BXBX NOVEL Chapter 311: Nabu Town!
Edited by: Ulamog, Dedition
[Book 2: The South]
Facing facts, Chen Yao’s speed could never match an S2. Suddenly, her command experience learned at the Snake-Birth Tree site took over and she had no time for panic. Instead, she pointed at the attacking S2 and the numerous vines sprouted myriad 1 inch serrated thorns and shot towards it turning into an absolutely lethal net!
The S2 was extremely agile, yet it could not evade the oncoming net, and was immediately tangled within it. It started struggling frantically, waving its sharp claws about, tearing holes into the living net.
Just as the S2 was about to extract itself, the countless vines tightened up to bind the limbs of the S2.
While the S2 was an evolved form, its strength was not exceptional, and it could not overcome the tough vine spikes.
One of the thinner and sharper vines shot towards the struggling S2, and penetrated its head, nailing it to the ground.
A huge orb of experience entered Chen Yao’s body. Since that S2 was a Level 30 Evolved zombie, killing it represented a huge amount of experience for her. She instantly gained 3 levels upon absorption, reaching Level 19.
The more she killed the more excited she got, and Yue Zhong just followed behind as they eventually arrived at the slope.
Fan Tongxuan brought the survivors from yesterday as they humbled themselves and came to Yue Zhong respectfully: “Honorable lord, how do you do!! I am Fan Tongxuan! I am excited to meet you. How should we address you?”
Ruan Chunhua stood beside Fan Tongxuan acting as his translator, using blunt chinese translation to convey his message.
The rest of the 6 Vietnamese males were all attracted to the beautiful Chen Yao. She was naturally beautiful, and possessed a graceful aura. In addition to the military clothes on her, which gave her a heroic feel, it added to her charm. Furthermore, Chen Yao had never been through any difficulties, and her skin was full of splendor. She was not like most of the other survivors who had become emaciated or had their skin come to bear an unhealthy yellowish colour. 1* Therefore, Chen Yao was extremely attractive to them.
These Vietnamese then retracted their gazes with reluctance to look at Yue Zhong again. He had a Dark Tooth Blade by his waist, and his back had a Barrett Sniper and .03 rifle, which also attracted the men.
In this post-apocalyptic world, strength was everything. The fearsome might of the Barrett Sniper far surpassed the old Type 56 semi automatic rifle of Fan Tongxuan.
Yue Zhong looked towards Fan Tongxuan and said directly: “I am Yue Zhong!! This is my friend Chen Yao, this is White Bones.”
Yue Zhong pulled out a can of corned beef from his bag, and asked Fan Tongxuan directly: “What is this place? Whoever can answer my question, this can of corned beef will be his!!”
The moment he took out the corned beef, all gazes were locked upon it as if hypnotized. It was a can of corned beef after all, and these people had not had meat for God knows how long.
Ruan Chunhua looked at the can of beef and her eyes flashed with greed, as she immediately replied in a supremely detailed manner. “This is Nabu Town! We are about 80Li (*2) away from Lang Son City. If you want to go back to China, you can follow the main road towards the northeast direction. If you do that, you will eventually come to Friendship Town in Chinese lands. Can you give me the can of beef now?”
Yue Zhong laughed and threw the meat over to Ruan Chunhua: “Good!! This is yours!”
The can of beef was nothing to Yue Zhong. However, to these Vietnamese survivors, they were precious commodities. The males eyed the beef in Ruan Chunhua’s hands, their expressions full of envy and jealousy. They suddenly hated themselves for not learning chinese, and could only see the beef being taken by Ruan Chunhua.
After giving the can of beef to Ruan Chunhua, Yue Zhong turned around and made to leave. Other than the current location, there was nothing else that the Vietnamese could offer him which would shake his heart.
Fan Tongxuan’s face fell, and his eyes flashed with hope, as he shouted: “Please wait!! Esteemed Yue Zhong! I have important intel for you!! Ruan Chunhua, quickly tell him!!!”
It was rare to be able to converse properly with a strong Enhancer like Yue Zhong that did not harbor any ill intent, and Fan Tongxuan wanted to continue dealing with him, to gain some benefits.
Ruan Chunhua rushed to Yue Zhong’s side, and hastily translated Fan Tongxuan’s intentions. If she caused Fan Tongxuan to become infuriated with her because of inaction, her subsequent days were sure to be tougher.
Yue Zhong stopped in his tracks and turned his head to ask Fan Tongxuan: “What intel?”
As Yue Zhong was unfamiliar with the place, and had practically no knowledge whatsoever. In any foreign situation, having information could help him deal with things to come. He was of course, accordingly open to hearing good Intel as a result.
Fan Tongxuan heaved a sigh of relief, as he humbly spoke: “Esteemed Yue Zhong, it would not be easy to say it all here. May we invite you to come with us, let us treat you properly, before we speak further?”
This was after all a wrecked mockery of the old “civilized” society. Here and now, lives were cheap. Fan Tongxuan wasn’t some greenhorn who didn’t know this. He had interacted with Enhancers before, and knew that most of them were brave and had a little bit of luck, which allowed them to become Enhancers.
Some were extremely tyrannical and oppressive, killing without a word. Fan Tongxuan did not want to accidentally offend this Enhancer in front of him due to lack of manners.
“Fine!!” Yue Zhong pondered a while, before nodding his agreement.
Even if he were to return to China, making his way back to Long Hai City would definitely be tough. Staying a while to gain some information at Fan Tongxuan’s headquarters would not affect anything anyway. Gaining more local information could also potentially help save his life in the long run.
Under Fan Tongxuan’s lead, Yue Zhong and his party came to a small 4-story bungalow that was built in the middle of nowhere. Countless weeds and wild grass were growing all around it I an unrestrained manner.
In the field, even though there were a lot of wild grass patches growing, they were not edible. If humans were to eat them, they would suffer from painful diarrhea, enough to make you scream. Some of the grass was even worse and could cause deadly poisoning. Therefore, Fan Tongxuan and his group could only try to find some of the safely edible ones within those patches. It was pretty much like searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack.
Yue Zhong’s party arrived and went to the dining hall of the bungalow. All the males were seated at the table, and because of Yue Zhong, Chen Yao sat with them as well.
Not long after, a few scrawny boys and girls walked out, and sat huddled around a smaller table.
The women of the bungalow started serving and distributing the food to everybody.
The main staple food for the people here was a Mutant Sweet Potato that was the size of a wooden cask. Each male had 3 thin slices of the sweet potato as well as a soup.
The women had a slice as well as a bowl of soup.
The children needed nourishment, so they had 2 slices and a bowl of soup.
These women and children were savouring their meals quietly, no one had the look of being mistreated.
Seeing this, Yue Zhong nodded to himself quietly. Perhaps the whole world hadn’t gone to shit. He could see that these survivors still had their basic decency, and were living as well as they could. In this post-apocalyptic world, women and children who were weaker were usually worse off, if they met a cruel leader, they would be killed or eaten.
Chen Yao looked at the food, and lost her appetite, instead she felt like throwing up.
The soup was made of wild vegetables, roots, slices of sweet potato, white rice, ants, grasshoppers and earthworms, sprinkled with a little salt. Seeing the dead insects floating atop the soup, Chen Yao instantly felt nauseous.
In truth, these bugs and insects were valuable sources of nutrients, the women only had clear soup. Only the men had such delicacies within them.
Fan Tongxuan looked at his portion, and his eyes lit up in delight, as he instantly slurped it down, while chewing on a grasshopper and said: “Today’s soup sure is flavourful!”
Yue Zhong saw this and he couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, before passing his soup and sliced sweet potato to a pregnant lady as he said mildly: “This is for you!”
As entertainment was almost non-existent, the only form of activity for the adults was the most ancient of mainstays: Sex!
Amongst these Vietnamese women, there were 3 pregnant already. Compared to the rest of the women, these pregnant women only had twice the amount of sweet potatoes, and their soup had more ants or grasshoppers.
“Thank you!!” The pregnant lady immediately thanked Yue Zhong profusely. While these small foods weren’t much to Yue Zhong, to these ladies, it was a source of nutrients that was hard to come by. Although she could not understand what Yue Zhong said when he spoke to her, she still thanked him.
“Take these!!” Chen Yao saw a way out, and immediately passed her plate and soup to another pregnant lady. She did not want to eat or drink that soup.
After Yue Zhong gave away those provided foods, he opened his own bag, and pulled out 2 sirloin fried potatoes (*3) and 2 bottles of flavored drinks. He then proceeded to open them up and started stuffing himself.
On the other side, Chen Yao also opened up a type 2 canned beast meat to eat.
At that time, Fan Tongxuan and the rest had just finished their own meagre dinner, and they looked on at Yue Zhong and Chen Yao, swallowing their over produced saliva.
Many of their gazes travelled to the bag that Yue Zhong placed on one side. In their eyes, that bag of food and drinks was more valuable than gold at this point of time.
Yue Zhong ate a few mouthfuls, before placing the can to one side, and spoke to Fan Tongxuan: “Can you tell me the important info now? I have food here, if you give me enough information, I will let you have the food you want.”
Fan Tongxuan looked at the can of meat that Yue Zhong just took a few mouthfuls of, and he swallowed his saliva before he asked: “Are you still going to eat that? Can I have it if you don’t want it anymore?”
1* [Ulamog] this is a real and quite ego damaging medical condition in our current day and age folks. It’s root cause is idiocy, and the attributing factor to the skin color is too much spray on tan assist...... Treatment unknown....
2* Ulamog: literally only 250ish meters short of 25 full miles. (40kilometers)
3* Ulamog: I have no clue what a sirloin fried potato is, but that’s what it says. What I WANT it to be is a delicious baked potato with a juicy strip of perfectly charred and seasoned sirloin steak running though it from one end to the other. Then wrapped in God knows what, but something else (maybe bacon? or flour battered?) and then deep fat fried until the potato skin is a delightful, crispy golden brown. Too bad this is impossible in GDW. Buuuuut, maybe Mutant Sweet Potato Pie anyone? ⊙.⊙