In the dim, cramped space, Raymond sat silently against the wall.
About ten minutes ago, Ben Mao had suddenly gone on a rampage, taking down the space-ability user, Hummingbird, but then immediately collapsed and fell unconscious. So, Raymond had hidden away with the unconscious Ben Mao and the defeated Hummingbird.
It was worth mentioning that Raymond discovered that once Ben Mao was unconscious, he could no longer borrow its power. This was a recent revelation. After all, the last time Ben Mao fainted was on the day its evolution began, and at that time, Raymond did not have the cat paw print mark on his palm. So, whether he could continue to borrow Ben Mao's power after it fell unconscious had been an unknown until now.
But now, he had the answer: he couldn't.
It was somewhat expected.
Fortunately, based on previous observations and speculations, the current evolvers were relatively restrained, so they shouldn't be discovered in the short term. However, if Ben Mao continued to remain unconscious, it would be hard to say what might happen over time.
"Why is this fool always so impulsive? Sigh, it's not like I'm going to die..." Raymond gently stroked the unconscious Ben Mao, recalling the recent battle in his mind, "By the way, what power did Ben Mao use just now?"
During the battle with Hummingbird, Ben Mao used its powers three times in total.
The first time was to reveal Hummingbird's presence; the second time was to prevent Hummingbird from using its abilities; and the third time, it forcibly transferred Hummingbird. Hummingbird, who died tragically, might not have understood, but Raymond saw it clearly from the side.
In the end, Hummingbird had indeed tried to dodge, but Ben Mao seemed not to notice and continued to strike down. It should have hit nothing, but just as Ben Mao's paw was about to strike where Hummingbird had been, something strange happened!
Hummingbird suddenly returned to its original position!
It was as if it had teleported, but unlike Hummingbird's usual teleportation, there were no precursors or spatial ripples. In that instant, Hummingbird appeared back in its original position without warning, taking Ben Mao's full-force blow completely and getting caught off guard.
Initially, based on the first and second uses of its abilities, Raymond thought Ben Mao's power was to forcibly interrupt the opponent's ability use or, even more powerfully, to control the opponent's abilities. But the third instance overturned this hypothesis.
Because no spatial ripples appeared when Hummingbird used its ability.
So, it wasn't the ability to control the opponent's powers, nor was it to forcibly interrupt them.
"Time reversal? Only affecting Hummingbird?" Because space-related abilities had appeared, Raymond thought that perhaps time-related ones might exist too. But he quickly shook his head, denying this guess, "No, time reversal doesn't explain the second situation. Hmm... forget it, I'll just ask Ben Mao directly when it wakes up."
Although based on this stupid cat's previous behavior, Raymond thought it might not know either... Furthermore, thinking about it, no one said it could only have one ability, right? Perhaps it had several. His cat was so special, maybe extracting that mysterious liquid could be considered an ability too?
Although he couldn't figure out the true nature of Ben Mao's abilities, Raymond discovered one thing: using this power had a huge cost for Ben Mao.
Not only did it fall into a coma, but the consumption was beyond imagination — its budding wings were gone! Just using the ability three times had exhausted the energy accumulated for the growth of its wings. Raymond couldn't help but be speechless, "What kind of ability consumes so much..."
....
The thick fog swallowed his vision, rendering him almost blind. He didn't know when or from where the enemy would appear, and as time dragged on, it became increasingly unbearable.
At this moment, Raymond suddenly felt the cat paw print on his palm heat up slightly.
At the same time, Ben Mao moved gently in his arms.
It was waking up.
Raymond breathed a sigh of relief; he was lucky.
He handed the Hummingbird he had been holding over to Ben Mao, "Absorb it first."
"Meow!" Ben Mao responded, extending a sharp, hook-shaped claw from its small paw, and gently pierced Hummingbird's heart. After two or three seconds, it withdrew its claw.
One had to admit, Hummingbird, as a Chosen One, was indeed extraordinary. The mysterious droplet extracted from its heart far surpassed those from ordinary evolvers.
Setting aside purity, which was hard to quantify by mere observation, its volume alone was ten times greater than usual.
However... apart from that, there seemed to be no difference.
If this mysterious droplet were truly some essence or origin, then it suggested there was no fundamental difference between Chosen Ones and ordinary evolvers.
Perhaps, as Miss Bunny had said, it ultimately came down to the degree of evolution.
After extracting the droplet, as usual, Ben Mao placed it in its mouth and swallowed it with a flick of its tongue.
Seeing this, Raymond felt much more at ease.
The rice was already cooked; he didn't need to worry about the precious blood and flesh of the Chosen One being taken away.
"How do you feel?" Raymond asked.
Upon hearing this, Ben Mao carefully sensed it, then scratched its head, "Meow?"
Raymond: "..."
Even though it had swallowed a Chosen One, Ben Mao seemed to feel nothing special. Raymond changed his question, "Stupid cat, did you use your ability just now? What was it?"
He had asked casually, not expecting much, as his cat was often clueless. But unexpectedly, this time, Ben Mao scratched its head and then began drawing on the ground with its paw.
"Hmm? How..."
Before he could finish, Raymond swallowed his words because the ground Ben Mao had just scratched suddenly reverted to its original state.
"Time reversal?!" Raymond exclaimed in shock.
Although he had dismissed this hypothesis earlier, the scene before him made him instinctively guess so.
"Meow meow!" Ben Mao shook its little paw, denying his guess.
Raymond raised an eyebrow, "No?! Then what is it?"
"Meow..." Ben Mao scratched its head in frustration and then began gesturing to Raymond.
"Meow meow meow! Meow meow! Meow meow meow meow! Meow! Meow meow meow!"
Although Raymond could roughly understand Ben Mao's expressions and gestures nowadays, abilities were hard to explain accurately with gestures. After several wrong guesses, he finally began to understand.
Once he got the correct answer, the usually calm and composed Raymond was dumbfounded. He stared blankly for a while before grabbing Ben Mao by the scruff and lifting it up, scrutinizing it up and down in disbelief, "Are you a god, stupid cat?"
Raymond didn't know many Chosen Ones. There was the big dog Ben Mao had slapped to death a long time ago, the little monkey from before the evolution started, the rabbit lady next door, a suspected Chosen One somewhere in the city who could cause natural disasters (though this was uncertain), and the hummingbird he had just fought.
Of these, the only one whose abilities he had confirmed was the hummingbird. Just this one was enough to reveal certain things because its ability wasn't physical transformation or elemental control like water or fire, but rather a spatial ability: [Teleportation].
Raymond could accept that "biological evolution caused physical mutations, so they could transform or spit fire or water," but it was hard to accept that "biological evolution caused physical mutations, so they could teleport." How could a body mutate to traverse space? If a creature could achieve this with its body, its flesh wouldn't be something Ben Mao could tear apart with his claws.
The appearance of the spatial ability [Teleportation] made Raymond realize that the abilities of Chosen Ones (and perhaps future evolvers) might stem from mastering and utilizing certain rules. Only this could explain why mere creatures would possess such abilities. This was also why Ben Mao's abilities shocked him the most—if other abilities were seen as using rules, Ben Mao's abilities approached the essence of those rules.
It wasn't just about power; the nature was fundamentally different.
"Did I really pick up a god?" Raymond looked at the silly expression on Ben Mao's face and couldn't associate it with the concept of a "god." After staring for a while, he sighed.
A person who can revive after dying, meeting a cat that seems to embody rules—was it a coincidence? Raymond didn't believe so. He felt increasingly that there was a huge mystery surrounding him, and the cunning rabbit next door probably knew something about it.
Nonetheless, Ben Mao's abilities pleased him greatly, not just because his side's strength had increased significantly, but also because it alleviated a long-standing worry.
Since the evolution began, every time he went out hunting, Raymond worried more about Ben Mao's safety than his own. So he was careful, cautious, made plans, didn't get greedy, and avoided risks as much as possible to prevent any irreparable events. Over time, this worry had become a mental burden. Even this time, venturing into the thick fog, he made the decision outwardly, but internally he was very conflicted, often thinking about turning back.
After all, although Ben Mao wasn't weak, he wasn't particularly strong either, and his brain didn't work well. Because of being with Raymond, he was easily implicated, and his situation was never favorable. But today, this mental burden was largely lifted.
Although Ben Mao couldn't use his abilities freely yet, having this trump card greatly reassured Raymond and boosted his confidence for the journey ahead.
"Well done," Raymond patted Ben Mao's head, giving him rare praise. Then he asked, "By the way, what you showed me earlier, does it consume a lot?"
"Meow meow meow meow!" Ben Mao raised his little paw and gestured continuously.
"Oh, oh..." Raymond nodded, quickly understanding, "I see, so small things don't consume much? It depends on the situation. Wait! Why don't I try it myself?"
With this thought, Raymond eagerly wanted to try it himself. Honestly, he was quite looking forward to it, but unfortunately, less than a minute later, he got his result—experiment failed.
Although he could borrow Ben Mao's strength, he couldn't use his abilities, just like he couldn't extract the mysterious droplets.
…
The next period saw the man and cat continue exploring the thick fog. After swallowing the hummingbird, Ben Mao's strength had significantly increased. When borrowing his power, Raymond could clearly feel it; even his vision extended from about ten meters to over twenty meters. Though still limited, it was a considerable improvement.
With their strategy of "keeping a low profile, picking off targets quietly," two days passed. Even with the fog's cover, they encountered dozens of evolvers, through chance meetings, scuffles over discovered prey, or ambushes during meals or sleep. They even met seven more Chosen Ones. Including the hummingbird, that made eight in total.
In two days, they had encountered eight Chosen Ones! After leaving the hotel area (Raymond discovered through road signs that he was far from the hotel), the probability of encountering Chosen Ones had skyrocketed. Chosen Ones, who were previously rare, now popped up frequently.
The more he interacted with them, the more Raymond realized how extraordinary the rabbit lady was. Although he couldn't fathom her depth from her single move, or even understand her ability, he had felt her killing intent—severed world, obscured sky, cold sun, solidified space, slowed time!
Even now, recalling it felt like being in that world. But in the past two days, none of the eight Chosen Ones exuded such a terrifying aura, not even close. With this new comparison, Raymond was 100% sure—not all Chosen Ones were that strong; the rabbit lady was absurdly strong.
Realizing this, Raymond couldn't help but feel frustrated. He had hesitated so much because the rabbit next door was too powerful. But it turned out she was an exception?! No, wait, was she really a Chosen One? Could there be such a huge gap in strength among Chosen Ones?
His earlier suspicions resurfaced, and Raymond's lips twitched. He had always assumed the rabbit lady was a Chosen One mainly because when he first moved into the Hang Hai Grand Hotel, he had asked her if she had received a meteorite shard, and she had said yes.
Could it be... the rabbit lied to me?? But why would she lie? It couldn't be just for fun, right?
...
Besides the matters concerning the Chosen Ones and the rabbit lady, Raymond discovered something very interesting in the past two days—he found traces of evolvers living in human houses.
This made him realize that a kind of "life," not just "survival," was emerging in the new evolver society. On the ruins of human civilization, a new civilization was taking root, and the more one witnessed its growth, the more one noticed the departure of the old civilization. Perhaps the evolver civilization would build upon the remnants of human civilization, but it would no longer be human civilization. "What's gone is gone," Raymond mused while swiftly handling the wild boar Ben Mao had just killed.
If it were just him, bringing some compressed biscuits would last several days, but with a cat like Ben Mao, whose appetite was much bigger than his, even a backpack full of food wouldn't suffice for a meal. So Raymond didn't bring food but rather some seasonings.
Using his knife, he gutted the boar, cleaned it, removed the hair, and prepared it. He then found an iron rod to skewer it and dismantled the wooden furniture, piling it together, dousing it with gasoline, and lighting it to make a barbecue. This was how they had been handling food for the past few days.
Although finding a gas stove wasn't difficult, an ordinary household wok couldn't cook much at once, which wasn't enough for Ben Mao. It would take multiple rounds and was time-consuming. Barbecuing was more convenient.
Of course, this method made more noise, but it was a matter of trade-offs.
Sizzle... The golden hot oil trickled down the meat, dripping onto the fire, causing tiny pops. Under the leaping flames, the crispy yellow boar skin curled slightly, and the inside gleamed enticingly. A rich aroma of roasted meat filled the air, making their mouths water.
Man and cat swallowed their saliva simultaneously, resisting the urge to take a bite, and turned the boar while occasionally brushing on some seasoning. After a while, finally... just as they were about to dig in, uninvited guests arrived.
"Found him!"
With a shout, killing intent surged openly towards them.
Raymond turned, furious, "Who's interrupting my... wait, oh crap! We're surrounded!"