Base 71
At the edge of the shantytown on the outskirts of the Safe Zone stood an inconspicuous little shack, about 16 square meters in size, built from wood. The roof was covered with dry grass, over which lay a layer of yellowed oilpaper, topped with stone slabs pressed down tightly. The corners were securely tied with ropes made from special vines.
Looking around, the entire shantytown was filled with such shacks. Though small, they were fully equipped—pots, pans, bowls, and bedding were all kept inside. Those who could afford it would hang a lock on the door, while those who couldn’t didn’t even have a door.
Inside the shack, Sang Luoluo was in excruciating pain. Not only did she have multiple abrasions all over her body, but her skin was also affected by radiation in several places, leaving behind sunburn-like patches.
Lying on the wooden bed board, the dim light inside illuminated the dry grass hanging from the ceiling as daylight broke outside. Sang Luoluo let out a deep sigh.
This was already who-knows-how-many sighs she had let out since arriving in this world.
Originally, she had been driving her truck to deliver goods with her dog when the weather suddenly changed on the way back. An unexpected meteor shower descended upon Lanxing, smashing a large hole in the truck’s cabin. With no other choice, she placed her dog inside her space. The next moment, everything went dark, and she found herself in this Wasteland World, having transmigrated into the body of a girl who shared her name.
Struggling to get up, she accidentally tugged at her wounds, causing a sharp pain that made her grimace. Overnight, the wounds had already scabbed over.
Shakily, she walked to the table—a simple wooden frame with a plank placed on top. On it sat a bowl of green, paste-like liquid.
This was the last bit of food left in the house. Following the original owner’s memories, she had made this “meal” by mixing the last remaining palm-sized green leaf with half a bottle of nutrient solution.
Staring at the murky green liquid, she lay in bed for a long time, mentally preparing herself before finally getting up to eat.
No matter what, survival was the most important thing.
Taking a small sip, it wasn’t as terrible as she had imagined, but the taste was still strange—like drinking a mouthful of glue.
When she first woke up yesterday, she was in the wilderness, covered in injuries. Based on the original owner’s memories, the girl had been injured in the wild, further harmed by solar radiation, and eventually succumbed to her wounds, dying outside. And she had transmigrated into the body at that exact moment.
When she first arrived, her head throbbed painfully. After managing to stand up, she discovered that although her space had followed her here, it was unusable. Everything inside seemed frozen, preserved in the exact state it was in before she transmigrated. Initially planning to rest inside her space, she suddenly realized she couldn’t enter it at all.
This was the first time she had encountered such a situation since obtaining her space. After several more attempts, she sensed that the space had likely exhausted its energy while bringing her here, resulting in it being sealed off.
With no other choice, and feeling unwell, she slowly made her way back home, following the original owner’s memories.
She couldn’t help but think about how well she had been living in her original world. After graduating, while traveling, she had stumbled upon an ancient extraterrestrial jade at a street stall. By chance, the jade, stained with her blood, activated to reveal a miraculous portable planting space. Inside, there was an endless supply of spirit spring water and boundless stretches of black soil.
Then she decisively resigned and returned to the countryside, leasing land to start a farm. She also transformed the space inside her into a farm-like environment. Inside the space, the rustic villa, planting area, living quarters, livestock zone, and aquaculture section were all gradually built by her. Inside, she had no worries about food or drink—everything her family farm had, the space had too, and even things the farm didn’t have were grown inside the space.
What surprised her most was that there was also a vast Stasis Zone within the space. She discovered that items placed in the Stasis Zone would remain exactly as they were at the moment they were stored—food wouldn’t spoil, materials wouldn’t decay. It was truly miraculous. So, she turned the Stasis Zone into several large warehouses, neatly organizing and storing the various crops produced in the space by category and area.
This way, when delivering goods from her farm in her small truck, she could also secretly add crops from the space. Everyone who tried her vegetables and meat praised them, leading to a large number of repeat customers. Demand far exceeded supply, and all of this happened without anyone noticing—not even her parents knew she had become wealthy thanks to the Super Farm in her space.
After becoming wealthy, she spent money generously. Inside the space, she had bought two sports cars, an RV, a yacht, and more—all for convenience when traveling.
However, just at the peak of her life, she suddenly found herself transported here.
Based on the original host’s memories, she now had a new understanding of her situation.
She had traveled to the Wasteland World three hundred years into the future. It was all because of the meteor shower she had experienced back then—Lanxing underwent drastic changes. High Radiation spread to every corner of Lanxing, plants and animals mutated, and various natural disasters followed one after another. Human living space shrank repeatedly, forcing people to huddle within narrow bases.
Sang Luoluo furrowed her brows and downed the green liquid in one gulp.
After washing the bowl, she slung a woven grass basket over her back, put on a sun hat, filled a bamboo tube with water, took the family’s only stone knife, and headed out.
It was only around 6:30 in the morning, but many people in the Shantytown were already heading out for Scavenging, just like her. Sang Luoluo didn’t dare to wander aimlessly. After a moment’s thought, she decided to follow the direction where most people were heading.
In this Wasteland World, edible things were scarce. All plants and animals were exposed to Radiation, so when searching for food, one had to use a Wrist Device to check the Radiation Level of the items. Radiation Levels were divided into three categories: Low, Medium, and High. Low Radiation referred to a Radiation Level of 30 or below, which was safe to eat and could be exchanged for Credits at nearby Trading Markets.
Medium Radiation referred to a Radiation Level above 30 but not exceeding 60. Anything with a Radiation Level above 60 was considered High Radiation and was inedible. Consuming it by mistake could cause physical harm, with severe cases even endangering one’s life.
Sang Luoluo glanced down at the Wrist Device on her arm. It was issued uniformly by the base, registered under each person’s name with a unique number based on their Genetic Code. Each person had only one account. The device could be used to detect food and also functioned as an all-in-one computer, phone, and projector.
As she walked, Sang Luoluo browsed through the information on her Wrist Device and discovered that the original host had an older brother named Sang Yunpu. With no food left at home, he had joined the Guard Corps to take on a temporary mission in search of food. He was supposed to return in three days, but half a month had already passed with no news from Sang Yunpu.
The harsh environment of the wasteland, mutated flora and fauna, and high Radiation claimed lives outside every day. Without sufficient food, one simply couldn’t survive in the wilderness for so long. Sang Luoluo felt that Sang Yunpu was likely in grave danger.
The original host had relied on her brother’s care. With her brother gone for so long and no food left at home, she had ventured out to search for sustenance herself, only to perish in the wilderness.
Ah, what a tragic fate for these siblings.
She quickened her pace, catching up with the Scavenging team, and finally arrived at a Gathering Point around 8:30 in the morning. Observing the others, Sang Luoluo picked up her Wrist Device and scanned the enormous leaf before her.
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 89, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
Sang Luoluo had no choice but to move to another spot. Weeds grew everywhere here, some as tall as a person, a clear sign of severe mutation. Yet, with her years of farming experience, she could instantly recognize this massive clump of weeds as purslane, a common plant in rural areas.
Watching the others scan leaf after leaf, she noticed they occasionally found one or two leaves with Medium Radiation, about the size of a palm. Mixed with some Nutrient Solution, those could provide two meals.
Sang Luoluo smacked her lips, still tasting the remnants of the Nutrient Solution. With no food left at home, if she couldn’t find something to eat soon, she would truly starve to death.
No, she couldn’t give up. Thinking this, she opened her bamboo canteen, took a sip of water, and continued scanning.
The Wrist Device beeped incessantly.
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 89, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 103, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 99, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 78, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 96, High Radiation—not recommended for consumption!”
…
By ten o’clock, the others had begun heading back one after another, and the Solar Radiation overhead grew increasingly intense. She still hadn’t found any food and couldn’t return empty-handed. Glancing around, she spotted two large purslane plants with intertwined branches and leaves and ducked into their shelter.
Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., humans couldn’t venture outside. The Solar Radiation was too severe, and exposure carried the risk of fatal Radiation poisoning. Sang Luoluo grew anxious—she still hadn’t found a single edible leaf. In such a harsh environment, survival felt like a luxury.
Even while sheltering from the Solar Radiation, Sang Luoluo didn’t neglect the purslane around her. She scanned leaf after leaf, greeted by a continuous stream of High Radiation alerts.
Finally, in a shaded spot at the center untouched by sunlight, she found a newly sprouted leaf, no larger than half a palm.
“Beep beep beep! Radiation Level 37, Medium Radiation—recommended for consumption!”
Suppressing her joy, Sang Luoluo carefully plucked the small leaf and placed it in her backpack basket, then continued waiting.
By 3 p.m., the feeling of fullness in her stomach had gradually faded, replaced by hunger. The Nutrient Solution provided strong satiety, so lasting this long was already quite an achievement.
Yet, looking at the half-palm-sized leaf in her backpack basket… it simply wasn’t enough to eat.
Without enough food, she’d lack strength; without strength, she couldn’t continue searching for food; without food, she would starve to death.
Sighing, she had to keep searching before nightfall.
No one was in sight nearby. Sang Luoluo climbed out and began testing the leaves she had previously marked.
The leaf she had just picked made her think that newly grown leaves were more likely to test for low radiation.
With this in mind, she moved forward purposefully. Seeing that it was almost four o’clock, she quickened her pace. Just as she pushed aside a large leaf, a figure larger than herself suddenly leaped out.
“Ahhh!!!!!”
Sang Luoluo screamed in terror, feeling as if every hair on her body, including the hair on her head, stood on end. It was a giant mantis, its basketball-sized eyes fixed on her—or at least she thought they were. Her legs trembled, and she scrambled away, stumbling and crawling as fast as she could.
The mantis leaped again, landing right in front of her. She had no choice but to change direction. Even as she sprinted, she clutched her backpack tightly. Her exposed calves were scratched by leaves, but she gritted her teeth and kept running. She could clearly feel her ragged breathing and the sweat dripping down her body.
Distracted, she tripped over a patch of wild grass and was sent flying into a low-lying area. Pain shot through her body—her forehead was scraped, her palms and knees were bleeding, and her clothes were stained with mud.
As the mantis closed in, its massive jaws lunging toward her, a sudden gunshot rang out. A hole burst open in the mantis’s head, splattering green fluid everywhere. Some of it inevitably landed on Sang Luoluo.
She looked toward the source of the gunshot and saw a convoy of trucks passing by. The nearest truck had a young, handsome man in Guard Corps uniform who was just putting away his gun. The man glanced at her briefly before returning to the vehicle. Another young man beside him called out kindly, “It’s getting late. Hurry home, and don’t forget the time when you’re scavenging.”
Watching the convoy fade into the distance, Sang Luoluo glanced at her Wrist Device. It was already five o’clock. In another hour, it would be completely dark, and she wasn’t sure she could make it back in time.
She glanced at the disgusting mantis and thought about hurrying home. But as she took a step, Sang Luoluo suddenly felt an unfamiliar pull.
To be precise, it was her space. She could sense that something about five meters to her left was making her space intensely eager.