Chapter 4: Battling Giant Wasps
Strength - The amount of force that the body could produce. Related to muscular strength, bone strength and tendon strength.
Defence - The resilience of the body against physical strain. This stat encompassed the defence of all parts of the body.
Agility - One of the most varied stats. Encompassed maximum movement speed, flexibility, reflexes, and acceleration. Increasing this stat would place more strain on some parts of the body, requiring a better defence to balance this enhancement.
Stamina - Physical and mental endurance. Increasing other stats by a significant margin would actually end up decreasing the effectiveness of the stamina, as a more powerful body would require more energy to sustain.
Vitality - The body's recovery ability. Included recovery from physical injury, disease and other such things. After he battled the three headed wolf, the system acted on its own to specifically increase Zhan's body's ability to rapidly scar over flesh wounds and to heal broken bones, so his abilities in this regard were now disproportionately high.
Perception - The five senses, as well as the sixth sense, which was something like 'premonition' or 'foreboding'. It was his oddly high sixth sense that allowed Zhan to become aware of the danger before the three headed wolf even arrived.
Will - Essentially, will power. A more vague stat, but it supposedly allowed one to draw out more strength and ability from their body than they would otherwise be capable of. A powerful will was useful, but it could also result in overexertion and self injury if it was increased unnaturally via the system.
In the end, Zhan actually put the points into strength. It might seem like a basic idea, but that three headed wolf was strong enough to push Zhan back. His strength had never been a problem against the human opponents he faced over the past few years, but if an even stronger creature showed up…he might be in trouble.
After adding in the life-points to the strength stat, Zhan's body glowed with a faint white light, not that anyone noticed it. Zhan felt like he was filled with an extreme power, his breathing became rough for a second as he adjusted to this feeling. Shia turned to him in surprise…she suddenly felt like Zhan had become even more imposing.
It was only a 0.3 point difference, but this change wasn't linear. He was now much stronger compared to before and he could clearly feel it.
His muscles were itching…he badly wanted to jump out and begin fighting in order to test himself!
Besides Zhan stood the apartment complex security guards, a few other staff members, and Shia. Most of the apartment staff had retreated back and were dealing with the residents rather than staying here though. Even the security guards were only able to muster up the courage to remain here due to Zhan's strong lead.
Bzz…
A faint buzzing sound echoed through the streets outside. It was faint at first and people didn't think much of it, but soon enough the buzzing escalated and screams followed shortly after.
BZZ…Bang!
Zhan's eyes narrowed as a dull figure entered the reception. He vaguely saw the man besides him tremble out of the corner of his eye, but Zhan wasn't focussed on that right now. His field of vision quickly narrowed and his eyes landed on the source of the man's fear.
It was a wasp…a 1-2 feet long wasp. Perhaps a single wasp wouldn't be so worrying, but there was more than a single wasp.
Bzz…Bang! BZZ…BANG! BZZ…
Wasps swarmed into the reception area one by one, then two at a time, then…
Chi! Chi! Chi!
Zhan leapt forwards and stabbed the first wasp that was now flying into the walls blindly. His spear pierced through its body with some resistance and he quickly deduced how hard he needed to stab in order to kill the others. Green fluid exploded out from its body as he pulled the spear out, but he didn't let this slow him down and quickly stabbed at another two wasps.
Chi! Chi!
As the other wasps seemed to notice their fallen comrades, the ever growing swarm turned towards Zhan and chaotically rushed towards him. There were now multiple wasps in the reception, and it looked like more were coming.
When Zhan jumped forwards towards the doors, he got a glance of the streets outside.
Now, Zhan wasn't easily frightened, in fact, he had quite the craving for risk, danger and excitement. However, seeing hundreds if not thousands of these giant wasps absolutely swarming through the city streets made his blood run cold and he couldn't help but back up and start sweating.
Seeing these huge wasps, some of the staff couldn't handle the pressure and fled backwards into the stairwell and lifts. Others felt their knees tremble and collapsed in fear. One man even wet himself.
Still, not everyone was so easily broken under pressure. One of the burly men besides Shia grit his teeth and rushed forwards with his hastily crafted weapon. A butcher's knife was tied onto a pole, it was a bit odd looking, but it was surprisingly sturdy. The man let out a wild roar and then stabbed out at a lone wasp.
Zhan made it look so easy that the man felt surprised when he only stabbed half way through its abdomen. After pulling the weapon out, the wasp dropped to the floor and convulsed desperately in its death throes for a while. The man looked up and his expression changed as a wasp was now upon him. He hastily swiped out, but missed his target.
The wasp was now right in his face. He could see its beady black emotionless eyes as the five inch long stinger was raised and pointed towards him. The cloud of death loomed over his head…
CHI!
"Keep your guard up!" Zhan yelled out at the man without looking at him. He managed to kill that wasp just in time to save the man, but he couldn't waste his time protecting this person continually.
"Thank you landlord!"
'Damnit Shia, I told you not to tell anyone that I'm the landlord…they'd better not try to bring their work problems to me…' Zhan thought uselessly.
He jumped back and assessed the situation. More wasps were swarming in, but they were getting stuck at the door as many of the wasps stopped around the entrance. This blockade of wasps was a bit scary to look at, but it was actually quite useful as it prevented too many from flooding in all at once.
Whilst those wasps were stuck at the building entrance, Zhan suddenly swung his spear across horizontally.
Ching!
He cut a wasp in half at the head, sending its matte black pincers rolling across the floor.
Whoosh!
He was forced to duck as another wasp was already upon him. Acting on instinct, Zhan dropped to his stomach, rolled over to his back and then stabbed upwards.
Chi!
Another one dead. After twisting his head to the side to avoid the falling carcass, Zhan quickly stood up and checked his life-points.
"Tch."
After killing all of these wasps, he only gained a measly 0.1 life-points!
"So inefficient! System, give me more points damnit!" Zhan complained out loud.
-The system units do not decide the quantity of life-points distributed to the host. The number of life-points obtained via each kill is a result of the energy absorbed and converted from the target.-
"Yeah, whatever." Zhan grumbled.
Everyone who heard Zhan talking to himself looked at him in confusion through their fear, but Zhan couldn't care less about what others thought.
He placed the tenth of a life-point into agility, since these wasps were fast and he needed every scrap of speed he could muster right now.
"Ahhhh!" Zhan glanced across and saw that unfortunately, the burly man he saved earlier had been stung.
No, 'stung' wasn't quite the appropriate word…he was stabbed through the eye. The stinger was long enough that it could reach his brain, but that wasn't all. What was truly frightening was that the man's head quickly turned purple! He dropped to the floor, clearly dead.
His death was like a wake up call to the surrounding staff. Many people who had been lingering in the area uncertainly, now retreated decisively without caring about anything else.
Even as Zhan fought on the front lines, the wasps continued to enter and the growing swarm gradually gained ground, making its way towards the back of the reception hall. Soon, the insects and people would meet.
"No, I can't stay here!"
"W-we'll die if we stay here!"
"We need to run, let's get upstairs quickly!"
…
Shouts of agreement resounded. Shia tried to stop everyone from rushing and pushing, but her voice landed on dull ears. She suddenly span around as she felt a hand touch her shoulder.
"Z-Zhan! I-" She tried to continue, but he interrupted her.
"We need to go too, I can't fight off this entire swarm." Zhan stated calmly. He was now far back from the wasps, and although they continued to approach, he wasn't too concerned. The wasps' sense of sight seemed to be quite bad, giving them plenty of time to retreat whilst considering their options.
"Right, but where to?" Shia quickly agreed. She looked around and saw that aside from Zhan, only two other people even attempted to fight, and one of them had already died miserably. She felt some grief towards the security guard's death…she didn't know him well personally, but he was a good employee.
Zhan glanced back and sighed as he saw that everyone was trying to climb up the nearest stair set, pushing and shoving their way through without a single care for those around him.
Once he confirmed that Nui had left and was not in the area, Zhan was ready to leave.
"Follow me."
He ran backwards whilst keeping watch over the wasp swarm. Now that tens of wasps filled the lobby, even though their sight was bad and they struggled to find their targets, they moved forwards steadily like a tidal wave of death.
Shia and Zhan ran past the first stair case and entered the dining room. Seeing that they were heading out of the dining hall and into the gym, Shia frowned in confusion, unsure where Zhan was taking her.
'Was there a stair set down here?' She wondered, uncertain about how Zhan planned to escape from the ground floor.
Zhan ran through the dining area, into the communal gym, then stopped abruptly.
"Alright, here will do."
"Huh?" Shia turned to him with a look of bewilderment.
"Just get back and hide in the gym, I'll handle things from here." Zhan laughed, patting Shia's shoulder as he licked his lips and turned to face the doorway.
"Wait, what do you mean- Ah! No, why would you do this instead of going upstairs?!" She cried out.
Shia realised his intention now. The door between the dining hall and gymnasium was only a small, single door. There was only a single door leading from the dining room directly into the gym. She watched as Zhan quickly locked all the other heavy fire doors leading into this room from other directions…understanding his plan now, she felt a sense of dread fill her stomach.
Zhan fully intended to fight the horde of wasps here! He could stand in the doorway and just stab forwards at them, one by one. If they could only attack him via this one direction, this one doorway at the end of a narrow corridor, he was confident that he could hold out for as long as needed.
At least, he could last throughout the one day long first wave of the great cataclysm.
Shia slowly walked backwards as the sound of buzzing filled her ears. Her eyes contained a hint of fear as the corridor ahead echoed with buzzing sounds. She could also hear this buzzing from the adjacent rooms, but the doors were heavy and locked, so the wasps were unable to break in.
CHI!
Zhan stabbed at the first wasp and killed it with ease. His sharp spear was like a flash, in and out of the wasp's carapaced body.
CHI CHI!
Two more dropped to the floor. He had somewhat guessed this already, but Zhan could now confirm it…the dead bodies attracted more wasps towards him. Their speed was faster and he could almost feel their anger.
CHI CHI CHI CHI!
Four wasps were killed in just two seconds, green blood splashed around the doorway, giving rise to a sickly smell. Shia watched on dumbly, hardly able to believe that what she was seeing right now was reality. Her gaze drifted towards Zhan's face, and she confirmed her earlier suspicion…
"He really is smiling…" Shia muttered quietly.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone