My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Laos was historically known as the Lancang Kingdom.

In the Lao language, "Lancang" means "a million elephants." This is why Laos is also called "the Land of a Million Elephants" or the "Land of Vientiane." In fact, its current capital is named Vientiane.

Thus, Laos was historically abundant with elephants. Now, however, according to incomplete statistics, only about 1,200 remain, with less than half of them living in the wild.

Within Asia, India likely has the most elephants. Some reports claim there are about 31,000, but other—and most likely unreliable—statistics suggest the number of Indian elephants might exceed one million.

These are Asian Elephants. Earth, however, is home to even more African Elephants, with an estimated population between 400,000 and 600,000, spread across approximately 37 countries and regions.

Li Xiang turned off his phone and tossed it into his System warehouse. As a result, he could only pinpoint his approximate location. It didn’t matter. As long as he was in a vast jungle, he could just sweep the mountains for his targets.

System: "Detected Tier Five Mutated Creature: Five Unlikes."

A strange animal appeared before Li Xiang. It was about two meters long and weighed around three hundred kilograms. Its ears were like a horse’s, its nose like an elephant’s, its body like a pig’s, its tail like a cow’s, and its paws like a tiger’s.

"Is that an Asian Tapir?" Li Xiang muttered. He’d seen one at a zoo before. They were most common in Malaysia and Indonesia, though they were also found in southern Thailand and Southern Myanmar. He never expected to run into one here.

They were excellent swimmers and tended to live near water.

The Asian Tapir saw Li Xiang staring and was instantly startled. It bolted toward a nearby lake, but it was far too slow for him. With a flash, Li Xiang was right behind it.

A light tap from the eight-hundred-kilogram Profound Iron Mountain-Removal Rod was all it took. A graze from it would wound; a direct hit meant death. The Asian Tapir’s life was forfeit.

Li Xiang felt no guilt about killing wild animals. In places like Southeast Asia, all sorts of wildlife were openly sold at the local markets. The countries he had visited—Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos—were all the same.

For instance, at a market he’d once passed through in Laos, the wild game for sale covered everything from the sky above to the waters below. You could find anything: eagles, owls, all kinds of birds he couldn’t name, wild boars, hedgehogs, venison, civet cats, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, slow lorises, pangolins... Sometimes, they even had bear paws and tiger claws.

Bat and snake meat were sold on skewers. Other common wild animals and insects—like dragonflies, crickets, and silkworm pupae—were so numerous it was dizzying.

In coastal countries like Indonesia and East Timor, you could also find rare animals from the sea.

Some were dried, some were fresh, and some were still alive. They would butcher the animal for you right on the spot—a bloody spectacle. Some of the more timid tourists from China who witnessed it were so horrified they didn’t dare to buy or eat anything.

So, what was Li Xiang’s little hunt in comparison? It wasn’t even worth mentioning.

The Asian Tapir was a strange-looking animal and didn’t seem like it would make for a good meal, so Li Xiang had no interest in it. After collecting the System reward, he simply left the carcass and moved on.

System: "Detected Tier Six Mutated Creature: King Cobra."

System: "Detected Tier Three Mutated Creature: Unicorn."

These were two good finds. Li Xiang hunted them down and stored them in his System warehouse. The little cats back home had never tried King Cobra before.

The Unicorn was a peculiar creature. It resembled a deer, and its meat looked to be of good quality. However, the horns on its head were completely different from Deer Antlers. It had two sharp horns, each fifty to sixty centimeters long. When viewed from the side, they aligned to look like a single horn, just like a unicorn of myth. That was likely the origin of its name.

Along the way, Li Xiang came across a few wild elephant herds, each with five to ten members. None of them had any Extraordinary potential, so he ignored them. ’Elephant meat tastes bad, there’s no System reward, and they’re huge and take up too much space. Why bother killing them?’

His System Space was getting smaller and smaller. He had to be more frugal with it.

The dark forest was filled with all sorts of strange noises. Li Xiang’s hearing was keen, allowing him to use the sounds to locate animals and then go "appraise" them.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, standing perfectly still as he strained his ears to listen.

HHH... HHH...

It was very faint, like the sound of a small child snoring.

Li Xiang’s heart skipped a beat. ’A snoring child? Out here in the desolate wilderness?’

’If there really is a child here, something is definitely off.’

But Li Xiang was as bold as he was skilled. With a flick of the Profound Iron Mountain-Removal Rod in his hand, he followed the sound. What came into view was a solitary grave mound.

It was a jagged pile of stones, overgrown with wild grass, its age impossible to tell.

He had certainly seen his share of ancient graves while sweeping the mountains, but this was the first time he’d ever heard one snore.

Even for an Extraordinary Being like Li Xiang, the situation made his hair stand on end.

He pressed forward, thinking, ’Even if it’s a ghost, one swing of my rod will be enough to scatter it!’

And if the rod couldn’t scatter it, he still had his Blood Flame Magic Ring. It could conjure a blood-red flame the size of a millstone with temperatures reaching four to five thousand degrees. Ghosts were most afraid of intense fire.

However, just as he cautiously crept within ten meters of the grave, the System suddenly alerted him: "Detected Tier Five Mutated Creature: Silver Hero Golden Hedgehog."

’A hedgehog?’

Li Xiang breathed a sigh of relief. He strode over to the grave mound, lifted a Stone, and found a small creature fast asleep inside. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

This little creature was certainly cuter than an ordinary hedgehog. Its quills were an off-white color. ’It probably hasn’t fully mutated yet,’ he thought. ’Once it does, its quills will likely turn silver and its belly golden.’

"Seriously, you’re still asleep?" Li Xiang prodded it a few times, but the little creature continued to sleep soundly, still making that soft, snoring sound.

"How has something like you survived this long in the Apocalypse?"

Suddenly, the little creature made a break for it. It was clearly very clever. It had been awake the whole time but had stayed perfectly still, feigning sleep to lull its enemy into a false sense of security.

But how could its short little legs possibly outrun Li Xiang?

Li Xiang simply reached out, pinned it down, and then picked it up by its long tail. The little creature kicked its legs and bared its teeth, trying to look fierce.

"Such a long tail," Li Xiang remarked. He’d never seen a hedgehog with a tail this long, and it was even covered in quills.

"Definitely an Alien Species. Oh well, I’ll let you go this time." Li Xiang gently set the little creature down. The little hedgehog immediately scurried into a crevice between the stones.

"Our meeting must be fate. Here, have a little fruit as a reward." Li Xiang took out a small, red, pearl-like berry and placed it in front of the crevice. Then, with a flash, he vanished into the darkness.

A tiny paw snaked out, stealthily snatching the berry into the crevice. A moment later, the sound of NOM NOM NOM could be heard.

Suddenly, the Stone above it was lifted away again. The little hedgehog looked up. ’Why is this big, dark monster back?’ After eating the delicious treat, however, it wasn’t nearly as frightened. Perhaps it sensed that Li Xiang meant it no harm.

"Was that tasty? I have more if you liked it." Li Xiang produced two more berries. The little guy immediately grew excited, practically dancing with joy. It even started rubbing its front paws together eagerly.

Li Xiang gave it the two berries, then scooped the little creature up and took off toward Sichuan Province at Extreme Speed.

His Otherworldly Warehouse couldn’t store living creatures. Plants could survive for a short time, but animals were an absolute no-go—unless he used a sealed container to store the little thing along with its air supply, like a space capsule.

But he didn’t have a container like that on him. ’Besides,’ he thought, ’I’ve never tried it. What if it doesn’t work? What if something goes wrong?’

’Even if I could store it, the air supply would be limited. It would have to eat, drink, and relieve itself inside. It wouldn’t be a long-term solution.’

So, he decided to make a trip home.

Besides, the little thing was small. It could live in the backyard of his family home or on the mountain without being easily discovered.

The border between Thailand and Laos was only about a thousand kilometers from his home. A little over an hour later, Li Xiang slipped back home unnoticed.

Little Fox, Er Huang, and the little cats saw him and all gathered around excitedly.

Li Xiang set the little hedgehog down and told Little Fox to take good care of the new family member. Then, without stopping to rest, he rushed back. According to his public itinerary, he was supposed to be in Bangkok right now.

As for the little hedgehog, it was completely and utterly bewildered.

By the time Li Xiang returned to Laos, he had stumbled upon a large elephant herd. There were twenty-eight of them in total—a big family.

System: "Detected: one Tier Sixteen Mutated Creature, Silver-tusked Mammoth; one Tier Seventeen Mutated Creature, Moving Mountain White Jade Elephant."

A single herd with two creatures possessing High-Tier Extraordinary potential. The discovery thrilled Li Xiang.

The only problem was that with twenty-eight elephants, he couldn’t tell which ones possessed the Extraordinary potential. The System had a rather annoying limitation: it only detected Mutated Creatures within a ten-meter radius, without specifying which individuals they were.

Normally, Li Xiang would have just killed all the elephants to collect the rewards. But just as he was about to strike, a small white elephant caught his eye.