Chapter 237: Everything will get better

Wu Pifu reached out and lifted a huge metal plate from the ground. The surrounding crowd immediately burst into cheers, then stepped forward, using tracks, metal pincers, and body-trailers to drag the metal plate away. Those with petite bodies and low levels of alienation began to pick through various materials and search for supplies in the ruins beneath the metal plate.

Wu Pifu took a deep breath and leaned against a broken wall nearby, looking into the distance.

At this time, a person whose head was a display screen, whose shoulders were a pair of speakers, and whose lower body was that of a human female approached. The display screen showed Li Muxia's smiling face.

"I told you to rest well; we can handle these things," Li Muxia said with a smile.

Wu Pifu shook his head slightly. He watched the setting sun, turned around, and walked out of the camp, saying as he walked: "Today I want to eat roasted whale meat."

Li Muxia was stunned for a moment, then a big smiley face appeared on the display screen, with a V-sign gesture next to it.

"Okay, leave it to me today!"

The eighth day after the war.

With the rescue help from Wu Pifu, a total of 362 adult humans and 2,466 children under the age of six were gathered.

This was all that remained of humanity in this world.

Tens of millions of people, and in the end, fewer than 3,000 remained...

Moreover, the 362 adults were almost all in the form of Human Hunters, with more or less mechanized structures on their bodies. Some were slightly affected, like Li Muxia, with one-fifth of her body turned into mechanical structures, while others were severely affected, with almost their entire bodies being mechanical structures except for a few parts, looking incomparably grotesque.

But the only fortunate thing was that none of them had Human Hunter symptoms. No matter how many metal structures were on their bodies, they still maintained human thought and consciousness, and there was no further deterioration.

The whole world seemed different; they were just ordinary people with mutated bodies.

As for the children under six, they were much better. They basically maintained the physical state of normal humans. Although there was a little metalization on their skin or some organs, subsequent physical and genetic examinations showed that they were indeed normal humans.

This was the last hope; the entire future of human civilization was concentrated on these children.

Wu Pifu returned to the camp. People in the camp were busy with their own tasks, either building houses or various functional buildings, while others were organizing various parts and components, manufacturing or repairing various instruments, or dealing with food, such as drying and salting various pieces of meat that had been cut off.

After the war, all the super-large biochemical beasts died.

Their huge body sizes were not meant to be born in a normal natural environment; their own weight alone crushed them to death. Some biochemical beasts that were too bizarre also died, leaving only small biochemical beasts with more flesh than mechanical parts alive.

Moreover, they no longer had the crazy brutality they had before, and their nature began to gradually return to an animal state.

The whole world was becoming more and more normal.

Although the future still looked very distant, and although everyone carried immense pain in their hearts, they still stubbornly survived, burying the corpses of their relatives, friends, and comrades, cutting off the intact meat from the biochemical beasts, digging through the pre-war ruins, and protecting all the children as they entered the camp...

"... The oldest children need to go to school."

Li Muxia sat beside Wu Pifu, a serious little face appearing on the display screen. While roasting meat, she said to Wu Pifu: "Some books were dug up, but there is a lack of introductory textbooks. We discussed it and formed a 20-person remote excavation team to go to the ruins of the Mercenary Guild headquarters to dig. There should be introductory textbooks there."

Wu Pifu took a piece of roasted meat. He pulled the tab of a beer can, eating meat and drinking beer while asking: "Aren't there more of these things at the Researcher Guild?"

A tractor sitting nearby spoke: "During the decisive battle, the Researcher Guild headquarters was besieged to the point of annihilation. The employees inside activated the headquarters' self-destruction system, and all the new nuclear warheads they secretly manufactured self-detonated. That place is completely gone."

Wu Pifu fell silent, just silently drinking and eating. On the other side, a person whose front half was a beautiful woman and whose lower half was a motorcycle smiled and said: "They got what they wanted. These nuclear warheads were probably originally prepared for civil war, but now they have become proof of their sacrifice. I think that after our human civilization recovers, we can even set up a monument there."

The surrounding crowd burst into laughter, but after laughing, there was a slight sadness, and they all silently ate their food or drank machine oil.

Wu Pifu finished the meat and asked: "What is still missing now? If we want sustainable development, this camp is gradually being built, and we have various pre-war equipment and instruments. The found food inventory is enough to eat for several years, and we have fresh water. What is still missing?"

The surrounding people looked at each other and discussed in low voices. After a while, they all shook their heads.

"Nothing is missing, and most of the biochemical beasts are gone."

"Our mutations have also stopped. Although we can't return to human bodies, these bodies are really the best for construction."

"The children are also safe... Speaking of which, do we need to set up a production line for antibiotics and various medicines?"

"... Books and such can be dug up slowly. The key is higher scientific and technological knowledge. The three hundred of us are basically rough people, and there isn't even a single researcher. We are really lacking in these things." "Take it slow. As long as there are no biochemical beasts and the children grow up, will people really be suffocated by urine?"

"That's true, but I always feel..."

Everyone discussed, and Wu Pifu silently ate meat and drank wine again.

Then he heard Li Muxia's low self-talk beside him: "We are still missing water and land..."

Water and land... it would be more appropriate to say plants and fresh water.

Currently, all fresh water is stored fresh water, and to get new fresh water, we can only dig deep holes and extract it from groundwater. At the same time, there are no plants on the land, and the ocean is brown...

This world is ultimately...

Wu Pifu thought with some sadness. Suddenly, at this moment, his heart stirred. An inexplicable palpitation made him stand up from his seat, and he looked into the distance with a serious face.

It was nighttime, and except for this camp, the surroundings were silent. The children were all under six, and they had all gone to sleep early after eating, so Wu Pifu's sudden standing up appeared unusually abrupt.

The people around were all stunned, and then everyone immediately surged up violently. Some of the adults who were more human-like hurried toward the children's living quarters, while the adults with more mechanical bodies immediately rushed toward the surroundings, either grabbing weapons or having the weapons on their own bodies stand up. They all looked into the darkness with solemn expressions, their faces filled with determination and resolve.

!

Here... was everything they had left!

They had nothing else left, only this last hope. This was not just their hope, but also the hope of their departed relatives, friends, partners, and comrades.

Do not... take away their hope again!

"It's not."

Wu Pifu said in a hoarse voice: "It's not an enemy..."

Everyone was stunned and stopped their steps and actions. They all looked at Wu Pifu inexplicably, and then a strange premonition appeared in some people's hearts. Amidst the palpitation, they looked into the distance even more eagerly.

"... It's thundering."

Wu Pifu said this, then silently looked up, lifting his head high.

Everyone was stunned. They looked into the distance, and suddenly, a flash of thunder appeared in the pitch-black night sky. Huge lightning tore through the dark night, illuminating the light in everyone's sight.

After this lightning, the sound of thunder rumbled. This sound made everyone's ears, eyes, consciousness, and even souls tremble violently. They looked at the sky like fools, completely unable to recognize this natural phenomenon that should have existed on Earth.

"Right, it should be February or March now, spring is here," Wu Pifu murmured, looking up at the sky.

Thunder roared, tearing through the night. Amidst the rumbling, crying sounds appeared in the children's barracks. Some adults with petite bodies ran into the barracks and began to coax the children, while almost all the other adults stood foolishly under the night. Accompanied by the thunder, a strong wind blew, blowing sand and stones, but no one moved at all. They just foolishly and infatuatedly looked at the sky.

Finally, after decades, a natural phenomenon that none of the adults here had ever seen since birth appeared. It was something they only knew from books and legends...

Rain fell from the sky, sprinkling on this land that had not seen rain for decades, nourishing the long-dried Gobi land.

In legend, some plant seeds can sleep for hundreds of years. Even without any fresh water, their life will be preserved continuously until the rain comes. Only then will these seeds sprout again, emerge from the hard ground, and bring that small but incomparably strong green to this world.

Facing the rain, all the adults recovered from the shock. They didn't even care if the mechanical structures on their bodies could get wet; they all cheered and roared in the rain. Even some of the oldest children climbed out of the barracks, saw this thing they had never seen before, and reached out to catch the rain.

Wu Pifu looked up, and the rain flowed from his eye sockets onto the earth. Before his eyes, he seemed to see that smiling face with black bloody tears but still smiling brightly, as well as the benevolent people standing beside her, the Chu Minghao who looked three-tenths similar, and the backs of the people who had a blue dream and went to die in the darkness...

"Mr. Wu! It's raining! Will plants grow? Will there be green grass everywhere? Will the ocean turn blue again?" Li Muxia chirped and shouted beside Wu Pifu like a little girl.

Jiu Jiu chirped crisply on Wu Pifu's shoulder, and Daphne splashed back and forth in the rain.

Wu Pifu reached out one hand to catch the rain. He lowered his head and smiled.

"It will..."

"Everything will get better."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 238 =====