186

Luo Xun preferred spicy tastes while Xu Mei and Song Lingling also did but not to the same extent. The two women stared at the other's amazing iron stomach.

The plate of spicy fried rabbit meat attracted everyone's attention, especially since all the bones had been removed. Every bite was filled with the rich taste of meat. The team grabbed a bowl of rice and stuffed their faces as if they had not eaten for a century.

Of course, the two ladies' braised meat was also popular, especially Yu Xinran who could not eat the spicy dish. The bones were used in a large pot of fresh soup. After the food was swept clean, everyone drank soup and chatted.

Li Tie sat in his chair and soulfully looked at his bowl of soup, "Alas, if we could get something like this at base..."

"Don't you have quails at home?" Wu Xin asked beside him.

Li Tie had not opened his mouth when He Qiankun shouted, "Quails have meat, but it's not as good!"

When the need arose, they would slaughter some quail but they were reluctant, only one every few months. They could not bear it so they stuck with the eggs.

How would that have been enough meat? It was only everyone had more meat that they could sink their teeth into the food.

"Yes, that's right! How about we try and raise more animals!" Li Tie's words fired up the diners, their eyes wide with flushed faces.

"If we can raise some animals like the mutant ones we hunted, it would be enough for us to eat for a few months!"

"Yes! Now mutant animals are more common!"

Luo Xun did not rain on the excited group's parade but as they started going into detailed plans, he coughed.

Seeing all the eyes turning to him, Luo Xun felt a mountain of pressure. "That...breeding mutant animals...is not possible. You have to take into account their power and size." Luo Xun helplessly added, "We could raise small pre-apocalypse animals but how could we do the same with those super large mutants?"

Zhang Yi had already finished his bowl of soup, naturally Wang Duo gave up his remaining half portion. "The bigger they are, the more one can eat."

The remark almost made the group spit out their dinner. Raising mutant animals was not practical, even if they really wanted to raise some, it would be best to find some ordinary animals, but in the current world...where would someone be able to find one?

Luo Xun and the others did not bring any quails or mealworms from home. On one hand there were too many and on the other they were afraid that something unexpected and they would freeze to death. So the rabbit solved their meat problem for a while.

The day after, Luo Xun set up a new task – He Qiankun need to find out if there was a place nearby to get glass. In fact, when they went out before, they wanted to bring all the intact glass at the solar panel factory, but they met the mutant dog and rabbit. While those two were fighting, many things were broken beyond repair.When Luo Xun checked afterwards, there was not a single piece of intact glass left.

They unloaded the wood inside the car and everyone's work was settled for the next day. It was still Luo Xun cleaning up the shelves inside the planting room, Li TIe and company dealing with the wood so that the boxes could cultivate mushrooms. They were very familiar with this job so they were very efficient.

He Qiankun found a factory where there might be glass, it was also near when they went last time. After confirming there was no need for everyone to stay for work, the group of people drove out again.

This time the goal was the same – wood and metal as well as the two buried boxes. As for glass...it was further away and they could not spare the time for now so they had to postpone.

It took four days before they came back again. This time, although they did not hunt any mutant animals, there were unknown creatures in the distance. Some ran away while others perched on buildings. There were many differences in their size, appearance and behaviour compared to before. Since Luo Xun came out with other goals in mind, there was no time to bother these animals.

But knowing that spring had arrived and there were more traces of mutant animals, the group's heart were very happy. After all, they were hopeful that they could replenish their pantry at home!

The group of greedy people brought back lumps of metal, wood and boards to continue with their tasks.

They had an especially large harvest, especially metal. In addition to the two balls controlled by Yan Fei, they had a lot of material tucked away in the car. They also brought back the two large boxes filled with solar panels, left in the tunnel ready for after the planting rooms were finished. They would be hung on the remaining walls to gather sunlight.

Early in the morning, the group leisurely washed up and returned to the basement to start the day's work. The adults were all busy while Yu Xinran and Puppy guarded the little bun. The three children were on the ground floor in a cubicle to be changed into a planting room. However they had not brought enough seeds so work had been paused for the moment.

Yu Xinran played with the dog for a while. After she finished Xu Mei's arranged homework, she tugged at Song Lingling, "Mother, I am hungry."

"Are you hungry or greedy?" Song Lingling asked as there was still a while before lunch.

"Hungry and greedy!" The little girl said, "I want to eat strawberry milk popsicle, so does Puppy!" She pulled the other to her side to help persuade Song Lingling.

"Just one, wait I'll grab one for you." The so called popsicle was because there were milk fruit and strawberries at home so the two women came up with the idea. Anyway they had enough ingredients to make this delicious treat and was better than nothing.

Since they also made a considerable amount of strawberry jam, the adult's cravings were also solved.

Yu Xinran ran back into the room with joy – she needed to take care of the dog and baby while the adults were busy. Although she would run out once in a while, she would soon return to her responsibility.

Everyone was busy when suddenly there was sound from the staircase. Li Tie raised his head in surprise as Song Lingling ran down with a pale face. "Quick! Get up! There are a lot of birds!"

"Bird! Zombie birds?!" All of a sudden everyone was nervous, they had experienced the horror of undead birds, how would they have come back in such a short time?!

"I don't know, only that there are a lot flying in the sky!" Song Lingling took a deep breath before responding.

"I'll call Luo Xun and the others!" The planting rooms on the ground floor had been dealt with and now the captain was busy on the second floor.

Hearing the news, the two men put down their work and ran back to the building. THey looked out the window and discovered – the problem was not as serious as they thought...at least for the time being.

The birds outside formed a dark cloud in the sky, but did not seem to have interest in their location, only passing by. Luo Xun held the telescope and whispered in relief, "Mutant birds, their bodies seem to relatively normal, about the size of Puppy but might have abilities. I think..."

"What?" The people asked quickly.

"Suspect they might be migratory birds." Luo Xun did not remember birds passing over the base in such a scale during his past life. Maybe this new place was distant enough from the base?"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief while Luo Xun reminded them, "But since these birds are passing by, we'd better not go out for a while. We would need to wait even if we were back at base." He shrugged helplessly, "Remember the first mutant animal we met? It was a bird and their behavior has changed. They may attack humans unprovoked so we should be careful."

Everyone nodded, even if they were greedy for roast duck, they needed to be alive to enjoy food! If there was only one, they might have been able to deal with it, but such a large group...similar to zombie hordes, who dared enter the ring?

187

Luo Xun's fears were not unfounded, when the night came, the birds scattered in the vicinity. Two landed in the large field near the team.

After the weather warmed up, green buds had emerged from the ground. The snow and ice had not completely melted in some places but bits of greenery had drilled out in spots of green and yellow.

Perhaps due the farmland, both path or field were embellished with traces of green. But in addition, there were splashes of dark brown from the terrifying devil vines!

A few birds landed without noticing the danger and even wondered if they were edible. The consequences of provoking the vines were obvious and a terrible battle started.

After observing the mutant birds, Luo Xun and the others quietly returned home, cautiously staying out of notice.

Yan Fei used nearly half the metal stored to thicken the shell around the building for defense. Even when the team returned to work, there would be one or two people keeping any eye on the situation.

In response to the situation, Luo Xun said, "Find some monitors we can set up so we don't have stand watch all the time."

He Qiankun immediately went to check for the information.

The advantage of working underground was the quiet, even if a fierce battle raged above between the birds and vines, they would not hear a thing. But since they could not see the sun, they would not notice the passage of time unless reminded. The team dragged themselves upstairs and quietly looked outside. After confirming there were no birds nearby they bathed and ate before going to sleep.

There was a bathroom but is was a public one. All the equipment was intact and there were no issues as long as Song Lingling provided water and Luo Xun hooked up some battery power. Even better there were two bathing areas. Although the rooms were pretty small, it was enough for them to bathe.

Luo Xun felt some loss since there was no bathtub, only showers. On the other hand, Wang Duo urged his lover to wash together after everyone else. Although everyone understood his intentions, some people ground their teeth. They did not want to think about what occurred back at home, not everyone was gay.

In fact Luo Xun did not bathe with Yan Fei...the reason was obvious. However he would also never act like Wang Duo. After dealing with the basement, metal was collected and they tinkered with the rooms to have a bathtub. One of the areas was very large and it could be easily be divided for everyone's use.

Everyone returned to their respective rooms after eating, drinking and washing. Although there were heavy curtains and a metal shield, no one dared to turn on the lights – the army of migratory mutant birds were still flying overhead.

"Go to sleep and get up early for the basement." Luo Xun turned off all the light sources and quietly peeked through the curtains before burrowing under the covers.

The two men hugged each other under the warm quilt. The radiator was nearby; Puppy was sleeping next to it. The baby was asleep, swaddled and placed in a metal cradle.

The team slept until two or three o'clock in the morning when they were awakened by a large sound.

Luo Xun woke up in confusion then sat out immediately as the sound continued, "What's the matter?!"

Yan Fei also did not know, he and Luo Xun had just awoken. The quickly looked out the window and found that a huge mutant bird had landed was wrestling with the devil vines.

It was surprising that the mutant plants and animals were fighting but the problem was that mutant bird was a fire type and was spewing flames everywhere!

If the fire only hit the vines it would not be an issue but one of the smaller buildings caught on fire! It was where they lived the first time originally used for storing farm tools. Thankfully all the equipment had been moved to the basement and was now empty. What a headache and the next house was where farming vehicles were parked! If there was a leak, the consequences would be inconceivable.

"Whats the matter?" Everyone struggled to wakefulness.

Luo Xun hurried about hugging the baby and dog. "Xu Mei, bring the fire under control, Song Lingling and Yu Xinran help extinguish the fire." When sand is added to water, it worked better at smothering flames.

Luo Xun pulled on a coat as he faced the rest, "Let's go check at the gate. Yan Fei has already sealed a part of the area so even if there is fire, the problem should not spread far."

Thankfully they were wary of incidents during the day so they had attached metal to the shield which could be changed to protect against attacks.

The group of people ran to the gate. Xu Mei barely stopped the fire from burning other areas. Yu Xinran and Song Lingling soon completely extinguished the house fire.

The large bird's struggle was slowing down and gradually it was completely out of strength. Yan Fei left to observe the situation while the others kept back.

Luo Xun suddenly said, "Do you want to try and grab some of the bird meat?"

"Grab bird meat?" The team immediately turned with particularly shining eyes in the dark.

Luo Xun nodded, "Yes, those mutant plants, although some are toxic, this kind of devil vine only sucks blood and should not inject any poison. We should be able to scavenge a half."

The group clapped their hands and said they would take action. They discussed together although the ability users would be the ones taking action.

Song Lingling held Yu Xinran while Yan Fei set up a passageway. It was useful for hiding them from the bird's sight and could also block mutant plant attacks!

Immediately after approaching, Xu Mei launched a fireball hitting the vines entangling the mutant bird. Yu Xinran used her sand to trap the branches and Yan Fei made a metal net to pull part of the body. In retaliation to the attack, the plants tugged back!

The crowd froze, did not expect their prey to be robbed. Luo Xun started back into action. "Withdraw!" They got it, what were they waiting for?

The line of people hurried back. The vines swayed in the air but not far enough, it could only pull the remaining prey and eat it...

"We got it?!" They ran back inside the building and looked at each other in shock before lying down and laughing. After half a day of preparations to even fight with the plant, they had successfully stole it without too much of a fight.

"I've wrapped it in metal, we can take care of it in the morning." Yan Fei recovered the fastest and he waited for a bit before pointing at the gate. The metal mesh was still wrapped around the body.

"Okay, we'll make sure there are no problems tomorrow." Luo Xun breathed and patted someone's shoulder. "Everyone go back and rest, this evening was very tiring."

Although everyone was thinking about the bird outside, they also knew that the animal had been snatched from a mutant plant, who knew what could be inside it? If they were infected with the zombie virus or something, or if there were other contagions...it was best to be safe.

The group held back their stomachs and returned to their room to sleep until dawn. They woke up early and waited at the door. Luo Xun came downstairs and could not help but exclaim in his heart – there was leftover rabbit in the fridge at home, what was going on?!

188

Luo Xun stood at the gate Yan Fei created and stared at the huge volume of grey feathers left outside on the mutant bird they had robbed from the devil vines.

"It's like wild geese." Luo Xun was not sure as he carefully observed.

None of the group had studied animals, even if someone was interested, they might look at it carefully. At this point it was nice to be able to roughly tell it was a waterbird.

Yan Fei used metal to lift the bird's foot and started to shake.

*Patter* After last night's fight, things would inevitably get stuck in the body – mutant plant vines, small stones and so on.

After the shaking, Yan Fei transported the big bird to everyone. There were still many migratory birds in the sky. On the ground, the metal shell shielded them from the view as the team dressed in protective clothing and examined the wounds and removed feathers.

"No problems."

"The wound color is normal and should be edible."

"The feathers are clean and there are no contaminants."

"Process it? Break it down? There's going to be bird meat to eat tonight right?!"

"This one had a fire power! Xu Mei was really lucky this time!"

Since Zhang Yi had harvested the nuclei from the wind sheep, they had confirmed that although mutant animal nuclei were huge they were only level one or two. But they contained a large amount of energy, could push an ability user to the apex of their current level. It was a smooth procession reaching the peak and then finding a higher level nuclei.

After absorption, Xu Mei would need to find a level five nuclei and then she could rush straight to level five!

After confirming that there were no problems with the bird, the team happily plucked feathers and processed the meat for storage.

When everyone was almost finished handling the mutant bird, Luo Xun pointed at the pile of shook off from the body. "Get all those together and we can throw them into the plants."

They were not sure what was inside those things and the safest way would be to return them where they came from. Yu Xinran's ability came in handy for this case. The little girl nodded and used her sand to slowly move the things away.

"...Wait! Bring it back, I'll take a look!" Luo Xun suddenly noticed something and had Yu Xinran bring the items over for him to check.

A pile of rags were scattered in front of him, Luo Xun took a metal stick and prodded through the pile, tattered plant pieces, dirt, bird down and his target items.

Yu Xinran's looked in curiosity and her mouth dropped as Luo Xun pinched a small object. He took a deep breath and searched through the clutter, sure enough there were two more!

"Yu Xinran, let's go dig for treasure!" Luo Xun crouched down and clapped a hand on Yu Xinran's shoulder with excitement.

"Dig for treasure?" Yu Xinran tilted her head and pointed at the item in Luo Xun's hand, "This?"

"Right!"

The rest of the team was busy putting all the meat in the fridge. Like before, Xu Mei left a chunk of meat to add to their lunch or dinner. The rest went into the freezer.

Yan Fei looked around but could not find a trace of Luo Xun. He furrowed his brow and headed outside towards the gate.

Two people were crouching in the end of the passage. Luo Xun pointed in a certain direction. "Little Ran, over that way..."

"What are you doing..." Yan Fei started as he noticed the pile at his feet. "These...where did you get these?!"

Hearing the voice, Luo Xun smiled and turned around while patting the little girl's shoulder. "Yu Xinran dug out these treasures!"

The team sat around the large kitchen table and looked at the pile of things on the table with dull eyes.

Luo Xun and Yu Xinran washed their hands and the latter coughed, "We just dealt with that mutant bird's body, why be afraid of a little dirt?"

He cleared his throat as everyone looked at him, "I first gathered these to throw into the devil vines, but found something shiny so I had Yu Xinran bring them over..."

"There are nuclei in there?" Wang Duo interrupted in excitement.