Yang Zhang woke up groggily the next morning. He slept for 12-14 hours since the last time he dropped dead. Yet, his energy hadn't fully recovered.

He opened his eyes, looked around in a daze, and saw that all his mutant pets were already playing around. Chestnut was busy preparing its own breakfast by roasting a few chestnuts, and Spicy Wing seemed to be curious and circled around Chestnut before chirping;

"Chirp! Chirp!"

"Squeak?"

"Chirp!"

Chestnut then gave one roasted chestnut for Lt. Spicy Wing for breakfast. Meanwhile, Little Ivy was basking herself in the morning sun outside.

It seemed that he was the only one who hadn't recovered fully. But he understood what caused this.

"Ugh, two notes to self. First, don't mess with the chickens."

"Second, I can consume Mana bead, but it seems the effect is not permanent. Since I will eventually puke the Mana bead out no matter how much I try to swallow it. But at least, I've proven that I can use an ability, but only for a limited amount of time," Yang Zhang said in a low voice. "But that also comes with a cost. My body feels like crap after consuming Mana bead."

Honestly, this was also the first time he ever experimented. It was a newfound idea to consume a Mana bead to fight.

In his shelter, he was basically a sheltered hamster in a cage. He knew nothing outside of the shelter up until he got kicked out.

There was no experiment regarding Mana bead or Brain bead. People just crushed Brain bead once they slew the zombies, and they never really questioned what they could do with Mana bead. Because everyone followed what the government said, Brain bead must be crushed, and Mana bead should be buried.

Yang Zhang felt many more undiscovered ideas had been kept hidden because the government stopped anyone from experimenting, which was quite understandable from Yang Zhang's point of view.

"Imagine if everyone knows that you can create many amazing mutated plants and animals by using those beads. It would be some crazy fantasy warfare," Yang Zhang mumbled. "At least, in a proper society, it would be a world where there will be gym leaders and elite four. But not in the apocalypse."

"Chirp! Chirp!"

"Ah, good morning, Lieutenant," Yang Zhang smiled when the little chick jumped to his chest.

Lt. Spicy Wing puffed its chest and acted as if it was a Lieutenant reporting to Major General, "Chirp, chirp chirp!"

"Oh? You've been patrolling the whole night, and you see no intruder? That's good. You may leave for your breakfast first, Lieutenant."

"Chirp!"

Lt. Spicy Wing jumped to the wooden floor and started pecking the roasted chestnut that Chestnut gave just now.

Yang Zhang got up from the sofa and stretched his body. He ruffled his hair as he walked to the door leading to the backyard as he wanted to start boiling water to cook ramen.

The moment he opened the door, Yang Zhang was instantly greeted by the dancing rose that wiggled happily as he walked past it.

"Wait a minute—" Yang Zhang stopped and turned around. He crouched right in front of the dancing rose and squinted. The rose stood straight instantly as if all the wiggling before was just Yang Zhang's illusion.

"Why do I feel like your wiggling has been upgraded to twerking? Hey, you can hear me, right? Did you twerk just now?"

The dancing rose stood straight with no sign of movement when received the suspicious squint from Yang Zhang.

Yang Zhang sighed and shrugged pitifully. He expected the Brain bead with defect would do something amazing. Especially after he found out that Lt. Spicy Wing could still mutate even after it ate the Mana bead by cracking it in half.

But it seemed that Brain bead worked differently here.

"Oh well, it might only be me. I haven't washed my face today anyway."

Yang Zhang proceeded to do his morning routine, taking a bath near the well and boiling water for breakfast.

He still had one Brain bead inside his jacket before, but it had a defect, and based on his hypothesis after observing the dancing rose, it seemed that Brain bead with defect wouldn't give him anything.

"Alright, I should probably start focusing on gathering food and finding better quality Brain beads in the nearby settlement," Yang Zhang planned his day today. He hadn't forgotten that he wanted to make a self-sufficient farm for himself, so he didn't need to hunt for food or fight against those powerful ability user groups.

But to make a farm in the apocalypse, you got to find a way to defend yourself first. Because if he happened to find a good non-mutated animal, those ability user groups would start hunting you down.

Thus, Yang Zhang planned to arm himself first before starting a farm, and if he could find crops for farming or non-mutated animals along the way, that would be perfect.

**

Yang Zhang wore another jacket and jeans in front of the hut, and he was ready for another day.

"You guys ready?"

"Chirp!"

"Vii!"

"Squeak!"

"Alright, let's go!"

With Chestnut hiding inside his pocket, Little Ivy in his sleeve, and Lt. Spicy Wing nestling on top of his head, Yang Zhang put on his earbud to play one of his favorite songs in his playlist, Super idol.

"Super Idol de xiào róng, dōu méi nǐ de tián

bā yuè zhèng wǔ de yáng guāng, dōu méi nǐ yào yǎn~"

Yang Zhang joyously sang the song of his people while swinging from one tall branch to another. He had set up the next spot to explore.

He pinpointed from his hut that going south would bring him to that crazy village full of ambushing zombies, Xi Feng, and also her new mutated little sister, and going northwest would lead him to the empty highway where he found the empty mini-market. He decided to go east for now.

"Alright, the first rule of surviving in a forest is to always chase the sun!"