Li Xuan held his phone, scrolling through various group chats filled with pleas for help and bloody photos. His social media feeds were also flooded with them, including people asking whether being bitten by a zombie guaranteed infection, and if willpower could overcome it to become a self-aware zombie.

As an orphan without a wife or girlfriend, naturally no one called him when the apocalypse descended.

For safety's sake, he set his phone to silent mode to prevent any sudden ringing from putting him in danger.

After browsing for a while, he found nothing but apocalyptic news playing across all platforms.

Suddenly, he came across a sixteen-second video with a caption claiming the poster had awakened a supernatural ability to transform into animals. The video documented the transformation process in detail—within just two to three seconds, the person changed into a powerful black bull.

The video had over four hundred likes and thousands of comments.

At the end, the poster returned to human form and spoke to the camera: "I'm in A City's Hundred Fruits Community, looking for partners to face the apocalypse together. Women preferred, no one over thirty-five, no men."

A thought formed in Li Xuan's mind: 'Trash filled with nothing but dirty thoughts.'

First of all, world-ending superpowers didn't exist in the early apocalypse. The video poster must have eaten beef when the darkness descended to gain bovine transformation ability.

While bulls possessed greater strength and tougher physique than humans with decent hide defense, they lacked hands and couldn't use tools, making them highly inconvenient. Bull hide couldn't withstand zombie bites either—encountering large hordes meant certain death as a bull.

They held no advantage against humans either—a simple knife could pierce their hide, a single bullet could penetrate it and send them to heaven.

Compared to bull transformation, turning into a bird would be better since at least birds could fly and avoid zombie bites.

By exposing his location, the poster might as well be seeking death. Apocalyptic dangers didn't just come from zombies—human evil could sometimes be more terrifying than the undead.

Every era had its ruthless people, and some might see this video, track down the address, and force him to reveal how to obtain supernatural abilities.

Opening the comments section, various responses filled the screen.

'Turning into a bull? Not special effects? Has the supernatural really appeared?'

'Zombies are here, the apocalypse has come—anything can happen. Based on my years of experience with AI face-swap videos, this is definitely real.'

'Only accepting women? You've got quite the imagination, kid.'

'Just a transformation ability? Like nobody else has it. I can turn into my husband too.'

Most comments asked how to gain supernatural abilities, while a small portion expressed skepticism and mockery, criticizing the poster for thinking about women so soon after the apocalypse began. The final segment consisted of women recommending themselves, though few in number—probably because nobody was hungry yet.

Given time, with no food and empty stomachs, people's moral boundaries would continuously erode.

Time passed slowly, and the commotion outside gradually diminished.

True night arrived.

A mechanical voice sounded in Li Xuan's mind.

Intelligence refresh.

[Zombie Horde Outbreak] [Evasion Path Empress]

Li Xuan's gaze sharpened as he first checked the zombie horde outbreak intelligence.

[Zombie Horde Outbreak: Tomorrow, 14:00, Star River Square zombie horde outbreak. Over fifty thousand zombies will devour all life.]

Li Xuan's heart tightened. Star River Square wasn't far from his home—he needed to act quickly tomorrow and return home before the horde outbreak.

Once trapped by a zombie horde, survival odds would drop to one in ten.

He still wasn't sure if his transformed form could withstand zombie bites, and he wouldn't take unnecessary risks—avoidance remained his priority.

Life came only once, and he wouldn't gamble with his.

[Evasion Path Empress: Yun Xiuzhi gained pigeon transformation ability during the first version update. Terrified by zombies, she turned into a pigeon and hid in Honey Deer Café, where she encountered Bai Lengning and others taking shelter. Mistaken for a real pigeon, she nearly got eaten until she pretended to be a spiritual communication pigeon, saving herself.

Fearful of being discovered as human and abandoned, she continued pretending to be a real pigeon. When her transformation time neared its limit, she would find a secluded spot to recover strength, avoid detection, then return to pigeon form and follow Bai Lengning's group.

Even after Bai Lengning's group was discovered and rescued by official military forces, she still didn't reveal her true form.

During the second version global mutation, Bai Lengning awakened supernatural abilities and was rated as a C-level ability user by the official survivor base. As animals worldwide began mutating and evolving, Yun Xiuzhi's pigeon form showed no signs of mutation, leading to her abandonment.

Left with no choice, Yun Xiuzhi left the base. While searching for a safe nest, she accidentally discovered a mutated spirit fruit. After consuming it, her bloodline mutated, granting her control over wind and thunder with greatly increased speed. She fled from every mutated animal she encountered, never engaging in combat, barely surviving the second version.

During the third version martial arts revival and strange phenomenon emergence, Yun Xiuzhi attempted to learn martial arts. However, due to prolonged time as a pigeon, she struggled to adapt to human form and failed at martial training. She accidentally encountered a Brain Snatcher Strange Being, which seized control of her body. Due to physical discomfort and her preference for pigeon form over human form, she coincidentally subdued the Brain Snatcher Strange Being.

Using the Brain Snatcher's ability to borrow others' brains for cultivation and thinking, Yun Xiuzhi eventually became the 'Non-Combat Empress,' meaning she never fought anyone before achieving empress status, also jokingly called the Evasion Path Empress.]

Evasion Path Empress.

Quite interesting.

Li Xuan's thoughts churned, somewhat surprised that Bai Lengning had managed relatively well—during the first version, she had Yun Xiuzhi scouting intelligence outside and fortunately encountered official military forces.

During the second version, she awakened abilities—probably not strong based on the rating, but better than nothing. Coupled with living in an official survivor base, she should have been comfortable.

After his surprise, Li Xuan began pondering. He remembered Honey Deer Café wasn't far from the museum, in the same direction as his home.

Bai Lengning and A Yun probably encountered the zombie horde outbreak while returning home, took shelter in the café, and met Yun Xiuzhi in pigeon form. He just didn't know where Bai Lengning's group finally hid when they encountered the official military.

Single intelligence often contained multiple pieces of information. Though not detailed, through peripheral clues he could deduce certain things, facilitating early planning.

The most crucial aspect of the Evasion Path Empress intelligence was undoubtedly Yun Xiuzhi—an extremely timid girl. As long as her timid nature remained unchanged, keeping her in pigeon form for extended periods would likely lead to her subduing the Brain Snatcher Strange Being and becoming the Non-Combat Empress.

Intercepting Bai Lengning early, taking the pigeon, and not abandoning it later would net him a future empress.

Moreover, Yun Xiuzhi wasn't dead weight. From the intelligence, she could maintain pigeon form for long periods, could fly, ate little, could be carried around without safety concerns, and proved highly useful during the first version for intelligence gathering.

During the second version, after eating the spirit fruit and gaining great speed, she could still handle intelligence work and be sent out to search for spirit fruits and opportunities. Combined with his intelligence, great potential existed.

By the third version, Yun Xiuzhi's value would increase further. If the Brain Snatcher Strange Being's ability could be transferred to others, then Yun Xiuzhi would become a god-tier support. If not, with Yun Xiuzhi as empress, he could still accomplish many things through her power.

Li Xuan's eyes flickered with decision. He didn't want to be strong for just one version—he aimed to dominate all versions, gathering all version's powerful strengths to pass the trial!

Intercepting Yun Xiuzhi became imperative.

Additionally, Li Xuan organized some minor intelligence.

First: Third version Strange Beings could be subdued, probably not through force but by meeting certain harsh conditions.

In the future, he might learn subjugation conditions through intelligence in advance, thus mastering Strange Being powers.

From the Brain Snatcher Strange Being's ability, Strange Being powers seemed bizarre and unpredictable, involving rules.

Second: Transformed animals weren't immutable. Yun Xiuzhi's pigeon form eating a mutated spirit fruit gained wind and thunder powers with greatly increased speed. If his transformed giant beast ate spirit fruits, would it become stronger?

After all, animal size created inherent differences. Additionally, previous intelligence suggested choosing large-sized animals when possible.

During the second version, humans could awaken abilities while animals mutated. Since he could transform into a giant beast, could he both awaken abilities and mutate?

Third: The officially established survivor base survived the first version and still existed during the second version. Joining offered greater safety—though crises might occur during version transitions, survival probability significantly exceeded going alone.

Regarding whether to join the officially established survivor base, Li Xuan remained undecided. For early planning, he would inevitably do some unusual things that might prove inconvenient within an official survivor base, though safety remained high.

In the apocalypse, safety proved extremely precious.