Lin Ye pulled a cart full of woven bags toward the ruins' entrance, while the others hauled their own desired spoils.

Zhao Yong seemed particularly fond of firearms, deliberately collecting a pile of guns without ammunition to bring back.

Xu Min and Li Ji carried large quantities of supermarket food and miscellaneous items - commodities highly sought after in their respective zones.

As the group traversed the ruins, they encountered neither mutated creatures nor corpses.

"Will we meet again?" Li Ji asked wistfully. Though their time together had been brief, she'd grown fond of these three teammates. Without them, she might not have survived this ordeal.

"As long as we live, we'll meet again," Lin Ye replied, gazing at the ruins with some regret. The mission's excessive difficulty had prevented him from attempting the two additional optional tasks.

"I hope so." Seeing Li Ji, who was about her daughter's age, Xu Min felt renewed confidence in finding her own child.

"Let's add each other as friends," Zhao Yong suggested in the chat room. "Even if cross-zone communication is temporarily unavailable, when populations decrease they'll probably merge zones eventually." After mutual friend confirmations, the four successfully exited the ruins.

Crossing the road, they reached the opposite platform, whose rear was blocked by a towering wall obscuring whatever lay beyond. Though curious, Lin Ye felt no urge to explore such hazardous areas.

Suddenly, the massive shadow within the distant ruins began trembling. The mist dissipated amidst the vibrations, revealing an egg-shaped monstrosity towering over a dozen stories tall. Like a blooming flower, the colossal egg unfurled, releasing crimson flesh that spread across every corner of the ruins. This biomass rapidly formed hordes of mutation creatures that immediately engaged in frenzied combat.

"How spectacular."

"How beautiful."

"How terrifying."

"Good thing we ran fast."

The bus arrived.

…………………

[Station Mission Complete. Reward: Special Metal Treasure Chest ×1 based on mission difficulty]

[Additional Task 1 Complete. Reward: Additional Task Chest ×1]

[Please draw today's card]

Lin Ye rose from bed to find the flatbed cart parked at the shelter's center, all woven bags intact. Beside it sat a red metal chest and a yellow chest of unknown material.

"My turn! Draw!" Despite numerous tasks awaiting attention, Lin Ye prioritized his daily card draw.

This time, the card depicted a duck. As the card dissipated, a crimson duck materialized at the shelter's center.

"Quack quack." Waddling over, the duck produced a steaming bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup from thin air, pushing it toward Lin Ye.

This familiar scene left Lin Ye momentarily speechless. "Can you produce anything else?"

Duck: Quack quack.

Lin Ye: Can you make more bowls then?

Duck: Quack quack.

Lin Ye: Oh? Two more bowls? That's better than the goose at least.

The duck blood soup proved exceptionally delicious - perfectly spiced broth, fragrant chili oil, juice-soaked tofu puffs, and an assortment of duck parts without any odd flavors, accompanied by perfectly cooked noodles. The only regret was no option for extra noodles. Lin Ye devoured every drop.

Post-meal, the Cross Necklace's side effects completely vanished, though Lin Ye couldn't determine if the soup was responsible.

Next came the joyous unboxing. Lin Ye first opened the red metal chest from the main mission:

- 10 bottles of red nutrient solution

- 5 bottles of shimmering aqua-blue liquid

[Spirit Potion]

[Replenishes spiritual energy - extremely valuable]

[Note: Liquefied spiritual energy]

'So condensed perception becomes spiritual energy? That makes sense.'

One brilliantly multicolored vial:

[Consolidation Potion]

[Essential for advancement]

[Note: Use after meeting all requirements]

'What exactly are the advancement requirements?'

A pure black card with intricate patterns:

[Basic Rune - Mutation]

[Teaches basic mutation runes]

[Note: Caution - insufficient spiritual energy may cause harm]

'What are runes exactly?' Heeding the warning, Lin Ye didn't immediately use it.

After organizing his loot, Lin Ye opened the Additional Task 1 chest containing just one card:

[Mutation Card No.1]

[Apply to organisms to induce mutation]

[Note: Collecting 1-10 yields special rewards]

[1-10 Mutation Cards collected. Derive unique evolutionary path?]

"Derive."

[Derivation complete. Detected Card No.0. Integrate for new evolutionary path?]

"Yes."

[Derivation complete. Path integration commencing...]

Lin Ye stood immobilized as his spiritual energy began flowing along an incredibly complex internal pathway - as if etched into his DNA, requiring no conscious control to operate. After one complete cycle, he regained bodily control.

'Holy shit! This is insane!' Though his spiritual energy rapidly depleted, simply absorbing more would let him strengthen his body along this pathway. 'Too bad the shelter lacks spiritual energy. Even if it did, prolonged pathway operation would cause mutations.'

Lin Ye sketched a simplified version of the pathway focusing on major organs, planning to share it in the group chat later.

The chat buzzed with post-activity excitement:

(786,392/1,000,000)

"Thanks to Boss Lin Ye for giving me courage to venture out. I'd have died in seven days from an unupgraded shelter."

"Exactly! Just participating gives treasure chests with guaranteed shelter upgrade blueprints."

"Glad I went - mission wasn't hard. While rewards were average, I scored a case of braised pork cans!"

"Hah, the living thank the boss while the dead can't speak. Truly impressive."

"Bet you didn't join. My teammates were jealous - their group had no free intel. Only 700k left when we started."

"So salty."

"My team too - thanks boss!"

"I shared the boss's info and got 5 red coins from each as thanks..."

"Ignore them - just cowards who'll die soon. Why bother?"

"Better discuss my canned goods haul."

"Or my instant noodles case."

"Or my rice sack."

"Damn! Coordinated bragging? Well I got handguns!"

"Hey! Don't break formation! I haven't posted yet!"