As per Maximo's request, Nile opened the remaining coconut fruit with the katana.

Maximo gobbled five coconut fruits after an hour all by himself. With that, Maximo's stomach is pretty much bloated. Nile did not doubt that if thrown on the ground, Maximo would bounce just like a ball.

Maximo has a satisfied expression on his face. After Maximo finished the last coconut fruit, it dragged its bloated belly towards the shade of the coconut tree and drifted to sleep.

Nile only observed on the side, and he somehow saw Maximo's body glow for a moment. Although only imaginary, Nile's intuition tells him to check on Maximo's current situation.

Using the stats function, Nile stared intently at Maximo and said 'stats', inside his head.

Maximo's information interface then surfaced inside Nile's head right after he said that particular word.

[Maximo:

Early Stage Level One° Mutated Carabao.

Metallise Horn.

Thick Metallise Hide.

Status: In the process of Evolving to a middle stage Level One° animal. Resting is recommended until it finishes the evolution.

]

After reading the status that Maximo is in, Nile could not help but become excited and surprised.

He did not think that Maximo would be able to evolve this soon. He had just met Maximo earlier, after all, and now it was already evolving and catching up to Nile's strength.

'It seems that it was already on the verge of breaking through before I met him.' Nile concluded inside his head as he stroked his chin with his fingers.

Nile contemplated and realized that the metallise coconut shells must be the main trigger that leads to the breakthrough and the hastening of Maximo's evolution. He had checked Maximo's interface before they ate the coconuts and in the 'status' area, it only said 'Evolving to Middle Stage Level One°'.

But after Maximo ate a bunch of coconuts, it suddenly changed into the present state. There is no other reason that Nile could think of that had caused this event.

Eating the coconut meat and drinking the milk may have also helped to trigger Maximo's evolution, but the main trigger should still be the metallised shell of the coconut fruit.

Although Nile could not rule out the possibility of other factors that might have affected Maximo and thus triggering its evolution process. The 'metallised coconut fruit shells theory' that he proposed will be the one Nile is believing as the truth for now.

Maximo is a Mutated Carabao that had its horn and skin metallised, so eating the metallised shell should be the primary reason for this evolution.

After Maximo finishes this evolution, his strength will hover from 7.01 to 9.0. What it means is that Maximo will be only slightly weaker or stronger than the current Nile.

'Fuck, even Max is catching up to me!' Nile felt another surge of urgency in his heart to get stronger. Nile felt motivated and challenged.

It is not that he is against the idea of having a strong companion or mount, but for Nile who is a 'low-key' but competitive person and even had the help from the system, he could not stomach the fact that he is weaker than the carabao, Max.

He could only grumble and hoped that Maximo would be able to evolve soon enough and not take so much time. He could just not leave Maximo here, right?

'Well, it depends on the situation.' Nile thought.

Waiting for Maximo to wake up is also a win-win situation for Nile. His mount will be stronger and faster than ever. This way, Nile will arrive at his destination sooner than expected. It was like hitting two birds with one stone.

As Nile had nothing to do and he was already pretty bored waiting for Maximo to wake up, he decided to climb atop the coconut tree again. Nile had thought it through and realised that it would be better to resupply his food reserves with fresh fruit that came from nature rather than from the soon to be expired foods that he could find at the department store or houses.

Based on the taste of the water too, which already had a trace of a metallic taste in it, Nile did not doubt that the expiration of the food stated on its package could no longer be trusted. They will expire sooner than the date stated at the back of every food packaging.

Nile discarded some foods in his stockpile that he thought had the best chance to expire soon. He put them on the ground right at the root of the coconut tree. Although it will not be spoiled while inside the storage space, Nile had already decided to switch his diet to a more healthy one.

Nile had also retrieved the sledgehammer from the Storage Space and laid it just beside the sleeping Maximo. That hammer cost quite a lot of Apocalypse Points, and he doesn't have the luxury to throw it away.

His storage space has become much more spacious again with the disappearance of the canned and ready-to-eat foods along with the water gallons. The coconut fruit already has its own water, so Nile will not need to worry about it. And with its meat, storing the coconut fruit is pretty much the same as storing both food and water at the same time.

With the coconut fruit sizes, he estimated that he will be able to store at least 15 coconut fruits inside the storage space.

The coconut tree still has four fruit branches. Two of the fruit branches are at the right age to be harvested, while the remaining two fruit branches are either too young or have already started to wither. The coconuts of the two fruit branches with the right age's colour are green and deep green. The young fruit brunch's coconut fruit colour is yellow-green, while the old fruits had the colour of greenish-brown.

Nile climbed all the way to the top of the coconut tree. He sat atop the coconut branches and its leaves and started to harvest the coconut fruits one by one before storing them at the Storage Space.

A coconut tree had many different uses. You could say that all parts of the coconut tree are useful in one way or another. Base from his previous life, from the root of the coconut tree all the way to the top has its own uses. They could either be made as lumber, vinegar, oil, medicine, and even wine.

After storing the two fruit bunches of the coconut fruit, Nile's storage space had become crammed again.

Nile had nothing else to do again after he finished storing two bunches of coconut fruits. As the air was cooler above the coconut tree, Nile decided to just sit there and rest for a while.

Amongst all the trees around, the coconut tree is one of the tallest. Gazing at the distance, Nile could pretty much see the distant horizon. When he looked down from above, he had the urge to jump again, but Nile knew that if he did so, he would become a goner if not crippled.

Nile leaned on a coconut branch and just day-dreamed there. Memories from his previous life appeared inside his head, one after another.

The memory of him getting scolded by the teacher for accidentally sleeping in the class. Getting fired from his part-time job because of a minor mistake he made. That time when he 'accidentally' purchases the privileged status of a crappy novel that got dropped after a few days.

Seeing the bitter memories that keep on surfacing inside his head, Nile could not help but curse the rotten luck his old self possessed. Nile suddenly felt happy and fortunate because he transmigrated here in the zombie world.

He scourges his memory from his previous life again and aside from successfully graduating high school with a barely passing mark; he doesn't have any memory that can be called a happy one.

Nile did not want to go back to that place again. This world is better than the previous one. Although there are dangers everywhere. With the help of the system, he could get stronger and survive just fine.

It was better than working his ass-off with minimum wage during his free time, and then the wage he earned will be gone after a few days of spending. There are even so many bills to pay.

It was different here. In the zombie world.

Nile imagined himself at the end of this Apocalypse.

Standing atop the corpses of countless zombies. On his arm, he was hugging a beauty, although Nile did not see the face of the said beauty, based on his so-called male-instinct it was definitely a beauty.

They celebrated their victory atop the mountain of corpses.

Nile was just about to give the beauty a sweet kiss when he was awoken by a continuous beeping noise inside his head, it was a System Message.

Inside his head, Nile read the message that had interrupted his happy dream. If only the message appeared a little later, he might have been able to kiss that unknown beauty already.

His dissatisfaction disappeared without a trace after reading the message. He almost fell to the ground while reading the message

The message text was glowing red, and its caps locked.

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!