“We’re finally out,” Xu Song said, looking out of the car window and letting out a long sigh.
In front of the car, Abu was happily running alongside, occasionally jumping into the snow-covered fields by the roadside. Two container trucks followed behind the car, and two ostriches leisurely trotted alongside. Inside the car, Mother Xu knelt on the couch with the twins, gazing at the once-fertile but now desolate and strangely vibrant farmland outside.
The beehive was also brought into the car, hanging on a kumquat tree. The bees flew in and out of the half-open car window joyfully. Achi and Grasshopper, at this time, both woke up. One of them was chewing on fresh leaves while perched on the kumquat tree, while the other obediently lay in Tianyou’s arms, looking outside with him.
“Grandma, grandma, we want to ride ostriches!” the twins sang in unison, pleading with Mother Xu.
“Not now, wait until the dads find a place to camp and rest, and then you can ride,” back in the base, because the yard was big enough, the two kids had already ridden ostriches in the yard. They even used Abu as a mount, so riding ostriches was a piece of cake.
In fact, not to mention the twins, even Mother Xu, and others had tried riding them. These two ostriches ran steadily, and they could be used as land birds.
Inside the car, Tiancheng and Tianyou, the two little radars, combined with Xu Song’s all-around scanning, could avoid many troublesome mutated creatures and plants along the way. However, because their vehicles were not exactly small, there were naturally limits to where they could travel freely, so some battles were inevitable.
But because they could detect the enemy’s combat strength, they could prepare in advance. After some hardships, they soon left the range of Base B and found a relatively flat place for a brief stop.
The car was well-equipped with fuel, and food, and Tianyou could grow various plants. They didn’t even need to get out of the car to prepare food.
They opened the window and had the small tree hand out food to Abu and the two ostriches. Xu Song and Yue Zheng were looking at the satellite map they had downloaded from the base earlier.
“It’s all white, and you can’t see the condition of the roads at all,” the satellite map was good, but the problem was that what they could get at their level was at least a month old. A month ago? The ground was still covered in snow, and almost everything was buried under a thick layer of snow.
Yue Zheng touched his hair and said with a smile, “So now we can only rely on ourselves.” After Xu Song’s psychic abilities reached level four, he could use them as a radar. Unlike Tiancheng and Tianyou, his abilities were a true all-around three-dimensional scanning method.
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.
It was because of Xu Song’s judgment that they knew the next section of the road wouldn’t be easy to travel. This was the only relatively flat place in the vicinity that could be used for rest. So, they decided to stop here.
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Mother Xu had processed and preserved these, and in the container behind, they had added a meat grinder and a sausage-making machine. There was no choice; they had caught too many different kinds of prey. If they didn’t find a way to store them, these things would probably go bad sooner or later when the weather got hot.
After eating their fill and having enough to drink, Xu Song once again assessed the terrain in the direction of their goal, and then the group set off again.
The ostriches and Abu were also well-fed, shaking their fur and feathers, leisurely running alongside the group.
“Should we make a trip to City J?” Yue Zheng, who was driving, moved his fingers on the GPS navigation screen a few times.
City J was a large city they would pass through on their way north. Although it was in a different direction from their destination and a bit of a detour, it was still a major city. They had previously analyzed and believed that the likelihood of a massive insect outbreak in that city was relatively smaller.
While the supplies in the car were still sufficient, it was a good idea to replenish some things, especially certain car parts. Complete vehicles on the roads were becoming scarcer, and finding spare parts would be more reliable in the city.
“Let’s make the trip. We’ll assess the situation when we get there before deciding whether to enter the city,” Xu Song thought for a moment and nodded. “Since we’ll be passing by, we can’t avoid confronting those things forever.”
Indeed, even hiding in the wilderness, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t encounter insects. It was better to think about how to deal with them from now on, rather than being caught off guard later.
The situation in City B was quite unique. The urban area was too large, and insects had taken over. It was no longer a place for building courage and honing skills; it had become a habitat for animals and insects. Going in there meant certain death for humans.
Dealing with a large number was difficult, but if their numbers were smaller, they could explore the city.
Xu Song continued to explore the road ahead, while Mother Xu taught the twins pinyin, simple Chinese characters, and some basic math. The two kids had previously attended kindergarten, and Mother Xu had already taught them some simple knowledge. Besides, the two kids were exceptionally quick learners.
They studied some courses and recited Tang and Song poems they had collected from the library in Xiao Shu hole. These books had been retrieved a few days ago and were now safely stored in the motorhome.
After two hours of learning, Mother Xu handed the twins some ostrich eggshells to let them do whatever they liked.
Starting with simple drawings on the eggshells, they later used tools to carve and decorate the eggshells. Their creativity was becoming increasingly remarkable.
While Aci lay on the table, Tiancheng and Tianyou used the eggshell to make countless small holes, painted pictures on it, and called it a “lampshade.”
As for Xiao Shu, there was no need to ask Aci for help. Its roots could serve the same function. It pierced the eggshell, making a cracking sound… and completely destroyed one. Looking left and right, using its roots, it “stole” an eggshell from where they were stored. As for the broken eggshells? They were swept into the flowerbed, and Xiao Shu’s roots absorbed them.
While the two kids were having fun with Xiao Shu, Yue Zheng had already driven the car to the overnight resting place. Mother Xu prepared dinner while the kids were playing. It worked out perfectly, and everyone had dinner together.
“Tomorrow morning, we don’t need to rush. We should gather some fuel,” Xu Song suggested. Although there was some space in the yard before, there wasn’t much soil available for Tiancheng to freely grow things, so they could only plant as much as they had fruits. And they could only plant on the car. Now, they had no choice but to make sure no one was around and then plant a whole grove of oil trees. After that, they could collect the fuel and store it for the road ahead.
“Let Tiancheng set up a shelter with Diamond Vines,” Xu Song said, looking at Tiancheng and offering him a piece of sweet and sour spare ribs. “Tiancheng is going to work hard again tomorrow.”
Tiancheng proudly puffed up his little chest and raised his small chin, giving a triumphant “Hmph!” in response. Tianyou, beside him, playfully pinched his chin, and the two kids burst into laughter as they rolled around together.
After dinner, and after ensuring the area was relatively safe, they had Abu scout nearby places with mutated creatures to make sure they wouldn’t be ambushed by any nocturnal creatures in the middle of the night. Once they confirmed it was safe, they all went to sleep.
The next morning, after exercising their bodies, they resumed the work of planting trees and collecting oil fruits.
With a wave of Tiancheng’s small hand, a grove of oil fruit trees sprouted. The multi-tentacled tree-like entity quickly picked the fruits and handed them over. Aci and the two ostriches helped open the fruits—these power-type ostriches could poke through almost anything, as long as they could reach it.
All of the opened oil fruits were thrown onto the twisting vine-like structure, with a large container underneath. It was like a factory assembly line.
Among the group, apart from Tiancheng, everyone took turns replacing the containers and putting the filled ones back into the car, and the rest of the time, they could enjoy their leisurely activities.
Even the little tree, Aci, and the ostriches, at first, were busy but later on, they could do whatever they liked.
In the surrounding fields, many vigorous plants had already broken through the soil. Although the snow hadn’t completely melted, anywhere with plant growth was free of any traces of snow. In contrast, there were still remnants of snow on rocks, roads, and buildings.
Xu Song and Yue Zheng decided to explore the area around them to understand the growth of the plants after the winter. Currently, there weren’t many aggressive creatures in the vicinity, making it suitable for scouting.
After circling the area, they could confirm that, despite the greater quantity of wild plants in the wilderness, they didn’t exhibit the same aggressiveness as the plants and creatures they had encountered in the city ruins. However, the specific reason for this was unclear. It couldn’t be that the plants in the city had grown more aggressive because they were in an urban environment, right? That joke didn’t quite fit.
After collecting the oil fruits and filling containers of various sizes, the group rested for a day before setting out again.
On the following afternoon, they once again encountered signs of the original city. In the previous wilderness, the overgrown vegetation and the covering of snow made it impossible to see any traces of human structures.
“This location should be the outskirts of City J,” Yue Zheng pointed to a direction on the map.
“In that direction… there are no humans, but there are insects, although not in large numbers,” that location was already within Xu Song’s sensing range.
Tianyou had previously indicated that there were living beings in that direction, but they didn’t know what they were. Their level was relatively low, and they appeared to be at most first-level mutated creatures.
Bug-o-meter…very important in the apocalypse 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for the updates ❤️❤️❤️
Leisurely road trip… 🚐. Thank you