For the entire second day, Lin Qi felt as if the milky taste had not yet dissipated from his mouth, and his body felt warm. Even in weather below ten degrees, he simply could not feel the cold.
Zhao Tuantuan felt even more relaxed, as if she had shed several pounds of weight.
"I'm going upstairs to see if there's anything useful. You keep researching the network and find some valuable information."
After drinking last night, Zhao Tuantuan had rolled to the corner of the bed, wrapping herself up tightly, and only revealed her head once it was dawn.
"Alright, go ahead. I'll record anything interesting I find."
Zhao Tuantuan waved her hand, her back turned to Lin Qi, never once looking back.
Only after hearing the door close did she let out a long sigh and open the post she had been reading the night before.
"Could the aftereffects of a self-healer be real? Why do I feel like I'm becoming more and more abnormal?"
If it were before, the young girl's reserve would have made her keep a certain distance from Lin Qi; even if she needed his protection, she wouldn't have easily clung to him. But the stimulation deep in her heart sometimes made her do unexpected things.
Zhao Tuantuan sighed in a showy manner and gently patted her chest.
"It's all your fault! Why did you produce milk!"
With this pat, another strange sensation surged into her heart. As her chair turned, the young girl began to rummage through the room.
Lin Qi went up the stairs to the third floor. In such a narrow environment, he didn't bring his bow and arrow, taking only a steel pipe and a dagger.
He first knocked on every door on the third floor, and after confirming there was no movement, he took out a wire and picked them one by one.
Lin Qi took a rough look at each room and left a mark on the door so he could come back later to collect supplies.
Finally, when he reached the fifth floor, he found a compound bow in one of the homes.
The toys of the rich are strange and varied; Lin Qi found a silicone doll on the fourth floor. It was in the shape of a young girl and so realistic that he almost thought it was a real person.
The draw weight of this compound bow was very light, but its power was not small. Lin Qi tried pulling it a few times and felt it wasn't as handy as the wooden bow he had made, but he still carried it with him, intending to leave it for Zhao Tuantuan to use. As for the twenty carbon arrows, he treated them like treasures.
For the entire morning, Lin Qi was picking locks. He picked until he reached the eighteenth floor, checking every room, and his lockpicking skill finally advanced to the next level.
【Accumulated opening of one hundred different locks（Completed）】
【Lockpicking mastery advanced: Perfect-level lockpicking.】
【Lockpicking, can open, can lock.】
The lockpicking skill had advanced to the perfect stage and could not be advanced further, but the simple description seemed very profound to Lin Qi.
"Can it open any lock??"
However, there was no opportunity to try it now. Lin Qi took the supplies and prepared to go downstairs.
Going down from the eighteenth floor, by the time he reached the third floor, Lin Qi felt his legs go weak. Clearly, from constantly maintaining the pace of walking downstairs, his thigh muscles were a bit fatigued.
"I'm back. Is there anything to eat?"
Having been busy all morning, Lin Qi hadn't rested at all. He placed the supplies he brought down from upstairs in the living room and began looking for something to fill his stomach.
Zhao Tuantuan poked her head out of the kitchen and brought out a large basin of food. These were all supplies from the rooms, including dried cured meat, seafood, dried vegetables, and so on.
These ingredients were worth a fortune before the Apocalypse, but at this moment, she just made it as simple as possible, stewing everything together in one pot.
"I just found some things; it should be delicious!"
Zhao Tuantuan took out bowls and chopsticks and brought out the rice as well. She had almost been drained dry yesterday and needed to replenish some nutrients.
The two of them quickly finished off the large basin of food. After eating and drinking their fill, Zhao Tuantuan took the initiative to pick up the compound bow and tried to train with it.
"Brother Lin, I saw some information today, and there's one thing you will definitely care about."
She stretched a few times and was able to fully draw the compound bow, though she still hadn't grasped the technique.
"Tell me about it."
Lin Qi opened a beer and lay on the sofa, drinking it slowly. At this moment, he was completely relaxed, and the fatigue in his legs was gradually fading away.
"The Federation has conducted extensive research and confirmed that the crystals inside Mutated Creatures can promote human gene evolution. The more powerful the gene crystal, the better the effect on human gene evolution."
Regarding gene evolution, no one would take it lightly. Most of Zhao Tuantuan's time in the morning was spent searching for knowledge on this subject.
"In other words, the rescue team of the Federation killed the mutated dog to obtain the gene crystal?"
He also needed this thing now to improve his advanced marksmanship skill, and it was highly likely that when his archery skills reached the conditions for advancement, he would also need a gene crystal to break through the Barrier.
"Yes, and if the meat of the Mutated Creature is processed cleanly, it can also be consumed, and it will even slightly strengthen the user's body."
But these things had side effects, just like what they saw last night. However, living in the Apocalypse, who would care about those minor side effects?
"In that case, that Golden Retriever was a bit of a waste!"
Thinking of the half-corpse of the Mutant Golden Retriever outside, if food were scarce, Lin Qi certainly wouldn't have wasted it.
After resting, Lin Qi took five carbon arrows and his own twenty wooden arrows, took Zhao Tuantuan out the door, and walked into the residential community.
After learning the function of the gene crystal, Lin Qi couldn't wait to hunt some Mutated Creatures and find a few gene crystals to research.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but the Vegetation in the residential community was lush to an absurd degree. Perhaps because no one had trimmed it for three months, the small paths were covered in vines, and those branches had crossed the railings and extended outside.
Arriving at the corner where the Mutant Golden Retriever had died, Lin Qi was shocked to find that the original Corpse had disappeared, leaving only a pool of Bloodstains.
And on the lawn at the corner of the wall, a bottomless pit had appeared, seemingly a Cave for some creature.
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