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The park was surrounded by beautiful, clean white walls, abundant with green plants that looked vibrant and exceptionally beautiful against the post-apocalyptic backdrop.
Inside the park, lush trees and thriving flowers created a fragrant atmosphere, with even the wind carrying a sweet scent.
As more and more survivors gathered outside, Jiang Ci opened the park’s large iron gate under their expectant gazes.
The survivors immediately surged in, though upon entering, they instinctively softened their footsteps. The park was filled with various plants and flowers, as well as birds and butterflies.
Such lively creatures hadn’t been seen in the post-apocalyptic world for a long time.
The butterflies and birds the survivors saw regularly were those that had undergone mutations, appearing both grotesque and strange.
A little girl entered with her family and was amazed by the butterfly that landed on her shoulder, her initial fear transforming into delight.
The air inside the park was exceptionally fresh, devoid of the faint mustiness found in the outside air. The survivors felt as if their lungs were being purified the moment they stepped in.
The most unique feature of the park was undoubtedly the training base. Here, not only were there virtual targets for practicing martial arts, but also shooting ranges as well as training fields for real combat.
As soon as Wang Liu and his companions entered the park, they headed straight for this training base. Their interest in the training base was clearly much greater than in any other area.
The first zone they entered was the hand-to-hand combat area. To their surprise, their practice targets were not the rigid straw dummies or wooden stakes they had expected, but rather highly agile robots. The training field would simulate a practice opponent based on the survivor’s own abilities, with the shooting range operating in a similar fashion.
The most exceptional area was the real-life combat simulation field, which was also the only area that required a small payment of crystal cores. It simulated a realistic post-apocalyptic scenario, allowing survivors to navigate through challenges.
Survivors who tried it once were almost guaranteed to fall in love with the training methods here.
Jiang Ci remarked that it was indeed impressive. After all, she had invested a significant amount of money to make this training base as advanced as it was.
As time went on, more and more people came to the park. Due to limited space, Jiang Ci had no choice but to start restricting the flow of visitors by implementing a reservation system.
Shortly after this system was introduced, within less than ten minutes, the entire month’s schedule was fully booked.
The park instantly became the most popular attraction in the vicinity of Gourmet City.
After the severe cold weather passed, the temperature gradually warmed up. Without much of a transitional period, the weather quickly changed to that of the heat of summer.
Survivors who had been wearing thick coats just a few days ago now switched to cool summer attire.
The heavy snow melted almost instantly, and due to the high temperatures, the ground dried quickly.
With the return of warmer weather, Jiang Ci’s Gourmet City reached an unprecedented level of popularity. Even the hot springs and bathhouses didn’t see a decline in business due to the weather.
pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:
However, Jiang Ci wasn’t at Gourmet City at the moment. Instead, she stood with Song Jinchuan before a vast, pitch-black sea.
She shaded her eyes with her hand and looked ahead. In the distance, there seemed to truly be a faint black protrusion on the sea’s surface. This must be the isolated island the system had mentioned.
According to the system, the island hadn’t always been this small. After several high tides, more than half of the island had already been submerged beneath the sea. The survivors living on the island were now forced to huddle closer and closer together. A recent wave had accidentally swept away their means of transportation, cutting them off completely from the outside world. Apart from the scarcity of food, the most deadly threat was the elusive mutated sea creatures.
Jiang Ci’s mission this time was to rescue these survivors.
The system’s tasks always aimed to preserve as many survivors as possible in this post-apocalyptic world. Having received so much from the system, Jiang Ci naturally did her best to fulfill these missions.
Since there was no wind at the moment, the sea was relatively calm. Beneath the dark surface, however, an unseen turbulence started to churn. Who knew how many mutated creatures lurked beneath the waves.
Survivors were more wary of the mutated sea creatures because they were difficult to deal with. Even the supernatural abilities possessed by ability users were less effective in the water. Combined with the surrounding environment, people generally avoided targeting the sea creatures. As a result, survivors still didn’t know to what extent these creatures had mutated to.
Previously, a base had used underwater detectors to investigate, but the pitch-black waters revealed nothing, and the detectors had been destroyed halfway through their voyage.
The system had prepared a boat for Jiang Ci, allowing her to sail to the small island.
The boat wasn’t small, but as it floated on the vast ocean, rising and falling with the waves, it seemed rather unreliable.
Hesitantly, Jiang Ci boarded the boat and silently conversed with the system in her mind, “It definitely won’t capsize, right?”
[It won’t. Don’t worry, host. Even if we encounter a mutated beast attack, this boat still won’t capsize,] the system replied with certainty.
Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan boarded the boat. Neither of them knew how to operate it, but fortunately, the boat provided by the system was quite simple to handle. All they had to do was set the destination, and it would start the automatic navigation, helping them avoid obstacles along the way too.
The island was quite a distance from the mainland. At their current speed, it would still take some time to reach it.
Jiang Ci and Song Jinchuan stood on the deck eating lunch. Just as they finished eating, Jiang Ci suddenly felt the boat start to tremble.
“There’s something beneath the boat,” Song Jinchuan whispered.
Hearing this, Jiang Ci leaned over the railing to look down. What she saw instantly sent chills down her spine.
Beneath their boat, a massive shadow could be seen, slowly moving. The shadow was nearly twice the size of the boat. As Jiang Ci peered down, she seemed to catch a glimpse of a huge, crimson eye within that blurry silhouette—an eye that was already larger than her entire body.
Jiang Ci wasn’t afraid of mutated beasts, but she had a slight case of megalophobia. Staring at the enormous creature, her entire body stiffened out of fear.
Noticing her discomfort, Song Jinchuan wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his embrace. “If you’re scared, don’t look.”
Jiang Ci nodded. Soon, however, another thought crossed her mind. As the shadow moved past the boat, she released her black mist, attempting to devour the massive mutated beast.
Almost immediately, the black mist’s approach triggered the beast’s instinct to attack. Water splashed high into the air, nearly forming a giant wave. But just as the system had said, no matter how turbulent the sea became, their boat remained steady, only swaying slightly.
Seawater sprayed onto the deck, and Song Jinchuan shielded Jiang Ci in his arms, blocking the towering waves.
The struggle in the sea continued. Despite the beast’s enormous size, it still seemed to be no match for the black mist. After a while, its movements gradually ceased.
Jiang Ci retracted the black mist, which spat out a large crystal core, somewhat different from those of the mutated beasts on land.
[Host, the energy contained in this crystal core is even purer than those from land,] the system said, sounding pleased. After all, its goal was to collect the scattered energy of this world.
Jiang Ci let the system absorb the crystal core. After absorption, she was astonished to find that the points granted by this single core reached a staggering nine digits.
Jiang Ci now gazed at the dark sea, her fear slowly subsiding. This wasn’t some terrifying mutated beast—it was clearly a glowing pile of gold!
Since the sea was now pitch black, Jiang Ci couldn’t determine the location of the mutated beasts, making it impossible to track them with the black mist. All she could do was wait for the beasts to come up on their own.
However, her concern was soon alleviated, as the waters around the small island were now densely packed with mutated sea creatures, circling the island and eyeing the humans on it with malicious intent.
Every now and then, one or two would leap out of the water, and Jiang Ci finally got a glimpse of their true forms.
The word, “ugly”, perfectly described these mutated sea creatures. They were grotesquely ugly. These fish-like creatures were so hideous that Jiang Ci felt she would have a lasting aversion to fish after this.
From a distance, Jiang Ci could see the survivors on the island. There seemed to be quite a few of them, and from their postures, it was clear they were doing their best to dodge the occasional attacks from the leaping beasts.
Just as Jiang Ci had anticipated, Zhou Qi and the other survivors were indeed doing their utmost to avoid the attacks from the leaping beasts.
Although the creatures couldn’t move on land, they would open their large mouths and try to bite those on the shore during their leaps.
The survivors were already soaked with seawater, doing their best to stay in the center of the island. But as the island’s area above water continued to shrink, their space to move around was also diminishing.
“Everyone, try to stay in the middle, don’t go near the edges,” one of the survivors shouted as a reminder.
But they had been without food for too long, and the survivors’ strength was almost completely depleted. Combined with the intense mental strain of constantly being on guard against these beasts, several of them were beginning to think that being eaten might actually be a form of relief.
Just then, the sound of a ship’s horn echoed from the distance. The survivors’ hearts leapt with hope, and they looked up to see a ship approaching! Were they finally being rescued?!
As the ship drew closer, Jiang Ci released the black mist to feast.
These ugly creatures were no burden for the black mist to consume, and it eventually spat out a pile of cores, as if discarding their bones after eating.
The mutated beasts surrounding the island were thus dealt with by the eerie black mist. The survivors watched the mist with caution, but after it finished off the beasts, it obediently returned to the ship. Gradually, they began to relax.
The ship slowly docked, and Jiang Ci descended the side ladder to see the survivors looking like wilted eggplants, sitting or standing listlessly, still drenched in seawater.
Seeing Jiang Ci, Zhou Qi stepped forward, “Thank you for your help.”
“It’s nothing. Can you all still walk? Let’s get on the ship first. It’ll be dangerous by the shore if the mutated beasts start to come again,” Jiang Ci asked.
“Yes,” Zhou Qi replied, his eyes lighting up at the confirmation that Jiang Ci was indeed here to take them away. He quickly urged the other survivors who were still sitting on the ground.
Everyone was overjoyed at the news, and despite their lack of strength, they did their best to stand up.
One by one, the survivors boarded the ship’s deck. During this time, some mutated beasts attracted by the humans approached, but Jiang Ci swiftly dealt with them using the black mist.
Only after all the survivors were on board did the mutated beasts finally calm down from their frenzy.
the translator has nothing to add ◡̈
