The little monkey's spirits lifted instantly. Its elongated legs shrank back to normal size, and it bounded over to the female zombie's corpse.

It reached out with a furry hand and grabbed.

Then froze.

It might be uneducated-just a six-month-old baby monkey-but that didn't make it stupid.

Realization dawned quickly. Its face fell, and it turned to shoot Zhao Yin a resentful look.

"Why aren't you eating?" Zhao Yin asked impatiently.

The little monkey withdrew its hand, aggrieved, and lowered its head. When it realized the thing in its grasp was just a chunk of rotting zombie flesh, its mood plummeted.

Zhao Yin pulled a slightly moldy piece of bread from his Spatial Ring. "I don't have steamed buns, but there's still some bread left."

The little monkey snatched the bread, and its spirits soared again.

It hopped along, gnawing on the bread while trotting on its stubby legs behind Zhao Yin.

Along the way, they encountered a few scattered zombies. Zhao Yin ordered the little monkey to deal with each one. With food as a reward, its courage grew steadily.

Sometimes it didn't even wait for Zhao Yin's command before charging forward to attack.

Two hours later, Zhao Yin finally circled back to the residential compound.

From a distance, he spotted his villa standing alone amid the ruins. A zombie was shambling outside the front door.

Zhao Yin recognized it immediately-Dong Jun, the community security guard he'd personally killed. Now one of the undead.

This time, Zhao Yin didn't send the little monkey. He stepped forward himself and caved in the zombie's skull with the back of his blade.

Then he led the little monkey through the door.

The supplies inside were untouched. No signs of intrusion.

Perhaps he had the zombie Dong Jun to thank for that.

Unfortunately, the food had deteriorated even further during his absence.

Zhao Yin had expected as much. He quickly swept everything into his Spatial Ring.

Over the following days, Zhao Yin took the little monkey out during daylight hours to hunt zombies and search for Star Crystals.

By now, all the surface-level Star Crystals had been devoured by returning zombies. The only way to obtain them was to cut them out of zombie corpses.

Three days passed in a blur.

Zhao Yin encountered nine zombies that had consumed Star Crystals, yielding nine crystals total.

From the previous seven, he'd cracked open: one sandwich bread, three bottles of Nongfu Spring water, one pack of instant noodles, one can of tuna, and one compressed biscuit.

All F-grade food and water.

Zhao Yin wasn't surprised. In his previous life, most Star Crystal drops were bottom-tier supplies. Luck like he'd had three days ago was rare.

The tuna and compressed biscuit were new additions to his inventory.

[Tuna Can: Grade F | Type: Supernatural Food | Effect: Grants immunity to viruses below F-grade for 24 hours after consumption]

[Compressed Biscuit: Grade F | Type: Supernatural Food | Effect: Maintains peak energy for 72 hours]

Now Zhao Yin held the two Star Crystals he'd obtained today and let out a long breath.

For three days straight, he hadn't returned home with the little monkey until late at night. This body was still ordinary human flesh. The relentless combat had worn him down to the bone.

"Two Star Crystals left. If only one of them would drop an Evolution Potion," Zhao Yin said through their mental link.

The little monkey looked up at him, clueless about what an "Evolution Potion" even was.

Zhao Yin ignored it and cracked open the first crystal.

White light faded. A bottle of mineral water materialized before him.

Nongfu Spring. Again. The most useless drop a Star Crystal could produce.

Zhao Yin's expression went flat. He cracked open the second crystal without much hope, then glanced at the little monkey. "Still hoping for food?"

The little monkey nodded frantically.

It had zero interest in other supplies, but supernatural food? The creature was practically addicted.

Ever since tasting that sandwich bread, the little monkey had been drooling in its sleep.

"Fine. If food drops, I'll let you have a piece-" Zhao Yin caught himself. Making careless promises seemed unwise.

The little monkey's breath hitched. Its pupils dilated as it stared at him, trembling with excitement.

Zhao Yin paused, then amended: "A piece of ordinary bread."

The little monkey deflated instantly.

But it no longer dared curse him in its thoughts. It had learned the hard way that its pig-faced master could hear everything.

Zhao Yin smirked. Teasing the monkey always improved his mood.

Only then did he turn to see what the second crystal had produced.

His pupils contracted.

A black vial.

[Evolution Potion: Grade F | Type: Basic Potion | Effect: Activates the human evolutionary gene upon consumption, transforming the user into a New Human]

Speak of the devil. Had his luck actually improved since rebirth?

Even the True Sight description was longer than usual.

Zhao Yin snatched up the vial, grinning. "Monkey! Today you get another piece of bread. No-make it two!"

The little monkey eyed the Evolution Potion. It could sense its master's surging emotions and let out two halfhearted squeaks.

Zhao Yin tossed it two pieces of moldy bread, then quickly bolted the door. He retrieved every piece of supernatural food from his Spatial Ring.

Except for the virus-immunity tuna can, he laid it all out.

Under the little monkey's pitiful gaze, Zhao Yin tore open every package and began wolfing everything down.

The little monkey went rigid. The moldy bread slipped from its fingers and hit the floor.

Drool stretched a full three feet from its mouth as it gaped at its master in disbelief.

Two days ago, Master said this supernatural food was for emergencies. Why is he eating all of it?

Didn't Master say supernatural food could save both of us in a crisis?

So he was keeping it all for himself. Not a single bite for the little monkey!

Zhao Yin kept eating. What he needed was the ability to stave off hunger.

In his previous life, when he'd obtained his first Evolution Potion, he hadn't known about the side effects. When the transformation hit, he'd devoured six months' worth of food-everything he and Lin Tianfeng had stockpiled-and still nearly starved to death.

The hunger itself he could endure. But the damage from insufficient nutrition had taken over ten days to heal.

The zombies would start evolving any day now. Zhao Yin couldn't afford that kind of downtime. So he chose to consume most of his supernatural food reserves in advance.

Soon, aside from the lucky few that had swallowed Star Crystals, ordinary zombies would begin forming Corpse Crystals inside their bodies.

Corpse Crystals could boost both his evolutionary strength and the little monkey's power.

Once he finished the Evolution Potion, he'd finally have real combat capability against those things.

After clearing out the supernatural food, Zhao Yin pulled out five bottles of Nongfu Spring. He chugged three in rapid succession, his stomach swelling round before he finally stopped.

Beside him, the little monkey swallowed hard.

"Once I become an Evolver," Zhao Yin said, "we'll hunt more zombies tomorrow. Next time we get supernatural food, you eat first."

The little monkey stared at him with naked skepticism.

Zhao Yin retrieved nearly a hundred jin of spoiled ordinary food from his Spatial Ring and piled it within arm's reach.

Then he uncorked the Evolution Potion.

Gulp.

The liquid slid down his throat. Searing pain exploded through every nerve. Every muscle felt like it was being ground to pulp and reassembled from scratch.

Simultaneously, his body began to visibly shrink. His bloated stomach deflated as the supernatural food was consumed at a terrifying rate.

Ten minutes in, Zhao Yin's skin flushed crimson. Sweat gushed from every pore. Black, oily residue seeped out through his skin. A nauseating stench filled the room.

This kind of agony broke ordinary people. In his previous life, many had killed themselves rather than endure it. Others with weaker wills simply died from the pain alone.

Zhao Yin clenched his jaw. Strangled groans escaped through his teeth.

His face contorted. With trembling hands, he grabbed the remaining Nongfu Spring bottles and drained them. Then he started clawing at the spoiled food packaging.

The little monkey saw his hands shaking and scrambled over to help tear open the wrappers.

It didn't steal a single bite. Every morsel went straight into Zhao Yin's mouth. Then it tilted water bottles to his lips.

In that moment, the monkey looked like a devoted child nursing its bedridden father.

An hour later, Zhao Yin's trembling finally subsided. The pain began to ebb.

Two hours later.

Despite consuming all the supernatural food and fifty to sixty jin of ordinary provisions, his cheeks had hollowed from the rapid weight loss.

Three and a half hours later.

Over a hundred jin of food-gone. Zhao Yin collapsed onto the bed, utterly spent, and passed out instantly.

Before losing consciousness, he issued one final command: "Guard me. When I wake up, I'll take you to find supernatural food."

The little monkey clutched Zhao Yin's bone-cleaver and crouched at the bedside, unmoving.

It looked as obedient as a child.

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