If one could increase their strength through systems other than the immortal cultivation system, Fang Ming would have no objections and wouldn't mind.
"I'll look into this later."
"I only need to wait ten days to travel back to the cultivation world."
Fang Ming made his plans.
Immediately, he went to the survivor base.
At the survivor base, the people in charge were initially very arrogant.
It wasn't until Fang Ming blasted a few trees with green light.
These people immediately gasped.
Their attitude towards Fang Ming underwent a fundamental change.
And they immediately went to notify the leader of the base.
...
"A child who looks seven or eight years old can emit green light from his fingers and pierce wooden boards and steel plates?"
The base leader listened to his subordinate's report.
He gasped, "This is truly a legendary evolver, it's too incredible! With a raise of his finger, he has the power of a rifle?"
Before the apocalypse, the base leader was an ordinary person, but after the apocalypse, he had gained some power and managed hundreds of people.
Even so, this was the first time he had heard real information about an evolver – so there really was such a thing as gene potions?
"Leader, what should we do about him now?"
A cold glint flashed in the subordinate's eyes.
"Although this child can exert the power of firearms with green light, his defense might not be that strong."
"We still have a large number of thermal weapons. If the brothers charge together..."
The base leader scoffed, "Is that truly his full strength? What if he's hiding some of his power?"
"What if what he's showing here is only a part of his strength, and the other part is completely hidden? Then, when we engage him with a large number of thermal weapons, what if we're all wiped out?"
"This..."
The subordinate's words were hesitant.
Clearly, he hadn't considered this point, or rather, didn't want to consider it.
"How strong can zombies be? You know that."
The base leader continued, "Ordinary zombies only have the strength of ordinary people before death. They also perceive things through their five senses. If not for their sheer numbers, and the risk of being assimilated into zombies upon contact, ordinary people could deal with them."
"Even considering these characteristics, ordinary people armed with thermal weapons are enough to kill some zombies."
"Mutated zombies, like dogs, can sense human presence from three to four miles away. Their hearing and vision surpass ordinary people. For thermal weapon teams that lack numbers, they are difficult to deal with."
"But above mutated zombies, there are some zombies that have undergone secondary mutations, possessing thermal and electromagnetic sensing abilities. These are commander-level zombies, and they are the objects of fear for some survivor bases."
"Even, there are zombies that have undergone tertiary mutations, known as Tyrants..."
Upon mentioning Tyrants, the subordinate felt a lingering fear.
Some zombies possessed extremely powerful abilities, and Tyrants were impervious even to rocket launchers.
Even a base of hundreds of people could be broken through by a Tyrant-level zombie alone – not to mention that Tyrant-level zombies could summon numerous zombie subordinates.
This was beyond human resistance.
The base leader said, "If zombies can reach this level of strength, do you think people who came out of large bases, where scientists manufactured gene potions and they took them, can reach the strength of a Tyrant?"
This statement stunned the subordinate.
He said, "That's impossible."
Tyrants were zombies that had undergone three mutations. Could humans really reach such strength?
The base leader directly stated, "Don't even think about dealing with him. First, it's hard to say if he's hiding his strength. If we miscalculate, we won't have a good outcome."
"Second, if this person can take gene potions, he must have been sent by a large base. Think about it, a child can use gene potions, so how terrifying must the strength of that unseen large base be?"
"If we manage to kill this child, what if they come looking for us?"
The base leader said earnestly, "This matter carries great risk and little reward. Not to mention whether we can kill him, even if we could, we might provoke retaliation."
"While risking retaliation, we also gain nothing from his corpse – we don't have scientists here. Whether it's zombie brain crystals or a person who died after taking gene potions, we can't research anything."
"It's zero gain."
"Don't do things with zero gain. It's better to coexist peacefully."
Since the base leader said so.
The subordinate could only nod in agreement.
Clearly, if this child could take gene potions, it meant either the gene potions from that large base were produced in such high quantities that even a child within any base could be allocated one.
Or, this child held a high status in that base – most likely, his parents held high status.
Either way, it was not something a small survivor base of hundreds of people could resist. Therefore, it was normal for the base leader to prioritize profit and avoid harm.
...
"Hoo..."
Before Fang Ming's eyes was a spiritual field.
He reappeared in the cultivation world.
Because the base leader compromised, Fang Ming did not encounter much difficulty when he entered the survivor base to search for food and water.
Those people treated Fang Ming as someone from a large base with a complete research institution and numerous military forces, and moreover, someone of relatively high status.
Naturally, they didn't attack Fang Ming.
This was the consequence of having sufficient strength to create deterrence.
If Fang Ming were not the lowest-tier cultivator, but an ordinary mortal child, what would be his fate upon arriving at that base? The outcome was obvious.
Even adults like Li Qiang were forced by the base to search for supplies. That doomsday world was a world where the strong reigned supreme, and women and children had no status whatsoever.
Fang Ming could naturally imagine what fate would befall him if he went there as an ordinary mortal.
No, he might not even reach the base, and would have died at the hands of zombies.
These zombies, for Fang Ming who had already become a cultivator, whether ordinary zombies or those that had mutated once, were all beings that could be easily annihilated.
But for Fang Ming, who was a mortal child, being chased by a dozen ordinary zombies would essentially mean his doom.
He couldn't escape. Sometimes, intelligence couldn't compare to the purest form of strength.
Whether one became a cultivator or not, having mana or not, made a significant difference to Fang Ming.