this version uses the armeabi-v7a variant and since version 9.0 the app is indeed heavier if using the armeabi-v7a variant
as far as i have played this game from a long time ago, indeed the best variant is arm64-v8a, and i have discussed with @Yaskashije about the mod that he developed version 9.8 it crashes very often I use version 9.8 which was developed by @Yaskashije , because i have trouble remaking version 9.8 with arm64-v8a and I did use private mods before this version
@Yaskashije doesn't touch the assets.zip file at all, but it looks like injecting it during opening or the first time after installing/updating it will bring up the process of extracting the file.zip