Chapter 100 Life and Mission
The wind is blowing.
Yan tightened the scarf around his neck, trying to cover his face with the wool.
However, it was of little use, as the alienated skin still contained active tissue, and the radiation wind would sting like a razor, causing pain.
"Brother." Sister Yu carefully tugged at her brother's robe and murmured, "Will we really get... some food today?"
Most likely we won’t get any because we have already been abandoned.
Yan walked forward indifferently. He was not as naive as his sister.
Although he didn't know what kind of life the "people living up there" lived or what rules they needed to follow, he fully understood the life and rules of the tribe.
His tribe was not allowed to have a fixed tribe name and could only decide on a name based on the God they currently worshipped.
However, the gods they worship are not even wild gods, and even those who are unfamiliar with anomalies would not regard them as true gods.
Believing in such a "god" is like believing in a more powerful beast, and there is absolutely no future in it.
The only good thing was the food.
As long as they sacrifice foreign "enemies" or their own "waste" or the abnormal things they hunt to the gods, the gods will give them some clean food in return.
According to the rules of the tribe, only those who have made contributions, worked hard and are useful can get food.
Children his and his sister's age had to rely on their parents, and their parents... died in a hunt a week ago.
They had eaten the last of their food yesterday. Neither he nor his sister were powerful superpowers, nor had they merged with a powerful enough alien organization.
They are useless people and cannot expect mercy from their tribesmen. They can only collect edible resources in the wild by themselves.
But such resources are too rare and difficult to find.
And if he followed the group, even if he found it, it would be snatched away by the adults. Leaving the group? Then he and his sister would be killed by monsters again, a dead end with no solution.
What should I do?
"elder brother?"
"There will be."
Yan murmured with trembling lips. He looked at the backs of the tribesmen in front of him and fell into deep thought: Not really... there is no way.
According to the rules of the clan, the wealth of the deceased will be divided up by the living. As long as he and his sister die, the houses and weapons left by their parents will also be distributed to other people.
But on the other hand, as long as [someone in front of me] dies, his things including food will also pass to my sister and me, right?
[Because I will kill him] It would be best if we could find an opportunity to offer him to [God]. That way we can get a lot of food, enough for us to eat for several days.
"Hey, don't dawdle! There's a big snake pond ahead. Keep your eyes open and don't let the snake take you away!"
The leader held a staff high, and he was the only one wearing a protective helmet. It was said to be a bargain with the people on earth, or it might have been stripped from a sacrifice.
Big Snake Pond… Yan’s eyes flashed.
He remembered the pool, where there was a relatively safe monster.
The monster was huge in size and usually squatted in the pool, occasionally attacking people who came to drink water or abnormal or mutated beasts.
They seldom came here to fetch water before, but since the tribe's rare treasure [well] dried up completely, the hunting team had to change their hunting route and come to this dangerous place to fetch water.
The leader would have a swift, super-powered person run around the pool. If the tribe had sufficient resources, they could also prepare some bait. Unfortunately, everyone in the tribe was starving, so there was no extra bait, and they had to constantly change people to lure the snake out.
"rock."
Yan was still thinking when he suddenly heard his own name. He looked up in surprise: I don’t have any superpowers of agility, why are you calling me?
The leader's eyes were filled with obvious malice as he said slowly, "You and your sister haven't eaten in a few days? I'm giving you this precious opportunity. As long as you survive, I'll give you some food."
The team leader said this condescendingly, raising his finger to indicate a "little bit." He indicated that they would be given a portion of food the size of a date pit, which would be dissolved in water to make a single mouthful for each person.
Humph, you want to buy my life with such a small amount of food...
"I'll go!" The younger sister stretched out her arms impatiently. She was so small that she couldn't bear the hunger at all: "Let me go, let me go!"
After saying that, he said to Yan with a happy face: "Brother, we can eat now!"
Tsk.
Yan roughly pushed his sister aside and yelled, "I'll go!"
"Good boy! Let's go, let's go. Go early and come back early. We will follow you and get to work quickly." The team leader patted his shoulder in appreciation and pushed the short Yan to the front of the team.
Yan, with a gloomy expression, gathered his scarf and covered his head with the little bit of wool.
Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to hope that the snake will run away on its own rather than expect them to be kind.
He approached the lake step by step, walking very slowly at first, fearing to disturb the snakes at the bottom of the lake. But once he was within attack range, he sped up and began to run in circles around the lake.
Come out, come out quickly.
All the tribesmen, including the leader, held on to the water buckets and jars tightly, ready to pounce on the water as soon as the big snake appeared.
Snap, clatter, clatter, clatter... The boy ran in circles, from madness to exhaustion to stumbling, and then to limping like he was taking a walk.
Could it be that the snake has become more anthropomorphic, waiting for its prey to tire before attacking? Strange, since it used to jump out and open its mouth at the sight of a human.
The tribesmen did not dare to act rashly. They stared at the pool, ready to figure out the situation before taking any action.
What if it is tired today and wants to wait until its prey is tired before coming out?
Although it is difficult for a giant snake, which has no special talents and relies solely on its physical strength to hunt, to evolve into a sufficiently powerful intelligence, this tiny possibility cannot be ruled out.
"Food!" Yan suddenly stopped. He ventured to a stop not too far from the lake and roared at his tribesmen, "Give food to my sister, or I won't run away!"
Damn little devil...
The team leader was a little overwhelmed, but he couldn't quarrel with the child in front of everyone for such a small amount of food, so he raised his hand and told the person next to him to "give her the food."
The physical esper who was supposed to be the bait in the team ran very fast. She took out an olive-sized flour ball from her bag and handed it to Yu. After handing it to Yan, she shouted at Yan, "I gave it to you! Keep running!"
Yan watched his sister bite off half of the ball and swallow it, then he slowly started running again.
Snap, snap, snap.
His steps were sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes he would deliberately move closer and then move away immediately, trying to lure the big snake out of the lake.
The lake was unusually calm and nothing happened.
"Hey, I'll give you another one, come closer!" the leader shouted as he took out a flour ball and waved it.
Yan turned sideways and took two steps toward the lake, then two more steps.
When the team leader stuffed the flour ball into his sister's palm, he also tentatively put his right hand into the lake: there was no luxury such as protective gloves, only a layer of alien beast leather wrapped on it, providing protection that was better than nothing.
Hiss~hiss~hiss.
The contaminated liquid stirred with his fingers, occasionally causing bits of impurities to float up. But nothing unusual happened; even the schools of bony fish inside had been killed.
what is going on?
Yan mustered up the courage to take out a blowpipe with some purifying properties from his bosom, pointed the nozzle at the edge of the lake and blew hard - there was only a little floating algae, and no abnormal toxins floated out.
"Really?"
"Orochi isn't here?"
"Hey, good luck!"
Seeing Yan was completely fine, the tribesmen finally felt relieved. They all gathered at the lake, somewhat cautiously: some people fetched water, while others stood guard with weapons in hand.
As for whether the weapon will be used to drive away the big snake or to push the person into the water after the big snake comes out...it's tacitly understood.
They were extremely efficient and filled all the buckets and jars they brought with water in about a quarter of an hour.
But the main reason was that they didn't bring enough cans. The team leader slapped his palm in regret: "Oh, I should have brought the big buckets earlier! Forget it, forget it, we'll do it next time."
Next time? I won't be so lucky next time. Even if the big snake dies, there will always be new anomalies lurking here.
Everyone didn't want to interrupt the leader's good mood, so they followed silently with buckets of water.
Yan quietly walked back to the group. He took a flour ball from his sister's hand, chewed it, and swallowed it. Just as he swallowed it, his sister handed him another half with eager eyes: "There's more."
Yan looked at the half-bitten flour ball in her hand, thought for a moment, and then grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Let's go." He took his sister's hand and continued walking to the end of the team.
The hunt has just begun. The tribesmen will patrol back and forth within the territory, hunting weak anomalies or wanderers, and sometimes they will encounter fully armed people on the ground.
Even if they find nothing, they will pursue the mines that are constantly changing their location in the abyss in order to dig out precious energy from them.
Those energy sources may be items with magical effects, or they may be ancient relics and biological remains. In short, they are excellent whether used for sacrifice, trading or kept for personal use.
Rustle, rustle.
The wind started to blow again. Yan immediately pulled up his scarf to cover his mouth and shield his sister from view.
A strong wind blew past, and suddenly a gentle hillside appeared before their eyes. At the bottom of the hillside were scattered pieces of broken crystals. Those crystals were the sediment of abnormal residue!
The eyes of the Yanhe people suddenly lit up. Generally, such crystals are large and abnormally buried "grain reserves".
They have already gone through the first round of digestion and can be utilized simply by collecting them. Apart from the fact that the surface radiation is too high to be preserved, there are no disadvantages!
"Ahhh~~" Without anyone reminding them, the tribesmen howled and rushed forward -
Yan also let go of his sister's hand and ran as fast as he could to keep up. He ran in the fog, raising a cloud of dust, afraid that the adults would kick him aside and not even a scrap of his belongings would be left.
Even if it's just one grain, one grain can be exchanged for some food!
As he was running, he suddenly noticed that the fog around him was dispersing, as if there was a spiral wind blowing left and right.
What's going on? Is the big snake back?!
Yan trembled all over and immediately tensed his muscles, ready to escape.
But when he turned around and prepared to run back to find his sister, a strange picture appeared in his eyes.
A black-haired girl walked in the fog. The dust and radiation around her merged into billowing smoke visible to the naked eye, which continued to spread into the distance like kelp dancing in the ocean current.
As he stared at the girl, the girl also noticed him.
Is she a devil? Or... a legendary god?
Yan gritted his teeth and stared stubbornly at the girl's open lips, hoping that her words could answer his doubts.
This sentence did not solve any questions, but instead brought more confusion.
Because Chen Xiao'er walked up to him and asked with a smile: "Hello, little friend, what tasks do you have here?"
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