Apocalypse Gachapon

“Is this all you brought back?”

Liu Zhenghong looked at the ‘specimens’ collected by the two nine-star evolved, Ye Zhongming and Mo Ye, with undisguised disdain, her words cutting deep.

Ye Zhongming and Mo Ye could only smile wryly.

Ever since they evolved to nine-star, everyone’s attitude toward them had shifted.

Among the core members they were familiar with, the change wasn’t drastic, but at first, there had been a subtle sense of… awe, or perhaps unfamiliarity.

Maybe this was the pressure and prestige that came with being the strongest evolved on the planet.

But that feeling quickly faded.

For ordinary evolved, however, it was different. Even when Ye Zhongming didn’t deliberately exude any aura, evolved below level eight would still feel nervous around him. If he so much as glanced at them, the more timid ones might even shiver.

This was the effect of overwhelming power.

Of course, there were exceptions. Even Le Dayuan had been a bit reserved when he first saw Ye Zhongming after his evolution. But his wife, Liu Zhenghong, remained as blunt as ever, treating Ye Zhongming not like a nine-star evolved, but like some unknown cell under her microscope.

The way she looked at the King of Cloud Peak made even a nine-star evolved shudder.

In the end, Ye Zhongming had three large tubes of blood drawn, over a dozen strands of hair plucked, and was even “humiliated” into providing various bodily fluids…

The most frustrating part? The skin of a nine-star evolved was no ordinary thing. Ye Zhongming had to use a specially crafted purple dagger to cut his own blood vessels.

No choice—if he used a gold-grade weapon, it would take multiple slashes just to draw a few drops of blood, and the wound would heal in seconds, making it impossible to collect enough.

And so, the newly ascended nine-star evolved, the first of his rank in the entire country, was nearly driven to despair.

“Let’s see how these differ from the demon monsters and those other monsters.”

With that, Liu Zhenghong motioned for the corpses to be hauled away, but then noticed Ye Zhongming hesitating.

“Tch, what’s the big deal? Look how worked up you are.”

Sister Hong shot the King of Cloud Peak a look of utter disdain, then crooked a finger, leading the two to a nearby lab.

“Old Liu showed off those two robots to you, right? That’s basically his latest achievement. That guy, always slacking—he should’ve focused on upgrading the energy cannons another level!”

Ye Zhongming’s lips twitched at that.

The current Annihilation Ultimate-Type Energy Cannons at Cloud Peak were already stronger than the most powerful ones he’d seen in his past life after ten years. Their firepower was more than satisfactory. With these massive cannons mounted on the city walls and within the villa, even if a level nine lifeform attacked, Ye Zhongming and Mo Ye wouldn’t need to lift a finger—the enemy would suffer dearly.

And yet, Sister Hong still wasn’t satisfied?

At this level, even a minor improvement in firepower required an exorbitant cost, immense time, and solving near-impossible technical hurdles.

The difficulty was too high, the time too long, and the cost-effectiveness too low.

That was why Le Dayuan had taken a different path.

“Enough about him. Let me show you two little toys.”

Of course, the only person who’d refer to the achievements of the Gene Lab as “little toys” was this blunt director.

“See this?”

Liu Zhenghong pointed to a small cage containing a white mouse the size of a finger.

Ye Zhongming was surprised—he sensed something familiar about this little creature.

“The Rat King’s grandson.”

That one sentence explained its origins.

Ye Zhongming knew about the Rat King’s son, a formidable battle-rat that had been released into the wild and quickly carved out a vast underground territory. In just a short time, it had reached level eight. Ye Zhongming hadn’t summoned it back, since Cloud Peak wasn’t exactly lacking in level eight fighters. He planned to recall it only after it evolved to level nine.

Who’d have thought he’d meet the grandson before the son?

“It’s… different.”

Mo Ye studied it closely before speaking.

Red Sister nodded. “Of course. Because this is a utility rat.”

Facing their puzzled looks, Liu Zhenghong opened the cage and gave a soft whistle. The mouse suddenly extended two fleshy wings from its sides and flew out. It seemed wary of Ye Zhongming and Mo Ye, hesitant to approach, but since the Rat King was, in a way, half Ye Zhongming’s battle-beast, it was also curious about him, torn between approaching and fleeing.

Liu Zhenghong whistled again—and the mouse vanished mid-flight!

“Invisibility?!”

Ye Zhongming was stunned.

As a nine-star evolved, he could still sense its life signature, but visually, there was nothing there.

Another whistle, and the faint life signal in the air disappeared entirely.

Even someone of Ye Zhongming’s level had to expend a burst of mental energy to locate the invisible mouse—and it took him two full seconds.

The little thing was hovering near his left knee.

Two seconds were more than enough for it to launch an attack.

Even if it wouldn’t do much to Ye Zhongming, it was still impressive.

Under Liu Zhenghong’s commands, the mouse demonstrated a variety of abilities: diving underwater faster than mutated fish, burrowing through hard rock effortlessly with razor-sharp claws, storing over a hundred small items in an internal spatial pouch, and mimicking the calls of any creature it had heard.

But what impressed Ye Zhongming most was its complete immunity to poison and fire.

Not only did these elemental attacks have no effect, but they actually replenished its stamina and energy slightly.

“What I can control is just this much. But once a master-servant bond is formed, two additional abilities become available: Shared Senses and Size Shift.”

“Names I came up with, of course.”

Liu Zhenghong had the mouse reappear and land on her palm before slowly passing it to Ye Zhongming. Though still nervous, it didn’t flee.

Ye Zhongming took it, feeling a cool, pleasant sensation in his hand.

“Shared Senses means you can see and hear everything the mouse does in real time, even speak through it—unlimited range, identical voice.”

“Size Shift lets it adjust its body size at will. The smallest… is this.”

The mouse shrank rapidly, becoming no larger than a soybean.

“The largest… is this.”

It leapt from Ye Zhongming’s hand and scurried into the corridor, where space allowed. There, it expanded abruptly, stopping only when it reached the size of two adult elephants.

In an instant, the tiny, adorable creature had transformed into a monstrous beast with gleaming red eyes, jagged teeth, and lethal claws.

“So, Little Ye, after cracking the secrets of the Life Brain, I made you this little guy. Not bad, huh?”