Chapter 20: The mutant tribe

Before leaving the Wetland Park, Light Chu took Nighten and went to visit a nest of mutated leeches near the parking lot.

"We found those mushrooms inside there," Nighten pointed to a damaged concrete pipeline not far ahead.

"Fortunately, you didn't go in."

Light Chu patted Night Ten's shoulder.

"Let's go."

"Our target today isn't them."

It was said that leeches could be used in medicine, but whether mutated leeches could be used was unknown.

The two carefully bypassed the nest of mutated leeches, avoiding the lush vegetation and concrete ruins, trying to walk in the sunlight as much as possible.

They walked eastward for a while.

Looking at the elevated highway and residential buildings ahead, Nighten couldn't help but ask Light Chu, who was walking beside him, "Weren't we going hunting?"

"Yes."

"Then why are we getting farther away from the forest?"

"The forest is up ahead."

"?"

Light Chu didn't explain further and silently took off the steel pipe rifle from his back, pushing the bullets into the chamber. His aura also changed.

Not far away was a broken elevated highway bridge.

On the concrete pillars covered in moss, the traces of time were concealed by the shadows of vegetation.

A basin-sized rat licked the muddy water in the gutter. When it discovered the two unwelcome intruders, it swiftly scurried into the nearby grass.

Nighten looked up, his pupils slightly dilated, and his eyes filled with awe.

Behind the broken highway bridge stood towering buildings covered in vines and moss. The sturdy roots penetrated the cracked concrete ground, and tree trunks rose from the center of the road, overturning cars and bus stops that had long turned into scrap metal.

In this green hell, life thrived, but it also concealed a killing intent that devoured everything.

The world in his eyes was too shocking. Every frame seemed like an artwork in the style of the Book of Revelation, to the point where Nighten even forgot that this was a "game world."

And at this moment, he finally understood the meaning of Light Chu's words.

Here, this was the true forest...

"Be careful from here on."

Light Chu said as he released the safety of his steel pipe rifle and advanced step by step.

Although this place could only be considered the outskirts of Springvale's northern suburbs, far from the core urban area, they still couldn't let their guard down.

High-rise residential buildings, sewers, vertical gardens, parking lots, drone hives, CNC planting towers, maglev stations, and behind every window...

All the artificial wonders, after being abandoned by civilization, became natural greenhouses and nurseries.

After the nuclear war, this land did experience a long winter, but it lasted for less than half a century.

The power of nature reversed everything.

The first to succumb were the high-rise buildings. Moss began to erode them from the shaded sides, eventually covering their entire bodies.

But the non-high-rise buildings were not spared either.

In those years of human decline, a few heavy rains and a sweltering summer were enough to turn this place into a paradise for fungi and opportunistic plants to grow wildly.

They provided abundant food for various wildlife.

And after the urban drainage system collapsed, the freshwater resources in the city became even more abundant than the nearby lake.

Wild animals and household animals that turned feral began to migrate from forests, lakesides, and farms to the more comfortable urban environment. Under the triple effect of radioactive substances, genetic weapons, and time, they evolved into fierce and bloodthirsty mutants.

They were collectively referred to as "mutants"!

Of course...

The dangers here were far from limited to just that.

They carefully proceeded along the street, 76th Street, in silence. As Nighten wondered where all the mutants had gone, he heard Light Chu's voice beside him.

"There's something."

Light Chu suddenly stopped in front of a scrapped car.

Nighten immediately snapped out of his thoughts and halted, looking around nervously, but he didn't see anything.

"What's going on?" Nighten asked, his voice tense.

"There are signs of survivors' activity," Light Chu said with a serious expression.

"Other survivors?!" Nighten was taken aback, his excitement evident in his voice. "Are they the indigenous people of the wasteland?"

Finally, he was going to see other NPCs!

He had been waiting for this moment for a long time!

Light Chu glanced at him, knowing what he was thinking.

"You don't have to be so excited. It's not something to be happy about," Light Chu said.

"Why?"

"Because in a place like this, strangers are more dangerous than mutants."

Without further explanation, Light Chu crouched down and found a string of crushed soda cans wired together behind the car's wheel.

The aluminum cans had burst open, and from the broken edges, it looked like something had exploded. The lingering smell of rotten eggs could still be detected.

"Excessive sulfur in the gunpowder, along with nails and metal scraps..." Light Chu frowned.

Mutants?

Or raiders?

Survivors wouldn't usually set up tripwire mines near their settlements.

These things were difficult to harm the mutants with sensitive olfactory senses, in other words, they were meant for humans.

Based on the residual odor, the explosion couldn't have happened long ago, at most within five hours or even less.

Light Chu turned back and asked, "When you came out from underground, did you hear any explosions coming from the east?"

Nighten shook his head nervously. "No."

"Stay here."

Watching Light Chu put down the soda cans and rise to his feet, Nighten asked anxiously, "What are you going to do?"

"I'll scout ahead and check the situation," Light Chu replied.

"I can go with you—"

"You stay here."

Nighten wanted to insist, but when he met Light Chu's gaze, the words stuck in his throat, and he reluctantly nodded.

He could feel the pressure from Light Chu, the authority figure. If he pushed too hard, he might really get kicked offline...

Light Chu instructed Nighten to hide next to the abandoned car.

Light Chu put away his gun, pulled out the sharpened steel pipe from his back, and crouched down, sneaking quickly into the building on the side of the street.

Although he had initially planned to use Nighten as bait, the situation had changed now.

There were other survivors across the street, and they were likely raiders or a mutant tribe. The bait had lost its meaning and would only alert them.

Light Chu's expression grew serious, and he tightly gripped the steel pipe in his hand.

This place was at most 1 kilometer away from Wetland Park, too close to Sanctuary 404!

Especially now that gamers were heavily engaged in industrial production, the smoke and noise, even if partially blocked by plants and concrete obstacles, would eventually be discovered by the people here.

Keeping these dangers was always a hidden threat.

Light Chu was prepared to kill.

Once he determined that the other party could pose a threat, he would not hesitate to strike first.

The ten-story building along the street had a narrow emergency passage, and the small space was covered in moss.

But fortunately, there were no particularly dangerous mutants here.

There were a few plump mutated rats on the fifth floor or so, thinking they were numerous, they foolishly bared their teeth at Light Chu.

If Light Chu had turned his back and tried to run away, they would have swarmed him by now. However, this uninvited guest wasn't afraid at all, making even these naturally timid rats hesitant to make any sudden moves. They only dared to make tentative gestures, showing their sharp teeth.

Light Chu didn't find this surprising anymore.

Without a word, Light Chu thrust the pipe forward, stabbing the closest mutated rat and killing it instantly.

Seeing their companion being killed, the rats scattered in all directions, rushing into the entrance of the building and disappearing into the shadows.

"It doesn't seem to be a rat nest."

"There should only be around ten or twenty of them..."

If there were more, these creatures would be difficult to deal with.

A group of mutated rats, even armed mercenaries would find them troublesome, let alone himself with just a steel pipe rifle.

Light Chu let out a sigh of relief, swung the pipe with a sharp tip, and flung away the dead rat and the bloodstains together.

Light Chu went directly to the top floor of the tenth floor.

Using the steel pipe in his hand as a lever, Light Chu pried open the rusty door panel and entered the rooftop.

The wind on the rooftop was strong.

He walked to the rusted water tank and looked towards the residential area to the east. The scene he saw confirmed his speculation.

In the open space in the middle of the concrete buildings stood a wooden fort constructed from branches. Torn cloth and construction debris obstructed the view from outside.

The surviving bases on the wasteland could roughly be divided into two types. One type was those who lived directly in the intact houses before the war, while the other type was those who started from scratch on the ruins or open spaces, depending on the surrounding circumstances.

The raiders living in the urban areas usually resided in high-rise buildings and rarely built such primitive shelters and defensive structures.

Only humanoid mutants who averaged two meters in height and weighed over 150 kg would build such wooden huts despite the availability of ready-to-use houses.

The wooden stakes at the entrance of the fort were sharpened like the fangs of wild beasts, with several severed limbs haphazardly hanging from them, and the ground was marked with dried blood.

They ate everything.

Not just fungi or plant fruits, but also the meat of mutated flies, rats, and cockroaches.

Of course, what they loved to eat the most was their former kind —

Humans with two legs.

Light Chu searched along both sides of the street and indeed saw a mutant sentinel carrying a metal longbow on the rooftop of a shop at the end of Street No. 76.

Its greenish skin resembled the orcs in fantasy movies, and in fact, they were as strong, savage, crude, and bloodthirsty as orcs.

With a height of two meters and muscles wrapped in armor made from scrap metal, the advertising board serving as its chest armor even had "Buy one, get the second half off" written on it.

Two steel bars protruded from its shoulders, resembling handlebars directly taken from a bicycle. These things were quite effective against hacking and blunt damage as they could trap chainsaws or axes.

You could say they were quite cyberpunk.

If Light Chu and Nighten had continued forward just now, at most, they would have reached the intersection and fallen into an ambush by that humanoid mutant sentinel!

Light Chu felt a slight chill in his heart.

He shifted his gaze, continuing to look towards the mutant fort in the eastern residential area.

Due to the obstruction, he couldn't see how many people were inside. He could only roughly estimate the number of mutants based on the size of the fort, which should be between twenty and thirty.

"A small humanoid mutant settlement..."

Light Chu's expression gradually became serious.

These guys weren't easy to deal with!

Almost at the same time, a pale blue system pop-up appeared in his field of view.

[Mission: Annihilate the humanoid mutant tribe located at No. 76 Street

Type: Side mission

Reward: 200 reward points]

Wait a minute...

Can missions be triggered outside the sanctuary?!

Light Chu was momentarily stunned. He immediately tried to summon the system, but there was no response.

The pale blue mission pop-up disappeared as if it had never appeared.

It seemed that the system could only be accessed near the sanctuary, but missions could be triggered anywhere outside of it?

However...

Those 200 reward points were quite generous.

Without hesitation, Light Chu put away his weapon, turned around, and went downstairs, with a bewildered Nighten following quickly, leaving the area.

That's 200 reward points!

Even a side mission that summons a hundred gamers only gives 100 points, so it was evident that this mission wasn't that easy to complete.

There might be a big sinkhole hidden inside!

Light Chu wasn't a fool.

He wouldn't fall for such an obvious trap.

"My Governor, what did you see?" Seeing Light Chu finally stopping, Nighten, panting, rested his hands on his knees and couldn't help but ask.

Light Chu, who had come to a halt, casually replied, "It's the mutant camp."

"Then... are we just leaving like this?"

"What else can we do, fight them? And if we lose, we'll be thrown into a frying pan?" Light Chu glanced at him, "Think with your brain. We only have one gun."

And only one person who can fight.

Nighten closed his mouth and didn't say anything.

His mind hadn't made the connection just now, treating the mutants as NPCs in the game. Now, hearing his Governor say so, these humanoid mutants should be hostile forces?

And they even eat humans...

He secretly noted this information and planned to share it with other gamers after returning.

"It's not a good idea to provoke those beasts now. We need better preparation and concentrate our forces to eliminate them once and for all."

Light Chu grumbled as he walked away.

"Damn it... the humanoid mutant camp is right across from the East Gate of Park No. 76 Street."

"In any case, we have to be careful!"

...

The predetermined hunting route had to be adjusted!

Light Chu led Nighten to bypass Street No. 76 and walked about a mile north along the elevated highway, where they found an abandoned construction site.

The construction site was quite large, probably a recently started development project. One of the buildings had reached seventeen or eighteen floors, while several large pits were probably dug for foundations.

Most of the construction equipment had been scrapped, and even the crane had fallen onto the unfinished building, forming a slope.

It could be seen that the quality of this building was still good.

Even though the crane had been knocked down by the shockwave from the nuclear explosion, the concrete structure only suffered a gap and didn't even damage the main structure.

The steel materials piled up in the construction site had rusted, and the cement bags had also deteriorated, rendering them unusable.

However, to their surprise, Light Chu found a large quantity of unused grayish-blue stones here!

Light Chu recognized them at a glance; these were limestone, with the main component being calcium carbonate. They could be used as raw materials for making cement.

"What a great find!"

Light Chu felt delighted and took out the map, making a mark on it.

If they could refine all these limestone stones into cement, it wouldn't be a problem to build two buildings.

As long as White unlocked the technology to produce cement from calcium carbonate, they wouldn't have to worry about the raw materials for cement for a long time to come!