Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars

Time ticked by, second by second.

The air in the living room seemed to have frozen, leaving only the sound of everyone's suppressed breathing.

Chen Yang stood in the center of the circle, his expression shifting from initial nervous anticipation to confusion and bewilderment.

All he could feel was a slight chill as the crystal settled in his stomach. Other than that, there was nothing.

No pain, no power. Besides his heart beating faster and faster, there wasn't even the slightest hint of discomfort.

Ten minutes passed...

Twenty minutes passed...

"Brother... Brother Lin..."

The oppressive atmosphere finally became too much for Chen Yang to bear. He didn't dare look at the two sharp blades hovering over his head, instead keeping his gaze lowered to Lin Fan and asking in a voice on the verge of tears,

"Is it... not working?"

Lin Fan suddenly sighed and turned to ask Wang Yuanhua,

"How long after you ate the crystal did you feel the effects?"

"I could feel my power increase the moment I swallowed it. That feeling... you just know!"

Wang Yuanhua glanced at his own hands, then looked at Chen Yang with a touch of regret. 'If I had eaten that crystal, I would've gotten a bit stronger.'

A full twenty minutes had passed, and the man's health bar hadn't changed at all. It was still a yellow [91/100]. In fact, it had even dropped by 1 point from his extreme nervousness.

There were no red tendrils wrapping around his health bar like when Chu Zhaozhao was infected, nor were there any signs of an increase to his maximum health.

"It failed..."

He patted Chu Zhaozhao's arm, and only then did the two deadly blades slowly retract into the leather pouch in her hand.

Seeing Lin Fan's gesture, the onlookers let out an irrepressible sigh, a mixture of "relief" and "disappointment."

Meanwhile, Chen Yang, in the center of the crowd, plopped right onto the floor, panting heavily. All fervent hope for Awakening had vanished from his mind, replaced only by the profound relief of having survived the ordeal.

'At first, he had thought that gambling his life to become an Awakened One was a worthy trade!'

'But when those two blades were actually hovering over his head, seeing the cold glint on their tips, his heart had grown colder and colder.'

'He had tried to feel for any surge of power in his body at the beginning, but after a few minutes, all that was left was the terror of, "Don't turn into a zombie... Please don't let me turn into a zombie..."'

Looking at the crowd and Chen Yang on the floor, countless clues flashed through Lin Fan's eyes.

'Blood, health bar, infection, crystal, getting stronger...'

A bold idea formed in his mind.

'There's something wrong with this round crystal.'

'If we assume this round crystal is some kind of unformed structure, then Chu Zhaozhao, Su Qing, and Xu Qian all ate this to unlock something.'

'But there was a prerequisite. They all reached a critical state through their own blood—that state of 105 health points—and then ate the crystal, thereby completing their Awakening.'

'So, it's possible that when a normal person eats it, nothing happens.'

'And Wang Yuanhua getting stronger from eating it is because the fundamental power of the crystals is the same. It's about the structure...'

At this thought, the polygonal crystal from before reappeared in Lin Fan's hand.

It was a 10% Hardening Crystal. He had three of them, which he hadn't had a chance to synthesize yet.

'If the round crystal could push a person from that critical state to Awakening, then for a normal person, the "potency" is clearly insufficient.'

'There's only one solution: increase the dosage!'

'But not by simply eating another one. The dosage needs to be fundamentally increased.'

'A crystal with a complete structure and a level is clearly the superior choice.'

'Based on this deduction, Lin Fan even arrived at a radical theory: could the "effective channel structure" represent the potency? For instance, 20% is better than 10%, and 100% would grant an instant Awakening...'

'But putting aside the fact that Lin Fan didn't have any 100% crystals, even if he did, each one would represent a significant power-up. Unless he had a pocketful of them, he would never just give one away for someone to eat.'

'But this one... this 10% one...'

'If this means a 10% chance of Awakening, then the side effects for the other 90% are definitely worse than just dizziness...'

But things had already come to this point. Lin Fan extended his hand toward the crowd.

"I have a theory. That round crystal wasn't the right one. This one might have the effect I was talking about before...

"However... it's very likely—and I'm just saying 'likely'...

"...that there's only a one-in-ten chance of Awakening..."

He then turned his head toward Chen Yang, who was still on the floor, and asked,

"Do you want to try again...?"

Chen Yang stared at Lin Fan's outstretched hand. The shimmering crystal in his palm no longer looked like a ticket to Awakening, but a poison, a fatal poison!

All he could see was the same cold glint on the crystal as he had seen on those two blades.

"I... I..."

Facing Lin Fan's offer, Chen Yang's lips trembled, unable to form words.

The joy of having drawn the lucky lot had now returned to him twofold, transformed into a death sentence.

Seeing him subconsciously push himself backward on the floor with his hands, Lin Fan understood his answer.

"It's okay..."

Lin Fan waved his hand, signaling for him to relax. 'It's not like I'm some mad scientist. He was the one who volunteered to eat it, but now he's acting like I forced him.'

Then he raised his hand again, extending the crystal toward Liu Bin and the three men behind him, making the offer.

Liu Bin's gaze was solemn. He never intended to participate in this experiment in the first place. Although he yearned for the power of an Awakened One, after what Lin Fan said today, he had a very clear understanding of his own position. He had no intention of gambling his life for such an illusory power.

The initial fanaticism in the eyes of the three men behind him had completely faded. Looking at Chen Yang on the floor, they began to question why they wanted to become stronger.

'The fact that we're even standing in this room means we're part of the core group. We have food, women, and respect.'

'We aren't desperate outlaws. Besides, judging from Liu Bin's usual conversations about him, Lin Fan isn't the type to make baseless claims.'

'At first, he said there was a chance of turning into a zombie, and now he's even given a precise probability like one-in-ten...'

'One-in-ten!'

'That's like playing Russian roulette with a ten-shot revolver loaded with nine bullets. Are you kidding me?'

'If every ordinary person in this room ate one, we might not even get a single Awakened One!'

'This isn't a gamble; it's suicide!'

'If a Mutated Zombie suddenly appeared in this room, right in our faces with no escape, then every single one of us would swallow this crystal without hesitation. To wait even a second would be disrespectful to your own life. But now...'

They didn't dare.

"Brother Lin, how about..."

Seeing that the men beside him were all looking down, not saying a word, Liu Bin had no choice but to step forward, taking Lin Fan's hand as he spoke.

He didn't want Lin Fan to get a bad impression of them over this, and he also wanted to give the others a graceful way out.

At the same time, Su Qing, who was behind him, sensed the unease spreading through the room. She gently tugged on Lin Fan's arm and whispered, "Little Brother..."

"It's fine. You guys are good..."

Lin Fan decisively pulled his hand back, returned the crystal to his inventory, and patted Su Qing's hand to reassure her. Then, he said in a serious tone,

"I'm not being sarcastic. Your choice was the right one..."

Hearing Lin Fan's words, everyone looked up at him.

A relieved smile actually appeared on his face.

"The first lesson I learned in school was to cherish life. Gambling once is one thing, but gambling a second time... None of you are madmen, and that's a good thing."

Saying this, Lin Fan patted Liu Bin's shoulder.

"Let's go. Head downstairs. When you get a chance, tell everyone about today's result. No need to hide it. If anyone wants to take the gamble, they can come find me. I'll give them the chance... And don't forget about Chen Yang. He needs to be tied up separately tonight."

"Heh... will do, will do..."

Liu Bin let out a long, heavy breath, as if expelling all the pressure that had built up over the past half hour.

He looked at Lin Fan, a complex smile on his face, and nodded heavily in agreement.

Although he didn't think Lin Fan would actually force anyone to eat the crystal, the atmosphere in the room just now had been truly terrifying.

"Sorry for the trouble, Brother Lin..."

Several other polite remarks echoed from the others in the hallway.

You could hear that everyone had relaxed. The pressure just moments ago had been suffocating. It was a huge relief that Lin Fan was now turning to leave, with no more experiments to be done.

RUMBLE...

Lin Fan and Liu Bin's group walked out of the supermarket. After saying their goodbyes, Lin Fan had just started for home and hadn't taken more than two steps when he heard the faint sound of thunder in the distance.

Although the thunder sounded a bit strange, Lin Fan's mind was preoccupied with the matter of Awakening, and he paid it no mind.