Under the decaying skin, the internal organs had completely rotted away, releasing a nauseating stench. Chen Chao remained calm, his movements incredibly skillful as he swiftly pried open the ribs, examining the decayed flesh around the heart.
"Nothing?" Chen Chao raised an eyebrow, using his throwing knife to extract all the flesh around the heart but found no sign of the expected evolution energy.
Evolution energy is the most valuable thing inside a zombie's body. It forms from the heart and appears as a crystalline substance. The heart's outer membrane is tough enough to resist the corrosion of viruses, and the evolution energy inside is a dark red color. It's made from a mixture of the zombie's blood, the entire heart, and a small amount of viruses, containing strange power. This energy can rejuvenate and enhance human cells. If an ordinary person consumes it, they could quickly become an evolved human!
Once someone becomes an evolved human, their strength, speed, hearing, vision, and other abilities would be greatly enhanced, making them twice as powerful as an average person, and their immunity to viruses would be similar to that of a zombie.
Chen Chao hunted zombies specifically to acquire evolution energy and become an evolved human. This was the minimum guarantee for survival in the apocalypse!
He didn't linger, immediately moving on to search for the next zombie.
Not every zombie's body contains evolution energy. It requires several factors to come together. Typically, one out of every three zombies will contain evolution energy.
He arrived at the 17th floor.
On this floor, two of the four apartments had their doors open. One of them was likely the old man's, and the other two apartments had their doors tightly shut.
Chen Chao approached one of the open doors and gently pushed it.
The door creaked open.
Inside the apartment, chaos reigned. The coffee table was shattered, pools of blood stained the floor, and various items were scattered, including broken ceramic bowls.
Chen Chao's gaze swept the room. There was a distance between the stairs and the living room, and without the help of the stairs, fighting zombies here would be much more difficult.
In the living room, a dismembered old arm, partly eaten, lay on the floor, with a trail of blood leading into the bedroom.
Chen Chao noticed several blood-red shoe prints and followed them to the bedroom. He carefully peeked through the door crack.
Inside the bedroom, a woman lay on the large bed, her back facing the door.
Chen Chao glanced at her arm, which was unrotted, pale, and smooth. She wasn't a zombie. He sighed in relief and pushed open the door, stepping inside.
As he approached the woman, about to check if there was any chance of saving her, his pupils suddenly constricted.
In her arms, a head slowly lifted.
It was a baby, perhaps a few months old, just learning to crawl. However, the baby's body was decayed, the once-pink flesh had rotted into pustules. Veins protruded under the skin on its forehead, its eyes were rolled back, and its face was covered in blood. Its mouth had sprouted sharp teeth, and it was chewing on a piece of intestine.
The woman's body had been pushed aside by the baby, her abdomen hollowed out, and her intestines were pulled out.
Roar!
The baby zombie let out a sharp, screeching cry. Its undeveloped vocal cords produced a sound so high-pitched, it was almost like crying—a very piercing sound.
Chen Chao thrust the iron rod forward!
Bang!
He jabbed it into its mouth.
The iron rod's tip immediately shattered its sharp teeth. The baby zombie snarled, still fiercely biting the rod. Its decayed little arms flailed, trying to reach Chen Chao.
Chen Chao's eyes grew cold.
He pulled the rod out and swung it down, smashing its skull.
The baby zombie posed no real threat. If the woman hadn't been careless, she wouldn't have been bitten and eaten by the baby zombie.
Chen Chao coldly pulled out a throwing knife and cut open the heart area of the baby zombie... still nothing.
He didn't linger and immediately moved to the next room.
The longer he remained exposed, the stronger his scent would become, attracting zombies through his sweat and pores.
He had to move fast!
Fortunately, there were only four apartments on each floor, and at least one door was tightly closed. Even if there were zombies inside, they wouldn't know how to open the door.
The zombies in the other three apartments were few in number, just three or four. The infected were usually the elderly or children, who would immediately devour their loved ones without giving them the chance to turn into zombies.
With his A3-level marksmanship, even if Chen Chao wasn't yet an evolved human, he could still kill these early-stage zombies. After all, they lacked intelligence, and their movements were simple—just lunging at people without any tactics. They also had poor balance and didn't avoid obstacles.
This meant that even if you swung a stick at them, they would still lunge at you.
From a certain perspective, this was quite terrifying.
But if used correctly, it was a fatal weakness!
Soon, Chen Chao finished clearing the 17th floor. Including the old man and the baby, he had killed three zombies, but none of them had evolution energy.
He proceeded to the 16th floor.
There was only one open door on this floor, and the other three were tightly shut. This didn't necessarily mean that the occupants were still alive—it was possible they were bitten before they could escape.
Outside the open door, there was a head and a skeleton.
Nearby, a middle-aged zombie in casual clothing, stained with dried blood, was wandering.
Upon seeing Chen Chao, the middle-aged zombie immediately roared and rushed at him.
Chen Chao remained indifferent, gripping his iron rod and preparing to confront it, but just as he was about to move, another zombie suddenly came rushing out of the open door—a woman with wild, messy hair and a face full of rot.
Two of them!
Chen Chao's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly chose to retreat.
The two zombies moved quickly, one after the other, arriving at the stairs. However, like the old man, they lacked intelligence. They didn't know how to jump or avoid obstacles. If this were a rural area, they would have tripped over a high door threshold.
The two zombies fell backward onto the stairs.
They didn't give up, desperately trying to crawl forward, as if they would never stop.
Chen Chao immediately decided to attack.
Taking advantage of his superior position, the zombies couldn't reach his feet. After retreating and striking, the two zombies were quickly dealt with.
He began to extract their hearts.
Still nothing!
Chen Chao's face darkened. His luck was abysmal. After killing a total of six zombies, none of them had evolution energy.
He had no choice but to continue clearing the floors below.
15th floor, 14th floor...
Chen Chao continued clearing the floors down to the 13th, having killed a total of 15 zombies, but none of them contained evolution energy.
"Even if the God of Misfortune has possessed me, this is still ridiculous. Fifteen zombies, and not a single one has evolution energy... Could it be that the early-stage zombies don't have a high enough viral content in their bodies to produce evolution energy?" Chen Chao wondered. This seemed very likely.
He stopped continuing his search downward. Even if he killed more zombies, it didn't guarantee he would get evolution energy.
Had he given up?
Of course not. Aside from hunting ordinary zombies for evolution energy to become an evolved human, there were two other options.
The first was to extract the relatively intact genes from these ordinary zombies with lighter infections and transplant them into his own body!
By using these genes to stimulate his own, he could become a semi-evolved human, gaining roughly double the strength, speed, and overall physical abilities of an ordinary person, equivalent to half the power of an evolved human.
However, becoming a semi-evolved human carried risks. Human genes varied greatly from person to person. Transplanting genes once or twice could work, but doing it repeatedly could cause the biological chain in his body to collapse, resulting in genetic chaos and, ultimately, death from cellular breakdown.
This was why Chen Chao hadn't considered this option before.
The second option was to hunt special zombies!
Beyond the ordinary zombies, there existed another class of zombie that was much stronger and faster—about five times the strength and speed of an ordinary human. Even with Chen Chao's A3-level marksmanship, he wouldn't dare face them head-on. The gap in their abilities was just too vast. In a mere instant, they could pounce on him, faster than his retina could even process, let alone dodge.
Furthermore, special zombies had unique abilities. Some would not die even if their skulls were shattered, while others were immune to lightning, could breathe underwater, or had other bizarre powers.
Inside the bodies of these special zombies, evolution energy was almost guaranteed, and it was a special form of evolution energy!
Once obtained, the special evolution energy would transform someone into a special evolved human, possessing far superior physical capabilities compared to regular evolved humans. More importantly, they would inherit the special abilities of the zombies, which would grow stronger as they evolved.
In the future, any warrior capable of ranking among the world's top 100 would undoubtedly be a special evolved human. Their abilities, once evolved to their peak, could lead to incredible transformations—like starting with immunity to lightning and eventually being able to control and generate lightning, using the microcurrents in their body to generate powerful electrical energy for combat!
The number of special zombies was extremely rare—approximately one in every ten thousand ordinary zombies would mutate into a special one.
Chen Chao had originally planned to become an evolved human first, then hunt special zombies, but now it seemed he had no choice but to move his plans forward.
He returned upstairs and knocked on the door. By now, Chen Shiyu should be awake.
With a click, the door opened. Chen Shiyu's eyes were slightly red. As soon as the door opened, she grabbed Chen Chao's hand and bit at it.
Chen Chao didn't dodge, letting her cherry-like lips bite into him. There was no pain at all. Despite the fierce appearance of her actions, her bite was light, leaving only shallow teeth marks... and saliva.
"If you ever do something this dangerous again without telling me, I'll never forgive you!" Chen Shiyu glared at him, her expression fierce.
Chen Chao smiled faintly.
To him, this was just part of everyday life. It wasn't dangerous at all. He had already planned everything out before leaving, and his actions had never been reckless.