The chicks’ eyes were no bigger than green peas, shiny and black as they squirmed in Su Xing’s hands.
“Pfft, I completely forgot about them.”
Su Yue took the chicks and set them down inside the house.
She planned to build them a coop in the yard later. Raising them there would be simple enough.
The only problem was figuring out how to keep them from making noise.
If all else failed…
She could always make them mute.
Cruel?
Maybe.
But in a world where the strong preyed upon the weak, excessive compassion was often the most useless thing of all.
Unfortunately, her vine ability currently only carried a paralytic toxin, not one that could damage vocal cords.
So she took out the crystal core and decided to absorb its energy, hoping to upgrade her powers.
The time required to absorb energy varied.
Based on her experience from her previous life, a crystal core of this size should take around three hours.
After feeding the chicks and tying their beaks shut, Su Yue lay down on the bed and began absorbing the energy.
“Xingxing, your sister is taking a nap. Don’t wake me up no matter what. And if someone comes, don’t open the door.”
Absorbing energy required complete concentration.
One had to carefully guide the energy flowing through the body.
Distractions were the worst possible thing.
“Okay!”
Xingxing answered brightly.
Then she dragged a little stool to the side and began entertaining herself by weaving things from grass stalks.
There were no toys in the house.
Su Xing had always made her own fun, drawing on the ground or weaving little objects.
Taking out the crystal core, Su Yue held it tightly in her hand.
She lay flat on the bed.
To an observer, she looked asleep.
In reality, she was completely focused on sensing the crystal core.
The familiar energy flowed through every part of her body.
It was comforting.
In a world full of danger, only personal strength could provide true security.
Su Yue never placed her hopes in other people.
Three hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Sweat covered her forehead, but she had finally absorbed all the energy.
The crystal core that had once shone brightly had crumbled into useless powder.
Carefully sensing her body’s changes, Su Yue realized that her vine ability had advanced to Level Two.
The jump from Level One to Level Two wasn’t difficult.
Naturally, the improvements weren’t dramatic either.
Future upgrades would require exponentially more crystal cores.
Now she could manifest ten vines at once.
The pain from severed vines had lessened.
And her vines had developed a second type of toxin.
Her healing ability, however, hadn’t improved.
That was because she had consciously directed all the absorbed energy into her wood-element vine power.
Getting up and stretching, she felt refreshed and invigorated.
Hehe. Little chicks, come let Sister hug you~
Su Yue couldn’t wait to test her new toxin.
The three chicks huddled in the corner had no idea their voices were about to suffer.
Picking one up, Su Yue turned her back to Su Xing to block her view.
A tiny vine sprouted from her fingertip.
At the tip of the vine was a sharp needle-like thorn.
It looked exactly like a syringe.
Aiming carefully at the chick’s throat, she stabbed quickly and precisely.
The chick immediately began struggling wildly.
Two minutes later, it calmed down and became listless.
Su Yue removed the vine binding its beak.
Sure enough—
Not a single sound came out.
Success!
Hahahahahaha!
Su Yue silently praised her own genius and immediately gave the chick a name.
“From now on, you’ll be called Xiao An.”
Using the same method, she “silenced” the other two chicks as well.
Just like that, she acquired three mute chickens.
“You’ll be Xiao Bao.”
“And you’ll be Xiao Juan.”
After dealing with the chicks, Su Yue took advantage of the remaining daylight.
Using scrap wood and broken bricks, she built a chicken coop in the yard.
The chicks were still too small to flap their wings and fly.
Once they grew up, she’d need proper cages.
She even thoughtfully placed the original nest she had stolen from the reed marsh inside the coop.
The coop itself occupied about one square meter, while a fenced area of roughly three square meters allowed the chicks to wander around.
Satisfied, Su Yue tossed them a handful of wild grass.
Mutated chickens really were wonderful.
You could practically raise them on nothing and they’d still survive.
Many families in the refugee district wanted to raise mutated creatures.
The problem was obtaining young ones.
Even if Beast Hunters got lucky enough to capture mutant offspring, they usually sold them immediately.
Carnivorous mutant beasts were too expensive to feed.
Herbivorous ones usually lived in herds and were too dangerous to provoke.
The few weaker species often had excellent camouflage and escape abilities, making them difficult to capture.
As a result, only a handful of relatively wealthy families kept mutant animals.
Zhao Qing’s family, for example, raised several mutated rabbits.
Thanks to her uncle’s connections within the defense force, they had managed to obtain rabbit kits.
Those rabbits alone allowed the family to survive without scavenging.
After mutation, the rabbits had gained stronger jumping ability.
Their bodies became smaller, making them easier to hide.
Their hearing improved.
Their lifespans increased.
The downside was reduced fertility.
They could only breed after one year of age.
They produced a litter only every six months, and each litter contained just one or two kits.
Even so, Zhao Qing’s family earned a decent amount of money by selling them.
Many wealthy city residents loved keeping the small, harmless creatures as pets.
Some refugee families had asked to buy rabbit kits from them.
Naturally, Zhao Qing’s family refused.
Why share a profitable secret?
If everyone raised rabbits, their own rabbits wouldn’t sell for nearly as much.
Now that her abilities had strengthened, Su Yue could consider trying her luck in the sour jujube forest.
She went to heat up dinner while Su Xing happily prepared supplies for the next day’s trip.
Just as the meal was ready, a message appeared on her detector.
[Hi! Do you remember me? I’m Song Zhizhi, the girl who exchanged contact information with you the other day.]
Before Su Yue could reply, another message popped up.
[I’m planning to search for food in the sour jujube forest tomorrow. Want to come with me?]
Hmm?
What a coincidence.
Su Yue still hadn’t found a suitable partner.
Most scavengers either already had companions or were too guarded to approach.
Even if they seemed friendly, there was no way to know whether they were trustworthy.
Since Song Zhizhi was also heading to the sour jujube forest, having a companion wouldn’t be a bad thing.
[Sure. What time?]
On the other end, Song Zhizhi was delighted to receive a reply.
She had an older brother and a mother suffering from radiation syndrome.
When her brother was young, he had accidentally wandered into a highly irradiated area.
Although he was rescued, he suffered brain damage and became mentally disabled.
Her father had also contracted radiation sickness while rescuing him and died years ago.
Now her mother was sick as well.
She could only stay home doing handicrafts.
Her brother was incapable of scavenging.
The entire family depended on Song Zhizhi—a thirteen-year-old girl—for survival.
Scavenging alone was dangerous.
She had wanted a partner for a long time.
After searching for so long, Su Yue was the only person who seemed reliable.
[Let’s meet at the sour jujube forest at five tomorrow morning. I’ll turn on location tracking and find you. Sound good?]
Su Yue agreed.
[Okay.]
The next morning, Su Yue packed two nearly expired nutrition capsules and a thermos of hot water.
After reminding Su Xing to eat a biscuit at noon, she set off.
She had only been in this world for a few days, yet the weather had already grown noticeably colder.
It was only early September.
She couldn’t imagine how cold winter would become.
Thankfully, she had purchased a secondhand cotton-padded coat.
Wrapping the coat tightly around herself, she followed the stream of scavengers toward the sour jujube forest.
Once there, she and Song Zhizhi activated location sharing.
It wasn’t long before Song Zhizhi found her.
“Su Yue!”
Song Zhizhi was thin.
Not much healthier-looking than the old Su Yue.
Meanwhile, Su Yue had been eating better these past few days, and her healing ability had gradually improved her condition.
She looked much healthier now.
Song Zhizhi glanced at Su Yue’s padded coat and couldn’t hide her envy.
“Wow, that’s so nice! I hope I find some low-radiation jujubes today so I can trade for a cotton coat too. Hehe.”
Su Yue was always quiet around strangers.
She wasn’t cold-hearted.
She was simply an introvert by nature.
Compared to her, Song Zhizhi was unbelievably lively.
So Su Yue merely nodded politely.
“Shall we go?”
“Mhm! Let’s go, let’s go!”
One after the other, the two girls stepped into the sour jujube forest.