Lin Xuan Yan stared at the strange notification floating before her eyes, her gaze lingering on the words describing her newly acquired skill.
Spatial Manipulation.
She lowered her eyes toward the pale-blue scroll in her hands.
There was something she didn't understand.
How was she supposed to use it?
As though sensing her doubts, another notification appeared.
[To learn the skill recorded within the scroll, simply express your desire to acquire it.}
Lin Xuan Yan paused for a moment before closing her eyes.
Instantly, the scroll in her hands dissolved into countless tiny particles of light, which entered her body.
An enormous amount of unfamiliar information flooded into her consciousness. It was as though someone had suddenly placed an entirely new sets of instincts inside her mind.
A strange symbol appeared deep within her consciousness, resembling a delicate geometric pattern surrounded by countless faint lines.
At the same time, Lin Xuan Yan became aware of something she had never felt before.
Space.
She could faintly sense the space surrounding her, almost as though it were an invisible substance that she could touch and manipulate.
It was an incredible peculiar sensation.
She could even feel the subtle movements of the air around her, although she couldn't yet distinguish how much of it was caused by the skill itself.
[You have learned an external active skill.]
[You can learn 4 more external active skill.]
Lin Xuan Yan opened her eyes.
The notification flickered before disappearing and the scroll was nowhere to be seen.
She studied the message for a few seconds, trying to understand its meaning. Unfortunately, she neither the time nor the opportunity to examine everything carefully.
BANG!
A tremendous impact suddenly shook the wooden door.
Lin Xuan Yan immediately turned her head.
The banging continued without interruption. Accompanied by the low, unpleasant growls coming from the other side, it was obvious that something was trying to force its way inside.
Judging from the strength of the impacts and the increasingly unstable hinges, the door wouldn't hold for much longer.
Her expression became serious.
She needed to prepare.
Without wasting another second, Lin Xuan Yan hurried toward the television and forcefully pulled out its cable.
She tied one end of the long black wire to the bed and secured the other end around one of the desk legs, adjusting its height until it was only a few centimeters above the floor.
After checking the arrangement, she turned toward the enormous bee's corpse.
Using the remaining portion of its sharp stinger, she carefully removed it from the creature's body.
It was an unpleasant task, but she needed a weapon.
BANG!
The wooden door finally gave way.
With a loud crash, it burst open, and two students who had already turn into a zombies staggered into the room.
Their blood-covered faces were grotesque. Several areas of their flesh had been torn away, exposing darkened wounds and patches of damaged skin.
A foul odor spread throughout the room.
Lin Xuan Yan's stomach tightened slightly, but she suppressed her discomfort.
If this had happened only a few minutes earlier, she might have struggled to endure the sight.
However, after witnessing the young woman being bitten and subsequently rising as one of the creatures, she had already begun to understand the cruelty of this new world.
She couldn't afford to lose her composure.
The two zombies slowly approaching her.
Although their eyes are completely white, almost at they were blond, they seemed capable of detecting the presence of living humans. Their movements were clumsy, but their direction was unmistakable.
They were coming for her.
Just as the two zombies advanced, their feet caught on the wire Lin Xuan Yan had carefully set positioned.
Their bodies lurched forward.
THUD! THUD!
Both creatures fell heavily onto the floor.
The bed creaked under the sudden tension, shifting slightly as the wire tightened.
Lin Xuan Yan's eyes flashed.
She immediately rushed forward, gripping the bee's stinger with both hands.
The first zombie was still struggling to get up when she reached it.
Without hesitation, she drove the sharp stinger into its head.
The pointed weapon pierced its skull, crushing its brain and killing it instantly.
Before the second zombie could recover, Lin Xuan Yan turned and struck again.
The stinger penetrated its head.
The creature collapsed without another movement.
Two notifications appeared before her eyes.
[you have acquired Soul Power of Normal Zombie Level 4. You get +4 Stamina.]
[You have acquired Soul Power of Normal Level 3. You get +1 Stamina.]
[You have leveled up to level 2. You get free 2 status points to distribute freely.]
Lin Xuan Yan barely had time to examine the notifications before another pair of growls reached her ears.
Two more zombies staggered through the doorway.
The wire had already fallen toward the floor after the previous struggle, leaving her makeshift trap useless.
However, Lin Xuan Yan didn't panic.
She quickly retreated several steps and concentrated.
She could feel the Mana inside her body.
Following the unfamiliar instructions that had entered her mind when she learned Spatial Manipulation, she began directing that energy toward the space in front of her.
Twenty mana points disappeared.
The air seemed to ripple.
As the two zombies approached the corpses of their fallen companions, Lin Xuan Yan raised her right hand slightly.
A strange distortion appeared around the heads of the two creatures.
The with a subtle movement of her fingers, she compressed the surrounding space.
CRACK!
The invisible pressure struck both zombies simultaneously.
Their heads were crushed by the sudden spatial compression, and their bodies collapsed onto the floor.
Lin Xuan Yan stared at the two motionless creatures.
"…It actually worked."
Her voice was quiet, carrying a trace of surprise.
She had expected the skill to be useful, but she hadn't imagined that it would possess such destructive power.
Unlike an ordinary physical attack, Spatial Manipulation allowed her to attack without directly touching her enemies.
More importantly, she could control the space surrounding her targets.
If she continued developing this ability, its possibility would be extraordinarily.
Two more notifications appeared.
[You have acquired Soul Power of Normal Zombie Level 3. you get +1 Stamina.]
[You have acquired Soul Power of Normal Zombie Level 3.]
Lin Xuan Yan glanced at the second notification.
Something was missing.
The second zombie had not provided any additional attribute points.
She frowned slightly, trying to understand the difference.
After examining the notification again, she gradually formed a hypothesis.
Perhaps, the Soul Power obtained from killing creatures depended not only on their levels but also on the type of creature she killed and how much Soul Power she had already absorbed from similar beings.
In other words, repeatedly killing the same type of creature might provide diminishing benefits.
It was only a guess, but it seemed reasonable.
She would to test it later.
For now, survival was more important.
Lin Xuan Yan glanced at the broken doorway.
The room was no longer safe, and the noise from the fight might have attracted even more zombies.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked down at the bee's stinger still in her hand.
Although Spatial Manipulation was powerful, she couldn't afford to depend entirely on a single skill.
She needed weapons, supplies, and a safer place to stay.
Her gaze briefly returned to the broken window.
The room was on the fifth floor.
Climbing down from there was practically impossible.
With no other choice, she would have to leave through the doorway and find another route out of the building.
Lin Xuan Yan took a deep breath.
Then she walked toward her wardrobe and grabbed a mountain backpack.
She placed two large bottles of purified water inside, along with several snacks she had purchased earlier. Afterward, she collected the television cable she had used for the trap and stored it in her bag.
There was little else worth taking.
Once she had finished gathering her belongings, she adjusted the backpack on her shoulders and approached the doorway.
She glanced at the bloodied hallway beyond it.
"…What a troublesome situation."
Her voice remained soft and composed.
The world outside had become a place where the weak could be devoured at any moment.
And she was still far from being strong enough to survive without caution.
Lin Xuan Yan tightened her grip on the bee's stinger.
Then, carefully watching her surroundings, she stepped out of the room.