The car had stayed overnight in the wilderness, and the next morning, it set off again in the direction of the base. They returned to Base B in half the time it took to get there.
Inside the base, just like when they had left, there was an air of quiet melancholy.
Some people, unable to withstand hunger and cold, began to venture out one by one on missions or to try their luck in the city.
Previously, the base had cracked down heavily on begging and other such behaviors, but now they were rearing their heads again. However, the people in charge had to turn a blind eye and pretend not to see them.
There was no other choice. Even though the base distributed a free porridge twice a day, it still couldn’t ensure that everyone had enough to eat.
Watching people shivering in the cold wind on the streets, Mother Xu let out a sigh. “Don’t be too soft-hearted. We can’t pity them to death.”
They had brought back a lot of game, but as soon as they offered a bun, a swarm of people would rush forward and snatch every bit of food and clothing from them.
This kind of scene was all too familiar to Mother Xu from the early days of the apocalypse.
Xu Song nodded. He wasn’t so kind-hearted, but the sight was genuinely distressing.
“Today, let’s sort out the game, and tomorrow morning, we’ll go and complete a mission.”
This time, they had caught over a hundred ducks. Xu Song and his group had calculated that at the current rate of using the sacs, they wouldn’t need to go out for at least another month.
So, they only needed to set aside enough food for this month.
They kept sixty ducks, which, even if Abu ate his fill every day, would be more than enough for a month.
When they returned to Area G by car, the courtyard was just as it had been when they left – nothing more and nothing less.
Abu shook his fur to get rid of the snow, yawned widely, and then crawled into his doghouse, curling up comfortably inside.
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.
Xu Song pulled the waterproof cloth at the back forcefully, revealing the ducks inside, which had frozen stiff.
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“Lbk jybea kf olcv rbwfbcf ab tfiq er klat atf qgbmfrrlcu?” Tef Itfcu reuufrafv, rffxlcu Zbatfg We’r bqlclbc. “Qf mjc tjnf atf Qlvbk Ofulbc rfcv j ofk gfiljyif qfbqif ab jrrlra lc qgbmfrrlcu atlr yjamt. Qf mjc gfkjgv atfw klat j ktbif vemx fjmt.”
Mother Xu felt the reward was a bit generous, but it could be justified. Besides, those women were trustworthy as they knew each other well.
“Alright, you clear a path for them, and when they come, direct them straight to this shipping container to finish the processing.”
The courtyard may not have had much, but it was astonishingly spacious. It was still better to have them come over than to worry about transporting these ducks to an external location for processing.
A message was sent to call over eight members of the Widow Legion. Before they arrived, Mo Tiancheng used a bamboo shoot to create a passage. When people walked inside, they wouldn’t be able to see anything else.
Xu Song and Yue Zheng stayed in the RV to process the duck heads and collect the sacs.
Mother Xu, together with the eight members of the Widow Legion, plucked feathers and chopped off duck feet. It was Wu Jie, the leader of the Widow Legion, who suggested, “Isn’t it inappropriate to directly hand over whole ducks for the mission? After all, we’re paid by weight. Duck feet are valuable too, so why don’t you give these instead?”
These eight older sisters are ones with stable personalities and are very familiar with Mother Xu. They plucked the duck feathers very quickly, and in less than two days, they completely finished the task of plucking a total of 143 ducks.
With a small truck, they loaded the ducks given as payment for their work, along with some duck feathers that Mother Xu had given them. The eight women left in high spirits. In the middle of winter, the prospect of having some hot soup to drink was something to look forward to!
As for the large number of ducks?
Well, ever since they had seen so many rat skins last time, they knew that Mother Xu’s son and son-in-law were not ordinary people. They thought that if they could handle those ferocious rats, what was there to be surprised about a group of ducks?
They drove with around 80 or so ducks loaded into the pickup truck. The heavily overloaded vehicle slowly drove toward the hall where tasks were handed in. When the duty personnel saw the tag “0246 Squad”, their eyes turned green one by one, and they quickly gathered around.
Some well-informed individuals knew that the 0246 Squad had returned yesterday and were secretly speculating when they would come to complete their task.
When the tarp was pulled back, revealing the ample duck meat, everyone gasped in amazement.
The person in charge looked at the wheels with lingering fear. “You actually managed to transport this without breaking down… This load must be close to ten tons, right?”
Yue Zheng awkwardly coughed and said, “Not that much.”
If the shipping container weren’t so conspicuous and they couldn’t move it with a small pickup truck, he would have brought the other container directly. However, that container was filled to the brim, and it wasn’t convenient to unload, so they had to make do with loading everything onto this truck.
Fortunately, by plucking feathers, chopping off duck feet, and stacking the duck heads, they managed to fit everything in. They also attached a small trailer that Xu Song had modified overnight to the back of the pickup truck; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to fit everything.
“It’s amazing that you managed to transport it. The roads have been chaotic these days,” the person in charge said, shaking his head, and signaled for people to start unloading.
The mutated individuals rolled up their sleeves and began to work. They weighed and recorded each of the clean ducks on a scale. In no time, all eighty-plus ducks had been weighed, and Xu Song’s group had earned a substantial amount of points. They were preparing to go to the supply exchange point to pick up the batch of casings they had ordered and place an order for new bullets.
Mother Xu, during the mission, had happily consumed about five hundred rounds of ammunition in just a few days.
For an ordinary family, they would never be able to afford to support her like this.
As they drove out of the hall and headed directly to the supply distribution center, they saw a group of people gathering around a nearby shop. They were throwing stones and other objects at the shop’s glass. In a matter of moments, the glass shattered, and a crowd rushed forward.
A group of people holding weapons hurriedly approached the shop from a distance. The people inside scattered in all directions, and a few who were slow to escape were beaten bloody.
“What’s going on?” Xu Song asked in surprise, looking at the chaos outside the car window.
Yue Zheng furrowed his brow, continued driving forward, and kept his ears open for information. It wasn’t until they arrived at their destination that he whispered, “It seems like looting.”
“Looting?”
Yue Zheng nodded and got out of the car, locking it. He held Xu Song’s hand and continued to explain in a low voice, “It seems like there’s a severe shortage of food in the city, and with the cold weather, people can’t go out… So, they’re resorting to robbing others?”
Xu Song sighed softly. He couldn’t help but think that even in the early days of the apocalypse, people were searching for usable supplies in abandoned cities, much like now. The difference was that back then, they were looking for items that could be considered ownerless. But now, these people were trying to loot belongings that had owners.
People who managed to secure shops within the safe zone generally had some background, whether it was related to the government or exploration teams. In other words, they were either allied with the government or had supernatural abilities. If the cold weather continued, who knew what might happen in the future?
After exchanging their ammunition, which included the ordinary handgun rounds that Mother Xu used and the specially customized sniper rifle rounds they had ordered last time, they realized that their points had no other use, so they converted most of them into these items.
In the base, there weren’t many people who could effectively use firearms. Besides the soldiers, most ordinary people and individuals with supernatural abilities had never even touched a weapon before the apocalypse.
The cost of exchanging points or base currency for firearms and ammunition was too high, and as a result, even if people exchanged for firearms, they likely wouldn’t know how to disassemble them properly and might even end up injuring themselves.
There weren’t many adventurers like Xu Song’s group who exchanged for large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
During the drive back, they witnessed several waves of people attempting theft and breaking into stores. Among them were some people dressed in tattered clothes who noticed that the pickup truck behind Xu Song’s vehicle was carrying something. Though it was covered with waterproof fabric, making it impossible to see what was inside, they couldn’t help but think, “What if it’s food?!”
These starving individuals didn’t care whether they would provoke someone they shouldn’t. They rushed toward the vehicle.
A bright orange fireball exploded on the ground and sparks splattered onto the two people closest to it, leaving deep craters and a strange smell of burnt flesh.
“Second… Second-tier supernatural ability user!”
With a loud bang, the people who had been gradually approaching scattered in panic.
Xu Song closed the window with a dark expression. His lips trembled slightly. It was the first time he had used his supernatural ability directly on ordinary people who were defenseless. While he had indirectly caused people’s deaths and had seen the aftermath, there was a fundamental line that he hadn’t crossed before.
However, humans were always more terrifying than the mutated creatures outside the city walls. This was a form of growth for him.
“Put the C-level insignia we received last time on the car when we get back,” Xu Song said with a somewhat muted voice. Those people were simply bullies who preyed on the weak. They weren’t truly starving; they had come out to rob others. The base was still distributing free food and clothing, and if these people were already willing to steal, who knew what they might do in the future?
“Okay.” The base’s only C-level squad insignia had been put away because some members had thought it was too ostentatious to display on their vehicle. However, now that cars with more prominent insignias were moving around the streets and nobody dared to challenge them, it might be better to be more conspicuous.
As for why no one had dared to steal from them when they returned that day, it was probably because Abu was with them, and the people below couldn’t be sure how many people were inside the RV. Therefore, no one dared to block their path and attempt a robbery.
However, today, the people below could see clearly that there were only two young men in the pickup truck. If one of them was distracted, it might give those people an opportunity to succeed. That’s why they wanted to test their luck.
Desperate people … definitely better to show strength up front. Thanks for the update ❤️❤️❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝
They literally just said people are still starving and freezing and there are severe food shortages, yet they also say they’re bullies and not truly starving because food is available. The author is just phoning it in now 🙄