9

Everything that could be used in my grandpa's house had been moved away. Even if those two bastards wanted to take revenge on me, they would only be left with an empty shell.

Tao Sai stood at the stern of the boat and held the bamboo pole, and the black-sailed boat slowly moved downstream along the river.

Grandpa dismantled the oars and placed them on both sides of the boat, because in narrow rivers, using bamboo poles would be faster and more convenient than using oars. However, when the river was deep, bamboo poles could not reach the bottom, so oars were needed for more efficient rowing.

After the wupeng boat entered the river, Tao Sai fixed the oars and paddled for power, searching for a suitable anchorage along the riverbank. This was the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where the current was slow and more manual paddling was required. However, with her attribute points, paddling was not tiring at all.

After about three kilometers, they drove into an area with lush aquatic plants growing along the river.

Tao Sai chose a dense wooded area, reached out and grabbed a branch, tied the boat's rope to it and secured it so that the boat would not be carried away by the current.

Looking from the channel in the center of the river, it is relatively hidden due to the cover of aquatic plants, and it is also difficult to get here from the shore.

This is the temporary anchorage for the "Deep Sea Fish" refugee ship.

But this small wupeng boat is still too cramped. It would be great if it could be upgraded to a fishing boat.

It doesn’t matter if it’s narrow, as long as I can survive for now.

She began to take out the things she needed from the [Warehouse]. With the special effect [Blurred Perception], Zhou Ning did not have any doubts about Tao Sai's magic.

She took a few days' worth of food, drinking water, and toiletries, and placed two sleeping bags side by side in the awning, which was slightly longer than the sleeping bags and barely enough to keep out the rain.

Zhou Ning helped pack up her belongings. Seeing Tao Sai grabbing a sleeping bag and several days' worth of self-heating rice, she finally couldn't help but ask, "Taotao, aren't we going back?"

Tao Sai said affirmatively: "I'm not going back."

"Oh." Zhou Ning nodded.

It was the special effects [Captain] who played a role, and all the crew members on the refugee ship obeyed the captain's orders unconditionally.

Tao Sai enters the [Mission] module. Since she has completed the first initial mission, the second level mission of the mission tree is now unlocked for her.

The initial mission evolved into two mission branches, Line A and Line B. Line A is to eliminate the bugs, and Line B is to develop shelter ships. These are also the two most important main lines of the "Insect Tide" game.

Developing refugee ships requires resources and people, so we can ignore it for now.

Tao Sai chose the A line branch.

[Main Quest: [Trial]

Mission description: Brave players, a swarm of insects is about to invade human homes. Please eliminate 100 protozoa and you will receive generous rewards!

Mission Rewards: [Gold Coins x1000], [Experience x1000], [Purple Skill Blind Box x1]]

Tao Sai stared at the big words [Purple Skill Blind Box]. This thing is an advanced version of the [Skill Blind Box]. It is 100% guaranteed to open C-level and above skills. The price in the [Mall] is as high as 50,000 gold coins, and it is also limited to purchase once a month!

It’s generous, really generous. Tao Sai couldn’t help showing excitement on his face. It’s worthy of being the main task!

The only pity is that there are no bugs spawning nearby, so the quest cannot be completed.

The sky gradually darkened, and she was almost hungry. Tao Sait sat on the beam, unpacking the self-heating rice and preparing to add water when Zhou Ning suddenly called out excitedly from behind, "Taotao, look in the water!"

Tao Sai turned his head and saw that under the setting sun, the entire river surface was covered with countless ripples, as if the water was boiling, and the hull was also shaking violently due to the water.

She looked up at the shore again. The huge force was also transmitted to the trees, and the leaves rustled and then fell off.

Tao Sai quickly realized that it was an earthquake!

Of course they couldn't stand on the boat, so Tao Sai asked Zhou Ning to grab the edges of the boat like her to maintain balance and avoid capsizing.

Fortunately, with the fixing of the rope and the strong support of Tao Sai's arms, the sloop was on the verge of falling and capsizing several times, but it was safe in the end.

The strong vibration lasted for about half a minute and then gradually weakened.

After calming down, Tao Sai opened her phone and kept refreshing the hot search page, and finally saw the entry she expected.

…

50 Guangning County Earthquake [New]

When you click on the entry, the top one is the official news released by the official blog of the Provincial Earthquake Bureau: At 17:56 on the 28th, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurred in Shangma Town, Guangning County, Nanzhou City, with a focal depth of 29 kilometers.

Tao Sai held his breath. Guangning County was where they were, and the epicenter, Shangma Town, was not far away. No wonder the tremor was so strong just now.

She frowned. The situation this time was still different from the "previous life".

There was no earthquake near my hometown that time, and the insects almost all came out from the rift valley after the earthquake. Because it was far away from the center of the earthquake, the entire Nanzhou City was not affected by the insect tide until very late.

But now, there is an earthquake rift nearby, and the insect swarm will definitely gather here soon, and the situation will be more serious than last time.

Before Tao Sai could think any further, a system notification sounded in his ears.

[Insect blood detected!]

Insect blood level: 1

Chongxue coordinates: (31°12′41″N, 117°41′31″E)]

Tao Sai stared at the subtitles in front of him. Just like in the game, earthquakes are often accompanied by the appearance of insects, and only when the insects begin to produce insects will they be detected by the shelter ship.

Tao Sai immediately sat up and said to Zhou Ning, "I remembered I forgot to take something. Wait here for me, I'll be back soon."

"good."

It was almost dark, and there were plenty of shelters near the anchorage, making it quite safe. As long as she didn't turn on lights, fires, or make too much noise on the boat late at night, no one would notice her.

After giving her some instructions, Tao Sai walked to the front of the sloop, found a suitable position, jumped, and grabbed a thick branch. She swung her body and grabbed it with her other hand.

Her arms, blessed with strength attributes, easily supported her own weight. She relied on her hands to move while hanging, climbed up the tree trunk when there was enough space, and finally jumped to the shore smoothly.

Tao Sai walked through the dense woods with a flashlight. The red dot representing the insect acupoint on the map panel showed to her northeast. There was only one red dot, indicating that there was only one insect acupoint at the moment.

It was so dark that she could no longer see the road. She was not familiar with the terrain in this area and could only rely on the flashlight to walk in the straightest possible direction.

Holding a spring knife, she cut through the thorns blocking the road, climbed over the mound, and jumped over the potholes. It took her more than an hour to complete the 3-kilometer journey and finally she arrived near the wormhole shown on the map.

This was originally a small earthen slope. The violent geological movement caused a large crack to suddenly appear on the back of the slope. It was about two meters wide and bottomless.

Tao Sai held the flashlight and shone it carefully along both sides of the crack. The beam of the flashlight kept shaking in the dark night, and finally he found something unusual on the side wall of the crack. A worm about 10 cm long was crawling to the ground on the opposite side.

Tao Sai was no stranger to bugs; she had come into contact with them in the game before she was reborn.

The insect has a slender appearance, two long tentacles on its head, a powerful mouthpart with amazing bite force and toxic substances, six hairy legs, and a yellow and black pattern on its back, making it particularly unfriendly to people with trypophobia.

Tao Sai grew up in the countryside and was used to seeing cockroaches, rats, and all kinds of strange reptiles, but every time he saw this kind of insect, he still couldn't help feeling nauseous, especially when countless insects gathered together to form a swarm of insects, swarming up like an overwhelming force.

The flashlight illuminated a flat open space opposite, and Tao Sai jumped and leaped to the other side.

The protozoan crawled onto the ground. Just as Tao Sai was about to plunge a springboard into its back, she suddenly stopped. She fished her phone from her trousers and filmed the crawling protozoan. She controlled the camera to follow the insect's movements, capturing it as it landed in front of a wild Aralia tree. Then, with its mouthparts open, it rapidly devoured the tree's thorny trunk. In less than three minutes, the camera captured it devouring most of the half-man-high Aralia tree.

Tao Sai stopped taking pictures, held the spring knife and firmly inserted it into the insect's head. The insect struggled for a few times, brown liquid flowed out of its head, and soon it became motionless.

Tao Sai immediately posted the video on Weibo, noting: "This is just a growing insect."

Just as she put down her phone, she suddenly heard more and more frequent movements. She quickly ran to the crack and saw that one insect after another crawled out from its original place, almost forming a line.

Just in case, Tao Sai took out the T7 pistol from his back. The situation was special now and he couldn't care less.

She put on a long-sleeved shirt and plastic gloves to prevent the poison from splashing on her body. Then she stood guard at the crack, biting the flashlight and holding a spring knife in each hand.

When a bug crawled out, she would stab it with a knife and peel it off with another knife. Brown liquid from the bug's head kept spurting out, soon staining her light-colored clothes in several layers.

Tao Sai was furious.

I don’t know how long it took, but the total number of bugs killed reached 100, and subtitles popped up in front of me.

[Main quest [Trial run] completed! ]

[You obtained [Gold Coins x1000], [Experience x1000], [Purple Skill Blind Box x1]. ]

Bugs were still crawling out of the cracks, but Tao Sai didn't hesitate at all and clicked to turn it on.

【You opened the [Purple Skill Blind Box]. 】

As the system jumped, she prayed silently. She didn't ask for an S-level skill, and she didn't dare to hope for an A-level skill. Just give her a practical B-level skill. Anything would be fine. Please!

[You have acquired the skill [Charge·C-Rank]: When you use this skill, you can instantly gain 5 times your own strength (upgradeable).]

Tao Sai: “…”