The conversations among the search team were mostly uninteresting, usually focused on everyday family matters, none of the bloody, ruthless affairs Jiang Ling had imagined. Furthermore, judging by their words, they probably didn't venture far outside the area. Whenever they ventured out, they simply followed the army's lead, scavenging scraps from behind. While they looked a bit like footstools, unassuming, they were quite useful. Most of the salvaged materials were brought in by these individuals over and over again, like worker ants in an anthill.
Jiang Ling returned the empty beer-flavored cup to its original spot and walked a few steps along the snack street before turning into a small alley. This was the hardware store the group had mentioned, or perhaps a tire repair, shoe repair, or locksmith shop. She had assumed this craft would be wiped out by industrial production, but she hadn't expected it to survive from over a century ago until today, and to continue into the future.
"Master?" Jiang Ling knocked on the LED billboard at the door.
"Oh, what do you want to repair?" A hunched figure emerged from the jumble of parts. The purple-red lips hidden under the welding mask moved again: "Anything! I can repair the exoskeleton!"
"Can you repair exoskeletons? Have you ever been in the military?"
"No, but I have made exoskeletons before. That was a long time ago. Back then, the exoskeleton was just a big lump of iron! Nowadays, machines make machines, but back then they were all made by hand. Hahaha~" The little old man was like an old boy when he recalled the old times. He not only spoke but also gestured with his hands.
"It would be great if you could repair the exoskeleton, but I haven't gotten the broken one yet." Jiang Ling changed the subject.
"You really want to repair it?" He was a little surprised. He thought he would never touch that thing again after retirement.
"I'd like to fix it if I can! But I'm going to dig it out with a shovel now!"
"Shovel! Oh, over here!" The old man thought for a moment, took off his mask, and then pulled out a steel pipe from a wooden box filled with miscellaneous items. He then found a shovel head from another pile of materials. He aligned the shovel head with the spiral pattern on the steel pipe and turned it a dozen times. He then found a roll of cloth from a drawer, tied a knot at the other end of the steel pipe, and then wrapped it around the pipe to the joint.
"Give me a hand!" He handed the finished shovel to Jiang Ling, then found a pair of scissors to cut off the excess cloth strips, and tied the broken cloth strips into a knot.
Jiang Ling took two steps back with the shovel, waved it in the air a few times, and asked, "How many points?"
"This is for you. When you find something valuable, don't forget to bring it to me, the old man, to see!"
"Of course, of course!"
After bidding farewell to the cheerful repairman, Jiang Ling finally managed to secure all the necessary equipment. She now needed to return to pack her belongings, and the next step was to head to the surface and dig up Li Wenjia's old friend.
. . . . . .
It took Jiang Ling over two hours to get home. She'd originally set out from residential area No. 3, but when she returned from the ground floor to the second underground floor, she'd found herself in area No. 1. If she were a wanderer, it wouldn't have been a problem, but with her weapons and equipment at home, this incredibly long commute was a real problem. If she were a human, running around like this for only enough to eat once a day, she'd probably be as skinny as a dog in a few days. She'd always envied those time travelers who had their own navigation system, but in reality, before she traveled through time, the country had only truly implemented nationwide navigation for a decade. For someone with a poor sense of direction, having a navigation system was a magical superpower, the equivalent of owning four or more satellites, its value inestimable.
Everything at home was business as usual, but perhaps a little different. Only Huang Yun still maintained his three-meal-a-day routine. Jiang Ling, for her part, simply tried something new, while Jiang Wenwen had already begun fasting. Jiang Ling felt that the old saying—people are iron, rice is steel, and monsters are the cauldron—was no longer applicable.
So, after learning that tonight's dinner wouldn't be anything special, Jiang Ling returned to his kennel, carrying the shovel, which reeked of the wasteland. Protective clothing and a shovel were essential. Most of the radioactive dust on the surface should have settled, gathering in low-lying areas and crevices where the wind couldn't reach it. From what the search teams had heard, the nuclear winter likely stemmed from orbital weapons deployed at the end of the war. Those ruthless individuals had spread reflective material in low-Earth orbit and suborbital orbits, preventing approximately one-third of sunlight from reaching the Earth's surface. It was simply inhumane!
Due to the planet's rotation, these reflective materials will eventually gather near the equator, causing the equatorial rainforest to disappear, creating a unique frigid climate. I heard that the bigwigs above are already working on a solution, and those high-flying guys, after a few drinks, started brainstorming and came up with the self-proclaimed genius of using nuclear bombs to blow up all those things.
So it's quite possible that the surface climate will temporarily cool down, and even a few heavy snowstorms in the summer would be considered normal. Jiang Ling wasn't sensitive to temperature, but she still felt cold, so she dug out another set of woolen clothes from the closet. Fortunately, the protective suit was large enough that she could still fit into it.
She filled the vial that came with her protective suit with Green Claw, snapped the terminal into the slot on her helmet, and then put it on and tested it. She found that the terminal's screen was right under her eyelids, allowing her to see basic information with her peripheral vision. A simple tap of the side button with the tip of her nose would wake the screen, allowing her to read even in the dark. The suit didn't make it difficult to perform difficult movements. While it was a bit heavy, it wasn't a big deal for Jiang Ling's healthy body.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com