Chapter 133: Mynah, Have You Bulked Up?

In the world of the apocalypse, that plants could mutate was common knowledge to anyone still breathing.

The towering trees before them, growing normally and lusciously lush in the midst of a howling, sub-zero blizzard—if these were not mutated, they would gladly pluck off their own heads and use them as footballs.

"Captain, should we cross?"

A team member looked ahead at the belt of mutated woods, his heart filled with unease.

Obscured by the blizzard's limited visibility, they could not tell how vast this mutated forest actually was, making detouring rather impractical.

"Those snowmobiles drove straight through. Be careful, and it should be fine, right?"

A cleverer, younger member pointed out the residual tracks left in the snow.

That was true!

Reminded thus, Lu Ge experienced a sudden realization of enlightenment.

Under normal circumstances, encountering mutated giant trees, mutated vines, or mutated weeds, the wisest course of action was to steer clear of them.

Later on, however, some people discovered that many mutated plants were remarkably docile and would not actively attack humans.

As long as humans did not hack at them with axes and blades, there generally wouldn't be any major issues.

Otherwise, anywhere trees grew would be entirely uninhabitable for humans, let alone suitable for mutated animals.

"Hmm, these mutated trees should be safe."

Lu Ge patted the young member who had reminded him on the shoulder. "You two, take a snowmobile and go check it out first."

The clever young member froze for a moment. He had merely wanted to showcase his insight, but never expected the captain to order him to scout the way directly. That was not how things were supposed to go.

This unexpected turn of events instantly filled him with doubt about his own previously confident judgment.

As for the second person called upon alongside him, he felt his blood run entirely cold.

Damn it!

It wasn't even him who had noticed those four ability users driving straight through the mutated forest belt; why drag him into this?

Yet, Lu Ge had handed them a snowmobile, which could be considered the utmost display of sincerity.

Furthermore, if they failed to find reinforcements at the Four Seas Base, the families they left behind there would likely end up devoured by the cannibals.

With these thoughts in mind, the two men gritted their teeth, boarded a snowmobile, and drove toward the mutated forest belt, preparing to pass through.

"Those ability users ahead made it through, so there's no reason we can't."

The clever young member muttered, reaching out to start the snowmobile.

"Wait."

Lu Ge looked solemnly at the two of them, straightened their collars, and brushed the fallen snow from their shoulders. "I know you might be dissatisfied with this arrangement, but there are some things I need to make clear to you."

"Before we set off, Captain Yu Yuangui told me that every member, including myself, has family we wish to protect inside the Four Seas Base. That is why he chose us for this mission."

"We came seeking rescue for the Four Seas Base. If the base receives no reinforcements, everyone there will be eaten by the cannibals."

"Therefore, no matter what happens, we need someone to stay alive and carry on with the mission."

"For the Four Seas Base, and for our families."

The clever young member glanced at Lu Ge, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Let me try alone."

The other man sitting on the snowmobile froze for a second. "Wait, really? Can you do that?"

He looked toward Lu Ge.

Lu Ge nodded. "Very well, try it alone."

The other designated team member climbed off the snowmobile. "I hope you succeed."

"Right, I'm heading in."

The clever young member started the snowmobile, driving toward the mutated forest belt to make his way through.

Thirty meters. Twenty meters. Ten meters. Five meters. One meter.

He was in!

The clever young member's eyes lit up. The mutated giant trees did not stop him; his judgment had been correct.

Suddenly, just as he was about to drive out of the mutated forest belt, several branches whipped down, blocking his path while letting the driverless snowmobile continue forward on its own.

"Aah!"

He let out a miserable scream.

As an ability user, he had prepared himself for sudden contingencies.

Yet, before he even hit the ground, branches from above pierced completely through his body, paralyzing him in an instant.

The next second, numerous thick roots burst out from beneath the deep snow amidst the freezing blizzard, impaling his torso and tearing him to shreds like a ragdoll in the blink of an eye.

The roots each coiled around a portion of his mangled corpse and dragged them beneath the snow.

The horrific scene left Lu Ge and the others struck dumb with astonishment.

He was dead.

Just like that, he was dead.

Lu Ge felt his mind go entirely blank.

It wasn't as if he had never seen ferocious mutated trees before, but never one as vicious as this.

This was far more terrifying and merciless than any bloodthirsty mutated animal.

"Captain, what should we do now?"

One of the team members asked.

Lu Ge replied, "Let's go check out the ruins of the Vulcan Base first. If possible, we can take temporary shelter from the wind and snow there."

Right now, they had no other choice but to wait.

...

Sun Rong, Chu Zekai, Yu Feng, and Guo Yihang returned to the villa and unloaded the firewood.

"Should we report the situation regarding the Four Seas Base to Her Majesty the Witch?"

Guo Yihang asked.

After all, this involved the Witch, and reporting it felt somewhat troublesome, yet failing to report it seemed even worse.

Sun Rong said, "Let's report it. Leave two people behind to watch for anyone tracking our vehicle tracks, and one person can come with me to see Her Majesty."

Chu Zekai volunteered, "I'll go."

Guo Yihang and Yu Feng looked surprised that Chu Zekai would be so proactive.

Although they had visited the Witch's place many times before, every single visit was filled with sheer terror.

For Chu Zekai to willingly volunteer was a good thing.

Ten minutes later, Sun Rong and Chu Zekai arrived at the villa where the Witch resided.

Su Miao was currently planting white radishes, red radishes, and purple radishes in her newly cleared vegetable plot—varieties she had never cultivated before.

The feeding experiment with the field mice and little white rabbits was coming to an end, meaning she would soon be able to eat these fresh vegetables.

Therefore, she had planted a portion of every vegetable seed in her collection.

From then on, no matter where she was, she would never run out of fresh vegetables.

"Your Majesty!"

Upon seeing Su Miao busy in the garden, Sun Rong immediately offered a respectful greeting.

Su Miao stood up, glanced at them, and said nothing.

She had seen the two men coming from a distance.

Perhaps out of familiarity, she no longer felt overly nervous or frightened upon seeing Sun Rong and Chu Zekai.

"Your Majesty, while logging near the Vulcan Base, we encountered people coming from the north who claimed to be from the Four Seas Base. They said the Four Seas Base is currently under siege by twenty thousand cannibals and are seeking rescue from the mysterious faction that destroyed the Vulcan Base."

Sun Rong reported the intelligence he had gathered. "They mistook us for members of that mysterious force and, at the end, specifically warned us that if the Four Seas Base falls, the cannibals will undoubtedly head south to cause trouble for us."

He didn't dare meet Su Miao's eyes for long, lowering his head slightly after speaking as he anxiously awaited her reply.

"I see."

Su Miao looked at the vegetable patch before her and said, "From now on, you are still to harvest the vegetables in the garden every five days. The harvested amount should be enough to last you five days—harvest more when there is an abundance, and less when yields are low."

Sun Rong bowed. "Understood, Your Majesty."

Seeing that Su Miao had nothing more to say, Sun Rong prepared to leave with Chu Zekai.

Chu Zekai suddenly spoke up, "Your Majesty, may I pick a few tomatoes to eat?"

Because Su Miao's recently planted tomatoes matured quite slowly, he had finished the ones he picked last time long ago. Seeing the tomato plants laden with so many bright red tomatoes once again, his mouth was watering.

Su Miao nodded. "Go ahead."

Chu Zekai beamed. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

He picked six tomatoes, each weighing around three pounds, and happily returned with Sun Rong.

Sun Rong looked at Chu Zekai, utterly speechless.

This guy tagged along just to eat tomatoes?

At the same time, he admired Chu Zekai's audacity—wasn't he afraid the Witch would blow his head off with a gunshot?

Watching Sun Rong and Chu Zekai depart, Su Miao turned her attention back to her vegetable patch.

A sudden thought crossed her mind.

If Chinese cabbage and green vegetables could grow to fifty or sixty centimeters after using the growth serum, how large would these radishes grow?

Never mind, she would just grow them first and find out.

Ancient wisdom said that eating radishes in winter was more nourishing than old mountain ginseng, and adding a bit of pork would make them exceptionally delicious.

Su Miao was filled with anticipation.

As for the intelligence Sun Rong brought, those people who escaped the Four Seas Base to beg for rescue were simply dreadful.

They were outright liars.

There were clearly only a little over eighty thousand cannibals, yet they deliberately exaggerated the number to twenty thousand—why not claim forty thousand while they were at it?

And that "mysterious faction" that supposedly destroyed the Vulcan Base—it was just her alone.

Where on earth was there any mysterious faction?

These people must harbor malicious intentions.

So terrifying!

Wait...

Su Miao seemed to realize something.

Could the people of the Four Seas Base be trying to lure the cannibals toward her territory?

Su Miao couldn't help but shudder slightly. In an apocalyptic world, heaven knows what kind of unhinged things desperate people would do just to survive.

Her gaze shifted toward the distance. Should she take advantage of the heavy snow and plant a few more mutated giant trees?

It was too cold; she didn't want to go outside.

She might as well continue studying magic!

No matter how many cannibals came, launching a large-scale AOE magical attack would be far more effective than bullets.

"Ah, it's noon. Time to eat."

Su Miao checked the time, wrapped up her work, and headed inside for lunch.

Just as Su Miao finished setting up her pot, the myna bird returned right on schedule.

Looking at the myna, which seemed to have grown slightly larger, Su Miao blinked. "Myna, have you gotten sturdier?"

The myna hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, myna meat doesn't taste good at all!"

?

Su Miao replied, "Most bird meat is quite sour, I know that."

The myna heaved a sigh of relief, watching with eager anticipation as Su Miao began to stew a beef and mushroom hotpot.

It even reached out with its claw and grabbed a pair of chopsticks...

This action left Su Miao visibly stunned.

Goodness gracious, had the bird actually learned how to use chopsticks?

In truth, during its outings over the past few days, whenever it had free time, the myna would grow its body slightly larger and practice using chopsticks.

What else could it do? The Witch always forgot to feed it whenever mealtime rolled around.

Twenty-five minutes later, the mushrooms in the pot were ready to eat.

Su Miao ladled a bowl for herself.

Then, watching the myna pick up a ladle, she helped it scoop a bowl.

Following that, the myna skillfully picked up some beef with its chopsticks, laid the chopsticks down, and happily began eating the beef.

Unbelievable!

...

Led by Lu Ge, the rescue team from the Four Seas Base arrived near the Vulcan Base.

Following the clues provided by Yuangui, they attempted to locate the ruins of the Vulcan Base.

Their luck was quite good; before long, they discovered the entrance to the Vulcan Base.

"Captain, look, it's the entrance!"

A team member pointed toward a massive snow crater.

Such a phenomenon was easy to understand: most likely, some mutated creature had discovered the ruins of the Vulcan Base and claimed it as a new nest, which explained the massive icy cave entrance.

Lu Ge walked over and took a look.

Perhaps due to the heavy blizzard, no traces of birds, beasts, or humans could be seen nearby—only their own footprints.

"Indeed, this is it."

Lu Ge unfurled his map, confirming their coordinates. "This should be the back entrance of the Vulcan Base that Supervisor Yu Yuangui mentioned."

"There are no human footprints here, nor any tracks of mutated animals. It should be safe."

"The cave entrance was probably blasted open by the residual heat trapped inside the Vulcan Base."

"In this freezing blizzard weather, can an abandoned base really retain heat?"

"Supervisor Yu Yuangui said there is a hot spring inside the Vulcan Base."

"Really? If there's a hot spring, does that mean geothermal activity exists here?"

An eager team member chimed in, "Captain, let's go inside to warm up. It's far too cold out here."

Lu Ge cautioned, "Wait, we still don't know what might be inside."

This...

Hearing Lu Ge's concern, the other ten team members' expressions shifted.

They had been so overjoyed upon finding the ruins of the Vulcan Base that they had completely forgotten about potential dangers.

They still vividly remembered the teammate who had been torn limb from limb by mutated trees just a few hours earlier.

"Let's send a few people in to scout the situation first."

Lu Ge looked among his squad members. "Any volunteers? Those who enter the ruins first may keep whatever they find; it won't need to be turned in, and I won't report it."

A fallen base, if searched thoroughly, would invariably yield some valuable finds.

To motivate everyone, Lu Ge made this offer.

Soon, five freezing team members volunteered and entered the Vulcan Base along the tunnel.

Pitch-black inside, the base was illuminated by the beam of a searchlight, revealing dried blood and shattered corpses scattered everywhere—a chilling sight.

Just what on earth had happened inside the Vulcan Base to make it so tragic?

The five of them felt a deep sense of dread.

However, they were all ability users and elites of the Four Seas Base; unless they encountered an exceptionally dangerous mutated creature, they could hold their own.

There was no need to panic.

Yet, what the five men did not know was that as they entered the Vulcan Base, the Undead Queen in the darkness opened her eyes.

Before the Undead Queen lay a hot spring, and right in front of her was a pool of blood.

Flanking her were eight powerful undead guardians.

"Fresh flesh and blood have entered," the Undead Queen said in an eerie, slow voice. "We need their blood. We need more blood."

The eight powerful undead dropped to one knee and vanished into the darkness.

It was a battle without the slightest suspense.

The powerful undead disguised themselves as ordinary corpses, launching a sudden, ferocious ambush the moment the five ability users from the Four Seas Base drew close.

Two had their necks snapped on the spot, one was pierced through the heart, and the remaining two were heavily wounded.

"Help!"

"Help! Help!"

They screamed at the top of their lungs, hoping their comrades outside could save them.

As for resistance—severely wounded as they were, it wasn't that they hadn't considered it, but the undead attacking them had been coated in a highly toxic hallucinogenic potion.

Consequently, their wounds deteriorated instantly, and they collapsed after taking only a few steps.

Moments later, their corpses were dragged before the blood pool. Looking down at the two rotting bodies, the Undead Queen murmured, "The blood is tainted... what a waste..."