Chapter 34: New weekly task
While Shaun was deep in thought, the zombie Darell he controlled was approaching him. Just as the zombie exited the building, a sudden change occurred.
In an instant, a massive black shadow descended from the sky. Darell's body was sliced apart, blood gushing out as it split into two halves. Shaun's contemplation was interrupted as his expression changed, and he looked ahead.
Unexpectedly, a giant green mantis had appeared. Shaun, hidden in the bushes, activated his Insightful Eye.
Information about the mantis appeared before him:
Name: Mutated Mantis
Tier: Third Tier
Talents: Precise Evasion, Sharpness
Skills: Slaughter
Shaun never expected a third-tier mutated creature to suddenly appear in the residential area. Judging from its appearance, it seemed to be searching for something. Had his internal zombie virus attracted it?
Shaun stayed still, remaining hidden in the bushes. At the same time, he shifted his focus and manipulated Four to retrieve a rifle from his backpack.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Gunshots rang out continuously. The mutated mantis twisted its body strangely. It activated its Precise Evasion talent, attempting to dodge the bullets.
However, for someone like Shaun, a "Sharpshooter," the mantis' talent wasn't very effective. Regardless of whether the talent was activated or not, he could always hit a few bullets.
Its defense wasn't strong enough to withstand the damage from the rifle, and green blood spurted out.
The mutated mantis became furious. It hadn't expected this seemingly insignificant low-level creature to pose a threat to it. With a slight leap, it attempted to cut Shaun apart completely.
Four activated its Swift skill, beginning a skilled kiting strategy. Long-range firearms combined with Four's agility was a formidable combination, allowing them to fight above their tier.
Rat-a-tat!
Although Shaun's marksmanship wasn't outstanding, he managed to land bullets. Green blood continued to spurt out. The mutated mantis grew increasingly violent, emitting an angry screech. Surprisingly, its speed suddenly increased significantly. After all, it was a third-tier mutated creature, and it directly caught up to Four, pouncing at it.
Seeing that Four couldn't escape, Shaun activated the Hardened Skin ability for it. Although it couldn't make Four immune to the mutated mantis' attacks, at least it wouldn't be killed instantly.
Taking advantage of the entanglement between the two, Four continued firing. Despite being in close quarters, Shaun's poor marksmanship didn't hinder him much now.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
For a moment, green fluid sprayed continuously, and in a short time, the mutated mantis was severely wounded. Leveraging the evasion effect of the Swift skill and the Hardened Skin ability, Shaun managed to land many hits on it.
A third-tier mutated creature was ultimately killed by Four. Its body fell to the ground. Shaun then calmly walked out, giving a feeling as if he had easily extinguished a flame with a wave of his hand.
He crouched down and initiated the newfound ability absorption. With a sense of anticipation, he wondered whether the Sharpness or the Precise Evasion would be better. He began to feel conflicted.
"Ding! Ability absorption failed!"
...
A twitch appeared at the corner of Shaun's mouth. He didn't expect it to turn out like this. A poor start!
"Ding! Collection successful. Obtained the forelimb of the mutated mantis!"
"Ding! Collection successful. Obtained the crystal core of the mutated mantis!"
Luckily, he collected some materials, offering a bit of consolation. He sighed and crouched down, starting to devour the mutated mantis.
"Ding! The host is devouring the flesh and blood of a third-tier mutated creature. Evolution points +40!"
The evolution points of the third-tier mutated creature were 800 points. Added to the points obtained from Four's devouring, Shaun had a total of 1200 evolution points. At this moment, his control talent was in cooldown, preventing him from controlling a new zombie.
Looking at the remaining mutated mantis corpse, he felt like it was a bit wasteful. With a sudden inspiration, he put the mantis corpse into his backpack. He wanted to test if the system's backpack could prevent the virus from dying.
The second day quickly arrived. Shaun once again controlled an ordinary zombie and took out the mutated mantis corpse. The result brought great joy to him.
"Ding! The zombie you control is devouring the flesh and blood of a third-tier mutated creature, evolution points +10!"
...
Once again, he gained 200 evolution points. Shaun's evolution points had now reached 3840/4000. He was only 160 points away from the third-tier elite zombie.
Seeing the remaining mutated mantis corpse, he had another idea! If he re-controlled a zombie and let it devour the corpse, would he continue to gain evolution points? If this theory was correct, hunting large mutated creatures in the future would yield unimaginable evolution points.
To verify this conjecture, he waited another day, but the result disappointed him. This supposed glitch had failed! The newly controlled zombie received evolution points, but he didn't get any himself. Was it a limitation of the control talent, or had he done something wrong?
Suddenly, a cold electronic tone interrupted his thoughts. "Ding! A new weekly task has been issued. Host, please check it out!" The task was called "Overcoming Tier Challenge."
"Task Summary: As the highest-intelligence existence among the zombie race, stupid mutated creatures are no match for you. Mighty power will ultimately submit to wisdom! Go forth! Slay a fifth-tier mutated creature to prove your strength!"
"Task Difficulty: Four Stars!"
"Task Duration: Within seven days!"
"Task Reward: System activates basic pet function!"
"Note: The host's tier must be lower than a fifth-tier elite zombie!"
This system is really impressive. If he could acquire a pet, his combat power would surge once again. However, completing this task wouldn't be easy—killing a fifth-tier mutated creature within seven days. There were two difficulties.
First, finding a fifth-tier mutated creature was a challenge itself. According to his current evolution situation, fifth-tier mutated creatures were top-tier predators. Even the mutated Morning Glory in the city center hospital was only fourth-tier, making it hard to find a fifth-tier one.
If that didn't work, he would have to search in the wilderness, though the likelihood of groups of mutated creatures moving together was higher in the wild.
With his control talent only able to handle two zombies for now, both in quality and quantity he was quite far from sufficient. Unless absolutely necessary, he still wanted to develop sneakily in the city.
For now, he could only go to the city center. He had only been to the city center hospital; he hadn't visited the library, cinema, and other places yet. Perhaps he could find a fifth-tier mutated creature there.
The second challenge of the task was how to kill a fifth-tier mutated creature. Despite having two handguns and a rifle, his handgun ammunition was limited, and he didn't find any during his previous search.
Luckily, he found several hundred rounds of rifle ammunition in that third-floor room, which should last for a while. However, using just a rifle would probably be ineffective against a fifth-tier mutated creature.
Moreover, his marksmanship was subpar, and he would need to stick the rifle into the creature's mouth to have any chance of causing damage.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone