"Bang!"
On the narrow street, fierce gusts of wind swept through, scattering gravel everywhere. The buildings on both sides were already covered in spiderweb-like cracks, with debris and shards of glass littering the ground, creating a scene of utter chaos.
"Meow!!"
Suddenly, a cat's cry echoed. At the same time, tiny cracks appeared on the outer wall of the office building on the left side of the road. A small, delicate figure, pure white all over, leapt from the air, launching itself straight at a giant rat below, which was over a meter tall, covered in gray short fur with red scales on its tail.
"Meow!!!"
Under the blazing white sun, the white figure extended a chubby paw and pressed it fiercely against the giant rat. The contrast in size between the two was staggering! The figure falling from the air was smaller than the rat's head. It seemed as though the rat could easily tear and swallow it with a single bite. But with a resounding "Bang," the concrete ground shattered and caved in!
In the next instant, a violent gust swept outwards, clearing the debris on the ground. At the center of the impact, the giant rat, pinned down by a single paw, twitched its four legs twice before falling completely still. Ben Mao jumped off the rat, scurried to Raymond's side, and proudly rubbed against his legs.
Raymond smacked his lips, "Your cat palm technique is quite something!"
"Meow?" Ben Mao clearly didn't understand.
From his observations, Raymond deduced that Ben Mao's current strength should be comparable to, if not surpassing, the black lion. After all, the giant rat they encountered was utterly outmatched by Ben Mao, and Raymond suspected he hadn't even seen Ben Mao's full strength. Reflecting on this, Raymond thought that the black lion might have died unjustly yesterday. It likely didn't fully unleash its power, possibly even holding back a trump card, since proud beings usually don't reveal their aces easily against seemingly weaker opponents. And then... it got blown up.
"Is this rat useful?" Raymond asked, pointing to the lifeless giant rat.
"Meow meow~" Ben Mao nodded, ran back to the rat, flipped it over, found the heart, and extended a sharp claw to pierce it. A few seconds later, the claw withdrew.
A black droplet, similar to the one extracted from the black lion's heart, appeared on Ben Mao's claw. However, this time, the droplet was not as dark, more of a black-gray, and seemed smaller in volume.
Ben Mao licked the droplet off its claw and then returned to Raymond's side.
"Is the rest of it useless?" Raymond asked.
Ben Mao shook its head.
"What do you mean? It's still useful?" Raymond asked again.
Ben Mao nodded, then shook its head.
Raymond sighed, "So, you mean... it's useful but not very much?"
"Meow!" Ben Mao nodded happily.
"Oh." Raymond looked at the giant rat, shook his head, and said, "If it's not very useful, let's leave it. We have other places to go, and it's too bulky to carry around."
As they walked, Raymond asked curiously, "That lion could speak human language. Ben Mao, do you think you will be able to speak human language someday?"
"Meow..." Ben Mao followed on two legs, covering its head with its front paws in distress. Clearly, it was troubled by this question too.
After they left, three differently evolved creatures cautiously emerged from a corner, and after a moment of hesitation, lunged at the giant rat. But just as they were about to reach it, they suddenly halted, terror flashing in their eyes. Without a second glance, they turned and fled.
A black "cloud" hovered in the sky, descended upon the giant rat's corpse, enveloping it into a massive black mass. After a few seconds, the black mass dissipated, and the "cloud" floated away, leaving no trace of the rat behind—not even a bone.
Unlike their previous escape, this time, Raymond and Ben Mao encountered evolved creatures three times despite their cautiousness. Two encounters ended in battles, while the third was a tense standoff that ended with both sides silently parting ways.
In the afternoon, they finally returned to their residential area. However, Raymond did not immediately go to his apartment. That wasn't his purpose this time. Instead, he headed to another apartment building nearby, went up to the second floor, and stopped at the door of room 202.
He originally had a key, but it was left at home. In this post-apocalyptic world, did it matter if you had a key?
Raymond knocked on the door lock. The light gray cat paw print on his right palm heated slightly, and with a "click," the lock was broken. He pushed the door open, walked through the living room, and went straight to the master bedroom.
Entering the bedroom, he looked towards a corner by the window. There were handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and sniper rifles—over a dozen weapons, along with ample ammunition, a box of grenades, a box of landmines, and two anti-tank rocket launchers with matching rockets.
As the saying goes, a clever person doesn't put all their eggs in one basket. Raymond hadn't stored all the weapons he took from the army in his home. Considering the worst-case scenario where the bombs in his house might explode, he had hidden them in a nearby building instead. Originally, he planned to use them for continued fighting if the bombs were detonated, but the situation had escalated beyond his expectations. With evolving creatures likely to swarm, and Ben Mao's uncertain condition, Raymond had decided to retreat first.
He wasn't about to abandon the weapons stored here. He picked up a handgun and weighed it lightly. Just as he was about to put it down, Ben Mao suddenly let out a sharp cry, "Meow!!!!!"
In an instant, Ben Mao pounced on him, knocking him to the ground. Almost simultaneously, a loud "bang" erupted! The nightstand not far away exploded into splinters, and even the wall behind it shattered and caved in, pierced through instantly.
The power...
Raymond's pupils constricted.
Damn! An anti-material sniper rifle?!!
Raymond had remarked yesterday that the black lion was arrogant for not understanding human civilization. He never expected the reverse example to appear so quickly! On the very next day, an evolved creature had mastered the use of an anti-material sniper rifle.
Isn't this too fast?
No matter how you look at it, it's way too fast! And where did it find an anti-material sniper rifle?
As soon as this question popped into Raymond's mind, he immediately found the answer. If he guessed correctly, that gun... was his! It was the M99 he had taken from the military arsenal!
"Damn it!" Raymond cursed, quickly and cautiously changing his position to hide behind the wall with Ben Mao.
Yesterday, when the black lion attacked, it broke through the wall, coincidentally burying all his firearms under the rubble. Later, after he detonated the bomb, the entire room was engulfed in thick smoke and flames due to the explosion, making visibility poor. With time being extremely tight, he didn't check on the condition of the guns. Given the explosion's immense power, which even destroyed the room's walls, Raymond had assumed the guns were all damaged.
But to his surprise, they had survived! Had they been spared by being buried under the rubble? Raymond had to admit, it was a highly coincidental yet inevitable outcome.
As for how many guns remained intact and usable, Raymond had no interest in finding out now. The greatest threat was undoubtedly the M99 anti-material sniper rifle!
Raymond took a deep breath, calming himself. The bullet had come through the window, hitting the nightstand, indicating that the sniper's position was...
He quickly glanced at the window and cursed inwardly. The power of the anti-material sniper rifle was so great that when the bullet hit the glass, it shattered the entire window, making it difficult to determine the exact sniping point. But fortunately, this was a residential area with many apartment buildings, not an open field, so there weren't many places from which the shot could have come and still hit the nightstand. Raymond quickly judged, "Building 7 or Building 10!"
"Meow!!" Ben Mao cried out, darting out of the bedroom like a flash of lightning. Although the window was shattered, exiting through it would be too dangerous. Ben Mao went to pursue the enemy, while Raymond stayed behind, waiting silently for a few seconds before frowning. Why hadn't there been a second shot?
The power of the previous shot had shown that the walls here couldn't stop the M99. If it were him, he would have immediately taken a second shot, even if it meant shooting through the wall, to create an opportunity. The domestic M99 is a semi-automatic sniper rifle with a five-round magazine, so it was entirely feasible.
But now, the opponent hadn't fired a second shot, giving Raymond a chance to move stealthily behind the wall. It seemed the opponent had lost his position completely.
Was it waiting foolishly for him to show himself?
An evolved creature that mastered the M99 on the second day wouldn't be that stupid! No! It must be very smart, extremely smart. It must know that if it missed the first shot, it should immediately fire again, or…
Raymond sighed softly. Or it should miss and then flee far away. If that were the case, it had probably already planned its escape route, making it nearly impossible to catch.
As expected, Ben Mao didn't find the sniper in Building 7 or Building 10. The opponent had left immediately after missing the first shot, and with the city's complex layout, who knew where it had gone?
Ultimately, Raymond and Ben Mao only found the sniper's position without gaining any useful information.
"But such a smart evolved creature must have been intelligent even before evolution, right?" Raymond thought silently. Based on his experiences over the past two days, he noticed that although all creatures had evolved after that strange rain, there were significant differences even among evolved creatures.
First, there was the black lion, which left a strong impression of being powerful, proud, and sharp. Then there was the unknown creature in the bookstore. At the time, he didn't think much of it, but now Raymond felt it hadn't intended to attack him. After all, Ben Mao was asleep, and Raymond was unarmed. Though he appeared calm, the creature shouldn't have been easily fooled. It should have at least tested him rather than silently retreating.
Raymond speculated that it might have been observing him or Ben Mao. Interestingly, after it left, no evolved creatures appeared near the bookstore. Was it just good luck, or was it related to that creature?
Next were the three creatures they encountered on the way here. Two were killed by Ben Mao, both evolved rats but looking different.
One rat was over a meter tall, covered in gray short hair with a red-scaled tail. The other was about the same size as Ben Mao, with huge incisors that could easily crush concrete slabs. Although both were evolved rats, their appearances were different.
The first rat seemed to have gained intelligence, but it only squeaked continuously. The second rat was smarter, occasionally speaking human words, though not as coherently as the black lion.
This showed that even among evolved creatures, there were significant differences in their evolution. These differences in evolution were likely not caused by the meteorite fragments but were simply individual differences. Just like some people are born smart, while others are naturally slow-witted; some learn things quickly, while others never grasp them no matter how hard they try.
As for the other evolved creature they encountered on their way here, Raymond suspected it had received a meteorite fragment! It was a very eerie creature. It was a white rabbit walking upright, about 1.7 meters tall including its ears, with a pair of nearly enchanting blood-red eyes and holding a slender green bamboo stick.
When they met, the rabbit was leisurely wandering around. Raymond had seen dozens of evolved creatures from afar while fleeing his home yesterday, but none had given him such a strange feeling. Even Ben Mao had been extremely vigilant. Fortunately, they only silently confronted each other for a moment before going their separate ways, avoiding a conflict.
Lastly, there was the one who had sniped at him with the M99. Raymond had no idea what species it was, but it was very smart, extremely smart!
The differences among evolved creatures made the current situation more complex and unpredictable because their varying levels of intelligence and personalities made them almost indistinguishable from humans. And humans are such complicated beings.