Qianfan Base.
In Collection Area No. 12, a young girl dressed in a gray, coarse linen outfit stood wrapped up tightly. Her face was deathly pale as she endured the stabbing pain in her abdomen caused by hunger. With her stiff, trembling hand, she struggled to test a large dandelion in front of her.
“Beep. Level 5 radiation.”
After the wristwatch beeped, the cold words “Level 5 Radiation” appeared on its screen.
“Beep. Level 4 radiation.”
“Beep. Level 5 radiation.”
A string of warnings indicating that the plants were inedible appeared before her eyes, eventually converging into one huge word in her mind.
Hungry!
In her twenty years of life, Ning Yu’an had never been this hungry!
Not even when she had undergone surgery on an empty stomach!
A day ago, Ning Yu’an had dragged her seriously ill body, which had only a few days left to live, to watch the supposedly once-in-a-thousand-years meteor shower. She wanted to make a wish upon the meteor shower. She did not ask for good health in this life. She only wished for a healthy body in her next life.
Well, it seemed the meteor shower really was effective. This body was healthier than hers.
But not by much.
When Ning Yu’an woke up, she discovered that she had arrived in the Wasteland era, where resources were scarce and the environment was harsh.
The current year in this world was Year 59 of the New Calendar on Mangdong Star.
Hundreds of years ago, this planet had been struck by a planet-sized object. The continental plates had been reshaped, followed by a series of unprecedented disasters including volcanic eruptions, acid rain, earthquakes, and nuclear explosions.
Nuclear radiation spread across the entire planet, causing plants and animals to mutate. Amid the ensuing chaos, large numbers of humans died from both external forces and internal conflicts.
This even caused some island nations that depended on the sea to be wiped out completely.
Civilized society gradually disappeared, and governments were replaced by one base after another. A prolonged period of conflict followed.
With natural disasters and human calamities working together, only tens of millions of humans remained on the entire planet.
Eventually, the major bases reached a consensus, stopped fighting among themselves, reorganized their territories, and developed large-scale devices capable of isolating radiation. Humanity then entered a new era.
Even though conflicts among humans had greatly decreased, the living environment remained harsh.
The radiation-isolating devices required energy crystals to operate. Energy crystals were scarce and were mostly found in high-radiation areas. Even with radiation-proof suits, humans could not remain in high-radiation areas for too long.
The shortage of energy crystals also severely restricted the range covered by the radiation-isolating devices.
The closer one got to an isolation device, the lower the radiation level became.
Those who could not afford to establish a residence inside the base could only settle outside the city. Although they were still exposed to a certain amount of radiation, it was far better than the high-radiation areas without isolation devices.
These settlements outside the city walls were also known as slums.
Edible plants were becoming increasingly scarce, mutated animals were growing stronger, and the human population continued to decline at an alarming rate. Even those in power began to feel an intense sense of crisis.
Therefore, even the impoverished people who could not afford to pay taxes or buy houses and had no choice but to live outside the city were still provided with a certain degree of protection.
Official patrol teams would patrol at irregular intervals every day. The government also organized mercenaries to clear mutated beasts from the collection areas, giving the impoverished residents a brief chance to catch their breath.
Even so, the population continued to decline uncontrollably.
There was only one reason.
There was too little food.
The original owner of Ning Yu’an’s current body had survived the winter of New Calendar Year 58. However, after developing a fever and becoming unable to move, she had eventually starved to death in late spring when everything was coming back to life.
“Beep. Level 3 radiation.”
Ning Yu’an felt that her eyes must be glowing green from hunger.
Without caring whether it was clean or not, she tore off the arm-length leaf and swallowed it raw in a few bites.
After waiting quietly for a few seconds, the frantic rumbling in her stomach finally subsided. The bitter taste of fresh dandelion gradually spread through Ning Yu’an’s mouth.
Ning Yu’an took out the water bottle from her backpack and gulped down two more mouthfuls of water before she felt a little better.
Seeing that she had found something, several people nearby secretly moved closer. They began testing things beside her, silently praying that good luck would favor them as well.
No one here would condemn such behavior as shameless. In the Wasteland, food was more important than anything else.
There were plenty of people like Ning Yu’an who were so hungry that they could barely walk without swaying.
After resting for quite a while and feeling a little better, Ning Yu’an’s eyes began to focus and her thoughts gradually returned.
Seeing more and more people gathering around the area with the large dandelions, Ning Yu’an decided to move to another location.
She was currently in Collection Area No. 12, not far from the slum where she lived.
That morning, she had been so hungry that she could barely walk. With no strength to spare, she had started testing things nearby after walking only a short distance.
Although her hands and feet were still somewhat weak, there was no time to rest now.
She had already searched her home that morning. There was not a single bit of food left.
There were only two contribution points in her wristwatch, not even enough to buy a single nutritional supplement.
After walking and stopping for nearly half an hour, a soft chime suddenly sounded in Ning Yu’an’s mind.
Ding. Welcome to the Resource Map produced by the Space-Time Administration Bureau.
Host has completed the task of exploring five kilometers of unknown territory.
Exploration Point ×1 obtained.
Task refreshed.
Host currently possesses Exploration Point ×1.
Would you like to consume ×1 Exploration Point to unlock the storage function?
Ning Yu’an suddenly felt as though a parchment map had appeared before her eyes. Somewhat bewildered by the final question, she instinctively answered,
“Unlock.”
Storage space unlocked!
Current storage capacity: 1 cubic meter.
Ning Yu’an quickly came to her senses and found a large tree that provided shade. She sat down beneath it as if she were resting, but in reality, she was studying the information on the map.
A map appeared on the parchment in her mind. The darkened areas beside it were marked as unexplored regions.
A small white dot stood in the center of the illuminated section. That was her location.
The map would enlarge the area within 500 meters of her current position.
Nearby were several flickering blue and green dots.
According to the information shown on the map, Ning Yu’an knew that these represented locations where resources could be obtained.
Blue, green, yellow, orange, red.
Blue was the lowest level.
The lower-left corner of the map displayed a task list.
The tasks were divided into one to five stars. Completing a one-star task would grant one Exploration Point.
Only three tasks were displayed at the moment.
Her current tasks were:
The Exploration Points obtained from tasks could be used to unlock unexplored regions in advance or expand the storage space.
One Exploration Point could expand the storage space by one cubic meter.
This was her cheat ability!
With this cheat ability, there was no way she would starve to death in the Wasteland, right?
After studying the map, Ning Yu’an smiled so widely that the corners of her mouth nearly reached her ears.
However, she soon stopped smiling.
In theory, there was no problem.
Ning Yu’an eagerly began putting it into practice.
Looking at a small blue dot just a few steps away from her location, Ning Yu’an glanced around. Somewhat uncertain, she focused on a mutated Chinese toon tree ahead.
Ning Yu’an walked around the tree several times, making sure there were no tree hollows, bird nests, or anything similar.
Only then did she hesitantly use the detection needle to pierce the tree bark.
“Beep. Level 5 radiation.”