Chapter 22: Kill Them All

"Let's leave it at that for now. We should go and check on the survivors; they ought to be up ahead."

Walking to the end of the warehouse, they were blocked by a massive iron door.

"It's unlocked!"

Liu Yu stepped forward and pushed the door open with a gentle shove.

"Who goes there?"

A thunderous roar echoed through the space.

As Lin Yu and his group stepped inside, they found themselves being stared down by a crowd. Lin Yu frowned. There were over a hundred people in the room. About twenty men sat on sofas, puffing on cigarettes, most of them brandishing weapons. The other seventy or eighty people were women—all of them quite attractive—huddled in the corner, barely covered by tattered rags.

Seeing Lin Yu's group suddenly burst in, the twenty men on the sofas jumped to their feet, glaring at them intently.

"How did you get in here?"

The leader narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint flickering within them.

"We walked in through the back door."

"Impossible. The back door was reinforced; no one could have gotten in that way!"

The man looked skeptical. Their boss had reinforced the back door with his special ability, making it difficult even for a Level 5 Evolver to shake.

"Did you think we'd been hiding in here the whole time?" Lin Yu looked at him with a faint, mocking smile.

"I don't care why you're here. I'm giving you two choices now."

"First, hand over those three women, and I'll spare your lives—I might even let you join us."

"Second, I kill you, and keep the women anyway."

A lecherous look crossed the man's face; the three women standing before him were even more beautiful than the ones their boss kept.

"I choose the third option!"

"Haha, good for you, you're a smart—wait, what did you say?"

The leader paused, then flew into a rage. "You little brat, are you playing with me?"

"Congratulations, you guessed right. Too bad there's no prize."

"Sharp-tongued, aren't you? It seems you won't shed tears until you see your own coffin."

The man barked at his subordinates, "Keep the women, break the men's limbs!"

Four thugs immediately surrounded them, wielding steel pipes and fire axes.

"Kid, you must be tired of living to be this blind on our turf."

As he spoke, they swung their weapons toward Lin Yu's legs.

"Sand Thorns!"

Yang Shanshan moved first. Guided by her innate ability, four bowl-thick vines made entirely of sand erupted through the concrete floor, piercing straight through the four men and impaling them.

Seeing those women in the corner, barely clothed and tortured to the point of looking like hollow shells, her fury had surged. Seeing the men attack Lin Yu was the breaking point; she struck instantly, killing all four of them. The sand dissipated, and the four corpses hit the ground with a heavy thud.

"An Awakened talent!"

The leader shrieked, jumping off the sofa with a look of terror. He knew all too well how terrifying an Awakened could be.

"Everyone, it's a misunderstanding! A total misunderstanding!"

His face instantly contorted into a fawning smile. "My lords, our boss is out hunting zombies with his men—he'll be back soon. Our bosses are also Awakened talents. Why be enemies when we could be friends? Perhaps we could even build a great empire together." The man bowed to Lin Yu, his face wreathed in sycophantic smiles.

"Shanshan, your ability allows you to control earth elements to form sand thorns. Why don't you try to feel and contemplate more, attempting to turn the earth into sand to create skills like a quicksand swamp?" Lin Yu ignored the man, choosing instead to give Yang Shanshan a lesson.

"Okay, I'll try!"

Yang Shanshan was delighted. Sand Thorns had been an instinctual move she possessed when she first awakened. But since there was no sand in the earth, where were her thorns coming from? It dawned on her that her true talent was the ability to transmute earth elements into sand. Sand Thorns was merely a ready-made attack form of that transmutation.

"It's not working yet. When I use Sand Thorns, the sand forms naturally to create the attack," she said after a failed attempt, finding the process difficult.

"Don't rush. I'll tell you the method. Practice in your spare time and focus on the sensation when you use your talent. Feel the process of sand formation. Once you capture the essence of elemental conversion, you'll be able to develop many more attack techniques."

Lin Yu turned to Chen Jing'er and the others. "The same goes for all of you. You must feel and study your powers to fully uncover your potential."

The group nodded, lost in thought.

On the other side, the leader, feeling ignored, finally lost his cool. His face turned grim. "What is the meaning of this? Don't think you're the only ones with Awakened talents—we have them too!"

"Oh? Where are they? Call them out, let me see!"

"You..."

The man choked on his words, his face flushing red. The leaders who had awakened their talents were all out killing zombies; they were merely the underlings left behind to guard the supplies.

"Heh, kill them all."

Lin Yu’s lighthearted words sent a chill through everyone present.

Lin Yu frowned. "What? Can't bring yourselves to do it?"

"Boss, they are..." Liu Yu started.

He was cut off by Lin Yu: "If you can't do it, don't call me boss!"

"They deserve to die!"

Yang Shanshan waved her right hand, and dozens of sand thorns erupted from the ground, piercing toward the men. Lin Yu looked at her with surprise; she was more decisive than Liu Yu now—very good.

Chen Jing'er acted as well. She snatched a steel pipe and thrust it through a man's throat, blood spurting out. Lin Yu winced; this woman was actually quite violent!

"Kill!"

Seeing both women move, Liu Yu gritted his teeth and manifested wind blades, charging at the men. In less than two minutes, the floor was littered with corpses.

Looking at the bloody scene, everyone except Lin Yu felt somewhat uncomfortable. Although killing zombies was far more gruesome, these were, after all, living human beings. This was their first time killing people.

"Ah! I'll kill you!"

Suddenly, a dozen people rushed out from the pile of women in the corner. They grabbed various weapons from the ground and began to beat the dead bodies savagely. Those who couldn't reach a weapon used their teeth, tearing the ears off the corpses in a frenzied release of rage.

"Let's go. Let's check the second floor."

Lin Yu stepped forward, leading the way up the stairs. The second floor was mostly daily necessities. After scavenging what they needed, they found several more women on the third floor. These women were all beautiful, yet their eyes were vacant and dead from the torture they had endured.

"These animals!" Yang Shanshan cursed.

The others said nothing, but their faces were dark and grim.