“……” Gu Ming gazed at him with a look of mixed emotions, then glanced at the familiar dark green device on his right hand and the object in his left hand.
“That mutated plant—did you deal with it?”
“No, I just hacked at it a few times, cut off those things, and then it ran away.” He certainly couldn’t say he had stored it away; after all, it was not just one plant, but a nest.
Lin Ya smiled and stood up to walk outside. “I’m going to find some supplies.”
His backpack was next to Gu Ming, now bulging with not only a pile of succulent pieces but also about ten mangoes, unlike its initially deflated appearance.
Once he left, Gu Ming looked at the succulent in his hand, swallowed hard, and his stomach growled.
Should he… give it a try?
After all, if Lin Ya died, he would probably starve too.
He cautiously sniffed it, finding it not unpleasant, with a very fresh fragrance.
Aloe vera scent?
He tentatively took a bite, only to discover it had a watery texture, like the taste of plain water.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had a proper drink of water since the apocalypse began!
Who could understand this juicy sensation?!
Due to severe water shortages, most supplies in the base were recycled water, the body’s excreted fluids filtered and turned back into water sources. This was the end of the world; there was no room for picky choices.
This feeling of no distasteful aftertaste made Gu Ming reminisce about how, before the apocalypse, he would chug a big glass of cold water after exercising in the summer at school when his throat felt extremely parched.
“…… This is nice.” He smacked his lips, reluctantly putting down the emptied skin, and turned to his right hand, intensely eyeing the succulent used to stabilize his wrist.
It wasn’t until Lin Ya came back carrying a pile of items that he returned to his previous weak and feeble demeanor.
[Host, you would never guess what he looked like just now.] 123 didn’t follow Lin Ya outside but was lurking on the backpack, eyeing him warily.
[This guy was actually planning to eat the succulent he had on his hand!]
“What are you doing?” Gu Ming noticed he had brought a bunch of broken boards from the rubble and was knocking and tapping on them, unclear about his intentions.
“Do you think it’s easier to carry it or drag it along?” Lin Ya was uncertain how long the materials would withstand the outside’s high temperature, but dragging it would certainly save him more effort.
The young man lying in the corner slightly widened his eyes and choked on his words, “You… want to take me with you?”
“Yeah.”
Gu Ming thought about how the base would soon be closing, so after much contemplation, he still felt it would be better for Lin Ya to go on his own; bringing him along might delay their return to the base.
“The base is going to shut down the surface passage in a few days due to an impending superstorm. If you take me, we might not make it back in time.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is…” The obligation to return within ten days to the base was clear.
Lin Ya nodded. “My locator is broken, and I can’t contact the base. Thanks for letting me know.”
Gu Ming unclipped the location watch from his left wrist with his teeth and handed it to him. “My watch only has the location of the southern base; you can go there first. When the restrictions are lifted, you can find a way back to the Hope Base.”
Lin Ya didn’t take it and continued to sort through the pile of items.
“Since you have this time, you should hit the road early. Bringing you along is just a minor inconvenience for me.”
Since Lin Ya had said so, Gu Ming naturally wouldn’t say anything more; he didn’t want to die if he could help it.
Before long, the pile of items was fashioned into a rectangular box large enough for Gu Ming’s 1.8-meter height to lie down in, with a cover even.
“…… Why does this thing look so much like a coffin?” He twitched his lips.
“The exterior temperature is too high, and your protective suit has damage. It’s best not to face UV rays directly; this is more suitable,” Lin Ya explained.
As the time in the upper left corner slid down to six full days, Lin Ya lifted him inside. The wood was inevitably hard and uncomfortable. Gu Ming’s upper body clothing had been torn due to bandaging his wounds, so he could only lie down in the protective suit with his upper body bare.
Lin Ya placed his backpack beside him and used the nylon rope he had gathered to secure the wooden box, dragging it outside.
At first, dragging was a bit laborious, but after Lin Ya adapted, he swallowed a strength-enhancing pill bought from the system store and soon found it easy to pull.
[There are too many ruins ahead; the host will have to take a detour to get the box through, or it won’t pass.]
‘Yeah, 123, thanks for the help.’
[Helping the host makes me happy too. Hehe.]
After taking the strength-enhancing pill, walking became much easier. Being linked to 123 was perhaps a stroke of luck; without 123, Gu Ming would likely have failed his tasks in this world.
If it were him alone, encountering mutated plants like Lin Ya, he might have found it challenging to navigate back to the base with only pre-apocalypse maps.
And importantly, the reason the mission mandated a return to the base within ten days was clear to Gu Ming.
No wonder this was a high-level world; the survival system’s store had only a handful of items available for purchase, food and water included, but they were shockingly expensive.
By contrast, 123’s system store was full of items and cheap; while he enjoyed experiencing survival in different worlds, who would want to suffer if they could be comfortable?
Not everyone was a masochist.
The detours weren’t too many, and once they left the city’s range, Lin Ya would randomly stop when they got hungry. The two relied solely on the succulents to fill their stomachs, with only two cans of nutrient liquid left untouched.
Though it was filling, the taste wasn’t particularly good.
Under limited conditions, they still chose succulents, which could also replenish moisture in high temperatures.
And so they traveled for two days, with about 180 kilometers remaining to the base; maintaining this speed, they should reach before the base closed.
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