Volume One: The Apocalypse Descends Chapter 28: The Third Day of the Apocalypse, Advancing to Tier One

Watching his sister flee in a panic to hide in the bathroom, Xiang Chenguang let out a triumphant laugh.

He Wan asked from the kitchen, "What are you laughing about so happily?"

Xiang Chenguang replied, "It's nothing, I just figured out something that has been bothering me for years."

The next morning, Xiang Chenguang went out early as usual. He patrolled all the stairwells in the residential complex and rooted out two giant centipedes and a spider monster.

A significant number of monsters had died within their complex over the past two days. To keep the area accessible and avoid polluting the environment, Xiang Dongliang had piled their carcasses on the sides of several buildings. Coupled with the fact that these monster corpses desiccated rapidly, they didn't look as visually shocking as the insect remains scattered across the streets outside. Consequently, some monsters that spawned in the complex would wander off, while others prowled the grounds in search of prey.

By now, Xiang Chenguang's constitution attribute had reached 15 points, and this level of activity was no longer enough to serve as a proper workout. He opened the iron gate leading to the rooftop of Unit 2, Building 3, and stepped out.

Nature’s self-repairing power was truly formidable. With human activity suspended for just two days, the somewhat murky air of their county town had become incredibly fresh. He took a deep breath, feeling invigorated.

He crouched down and leaped with all his might. Holding a nearly 15-kilogram steel rod, his vertical jump was estimated to exceed three meters. Relying on his powerful physical coordination, he landed lightly, making almost no sound. Looking at the distance to Building 2, which was less than ten meters away, he felt he could easily jump across with a short sprint.

Beyond testing his physical capabilities, he was checking the rooftops of the other seven buildings for hidden insect monsters. However, his actions caught the attention of a giant dragonfly, which took flight from the top of a high-rise at the eastern end of Fuqian Street—the tallest building in the vicinity—and dove toward him.

Facing the rapidly descending dragonfly, Xiang Chenguang stood still, holding his rod with one hand. Just as the creature’s jointed limbs, covered in fine barbs, opened to grab his head, he suddenly thrust the rod upward in a diagonal strike, shattering its head in one blow.

Xiang Chenguang's keen vision clearly captured the moment the dragonfly’s round head exploded like a watermelon hit by a heavy mallet. Under the immense force of the steel rod, the debris of the insect's head sprayed upward into the air.

The result was that the dragonfly's head seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving only its headless carcass to fall limply onto the roof.

Xiang Chenguang opened his "Apocalypse Survival System" character panel. After killing this giant dragonfly, his rank had updated to Rank 0, Level 9 (425/500). He was certain he would reach level ten today. Intuition told him that something new would happen after level ten, and he was quite looking forward to it.

For now, however, he had to focus on his workout.

Over the past two years, urged on by the "Anti-Routine System," he had developed a habit of exercising; he felt physically uncomfortable if he didn't have a vigorous workout every day. Since the apocalypse began, the system no longer assigned him fitness tasks, so he had to devise his own training regimen.

Since the apocalypse, his primary weapon had been the rod. It allowed him to leverage his immense strength while keeping a distance from the monsters, avoiding close contact with those disgusting insects. In truth, he hadn't mastered any specific techniques; he relied entirely on raw power and physical control. Now, he intended to combine his physical training with practicing the use of the rod.

He had once read a martial arts novel where the protagonist became the fastest blade in the world by practicing 1,000 swings a day. Not knowing any other training techniques, he decided to practice the two most common moves for a rod: thrusting and sweeping.

Soon, the rooftop of Building 3 rang with the violent sound of air being sliced and the rhythm of long, steady breaths.

When Xiang Chenguang went downstairs for breakfast, he was drenched in sweat. As Xiang Xiaoxiao opened the door, she caught sight of the muscular contours of his chest and abdomen pressed against his sweat-soaked tank top, along with droplets of sweat slowly rolling down the defined muscles of his arms. She froze for a moment, feeling her throat go dry, and instinctively swallowed.

Meeting the faint, inexplicable smile in Xiang Chenguang’s eyes, Xiang Xiaoxiao struggled to suppress the urge to turn and run. She wrinkled her nose deliberately and said, "You smell terrible. Go wash up."

Watching Xiang Xiaoxiao turn away, he noticed that not only were her ears glowing red, but her neck was also a flush pink. The smile in his eyes spread across his face.

After breakfast, He Wan and Xiang Xiaoxiao began packing items at home. It was highly likely they wouldn't return once they left the city, so there was plenty to gather. Xiang Dongliang went door-to-door to notify their neighbors of the relocation plan, trying to mobilize them to head toward the militia training camp outside the city together.

Xiang Chenguang, meanwhile, wanted to see what would happen once his psionic energy reached 500 points, and he also intended to scout the route out of the city.

Stepping outside the complex, he found that five more monster mites had appeared on Fuqian Street overnight. He slammed the triangular rod against the ground, and after the dull metallic clang, the five mites swarmed toward him. Without even moving his feet, Xiang Chenguang thrust the rod five times in rapid succession, driving all five mites' heads into their abdomens.

Excellent. Three more mites and he would level up.

With a sense of pleasure and anticipation, he reached the eastern street corner. Looking left and right, he saw that, much like Fuqian Street, Jianxin Avenue was occupied only by wandering monster mites, with no sign of other monsters.

Ignoring the mites on the right, he turned and headed toward the Lihe Bridge. With the sound of his deliberately heavy footsteps, the mites on the street rushed at him like moths to a flame, only to be effortlessly skewered by his rod.

He walked onto the Lihe Bridge as if strolling through a garden, leaving behind the bodies of six fresh monster mites, their heads obliterated. He leaned against the bridge railing and looked down, hoping to see another giant black scorpion, but he saw nothing but the clearer river water. Such monsters at the peak of Rank 0 seemed rare; he had only encountered two so far.

He wasn't disappointed. He opened his character panel, where the character rank was flickering with a pale yellow light, displaying the value: Rank 0, Level 9 (535/500).

Mentally confirming the level-up, the information changed to: Rank 1, Level 0 (35/1000).

His rank had advanced from zero to one. The psionic energy required for future levels had increased significantly, but otherwise, nothing else seemed to have changed.

Wait, is that it?

Looking closer, Xiang Chenguang discovered that in addition to an extra unassigned attribute point, a new entry had appeared beneath the free attribute points, glowing in a striking gold color.