121

*Swish* All of them, including the usually calm Zhang Yi all turned to Luo Xun. The latter's expression was as tranquil as a cloud floating through the sky, "As long as the blood or meat has not changed color, we can eat."

Yes the mutant animals would not turn into zombies, even if they were bitten they would not turn. However the wound might have traces of the zombie virus, but as long as that was dealt with and some parts cut off, the rest could be cooked and eaten!

After all, water has been contaminated by the virus, but water can be drunk after being filtered. Mutated plants also carried small traces of the virus but people who ate vegetables were okay.

So the virus seemed harmless if it was below a certain level.

The team cheered and burst into tears. They could not be blamed, from the start of the apocalypse until now, except for rare cases while working with the army, how long had it been since they had fresh meat?! This bird was so big, they could not let it go to waste.

The zombies had been wiped out but the usually attractive zombie nuclei were nowhere near the appeal of the bird's foot! Meat, this was meat!

A group of wolves separated the poor duck into various parts...

In fact the duck's volume had been exaggerated from spreading its wings, the body was small in comparison.

Wang Duo grabbed two feathers from the bird, he smiled flatteringly at His Highness, "These duck feathers, we can bring some back for winter blankets?"

Zhang Yi had a face of disgust, "Such a large duck also has hard feathers, what kind of quilt would you make?"

On the other hand, He Qiankun was clinging to the dead duck's leg, "I want to eat thigh! I want to eat thigh!"

Wu Xin said, "Duck breast is good too, the leg you are holding has a burnt hole...It seemed that Xu Mei and Zhang Yi's attack hit there."

He Qiankun still clung to the leg, "That's nothing, other than that wound, the rest is fine!"

Yan Fei and Luo Xun were studying the duck's hear. Knocked here, looked around, finally Yan Fei formed a sharp knife and did cranial surgery on the duck's skull.

Look, the crystal nucleus was huge! Luo Xun picked up the crystal with delight, it was the size of three fists.

"But none of us can use it, are there any such abilities on base?" The duck's ability was unheard of and the color of nucleus was new too. If it was more common – such as fire or water and so on, if no team members could use it, they could sell it for a lot of money! But now...

It was obviously a treasure, but had no use in the slightest!

The corners of Luo Xun's mouth twitched, he unwillingly put down the crystal, "Forget it, we'll keep it as a souvenir, first let's deal with the duck!"

The duck was not as large was initially imagined but there was still a lot of meat. At the least they could not take the entire had – who told them to only drive three cars and have some crushed?

Luo Xun circled the duck and made a decision, "Meat, no guts or bones, bring as much meat back as possible!"

"...Duck gizzard and heart are very delicious...also intestines have flavor..." He Qiankun was drooling while helplessly looking at Luo Xun.

Luo Xun took two steps backwards when faced with the watering eyes of a wounded animal. His face was tangled while saying cautiously, "We can come back tomorrow but we don't know how the meat...The main issue is we have no salt." There was no way to process the meat on the spot, otherwise they could bring more back.

"...Luo Xun says its a waste of points." Li Tie was tangled but decided to support Luo Xun's opinion.

Wu Xin also nodded, "Although a waste, some of it can be eaten right?"

Xu Mei and then added, "We can eat some tonight and tomorrow morning, the rest we do not need!"

Although everyone understood, but their eyes were filled with regret. Made sense, how long had they last seen fresh meat?

Suddenly Yan Fei pointed to the side, "I can reform the cars except without the glass windows. At the same time I can transform the body, increase volume and height, so there's more space to store meat..."

He had not finished when the crowd turned with shining eyes, "Good idea!!"

The team had very uncomfortable leaving all the meat, bones and guts behind.

Duck's blood could be eaten, but during the battle a lot of blood had been split and they had no method to solidify the liquid. One serious discovery was that mutated animal blood was like salted fish, zombies were not attracted in the slightest. Could not be compared to human blood.

In the past the base had tried to study the phenomenon but could not figure out about human blood attracted zombies but not mutant animals.

Zhang Yi, Xu Mei and Song Lingling used their abilities to make boiling water and cover the duck's feathers.

The rest of the people used modified metal cutters after removing the feathers and descended on the dead duck – dice into pieces!

Fortunately, the weather had cooled, especially on early morning. The duck meat would still be fine after a day, so long as they left early tomorrow, their harvest would be huge.

A large chunk of meat was cut and Luo Xun saw everyone was in high spirits. The ever calm Yan Fei did not understand the other's excitement and went to check their fortifications. After all, how many zombies had died in the battle with the duck?

The silly duck had drawn the attention of almost all the zombies in range. The loud cries and clamor of battle had been distant from the team. The duck had such powerful strength, now all the zombies laying around were waiting for everyone to collect!

"Yu Xinran, put all the corpses and pieces of zombie in this position and create a bunker." She had levelled up to three and now could deal with a larger range and scope.

Any sandy gravel was under her control. If she was not too young, with undeveloped fighting instincts, she could silently use this skill pull a dead body into a sand pit. As long as no one dug them out, the victim would slowly die without movement.

Little Ran nodded her head and created a sand layer with shining eyes and dragged some bodies into the pit.

Yan Fei was acting as a bodyguard – after all, so many zombies had died in the area, who knew which ones were not actually dead?

It did turn out that some zombies were alive and were dragged into the pits from Yan Fei's metal.

After all the zombies were dragged out of sight, Luo Xun brought out petrol and called for Xu Mei for ignition. They left the burning pit and went back to the makeshift shelter for the night.

"There were also zombie animal corpses when I cleaned the area. I guess the duck probably brought all the zombies in the area." Luo Xun and Yan Fei sat in the corner whispering, "I am afraid if our luck is bad tonight zombie rats might come. Be careful."

Yan Fei nodded, "We will take watch in turns, as usual." Even if it might be relatively safe tonight, they had to be vigilant and not get in trouble due to carelessness.

"Well, they are almost done, we'll dry the duck and load up when we leave tomorrow." Seeing a few people laughing with joy, Luo Xun patted Yan Fei's thigh and walked over.

Xu Mei and Song Lingling had deliberately left a chunk of duck meat for everyone's dinner.

With the help of Yan Fei, the team hung the rest of the meat from the ceiling. Lest it stink up overnight, Xu Mei boiled the internal organs so they not worry about odor.

For the sake of eating meat, Zhang Yi helped ventilate the area to help keep the meat. They would carefully stay here tonight and not let anything happen.

For the sake of eating meat and enjoying future dishes, they would put in a lot of effort.

Xu mei and Song Lingling took their time with seasonings and began to cook the duck meat.

Because everyone only needed enough for one or two days, there was not much to prepare. They had some salt in their car but not other seasonings. Who would bring out good food for an expedition? Bringing some salt and long lasting food was enough.

Good food could be prepared even with only salt!

After discussion, everyone decided – grilling!

To make a roast, they only needed some salt in order to enhance the original taste.

At the first scent of meat, all the people in metal building turned to look at Xu Mei. Soon Li Tie and the others gathered around and helplessly watched as the meat turned from red to gold.

The aroma became richer and richer, the calmer team members also walked over, ready at any moment to grab the meat...

Barbecuing duck meat had a subtle taste, there was not much oil compared to pork or chicken. A variety of spices needed to added for flavor. But now, after a year during the apocalypse, the usually tasteless duck meat had become a delicacy.

"This is meat!"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't I think duck was tasty? The last 20 years were a waste."

"Mmm, yummy, it smells good."

"It even tastes better without cumin or chili powder."

"Right, having meat to eat is great!"

The duck turning golden and crispy with delicious sounds from the iron plate. The sliced meat was on a plate to the side. They decided to cook their own to eat sooner! They could not wait, and the pressure was big on the two women around the barbecue. As for the food they brought from base...who knew where it went?

When Zhang Yi snatched a piece of roast meat from Luo Xun, he felt unbearable, "Choke and die! Stealing from me every time! Didn't you get enough from the last base celebration?"

Zhang Yi raised an eyebrow, leisurely blew on a piece of meat, "Haven't you heard of the expression, rob before being robbed?"

Luo Xun almost choked on his saliva, he covered his mouth and turned to cough, before pointing at Zhang Yi, "That was at base?! Why do this now we are outside?"

Zhang Yi looked with a seductive expression, "Are you close? What about those people who think our little captain is cute?"

Luo Xun flushed at being called 'cute', he silently jabbed his chopsticks at Zhang Yi. They were clearly disputing about meat, how did it turn to this strange topic? Cute? What cute?!

"Men are handsome, you are cute, your whole family is cute!!"

Zhang Yi's mouth curled into a sickly sweet smile, "Thank you for the praise." He did not care what Luo Xun said about him, it would not affect his meat intake.

Yan Fei rescued the meat and put it into Luo Xun's bow while patting his shoulder, "Eat, don't talk to him." His lover was lovely, especially when flustered, otherwise he could have retaliated against Zhang Yi earlier.

Luo Xun turned away from Zhang Yi and ate meat, there was no need to argue any further. Now was the time to stuff their faces with meat.

As usual, everyone had a laugh at the pair bickering...now everyone enjoyed the fruits of their labor. Jokes could wait until everyone had eaten and drunk their fill.

Everyone ate until their stomachs would burst, but there was still a lot of duck meat left over.

In addition to getting some crystal nuclei from the zombies, getting the rare chance to eat their fill of meat was a really happy occasion.

Everyone woke up at six o'clock the next morning. The three females picked up the last of the crystal nuclei from the burned zombie bodies. The rest of group helped load the meat with Yan Fei.

It seems that the zombies attracted last night had not attacked at all.

Yan Fei had expanded the capacity of each car, the duck meat was placed in clean metal boxes. Even the roof had a storage space for the resources.

All the meat were put into inconspicuous boxes, no one would know what was inside. It would reduce some trouble when returning to base – after all, the base did not check the car, only scanned for zombie virus with their equipment.

Outside, the three ladies quickly gathered the crystals into a pile.

Everyone unanimously decided to return to base in order to preserve the meat. They had enough nuclei for the mission, the remaining would be distributed back at home.

Their spoils hidden in the metal, the group accelerated back towards base with some misgivings.

Luo Xun was relatively disturbed, he knew that mutant animal could be eaten, but did not know if there were people on base now eating the meat...After all the large-scale emergence of mutant animals would start next spring, although there were many traces of animals. But he was not sure, had the base encountered mutant animals? Had their meat been eaten?

In fact he was not nervous about base, because they would not strictly check car contents. But if they cooked at home, the fragrance would certainly attract others attentions.

Even if others did not realize their food had meat, the greedy would likely become tempted. Although they were not afraid, but watching out for thieves everyday was not a way to live.

Entering the base, they did not encounter any unexpected situations. The soldiers responsible for checking for virus roughly scanned and then let water ability users wash the car. After the inspection, Luo Xun and company drove back to their neighborhood.

Because the meat was all packed into metal boxes, Yan Fei could cause the boxes to 'float' beside them as they climbed up the stairs. All the duck meat had been brought back!

"The fridge, refrigerator...Luo Xun is there enough space?" After climbing up, some people nervously looked at Luo Xun.

Luo Xun's expression was very calm, "Put the boxes in an empty, bring the pickling salt from before." Why fear not enough fridge space? He could handle all the meat even without a fridge!

A portion of the duck meat was placed in each home's fridge. In addition to the special freezers specially for the frozen poisonous mushrooms, all the fridges were loaded with masses of duck meat.

As for the rest of the meat...with Luo Xun, everyone understood that the meat could be kept...

Well, they had heard of 'dried duck' from stories, but who notice such things while reading? Now that Luo Xun knew the drying process, things like bacon were not difficult, everyone could help out.

The meat was cut into long strips, salt was evenly applied to the skin and stored in a cool, ventilated place. One could save dried duck meat for a long period of time.

Bacon was a bit more troublesome, stir fry with hot pepper, salt before drying and cooling. The duck meat seasoned with pepper, salt and sugar was put into jars to marinate for a few days. Then it would hung from a rope, dried to a golden color and then hung in the shade for storage.

This way the taste would be better, but was more troublesome to produce. Plus dried, processed meat already accounted for most of the fridge usage. Luo Xun only took a small portion to make bacon. Xu Mei and Song Lingling could handle the rest during their free time.

122

All the duck meat was distributed according to the number of people. Although it was not very precise, but with the amount of meat, each person got about a human head's worth.

Originally Xu Mei had said that Yu Xinran could be given less since she was young with a smaller appetite, but was rejected by the males. They would be blind not to notice Yu Xinran's strength with her ability. Also how could a bunch of grown men squabble with a child over food?

While everyone was splitting the duck meat, Yu Xinran had collect the nuclei from the pile of zombies. They would absolutely not steal a child's rations, they were not that greedy!

It was near evening when the meat was dealt with. Luo Xun and the others just remembered – the crystal nuclei had not been counted or distributed to each person!

Originally their purpose leaving base was to gather these nuclei, however they unexpectedly had encountered the big duck. They forgot all about the nuclei, even though there had been a pile of zombies killed by the bird...they had paid less attention.

He hurriedly opened the box of crystal cores, colorful splinters filled the container.

Luo Xun scratched his hair, "Why do I think that there are more nuclei than usual when we hunted before?"

"The duck was so loud, it attracted all the nearby zombies? Of course, we usually only use small blood packs." Zhang Yi said carelessly while referring to the pile. "We can eat once we count and separate the nuclei."

The group quickly swarmed the pile and began to sort the crystals based on element.

Xu Mei laughed, "We'll cook dinner, I left some meat to stir fry with some vegetables at home."

"Good, we'll trouble you!" He Qiankun loudly shouted first, gave everyone a shock.

The crowd continued counting the crystal nuclei, the sound of clinking filled the air.

This time they got a large number of crystal nuclei because of the duck. There were more than 17200 first level, 20800 second and even more than 500 third level nuclei!

It also included some zombie animal nuclei, various amounts of zombie animals large and small.

There was indeed more crystal nuclei than usual, once the final number was calculated, everyone looked at each other in silent shock.

"This...many?"

"Don't forget how loud the duck was, I reckon all the zombies were all over its body."

Only after a long time did people accept this fact. They did not expect that they could pick up so many crystal nuclei at almost no cost!

The next time they went out, they would meet zombies and mutant animals...

The group waved away this wonderful delusion, this sort of thing was once in a lifetime. They thought of duck's size and power. As Luo Xun had said, the duck had used the most foolish way to attack, otherwise how had they won?!

If they had not defeated the duck, how would they pick up the crystals? It was a mercy that they did not die outside. Thus, they were contented with their good fortune.

They evenly divided the various nuclei according to elements. Since the number of nuclei were not equal, for example there were more fire nuclei, Xu Mei exchanged some first level cores for third level.

Luo Xun finally patted the largest nucleus dug out from the duck's head. "I think we won't be able to sell this, let's bring it home for now."

Such a large crystal core being used as a decoration...was he not afraid of excessive luxury?

In fact, this thing could be taken to the military and replaced with other smaller crystal cores. Luo Xun was unclear whether the military had the ability to hunt mutant animals and knew the nuclei was in the brain?

The people in their squad were well-known enough that the large core would certainly attract the attention of the higher ups.

Even if they wanted to bring it out, they had to wait awhile. At least until next year, when mutant animals would become common. Now was too early.

After these things were resolved, Xu Mei and Song Lingling brought over the plate.

Simple home cooked food, but with the addition of duck meat, stir fried quail eggs and tomatoes along with other vegetables.

Seeing this, people's saliva gushed forth and they rushed to eat. Lamented that they could not inhale the whole bowl at once.

The team ate and drank their fill and went back home with their bag of nuclei. Luo Xun walked through the door, warmly licked by his dog...Then he remembered...there was something important that everyone had forgotten.