Doomsday Cognition Guide

In the following days, Li Xuan's training methods changed.

He had mastered the skill of keeping the spear tip steady. The daily afternoon training with the four-level spear—raising the spear shaft horizontally, aiming the spear tip at a circle the size of a fist in front, and maintaining stability—had transformed from a challenge into a fundamental skill. The force traveled from the soles of his feet to his waist and hips, from his waist and hips to his arms, and finally converged at the spear tip. The entire transmission chain was clean and efficient, and the spear tip remained as steady as a silver needle in the air.

But being able to keep the gun tip steady and being able to hit the target with the gun tip in any situation are two different things.

This is like comparing the weight you can lift to your ability to walk, turn, and squat while carrying that weight—these are completely different concepts. The former trains your upper limit, while the latter trains your control. The same applies to marksmanship. Keeping the gun tip steady is achieved from a standard stance. But in actual combat, your feet won't always be level, the target won't always be stationary, and the angle of your shot won't always be directly in front of you.

Real combat training is about making skills instinctive—ensuring the spear tip remains stable under any circumstances, without needing to charge up or adjust, and that every thrust is fluid and continuous.

He set up several targets at different heights and angles around the training platform—sandbags, planks, and empty cans hanging from tree branches. He moved quickly from one target to the next, thrusting at a fixed point. The spear tip had to be already thrusting out when his foot landed, without any pause. After several rounds, he discovered a problem—his waist and hips tended to lock when turning; the spear tip was stable in a straight line, but started to shake when turning. He began to slow down, practicing each turn separately—the angle of the foot landing, the degree of knee flexion, and the timing of the waist and hip rotation. After several days of practice, the gap between turning and thrusting became shorter and shorter, until finally it was almost imperceptible. The spear was already thrusting out the moment his foot landed, and the spear tip remained stable throughout. His fourth uncle was also practicing with him.

This phase of training also influenced his equipment adjustments. The three-section spear, originally nearly two meters long when assembled, was suitable for infantry formation combat, but required more agile control during rapid movement and changes of direction. After several comparisons, he finally selected a slightly shorter section of alloy tubing for the shaft. Once assembled, it was about the height of a person, almost an arm's length shorter than before. The shorter shaft reduced the control radius, but in return, it allowed for faster changes of direction—a crucial factor over attack range in confined spaces and rapid movement.

But a gun isn't a panacea. He picked out a Tang sword from the storeroom as a secondary weapon; it had a straight blade, a narrow body, and a comfortable weight. The Tang sword was tucked into his waistband, ready to be drawn whenever the spear couldn't be used effectively. He re-sharpened the blade with an oilstone, and when he looked at it under the light, a silver line stretched from one end to the other.

A few days later, one morning, Deputy Secretary Zhang contacted them via a hand-cranked walkie-talkie.

The walkie-talkie was placed on the octagonal table in the main room, and my father answered it. Deputy Secretary Zhang's voice had static, but every word was clearly audible.

The intelligence that Li Xuan and his fourth uncle brought back last time has already been reported to the county. The feedback from above was swift—they praised the information they provided and issued a more detailed assessment: the zombies will complete their first evolution within a month. They will be faster, stronger, and have harder skulls. Ordinary firearms will struggle to kill them with a single shot unless the head is precisely targeted. Once the zombie horde grows in size, the threat will increase exponentially.

Therefore, now is the best window of opportunity, and possibly the last chance. The county has decided to conduct a thorough rescue operation and clear supplies from trapped individuals within the county town area before the zombies fully evolve. The sooner the better.

"The county has already organized a group of awakened individuals," Deputy Secretary Zhang's voice continued through the walkie-talkie. "During this period, we've gradually identified some people with signs of supernatural abilities in the settlements. There aren't many, but enough to form a small team. The abilities you two—Comrade Li Xuan and Comrade Li Lei—demonstrated last time are exactly what we need. We hope you can join this team and participate in this operation as the backbone."

A team of superhumans. Li Xuan noticed a discrepancy. In his memory, there were no teams of superhumans at this time. Awakened individuals were scattered everywhere, no one systematically screened them, and no one organized them into a team.

It seems that his changes to the world have already begun.

The father glanced at Li Xuan. Li Xuan nodded slightly.

"Let's go," the father said into the walkie-talkie.

Deputy Secretary Zhang announced the time and place of the assembly—9:00 AM tomorrow, at the former sports center parking lot on the west side of the county town, which will serve as the temporary command center for this operation.

The next morning, Li Xuan and his fourth uncle began preparing their equipment.

Li Xuan carried a Tang sword at his waist, its scabbard secured to his belt with a leather strap, ensuring it wouldn't wobble when drawn or sheathed. His spear, disassembled into three sections, was stored in a holster made from old canvas, slung diagonally across his back. Li Xuan also carried an extra short sword, strapped to the outside of his left calf, neatly concealed by his trousers. His fourth uncle's equipment was much simpler. His thickened and heavier Tang sword was carried on his back—he had used his supernatural abilities to melt two steel rings directly onto the scabbard, securing it to his back with a canvas strap, making it more stable than hanging at his waist. Besides the sword, he also carried a long-handled axe, the handle made of steel bars, with added weight at the axe head, giving it a substantial feel.

The two drove along the highway towards the county town. This trip was different from the previous ones. Before, it was just the two of them in one car, coming and going as they pleased. This time, they were going to participate in a formal operation, organized, commanded, and convoyed. The two of them didn't talk much on the way. Uncle Si drove faster than usual, and the only sound in the car was the whooshing of the wind.

As we approached the county town, the number of vehicles on the road began to increase. These weren't abandoned cars; they were parked in an organized manner, neatly arranged along both sides of the road, leaving a wide passage in the middle. Several people in armed police uniforms were directing the traffic, their movements practiced and skilled, clearly not new to this job.

The temporary command post was set up in the sports center parking lot, near the western edge of the county town, with a buffer distance from densely populated areas. Several military tents had already been erected in the parking lot, and a cordon was set up around them. Supplies were neatly categorized and stacked—food, medicine, stretchers, ropes, each with its own designated area. Some people were organizing the ranks, some were checking ammunition magazines, and some were explaining precautions to the new recruits.

Li Xuan glanced at it and superimposed the scene before him with the blurry images in his memory.

In that period of his memory, he had also participated in the search and rescue operation in the county town. The specific details were long gone; he only remembered that the operation hadn't progressed much before they had to retreat. The zombies were more difficult to deal with than expected, and the rescue team suffered significant losses, forcing them to withdraw. For a long time afterward, no one went into the county town again.

In the parking lot before them, supplies were neatly arranged, and the groups were orderly, with the superhumans getting to know each other. This level of organization simply did not exist in the other timeline.

He and his fourth uncle were led to a tent. Deputy Secretary Zhang had already arrived and was discussing something with several armed police officers around a simple map. Seeing them approach, he waved.

"They're here." He pointed to a few people standing next to the tent. "This is our team of superhumans. They've all been identified over this period of time. Get to know them."

The team of superhumans consists of six people. Adding Li Xuan and Fourth Uncle, that makes eight.

Deputy Secretary Zhang introduced them one by one.

The first was an armed police officer surnamed Zhou, in his early twenties, standing ramrod straight. His change was the most obvious—his eyesight had suddenly improved. Previously, his target shooting scores were above average, but after the Blood Moon incident, his accuracy improved more and more, and he later discovered that he could even clearly see the license plate numbers of vehicles hundreds of meters away. He was the first one reported by the team.

The second was a construction worker, around forty years old, surnamed Ma. He worked outdoors year-round, with dark skin and large knuckles. After the blood moon, something was off when he started working—he could carry cement more easily than usual, and he swung a sledgehammer more steadily than before. Once, while moving steel, he carried two I-beams for dozens of meters by himself, leaving his coworkers dumbfounded. He was the type whose strength couldn't be hidden; the change was too obvious.

The third was a young policeman, in his early thirties, surnamed Liu. After the blood moon, he chased someone who had stolen supplies, and only after running several hundred meters did he realize he wasn't even out of breath. Later, he measured his speed and found that his 100-meter dash was almost a second faster than before. His endurance had also improved; he could run several kilometers without any problem.

The fourth was a kitchen worker surnamed Zheng, a middle-aged woman in her fifties, wearing a faded cotton-padded jacket. She had worked in the kitchen for over ten years, and after the blood moon, she always felt a strange sensation when near the stove, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Once, she deliberately touched the flame with her hand and found it wasn't very hot. Later, she heard that the government was screening people with abnormal physical changes, and that they could join some kind of team with extra subsidies, so she signed up.

The fifth was a city management officer, in his early thirties, surnamed Wu. His change was more subtle—he could sense abnormal auras within a certain range. He couldn't quite explain how he sensed them, but he felt a chill when near zombies and noticed them earlier than others. He was a great help in the recent outer perimeter cleanup operations.

The sixth was a middle-aged man, around forty years old, surnamed He. He wore gold-rimmed glasses and a wrinkled shirt tucked into his trousers, looking like an office worker. When Deputy Secretary Zhang introduced him, his tone was noticeably less certain. He said the man had volunteered, claiming that he heard strange noises in his head when near zombies and could determine their approximate location. He couldn't explain his specific abilities, and no one else could verify them. They hadn't originally planned to let him join the team, but there were so few people with special abilities identified during the screening, and his story sounded plausible, so they kept him on.

Li Xuan glanced at the man surnamed He.

He mentally labeled this person as a "rule-oriented" individual, and then immediately added a question mark to his name.

He understood the nature of the Rule-based system better than anyone else present. He himself was a Rule-based being. His special ability was assimilation—from the Blood Moon until now, aside from absorbing energy a little faster than others, there had been no outward manifestations. If his dream memories hadn't explicitly told him it was a special ability, he might not have been certain he had awakened it even now. Even on another timeline, he only realized this after breaking through to the seventh rank.

The most distinctive feature of rule-based abilities isn't their low awakening rate, but rather how difficult they are to detect. Enhancement-based abilities grant increased strength and speed, which are readily apparent to both the user and others. Elemental-based abilities produce a sensation upon contact with their corresponding element—fire, metal, water—but rule-based abilities are often hidden deep within one's consciousness, without any outward manifestation; most people remain unaware of their awakening throughout their lives.

In that memory, the earliest confirmed rule-based ability user was a time-based one. That person could vaguely perceive events a fraction of a second later in combat, and later, with enhanced abilities, could perceive events a full second later. Relying on this half-second to one-second prediction, he was virtually invincible in combat—no one could attack him because he knew where you were going to strike before you even made your move. But how did that person discover his ability? He didn't realize it himself; it was during a life-or-death struggle when his opponent's knife was already at his eyes, and his body instinctively dodged in advance. Only after repeatedly reflecting on it did he realize—it wasn't luck, but that he had "seen" the knife beforehand.

This is a typical characteristic of rule-based systems: even if the ability has already taken effect, the awakened individual may not even know it.

So when the man surnamed He confidently described that he "had voices in his head" and "could determine the location of zombies," Li Xuan felt a subtle sense of unease. A true Rule-based being would almost never be able to describe their abilities so specifically in the early stages of awakening. He couldn't even clearly explain what he was perceiving, just like Li Xuan himself—if it weren't for his memories of the future, he would only think that he was "absorbing energy faster," and wouldn't have considered that it was a superpower called "assimilation."

Conversely, this vague and unverifiable claim is precisely the most typical characteristic of a rule-based system—it cannot be proven to exist, nor can it be disproven to not exist. Perhaps he truly awakened a rare perceptual ability, one that even he himself cannot explain. Or perhaps not.

Li Xuan didn't draw a conclusion in his mind. Whether it was true or false, the zombies would verify it for him once he entered the county town.

He looked back.

He and his fourth uncle briefly introduced their abilities. His fourth uncle picked up an iron pipe, bent it in front of everyone, and then straightened it again, the ends perfectly fused together under his power. The three enhanced users watched, rubbing their hands in disbelief—their strength had increased, but not yet to the point where they could mold an iron pipe like mud. Li Xuan repeated his earlier statement—his strength had increased a bit. He drew his Tang sword and slashed at a nearby abandoned cement block. The blade pierced halfway in, and as he pulled it out, cement fragments rained down.

Deputy Secretary Zhang clapped his hands and walked to the map in the center of the tent. He pointed to the map and began explaining the specific plan for the operation. There were three routes of advance, each pointing to a different key area—hospitals, schools, and large supermarkets. "The objective this time is to clear safe routes. You will lead the way, followed by armed police and regular police, blocking off intersections on both sides of the streets. The cleared main roads will be the safe passages, allowing subsequent rescue personnel to enter, vehicles collecting supplies to drive in, and trapped personnel to evacuate."

Then he straightened up and casually mentioned it.

"Our original plan was to start with the easier areas and gradually move to the more difficult ones, beginning with the surrounding towns and villages and then working our way back to the county seat. But the information we've received now is that the zombies will complete their first stage of evolution in a while, making them even harder to deal with. So we've changed our plan. We'll tackle the county seat first, which is the toughest nut to crack, and then gradually clear out the surrounding areas."

He paused, glanced at the assembled superhumans, and added, "The current orders from above are clear—rescue is the priority. So, before confirming that all survivors have been evacuated, do not use any means that could damage the building's structure. We have enough bullets; we don't need to resort to bombs to solve the problem."