The Invasion Day – Chapter 30

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 30

The misery of a smoker wasn’t something Fu Shiwu could understand.

Living a life completely isolated from outside, the passage of time actually made everyone feel tenser.

Tang Xuhai had created a wall out of thin wooden boards around their sleeping bags, leaving a gap in the middle of the side wall as an entrance.

He leaned back on one side of the entrance and stretched out his long legs, resting them against the other side. He was simply acting as the door itself, completely blocking the others from peeking into their space.

“Is it done?” Tang Xuhai turned to look inside, clutching his stomach and calling out. All these strenuous activities of today, coupled with the building work, had made him horribly hungry.

Although he had emergency rations in his backpack, if the circumstance allowed it, he would still want to eat a decent meal.

Fu Shiwu stood by the alcohol stove, carefully guarding the tumbling soup pot.

He said: “We’re almost out of dried noodles.” 

Fu Shiwu was a little worried. The three of them were all grown men; no matter how much they tried to save, the dried noodles he brought were about to be finished soon.

Tang Xuhai tilted his head and looked at the soup pot where a layer of oil was floating, then he said casually: “Don’t worry, there’ll be some food in this camp. If it’s not enough, I’ll go out and find some.”

Fu Shiwu and Wen Zhaoming glanced at each other, then Wen Zhaoming said: “It’s dangerous in the city now. Are you sure you want to risk going there all by yourself?”

A sharp light flashed in Tang Xuhai’s eyes as he replied: “Of course I won’t do that.”

He looked at the surrounding groups, then stood up and walked closer to the other two, whispering: “They said earlier that because the water is contaminated, rationing of drinking water has begun in the camp. One bottle per person per day. How long do you think they’ll last?”

Wen Zhaoming’s eyebrows furrowed tightly, and he replied softly: “Even with the government’s ability, it isn’t easy to guarantee drinking water for even a week. Now that transportation and production are cut off, it’ll soon be impossible to provide tens of thousands of people with a bottle of drinking water per day.”

Fu Shiwu raised his head and blinked. He couldn’t comment on such matters, so he could only continue to cook the noodles while listening to the conversation between the two.

Wen Zhaoming continued to whisper: “So, if they don’t want the whole camp to go amok, they must come up with a solution.”

Tang Xuhai nodded appreciatively.

Encouraged by the gesture, Wen Zhaoming took a deep breath and tried to max out his brain to gather all the information he had in hands.

He said: “The water inside the factories has been contaminated. At present, only groundwater can be drunk, but the groundwater resources in Yun City have long been exhausted. It’ll be difficult to find groundwater now.”

“What else do we have?” Tang Xuhai put both hands on his waist, looking interested. He obviously wanted to see what Wen Zhaoming could think of.

“There’s another source.” Wen Zhaoming looked at Tang Xuhai’s cold smiling face, and said in a low voice: “Water purifying machines.”

Tang Xuhai snapped his fingers and said in admiration: “You’re exactly on point.”

Fu Shiwu took out two lunch boxes and started to serve the food. He also lowered his voice: “I think they’ll try to head back to the city to find water jugs that haven’t been snatched. There’re lots of water stations in the city, so there must be quite a few jugs left.”

Tang Xuhai received the box of noodles and said to him: “The result will be minimal. After all, the water in the city has been robbed once when everybody first found out that the water was contaminated. The transfer point of those water stations is also here, so if there’s any stock left, the army may have used it up long ago.”

Fu Shiwu handed out the second box to Wen Zhaoming. Wen Zhaoming thanked him and started eating with a fork.

After portioning the noodles for the other two, Fu Shiwu directly grabbed the pot’s handle and brought it to himself.

“To provide drinking water for so many people, bottled water, mineral water or any sorts of beverages are not long-term solutions. Although the water in the water factories has been contaminated by heterogeneous molecules, these molecules can be filtered out. As long as the PVC pipes of purifying machines are connected to the water taps, it can easily provide enough clean water for so many people.” Wen Zhaoming took a few bites and continued.

“But how many purifying machines will be enough for so many people?” Fu Shiwu said hesitantly.

“Large water purifying machines are transported by the production company itself. We have no purifying machine production company in Yun City, so we may not find any inventory at all, even from the suppliers. However, the purifying machines that already exist inside Yun City must be enough.” Wen Zhaoming said very positively.

Fu Shiwu thought for a moment and said: “Are you referring to the purifying machines in the residential areas?”

Tang Xuhai ate very quickly, leaving only the soup in the box by this point. He firmly lifted the bottom of the lunch box and drank the soup clean. After taking a gasp of air, he said: “Yes, those machines indeed. If I’m not mistaken, the army will soon go to the city to grab those large purifying machines to solve the urgent need of drinking water!”

“But, what does that have to do with our food supplies?” Fu Shiwu asked puzzledly.

Tang Xuhai gave him an irate look: “Idiot!”

Fu Shiwu frowned unyieldingly, He calls me an idiot again!

Wen Zhaoming came in between them: “I think Tang Xuhai means that he can go with the troops. His combat strength was made obvious to everyone this morning. If he volunteers to join in the task of searching for water purifying machines, he definitely won’t be rejected, and while helping the army, he can also collect some food and bring it back.”

Finally enlightened, Fu Shiwu looked at Tang Xuhai with embarrassment: “Let me come with you.”

“No, you stay. Be here with Wen Zhaoming.” Tang Xuhai wiped his mouth and said: “We still need someone to watch these things. There’re so many people fleeing to this place, it’s inevitable that some of them may feel itchy. If Wen Zhaoming is left behind by himself, he may not be able to stop those people.”

Considering their powers, Wen Zhaoming could definitely defend their things with his fire-type ability, but the concern lay on Wen Zhaoming’s physical condition.

Agreeing with Tang Xuhai’s viewpoint, Fu Shiwu nodded and said solemnly: “I’ll carefully look after these things with Wen Zhaoming.”

Tang Xuhai felt a bit amused at Fu Shiwu’s grim expression, but didn’t show it on his face.

After one night of resting, the mutated fighters formed a special operations team that held the responsibility of searching for supplies in Yun City.

They were looking for not only large water purifying machines, but also other things including medical equipment and drugs, especially antibiotics.

After learning of the latest results from scientific research, antibiotics had become the most sought-after drug, for no one would want any potential special ability user to have his brain being burned till it was damaged.

Having learnt the lesson of being ambushed by aliens inside areas with high-rise buildings, this team made a detour and entered through the second ring area1Refers to the outer part of a city, where most areas are residential with fewer skyscrapers, shopping malls, office buildings etc. In the picture below, the red ring and blue ring represents the first ring and second ring of a city respectively., where the buildings weren’t as tall.

Although the area near the east had a much lower density of aliens than other areas, there were still many aliens lingering around. They were those that hadn’t rushed to the battlefield earlier.

After one night, another batch of aliens had descended into the city.

A few soldiers holding sniper rifles were in charge of the aliens from afar, then Tang Xuhai and other mutant soldiers were responsible for the aliens in close distance. The team moved steadily, consistently taking breaks then moving forward. If it weren’t for the time-consuming process of dismantling these water purifying machines, their harvest would be even greater.

Making full use of the time when the soldiers stopped to take out the machines, Tang Xuhai went to the surrounding shops to look for food. Water purifying machines were often installed inside the communities, hence various shops could be found nearby.

Tang Xuhai walked to a few small marts to find that the food and drinks here had been all looted, with only a few packets of hot pot seasoning left behind. As it was still better than nothing, Tang Xuhai stuffed these packets of seasoning into his backpack.

Tang Xuhai had made prior agreement with the captain to leave the team by himself to search for food. Since the soldiers already had their food rations prioritised and guaranteed, they had absolutely no objection to Tang Xuhai’s intention.

The captain even told him that it didn’t matter if he brought a lot, they could help him bring it back with their car.

Tang Xuhai gladly accepted the captain’s kindness, but unfortunately, there wasn’t much food left to bring back at all. Even his backpack seemed dissatisfied with its emptiness.

On the first day of going out, Tang Xuhai only harvested some gasoline.

He brought it back mostly because he didn’t want to go home empty-handed.

As the team passed by a gas station, almost all the fuel in the tanker had been snatched, and the team decided to just take away the fuel truck. Only when he saw the soldiers driving the truck away that he remembered he should also take some fuel.

Instead of getting it from these soldiers, he picked up two empty jugs at the gas station and got the gasoline from the tanks of vehicles thrown by the roadside.

Watching him pumping the cars one by one with lots of efforts, the captain wanted to offer him some gasoline, but Tang Xuhai solemnly refused.

At this moment, gasoline had become a scarce resource, so he would never take advantage of the army.

But this gesture of his eventually yielded an unexpected outcome.

Tang Xuhai contentedly returned to their space in the warehouse and mysteriously pulled Fu Shiwu to one side: “I got something good!”

“What is it?” Fu Shiwu looked at him questioningly.

Tang Xuhai was in high spirits: “Make a guess.”

Fu Shiwu calmly fixed his eyes on Tang Xuhai for a moment, while Tang Xuhai looked back at him in patience.

Well, he had never played this kind of game with anyone.

Judging from Tang Xuhai’s happiness, Fu Shiwu made his guess: “Could it be that you’ve found the brand of cigarettes you like?” 

Tang Xuhai almost choked and rolled his eyes.

If he had found cigarettes, he wouldn’t have run to Fu Shiwu to show it off like this!

Knowing from Tang Xuhai’s expression that he had obviously guessed wrongly, Fu Shiwu guessed again: “Chocolate?!”

As the words left his mouth, Fu Shiwu’s eyes brightly lit up.

By now, Fu Shiwu had decided that his box of chocolate was their shared property, in case they urgently needed supplements. He had been thinking about it for a while now and wouldn’t allow himself to eat it as a snack anymore.

I can see it but can’t eat it, it’s very torturous okay! 

Tang Xuhai almost choked again. He sighed, Forget it.

“It’s bullets! Look!” Tang Xuhai stretched out his hands filled to the brim with bullets!

In the eyes of the commander from earlier, Fu Shiwu was an exceptional sharpshooter. In special times like now, the management of guns and ammunition wasn’t as strict as before, so the captain gave fifty bullets to Tang Xuhai.

Although their ammunition was a bit tight now, looking at the whole camp’s supplies, fifty bullets were still manageable.

Fu Shiwu looked at the handful of yellow-orange bullets with utter shock, and his hands stretched out towards Tang Xuhai’s palms, slightly pushing them down.

He looked around, a guilty conscience exposed on his face.

Fu Shiwu hadn’t gotten out of the mindset that he was but a mere civilian. To suddenly see Tang Xuhai staggeringly hold so many bullets, he instantly felt like they were breaking the law.

Seeing Fu Shiwu’s expression, Tang Xuhai cast him a puzzled look, then he thought he understood what Fu Shiwu was trying to say and immediately said: “Indeed we shouldn’t be too open about these. You should keep these well for future usage. If anyone comes at you with bad intentions while I’m away, don’t be polite and just greet them with your gun.”