Chapter 35

Although Zhou Yun had already planned how to cook the seawater clam meat, after unloading the cargo that night, it had grown dark. He still needed to water the plants, feed the domesticated poultry and livestock, and get some exercise. In the end, he simply used a pressure cooker to make chicken soup, added noodles, and simmered a few vegetables and meatballs, quickly eating dinner before going to bed.

—-

The next morning, they began preparing the seawater clams. Zhou Yun eagerly rolled up his sleeves to open the clams, only to find that the shells were tightly shut, with not even a small gap.

In the end, it was Guan Yuanfeng who pried open the massive seawater clam.

Inside the soft, pale pink clam meat, they found not only a high-quality water-type crystal core the size of a duck egg but also a pearl the size of a pigeon egg.

The large, silver-white pearl gleamed beautifully, with a smooth, delicate surface that shimmered with a pearlescent glow. Zhou Yun held it in his hand, admiring it repeatedly, feeling the abundant water-type energy inside.

The active medicinal ingredients in the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of mutated plants would greatly improve, just as the blood, meat, skin, horns, teeth, and feathers of mutated animals would undergo significant mutations, becoming superior. So what function could the mutated pearl inside this clam have?

Ordinary pearls have some medicinal and beauty benefits, such as calming the nerves, improving vision, clearing spots, whitening the skin, and detoxifying to promote skin regeneration. However, they are mostly sold as jewelry.

Seeing Zhou Yun holding the pearl and deep in thought, the pearly glow shining on his face like moonlight, the room seemed to brighten a little. Guan Yuanfeng, a bit intrigued, asked, “Does it have any special effects?”

Zhou Yun replied, “I can feel the abundant water-type energy inside. I have a guess, but I need to test it.”

Zhou Yun went up to the rooftop, waved his hand, and released a group ice arrow, a skill he could only cast after reaching the fourth level in his past life. It required a large amount of energy and precise control. With his current third-level energy core, he shouldn’t have been able to release it.

After realizing his supernatural abilities, he focused on improving his wood-type skills, while for water-type abilities, he could only use a few attack and defense skills, such as ice walls and ice arrows.

But now, with this pearl in his hand, he felt a tremendous water-type energy surge into his palm, and in an instant, several crystal-clear ice blades were released, piercing through the air.

Beside him, Guan Yuanfeng felt a sudden chill, with the speed being fast, many ice arrows, and the speed at which they were launched was also incredibly swift.

It worked! Zhou Yun looked at the pearl in his hand, disbelief in his eyes. How did he not realize such a thing existed in his previous life? If water-type abilities could have something like this, what about other types? Wood-type… What would that be? And other supernatural abilities—lightning, wind—if they too had something that could amplify them, what would it be?

Gemstones? Fruits? Bones… teeth… or even… stones?

Guan Yuanfeng asked, “Is it enhancing your abilities? Is the effect permanent?”

Zhou Yun replied, “No, holding it temporarily boosts the power of my abilities and allows me to perform higher-level skills.”

Zhou Yun felt the pearl for a moment. “It seems it can’t be used continuously, but the energy inside is still there. I think it needs a recharge time. I’ll observe it further.”

Guan Yuanfeng nodded. “It’s really amazing. It seems you’re right—anything could mutate in the apocalypse, anything could happen.”

Zhou Yun rotated the pearl on his fingertip. “The world is so big—nothing is impossible.”

Guan Yuanfeng said, “I’ll make you a string to wear it. The jewelry I brought back yesterday, I’ll modify it and set the pearl into it.”

Zhou Yun wasn’t too concerned. He handed it to him. “Alright, thank you, Guan Yuanfeng.”

After taking the water-type crystal core, Guan Yuanfeng asked, “Aren’t you going to absorb it now?”

Zhou Yun said, “The quality is really good. I feel like it would be a waste if I use it now. I don’t think I can absorb it all. I’ll wait until my abilities improve.”

Guan Yuanfeng saw him start preparing the clam meat, realizing that Zhou Yun was really going to follow through with what he said last night—he would have three meals from one clam. He thought for a moment and said, “After eating, I want to teach you how to use a gun.”

Zhou Yun looked up. “Sure.” Actually, he had learned to use one in his previous life. As a core researcher, he had been assigned a guard with a gun in the lab.

Guan Yuanfeng was satisfied. He had been worried Zhou Yun wouldn’t want to learn, but after spending some time together, he realized Zhou Yun was an extremely broad-minded person with an exceptional learning ability. From all the people he had met, Zhou Yun was undoubtedly the smartest.

After the steamed garlic clam meat, stir-fried clam with chives, radish steamed cake, and braised pork with cabbage were prepared, they had an unusually luxurious breakfast. Even Comet seemed to enjoy the food.

The mutated sea clam meat was indeed full of energy. After eating a little, Zhou Yun felt his body energized, brimming with vitality, almost wanting to run around and stretch his muscles.

After breakfast, Guan Yuanfeng went back to his room to get the gun. On the rooftop, he began to teach Zhou Yun, but first, he handed him a pendant. “See if this suits you.”

Zhou Yun didn’t expect Guan Yuanfeng to act so quickly. When he picked it up, he saw that the pearl had been set into a square platinum setting, strung on a black leather cord. The rotating pearl inside the square frame shimmered, silver-white and elegant.

Zhou Yun was a little surprised. “Thank you.”

He awkwardly tried to open the leather cord’s metal clasp. Guan Yuanfeng said, “I’ll help you put it on.” He took the cord and fastened it around Zhou Yun’s neck, then looked him over. Zhou Yun was wearing a simple black cotton t-shirt, and the pendant stood out beautifully, making him smile. “Nice.”

Zhou Yun said, “Good taste.”

Guan Yuanfeng replied, “It’s from the jewelry I brought back yesterday. The platinum setting originally had a cat’s-eye jade ball inside.”

Zhou Yun nodded as he watched Guan Yuanfeng take out a handgun and began explaining its structure and functions in great detail.

Zhou Yun was captivated by Guan Yuanfeng’s strong arms and large palms, but his fingers moved so nimbly as he disassembled and reassembled the gun. Zhou Yun was completely focused on listening.

Guan Yuanfeng was satisfied that Zhou Yun was paying such close attention. He stood behind him, holding his hand to teach him the proper way to grip the gun and aim. After a while, he corrected his posture and stepped back to watch him try shooting.

After a while, Guan Yuanfeng asked, “What’s wrong? Are you hot?”

Zhou Yun turned to look at him, lightly coughing. “Um… yes, it’s a bit hot. I’m worried about the bees in the villa downstairs. I want to check on them, and I also need to plant the flowering plants I brought back yesterday.”

Guan Yuanfeng knew that Zhou Yun wasn’t particularly interested in this, but despite that, he was learning quickly, and his form was almost perfect. However, since there was no shooting range, no bullets, and no practice rounds…

Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind. “Alright, then you go take care of the plants. I’ll go out for a bit.”

Zhou Yun looked surprised. Guan Yuanfeng said, “Don’t worry about me. I’m going to the city, to the nearby lookout posts and the old police station, to collect some bullets and weapons. I’ve been there before, I know the terrain, and I’m familiar with the armory. I should be back quickly.”

Zhou Yun understood but still said, “Take Comet with you.”

Guan Yuanfeng said, “It’s happier following you, right? Don’t worry, I have a machine gun, it’ll be fine.”

Zhou Yun replied, “Take it with you. There are more zombies in the city, it’s better to be safe with a dog, and bring back more crystal cores.”

Although Zhou Yun knew that Guan Yuanfeng’s lightning abilities were incredibly strong, and that zombies were no match for him, he also knew that as Guan Yuanfeng’s abilities evolved, he would need to face more zombies in battle. Zhou Yun also remembered that Guan Yuanfeng had been disabled before, and wasn’t the type to stay indoors. He must have been eager to show his strength.

Still, Zhou Yun had some concerns. Bringing Comet, who could spit fire, would make it much safer.

He glanced at Comet, who seemed to understand what they were saying. Comet was sitting there, vigorously wagging its tail, eagerly watching its owner, obviously wanting to go outside.

Guan Yuanfeng said some nonsense about how Comet wanted to stay with him, but it was clear that he just wanted to keep Comet around to protect himself. However, he felt very safe in the neighborhood.

He added, “The main gate of the neighborhood is locked, and all the zombies inside have been cleared. I can handle a few zombies myself, as you saw with the mass ice arrows earlier. I’m not weaker than you.”

“How about I go as well?”

This sentence immediately convinced Guan Yuanfeng. “No need. You stay here, I’ll bring Comet along.” It was obvious that Zhou Yun didn’t like to fight.

Zhou Yun then set the rules: “You need to be back before 6 PM, wear protective gear and helmets, and Comet needs to wear its protective gear too.”

Guan Yuanfeng knew there was no phone service now, and if he didn’t return on time, Zhou Yun would definitely be worried. He nodded, “Don’t worry.”

Zhou Yun went inside and brought out a backpack for him. “Emergency medicines, zombie repellent, and zombie attraction agents are in here. The black bottle is for repelling, the red bottle is for attracting, and I’ve labeled them.”

“Here are the electric batons, compressed biscuits, energy bars, fruits, and water…”

He explained the usage of everything to Guan Yuanfeng, then went out to the greenhouse to tend to the seedlings he had brought back from the forest nursery the day before. The two mutated tree saplings were too precious for him to part with, so he had already placed them in the dome restaurant, putting them in two large deep pots, waiting to transplant them in the spring after the snow melts.

The rest of the flowers, trees, and fruit trees were planted in the backyard of Yuexi No. 3 and by the lake, mainly for the convenience of the mutated bees to gather nectar.

By the river, he set up a large greenhouse, planting all the herbal seedlings from the forest farm that weren’t extremely rare but still of decent quality. He just hoped they could survive the winter.

After finishing up downstairs, he killed a free-range chicken, cooked it with the remaining seafood, and then brought out a lamb leg to thaw in water. After that, he went to the rooftop garden.

He played with a pearl in his hand, feeling that it still couldn’t be used. It seemed like the cooldown time was long, similar to game items.

Unfortunately… if he had a treasure that could enhance wood abilities, he would be able to use the prosperity spell once a day. He sighed in regret, looking at the precious herbs in his greenhouse. If he had such an enhancement item, how many valuable herbs could he grow…

He sighed again, thinking that using game terms, this would be breaking the game balance. Being able to be reborn was already powerful enough—he shouldn’t be too greedy.

He carefully used the prosperity spell on each plant, giving extra power to the new stars, the red yew and the sandalwood. As expected, these two reacted minimally to the power, indicating that they were high-level mutated plants.

This made Zhou Yun very excited to see how they would grow.

—–

After a busy day, the sun was setting. He went up to the 30th floor to prepare dinner. At exactly 6 PM, Guan Yuanfeng returned.

Dinner was lavish: the seafood was used in a free-range chicken soup, half a pot of braised lamb, and a stir-fried ginger duck with golden lemon slices.

Guan Yuanfeng carried a heavy suitcase upstairs, and Zhou Yun immediately knew he had brought back a lot of good stuff. “How was it?”

Guan Yuanfeng opened the suitcase: “Not bad, they evacuated in a hurry. Many weapons and ammunition were left behind. I put one box in the car as a backup, one in the villa basement, and this one on the top floor. There are also daily supplies, medicines, and tools. I saw that there was no shortage upstairs, so I stored them in the villa basement warehouse. You can take a look when you have time and take anything you need.”

When Zhou Yun heard him say “we,” his heart warmed. He walked over and opened the suitcase, seeing boxes of bullets, well-packaged guns, and Guan Yuanfeng taking out a heavy bag of crystal cores. “Today’s haul.”

He took Comet to the bathroom: “Let’s shower first. What did you cook? It smells so good.”

Comet was dirty, its fur even curled a bit, but it was in great spirits, wagging its tail proudly as if receiving a medal of honor.

Zhou Yun smiled, “Braised lamb, and the free-range chicken and seafood from yesterday in soup. Hurry up and wash, then come eat.”

He served the meal. Guan Yuanfeng and Comet came over, and as they ate, Guan Yuanfeng spoke about what he had encountered today:

“The zombies outside are definitely fiercer than the ones in the neighborhood. I think it’s because there is food outside.”

“Some of them run fast, others are very strong.”

“But the crystal cores are also much bigger than the ones in the neighborhood, mostly with attributes.”

“Both of your medicines worked. The repellent can last about 15 minutes, but once the smell fades, the zombies can’t resist their craving for fresh flesh and will rush back.”

“The attraction agent worked too. Once sprinkled, zombies swarmed in, and Comet could burn several with one spray. It seems like Comet is evolving too.”

Zhou Yun nodded. Actually, after the winter, the zombie tide would grow bigger and more numerous, and among them, there were zombies with abilities. Meanwhile, after the long cold winter, the plants that woke up would also mutate, evolving skills and starting to learn how to hunt animals and humans.

The road is long, and both Zhou Yun and Guan Yuanfeng needed to level up quickly to keep up with the changes.

For the next few days, Guan Yuanfeng took Comet out early each morning, and by evening, returned with supplies, gasoline, diesel, coal, and some plants and animals that seemed different from normal.

Soon, Guan Yuanfeng leveled up to level three, catching up to Zhou Yun. Though he didn’t know it, Zhou Yun could see that he had successfully learned to use various combo abilities like group kill lightning bolts, chain hurricanes, and wind walls, and even intuitively learned to use wind abilities to speed up his movement.

Zhou Yun sighed in his heart. Indeed, Guan Yuanfeng’s ability was praised by all the major bases in the past life, a king-level ability, with the highest combat value, especially with his wind and electricity dual abilities. If there was an experience bar, Guan Yuanfeng would be one to strike down four or five zombies with lightning, increasing his experience each time.

He was catalyzing a plant, gaining 1 experience point.

He extended his hand and tapped on the eggplant on the rooftop. It was late autumn, and the eggplant, having been exposed to the autumn frost, still remained large and shiny purple under his daily care.

This eggplant clears heat from the stomach, contains solanine, and can inhibit tumors in the digestive system, which is good for the stomach. However, it was obvious that Guan Yuanfeng didn’t particularly like eating it… though he still ate it.

Recently, the eggplants had been abundant, and he was too lazy to dry them, so he made several eggplant dishes instead.

He would stir-fry them with green peppers and tomatoes, or fry them, and Guan Yuanfeng would like it more. Cold dishes didn’t work as well, though. Yesterday, he steamed the eggplant with chrysanthemums, and the expression on Guan Yuanfeng’s face was indescribable.

Zhou Yun couldn’t help but laugh. Radishes, cabbages, mustard, kale, and spinach, after being frosted, became sweeter and softer, but eggplant really didn’t taste as good. He thought to himself that maybe it was best to harvest the eggplants and plant something else.

Then there was his mutated giant pumpkin. He wanted to harvest it but was a bit reluctant, thinking it might grow even larger. Maybe he could transplant it to the greenhouse behind the villa; perhaps with real ground, it would grow even bigger…

He was standing on the rooftop planning how to handle these vegetables before winter when he suddenly saw a black sky with a flash of orange-yellow light streaking across the horizon, like a match scratching a fire on the sky, leaving a starry streak.

He stood still for a moment, then rushed to the stairs, shouting, “Guan Yuanfeng! Guan Yuanfeng!”

His voice was urgent, and Guan Yuanfeng rushed out with Comet, his face serious, even holding a gun. “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Yun waved him over. “Come up quickly.”

Guan Yuanfeng thought it was some mutated bird coming again. He hurried up the stairs, only to find the rooftop was quiet and serene, with crickets chirping among the vegetable patches.

He was slightly stunned. “What’s going on?”

Zhou Yun gestured. “Look at the sky, pay attention.”

He pointed toward the distant sky over the sea.

Guan Yuanfeng focused on the sky, seeing only the velvet-like autumn night, quiet and mysterious.

He didn’t quite understand but saw that Zhou Yun was holding his breath, focusing intently on the horizon, so he didn’t ask further.

After a while, an orange-red meteor streaked across the sky, cutting through the sky with a long silver-white tail, as if it had fallen into the sea on the distant horizon.

It was the first time Guan Yuanfeng had seen such a clear and bright meteor. He was astonished. “A meteor?”

Zhou Yun shook his head. “It’s a meteor shower.”

It was as if some signal had been activated. The once-silent night sky started to get noisy, with meteors streaking across the sky, some silver, some blue-green, some gold, all sparkling in the air, dazzling and radiant, flashing by quickly.

The sky was full of commotion, gorgeous and strange, intoxicating and chaotic, making one feel like they were in a dream.

Guan Yuanfeng was finally stunned by the dazzling starry phenomenon. “Is this… another disaster?”

Zhou Yun stared at the fleeting brilliance before him, smiling. “No… it’s just beautiful.” That’s why I called you up here, don’t miss it.

—–

In his past life, when he saw this meteor shower, he had already been at the San Chu base at the junction of three provinces, having long parted ways with Guan Yuanfeng.

It was probably another weary night of the apocalypse, with the vast universe and distant time and space, and humans as small as dust in the wind. He couldn’t remember the feeling he had when he saw the meteor shower back then. After all, every night was filled with loneliness.

But this time, in this life, someone was with him to watch the starry sky, and the scenery seemed more meaningful.

He murmured, “Let’s go fishing at the reservoir tomorrow.” This was a plan he had long had, but because Guan Yuanfeng had recently been busy leveling up in the city, collecting crystal cores and gathering supplies, the plan had been delayed.

Guan Yuanfeng hadn’t expected Zhou Yun to suddenly switch to such a strange topic while watching the meteor shower.

He had long noticed that Zhou Yun’s thoughts were very active, often changing topics abruptly from one sentence to the next.

At first, he found it odd, but later realized that it wasn’t entirely unrelated. Zhou Yun’s mind was very active, and he made more associations than most people, often thinking through several connected matters or things in his mind before arriving at a new topic.

He didn’t know how Zhou Yun acted in front of others, but he guessed that ordinary people might think Zhou Yun’s thoughts were all over the place.

But Guan Yuanfeng knew that there must be a connection between the meteor shower and fishing at the reservoir. Zhou Yun often thought a lot, and when he was deeply focused, it was hard to interrupt him.

So he naturally asked, “Why did you suddenly think about going fishing at the reservoir?”

Zhou Yun said, “I think the weather is about to turn cold, so we should go to the reservoir and catch some mutated fish, gather a few water-type crystal cores, and also catch some big fish to freeze for winter storage.”

Because this winter would be long, he remembered that in his past life, after the meteor shower, it suddenly started snowing heavily. The unprecedented snowstorm cut off all transportation, and zombies, unable to catch prey in the wild, started gathering into large hordes to attack human bases.

Many bases had insufficient food reserves, the city walls weren’t high enough, and the defenses were too weak. They were surrounded and attacked by zombies day and night, and could only keep retreating. The cold weather also made things worse for people without warm clothes, food, or heating methods. The people stranded outside died one after another, becoming zombies, and the zombie hordes grew larger and began to evolve.

Before winter came, they needed to stockpile as much food and supplies as possible. This instinct of stockpiling was deeply engraved in his memory.

Fortunately, recently, Guan Yuanfeng had been bringing back one or two barrels of gasoline or diesel every day, so their heating supplies should be sufficient. But as ability users, they still needed more food security.

Guan Yuanfeng had no objections. “Okay.”

The boat and fishing equipment were already prepared. Although he didn’t know why Zhou Yun, who had been so immersed in the sky’s beautiful view, suddenly seemed to fall into some melancholic thoughts, worrying about winter food supplies.

However, he had already realized that when Zhou Yun said “maybe,” it was most likely a certainty.

He couldn’t understand how Zhou Yun was able to judge and reason to certain conclusions, but it seemed that Zhou Yun possessed an astonishing intuition and a higher level of research acumen than most people. He just needed to trust him, there was no need to dig deeper.