My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Mondulkiri is a place blessed by Nature. This land feels as if it’s cut off from the rest of the world.

The jungle was lush and verdant. Even at night, many animals were still active.

For Li Xiang, who possessed the Night Vision Superpower, the darkness was no different from daylight.

System: "Tier Three Mutated Creature detected: Collared Owl."

Li Xiang’s gaze fell upon an owl perched on a branch. Its two eyes shone brightly in the darkness, like luminous pearls.

This was an Extraordinary Being with Low Tier potential. It was already an adult and extremely alert. Seeing Li Xiang look its way, it spread its wings and took flight. But how could it possibly escape Li Xiang’s speed?

With a flash of Cold Ice Sword Qi, the owl fell to the ground.

Adult owls of this species were actually very difficult to tame, and he couldn’t take it back with him anyway. Its Spiritual attribute was low, making it hard to communicate with—not like Tuantuan or the Little Red Fox.

Snakes were also difficult to communicate with. As cold-blooded animals, they were nearly impossible to connect with.

In his past life, Li Xiang had seen Extraordinary Beings with the "Beast Taming" Superpower who could even control cockroaches, so snakes were naturally no problem for them. However, this Superpower was relatively rare. As for Secret Techniques related to Beast Taming, they required a long time to master through a tedious process, and their power was no match for those who had awakened Beast Taming as their Lifebound Superpower.

System: "Congratulations, Host. For killing one Tier Three Mutated Collared Owl, you have received a surprise reward: three stalks of the Tier Two Mutated Spirit Grass, Aquilegia. You have also received 60 Achievement Points."

Aquilegia was not a cup, but a plant from the Aquilegia genus of the Hydrangea Family. It looked a bit like a brown owl.

Li Xiang continued on his way, searching for the Bat Cave.

His phone was still off, so he couldn’t use navigation or GPS. He had memorized the map, but the actual terrain wasn’t marked on it. Being in a foreign country, he couldn’t find his destination right away.

This was different from the Bat Cave in P’an, Myanmar. That one was located near the city and was a famous tourist spot, which he had scouted out in advance during the day.

Among the provinces of Cambodia, Stung Treng and Mondulkiri had high forest coverage, making them rich in timber resources. Li Xiang saw plenty of precious lumber, including valuable types like teak and rosewood, but his System Space was running low, so he didn’t collect such bulky items.

’The System Space is still too small.’ Li Xiang had a fear of running out of supplies and space. He was also a collector, so seeing these fine materials made him want to stuff them all inside.

’Anyway, if I don’t harvest them now, most places will be covered in ice and snow during the Apocalypse, and many of the trees will die.’

’Only those in an "Oasis," or exceptionally gifted Tree Demons outside an "Oasis," would have a chance of survival.’

’And because plants have insufficient "Spiritual" essence, their probability of "gaining sentience" is much lower than that of animals.’

After about two or three hours, Li Xiang finally found the Bat Cave. He didn’t act immediately, however. First, he swept the surrounding mountain area, searching for a suitably large stone as he went.

It was the dead of night, and many bats were still out hunting.

He had hunted bats many times and was familiar with their habits. Daytime, when the bats all gathered inside the cave, was naturally the best time to hunt. However, with more people around, it was inconvenient to do such things. Therefore, around 4 a.m. was the most suitable time. By then, most of the bats had eaten their fill and returned to the cave to rest. After he was done, Li Xiang could still make it back to the hotel before dawn.

This place was about a dozen kilometers from Mondulkiri City. It was also a tourist attraction, albeit a minor one. And since Cambodia was an underdeveloped country, it wasn’t very well-known.

Once the bats had returned to the cave, Li Xiang made his move. He had hunted such colonies many times and was quite experienced. He blocked the cave entrance with a large stone he had prepared earlier, drew his Profound Iron Mountain-Removal Rod, and began to cultivate, circulating his Spiritual Power through his Breathing Technique.

It was both a hunt and a cultivation session—killing two birds with one stone.

The exact number of bats here had never been recorded. Some people claimed there were millions, while other reports suggested only around one hundred thousand. In any case, when the bats emerged from the cave, they formed a dense swarm—a spectacular sight.

It was said that if you wanted to watch the bats emerge, you had to stand at a distance or wear a hat. Otherwise, disgusting bat droppings would rain down from the sky, hitting you in the face and hair and ruining the mood of your trip.

Li Xiang, completely covered in his Black Mountain Profound Armor, executed a Staff Technique that blended hard and soft styles. He swung the eight- to nine-hundred-kilogram Profound Iron Mountain-Removal Rod like a spinning windmill, knocking countless bats from the air.

He immersed himself completely in his cultivation, losing track of how long he’d been killing. After perhaps half an hour, not many bats were left in the air—only a hundred or so remained, darting about chaotically like headless flies. Meanwhile, the ground was carpeted with a dense layer of bat corpses.

’Forget it. I’ll leave the remaining hundred or so to repopulate this place. Wiping them all out would be wrong.’

Some bats that hadn’t returned to the cave had luckily escaped this calamity.

Li Xiang checked his system account. This time, he had killed a total of over 1,500 mutated bats with potential. Estimating a one-in-a-hundred mutation rate, there had to be at least 150,000 bat corpses on the ground, perhaps even more. Of course, "one-in-a-hundred" was just a figure of speech, not a precise probability.

The number of bats he killed this time actually exceeded the number from the Bat Cave in P’an, Myanmar. However, the average Tier of the bats here seemed to be lower, as he only gained a little over 80,000 Achievement Points.

Last time he had also obtained an Extraordinary Item, the Blood Flame Magic Ring, but this time he only received Achievement Points and Spiritual Medicine.

Bats were certainly great for harvesting Achievement Points with high efficiency, but Li Xiang had also discovered that colonies of such small creatures rarely seemed to produce High Tier Demon Beasts. ’I guess I’ll have to look for High Tier ones among tigers, lions, elephants, and polar bears,’ he thought.

Of course, this wasn’t an absolute rule; there were exceptions. But those were exceedingly rare.

Seeing that dawn was breaking, Li Xiang hurriedly went to the seaside to wash his armor and Profound Iron Rod, then rushed back to the hotel.

Mondulkiri Province was actually quite close to the coast—just over a hundred kilometers away.

After returning to the hotel, he enjoyed a hot bath, cultivated for a bit, and consumed some Spiritual Medicine and Spirit Wine. Just then, the three girls came knocking at his door.

When you’re traveling, time is precious. You can’t just sleep in; that would be a total waste.

When Li Xiang opened the door, his eyes lit up. The three girls were dressed beautifully today, fluttering about like colorful butterflies.

They had breakfast at the hotel, then set out via public transport for an in-depth tour of Bangkok, visiting the Grand Palace, the Mae Nam River, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, Siam Square, and more.

The three girls had planned the entire itinerary and strategy, so Li Xiang didn’t have to worry about a thing. He just had to tag along and eat, drink, and have fun.

For some places, they naturally took a taxi. The average taxi fare within Bangkok City was between 35 and 250 baht, which was actually cheaper than in some major Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

The only issue was the complicated fare system, with different types of taxis and pricing methods. And getting ripped off by taxi drivers was an unavoidable risk anywhere in the world.

At some tourist spots, Li Xiang saw many elephants and tigers. He scanned them with his "Mutant Creature Identification Function" but found none with Extraordinary potential. Not every elephant or tiger would mutate, after all.

This was especially true for these captive elephants and tigers, which had long ago lost their wild nature and Spiritual essence.

For instance, at an elephant camp, they had an elephant-riding attraction that Li Xiang and the three girls all tried. People sat on an iron frame mounted on the elephant’s back. The nearby Elephant Trainer carried a sharp blade; if the elephant was disobedient, uncooperative, or showed the slightest resistance, he would jab it.

Although Li Xiang hunted wild beasts, he always gave them a quick death, never torturing or abusing them.

Especially in one-on-one fights, he went for a single, fatal blow. The beasts were dead before they could even react.

Forced to work every day and tortured by the Elephant Trainers, the elephants lived in a stupor. How could they possibly have a chance to mutate?

The Elephant Trainer also secretly brought out some ivory products to sell to Li Xiang’s group. Yao Yao and Lei Xiaohui were very interested, but the more astute Zhao Xueqing curbed their impulse to buy.

"Why shouldn’t we buy it? It seems like a great deal," Yao Yao said, confused.

Zhao Xueqing replied, "Are you silly? Ivory is contraband. How would you even get it back home if you bought it?"

"Oh, right. Never mind then. I really liked it, though."

In front of the Grand Palace, Li Xiang and the others also witnessed a "unique spectacle": the "Kneeling of the White Elephants."

A dozen or so dyed "White Elephants" were led by their Elephant Trainers down a wide street. In front of the Grand Palace, they performed a kneeling ritual before a portrait of the king.

"Whoa, elephants have to kneel too!" Yao Yao exclaimed in surprise. She had heard that people in Thailand knelt before the king, but she never expected these elephants to be trained to be so "proper," kneeling with perfect form.

And they were kneeling to a mere portrait at that.

At the roadside, crowds of people knelt along with them. Many even prostrated themselves fully on the ground, kowtowing in worship.

Li Xiang and the three girls, of course, did not kneel. They stood to the side, recorded a short video, and moved on.

Those "White Elephants," of course, had no Extraordinary potential.

They weren’t even real White Elephants, just dyed ones.

This was because White Elephants are extremely rare and considered Auspicious Beasts in the nations of Southeast Asia.

In Thailand, the White Elephant is a sacred symbol that can only belong to the king; it is the nation’s guardian Auspicious Beast. In Buddhism, the mount of the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is also a white elephant.

Ordinary elephants can be used for labor, but White Elephants can only be supported and revered.

However, elephants have enormous appetites. An elephant that doesn’t work is incredibly expensive to maintain—so much so that even nobles could not afford one. There’s a saying in Thailand: if the king was displeased with a court official, he would gift him a white elephant. As it was both a treasure and a royal gift, the official had no choice but to revere and support the elephant, leading to the swift decline of his family’s fortune. This later led to the English idiom "white elephant," a synonym for an expensive but useless possession.

Historically, Thailand and Myanmar, as well as Laos and Vietnam, have all gone to war over White Elephants.

Li Xiang went to see the dozen or so real White Elephants kept by the Royal Family of Thailand, but they were nothing special and had no Extraordinary potential. ’I’ll still have to go into the primeval forests to find wild elephants and tigers,’ he mused.

And Laos was known as the "Land of Vientiane."

Late that night, after everyone had returned to the hotel to rest, Li Xiang once again set out stealthily, heading for the primeval jungles in northern Thailand and southern Laos.