Chapter 37

He has already enhanced to the fifth stage.

Thanks to the mysterious transformation ability of the prototype potion, Su Hao's enhancement effect in the early stages of evolution has already surpassed that of ordinary people by more than two times. This change seems to continue to grow over time and with the consumption of silver bones. He made a simple force gauge and found that in a full-power strike, he could release a force of about fifteen to eighteen tons. This number is more than three times that of ordinary fifth-stage enhanced individuals, and possibly even more. After all, in the future era, the punching force of same-stage enhanced individuals is usually five thousand kilograms, and even the best test record is only five thousand eight hundred kilograms.

Without this extraordinary strength, Su Hao would have no way to inject the immune potion into all team members, allowing them to consume silver bones and gain enhancement.

Immunity and enhancement are two completely different concepts. Even in the future era, no comprehensive potion combining both functions has been developed. Now, Su Hao's blood not only integrates the two, but the consumer does not need a higher-level potion to continue enhancing. Currently, the most powerful members below Su Hao are Old Song, Xin Yan, and Du Tianhao. They have all entered the third stage. With enough silver bones, they could enter the fourth stage at any time.

This means that only a drop of Su Hao's blood is needed, and there is no need for second, third, or fourth-stage enhancement potions. In the future world, this is simply unimaginable.

Su Hao does not expect everyone to be completely obedient to him. This idea is simply unrealistic. Humans have evolved from primitive times to the present, and while science and technology have rapidly developed, so have deceit and cunning. Even if someone swears loyalty in person, they might still stab you in the back under the temptation of great benefits.

Only the greatest power is the true constraint on everything.

Compared to the previous fourth stage, Su Hao, now a fifth-stage enhanced individual, has an indescribable feeling. How to put it... bullets can still cause fatal injuries to him. However, he is no longer as afraid as when he was first teleported here.

Su Hao is very difficult to kill with guns.

It's not that the enhanced cells accelerate division, thickening the skin to create a "bulletproof" effect. Instead, his brain capacity has doubled, enhancing his thinking and calculation speed. The enhanced central nervous system responds extremely quickly to information collected by the eyes, ears, and nose. His reaction time has shortened by 260%, his retinal image recognition is clearer, and his body coordination has increased by more than three times.

The combined effects of these body organs are very obvious. The most direct manifestation is the judgment of the speed and trajectory of moving objects. In short: within a radius of thirty meters, bullets can still cause fatal injuries to Su Hao. However, he has more than a 98% chance of dodging the attack.

Because, the speed of the bullet seems too slow to him.

He also has a special skill that no one can match—self-healing. As long as his central nervous system is not destroyed and he has enough time, rapidly dividing cells can fill any wound. Even if his spleen ruptures, his liver and kidneys are crushed, or his limbs are amputated... as long as his head and heart remain intact, he can recover.

Once the fifth stage limit is broken, silver bones can no longer enhance the human body.

This is a consensus among all authorities in human biology and the highest military research institute in the future world. It is precisely because of this that enhanced individuals are divided into five levels. There has never been a "sixth-stage enhanced individual," and such a standard beyond the fifth level does not exist. Of course, this does not mean there are no individuals with higher strength and power. However, they are no longer considered enhanced individuals but are classified as "evolved individuals."

Evolved individuals are also divided into three different levels, each with five sub-levels from weak to strong.

Su Hao once witnessed the ability test of a first-stage bronze evolved individual. The immense strength already exceeded the limits of what humans should have, comparable to machines, or even "human tanks." The dense skin, though unable to stop 12.7 mm heavy machine gun bullets, could withstand non-steel core ordinary bullets of the same caliber. The scene is still vivid in Su Hao's memory—5.56 mm bullets rained from all directions, and the tester simply used his hands to cover his eyes and genitals, remaining unharmed in the nude. The bullets that hit his body seemed to collide with a metal wall, bouncing off and leaving only faint red marks.

Evolved individuals are very mysterious. Even with his status as a senior researcher, Su Hao had limited contact with them. The military kept a tight watch on these people, and they had few opportunities to interact with the outside world. However, people in the future world knew of this powerful group, and some nomads in the wilderness even regarded evolved individuals as gods.

Su Hao does not know how to become an evolved individual from an enhanced individual. Future-era biological research results show that one must first become a fifth-stage enhanced individual to have the chance to become a more powerful evolved individual. This is a necessary procedure, and the obstacle to breaking the limit might be a certain potion. However, Su Hao has never seen or heard of it.

He searched countless books and documents and found that the evolution potion might be related to the fungus hormone. Even if it is not a raw material, it is definitely an important additive. Unfortunately, until he activated the time machine and left the future, Su Hao had not yet broken through to the third enhancement stage, and thus could not obtain more relevant information from the military as a fifth-stage enhanced individual.

There were two crucial factors in choosing the early stages of the virus outbreak as the time of arrival.

First: The energy Su Hao collected at the time was only enough to land here. He wanted to set the time machine coordinates to 18XX or even a more distant ancient era. Everyone wants a stable and wealthy life, and he also wanted to try being an emperor in ancient times. At least, he should become a powerful minister. However, the situation at the time did not allow for more choices or waiting, and he had to set off hastily.

Second: In the early stages of the virus outbreak, there is an abundance of fungus hormones and silver bones.

Su Hao's initial idea was just to escape and become stronger.

Clearly, the reason his blood can make consumers immune is due to the amplification effect of the prototype potion. He never thought he would get a group of enhanced companions. After all, the virus outbreak has only been two months. At this time, first-stage enhanced individuals have an absolute advantage over zombies. In simpler terms: as long as they have sufficient physical strength, they can obtain a large amount of fungus hormones and silver bones.

After the Black Era, biological research will focus more on mutated organisms. The use of silver bones by humans will no longer be in the ordinary sense of consumption. They will be decomposed and combined with metals at the elemental level to create extremely hard bulletproof armor, and even serve as a form of currency in the future world.

As for the fungus hormone... in the future world, there are often such rumors—someone went through great lengths to obtain one milliliter of fungus hormone and was rewarded with an entire villa in the core area of the base city by the military. The villa has running water, an independent power supply, air conditioning system, and even two beautiful clone maids. It also comes with a 150-year "A" level food quota. Any excess can be inherited by a designated person through a will...

Now, the underground vault in the small building stores tens of thousands of milliliters of fungus hormone, and the quantity is still increasing.

According to historical records of the future world, it will take another eight to twelve months for the first naturally evolved enhanced individual to appear among the human groups that survive the virus and zombie attacks.

The military should not be included in this category. They have many secrets that Su Hao cannot see through or easily guess. However, one thing is certain—the military has already mastered the formula for the enhancement potion, but the specific level and effects are unknown.

Including Su Hao, there are thirty-two survivors in the small building. Excluding the infant still in the breastfeeding stage, he has thirty enhanced subordinates.

If nothing unexpected happens, Su Hao can completely rule this city in the next year before the zombies evolve and become stronger.

...

Two weeks have passed.

The construction of the field camp is much faster than expected. In addition to the participation of Dong Guoping and others, it is largely due to the enhanced abilities of the builders. They can move cement prefabricated panels without mechanical assistance and carry large amounts of building materials, saving vehicle loading and unloading time. The first phase of the project was completed yesterday, including three four-story buildings with a total of one hundred small independent rooms and two storage warehouses covering more than five hundred square meters. The foundations of these buildings are very solid, with a large amount of reinforced concrete and triangular stable structures, making them strong and stable. The main goal of the second phase is the construction of the camp's perimeter wall, which has already begun the foundation leveling. According to Dong Guoping's design, the wall will be built in a right-angle inverted manner, forming a defensive surface on the outside, with watchtowers over fifty meters high at the four corners. Once the wall is completed, the project will enter the final stage, which involves constructing the underground part of the camp based on the previously excavated and abandoned foundation.

The residential buildings ultimately did not adopt Su Hao's initial idea of large rooms—Dong Guoping was straightforward: "Everyone needs independent private space. An independent and quiet environment helps maintain team order, while a communal system will only lead to laziness and chaos. In the current situation, small residences are the best choice. Men need women, women need families, and families need sufficient private space."

Su Hao had no more say in this matter. His building experience mostly came from the refugee settlements in the future world. He admitted that professional architects indeed had a broader and deeper perspective. The team is no longer what it was a few months ago during the early stages of the virus outbreak. The rapid increase in various resources means that each member has a significant amount of possession. Forcibly depriving them of part of what they originally had could lead to opposition or even hostility.

The people in the small building still go out every day, driving vehicles to search for resources and building materials in the city. Thanks to their enhanced bodies and sensitive sensory organs, they have discovered that many survivors are hiding in various corners of the city. The numbers are not large, and their locations are scattered. Some tall buildings have banners hanging from the rooftops with messages like "SOS" and "Save us," and during searches, they often encounter empty bottles flying from the sky. They shatter on the ground, indicating the presence of survivors in the most direct way.

In the past two weeks, the small building has added eleven new residents. They come from four broken families, some having lost their fathers or mothers in the turmoil, and others having lost their children.

The fields near the field camp are planted with crops. Old Song led a few people to plant a batch of cabbages and carrots on nearby open land. Cucumber and tomato seeds have been sown, though it is a bit late, there will still be some harvest. Especially the corn and potatoes left in the fields by their original owners, most of which are already ripe. The survivors are happy to have boiled corn and other foods to replace the almost tiring canned food. The menu in the kitchen of the small building and the camp occasionally includes exciting treats like "fried corn pancakes," "pumpkin porridge," and "mung bean soup."

Summer is a season full of green.

Every day, two people from the field camp go out to search for edible fruits and vegetables nearby. When the trucks return from the city with building materials, they bring back some fresh and crisp vegetables. Last week, the survivors found an orchard in a village about thirty kilometers north of the city. The peaches on the branches are still green, but the plums are already ripe. They come in red and yellow, very soft. A light squeeze, and the thin skin immediately splits, revealing sweet flesh.

The survivors are familiar with this city. They have also found several melon fields in the nearby suburbs. Many watermelons in the greenhouses are already ripe and rotting, while there are also late-ripening varieties available for picking. Old Song specially collected a few seeds and left some vines for future planting. He is not an expert in growing these things but enjoys experimenting and researching.

...

The midday sun is scorching and glaring, as if it enjoys exposing itself completely in the sky. No one dares to look up at this time, and no one likes to go out in such heat. Thus, this red, round thing wanders in the sky with its bare bottom, making people feel both perverted and helpless.

Dong Guoping sits in the excavator's cab, fully focused on the bucket at the end of the extending arm. The steamy environment makes him sweat profusely, and he is only wearing a pair of shorts, but he is still hot.

The foundation of the wall has been completed with concrete pouring, and thick rebar concrete pillars stand like a dense forest, exuding a cold and solid aura.

Operating the large mechanical arm, he digs a full bucket of soil from the ground and sighs, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, muttering to himself, "I've never done such a perverted project in my life. A sixty-meter-deep foundation just to build a wall... it's unimaginable in the past."

Even for a skyscraper hundreds of meters tall, the foundation is only twenty to thirty meters deep. According to the modified design, the highest point of the camp wall is forty-one meters, with an extremely high density of rebar. Dong Guoping has calculated that the thickness of the wall is enough to withstand large-caliber artillery attacks, and its strength even exceeds that of general military defensive structures.

Zombies move slowly, cannot run, and have an average speed of two to three kilometers per hour. These mutated creatures have no wings and cannot jump or climb, so a three-meter wall is enough to stop them. The current wall is forty meters high... if he were not sure that Su Hao is sane, Dong Guoping would have rejected this overly wasteful project without hesitation.

Even he cannot explain why he is so obedient to Su Hao, following every command from that young man.

Maybe he is stronger than me?

Or perhaps it's because he saved me?

This question has no answer, and Dong Guoping can only shake his head with a bitter smile, refocusing his attention on the mechanical bucket and continuing his unfinished work.

...

Su Hao slowly walks along the street leading to the other end of the city. It is past six in the evening, and the sun is weakening, casting a long shadow behind him. Cool breezes occasionally blow past, refreshing and invigorating, making him feel as if he is in paradise.

This is his second solo outing—the team's control is temporarily handed over to Xin Yan and Old Song, who have experience handling routine matters and have a level of authority that others cannot match. After all, the earliest members of the team always have more authority than later arrivals.

Su Hao got a "Santana" from the roadside. Unfortunately, the tank was almost empty when he started the engine. He drove for less than twenty minutes before it stopped on the side of the road.

The USB drive and white ceramic tablet placed next to the prototype potion have yielded no research results. Su Hao has tried many methods but still cannot find the answers. In frustration, he suddenly remembered the mysterious research base. According to the military records of the future era, after the prototype potion was lost, the base was abandoned, and personnel and major equipment were relocated before the incident. It is almost impossible to find any clues there, but he has to try.

The sky is completely dark.

There is a small clothing store with a rolled-up shutter on the roadside. The store is not large, and the shelves with various clothes are lying on the ground, covered in dirt and footprints. Behind the cash register sits a rotten female corpse, whose face is unrecognizable, but the two gold teeth in her wide-open mouth are very tempting.

Su Hao covers his nose and mouth and walks into the store, picking up a single-seat sofa in front of the corpse and walking to the sidewalk next to the road. He sits down, takes out a lunch box from his backpack, and opens it.

The fried rice with egg is made by Xin Yan, and there are also thin slices of sausage. Worried that he might not be full, the girl pressed the fried rice tightly into the box, making it heavy.

Su Hao can go without sleep, but he cannot go without food.

The rice is completely cold and a bit hard, but it has a unique flavor.

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