The zombies are evolving, and even the insects seem to be evolving. Lucas even suspects that plant evolution might begin as well.

Everything Lucas currently possesses is of the red rank. Once everything in the apocalypse starts evolving comprehensively, if Lucas remains at this level, he will probably have no choice but to find a place to hide.

In fact, Lucas has considered it. After all, there is fertile soil to grow things, and hiding is also an option.

But he thought of another possibility. If the system knows that he is not actively improving his strength, is it possible that it might eliminate him and find someone else as a replacement?

After contemplating during this period of time, Lucas believes that the appearance of the system is definitely purposeful, and this speculation is likely to become reality.

Since there is such a possibility, it's better to think about how to improve his strength. The current timing is the most suitable, as most things are still within a controllable range.

Lucas's plan is to kill, kill, and kill, then exchange things with the system.

Ten red insect cores for one yellow capsule doesn't seem difficult at all.

But the situation where there were so many insects during the last mountain fire, yet he hardly obtained any insect cores, served as a wake-up call for Lucas.

The insects are becoming intelligent. Even if they appear in large numbers, they will eventually take away the insect cores from the bodies of the dead insects.

If Lucas encounters such a situation, it would be much more difficult for him to obtain the insect cores.

Several vehicles drove through the dark coastal city. The headlights were not turned on, but the engines of the off-road vehicle and the truck were not quiet. Zombies started to emerge from various streets and communities, following the vehicles.

Lucas instructed the Cobras that as long as the zombies and insects didn't block the road completely, they should push through and continue towards the destination.

Although there were still many other vehicles parked haphazardly on the road, they were easily pushed aside by the off-road vehicle equipped with red insect shells.

Before long, the windshield of the off-road vehicle was covered with a thick, foul-smelling mixture of blood and shredded flesh from the zombies.

A few insects appeared in the surroundings, not in large numbers, and they didn't launch attacks on the vehicles. Instead, they followed from a distance, maintaining a distance of at least three hundred meters.

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Lucas set the bus to autopilot and carefully observed the insects on the control panel of the unmanned drone.

Based on the fact that these insects didn't immediately launch an attack upon appearing, they had developed some basic intelligence. They were now capable of observing their prey.

However, Lucas believed that they hadn't evolved to the yellow rank of intelligence yet.

If the insects evolved to the yellow rank, they might even understand how to coordinate attacks.

Moreover, their size would be considerably larger.

Just the thought of intelligent insects with such a size was a nightmare.

Lucas gave instructions to the mute girl not to get close to the insects. However, the mute girl was already riding a motorcycle and slashing zombies in front of the off-road vehicle.

Whether the zombies had gained intelligence or not, they were currently unable to harm the mute girl.

Zombies were chopped up one by one and kicked to the side of the road.

This made the off-road vehicle's journey smoother.

After a distance of several dozen blocks, the off-road vehicle stopped.

Ahead were two large supermarkets.

The Cobras remained quiet, allowing the mute girl to create sounds and lure the appearing zombies to another street.

Meanwhile, Lucas carried a heavy knife and a sniper rifle as he entered the tallest building on these streets. At the same time, the drone carefully observed the movement of the insects.

The ten-plus floors of stairs were no problem for Lucas at the moment. Not only did he climb quickly, but he also killed more than a dozen zombies in the hallway along the way.

In a matter of minutes, he reached the rooftop. Lucas checked the rooftop and locked the door to the stairwell, then set up the sniper rifle at the edge.

From this position, Lucas could see the situation on several streets through the control panel of the drone and the scope of the sniper rifle.

His goal was to eliminate the appearing insects.

Most of the zombies had been led away by the mute girl, and it seemed that a portion of the insects were also heading in her direction.

Lucas instructed the mute girl to circle around with the zombies and not to come into contact with the insects.

As time passed, all the zombies surrounding the off-road vehicle and the truck were taken care of by Anna using her hands.

Even without the scope, Lucas could see Anna's hands, which were a translucent, reddish color.

They were exceptionally conspicuous in the darkness.

Lucas even thought that Anna had awakened more than two types of powers; her talent for controlling and using the powers was terrifying as well.

In just a short period of time, she had already reached the point where she could generate high temperatures with her hands and incinerate the zombies with a gentle touch.

Her movements were swift and graceful, like performing ballet.

Lucas maliciously wondered whether she had learned to control her powers quickly in secret to avoid burning her own clothes when using them.

Snap—

Lucas shifted his gaze away from Anna's burning hands and incidentally took care of an insect that was about to ambush her.

The modified sniper rifle now had a silencer. Once activated, the sound of firing was much quieter than that of a handgun. At a height of nearly a hundred meters, the sound wouldn't carry far.

And the effective shooting distance increased by a thousand meters, with enhanced firepower. Even the evolving red insects would be killed instantly with a headshot.

Snap—

Another shot, and a bug's head was blown into pieces.

At this time, the Cobras also entered the first large supermarket.

The infected dog and the boy were left at the entrance, while Anna led the Cobras at the front.

By now, the Cobras were equipped with flamethrowers.

Lucas instructed them not to make any noise once inside the supermarket unless it was a matter of life and death. They were to avoid using firearms if possible, and using cold weapons was preferred.

Of course, the modified flamethrower was still usable.

After being crafted based on redprints, the flame size was adjustable, the sound was minimal, and the power was even more astonishing.

Lucas kept firing his gun, and soon, the number of insects nearby was halved.

At this point, Lucas couldn't afford to be careless, especially with the corpses of dead insects. He absolutely couldn't let the remaining live insects get close.

Seeing the insects retreating, Lucas quickly signaled the mute girl to return to the bus and protect him while he immediately went to dig out the insect cores, so they wouldn't be eaten by the insects before having a chance to dig them out.

At this moment, a group of people suddenly appeared on the control panel of the drone.

On the street three blocks away from Lucas, those figures were rapidly heading towards the supermarket where the Cobras had entered.