231

“Puppy!” Luo Xun’s voice was stern and worried. When on earth did she run away? And when did she hook up with those two wolves? Doesn’t she know it’s dangerous outside? The last time she met a zombie dog, who was bitten and ran away? Why couldn’t she be alert?!

Luo Xun had the expression of a strict father which the dog unfortunately did not notice while excitedly licking Luo Xun’s face with a body covered in rain and mud.

Luo Xun pushed away from the dog’s head, looked at the two muddy pawprints and ground his teeth – this dog needed to learn a lesson.

At this time the two wolves stood shoulder to shoulder, obediently lying not far away with their large tails wagging and eyes with melancholy. The staring pierced the group’s hearts and they could not help but mutter.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Do they want to play with Puppy?”

“That’s not good, what if they step on Puppy?”

“Are they hungry? Want us to take them?”

“Don’t joke about that! With their size how can we care for them? Even if we expand the tunnel to let them in, the base does not have any room! And the basement is not large enough either.”

Luo Xun’s mouth twitched as he listened to the crowd’s babbling. He paused after hearing the word hungry and looked between Puppy and the two wolves. Luo Xun looked up and asked, “You came to find us after not being able to eat for a while?”

The two wolves tilted their heads, one right and the other to the left. Their ears were moving but obviously, they did not understand the words. They did not understand what Luo Xun was asking about…

Luo Xun palmed his face. He swore that his head must have been infected with Puppy’s silliness before asking the two wolves that question. The language barrier was such a pain, first with Puppy and the baby and now these two wolves…Wait, why had the baby not started to learn to speak yet?

A few people got together to discuss and decided – try and communicate with the two wolves. If they really needed food, it was not impossible to help them. After all, they were a familiar figure in the area…wait something was wrong?

Luo Xun approached the pair while the ability users remained vigilant in case they two wolves would attack.

But the two wolves seemed more cautious than Luo Xun – when they saw the human approaching, they took a few steps back.

Luo Xun thoughtfully pointed towards the pond and the team followed, distracting the wolves. Sure enough, by the time they were halfway, the wolves got up and tried to keep up.

As it turned out, with the cleverness of man helped counteract the IQ lacking wolves. Anyways, other than the few prey that had been caught by the wolves, the rest were relying on the team’s strength to hunt!

Luo Xun’s team took action, combining water and metal abilities with others. Soon enough, they had hunted five large water birds.

They did not immediately hand over the water birds. First, they dug out the crystal cores and removed the feathers before handing them over.

Although the two wolves were not geniuses, they knew that these prey were gifted by Luo Xun so they did not snatch and instead anxiously waited. Once Luo Xun threw the food over, they picked it up and moved to their resting place under the tree.

Looking at the two figures, Wang Duo, “Do you want to take them?”

Before waiting for an answer, Zhang Yi interrupted, “Can you afford to raise them with the amount of food they eat? When winter comes we can feed you to them but I am afraid it’s not enough to pick their teeth.”

Right? Not even considering the apocalypse, how much would a large dog eat? Wang Duo also remembered his neighbor had raised a golden retriever. Every day he had to buy a large bag of dog food which was only enough for a single day. The family also had other food expenses, how much would it cost with other additions?

Now it was the end of the world, even if the size of mutant animals had grown, it would not help them feed two mutant wolves who were three meters tall!

Xu Mei perked up and smiled at Wang Duo. “Don’t just consider them now with no food, we were outside as well and they must have gotten food before.” She pointed at the wolves. “We met them a few times and except for when they were fleeing the water birds with abilities, did they hunt down regular mutant animals? They are at least smart enough to know to target animals without abilities.”

“That’s true.” Luo Xun also started, thinking while watching the two wolves eating bird meat at the pond edge. “We only saw one of the wolves with an earth ability, perhaps the other has a way to identify which have no ability.

Right? Before those additional mutant birds came, the two wolves were rushing towards a group of regular mutant animals. Maybe they wanted to use the poultry as reserve rations but did not expect to find a group of ability user animals.

In that case, it was possible to help them occasionally, but impossible over the long term. If Luo Xun helped them with food over a period of time, he was afraid that their survival instinct would disappear.

If they were only the size of Puppy, Luo Xun would not mind raising two new members, unfortunately, they were too big and it was not realistic to care for them.

With the arrogant birds in the pond, there were ones that the two wolves had chased but there were ability users mixed in. Even if the wolves wanted to fight they were unable, so they had turned their attention to Luo Xun.

After a busy day of picking up crystal cores and helping their “neighbors” hunt, it was dark by the time the team drove back to base. After stacking the cores into a corner in the storage room, the team rested for a night. Then they went out before the water dried outside to continue picking up cores from the mutant farmland.

Luo Xun wondered, even if the earth was dry, they could also have Song Lingling artificially flood the mutant farmland and continue with their searching. Only it would be hard on her. Now that they found a new method, they had to hurry and take advantage before the water was absorbed away. Otherwise, if the water evaporated and the cores were stuck in the mud, it would be even more difficult to gather them.

For the next two days, after mastering the trick, the team quickly sifted through the surrounding mutant farmland. To everyone’s delight, there were more mutant animals in the nearby area.

After the heavy rain, the nearby pond had become lively. In addition to a lot of flying birds, there were also a lot of mutant animals approaching to drink water.

What made them even more speechless was – there was an eagle high in the sky, hovering over the pond!

Luo Xun was not sure if the eagle was the same one that they had seen on the high-rise. But it was clear that the eagle had designated its hunting ground. In the past two days, those who had gone out to collect cores had seen two areas – the eagle flew down to startle the birds, chased them into the air and grabbed them in its talons before flying away.

The two wolves, who had never been in the wild before the apocalypse and required human assistance, paled in comparison to this scene.

It’s a bug! The scene of hunting was too beautiful and blinded their eyes. Luo Xun had sharper eyes, when the eagle caught prey there was a flash of light. Obviously, the eagle had a lightning ability which would reduce its defenses and maintain freshness. The eagle would have a fresh meal back at its nest.

Luo Xun and the team worked overtime to thoroughly sift through the land. They feelingly stood at the third-floor window and listened to the calls of animals in the distance.

“When do you think they will leave?” He Qiankun whispered to Wu Xin beside him.

“I don’t know, is the feng shui so good that they aren’t going to leave?” Wu Xin was worried as he looked out the window. He still remembered the three-tailed mutant cat they encountered on the road that tried to grab the car. Fortunately, Zhang Yi’s wind power was quick to block. Then another mutant animal appeared and the two animals ignored the convoy and fought instead.

With a source of water nearby, they would inevitably encounter angry mutant animals. Fortunately, their base had been completely built.

2

32

With more animals nearby looking for water to drink, Luo Xun and the others found it difficult to go out. Fortunately, they did not have to, they had just searched the nearby mutant farmland and were not planning to go to the A-city base until early August. Naturally, they could leisurely spend their time at home planting fields, playing games and raising the children.

The group of people with free time brought back the last batch of crystals and rested for the night. After they returned to the warehouse where the colorful crystals were left in a pile and were summarily sorted.

Everyone on the Otaku squad helped with this project. There were too many cores, who knew how long it would take to finish.

Don’t look at the first two days when everyone was quickly collecting cores, they were only shoveling the items into a bag, it was similar to panning for gold.

During the screening, each person had one large and several smaller bags with cores inside. They needed to distinguish the cores as soon as possible along with separating other common cores out. The remaining ones with unclear properties would be set aside to be identified later.

The workload was not small. In order to avoid distraction and wrongly sort the cores, Luo Xun set up a work schedule after the first day.

Every day after getting up early, they would go look after the crops and sort crystal cores before lunch.

After a lunch break, they would spend three hours in the afternoon with the crystal cores. Then they could go to the game room and play or other things they wanted to do.

With this way being busy every day, Luo Xun and the team still had not finished after half a month. This made everyone’s heart happy but their hands sore.

However, during this half month, Luo Xun did not only do this. His and Yan Fei’s room had been arranged with furniture and clearly divided cabinets for the rooms.

They placed their king size bed inside with a table, wardrobe and other things. There was also their previous cabinet and one newly made with metal.

Outside the room, there was a large television hanging on the wall, shelves for game consoles, desks for the baby, bookshelves and a new carpet on the floor.

That piece of carpet was handmade by Luo Xun using the raw material that everyone had no ideas to use – leather.

After the start of the apocalypse, Luo Xun had encountered several mutant animals. It was a headache, the birds were good because their feathers could be used for clothing or bedding but the animal fur was not as easy to use.

Until now, although Luo Xun had saved those skins. They were left in the corner to gather dust after being washed and dried. If they were not adding things for the baby, he would not have thought of those skins.

Their home had a large piece of sheepskin and rabbitskin. After mutation, their hair had become rough and hard with incomparable thickness.

If one made clothes out of the fur, they were afraid that walking would be impossible.

Luo Xun thought again and again and decided to take a piece of rabbit skin, nail a thin sponge and layer of solid canvas to wash into a carpet.

This thing was much thicker than a normal carpet. It would keep the ground warm and give anti-fall measures which would be perfect for the baby.

As for the wool and rabbit hair, it could be woven into thread…but the team had no need for these things for the time being. Plus they did not have or know how to use a spinning machine.

Such a carpet was also placed in Xu Mei and Song Lingling’s room and prepared for the children.

This morning, they washed and neatly dressed their baby. Luo Xun held him in front of the window while checking the roof to make sure there were no stray animals. Although they had painted their roof with a layer of camouflage to deceive eyes sometimes their roof was too alike a mutant plant.

A few days, a silly bird fell on their roofs and curiously examined the leaf-like metal on the roof.

Fortunately, they found out in time, after it left a few bird droppings it was caught and graced their table.

At this time, white clouds were floating in the sky and the pond reflected the sunrise. Birds were leisurely floating in the water while animals occasionally approached the shore to drink water.

Luo Xun looked at the scene, the area was full of wanton growth with mature rice plants, along with the pond and animals, the scenery was heaven-like.

In the distance, the water birds also stuck their heads underwater from time to time…

Luo Xun suddenly turned around to Yan Fei, “Dear, are we not being silly?”

Yan Fei started and wondered where he was coming from.

Luo Xun pointed out the window, “Why are those birds here?”

“Because of the water?” Yan Fei was still puzzled, there were other animals around not just the water birds.

Luo Xun shook his head. “Just because there is water, they will come to make a family?” Mutant animals big and small were in the area. A few days ago when Luo Xun went to dig out cores, they found more than one nest with babies inside!

Were the baby cubs just that small? Or would they grow after mutation? Luo Xun was not sure and dared not speculate.

Yan Fei did not understand Luo Xun’s meaning but looked at him with raised eyebrows asking for an explanation.

Luo Xun pointed outwards with a slightly proud smile, “Birds cannot survive only on water. They have gathered at the edge of the pond and have never left…”

He had not finished when Yan Fei also came to a conclusion. “You mean to say, there are fish in the water?”

Luo Xun fiercely nodded.

In regards to the original farmland, how could there be fish just after some rain? And why hadn’t the fish mutated into zombies? Both of these questions were unanswered at the moment.

More because Luo Xun had not approached the pond so it was not certain that there were fish, the idea was just a guess.

The couple took their baby downstairs and went to the kitchen for a meal. The dining hall was basically only used in the morning. Everyone spent lunch in the basement and the evening would gather in the games room.

When they arrived at the first floor, Luo Xun had not time to speak with everyone about his hypothesis when Li Tie and several others had eager faces while holding their laptops. They rushed over while waving.

“Luo Xun, last night or early this morning we received a new message!”

Luo Xun watched as Li Tie opened and organized the documents from the server.

In the past A-city had joined other bases in visiting some mines. There was some news and follow up and now the military had arrived at the mining area and set up a small new base specifically for mining. It was said that the first batch of ore had been harvested and was being transported back.

The base seemed to have the intention of repairing the railway transport. But who knew whether the damage was serious after the apocalypse and whether there would be an accident with the trains.

What was most shocking was some experimental research and report on ability users.

The human body also contained a crystal core, those that saw the news would not help but get goosebumps.

Luo Xun and the team were shocked to see the news but they already had some hidden speculations about this.

There were zombies and mutant animals, why couldn’t humans have them? In particular, since ability users relied on cores to upgrade, they did not believe that humans were that different from other organisms.

It was just that guesses were just guesses. They chose to subconsciously ignore it until there was clear evidence.

In particular, Luo Xun had never heard of this matter during his past life. He was afraid that once the news spread out, things would become very chaotic. Materials and food could already spark conflict between neighbors. What would happen when cores were added to the equation?

Materials and food were a little different since they could only be judged by the outside, but crystal cores gave off energy that was not really measurable.

The group of people was shocked after reading these encrypted messages since there was other information about an in-depth study on crystal cores along with less important information.

“Leader…”

“Luo Xun…”

“Captain…”

The team looked at Luo Xun with helpless expressions which added pressure onto the leader’s back.

He took a deep breath, looked around and tried to keep his voice steady. “This…personally I do not think that the higher-ups will publicly publish this information because the impact of the announcement would be great and potentially cause a backlash.”

The crowd nodded.

“So we don’t have to worry about it right now.”

As soon as Luo Xun finished, Zhang Yi provokingly said, “I have a problem.”

Luo Xun guessed that he would not be saying anything good. Sure enough, Zhang Yi spoke, “How did they find out that there is a crystal core in the brain of an ability user? Open brain surgery? Experimental lab rats?”

Sure enough, nothing good to say.

233

Zhang Yi’s words were like a spell that took hold of them, their expressions twisted and they looked nervous. They were taught as a string, prime to snap at the slightest force.

Yan Fei suddenly opened his mouth to break the silence and coughed. He glanced at Zhang Yi and said, “Don’t forget, ability users are still people and may die when going out on missions. If they did on base due to sickness or an accident, their bodies can be used for research.”

Experimenting on live people and with corpses are two different things. The first…it need not even be said. But the latter was something else, although the use of corpses for research had a lack of respect for the dead, but for the military to contribute even after death was a way to pave the road for future security.

Before the apocalypse, some people were willing to donate their bodies for medical research, not to mention after the end? Even if the authorities had not obtained consent from the deceased, it was better than experimenting with live people.

Sure enough, the team collectively relaxed as they looked at Zhang Yi. As for which of the two possibilities was true? People would rather believe Yan Fei’s guess. But at the same time, they were more reluctant to consider visiting the A-city base.

The reports of crystal cores in the brains of ability users and other related details were too strong. Luo Xun and the rest stopped for a while before continuing to look at other documents. Among them, a letter from the other bases sent to A-city indicated that a convoy would be sent for exchanging goods. But after the news was sent, some spontaneous teams also followed to do business.

Yes, it was about doing business, trading with their produce. But the military deal was internal only, and those who came with were only exchanging material with regular people or with cores.