“Mom… didn’t you say that Chinese people should celebrate the Lunar New Year?” Wasn’t it because he got too excited experimenting with his abilities, and he forgot about the time, causing the breakfast with dumplings and glutinous rice, which his mother had painstakingly prepared, to go cold? Well, letting his mom’s loving breakfast get cold was indeed disrespectful, but it shouldn’t warrant her pointing a gun at his head, right?
“On holidays, we should celebrate them all!” Mother Xu’s determination was undiminished as she glared at her son who seemed less enthusiastic.
Now, they didn’t have to go to work—Xu Song thought but dared not say it out loud.
Yue Zheng reheated the breakfast, and it was back on the table as a mush. “It’s hot again, Mom, you should have some more.”
Mother Xu saw her son-in-law and was more pleased with him than with her own son. She smiled and shook her head. “I already had breakfast with the children. You two take your time. After all, you’ve both already leveled up, and your abilities aren’t going anywhere. You can discuss it after eating.”
He once again complained about my mother’s different treatment, but his own mom treating Yue Zheng nicely was still better than a mother-in-law who disapproved of her daughter-in-law, right?
Xu Song quickly pushed this thought aside and took a sip of glutinous rice soup, followed by a dumpling. Speaking of which, this way of eating was the result of his mom’s pondering over the “Should we eat dumplings or tangyuan for New Year?” question after moving to the north.
They originally lived in the south, so they celebrated the New Year with tangyuan, but now that they were in the north, with heavy snow outside, it made sense to have dumplings. Hence, the result was tangyuan and dumplings… (Note: Both are cooked separately!)
After breakfast, Xu Song took out a notebook and began calculating. It didn’t take long for him to finish the calculations.
“The situation with leveling up abilities should be roughly like this,” he said, coughing a couple of times and looking around the couch.
Yue Zheng was sitting beside him, and Mo Tiancheng, Mo Tianyou, Mother Xu, and Xiao Shu were all gathered around the couch. Whether the tree could understand or not was another matter, but the main members of the team were all listening attentively to Xu Song’s analysis.
“Because we’ve leveled up a few times, we can temporarily use the mutated animal’s sacs for calculations. The first-level ability should occur when the human body receives its initial energy shock, resulting in humans gaining abilities. After gaining abilities, they become first-level ability holders.
“The first-level upgrade is the easiest, and it should only require all the energy from a standard sac.”
Different animals have different sizes of sacs in their brains, and as the number of mutant creature kills increases, it becomes apparent that even among the same species or family of mutant creatures, the size of their energy capsules varies.
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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He finished and looked at Yue Zheng and then at his mother.
“Back then, because there wasn’t a very regular relationship between these three numbers, it couldn’t be calculated. However, the data from yesterday’s upgrade can be confirmed. When upgrading from the third to the fourth level, it takes fifty sacs, which means it takes about sixty days to absorb.”
“The next upgrade, barring any unexpected changes, should be five times or ten times the third to fourth level. If the absorption time doesn’t change, that is, every three days, we can absorb the energy from 2.5 crystals, the next requirement should be two hundred and fifty to five hundred sacs, requiring three hundred to six hundred days. But regardless of the requirements for future upgrades, we already know the conditions for the earlier ones.”
He took a deep breath and looked somewhat worriedly at his mother. “Mom, that means if you and Abu follow the current upgrade method, taking a month to absorb one capsule’s worth of energy, then for the next upgrade, you’ll need to spend ten months…”
With this calculation, even Yue Zheng couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. When they upgraded from the second to the third level, it took ten capsules, a total of twelve days. But Mother Xu would need a full ten months?
Furthermore, the energy capsule requirements for each subsequent level increased exponentially. This meant that the majority of people in the base would never reach the level Xu Song and Yue Zheng had achieved unless they could obtain enough capsules.
Mother Xu, upon hearing this, raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem bothered: “Ten months is ten months. Anyway, our family’s wealth is constantly rising, and we’ll eventually level up. What’s the rush? Besides, we have so many sacs, can anyone say we’re slow? Those outside won’t stand a chance!”
Xu Song sighed in relief and couldn’t help but smile.
Yue Zheng looked at Xu Song: “Is it really that slow without crystals?”
Xu Song shook his head: “I’m not sure, but Mom and the others have just reached the second level, and to reach the third level… it’ll take some time. However, I think everyone’s absorption speed and energy-carrying capacity might be different.”
“If the research institution can provide energy input tailored to each individual’s physique, assuming the supply of energy capsules doesn’t run out, some people will definitely level up faster.”
Yue Zheng pondered for a moment and nodded: “I think, maybe some people can even directly consume a complete sac without exploding and level up. But it definitely shouldn’t be consumed in large quantities at once; one sac a day, thoroughly digested, should be good. In that case, the leveling-up speed would definitely be faster than ours.”
“So, should we continue to upgrade Mom and Abu using the current method?”
Yue Zheng nodded: “The energy capsule’s speed is too slow, and we can’t be sure if there’s anything added to it. Plus, energy capsules are distributed based on the type of abilities; same-class capsules must be used for same-class abilities.”
His physiological abilities and Xu Song’s pyro abilities were relatively straightforward, and the base sold them officially. However, his spatial abilities and Xu Song’s psychic abilities were unheard of.
Mother Xu’s lightning ability was also quite rare.
They couldn’t confirm whether there would be any special problems if they only consumed one type of ability’s energy capsules. Luckily, their crystals could convert all energy into a non-attribute form for absorption, which was much more convenient than the energy capsules developed within the base.
In addition, most of the capsules released by the base that could activate abilities were strength-based, with only a few elemental-based capsules, and they were even more expensive, sometimes even priceless. Some people might not even sell them to you.
On the third day after the New Year, Mo Tiancheng and Mo Tianyou also successfully leveled up. Xu Song confirmed that his thoughts were correct. It seemed that for the next upgrade, they would all need at least five times the energy capsules and five times the time to upgrade.
After discussing with Yue Zheng, they decided to wait a few more days until everyone had become familiar with their new abilities before heading out for hunting. After that, they would wait for the weather to warm up and then leave the base to live outside.
After getting used to their abilities and gaining full control, Xu Song and the others set out again. After registration, they left the city for hunting!
Many people went hunting during these days because the base had issued tasks related to energy capsules. People below knew that those things were indeed valuable and naturally went all out to hunt outside, hoping to exchange them for capsules to boost or awaken abilities.
But hunting was not that easy, and people who went outside were not guaranteed to return safely. Many people left their lives, along with their hopes for the future, outside the base. But there were also many who obtained energy capsules through this and successfully leveled up.
Even in their daily lives, people with abilities subconsciously absorb energy from the air, just like the mutant creatures outside. Because of the recent snowfall, the energy content in the lower atmosphere had already increased significantly, and the number of people who had gone from the first to the second level recently was not small.
This gave everyone hope, after all, it was a real upgrade witnessed with their own eyes! Those capsules were indeed effective!
Many ordinary people had the courage to leave their homes and venture outside the walls to make a living.
Fortunately, due to the heavy snow and the colder-than-usual winter, many non-mutated creatures had frozen to death in this land, and lucky individuals managed to find them. While these creatures were smaller in size and didn’t taste as good as mutant beasts, they at least provided sustenance.
Unfortunately, since they hadn’t undergone any mutations, there were no energy capsules in their brains, and they could only provide a meal for the fortunate individuals.
For a while, the entire base became more active due to the presence of energy capsules.
When Xu Song and his group went out, they encountered many people at the entrance. The sight of the exaggerated B-class team emblem on their vehicle left many people’s jaws hanging.
By the time they had picked their jaws up and considered following the vehicle to pick up some advantages, the other party had already driven far away. Most of the people on foot couldn’t keep up, and the others with vehicles hesitated to follow – they had heard that this team was quite ruthless.
Xu Song and his team were away for a full five days and only returned to the base gate on the 15th.
This time, their vehicle was loaded not only with flying birds but also with the meat of some strange creatures, as they had deliberately traveled a considerable distance to hunt them.
Back at home, they still had their pet jade bees and two ostriches standing guard. When they returned to the base, they were astonished to discover, “Daddy, daddy! The ostriches have laid eggs!”
“We have eggs to eat, we have eggs to eat!”
As soon as the two children entered the yard, they ran to the large nest beside Uncle Aba’s house and peered inside.
How big were the mutated ostriches after the changes?
They were large enough to carry two grown men on their backs with ease.
How big were the eggs laid by these mutated ostriches?
Before the apocalypse, they were already larger than a grown man’s hand, how much larger were they now?!
I’ve missed the cricket and the porcupine or hedgehog..? Where are they now? Kind if want to know if they upgraded too. 🤔
So many pets, so little attention! Cricket and hedgehog have been … missing … hahahaha! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝