Yue Zheng directed a few people to warm up and do some basic exercises. He also instructed Mother Xu in a few movements before taking out the prepared handgun and teaching her the basics of loading bullets and shooting. As for disassembling and assembling, they could wait until they returned to the vehicle for Xu Song to teach her slowly.
With the gun in her hand, Mother Xu was enthusiastic and practiced shooting at a tree not far away. “Bang, bang, bang” echoed in the early morning, and their violent mother-in-law managed to use up five full magazines…
“Mom… Although we have some stock of bullets, they are also consumables.” Xu Song wiped off a cold sweat and cautiously approached his mother, urging her to use the bullets sparingly.
Mother Xu looked somewhat unsatisfied and put down her left hand. “I understand. Next time I’ll practice with real ammunition when there’s a chance!”
“Mom… I remember you’re not used to using your right hand, right?” Xu Song pointed at his mother who was holding the gun with her left hand. He had been exercising all this time and hadn’t noticed until now.
Mother Xu switched the gun back to her right hand and shook her slightly numb left hand due to the recoil. “I got tired of using my right hand, so I wanted to switch.”
Could she just switch like that?!
Mother Xu sighed and continued, “When I was young, I watched a TV drama that had an old lady with dual pistols. I wish I could become as skilled as her…”
So that’s why she kept switching?!
Xu Song forcibly pushed his mother into the vehicle and confiscated the live ammunition. During Yue Zheng’s driving, Xu Song was responsible for teaching his mother the basics of disassembling and assembling firearms. After all, as long as he was around, he couldn’t let his mother walk around and get into conflicts with others while holding a gun. His mother already had a strong impact even without a firearm, let alone with one. It was better for her to stay low-key.
Mother Xu consumed her enthusiasm for firearms inside the vehicle. After she had grasped the basics, Xu Song walked to the co-pilot’s seat, picked up Mo Tianyou, and sat in the passenger seat to continue discussing winter preparations with Yue Zheng.
“I estimate that if winter arrives so early, it’s not just clothing, but food will also be the major consumption.”
Yue Zheng nodded. “Meat can be sold depending on the situation, but we must not expose the ability to grow mutated crops in the open.”
“I know. We have Abu, and we need to come out at least every few days, even if we don’t do various missions, we still have to go hunting.”
No wonder people used to say that large dogs were difficult to raise. Xu Song remembered a neighbor nearby who had two German Shepherds. One time when they met outside, he saw the neighbor selling a big bag of steamed buns. He heard that it was just enough for those two dogs for one day!
Even more tragic was that those dogs were almost only fed steamed buns because meat was too expensive… The owners said they couldn’t afford it.
Now, after the mutation, Abu’s appetite was enough to make people cry. Even for the sake of this ancestor, they couldn’t stay in the base and not go out.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“P pera gfwfwyfgfv atja atfgf kjr cb gja wfja jwbcu atf qgfs sbe mjeuta sfrafgvjs.”
Xu Song’s expression twisted slightly. “Yes, there wasn’t.”
“Not encountered?” Mother Xu continued to wonder.
“I did encounter them, but I burned them all,” Xu Song adjusted his expression and sighed with sorrow, “I’m afraid of spreading the plague, you know?”
Mother Xu glared at him with annoyance. “Next time, leave behind a whole corpse! Most of the meat we eat in the base comes from rats!”
“I won’t eat it! Absolutely not!” Rats are still rats, even after mutating! Especially the rats around here. The rats in the city are mostly those ugly common rats! If they were as cute as hamsters, Xu Song might consider leaving behind a whole corpse for them!
“Who told you to eat it?!” Mother Xu continued to glare and raised her hand to poke his forehead. “We don’t eat it ourselves! We can sell the meat and skin, the buying price is high! Even if we trade it in the base for money or points!”
Xu Song opened his mouth, realizing that her reasoning was indeed correct… but just thinking about the appearance of those things made him shudder. He hated those big rats, even more than he hated cockroaches!
“Alright, next time we’ll think about it,” Yue Zheng smiled and resolved the situation.
“…Then will my combat effectiveness be completely useless?” Xu Song looked at Yue Zheng with a depressed expression.
Mother Xu nodded in satisfaction. “My son-in-law is sensible.”
“…Wait a minute, where did you get a daughter from?!” Xu Song suddenly became annoyed.
“That’s you, XiaoSong!” Mother Xu declared firmly, then turned and walked back to the vehicle. “Hot meal, hot meal! What should we make for lunch today?”
Burying his head between the two mischievous little ones, Xu Song felt an urge not to live anymore.
While Mother Xu hadn’t prepared the meal yet, Mo Tianyou and Mo Tiancheng had already noticed something. “There are people ahead! Many people! And many animals too!”
“And mutated plants!”
The two exchanged glances, and Yue Zheng stopped the car.
There was still some distance between them and the location where Mo Tiancheng had sensed people. According to the map, those people should be near the cotton fields they were heading to.
“I’ll go check the situation,” Yue Zheng unbuckled his seatbelt, preparing to get out of the car.
“Let’s go together.” Xu Song could sense the presence of all living beings, and he wanted to make sure if there were only powered individuals and animals ahead, or if there were other teams as well.
In regular teams, aside from powered individuals, there were often many ordinary people. If the number of people he sensed was significantly higher than what Mo Tianyou sensed, then they might have encountered another team.
Both of them got out of the car and quickly rushed forward. They hadn’t gone far when they reached the area within their perception range and hearing range.
“Many people, at least two hundred or more! They should be a team of powered individuals,” Xu Song assessed the situation and looked at Yue Zheng.
Yue Zheng nodded, trying to catch the voices of people arguing ahead, fortunately, it seemed that the people in front were in a dispute and couldn’t reach an agreement.
“I’m telling you, this place was claimed by our Panlong team first. We all follow the rule of ‘first come, first served’ when it comes to missions. So, are you all trying to ignore the rules?”
“With such a large area, even your Panlong team can’t claim it all. ‘First come, first served’ is an implicit rule, but nobody can monopolize the entire place! Don’t think we’re all afraid of you!”
“Yes, the cotton field mission is currently the most urgent task for the base. If you continue to block the way here, no one will be able to do it! If the people at the base find out that you’re blocking the way and not allowing anyone to enter… hehe, I doubt any of the big shots will agree.”
“If you have the ability, go to the field behind us! The area there is much larger than this one. We were the first ones to arrive here!”
“The area behind is currently inaccessible to everyone because it’s occupied by some creatures or plants. You can’t go there with your group alone. Instead of creating animosity among us, it’s better to find a mutually beneficial solution. Let’s all compromise, and we may meet again in the base.”
“Damn it! You guys were clearly the last ones to arrive. It’s not appropriate for you to make such arrogant remarks. If there’s any division, it should be based on who arrived first, and it’s not your turn!”
Understanding what the group of people was arguing about, Yue Zheng gestured for Xu Song to go back and discuss it. The two quietly retreated and returned to the car. Once inside, Yue Zheng briefly explained, “It seems there’s another field behind us, and it has a larger cultivation area. However, it’s likely occupied by some creatures or plants, so they can’t go there.”
“So, they’re stuck in this closer field?” Xu Song blinked his eyes and suddenly laughed, “That Xuanwu is the group we encountered near the base gate, right? It has been so many days, and they’re still here in a stalemate? With all this time, it would be better to take a tour in the city. Isn’t that more exciting than staying here?”
Mother Xu brought over the fried rice and gave her son a stern look, “Who do you think everyone is? Anyone daring enough to go to the city is asking for death! You never know what you’ll encounter on the road. Just being able to come back alive is considered fortunate!”
Xu Song stuck out his tongue, recalling the day they encountered a car chased by Chihuahuas, as if… it was due to their overwhelming combat power?
Yue Zheng smiled and took his portion, “Let’s see the situation later and decide what to do. Even if we can’t collect cotton, we should at least get some cotton seeds.”
Mother Xu sighed, “I wonder if these mutated cotton plants are good for cultivation. If they’re suitable, these people can take the seeds back, and the base can grow them.”
Yue Zheng looked at Mother Xu, “How extensive are the cultivation areas in the base?”
Mother Xu paused for a moment, then shook her head, “The cultivation base consists of four large buildings on the outskirts. Each building has four floors, with solar panels on the outer walls to provide power to the plants inside. Only the top floor can receive direct sunlight… Speaking of which, the cultivation areas in the base are not that large. Then what about the canteens…”
Xu Song pondered, “They probably send people out to collect crops to sustain it. I remember there’s a mission to collect crops in the base.”
“And there’s the original military food storage,” Yue Zheng looked at the two of them, “The food storage should be the primary source of these supplies. I guess the base will continue to expand its cultivation areas; otherwise, it won’t be able to meet the demand in the long run.”
“And we don’t know if these mutated plants are suitable for cultivation…”
“Some of the mutated plants can only grow in direct sunlight and can’t be cultivated in greenhouses,” Mother Xu recalled the information she heard in Zone E.
“That makes sense. It’s probably going to be difficult this winter. After the spring next year, the base will likely expand and occupy agricultural fields.”
After a simple lunch, Yue Zheng and Xu Song went to the driver’s seat and studied the map for a while. Finally, they came to a conclusion, they would take a detour.
“We’ll go around and see what’s in the fields ahead!” Yue Zheng made the final decision.
It wasn’t because they were overly confident, but their strength was indeed much higher than the average team. Especially since those teams clearly didn’t want to sacrifice anyone, they remained deadlocked and refused to move forward or cooperate in clearing the mutated creatures and plants.
However, their situation was different. They could easily go around and see what was in that area. Even if they encountered dangerous situations, they could retreat safely.
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗
Thanks for the update
Thank you for the chapter!♥️❤️♥️❤️♥️❤️♥️