Published: January 31, 2025
"Thank you, Brother Meng Yunsong, for the reward, bowing~~"
The machete was pulled out from the side of a zombie's head, and Ye Zhongming nimbly dodged the splattered black blood.
In less than a day, the bodily fluids of the zombies had completely transformed, gradually separating into two distinctly different species compared to their living selves.
In order to kill the ape turtle egrets, Ye Zhongming had been busy around the construction site for nearly two hours.
He continuously killed zombies within a hundred-meter radius around the construction site, clearing out a vacuum zone.
Under normal circumstances, a one-star evolver would have little chance against a second-evolution monster. If it weren't for Ye Zhongming possessing two auxiliary secondary occupations and being aware of this monster's weaknesses, he would have obediently been grinding zombies for magic crystals using the most conventional methods to grow stronger.
However, this was an ape turtle egrets, and with a white-level weapon in hand, it gave Ye Zhongming the confidence he needed.
But having been given a second chance at life, and with rich hunting experience, he did not directly challenge this second-evolution monster; he aimed to maximize his advantages.
Moreover, he needed to minimize any unexpected occurrences.
In the early days of the apocalypse, the biggest unpredictability was the ever-present risk of zombie hordes, and he had to ensure that no man-eating monsters would disrupt his fight.
Additionally, he needed some magic crystals to replenish his mental strength; as for the cost-effectiveness, he couldn't worry about that much.
Upon returning to the construction site, Ye Zhongming already had over a hundred Grade 1 Magic Crystals. With the help of the earth yellow pills, his efficiency in killing zombies had significantly improved.
He retained some magic crystals as backups, using the rest to activate the green necklace's active skill—Beginner Meditation Exchange, which granted him over ten points of mental strength. Adding this to his natural recovery and the necklace's passive skills, his mental strength had recovered to just over a hundred points.
Hiding in a concealed corner, Ye Zhongming took out the claws he had obtained from the blood tongue lizard earlier.
This item had consumed quite a bit of mental strength when he used extraction techniques on it.
Ye Zhongming first placed one claw tip and the machete together to check for enchantment, but was met with a merciless rejection; the already resilient machete had reached the maximum limit for its property level.
He then tried the claw on the shield, hoping to enchant the gray equipment, but the prompt indicated it did not meet the enchanting standards. It seemed that the properties that would emerge from enchanting the claw were incompatible with such defensive equipment.
Finally, Ye Zhongming took out some bullets.
These were given to him by Mo Ye when she left, suitable for Ye Zhongming's new gun.
This new gun was very effective, but ultimately it was reinforced based on two ordinary handguns, so it only reached gray-level. Its power did not exceed the range of conventional firearms on Earth, as there were currently no other firearms available for homogeneous enhancement, making it unfeasible to improve the weapon's attack power itself.
Thus, he had to find a way to enhance the bullets.
Fortunately, enchanting was a crafting skill that could also be applied to consumable items like bullets.
Ye Zhongming did not immediately enchant the bullets; instead, he considered it before using the homogeneous enhancement technique to reinforce the tips of the blood tongue lizard's claws. After processing twenty claws, he finally managed to enhance four of them, the gray material's qualities radiating a faint glow even under daylight.
Bringing one claw tip close to a bullet, Ye Zhongming activated the enchanting technique. A radiant bullet appeared in his palm.
This bullet bore no metallic appearance; rather, it resembled a crystalline artifact.