Chapter 372: Binding the Birth System to Become a Winner in Life Chapter 373: Wasteland Collection Daily Life (1)

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

New Calendar Year 76, early Mild Season, Blue Star Hua Xia Dawn Base C District, an ordinary two-story stone building.

The middle-aged woman spoke hurriedly, clearly having business to attend to, briefly instructed the girl, then picked up a person-high back basket beside her and left.

As the woman departed, the girl sitting on the wooden bed moved her body, propped herself up on the counter with one hand, and stood up.

The girl stood on one leg, her other lower leg fixed with wooden boards and cloth.

'System, system?'

Her mind remained as quiet as ever; the girl (that is, Shen Yao) was not discouraged, sat calmly on the wooden chair, and casually produced a pill from thin air, slowly stuffing it into her mouth.

The pill was a system product; now that something had happened to the system, all Shen Yao could use were these pills she had separately stored after missions in her previous world (actually, she simply hadn't had time to organize them).

Oh, as for the space the system had distributed earlier, it was a gray expanse, temporarily unavailable.

A cold smile curled her mouth corner; Shen Yao thought the system was truly unreliable.

Sigh.

After swallowing the pill, Shen Yao felt waves of warmth spreading through her body. Her fixed leg was improving; in two more days she could remove the boards and go out.

"Not easy; if I don't go out soon, the household will officially run out of food."

Pouting, Shen Yao surveyed the room she lived in, barely fifteen square meters, but it was a rare privilege.

After all, the new mission world was a sci-fi future teeming with various mutated creatures.

Now it was New Calendar Year 76, the time after the normal world was destroyed, following a long struggle, when humans completely chose to integrate.

As if swollen by a swelling agent, apart from humans, all creatures grew several times, even dozens or hundreds of times larger; they became the masters of this planet, while humans could only survive with difficulty in the cracks.

There were no countries here; it had become a political power system existing in the form of various bases (shelters).

It was said that across the entire planet, there were over a thousand bases, large and small.

The Dawn Base where Shen Yao was located was merely a medium-sized base in the Hua Xia region, famous for its mineral wealth, with a population of around sixty to eighty thousand.

It could be considered better than some, worse than others.

Shen Yao's family currently lived at the position of Base C District near B District; compared to A and B Districts, the environment was naturally worse, but compared to the people of E and F Districts who could only live in the outer layers and were daily attacked by mutated creatures, life in C District was like heaven.

The energy grid that supplied electricity year-round, and the tall city wall separating C District from D District, were synonymous with safety.

The body Shen Yao had transmigrated into belonged to an eighteen-year-old girl who had accidentally broken her leg while collecting outside the city and had to stay home to recover from her injury.

She had been here for several days; besides herself, there were her parents and an older brother in the family—a family of four that had just survived the deadly cold season and urgently needed more food to eat and store, otherwise the hot rainy season after the mild season would be a disaster.

Who made the post-mutation world have no spring, summer, autumn, or winter, but instead crudely divide into Mild Season, Hot Rainy Season, and Cold Season based on temperature and crop growth?

The first Mild Season came after the Cold Season, lasting about three months, when large amounts of wild vegetables and wild fruit could be collected outside; next came the two-month Hot Rainy Season.

After the Hot Rainy Season came three months of Mild Season, when staple foods like corn, wheat, rice, sweet potatoes, and potatoes became more abundant outside.

Finally came the Cold Season, lasting four months, deadly and requiring large amounts of food.

The one who had just left was Shen Yao's mother, Song Ling, hurrying to gather wild vegetables to store more food for the family, so she could only let Shen Yao take care of herself.

As for her biological father Shen Jiancheng and biological brother Shen Yu, both worked in a mercenary team and had already gone on a mission with their squad; they had been gone for three days and would return in four more days.

Mercenary teams were a product unique to this world, just like the patrol teams responsible for base security.

They were teams composed of gene awakeners; the difference was that one was private in nature and the other an official organization.

Private ones paid higher points and offered better treatment, but with increased danger; official organizations paid normal points, offered decent treatment, and had lower danger.

Shen Jiancheng and Shen Yu were the pillars of the family, so naturally they joined the private mercenary team.

Slowly moving her leg fixed by wooden boards, Shen Yao pondered when her injury would heal; she couldn't drag it on any longer, not only because the cramped living space was oppressive, but the hunger for food engraved in her bones would torment her every day.

People here couldn't afford to be idle; they worked hard for food all day. Shen Yao, influenced by the residual consciousness of this body, always wanted to go out collecting, and the thought of gaining nothing without labor constantly tortured her.

Sigh.

If only she could awaken her genes; not only could she obtain more food while collecting, but she would also possess self-preservation skills and could join a mercenary team or patrol team to earn money.

Unfortunately, gene awakening was difficult; Shen Yao's family had two gene awakeners, but they could barely maintain a state of having enough food and clothing.

Gene awakening had its good and bad sides; although those who successfully awakened could receive enhancements of different degrees and directions, such as strength, speed, smell, hearing, etc., they were more prone to gene collapse and could only barely live by relying on gene stabilizers developed by the base hospital.

Shen Jiancheng had awakened his genes for over ten years, relying on gene stabilizers every year to persist; Shen Yu had awakened only a few years ago, his body was still safe, but given enough time, he would also follow in Shen Jiancheng's footsteps.

This was the fate of gene awakeners, just like those who hadn't awakened—each had their own heartache and pain.

After all, living in a world full of mutations, no one knew how long they could live.

The wish of this body was to awaken her genes, live with her family, work hard to save food and points, and spend every day in peace.

Pinching her somewhat skin-and-bones body, Shen Yao simply tidied up the room, then lay on the wooden bed with her eyes closed to rest.

She was currently penniless, with only a few dozen points of pocket money inside her wristwatch, and nothing else.

At noon she got up and drank half a tube of sticky, tasteless nutrient solution; Shen Yao controlled her facial expression and continued to lie motionless in the room.

It wasn't until Song Ling returned in the evening that Shen Yao slowly moved her body to the kitchen to help.

This time Song Ling had good luck; at the collection point she came across several thick, tight tree leaves.

Although the taste wasn't great, it was food and could fill her belly.

"For dinner, mix them with water for a cold dish; the two of us will just eat something simple at home."

Song Ling said while working, the knife rising and falling, chopping the palm-sized leaves into strips.

"Mom, my leg is almost healed; tomorrow I'll remove the boards and go out with you."

Staying any longer would drown her in guilt; Shen Yao really couldn't bear it.

"No, rest for two more days; the doctor said your health is important."

Song Ling disagreed; Shen Yao's injury was on her leg, and they say "a hundred days for injured tendons and bones" — it hasn't even been a month yet, going out would be asking for suffering.

The trees of the New Calendar years, even if they grow tall, with leaves turning thicker and larger, are still easy to process and eat.

Just a simple rinse with water, then tossed with the only seasonings left in the kitchen, finally sprinkled with a bit of salt for flavor, paired with two coarse flour mantou the size of palms — this was the mother and daughter's dinner tonight.

Even this counts as middle-to-upper living quality inside the base.

Not everyone can still have food after the cold season; like the commoners living in E District and F District, a considerable portion starved to death during the cold season, most spend every day going out to desperately gather enough to fill their bellies or buy some unpalatable nutrient solution to get by.

Nutrient solution costs 2 credits per tube, mainly provides energy for the body — not only does it taste bad, the texture is awful too.

"... Let's not eat that nutrient solution, heard it's all tree roots and rhizome extracts, bad for the body," Song Ling disliked nutrient solution, or rather, hardly anyone in the base liked it.

Except Shen Jian Guo and Shen Yu who had to carry nutrient solution when going out with the mercenary team, their family rarely treated nutrient solution as proper food.

Only this period after the cold season, when food at home ran low, would they make do for a few days.

Shen Yao silently picked up tree leaves into her mouth — bitter, astringent, dry, and a bit choking.

Finishing dinner without furrowing her brow once, Shen Yao still proposed going out.

Song Ling:...

Song Ling couldn't win the argument, only saying they'd go to South City these few days — fewer people went there, less danger, very suitable for Shen Yao whose body had just recovered.

Shen Yao acknowledged with a hum, returned to her room in the dark, washed her body simply with the heated water, then lay on the bed and fell asleep.

"Yao Yao, why not rest at home one more day? Mom and Aunt Zhou agreed to go to the small grove in East City, there's a patch of wild vegetables just sprouting new shoots..." Song Ling carried her back basket, persuading Shen Yao not to go out.

Shen Yao acted like she didn't hear, changed into hemp clothes convenient for gathering, also picked up a back basket same as Song Ling's, locked the room door, "Mom, if we don't go now, later there'll be crowds and we'll have to queue."

Song Ling:...

Song Ling pulled Shen Yao hurrying toward South City; mindful of Shen Yao's leg, Song Ling was both anxious and flustered — fortunately they left early, South City didn't have many people, only queued about ten minutes and smoothly exited the city.

Exiting the city doesn't cost credits, but each entry costs 2 credits.

People of the New Calendar years are truly unlucky — every day they open their eyes they carry a nutrient solution's debt, at minimum they must gather enough to eat for a day, otherwise it's a losing business.

"Yao Yao come quick, let's go to the riverside ahead, there's also some wild vegetables there, just the fish in the river are too fierce, you be careful later, don't get close to the riverbank."

Song Ling couldn't help admonishing Shen Yao to be careful — that's what being a mother is like.

Shen Yao nodded, conveniently asking about the riverside situation — she really didn't recognize what varieties of wild vegetables, after all in many worlds she never needed this skill.

Result: one morning back to before liberation, the whole family struggling on the subsistence line, could only try to learn some vegetable-identifying skills, not hoping for wealth and nobility, just seeking food and clothing without worry.

"These few days no rain, otherwise the riverside would grow some wood ear," the two walked fast, quickly bypassing the surrounding crowd to reach the riverside.

The riverside was a stretch of emerald green, wild grass growing half a person tall, surroundings trampled into flattened little paths — clearly quite a few people came here normally.

Mother and daughter each found a spot, bent down and took out the detection needles built into their wristwatches, only hearing a chorus of electronic beeping sounds.

"Bitter Leaf Vegetable, Highly Mutated Plant, inedible"

"Tiger Cane, Highly Mutated Plant, unusable"

"..."

Shen Yao found a patch of small water spinach cluster, waist-high stems fresh and tender, just looking at them was pleasing.

Water spinach is also reed shoots, grows fast — this waist-high patch before her had only just sprouted a day or two ago, mature reed shoots can grow taller than adults.

Casually pulled one stem, inserted the detection needle, two beeps — "Reed Shoots, Highly Mutated Plant, inedible."

Shen Yao muted the sound at her wristwatch, continued testing other reed shoots.

After processing a small patch, Shen Yao's clean back basket held a handful of reed shoots, looked like about four to five jin.

Turned and left, changed direction, Shen Yao felt out a patch of cattail territory.

Took out the small hoe from her back basket, Shen Yao dug up the cattail to expose the rhizomes, then took out the detection needle to test them one by one.

By the time the cattail was dug up in a mess, Shen Yao had harvested about ten jin of cattail rhizome blocks, also called ivory vegetable — cold-tossed, stir-fried, or stewed all work, texture similar to lotus root strips.

The eating methods and names of these wild vegetables all exist in this body's memory, including the water caltrop and water celery most common by the river.

Shen Yao picked only familiar edible wild vegetables; busy a whole morning, the back basket behind her was half-full.

Song Ling called to her from not far away; the two didn't return to base at noon, just found a shady spot outside to rest, continued gathering in the afternoon.

Spending credits means maximizing their use — not packing the brought-out back basket full would be a loss.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao put down the back basket, took out her bamboo tube holding clear water and drank a mouthful.

Lunch was simple coarse flour mantou, one each paired with half a tube of nutrient solution — mother and daughter ate very satisfied, incidentally also napped with heads tilted.

When afternoon temperature wasn't so high, the two continued running to the riverside to test wild vegetables.

The riverside is very large, especially that river, dozens of meters wide. Base commoners' daily water all taken from upstream.

"Aaaah, fish bit someone!" Shen Yao was shoved by people behind her, nearly fell.

She promptly moved aside, ran to Song Ling's side asking what happened.

"Tch, mouth greedy wanting fish meat, but don't look at those river fish — dozens of jin each, can we catch them?" Song Ling curled her lip, warned Shen Yao not to go over — that kind of suicide thing they absolutely couldn't do.

Shen Yao touched her belly, a bit craving — without oil, no matter how much she ate she didn't feel full.

"River fish aren't necessarily all big, can try with a fishing rod."

"You think others haven't thought of it, how many actually get fished up, and most fish meat can't be eaten anyway."

Shen Yao tried to persuade Song Ling, ended in failure, could only continue burying her head gathering wild vegetables.

Afternoon luck wasn't as good as morning, Shen Yao busy and bustling only managed a few jin, the back basket wasn't full.

In the end it was Song Ling who cut some tender vines, planning to weave back baskets and baskets after returning — only then was the back basket packed full to the brim.

Queued and swiped entry credits, mother and daughter headed home under the sun.

Car fleets passed by from time to time; Shen Yao looked up, saw men and women in base uniforms sitting inside — patrol team people.

Looked like they'd just returned; wonder where so many patrol team people were needed — could something have happened outside?