News of a mutated wolf infiltrating the base to launch a night raid on superpower users disturbed most of the residents in the core living quarters that very night.

Wang Weifeng’s henchman, caught in the middle of urinating, was so startled by his screams that he nearly held it in. He pulled up his pants and rushed back inside, only to find Wang Weifeng cowering in terror on the bed, staring toward the window.

Seeing his younger brother return, he pointed with his uninjured hand toward the pitch-black window: “There’s… there’s a mutated wolf running out of there!”

The younger brother grew tense at the mention of “mutant wolf,” but when he cautiously ran to the window, he saw nothing. However, the superpower users patrolling downstairs had been drawn by the blood-curdling scream from upstairs and shouted up from below, “Hey, what’s going on up there? What’s all the commotion about in the middle of the night?”

All the patrolmen were superpower users with senses far sharper than ordinary superpower users. Seeing their reaction, the younger brother turned back to look at Wang Weifeng, suspecting his boss might be hallucinating.

“He was just outside a moment ago. If there were any mutated wolves, how come he’s still in one piece?”

When the patrol team came upstairs and asked what had happened, their assessment matched that of Wang Weifeng’s subordinate: they believed it was highly likely that Wang Weifeng had been affected by the venom of a mutated leech and was experiencing hallucinations in the middle of the night.

After all, a mutant wolf that powerful wouldn’t just come in to bite you without stealing anything or killing anyone. What would be the point?

As for that arm with all the bones shattered—it’s not impossible for a superpower user to snap their own arm during a hallucination.

Upon hearing this, Wang Weifeng was so furious he nearly fainted—though with so many people claiming he was hallucinating, he too began to wonder if he really was seeing things.

After all, if this were true, why would a mutated wolf capable of killing him with a single bite not just kill him outright, but instead only cripple one of his arms?

Wang Weifeng’s screams didn’t carry far to the average ear, but they were still easy for Jiang Le to pick up. Considering the little wolf’s behavior tonight and the events leading up to it, Jiang Le had a pretty good idea of the reason.

So when the little wolf returned with a “So what if I don’t listen?” expression, Jiang Le didn’t say a word. Instead, he ruffled the wolf’s head and leaned down to nuzzle it with his forehead.

The defiant behavior didn’t draw the expected scolding; instead, all the little wolf could see was Jiang Le’s face drawing near and the sensation of his soft skin pressing against his own.

The little wolf remained in a daze until Jiang Le carried it back to the space.

Jiang Le had observed that while most of the superpower users at Hope Base were Level 2, there were still quite a few Level 3s. Moreover, it was said that the base’s strongest superpower user was currently in seclusion; Jiang Le guessed that person was at least nearly Level 3, and might even already be Level 4.

What the post-apocalyptic world had no shortage of was powerful individuals. The fact that even a small base like this had no shortage of Level 3 superpower users—let alone the resource-rich major bases—only intensified Jiang Le’s sense of urgency to level up faster.

Although he wasn’t physically at the farm, he could monitor its status in real time through the farm system.

During the time Jiang Le was away from the farm, it operated according to the established plan. With the significant expansion of the planting area and the increase in the number of farm employees, although Jiang Le no longer engaged in manual labor himself, the personal experience he gained indirectly through his employees was greater than ever before.

In addition, the experience he gained personally through combat, combined with that from his pets’ battles, was another significant source. When factoring in the experience gained by feeding his pets nucleus crystals, Jiang Le’s current rate of experience accumulation is far higher than before. However, the amount of personal experience required to level up has also increased, so the rate of increase isn’t as noticeable.

The moment he entered the farm space tonight, he noticed the blinking cursor in the corner.

However, Jiang Le first returned the blood vine from the planting tray to the farm space’s plot. After consuming the zombie nucleus crystal, the blood vine had entered a dormant state; when placed back in the plot, the text “Digesting” appeared above its head.

He then clicked on the blinking cursor in the system interface to check—it turned out to be a notification that the security flora and fauna had successfully leveled up.

The plants and animals on the farm naturally gain experience and level up through repeated cultivation and breeding. The additional experience from the system’s newly added security system pushed several farm creatures over the edge, allowing them to break through and successfully reach Level 3.

Every time the farm’s plants and animals level up, they develop new traits—and this time was no exception. The system introduced each one with great fanfare.

Level 3 Lettuce: Unlocked the “A New Leaf” achievement—I’m not the same as I used to be! 

While retaining its crisp, juicy texture, it now exhibits entirely different properties when defense is needed: tough, hard, and highly defensive! Assigned to a security post, it complements the farm’s walls perfectly, gaining super-defensive power through symbiosis with the walls.

Want to break through me? Try my leaves first!

Grade 3 Cucumber: A cucumber so juicy and plump it takes your breath away. Normally, it simply serves as a testament to the farm’s guaranteed quality. However, when placed in a security position, it gains the buff “so juicy and plump that even attackers can’t help but want to pick one and eat it,” as well as the buff “cucumber spines are 100% prickly and impossible to shake off; guaranteed to explode within three seconds.”

Level 3 Domestic Chicken: Also known as the “Lone Chicken,” it loves to perch high and survey the landscape. Patient and observant, it can stand atop a vantage point and scan the surrounding area for several kilometers, sounding the alarm the moment it detects any unusual movement.

Level 3 Domestic Duck: A one-against-a-hundred fighter. Though it looks like a single duck, it can actually emit sonic noise comparable to a hundred ducks, causing confusion and making it difficult for enemies to move.

In addition to the upgrade effects gained based on each creature’s unique traits, where they are positioned also appears to be a factor influencing the upgrade results.

For now, he’ll keep them in their security posts without replacing them. Jiang Le then opened the current farm map. The map displayed the farm’s complete overview of crops and livestock, showing whether there were any harvests that day and if any new plots had become available. Assigning new crops to the available plots—tasks that needed to be completed the next day—would appear on the farm’s bulletin board after dawn, becoming part of the employees’ daily work assignments.

After remotely finalizing the farm’s work schedule for the next day, the creature compendium began to glow faintly in the corner.

Opening the creature compendium, the mutated locust successfully killed that night was already listed there, with its complete biological information annotated alongside the image.

Late-stage Level 2 Mutant Locust, 2-star mutation potential, with a hexagonal diagram beside it, detailing the locust’s relevant stats across multiple dimensions.

In the Creature Compendium, different star ratings represent varying upgrade potential and strength. The more stars a creature has, the greater its potential—and the higher the exploration points earned from defeating it.

The Mutant Locust and Mutant Wild Boar are both 2-star creatures, placing them in the lower-middle tier of the bestiary.

In contrast, Xiao Lanb and the blood vine are both 4-star entries in the Creature Compendium—species with immense evolutionary potential, marked by a glowing red aura.

After a few trials, Jiang Le realized he had misunderstood the Creature Compendium. He initially thought that killing a sufficient number of creatures was the only way to guarantee unlocking the compendium, but after observing several kills, he found that the higher the potential star rating of the mutated creature he killed, the more experience he gained.

The experience required to unlock a single high-level creature far exceeds that needed to unlock ten ordinary mutant-level creatures. Feeding nucleus crystals to high-star mutant creatures also increases the Encyclopedia unlock progress more effectively than casting a wide net.

It can be described as a strategy of intensive cultivation and selective breeding in this version of the Creature Compendium.

The reason the Creature Compendium shines at this point is that, after obtaining the nucleus crystal from the Mutant Leech, Jiang Le achieved the initial unlock level in the Creature Compendium and received a system reward.

Basic Nucleus Crystal Synthesizer.

Jiang Le stared at this 3D icon floating in midair for quite some time. It resembled the alchemy furnaces often seen in traditional cultivation TV dramas. The system description below it reads:

“Still struggling to find 1-star nucleus crystals scattered everywhere while 5-star nucleus crystals remain elusive? The Basic Nucleus Synthesizer can wipe away all your worries! Insert three identical 1-star nucleus crystals for a chance to create a 2-star nucleus crystal, or insert three 2-star nucleus crystals for a chance to obtain a 3-star nucleus crystal… From now on, 5-star nucleus crystals are no longer a dream!”

Jiang Le read through the synthesis feature’s description carefully, and his heart began to race. He immediately retrieved a handful of 1-star nucleus crystals from his warehouse—a collection of various types accumulated from many low-level mutated creatures.

They didn’t need to come from the same creature; they just needed to share the same function—such as defense, attack, speed, or water and fire attributes. After placing the nucleus crystals into the synthesizer and watching it spin for a few seconds, the synthesis result would appear.

Regardless of success or failure, the 1-star nucleus crystals used would vanish.

Jiang Le’s first attempt, using a 1-star nucleus crystal focused on defense, ended in failure.

However, this was to be expected. According to the system’s description, the lower the level of the nucleus crystal, the lower the probability of successfully upgrading it through synthesis.

Since there were plenty of these low-grade nucleus crystals, Jiang Le kept trying again and again. It wasn’t until he had used up 30 one-star nucleus crystals that he finally obtained one two-star nucleus crystal.

Jiang Le wasn’t sure if he was just unlucky or incredibly lucky, but one thing was certain: the synthesis process actually worked. With that, the useless nucleus crystals gathering dust in the corner of the warehouse finally had a new purpose.

Staying at Zhang Haiyang’s place was only a temporary solution, and it wasn’t convenient for Jiang Le to enter and exit the spatial realm. Moreover, now that Zhang Haiyang was aware of his unusual abilities, Jiang Le planned to take the opportunity to find a place to live on his own.

Finding a place to live in the base wasn’t difficult.

Post-apocalyptic bases typically place directional signs at prominent locations like nearby intersections to guide nearby refugees to them. Some bases even explicitly state their treatment of superpower users on the signs to attract more of them to join.

At the same time, the apocalypse has a high mortality rate, especially among ordinary people. With accidents and death always lurking, it’s not uncommon for a house to become vacant again just a couple of days after someone moves in.

Jiang Le didn’t even need to ask anyone; he figured Zhang Haiyang would know where to find such vacant housing.

Sure enough, after asking Zhang Haiyang the next day, he immediately took Jiang Le to a shack not far from his own home. It was also made of corrugated iron, and the interior was even more spartan than Zhang Haiyang’s own home, containing nothing but a wooden plank bed.

After inquiring with the base management, he learned that the rent here was ten zombie nucleus crystals per day, payable weekly.

Counting the 50 zombie nucleus crystals Jiang Le owed the base, he paid a total of 120 zombie nucleus crystals, finally securing a small space of his own at Hope Base.

Compared to Hope Base, Jiang Le’s farm hardly resembled a post-apocalyptic base. The farm was located in a remote, forested area—a high-risk zone that many superpower users would not venture into lightly. With no signage to guide visitors, it was virtually impossible for ordinary people to find their way there.

That said, this is precisely why the farm has been able to develop steadily from its early days to the present without any major incidents. Outside, large and small bases are often named “Hope” or “Oasis,” but in reality, they have been plagued by chaos since day one. With overlapping management layers, upper-level superpower users vying for power, and lower-level infighting, they are often rife with bloodshed and violence.

Jiang Le didn’t want that to happen at his base; the only way was to work hard to level up and gain enough certainty.

Jiang Le wouldn’t claim to harbor any grand messianic ambitions; he simply wanted to do what he believed was right within the limits of his abilities, while ensuring his own survival.