Chapter 188 — Mutated Birds
Luo Xun’s worries were not unfounded. As night fell, several birds—either due to exhaustion or because this was their native latitude—landed scattered around the area. Two of them happened to touch down right near the vast expanse of fields where the group was located.
With the warming weather, emerald-green tips had been emerging across the recent fields. In some places, the snow and ice had not yet completely melted, but the nearby grass and tree branches were already bursting with the tender greens, light pinks, and pale yellows that signaled spring.
Perhaps because this area was originally farmland, hints of green dotted the paths and the old fields. But alongside this springtime growth stood something far more prominent: the gruesome, dark brown branches of the terrifying Devil Vines!
A few large birds landed, and some, apparently unaware of how terrifying the Devil Vines were, actually hopped right up to them out of curiosity to see if they were edible. The consequences of provoking these horrific organisms were immediate. The moment a foolish bird approached, it found itself locked in a terrifying battle.
Once Luo Xun and the others discovered traces of the mutated birds, they quietly toned down their activities inside the house, keeping their movements as light as possible to avoid drawing the attention of the birds passing outside. Yan Fei retracted nearly half of the metal stored underground to reinforce the metal frame surrounding the three-story building, making the walls significantly thicker for better defense. Furthermore, while the group was busy working in the basement, they always left one or two people to keep a constant eye on the situation above.
Regarding this situation, Luo Xun remarked, “We should look for a place to scavenge some security cameras later. We can bring a few back and install them in various corners outside, so we won’t have to keep watch the hard way like this.”
He Qiankun immediately pulled out his notebook and jotted it down, ready to look into it later.
The upside of working underground was the quiet. No matter how fierce the battle between the plants and the mutated birds raged on the surface, they couldn’t hear a thing. But by the same token, because they couldn’t see the sunlight outside, they wouldn’t even notice what time it was by the end of the day unless someone reminded them.
Dragging their heavy bodies upstairs, they quietly checked the activity outside. After confirming that no bird had flown near their open plaza on a whim, they went to take showers, eat some food, and get ready for bed.
The former school building had a bathroom, but it was a communal one. All the fixtures were completely intact and functional; it only required Song Lingling to fill it with water, and Luo Xun and the others to modify the circuitry to run off the storage batteries. To their delight, there were actually two large bathrooms! Although the women’s bathroom was quite small, it was enough for them to split into two groups to wash up separately.
However, there was no bathtub, only showers, which left Luo Xun—who was used to the comfortable, large bathtub at home—feeling a little disappointed. On the other hand, Wang Duo insistently demanded each time that his Queen accompany him to shower together after everyone else was finished. While everyone understood his feelings, this behavior still earned him several thorough beatings from Li Tie and the guys—even if we shower together, we’re not going to have inappropriate thoughts about your partner! Do you think everyone is gay?!
In truth, Yan Fei wasn’t too keen on letting Luo Xun shower with the others either… for reasons everyone understood. But he wouldn’t be as foolish as Wang Duo to blurt such things out loud. Once they finished sorting out the basement and collected enough metal to start working on everyone’s rooms, they could install bathtubs in the bedrooms. The offices being converted into bedrooms were quite large, leaving plenty of space to partition into different functional areas as they pleased.
Fed, watered, and freshly scrubbed, everyone returned to their respective rooms and tucked themselves into bed. Even though they knew the thick curtains and the outer metal frame blocked the light, almost no one dared to turn on the lights inside—the army of mutated migratory birds was still flying right over their heads!
“Let’s sleep. We’ll get up early tomorrow to head down to the basement,” Luo Xun said as the two turned off all the light sources in the room. They stood by the window and quietly parted the curtains slightly to confirm everything was clear outside before climbing back under the covers.
They snuggled together, the blanket incredibly warm. The electric radiator sat to the side, and the puppy was curled up at the foot of the bed right next to it, sleeping soundly. The little baby was sleeping nearby as well, his small swaddle resting inside a curved metal cradle.
The group had only slept until two or three in the morning when they were startled awake by a massive commotion outside.
Luo Xun woke up in a daze at first, but when he heard the noise echoing from outside again, he immediately sat up. “What’s happening?!”
Yan Fei didn’t know either; like Luo Xun, he had just been jarred awake. The two rushed to the window and looked out, only to find that at some point, a massive mutated bird had landed right into the patch of Devil Vines bordering the open plaza of the small building and was currently locked in a struggle with them.
A fight between a mutated animal and the Devil Vines wasn’t unusual, but the problem was—this mutated bird was a fire-type! As it struggled, it kept unleashing torrents of flames!
It would have been fine if the flames were only directed at the Devil Vines, but it actually blasted a large sheet of fire onto the adjacent small building! That was the very structure Luo Xun and the others had stayed in when they first rushed here—a room specifically used for storing farming tools. Fortunately, all the usable tools had already been moved to the basement, so it was currently empty. But the headache was—right next to it was the large carport where the agricultural vehicles were parked! If that place caught fire, the consequences would be unimaginable!
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Hearing the commotion, everyone scrambled out of their sleep. Luo Xun and Yan Fei quickly grabbed the baby and the dog and rushed out of their room. “Xu Mei, see if you can keep those flames under control! Song Lingling, you and little Xinran help put out the fire!” With sand and water, a typical fire could be easily contained.
Luo Xun said to the rest of the men while slipping his arms into his jacket sleeves, “Let’s head down to the main entrance and check it out. Yan Fei has already sealed the metal on the wall facing the mutated bird, so even if the fire reaches us, it won’t be a major issue.” He rejoiced once again that they had brought up a portion of the underground metal during the day to attach to the outer metal frame out of caution. Now, they just needed to alter the shape of those frames into solid walls to block standard attacks.
The group ran down to the main entrance. Xu Mei barely managed to control the spread of the flames, preventing them from catching elsewhere, while little Xinran and Song Lingling quickly extinguished the fire on that building completely.
The large bird’s struggles grew slower and its movements diminished until it finally ran out of strength entirely.
Hidden behind the main gate, the group observed the situation outside through a peephole Yan Fei had left open. Seeing this, a sudden thought struck Luo Xun. “Should we try to snatch a portion of that bird meat?”
“Snatch? Snatch bird meat?” A group of people immediately looked at him with shining eyes, which appeared exceptionally bright in the pitch-black foyer that was only faintly illuminated by the distant firelight.
Luo Xun nodded. “Yes. We take as much as we can. Although some mutated plants are toxic, these Devil Vines only drain blood; they shouldn’t inject toxins into their prey’s body. We should be able to eat a prey they’ve already killed halfway.”
The group immediately rubbed their hands together, everyone eager to contribute.
They gathered to hatch a plan, leaving the core execution to the superpower users. While Song Lingling held little Xinran, Yan Fei used metal to construct a corridor. Though it wasn’t long, it was highly effective for preventing the mutated birds in the sky from spotting them. Crucially, it could also block attacks from the mutated plants!
Once they drew close, Xu Mei immediately unleashed fireballs to strike the vines ensnaring the mutated bird, while Zhang Su sent a barrage of wind blades toward the same spots. Cradled in Song Lingling’s arms, little Xinran kicked up the sand where the mutated plants stood, working hard to twist and lock the vines amidst the firelight.
Yan Fei instantly fabricated a metal mesh, snagging more than half the body and a wing of the mutated bird, which had clearly already drawn its last breath. The moment the others launched their attacks, he pulled with a surge of strength—and unexpectedly dragged it right over!
The group froze for a second, not expecting the prey to be snatched so easily. Snapping out of it, Luo Xun immediately called out, “Retreat!” We got it, why linger? What are we waiting for!
The group quickly sprinted back through the metal corridor. Behind them, the remaining vines thrashed and flailed in the night but couldn’t reach their position. They could only drag the remaining half-wing away to rapidly decompose, absorb, and “eat” it…
“W-We actually snatched it back?!” After running back inside the building, everyone looked at each other in disbelief. Only after a long silence did they drop to the floor and burst into laughter. They had spent so much time mentally preparing themselves, even readying for a major battle with the mutated plants, only for the prize to be secured so effortlessly.
“I’ve temporarily encased the prey in metal. We’ll process it tomorrow morning after making sure there are no issues,” Yan Fei said, being the first to recover. Once everyone’s laughter died down, he pointed outside the main gate. The moment the giant bird was dragged back, the metal mesh and the surrounding metal had completely sealed the prey inside.
“Alright, we’ll process it tomorrow once we confirm it’s safe.” Luo Xun let out a long breath, patting the shoulder of whoever was standing next to him. “Everyone head back and rest. Tonight was truly exhausting.”
Although everyone was eager to check on the large bird outside, they knew better—in such darkness, having snatched this bird straight from the jaws of mutated plants, who knew if it carried anything foul? If it was contaminated with the zombie virus or had zombie-fied small critters crawling on it… handling it this way was by far the safest option.
Swallowing a mouthful of craving, the group returned to their rooms once more for a fitful sleep until dawn. Everyone got out of bed impatiently and gathered in the first-floor lobby, staring longingly as they waited for Yan Fei to open the casing and inspect the mutated bird’s carcass. When Luo Xun came downstairs and saw this sight, he couldn’t help but complain inwardly—Hey! We still have leftover rabbit in the freezer, is this really necessary?!
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
