Hunting Pigeons

"So, in this way, Shelter No. 8 will have one more evolver," Dr. Jia sighed.

"But you guys killed Zhang Dian, which compensates for this advantage. Moreover, the new evolver won't enhance their strength as quickly," he added before leaving.

At the same time, muttering to himself, "Without the original formula, I won't be able to break down the ingredients. Looks like I need to start a new research."

...

Early the next morning, Xiao Feng got up early, expecting more people from the shelter to arrive. He wanted to discuss and finalize the deal with them.

To prepare for their arrival, Xiao Feng decided to hunt for some ingredients and cook a meal for them free of charge.

Once he was ready, he armed himself and left. He followed the sewer system to get to the outskirts.

The number of Bloodfang wild boars was quite scarce, especially in the vicinity of Yulin City.

But if you dared to venture deep into the dense forest to search, it was certain that you might not return.

That area was terrifying, and it wasn't just the Bloodfang wild boars. There were numerous mutated creatures of the fourth and fifth tiers and even higher.

Especially near Yulin City's mountain range that blocked the way.

In the past, behind this mountain range, there used to be a wildlife park.

Think about it, what kind of animals were in the zoo?

Tigers, lions, leopards, brown bears, and other large wild animals.

If they mutated, you could only imagine their power.

"It seems that selling a knuckle for 3,000, is the price a bit too cheap?"

After a few days of trading, Xiao Feng suddenly felt that rarity commanded a higher price. Three thousand for a single knuckle was indeed too cheap.

"I wonder if I can raise the prices a bit," Xiao Feng thought to himself.

But just as he had this thought, the system suddenly issued a prompt.

​[Prompt: All sales prices for food items are subject to adjustment by the owner, up or down, by a maximum of twenty percent.]

"Damn it! Why didn't you say that earlier?" Xiao Feng rolled his eyes.

"If I increase the price by twenty percent on the knuckle, it would be three thousand six hundred. How much energy have I been losing?!"

Without much thought, Xiao Feng directly increased the prices of all his food items by twenty percent.

Arriving at the Razorback Mountain Goat territory, Xiao Feng aimed his Barrett at the Razorback Mountain Goats.

With a single shot, he took down four or five of them. The penetrating and destructive power of the Barrett was terrifying. Dealing with these docile mutated animals was like using a cannon to kill mosquitoes. It was overkill.

Xiao Feng killed around thirty or forty Razorback Mountain Goats before he decided to stop. This amount of goat meat would sustain him for at least a month.

Next, he ventured to the area where the Bloodfang wild boars were known to roam. However, despite searching for over an hour, he didn't come across a single Bloodfang wild boar.

"It looks like they've gotten smarter and retreated to the mountains," Xiao Feng muttered, realizing that they probably all fled to the hills.

Just as he was about to head back, he noticed something by the side of the road, not too far away. It was a truck filled with numerous wooden crates, divided into smaller compartments. The crates were stained with bird droppings.

"This is... a pigeon carriage!" Xiao Feng suddenly exclaimed.

In peacetime, people would load pigeons into these wooden crates and release them into the wild, allowing the pigeons to forage. Pigeons had an innate sense of direction, and they would come back after feeding, making them useful for sending messages.

There was a pigeon truck here, which meant that thousands of pigeons were released into the wild before doomsday.

Xiao Feng surveyed the surroundings but couldn't find any signs of the pigeons.

Pigeons are different from humans. When humans are infected, they lose all their emotional factors and their inner beastly nature is thoroughly unleashed.

However, the way animals mutated is not through infection. The apocalypse broke out due to a virus. Initially, there was a massive human infection, which led to attacks on humans and animals. This process caused some animals to get infected as well and subsequently become a food source.

Infected animals like zombie dogs, zombie pigs, and so on would turn into lifeless, flesh-eating creatures just like the zombies. But as the virus of the apocalypse mutated and upgraded, it began to spread through the air. This allowed the smell-infected animals to start mutating.

Mutation simply triggers the latent potential within the animal's body, initiating a regressive evolution. In theory, infection and mutation are two different processes. Infection completely takes away your rationality and vital signs. Mutation, on the other hand, makes you evolve regressively and become more powerful. Furthermore, mutation retains some of your original normal genes.

For example, the Razorback Mountain Goats, even after mutating, can't change its habit of eating grass. It can't switch from being a herbivore to a carnivore.

Pigeons are no different. All these pigeons are mutated pigeons.

Then they must also retain some of their previous genes. They are familiar with the routes, and they are bound to be more powerful. So Xiao Feng is certain that these mutated pigeons are not too far away.

Leaving the main road, Xiao Feng entered a small forest by the roadside. Holding his Barrett in his hand, Xiao Feng carefully observed the surroundings. After about ten minutes, Xiao Feng immediately stopped in his tracks. He saw that there was a dense gathering of mutated pigeons on a nearby tree.

"Goodness! Are these still pigeons?" Glancing at them, Xiao Feng saw that there were as many as a dozen pigeons perched on a single tree. What's more, each of these mutated pigeons was the size of a medium-sized dog, with wings spread wide, similar in size to an eagle. When one of these mutated pigeons stood on the same tree, the tree's thick trunk was bent by the weight of the pigeon.

Slowly, Xiao Feng took out the Barrett, and through the scope, he aimed at the mutated pigeons. Just at this moment, the mutated pigeons seemed to sense something and immediately started looking around alertly.

Not only that, one pigeon actually became vigilant and took flight. It spread its wings, and its body was as long as one to two meters. Looking at this, Xiao Feng immediately chambered a bullet and aimed without hesitation, directly pulling the trigger.

Bang!

A gunshot!

The pigeons were startled! One of the pigeons took off from the tree, creating a dense black mass in the air, like a dark cloud. But at the same time, three pigeons fell from the tree.

Xiao Feng was overjoyed and quickly trotted over. The gray-black feathered pigeons, pierced by bullets, were as dead as can be. These pigeons were all first-level mutated pigeons, not very threatening, but they were difficult to catch because they could fly.

Picking up the three pigeons, Xiao Feng immediately put them into his backpack. However, at that moment, Xiao Feng suddenly felt something falling on his head. With a swipe of his hand, a lump of pigeon droppings covered his palm.

Looking up, Xiao Feng was momentarily stunned. He saw a large number of pigeons not flying away but rather hovering about one meter above the ground, intently watching him. In the next moment, a rain of pigeon droppings came pouring down from the sky, scaring Xiao Feng into a hasty escape.