Are you kidding me?

  No. Nope. I refuse to accept this. I was about to fight with the invisible system when its voice returned:

  “You may ask a different question. This is a one-time exception.”

  I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Okay. I've got to be careful now.

  “Can you give me a detailed explanation of how to use the Evolution Seed?”

  The robotic voice answered, “Simply focus on what you wish to know, and the Evolution Seed's mysteries will reveal themselves to you. The answers must be discovered through your own efforts. This concludes your questions. Good luck, Chosen One.”

  And just like that, the voice disappeared.

  Chosen One, ass.

  One million Evolution Seeds worldwide, huh? But if that were true, then why had I already looted multiple from random zombies? Weren’t these things supposed to be rare?

  Ah, screw it. No point thinking too much. I’d just keep smashing zombies and see how many more seeds I could get.

  Speaking of which… what about Sophie? Did she have an Evolution Seed too? If she did, then I needed to be careful. Because if she died—whether by accident or otherwise—her seed would drop, just like in a game.

  With that in mind, I started throwing down everything I could find.

  The most effective? A dismantled glass coffee table. A huge shard of glass sliced through the air like a guillotine, cutting down five or six zombies in an instant.

  And just like that, I hit Level 6.

  But something strange happened. Out of the forty-plus zombies I killed, only one dropped an Evolution Seed. Even weirder, I reached Level 5 after just twelve kills, but then… nothing. No level-ups for over thirty more kills—until I finally took down another Chosen zombie.

  That got me thinking.

  If my calculations were right, then the first five levels were easy—probably meant as a survival buffer.

  But from Level 6 onwards… it seemed like the only way to advance was by killing other Chosen.

  Sophie stood dumbfounded at the study door, watching my crazy actions. She only spoke in a small voice when I finally stopped, “Hey… are you okay? You must be worried about your parents and family, but we’re in no position to go looking for them right now. Besides, I just saw some useful news. Come take a look.”

  I nodded and walked over, but at the same time, I became wary of this woman. You can never be too careful—if I let my guard down, I might not even know how I died.

  Standing in front of the computer, I saw Sophie searching for news videos on Google. A rather pretty female anchor was speaking:

  “Welcome to today's live news broadcast. I'm your host, Seth. A terrifying mutation has broken out across the world. Many humans are acting like crazed lunatics, attacking and biting others. The cause is still unknown. Now, let's go live to the scene.”

  The screen switched to a male reporter standing on the street. In the footage, zombies were attacking people everywhere, and police officers were shooting at them. Even the reporters were surrounded by zombies, but a few armed officers protected them, making their situation relatively safe.

  Anchor: “Mark, hello.”

  Mark: “Hello, anchor. Hello, viewers.”

  Anchor: “Don't say hello to me! This is an emergency! Just get to the point—”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Before he could finish, the camera suddenly shook. Then it dropped to the ground, followed by Mark's screams. The next moment, Mark's bloodied face appeared on the screen, his body being torn apart by several zombies. The camera shook again, and then a blood-covered zombie with red eyes picked it up and flashed a gruesome grin at the screen…

  The feed cut back to the studio. The female anchor screamed in terror but quickly composed herself when the director gestured at her. Taking deep breaths to steady herself, she continued:

  “Alright… Mark didn't have time to explain the situation, but we've seen it ourselves through the footage. The streets are in chaos—people are attacking each other, and those who are bitten turn into the same creatures. Medical experts are already investigating, and we're awaiting further results. For now, we urge everyone to lock their doors and windows, stay indoors, and avoid going outside. If you are trapped, call the police for help, and officers will come to your aid. That's all for today's broadcast. Thank you for watching. Goodbye…”

  I glanced at Sophie, then asked, “Did you bring your phone?”

  Sophie shook her head. “I fled in a hurry… I didn't take it with me.”

  I fell silent for a moment before saying, “Let's try contacting our friends first.” Then, I opened my 'Burning Passion'folder, launched an online calling app, and said, “You make the calls.”

  Sophie didn't hesitate. She put on the headset and started dialing. However, after waiting for a long time, there was no response. She tried several times, but the result was the same.

  I sighed. “As expected… The servers for this online phone service must be down. We’ve lost all contact with the outside world. This is bad… We still have some stored water at home, but we can't use tap water anymore. If we only use it for drinking, it'll last us about three days.”

  Sophie also fell into silence. I forced a bitter smile and said, “You can sleep in this room tonight. There's a bed and blankets. I'll take the room next door.” After nodding at Sophie, I walked out.

  Back in my bedroom, I locked the door, lay on my bed, and silently thought about my skills. As expected, the list of skills appeared in my mind. I had four skill points available, along with four new skills.

  Physique Enhancement: Passive skill.

  Effect: Increases strength, movement speed, neural reaction speed, and virus resistance by 30%.

  Skill Enhancement: Passive skill.

  Effect: Increases damage-dealing skills by 20%, boosts blessing-type skills' effectiveness by 30%, and extends their duration by 30%.

  Detoxification: Active skill (Blessing-type).

  Effect: 20% chance to detoxify a designated target. If detox fails, poison onset is delayed. The same target can only receive this blessing once every three days. Instant cast, 3-hour cooldown.

  Thunderlight Sword: Active skill.

  Effect: Condenses the Chosen One's power into a flashing lightning weapon. This weapon is sharp, lightweight, and has a minor paralysis effect. Duration: permanent. Can be retracted and summoned again.

  Among these four skills, Physique Enhancement, Skill Enhancement, and Detoxification were marked in red, while Lightning Sword was marked in yellow. Looking carefully, I realized that Lightning Sword had only appeared after I reached level 6. That meant level 5 was a critical threshold.

  But I had to choose carefully. I couldn't upgrade everything—it would make me too mediocre. As I pondered, I unknowingly fell asleep…

  I had no idea how long I slept. When I woke up, it was still pitch-black outside—clearly, it was the middle of the night.

  I went back to thinking about my skills. Detoxification seemed useless early on, with only a 20% success rate. It could probably be upgraded to 100% eventually, but right now, it isn't worth investing in.

  The 18-Stroke Dragon-Slaying Technique was both exciting and concerning—it would likely become powerful at higher levels, but its bleeding effect was risky. I wasn't ready to use it yet.

  Mystic Vision seemed intriguing. While its reaction speed boost wasn't impressive, its ability to see through hidden things was its real value. It had great potential, but now wasn't the time to focus on it.

  Skill Enhancement wasn't useful to me yet, since I didn't have many active or blessing-type skills.

  Lightning Sword… too flashy.

  I narrowed my focus to Physique Enhancement and Sunflower Manual, the two skills I both loved and dreaded. My theory was that if I boosted Physique Enhancement, using Sunflower Manual wouldn't drain me as much.

  Acting on my thoughts, I upgraded Physique Enhancement twice. As expected, the percentage increases doubled. At level 2, it now boosted stats by 60%.

  Immediately, I felt a surge of strength—an incredible sensation, as if I could decapitate a zombie with a single strike.

  Then, I activated the Sunflower Manual on myself again. The familiar weakness returned, but this time, it wasn't physical exhaustion. I focused and realized the fatigue came from my spirit, not my body.

  I understand now—this was like the difference between physical skills and magic skills in fantasy novels. Physical skills drained stamina, while magic skills consumed mental energy. Sunflower Manual was a magic-type skill, depleting my mind rather than my body.

  Physique Enhancement didn't improve mental endurance, but my natural level progression seemed to help with that.

  With that realization, I put my remaining two skill points into Physique Enhancement.

  Now, my Physique Enhancement is at level 4:

  Physique Enhancement (Level 4) - Passive

  Effect: Increases strength, movement speed, neural reaction speed, and virus resistance by 120%.