Chapter 575: Signs of Advancement
Chapter 575: Chapter 575: Signs of Advancement
However, to everyone’s surprise, the extremely fast Fireball was actually kicked away by the rock giant like a soccer ball!
BANG!
The Fireball was blocked by a wall of sand, preventing it from crashing outside the arena. Nina Jacobs simply conjured more sand walls around the perimeter, letting the rock giant play kickball with the Fireballs and stone spheres in the center of the arena.
The only issue was that the stone spheres were too fragile; a single kick shattered them into pieces.
Bursts of roaring laughter erupted from the audience.
"These two are way too weak. I’ve never seen such pathetic Intermediate Superpower Users."
"I actually thought Marcus Palmer was a real Intermediate Superpower User. Can’t believe he fooled me."
By now, Michael Miller was filled with immense regret. In the face of such overwhelming power, he felt nothing but sheer despair. Marcus was even worse off. Not only did he have to endure the insults and mockery of the crowd, but his attacks couldn’t put a single scratch on the rock giant.
Astonishment and pleasant surprise flashed in Myra Lawson’s eyes. She knew Nina was powerful, but she hadn’t expected such a massive gap between her and other Superpower Users of the same tier.
"Unfathomably powerful." Adrian Paige could only use these two words to describe her. If Nina’s performance at the city gates last time had shocked him, what she was doing now was just showing off.
"Good heavens, with this kind of strength, why does our Drakonia even need to borrow a Four-element Superpower User from that blasted Cymria?" Isaac Leopold couldn’t help but remark. "Even though she only has a Dual Element, this level of power is more than enough!"
Hearing Isaac’s words, a smile tugged at the corners of Adrian’s lips. It was more than just enough. He feared that even those top figures at the Arisdale Base wouldn’t be a match for her.
"She’s truly incredible," Sylvia Shawn praised. Marcus had been able to fight her for almost two hours, but against Nina, he couldn’t even last ten minutes.
"No wonder she’s qualified to be our instructing mentor. I’m really looking forward to the day we set off for City A together," Julian Wells added.
A superpower duel that was expected to last for hours ended in less than thirty minutes. Michael and Marcus looked completely shattered.
"Why..." Michael simply couldn’t believe it. He and Marcus had stayed up all night plotting their strategy. Yet, before they could even set their plans in motion, they had been utterly thrown into disarray.
"Don’t forget your wager," Nina reminded them.
Michael had to get the hell out of the City D Base, while Marcus had to pay up 5,000 Crystal Cores.
"What am I supposed to say about you two? You’re stupid, yet entirely unaware of it." Adrian Shaw walked over and shook his head.
However, the base hadn’t really lost anything. Even though the duel only lasted half an hour, Nina had managed to teach a valuable lesson to all the Superpower Users present: even among Superpower Users of the same tier, there were vast differences in true strength.
"Nina, are you still going to participate in the upcoming training camp?" Adrian asked. The six elite Superpower Users selected by the base were required to take part in the organized training program.
"No, I have other things to attend to," Nina politely declined.
"I figured as much." Adrian was curious about what she had planned, but he knew that even if he asked, she likely wouldn’t tell him.
On her way back, Alister Keller approached Nina to express his thanks.
"You’re welcome." Nina had already heard about Alister’s situation from Chase Gallagher.
It turned out that one of the people Michael had previously forced out of the base was a friend of Alister’s. Because of this, Alister had requested to battle Michael, intending to use his own methods to drive the man out of the base. When Michael refused to honor his word, Nina stepping up to the challenge had undoubtedly helped him out.
"I didn’t expect it to end so quickly. The next few days are going to be boring," Leo Hale remarked. It was freezing outside, and he wasn’t sure if Nina would still take them out to hunt zombies.
"I’ve already cleared it with Adrian Shaw. For the next few days, you can tag along with the rescue team to clear out zombies," Nina said. With Wayne Warner joining them, she would also feel much more at ease.
"What about you?" Leo asked. Was Nina going to abandon them again?
"That’s a secret for now," Nina said with a smile.
Leo didn’t press the matter. Sure enough, by the afternoon, Nina was nowhere to be found.
Inside the abandoned tower in Crestfall.
Nina allowed herself a brief moment of rest. Before opening the Teleportation Gate, she made a point to walk out of the base’s city gates and then use the system’s Invisibility Potion to sneak back home. She would do the same on her way back. This was to prevent anyone from checking the base’s entry and exit logs and noticing anything suspicious.
After releasing the Little Zombie Rat, she used its perspective to observe what the three Puppet Zombies were up to. Number One and Number Two were slaughtering zombies indiscriminately. Many areas in the city had been covered with crooked, misshapen houses built by Number Three, the Earth and Wood Element zombie. Some of those houses had already been packed full of zombies by Number One. This was the exact command she had given to the Number One Puppet Zombie before she left a few days ago.
After using Instant Detonation four times, Nina gained over three thousand experience points.
"Well then... it’s time to begin." Nina walked out of the safe house.
For the foreseeable future, she would stay in Crestfall until her advancement. Originally, she had assumed that maxing out the single remaining Superpower Value point would take about six days. To her surprise, there was still no reaction even after six days had passed.
She wasn’t in a hurry, though. The more zombies she cleared out of Crestfall, the safer Tomorrow Base would be. During those six days, by alternating between the system’s Superpower Enhancing Potion and Energy Recovery Potion, Nina’s Superpower was constantly regenerating. Zombie corpses piled up like small mountains across the city, only to be burned to ashes once they stacked too high.
Eight more days passed. Eventually, Nina noticed her Superpower was recovering at a much slower rate, and her body began to exhibit unusual reactions. The very first symptom was an intense hunger.
Nina knew this was likely her body storing up energy for the upcoming advancement. After consuming a massive amount of high-calorie food in the safe house, Nina decided to return to the City D Base via the Teleportation Gate. She had no idea how long advancing to an Advanced Superpower would take. To avoid any unexpected mishaps during the process, she preferred to undergo her advancement safely inside the base.
Over this period, she and her three Puppet Zombies had slaughtered nearly four hundred thousand zombies in Crestfall.
Back at the City D Base, it was the first time Vera Coleman had ever seen her daughter look so exhausted.
Nina, who had been out on her own for over half a month, finally returned that afternoon. Upon her arrival, however, Nina immediately pulled her and Wayne upstairs.
"What’s wrong? Are you hurt?" Vera had a sneaking suspicion that her daughter had something important to say.
Nina nodded and said to the two of them, "I think my Superpower is about to advance."
"Advance..." Vera failed to process the news for a moment. She recalled Daniel Hale mentioning that above Intermediate was Advanced. Could her daughter be on the verge of becoming an Advanced Superpower User?!
Nina nodded. "It seems like it. But I want to keep this a secret for now. If I enter an advancement state, don’t tell anyone on the outside that I’ve returned."
When it came to her family and Wayne, she trusted them implicitly to keep her secret.
"I understand, I understand. Don’t worry, we won’t say a word to anyone," Vera quickly replied. "Wayne will stand guard right here, and absolutely no one will disturb you."
This was a wonderful thing, yet she felt inexplicably nervous for her daughter.
Only then did Nina relax. "I’m not sure how long the advancement will take, but you don’t need to worry about anything while it happens."
In her past life, the longest advancement period she had ever heard of was five days.