Chapter Nine: The Path to Evolution
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Chapter Nine: The Path to Evolution
The rumor spread faster than Noah expected.
The mysterious survivor in Building Eight.
The person who had killed the Red Beetles.
The person who could do what even the military struggled to accomplish.
For the survivors trapped in the frozen city, that person represented hope.
But Noah knew the truth.
He was not a hero.
Not yet.
Inside his apartment, Noah sat quietly beside the table.
Outside his door, people gathered.
Some wanted protection.
Some wanted answers.
Some simply wanted to know that someone stronger than them existed.
But Noah ignored all of them.
Because he understood something they did not.
Killing three Red Beetles in one day did not mean he was powerful.
It only meant he had survived.
And survival was becoming harder every day.
Noah opened the notebook.
The blue symbols slowly appeared across the pages.
For several hours, he had been studying the information inside.
Then he found the answer to his biggest problem.
His current energy level was too low.
The notebook classified his strength as the First Stage.
To reach the Second Stage, he needed to repeatedly empty his energy and rebuild it.
The process required eighty-one complete cycles.
But after calculating the time needed...
Noah's expression became serious.
Almost two years.
Two years to reach the next stage.
If this was a peaceful world, he could wait.
He could slowly train.
He could spend years improving himself.
But this was not the old world.
This was the apocalypse.
The monsters were already appearing.
The military was retreating.
Humans were dying every day.
Two years was an impossible amount of time.
In two years...
the creatures could kill him countless times.
"No."
Noah closed the notebook.
"There has to be another way."
He opened the ancient records again.
Page after page.
Symbol after symbol.
Most of the information was still impossible for him to understand.
The notebook contained knowledge far beyond modern humanity.
But Noah only knew a small part of its language.
If he could read everything...
he believed there would be countless answers hidden inside.
After searching for a long time, he finally discovered several possible techniques.
Most of them failed.
Some required a higher energy level.
Some required materials he did not have.
Until only one remained.
An unknown rune.
The Energy Absorption Rune.
Noah stared at the name.
He could recognize the three symbols.
But the explanation afterward was mostly unreadable.
Fortunately, the method of creating the rune was clear.
It was a Second Stage rune.
That meant he needed all of his energy to create it.
Unfortunately...
after testing other methods, his energy was already almost half exhausted.
He could not create it yet.
He needed to wait.
Around four days.
During those four days, Noah did not waste any time.
Whenever he finished training and became exhausted, he practiced with his crossbow.
Before the apocalypse, he had downloaded shooting tutorials.
Now those ordinary skills became extremely important.
His energy was limited.
Every missed shot could mean death.
A powerful weapon was useless if he could not hit the enemy.
The Frost Arrows were not infinite.
Every arrow consumed a large amount of energy.
Accuracy was survival.
After four days of constant practice, combined with the physical improvements caused by the previous energy cultivation, Noah became confident.
Within thirty meters...
he could accurately hit a Red Beetle.
Of course, only if it was stationary.
Shooting moving targets required real combat experience.
And experience could not be gained overnight.
Four days later.
Noah finally completed the Energy Absorption Rune.
He held the rune carefully.
Then activated it.
Nothing happened.
He frowned.
Again.
Still nothing.
The rune did not absorb any energy from the environment.
Noah continued experimenting.
After a long time, a thought suddenly appeared in his mind.
"What if..."
"It cannot absorb ordinary energy..."
"But it can absorb energy that has already been transformed?"
Human energy.
Monster energy.
Energy that already existed inside living organisms.
His eyes moved toward the storage space.
The Red Beetle corpse.
Noah immediately released the monster's body.
The massive creature appeared inside the apartment.
Even after death, its red shell looked terrifying.
Noah activated the rune again.
This time...
something changed.
A white light shot out from the rune.
It covered the Red Beetle's body.
Then Noah saw something unbelievable.
A faint white energy slowly flowed out from the creature.
The rune absorbed it.
Ten seconds later...
the light disappeared.
Noah looked at the rune.
A new pattern had appeared.
A flame-shaped symbol.
The rune had absorbed the Red Beetle's energy.
And because of the creature's nature...
the energy carried a fire attribute.
Then something even more surprising happened.
Through his connection with the rune, Noah felt a reverse flow of energy.
The energy inside the rune was moving toward his body.
He could stop it.
But he didn't.
He wanted to know what would happen.
The process was slower than absorption.
Almost twenty seconds later...
the flame symbol on the rune disappeared.
The rune cracked.
Then it shattered.
A one-time rune.
But Noah did not care.
Because he felt something else.
Energy.
Real energy.
His exhausted body was suddenly filled with power.
Almost one-third of his missing energy had been restored.
One Red Beetle.
One-third recovery.
That meant...
three Red Beetles could completely restore his energy.
A process that previously required eight or nine days of training...
could now be completed through hunting.
Noah's eyes slowly became brighter.
He finally found the answer.
A new plan appeared in his mind.
First.
Create an Energy Absorption Rune.
Then spend several days restoring his own energy.
At full strength, he could fire six Frost Arrows.
If he could hit perfectly...
he could freeze six Red Beetles.
Once frozen, their energy barrier disappeared.
Then he could kill them using other methods.
After collecting their energy with the rune...
he could restore himself again.
Then repeat the process.
Again.
And again.
The notebook contained one more piece of information.
The First Stage was only the beginning.
After reaching the Second Stage, he would be able to create stronger runes.
Third Stage runes.
Reusable runes.
No longer one-time weapons.
That meant he would no longer need to carefully calculate every attack.
Noah looked at the darkness outside the window.
The old method was too slow.
The world would not give him two years.
So he would create his own path.
A path built from the corpses of monsters.
A path toward evolution.
A path toward survival.
He closed the notebook.
Outside, countless survivors were waiting for a protector.
They believed Building Eight contained someone powerful.
They were right.
But they did not understand.
The person they were waiting for...
was not waiting to save them.
He was preparing to survive the new world.
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