Apocalypse: I Can See the HP Bar, Killing Monsters Drops Loot

Deciding exactly which four people to awaken was something Wang Tao needed to deliberate on, but one thing was certain—those with higher combat abilities would be prioritized for awakening.

However, Wang Tao did not have many Level 4 Ascension Crystal Cores on hand, only a total of 9. It was impossible to raise everyone’s abilities to Level 4. Therefore, he decided not to distribute them yet and would wait until he had selected the individuals for Awakening before giving out the crystal cores to those in need.

Wang Tao brought this up now to give everyone a heads up. After all, they were a team, and it was important that they be aware of the strategic resources he held.

"Okay!"

The crowd nodded in anticipation.

...

The clearance operations outside had continued from the afternoon into the night.

There was both good news and bad news.

The good news was that the train tracks were mostly clear of issues; once they finished clearing them, they could directly pass through without needing to detour.

Trains, unlike cars, needed rails to travel on. Detouring in such a remote area would mean taking a significantly longer route. Since they were familiar with this path from their inbound journey, it was preferable to return the same way, avoiding the unknown risks of other routes.

However, the bad news was that they wouldn’t be able to finish clearing today. They would have to work overtime into the night and strive to be done by tomorrow.

According to the original plan, they should have reached Changhe Base within a day. However, with the roadblock, they were set back at least half a day, not to mention they had to spend the night here. Read exclusive adventures at NovelBin.Côm

Once the barrier-clearing train picked up speed, it could smash through zombies effortlessly. As long as they didn’t encounter any powerful zombies or situations like today’s roadblock, they could ignore many zombies. And even if they did encounter powerful zombies, there was a good chance the zombies wouldn’t be able to keep up.

But if the train were to stop and lose its mobility, it could become dangerous instead... They would need to be extra vigilant tonight.

Fortunately, Wang Tao and his group had slept through the morning. Their rest might not have been the best, but they were refreshed enough to stand watch at night.

Duan Xuchang did not object to this arrangement. The more people and eyes, the better.

Hum~

The door of carriage No. 2 opened, and Wang Tao, with an umbrella, along with Jiang Shixue and Lightning, stepped down.

Both humans and the dog possessed Night Vision Ability and were naturally adept in environments like the night.

The zombies surrounding the train had already been eliminated. Since the area was remote, there were no more zombies approaching for the time being, so the outside was relatively quiet, with only the sound of machines clearing obstacles.

Wang Tao wanted to find a few zombies to test the capabilities of the Flame Bracelet.

But the soldiers had been too thorough in their daytime work. After making a round, he did not find a single living zombie.

Having no other choice, Wang Tao moved a bit farther away from the team. His radio was connected to Duan Xuchang’s team, so in case anything happened, there was no worry about missing any news.

"Finally found some!"

In a dilapidated village away from the railway, Wang Tao found over ten Ordinary zombies, all Level Two, each with over 20,000 HP—enough for Wang Tao to test his capabilities.

Wearing the Flame Bracelet, Wang Tao strode up to a zombie and punched it.

Bang!

[-3058]

Wang Tao did not punch with full force, and since he hit the zombie in the chest, there was minimal damage.

With his punch, a faint glimmer of firelight sparkled, following which the chest of the zombie seemed to show a hint of charring. Beyond that, there were no other changes.

"Huh? Is that all?"

Wang Tao frowned and kicked the zombie to the ground.

He then took off the bracelet and punched the zombie in the same spot with the same force.

Bang!

[-3029]

"..."

Wang Tao felt his control of the punch was very precise. The difference in damage likely wasn’t an error...

So Wang Tao tried a few more times.

At one point, the chest of this zombie suddenly burst into flames. It didn’t have much HP left and was burned to death straight away.

"I think I sort of understand..."

Wang Tao tried on a few other zombies and then confirmed his deduction—the fire damage associated with the Flame Bracelet was a different beast from the burning of Starfire Prairie.

When using Starfire Prairie, in addition to an increase in all attributes, his body, equipment, and weapons would catch fire, and many of his attacks would carry fire damage! This fire was tangible and hot, capable of continuous burning, and the zombies couldn’t withstand it.

However, the fire attribute damage from the Flame Bracelet couldn’t directly light zombies on fire. Instead, it slightly enhanced his attack damage, imbuing his attacks with the fire attribute—fire attribute did not mean burning; the slight charring on the zombies was from the fire attribute. But persistently attacking with fire attribute had a certain chance of causing burning!

It was hard to say exactly what that chance was; probabilities like this required a large sample size to get an approximation. The chance wasn’t high, and it was related to the frequency of attacks—the faster you attack, the greater the chance of igniting a burn.

As for how much this fire attribute increased damage... for Wang Tao, it might be around 1%, possibly even less.

For him, this bracelet was somewhat superfluous.

This fire attribute damage was not even comparable to the flame damage from Wang Tao’s Awakening.

Of course, the Flame Bracelet wasn’t trash. Even a 1% increase in damage was still a solid boost.

Moreover, the damage from the fire attribute when triggered could be quite impressive. This wasn’t ordinary fire; blood from zombies and even rain from the sky wouldn’t extinguish it immediately.

But this burning ability was of little use to Wang Tao because he had just learned the Fireball special ability...

"Heh heh..." @@novelbin@@

The last few zombies in the village ran towards Wang Tao.

Wang Tao held the umbrella in his left hand and cupped his right palm upwards, as a palm-sized flame emerged above it.

When the fireball grew to the size of a basketball, Wang Tao extended his hand, and the fireball immediately flew out, smashing directly into one of the oncoming zombies.

Boom—

The fireball exploded, and the fierce flames instantly enveloped everything around it.

A moment later, all the zombies’ HP bars dropped to zero. But at the same time, half the village was set on fire...