Chapter 880

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

One trouble follows another.

Everything piled up at once, catching everyone off guard.

Shen Chengyi doesn't care about these matters, and Wei Ran, who handles logistics, is also responsible for other aspects; Cheng Nan can lend a hand, but everything can't be pushed onto her. After all, there aren't enough people in the team—most can only be commanded, not command others.

"What does 'temporary camp' mean? Are we supposed to meet up with them now?"

There's no time; distance is a major problem. They don't have particularly good transportation right now, and the ant swarm issue hasn't been fully resolved yet.

"It feels more like a notification. Whether it's meeting up or returning to the shelter, we can't do either."

At least during the sharp temperature drop, they're definitely still completing missions in the wilderness.

Cheng Nan pinched her chin, then looked up and scanned the surroundings. "It's too late today. No matter what, let everyone rest well."

"Get up early tomorrow. Have the earth and wood ability users repair the surrounding walls."

"Also, stock up on some of the food we normally eat before the sharp temperature drop."

We have to survive first before we have a chance to consider other arrangements going forward.

Missions will have to be postponed. After all, going out during the sharp temperature drop—even Shen Chengyi would have to weigh that carefully.

"And the most important heating equipment," Wei Ran couldn't help but bite her finger. Aside from the bug of fire ability users being able to start fires in any environment, the fuel they need is indispensable.

"Control the protective suits. Ordinary people or those with auxiliary-leaning abilities shouldn't go out. Use the protective suits on those with strong offensive abilities."

"They'll still have to go out after the sharp temperature drop. Protective suits aren't of much use for ordinary people anyway. Better to leave them for others to prepare."

Wei Ran and Cheng Nan discussed countermeasures, speaking one after another. The most important thing was still to eat well and stay warm. Staying in place means no worry about hypothermia, but those going out need an extra layer of protection.

Rubbing her eyes, Wei Ran was a bit sleepy. She'd been busy all day, and even though she received the temporary camp reminder at night, adrenaline couldn't fend off the drowsiness. Wei Ran simply lay down and fell asleep.

She didn't sleep very soundly. Various scenes appeared in her dreams—some good, some bad—and in the end she was frightened awake. Mutated snakes and ant swarms covered the ground, densely packed with no path to survival.

A layer of cold sweat covered her body. Beside her, a bonfire provided warmth. Wei Ran exhaled deeply, rubbing her face and pursing her lips again and again until her emotions calmed down. Only then did she have time to check the time on the communication device.

Four-thirty in the morning.

Outside was pitch black. Apart from the occasional sound of the bonfire near her ears, everyone else was sleeping soundly.

Wei Ran lay flat on her back again, but she didn't close her eyes. She just stared at the space above her head, pondering whether there were any loopholes in the plan she'd made before sleeping.

Perhaps there were no loopholes. Everything that should be thought of and done had already been brought up. Next, it depended on how severe this sharp temperature drop was. If they could endure it, the probability of returning safely to the shelter would increase. If they couldn't endure it, forget about the missions arranged by the Commander-in-Chief—they themselves would have to sleep forever in the wilderness. As for corpses being brought back to the shelter for a proper burial, that would have to wait until someone found them. Most likely, they'd just become food for mutated creatures in the wilderness, leaving behind a pile of unidentifiable white bones.

In a daze, Wei Ran didn't know when she fell asleep again. When she woke up, it was already six-thirty.

Time to get up!

Shaking her slightly dizzy head, Wei Ran folded up the sleeping bag covering her. Then she woke up the fire ability user responsible for guarding the bonfire and sent that person to sleep in the corner. She herself went outside in the dark.

Still, she couldn't see her hand in front of her face, and she could feel the temperature dropping outside. Although the temporary camp's reminder said these few days, given the uncertainty of the End of Days, Wei Ran worried this sharp temperature drop would come early.

If it came early, some things needed to be handled properly. Wilderness hunting could only rely on Shen Chengyi and some ability users. Others would stay behind to guard the buildings.

"Up so early?" Cheng Nan rubbed her eyes, yawning as she walked.

Wei Ran gave a bitter smile. "I can't sleep." Even when she did sleep, it was nonstop nightmares.

Sometimes Wei Ran doubted her own luck. If you said it was bad, there were Big Shots in the team, and though her team members were injured, none had died. If you said it was good, the missions weren't going smoothly. She was being chased around all day, and she could see the possibility of dying in the wilderness.

Helplessly shaking her head, Wei Ran shook her wrist. Mentioning that they would split up today—one staying in the building to manage those left behind, the other going out with the hunting team to find as much food as possible.

In the end, it was decided that Cheng Nan would go out, because she had more self-preservation methods than Wei Ran and wouldn't hold back the team in action.

Wei Ran was more suited to staying in the rear area to manage things. Although such matters had previously been handed over to Deputy Captain Liu, this old fellow wasn't having an easy time. One thing after another had come up, and he wasn't as capable as others. He had serious psychological issues and really wanted to be a team member.

Shen Chengyi was already awake, washing up and tidying herself. She had put her clothes back on. Since she was going out, she wore two protective suits, which provided very good warmth, though her range of movement was somewhat limited.

She moved her hands and then her feet, repeatedly slashing horizontally with the long blade in her hand. Shen Chengyi had packed her backpack in advance and turned to face Wei Ran, who had just entered.

"Chengyi."

Subconsciously wanting to speak, Wei Ran didn't know how hoarse her voice was at this moment.

Shen Chengyi stuffed an unopened throat lozenge into Wei Ran's hand. "Rest up. I'll do my best today," to find more food to bring back.

Wei Ran:...

Whether to say it or not, although Shen Chengyi was silent and taciturn, and was privately grumbled about by other team members for being unsociable, Shen Chengyi saw everything.

Take this throat lozenge, for example. It was one of the few gestures of goodwill Wei Ran had received.

Wei Ran sincerely thanked Shen Chengyi. Apart from her and Cheng Nan, the most exhausted person in the team was Shen Chengyi, who ran back and forth.

Although Shen Chengyi acted alone most of the time, she wasn't idle. Instead, she seriously completed the tasks she could, accelerating their return.

If it weren't for bad luck this time, given Shen Chengyi's abilities, they definitely could have met up with the temporary camp by now.

"If—I mean if," Wei Ran looked deeply at Shen Chengyi, "if it really doesn't work, just take the mission information back yourself. The Commander-in-Chief knows your situation. He won't pursue it."

As team leaders, Wei Ran and Cheng Nan couldn't abandon their team members and leave alone. But Shen Chengyi was currently an Bianma Yinxingzhe. Strictly speaking, she had no obligation to save others. In the face of danger, prioritize self-preservation. As long as she didn't actively harm others, she could rely on these completed tasks to return to the shelter and receive rewards. No one would pursue her.

Shen Chengyi:...

"I know my limits. No need to worry." She wouldn't truly sacrifice herself, but she wouldn't stand by and watch someone die either.

Besides, after the sharp temperature drop, the danger wasn't to her. Wei Ran could say this, and Shen Chengyi felt grateful in her heart, but these words couldn't shake her survival principles.

After saying a couple more words to Wei Ran, Shen Chengyi went to the pot where the food was already cooked to eat.

A bowl of dehydrated vegetable porridge, paired with several pieces of cooked chicken. Energy traveled from the mouth into the body, warming up her somewhat cold arms.

Cheng Nan was already calling out the team members going out. The big guys were all wearing two layers of protective suits, which could greatly suppress the cold outside.

"Groups of three. One attacks, one assists, one collects."

Cheng Nan signaled for everyone to form their own teams. After they went out, they must strictly observe the time limit. They must return on time and not stay too long.

Shen Chengyi didn't pick people, because she was rather special — bringing people along would only slow her down, but since the wild game brought back took up a lot of space, Shen Chengyi needed someone to help process it, so in the end she chose two young ones who walked fast and had strength; the core requirement was only one: listen to her arrangements.

"Sister Shen, rest assured, both of us listen to you."

"Right, Sister Shen, we guarantee we'll be honest and proper, absolutely won't speak out of turn."

Hearing this, Shen Chengyi gave an "mm," "Pack up, we're leaving now."

There wasn't much wild game to be hunted outside; the most common wild chickens and wild ducks had been their recent meals, and Shen Chengyi thought she might as well change the flavor — like wild rabbits or wild boars; those weren't absent from the surroundings either.

Going out and turning left, then following the cleared road for another small hour.

Shen Chengyi waved her hand, signaling the two young ones to rest and stay concealed, while she herself scrambled a few steps up a nearby tree to observe the surroundings.

This tree was a banyan tree, growing very tall; its dense crown could completely cover a person.

When Shen Chengyi climbed up, she was still worried this banyan tree might attack her — after all, mutant plants' tempers were only a tiny bit better than mutant animals'; in reality, all mutant creatures disliked strange creatures approaching their territory.

Fortunately, this banyan tree had zero reaction, just staying there quiet and still, regardless of Shen Chengyi climbing around; even when Shen Chengyi plucked several handfuls of leaves, it didn't react.

Hm?

Temper this good? Looks like a mutant plant with extremely low risk.

Borrowing the crown's cover, Shen Chengyi peered through gaps in the leaves toward the distant southeast corner; there lay a vast expanse of white snow, only on the snow several bottomless snow pits appeared.

Those should be wild rabbit burrows; wild rabbits stay underground in winter, and now the surroundings were all white snow — rabbit burrows were hard to find; fortunately Shen Chengyi had sharp eyes.

Silently lying on the crown quietly for a long while, only then did Shen Chengyi slowly jump down from the tree.

Finding where the two young ones were hiding, "You two climb the tree directly in a bit; I'll go to the front — there's a nest of mutant wild rabbits there; process them well and send them back."

Not letting the young ones charge with her, Shen Chengyi arranged their task, then herself carrying the backpack with the long blade, like a streak of wind and lightning she rushed toward the opposite snow pile.

A half-person-high burrow was exposed before Shen Chengyi; Shen Chengyi directly sent a bolt of lightning striking down — not only blasting away the snow piles around the burrow, but also blasting out the red-eyed rabbits hiding inside the burrow.

Similar to the few rabbits caught initially, the gray-brown-furred wild rabbit revealed its big buck teeth, hating that it couldn't bite through Shen Chengyi's arm.

Shen Chengyi retracted her hand lightning-fast, incidentally holding the long blade horizontally around herself, letting the wild rabbit's big buck teeth collide with the long blade, emitting a sharp explosive ringing.

The wild rabbit flipped over, kicking its powerful rabbit legs forward, and not forgetting to extend a pair of claws; Shen Chengyi blocked left and right, dodging sideways while still continuing to gather lightning ability to blast other burrows.

The exploded snow not only blocked Shen Chengyi's vision, but also hindered the wild rabbit's performance, leaving its brute strength with no way to be unleashed.

Shen Chengyi seized the chance, forcefully chopping off the wild rabbit's head; reeking fresh blood splattered all around; the rabbit's corpse rolled powerlessly, finally falling down.

As the bloody smell spread, from the blasted burrows wild rabbits kept running out; most of them were fleeing, not attacking this killing star Shen Chengyi.

Shen Chengyi didn't care about these wild rabbits' thoughts — see one kill one, see two kill a pair; in the end the ground was full of rabbit corpses and wildly flying rabbit heads.

The long blade was stained with rabbit fresh blood; Shen Chengyi's body also couldn't dodge the splatter.

Only after all these burrows were blasted open and no rabbit life was found did Shen Chengyi wave at the banyan tree behind her, signaling the two young ones to come over and work.

The two young ones: ……

Perhaps they didn't expect Shen Chengyi to be this fierce, or perhaps they did expect Shen Chengyi to be this fierce — in short, the two young ones were completely shocked by Shen Chengyi's operation, mouths agape the whole time as they processed the rabbit corpses.

Not only were all the brought bags packed full, even those fallen rabbit heads were picked up by them — those aren't inedible things; brought back, whether braised or spicy-numbing, they could make the teammates happy.

"Let's go back first; I'll look around the surroundings a bit more," rabbit corpses couldn't be left outside too long, otherwise frozen rock-hard they'd be hard to carry away.

Besides, this was merely warm-up for Shen Chengyi; later she still had to hunt other wild game; they had new missions waiting; both hands couldn't possibly carry everything either.

The two young ones didn't argue with Shen Chengyi — the big shot told them to go back so they'd go back; moreover, the big shot could hunt rabbits in such a short time — honestly, they were still worried if they didn't go back they wouldn't be able to carry it all.

Thinking of those teammates inside the building waiting to be fed, crying for food, the two young ones didn't hesitate a bit, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh hoisting the bags and walking back.

Shen Chengyi turned her head, using the long blade in hand to gather the scattered snow around — because it was all covered in blood, worried the bloody smell would affect her hunting situation, Shen Chengyi simply continued using lightning ability to strike it until it looked about right, then chose to stop.

Switching a direction, she continued exploring; this time Shen Chengyi discovered another rabbit burrow.

Trying to use lightning ability to blast back and forth; pity was, this side's wild rabbits had already run off — the burrow was empty, nothing but a few rabbit hairs.

Tsk.

Continue switching positions blasting burrows.

Not every burrow has a harvest, but relying on effort and talent, Shen Chengyi was still the person who hunted the most on outside trips.

Rushing before the big temperature drop, continuously sending hunted wild game back to the residence, Shen Chengyi's space thereby added quite a bit of private stash; when the cold wind howled past outside, they finally had stored enough usable food.