Chapter 108 Overflow Of Souls

The sun had ascended higher into the sky by the time Lee Seng could move. He pushed himself off the ground and brushed whatever he could off of him. His tank top, orange shorts and left leg were stained with his own blood. Lee Seng sighed and glanced at the tendril lady. He stared at the two holes he made in her.

"One blow to the heart and the zombie didn't die. I guess the stories are true. You have to really sever the connection in the brain." Lee Seng found himself studying the tendril zombie. He went to touch the tendrils when he remembered he didn't have his katana. He looked around and noticed it wasn't near him.

"UGHH!" Lee Seng groaned. He slouched as he stood up straight and tilted his head backwards. "Why is it over there?!?" He pointed back to where he came from. He jogged back and snatched the katana. He turned back around as the speakers screeched.

"Alright, maggots! You got less than an hour to get get out the city! If you can't do that, how are you even capable?" Noah barked.

"There are eight people who were injured and rescued. These eight have failed the first part of the test and will undergo treatment. If they are well by the time punishment comes around, they will be punished." Vickie spoke.

"For those of you wondering, there's only five of you left in the city!" Noah laughed. "Hurry up and get out! Clock's tickin'!" The mic system screeched and then abruptly shut off. Lee Seng sprinted towards the tendril woman and decided he wouldn't study the zombie.

'Time's almost up and I need to make sure I can avoid the punishment.' Lee Seng thought. He quickly ran down the middle of the street, casually hopping over cars as they came in front of him. The large city gate grew closer as time passed. Lee Seng stopped when the gate was about a couple minutes away.

He was growing suspicious of how easy it was after the tendril lady. He thought their would be more to it than this. He twirled the sword in its sheathe and closed his eyes. He slammed the katana down and listened.

One, two, three, four. Nothing.

Five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nothing.

Ten, eleven, twelve. Lee Seng started to hear growls and moving. He tried to push further but the growls were starting to distract him because of the sheer number of growling and screeching he heard. He opened his eyes and looked around.

'Roads clear as far as I can see to the door. They might've used motion systems, hard-to-see wires, etc. to try to make someone think its safe. There's a couple ways I could do this, though. One, I could keep running and deal with whatever happens when it happens. Two, I can send a huge wave of gravity all the way to the gate and trigger anything, but the gate might actually split open if I do end up doing that. Three, lure the horde of zombies I heard about twelve seconds away and make them trip whatever traps there are.' Lee Seng strategized.

"I guess I'll go with three. I don't want to damage anything or else it might come back to bite me in the ass. Plus, this gives me time to worry about what Keng said earlier when I was forced into a protocol transformation..." Lee Seng spoke aloud. He started to jog down the road towards.

'I said you reached the requirements for evolution.' Keng answered.

"Requirements to evolve? Already? How?"

'Remember when the Hat Man gave you all those lost souls? It exceeded the amount you needed so the rest of the souls are up for distribution on whatever you want it to be.'

"Could I evolve and set all of them to the next level up?"

'Mmmm, you could do that. There's diminishing returns because you're "levelling up." I would just figure out what you want to do with these excess souls before you evolve.'

"How long can I wait?" Lee Seng asked coming to a stop. The noises of zombies grew louder and he slowly looked left and right to pinpoint the zombies.

'Well, if you don't gather anymore souls, I'd say you got at max, two weeks.' Keng answered.

,m "What happens if I overload on the souls?" Lee Seng asked.

'Your soul bead forces you to evolve and randomly allocates extra souls to compensate. If that happens, you could get some weird abilities.'

"How many souls do you think I can take before I overflow?"

'Were you not listening? You can't take anymore. You should allocate some before you screw it up.'

"How would I do that?"

'Take the soul bead out and look in it.'

"Take the soul bead out?" Lee Seng sighed and put his hand on his heart. He started to do a pull motion and felt something stirring within him.

'The soul bead is coming out. Don't get caught.'

Lee Seng continued to pull but the sounds of zombies grew louder. Lee Seng looked up and saw zombies coming out between the buildings. He continued to pull, watching the zombies get closer. Lee Seng groaned and pushed the soul bead back in.

'What're you doing?!? You're gonna make a mistake if you kill any of these zombies!' Keng shouted.

"Is it really killing if I don't kill them?" Lee Seng shouted. He darted down the road and listened to the zombies scramble towards him. "The hordes large. This would be worst if--"

"ARGH!" A low zombie screamed. Lee Seng looked behind him and noticed a couple of muscular zombies charging at him. He could see Jumpers following behind the muscular zombies.

"Dammit." Lee Seng broke into a sprint. "Just my luck!" He scrambled forwards and watched as the gate grew closer. The muscular zombies and Jumpers slowly gained on him. The Jumpers leapt up onto the pulls and launched themselves at Lee Seng. Lee Seng pulled his sword out of its sheathe and slammed his tail, launching himself forward.

The Jumpers swung their claws at Lee Seng and barely missed him, tearing his tank top away. Lee Seng turned and swung three gravity slashes at them. The first one sliced an arm off of a Jumper. The second slice severed a couple of Jumpers' heads in half, killing them. The third one missed the rest of the Jumpers and flew past them and into the muscular zombies who raised their hands to block.

"Fufufufufuffuuck!" Lee Seng panicked. He landed and sprinted forwards. He pushed himself more trying to match his protocol's speed. Lee Seng blazed towards the growing gate. He heard buzzing and traps began to activate. Poles, cars, and buildings flew out from nowhere. Lee Seng screamed as he attempted to dodge them.

Poles slammed into two Jumpers as they leapt for the kill, smashing them. Cars and buildings crashed in front of him. He dodged and weaved through the mess in front of him, slicing whatever he needed to slice, to continue forward. Buildings, cars, and poles continued to smash the horde behind him.

Lee Seng almost made it to the gate when he felt something inside of him pulse.

"Argh!" Lee Seng grunted as he lost his balance and tumbled forwards. He began to bounce towards the gate and stopped about a hundred feet away. He clambered onto his feet and felt his chest becoming heavy. "What's... happening?!?"

'You soul bead exceeded the number of souls! You're going into a forced evolution!' Keng shouted.

"How long?!?" Lee Seng turned and swatted a Jumper with his sheathe. Four large tongues shot out and impaled themselves into Lee Seng's shoulders. Lee Seng felt himself being yanked back towards the small horde. Gravity erupted from Lee Seng's chest which only worsened the pain in his chest.

He tumbled onto the ground as his sword and sheathe flew off to the sides. Lee Seng forced himself up and watched as zombies began to reach for him. Lee Seng felt his eyes flare and he raised his hand and golden wisps flew out at the horde. The golden wisps swallowed the horde whole and Lee Seng felt the energy in his chest grow.

He gasped for breath as the golden wisps seemed to continue to swallow the horde. Lee Seng stood up and scrambled for his katana and sheathe. He snatched them, ignoring the weight of his chest and sheathed the blade. He stumbled towards the gate which opened. He moved past some students who were looking at him.

They all whispered as they saw the golden wisps dissipate and the horde of zombies clambering forwards.

"Hold your points and protect the gate at all costs!" A student barked. The Glass students began to barrage the horde while Tanks and Fighters flew into battle. Lee Seng tried to ignore them all. Some of the students gave him worried looks and tried to stop him to ask if he was okay.

"Lee Seng, are you okay?" Victor asked. He waved as he joined Lee Seng's side. Lee Seng continued to clutch his chest and ignored him. "Did you get bit? We have antidotes for that if you need it."

"Where's the telepad? I need to go back now."