The fierce burly man's agonizing wails continued, attracting more survivors who gathered curiously.

"What happened? Who's wailing?" The later arrivals couldn't push through the crowd. Being rather short, even standing on tiptoes didn't let them see what was happening inside.

"It's Black Wolf! Someone twisted his arm into a pretzel. It's horrible—blood's everywhere," said a nearby survivor.

"What? Black Wolf got taught a lesson? Just two days ago, I saw him humiliating a woman right in front of her husband, acting all high and mighty."

"Heh~ Karma's a cycle. In this apocalypse, there are all kinds of tough people. Black Wolf thought he was tough enough, but little did he know there's always someone tougher. The one who broke Black Wolf's arm wasn't a man—it was a woman!"

The survivors on the outskirts grew even more curious. A woman actually had the strength to twist Black Wolf's arm into a pretzel? Just how strong was she!

A young soldier heard the wails and was about to head over when the gate guard called out to stop him.

"Bro, what's up? Someone's causing trouble over there. I need to go handle it quickly," the young soldier said.

The gate guard beckoned, calling the young soldier closer, and whispered a reminder, "Those two are newcomers, used to be independents. They're really strong. Don't get yourself caught up in it."

The young soldier looked gratefully at the gate guard. "Alright, thanks for the heads-up."

The gate guard chuckled. "We joined the base just to get by, not to be real soldiers. Don't risk your life. That beauty among the newcomers has ridiculously exaggerated strength. I bet even our combined strength is no match for hers."

Before the apocalypse, the young soldier was a delivery guy, and the gate guard was security at some upscale residential complex. The two had known each other for a long time. Back then, when the young soldier was making deliveries, the guard would stop him from entering the complex. Then at night, their roles reversed—the guard would deliver food at night, and the young soldier would work as a night security guard.

Kindred spirits, they became good friends after the apocalypse.

The young soldier entered the crowd. Seeing a soldier approach, the survivors quickly made way.

When the fierce burly man saw the young soldier, he became extremely agitated. Clutching his twisted arm, he wailed loudly, "Brother Li! He injured someone inside the base! Arrest him quickly!"

The young soldier glanced at the burly man's arm and unconsciously swallowed. The explosive strength needed to twist a human arm like that was an astonishing figure.

"Who got injured?"

The burly man froze for a moment. "Me! Can't you see!"

He lifted his injured arm with his other hand, grimacing in pain, his face contorted, nearly passing out.

The young soldier let out a bland "oh," then took half a cigarette from his belt and offered it to Li Xuan. "Friend, want one?"

Li Xuan refused. "I don't smoke."

The young soldier, reluctant to smoke it himself, tucked it back into his belt. "Did he attack you first?"

The burly man finally realized the young soldier had no intention of helping him seek justice.

"I..." Before he could curse, the young soldier suddenly pivoted and kicked, sending the burly man sprawling.

Already injured, losing too much blood, dizzy and disoriented, the burly man was knocked out cold by that kick.

The young soldier snorted coldly. "Trying to attack me? I think you've lost your mind!"

"Everyone disperse! Don't crowd here, you're blocking the path!"

Suddenly, a voice came from the crowd.

"Is what you said earlier true? Trading supernatural characteristics for live large animals!"

The young soldier turned to look at Li Xuan, somewhat bewildered.

Li Xuan nodded. "True."

He directly pulled out the Chaotic Evolution supernatural characteristic from his pocket.

"You should recognize supernatural characteristics, right? Whoever brings me a live large animal can have this supernatural characteristic! Let me be clear upfront—it has to be edible and tasty. I'll be making selections;

unsuitable ones won't be accepted. Anyone interested can go look!"

Intense gazes focused on the supernatural characteristic in Li Xuan's hand.

The young soldier whispered to Li Xuan, "Friend, aren't you afraid someone will try to snatch it?"

Li Xuan smiled confidently. "Snatch? No one can take what's mine!"

Not to mention his Giant Beast transformation, Huo Lingling alone could wipe out every survivor present!

With absolute strength, he had no interest in playing the weak to catch the strong, slowly searching for the future Earth Dragon. What if his interference caused the Earth Dragon to fail to escape and ended up killed by survivors?

So after discussing with Yun Xiuzhi and Huo Lingling and careful consideration, he decided to openly offer the supernatural characteristic as a bounty for the future Earth Dragon.

Of course, he couldn't directly name the Earth Dragon, as that would reveal its special nature.

After the Vulture team captured the future Earth Dragon and wanted to trade it for a supernatural characteristic, by offering a bounty for live large animals in advance, the Vulture team would definitely think of him first and choose to trade with him rather than with the survivor codenamed Sky Wolf.

Sky Wolf was a non-official base ability user. Now that Li Xuan had joined R City's official survivor base, choosing to trade with Sky Wolf could easily lead to rejection or even an ambush by Sky Wolf. Trading with Li Xuan had a higher success rate, and at least within R City base, safety was guaranteed. As long as the Vulture team wasn't stupid, they'd choose him.

Even the young soldier was tempted. Suddenly, he noticed something off. "This isn't an ordinary supernatural characteristic, is it?"

What? Not an ordinary supernatural characteristic?

The survivors were puzzled—do supernatural characteristics have grades?

Li Xuan was surprised. "You recognize this supernatural characteristic?"

The young soldier nodded repeatedly. "My big bro is in another survivor base. He's a transformer. Before communications went down, I contacted him. He told me some supernatural characteristics are stronger than ordinary ones and are called high-grade characteristics.

Mutated zombies with high-grade characteristics are terrifyingly powerful—one can match four or five ordinary mutated zombies. They're extremely rare."

"Correct, this supernatural characteristic is a high-grade one!"

As soon as Li Xuan finished speaking, the breathing around grew even more intense.

A live large animal could be exchanged for a high-grade supernatural characteristic! Unimaginable!

If not for Huo Lingling displaying formidable combat power and Li Xuan directly producing a high-grade characteristic, they would have thought Li Xuan was joking!

The trade items weren't on the same level at all! The value difference was too huge!

It felt unreal!

The Vulture team's eyes burned with determination, firm in their resolve to find large animals and trade with Li Xuan for the supernatural characteristic.

"Let's go! We're heading out!"

Several days later

R City Official Base

People continuously brought back live animals, hoping to trade with Li Xuan for the supernatural characteristic—rabbits, chickens, ducks, pigeons, etc. Most people brought back animals that weren't very large. They were taking a chance, trying to exchange them for the high-grade supernatural characteristic.

Li Xuan rejected them all, citing unsuitable taste or being too small. Because he rejected so many, many started thinking he was a fraud, toying with everyone.

The rejected survivors seethed inwardly, but remembering Li Xuan could kill mutated zombies and Huo Lingling could easily twist arms, their anger flared briefly before they simmered in silent frustration.

They didn't want to end up like the fierce burly man.

That day, after the burly man passed out, no one bothered with him. The next day, someone out exploring for food found his mutilated corpse—he hadn't even turned into a zombie—truly pitiful.

The Vulture team returned to base, each carrying a backpack, their pant legs crusted with frost.

Team Leader Brother Liu took out two small fish and handed them to the gate guard. "Old Wang, has that ability user who wants live animals left yet?"

The soldier happily accepted the small fish—a rare delicacy in the apocalypse.

Before the apocalypse, he would have disliked such small fish for having too many bones, wouldn't even take a bite. But now was different from before—so what if there were bones? Dried fish bones were still food, could supplement nutrition.

Gulp!

The soldier swallowed, involuntarily recalling the taste of fish meat. "He hasn't left. You guys caught something good, huh?"

The soldier had already noticed the travel bag on Brother Liu's back moving—the animal inside was at least a meter long.

Brother Liu grinned. Entering the city required bag checks—no hiding it. "Got lucky, caught a crocodile."

"Crocodile? Not bad tasting. I ate farmed crocodile once before the apocalypse. Why did I have to eat bullfrog when the apocalypse hit, not crocodile!" The soldier lamented.

Even if a bullfrog absorbed supernatural characteristics, it'd struggle to defeat an adult crocodile. Hence, he, as a transformer, wasn't valued much, assigned to gate duty instead of exploration teams.

"Same here, I regret it too. I had a bottle of tiger bone wine at home, used to drink it regularly, but just happened not to drink it when the apocalypse hit, missed my chance to transform into a fierce tiger."

The soldier laughed and scolded, "You're crying after getting a good deal. Your black horse transformation is great, stronger than most people's transformations, top-tier for escaping."

Brother Liu took off his travel bag. "Old Wang, check me first. I need to go trade for the supernatural characteristic. If I make it big someday, follow me, I'll make sure you become a supernatural too."

The soldier calmed down and whispered, "Don't get your hopes up too high. Lots of people have tried trading for the supernatural characteristic recently, none succeeded. Everyone says that guy is toying with the survivors."

A shadow fell over Brother Liu's brow, a bad feeling creeping into his heart. "We've brought back the crocodile, gotta at least try."

The soldier nodded. "Right, if you can't trade for the supernatural characteristic, you can still exchange it for a lot of ordinary food."

Meat is very popular in the survivor base. Selling one jin of meat to strong survivors can get you three jin of flour-based food.

After the inspection, the Vulture team successfully entered the city.

The soldier's words greatly dampened the team's excitement. They all looked worried, afraid Li Xuan wouldn't trade.

Brother Liu thought for a moment, then said to his teammates, "If he doesn't want to trade, we still made a big haul this trip. Everyone keep one jin of crocodile meat, sell the rest. It'll last us for months."

Hearing this, the worry on the teammates' faces lessened somewhat.

As they approached Li Xuan's residence, the crowd gradually thickened. People in the crowd noticed the bulging travel bag on Brother Liu's back and whispered among themselves.

"It's the Vulture team! They brought back a live animal too. Wonder if they'll succeed."

"Looks pretty big, at least a meter. Li Xuan can't say it's too small this time, right?"

"Even if he doesn't say it's small, what if he says it doesn't suit his taste? What can the Vulture team do? Dare to turn hostile?"

The Vulture team heard the discussion, their steps growing heavier.

Upon arrival, the Vulture team found another small team ahead of them, trading with Li Xuan. They had caught a skinny local dog, less than half a meter long, emaciated and listless. It was clear that if the dog hadn't been caught, it would have frozen to death in a couple of days.

"Lord Li Xuan, dog meat is a delicacy! Before the apocalypse, a jin of cooked dog meat cost nearly a hundred yuan on the market, much tastier than chicken, duck, or fish." The survivor team also noticed the Vulture team behind them. From the frost on Brother Liu and his men's pant legs, they guessed they had caught a fish.

Brother Liu silently wished for the other team's failure, while also worrying about his own potential failure.

"Doesn't meet the criteria." Li Xuan said calmly.

"Why!"

"No reason needed! Next!"

The team that caught the yellow dog wanted to argue further, but then banging sounds came from nearby. Turning to look, they saw Huo Lingling practicing punches against the wall, each punch powerful and heavy, leaving many fist imprints and cracks on the wall.

The team fell silent, members leaving in silent anger.

A fist that could crack a wall hitting a person would probably go right through!

Brother Liu quickly stepped forward, opening the travel bag. "We caught a crocodile! A one-meter-long crocodile!"

Inside the travel bag was clearly a Chinese alligator, its mouth tied with rope, its four small legs also bound. Seeming to sense someone watching it, the alligator struggled more vigorously.

The moment Li Xuan saw the Chinese alligator, he shot to his feet.

"Which team are you?"

"Vulture team."

"Where did you catch the crocodile?" Li Xuan asked again.

Brother Liu hesitated for a moment, then honestly said, "We accidentally entered an underground river. We found this crocodile while fishing."

A glint flashed in Li Xuan's eyes.

Vulture team, underground river, skinny Chinese alligator

All matched the circumstances of the future Earth Dragon from the intel!

It's the future Earth Dragon!

Absolutely correct!

"Deal! The supernatural characteristic is yours! The crocodile is mine!"

Li Xuan took out the Chaotic Evolution characteristic and tossed it into Brother Liu's hand with a smack, simultaneously calling out to Huo Lingling, "Take the crocodile! We're going home!"

Huo Lingling's eyes lit up, knowing they had caught their target. "Alright!"

Huo Lingling moved extremely fast, rushing to the crocodile, easily controlling the struggling Chinese alligator, hoisting it up, and running off.

Brother Liu stared dumbly at Huo Lingling running into the distance, then looked at the supernatural characteristic in his hand.

Succeeded?

Li Xuan agreed so quickly.

Brother Liu secretly pinched his teammate's soft flesh, making the teammate yelp in pain. Only then did he confirm he wasn't hallucinating.

"Hahaha! We did it! Our Vulture team finally got our first supernatural characteristic! And it's a high-grade one!"

A teammate immediately said, "Captain, absorb it quickly!"

They had agreed in advance who would absorb the supernatural characteristic. If he didn't absorb it now, there might be trouble.

Brother Liu immediately transformed into a black horse and swallowed the supernatural characteristic in one gulp, beginning the absorption process.

Ability users hiding in the crowd, eager to make a move, frowned. They hadn't expected Brother Liu to be so decisive. It was too late to act now. To get the supernatural characteristic, they'd have to cut open Brother Liu's stomach, but Brother Liu's transformation was a black horse, with top-tier speed.

"Hmph! He got lucky!" A disdainful voice mixed in with the survivors' discussion.