Some civilians volunteered to stay and help the army. Most of them had combat abilities too. Francis led four soldiers on the ground floor; it was the front line of the entire building. Caroline, Tyler, and two young soldiers were stationed one floor above them, forming the second line of defense. There weren't enough people to guard every floor, so they spent the last bit of time sealing up all the windows. One man with earth ability mixed cement with water from upstairs and blocked as many windows as he could. Another plant ability user could make wooden planks sprout vines. Francis ordered him to use those vines to cover the remaining gaps of the windows. The rest of the civilians, along with weaker ability users who couldn't fight, moved to the floors above the 50th level. They armed themselves with anything they could find—pipes, axes, bats—ready to defend against any mutant insects that might break in. The whole building buzzed with activity. Caroline moved from floor to floor. Her goal was clear. Every time she met someone with an ability, she either patted their shoulder or shook their hand. By the time she finished, she had collected over ten new abilities. Of course, some were duplicates or low-level ability. There were also a few she couldn't copy. Those were abilities that belonged to energy colors she hadn't unlocked yet. What annoyed her most was how every failed copy attempt made Zero System warned her with vibration. When Caroline finished making her rounds and opened the Zero System, the first thing that popped up wasn't a list of new abilities. Instead, a glowing line of text filled the screen. "Frustrated? Disappointed? So many abilities you couldn't copy, huh? Then go collect more color energy!" Caroline's mouth twitched twice. Seriously? At a time like this? This system still had the nerve to nag her about collecting color energy. It clearly had zero sense of the situation. Still, she knew what it was doing. The Zero System was programmed to push her toward gathering every type of color energy. That was its design. It would remind her anytime, anywhere, even when she least wanted it. Scrolling through the list, a few abilities caught her attention. Metal Ability: I'm a Hammer Description: When my head turns into a hammer, it can smash through anything in the world. Bonus feature: Never get a concussion again. Mutated Earth Ability: Dustveil. Description: Create a five-square-feet cloud of sand out of thin air. Inside it, I can move or hide freely. Nobody, not even the gods, can see me. Life Ability: Life Drain. Description: Absorbs nearby life energy to heal myself or others and stay young forever. Dustveil was Alger's ability. During testing, he was so excited he couldn't stop grinning. Alger bragged that soon no one in the army would be able to beat him. But just as he was showing off, Francis strolled by, smug as ever. He lifted his hand. Whoosh! A tornado spun up out of nowhere, blowing all of Alger's sand away. In an instant, Alger was left completely exposed. And, of course, Francis hadn't quite controlled the strength of his power. The wind tore open Alger's shirt, leaving a long rip right across his chest—just enough to show off two solid abs. Alger's face turned ashen at this. No one could deny it. Francis's ability was incredibly strong. Caroline deliberately shook his hand, holding it for over ten seconds, trying to copy his power. Nothing happened. That confirmed it. Francis's ability came from a color energy she hadn't collected yet. After making the rounds, Caroline had a rough idea of how the color energies worked. Green: Life energy, usually connected to healing abilities. Blue: Nature energy, tied to water and plant abilities. Red: Nature energy, typically fire abilities.Yellow: Nature energy, probably for earth and metal abilities Later, Caroline headed up to the lab to warn Nelson about the incoming insect disaster. She hoped he'd pause his experiments and focus on survival. But as soon as Nelson heard about the insect disaster, his eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. "What kind of bugs? Cockroaches and spiders—the usual apocalypse pests? Or rare ones like stick bugs and butterflies? Wait, could there be mutant centipede, mutant mantises, or maybe even mutant beetles? You have to save me some corpses if you find them. I could run so many tests!" Caroline couldn't help laughing. Yep, that's a real science maniac for you. She figured that someone like Nelson—a powerful healer and a walking medical miracle—shouldn't be sent into danger unless it was absolutely life-or-death. For now, the base already had enough healing ability users, including a few whose abilities Caroline had copied. Nelson, on the other hand, was terrible in combat. He was much safer staying inside his lab. Still, as she left, Caroline was already thinking about how to use Nelson's ability to its full potential.