Xu Lun woke up from his bed, expressionlessly moved Shizuka Marikawa's leg off him, and went downstairs to the living room.
After the sudden flash in the sky last night, all mechanical equipment became unusable, but fortunately, everything was ready, and they could leave today.
Saeko Busujima, wearing only an apron, was busy in the kitchen.
Xu Lun helplessly told her, "Saeko, although I enjoy watching, this still troubles me a bit."
"What's wrong? Can't you suppress your adolescent urges?"
Saeko Busujima brought a plate and placed it in front of Xu Lun, humming a song.
Because of the power outage, she couldn't even make anything hot. She served a vegetable salad garnished with mayonnaise.
"Wake Shizuka up. We should get going."
"I've been looking forward to this for a long time."
Saeko Busujima went upstairs to wake Shizuka Marikawa, her heart already stirring with excitement.
A moment later, all three of them entered the Workshop.
(Workshop Energy Storage: 10086)
This was his achievement over the past few days. The method was to find a gas station, attract a large number of zombies, enter the Workshop before detonating the gas station, and then come out to harvest the corpses.
With this operation, harvesting energy was quite simple; instead, attracting zombies and traveling took a lot of time.
Besides energy, his biggest gain was the four tubes of Virus Protoliquid extracted.
(Virus Protoliquid: An extremely unstable virus. High probability of turning into a monster after injection, extremely low probability of becoming a special variant, and a faint probability of allowing organisms to achieve life-level evolution.)
Although his Workshop-certified Curly-haired Baboon couldn't use the virus, Saeko Busujima and Shizuka Marikawa could. He didn't know what dangers they would encounter when they returned, so it was better to strengthen them.
"Where's that Banana?"
Shizuka Marikawa's eyes searched the Workshop. She had a high affinity for Banana, explaining that it was because Banana's color matched her hair well.
"It's already hiding."
Xu Lun pointed to the Workshop's dome, where a yellow object was floating.
That's right, this artificial intelligence was also socially anxious; as long as there were many people, it would enter this reclusive state.
"Is this thing the beginning of this apocalypse?"
Saeko Busujima asked, looking at the Virus Protoliquid in Xu Lun's hand.
"At least for the zombies in Bed-Lord City, yes."
Xu Lun answered Saeko Busujima's question. These protoliquids were originally extracted from the zombies in Bed-Lord City, so naturally, this virus caused everything.
"When I get the chance, I'll personally cut through them."
Saeko Busujima said with a murderous aura.
Xu Lun comforted Saeko Busujima, saying, "Don't worry, I've prepared a big surprise for them."
"Now, you two need to get some sleep."
Shizuka Marikawa and Saeko Busujima lay down in the glass cabins. Saeko Busujima had long been looking forward to getting stronger, while Shizuka Marikawa was more laid-back, thinking that strengthening her body would make carrying heavy things less tiring every day.
Xu Lun began to operate the Workshop.
(Consumed 1 energy point to complete human-Saeko Busujima data retrieval. Virus Protoliquid compatibility 23%, high probability of mutation.)
(Consumed 1 energy point to complete human-Shizuka Marikawa data retrieval. Virus Protoliquid compatibility 47%, high probability of mutation.)
(Low-temperature long-term fusion can significantly increase success probability, estimated to take 21/17 years.)
Shizuka Marikawa's compatibility was actually higher than Saeko Busujima's, which Xu Lun hadn't expected. He decisively refused full fusion; after more than twenty years, would he still need this virus?
He could use energy to directly accelerate time, but the energy consumption was too high, and the benefits were simply not proportional to the cost.
To prevent two monsters from emerging, Xu Lun chose to neuter the virus's effects, removing some completely unnecessary abilities that would increase the probability of mutated monsters from the Virus Protoliquid.
(Special toxins removed.)
(Special social structure removed.)
(Ecological assimilation ability removed.)
(Cell proliferation mutation ability removed.)
(Consumed 2000 energy points to complete this task.)
No injection was needed. The two modified Virus Protoliquids transformed into light particles and entered the glass cabins.
(Consumed 770 energy points to begin strengthening human-Saeko Busujima, estimated time: 7 days.)
(Consumed 530 energy points to begin strengthening human-Shizuka Marikawa, estimated time: 7 days.)
Just two ordinary enhancements consumed 3300 of Xu Lun's energy storage, with the bulk of it being the cost of modifying the virus. This act of directly altering the virus's composition without destroying its basic functions consumed more energy than he had imagined.
(Workshop Energy Storage: 6784)
He still hadn't figured out the Workshop's energy consumption problem. He didn't know the principle behind it; sometimes, some ordinary things consumed an absurdly high amount of energy, while some difficult things consumed an astonishingly low amount.
"Workshop, optimize invisibility ability."
Xu Lun began to strengthen himself. What he was about to do required complete invisibility; just an invisible head wouldn't do.
(Consumed 1500 energy points. Ability Seed - Invisibility is now fully his own.)
"1500 points!"
(Workshop Energy Storage: 5284)
Xu Lun's face twitched violently, somewhat in disbelief. It only cost him 15 energy points to obtain the Lizard's invisibility ability, but the optimization directly added two zeros to the cost.
Fortunately, the optimized function did not disappoint him. With just a thought, his body became transparent and disappeared into the air.
It was like gaining an extra organ. This ability became instinctive, like breathing, sustained by physical exertion, and it seemed to have the potential for further improvement.
Back at the villa, Xu Lun immediately set off. He had to complete the mission and get the highest evaluation before the trial world ended.
Returning to the Hospital again, the road was still covered with zombies, making Xu Lun's expression grow solemn.
Logically, after his cleanup over the past few days, there shouldn't be many zombies here, as without sound to attract them, zombies wouldn't suddenly go to a certain place.
What other anomaly had occurred?
Continuing forward, the density of zombies grew increasingly higher. Xu Lun smashed a nearby zombie with a single strike, his face grim as he looked at the figure on the streetlamp ahead.
That was clearly also a special infected, covered in strange cracks and emitting a red glow.
The figure covered its face in ecstasy, emitting a voice like grinding sand.
"Are you surprised to see me again?"
"I've been looking for you all night for this meeting, Xu Lun!"
An endless stream of zombies surrounded him. Xu Lun helplessly asked this special infected, "So, who are you?"