Chapter 57: Awakening

Li Huiyu hurriedly grabbed a piece of rope and tied Seito securely to the bed, which finally allowed Jiang Yi to let out a sigh of relief!

The powerful ability was clashing with the virus raging inside Seito's body, but with his mouth bound, Seito couldn't even let out a single scream of agony. The extreme pain caused the veins across his entire body to bulge violently, his eyes dilated and bursting wide, looking terrifying beyond measure!

Gu Hansue, consumed by worry, tightly gripped her own hands and asked nervously, "Jiang Yi, will Seito be alright like this? What is the actual success rate of consuming a zombie core anyway?"

Standing by the bedside and staring fixedly at the struggling Seito, Jiang Yi replied in a low voice, "Fifty-fifty, I suppose!"

Hearing this, Gu Hansue couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "A fifty percent chance? That's not too bad, not too bad! Seito has a very strong willpower; he should be able to pull through!"

Jiang Yi added flatly, "Either he lives, or he dies!"

Furious, Gu Hansue struck Jiang Yi hard in the small of his back with her fist, making him double over and gasp in cold air! "Are you out of your mind? What time is it, and you're still pausing for dramatic effect!" Tears of frustration were practically welling up in Gu Hansue's eyes.

However, rubbing his aching back, Jiang Yi replied with an indifferent expression, "This is entirely up to Seito himself. If he holds on, he lives; if he can't hold on, he dies!"

Jiang Yi's words sounded utterly merciless, but both Li Huiyu and Gu Hansue knew that in this place, the person suffering the most emotionally was none other than Jiang Yi!

Seito had been injured while trying to save him, and now he was facing the ultimate crossroads of life and death. How could Jiang Yi possibly not be anxious?

Yet, there was truly no alternative; they could only rely on Seito's own endurance to push through!

Seito thrashed wildly. The ropes rubbed his skin raw, and streaks of blood soaked the bedsheets crimson. Night had fallen, yet Seito was still trapped in his agonizing struggle!

With a rigid expression, Jiang Yi asked Li Huiyu, "How many hours has it been?"

Li Huiyu glanced at his phone screen, a flicker of dread flashing across his eyes. "It's already been over five hours..."

He found it unimaginable how Seito had managed to endure five solid hours of extreme, unrelenting torture!

If it were him, he probably wouldn't have lasted even a single hour!

Yet Seito seemed to constantly keep Jiang Yi's warning engraved in his mind... absolutely do not pass out!

"Ah! Hurry, kill them!" Just as the three people on the second floor watched Seito's near-death struggle stretch toward the six-hour mark, leaving their entire bodies stiff and numb, frantic screams drifted up from downstairs...

After a long period of chaotic crashing sounds and heavy objects smashing down, someone suddenly knocked on the door of the room where Jiang Yi and the others were staying. The three of them froze simultaneously. Gu Hansue glanced at Seito, who was still writhing in agony on the bed, and sighed. "I'll get the door!"

When she pulled it open, a female student was standing outside, hesitating and pacing back and forth in the doorway. Gu Hansue was somewhat pleasantly surprised. "Han Ya? You managed to escape too!"

Jiang Yi raised his head and saw that the visitor was indeed the girl who had delivered messages for him back in the gymnasium. Standing on tiptoe, the girl carefully peeked into the room a few times, a look of terror in her eyes. "President, are you guys alright in here? All those people downstairs turned into zombies just now! And they injured two more classmates... Um, they sent me up to ask..."

Gu Hansue sighed inwardly, knowing Han Ya's purpose. Hearing about the events downstairs made her feel deeply distressed as well. "Thank you. Tell Dongfang Tian that Seito is going to be fine!"

"Ah!" Hearing Gu Hansue's words, Han Ya couldn't help but look startled. After all, she had witnessed with her own eyes earlier how the injured classmates had turned into zombies one after another, without a single exception!

When Dongfang Tian sent her up to inquire, her first instinct had been to refuse, especially since there was someone with an injury up here as well. Yet hearing Gu Hansue's affirmative reply felt utterly unbelievable to her. How could this be possible? Infected with the zombie virus for five or six hours, and he hadn't undergone zombie transformation yet?

"Alright then, I'll go tell them!" Seeing that Gu Hansue had no intention of offering further explanation, Han Ya blushed slightly and hurried back downstairs, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Sitting on a stool and watching Gu Hansue walk back into the room, Li Huiyu sneered with mockery, "It seems the character of the legendary President Dongfang leaves something to be desired! Sending a woman to ask questions—how utterly spineless."

Gu Hansue glared at him. "What does that have to do with you? Do you expect everyone to be as selfish as you, living only for yourself?"

Li Huiyu shrugged. He wasn't going to argue with Gu Hansue because there was no point. Just as she couldn't stand him, Li Huiyu equally disliked Gu Hansue's personality...

With a wooden expression, Jiang Yi stared fixedly at Seito, who was still thrashing in constant torment upon the bed!

Seito's sweat had thoroughly soaked through the mattress, and his hands and feet had been bound by Jiang Yi and Gu Hansue earlier during his violent thrashing.

Even so, his frantic struggles had left his limbs covered in bloody lacerations from the friction of the ropes. Jiang Yi's state of mind was on the verge of madness—it had been too long!

The process hadn't taken nearly this long when he himself had done it. Why? Could it be that awakening had different tiers? Or was something else interfering with Seito's awakening?

What Jiang Yi did not know was that awakening via a zombie core carried not only an immense risk of full zombie transformation, but was also tied to numerous other factors! These included an individual's physical fitness, personality, willpower, the severity of their injuries, and even the strength of the ability they were awakening.

When Jiang Yi had been injured, he had consumed the zombie core almost immediately, which could be said to have coincidentally utilized the optimal window for emergency response. In contrast, Seito had suffered his injuries and endured a long delay before finally reaching safety.

Fortunately, Seito's physical constitution was several times stronger than Jiang Yi's had been back then, and having practiced mental meditation since childhood, his willpower was far tougher than Jiang Yi's. That was why he had managed to hold on until now amidst the greatest peril! Of course, the longer one managed to endure, the greater the benefits for Seito once he regained consciousness!

"Ji—Jiang Yi!" Just as the three of them had waited for so long that their expressions had grown somewhat numb, Seito on the bed abruptly stopped struggling. He glanced at Jiang Yi, who had been guarding him by the bedside, and Gu Hansue, standing not far away, and forced out two words through a hoarse, parched throat!

Severe dehydration made those two words sound like a saw cutting across stone! Yet it instantly snapped the three dazed people back to reality!

Jiang Yi stiffened his neck and lowered his head to look at Seito, who was trying his best to smile back at him. Gu Hansue rushed forward in pleasant surprise. "Seito, you're awake? Does this mean he's safe now, Jiang Yi?"

She turned to ask Jiang Yi, who was sitting beside the bed. However, after waiting for a long time, none of them received a reply from Jiang Yi. Puzzled, Gu Hansue gave him a nudge. "What are you doing? Seito is fine now; aren't you even happy? Have you forgotten how to smile?"

Jiang Yi swayed slightly. Hearing Gu Hansue's reprimand, his pale face cracked into a grin directed at Seito, who wasn't looking much better. His blood-stained mouth gave the three of them a fright, and then, rolling his eyes backward, Jiang Yi collapsed straight onto the floor!

"Jiang Yi!" Seito exerted a sudden burst of strength, snapping the ropes binding his hands instantly. Gu Hansue and Li Huiyu hurriedly rushed forward to support Jiang Yi, who had vomited blood and passed out. Feeling a sticky, viscous liquid on her left hand, Gu Hansue lifted it up to take a look and shrieked in horror, "Blood!"

Li Huiyu furrowed his brows and forcefully tore open Jiang Yi's jacket, causing all three of them to gasp in sharp unison! They saw that Jiang Yi's right shoulder was completely swollen and bruised, oozing blood. When Gu Hansue tore away the sleeve, Jiang Yi's entire right arm was swollen to the thickness of a grown person's thigh!

Li Huiyu sucked in a breath of cold air. "How did he get injured like this? The bones in his right shoulder have practically been smashed to pieces by sheer brute force!"

Seito was also someone with a background in martial arts, and he was hardly unfamiliar with such injuries. Gritting his teeth, he said, "It was a blow from a club!"

Slamming his fist heavily against the edge of the bed, Seito was overwhelmed with guilt. Jiang Yi had sustained such severe injuries, yet he had stayed by his side guarding him for nearly the entire night! How on earth was he ever going to repay this debt of camaraderie?

There was no time for explanations. Gu Hansue placed the unconscious Jiang Yi onto the bed Seito had just vacated and hastily cleaned the wounds on Jiang Yi's body!

Fortunately, she still had some medical supplies left in her bag...

Li Huiyu looked disappointed. "Captain Jiang is finished. With injuries this severe, his right arm will never heal properly!"

Just as he had said, the full-force blow delivered to Jiang Yi's shoulder by Li Gang, an enhanced-strength user, had inflicted irreparable and devastating trauma upon him!

Injuries of this magnitude were practically impossible to fully cure, let alone now, even before the apocalypse. Yet Gu Hansue and Seito didn't seem overly worried. Seito raised his head and said, "It won't come to that; there's still a way! As long as Jiang Yi wakes up soon!" With that, looking supremely confident, he clenched his fists tightly, staring at his own hands with an unreadable expression...

This power—it was too mysterious, too profound!

Seito could feel that not only was he entirely free from the threat of zombie transformation, but every single aspect of his physical capabilities had been elevated to an immense new tier! If he were to fight his former self right now, he could easily take on five opponents without losing!

It felt as though certain sword techniques that he had been unable to use previously could now be executed with effortless ease. The current version of himself would surely be able to help Jiang Yi now...

Unconscious, Jiang Yi had no idea that this single action of his had once again deeply moved the already emotional Seito, pushing their trust level in the team system all the way up to 100%!

Once Jiang Yi passed out, he remained asleep for the entire night! During that single night, a great many things happened.

Dongfang Tian and Zhu才俊 (Zhu Caijun) ultimately still felt uneasy, but upon seeing Seito open the door himself, no matter how reluctant they were to believe it, they finally realized that one could indeed use a zombie core to awaken after being infected with the virus!

Upon learning of this, the students on the first floor erupted into an uproar! Some students whose friends had died earlier began to point fingers at Dongfang Tian and the others, cursing them for refusing to use the zombie cores to save lives out of selfish motives! Even the subordinates who had originally sworn allegiance to them began to murmur in private discontent!

Dongfang Tian had a splitting headache. In the end, with extreme reluctance and heartache, he brought out the last two remaining zombie cores and fed them to students who had just been scratched, thereby recovering a fraction of his tarnished reputation...

However, the results were less than stellar. As dawn broke, of the two students who had swallowed the zombie cores, one underwent a complete zombie transformation, nearly injuring people again! The other barely managed to awaken! Unfortunately, the ability he awakened was merely vision enhancement!

For the time being, it could only grant night vision and allow him to see further and clearer than ordinary people.

Dongfang Tian's face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot, especially since the person who awakened belonged to Zhu Caijun's faction, while the one who died had been one of his own original members. Watching Zhu Caijun's smug expression made Dongfang Tian wish he could drive an ice spike straight into the man's face...

"Hiss!" Jiang Yi drew in a sharp, painful breath. He had been awakened by the rich aroma of food wafting through the air. Blinking dazedly at the ceiling for a long time, he finally recalled what had happened! Feeling his right arm, which had been wrapped up like a zongzi once again, he could only offer a bitter smile!