After a long while, Caroline had no choice but to accept that the tongue-like thing she'd seen really had come from the base wall. In other words, that tongue had been produced by the wall itself. She couldn't shake the feeling that something major had happened while she'd fallen underground. She quickly opened the system on the wall to check. Soon, she found a new option that hadn't existed before—something about an added upgrade mode. At first, Caroline felt excited. One more upgrade mode meant she could level up faster. But after she finished reading it, she fell silent. "New Upgrade Mode: Everyone's a Baby Sometimes." "Mode Description: The wall may look cold and indifferent, but emotionally, it's incredibly dramatic, perfectly fitting for an item created by the Product of Storage Space. It's tall, sturdy, and reliable. But did you know? Deep down, it's actually extremely insecure and lonely. Use the most beautiful, heartfelt words you can to compliment it. Your sincerity will transform into energy for the wall. The more honest and genuine the praise, the more power the wall receives, allowing it to level up faster." "Limit: You may only give the wall baby three heartfelt compliments per day." Caroline remained silent. What kind of upgrade mode was this supposed to be? She felt like this mode existed purely to annoy her. Everything made by the storage system really was the same kind of nonsense. But that still didn't explain why the wall had suddenly grown a tongue that could yank mutant creatures straight inside! Caroline searched through the system again, and finally found the answer. Apparently, while she hadn't been paying attention, the wall had secretly leveled up. This new level had upgraded the defense system. The previous defense system could let out an "aaah-aaah-aaah" sound. It activated automatically and attacked anything within a certain range, no discrimination. The sound stunned all animals within the area.Once the animals collapsed, the wall would claim their bodies for itself and absorb the mutant energy. Caroline had discovered this long ago and had even been secretly pleased. The wall really was impressive, it could "forage" on its own. She hadn't expected it to not only forage—attacking mutant creatures—but also digest their energy and even “grow taller” by leveling up on its own. However ... now Caroline realized this wasn't entirely a good thing. If this thing evolved the wrong way, she'd be the one crying later. Looking at the wall's self-upgraded defense system, Caroline wasn't sure whether she should be happy or worried. According to the description, this defense upgrade allowed the wall to grow certain tendrils, that tongue-like thing she'd seen earlier. These tendrils could attack threats and intruders and could even search for energy sources for the wall. But the tendrils had one particular trait—they possessed simple intelligence. With intelligence came strategy. But with intelligence also came fear. When danger came, would they fight smart or panic and bolt faster than anyone else? After all, the system described them as, "Defense Tendrils: Possess basic intelligence and can assess danger levels to respond rationally." Reading that line, Caroline suddenly thought of something she'd heard before the apocalypse, how border collies were so smart that, when danger came, they always managed to outrun their owners... Caroline stared at the wall and began scratching her head. No, something was definitely wrong here. The storage space had always been incredibly reliable. Even when it acted "annoying," everything it produced had been rock solid. So why, this time, did she get the feeling that the wall was teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown? Thinking this over, Caroline glanced at Tyler and said she had something to take care of. Tyler didn't ask questions, he simply nodded. And right at that moment, Denton crawled out of the crack in the ground, reaching his hand up toward Tyler, asking for help. Tyler bent down to grab him, but in the few seconds it took to pull Denton up, by the time he looked up again, Caroline had already vanished. Caroline had slipped into the storage space. She wanted to ask Jasper what was going on with the wall. But the moment she entered, she froze. Right in front of her was Jasper—his fur a mess, his whole body looking exhausted to the point of collapse. "Caroline, you finally came—aaaaahhh!" Jasper let out the most tragic wail Caroline had ever heard from him. After he launched himself into Caroline's arms and explained everything in a few rushed sentences, she finally understood what had happened. Nelson had almost petted him bald. Nelson had tried to use their best materials to make all kinds of bizarre snacks for him. Nelson's curiosity had exploded, and he'd started asking ten thousand questions about literally everything he saw. That was it.