Mm~

Huo Lingling made an unclear sound, kicked off the blanket, and curled up like a caterpillar.

"Carefree and happy, how nice." Yun Xiuzhi stood by the bed, looking down at Huo Lingling's sleeping face.

This was their last night sleeping at home. After tonight, they would depart to find new shelter.

The water level outside had already reached the 18th floor, and zombie fish could break through the glass and invade their home at any moment.

Yun Xiuzhi raised her head, "Where are we going? Do you have a destination in mind?"

"To Kunlun Mountain." Li Xuan's voice was low, his gaze firm.

Kunlun Mountain was a must-go destination. There were three divine fruits on the mountain that could grant S-class supernatural abilities when eaten. At minimum, they needed to obtain one.

Yun Xiuzhi covered her face with her wings. She knew they would go to Kunlun Mountain. Ever since Li Xuan mentioned it once, she had a premonition that he would eventually go there.

"It's so far, and so tiring."

"Tired is better than dead."

"I can't argue with you, but how will we travel there? There's heavy rain outside, I can't fly. Will you swim there? Or transform and go?" Yun Xiuzhi asked.

"Transform to travel. When tired, we'll find places to rest. The scale armor of my giant beast transformation has evolved, greatly improving defense. Ordinary zombies can't bite through my scales."

Previously, after careful consideration, Li Xuan had abandoned the plan to go to Kunlun Mountain for the divine fruits, mainly because it was too dangerous. The road to Kunlun Mountain was long, filled with countless dangers along the way. Even with his giant beast transformation ability, Li Xuan didn't dare claim he could safely pass through zombie-infested cities to reach Kunlun Mountain.

The giant beast could easily crush zombies, but the transformation ability had limitations, and previously the giant beast's skin couldn't completely ignore zombie bites. Once surrounded by a zombie horde, even if just a tiny piece of skin was bitten off, the zombie virus would infiltrate through the wound.

Now it was different. He had obtained the supernatural characteristic 'Scale Reinforcement,' and this characteristic would continue to function over time, driving scale evolution and greatly improving defense.

When the Scale Reinforcement characteristic was on zombies, by the end of the first version, it could at most allow scale zombies to withstand rocket attacks. But on his transformed giant beast, it was completely different—they weren't on the same scale to begin with. The starting points were different, so the evolutionary effects after obtaining supernatural characteristics naturally differed too.

Simply put, it was the beauty of numerical values.

Supernatural characteristics drive evolution in one aspect of a creature, making it transcend the ordinary.

Even if an ant obtained a supernatural characteristic, it would still struggle to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

When playing games, Li Xuan hated numerical monsters the most. Now that he had become one, he had only one thought.

So satisfying!

Ding~ Intelligence refresh!

A mechanical voice sounded in Li Xuan's mind.

Intelligence emerged:

[Zombie King Competition] [North River Zombie King]

Li Xuan felt a pleasant surprise in his heart—this was intelligence about mutated zombies!

Mutated zombies = supernatural characteristics = opportunities

With enough supernatural characteristics, the giant beast could maintain 'monster'-level dominance even in the early second version. Then he could seize more opportunities and stay ahead of all other creatures.

One step ahead, always ahead.

Intelligence [Zombie King Competition: Tomorrow at 16:00, a zombie battle will erupt at H City's former Civic Square. Two mutated zombies will lead their hordes in underwater combat, attempting to seize each other's supernatural characteristics to accelerate their own evolution. Additionally, several transformers are lurking in the shadows.

The mutated zombies' supernatural characteristics are: 'Strength Enhancement' and 'Adaptation Enhancement.'

The transformers' transformation abilities are: crocodile transformation, tilapia transformation, alligator gar transformation, water snake transformation, and snapping turtle transformation.

In the chaotic battle, the crocodile transformer and snapping turtle transformer are torn apart by zombies. The strength-enhanced mutated zombie escapes, while the adaptation-enhanced mutated zombie is captured. The escaped mutated zombie causes the zombie horde to go berserk, wildly infecting underwater creatures, leading to a sharp increase in mutated fish nearby.]

The Intelligence System was as reliable as ever, directly exposing all the secrets of the mutated zombies and transformers.

Among the five transformers, only the tilapia transformation was relatively ordinary—the others were quite impressive, with strong combat capabilities underwater. In the current minor version, they could be said to have natural advantages. With one more supernatural characteristic, their combat power would rise, and they wouldn't have to worry until the next minor version.

'Official personnel? Or several survivors banding together for warmth?' Li Xuan wondered.

He leaned more toward them being official personnel.

Official teams had more people and more high-intelligence talents, making it more likely they discovered the special characteristics of mutated zombies.

The probability of small survivor groups discovering supernatural characteristics was very low.

The battle outcome struck him as strange. Among the five transformers, the crocodile was undoubtedly the best, yet this top performer died while the weak tilapia survived.

A conspiracy? Were the two betrayed by their teammates?

Li Xuan shifted his attention to the second piece of intelligence.

[North River Zombie King: Seven days later, a mutated zombie with the supernatural characteristic 'Chaotic Evolution' accidentally intrudes into the territory of a mutated tiger with 'Body Expansion characteristic.' The two engage in fierce combat. The mutated tiger devours the zombie, its form shifting toward human shape. Later, it successively devours other mutated zombies. By the end of the version, possessing four supernatural characteristics, it becomes the leader of North River's Ten Great Zombie Kings.

North River Zombie King characteristics: Body Expansion characteristic, Chaotic Evolution characteristic, Strength Enhancement characteristic, Claw and Tooth Enhancement characteristic.]

The scale zombie from the previous intelligence would also become a zombie king in the future, but only one of the Ten Great Zombie Kings, while the mutated tiger was the leader of the Ten Great Zombie Kings.

There was a clear gap between them. The mutated tiger's original form was stronger than the scale zombie's—one was mutated from the king of beasts, a tiger, while the other was a garden security guard. The number of supernatural characteristics the mutated tiger possessed also far exceeded that of the scale zombie.

"Who ranked them in the future? Comparing the scale zombie and mutated tiger zombie, can they really be called zombie kings?" Li Xuan complained internally.

He estimated that by the end of the version, the mutated tiger zombie could easily kill the scale zombie.

Li Xuan snapped back to attention, forming a plan. "Before going to Kunlun Mountain, we'll go to H City first."

"H City? We have to detour?" Yun Xiuzhi exclaimed in surprise.

"There are good things there that shouldn't be missed." Li Xuan nodded.

He looked down at Huo Lingling and remembered something.

Only transformers could absorb supernatural characteristics, and they had to be transformed to do so. He was no exception—when transformed, he became powerful, but his original body wouldn't be affected by supernatural characteristics, remaining ordinary flesh.

Huo Lingling's original form wasn't human but a Little White Snake. The human-form Huo Lingling was a transformation, so Huo Lingling could absorb supernatural characteristics.

Thus, Huo Lingling could become the world's first supernatural human.

Li Xuan rubbed his chin. In the future, if he encountered supernatural characteristics he couldn't use, he might give them to Huo Lingling, disguising her as the first naturally supernatural person to deceive others.

After a moment, Li Xuan laughed and shook his head.

Supernatural characteristics weren't that easy to obtain. The outside world had become an aquatic environment, with zombies hiding underwater. Finding mutated zombies among endless zombies would be extremely difficult.

He himself had only absorbed one supernatural characteristic. He might not have any extra supernatural characteristics to spare by the end of the first version.

The apocalypse trial would become increasingly dangerous and difficult. When there were opportunities and benefits, Li Xuan had to take them first himself; otherwise, he wouldn't have enough strength to survive the apocalypse, and both Yun Xiuzhi and Huo Lingling would suffer.

He positioned himself as the absolute core of the team. Yun Xiuzhi was the core support for the third version, and Huo Lingling was the core support for the second version. The meaning of support was to make the core stronger.

He wouldn't be foolish enough to not strengthen the core first but instead strengthen the support first.

"Where in H City? I need to remember the route first." Yun Xiuzhi asked.

"Civic Square. Just get close. When the time comes, you two hide. I'll pick you up after handling matters."

Yun Xiuzhi studied the map for a long time, organizing a route.

"Before the apocalypse, going from H City to Kunlun Mountain required a long detour. Now with the high water levels outside, we have a faster method. Detour here, advance ten kilometers, then make a few turns. The route is dozens of kilometers shorter than before the apocalypse."

Li Xuan reviewed the route, confirmed it was fine, nodded in agreement, and praised, "As expected of a female university student."

"I'll take that as a compliment for now." Yun Xiuzhi said.

Their conversation woke Huo Lingling. The little girl drowsily opened her eyes, "Bird bad, human good."

"I'm bad? I gave you chocolate for nothing." Yun Xiuzhi rolled her eyes.

Li Xuan rubbed Huo Lingling's head, "Get up, eat. Eat more today—you can eat whatever you want without restrictions."

This was Huo Lingling's first time being human. She couldn't stop eating various additive-filled foods, looking like she would burst her stomach. This was probably normal—Huo Lingling's original form was a snake that could swallow food similar to its own size. She thought humans were the same.

After witnessing how much Huo Lingling could eat, Li Xuan had been restricting her, not letting her overeat, fixing food portions, and making her exercise to burn calories. Otherwise, Huo Lingling would eventually become a chubby girl.

"Really?" Huo Lingling was delighted, bouncing up like a child.

......

H City

Apartment building rooftop near Civic Square.

Several people wearing black raincoats were waiting for the right moment.

"Team Leader, we've arrived." The leader was burly. Before the apocalypse, he was the ace coach at H City's largest gym, selling millions worth of personal training sessions annually. He loved fitness himself and had injected three types of steroids to pursue massive muscles—some called him Triple Steroid Protected.

After the apocalypse, he was recruited by officials and became a member of the Rescue Teams, codename Crocodile.

The others' codenames were based on their transformation abilities.

A woman's voice came through the walkie-talkie, "Two targets are approaching. The lure-the-tiger-to-devour-the-wolf plan is successful. Your mission this time is to seize the supernatural power of codename 'Security Guard' mutated zombie. The supernatural power of codename 'Strength' is optional depending on the situation—you can abandon it if necessary."

"Crocodile received." The burly man said.

After a long silence, the woman codenamed Water Snake spoke first, "What supernatural power does the codename Security Guard mutated zombie have? Worth the organization expending so much effort to lure the codename Strength mutated zombie to fight it, weakening Security Guard's zombie horde."

The burly man pondered, "I heard it's prepared for a very powerful individual. Their transformation ability is great white shark, and an excellent specimen among great white sharks at that—could be called White Shark King. Security Guard's supernatural power could allow the great white shark to survive in freshwater."

Great white shark!

Images of white sharks eating people from movies flashed through everyone's minds.

The great white shark's power and brutality were childhood nightmares for many children.

If a great white shark could survive in freshwater, its usefulness would directly surpass everyone present.

"Although I understand the organization's reasons, it still feels somewhat unfair. We're risking our lives to obtain supernatural power for a stranger." Water Snake couldn't help saying.

"The organization will also find suitable supernatural powers for us. Security Guard's supernatural power might not suit us. Perhaps later we'll need to rely on White Shark to obtain supernatural powers for us." Crocodile said.

Snapping Turtle suddenly interjected, "Who gets Strength's supernatural power?"

"This power has high compatibility with me." Alligator Gar, who hadn't spoken from the beginning, finally spoke.

Snapping Turtle scoffed, "Both Brother Crocodile and I have high compatibility with Strength's supernatural power."

Water Snake remained silent—Strength wasn't very compatible with her. As for Tilapia, he didn't plan to compete for Strength's supernatural power, firstly because it wasn't compatible, and secondly because he already had one supernatural power.

Speed supernatural power!

He was the first in the organization to discover mutated zombies. After defeating a mutated zombie, he luckily absorbed the Speed supernatural power, thus learning about the existence of supernatural powers and reporting it to the organization.

Without him, the organization still wouldn't have discovered the special characteristics of mutated zombies.

So far, the organization hadn't determined whether transformers could absorb a second supernatural power. Until results came out, he didn't plan to absorb new supernatural powers.

What if supernatural powers were like devil fruits in comics—one person could only eat one, and eating more would cause the body to explode? Wouldn't that be terrible?

Crocodile waved his hand, "Stop arguing. There are many zombies underwater. After seizing Security Guard's supernatural power, we might not even have a chance to seize Strength's supernatural power. The organization said mutated zombies have some intelligence—when they see Security Guard's power being taken, they'll summon zombies to protect themselves."

Snapping Turtle raised his hand, "I'm willing to yield Strength to Brother Crocodile. Among us, Brother Crocodile has the strongest individual form. After obtaining supernatural power, his combat power will increase dramatically. Even if Brother Alligator Gar and I obtain supernatural power, the effects won't match Brother Crocodile's."

Individual strength was an unavoidable aspect for transformers.

From Tilapia's data, it was clear that the stronger the initial individual form, the greater the enhancement after obtaining supernatural power.

It was like Tilapia obtaining supernatural speed—in direct confrontation, he could at most fight Crocodile to a draw.

If Crocodile obtained any supernatural power, he could crush Tilapia.

"Speaking of individual forms, have you seen the Prehistoric Colossus video? The organization analysis says it's a composite transformation ability combining Tyrannosaurus Rex, Blue Whale, and Quetzalcoatlus genes. Its individual strength surpasses all transformers. It seems to be in neighboring R City." Water Snake's eyes flashed with envy.

Her water snake transformation's individual strength gap with the Prehistoric Colossus was too large. Even if she obtained supernatural power, she wouldn't be a match for the Prehistoric Colossus unless she obtained venom enhancement to poison it to death.

Alligator Gar grunted, "After I obtain supernatural power, I can definitely defeat it! It's too big and slow. As long as I'm careful, I can wear it down to death!"