The crimson crab leg was brilliantly colored, more dazzling than the fiery clouds on the horizon. Even without seasonings like scallions or garlic, its tantalizing aroma still whetted Zhang Ming's appetite and made his mouth water.
He opened his mouth and bit down.
Crack! He nearly broke a tooth!
"Good thing I came prepared."
Zhang Ming bared his teeth, picked up a stone and an iron nail, and started hammering away with a series of thuds.
The cooked crab leg had lost some of its toughness.
A few hard strikes were enough to make a hole.
He gripped the edges of the hole and pried hard. With another crisp crack, a large chunk of tender white crab meat was revealed, steaming hot.
A chunk of crab meat the size of his fist!
Almost crazed with hunger, Zhang Ming clung to his last shred of reason and took a tiny bite.
The rich, tender crab meat blossomed across his tongue, and every cell in his mouth cheered with delight. Zhang Ming could almost hear his body chanting, "Food, food, food!"
It tasted a little like Chinese mitten crab, with almost no fishy smell and a pleasantly firm texture.
Unlike mitten crab, though, this chunk was enormous. He could eat his fill without painstakingly picking it out of the shell.
"How can anything taste this good?" Zhang Ming's eyes practically shot out beams of light.
But after that single bite, Zhang Ming forced himself to stop eating.
Then he allocated 60 points to [Perception].
[Perception 60/60] (You're as sensitive as a cat, ready to bristle at any moment!)
He needed to wait and see whether this thing was poisonous...
With 60 points in [Perception], he was extremely sensitive to anything unusual in his body.
If something really did go wrong, he would notice in time.
It never hurt to be cautious.
With such a delicacy sitting before him, the agonizing wait was almost unbearable.
Then the regular nightly broadcast began.
Right on schedule, a familiar voice came from the radio. "Good evening, listeners. I'm your announcer, Li Xianfeng."
"I'll be bringing you today's news."
Most of it was the same old news. The disasters on Earth had not stopped and were only growing worse.
The world outside was in dire straits.
A single day was far too short for the planet as a whole. The disasters were still ongoing, and international relief efforts had yet to begin.
"The dangerous Mysterious Zone poses an enormous challenge to humanity. Remaining cautious and limiting your movements are the best ways to keep yourselves safe."
For Zhang Ming, however, a turning point in his fate had arrived.
It seemed he could now sustain himself here-provided the monster in the center of the deserted island did not come out to munch on people.
"What's happened to the world? I wonder how Mom and Dad are doing. They haven't been affected, have they?"
He simply could not imagine the drastic changes sweeping across the world.
The crushing weight of the times had fallen on everyone. Whether his own fate carried the weight of a mountain or a feather, he had to survive before he could consider anything else.
As he waited, his formidable 60-point perception detected a subtle change inside him. A faint current of warmth spread from his stomach, nourishing every blood vessel, before slowly gathering in his heart and brain.
This mysterious warmth was nothing like the burning sensation caused by chili peppers or alcohol. It felt more like the subtle sensation that accompanied attribute conversion.
It was as though every cell in his body was tirelessly absorbing this strange energy.
Zhang Ming's heart stirred as an astonishing possibility occurred to him.
"Could this... be where attribute points come from?!"
"Crab meat gives me attribute points!"
His joy was as immense as the crab leg itself.
After a few minutes, he found that he still felt fine. Unable to hold back any longer, he picked up the crab meat and dug in. The meat from the upper leg had short, fine fibers and tasted like dried scallops, while the lower leg had long, tender fibers as delicious as whitebait. Satisfaction flooded every pore.
Bite after bite, he simply could not stop.
The warm current from his stomach gradually grew stronger, flowing comfortably through his entire body.
To celebrate the day's great haul, he even opened a bottle of soda. He gobbled crab meat, gulped cola, and listened to the news, his contentment almost overflowing.
"Next, an important news report: a fisherman in the Yangtze River region caught an enormous yellow catfish weighing ten kilograms. Under normal circumstances, this species grows to no more than five hundred grams. Under the influence of unknown factors, its weight has now increased twentyfold."
"After eating the yellow catfish, the fisherman was hospitalized due to physical distress. He reported that the blood vessels throughout his body felt as though they were burning, his muscles ached, and molten lava seemed to be coursing through his heart."
"Food poisoning? Burning?!" Zhang Ming abruptly stopped feasting, his expression shifting slightly.
He felt perfectly comfortable. The warmth flowing through his body made him sweat all over, but it also left him feeling wonderfully refreshed.
The radio continued, "A team of experts analyzed the remains of the oversized yellow catfish and discovered certain unknown biological enzymes and unidentified proteins. Their chemical energy was five times the normal level."
"As for the specific cause of the burning sensation, it may have been triggered by certain mysterious phenomena."
"Some experts also believe that changes in the rules governing the world have caused a small number of humans to develop supernatural abilities, and that isolated mutations should also exist among animals. This oversized yellow catfish is one such rare case."
"The incidence of mutation among animals is less than one in ten million. Among insects, it is less than one in a hundred million."
"Even nonliving things may undergo mutations."
"To everyone listening, if you discover a mutated creature, please exercise caution before eating it to avoid food poisoning."
Only a one-in-ten-million chance?
Zhang Ming frowned slightly. The giant crabs on the tidal flats were densely packed, numbering in the thousands. Judging by their size, all of them were mutants.
What ordinary crab could possibly grow that big?
Even the seagulls flying overhead were more than a meter long.
The coconut trees were absurdly tall, too-a hundred or two hundred meters high.
Did that mean this island was special?!
Zhang Ming was unsettled. Suddenly, he felt that this deserted island might be hiding some enormous secret.
"But I can't exactly beat a ten-meter-tall monster that can tear an airplane apart with its bare hands."
As he pondered this, the warmth inside him finally reached a critical point.
A white light flashed through his mind.
His attribute panel changed!
[Physique: 26/26] [Perception: 60/60] [Spirit: 30/35] [Lifespan: 24/29] [Total attributes: 150]
Yes, after those few bites of crab meat, his physique had increased by one point, bringing his total attributes to 150.
Zhang Ming clearly remembered that it had been 149 that morning.
His excitement soared. He had finally confirmed the source of attribute points: eating!
The crabs covering the island were his attribute farm!
In a brief flash of inspiration, Zhang Ming even mapped out his future plans. "They say crabs can regrow lost limbs. If there are two thousand giant crabs on the tidal flats, I could eat just one crab leg a day without killing them."
"On average, each crab would only lose one leg every two thousand days. That shouldn't be a fatal injury, right?"
"That way, it'd be like harvesting chives. Once I finish one crop, a fresh crop grows back. Wouldn't that give me an endless, sustainable supply?!"
Before you continue