Chapter 34: Twin Powers of Light and Dark: Double-A Strength and Speed
"Superman..." The entire room stared, dumbfounded, as Su Jin hauled himself off the floor.
He was covered in dust, but that display of incredible movement looked straight out of a movie.
The sheer hang time, fluidity, and explosive speed were completely inhuman.
Su Jin stood, bent his knees slightly, and sprang upward, tapping the ceiling with effortless grace.
He landed and stood still, lost in thought.
It was impossible not to feel a surge of euphoria at this miraculous change, but he was worried too.
He had just absorbed something from a zombie. He felt fine now, but who knew what might happen later?
But there was no need to voice those worries now.
Sun Ya rushed forward, feeling Su Jin's arms and chest. "Superpowers! You have superpowers! Have you evolved?"
Even the usually quiet Wei De looked visibly electrified.
Days of suffocating tension, compounded by Su Jin's sudden coma, had pushed the team to the breaking point.
Now, this wasn't a disaster—it was a good thing.
Su Jin flexed his fingers, testing the grip strength. "I don't know what happened... but I don't feel unwell at all. I feel stronger."
"As the saying goes, the antidote is never far from the poison. Zombies may be the danger, but they could also be the key to overcoming it."
"It makes perfect sense..." Sun Ya muttered, nodding frantically, too excited to remain calm.
His rational mind had spent days screaming that the collapse of the country meant the existing system could not handle this apocalypse.
A hastily formed band of survivors would have trouble simply surviving.
But now, they had a breakthrough!
An extraordinary crisis might call for an extraordinary answer. Maybe nature was finding a balance.
"There isn't enough room here. I'll try it outside. Wait here." With that, Su Jin turned and headed for the stairs.
As he descended, he kept feeling out the changes in his body.
His agility and speed had absolutely skyrocketed.
A mere twitch of his calf muscles threatened to launch him forward like a coiled spring.
He decided to try it.
Standing at the third-floor stairwell landing, Su Jin pushed off lightly with his right foot, rocketing toward the half-landing below.
Before he landed, he rebounded off the sidewall, twisting mid-air to launch himself directly down to the second floor.
He landed without the slightest discomfort.
It felt as casual as hopping down a few stairs.
Glancing back up the stairwell, Su Jin held back his excitement and continued his descent.
So zombies did have something valuable inside them. The crystals had become fleshy orbs, but the idea was the same.
He paused right before the building entrance on the ground floor.
Rolling his shoulders, he detected another change in his body.
His body felt lighter and more supple.
Leaving the apartment, he had felt a subtle sluggishness, an almost imperceptible drag.
Down here in the lobby, the anti-gravity sensation was returning with a vengeance.
He mentally reviewed the variables. The only shifting environmental factor was the light.
The stairwell was darker than the apartment, and the ground floor was darker still.
Was it the light, or were the changes in his body still unfolding?
There was no point guessing. Su Jin pushed open the door.
The morning sun crested the horizon, bathing the neighborhood in light.
The courtyard was completely exposed to the glaring rays.
Before he even stepped outside, Su Jin's expression changed.
His body suddenly felt as heavy as lead. The lightness was gone.
He took two heavy, plodding steps. He was back to moving like an ordinary person, with no sign he had grown weaker than before.
But the difference from moments before was striking.
Trudging to the center of the courtyard, Su Jin tilted his head back, shielding his eyes to look up at the building.
Several heads poked out of the window, watching him.
"How is it, Director?" Fu Hu hollered down.
The harsh glare forced Su Jin to squint.
His body kept growing heavier, but he could bear it. Nothing else felt wrong.
Suddenly, a terrified shriek tore from the window. Fu Qingdai frantically pointed toward the perimeter bushes.
"Watch out! A cat!"
Su Jin whipped around. A stray cat had already launched itself from the shrubbery, charging at him.
The zombie cat was less than two meters away.
Without time to think, Su Jin kicked.
His leg struck the zombie cat's lower abdomen.
Thud!
The sheer kinetic force ruptured the creature entirely. It spewed a geyser of pus, blood, and fragments of organs from both ends, pinwheeling through the air like a grotesque helicopter blade as it flew away.
A foul-smelling shower of infected gore rained down, splattering all over Su Jin.
"Holy shit! Close the door!" Sun Ya barked at the others inside, then leaned out from the balcony. "Stay out! Get into the stairwell and wait there so we can watch you!"
Su Jin gagged violently, frantically spitting onto the ground.
Strength!
In direct sunlight, his strength increased enormously!
He had only just gained this power, and already he was covered in zombie blood.
Stay logical. Breathe. He had just metabolized the source material. Maybe he could no longer be infected.
Sprinting back into the shadowy lobby, Su Jin backed into a corner, his face grim as he watched for any changes in his body.
Exactly one hour later, Fu Qingdai's voice echoed nervously down the dark stairwell.
"Brother, are you there?"
"I'm here. I feel fine so far."
During the wait, Su Jin had calmed down. Aside from the nauseating stench of rotten meat clinging to his clothes, he felt no different.
"Okay. Are you hungry? Are you cold?"
"Don't worry about me. Tell Old Sun how I'm doing."
Fu Qingdai went silent. A minute later, Sun Ya's gravelly voice drifted down the shaft.
"Xiao Li, aren't you cold?"
"I'm not cold at all."
Su Jin glanced down at his attire.
In the brief thrill of unlocking a power, he had completely neglected his gear, walking out into the cold wearing only a long-sleeved shirt.
It was a gross oversight that none of them had caught.
While the catastrophic blizzard had passed, the ambient temperature was still hovering around minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius.
Yet, he did not feel cold at all. His body really had changed.
"It's been an hour since you got blood on you. Judging by what we saw in the mice, there should have been some change by now. You may be immune. Stay on the fourth floor for a day; then we can be certain. We've put water, food, and clothes in the room."
"Thanks! Be careful."
After answering, Su Jin straightened up.
He crouched and leaped, leaping over more than ten steps at once.
...
The following morning dawned bright and clear.
Su Jin stood shirtless before the window, staring directly into the glaring sun.
He had slept only three hours, yet felt full of energy.
He was now sure that contact with zombie fluids would not infect him.
Furthermore, twenty-four hours in isolation had given him ample time to begin to understand his new ability.
Light was the key to how his ability worked.
In daylight he was stronger; in darkness he was faster.
The brighter the light, the stronger his defenses and recovery. His bursts of speed were quick, but they consumed a great deal of energy.
In dim light, his agility and speed improved across the board. His strength and recovery were more ordinary, but he could keep going longer.
The way his powers changed with the light seemed impossible. After burning several hours trying to rationalize the physics, he gave up trying to understand it.
In the sunlight, Su Jin felt the strength in his muscles—until a sharp knock rattled the apartment door.