Strong!

"Hahaha, boss, there's no beasts in here but plenty of people! Hehehe! There's a few pretty little girls here too!" A lanky man with pasty skin and a suit without a tie entered the room. He had a slight hunch back and scoured the room with a lustful gaze. Miu and Shia shivered when this gaze landed on him, whilst Nui subconsciously gripped onto Zhan tighter.

Following the lanky man, another five men entered the building. They looked like a ragtag bunch, but the leader was clearly the burly, 7 and a half foot tall giant who wore only a pair of sweat pants. His upper body muscles were bulging, and from the faint bronze sheen, it was obvious that he was a mutated human with superpowers.

He didn't reprimand his subordinates for their chaotic chatter and laughing, but instead stayed at the side and scoured the crowd, as if searching for his pray.

He finally found Nui, then his eyes narrowed as he saw Zhan.

Right now, Zhan wasn't releasing his aura, or his presence, at all, yet the man was still able to identify him as a threat. He looked away from Nui and made eye contact with Zhan, then pointed and shouted coldly:

"Hand over that girl…and those other two, across to me, then I'll let you leave with your life in tact."

Instead of becoming enraged, Zhan simply patted Nui's head reassuringly and slowly stood back up. He smiled mockingly as he grabbed his spear and walked towards the guy at the front. The other five lackeys all brandished their weapons and became highly alert on seeing Zhan's spear.

They had knives and machetes, but not certified medieval weaponry! Where did he get a spear from anyway?!

The leading massive man narrowed his eyes, then started walking towards Zhan at a casual pace. He smiled with a smile that seemed ordinary to most, but Zhan could see the killing intent in his eyes as clear as day.

"How about we discuss this matter some more? Brother should realise that I'm a superpowered human just like you, we should team up and-

Whoosh!

The man became silent as he only vaguely saw Zhan's body blur towards him.

CHI!

When Zhan reappeared, his spear was jammed into the wrist of the large guy who somehow blocked in time.

'Fast!' They both thought simultaneously.

Zhan didn't stop for a single instant. He twisted the spear as he pulled it out, causing the big guy to roar out in pain; he was finally, truly enraged.

"I'll kill you!" He yelled at Zhan, then raised his arm into the air and swung down with his full force. Everyone watching was terrified, they could feel a monstrous level of power hidden in this punch. Nui and Shia were also anxious…could Zhan match up to another superpowered human?

Only Miu remained calm and looked at the big guy coldly.

"Don't worry, there's nobody on the face of this planet capable of besting Zhan in one on one combat, he won't lose."

"How can you be so sure?" Shia's gaze sharpened and she frowned slightly.

"Just watch." Miu said with a knowing smile.

When Zhan had the thought that this large guy was fast…he only meant relative to his stature. Compared to Zhan, he was more than a full level slower.

As the punch came down, Zhan stepped back slightly, then twisted his body and struck forwards. His spear curved upward mysteriously, stabbing into the man's throat and stopping him dead in his tracks.

'Tough flesh…' Zhan thought. A normal human would have their head blown off from that strike. Hmm…he could still do that.

Zhan quickly twisted his body whilst tightening his grip around the spear. He added a second hand to the spear handle, turning it 270 degrees and slashing to the left as he tore it out.

PEH!

A grotesque sound echoed and chunks of flesh and blood sprayed out everywhere. The man's eyes wore a startled expression and began to lose their light, but Zhan noted that the wound around his neck was already beginning to heal. He quickly used his anticlockwise momentum to turn around and back towards his opponent.

CLANG!

Cutting through his neck was like cutting a steel bar. The spear blade was slightly dulled, but in the end, the burly man's head was cut clean off. As it fell to the ground, Zhan expertly stabbed out once more, piercing through the bloody hole below the head, and creating a 'head on a pike'.

He paused for a moment and used the shocking scene he had just created to examine the surrounding opponents. A faint smile crept onto his lips.

"Gah!" The lanky man from before was mauled by two wolves that had secretly snuck in, They bit into his throat and were about to tear it out, but they were a step too slow.

Swish!

The wolves and lanky man were killed by Zhan's single spear strike, then he used the man's corpse as a stepping stone to jump into the air, before slamming down into the skull of his next terrified victim.

Like this, he quickly killed all 6 human intruders, as well as those two beastial wolves.

He had two reasons for killing all 6 of them, even when the wolves would have taken care of the first couple of guys for him. Firstly, after killing the burly man, Zhan realised that he also gained life-points from killing humans! It was around half of what he would earn compared to killing beasts at the same level, but whatever. He supposed that the system was trying to discourage indiscriminate killing of his own species.

Secondly, he wanted to create an impact. By now, there were over 70 people crammed into the reception, out of the total of…actually, he wasn't sure how many residents lived in this building, but most were probably at work right now, or dead already.

By killing all 6 men without hesitation and in such a brutal manner, they had certainly engraved his image as a terrifying demon not to be crossed in their minds. Maybe they wouldn't give Shia so much grief now.

Zhan glanced at his status panel as he returned to the sofa to rest and pondered.

-

Race: Human (Civilian)

Strength: 5.0

Defence: 4.2

Agility: 5.7

Stamina: 5.8

Vitality: 7.5

Perception: 3.2

Intelligence: 2.0

Will: 5.1

Life-points: 1.4

-

The big guy, the five lackeys and two wolves combined, added up to 0.6 life-points. They were all fairly week in his opinion, so this was a decent hall. Zhan glanced back towards the reception door, then after some thought, he yelled out that someone needed to close all but one of the doors. Shia quickly arranged this for him, but he stopped her from going herself.

'0.2 agility.'

'0.2 defence.'

'0.2 perception.'

He felt his mind tremble once again, but managed to sit back down on the previously white, but now blood stained sofa, before he could fall down. He faked a healthy and composed posture, but was secretly keeping a look out for anymore threats.

Every time that Zhan improved his stats was dangerous, but he had no other choice. If there were no beasts directly in front of him, he needed to take the opportunity to improve.

Miu quickly worked on redoing his broken stitches, but she sighed in relief on finding that she only needed to redo three of them, the others had healed enough to hold the wound together with scar tissue.

Somehow, it was only now that Nui noticed the scars plastering the entirety of his body. She couldn't look away, only staring with a blank mind at the painful art-piece that was Zhan's skin.

Some of the scars were large, deep and obvious. Others were shallow and only noticeable up close. Many were new wounds that he obtained today, or since the beginning of the first wave until now.

Zhan noted her shock, but just sighed and didn't say anything. If she wanted to look, then she could. She was bound to discover his mutilated body someday anyway. Hopefully she wouldn't think he was some sort of freak or something now.

"Huh?"

Suddenly hugging him was not the reaction he expected….

"I won't ask, but it must have hurt right? And all the wounds you keep getting whenever you fight, doesn't it hurt? And killing people, that, that can't be easy, Zhan…" Nui mumbled as she forced herself to hold back her tears.

"It's fine, Nui. Pain is temporary, but death isn't. These scars only remind me that I was lucky enough to survive, time and time again."

"Ah, I feel a bit…"

Zhan was startled as Miu was walking towards him, but then suddenly collapsed face forwards whilst her eyes rolled back! She landed in Zhan's arms, causing him to frown deeply. Ignoring everything else, he easily picked Miu up and then held her in his arms as he sat down.

"Shia, keep organising everything and have people scout the area," Zhan called out as he saw Shia nervously approaching. She hesitated, but then simply nodded and turned back away.

"Miu, Miu, what's wrong, are you okay? Miu!" Nui anxiously shook her sister lightly.

"I think this is…the awakening, right?" Zhan muttered with gleaming eyes.

BANG!

He glanced up as three similar, but slightly larger rats entered the building. After giving a brief nod to Shia, Zhan continued to sit whilst holding Miu and observing her situation.

Shia quickly organised everyone and soon enough, they had 12 volunteers who were willing to step forwards and battle. The other armed people stayed back and defended the rear of the reception along with the unarmed women and children. Not all of the women and children were unarmed, around half took up weapons, but many of them chose to hide behind their parents, husbands or other loved ones.

Zhan didn't care about any of this. He kept an eye on Shia to make sure she was safe, then watched as Miu's body began glowing with a bright golden light. Ten seconds later, this light faded away and Miu opened her eyes. She saw Zhan first, but didn't have time to think about it as the sound of battle exploded in her ears.

"Ah!" She cried out in alarm.

"Shia's handling it, how do you feel Miu?" Zhan asked, turning her attention back towards him. Her previously brown eyes had now turned a faint golden in colour. As she stared at Zhan, her eyes began to glow slightly and she subconsciously gasped.

"Strong!" She couldn't help but cry out.

"Huh?" Zhan blinked.

Sure, he was strong in a sense, but why blurt it out like that?