Chapter 114 The Wild Boar Incident
Landon laughed happily as he poured a bottle of fifty-year-old red wine into a crystal-clear glass. Ever since the apocalypse began, he often did this.
It wasn't that he had gone mad; he was genuinely happy.
Landon was a college graduate, from a prestigious university! He should have had an enviable career in this city, reaching his first career peak in his early thirties, then marrying a beautiful wife, having a chubby baby, and settling down.
Even he himself thought so.
Unfortunately, he was somewhat introverted and simple-minded. When he first entered the workforce, he had terrible luck, encountering a bad company and bad colleagues. He was ostracized, wronged, and framed. Not only did he fail in his career, but he also inexplicably owed a lot of money.
To pay off Landon's debts and to keep their son out of jail, his parents sold their home and, despite their illnesses, went out to work to save money for Landon. Although they finally paid off the debt, they couldn't withstand the harsh life and passed away one after another.
From that moment on, Landon changed. He became even more unwilling to communicate with people, became reclusive, and grew misanthropic. He muddled through many years until a college friend who had been close to him learned of his situation and lent him some money to start a business.
Landon chose to open a farm, raising the increasingly popular wild boars.
He threw himself into this new job with hope and gratitude, and it went smoothly at first. He found that he had an extraordinary talent for farming.
The wild boars he raised were all healthy and robust, the best-looking pigs in all the farms around the city.
But just as he was dreaming of getting rich, the merchant that had signed a purchase agreement with him backed out and refused to buy the wild boars that were about to be sold.
The money his friend had lent him had already been invested in building the farm, buying breeding pigs, and feeding them. Originally, he could have recouped the funds after selling this batch of pigs, but with the merchant backing out, the farm's cash flow was immediately cut off.
Landon tried hard. He approached the merchant, but they ignored him. He wanted to sue, but the court process from filing to trial to judgment would take too long, and he couldn't wait.
Just as he was crying in front of the pigpen, the apocalypse arrived.
Landon was shocked to find that some of the wild boars he raised began to mutate. These mutated wild boars became bloodthirsty and violent, breaking out of the pen and attacking the farm workers, even eating zombies on the road. Soon, the first mutated wild boars evolved into second-level mutated beings, strong enough to knock down brick walls and crush a grown man's skull with one bite.
Moreover, no matter how bloodthirsty these mutated wild boars became, they never attacked Landon. They would even return to the farm at night after searching for food during the day, sleeping by Landon's side and showing him great affection.
Landon was tempted. He realized a huge opportunity lay before him.
He began deliberately finding human and zombie flesh, even mutated animal meat, to mix into the feed for the unmutated wild boars.
Some died, but some survived and successfully mutated.
In just a few days, all the wild boars on his farm had become mutated animals.
He could never forget the first time he led a herd of mutated wild boars out of the farm. Whether it was zombies, mutated beings, or even a strange, powerful beast he had never seen before, they all became corpses and evolutionary fodder under the attack of nearly a hundred mutated wild boars.
His pets killed, ate, and evolved simultaneously!
Soon, dozens of second-level mutated wild boars emerged. It was from that moment that Landon learned about the Doomsday Wheel.
What others risked their lives to collect, like Magic Crystals, were the easiest things for Landon to obtain with his herd of pets. Before long, he too evolved, becoming a one-star Evolving Person. He also obtained many other things: food, supplies, entertainment, weapons, even immunity potions, and magical equipment.
He became the most powerful person in the suburbs.
However, he knew he couldn't be satisfied with just that. He needed to maintain his strength, so he began consciously evolving his wild boars. Since the level-two boars required more energy to evolve, he decided to prioritize evolving the level-one boars.
Meanwhile, he started accumulating second-level Magic Crystals and searching for the second-level Doomsday Wheel. He wanted to become a two-star Evolving person.
After downing the wine in his glass, he suddenly smashed the expensive whiskey glass against the wall, shattering it into pieces. Several of the most highly evolved mutated wild boars looked up at their master and then lay back down and continued sleeping.
"What a piece of crap, it tastes awful," Landon cursed, then pulled out a bottle of wine and began to savor it slowly.
The physique of a one-star Evolving person had made Landon's long-standing alcohol addiction even worse. He used to get blackout drunk with just a little alcohol, but now he could drink two pounds and still think clearly.
Landon summarized the recent information in his mind, analyzing which piece of news about the roulette was most likely to be the second-level Doomsday Wheel.
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
He had just felt a pang in his heart, a sensation that only occurred when one of his pet wild boars died.
He didn't panic. He closed his eyes and sensed it, then sighed in relief.
It was a first-level mutated wild boar that had died.
This had happened before. Mutated wild boars couldn't eat regular feed anymore; they needed flesh. And he couldn't always be with them, so he usually let them hunt on their own. Some of his pets had been killed while hunting before, so although he felt sad, he didn't pay much attention.
But moments later, he felt another pet die. Although it was still a first-level one, losing two in a row made him suspicious.
Could it be a second-level mutated zombie or mutated being?
Just as he was feeling puzzled, another signal came. The third pet wild boar had died!
This time, Landon couldn't stay calm. Losing three wild boars at once had never happened before; something must have gone wrong.
Landon quickly walked out of the house, stood in the yard to get a sense of the situation. He realized that the three wild boars had died in three different directions. He felt a bit relieved; if that was the case, it might really be an accident.
But he still treated these wild boars like his own children, so he decided to go out to investigate. He made a pig-like call, summoning several second-level wild boars resting at home. Landon picked the strongest one, rode on its back, pointed in a direction, and rode off with the herd of boars following him.
"Boss, he's out. He left seven at home, three second-level and four first-level!" Jack's excited voice came through the walkie-talkie.
