"The safer territories outside the Safe Zone, besides the ones ringing the zone itself, include numbers 2, 15, 68, 113, and 166. The Tang Family is interested in claiming three of them."
Since Xiaqing had been keeping a close eye on information about the territories, she knew the five listed in the text message were indeed among the safer ones, with flat arable land and thick topsoil. The message was highly credible.
Xiaqing had been secretly keeping tabs on the Tang Family and knew they were eyeing the territories. That was why she had gone to the mission hall early to get in line and wait for a member of the Tang Family to arrive.
To speed up the use of farmland outside the Safe Zone and solve the critical food shortage, the nation’s highest authorities had ordered the military and government of every base, large and small, to work together to expedite the territory pilot program.
Under the supervision of the Hui San Base military, the Tang Family didn’t dare to brazenly seize the best lands. They had to keep up appearances.
But no matter how good the act, there were always loopholes. Xiaqing’s plan was to exploit one of them and use the opportunity to claim the Third Territory. This was because the land held a resource vital for her survival.
After texting the number she used publicly inside the Safe Zone, this person had quickly used a communications satellite to send the same message to a number she hadn’t used in seven years. Unfortunately, Xiaqing’s phone had been turned off, so she hadn’t seen it.
It was fair to say that Xiaqing’s success in claiming the Third Territory was partly thanks to the person who sent that message. As for who this person was, or whether they had sent the text out of goodwill or with ulterior motives, Xiaqing had too little information to judge.
Xiaqing deleted the message again, then yawned and crawled into her sleeping bag. She needed to get a good rest to start her new life.
***
Waking up early the next day, Xiaqing cleared the weeds and shrubs from the yard. Then, with a piece of a ration bar between her teeth, she left the village, heading north across a vast expanse of scorched farmland, skirting a long, narrow reservoir, and climbing up a hillside.
To ensure the territories weren’t invaded and destroyed by Evolved Creatures, the base had dispatched teams to clear an isolation belt at least fifty meters wide. This served as a transitional zone between the uncleared Evolution Forest and the territories.
The belt was regularly patrolled and sprayed with Insect Repellent to prevent Evolved Insects and ferocious beasts from the Evolution Forest from entering the territory zones.
To protect the territories and their Lords, territories adjacent to mountains had an additional stretch of woods between the isolation belt and the farmland, known as a Buffer Forest.
The three thousand mu of cleared mountain forest to the northwest of the Third Territory was part of this buffer zone, and this area was included within the boundaries of the territory.
Combined with the more than two thousand mu of farmland within it, the Third Territory’s total area reached a staggering five thousand five hundred-plus mu, far larger than territories that weren’t against a mountain and lacked a Buffer Forest. This method of allocation was intended to incentivize Lords to claim these fringe territories.
Only harmful Evolved Creatures had been cleared from the Buffer Forest, so its grass and trees remained lush, creating a stark color contrast with the thoroughly cleared and scorched-black farmland.
After leaving her house, Xiaqing used a wooden stick to part the shrubs and overgrown grass in the Buffer Forest as she climbed, eventually reaching her destination for this trip—a small stone cave with a spring inside the territory’s North Buffer Forest.
Xiaqing had discovered this spring by accident last winter while clearing the territory with her squad. Water from the spring slowly seeped out from the inner wall of the narrow stone cave, which was half a meter deep and thirty centimeters high, before silently disappearing back into the ground through a crack in the rock.
If a Speed-evolved Red Squirrel hadn’t suddenly darted out of the stone cave at that moment, Xiaqing never would have discovered the spring.
To solve its drinking water problem, Hui San Base had drilled three deep-water wells inside the Safe Zone. However, all the water they drew was contaminated and could only be consumed after purification.
Because the cost of purifying contaminated water was high, the base’s mission board had a standing mission to find uncontaminated water sources. Every squad, regardless of their primary mission, would search for clean water whenever they ventured outside the Safe Zone.
In the past decade, the four uncontaminated water sources found within Hui San Base’s territory had, without exception, all been mountain springs. But because their flow rate was too low, they could only supply the hospital, the Research Institute, the Planting Center, and a few important figures.
Xiaqing, who survived by selling her strength, was of course not among those "few important figures."
Of course, not all mountain springs were uncontaminated. So, when Xiaqing’s portable detector showed a Green Light after testing the spring water, she had immediately designated this land as her top choice.
Uncontaminated water was the true source of life.
Now, this spring of potable water was finally all hers. Xiaqing scooped up half a bowl of water and drank it in one gulp, the advertising slogans of some bottled water brand echoing in her mind.
’This is incredible!’
’With spring water this clean, she could drink as much as she wanted.’
’She wouldn’t just drink it; she’d wash her face with it, too. That’s how extravagant she could be!’
After washing her face, Xiaqing grinned foolishly as she began to clean out and widen the stone cave. Having spent nearly a decade living on edge in the crowded, dog-eat-dog Safe Zone, Xiaqing had forgotten how to smile. Her current expression was almost a grimace.
But this was her territory. She didn’t have to be on edge anymore. She could talk, laugh, shout, or jump whenever she wanted. The feeling was wonderfully liberating.
For a Strength Evolver, clearing out the stone cave was a trivial task.
The sound of the spring water trickling along a clean piece of bamboo and into her bucket was like heavenly music to Xiaqing’s ears.
Collecting the water would take time, so Xiaqing stood up and gazed down at her territory.
During the decade of Natural Disasters, no volcanoes had erupted here, nor had there been any major earthquakes, so the topography was little changed from before the cataclysm. Even so, the dense mountain forests and overgrown weeds still concealed many Evolved Creatures that could easily kill a person.
The forests and farmland within Xiaqing’s territory had been occupied by them just three months ago. The numerous craters, each several meters deep, that now pockmarked the ground were scars from the fierce battles fought between humans and Evolved Creatures for this land.
Once her two 20-liter water containers were full, Xiaqing screwed the lids on tight, concealed them inside her oversized backpack, and then blocked the cave entrance with rocks and branches to prevent anyone from discovering it.
After storing the water at her house, Xiaqing went to the small store in the Deserted Village. She dug through the rubble, which reeked of decay, and pulled out a dented, vertical, stainless-steel solar water storage tank.
She had found it while clearing the village with her squad. Instead of hauling it back to the Safe Zone, she had buried it here in the territory to serve as a backup supply.
After banging the tank back into shape, Xiaqing used it to fetch water from the reservoir.
Just as she reached the reservoir’s edge, a dark shape suddenly shot out of the water, lunging straight for her face. Wearing her Protective Mask, Xiaqing swatted it away, sending it flying five meters to crash against a rock on the bank.
When the dark shape tumbled a few times and then lay still, Xiaqing grinned. Her ambusher had been an Evolved Catfish thicker than her arm.
Like many carnivorous Evolved Creatures, the Evolved Catfish had added humans to its menu and would proactively attack any who came near. If its mouth, full of teeth like a rasp, had bitten Xiaqing just now, she would have certainly lost a huge chunk of flesh.
But now...
Xiaqing took her knife, sliced off a small piece of the fish’s flesh, and placed it in her small, portable Harmful Element Detector. The Green Light quickly lit up.
This Evolved Catfish was edible!
Xiaqing immediately hid the catfish in her water basin to prevent the Evolved Fierce Birds circling overhead from swooping down to snatch it.
After carefully filling the tank, Xiaqing hoisted the 200-kilogram container onto her shoulder and carried it home. There, she fashioned a simple filter out of fine sand, small pebbles, and several layers of gauze for an initial purification. Then, she installed a Basic purification filter cartridge issued by the base for a second round of purification.
While the water slowly filtered, Xiaqing found some suitable tools and got to work. She scraped all the moldy, yellowed, and peeling plaster from the interior walls of the two-story house and swept the floors clean, reducing the amount of contaminants and bacteria inside.
Then, she scrubbed the big, rusty iron pot in the house clean, heated the filtered water, and took a long, blissful hot bath.
After GULP GULP GULPing down a mug of spring water, Xiaqing, whose stomach was growling fiercely with hunger, grabbed her knife and made a beeline for the large catfish.
For her first proper meal in her new territory, she was going to have meat.