Chapter 1
"How is it, Dashan? Can the car still be repaired?" Ye Qingyun asked anxiously, looking at the setting sun.
In a few hours, it will be dark.
Traveling at night after a major disaster is a life-threatening situation.
Three years ago, Earth underwent drastic changes due to a sudden meteorite attack.
First, plants and animals began to mutate, not only becoming gigantic, but also evolving in many unknown directions.
Humans have gone from the top of the food chain to the bottom.
The meteorite caused global radiation, rendering most food inedible and posing various dangers.
Survival became a major problem.
Especially at night, the mutated plants and animals become more active.
Jiang Shan stepped out from under the car.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and said to his anxious wife, "We can barely patch up the damaged parts of the chassis, but..."
Before Jiang Shan could speak, Jiang Zhi and Jiang Shu, who were standing guard not far away, came over upon hearing this.
Jiang Zhi said with a serious expression, "Dad, we can't wait any longer. My older brother and I just saw wild boar droppings in several places nearby, and they looked fresh."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shan's expression darkened.
He rushed to the place Jiang Zhi had mentioned and checked it for a moment; his expression turned even more grim.
The largest droppings were 34 centimeters wide, and based on their survival experience over the past few years, the wild boar that passed by must have weighed at least a ton.
If they were to encounter such a situation, even a family of four wouldn't be enough to deliver the vegetables.
Jiangzhi's heart sank when she saw that her father looked unwell but did not intend to leave immediately.
"Dad, is the gas out?"
Jiang Shan knew that his youngest daughter was smart from a young age, and he knew that this kind of thing couldn't be hidden, so he simply stopped hiding it: "The stuff we stockpiled before has been almost used up on the way."
The fuel tank ruptured this time, and the last bit of fuel leaked out.
But they are still 60 or 70 kilometers away from the base. It's impossible for them to reach the Ancheng base area before nightfall on foot.
Jiang Zhi said, "I heard that the base sends people to patrol around the base from time to time..."
Jiang Shan knew what his daughter wanted to say, and shook his head at her before she could finish: "We can't afford to gamble."
There's no village or shop in sight; the surrounding area is so desolate that no one would ever pass by. Even if the base's guards patrolled, they might not encounter them.
The reason they have been able to survive in this mutated world for so long is because they are cautious and do not gamble on low-probability events.
Ye Qingyun, standing to the side, appeared very calm. She looked at Jiang Shan and said, "Dashan, you are the head of the family. You make the decision."
Jiang Shan looked at his eldest son, Jiang Shu, then at his daughter, Jiang Zhi, and finally took a deep breath and made up his mind: "Let's abandon the car. If we walk fast enough, we can still give it a shot once we reach the base area."
According to the information they received.
It is said that the base is the core, and the areas cleared by the base personnel are distributed radially. Once inside the base's restricted area, with their capabilities, they can fight even at night.
Although they knew this would be the outcome, they still fell silent when Jiang Shan actually said it.
A moment later, Jiang Shu ruffled his hair and sighed in the heavy atmosphere, "Can you guys stop being so serious? People who don't know better will think we're doomed. We'll just get another one when we get to the base."
Ye Qingyun slapped him across the face, "You spendthrift! Do you even know how much this car is worth if we bring it to the base?"
Jiang Shu retorted, "At worst, I can just come back tomorrow to get it! I refuse to believe that it will be taken over by a mutated animal in one night!"
In today's world, anything left outdoors overnight will either be swarmed by mutated plants, taken over by mutated animals, or even parasitized by parasites the next day.
Those that are retrieved intact are all due to luck.
Jiang Zhi quickly comforted her, "Mom, my brother is right. Maybe the base has some disinfection methods. We can ask someone to bring them back."
Upon hearing this, Ye Qingyun's pained expression softened somewhat. "That's the only way."
She knew her husband had the same idea; otherwise, he wouldn't have wasted precious time fixing it.
Just before the disaster struck, the family of four happened to be on a road trip to a tourist attraction in central Taiwan.
During a rest stop along the way, Jiang Shan was worried about not being able to find a gas station in Tibet, so he bought a few small cans of oil nearby.
Over the past few years, they have relied on this off-road vehicle to go out and find food, and to escape countless crises.
It's fair to say that this off-road vehicle has become their partner; it would be impossible for them to give it up without feeling anything.
Jiang Shu looked at his mother with resentment: "Mom, you treat me differently. You speak softly to Azhi, but you order me around like a madman!"
Ye Qingyun laughed in exasperation. She snorted, "If you were as easy to deal with as Azhi, I could speak softly to you too."
Jiang Shu imagined the scene and shuddered.
"Forget it, Mom, you're even scarier when you're being gentle..."
Having made their decision, the family of four stopped hesitating, packed their bags from the car, and headed towards the base.
If the flora and fauna around the scenic area hadn't become increasingly dangerous due to mutations, the family probably wouldn't have made the decision to leave and head to the nearby base.
The road was covered with wild grass, its leaves broad and thick, swaying in the approaching night wind and making a whooshing sound from time to time.
The trees soar into the clouds, their massive trunks requiring dozens of people to encircle them, their branches and leaves forming a green canopy that blocks out the sun, their height even surpassing that of the former skyscrapers.
The tree roots, like giant pythons, coiled on the earth, arching the land into undulating mounds.
Over the past three years, they haven't accumulated much in terms of supplies. Apart from their off-road vehicle, the only valuable thing they have is their three years of survival experience living in the wilderness.
If it weren't for the increasingly uncontrollable mutated creatures in the wild, they wouldn't have considered moving to the base.
The family of four carefully avoided one dangerous area after another. After an unknown amount of time, they finally arrived at the territory of Ancheng Base before nightfall.
Even through layers of towering trees, the city wall, hundreds of meters high, can still be seen. From a distance, it looks like a giant standing tall. The thick wall is at least 5 meters high, made of huge gray stones, and is extremely sturdy, like a solid fortress hidden in the hazy gray mist.
The group stared in awe at the base's walls, speechless for a long time.
Jiang Shu couldn't take it anymore and plopped down on the ground. "Oh my god, I finally saw a shadow before dark."
Jiang Shan slapped him on the back of the head. "Get up right now. Don't think you can let your guard down just because you're on base grounds."
Jiang Shu covered his head and muttered, "We're on the main road now, isn't there any danger?"
They had heard on the radio that Ancheng Base had cleared an area within a 30-kilometer radius, and now that they saw it, it was even more shocking than they had imagined.
Extending outwards from the city wall, the tallest wild grass in the vicinity only reaches the calves, offering a wide view. In the distance, there are several gravel roads, each seven or eight meters wide, leading in all directions to the city gates of the base.
Jiang Shan frowned at his son: "Have you forgotten how your Uncle Qiao and the others died?"
Uncle Qiao, whom Jiang Shan mentioned, used to live with them, but later lost his life due to carelessness. In the wild, you can never be too careful, especially after nightfall.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu pouted and looked at his younger sister Jiang Zhi with his phoenix eyes, hoping she would say a few words so he could rest for a while.
There was no other way; the family of four hadn't had a proper rest for three days and three nights in their journey. They had been on edge in the wilderness, but now that they had entered the base area and were seeing the familiar human roads for the first time in a long time, Jiang Shu's tension eased, and all he wanted to do was rest.
Jiang Zhi didn't receive his gaze; her attention was focused on the low hills not far away.
The mental terrain dashboard showed a red warning dot below the hills not far away.
Red means it will attack!
Ye Qingyun noticed her unusual behavior and immediately became nervous. "Azhi, what's wrong? Is something the matter?"
Jiang Zhi nodded. Ye Qingyun wanted to ask more, but then he saw his daughter swiftly draw the dagger from her waist, rush down the hill, and stab at the suddenly appearing pig-sized rabbit with sharp teeth.
Jiang Shan had already prepared when Ye Qingyun spoke. As soon as his daughter rushed over, he ran over with her and delivered a powerful blow to the leaping fanged rabbit.
The red-eyed, sharp-toothed rabbit squeaked as it was swept to the ground by the stick. Before the rabbit could react, Jiang Shu, without thinking, used the shovel in his hand to forcefully shovel down on the rabbit's neck.
Jiang Shu used great force, and the shovel almost pierced through the fanged rabbit's neck.
After a brief "squeak," the fanged rabbit fell completely silent.
The three worked together flawlessly, giving Fang Rabbit almost no time to retaliate.
This is the tacit understanding they've cultivated over the years.
Once they were certain that Sharp-toothed Rabbit was truly dead, the three of them relaxed and exchanged glances, each seeing a hint of lingering fear in the other's eyes.
The fanged rabbit gets its name from a mutation that made its fangs extremely sharp and pointed, giving it an astonishingly fast jumping speed. A moment's inattention could be fatal.
Even a single bite from the mutated beast would be enough to give them a serious problem due to the toxins.
If it weren't for Jiang Zhi's special ability to discover the clues, they would probably have been eaten by this fanged rabbit.
Ye Qingyun wasn't idle either. She went over and quickly cleaned up the battlefield, dug a hole with the shovel she carried with her, and threw the fanged rabbit in.
This is to avoid the smell of blood attracting more dangerous creatures.
Jiang Shu helped while watching eagerly, his mouth practically watering. "A-Zhi, can't we eat this fanged rabbit?"
"I doubt we can finish it."
Jiang Shu: "You haven't even tested it yet. Test it first, then we'll talk."
Seeing that he was still persistent, Jiangzhi brought the watch close to the carcass of the fanged rabbit.
— "Drip, high radiation level, not edible."
See? We can't finish it all.
Jiang Shu's face immediately turned red.
In all this time, they had only encountered one edible ant at the very beginning. Although it was as big as a rat, it only had a few ounces of meat, not even enough to fill the gaps between the teeth of the four of them. Jiang Shu felt that his mouth was almost bland and tasted like birds.
Seeing her son like this, Ye Qingyun felt both heartache and amusement.
"Alright, wipe your drool. We're almost at the base. It's such a big place, there's bound to be some meat to eat."
She glanced at the digital watch on Jiang Zhi's wrist. Although it wasn't the first time she'd seen it, Ye Qingyun was still intrigued by the new gadgets invented at the base. "Don't you think the technology at the base is developing very quickly? They've even developed this kind of function. If we had known this, we should have gone sooner."
The wristwatch on Jiang Zhi's wrist was something they had found on the corpse of one of their kind in the wild a while ago.
The watch displays personal information, points, and some convenient functions to assist with wilderness survival.
One of its most practical functions is to identify the level of radiation in plants and animals.
Most of the plants and animals affected by radiation after the disaster are inedible.
At first, they didn't know that these plants and animals were inedible. It was only after seeing their neighbors collapse from eating the mutated plants and animals that they realized these creatures were full of radiation and that eating them would kill them.
For the past few years, they have survived entirely by searching for vacuum-packed food in abandoned cities.
Jiang Shan comforted his wife, saying, "Our base is too far away. Given our condition at the time, we might not have been able to reach it."
Even now, these battle-hardened individuals have endured countless hardships to get here.
Upon hearing this, Ye Qingyun stopped worrying and said, "That's true."
Just as the couple was about to bury the fanged rabbit, Jiang Zhi looked at the two white teeth and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She placed her wristwatch on the rabbit's two teeth.
"—Drip, low level of toxin, edible."
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