Chapter 36
The shelter—built from 'Malleable Clay,' or rather, the material that made up the prison cells—was located at the laboratory's deepest point. Once inside, Luo Yongzhi and Yi Ying pulled out their sleeping bags, supply pouches, water bottles, trash bags, and the like, dividing up the space and starting to arrange their gear.
As players who had been shuttling through doomsday scenarios for a long time, they went through this routine as smoothly as if they had done it countless times before.
Lin Tu was outside catching mutant plants, while Yuan Que watched the two organize their supplies—players... he mused over the word internally.
"Need any help sorting your stuff?" Luo Yongzhi asked, looking at the dazed boy after finishing her own arrangement.
Yuan Que shook his head.
"Aren't you with Sister Lin?" Luo Yongzhi was puzzled.
"Yeah, but... is she staying here?" Yuan Que was a bit taken aback. He hadn't heard Lin Tu mention any plans to move, let alone to this place...
But then he quickly remembered what Lin Tu had said last night—that in winter, plant reproduction would cease, making things safer. As if he'd figured it out, he asked, "Are we going to stay here until winter, then go out?"
"Winter?" Luo Yongzhi immediately broke into a hearty laugh. "Where's winter coming from, little Yuan Que! You've got your timing wrong. We're only in this world for three months; we'll be out of here before the summer solstice! At most, we've got two months here."
At most... two months? Leave the world? His laughter made Yuan Que's mind spin for a moment.
It suddenly hit him what "player" really meant, and he also suddenly understood the reason behind Lin Tu's abrupt coldness and unannounced departure that day. It felt like falling into an abyss—she had never intended to tell him any of this, and the whole "waiting until winter" spiel was just a suggestion she'd given him. In two months, she would leave him alone in this world.
"Little Round Sparrow?" Lin Tu, having heard Luo Yongzhi's nickname from outside, poked her head in. She saw Yuan Que's face was pale, his youthful features highlighted only by two slightly rounded black pupils, indeed looking rather like a round sparrow, and she teased him on a whim.
But Yuan Que didn't blush like he usually did. Instead, he smiled and said, "I was just thinking about where you'll stay afterward, Sister."
"I'll stay where I was before," Lin Tu said, leaning against the research institute's stark white pillar, doing a quick mental calculation.
She had just locked up all the mutant water hyacinths in the lab—ten in total. Based on observations, their digestive cycles weren't fast, so she calculated they'd produce about 150 grams of Malleable Clay per day.
Lin Tu's current cabin was 14 square meters, requiring a total of 6,370 grams of Malleable Clay. If she counted the remaining twenty or so days, these ten mutant water hyacinths could only produce about 3,000 grams combined—less than half of what she needed.
This meant that to fully upgrade her home with [Form Switching], she'd need to catch at least ten more mutant water hyacinths.
Of course, all this revolved around the [Anju] feature, and Lin Tu had no intention of telling anyone about the Anju app, so she didn't explain why.
Luo Yongzhi was used to Lin Tu's quirks as a top player, and Yi Ying was about to voice her concern when Yuan Que cut in with a smile: "That's great. I was thinking of staying with you too, Sister."
He walked over to Lin Tu, gently tugging at her dangling hand, his fingertips tracing a subtle line across her palm.
Got it. Yi Ying immediately clamped her mouth shut.
Lin Tu, however, had already shifted her thoughts to the city map. Water hyacinths generally grew in still or slow-moving water. Nanhai Lake to the south likely had plenty, but it was too far from the city center.
The Ecological Wetland Park, built around a few small lakes upstream of Nanhai Lake, was reportedly nearly dried up according to the radio, but it might actually be a prime spot to catch mutant water hyacinths.
Feeling her palm tickled, Lin Tu snapped out of her deep thoughts. She looked up at the boy beside her; he was quietly gazing at her with lowered eyes, making her heart skip a beat involuntarily.
"I'm planning to head south to scout for supplies," Lin Tu said, pulling her hand back casually and changing the subject.
Yuan Que immediately said, "Then I'll come with you."
"Can I tag along?" Yi Ying hadn't meant to butt in, but she couldn't help the excitement. "Most of my supplies are stuck with Zhang Jie. He went and got himself killed, leaving me short on stuff. Don't worry, I'm useful. I can't handle big ones like mandrakes, but smaller mutant plants I can take on my own. I've got some vouchers too—low tier, but still handy!"
Lin Tu: "..." What she was actually after wasn't remotely what they imagined. With different destinations, how could they possibly travel together?
Lin Tu declined them both politely, then reminded Yi Ying, "Why not try using your magic wand on yourself? Logically... the one who believes in you most should be you, right? That's how you can unleash the full power of your [Disaster Halo]."
Yi Ying was stunned. That thought had never crossed her mind.
"I..." She hesitated, but when she looked at Lin Tu, she seemed to steel herself. "I'll give it a try."
.
After bidding farewell to Yi Ying and Luo Yongzhi, Lin Tu returned to her cabin.
That day, she had scoured the lab's walls and scraped together roughly seven hundred grams of Malleable Clay, which was enough to unlock [Form Switching].
Following the system prompts, Lin Tu laid all the Malleable Clay on the floor. The white granules seemed to melt, gradually seeping into the floorboards. That one square meter of flooring began to emit a faint white glow, and the adjacent floorboards gave off a dimmer shimmer as well, though not as bright. Lin Tu guessed it was because the Malleable Clay could only unlock a single square meter of space.
Once the glow faded, that section of flooring looked a bit whiter, clearly distinct from the rest. And on her [Anju] app, a new feature had appeared—
[Form Switching (unlocked with Malleable Clay material)
You may now select different forms for your shelter before a disaster, and switch between forms during a disaster.
Currently available forms: None;
Currently unavailable forms:
1. RV: Requires unlocking shelter area 6㎡–60㎡; switch cost 10 points/㎡;
2. Houseboat: Requires unlocking shelter area 10㎡–120㎡; switch cost 15 points/㎡;
3. Hot Air Balloon: Requires unlocking shelter area 4㎡–20㎡; switch cost 15 points/㎡;
4. Submarine: Requires unlocking shelter area 10㎡–80㎡; switch cost 20 points/㎡;
...
Note: All resources used during form operation, such as gasoline, diesel, electricity, etc., must be covered by the player.]
Lin Tu skimmed through all the forms and found them quite satisfactory. These forms could go up in the sky or dive into the sea—if leveraged well, they'd be a great asset for clearing disasters.
She immediately decided to set out for the Ecological Wetland Park early the next morning. She'd catch a hundred mutant water hyacinths if she had to, not just ten.
The next day, Lin Tu headed out with the bento she'd prepared the day before. As she stepped outside, she found Yuan Que sitting on the stairwell, dark circles under his eyes, hair a mess, still damp with morning dew—who knew how long he'd been waiting.
Yesterday, Lin Tu had refused his request to come along, clearly explaining she was going to catch mutant plants—something Yuan Que had no need for. She couldn't fathom why he was sitting there now.
"I just want to be with you," the boy said, a hint of stubbornness in his tone.
Lin Tu looked at his slightly glistening eyes and was about to soften, but then she remembered the puppy her aunt had thrown away. That memory snapped her back to reason. She realized that in two months, the disaster would take on the role of her aunt, forcing the same miserable situation to repeat itself—if it had no future, it was better not to start at all.
"Don't follow me," Lin Tu said, then headed downstairs.
As she was about to get into the car, she sensed something and looked up. A sun umbrella was held overhead; the boy followed close behind.
Lin Tu leaned against the car door, exasperated. "Little Round Sparrow, what are you doing?"
The boy said, a bit aggrieved, "I want to come with you."
"Suit yourself," Lin Tu said irritably, pulling off her wire-rimmed glasses and sliding into the driver's seat. The boy joyfully took the passenger seat.
The moment he was seated, she floored the accelerator, speeding through the empty streets like a madwoman—like someone who knew a cliff lay ahead but didn't brake, angry yet calm, rushing toward death. Worst case, she told herself, she'd just pretend she had an old man riding shotgun. In the few seconds it took her to leave this world, Yuan Que would spend his entire life here and reach his finale.
Lin Tu first drove to the bus terminal, swapped for a bus, then headed to the research institute, securing each cage one by one to the bus seats. To keep the hyacinths from going hungry, she placed the cages with mutant water hyacinths in the front, tossing an iron bar or scrap metal into each one.
Behind the driver's seat, she piled a huge heap of iron scraps she'd scavenged from the construction waste pile in the neighborhood, serving as feed for the mutant hyacinths.
Yuan Que sat nearest the front door, briefly acting as the water hyacinth feeder while Lin Tu drove.
Neither spoke the whole way; the two headed to their destination in silence.
Meanwhile, at the Ecological Wetland Park.
Beside a cluster of artificial rocks, a small stretch of water still shimmered at the lake's bottom. But how long that water could last was anyone's guess. Under the scorching sun, the other land that had once been submerged was now cracked and dry.
On a slightly flatter patch in the shade of the rocks, three tents stood pitched.
In front of the middle tent, about eleven or twelve people were locked in a furious standoff.
"This is the place we found—our tents, our stuff! It's not your private property! Who do you think you are? Telling strangers about it just to satisfy your damn charity? Do you even realize this is the apocalypse now? Have you thought about how we're supposed to survive if they show up?" a woman snarled.
"How can you be so selfish..." Across from her, another woman stared at her with disappointment, making one last attempt at reasoning. "They're not taking it for free—they said they'd trade supplies with us. And besides..." She glanced around; nearly everyone was female. "Our women's outdoor club has done plenty of outings. We all know men and women are different. When survival's on the line, men sometimes are just stronger than women. I'm only looking for a way out for us. We're all women here—they won't do anything to us!"
"Trust me!"