Shen Tangtang didn’t rush to cut off the leaves. Picking up a tree branch she’d kicked aside earlier, she slowly began scraping away the soil.
Because it was right by the river, the earth was remarkably loose and soft.
Before long, she spotted the brown outer skin of the taro corm, covered in dense white roots. She gave them a tug, surprised to find the root fibers quite crisp and tender.
[Scan result: Radiation level 9%, edible.]
A radiation level below 10%? This was practically zero-radiation food.
She had never even heard of food with a radiation level under 10%, yet here she was, finding it today.
The roots were thumb-thick and half a meter long, stark white and overflowing with moisture.
Shen Tangtang took a bite. There was only a clean, plant-based sweetness. Not only was the radiation level low, but there were zero toxins either—was she seriously touched by Lady Luck today?
She tossed the root in her hand straight into her spatial storage and kept digging up the remaining roots.
To her amazement, out of a full eleven roots, nine had radiation levels below 10%, and only the two closest to the surface clocked in at 21%.
This stash alone was enough to feed her for half a month.
No rush, no rush. There was still a basketball-sized taro corm waiting at the bottom.
Hollowing out the soil around it, Shen Tangtang grabbed the exposed taro and pulled hard.
Crack. The taro broke free from the earth.
So heavy. This thing was packed to the brim with starch.
Shen Tangtang hoisted the taro up into her arms, her peripheral vision catching a glimpse of a purple stone buried at the very bottom, roughly the size of a fist.
Setting the taro aside, she picked up the stone to inspect it.
What on earth was this?
When in doubt, let the wristband handle it. Even if it couldn’t be scanned, she could keep it as a trinket. She had never seen such a gorgeous stone before; even if it had high radiation, keeping it in her space just to look at was a treat for the eyes.
She pulled up the special scanning feature, and a wave of blue light enveloped the stone.
[Ding ~ Energy stone detected, energy capacity 5,836, classified as a Grade A energy stone. Please take it to the exchange lobby to trade for credits.]
Shen Tangtang felt a slight sting in her eyes. This was an energy stone? The very same kind of energy stones the safe zone’s protective barrier constantly relied on?
She remembered the safe zone’s shield had only been activated once in the past five years, and that was just to block a downpour of acidic rain.
Ever since then, the reputation of energy stones had spread across every district in Dawn City, becoming common knowledge even among kids like them.
She quickly swept the energy stone into her spatial storage.
Oh mother dearest—keeping it out in the open for even a single second terrified her in case someone else spotted it.
Shen Tangtang stared at her hands, realizing they were still trembling slightly.
She wasn’t totally clueless. Once she recalled the plot points from the novel, she knew energy stones weren’t just required for safe zone shields; supernatural ability users needed them too.
Over the past few years, she had frequently gone out to scavenge and had never once laid eyes on an energy stone. It seemed her luck had genuinely turned a corner ever since she bound her spatial storage yesterday.
Thinking of the fist-sized energy stone resting safely in her space, Shen Tangtang curled her eyes into a happy squint.
Once she left the orphanage concentration camp, she’d have to test whether she could use an energy stone to awaken and stimulate a supernatural ability.
According to the novel’s world-building, abilities didn’t just grant combat power; reaching level ten and above meant living for a millennium was entirely possible. Even the male and female leads had only reached level five by the very end of the story.
She wanted to live a long, long time too. Now that the opportunity was here, it wasn’t just a passing wish anymore.
She shook out her hands, reined in her emotions, picked up the stone knife she’d tossed aside, and scraped the outer skin of the taro to gather some white powder for a radiation scan.
[Scan result: Radiation level 3%, edible.]
The taro was non-toxic—that was already within Shen Tangtang’s expectations. Wherever an energy stone was present, not only was radiation low, but toxic elements were purified as well.
Suddenly, she heard rustling footsteps outside. Someone was approaching.
Shen Tangtang flicked her hand, stowing the taro into her space, and hurriedly kicked the surrounding soil back into the hole, stomping it flat.
Excellent. Aside from a slight dip in the ground, there was zero trace that anything had been dug up here.
She grabbed her empty burlap sack and jogged over to another spot to keep scanning.
“Tangtang! Did you find any edible leaves?”
It was Lin Daiyu’s voice.
They hadn’t originally planned to come this way, but Lin Daiyu had been worried about Shen Tangtang’s safety and dragged Bai Yanjun along to track her down.
Knowing Shen Tangtang’s habits, Lin Daiyu had headed straight for the upper reaches of the river and finally spotted her figure.
Hearing Lin Daiyu, Shen Tangtang turned around to look, but lost her footing and tumbled straight down onto her rear.
Slapping the dirt off her pants, she put on a tearful, aggrieved expression. “Daiyu-jie, you know my luck—I never find food until the very last second.”
Oddly enough, ever since she started scavenging at thirteen, she never managed to snag a single bite of food until the final moments. Whenever she was faint with hunger by noon, whatever random leaf she plucked off a bush would miraculously hover right at the 50% threshold—safe to eat and enough to pass quota.
Ever since binding her spatial storage, though, Shen Tangtang felt like her baseline luck had skyrocketed; otherwise, she wouldn’t have scored so many incredible finds today.
“Don’t worry, you’ll find something. I’ll share a leaf with you later, otherwise today’s round-trip bus fare won’t even be covered, and next time we’ll be forced to go scavenging in the super close-in spots right by the shanty towns.”
Lin Daiyu cast a sympathetic look at Shen Tangtang’s flattened sack. How was this little girl going to survive once she left the orphanage concentration camp?
Their credits were all uniformly issued by the orphanage camp, and they were just barely enough for round-trip transport. Paying two credits in the morning covered the ride out, but upon returning to camp, they had to surrender half of whatever food they found just to qualify for the next trip’s fare.
Now they only had a month left to prepare. If they couldn’t rake in food right now, a month from now they’d be forced to move straight into the filthiest, most chaotic shanty towns.
True, children were the hope of the future, but children incapable of self-sufficiency had no reason to stay alive either.
The safe zone didn’t feed freeloaders.
“I know, Daiyu-jie.”
Shen Tangtang nodded. If she still couldn’t find any edible plants later on, she’d just pull out those clivia leaves she had stashed in her space.
The area immediately surrounding the safe zone had been picked clean countless times by scavengers; finding a scrap of food there was impossible.
She had tagged along once before—every single plant had been scanned and re-scanned by people, leaving zero room to pick up scraps.
The only way to actually find food was to spend your credits following a mercenary group out to these newly reclaimed territories. She certainly wasn’t going to sacrifice future gains just to grab a tiny bit of food right in front of her.
Shen Tangtang joined Lin Daiyu and Bai Yanjun, searching through the taro patch without finding any edible leaves, before pivoting over to the nearby patch of wild water bamboo.
By 5:00 PM, Shen Tangtang had managed to score two edible leaves—one water dropwort leaf and one water bamboo leaf. Rolling them up tight, she tucked them into her burlap sack. Between the high water content of the dropwort and the bamboo, when she hoisted the sack, it felt roughly thirty catties heavy.
Lin Daiyu’s luck wasn’t bad either, netting one more leaf than Shen Tangtang.
To Shen Tangtang’s surprise, Bai Yanjun had actually managed to find three edible leaves as well.
Actually, paying for the bus ride with credits wasn’t the only option; you could also pay by turning over a third of your harvest. However, the amount of food scavengers could find was already so limited, and surrendering that much on top of it meant many people preferred sticking closer to home—at least that way, you wouldn’t go into debt over failing to find food.
When Shen Tangtang and her group made it back to where they’d disembarked that morning, a long line of scavengers was already queued up.
They weren’t the only busload of people who had come out scavenging in this sector today.
People weren’t fools; areas newly cleared for reclamation like this were prime spots for finding food. Judging by how stuffed everyone’s back-baskets looked, their haves were pretty decent.
Of course, some people were carrying loads of thick vines or massive broad leaves instead. While those were high-radiation plants, treating them with isolation powder back home made them perfect for weaving back-baskets or patching up shanty roofs.