The Invasion Day – Chapter 78

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 78

“My hard drive!” Fu Shiwu quickly took the hard drive. He probed the dent and said with immense distress: “Is it broken?”

Seeing him being so concerned, Miao Jia said sympathetically: “Is there important data in there? It’s certainty broken, but some of the data inside may still remain.”

Fu Shiwu shifted his gaze to Miao Jia, a gleam of light beaming in his eyes as he said hurriedly: “Miao Jia! You’re so good with computers, could you help me see if it can be fixed?”

Miao Jia hesitated for a second, for usually in this kind of situation where the device was already damaged, he would just throw it away. He wasn’t omnipotent. But seeing Fu Shiwu struck with such unease, Miao Jia still took the hard drive and pulled out a data cable.

“…The structure inside has been destroyed.” Miao Jia shook his head regretfully.

Dejected, Fu Shiwu mumbled under his breath: “In here there’s a software here that helps me communicate with my parents. Without this software, there’s no way I can contact them.” 

Tang Xuhai was taken aback. Through the rearview mirror, he glanced at Fu Shiwu: “The contact method you mentioned was originally in this hard drive?”

“Yes.” Fu Shiwu nodded in frustration.

Tang Xuhai pondered for a moment, then tried to comfort him: “Don’t be too worried. Later during our break, I can try recovering it. As long as the metal part that records the data returns to normal, we may be able to get the software back.”

As a glimpse of hope rose in Fu Shiwu’s heart, he said: “Uhm, I hope so too.”

Miao Jia looked at the two of them, seemingly wanting to say something, but he held back. Even if the chip inside is restored, the data still may not be recovered!

Fu Shiwu remained very anxious throughout the whole journey, feeling as though time passed by too slowly today. Finally, when it was about to get dark, they stopped to camp at a high-altitude spot near a hill.

Because there were more than 10,000 people behind, there was a long line dragging behind. Even though they walked without stopping, there was no way they could be as fast as the people in the car.

Getting off the car, Tang Xuhai pulled out three large tents that he took from Shi Zheng’s warehouse, plus the sleeping bags that they managed to get back. With these, they wouldn’t have to worry about any wind, rain or coldness of the night while they slept.

Fu Shiwu helped set up a bonfire. Their camping gear had been destroyed, but Tang Xuhai helped repair the equipment, then Huo Enting provided water and directly made a big pot of congee.

Liu Peiqi wasn’t aware about what happened in Fu Shiwu’s car. After sitting in the car for a long time, he got down to flick his hands and feet, then started stretching his arms and legs.

In the past two days, he basically didn’t exert much power, and he wasn’t severely wounded compared to the others. As a sense of agitation bubbled in his heart, Liu Peiqi decided to get everyone some food from the wild.

Although Liu Peiqi grew up in a city, his hometown was in the countryside. His grandfather was good at hunting, so when he was young, Liu Peiqi learnt how to catch rabbits and pheasants from his grandfather.

In the autumn, and with the addition of heterogeneous molecules, the lush vegetation along the mountains was growing incredibly dense, and with less destruction due to human activities, the wilderness was rapidly recovering. Rabbits in the wild could reproduce extremely fast, not to mention their growth rate was phenomenal.

With his sharp eyes, Liu Peiqi spotted the trail of a rabbit on the hillside. Clutching his self-made tool, he lightly approached the rabbit, but unfortunately, his skill wasn’t as good as his grandfather after all, while the rabbit itself was also very clever.

“Damn!” Liu Peiqi gaped with stupefaction at the rabbit with four fire wheels under its feet. Is this really a rabbit? Has it evolved into a rabbit demon?

Liu Peiqi absolutely couldn’t catch this rabbit, but there remained a lot of rabbits in this area. Very soon, he found another one, but this rabbit dealt quite a bit of blows to him. By the time he managed to grasp the animal by its ears, it was stomping against his chest viciously, almost choking him to death.

Attacked by the rabbit, Liu Peiqi couldn’t help but let go, so the rabbit ran away.

Liu Peiqi, who was put to shame by a mere rabbit, totally exploded. Even a rabbit had also mutated till this stage, alas, can they at least leave us a way to survive?

But if he couldn’t beat the enemy, then let’s outsmart it.

So Liu Peiqi began to set a trap on the grass. His trap was rather simple, that was, he tied the grass together then drove the rabbit in this direction. When the rabbit accidentally ran into the trap, its neck would be tightly stuck

Liu Peiqi succeeded.

With this trick, he finally caught the rabbit; besides, he also harvested a handful of grass seeds.

“Rabbit!” Watching Liu Peiqi walk back with two big fat rabbits in both hands, Liu Zhao almost started to drool.

“Are there rabbits around here?” Tang Xuhai was astounded: “Just nice, I’ll catch two too. Let’s have roasted rabbit at night. It’ll make up for the injuries on you guys.”

“Okay!” Liu Zhao was very eager. As one of the wounded, he finally received compensation now.

Fu Shiwu leaned against the car door holding the hard drive, waiting for Miao Jia to come and take a look.

Tang Xuhai said to him: “The chip inside should be fine, let Miao Jia prepare a bit.”

Fu Shiwu nodded, then Tang Xuhai pulled out his tactical knife and left. At present, both his Dragonbone swords and greatsword were kept inside his body. He found this method very convenient, for it completely relieved him of the trouble of having to carry them around.

Walking over and seeing that Fu Shiwu wasn’t in a great mood, Hollande instantly picked up a conversation: “What’s the matter?”

Fu Shiwu hugged the hard drive and the corner of his mouth twitched: “Nothing.” Then he thought for another second and added: “It actually doesn’t concern you.”

The hard drive was originally his own problem. In order to prevent Hollande from worrying, he deliberately added one more sentence.

But hearing this sentence, even Hollande, who was such a sociable and vocal man, was a bit lost for words and almost choked.

At this point, Miao Jia ran over. After tailing behind Huo Enting to get some water for his hair-washing, the boy came back all refreshingly.

“Fu ge, let me see it.” Miao Jia happily reached out for Fu Shiwu’s hard drive, but he still had to say: “But I think, Fu ge, you have to be mentally prepared.”

Fu Shiwu took a deep breath, then said affirmatively: “Okay, I know.”

Hollande stood by a side and watched them with curiosity. Miao Jia took his laptop out, connected the data cable and tried to manoeuvre it.

“Fu ge, most of the data here is not available, and the entire software is in pieces.” Miao Jia informed him with much regret.

“Then… Will you be able to rewrite the programme based on the remaining fragments?” Fu Shiwu asked.

Miao Jia’s expression revealed a hint of distress: “I don’t know the structure of this software at all… With only some fragments, there’s no way to compile the same software. Of course, Fu ge, you said this software is used to contact your parents, so it technically shouldn’t be difficult to rebuild. But, I also found some self-destruction commands in this hard drive. The software is perfectly integrated with these things. If I don’t see a sample, there’s no way to achieve the same functionality. We can’t contact your parents this way.”

As Miao Jia earnestly lamented about these challenges, Fu Shiwu could only lower his head in a daze.

Hollande couldn’t help but say: “Is it something very important? Would you like me to look through it? My previous company built softwares, and I also know some programming.”

Miao Jia cast him a dissatisfied look and said unconvincingly: “Are your skills better than mine? Then you take a look.”

Hollande just grinned at Miao Jia’s provocation. He looked at Fu Shiwu and said: “Maybe I can think of a way.”

Fu Shiwu couldn’t turn down the offer, albeit inside, he also felt that if Miao Jia’s hands were already tied, could anyone else be able to find a way?

Miao Jia hugged his arms, feeling rather upset with Hollande’s particular confidence in his technical skills.

But after all, Hollande’s offer wasn’t pointless. In the aspect of technology, Hollande’s country was indeed far ahead of other countries, and it would take many years for Huaxia to reach their level.

A quick moment later, Hollande could only raise his eyebrows and looked at Fu Shiwu sorrily: “It’s a pity, there’s really no way to save it.”

Fu Shiwu sighed at the bottom of his heart, then he pushed his glasses up and responded with a very light tone, his expression blank: “It’s okay.”

Miao Jia stifled a smile. He himself understood that Fu Shiwu’s face was basically devoid of expressions. Perhaps Fu ge really meant that Hollande didn’t have to take it as his own problem, but the face Fu ge put up didn’t make it seem so.

Luckily, Tang Xuhai returned at this point with a great harvest of two rabbits and one pheasant.

In the evening, they lit up a bonfire. Feasting on roasted wild meat sprinkled with pepper and eating thick congee, they felt as though their exhaustion had been totally wiped out.

At this juncture, the other survivors arrived one after another, surrounded them and started to set up camps. But no matter how they tried to squeeze, this wasn’t a flat plain, so they still had to segregate themselves across several hills.

After a while, several young men walked over.

Seeing them, Zhen Zi stood up at once: “What’s the matter?”

The man touched his neck awkwardly and said to Tang Xuhai with much unease: “I want to ask how the guarding at night will be arranged.”

Tang Xuhai did ask them to protect themselves, and with so many survivors, of course they wouldn’t expect to be sheltered by the sole 11 persons of Tang Xuhai’s team.

Tang Xuhai nodded with understanding. Although he said that his team wouldn’t be responsible for other survivors’ lives and safety, crucial plans to safeguard everyone still had to be put in place. After all, if these survivors got into trouble, Tang Xuhai’s team would also be affected.

Tang Xuhai waved at the men and gathered them together. He flattened a patch of the ground and drew a topographical map of the surroundings on it.

“The terrains near us are like this.” He looked up at these people. They were all males, consisting of both youngsters and middle-aged men. Based on Tang Xuhai’s observations, these people were probably members of the former Wild Wolf Gang who were coerced to join in their evil deeds. These men had experienced fighting with aliens and weren’t easily frightened.

Tang Xuhai said to them: “Let’s introduce yourselves a bit.”