After Miss Rabbit left, Raymond was baffled for quite a while, unable to figure out what had just happened. He had a vague feeling that the rabbit seemed to know him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember ever raising a rabbit.
"Schizophrenia?" Raymond muttered to himself.
The sound from the walkie-talkie pulled him back to reality. It was Ben Mao, who had been waiting at the meeting point and hadn't seen Raymond, so he contacted him.
Raymond told Ben Mao to come to the rooftop. After giving himself a moment to catch his breath, he sat down with his back against the wall. He rubbed his forehead and decided to set aside his confusion for now.
Regardless of Miss Rabbit's situation, the killing intent that seemed to warp time and space was real. Facing that terror head-on left Raymond feeling mentally exhausted. Now, he felt an overwhelming desire to rest and not move at all. This was also why he called Ben Mao over. Besides, after experiencing such a terrifying aura here, this place was probably the safest.
Staring at the ever-changing clouds in the sky and emptying his mind for a moment, Raymond began to sort through his recent experiences before Ben Mao arrived.
The difference between evolved creatures and mutated creatures had been discussed before and didn't need repeating.
As for evolved creatures, depending on their level of evolution, evolutionary direction, and pre-evolution species, there were distinctions among them.
First were the low-tier ones, roughly at the level of giant rats. Most evolved creatures belonged to this category since "low-tier" and "majority" were often synonymous. Though they were low-tier, their strength far exceeded that of pre-evolution beasts. A few lions or tigers would only be a meal for a giant rat.
Above the low-tier were the stronger evolved creatures, such as the Black Lion he had encountered earlier. This made sense since it evolved from a lion, with a strong foundation and combat-oriented evolution, making it one of the stronger ordinary evolved creatures. (After meeting Miss Rabbit, Raymond confirmed that the Black Lion hadn't obtained a meteorite shard, classifying it as an ordinary evolved creature.)
Currently, Ben Mao was stronger than the Black Lion but still within this tier. Above this were the special individuals, those who had obtained meteorite shards. Their species varied because obtaining a meteorite shard was largely a matter of luck. Whoever was closer to the meteorite's impact point had a better chance of getting one. If an animal was on the other side of the city, it had no chance, whether it was a lion, tiger, cheetah, or honey badger.
Regarding numbers, excluding other meteorites from the meteor shower and focusing only on the one that fell in this city, there were probably hundreds of special individuals. This estimate was based on Raymond's assessment of the impact site.
How many remained was unknown. The six months between the meteor shower and the strange rain allowed for many changes, such as fights, killings, natural deaths, unnatural deaths, and migrations. However, Raymond believed that since the special individuals had gained intelligence, finding food wouldn't be hard for them. Surviving six months wouldn't be difficult, and there would be little reason to leave the city. Hence, most of them were likely still in the city.
However, perhaps because it was still early, only a few days had passed, and Raymond hadn't encountered any special individuals besides Miss Rabbit.
After categorizing the strength of evolved creatures, he couldn't help but think of Miss Rabbit again. Her behavior was strange, and her aura was baffling because it was—
—too strong! Unreasonably strong!!!
Today's encounter was like he had meticulously categorized evolved creatures' strength on paper, only for Miss Rabbit to walk by, crumple the paper into a ball, and toss it into the trash.
••••••
Around 1 PM, when Raymond and Ben Mao returned to the hotel carrying a two-meter-long giant dog, they saw Miss Rabbit returning. She was leisurely walking into the lobby, eating something green that looked like a carrot. She greeted them as if nothing had happened.
Back in his room, Raymond butchered the prey, cleaned it, and then showcased his culinary skills (skipping ten thousand words). Since finding Ben Mao over half a year ago, he had started learning to cook because human extinction had made life too boring (especially before evolution began). Hence, cooking became a way to pass the time, and now his culinary skills were quite good.
Time truly allows people to master various skills.
After lunch, during his routine of petting Ben Mao, Raymond specifically felt the slightly protruding bones on Ben Mao's back, finding no change. The diet over the past few days consisted of dishes made from hunted evolved creatures. Raymond could feel Ben Mao's strength gradually increasing, but there was no progress with the wings on its back.
The previous hunts yielded low-tier evolved creatures, leading Raymond to think the prey wasn't strong enough for Ben Mao's wings to progress. However, today's giant dog was as strong as Ben Mao, and it took significant effort from both to successfully hunt it. The black droplet from its heart was superior in color, purity, and size compared to the one from the Black Lion's heart.
Yet, after consuming it, there was still no change in the bones on Ben Mao's back.
Thus, Raymond dismissed the possibility that the prey wasn't strong enough.
Gently stroking the smooth fur on Ben Mao's back, Raymond realized that to grow wings, Ben Mao needed to hunt flying evolved creatures like the winged Black Lion or the eagle they couldn't catch today.
These evolved creatures were generally harder to hunt because once they flew, Raymond and Ben Mao couldn't do much. However, it was just more challenging. It required some luck, technique, planning, and preparation.
For instance, if Raymond's shooting were more precise, or he had better luck, or there was more preparation, they might have caught the eagle today.
So, for the next month, Raymond focused on hunting flying evolved creatures. Initially, it wasn't very successful, but soon, with experience, hunting became smoother, and Ben Mao's wing development plan showed progress.
"Tch! Ugly…" Raymond lay on the bed, holding Ben Mao above his head. He examined the cat from left to right and commented.
After a month of hard work, the bones protruding from Ben Mao's back had changed, growing longer and developing joints, showing a clear wing-like shape. However, probably because they hadn't fully formed into wings yet, Raymond found them rather unattractive.
"Maybe you shouldn't grow them. They look so ugly," he teased.
"Meow…" Ben Mao let out a pitiful cry.
Raymond laughed softly and gently tossed Ben Mao up before catching him. "Just kidding, silly cat."
After playing with Ben Mao for a while, Raymond got up, stretched, and slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window to look at the distant scenery.
Since moving here, the mysterious evolved being who had ambushed him hadn't reappeared. It was as if it had completely vanished after that encounter. Even when he went out alone, it never showed up. A month had passed, and the situation remained unchanged. Raymond could only assume the entity had, for some reason, disappeared from his life. Perhaps it had been killed by another evolved being? That was a possibility.
Over the past month, Raymond had witnessed numerous fights between evolved beings, sometimes over food or territory, other times to display their strength, or simply due to predatory behavior in the food chain. After gaining intelligence, the evolved beings had created a chaotic society.
It was like a primitive society that valued strength but lacked moral and legal constraints, combined with a brutal food chain. Chaos was inevitable. Order was nonexistent.
Eventually, after countless bloodshed and painful lessons, they would realize that such chaos was detrimental to all parties involved. They would gradually try to establish rules and create order. But this wouldn't happen within a month. Many evolved beings were still thrilled and fascinated by their newfound intelligence and power.
If human civilization was considered the previous generation, and the evolved beings the next, this period was undoubtedly the darkest and most chaotic era of early civilization.
Back to the point. The possibility that the mysterious evolved being had been killed was there, but Raymond felt it was unlikely. It was just a feeling without much reasoning. If he had to find a reason, he would say that such a smart entity wouldn't be easily killed. If it wasn't likely dead, then it must have encountered some issue or change, leading it to abandon its pursuit of him.
This unclear, unresolved feeling left Raymond somewhat frustrated, like being kicked and then having the kicker run off without giving him a chance to retaliate.
"However, if that thing truly disappeared, it wouldn't be a bad thing," he thought, glancing at Ben Mao playing with a ball of yarn.
Days of trivial hunting passed, and Raymond's plan for Ben Mao's wings hit another bottleneck. The help from flying evolved beings' flesh was diminishing. Though not entirely ineffective, at the current pace, eating ordinary evolved beings wouldn't be enough for the wings to grow.
"Growing wings is such a hassle," Raymond remarked, lifting Ben Mao and looking him over. "Are you too weak, or are the evolved beings not enough for you?"
"Meow?" Ben Mao scratched his head in confusion with his paw.
Raymond flicked Ben Mao's forehead, exasperated. "Scratching your head! You'll go bald at this rate!"
After some teasing, he began thinking about how to hunt special flying individuals. A month ago, he wouldn't have considered it because Miss Rabbit's aura was too terrifying. But now, he was seriously contemplating it, not because Ben Mao had grown much stronger, but because Raymond found the rabbit next door to be quite peculiar.
In over a month, he hadn't encountered any other special individuals. Though he and Ben Mao had been hunting locally, a month without seeing a single one was odd. Was his estimate of their numbers off? Or was it because Miss Rabbit was around that other special individuals stayed away?
After some thought, he ruled out the former. He believed that intelligent special individuals had strong survival abilities and wouldn't have died off in large numbers before the strange rain.
So, the latter seemed more plausible. But Miss Rabbit didn't seem territorial. Could it be that her presence alone kept other special individuals away?
If so, it might mean Miss Rabbit was far stronger than other special individuals. Though this was just a baseless guess, it gave Raymond enough confidence to think it was worth a try. He needed a reason to convince himself to give it a go because he and Ben Mao couldn't stay here forever. Plus, he didn't know when Miss Rabbit would leave.
With this in mind, Raymond decided to take a chance and venture further to test a special individual.
However, other special individuals, even if not as strong as Miss Rabbit, were likely much stronger than ordinary evolved beings and had unpredictable personalities. So—why not take down the rabbit first?
The next morning, Raymond emerged from the bathroom looking disheveled. Watching Ben Mao playing energetically not far away, he felt a bit frustrated.
It wasn't fair! Really not fair! Most of the food they hunted was eaten by this stupid cat. It ate a lot every day, while he ate only a little, yet he ended up constipated while the cat was fine!
"Forget it, don't compare with these evolved beings," Raymond consoled himself. A human stomach, eating only meat for a month, was bound to suffer. "Nutritional imbalance," he sighed, stepping out of the room and knocking on the door next to his.
"Beautiful Miss Rabbit, would you be interested in going out to find some green and healthy food?"