The footsteps of Lucas walking towards the bus were somewhat heavy.

It is currently just the early stages of the apocalypse, with only zombies and some infected animals appearing.

As the infected beings began to evolve a month later, Lucas knew that what he currently possessed might not pose a threat to them.

Mutated infected beings, infected plants, higher-level insects, and the evolution of zombies.

If his possessions couldn't be upgraded in time, he would have to run away even when encountering zombies.

After being reborn, Lucas contemplated a question: perhaps in the previous apocalypse, the eventual victors would be the infected beings.

Would humanity cease to exist?

Feeling the weight of the saw made from insect legs in his hand, Lucas felt a slight sense of security.

A month later, evolution began, and it wasn't like it is now.

Now he had weapons of red rank, capable of killing infected beings and insects of red rank.

But when evolution started, it wouldn't be at the same level for everyone.

Lucas might be at the first rank, but the insects he encountered could be at the third rank.

Facing an orange-ranked insect with a red-ranked weapon would undoubtedly be a foregone conclusion.

At this moment, Lucas suddenly had a realization.

Perhaps this first month of the apocalypse was the system's way of accumulating strength for him.

Taking advantage of the absence of evolution, upgrading his own strength and possessions seemed to be the best course of action.

Winning at the starting line was the right choice.

Bug cores, he must try to gather as many as possible in this less than a month.

Lucas set a small goal for himself at this time.

Returning to the front of the bus, the woman had already left.

Lucas was rude in his speech earlier to discourage the woman.

In the early stages of the apocalypse, people still had their dignity.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

When resources became scarce in the future, holding a bag of biscuits in front of some women could make them do anything.

Lucas arrived at the place where he cultivated nutrient-rich soil.

The cucumbers were ripe, shining green under the light, looking pleasing to the eye.

Lucas didn't count, but he estimated there were about a dozen cucumbers.

He picked one casually and took a bite, enjoying its fresh and juicy taste.

In a week at most, Lucas might be the only person able to eat green vegetables anytime in the next three months, at least that's how he saw it.

"In the future, I should find a place specifically for growing food, and also raise pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese."

Lucas believed that since the system could provide him with nutrient-rich soil, it could probably provide him with something to feed pigs, cows, and sheep.

He watered the nutrient-rich soil and waited for the second harvest.

Under normal circumstances, a cucumber plant could bear fruit five or six times, so Lucas didn't immediately plant anything else.

The battle between the military and zombies in the distance continued, and Lucas still couldn't sleep.

Playing music, Lucas began to contemplate what to create on the yellow blank blueprint.

The things drawn on the yellow blank blueprint would require corresponding materials of a certain level.

Lucas felt that he currently had no way to solve this problem.

So he decided to leave it for now.

After much thought, Lucas had two ideas.

One was to exchange the last insect shell for a red blank blueprint and draw some weapons or something.

But the problem was that the red blank blueprint was too low in rank, and powerful weapons drawn on it might not materialize.

This would result in getting nothing and wasting a blueprint.

The system wouldn't provide any hints in this regard, similar to opening capsules, as both involved random factors.

The other idea was to directly use the insect shell to upgrade the drone and see if he could add an attack function.

"Forget it, later when the battle between the military and zombies ends, I can go dig for bug cores and harvest insect shells again. I'll decide then."

After more than an hour had passed, the battle between the military and the zombies finally came to an end.

Henry came over to greet Lucas once again, and the crowd began moving towards Phoenix Mountain.

Both Lucas and Henry believed that the chances of a large-scale appearance of zombies and insects in the upcoming journey should be minimal.

Over fifty insects and nearly two thousand zombies had been eliminated.

At this point, in the outskirts, after passing through the industrial area ahead, the number of people had significantly decreased, resulting in fewer zombies.

As long as they avoided unnecessary passages through the industrial area, they should be able to reach Phoenix Mountain smoothly.

Lucas felt that the mission was about to be completed, and from now on, he only needed to be prepared for the possible appearance of insects.

As before, the crowd moved first, and Lucas followed leisurely.

This time, Henry sent out more reconnaissance soldiers.

Their army was already unable to sustain large-scale battles.

The zombie horde had consumed two-thirds of their ammunition, and half of their soldiers had been casualties.

At this moment, Lucas was unaware that he had become more important in the eyes of Henry and the major general, and his value was being reassessed.

Furthermore, Henry and the others had taken notice of Lucas's sniper rifle and the bus.

After the crowd had moved a distance, Lucas returned to the industrial park to start digging for bug cores.

Fifty-one bug cores and insect shells were quickly obtained.

After arranging these things properly, Lucas used the walkie-talkie Henry had given him to notify Henry to organize people to come and collect the supplies from this cleared area.

Lucas's bus had limited capacity and could no longer accommodate these items.

Since that was the case, he might as well let Henry take them away.

After all, it wouldn't be long before these things would be taken by others, so it was better to benefit Henry and his group.

From this moment on, Lucas also didn't want to hide certain things anymore.

After informing Henry, Lucas looked at the map and found a nearby river, planning to go and clean the bus.

The bus was covered in a thick layer of blood, which Lucas actually found quite cool to look at.

However, the smell was unbearable, too foul.

The river was about five kilometers away from the industrial area, and cleaning the bus wouldn't delay him from catching up with the crowd.

Using his watch to navigate, the bus quietly headed towards the direction of the river.

Before this, the Falcon Eye drone's footage hadn't shown any sign of zombie hordes or insects.

Taking advantage of this time, Lucas began to communicate with the system about exchanging items.

If the previous harvest could be considered a windfall, this time he estimated it would be a fortune.

Fifty-one red bug cores and fifty-one red insect shells.

If he were to exchange all of them for red capsules, Lucas believed he could definitely obtain something like the Flame Fist.

However, considering the preparations needed for a month later, Lucas decided to hold back.

He asked the system, and it turned out that he needed a hundred bug cores to exchange for an orange capsule, so Lucas dismissed that idea and decided to exchange for five yellow capsules instead.

As for the insect shells, Lucas planned to be ruthless and use all of them to upgrade the functions of the bus.