Chapter 599

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

"You've all received the news, right?"

Finding a moment of leisure, the four gathered together, and Shen Yao's single sentence drew simultaneous nods from the other three.

"Sister Shen, this mission should be single-player triggered," He Jie said, shaking the phone in his hand to indicate that someone had just asked him about news of the Territory Token.

Hearing this, Shen Yao raised an eyebrow. "Since it belongs to the single-player triggered type, from now on it's every person for themselves."

The quick get it, the slow miss out.

Trying to take shortcuts won't do, after all mission triggering is related to the official planting zones.

Because they still had unfinished tasks at hand, the four didn't have much time to chat; they only said a few words before dispersing.

Only after returning to their Residence did the four have the energy to discuss this Instance's mission difficulty and the various possible locations of the Territory Token.

"Sister Shen said it well; our triggered mission is of the protection type. Should we choose to join the official side?"

Xu Hai felt that with the official side vouching for them, their future actions would be more convenient.

"Binding with the official side is certainly good, but our energy would also be dispersed to the maximum extent."

"Later on, if the official side requires us to prioritize saving people, what do we do then?"

He Jie had to consider the official side's fine traditions, which were very similar to modern society: large-scale planting of new plant varieties was to ensure humanity's survival environment, but once the human population sharply declined, the planting of new plant varieties would be indefinitely postponed.

In the end, in the official side's eyes, population is the cause, and new plant varieties are the supplement.

Xu Hai raised his hand and touched his chin, indicating that if that were really the case, would their missions change accordingly.

"No, the Instance only looks at results. Here it requires large-scale planting; surely it's not just the area of a few Reception Areas."

Currently, the official side has announced several Reception Area locations, all in the Southwest Highlands, which are still small compared to the area of the whole country.

The mission requires large-scale planting, not only based on population numbers, but also comparing the area of the whole country.

Shen Yao cited the planting Instance they had cleared before; they spent two years, relying on their own legs to traverse the entire territory of the Instance country, before barely reaching the clearance bottom line.

He Jie and Xu Hai were both stunned after hearing this. "We don't even know the types and quantities of new plant varieties," yet now they have to execute a more difficult protection mission—doesn't that further indicate there will be risks during the period?

Xu Ningchen handed the three of them a single-page flyer of A4 size. The content on it was simple and clear: an introduction sheet posted by the official side downstairs in the building.

"Today we went to the planting zone. The crops inside are mostly new varieties; the few ordinary crops are placed in greenhouses for research."

Because new plant varieties are not affected by HY molecules, they can be planted normally, but the harvest yield should not be as high as before.

Xu Ningchen recalled the few complaints he had heard. The gist was that HY molecules in the air were massive, and the fluctuations they produced would affect plant growth. Although the plants themselves were not affected by HY molecules, they also would not absorb or digest them.

Crop growth is like humans: humans take over ten years, while crops usually only need a few months.

If nutrition doesn't keep up, humans will grow short and thin and weak, and crops will also be affected in fruiting and seed retention.

The official side's research personnel are currently doing their best to solve this problem, hoping that new plant varieties can grow smoothly while increasing related yields to feed more people.

"We don't need to worry about the situation of new plant varieties. What we should consider now is how to complete the Instance mission within three years."

Time is a long sword hanging over our heads, about to fall at any moment.

Three years: neither long nor short.

If it were ordinary times, whether by spending money or by public opinion, or even without them needing to be proactive, the official side could cooperate to complete it on its own.

Right now, danger is everywhere. HY molecules stimulate plant mutation, and their effect on humans is still unclear for the time being, but presumably it won't be anything positive.

For the time being, they couldn't think of a better method, so the four could only stay in the Reception Area for now, occasionally responding to the official government's call to go to the planting zone to help as volunteers.

Because she often came into contact with the land of the planting zone, Shen Yao soon noticed the anomaly in the greenhouses.

Seeing once again the research personnel in white coats rushing hurriedly to the greenhouses, Shen Yao calmly watched the destination less than a hundred meters from herself.

A peculiar stench hung in the air, somewhat like the smell of rotting plants.

It was said that the new varieties in the research laboratory were intended to reduce the HY molecule content in the air.

As for the effect, Shen Yao had once secretly tried using the Space Monitor; it was a little better than before, but HY molecules already filled the entire space. Humans need to breathe every day—if something really happened, not everyone in the entire Reception Area could escape.

Withdrawing her gaze, Shen Yao focused on the two vegetable plots before her.

They were planted with potatoes; the dark green seedlings had just sprouted, not as tall as before, looking somewhat malnourished.

Shen Yao ladled out the prepared nutrient solution from the water bucket and watered the ground in a specific ratio.

The dark green seedlings absorbed the nutrient solution, and the whole seedling became much more spirited.

When Shen Yao finished watering the two vegetable plots assigned to her, the research personnel in the greenhouse came out in twos and threes, their bodies covered with dust and dirt, muttering that the mixing ratio was wrong and that more control experiments were needed.

Shen Yao turned sideways and sniffed her nose, successfully smelling the rotten odor on the research personnel. The ordinary vegetables planted in the greenhouse must have rotted quite a lot; such a conclusion suddenly popped into her mind. She shook her head and turned to ponder whether she should take the opportunity to hitch a ride with the official side and go out for a trip.

"Go out and see the changes outside. Currently, not many people have come to the Reception Area." This was somewhat unreasonable to a certain extent.

Although the selection points of the Reception Area were all quite remote, there were still many small towns and villages around, and the official side had already publicly announced the location of the Reception Area through various channels. As long as they could escape, most ordinary people would choose to come live in the Reception Area.

When Shen Yao and the others came, the Reception Area had high requirements; that was also to target some people who tried to take shortcuts. After all, those who could run out first all had channels, and these people didn't need the official side's help at all.

Unlike the ordinary people who came later in dribs and drabs, those who could run out were just lucky. They brought more things, but those were for emergency use. If they really relied on these to live in the Reception Area, they would go hungry within a few days.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen planned to go out, hitching a ride on the official vehicle to help save people along the way.

He Jie and Xu Hai wanted to go along too, but their own combat ability was insufficient; they couldn't reach the level of Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen, so they could only be forced to stay behind and wait.

Rumble—

The military-modified car drove away from the Reception Area, traveling down the dusty road.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen sat in the Che Xiang, holding the gas masks just distributed to them. Because the outside was still in the free growth stage, HY molecules were dense in the air.

Originally, HY molecules were not very friendly to the human body. The Reception Area sprayed various medicines every day for physical prevention, and once they went out, they needed to pay even more attention.

"This time we're going to two small towns near the Reception Area. It's said that there are many plants in the towns, some of which have already mutated."

Our goal this time is to rescue the survivors inside the town, and by the way deal with those mutated plants.

Of course, mutated plants have exceptional abilities due to HY molecules, so they might not succeed.

The person in charge only said to do their best; the officials had secretly studied quite a few mutated plants in private, and judging by the hardness of those plants' epidermis, they had no hope for their current weapons.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen are Temporary Workers, joining through their individual capabilities.

They are not Official Personnel, and some more important matters will not be entrusted to them.

So Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen's mission is limited to searching for personnel around the town; as for dealing with the mutated plants, the Official Squad will be fully responsible.

The military vehicles diverted at a fork in the road, heading toward two different directions respectively.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen's target is a County City called Sha Town.

The County City is not large in area, and all around are planted Sand Date Trees for dust prevention and sand fixation.

Affected by HY molecules in the air, most Sand Date Trees have already died and rotted, while a small portion of Sand Date Trees' trunks have become even taller, their branches sprouting and extending to incredible distances.

"We've arrived, get off the vehicle."

The military vehicle stopped by the roadside, and those inside jumped down in batches.

Among them, the Temporary Workers were led into the city via a small path to search for survivors, while the Official Squad carried weapons and carefully headed toward the Sand Date Trees' activity range.

Boom boom boom

Before they had gone far, Shen Yao heard several gunshots, as well as the sound of heavy objects hitting the ground.

Someone turned back, and the steadily advancing team paused slightly.

"Hurry up!"

The staff member in front spoke up to urge them on; he was clearly worried about his teammates, but saving lives was more important—even if they ran over, they couldn't help much, so it was better to finish their own mission first.

"Sigh, what is this!"

After waking up from a sleep, they found the entire world had undergone earth-shaking changes.

"My home is in xx City; now I can't go back even more."

"My home is in xx; first it was flooded, then it was scorched. The officials required the whole city to evacuate, and now my home is gone."

"......"

Those who came out all have some skills; otherwise they couldn't have run here.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen mixed into the crowd, not speaking or making a sound, only occasionally replying with one or two sentences when others asked them.

Soon, they entered Sha Town's Main Road, and buildings several stories high began to appear on both sides.

Various sand and dust permeated here all year round; even with Sand Date Trees planted, it merely improved slightly.

"You go here; you few go there; we will go forward along the road..."

The staff member in the team took out the allocation table, and according to the teaming ratio of one formal to three Temporary Workers, uniformly arranged this search mission.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen had bad luck; they were allocated last when there weren't enough personnel, so they could only act with a staff member surnamed Yang.

The place they needed to go was a residential area near the mall; the buildings inside were no more than six stories high, but because the geographical environment was relatively good and there were no large plants around, it was conservatively estimated that there would be quite a few survivors.

"The three of us need to split up; no one is responsible for a single unit building." Don't look at how Xiao Yang looks very exotic, but when he opened his mouth, he spoke fluent Ordinary Speech.

Splitting up according to the numbers one, two, three in front of the unit buildings, Shen Yao walked into Unit Two.

There was a lot of dust around the walking stair, as well as supplies scattered nearby.

It was because people were too hurried when running out, causing some omissions, but they didn't have time to pick them up.

Shen Yao raised her hand and knocked on the three households on the first floor, unsurprisingly receiving no response at all.

No one!

Shen Yao called out to the system in her mind, asking it to help find survivors.

"Host, the fifth and sixth floors have people; the other floors have no one."

The system's surveillance function was very useful right now; with just a light scan, it could locate them through the heat emitted by the human body.

Shen Yao ran directly to the fifth floor, knocking on doors while announcing her identity.

Crack—

The room door was opened, revealing a nervous young face.

"Really?"

"Official Personnel are in Unit One."

"I, we will go with you."

"You pack up first; there are others upstairs."

Shen Yao turned around and went upstairs, opening the doors upstairs in the same way.

Saying the same lines was not difficult at all; besides, Shen Yao was female, and compared to the natural oppression men brought, women made it easier for people to let down their guard.

There were three households on the fifth and sixth floors in total, adding up to exactly ten people.

One was a family of four, two were families of three, and they could be considered acquaintances with each other.

They were all glad they hadn't run out, but chose to hide and wait for rescue.

"There are monsters outside; those who ran out before were all taken away by monsters."

It was the little girl on the fifth floor, looking outside with extremely terrified eyes.

The staff member and Xu Ningchen came out later than Shen Yao, with survivors following behind them.

"Everyone move around here first; we still need to go to other buildings to search for survivors," the staff member patiently soothed them with a few words, then turned and walked toward the floors behind.

Xu Ningchen and Shen Yao didn't need to go there, after all, the rescued people also needed protection.

Soon, more and more people gathered in the residential area, until the staff member announced the end of this operation, and only then did the Wedding Guests line up and leave the residential area.

It was still the route they came in on; when leaving, they did not encounter any danger.

However, the people in the residential area seemed cautious; young children were held in their parents' arms, covering their eyes the whole way without showing their faces.

"Get in the car."

Whoosh whoosh whoosh

A group of people packed the car full; without waiting for the Official Squad dealing with the Sand Date Trees, they drove straight back to the Reception Area.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen came along, doing little more than serving as background boards.

The next morning, Shen Yao learned through He Jie's big mouth that the Official Squad sent on a mission yesterday had suffered casualties of more than half.

The Reception Area had no recruitment announcement yet, but with such a casualty rate, the Officials couldn't hold out; sooner or later they would relax the standards, absorb fresh blood, and maintain the normal operation of the Reception Area.

He Jie rested his chin on his hand; he listened to Shen Yao and had no intention of risking his life for the Officials.

But he could maintain good relations with the Officials, so that when new variety plants were promoted for large-scale planting, they could seize the opportunity and complete their mission.

Shen Yao:...

"Good relations require stable strength; you two, don't idle around—start training from today."

Compared to Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen, He Jie and Xu Hai were far too poor at hands-on work.

The next time there was an opportunity to go out, He Jie and Xu Hai couldn't stay in the Reception Area forever.

Their mission had already appeared; no matter how many people might trigger it in the future, right now they had to do their utmost to complete the mission.