He crouched down, used a dagger to pry open the zombie’s clothes, then gently cut into the flesh on the zombie’s back with the tip of the blade. The virus’s corrosion, combined with the extensive damage to most physiological functions, caused the exposed muscles to show large patches of gray. Along the incision made by the blade, Henry Sutton focused intently, searching through the ruined tendons and muscles. Soon, just below the back of the neck, a thick blood vessel, still dark red in color, emerged from the depths of the repeatedly separated muscle.

He took a bottle of solution made from white powder out of his backpack, inserted a syringe through the rubber stopper, drew out twenty milliliters, pulled it out, and then plunged the needle into the blood vessel on the zombie’s back. As the white solution was slowly pushed in by the plunger, the zombie, whose neck was firmly clamped by a restraining rod, began to howl madly as if stimulated. Its eyeballs immediately started to swell, bulging outward and filling the entire eye socket. Its body convulsed violently, like an epileptic. If it hadn’t lost its limbs, Grace Sutton would never have been able to restrain it, and would have been torn to pieces on the spot by this terrifying man-eating monster.

Henry Sutton watched the zombie carefully, pressing down hard on its constantly twisting head with his left hand, while his right hand quickly took out another prepared empty syringe from his backpack. He forcefully stabbed the thick, hard needle—at least fifteen centimeters long—into the back of the zombie’s head, yanked the plunger back, and drew out a tube of grayish-brown pus.

The zombie kept howling, but as that mysterious pus was extracted from its head, it completely lost the will to struggle, its head lolling, mouth agape, body gradually stiffening.

Watching Henry Sutton inject the pus into a five-milliliter plastic tube, Grace Sutton asked curiously, “What is this?”

“Fungal hormone.”

Henry Sutton’s voice was as calm as ever, but Grace Sutton could still detect a faint trace of excitement in it.

Like silver bone, fungal hormone was also one of the most important strategic resources in the future world. While dissecting zombies to develop virus vaccines, later biologists discovered that the pineal gland in a zombie’s brain secretes a viscous grayish-brown liquid. Because this pus contains highly active special fungi, it quickly became a crucial additive for potent gene agents and biological culture media. These agents have a wide range of uses: besides enhancing the user’s physical abilities, more importantly, they can activate cells and prolong metabolic effects. In short, they increase the user’s normal lifespan.

Including Henry Sutton, all future humans referred to the year 2020, when the virus first broke out, as the “Golden Age.” The reason was simple—the conditions for producing fungal hormone were extremely harsh. Yet during this period, it was the easiest and most productive time to collect all kinds of precious materials.

All known monsters could be stimulated to produce fungal hormone via the pineal gland. In the future, zombie hunters usually injected a high-purity heroin solution into the monster’s central nervous system, and at the peak of the stimulation, used a syringe to extract the hormone from the monster’s head. The entire process was exactly the same as what Henry Sutton had just done. The most critical part was that, from the injection of the stimulant to the extraction of the hormone, the monster had to remain alive—not die midway.

The virus had the ability to evolve on its own, and the infected hosts it parasitized were also evolving. According to the concepts of the future world, the infected in the early stages of the outbreak were the weakest. On the many monster ranking charts, they were listed at the very bottom, mostly rated as “1” or “—1.”

In Henry Sutton’s era, low-level monsters had already completed the most basic stages of evolution. According to official data, the lowest standard for observed wild creatures was mostly level “3” to “4.” Like humans, their bones and muscles were also strengthened; even after being captured and having their limbs severed, many monsters would still erupt with unbelievable ferocity during the stimulant injection process. Henry Sutton had seen more than once a monster’s neck clamped by a steel ring, yet it used its own strength to forcibly break its spine and commit suicide, or twist around and bite through the throat of a nearby captor.

Capturing and killing monsters was simple, but the stimulation process often went awry. Some people tried using diluted agents with less intense effects, but these failed to induce the pineal gland to produce the hormone.

Fungal hormone was a top-tier strategic resource in the future world. It was extremely expensive and produced in very limited quantities. According to what Henry Sutton knew, even the most powerful military forces only collected about fifty milliliters per year.

Only the lowest-level “—1” or “1” zombies were the best carriers for producing fungal hormone. However, in the future world, they had long since gone extinct or evolved into higher-level monsters.

Henry Sutton silently stared at the plastic tube in his palm, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.

Many of his friends had met with misfortune while hunting for fungal hormone. Some were killed by monsters, some died at the hands of onlookers, and others perished due to accidents during extraction. This grayish-brown pus was so valuable in later times that it was even more precious than the most famous diamonds of the civilized era.

“What’s wrong?”