Entering the Competition!

Maxwell walked forward, examining each of the zombies tied to the pillars.

"These do look quite different from the ordinary zombies," Maxwell commented.

This time, he didn't use these zombies for Fusion right away. Instead, he walked with Eva into the manor and ordered the lower-level zombies to thoroughly clean every corner of the estate.

Soon, Maxwell got the answer he was looking for.

Indeed, there was a hole.

The hole was in the middle of the manor's fountain, which was now devoid of water. The large opening was clearly visible on the ground, though it was uncertain where this hole might lead.

"Holy shit, my guess was too accurate!" Maxwell shivered, impressed with himself.

He turned around and saw Carline standing behind him, watching him.

After various interactions with Carline, seeing her now inevitably reminded Maxwell of the delightful experiences from the night before—the taste of marrow, an indescribable delight.

For a moment, Maxwell thought he saw a flicker of admiration in Carline's eyes.

Admiration!?

Looking again, he saw only emptiness and tranquility in Carline's gaze.

Alright, it was just his imagination.

He wondered when Eva and Carline would look at him with starry eyes and sweetly say, "Maxwell is so amazing!"

Thinking about this scene made Maxwell quite anticipatory.

He looked at the hole in front of him, of course without any intention of crawling inside.

The underground was pitch black, devoid of natural light, and the space was cramped and uncomfortable, with too many uncertain factors.

Although Maxwell didn't have claustrophobia, staying inside for too long would definitely affect his mental state. Even without prior similar experiences, he could imagine that it wouldn't be pleasant.

Thus, Maxwell returned to the front yard and collected all the female zombies from underground that were tied to the pillars into his spatial device.

In total, there were twelve zombies, one of which was Tier 1, while the remaining eleven were below Tier 1. After eliminating them, Maxwell obtained a Tier 2 underground female zombie. He then commanded this zombie to enter the hole and drill downwards.

Maxwell stood on the ground above, patiently finding a comfortable spot to wait.

However, after a while, he discovered that this female zombie encountered the same situation as the previous one.

She got lost...

Two zombies getting lost consecutively indicated that the underground was indeed complex, which instantly dampened Maxwell's spirits.

Then, Maxwell called over No.1 and had him cover the entrance with a large stone.

"That Fred guy said he wanted to come in and get something, didn't he? I wonder what it was... Ah well, I can't be bothered. What could an Awakener possibly have!"

Maxwell shook his head and had Carline throw several fireballs to directly burn down the manor.

"But it seems like there really is something underground, given the frequent encounters with underground creatures. These two zombies were far apart yet appeared to be of the same species, which is quite interesting," Maxwell thought.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind:

"Could it be possible that these creatures were originally underground dwellers who got infected by the zombie virus and then tried to surface? Could these zombies we've encountered unwittingly be scouts?"

Maxwell speculated this, but he had no intention of going down to investigate himself.

Whether there are people living underground remains uncertain.

"A zombie getting lost is one thing; she's already underground, and wandering around might just lead to a blind cat finding a dead rat. Maybe I'll wait here a few more days, results should come soon! Plus, staying at that hotel is quite pleasant!"

Maxwell quickly made his decision, his gaze resting on Carline with a hint of desire.

"It's really enjoyable!"

...

"Hey? There's someone over there! It's actually a person!"

In the wilderness, a group of people spotted Maxwell from a distance.

Maxwell, of course, saw them too.

This group was accompanied by a huge iron cage containing two zombies, likely their catch for the trip.

Maxwell understood that this group might be the merchants he had heard about from the local snakehead while gathering information earlier—those who specialized in capturing zombies to sell for profit.

Throughout his journey, he had actually encountered quite a few such groups.

These groups, seeing Maxwell alone in the wilderness, understood that he must have some means of protection.

Moreover, since there were quite a few zombies around, the merchants mostly used humans to pull their carts, probably to avoid making unnecessary noise that could disturb the nearby zombies.

In this post-apocalyptic world, everyone knew that anyone who could travel alone was at least an Awakener.

Maxwell, of course, had no intention of dealing with this particular merchant group this time and headed straight towards the Tampa city base.

"It's said that many Evolvers have signed up for the fighting competition this week!"

After entering Tampa city, many people in the streets and alleys were discussing this matter.

"I heard it's because the Alliance was victorious and captured many zombies in Mang City. They plan to bring them back for a fight to celebrate as well. Those are all high-level zombies, so it should be quite a spectacle."

Maxwell walked on, hearing everyone talk in roughly the same way, each claiming to know more than the others.

"Is that so? That definitely calls for a big celebration!"

"Tampa city hasn't had such a major happy event in a long time. I wish I could catch a high-level zombie too! Just thinking about the prizes this time makes me envious."

"Prizes? Haven't the prizes been announced yet?"

"Come on, a lot of people already know! It's said that the Alliance is providing a sacred essence stone as a prize, which is very useful for Evolvers! Eating it can even allow an Evolver to ascend to Tier 1!"

Hearing this, Maxwell was intrigued.

Now that Eva had reached the peak of Tier 5, and he wasn't finding enough female zombies in a short time, if he had this sacred essence stone, could it possibly allow Eva to level up to Tier 6?

It seemed that using the sacred essence stone to elevate Eva by one tier should be feasible.

"Since I'm going to be in Tampa city for a while anyway, I might as well participate in that zombie fighting competition."

Maxwell decided.

So, he made his way to the zombie fighting arena.

He learned about the competition rules outside.

The arena had specific requirements; fearing uncontrollable emergencies, the competing zombies had to be below Tier 1, meaning they couldn't be mutant zombies.

However, the rules had changed this time.

Due to many warriors from the Alliance of Evolvers signing up for the competition, the zombie tier was capped at Tier 2.

This meant that the highest tier a zombie could be to participate in the competition was Tier 3.