Chapter 72 Research Institute Breeding Farm
Zhou Min reacted quickly: "Brother Hei!"
He remembered that the black man could briefly control animals.
Sure enough, the wolf nodded slightly, signaling Zhou Min to hurry up and leave, as he couldn't hold out much longer.
Zhou Min hurriedly tried to run away, but someone beside him said, "Young man, take me with you!"
Zhou Min hesitated for a moment, then cut their vines. The awake man quickly woke up his companion, and the group staggered downstairs.
However, Zhou Min suddenly sensed something, and he quickly turned around, using his dagger to block the attacking vines.
The alpha wolf's eyes were completely different now; it looked like a wild beast, its gaze menacing, as if it wanted to devour them at any moment.
Zhou Min swallowed hard and glanced at the other three who were trembling.
While fighting back, Zhou Min, who had several injuries on his arms, shouted at them, "Run!"
The group remained still.
Zhou Min frowned: "Why aren't you running?"
One of them said helplessly, "We...we can't run away!"
There are still wolves blocking the stairwell, and they're fighting fiercely with Cheng Zhiyu and the others. If they go down, they'll probably be bitten to death by those wolves first.
"Damn it!" Zhou Min was covered in sweat and looked extremely disheveled. Just then, thorny bushes suddenly sprouted from the flat ground, and the plants seemed to be alive, rushing towards them.
"Damn it, whatever you do, don't get pricked, or it'll suck you dry!" said the woman among the three.
However, the next moment, the woman's arm was pierced, and her arm visibly became like a dried corpse, and the woman let out a painful scream.
His companion immediately used the knife he had just picked up from the ground to cut the thorns in half, and the woman's arm finally stopped turning into a mummified corpse.
But before they could even catch their breath, more vines began to lash out at them.
The group hurriedly fled.
Just then, dozens of small lightning bolts struck the thorns, instantly turning them charred black, leaving them unable to react for a long time.
The three men breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this; they were drenched in sweat and felt like they were about to collapse at any moment.
Zhou Min's eyes lit up when he saw the tall figure suddenly appear: "Brother Hei! Is it over downstairs?!"
He glanced downstairs; the wolves weren't all killed yet.
Zhou Min: "?"
Cheng Mo frowned: "It's not over yet. Zhiyu asked me to come up and take a look."
He awakened a new superpower: teleportation.
Although it's a newly awakened superpower that only allows for short-distance teleportation, it's enough to get upstairs.
Zhou Min didn't know how he got upstairs, but Blackie was so capable, he must have his own methods.
Moreover, as soon as Cheng Mo came up, he immediately relaxed, as if he had found a pillar of support in an instant.
Cheng Mo glanced at Zhou Min: "Useless."
Zhou Min touched his nose, feeling quite innocent, since he wasn't a combat-type ability to begin with.
The three people beside them helped each other up and came closer to them.
The alpha wolf seemed to be enraged, and its wrist-thick vines lashed out at them, kicking up dust that, combined with the dim light, momentarily blinded them.
Cheng Mo narrowed his eyes, glanced at the three people beside him, and said to Zhou Min, "Take them downstairs."
Downstairs, Cheng Zhiyu had Xiao Juan weave a cage made of vines, and all the wolves were trapped inside.
The wolves desperately tore at the vines, quickly creating a hole, but the hole was quickly repaired, and they couldn't break through the vine cage for a while.
In fact, Cheng Zhiyu could have burned all the wolves down with a single fire, but the dilapidated building was like a dangerous structure, and he was afraid that if he did that, the building would collapse.
The wolf pack was trapped, and Tian Qiao immediately fired his ice arrows into the encirclement. In no time, all the wolves were eliminated.
Tian Manman took a large knife and finished them off one by one.
Cheng Zhiyu put the wolf carcasses back into his spatial storage. Seeing Zhou Min leading three strangers downstairs, he didn't ask any questions and wanted to go upstairs to help Cheng Mo.
However, Cheng Mo's voice came from upstairs: "Leave here!"
Cheng Zhiyu's pupils constricted. He still wanted to go up, but a ball of water enveloped the group and threw them out of the villa.
Then, a loud noise came from inside the building, and Cheng Mo reverted to his beastly nature without any hesitation.
For some reason, the wolf suddenly transformed into a beast even larger than himself.
During this time, Cheng Mo's beast form grew much larger, even bigger than this wolf.
The alpha wolf hesitated for a moment, then immediately attacked.
Cheng Zhiyu was thrown out, his face pale. He stood up and tried to go inside, but before he could, the building collapsed with a loud crash.
A cloud of dust rises, and when it settles, all that remains is ruins.
Cheng Zhiyu's face turned pale: "Cheng Mo!"
He ran over without a care and started digging through the rubble with his hands.
Tian Qiao and the others rushed over to help.
The ruins shifted, and Cheng Mo emerged from beneath a mass of solid concrete.
"I'm fine." Cheng Mo looked at Cheng Zhiyu, feeling a sweet warmth in her heart, but also a deep sense of heartache.
Cheng Zhiyu immediately ran over, hugged him tightly, and said through gritted teeth, "You scared me to death!"
Cheng Mo rubbed his nose: "With my strength, how could I possibly get smashed to death?"
"You still dare to talk back!" Cheng Zhiyu was furious.
Cheng Mo coughed lightly: "I'm very dirty, I haven't had time to clean myself up yet."
Cheng Zhiyu showed no disgust and pulled him up and down to look him over. Seeing that apart from being a little dirty, he had no wounds, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
Tian Qiao and the others also gave a wry smile: "It's good that you're alright, it's good that you're alright."
Cheng Mo smiled ingratiatingly and pulled Cheng Zhiyu along, saying, "Look, I even got that pig out for you."
The pig was also thrown out with the water balloon.
Cheng Zhiyu was speechless for a moment. Cheng Mo was really...
Cheng Mo shook his hand: "Are you not angry anymore?"
Cheng Zhiyu glared at him: "Sheng! You scared me half to death."
"Then how can you stop being angry?" Cheng Mo followed Cheng Zhiyu and asked.
Cheng Zhiyu pursed his lips: "We'll talk about it when we get back."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Mo breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he didn't seem too angry.
“This is a male pig.” Zhou Min walked over and checked the pig’s gender.
Tian Qiao said disappointedly, "The boar can't have piglets, so let's just eat it."
The pig was trembling.
Cheng Zhiyu thought about it and decided to keep it for now, as it could be used as a breeding pig.
Perhaps hearing that it was going to be eaten, the pig squealed and tried to run away, but Xiao Juan tied its neck and dared not struggle anymore.
Cheng Zhiyu: "Let's take it back first."
The three people next to them quickly came over. All three of them looked to be quite old. The youngest was the woman, who looked to be in her forties, while the other two looked to be in their fifties.
"Thank you, young men," the woman said with a smile.
Cheng Zhiyu: "No need to be polite, it was just a favor. We should head back now, you should leave early too."
Seeing that they were about to leave, the woman quickly said, "Wait, where are you going? We're going to the Little River Base. Is it on your way?"
The woman spoke with a hint of embarrassment and awkwardness.
The other two men nodded hurriedly.
Cheng Zhiyu raised an eyebrow. Wasn't Xiahe Base their base?
Their village used to be called Xiahe Village, but it was later renamed Xiahe Base.
Cheng Zhiyu and the others exchanged a silent glance before asking, "What are you going to the Xiahe base for?"
The woman explained, "We're from Chaoyang Base. Xiaohe Base sent us a message saying they had obtained something of great research value, so they sent us here."
Zhou Min's eyes lit up: "You're researchers sent by Chaoyang Base! Chaoyang Base is so generous! They actually sent researchers here!"
The woman realized: "You're from the Xiahe base?"
Seeing them nod, the woman finally smiled: "That's a coincidence. Could you give us a ride?"
The two other superhumans who were with them had already been eaten by wolves. Although the three researchers were not far from the river base, there was still a risk involved, so it was better for them to go with the wolves.
He was initially too embarrassed to speak, but upon hearing that it happened to be someone from the Xiaohe base, he became much more natural in speaking.
Cheng Zhiyu smiled and said, "Of course."
After all, he was a researcher who was specially sent. He thought that it was already good enough that someone from the Chaoyang base would come and take the vial of blood for research. He had done everything he could.
Unexpectedly, they actually sent researchers over.
Cheng Zhiyu was a little worried when he sent someone to deliver the message. He thought that the people at their Xiaohe base were just a village and wouldn't take the message seriously. Little did he know that he had been wrong and had misjudged them.
However, what he didn't know was that the message he sent out was indeed ignored.
The reason three researchers were sent over was because these individuals were being ostracized at the research institute.
Don't be fooled by the fact that there are a group of scholars and experts in the research institute; it doesn't mean that all of them are oblivious to the outside world and only focused on doing research.
This research institute was temporarily established after the apocalypse, so it is naturally unlike the research institutes before the apocalypse, which had already established a set of operating procedures.
The research institute after the apocalypse was in chaos. No one respected anyone else. The educated people were arrogant and looked down on everyone else. They formed cliques and fought each other all day long, and had no mind to do research properly.
The three of them were the "honest people" in the research institute. They were not good at socializing, did not like to participate in struggles, and were not cunning or willing to take sides.
But if you don't take sides, it doesn't mean others will let you off the hook. Sometimes, when others are fighting tooth and nail, if you, as a neutral party, can't win them over, you'll become a thorn in the side of both sides.
Even if the three of them were stupid, they could sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere at the research institute. They couldn't quite describe the feeling in their hearts. It should have been a quiet place to do research, but these people only had fighting on their minds.
Their hearts are not pure, and they have not put their minds to research. Under such circumstances, when will they be able to produce research results?
In this apocalyptic world, as researchers, they are more eager to develop a vaccine that will benefit humanity than to compete for these things.
The three of them worked diligently, and perhaps because others couldn't find fault with them, they lived a relatively peaceful life.
Until the base authorities received a message from Xiaohe Base, the authorities were planning to send people to collect Xiaohe Base's belongings.
They didn't know the specifics. When Cheng Zhiyu sent the message, he didn't ask it to be blood, for fear of bringing bad luck to Xiaolu.
He thought that even if the blood was given over there, they wouldn't say where the blood came from.
In any case, when the news reached the research institute, it didn't cause much of a stir.
"Xiaohe Base? Never heard of it. What kind of base is it?"
"I heard it's a village, or to put it nicely, a base."
"Tch, what research value could a village possibly have? Are you trying to piggyback on our base by saying that on purpose?"
The self-important researcher chatted casually, saying things he didn't care about.
"Those idiots in the government actually took it to heart. We can't just leave without saying anything, can we?"
“…Send a few people over there.”
Who should we send?
Unsurprisingly, the three researchers who were completely uninvolved in the struggle and focused on their research were pushed forward.
The three of them couldn't say they weren't angry, but they didn't refuse either—in fact, even if they had refused, it wouldn't have made a difference.
However, they do have ideas about going to the Xiaohe base. The research institute at the Chaoyang base has completely fallen into disrepair. Unless the authorities take control, they won't be able to do any serious research and won't be able to produce any results.
The three of them were not good at socializing, and they had to deal with people from all sides every day, which made them physically and mentally exhausted.
Therefore, they prefer Xiaohe Base to Chaoyang Base. In any case, since they specifically sent a message over there, they must be quite concerned about the research, right?
And so they set off from Chaoyang Base to Xiaohe Base. Of the three of them, two were ordinary people and the other only had a level one water-based ability. If they were left to go on their own, they certainly wouldn't be able to reach Xiaohe Base safely.
Fortunately, the Chaoyang Base assigned them two powerful superhumans, and they made it through without any major incidents. However, they were ultimately defeated by wolves.
They thought they were going to die there, but they were lucky enough to run into Cheng Zhiyu and his group.
“We also brought some small equipment and hid it somewhere. Let’s look for it,” the woman said.
These devices were actually outdated and looked down upon by some research institutes. They thought it was better to give them to the three people so they could report it to the base authorities and have the superhumans go out and find them better equipment.
However, even if the equipment is somewhat outdated, it's better than nothing; at least it's somewhat useful.
Before entering the dilapidated villa, they had hidden their car as a precaution, but now they had found it again and drove over.
They didn't ride in Cheng Zhiyu's car on the way back, but instead drove the car that had brought them. To protect them, Cheng Zhiyu and Cheng Mo rode in their car.
Cheng Zhiyu's space contained food that his mother had prepared before their arrival, which she specially placed there for them so they could take it out and eat whenever they were hungry.
Seeing how thin and bony they were, they must have been starving, since they had been tied up by wolves and hadn't eaten anything.
Cheng Zhiyu then took out the food he had prepared from his spatial storage and handed it to them to eat.
The woman swallowed, feeling a little embarrassed, but she was indeed hungry. After thanking him, she accepted the gift.
Seeing this, the other two men did not refuse.
I can't resist it at all, it smells so good!
After the meal, the three of them became much more friendly, and through the woman's introduction, Cheng Zhiyu learned their names.
The woman's name was Chi Hongyi, and the other two men were Feng Wentao, the younger one, and Chu Mingda, the older one.
Cheng Zhiyu also mentioned his and Cheng Mo's names.
They were driving, and the pig, encircled by Cheng Mo with a water balloon, followed behind the car.
Chi Hongyi watched in amazement. She was the only one among the three with water-based abilities, but her abilities were too weak. She could only fill one cup with water, and there was no more than that.
Seeing Cheng Mo use his superpower in this way, he couldn't help but marvel: "I never thought that water-based superpowers could be used like this! That Mr. Cheng really has ingenious ideas."
Cheng Zhiyu was in a good mood after hearing this. The praise was for Cheng Mo, but he felt honored as well. Cheng Mo was indeed very capable.
The group returned to the base in a large group. The base guards smiled when they saw the big, fat pig encircled by a water balloon; they hadn't seen such a cute domestic pig in a long time.
In this apocalyptic world, many animals have mutated, making it quite difficult to encounter ordinary animals that haven't mutated. After all, without mutation, it would be very difficult to survive.
Cheng Zhiyu took the group to Lin Kang's place, then led Cheng Mo to the pigsty and put the pigs in.
The alfalfa was basically ready to eat, so we had someone cut some alfalfa and fed it to the pig. We were worried that it might not be used to the environment and wouldn't eat since it was new there, but to our surprise, the pig wasn't shy at all and had a very strong mentality. It started eating the alfalfa right away.
"Some people also caught some chickens, ducks, and rabbits," said the person in charge of the breeding.
Those in charge of raising animals are mostly ordinary people. Raising animals is something that ordinary people can do. Letting ordinary people do it not only provides them with an income-generating job, but also saves the lives of people with superpowers, since there aren't many people with superpowers in the base.
"Those chickens, ducks, and rabbits, although they haven't mutated, look much bigger to me than before the apocalypse." As an ordinary person, the breeder hadn't left the base much since it was established, so he found these animals quite strange.
Cheng Zhiyu had noticed this before. It wasn't that the alien beasts were different from those before the apocalypse. Other animals were different too, but they weren't awakening superpowers. They were just growing bigger and becoming tougher, making them more adaptable to the apocalyptic environment.
Cheng Zhiyu and Cheng Mo went to take a look and, sure enough, saw larger chickens and big ducks.
It looks much bigger than before the apocalypse, about twice the size of a chicken from before the apocalypse.
“These chickens and ducks look delicious to me. People used to love eating free-range chickens. Look at them, they used to live outside the base and they looked so strong.” The breeder is also a passionate breeder, and he couldn’t hide his smile when he saw these chickens and ducks.
The eggs laid by these chickens and ducks are naturally much larger than ordinary eggs. When they are fertilized, they hatch into chicks, and there will be more and more chickens and ducks in the future. Just thinking about it makes me happy.
I went to check on the rabbits again. They had been caught and were already digging burrows.
Rabbits are much cuter than chickens and ducks. Everyone says rabbits are timid, but these are unusually bold. One even jumped to Cheng Zhiyu's feet and tried to bite him with its two big front teeth, attempting to drive this human out of its new territory.
"Although this rabbit doesn't have any special abilities, we have to be very careful when feeding it. It's very fierce! It will bite you if it doesn't agree. A breeder was bitten before and was bleeding profusely." The breeder quickly reminded Cheng Zhiyu to be careful and not to let his guard down just because it's a rabbit.
Even before the apocalypse, rabbits had formidable teeth. However, rabbits before the apocalypse were timid and would rarely attack humans unless provoked.
As a result, the rabbits after the apocalypse were no longer timid; perhaps their incisors had become more powerful?
According to the superhumans who caught the rabbits, they were able to encounter the rabbits because a snake was trying to catch and eat them, but the rabbits discovered it.
The rabbits went up and bit the snake, not even afraid that the snake was poisonous. In the end, the snake was killed by the rabbits.
The rabbits reacted quickly and weren't bitten by the snake's fangs. This litter of rabbits won the "battle" and ignored the snake that had been bitten to death, happily going to find grass to eat.
The superhumans seized the opportunity to capture them, but it wasn't easy; this group of rabbits was quite fierce, and it took a lot of effort.
After Cheng Zhiyu heard this, he moved his foot away. The rabbit thought he was scared by his big front teeth and was smug, wanting to continue chasing and biting him.
The next second, he was grabbed by the back of the neck and lifted up.
Besides their incisors, rabbits have another powerful weapon: their hind legs.
Those hind legs were full of muscles and incredibly powerful. It bent its legs and kicked hard at Cheng Mo, who was grabbing it.
Unfortunately, while the force was indeed great for ordinary people, it felt like a tickle to Cheng Mo.
Cheng Mo, carrying the rabbit, said, "This rabbit seems to love exercise, so its meat must be delicious. Zhiyu, can I have spicy rabbit meat?"
"Oh dear, please don't." The breeder kept his distance from them, not daring to approach. Since Cheng Mo had caught that rabbit, the remaining rabbits were not afraid and ran over to "take revenge." As an ordinary person, he couldn't withstand being bitten and kicked, so he had to stay away.
The breeder said, "This rabbit is pregnant! Oh no! Let's release it right away."
The breeder was heartbroken. Although the rabbit was a bit fierce, rabbits can reproduce, giving birth to several litters a year. Their reproduction rate is very fast, and all of them are meat!
The farmer swallowed hard as he spoke.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Zhiyu quickly told Cheng Mo to release the rabbit: "She's pregnant, you should be more considerate."
Cheng Mo had no choice but to throw the rabbit away.
It turned out that the rabbit really held a grudge; instead of running away, it bit Cheng Mo's leg.
Cheng Zhiyu quickly picked up the rabbit and threw it far away, then squatted down worriedly to check on Cheng Mo's condition.
Cheng Mo: "Ouch...that hurts."
"Let me see, lest you bite and draw blood." Cheng Zhiyu quickly pulled up his trouser leg to check, but after looking for a long time, there wasn't a single tooth mark left, let alone any blood.
If that had happened to an ordinary person, they would have bled at least a bit.
Cheng Zhiyu angrily pulled down his trouser leg, and seeing Cheng Mo still gasping for breath, he said irritably, "Stop pretending, you didn't even leave a mark!"
Cheng Mo frowned: "It's my fault for being too physically strong." He had originally wanted Zhi Yu to feel sorry for him.
The breeder was shocked: "My God, one of the rabbit's teeth has been chipped off."
Perhaps it was in pain, because it became much more docile. Even when the breeder examined its teeth, it didn't bite anyone.
The breeder took the opportunity to stroke the rabbit's fur. No matter what, the rabbit is very cute.
Having seen enough, Cheng Zhiyu and Cheng Mo left.
Cheng Zhiyu: "How dare you! Do you know how dangerous it was today?"
Cheng Mo was scolded, but he was in a good mood, feeling that Cheng Zhiyu was worried about him: "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't have complete faith in you."
"You were terrified, weren't you?" Cheng Mo said this with a rather beautiful expression.
Cheng Zhiyu pinched him angrily: "Be serious!"
Cheng Mo felt very innocent: "I'm being very serious."
Cheng Zhiyu said seriously, "You're not allowed to do that again, understand?"
God knows, when he saw the villa collapse, his heart felt like it was being clenched, he forgot to breathe, his mind went blank, and he couldn't calm down at all.
He didn't want to experience that feeling again.
Cheng Mo grabbed Cheng Zhiyu's hand and frowned: "When did you get a cut on your hand?"
It was a very shallow wound, not even bleeding, which Cheng Zhiyu hadn't noticed before.
Cheng Mo frowned deeply: "I won't do that again."
Zhiyu was so frightened by him that she tried to dig through the rubble with her hands, which is how she cut her hand.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com