Chapter 242

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Chapter 242: Unchanged
Zhang Mu was confused. In the future, he was basically a second-hand merchant of beast cores. Yet, here he was, faced with a beast core that he didn’t recognize at all. He took out the unknown beast core from the ornate box held by the soldier, examined it carefully in his palm, but the beast core was completely pitch black, with no discernible patterns.
What in the world is this dark thing?
After observing carefully, Zhang Mu felt like he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. In an instant, he felt like all those years in the future might have been a waste, as he was stumped by a first-tier beast core.
It seemed like the soldier noticed Zhang Mu’s confusion and added, “We found this on a young beast that looked like a very ordinary fawn, nothing special. We didn’t find any elders of its kind, like other mutated creatures with similar appearances.”
A fawn?
Zhang Mu frantically searched his mind for any mutated creatures related to fawns but came up empty.
However, the soldier’s next words piqued Zhang Mu’s interest greatly. He casually mentioned, “I don’t know what’s going on. All the other mutated creatures are ferocious and aggressive, but this little fawn is quite strange. It looks exactly like the ones I used to see in the zoo before the apocalypse.”
Impossible. The body size or internal structure of animals would undergo mutations due to the ripple effect of evolution, and would generally amplify their regressive features significantly.
But according to the soldier, the deer was just an ordinary one from before the apocalypse. How could that be possible? This is common knowledge, it has become a truth for people in the future, that all animals other than humans have some hidden genetic traits to some extent.
The evolution ripples were unsolvable, forcibly altering all living beings on Earth, and even non-living things.
Not all carbon-based life forms seen by Zhang Mu underwent incredible changes in appearance after the opening of the Golden Age, and these changes became more noticeable over time.
Zhang Mu’s expression turned serious as he looked at the soldier, who seemed unsure of what he had said, and asked, “Take me to see the body of that young animal.”
Long Qi, who had initially found Zhang Mu’s expression amusing, now felt that something was amiss and asked quietly, “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with this beast core? I can see you are not unfamiliar with it.”
Zhang Mu replied, “I don’t know either. We need to see the body of the mutant animal that produced this beast core before we can make a specific inference.”
Hearing Zhang Mu’s words, Long Qi waved his hand hastily and said to the soldier, “Take us to where the body of the young animal is stored. Let him see what’s going on. This kid seems to know a lot, and he’s taking it so seriously that it makes me a bit uneasy. Not knowing is indeed the scariest thing.”
Long Qi touched his bald head and without hesitation ordered the soldier to take Zhang Mu down because entering the icehouse required Long Qi’s authorization, and the security level of the icehouse was very high. Despite Zhang Mu being brought by Long Qi himself, formalities had to be followed, so the soldier was waiting for Long Qi’s command.
Soon, the soldier led Zhang Mu and Long Qi to a separate storage room. He pointed to the center and said to Zhang Mu, “Due to the uniqueness of this beast core, we did not mix the body of the young animal with others during freezing. Instead, it was placed in this separate freezer.”
This cold room is separate and specially taken care of by the ability of the ice-type evolver. It is colder inside than outside. The soldier in the thick coat is just a regular first-rank evolver. After shivering, he could barely hold on anymore and tightened his clothes. His face was covered in a layer of frost.
Shaking, he said, “Leader, Mr. Zhang, I need to go out first. I can’t stand it here, it’s too cold.”
Long Qi noticed that the soldier had reached his limit. He patted his shoulder and said, “Well done. Tell your comrades outside to register and store all the mutant beast bodies. Take a piece of unfrozen pork outside to cook a meat soup to share and warm up.”
“Thank you, Leader!”
Not sure if it was because he could leave or because of the meat soup, the soldier saluted Long Qi and shivering, ran out, also remembering to close the door behind him.
As for Long Qi and Zhang Mu, due to their second-rank physique, they were not affected by the cold of this level. Long Qi glanced at Zhang Mu and said, “Let’s go up and take a look.”
Zhang Mu nodded slightly. These staff members were quite clever and realized that this young beast was different from the others.
He walked up and carefully observed. There were no signs of external injuries on the young beast’s body. Earlier, the soldier had mentioned this to Zhang Mu, suggesting that the cause of death could have been due to shock to the brain, possibly from the energy impact between other mutant beasts.
In addition, the staff did not find any other mutant beasts with a similar appearance to this little one. Therefore, it was concluded that it was alone, without the protection of a group. Accidental death in such chaos was inevitable.
This is indeed the body of a regular young deer with strong limbs, small antlers on its head, and spots on its body. In the past, a deer like this in a zoo might not have attracted much attention from people.
After looking at its appearance, Zhang Mu checked the internal organs of the young animal but didn’t find anything unusual. There was no energy presence detected inside it by Zhang Mu.
A plain little deer, not a rare or endangered species, but in the post-apocalyptic world, a non-mutated mutant animal like it became extremely rare.
Because it wasn’t affected by the evolutionary ripples that changed the whole world.
Long Qi, who had taken a close look, was a bit puzzled and said, “I don’t see anything wrong. What’s the issue exactly? It doesn’t seem as mysterious as you think.”
Zhang Mu didn’t mention the concept of evolutionary ripples to him, but instead shared a thought, “Everything has changed after the apocalypse, including us, except for this young animal that remained unchanged. Don’t you find it strange?”
Hearing this from Zhang Mu, Long Qi was stunned for a moment, about to think it over carefully when suddenly he remembered something. Excitedly, he pointed to his shiny forehead and said to Zhang Mu, “Who says it hasn’t changed? Can a regular deer have a beast core in its brain?”