Without a word from Jiang Le, the wolf’s instinct to upgrade prompted him to extract two soybean-sized nucleus crystals from the brains of the three corpses. His dark, gleaming eyes

glanced at Jiang Le—as if afraid he might try to snatch them—and swiftly swallowed the nucleus crystals right there on the spot.

Jiang Le was a bit speechless, but he didn’t stop the little wolf. He hadn’t expected that after swallowing the nucleus crystals, the little wolf would take only two steps before its paws began to stumble. Confused and reluctant—it had intended to run after consuming the nucleus crystals—but as its vision grew heavy, it could no longer maintain its transformed form. It staggered and collapsed with a thud right in front of Jiang Le.

This saved Jiang Le the trouble of chasing after it to capture it. He bent down to pick up the limp little wolf from the floor, stowed the remaining rice and flour from the shelves into his spatial pocket, then turned and left the supermarket.

After this brief encounter, Jiang Le had no desire to linger in the city any longer. He drove back along the same route to Jiangjia Village. It wasn’t until the car came to a stop that he finally found a moment to check the notification the system had sent while he was still in the supermarket.

“Congratulations, Host, on completing your first battle alongside your pet. Host-pet intimacy has increased to 5 points. Please keep up the good work—higher intimacy improves combat synergy and strengthens your bond with your pet!”

“Congratulations, Host! You have earned 50 personal experience points through combat!”

Jiang Le raised an eyebrow. The bond level, which had always been in the negative, had actually risen above zero after just one battle—this was far more efficient than simply keeping the little wolf locked in the spatial pocket and feeding it.

Furthermore, he discovered that combat could also yield personal experience points—and the amount was nearly equivalent to what he’d earn from a full day’s work at Jiang Le’s farm. He wasn’t sure exactly how the system defined “combat,” though.

All in all, it seemed he should let the little wolf out of the spatial pocket from time to time.

For now, however, Jiang Le looked at the gray ball curled up with its eyes closed in the passenger seat, which didn’t even react when he grabbed it by the neck and lifted it.

It had swallowed two Level 2 superpower user nucleus crystals in one go. Although the power within the crystals was limited, for a beast of the same level, digesting them was still quite a challenge.

If Xiao Lang hadn’t gone and gobbled them down on his own, Jiang Le had planned to stash the two nucleus crystals away and feed them to Xiao Lang one at a time to observe the effects. Now, he had no idea how long Xiao Lang’s comatose state would last, or what condition he’d be in once he finally woke up.

Still, their coordinated battle had gone well. Jiang Le ruffled the little wolf’s head and led it into the spatial cabin. From the supplies he’d gathered that day, he pulled out a soft, small pet bed—just the right size for the little wolf to sleep on.

When he left the spatial pocket, it was already past noon.

Jiang Le stepped over the bamboo fence and walked into the farm. Mao Xiaofei was sitting in front of the staff dormitory, shoveling down a bowl of takeout with big bites, with several empty takeout boxes scattered beside him.

Mao Xiaofei was thrilled to have moved into the staff dormitory. Although he hadn’t ventured outside since the apocalypse began, he’d seen the chaos unfolding in the outside world when the internet was still up. He’d lost contact with the uncle who’d once planned to take him to work in another province long ago, and thinking about it now made Mao Xiaofei feel as though he’d narrowly escaped a catastrophe.

He was deeply grateful to Jiang Le and worked tirelessly. But after his abilities awakened, Mao Xiaofei’s appetite had skyrocketed. He felt terrible about eating enough for several people at a time. Now that he had a job where hard work could be exchanged for a steady supply of food—a job that many others would fight for—Mao Xiaofei felt he was getting more and more of a free ride.

It wasn’t until Jiang Le officially hired him as a farm employee, arranged for the construction of staff dormitories, and installed this supply vending machine that Mao Xiaofei could finally exchange his daily labor directly for the food and supplies he needed from the machine. This significantly eased his mind.

Looking out over the farm’s fields, he saw rows of fruits and vegetables at various stages of growth. The cucumber seedlings that had climbed the trellises earliest were already bearing fruit again. A cucumber the size of a thumb, still adorned with a small, unfaded yellow flower, was wrapped in prickly spines.

Jiang Le crouched down and ran his fingertips over the spines; they felt quite sharp, and a notification regarding the cucumber’s level appeared before his eyes.

Level 2 cucumber: A timid creature that shoots spines in all directions when it feels insecure.

However, at that moment, the cucumber lay quietly in Jiang Le’s palm, showing no signs of agitation.

Crops on the farm level up as they grow, gaining unique traits. When there is no danger, they behave like ordinary crops and can still be harvested.

This characteristic applies not only to crops but also to livestock and poultry. The only difference from the mutated flora and fauna found outside the farm is that the energy source for livestock and poultry remains unchanged from before the apocalypse; they do not rely on devouring and killing their own kind to sustain themselves, nor do they exhibit aggression toward their caretakers.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

A zombie wandered at the edge of the woods, following some behavioral pattern from its former life, aimlessly making its way deeper into the mountains. Avoiding the mutated plants that might mistake it for nourishment and pull it into the greenery, the zombie’s view grew increasingly open until it reached the gate bearing the words “Peace Farm.”

But before it could cross the threshold, a sharp machete swung down from behind, cleaving its head clean off. With that, darkness engulfed its vision, and even its consciousness—reduced to nothing more than rotting flesh—ceased to exist.

Jiang Le wiped the black blood from the machete onto the zombie’s clothes. Mao Xiaofei, who had witnessed the scene from a distance, ran over, still shaken by what he’d seen. Although he had awakened his power abilities, he had never truly faced this world before and harbored a natural fear of the walking corpses.

Jiang Le, however, was quite adept at killing zombies. In his previous life as an ordinary person, low-level zombies were the only creatures they could stand a chance against. To secure meager resources, Jiang Le had spent a long time hunting them.

He instructed Mao Xiaofei, “While doing your best to avoid getting hurt, aim for their heads. That’s the quickest way to take away their ability to attack and move.”

Mao Xiaofei nodded in understanding.

Jiang Le grabbed the zombies by the hair and lifted their heads, then had Mao Xiaofei drag their bodies to the compost bin, tossing both parts into it at once.

After a few seconds of processing, the compost bin began operating smoothly.

In his previous life, one of the primary uses for low-level zombies was as bait or fertilizer. Just as there are scavengers in normal times, some mutated plants actually thrive on absorbing such rotting flesh.

That’s why Jiang Le had thought of using the compost bin to try processing the zombies—he hadn’t expected it to actually work.

After running for half an hour, the compost bin stopped. The discharge port first expelled a pile of deep black, soil-like compost—the result of successful decomposition—and then spat out a zombie nucleus crystal the size of a mung bean.

Since they evolved in the opposite direction, zombie nucleus crystals were not popular among superpower users in Jiang Le’s memory. Not knowing what to do with the zombie nucleus crystal at the moment, he simply put it away for now.

As for the successfully composted fertilizer, Jiang Le was surprised to discover that the system had classified it as “special grade fertilizer,” with a rather high buyback price. The buyback price for a single bag was 20 gold coins higher than the price the system charged for its own fertilizer.

Furthermore, the system classified his earlier zombie-slaying as combat, rewarding Jiang Le with 1 point of personal experience. While this might not seem like much, for Jiang Le at this stage, dispatching such low-level zombies was as easy as cutting through butter.

He delegated all farm work to Mao Xiaofei. With his strength-based ability and the farm’s current automation, Mao Xiaofei handled the tasks with ease. Jiang Le spent only the mornings at the farm; starting in the afternoons, he would search the surrounding areas for zombies, killing three birds with one stone.

This not only boosted the safety level around the farm and accelerated his personal experience gain, but also allowed him to process the zombie corpses into fertilizer using the composting machine and sell it to the system for system coins.

After three days of hunting zombies on his own, Xiao Lang finally awoke from his feverish stupor on the third night. When he woke up, Jiang Le was also logged into the system, standing in front of the warehouse, checking the inventory inside.

Over the past three days, he had accumulated nearly two hundred zombie nucleus crystals; though small in size, they made for a hefty handful.

Xiao Lang stared at Jiang Le’s back, deep in thought. Although this human’s combat prowess was impressive, and he had fought alongside Xiao Lang, he had ultimately restricted Xiao Lang’s freedom.

Taking advantage of the fact that he had his back to him, the little wolf silently minimized its footsteps, creeping slowly toward Jiang Le, waiting for the right moment to pounce!

The wolf leaped into the air, tracing a graceful arc, and in the blink of an eye, it was poised to land on Jiang Le’s shoulder—just a tilt of its head away from sinking its teeth into his neck.

However, just as the little wolf leaped, Jiang Le turned and took a half-step back. The little wolf’s sneak attack failed, but it couldn’t stop its momentum and crashed straight into Jiang Le’s arms.

Failing once again, the little wolf grew a bit angry and immediately struggled to jump to the ground, putting distance between itself and Jiang Le.

Jiang Le, however, was somewhat surprised. Based on the young wolf’s previous ambushes and lunges before it fell into a deep sleep, the speed at which it had just dodged should have been enough to make the young wolf miss entirely. This indicated that the young wolf had experienced a significant increase in speed after consuming the nucleus crystals of two superpower users.

The nucleus crystals of different mutant creatures carry corresponding energies; when absorbed by another, there is a chance that the corresponding psychic ability will awaken. The higher the grade of the nucleus crystal, the greater this probability.

It seemed the cub had successfully assimilated the speed nucleus crystal; as for strength, however, no noticeable changes were apparent yet.

However, the young wolf had grown in size. Though it still carried the aura of a cub, its limbs were now much sturdier and more powerful, and its claws had thickened considerably.

After landing, although the little wolf growled in dissatisfaction, it didn’t rush away from Jiang Le in agitation as it had before; in fact, even its earlier pouncing attack was mostly playful.

It seems that no matter how low positive affinity may be, it’s still worlds apart from negative affinity.

Jiang Le crouched down so his eyes were level with the cub’s and pulled an unopened can of goat milk powder from behind him. “Want some?”

The little wolf silently turned his head, signaling his refusal to associate with Jiang Le, yet his nose twitched as he couldn’t help but glance at Jiang Le out of the corner of his eye, afraid he might leave.

Jiang Le didn’t bother to argue with the sulky little brat.

A moment later, Xiao Lang was slurping down the large bowl of goat’s milk.