Chapter 151.2: “Survey Teams”
Lan Yecai looked at the other team members.
“Now we just need to buy a refrigerator and the medical package. Should we add the thermal-imaging system?”
One team member said, “Let’s add it. Being able to detect mutant beasts is useful enough. I heard some mutant beasts will even lie in ambush and launch surprise attacks.”
Kula also carefully ran his hand along the other end of the vehicle and said,
“I think we should add it, too. There are still a lot of people from this world living outside, right? What if they aren’t good people?”
In the end, the Lots of Meat team decided to have a thermal-imaging scanning array installed.
They first went to the temple to purchase the medicines and medical equipment. Kula decided to download more videos covering various medical topics so he could study them gradually along the way.
Although his healing ability only required him to place his hand on a wound, he felt that since his role on the team was that of a healer, he might as well improve his basic medical knowledge as well.
Afterward, the sixteen of them went to the secondhand market together and bought a refrigerator, along with several sofas that could be used for either sitting or lying down.
As the team leader, Lan Yecai took into consideration that they might have to spend long periods driving while outside, so she decided to equip the vehicle with a television. They downloaded a large collection of Blue Sea movies and TV shows, as well as offline games, onto it.
The shopping list for the other supplies was much simpler. After experiencing one endless night, all they had to do was follow the list officially published by Blue Sea.
“Salt, dried starfruit vegetables, coffee, lighters, matches, flint, tarps, maps…”
“Compressed biscuits, dried meat, frozen meat, nuts, dried vegetables, seasonings, nutrient solution…”
“Rope, entrenching shovels, iron spears, bows and arrows, sniper rifles, shotguns… Can the wings fit on the inside of the roof?”
Inside the vehicle, the team members who had been following the list and carrying box after box of supplies into the vehicle temporarily stopped and looked up at the ceiling, estimating the available space.
“Stacking them is no problem.”
Lan Yecai nodded. Most of the members of their team had gradually raised their combat ratings above 75, so only two of them had flight wings. That saved them quite a bit of storage space.
And so, the team spent the entire morning bustling about, buying all sorts of things and then figuring out how to arrange everything they had purchased in the most space-efficient manner possible.
By the end, the vehicle’s storage compartments were practically packed to the brim.
The entire team, exhausted after a busy morning, stood in front of the vehicle and looked at the piles of supplies stacked inside.
A deep sense of satisfaction welled up in their hearts.
“Finally, we’re done!!”
One of the team members hurried over carrying a box. “Wait, wait, wait! I went home and grabbed something!”
The others watched curiously as he climbed into the vehicle, opened the box, and took out box after box of items radiating cold air, placing them into the freezer compartment.
After spending the entire morning buying supplies and hauling everything around together, Kula had already memorized everyone’s names. He was no longer as shy and hesitant when speaking as he had been before, so he asked curiously,
“A’Shu, what’s that?”
The team member, whose nickname was A’Shu, chuckled. He left one box out instead of putting it into the refrigerator, then brought it over and opened it in front of his teammates.
Inside were popsicles, each one about the length of a finger and neatly arranged in rows.
“I made these myself when I was on Dazzling Star. They’re really sweet and tasty. Since we’re heading out this time, I figured we might as well finish them.”
Kula knew about Dazzling Star. He had heard the others talking about it while they were hauling supplies that morning. Apparently, it was the apocalyptic planet where Blue Sea had arrived before coming to Green Billow Star.
He had heard that snow and ice covered the planet year-round, with everything frozen solid. Without protective clothing, a person would freeze to death within seconds of stepping outside.
Kula felt that the living conditions on Dazzling Star were far harsher than those on Green Billow Star.
And yet A’Shu had actually used Dazzling Star’s extreme cold to make popsicles.
“Come on, come on.” A’Shu enthusiastically handed popsicles out to everyone. “There are twenty in a box! Everyone gets one, everyone gets one. Take one and eat!”
Kula was given a popsicle as well. After thanking him, he held it in his hand and looked at it.
Its color didn’t look like it would have much flavor, but when he put it into his mouth, it was wonderfully sweet.
How long had it been since he’d last eaten ice cream?
Kula sucked on his popsicle alongside the other team members, trying hard to remember.
All right, he couldn’t remember.
But one thing was certain: ever since he had been dragged into this apocalyptic world, he had never imagined that one day he would be able to eat “ice cream” again.
He had never imagined that voluntarily venturing into the outside world could turn out to be such a wonderful experience, either.
Kula now knew that Moon Silk Star’s environment was extremely harsh, that the mutant beasts were terrifyingly powerful, and that mutant plants could be found everywhere. Even a little weed growing by the roadside could be poisonous.
They had to disguise themselves as an [Company] field survey team sent out on assignment. If their identities were exposed, they might also have to face hostility from the local humans.
This should have been terrifying.
Yet at that moment, sitting in a vehicle packed with supplies, complete with a refrigerator, kitchen, hot-water heater, and even popsicles, with his teammates beside him seriously sucking on their own popsicles, Kula realized that he wasn’t afraid at all.
After all, when he really thought about it, there was indeed nothing much to fear when traveling with a group of teammates who could still find the time to make popsicles in the middle of an apocalyptic ice age.
He even found himself inexplicably looking forward to life on Moon Silk Star.
Lan Yecai finished the popsicle in her hand.
“All right. The water tank is full, and we’ve got plenty of supplies.”
“Everyone meet here first thing tomorrow morning, and we’ll set out together.”
Kula hadn’t finished his popsicle yet. He was savoring it carefully, so he was eating very slowly. When he heard the team leader say this, he hurriedly cleared his mouth and asked,
“Captain, why do we have to wait until tomorrow? Can’t we leave now?”
Lan Yecai said, “I want to leave as soon as possible, too, but we didn’t get a spot in today’s queue. The earliest we can leave is tomorrow morning.”
Kula was confused.
“Queue?”
“Yeah. Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. There are too many people leaving the city, so we have to line up again this time.”
Through their conversations that morning, Lan Yecai already knew that Kula had previously been completely cut off from the internet, so she didn’t find his question strange. She simply tapped a few times on her phone and showed him today’s news.
Kula couldn’t read Blue Sea’s written language, but ever since becoming a believer of their God, he had been able to understand any spoken language. At that moment, he could hear the news broadcast in the video perfectly clearly.
“Currently, large numbers of residents are forming teams to leave the city, causing the crowds at the various city-exit gates to exceed capacity. The passages are now congested. For ordinary travel, please use Exit Gates 3425–4000.”
Sure enough, the video showed long lines stretching outside numerous city gates. Those with vehicles had formed one line, while those without vehicles, carrying backpacks and supplies, had formed another.
There were also staff members flying through the sky with their flight wings, maintaining order.
“Residents are asked not to line up in advance. Please travel according to the order assigned through the online queue system. Blue Sea will continue optimizing the gate traffic process…”
Kula stared blankly at the endless lines of people.
Only then did he finally realize something.
After joining Blue Sea, he had apparently never once asked how many people Blue Sea actually had.
But he already knew that every resident allowed to leave the city, if they didn’t possess any supernatural abilities, had to have a combat rating above 65.
As for Kula, he considered himself a relatively healthy adult. He had a decent amount of strength—not particularly strong, but certainly not weak either.
Even so, his combat rating displayed on his Blue Sea phone was only 37.
If Kula hadn’t been an ability user, he wouldn’t even have qualified to leave the city.
It was difficult to imagine just how formidable residents with combat ratings above 65 would be in a fight.
And there were actually this many residents with such powerful combat abilities?
Kula couldn’t help looking toward his other teammates.
“Can this phone tell us how many people are leaving the city this time?”
Lan Yecai replied, “Of course. You don’t look at the total number of people in the queue. You just check the total number of people who have accepted assignments this time. Like when you joined our team, Kula—the AI automatically registered that you had accepted this survey mission.”
She lowered her head and checked.
“Whoa. It’s already over eighty million, and the number is still going up. Good thing I applied for the queue early enough. Otherwise, we might not have gotten a slot until several days from now.”
Kula: “……”
Over eighty million… people with combat ratings above 65?
…
Tianu and his family waited nervously at the entrance to the town.
Before [Ota] became the new master of this region, they had lived ordinary, impoverished lives. But after [Ota] awakened, everything changed.
Tianu’s family’s standard of living had risen dramatically.
Land rent had gone down, so he and his wife, Lothor, worked even harder in the fields. Some of their children had found work as miners, others had become sentries, while another had been hired as a kitchen assistant. The latter job didn’t pay much, but once they learned the culinary trade, becoming a cook would offer them treatment no worse than that of a sentry.
Back when they had been busy from dawn to dusk every day yet could never quite fill their stomachs, Tianu would often think:
‘God, if only I could have one day off. If I didn’t have to do anything at all and could just sit outside the door and stare into space, how wonderful would that be?’
But now, everyone in the family had enough to eat. They could even afford black bread, and occasionally, in an extravagant display, they would eat the small mutant beasts they caught themselves instead of selling them.
They had even started heating their home.
This was the kind of wonderful life that only the town lord had been able to enjoy in the past.
And now that Tianu could eat his fill every day, he no longer resented working at all.
In the morning, before the first ray of sunlight had even appeared, he would already have his eyes open. He would get out of bed full of energy and start planning what work he needed to do that day.
Did the weeds in the fields need pulling? Should he set a few more traps? Had the important people from [Ota] issued any new orders or tasks today?
It wasn’t just Tianu. Lothor and their children were the same.
The flesh on their faces no longer hung loosely from their bones, and the dullness had disappeared from their eyes, replaced by a lively spark.
After waking up in the morning, the family had even started greeting one another.
“Morning, Dad. Are you all ready?”
The youngest child in the family, Mishar, was busy doing something at the doorway. When she saw her father come out, she greeted him.
Tianu rolled his shoulders. “Good morning, Mishar. I think I’m ready. What should I do next?”
Mishar said, “You and Mom can grind up the wheat bran and dried flour for me. I’m still preparing the meat right now. Could you help me mince it into a meat paste later?”
Lothor also came out of the house. Seeing all kinds of ingredients and seasonings spread across the ground outside, she opened her eyes in surprise.
“Oh! Mishar, you never told us you’d prepared this much food.”
A day earlier, Mishar had excitedly returned home from the miner’s cafeteria that had recently opened in town, where she worked as an assistant.
She told them that her teacher—the old chef from [Ota]—had informed her that [Ota] would be sending out numerous survey teams. They would travel throughout the entire Broken River Wasteland.
When the survey teams eventually passed through their town, some of their members might want to buy something to eat.
So Mishar had decided to make some Moon Silk Star-style snacks and set up a stall at the town entrance.
After she described her idea to her teacher, the old chef said it sounded quite similar to grilled sausages and that the survey teams would probably like them.
With her teacher’s approval, Mishar immediately rushed home and told her family about her grand plan. After discussing it together, the entire family decided to help her.
The main reason was simple:
[Ota] employees really did pay when they bought things.
Although they paid with currency issued by [Ota], once people discovered that those banknotes could actually be exchanged for food at [Ota]’s supply exchange centers, the currency had effectively replaced nuclear crystals and become the common currency throughout the Broken River Wasteland.
Now, whenever Mishar thought about what those banknotes looked like, the corners of her mouth couldn’t help curling upward.
She explained to her parents,
“My teacher said there would be a lot of people, so he told me to prepare plenty of ingredients.”
Tianu also felt that they had prepared far, far too many ingredients.
“If that’s the case, you’ll have to make at least five hundred Fufus. What are we going to do if you can’t sell them all?”
Mishar said, “If we can’t sell them all, we’ll just eat them ourselves little by little. It’s pretty cold lately, so they’ll keep just fine.”
Those words would have been absolutely impossible for this family to say in the past.
Making Fufus required mutant beast meat, and before this, their family would only eat Fufus once a year. Even then, they would use scraps of meat for the filling.
But now, Mishar could say it so casually, and after thinking it over, her parents agreed with her.
Mishar added, “Oh, right. Don’t call them Fufus anymore. Just call them grilled sausages. The important people from [Ota] will like that name better.”
“All right, all right. Come on, let’s get to work and see how well they sell today.”
Mishar’s brothers and sisters gradually woke up as well. The whole family worked away for half a day, then carried the tools they had borrowed to the entrance of the town and got everything ready.
One hour passed.
Then two hours.
Nothing appeared in the distance.
Her older brother asked, “Mishar, are you sure they’re coming?”
Mishar was getting anxious too, but she still answered,
“[Ota]’s main headquarters is quite a distance from here. The survey teams probably need some time to travel, too.”
Her older sister said, “Should I go farther ahead and take a look?”
Lothor suddenly stood up.
“No, there’s no need. They’re already here.”
An enormous vehicle came speeding toward them.
As it reached the entrance to the town, it slowed down, revealing the faces of several young employees inside.
“Oh? Are you running a stall?”
Mishar forcibly suppressed her nervousness.
“Yes, sir. We’re selling grilled sausages.”
“How much?”
“Three cents each, sir.”
The people inside the vehicle sniffed.
“Give us seven. I want spicy. Do you guys want spicy ones?”
Mishar was overjoyed.
They had actually made their first sale so quickly!
She hurriedly prepared the sausages according to their preferences and handed them over.
The other party quickly handed over the currency issued by [Ota], and Mishar carefully counted out the change, watching as they drove away.
Before she even had time to celebrate their first sale, another vehicle arrived behind them.
“Grilled sausages? Give me fifteen… No, make that thirty.”
Before Mishar could answer, another vehicle pulled up behind it.
“We want some too. Ten!”
Then another vehicle. And another. And another.
More and more vehicles began lining up behind them.
One car overtook the queue, but after realizing that people up ahead were selling grilled sausages, it actually circled back and joined the line at the rear.
Another new vehicle arrived.
“What are you all blocking the road for? Isn’t there another road beside you?”
Someone in the car ahead answered, “They’re selling grilled sausages up ahead. They’re locals.”
“Oh? Grilled sausages from Moon Silk Star? I want some too. I’m getting in line!”
At that moment, the entire Mishar family was frantically grilling sausages as fast as they could while watching their stock of ingredients disappear at an astonishing rate.
For the first time in their lives, the family understood what it meant to make so much money that their hands went numb, and what it meant to have money literally thrust at them while being completely unable to earn it fast enough.
Mishar was so busy she almost wished she could mutate on the spot.
“Quick! Sis, go buy some more ingredients! Big brother, go bring more charcoal over! Hurry, hurry! We’ll be able to handle it in no time.”
“Mishar, look ahead first.”
The whole family, each of them wishing they had eight hands, looked up in unison.
They stared at the incredibly, incredibly long line of vehicles stretching so far into the distance that they couldn’t see the end—and which was still growing.
Their hands, aching and trembling from the relentless, high-speed work, began to shake slightly.
“……”
Were there really this many survey teams from [Ota]?!
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