4-Star Perception!

Jake craned his neck and looked downwards. The Virginia creeper was already covering the entire outer wall, a large expanse of green. Looking closely at the wall, the Virginia creeper was covered in the corpses of various animals: giant sparrows, giant rats, and even cats comparable in size to tigers! No wonder no animals came over to eat Mike Peterson – they were all killed by this Virginia creeper!

The two women's faces were pale, their hearts filled with terror. The world had changed. Even plants were starting to eat people!

Jake immediately activated Perception and looked at the Virginia creeper again. The Virginia creeper emitted a faint red light, but it wasn't bright; it was a very dim, large expanse, easily overlooked in the red fog.

Jake's expression was grim: "So it's not just powerful creatures that are dangerous. Some seemingly weak creatures also pose a significant threat."

Of course, the Virginia creeper wasn't very dangerous; it had almost no mobility and relied entirely on prey delivering themselves. It also had to remain motionless for long periods.

Jake also noticed that a faint red light was inside Mike Peterson's body, flowing throughout his body along the blood vessels. It seemed to be seeds left by the Virginia creeper.

Jake's expression was solemn. He took a bottle of bottled water from his space and poured it on Mike Peterson's face. Mike Peterson was jolted awake. He weakly cried out: "Water! Water!" Massive blood loss had left him extremely thirsty.

Jake asked gently: "Does your left hand hurt?"

Left hand? Mike Peterson stared fixedly at the bottled water in Jake's hand: "No, it doesn't. Water! Give me water!"

Jake frowned. Mike Peterson actually didn't feel the injury to his left hand! The Virginia creeper likely has anesthetic abilities.

Jake threw the bottled water downstairs.

Mike Peterson pleaded: "Give me a sip! Just one sip!"

Jake handed the transparent tape to Michelle and smiled: "Gag your husband, he's too noisy."

"Okay, Jake." Michelle obediently took the transparent tape, half-squatted in front of Mike Peterson. Mike Peterson looked at his fiancée in disbelief: "Baby, you?"

Michelle didn't look him in the eyes. She lowered her head, cut off a piece of transparent tape with scissors, and quickly stuck it over Mike Peterson's mouth. Then she said softly: "You're finished. As a woman, there's nothing I can do. I have to survive. You can understand me, right?"

Understand nothing! Mike Peterson stared fixedly at Michelle, his face turning red with anger. "Mph! Mph! Mph mph!"

Jake laughed heartily. Mike Peterson was enraged beyond belief, unable to move. He could only forcefully bash his head against the iron railing.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

He had already suffered serious injuries and was physically weak. Now, angered, he bashed his head. He quickly lost consciousness. The balcony became quiet.

...

9:30 the next morning.

Jake looked at Mike Peterson on the balcony, eating Constitution Enhancement fruits one by one. He didn't know how many he had eaten before finally hearing a prompt:

[Ding! Constitution Enhancement upgraded to 4 Stars! Overall Constitution +80.]

"Plus the original 10 points, my attribute panel reached 90 stats!" Jake was surprised and delighted. He propped himself up. His body felt light as he got out of bed, like floating on air.

After his Overall Constitution increased to 90 points, he felt like his body was starting to undergo a qualitative change. Small physical ailments vanished. His skin became perfect and flawless. Small scars left on his arm from childhood disappeared. Jake's slight nearsightedness was now completely returned to normal.

The muscles on his body became less prominent. They didn't look as bulging as before, more rounded. There weren't many signs of training, yet his body was filled with terrifying power. Jake casually picked up a coin. He used a little force and easily squeezed it in half, feeling like squeezing modeling clay! Then he folded it in half, then in half again. Finally, he rubbed it in his palm. The coin actually turned into a metal ball.

Overall Constitution increased, but the effects increased geometrically!

Jake took out his dagger again. He pressed his finger on the knife tip and pressed the tip flat with a little force! With such a powerful body, his survival ability greatly increased! He activated Perception and tried it out. The stamina consumption was almost unnoticeable.

Can definitely keep it active 24/7! Jake didn't hesitate and decided to keep Perception active 24/7. In the apocalypse, Perception ability is extremely important; it can detect danger in advance.

Jake tested his ability for a while, then walked onto the balcony, very satisfied.

Mike Peterson was dead. Virginia creeper seedlings grew out of his mouth, ears, and nose. In his perception view, Jake saw the corpse was filled with dense Virginia creeper, emitting terrifying faint red light.

Jake frowned, untied the body, and threw it off the balcony. The whole night, the mutated frog still didn't attack Mike Peterson. Jake was basically certain its attack range wasn't that large. He "looked" at the doorway. A dog was lying outside. By size, it was White Eyes.

Jake opened the door. The husky jumped up, happily wagging its tail at Jake, lowering its head in front of him to ask for pets. The light on the husky's body was very green. It clearly recognized him as its master. Jake smiled and scratched the dog's head a couple of times. Then he took out 20 steaks, and a pile of ham sausages, and threw them on the ground.

"Woof woof!" The husky ate excitedly.

Jake petted the dog for a while: "I'll observe it for two more days. Then I can bring it inside." In the apocalypse, dogs are far more reliable than humans.

While scrolling on his phone, Jake took out a handful of Enlightenment Fruits (Perception) and started eating them. The Enlightenment Fruits tasted good; Jake ate them like snacks.

There wasn't much good news online. The authorities kept playing dead, only repeatedly calling for citizens to save themselves. But some people took videos of large numbers of armed helicopters flying across the sky, not knowing what mission they were on. More people had awakened, gaining abilities, but news of the black lychees still hadn't been exposed. More people were forced to go out looking for food; most suffered heavy casualties. Cats, dogs, mantises, centipedes, cockroaches, rats, spiders, ants... All the animals humans used to ignore had mutated. Each one posed a huge threat to humans. The ground had completely turned into a terrifying battlefield. While powerful ability users could manage, ordinary people could barely move.

Jake suddenly found his phone signal was very poor. "Probably a cell tower nearby is broken." As time went on, water, electricity, gas, internet - these resources urban people took for granted - would disappear one by one. Human living conditions would get worse and worse.

Jake looked out the window in a bad mood. The outer wall of Building A across the way was already covered in Virginia creeper. All 33 floors, completely enveloped in green. More and more pine trees emerged from the red fog, towering into the clouds. An unknown giant bird circled in the pine tree branches. It looked like a swallow, but it was bigger than an eagle! Jake's expression was grim.

He knew this apartment wouldn't be safe for much longer! As plants grew rapidly, this place would turn into a forest sooner or later. Various mutated animals would eventually enter the building. His abundant supplies wouldn't matter. A single person couldn't fight against the mighty power of nature. I need to become stronger!

Jake made up his mind. He took out an ability fruit, took a photo, and sent it to the group chat.

Room and board included: [@everyone, seeking to buy black lychees. If you have them, private message me.]

Not many people in the group paid attention to this message. Most people still didn't know what this thing was. Only a handful of smart people secretly noted it down. Jake also had no choice. If ability fruits were eaten by others, he wouldn't get them. Another important reason was that his constitution was now strong; he was confident he wouldn't be robbed by force.

Crunch! Jake popped another Perception fruit into his mouth. The second surprise appeared:

[Ding! Perception upgraded to 4 Stars! Perception range increased to 50 meters (approx. 164 feet); You can sense energy gathering points within targets.]

Jake felt his "vision" suddenly expand! Now, looking down, he could "see" the 17th floor! Half the building was within his field of vision. Nearly a hundred survivors trapped in their homes came into view! Jake was also surprised and delighted to find that even the red fog couldn't obstruct his perception view at all.

"Others are practically blind in the red fog, but I'm unaffected!" Jake's eyes lit up.

What are the energy gathering points? He looked at himself and saw a lush green object in his lower abdomen, like an underdeveloped ginger root. "What the heck is this thing?" He touched his lower abdomen, felt nothing at all. He then looked at the other people in the building. The result was, besides himself, among all survivors above the 17th floor, only Olivia and one survivor on the 17th floor had this. The "ginger root" inside Olivia was smaller than his, and the green was paler. The survivor on the 17th floor, their "ginger root" was similar to Olivia's, but the color was golden yellow.

The survivor on the 17th floor, judging by physique, was very muscular. Judging by location, it was likely Apt 1708. Chris? Jake couldn't help but think of Chris's glowing muscles and began to ponder: "Could it be... the 'ginger root' is the source of abilities?"