TN –
Thanks to “Crystal” for the donation on Ko-fi. This is the 2nd extra upload out of 4.
Unable to see the blue sky outside, Abu and the two ostriches seemed noticeably uncomfortable. Although they hadn’t lived for a very long time in the post-apocalyptic world after the mutation, they had already adapted to the carefree life. The days surrounded by walls on all sides, unable to see the sky, were truly uncomfortable.
The three huge pets lowered their heads, pitifully huddling next to the RV. They silently rotated their evolved heads, hoping that the birds above would fly away soon.
After parking the car in the designated area, Xu Song and the others finally had the time to explore this vast underground air raid shelter.
The height of the air raid shelter was considerable, and the space was large. Looking around, some soldiers had just retreated inside and a few abilities users performing tasks in Zone A.
Around the air raid shelter were smaller rooms relative to the large space. Each door led to a room, and the specifications inside were basically similar—this was observed by comparing the two rooms assigned to Xu Song and his group.
Each room had a double bed, along with a cabinet and a set of simple tables and chairs. However, the specifications of these simple furniture items were quite different, clearly collected supplies from the urban area, now repurposed here.
Xu Song doubted whether these things had been piled up in some warehouse before. Now, apart from the places that were moved, there were only a few fingerprints on the top, and the rest was covered in thick dust.
“I feel like it’s not as good as staying in the RV…” Xu Song looked around. The rooms without windows, with only a small bulb emitting dim yellow light, felt eerie and oppressive. To be honest, the atmosphere here was not great, and the air was not very fresh.
“Let’s stay here for a few days for now.” The room was not big, and there wasn’t much inside. You could see all the furnishings in the room at a glance.
What Yue Zheng found more satisfying was that, because it was a room constructed by an earth-type abilities user underground, the sound insulation effect was… quite good.
Although it couldn’t block Yue Zheng’s ears from hearing the outside sounds, for ordinary people, it was quiet enough here.
The two wandered around in the room, making sure there were no eavesdropping devices or the like. Only then did they open the door and walk out.
Mother Xu took the two children to the next room, and Abu, the ostriches, the Xiao Shu still decorating the RV, and the swarm of bees all stayed in the RV, responsible for guarding their property.
The RV was parked in the open space outside the two rooms, with container trucks that were delivered in advance arranged side by side. Now, the salt in the two cars had already been sold to the base, and all of it was exchanged for ammunition and other weapons.
Xu Song, in a moment of impulse, even exchanged for a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. Although he wanted to exchange it for a shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missile, the base was not affluent, and not only was it expensive, but it also required a certain level of technical expertise to operate. Therefore, he could only settle for second best and buy a rocket launcher to play with later.
At this moment, almost all personnel had retreated into various air raid shelters. All the air raid shelters in Zones A, B, E, and F were connected by a dedicated passage, guarded by heavy forces at the entrances and exits. The air raid shelters in the three zones outside, C, D, and G, were independent, although they were also connected to the internal network and could receive information sent by the command, the environment was much worse compared to these zones.
Even the large underground air raid shelters connected to each other had differences. Zone A could basically allocate a room for every few people. The remaining three zones were a bit worse; the underground area was small, divided into a few zones, and there were no separate rooms. Each air raid shelter was divided into three areas—activity area for distributing food at fixed times, and two rest areas for men and women.
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.
As for the remaining three zones, everyone could only squeeze together to get through these days.
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Anyway, they could always sell it to someone else later.
“What’s the situation outside now?” After moving underground, many big shots shifted their focus from the surface to the underground for their continued meeting.
A TV temporarily placed in front had just been powered on. It was adjusting the signal, and shortly after, the screen displayed a glimpse of the surface.
Large areas of destroyed buildings and damaged bird deterrent devices were scattered amidst the clean streets.
Countless birds had already landed on the ground, venting their anger by indiscriminately destroying human structures since they had lost their attack targets.
Numerous bloodstains, some in vivid red, were scattered within the camera’s range, unclear whether they were from humans or the birds.
“Have all personnel in each zone evacuated?”
Informed of the situation, a staff member in charge of communication hurriedly reported, “Just now, the last air raid shelter in Zone D also completely closed its doors.”
“That’s good.”
The people sighed in relief and continued to look at the screen that kept switching images.
These images were captured by surveillance cameras previously set up to monitor various road sections and walls for alert purposes. Although some were damaged by the birds’ attacks, the remaining parts were still functional.
“Ah… after this bird disaster, the base will probably have to rebuild again…”
“Yes, the weapons used, the bullets consumed, and the number of casualties have yet to be tallied.”
The crowd sighed repeatedly. The base that had finally been established was unexpectedly easily devastated by this group of passing birds…
“Now the main issue is to figure out why these mutated birds… no, I should say, why these mutated creatures, specifically target humans for attacks?” Elder Wu furrowed his brows tightly, looking at the spot in the screen where a bird had just flashed by, pecking at some creature’s corpse on the ground.
A silence filled the room, and everyone exchanged glances.
After a while, someone finally spoke up, “Target… humans?”
Another person asked, “Do mutated beasts attack each other? What about plants? Do they attack other animals too?”
Elder Wu looked at that person, surveyed the room, and then pointed to a document on the table, saying, “This hasn’t been photocopied yet. Take a look later. It’s just a speculation, but some coincidences have to make us vigilant.”
The chief secretary handed the document to the person Elder Wu pointed to, starting to brief everyone on the situation, “Since the beginning of the apocalypse, our country, along with others, obtained contact through satellite signals. After statistics, all countries unanimously concluded that the species most severely affected after the apocalypse is us humans.”
People frowned, looking at the chief secretary. They failed to notice a shadow on the wall from a TV screen displaying a scene.
“Human beings are a part of the ecological chain. However, after the apocalypse, other creatures evolved comprehensively, especially in terms of size. Almost all species evolved. However, humans, apart from limb mutations in ability users, did not undergo a significant evolution like ‘giants.”
“However, relative to this, our human abilities manifested faster. According to statistics, the majority of animals and plants only gained abilities during the harsh winter last year. In contrast, a significant portion of our human population already had these abilities since the beginning of the apocalypse.”
“From satellite photos and information brought back by some adventurers, many mutated creatures, formed by the combination of various species, often cooperated to attack humans. Among them, there were often hunting relationships. However, when humans appeared, they would selectively cooperate to jointly confront us humans.”
“Plants are the same. If a mutated creature and a human fall into a patch of plants, the first priority target for the plants will undoubtedly be humans.”
The faces of the people were filled with shock. After exchanging glances for a while, one person raised their hand, asking with a slightly trembling voice, “So, you’re saying they prioritize attacking humans?”
“Can only say there’s a high probability.” The chief secretary glanced at Elder Wu.
“Of course, maybe there are other examples, but since the beginning of the apocalypse, with a large-scale death of humans and until today, wherever those flocks of migratory birds passed, almost all human bases have been destroyed by them… Perhaps, after the apocalypse, they indeed placed human flesh in a prioritized consumption position…”
“What… what is that?!” Suddenly, someone pointed to the large TV on the wall, and everyone quickly looked. They saw a huge black shadow, snatching a large wild duck in an instant, and soaring back into the sky.
The shadow was fast, and people only saw the sharp claws grabbing the wild duck and lifting it into the air. However, they couldn’t get a clear view of the entire enormous creature—due to the angle of the surveillance camera, it couldn’t capture the entire animal in the frame.
“Quick, adjust it! What was that just now?!”
The images kept switching until finally settling on a camera pointing towards the sky. A gigantic eagle, comparable in size to a villa, was soaring with its wings spread open—after spreading its wings, its area became even more astonishing!
The migratory birds discovered the natural enemy. Bird after bird hurriedly took flight, and the entire screen turned chaotic, with feathers from various flying birds scattered everywhere, filling the sky and ground.
“Is it… an eagle?”
“Should be a vulture… given its size.”
“After mutation, even a hawk can become larger than a vulture.” Someone threw out a comment, and the person who was commented on blushed, quickly looking around to find the culprit but didn’t discover who said it.
Suddenly, with a loud crash, fresh red blood rained down from the sky, splattering onto the screen of the instrument that was angled upwards to capture the sky…
“That eagle-like thing is catching other birds,” Xu Song lay on the bed, half-closed his eyes, sensing the situation outside.
He now felt that his mental ability was indeed too useful. Even underground, he could easily sense the sky within the range.
“Most of the migratory birds have taken flight. They were chased away by those two large eagles,” Xu Song identified and breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his head to look at Yue Zheng, saying, “I’m hungry…”
A few people had prepared for a battle with those migratory birds since morning. They only had a bite of something simple, and now, after retreating, it was already past noon. Xu Song was hungry to the point of his front chest sticking to the back.
Yue Zheng smiled, bending down to kiss him on the forehead. He took out the dry rations that Mother Xu had prepared last night from the backpack placed beside the bed.
Although they were called dry rations, they were actually very practical meat-filled buns. Some were filled with stewed meat, and others had stir-fried vegetables. Each bun was substantial and felt heavy in the hand.
As for the dry rations just issued by the base? Those rough biscuits and stews with unidentifiable ingredients from the base didn’t appeal to the two who were accustomed to Mother Xu’s cooking with various mutated animals and plants.
Receiving the meat-filled buns, they started their lunch with the mineral water provided by the base. The buns in their hands were filled with the wolf meat that had been frozen earlier. Nowadays, pig meat was not as common as the meat of other creatures.
Perhaps the two were just unlucky? Anyway, among the mutated animals they encountered outside, they hadn’t seen many pigs. They had encountered some cows and sheep. Maybe it was because they hadn’t been to the vicinity of a pig farm? Well, they could deliberately look for one later.
Thinking randomly about these things, Xu Song leaned on Yue Zheng’s shoulder, “Do you think we can go out anytime soon?”
Yue Zheng brushed off the debris that had fallen on him, “At least we have to wait until tomorrow to ensure that the bird flock has flown north and left the vicinity.”
“So, are we staying here tonight?” The two had just cleaned up the entire room, and now it was considerably less dusty.
“Seems like it.” Yue Zheng nodded, “Want to go back to the RV?”
Xu Song thought for a moment and shook his head, “Doesn’t matter, occasionally changing places is not bad.” Being underground gave an inexplicable sense of security, and now that he knew the bird flock had dispersed, Xu Song’s mood relaxed.
Yue Zheng glanced at him with a smile that seemed mischievous. He nodded, “Yeah, occasionally changing places is not bad.”
Xu Song was full of question marks, not understanding what he was laughing about. Seeing that he didn’t say anything else, Xu Song didn’t take it seriously.
Mother Xu stayed with her two children in the next room. Exhausted from continuous shooting, she lay on the bed taking a nap. The two children had taken Achi from the RV and were playing games by the bed—unfortunately, Xiao Shu still stood in the car as a potted plant, not daring to move at all.
Poor Xiao Shu 🌴. Thank you
Poor Xiao Shu, his leaves are still trembling… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳