novelraw Chapter 1080 - 1180: Is This Really a Place People Can Live?
Chapter 1080 - 1180: Is This Really a Place People Can Live?
"What? Eating this black stuff? Is this even edible?"
"Eating this is no different from eating shit, right?"
Jing Shu’s teammates were all shocked. Although it’s been years since the apocalypse, and they’ve seen tough conditions—the kinds where people eat insects, Rotten Corpse Worms, maggots raised in feces, and so on—once you add the sauces that taste better than shoe soles, it’s somewhat tolerable.
But this blob looks like a rotten, foul-smelling acid coagulate, and Jing Shu’s lips twitched. If you really had to describe it, it’s like vomit that hasn’t been digested... Well, it’s the apocalypse; everything’s normal to eat now.
The person chuckled: "Everyone’s starving to death; the only thing to eat is this stuff. If you really get hungry, you’ll eat more than us. Besides—never mind, you’ll find out in a few days."
What they would find out wasn’t said, but Jing Shu frowned, realizing this cave might not be as simple as she thought.
Jing Shu initially wanted to pat the young man, but seeing the black mucus on the man’s body, she ended up handing him a pancake: "Don’t worry, our rescue team is here, and you won’t have to eat this stuff anymore. By the way, what are your names?"
One man was wolfing down the food while shaking his head secretly: "It’s never enough; it’s never enough at all."
Another person glared at the clueless companion and grinned: "You can call me Aliang, and he’s Ah Shan."
Zhen Nantian, seeing they understood enough of the situation, said: "Take us to where you live, and let us meet Brother Xie you mentioned."
Big Yellow Teeth directed Situ Xiaoye and the others to prepare the scattered supplies. He patted his chest and said, "Luckily, when we fell, the supplies came down with us; otherwise, it would’ve been a disaster for us."
Everyone nodded together, seeing how they had turned into ghostly figures after living here for a few months. If those supplies hadn’t fallen with them, their future would’ve been much bleaker.
Carload after carload of supplies were reorganized for departure, including the giant Abdominal Foot Worm and Jing Shu’s private asset, Hulk. Jing Shu quietly noted the supplies; this was probably why she felt so calm and confident. With so much material, alive or dead, even without water sources, it’s enough to last everyone ten to eight years.
Of course, these were just the visible supplies—they hadn’t counted what was in her space.
Aliang and Ah Shan sat on the giant Abdominal Foot Worm, utterly stunned. Aliang stroked the huge worm, drooling: "Wow, can we eat this worm? You brought so much material; it could feed us for months."
"My young friend, with this much material, feeding ten years wouldn’t be a problem, but months? Even if everyone were gluttons, they wouldn’t finish it," Big Yellow Teeth said, clicking his tongue and passing them water bottles.
Both of them swallowed, and Aliang drank the water in gulps, almost crying: "How long has it been since we drank clean water! But you should drink this water quickly, otherwise—"
Ah Shan, though, pursed his cracked lips, clutching the water without drinking and instead said coolly: "Although we aren’t gluttons, these supplies might not last very long indeed. After a few days, you’ll know, we can’t explain it."
Jing Shu frowned.
Soon, she’d understand what Aliang and Ah Shan meant by the supplies not lasting long.
The cave was dark, damp, and filled with an indescribable rotten kerosene smell. The stones in the cave periodically oozed a black grease.
Narrow and suffocating, the air was thin enough to make breathing difficult.
Drip, drip, drip...
A black, unknown liquid dripped onto Jing Shu, sticky and slick, like some monster’s saliva, nauseating.
Without a word, Jing Shu put on a raincoat, just about to hand one to Su Malie when she noticed Su Malie was clean.
Jing Shu: "..." Huh. What was she worrying about Su Malie for?
"Look! That’s our Qingshui Village base ahead!"
Following Aliang’s voice, everyone’s faces darkened. Already sickened by the harsh living conditions along the way, they had hoped the base would be better, but to their horrid surprise, it turned out to be like an ant’s nest: twisted and even more cramped, filled with people in every nook and cranny, distant glimpses resembling—
Floating in a slime pit.
"Ugh!"
"This... you actually sleep in there?"
"Such a cramped place, where do you go to the bathroom? Surely the cave doesn’t have one?"
At this point, Zhen Nantian, originally calm, and others like Tan Ke visibly twitched at the corner of their eyes, as even previous awful conditions hadn’t come close to this.
Aliang, however, shouted excitedly, rousing everyone in the stagnant cave like dead water: "The rescue team is here! They brought lots and lots to eat! Everyone wake up!!"
With one shout, everyone in the cavern awakened, some dazed, some confused, but some sprang up like fish, rushing this way.
Soon, over a hundred people like they’d been dredged from an oil well surrounded them, their dead-eyed looks finally capturing some light.
Zhen Nantian gave Jing Shu a look, and Jing Shu nodded to Big Yellow Teeth: "Settling the disaster victims is up to you guys. They haven’t eaten for a long time, their digestion isn’t good, so make some gruel for them. Handle life materials as you see fit, but these supplies are our ultimate trump card; keep them secure."
Preventing theft and robbery.
Big Yellow Teeth chuckled: "Leave it to me; don’t worry. I know better than anyone about the grudge of rising rice. A bowl of rice, one point. Can’t pay? Well, let’s chalk it up as a debt!"