TN –
Thanks to “Playful Little Fox” for the donation. This is the 3rd extra chapter out of 4.
_____________________________________
The uneven ground, with walls stained by various impurities. Yue Zheng and Xu Song sat in the pickup truck, heading towards the base.
They didn’t bring their RV, nor did they bring anyone else with them to come back together. Instead, they parked the RV not far from City B and left Mother Xu and the others waiting for the two of them to return.
After all, the situation inside the base is still unclear at the moment, and no one knows if there will be any trouble when they return.
The two drove to the gate and were allowed to enter the base after inspection.
“The checks for entry and exit have become much stricter,” Xu Song looked back a few times and said to Yue Zheng.
Yue Zheng nodded and continued driving inside.
Although there were fewer people on the streets inside the base compared to before, their spirits seemed much better than when everyone left the base initially.
Driving all the way to the gate of Area A, the inspection here was even stricter, which made the two of them somewhat worried. They waited for a while until Elder Wu’s secretary personally came out to take them in, and then they were able to enter Area A smoothly.
“Why is the inspection inside the base so strict?” Yue Zheng asked the secretary while driving.
The secretary smiled bitterly, “You’ll know soon.”
The two glanced at each other and didn’t ask further. Instead, they changed the subject: “What was the situation when those mutant creatures besieged the base last time we were away? Are they still bothering us now?”
Bringing up this matter, the secretary finally opened up, speaking incessantly about what he knew and could say about that period.
The three of them arrived at Elder Wu’s villa, and upon entering, they found out why the base’s inspections were so strict – Elder Wu was ill.
It wasn’t cancer or heart-related illness but because he was getting older and supposedly had a quarrelsome episode recently, he fell ill.
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.
Ktf akb rja bc mtjlgr yfrlvf atf yfv. Ktf biv wjc bc atf yfv ibbxfv wemt bivfg, ktlmt wjvf qfbqif offi rbwfktja rjv.
Sivfg Qe tlwrfio kjr lc ubbv rqlglar, rwlilcu jr tf jrxfv jybea ktja atfs tjv rffc bearlvf, “Ktf vjaj sbe rfca, P gfjv la ktfc P tjnf ogff alwf. Vbwf bo atf rffvr bo atf cfk mgbqr offi ubbv; atfs rtbeiv yf meialnjyif lcrlvf atf yjrf. Vqfjxlcu bo ktlmt, la kjr atjcxr ab atf rffvr sbe ygbeuta fjgilfg. Ktf slfiv bo atf akb mgbqr kjr rluclolmjca, jcv atfs ugfk ojra. Ktjcxr ab atfw, kf wjcjufv ab ufa atgbeut atf vjsr yfrlfufv ys weajca mgfjaegfr.”
“We just did what we could. If you hadn’t mentioned the need for them at that time, we might have had to wait until now to bring them back to the base together after we returned.”
The two brought back a lot of new species’ seeds, sliced specimens, and data on various new species in their small pickup truck this time. Some things couldn’t be transmitted back through simple text or image information and needed to be physically sent back, so they brought them back together.
Elder Wu sighed and nodded, “Young people like you with initiative and exploration spirit are good.” Saying this, he shook his head, perhaps thinking of something else, then asked, “Do you have important intelligence to report?”
The two glanced at each other, and Xu Song took out a small bag from his pocket. After opening it, it was full of fragmented crystal pieces.
“What is this?” Elder Wu picked up a piece, looked at it in the light outside the window, frowned, and asked, “This thing… they mentioned it before, saying they found this kind of thing on the bodies of mutant fish?”
Originally, this glass-like thing wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. If these things were scattered on the ground, everyone would think it was just fragments of glass, and they might not even bother to look at them. They would just think that these things weren’t burned along with the fire during a big fire.
The strange thing is, this thing was found on the bodies of mutant merfolk. And most of those merfolk usually weave nets with flexible seaweed, intentionally carrying this thing close to their bodies.
The two understood in their hearts that the base indeed had discovered this thing, but it seemed that no one had found out its purpose.
Yue Zheng explained, “This thing is similar to what we escorted from City Y to City S before.” Speaking of which, when Elder Wu’s eyes lit up, Yue Zheng continued to explain, “It seems to react to the energy of abilities, but we haven’t studied it specifically…”
It’s not that Yue Zheng and Xu Song didn’t want to explain the purpose of this thing to others, but the few of them deliberated for half a day on the way back to City B before reaching a consensus.
All weapons and powers themselves have no good or bad, the difference lies only in the people who use them. Now that Elder Wu is in power in City B, many policies are not yet enforceable, let alone others?
People who possess crystals can upgrade faster than others. Such a good thing, not to mention others, Xu Song and his team cannot achieve selfless dedication, let alone rely on those who have long been fighting for their own interests.
However, there are still many secrets about crystals. They are related to the post-apocalyptic world after the mutation. Xu Song and his team dare not and cannot keep this secret alone.
Although they don’t know what side effects this thing will cause when taken out, since those merfolk were using this thing, the base may obtain this thing through other means. When Xu Song and his team bring it out, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
In this small bag, there are about a hundred pieces. Elder Wu thought that someone in Xu Song’s team might be more sensitive to the kind of energy that now pervades the world, so they noticed the strangeness of these stones. He nodded and accepted the thing, solemnly saying to the two, “This matter is indeed very important. I will instruct them to take it to the laboratory for experimentation.”
In the laboratory, they did receive a few pieces of these stones before, but after they were taken for analysis, it was proved that these things were just a kind of crystal similar to diamonds. The researchers thought that perhaps the merfolk liked to collect shiny items, so they carried this thing around like human women, so after the research, it was put aside.
But now, Xu Song and his team brought these things again, which made them pay attention to them again.
When the people in the laboratory received the new crystals, they unexpectedly found, “Huh? Where are the original stones? Why are they all gone?”
“What stones?”
“The ones that look like glass!”
“Aren’t they locked in the safe?”
“Gone!!”
After chatting with Elder Wu for a while, Xu Song and Yue Zheng handed over the seeds and experimental samples they had brought back to the base, then they went to exchange for new weapons and ammunition – although they knew which arms factory outside still had weapons, it was good to get more from the base. Otherwise, what’s the use of those points they’ve accumulated?
After they arrived at the place to exchange weapons, they were a bit dumbfounded – some heavy weapons from before were completely unavailable for exchange now. Even the most ordinary weapons and ammunition had restrictions on exchange, and each team could only exchange a limited amount per month, unable to exceed the quota.
“Has the base run out of ammunition?” Xu Song asked Yue Zheng in a low voice.
“It’s probably because production can’t keep up, after all, we just encountered a siege of mutant animals not long ago.” Yue Zheng was relatively calm. He went forward to exchange the maximum limit that they could exchange for this month, and then the two prepared to leave.
Suddenly, their wrist communicator rang, and Yue Zheng saw that it was a contact from Elder Wu’s secretary, so he quickly answered.
The voice of Secretary N, who had just come to pick them up, came from inside: “The leader asked me to tell you that several pieces of transparent stones originally kept in the laboratory safe in the base were stolen.”
Yue Zheng was taken aback. “Stolen?”
“Yes, we haven’t found out who did it yet, but we suspect it’s an insider… The leader wants you to be careful and not let others know that you’ve brought this kind of thing here.”
“Got it,” Yue Zheng narrowed his eyes and asked, “Have the new stones been delivered?”
The secretary sighed, “Yes, I just delivered them, but the people in the laboratory found out that those stones were missing from the safe after they opened it, so they could only use the seven or eight new ones for experiments for now.”
After a few more words, both sides hung up the phone.
Seven or eight pieces, so Elder Wu didn’t send all the crystals over, just some samples. As for the person who stole the crystals…
“What was stolen?” When Xu Song asked, Yue Zheng explained in a low voice, “Several crystals that were originally stored in the laboratory.”
Xu Song raised his eyebrows. Those researchers were not children. Did they have to collect shiny things and keep them in their pockets? The person who took these things might have already discovered the method of using crystals.
The base was indeed not a safe place. Both of them sighed with a heavy heart and prepared to leave the base by car. But Xu Song’s wristwatch suddenly rang again.
“Mom?” Seeing that the caller was his own mother, Xu Song quickly answered.
“I just contacted Wu Jie, if you’re passing by, go and see them… If we still have surplus points, leave some for them.”
“Okay, where are they now?” After getting the address, Xu Song instructed Yue Zheng to drive to the current location of the Widow Legion.
If his mother called him, something might have happened at the Widow Legion. His mother wasn’t someone who overflowed with sympathy after the apocalypse. This time, something might have happened.
With the thought of visiting elders and naturally bringing some gifts, they drove into the slums of the West District and found the place where the Widow Legion was located in the building area. Getting out of the car and standing in front of the building’s door, they could hear crying from inside. The two looked at each other in surprise – did their arrival… come at the right time?
A group of women surrounded inside, fewer in number than when Yue Zheng first visited the Widow Legion. In addition to these women, there were several boys and girls under ten years old, even fewer in number, only five, who were being held in the arms of several women. Their thin faces mostly had only big eyes left, obviously malnourished.
On the beds by the side of the room, lay two people, two women. The other women surrounded them, seeming to have just changed their clothes.
When they saw someone coming in, especially two young men they hadn’t seen before, several children who hadn’t seen Xu Song and Yue Zheng before were scared and burrowed into the arms of the women beside them.
The women recognized the two young men after a moment of hesitation, realizing they were Xu Song and Yue Zheng.
“You’re here?” Wu Jie stood up when she heard their voices, her eyes red. “I told your mother not to let you come, she still…” She said, lowering her head to rub her eyes.
Most of the women in the room had red eyes. Xu Song looked at the bed again and realized – the two women on the bed had already passed away completely.
