Xiaqing had thoroughly scouted this area two months ago when she came with the team to clear the territory. The Third Territory covered a total of 5,580 acres, making it the third-largest among the two hundred plots that had been cleared so far.
To completely eradicate any harmful, evolved pests, all the arable land within the territory had been cleared and burned over once. The three Deserted Villages within the borders had also been sprayed twice with potent insecticide and Insect Repellent.
Xiaqing had participated in the village’s disinfection process from start to finish. Even though dusk was falling and she was the only person within thousands of acres, she wasn’t worried about being attacked by Evolutionary Biology as she walked into a Deserted Village where the wild grass grew taller than a person.
That was because there were no longer any large creatures capable of mounting an attack here.
Pushing through the head-high weeds, she entered the most intact two-story house in the Deserted Village. Xiaqing set her bag down in the first-floor living room, went back out to gather some dry wood, and returned to shut the door. Only after lighting a fire did she begin to inspect the supplies she had received from the hall.
She had one Basic purification filter, which could purify 200 liters of lightly polluted freshwater. The water in the Longpan Reservoir was considered lightly polluted, which was one of the reasons Xiaqing favored this location.
There were thirty pounds of compressed rations. Although her appetite had increased after she became an Evolver, it would be enough to last her four months if she ate sparingly.
She had also been given six pounds each of evolved wheat, mung beans, cotton, and small potatoes, as well as one packet each of evolved pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, and eggplant seeds. If these seeds could successfully take root, Xiaqing would have grain to cook in four months, and the vegetables would be ready even sooner.
To Xiaqing’s regret, she hadn’t received any evolved sweet potatoes. Last year, while out on a mission with the Green Dragon Team, she had been given a small piece of an evolved sweet potato. Its wonderful taste was something she still couldn’t forget.
Since the rations and seeds were distributed in standard bags, Xiaqing wasn’t sure if all the Lords had received the exact same types of seeds. She would have to find a way to ask around. If their allocations were different, they could trade with each other and grow a wider variety of crops.
After putting the seeds away securely, Xiaqing took out the old cell phone she had just received. Upon turning it on, she found two vertical green lines running down the screen, which also flickered incessantly. This was perfectly normal. In the tenth year of the apocalypse, any phone that could still turn on was considered a good phone, regardless of its condition.
On the phone’s home screen was a Word document titled "Planting Guide". It contained illustrated introductions to over thirty types of safe and viable crops, and sweet potatoes were among them.
Xiaqing didn’t have time to read it carefully right now. She set the phone aside and pulled out the small radio issued to the Lords by the base—another item in "fairly good" condition.
After the Natural Disaster collapsed the massive and highly efficient modern communication systems built by humanity, using simple radios to send and receive information had become the primary method of long-distance communication.
Currently, signal coverage had been restored within the Hui San Base Safety Zone, but the communication quality was far below pre-disaster levels. Inside the Safe Zone, phones could only be used for calling, texting, and accessing the Hui San Base task platform app. The signal towers outside the Safe Zone had not yet been repaired, so there was no cell reception in Xiaqing’s territory. Her phone was essentially reduced to an e-reader and a clock.
After placing the base-issued phone and radio next to the personal phone she was currently using, Xiaqing pulled out her land use right certificate. As she carefully read the text printed on the back, her eyes gradually lit up.
The broadcasts had repeatedly promised to protect the rights of the Lords, but they had never mentioned any specific protective measures.
In the midst of the Natural Disaster, the attacks from evolved plants and animals in nature were undeniably terrifying, but what brought true despair was the slaughter, looting, and bullying inflicted by their fellow humans.
Of the people who died after surviving the first three years of the Natural Disaster, at least thirty percent were killed by their own kind.
Xiaqing’s father had been "accidentally killed" by a High Level Evolver during a fierce beast’s attack on the Safe Zone.
Xiaqing had watched it happen with her own eyes. Yet, due to her lack of strength, she was still unable to avenge her father.
In these times of severe food and supply shortages, Lords who left the control of the Safe Zone—holding onto food while being isolated and outnumbered—naturally became easy prey in the eyes of many.
Lords without sufficient strength would, at best, have their hard-earned crops stolen. At worst, they would lose their lives. This was the main reason why many people didn’t dare to leave the Safe Zone to farm, even knowing that the High Level Evolution Beasts had been driven hundreds of miles away.
To give the Lords the peace of mind to farm, the base had drawn up exceptionally large boundaries for each territory to maintain a wide distance between the Lords. Alongside the promise of non-stop, 24-hour military patrols, the base also granted the Lords one crucial right:
The land use right certificate explicitly stated that all resources within the marked boundaries belonged to the Lord. Anyone trespassing on the territory without the Lord’s permission would be guilty of illegal intrusion and strictly punished by law. Furthermore, any actions taken to stop an ongoing unlawful infringement in order to protect the Lord’s personal safety, property, and other rights—even if those actions caused injury or death to the perpetrator—would be classified as self-defense.
Simply put: killing a trespasser on your territory was not a crime!
Her chance to avenge her father had just presented itself.
Xiaqing picked up a branch as thick as a thigh lying nearby, snapped it effortlessly, and tossed the pieces into the fire. She stretched expansively before pulling over her massive canvas bag.
This two-hundred-pound canvas bag contained all of Xiaqing’s worldly possessions: a set of bedding, a sleeping bag, a small package of basic cooking utensils and seasonings, a large bag of woodworking and electrical tools, two large bundles of building materials, six knives, a small radio she had used for years, a powerful slingshot, and one hundred and fifty books.
These books covered gardening, planting, animal husbandry, woodworking, electrical work, and home renovation. They were all essential skills needed to survive in the territory.
After her mother passed away, planning and preparing for a new life beyond the Natural Disaster had been Xiaqing and her father’s favorite pastime in their rare moments of rest. After her father died, it became the main driving force keeping Xiaqing alive.
Now, in the tenth year of the Natural Disaster, she had finally stepped out of the Safe Zone to begin her new life.
Xiaqing packed the books one by one into a waterproof and moisture-proof storage bag, then opened her clothing bundle and took out a cell phone hidden inside.
The phone issued by the base to the Lords couldn’t contact the outside world from within the territory, but hers could.
Strictly speaking, this phone was a "satellite communication terminal." It had been a graduation gift from her parents during the year the Natural Disaster struck.
When Hua Country’s satellite communication—the only system capable of global coverage—was restored in the third year of the Natural Disaster, satellite communication terminals became a highly contested resource. Within the Hui San Safety Zone, some people used satellite phones to trade for life-saving food and medicine, while many others lost their lives because of them.
After her father was murdered, Xiaqing was forced to move into the Evolvers’ dormitories. Once she started sharing a room with strangers, she hid this phone away. She only turned it on when she was absolutely sure she was safe, just to look at old videos and photos, receive public satellite text messages sent by the government and the Hui Yi Base Headquarters, and learn about news not covered on the radio.
Now that she was in her own territory, Xiaqing could use her phone with peace of mind. The last time she turned it on was New Year’s Eve—exactly sixteen days ago.
Upon booting up and connecting to the communication satellite, the phone quickly received hundreds of disaster warnings, news updates, and public notices.
Xiaqing read through them one by one. Similar to the content she usually received, the information mentioned in the texts and short reports had already been broadcasted on the radio. But there was one exception.
An unknown number had sent her a text message fifteen days ago, on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. Both this unfamiliar number and the contents of the message were now deeply etched into her memory.
That was because on that exact same day, just three minutes before this message was received, the regular phone she used in the Safe Zone had also received the exact same text from this very number.
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Dear readers, the author would like to take a moment to explain the naming conventions for biological creatures in this book: (Since the book hasn’t gone premium yet, I’m including this directly in the main text.)
All biological evolution on Blue Star is divided into two categories: ordinary-level evolution and beyond-ordinary-level evolution. For ease of reading, when biological names are mentioned later in the text, creatures with ordinary-level evolution will simply be referred to by their original names. Creatures with beyond-ordinary-level evolution will have "Evolved" or "Evolutionary" added to their names, such as Evolved Potato, Evolutionary Snake, and so on.
Following this logic, High Level Evolution creatures—those that have exceeded the ordinary evolution of their species by more than five times—will have "High Level Evolution" added to their names. For example, High Level Evolution Potato, High Level Evolution Snake, and so forth.