Chapter 8: Waterproof Tarp

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Waterproof Tarp

"Uh..."

Suddenly being called "Captain Brother" by a soft, cute, and helpless girl (who lived alone in a tunnel), the captain kept his face taut, but his tone softened.

"I’m Zhou Qian. Just call me Captain Zhou. What can I do for you?"

Huai Yu’s eyes curved into a smile, her voice soft. "I built a house, but it doesn’t seem to keep the rain out very well. I wanted to ask if I could trade these pinecones for a plastic tarp?"

"Built a house?" Captain Zhou frowned. "It hasn’t even been two days... You built it yourself? What kind of house?"

Huai Yu gestured with her hands. "I just snapped some branches to use as supports, then picked some leaves and laid them on top!"

"But the leaves don’t seem to be layered tightly enough..." she added, looking a little conflicted. Although she knew the rainwater would drip down the downward curve of the leaves, the parasol leaves she had catalyzed were ultimately too few and too small. She could only manage two layers, so it was inevitable that she felt a bit worried.

The guard and Captain Zhou fell silent.

It wasn’t that they had never heard of building a house using a combination of branches and leaves. But for one thing, the other party was a frail little girl who looked like she had been well-pampered before this. A house she had built in just over a day... It was unimaginable. She probably wouldn’t even be able to snap a thicker branch.

For another, it was early spring. Even if there were a few trees on the outskirts, the only ones with leaves right now were mostly evergreen shrubs with tiny leaves. Trying to layer those tiny leaves to keep out the wind and rain...

Captain Zhou looked at her pitiful state. Even though he knew she was a freeloader with zero Contribution Points, he let out a sigh anyway.

The moment he sighed, Huai Yu grew nervous. "Captain Brother, can I make the trade?"

She took the heavy string of pinecones slung across her shoulder and took it off, her attitude growing even more sincere. "I spent a long time searching near the Rose Corridor yesterday before I found these. They’re edible! Can I trade them?"

Those had probably been flung over when the Rose Corridor was repelling mutated plants, or perhaps blown over by strong winds. Regardless, the mere thought of a frail girl walking along the dangerous Rose Corridor, searching as she went, walking who knew how many miles just to scrounge up this tiny bit of food...

Captain Zhou could no longer maintain his stern facade.

He waved his hand, and a soldier beside him stepped forward. "Go to logistics and use my points to exchange for a waterproof tarp. A lightweight one—is twenty square meters enough? Never mind, make it forty. The excess can be laid on the ground to prevent moisture."

Huai Yu’s lips moved. She wanted to say that her new house was built quite large and sturdy. Although the interior was only a little over ten square meters, a forty-square-meter tarp would be just enough to cover the entire round roof. At most, she could weigh down the edges with a few bricks; there really wouldn’t be enough left over to lay on the ground.

But that was okay. Captain Brother was a good person, and she was content.

After giving his orders, Captain Zhou added a word of caution. "Even a lightweight tarp has some weight to it. When you put it on the roof, make sure your house has proper support.

"Although a plastic tarp is lighter, it blocks the wind but not the cold. When it rains in a couple of days, the temperature will drop significantly."

Huai Yu nodded obediently. She realized that although the Captain Zhou standing across from her was dark-skinned and stern, he was actually quite attentive. She hadn’t even thought about the temperature dropping!

She obediently handed over the pinecones.

Captain Zhou didn’t look like he wanted them, but after hesitating for a moment, he took them anyway, only to be startled by the heavy weight. "This is almost ten pounds. You carried this all the way here?"

Huai Yu nodded. She really, really wanted a cart, but since she didn’t have one, she had no choice but to carry them. They were so heavy!

He chuckled. "Not bad! You’re starting to look like you can fend for yourself now, and you can endure hardship. You probably have zero Contribution Points because your family protected you too well, but times are different now. You are your own greatest reliance!

"Food is scarce right now," he continued, waving his hand. "These pinecones don’t seem to have mutated much. They can probably be exchanged for ten to fifteen Contribution Points, which exactly covers the cost of that tarp. Well done! The waterproof tarp weighs about twelve pounds. It’s sun-resistant, anti-aging, and durable. Don’t let it go to waste!"

A logistics officer jogged over with a thick stack of tarp. The moment it was handed to Huai Yu, the sheer weight instantly bowed her waist.

Watching Huai Yu slowly walk away, hugging and half-dragging the tarp, the logistics officer laughed as they returned to camp. "It’s rare for a little girl to have the drive to be self-reliant, and to know to trade items for resources. We really should have driven a car to help her transport that back."

Another person chuckled. "Exactly. Did you see her dirty face and ragged clothes? Tsk, she probably hasn’t even dared to wash her face."

Even though things were safe now, it was better for a little girl living alone to look a bit dirty. They didn’t know whose child she was, or how she had been protected so well when things were so chaotic before. Now that everything was getting back on track, instead...

Never mind, there was no point thinking about it. In the six years since the Cataclysm, all sorts of unexpected situations had occurred. It was nothing new.

Captain Zhou, however, spoke in a deep voice. "She’s lacking a lot of things! Doesn’t she need a toothbrush and toothpaste? Doesn’t she need towels? What about pots and pans?

"If she can carry ten pounds of pinecones here, she can carry a twelve-pound tarp back.

"She finally decided to be self-reliant and break out of her zero Contribution Points status. Don’t you guys mess around and ruin her drive."

Having said that, he felt a bit puzzled. "How come we’ve never picked up this many pinecones? Is it because the Rose Corridor over there is next to the mountains?"

The logistics officer chuckled under his breath. "She probably just has the fearless ignorance of youth. She hasn’t experienced the terror of the Rose Corridor during the summer and autumn, so she dared to scrounge through the shrubs right on the edge of the corridor, right?"

That was an area they weren’t allowed to approach, so it was normal that they hadn’t harvested anything from there over the past few years. It couldn’t be that she had crossed the corridor and gone into the mountains to pick them, could it?

Captain Zhou handed over the string of pinecones. "Here. We haven’t cracked sunflower seeds in years, so today we’ll crack pine nuts. Test them to see what the Mutant Value is and whether they’re edible."

After the Cataclysm, all plants had mutated to some degree. The only difference was whether they had breached the critical threshold. Plants that breached the threshold would go mad, growing and expanding rapidly, hungering for all sources of nourishment—humans, animals, flesh and blood... any form of nutrients.

Through six years of struggle, the maddened plants had been eradicated through their united efforts. Those that couldn’t be killed were driven into the Wilderness by any means necessary.

As for the plants that didn’t stay within a normal Mutant Value, most became incredibly unpalatable. Pine nuts, for instance, might have been aromatic and sweet in the past, but now they could be bitter and numb the mouth. Just how terrible they tasted depended entirely on their Mutant Value.

But—

"Holy shit! What’s going on? The Mutant Value is only three?"

The mutation index of the air they breathed was three!

Everyone instantly crowded around, staring intently at the large green number on the device.

"Test it again! Report it!"

BEEP—

"It’s still three!"

Everyone exchanged blank looks before erupting into cheers. "Give me a handful! These definitely won’t be bitter!"

"What are you thinking, asking for a handful? Who do you think you are?!"

"Bullshit! None of you fight over them! They’re mine! I traded fifty points for that tarp!"