CH 5

Updated: Apr 1, 2021

Shi Qingyang yearned to be stronger; his biggest ambition in his former life was to slay all those ferocious beasts. This conviction didn't change after he was reborn.

Even though he had been schemed against by others and ended up as a lab rat in the research institute, he was still human, and he couldn't forget the circumstances following his death.

At that time, myriads of mutated insects crashed into the city and flooded the entire capital. Even if the Rad-Warriors had a high tolerance for radiation, the residents of the city were exposed to radiation after the barrier was breached. They also wouldn't have been able to deal with so many beasts.

Finally, there was a huge explosion that devastated the whole city.

This was the largest city in China. What chance did other cities have if it fell? Would humanity be able to survive?

Shi Qingyang had no idea why it happened, but he knew that his hatred for the alien beast would never go away.

In addition to the mutant insects, he had to contend with his adversary! Shi Qingyang was now an unremarkable orphan in a third-tier city, while his rival was the proud son of heaven praised by all in Central City. This chasm was somewhat wide.

He had no idea how he had unexpectedly possessed a very potent and relatively stable radiation energy in his previous life. If that wasn't the case, he might have only been a fourth or even fifth level Radiant-Warrior. Radiant-Warriors were respected in Spark City, but they couldn't transcend the grade divide.

On the other hand, his life here might have been peaceful, even without this extra power. The fourth and fifth level rad-power wouldn't have caused his body to suffer so much...

Shi Qingyang recalled involuntarily the month-long struggle that had left him dazed and half-conscious. In the end, a significant change had occurred, and he felt his powers growing greater. He must return there!

Shi Qingyang couldn't help but grin wryly after writing down what he wanted to do and everything that had happened in his previous life. Whether it's revenge, traveling beyond the city to destroy mutant insects, or investigating the activities of beasts, none of these tasks can be done by a young man who can't even strike with his rad- power. Right now, he only had about 20,000 credits.

Twenty thousand credits might seem a huge sum, but it was only the expenses for three months in the underground for a normal family of three. Shi Qingyang recalled that when his parents were alive, his father would sometimes go out the city to look for something valuable. His family spent money on good food to improve their lives. A meal could cost several hundred credits...

Spark Academy's 20,000 credits tuition fee was actually symbolic. He was probably the only one troubled by it. If someone else in his situation wished to become a Rad-Warrior at his age, they would almost certainly accept a scholarship from others and then sign a years-long contract to pay it back.

Shi Qingyang didn't have enough money right now, nor did he have the strength.

After being injected with rad- medicine, 80 percent of people will have rad- power. However, except for being more immune to the radiation environment in the wilderness, they were no different from average humans. The true value of rad-power was becoming rad-warrior and being able to fight.

Rad-Warrior can be judged based on two factors: the amount of Rad power the body possesses and the attacks power they can perform. They are divided into one to nine levels. As for the higher levels... the human body can't actually store much more rad- power. In truth, as a human reaches the ninth level, it will be difficult to get higher. The volume of rad-power in the body will be so strong that if one isn't careful, the rad-power could backfire on you.

In Shi Qingyang's previous life, the rad-power in his body was far more stable than ordinary people. He was expected that he would become a level nine powerhouse. Unfortunately, his physical foundation was too poor, and he was eventually plotted against...

Even with anti-radiation clothing, one cannot ensure their own safety after leaving the protection of the city. An ordinary person with the most advanced weapons, skills and experience, would be doomed. They wouldn't be able to escape the beasts outside the city.

The boundary between an ordinary person with rad- power and a Rad-Warrior was whether they could manifest the power in their body as a physical attack.

Nowadays, even often cleansing the city, there was often ambient radiation. It was negligibly weak compared to the outside of the city, but there.

Shi Qingyang closed his eyes and slowly sensed the radiant energy in the air before trying to use the weak rad- power in his body to control the radiant energy outside.

Shi Qingyang's previous experience had made him very sensitive to the radiant energy in the air, but the rad-power in his body was too weak...

After holding out for a long time, he eventually succumbed. Shi Qingyang grinned and began to slowly absorb the radiation energy in the air. He'll have to wash tanks more often. Even if the environment there wasn't good, it was better than nothing.

It was better to practice in a radiation-rich environment. The radiation in the wild was far too aggressive and unsuitable. The city's special exercise rooms were the best choice.

When you use the exercise room, you just have to pay the energy cost. Shi Qingyang didn't have much money left over after paying his Spark Academy fees. After some consideration, he noticed a spot that could serve as a substitute for the practice room—the city's main entrance.

In comparison to the practice room, the radiation at the city's entrance was extremely unstable and harmful to the human body. However, Shi Qingyang at the time had no other choice.

Thus, when some went to the practice room to study under formal supervision, he was joining the area tank wash at the citiy's west entrance. While working, he listened to passing Rad-warrior talking about battles. In his spare time, he practiced the most basic methods of rad-power use, striving to arouse the radiant energy that filled the surroundings.

Since he was ridiculed at school at the time, he trained incessantly. He practiced not only when he was at the city's entrance, but also when he was in the city, where there was no radiant energy. He mobilized the body's rad-power.

Actually, all of this was utterly crazy. Even the most skilled rad-warriors were unable to use the scarce radiant energy inside the city. Radiation fighters can only be powerful outside of the city!

[TN: special snowflake drum roll]

However, Shi Qingyang succeeded.

The daily experience didn’t allow him to actually control the city's scarce radiation energy to attack, but it did lead him to become a rad-warrior faster than the other students in the academy.

The control of radiation energy was far beyond ordinary people. He was not like those young masters who had been trained by famous teachers since childhood and could practice all kinds of combat skill.

He could only use the most basic rad-power techniques. But despot his body’s rad-power being very weak, no one could match him in terms of combat experience and rad-control.

Of course, there are certain disadvantages to this type of practice method.

The radiation energy at the entrance to the city was very unstable. His practice there, undoubtedly inflicting harm to his body. But he was only sixteen and didn’t know it at the time. Both of his parents had died, and he even struggled to have enough something to eat…

He was desperate.

His personality was inevitably a bit extreme. For example, Cheng Ran, he initially disliked Cheng Ran despite the fact that Cheng Ran hadn’t done anything…

Cheng Ran?

Shi Qingyang abruptly recalled what had happened today. He'd just told Tao Rubao that he hadn't had lunch at noon before. Tao Rubao was willing to buy him lunch…

He'd never been one to flaunt his vulnerability before. He overestimated himself, marched straight to his destination without bending over, and afterwards he fell from heaven to hell.

Life at the research institute was complicated for him because of his unyielding personality. Some people gave him double injections, hypnotized him, and wanted to know whether he had such a magical force.

He once fought valiantly, but in the end, all he got was pain; even more drugs, he lost control his body and couldn’t train. Those people did not give up and would keep pushing tubes inside his body. Later, he learned to act weak and even pretended to be hypnotized.

It was at that point that he realized that the self-esteem, values, and honor he had always insisted on were all for naught.

He had no pride, no friends, no loved ones, he had nothing but power.

In the past, he worked tirelessly to hunt down mutant beasts in order to strengthen himself and earn the admiration of others. He would actively engage in every building project that was assigned to him in the sector. He spent more time in the wilderness than in the city for more than ten years.

He had been on the brink of death many times during the fight with giant insects, but he had never given up hope. The experience merely fueled his competitive spirit, but at the institute, he experienced depression for the first time.

Later, he began to focus on displaying his vulnerability and converted himself into a yielding man in order better his treatment. Even an old female pharmacist started to secretly look after him.

He didn't have much radioactive energy at the time, so he set his sights on the plants brought back from the wild that the research institute studied. He, too, desired to learn. Most plants in the wild were dangerously poisoned with radiation. Some plants can also hunt mutant insects, and they all have unique traits…

After they lost vigilance in him, he planned to use these plants to corrode the research institute wall, and then he escaped. Shi Qingyang believed that after staying in the institute for so long and appearing more and more like a waste of a man who had lost all rad-power, they will lose interest in him and then he might have a chance to escape.

But before that day came the flood of beasts.

Shi Qingyang scribbled on the record board everything he heard about Cheng Ran.

Cheng Ran was born into wealth. Although the Cheng family banished him to this third-tier city, they never mistreated him. He was never short of money and he was very softhearted.

He disliked Cheng Ran in his previous life. Although he didn't laugh at Cheng Ran like his classmates, he also didn’t give him face when the other boy extended an olive branch.

Shi Qingyang surmised, if he planned carefully, he might easily lure Cheng Ran into feeling pity, enough so he would wish to subsidize him.

He has nothing now, and even food was a problem. Even if he had knowledge from the his past life, right now it was useless.

But if Cheng Ran would feed him and provide him with a place to train, he would certainly grow stronger quickly. Anything that distinguished him in his former life, he may still later inquire ahead of time…

As for Cheng Ran, if he helped him, he will certainly defend Cheng Ran in the future and will never let Cheng Ran perish as he did in the last life, when even the corpse outside the city wasn’t found.