Chapter 1806: Jade Bird City
After dealing with the remaining few mutant beasts, Xu Huo turned back and cut open the severed limb, revealing a silver bracelet engraved with patterns inside.
No one would be so bored as to put decorations on a mutant beast, and he had just seen a photo of this bracelet in the room where he found the notebook recording information about mutant beasts.
So this mutant beast didn’t evolve from an animal—it was a person from Zone 010.
However, its appearance was far removed from that of a human, completely different from the mutant beasts he had seen on the initial inspection train.
Mutant beasts carried toxins, and the consequence of ingesting them orally was direct degeneration into a mutant beast. This situation was even worse than immediate death. Zone 010 was also short on food and water, and it was likely that people driven mad by hunger would target mutant beasts.
To avoid facing more mutant beasts directly, Xu Huo quickly left the area. While crossing the city from the rooftops, he used his mental power to scan most places. Aside from a few mutant beasts that hadn’t starved to death yet, there was nothing else alive.
Finding nothing, he had no choice but to continue searching elsewhere. Unexpectedly, he didn’t find any trace of human presence again until nightfall. This expanse of yellow sand seemed like an ocean with no land in sight—no matter which direction he went, the scenery was the same.
After dark, the desert temperature began to drop, making it much more comfortable than during the day. Xu Huo released Fan Yunhong to get some fresh air.
Seeing that it was already dark and they were still in the desert, Fan Yunhong sat silently to the side, gnawing on dry rations. During this time, he glanced at Xu Huo’s feet several times, and finally couldn’t help but say, “There are poisonous insects in the desert. It’s best to wear boots.”
Xu Huo was wearing slippers. He didn’t react to this remark, and only brought up the Black Thorn disease again when they finished eating and rested.
Speaking about something he knew, Fan Yunhong perked up a little.
“The Black Thorn disease didn’t exist from the start. In the first few years after the upheaval in Zone 010, this disease wasn’t around. Later, somehow, many people suddenly contracted it.”
“Because the disease starts growing from the hands and feet, it can’t be hidden. At first, everyone thought it was from sun exposure or drought, until the spots grew more and more, and people began to feel unwell. Only after medical researchers studied it carefully did they determine it was a genetic disease that only spread among Zone 010 people, but there’s no treatment.”
“People in Zone 010 already live miserably enough. As long as it doesn’t affect movement for a while, not many people care. I don’t care much either…”
He took off his gloves, revealing the back of his hand covered in scars, and turned it over to show it, saying, “Look at this, it’s like spots. Usually, it doesn’t hurt or itch, and it doesn’t affect daily life.”
“Besides, in this environment, living a few years less doesn’t matter.”
“After a few years, it became harder for children to be conceived, and if they were, it was difficult to give birth, or they died soon after birth. Only then did people realize this disease also affects fertility.”
Fan Yunhong didn’t feel strongly about this, only somewhat emotional, “I wonder how the treatment is going now.”
After saying this, he emphasized again, “This disease really isn’t contagious.”
“I know.” Xu Huo nodded, took out the RV, and said, “Rest now. We’ll set off early tomorrow morning.”
The next day, just before dawn, Xu Huo put away the vehicle that was half-buried in sand and set out again with Fan Yunhong.
This time, instead of prioritizing places he thought were more likely to have people, he selected several cities in different directions, including a safe zone, and used “Fate’s Choice” to evaluate them.
“Fate’s Choice” was upgraded from “Incident Trigger,” originally used to predict risks, but using it in reverse could also help him choose the right direction.
After activating the trait, when he looked at the positions corresponding to the several locations, a risk percentage appeared in his field of vision. It was unclear how far this judgment standard extended, but the first three locations showed 0.5%, 0.3%, and 0.6%. Such low risk rates basically meant encountering a poisonous scorpion or insect along the way. He might face a higher risk from actually tripping and stubbing his toe.
However, this was without knowing the judgment distance. So Xu Huo finally chose the direction with 2%. After moving forward for a while, he used “Fate’s Choice” again, and this probability increased to 3%. Then he compared it with other directions, and unexpectedly, the risk probability for one of them increased to 10%.
On the map, this location was once a developed city—the largest city near the CK12 Safe Zone: Jade Bird City.
Xu Huo changed direction and headed straight for Jade Bird City.
Ten minutes later, he appeared on the outskirts of Jade Bird City.
Visually, at least half of it was buried in sand. From the outside, the city’s perimeter had been reinforced with sand-proof barriers multiple times, but the ground inside the city was still covered in sand, thick in some places and thin in others. Overall, everything below the fifth floor in this city was almost entirely sand.
Additionally, the wind and sand were strong here, with the sky above the city gray and hazy. The sand seemed never to settle, so visibility was also low.
However, because of this, the temperature in Jade Bird City was slightly lower than outside.
Walking on sand was difficult, and mutant beasts or poisonous insects might appear at any time, so it was better to move within the buildings.
The city had been abandoned for a long time, with dust everywhere. But judging from the signs of rummaging, it hadn’t been long since someone was last here, and someone had deliberately written a warning in a conspicuous place: “Don’t eat mutant beast meat.”
The situation in Jade Bird City was slightly better than the two cities he had seen before. Fewer people had stayed in the city after the disaster, and there weren’t many traces of cannibalism left behind.
Xu Huo came to one of the warning signs and dug out the lower half buried in sand. Below, it not only stated that eating mutant beasts would cause degeneration into one in the short term but also marked a place where food could be obtained.
Someone had left food for the survivors.
Xu Huo followed the location and found that this place was already buried in sand. Fortunately, it wasn’t deep. After using a robot to clear the way, he separated the surrounding sand and found some military ration packaging bags, empty water bottles, and text written on the wall.
“Don’t trust the people who give you food. They want to eat you!”
After changing locations, Xu Huo found two more food drop-off points, all buried without exception. The subsequent warning signs no longer had food reminders.
Combining this with the previous situation, if the person who dropped the food was still alive, either they had also entered a difficult period of food shortage, or someone had tracked down the dropper based on the drop-off points. What happened afterward wasn’t hard to imagine.
In any case, if someone was willing to drop food to save other survivors, it meant their food stockpile was very large. Such places were usually large supermarkets, food processing plants, or even granaries. And the packaging bags he had seen earlier were quite mixed, so a large supermarket was more likely.
Xu Huo looked up from the city map and headed toward the right front. (End of chapter)