of teeth. One of the smaller undead sank its jaws into his leg, but Lin Wei didn't even flinch. The pain was almost gone, his body was already beginning to shut down.
And then…
A flash.
Blindingly bright, as if the sun itself had decided to fall to the earth.
The ten-meter giant, who had already stretched out its massive hand toward him, simply… vanished. It didn't explode or fall, it evaporated in an instant. All that remained where it had stood was scorched earth and rising clouds of steam.
Lin Wei blinked. All the zombies around him had disappeared as well. The field that had been swarming with the dead just seconds ago was now empty. Only human corpses and black scorch marks on the ground remained as evidence of the battle that had taken place.
He slowly turned his head with great difficulty.
From the horizon, a man was flying toward him.
No, not a man. A god.
He was surrounded by flames. Bright, living, golden-crimson fire. It didn't burn him — it was part of him. The air around him shimmered from the unimaginable heat, and the aura was so heavy that even Lin Wei, lying on the ground, found it difficult to breathe. The figure slowly descended and stopped five meters above him.
Lin Wei recognized him instantly.
The Flame General.
One of the strongest people in the region. A legend. The man who had single-handedly cleared the Shandin Megalopolis of a horde of Level 70 zombies. The one whose terrifying and awe-inspiring stories were told around every survivor's campfire.