Apocalypse Park

Isn't This Whole Card Thing a Bit Absurd?

The tender and springy flesh of the young girl was deeply embedded in Ethan's mouth, as the gushing blood, tinged with the smell of iron, stained his chin red. With just a bit more force, Emma’s fragile life would vanish forever from this world.

But Ethan suddenly stopped. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to devour this prime seed before him—he simply couldn’t move. A chef's knife was now deeply lodged in the back of his skull, all the way to the hilt. A trace of excitement still lingered in his lifeless eyes; he died without ever understanding why Emma's empty hands, which had made a futile struggle in the air, had managed to kill him.

For a moment, all Emma could hear was her own heartbeat pounding like a drum, thud-thud, under the weight of the heavy corpse. Ignoring the excruciating pain in her neck, she pushed with all her strength, and with a loud thud, the heavy body fell backward to the floor. The knife lodged in Ethan's skull was pushed out with the motion, and its tip now protruded from his gaping mouth.

Emma clutched her neck, her hand already drenched in blood. She gasped for breath, kicked the corpse hard, and rasped in a hoarse voice, "Who said I only evolved two traits?" Just uttering those few words made the pain in her throat unbearable.

After that kick, Emma suddenly felt darkness closing in, nearly collapsing from the dizziness caused by blood loss. She knew she couldn’t waste any time; dressing her wound was the most urgent task. Stumbling, she found a towel and pressed it tightly against the wound.

Breathing heavily, she slumped back down on the floor, using all her strength to hold the towel in place. The piercing sound of sirens echoed throughout the city; faintly, she could hear screams and cries, making the silence in the 38th-floor apartment even more eerie.

Half-conscious and half-awake, it took a while, but eventually, the bleeding stopped. It seemed Emma's life wasn’t meant to end here—she hadn’t hit an artery after all. After resting for a while, she gathered enough strength to struggle to her feet and drink some water.

When she put down the glass and looked up, she saw Ethan’s twisted corpse still lying silently on the floor. After a moment of thought, Emma dragged her weak body over to the corpse. With trembling hands, she placed one on the body and whispered in a raspy voice, "Store it away."

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash of white light flickered in her palm, and the corpse with the knife embedded in it disappeared. With a "snap," a card the size of a playing card fell to the floor.

Emma pulled out her phone to illuminate the card. As she expected, it bore a crude crayon drawing of a man with a gaping mouth and a knife stuck in his head. Below the drawing was a line of bold text: "Ethan's Corpse."

[Ethan's Corpse]

Name: Can’t you read the title?

Species: Human

Status: Dead

Potential Value: 204

Suspect: Emma

Basic Abilities: Extreme Temperature Adaptation, Physical Enhancement, Body Modification

Advanced Abilities: "Mutual Benefit," "Nutritionist"

"What the hell is all this?" Emma stared at the card, not sure what to say. This strange thing was the third ability she had evolved, and tonight, it had just saved her life. As long as she wanted, Emma could transform any object she touched into a card and store it within her body. When needed, a simple thought would allow the card to revert to its original form in her palm.

Earlier, she had deliberately grabbed a boning knife and thrown it at Ethan to create a distraction, lowering his guard. The real killing blow came when, after Ethan had bitten her, she struggled to place her hand on the back of his head. With a single thought, the "Chef's Knife" card stored in her body that morning materialized into a sharp blade that pierced deep into Ethan's brain.

After several days of experimentation, Emma discovered that she could only convert items into cards up to four times a day. Although she was already familiar with the cards she created, this was the first time she had seen one with such detailed content.

She quickly flipped over the [Ethan's Corpse] card, and sure enough, the back was filled with a dense array of tiny text:

Ethan, male, 28, from another "New World." Introverted from a young age, he was never popular with girls and even received a confession from a male senior during college. After the New World descended, he struggled to survive. [Details omitted]. In short, after arriving in the world where the suspect Emma lived, Ethan devoured a billionaire with a potential value of 2, took over his assets, and deliberately approached the suspect Emma. Just as he was about to consume Emma, he was killed instead.

"Skipping over the important stuff is one thing, but why do they keep calling me a suspect?" Emma muttered, annoyed, as she swiped her finger across the text. The words instantly disappeared, and another paragraph slid into view on the card.

[Mutual Benefit]: Among the vast sea of people, this ability allows one to identify seeds with high potential. Through close physical contact (such as kissing or hugging), this ability can stimulate an ordinary person's potential, enabling them to evolve new abilities more quickly. It’s a win-win situation.

[Nutritionist]: After devouring a person, this ability maximizes the extraction of the victim's potential value, evolved abilities, and physical attributes. A balanced diet is essential for a better tomorrow.

Note: The chef's knife lodged in his skull was made in Germany, sharp and durable, purchased for 599 yuan on JX Mall.

Ethan’s card detailed his abilities so clearly. I wonder if my own card would also have descriptions of my abilities and information about this so-called "New World," Emma thought.