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墨書 Inktalez
The farmhouse here is called Farmhouse Fun, featuring a lake and fields, with a vast area. When the disaster broke out, it was not a holiday, so there were not many vacationers—only a few guests and ten employees. These people did not survive the virus and turned into Zombies. Bai Tang single-handedly took down fourteen Zombies, leaving three for Jiang Miao to handle, with Youfu assisting.
Jiang Miao benefited from misfortune and truly awakened his Ability, which made Youfu envious, exclaiming, "It’s not deceiving me!" The Ability that Jiang Miao awakened is related to his name; it is a water-type Ability with limited power. However, once an Ability is awakened, all physical attributes improve. Jiang Miao became stronger and faster; previously, he struggled to kill a Zombie even after putting in half the effort, but now he could take one down in four or five strikes. Youfu's combat ability was quite lacking, but she was smart and bold enough to know how to handle situations. Unlike other women who would scream and drag their teammates down in front of Zombies, she prioritized protecting herself first and then helped her teammates deal with the Zombies as much as she could, gradually honing her skills.
"The food reserves in Farmhouse Fun should be plentiful; let's split up to gather food!" Bai Tang had enough food, but Jiang Miao and Youfu had not brought any with them. If they didn’t collect some food for them, they would either starve or be killed by Zombies.
"Although we have cleared out the Zombies in Farmhouse Fun, there might still be one or two lurking in some corners. Youfu doesn’t have combat ability, so she shouldn’t go alone; let her stick with me," Jiang Miao said as he pulled Youfu's arm.
The system had not yet fully rebooted, so the map function was unavailable, preventing them from checking for nearby monsters. Bai Tang also worried that a hidden Zombie might suddenly attack them. She nodded in agreement with Jiang Miao and instructed Youfu to team up with him while she explored another direction.
Bai Tang chose the east side where there was an artificial lake and a breeding ground. All the fish in the lake had turned belly-up; occasionally one or two were still struggling to survive, which Bai Tang collected into the gang's storage pool. As she walked across the wooden bridge over the artificial lake, two gusts of cold wind carrying a bloody scent hit her face. Bai Tang quickly stepped back and saw a Zombie Dog drooling foul-smelling saliva. The dog looked cute, but the Zombie Dog was too ugly and terrifying. Bai Tang drew out her iron sword and lunged at the Zombie Dog's head. The Zombie Dog did not dodge but lunged at Bai Tang's delicate arm with its sharp teeth. Bai Tang braced herself against the bite on her arm while maintaining her strike and managed to chop off the Zombie Dog's head in one swift motion; however, her arm was injured in the process. After swallowing an Antidote Pill and a Red Medicine, her semi-digitized body quickly healed back to normal. Bai Tang used her iron sword to split the Zombie Dog's head in half and searched inside for a Crystal Core or something similar but found nothing. Perhaps the current level of Zombies was too low to have formed a Crystal Core or maybe such things were merely fictional.
The breeding ground reeked of blood and decay; there were no living creatures left inside as all non-mutated animals had been eaten by the Zombie Dogs. After searching around without finding anything useful, Bai Tang had no choice but to return along the same path towards Youfu and Jiang Miao's direction. Upon reaching an exterior of a two-story building, she heard Youfu cheering. Bai Tang hurried inside to see Youfu and Jiang Miao busily moving things.
"Bai Tang! Look! We found so much food!" Youfu exclaimed joyfully while holding up a potato. "We can have braised potatoes later!"
This two-story building served as the dining hall of Farmhouse Fun; the first floor housed the Kitchen and storage room while the second floor was open for guests to eat. Youfu and Jiang Miao had only searched the Kitchen but had already gathered plenty.
"We found a bag of rice, a bag of Flour, a bag of potatoes, twenty-six eggs, and several cabbages; all seasonings from the Kitchen are intact! Tonight I’ll cook you all a delicious meal," Youfu’s smile never faded. Anyone knew that food was precious in this apocalypse; finding these items would be enough for all three of them to eat for over a month.
"I think those two rooms on the left seem like storage; there should be more food inside," Bai Tang said.
"Really? I got so excited when I found food that I forgot about everything else! I’ll check those two rooms right away."
"Let’s go together!" Bai Tang and Jiang Miao followed Youfu to the first room's exterior. This room was locked; Bai Tang swung her sword and split the lock in half, earning admiring glances from Youfu.
"Wow—" Youfu’s mouth dropped open in disbelief while even Jiang Miao couldn’t maintain his cool demeanor; both faces were filled with surprise.
It was indeed a huge surprise. The room exceeded one hundred square meters filled with various ingredients; although there weren’t many types, there was an impressive quantity: fifty-pound bags of rice piled together totaling over three thousand pounds; one hundred ten-pound bags of Flour; twenty boxes of dried noodles; five boxes of salt; fifty barrels of peanut oil… plus ten boxes of instant noodles.
"Is this much food enough for the three of us to eat for a year?" Youfu gasped.
"Not just that!" Bai Tang pointed at the items in the warehouse. "If we save it, we could eat for two or three years without any problem!"
"How are we going to move all this?" Youfu asked.
"There’s a pickup truck outside," Jiang Miao replied.
"A pickup can't hold this much!" Youfu said.
"Load as much as we can, and leave the rest here for those who come after us. If we empty the warehouse, other people fleeing here won't have anything to eat," Bai Tang explained.
"That's true; we need to think about those who come after us."
Jiang Miao nodded. If there had only been a small amount of food in the warehouse, they definitely wouldn't have left anything behind. But now that there was so much food they couldn't take it all, they naturally would leave some for others. People can only consider others after ensuring their own survival.
"Alright, let's see what's in the next room," Bai Tang said as he broke the lock on another door.
The next room was a cold storage unit filled with various types of meat. Due to the power outage, the cold storage could no longer maintain low temperatures, and everything inside would spoil in a day or two. The three of them felt regret over this.
"Is there still gas in the kitchen?" Bai Tang asked.
"About one and a half large bottles," Jiang Miao answered.
"Let's not leave just yet; we should cook this meat into salted meat and jerky to avoid wasting it."
"Okay!" Both Jiang Miao and Youfu agreed without objection. They had received information from You Ming, knowing they couldn't meet immediately but that You Ming was relatively safe, which eased their anxiety. With no particular destination in mind, they decided to follow whatever Bai Tang suggested. The environment at the farmhouse was nice, so they could stay for a while.
"Let's do it!" Bai Tang said, and the three of them immediately sprang into action. Jiang Miao moved the meat from the refrigerator to the kitchen, Bai Tang chopped the meat into fist-sized pieces, and Youfu tossed the meat into a large pot, adding water and salt. It didn't matter if it was beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, or rabbit; they cooked it all together. There was no need to cook it until it was tender; as long as there was no blood, they could take it off the heat. Then Jiang Miao moved it to the counter to air dry. After a night of work, they finally processed all the meat. During this time, a few wandering zombies were drawn by the smell, and Bai Tang had Jiang Miao deal with them alone to train his combat skills. After all, Jiang Miao had developed immunity to the zombie virus and wasn't afraid of getting hurt again—though that might not hold true against higher-level zombies.
The three of them slept for half the day, and in the afternoon, they made many types of preserved noodles from flour. Later, several groups of people who had escaped from the city arrived at their farmstay. The trio asked these newcomers about the situation in the city. The survivors described their experiences with two words: "Hell!"
"There are monsters everywhere; it's terrifying!" a young girl cried out. "My dad turned into a monster, and my mom was bitten to death by him while trying to save me."
"My son is only six years old and has turned into a monster!" a man said sorrowfully. His wife had also been bitten by their son and transformed; he barely managed to escape.
"My parents both became monsters, and I had to end their lives myself!" A strong man spoke; he was a veteran with considerable fighting skills who had saved many people on his way out of the city.
While the narrative often paints a dark picture of the apocalypse, human nature is not so ugly after all. In fact, many beautiful and heroic deeds emerge in times of crisis. Take this group of veterans; most were young or middle-aged men, but there were also several children among them. According to them, there were elderly people in their group as well. When they were besieged by zombies, the elderly sacrificed themselves to give hope for survival to the younger ones by holding back the zombies. Veterans represent hope for young people, while children symbolize hope for veterans; they would sacrifice themselves just like the elderly to protect these children.
Listening to the veterans' stories made Bai Tang reflect on herself quietly. Her thoughts had been confined by apocalyptic narratives online, leading her to believe that humanity's nature was entirely dark. In reality, there are many shining points in human nature and numerous noble qualities. Just like during those earthquakes when countless parents, heroes, and ordinary people moved all of China with their actions. The ugly side is just one part; sudden disasters can indeed bring despair, but once governments and everyone else realize what’s happening, they will strive to fight against calamity. Survival of the fittest—humanity will not be defeated by disasters; everything happening now is merely a test for humanity before a new era begins!
"We've dried some jerky on the counter; if you don't mind, please share it!" Youfu said tearfully as he voluntarily donated their cooked jerky. Due to the heat, it dried quickly.
"We don't mind at all!" The newcomers shook their heads eagerly; they hadn't eaten much since arriving and were thrilled at having meat to eat—how could they possibly complain?
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