"Wait... but let’s divide it first..." Ji Ming stopped her and took out a huge amount of crystals from his space, and suddenly the floor was filled with the crystal cores.
"I didn’t manage to sort them out, so let’s just divide them now. It was the loot from the last day. You were all busy killing the zombies, so I collected them all."
Liora blinked in surprise when Ji Ming poured out the crystals on the ground, letting them scatter and gleam under the soft morning light. The floor sparkled faintly with the colors and a large number of pure whites, along with a few dull greyish ones that still hadn’t revealed their affinity.
Her first thought was simple: he really is thoughtful.
She had been so caught up in the endless waves of zombies the day before that she didn’t even have ti to store others’ crystals properly. There were just too many. She only managed to collect the crystals from the ones she directly killed herself, and that wasn’t even a quarter of what they had fought through. If Ji Ming hadn’t gathered the rest, they would’ve been lost forever.
Looking at him now, kneeling among the glowing stones with his usual lazy grin, she felt a strange warmth in her chest.
Everyone else had gathered around too, eyes wide and faces lighting up as they took in the sight of the massive pile.
"There’s so many..." Zhou Yinuo whispered.
"They’re beautiful," Yan Lin added, her fingers already brushing over a few pale blue ones.
Even Liang Zihan, who still looked a little dazed from his recent awakening, leaned in closer. "We’re rich," he muttered half-jokingly. "We survived hell and ca out rich."
They all laughed.
It didn’t last long, though. They quickly got serious and began sorting the crystals by color and size.
After a while, Ji Ming and Zhao Ren stood up with the final counts.
"Total is one thousand three hundred forty-five low-grade crystals of all affinities," Ji Ming announced. "And five hundred eighty-nine interdiate ones."
The numbers made everyone pause for a second. It was more than they expected. Way more.
Ji Ming smiled and crossed his arms. "Let’s just divide them equally. Everyone worked hard."
But Chen Wei shook his head.
"I didn’t kill much," he said simply. "Neither did my friends, not compared to you guys. You all—" he looked at Zhao Ren, Shen Haoran and their group "—you were on the front lines the whole ti."
Liang Zihan scratched his cheek. "I didn’t do much either. I barely rember anything except running around and screaming."
Even though they joked, their words were honest. But Ji Ming just rolled his eyes.
"Co on," he said. "This is survival. Not a competition. We lived. That’s enough reason to share."
Zhao Ren nodded. "He’s right. We weren’t keeping score, and it would be a waste to take the crystal that we can’t use to level up."
In the end, they packed all the crystals up together, splitting the lower and interdiate ones by count and affinity — everyone taking those aligned with their powers.
The few dull greyish crystals were left untouched for now. No one knew what they were exactly. Maybe they needed to be held by soone with the right affinity to unlock.
And then there were the pure white crystals — plain, glowing softly, not tied to any elent. Everyone could absorb them, but the energy was weak and slow to build. Still, it was better than nothing.
They didn’t argue over them. Each person took a few, just in case. Even Chen Wei.
When it was done, Liora stood up, stretched her arms over her head, and glanced toward the front door.
"Alright. Rest ti’s over," she said. "Let’s get out of here."
But before she stepped outside, she glanced back one more ti at Ji Ming and gave him a brief nod, not a single word, just a small gesture to thank him.
He saw it. And grinned.
After checking their bags one last ti and making sure nothing was left behind, the group finally stepped out of their room. It was ti to leave this villa and continue toward their next destination.
Liora adjusted the straps of the small child she carried on her back. He still hadn’t woken up. Strangely, his breathing was steady and his body showed no signs of injury or infection. He was fine. Completely fine. And yet, his eyes remained shut.
She had checked multiple tis, called to him, even lightly shook him — but there was no response. Just that silent sleep, too quiet for comfort. But they couldn’t wait forever. So she carried him herself.
They headed toward the main entrance. The silence of the place pressed around them like heavy dust. It was a good thing they had sealed the doors and windows last ti — if they hadn’t, this entire place would have been crawling with mutated insects by now. But that didn’t an things were peaceful.
Even with their precautions, the conditions inside the villa were far from ideal. The place had been abandoned for who knows how long. The mont they stepped out into the corridor, they could already see movent. Insects.
Parasites. Creeping out from cracks in the walls, slithering between wooden floorboards, sticking to the moldy ceiling. But most of them were at very low level. If her guess was right, maybe at level zero. Because the stronger ones were already outside making chaos.
Without hesitation, everyone jumped into action.
Zhou Yinuo and Liang Zihan, excited to test out their awakened powers, imdiately joined the fight. Zhou Yinuo moved quickly, using her wind ability to send blades of air slicing through the mutated bugs. The wind danced around her fingertips, sharp and quick, slashing through insect shells like paper.
It did not take much effort from her because all these mutated insects were still too weak and still mutating. Or maybe not all of them got successfully mutated, because there is never one hundred percent in anything.
Beside her, Liang Zihan crouched down and slamd his hand on the ground. Stones and broken tiles rose in front of him like a small shield, then launched forward with force, crushing the crawling pests that sward toward them. His face was glowing with excitent as he realized just how powerful his earth manipulation could be.
anwhile, Liora didn’t use any power.
She held her sword firmly and swung it cleanly through the air, cutting through insect legs and heads without pause. Her movents were precise, focused, and brutal. She didn’t need an ability to show her strength.
The others who didn’t have offensive powers also joined the fight with their weapons — blades, rods, and even tal pipes — striking down every mutated insect that dared to co close. There was no ti to hesitate. Every corner had sothing slithering or crawling.
And then, Liora saw a real mutated thing that looked very strong and deadly.
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