Before leaving Linghu Wetland Park, Chu Guang took Ye Shi to the mutant leech nest near the parking lot.
"We found those mushrooms there." Ye Shi pointed to the broken cement pipe not far ahead.
"Fortunately you didn't go in."
Chu Guang patted Ye Shi on the shoulder.
"Let's go."
"It's not our target today."
I heard that leeches can be used as medicine, but I don't know if mutant leeches can be used as medicine.
The two carefully avoided the mutant leech nest, avoided the lush vegetation and concrete ruins, and tried to walk in the sun.
They walked a distance to the east.
Looking at the elevated road bridge and residential buildings in front, Ye Shi, who was following Chu Guang, couldn't help asking.
"Aren't we going hunting?"
"Yes."
"Then why are we getting farther and farther from the forest?"
"The forest is ahead."
"?"
Chu Guang did not explain much, silently took off the iron rifle on his back, pushed the bullet into the chamber, and his momentum changed.
Not far away, there is a broken viaduct.
On the concrete load-bearing columns covered with moss, the traces of time are hidden by the shadows of green plants.
The rats as big as basins licked the muddy water in the stone pit of the gutter. When they found the two uninvited guests who broke in, they quickly ran to the grass on the side.
Ye Shi raised his head, his pupils slightly dilated, and a touch of shocking color was printed on them.
Behind the broken viaduct, there were tall buildings covered with vines and moss. The thick roots drilled through the cracked concrete ground, and the tree trunks rose from the ground in the middle of the road, overturning the cars and bus stations that had long turned into iron slag.
This green hell is full of vitality, but also contains murderous intent that devours everything.
The world in front of him was too shocking, and every frame seemed like a post-apocalyptic artwork, so that Ye Shi even forgot that this was the "game world".
At this moment, he finally understood the meaning of Chu Guang's words.
Here is the real forest...
"Be careful from here on."
As Chu Guang spoke, he opened the safety of the iron tube rifle and explored forward step by step.
Although this is only the northern suburbs of Qingquan City, far from the core urban area, we still have to be vigilant.
High-rise residential buildings, sewers, three-dimensional gardens, parking lots, drone hives, CNC planting towers, maglev stations, and behind every window...
All man-made miracles, after being abandoned by civilization, have become natural greenhouses and seedling beds.
After the nuclear war, this land did have a long winter, but it only lasted less than half a century.
The power of nature reversed everything.
The first to fall were high-rise buildings, with mosses starting along the backlit side, eroding upwards, and eventually covering the entire building.
And those non-high-rise buildings were not spared either.
In the years of human decline, it only took a few heavy rains and a sultry summer to turn this place into a paradise for the wild growth of fungi and angiosperms.
They provided abundant food for wild animals.
After the city's drainage system collapsed, the fresh water resources in the city were even more abundant than the nearby Ling Lake.
Wild animals and out-of-control poultry began to migrate from forests, lakes, and farms to cities with more comfortable living environments, and evolved into fierce and bloodthirsty mutants under the triple effects of radioactive substances, genetic weapons, and time.
They are collectively called aliens!
Of course...
The dangers here are far more than that.
Carefully moving forward along the side of Street 76, the surroundings were quiet. Just as Ye Shi was wondering where the aliens had gone, Chu Guang's voice came from the side.
"Something's going on."
Chu Guang suddenly stopped in front of a scrapped car.
Ye Shi immediately came to his senses, also stopped, and looked around nervously, but saw nothing.
"What happened?"
Chu Guang looked solemn.
"There are traces of survivors."
"Other survivors?!" Ye Shi was stunned, and lowered his voice like Chu Guang, but couldn't hide the excitement in his tone, "Are they the natives of the wasteland?"
Finally, he was going to see other NPCs!
He had been waiting for this moment for a long time!
Chu Guang glanced at him and knew what he was thinking.
"You don't have to be so excited, this is not something to be happy about."
"Why?"
"Because in this kind of place, strangers are more dangerous than aliens."
Without explaining to him more, Chu Guang squatted down and found a string of cans strung with wire behind the scrapped wheel.
The aluminum can broke outwards, and from the broken end it looked like something had exploded, and the residual smell of rotten eggs could be faintly smelled.
"Gunpowder with excessive sulfur, as well as thumbtacks and iron sheets..."
Chu Guang frowned.
Mutants?
Or predators?
Survivors generally do not deploy tripwire mines near settlements.
This kind of thing is unlikely to hurt alien species with a keen sense of smell, in other words, humans.
Judging from the residual smell, the explosion should not have happened soon, at most five hours or even less.
Chu Guang turned around and asked.
"When you came out of the underground, did you hear the explosion coming from the east?"
Ye Shi shook his head nervously.
"No."
"Wait for me here."
Looking at Chu Guang who put down the can and stood up, Ye Shi asked nervously.
"What are you going to do?"
"Investigate the situation ahead."
"I can go with you--"
"You, stay here."
Ye Shi wanted to insist, but when he met Chu Guang's eyes, the words on his lips were choked again, and finally nodded slowly.
The pressure from the authority dog made him feel that the man in front of him was not talking nonsense with him, and he might really be kicked off the line...
He told Ye Shi to hide next to the scrap car.
Chu Guang put away the gun, pulled out the sharpened steel pipe from his back, and quickly sneaked into the building on the side of the street with his body lowered.
Although he did intend to use this player as bait when he came out, the situation is different now.
There are other survivors on the opposite side, and it is very likely that they are predators or mutant tribes. Bait has lost its meaning and will alert the enemy.
Chu Guang looked solemn and tightened the steel pipe in his hand.
The straight-line distance from here to Linghu Wetland Park is at most 1 kilometer, which is too close to Shelter No. 404!
Especially now that the players are engaged in large-scale production, even if the smoke and sound generated are partially blocked by plants and concrete barriers, they will sooner or later be discovered by the people here over time.
Leaving these dangers is always a hidden danger.
Chu Guang is ready to kill.
Once he judges that the other party may pose a threat, he will not hesitate to strike first.
The ten-story building along the street has a narrow safety passage, and the small space is covered with moss.
But fortunately, there are no particularly dangerous alien species here.
There are a few fat mutant rats around the fifth floor. They may feel that they are "more rats than rats" and they are not aware of their own dangers. They are baring their teeth at Chu Guang.
If they were running away with their backs turned, they would have swarmed over, but this uninvited guest was not afraid at all, so they were timid by nature and did not dare to act rashly. They only dared to tentatively pretend to pounce and bared their teeth.
They were already used to this.
Chu Guang said nothing, and directly stabbed the nearest mutant rat with a pipe, killing one immediately.
Seeing that this guy was so fierce, the rats immediately fled like birds and beasts, entered the floor entrance, and disappeared into the shadows.
"It doesn't look like a rat's nest."
"There should be only about ten or twenty..."
If there are more, these guys will be difficult to deal with.
Even fully armed mercenaries will have a hard time dealing with a group of mutant rats, not to mention himself with only an iron pipe rifle.
Chu Guang breathed a sigh of relief and swung the pointed steel pipe, throwing the fat rat that was stabbed to death and the bloodstains down.
He went directly to the top floor of the tenth floor.
Chu Guang used the steel pipe in his hand as a crowbar to pry open the rusty door panel and enter the rooftop.
The wind on the rooftop was very strong.
He walked to the rusty water tank and looked towards the community in the east. The scene he saw really confirmed his guess.
In the open space in the middle of the concrete building, there stood a camp made of wood, with rags and construction waste blocking the view from the outside world.
The survivors' settlements in the wasteland can be roughly divided into two categories. One is to live directly in the houses that did not collapse before the war, and the other is to start a new life in the ruins or on the open space, depending on the surrounding conditions.
Predators living in urban areas usually live in buildings and rarely build such primitive houses and fortifications.
Only mutants with an average height of two meters and a weight of more than 300 kilograms will build such wooden huts when there are ready-made houses to use.
The wooden stakes at the entrance of the camp were sharpened, like the fangs of wild beasts, with several broken limbs and corpses randomly worn on them, and dried blood on the ground.
They eat everything.
Not only fungi, but also fruits of plants, and even the meat of mutant flies, mice, and cockroaches.
Of course, their favorite food is still their former kind -
Two-legged people.
Looking along both sides of the street, Chu Guang saw a mutant sentinel carrying a metal longbow on the roof of a shop along the street at the end of Street 76.
The green skin looks like the orcs in fantasy movies, and in fact, they are as strong, savage, rude and bloodthirsty as orcs.
The two-meter-tall and knotted muscles are wrapped in armor made of metal garbage. The billboard of the chest armor even reads "Second half price".
The two outward-turned steel bars on the shoulders are the dragon heads directly removed from bicycles - this thing is very effective in dealing with chopping and blunt injuries, and can jam chainsaws or axes.
It can be said to be quite cyberpunk.
If Chu Guang and Ye Shi continued to walk forward, they would have been ambushed by the mutant sentry at the intersection at most!
There was a faint fear in his heart.
Chu Guang's Adam's apple moved slightly, and he moved his eyes and continued to look at the mutant camp in the community to the east.
Due to too many obstructions, he couldn't see how many people were inside. He could only roughly judge from the size of the camp based on experience that the number of mutants should be between twenty and thirty.
"A small mutant settlement..."
Chu Guang's expression gradually became solemn.
These guys are not easy to mess with!
Almost at the same time, a light blue system pop-up window appeared in his field of vision.
[Mission: Destroy the mutant tribe on Street 76
Type: Side Quest
Reward: 200 bonus points
]
Wait -
Can the mission be triggered outside the shelter? !
Chu Guang was stunned at first, and immediately tried to call out the system, but there was no response.
The light blue mission pop-up window dissipated, as if it had never appeared.
It seems that the system can only be opened near the shelter, but the mission can be triggered anywhere outside the shelter?
However...
These two hundred bonus points are quite awesome.
No hesitation.
Chu Guang immediately put away his weapon, turned around and went downstairs, and quickly left the area with Ye Shi, who was confused.
That's a 200-point reward!
The side quest that summons 100 players only gives 100 points, but this reward gives 200. It's obvious that this task is not so easy to complete.
Maybe there is a big pit hidden in it!
Chu Guang is not stupid.
He won't fall for such an obvious trick.
"Mr. Manager, what did you see?" Looking at Chu Guang who finally stopped, Ye Shi, who was panting, rested on his knees with his hands, and couldn't help asking.
Chu Guang, who stood still to rest, answered casually.
"It's the mutant camp."
"Then we... just leave like this?"
"Otherwise, fight with them? If you lose, you will be thrown into the oil pan?" Chu Guang glanced at him, "Think about it with your brain, we only have one gun."
There is even only one person who can fight.
Ye Shi shut up and said nothing.
He just didn't think about it and just thought that the mutants were NPCs in this game. Now he heard what the manager said, these mutants should be hostile forces?
And they can eat people...
After secretly noting this information, Ye Shi planned to share it with other players after returning.
"It's not a good idea to provoke those beasts now. We need to be more fully prepared and concentrate our efforts to kill them once and for all."
Chu Guang cursed as he walked away.
"It's so unlucky... The mutant camp is actually on Street 76, right opposite the east gate of the park."
"No matter what, we have to be careful!"
...
The original hunting route can only be deviated!
Chu Guang led Ye Shi to bypass Street 76 and walked about a mile north along the elevated road bridge out of the city, and found an abandoned construction site.
The construction site is very large, and it should be a building that has just started construction. One of the buildings has been built to the 17th or 18th floor, and the other several large pits should be the foundations being dug.
Most of the construction equipment has been scrapped, and the crane has even smashed into the unfinished building, forming a slope.
It can be seen that the quality of this house is still good.
Even the crane was knocked down by the shock wave of the nuclear explosion, but the concrete building was only smashed into a gap, and even the main structure was not damaged.
The steel piled on the construction site has rusted, and the cement in the bags has also hydrated and deteriorated and can no longer be used.
However, what is surprising is that Chu Guang found a large number of unused blue-gray stones here!
Chu Guang recognized it at a glance. This thing is limestone. If I remember correctly, the main component should be calcium carbonate, which can be used as a raw material for burning cement.
"Good stuff!"
Chu Guang was secretly happy, turned out the map, and made a mark on it.
If all these limestones are refined into cement, it will not be a problem to build two buildings.
As long as Lao Bai unlocks the technology of burning calcium carbonate cement, they will not have to worry about the raw materials of cement for a long time in the future!