Li Moxiao pouted all afternoon,
while Shen Jin completed his genetic optimization in her room.
"Good thing nothing went wrong during the process. This strength..."
Shen Jin looked as though he had been pulled out of the water, drenched from head to toe.
But his entire body brimmed with power. He felt like he had evolved!
Shen Jin had been mildly nearsighted before, but now his vision was crystal clear.
Even his sense of smell had changed. He could distinguish several different scents in the room:
the smell of his own sweat, the lingering odor of food scraps, and a faint, fresh girlish fragrance.
It felt as if... the world had suddenly become clear!
Like he had just gone swimming and then taken a shower, his whole body felt incomparably refreshed.
Shen Jin had never felt this good before!
Meanwhile, Li Moxiao sat there with a dark expression, still sulking. "Hmph! Finish taking your drugs and get out already. What a waste of my feelings!"
Her two long, fair legs, each nearly 1.7 meters long, swung fiercely at the edge of the bed to show how upset she was.
Shen Jin was baffled. "What's wrong? I just drank a bottle of medicine in your room. I didn't do anything to you. How about I let you have the rest of the snacks?"
"It's because you didn't... Hmph, you're worse than a beast!"
Thinking of Li Moxiao's bashful behavior earlier and her reaction now, Shen Jin suddenly understood.
Then he looked at her adorable long-legged appearance, her fair skin and beauty restored after several days of nutrition and bathing.
Something stirred in his heart.
He slapped Li Moxiao on the head.
Smack!
"I told you to read fewer romance novels! What are you thinking about all day? And quit making that face. Smile more—raise a toast to joy!"
Li Moxiao shrank back in pain, her face full of grievance.
After Shen Jin left, she still looked unconvinced. "Hmph! Serves you right for being a dead fat shut-in for the rest of your life. You don't understand romance at all!"
The next day, Shen Jin and Yang Ao each held a wooden sword.
They faced each other in the backyard.
"We drank the last two bottles of serum."
"Yeah. The last two bottles my dad left behind... maybe they were meant for today."
Yang Ao recalled his father's original reason for researching Gene Serum: he had been afraid Yang Ao would get himself killed from all his reckless antics.
He had never expected that after the apocalypse, they would actually come in handy, giving Yang Ao the strength to protect himself.
"Let's practice a little. Stop before anyone gets hurt."
"Stop before anyone gets hurt!"
Though the two of them looked mostly unchanged after their genetic optimization, the power contained within their bodies was no longer what it had been.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
They charged at each other. Their hundred-meter speed had already exceeded the human limit of 10.5 m/s, both reaching 16 m/s.
Smack!
Even without any weapon techniques, their rapid reactions allowed them to strike each other's swords accurately.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
The two separated at the first clash, their wooden swords crossing repeatedly, neither gaining an advantage.
Once human reaction speed reached a certain level, it became easy to defend against ordinary attacks.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack! Crack~
Their footwork shifted as their wooden swords collided again and again. In the end, the swords could not withstand the force they unleashed and both snapped.
"Hahaha~"
Looking at the broken half of the wooden sword in each other's hands, they burst into laughter.
"If we had to give that match a name, what would you call it?"
Shen Jin recalled their exhilarating exchange and felt that something had been off.
"Completely without form!" Yang Ao blurted out the blunt truth.
"That reminds me of that saying: blindly swinging your dick around!"
"Exactly!"
To outsiders, their contest had seemed swift, with orderly attacks and defenses!
But in reality, they had been full of openings. They had all that physical ability yet had no idea how to use it!
"I feel that even if the two of us teamed up, we'd have no chance at all against a strong fighter who's opened a Gene Lock."
Shen Jin thought of Lu Qiang that day. Though Lu Qiang's physical abilities after opening his Gene Lock had been roughly on par with theirs now, his combat awareness and combat skills were nothing like their crude swordplay.
It was the kind of fighting skill where every punch targeted your weak point and every move went for the kill.
It was not flashy, but it could perfectly use every bit of the body's strength to achieve the strongest effect.
If he had to describe the obvious gap in strength—
Lu Qiang was probably as strong as Captain America,
while the two of them were just Winter Soldiers without bionic arms.
They looked about the same, but they would actually get utterly crushed.
Yang Ao had heard about the concept of Gene Locks on the official broadcasts these past few days. "Is that so? No wonder humans who open Gene Locks are called Superhumans."
"So... after drinking this serum, do we count as half-Superhumans?"
"More or less."
Neither of them dwelled on it. They just knew that if they saw a Gene Lock big shot in the future, they should keep their distance. They might not be able to win, but running away would not be a problem.
"Yang Ao, next, I need you to help me with a mission."
"A mission?"
Shen Jin set aside a three-hundred-square-meter area in the backyard, separating it with stones and leaving only two iron gates connected to this side.
Then, in that small area, he quickly built six matchbox-sized rooms out of stone and wooden boards.
He threw two beds into each matchbox.
A simple residence was complete!
He dug a hole and connected it to his underground main passage.
Next, he was going to bring twenty-six people over, keep them penned up here for seven days, then let them go after completing the mission.
Anyway, the system had not told him to keep sheltering them forever. Besides, people moving around was perfectly normal in the apocalypse!
What could the system say about it?
Oh, right. The system could not speak at all.
As for the people... Shen Jin had long since decided where to get them.
Whoever became a tool was still a tool, right?
He would let his old coworkers contribute their remaining value!
That afternoon,
Shen Jin and Yang Ao rode electric scooters through the underground passageways.
"Brother Jin, why do you need me for this mission? Wouldn't it be better if you went yourself? Your coworkers would be so grateful they'd offer you their chastity, wouldn't they?"
"Cough, cough. Yang Ao, I think you've helped me quite a bit these past few days, so I'll leave this favor to you! Several of my former coworkers are very pretty. Make the most of it!"
"Brother Jin, are they this big?" Yang Ao gestured with his hands.
"Yes!" Shen Jin recalled those saleswomen who had already given birth. Every one of them was huge.
"Hiss~~! I'll never forget this great kindness!"
Now that Yang Ao had food and warm clothes following Shen Jin, he naturally thought back to those days.
Back when he traveled all over the country in an EleMMent Palazzo Superior luxury motorhome.
Quite a few female backpackers, college students, urban office workers, and even beautiful married women had eagerly wanted to climb into his motorhome and spend the night with him.
That had been an important part of the enjoyment of his travels.
But now? It had been three months since the apocalypse!
His motorhome was parked in the suburbs, while he himself was trapped here, unable to get enough food or warm clothes. It had been a long time since he had been with a woman.
He did not dare touch either Shang Qian or Li Moxiao.
He did not even dare think about it.
Even though Shen Jin had never declared any relationship with either of them,
Yang Ao had his own sense of boundaries. So long as a woman had even the slightest connection to Shen Jin, he would not entertain any thoughts about her.
"Cough, cough. Brother Jin, then can I eat a little less and leave some food for them?"
Shen Jin's mouth fell open. "Holy shit! Yang Ao, that was downright dirty! The moment you opened your mouth, you turned into an old pervert!"
Yang Ao gave a devilish smile. If there were more recommendation votes and monthly passes, he would put on a show for everyone tomorrow.
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