“Hohoho, hohoho~” (Comfortable, comfortable, left click, right click, right click, that’s right, hohoho~)
"Ahhh~" (Being irritable is so satisfying. Some people also offer brushing and massages, but they're a bit pricey. Every time I take a bath, I have to spend 600 points. That's at least two days of points I can accumulate. Oh! It feels so good. Please give me a massage here~ Ahhh~)
"Hahaha~" (After deducting the cost of food and so on, saving enough points for a bath in two days is pretty good. Haha~ Who made you so big while these humans are so small? But I heard bathing is much cheaper in the summer. In the winter, you have to boil water. Haha~ So comfortable, so comfortable. Let me rub my tail too. Mmm~ So refreshing.)
Xia Runrun had been sitting in the office every day lately, dealing with all sorts of matters big and small within the base city. She felt like all the bones in her body were about to mold, so she immediately strolled out of the office with Egg Yolk.
Dahei has been training the other dogs' strength and power recently, so he can't be by his side all the time. 666 has been sent to learn the "small animal language" from Xiaolu. As for Xiaobai, as an adult man who has wanted to integrate into society since he was a child, it is naturally impossible for him to sleep all day to avoid work. Instead, he joined the construction team and went out to work.
Only the big orange cat, Egg Yolk, has no worries about food and drink every day. He lives a carefree life and follows Xia Runrun wherever she goes.
The big orange cat was wagging its tail, looking particularly leisurely and happy.
"It seems that the lions are very satisfied with the work methods of the cleaning team." Xia Runrun listened to the lions bathing in the oversized bathtub next to her and nodded with a smile.
In order to make the survivors and mutant beasts truly integrate into each other's lives, Xia Ruanruan worried about it for a long time.
The survivors were fine; points were just like currency to them. But for the mutants, this was their first time using points.
They used to have their own living habits. They could just hunt in the wild to eat. If they wanted to take a bath, they would just jump into the river and swim, or lick their fur. What are points? Can they be eaten?
Therefore, in order to make the mutant beasts integrate well, Xia Ruanruan took several days to teach them how to use the points, and let the mutant beasts join the school, patrol team, construction team, etc. to help work and earn points tickets, and then let the mutant beasts use other methods to spend the points tickets, and put them into the pockets of the survivors, and so on.
At first, the mutant beasts were not used to this practice, but for the sake of their dream cubs and to make their cubs happy, they still tried hard to adapt to this lifestyle. But when they ate the delicious food cooked by the chef, took a bath brought by the human bath attendants, and had a room that was cleaned without them having to clean it, they realized that the mutant beasts were not as good as they thought.
All of these mutant beasts immediately became very fragrant.
It was at this time that Ruanruan realized that the mutated animals were not only similar in intelligence to humans, but also in taste and physicality. It wasn't that the mutated animals could directly transform into orcs like in the cartoons, but their tastes in food had become very similar to those of the survivors. Although the food was generally slightly lighter, the difference was huge compared to before the outbreak.
For example, the White Wolf King loves to eat honey the most. Not only does he eat it with relish every time, he even uses his points to secretly buy honey from Hu Lifeng.
At that time, Xia Ruanruan was even worried that these little guys would have health problems.
However, after observing them for a long time and even carefully questioning Dr. Zeng, Dr. He, and several other newly recruited veterinarians, the doctor discovered that these little guys not only did not feel any discomfort, but were still lively and happy every day. They also found that their tolerance in this area was rapidly increasing, and they seemed to be getting closer to humans.
To the extent that Xia Ruanruan sometimes suspected that the reason why humans changed the least among these animals after the virus outbreak was probably because humans' potential had been stimulated many times in the past tens of thousands of years. Although the virus was powerful, it could not transform humans into super giants like it did other small animals.
Xia Ruanruan looked at the lions in the tub, each humming and humming with their eyes closed, and planned to go around to see what was happening with the other work groups. However, before she even left the area, her ears moved subconsciously, and her eyes involuntarily glanced at the women scrubbing the lions.
One of them, while scrubbing vigorously and pulling at the long hair on the lion's back, said to his teammate next to him, "Ouch, my arms are giving out. This is such a big lion, it's really tiring... I want to take a day off tomorrow! Captain, is this okay?"
"It's better not to rest tomorrow. I saw another order to bathe the wild boars hanging in the task hall. If you rest tomorrow and she rests the day after tomorrow, I'm afraid the orders in the task hall will pile up more and more, and then we will be the ones who are busy." The short-haired young woman rubbed the lion's back vigorously while wiping the sweat from her forehead.
Even though scrubbing baths made a lot of money, after deducting costs and fees paid to the task hall, the average person could earn 50 points every morning. However, this was physically demanding work, requiring four hours of work in the morning and a restful rest in the afternoon. In just under two weeks, the short-haired woman felt her arms and legs had grown two full circles thicker.
After all, a lion that is six or seven meters tall is no joke. If you don't wash the lion gently, it won't be clean. If you don't boil hot water for the lion, the lion will catch a cold. Or the lion may feel that the water is too cold and won't want to take a bath at all and won't come to consume.
In short, don’t think it’s just a bath. They not only have to chop wood and boil water, but also have to serve several lions, blowing their fur and massaging them.
"Oh no! Old Liu, I think you'd better not take a rest tomorrow. These 50 points are enough to cover our family's expenses for several days. You have a half-grown boy at home, don't you want to buy him some delicious food? I heard that the survivors' school will start in a few days, and you will have to send your son to school then, right? You will need points for tuition, right? Don't let a virus come and turn everyone from civilized society back to primitive society, unable to read a single word." Another woman who was rubbing the lion's tail nearby laughed while rubbing it hard.
Although she was talking and laughing, the woman was actually sweating all over. In addition, the bath water in the bucket hit her body from time to time, making her look really embarrassed, as if she had been fished out of the water.
"Tsk! You guys still have the energy to gossip here, I've already scrubbed this lion's leg clean."
A middle-aged woman who had washed the lion's leg wiped the sweat from her forehead, rubbed her aching waist, and said with a smile, "50 points is a lot. We only get three or four points per meal on a normal day. Even if we want to eat something better, with meat, it's only six points per meal, and it also includes oil and salt. It's not as good as before the virus outbreak, but it's much better than what we had in other shelters before. If this bath scrubbing job had been in the shelter before, it would have been a lucrative job that others would fight over. And you're still thinking about taking a break!"
"I know it's a good job, but I'm tired!"
The woman called Lao Liu took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Before, not only could we not have oil and salt for every meal, even eating fine vermicelli was out of the question. Those mutant sweet potatoes and kudzu roots were so rough that I almost suffocated. My throat hurts every time I eat. But you're right, my boy really should go to school. Now that he has enough food and drink, and he doesn't need to go out and dig for roots and wild vegetables, he has to go to school!"
"The daughter of our neighbor, Old Chen, used to have a master's degree in physics. When the virus broke out, everyone thought Old Chen had only that skinny daughter. If anything happened to Old Chen, his daughter and his wife would be dead. But now, she's in our Zootopia Survival Base. They've let her work in the research institute. Every day, she's either tinkering with machinery or delving into high-tech gadgets. Not only is the work easy, but she doesn't have to worry or be afraid every day. The salary is also high, earning 100 points a day!"
"Although these lions and wild boars don't look like they'll bite people, I'm still a little scared every time I bathe them, fearing they might turn around and bite me if I'm not paying attention or have a conditioned reflex."
"So it's better to study! We have to send our kid to school no matter what!"
"It's just that this job is too tiring. If more people came, I would rather earn 30 or 40 points a day and take it easy."
"You're right. I'd rather earn fewer points and take it easy. I'm old and my back isn't good. I rub them for so long every day that my fingers are all white when I get home."
"But our base city is definitely the safest and best place in all of Star-Moon City, so stop complaining here one by one. Once our Animal City Survival Base becomes famous, survivors from other places will come here. We might even have to snatch work from everywhere. We should save up some points now!"
As the women chatted with each other, Xia Runrun couldn't help but blink slightly.
Looking at the sweaty survivors scrubbing the big lions' backs, and then looking at the lions lying in the oversized bathtub, Xia Runrun nodded. Indeed, there were still too few survivors in their shelter.
Over the past month, as the reputation of the Zootopia Survival Base spread in the surrounding area, more and more survivors came to join the base voluntarily.
Even so, there were still less than 3,000 human survivors in the entire base city, and the remaining 20,000 or so were all mutant beasts. Even though most of these mutant beasts were small, such as birds, mice, rabbits, pheasants, etc., the human survivors were still busy every day and worked hard all day.
"Spring sowing hasn't started yet. We'll need more people for spring sowing, house and road reconstruction, etc.... Or maybe there are too few people..." Xia Runrun frowned. She didn't need Dan Yolk to carry her around the school. She walked step by step on the streets of the base city, watching the survivors who were busy clearing the collapsed houses, and watching the people who needed to clear and dig out all the mutated plants on the main roads.
Xia Runrun slapped her forehead and suddenly thought of a good idea.
As the old saying goes, if the mountain doesn't come to me, I will be the mountain!
Since she wanted the survivors from other shelters in Xingyue City to come here, she couldn't just wait at home silently, she needed to take the initiative to go and find them!
The base certainly couldn't spare enough manpower to knock on doors one by one. Even many survivors in the shelter wouldn't necessarily believe someone who took the initiative to knock on their door. But she could put out a lot of advertising! Let 666 and the others bring mutant sparrows, mutant crows, and other advertising papers and drop them directly from high altitude in the city. It would definitely attract the attention of many survivors.
"There are at least several million survivors in the entire Xingyue City. If only one percent of them believed and were willing to come to the base, it would immediately alleviate the city's manpower shortage!"
As for the comprehensive score of the base city... deduct it if you want!
"At worst, after they arrive, I'll have a few good speakers take them along, talk to them, and give them a few hot meals. These people will definitely be willing to stay in the base sincerely!"
It’s just that the advertising paper is a bit difficult to deal with.
Xia Runrun scratched her head. It seemed that she would have to ask someone to go to the paper mill to see if the production machinery could still be used. Fortunately, there was a newly built research institute. As long as the damage was not too serious, the researchers there would be able to fix it for her.
Xia Runrun blushed a little. Although it was called a research institute, she actually felt that it was more like a large repair factory and equipment assembly team.
So this afternoon.
Huang Haichao, who had just returned from outside, received a new task - a one-day tour of the paper mill, and brought back all the machinery that could still be used in the paper mill.
If many of the survivors in the base had not studied physics and mechanical design, that broken papermaking machine might not have been repaired.
…
So a week later.
A group of survivors, carefully picking and digging in the jungle for edible plants, suddenly saw pieces of paper falling from the sky. The slightly yellowed paper seemed a little rough, but printed on it were several clear characters:
【Welcome to the Zootopia Survival Base! 】
Below these large characters are lines of small characters printed. The fonts are clear and powerful. Everyone can recognize each character separately, but when put together, they give people a psychedelic feeling.
The Animal City Survival Base is located in the former Xingyue City University campus and the surrounding areas of the Chenyue Mountain National Key Scenic Area! We are the safest survival base in Xingyue City! We welcome every sincere survivor to join us!
As long as you're willing to contribute to the Zootopia Survival Base, we sincerely welcome you! Survivors interested in joining the Zootopia Survival Base can take this flyer and visit directly. Someone will greet you at the base!
"Brother, do you think the person on this flyer is a liar? When did our Xingyue City have a survival base?" A dark and thin young girl picked up the flyer on the ground and pointed at the address on it, her fingers trembling slightly.
Even if you have never eaten pork, you have seen pigs run.
They had heard before that in order to enter a survival base, one had to pay a large amount of supplies. However, this Animal City Survival Base not only did not say that supplies needed to be paid, it even put up a welcome banner. This was simply unbelievable!
"have no idea……"
The tall, thin man carefully folded the flyer and put it in his chest pocket. "I think this is a bit strange, but it won't hurt to go and take a look. After we get home today, let's talk to our parents and see if we should go and take a look."
Although the words on this leaflet are really confusing.
But if you think about it, if they're willing to spend a fortune on advertising all over the city, they must have some confidence, right? To put it nicely, these people are called survivors, but to put it bluntly, they're no different from beggars. Before the virus outbreak, beggars might even have meat every day, but now they can't even get meat every month. Their clothes are patched up, and even the flesh from their thighs and arms is only a few pounds. They are extremely poor.
It would be useless even if these people tricked them into going to the university town, so it would be better for them to go and take a look.
"That's right. We're all in Xingyue City anyway. It only takes a day at most to walk from our shelter to the university town and back. It won't hurt us to go and take a look." The young girl nodded, agreeing with her brother.
At the same time, there were many other survivors who shared the same idea as the girl and her brother. Most of these survivors were not doing well in their respective shelters. Since they were not doing well, they had no worries. As the saying goes, the barefoot are not afraid of the shod. After all, they were in this situation now, so they were not afraid of others who wanted to take advantage of them.
"But did you just see how these ads fell from the sky?"
"Why do I see a few mutant birds flying overhead, and then the advertising papers just fall from the sky?"
"It looks like a mutant bird, but it flew pretty fast. I was so focused on the ad that I didn't really look at it closely."
A group of survivors chattered, each expressing their own thoughts, but they collected all the seven or eight advertising papers scattered around, carefully folded them and put them in their pockets to prevent them from being lost.
…
In the western district of Xingyue City, a team of seven is currently hunting two mutant bullfrogs. Among the team is a mutant corgi that is about the same size as an adult tiger before the virus outbreak.
Before the outbreak of the mutant bullfrog virus, the large mutants weighed more than a kilogram. Now, after the outbreak of the virus, the bullfrogs have mutated to the size of a turkey, and it is no problem for them to jump three or four meters high.
As winter is coming to an end and spring is about to begin, the bullfrogs that were originally hibernating are waking up one by one.
The seven-member team and the Corgi stared closely at the front, wanting to catch the two big bullfrogs on the opposite side in one fell swoop.
"Latiao! Let's go!"
With a low growl, the man leading the team of seven instantly led his teammates to rush to the left, while the mutant Corgi rushed directly to the right. Both sides had the same speed but aimed at different targets at the same time. This level of tacit understanding must have been honed through hard work!
"Woof woof woof! —Roar!"
"Catch it! Cut off his head!"
The mutant dogs barked and the leading man roared, and two big bullfrogs as big as turkeys were instantly dealt with by both sides. The speed was really fast!
"Phew! We're lucky today. Let's have a snack when we get back!" The leading man looked up and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Compared to the running and fighting during the hunt just now, he felt that waiting and crawling close to the prey was more tense.
"Our Latiao's nose is really powerful. He can find prey with just a sniff! If it weren't for Latiao, we don't know how long we would have been wandering around today! Brother Chen, Latiao is this!" A young man next to him immediately raised two thumbs up to the leading man and the mutant Corgi, smiling with a mouthful of white teeth.
"You're supposed to be blowing my own trumpet here? You always do this after every hunt. Gangzi, aren't you corny? If you weren't, I'd get goosebumps."
A heroic young woman wiped the bullfrog blood off her knife and said, "Let's pack up and leave. It would be bad if the smell of blood attracts other mutants or ferocious beasts."
"Okay! I'll take care of it right away, hehe!" The young man didn't care about being lectured. He smiled and took out a large plastic bag from the backpack behind him. He directly cut the bullfrog into several pieces and stuffed them into the bag. He even didn't give up the internal organs of the two big bullfrogs and carefully collected and packed them away.
Don't be fooled by the internal organs of these bullfrogs. No one ate them before the virus broke out, but it's different now. Although the taste is not very good, it is still meat after all. In addition, these bullfrogs are fat and more or less oily. Although no one in their team eats them, there are still many people in the shelter who like them very much.
Therefore, every time after hunting these mutant animals, their team would take the animal's internal organs back and give them to the elderly and children in the shelter.
“Woo woo woo! Woof!——”
Suddenly! At this moment, the Corgi, which had just been lying quietly, suddenly became alert, staring at the sky with its eyes, and whimpered a warning sound from its throat.
Chen Ge's seven-member team instantly became alert, each holding their weapons and instantly hiding in the nearby grass. The tall mutant weeds tightly concealed their figures.
However, the mutated oriole that could see Brother Chen and his group from a distance was not affected by the weeds blocking its view. It seemed not to hear the Corgi's threatening growl, nor did it see Brother Chen's vigilant hiding look. It simply let go of the three pieces of advertising paper in its mouth, letting them flutter down. The whole bird quickly turned into a yellow golden light and quickly disappeared in front of the seven people and the dog.
Corgi: "Woo...Woof?"
Brother Chen: “???”
Others: “……?”
"Hey! That mutant bird just rushed towards us aggressively. I thought it was going to fight with us, but it just dropped the thing and ran away. Let me see what this is?" Gangzi is a lively man. He walked to the front almost at the first moment and picked up the advertising paper that fell on the grass in a few seconds.
They had seen the paper dropped from the sky by the yellow mutant bird before, but the seven people didn't think too much about it at first. They just thought it was fun to have a mutant bird holding a piece of paper. They had never seen a mutant bird that liked to play with paper before.
But as soon as Gangzi picked up the advertising paper, his face looked a little strange.
He subconsciously whispered to his companions, "Brother Chen, Second Brother, come and take a look! Come and see what's written on this piece of paper! Animal City Survival Base? We actually have a survival base in Xingyue City? And it's in University Town?"
"Huh? What did you say?! Let me see it!"
For the survivors who can only live in small private shelters after the virus outbreak, the four words "survival base" are like an eternal utopia. It is a good place that every survivor wants to live in!
When the seven people present heard the words "Survival Base", they almost rushed towards Gangzi at the same time. Brother Chen was even more quick-witted and jumped up to grab another advertising leaflet hanging on the grass.
——【Welcome to the Zootopia Survival Base! 】
——[We have the safest survival base in Xingyue City! We welcome every sincere survivor to join our base! ...]
"What do you think? Should we go there and take a look?" Brother Chen's voice was a little dry, and his eyes were fixed on the advertising paper in his hand without blinking.
For some reason, he subconsciously thought of the little girl who was treated as a guest of honor by a group of stray dogs.
"Let's go and take a look...it won't hurt if we take a look...right, isn't it, Brother Chen?"
Seeing that utopia is right next to you, everyone wants to go and see it no matter what.
The remaining people looked at Brother Chen with anticipation.
"Okay! Let's go check it out tomorrow morning!" Finding food was not a difficult task for them anyway, and there was still food stored in the shelter. Brother Chen made up his mind, moved his dry throat, and nodded vigorously.
At the same time, there were many others who had the same idea as Brother Chen and his seven companions and the young brother and sister.
The moment these people received the advertisement that fell from the sky, they couldn't help but feel excited.
Even though some people believe it, some doubt it, and some even curse it as a trap.
But it was only early the next morning.
The entire Animal City Survival Base became lively!
Many unfamiliar survivors appeared outside the base. Some tried to get closer, but were afraid of the mutant beasts within. Others held flyers, trembling with fear, yet walked with unwavering determination. Fortunately, early in the morning, people were waiting at key intersections to greet them. Although there was a bit of a rush, they were finally on track.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
