19. Small Talk on the Battlefield

Small Talk on the Battlefield

As the power gained from so many kills poured into my body, I smiled smugly.

Force Field Creation had not looked impressive at first. In practice, it was an extremely useful ability.

A cubic yard of space where force could be applied seemed small…

until you stretched it into a half-inch-wide cylinder.

Even if Near-Object Manipulation could “only” push a few tons of force through it, that was like using a wrecking ball to hammer in a railroad spike.

“You’re messing with the squad leader, aren’t you?”

The unexpected question from behind did not make me jump. All that proved was that enough people had been appearing and disappearing around me that I had started getting used to it.

Still, the voice sounded as though someone were calling up from the bottom of a very deep cave, carrying a strange echo. Even after all the madness and magic I had experienced, this was new.

“How did I give myself away?” I asked, eyes still on the older man ahead, who was trying to find any clue in the latest pile of monster corpses.

“You were smiling too much,” Chen Jin said with a sigh.

His outline blurred until he almost merged with the fog, then sharpened again.

“Do you have to provoke him? You know he’s trying to keep you safe, right?”

“He certainly believes that, yes.”

The two of us followed behind Zhou Xiaorui.

“He didn’t even ask what my powers are.”

“That doesn’t matter to him. He wants to protect all of us, and you’re just a girl who isn’t even eighteen yet.”

The twenty-something soldier’s tone and posture made his respect for his superior obvious, despite the inhuman qualities of his current form.

“And powers or not, he’s trained for war. Why not let someone with more experience handle things?”

“Monsters won’t let me off because I’m young. And sometimes more experience doesn’t mean better experience.”

That was all I would say on that topic.

“Anyway, what’s his plan? An invisible gun isn’t enough to deal with the tower beside that pet store, and you can’t assassinate a tower.”

“I’m guessing that’s why old Zhao Linshou put you on the team,” Chen Jin said thoughtfully. “What are your powers? Invisible shockwaves? Telekinesis?”

“It’s complicated.”

Mostly because I wanted to keep the full scope of my abilities secret.

“You can think of it as a personal force field that I can extend outward with effort. But most of the time, I’m strong, fast, and I can fly.”

“…You have a Superman-style power set?”

This time, Chen Jin’s voice lost its strange echo. For the first time in our short conversation, I felt his complete attention fix on me.

“That is so much cooler than my shadow thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Stabbing monsters to death before they can see you is cool. But we’re talking classic superhero powers here. How did you get something like that?”

“I was born awesome?” I joked.

Then I dodged the kick he aimed at my shin and giggled.

This Chen Jin was not bad, as soldiers went. The fact that he was only four years or so older than me probably helped, but his friendly attitude did more.

So I decided to give him a little information.

“I think how we choose to fight the monsters matters. It might also have something to do with personality, thoughts, maybe even the circumstances at the time.”

Although Cheng Rui and I could both select powers from a list, the abilities we chose still ended up fitting certain themes. I had not had much long-term planning when I made my first choices, yet every ability fit together so perfectly…

There had to be meaning behind that.

“How did you kill your first monster?”

“Shot it,” Chen Jin answered plainly. “Back then, killing monsters didn’t give us anything. Around my sixth or seventh kill, I started noticing changes.”

“You used a gun, so that makes sense.”

I thought of Xia Xinglan, and of bombs capable of flattening buildings.

“That old hunter with the huge rifle also uses a gun, and he’s probably the strongest person on our team,” Chen Jin objected.

I did not argue. One shot from that weapon had punched clean through my defenses and hurt like hell.

“He’s an old man, and that’s his personal weapon. From the way he talks about that gun, he’d probably marry it if he could.”

The spear I had used earlier had worked decently well. But looking back, I grew faster when I relied only on my body and my powers.

There was also a clear difference in how easy it felt to punch through monsters compared with fighting them using weapons.

“I think the effort we put in matters. Guns usually aren’t personal. They don’t take much effort to use, and the killing force comes from a little bit of explosive powder, not from the user. Stabbing a monster with a knife is better. Punching one in the face is better still.”

“You punched one of those zombies to death?” Chen Jin asked in disbelief, stopping suddenly to stare at me. “You look like you could do it now, but that’s because you have powers, right? How old were you then, fifteen? Sixteen? A student?”

“Seventeen, thank you very much.”

I shot him a look.

“And I didn’t punch it to death. I smashed its head open with an old telescope.”

I hated that thing too.

The telescope, not the zombie.

Actually, using that telescope in astronomy class had always felt stupid. It was bulky, and it had to be adjusted by hand. It was much better as a weapon than as a learning tool. Bashing walking corpses with it was wonderfully satisfying.

“Really?” The soldier chuckled. “That’s when you got your powers?”

“Yes and no. There was also another zombie I beat with a school chair.”

Though was the telescope zombie first, or the chair zombie?

My memories of the first day of the invasion were a little blurry. Probably because of the undead slime infection. I had been very lucky not to die from it or turn into a zombie.

“You have to be messing with me,” Chen Jin protested, though he was smiling.

Even the shadow wrapped around his body faded a little, revealing a freckled face beneath.

“No! That’s how it happened. Ask Chi Li and Cheng Rui if you don’t believe me.”

At that moment, our glorious leader signaled for us to slow down and slipped quietly toward the next intersection.

My Force Sense had already shown me there were no monster patrols there to fight, so I paid little attention to his movements.

“Anyway, the personal effort you invest when dealing with monsters affects your powers somehow. But choice and belief seem important too.”

Cheng Rui had “proved” that magic worked like a game. Chi Li, meanwhile, had stubbornly insisted that magic was magical. As a result, she received vague magical flame powers.

And because deep down, I had accepted Cheng Rui’s explanation and followed his plan, I had been infected by something resembling a game interface.

Well, it had worked out fine. I had no complaints.

What was that called?

Mind over matter?

“I guess after we ran out of bullets, all the sneaking and assassinating made me…” He thought about it, then shrugged. “Better at sneaking and assassinating. I can live with that.”