He never had any intention of going to these survivor bases. He had his own army of pets, which was enough to survive and thrive in this apocalypse. Why should he go out and mingle with a bunch of burdens?
After browsing for a while longer and finding only pleas for help, Lin Yuan decided to stop looking. He went straight to search for the keyword 'mutant zombies'.
And he really found something. The most popular video was the one he had seen before, from Mountain City, featuring a zombie covered in bone blades. This video had been shared extensively, and scrolling down revealed more of the same.
'Are there no other mutant zombies? Does that mean there's only this one for now?'
Lin Yuan found it strange. Logically, if a mutant zombie appeared in the neighboring city, one should appear here too. Why hadn't he seen any?
But after a moment's thought, he suddenly understood.
'The apocalypse just started two days ago, so it's normal for there to be little news about mutant zombies. Perhaps everyone who saw a mutant zombie is already dead, which is why there's so little information online about them.'
Despite this thought, Lin Yuan still spent some more time looking for information on mutant zombies.
About half an hour later, Lin Yuan finally saw a different video. The footage was captured by a surveillance camera, showing a horde of zombies. Within the horde, a young zombie was noticeably taller than the others. It didn't have bone blades, but its legs and arms were very long, disproportionate to a normal human. It moved with incredible speed through the horde, faster than any other zombie, and despite having several wounds, they didn't impede its pace.
'This must be a speed-enhanced zombie.'
'I wonder how my current speed compares to this zombie's.'
'However, from what I've seen, the mutations in zombies are similar to the effects of the gene agent I used. They evolve in speed, defense, attack, etc., and their size increases significantly. Although I haven't seen any defense-enhanced zombies yet, they should appear later...'
Seeing these two types of mutant zombies, Lin Yuan had a clearer understanding of the rules of this apocalyptic world and the evolutionary paths of humans and zombies.
'Human evolution speed probably can't match zombie mutation. It's only the early stage of the apocalypse, and most people are struggling just to survive. I have gene agents to evolve early, but for others, I don't know when they'll start.'
Thinking this, Lin Yuan felt incredibly fortunate to have the system. Otherwise, his evolution speed wouldn't keep up with the zombie mutations, and he'd be doomed if he couldn't fight them.
He couldn't be completely sure about the leveling system and progress here, but based on the speed of that speed-type zombie, Sòng Yǔfēi was faster than him.
This meant Sòng Yǔfēi's level was likely higher than the zombie's.
Lin Yuan felt a little more at ease!
As long as his evolution speed consistently outpaced zombie mutations, and he raised more creatures, allowing them to grow, he wouldn't need to fear zombies.
However, raising other creatures would have to wait until Sòng Yǔfēi finished clearing this area. Then he could go to the pet store.
He was already getting impatient.
'I wonder what kind of pets the pet store has...'
'The map only shows the name of the pet store, with no specific details.'
'Right, store owners like this would probably post short videos...'
Lin Yuan immediately searched for 'pet store' on the short video app.
Immediately, videos from pet stores in the same city appeared. Lin Yuan's gaze fell on an account named 'Red Leaf Pet Store'.
What a coincidence!
This pet store was the closest one to his apartment.