Chapter 201 - 200: When You Gaze into the Abyss

Chapter 201: Chapter 200: When You Gaze into the Abyss

A bolt of lightning flashed. It didn’t strike Lin Fan, nor did it hit the burning skyscraper. Instead, it inexplicably tore through the rain, veering to strike the top of a collapsed building’s ruins across the road.

The ruins were a few hundred meters to Lin Fan’s right, lower than the remains of the buildings on either side. There were no obvious metal structures in sight.

On a pile of shattered bricks and rubble, several floor slabs were wedged together haphazardly, like building blocks, revealing numerous pitch-black crevices. Even the recent flash of lightning had failed to illuminate them all.

He had leaped over it on his way here, afraid he might cause it to collapse, so he hadn’t landed there.

But the lightning made him think of Ye Qingniao.

He’d never asked Ye Qingzhou for the details of his sister’s ability. His impression was just that she could control electronics and the like. That, and she could suppress her body’s bioelectricity, lowering her vital signs to blend in with the zombies.

’Probably an ability to control electrical signals or something of the sort.’

The abilities of these Awakened Ones were all over the place. Each one was too complex to fully comprehend; back in the day, a single ability could have probably spawned an entire academic discipline.

As a result, he only had a basic impression of each person’s ability in his mind—like the one who made ice, or the one who created barriers...

Now, for some reason, this bolt of lightning reminded him of Ye Qingniao, causing him to connect it with her ability.

’It all counts as electricity... right?’

Rather than believing the lightning had struck the building by chance, he was more willing to believe this was the "signal" he had been waiting so long for...

An absurd "signal."

He chose this one, and he was willing to believe it.

Lin Fan summoned his spear, condensed impact force into it, and swept it forward, smashing two Mutated Zombies that were closing in and flinging them aside. He then shot diagonally forward!

The zombies on the road seemed stunned by the thunder. They froze for a moment, unable to discern the direction of the massive boom.

As the shattered bricks and rubble sent flying by the lightning strike landed, the CLATTERING sound was like a new command, causing them to stiffly turn and slowly converge on the ruins.

But Lin Fan was faster than all of them.

He took a bounding leap over the heads of several dozen zombies. As he landed, he retracted his spear and slid forward, beating the zombies to the punch and hopping onto the ruins before they could reach it.

He stomped lightly, testing the feel of the ground beneath his feet.

’The rubble below is already compacted. Judging by the height, there shouldn’t be any hollow spaces...’

’If someone’s here, they have to be in the crevices formed by these interlocking floor slabs.’

Some of the zombies tripped on the rubble at the edges, the noise causing others to stumble as well. Thanks to Lin Fan’s concealment crystal, they hadn’t locked onto a clear target, so their advance wasn’t particularly fast.

He, meanwhile, used this time to quickly peer into one crevice after another.

This was the last chance he was giving Ye Qingniao.

[22/200][0/400]!

As he grew more and more anxious, he peered down into an unremarkable crevice, and a health bar suddenly materialized before his eyes in the darkness. It had a deep blue border and a high Energy Value!

His pupils contracted sharply!

’She’s here!’

’Alive!’

The faint firelight from the distant skyscraper cast a glow into the crevice, vaguely illuminating a figure lying within. But in Lin Fan’s vision, the brightly glowing health bar in the darkness could not be lying.

But the state of this health bar was very strange...

Most of the deep blue border was black, with only a short, yellow sliver representing 22 health points remaining.

But this yellow sliver was extremely unstable, like a candle flickering in the wind.

It flickered violently between red and yellow, as if it could be extinguished at any moment, or... turn completely red.

But he had no time to hesitate. The zombies behind him were slowly closing in. The moment they entered the range where his concealment crystal was ineffective, they would immediately spot him and go into a frenzy.

He wasn’t afraid of a few dozen zombies, but unlike his weapons, he couldn’t just stuff Ye Qingniao into his inventory.

In her fragile state, a single scratch would be fatal.

The entrance to the crevice was extremely narrow; only someone with Ye Qingniao’s slender build could have squeezed inside.

There was no time for further observation. ’An erratic health bar is fine,’ he thought. ’As long as it’s not pure red, there’s hope.’ Lin Fan reached into the crevice toward Ye Qingniao, intending to pull her out first and deal with the rest later.

His fingers had just brushed against something that felt like a head...

CHOMP!

A sharp pain shot up from his hand!

[-5]!

"Hiss... You!"

’Biting the hand that feeds you!’

’What’s going on?!’

’I didn’t lose much health, but damn, that hurt!’

Lin Fan’s first instinct was to yank his hand back, but his muscles instantly tensed, freezing the reflex.

’With my current strength,’ he thought, ’a sudden jerk like that would probably snap her neck.’

He fought the reflex and, like reeling in a fish, slowly pulled his right arm back, dragging his "big catch" out from the crevice.

Her hair, frizzed out as if it had been professionally permed by a lightning bolt, obscured her face. She gave off a faint scorched smell, but looking at her clothes, there was no doubt: it was Ye Qingniao!

Lin Fan wrapped his left arm around her waist and pushed off with his feet. The two of them soared through the air, landing on the roof of a low building nearby.

Though this building was also covered in cracks, it hadn’t collapsed and could still bear their combined weight.

"Let go!"

Lin Fan gripped her shoulder with one hand while trying to slowly extract his other hand from her mouth. But the girl’s jaw was clenched tight, refusing to yield in the slightest. This made it difficult for Lin Fan to pull his right hand free without hurting her...

But she showed no other reaction besides refusing to let go, so he simply held her up like a fish on a line.

By the faint firelight from across the road, he brushed her hair back from her face. Only then did he see a new, black, flame-shaped burn mark on her face.