After a thorough search, a total of eight black stick insects were found among the hard branches.
On average, one could be found in every four or five branches.
This made Lu Shen gasp in shock. Thankfully, he found them in time; if these eight black stick insects had also awakened and spread throughout the shelter, his situation would have been far more dangerous.
The venom of just one black stick insect was already overwhelming, let alone nine! He would likely die very quickly.
Of course, the reward came with the risk.
Black stick insects were indeed dangerous, but their value was equally high.
Lu Shen placed all nine black stick insect corpses in front of the [Survival Radio]. The [Shop] quickly identified them, each worth 3 Survival Coins.
After clicking "Sell," a magical scene unfolded.
The nine black stick insects vanished instantly, as if carried away by a mysterious force, and 27 ancient black coins appeared on the table.
"These are survival coins?!"
He grabbed a coin; it was small and smooth to the touch, but the material was unclear, and it felt heavy in his hand.
Lu Shen didn't have time to examine it closely; his body was nearing its limit. He quickly took out 20 coins and exchanged them for "Talent Awakening" in the shop.
After a few seconds, no items appeared on the table.
A moment later, a warm current swept through his body, causing him to shudder.
His blood flowed wildly, his thoughts seemed to stop, and this indescribable feeling lasted for a long time before gradually subsiding.
Slowly opening his eyes, Lu Shen found himself covered in sweat, and a piece of information inexplicably appeared in his mind.
[Talent: Solidification]
[Description: Can attract and gather energy or matter.]
This single sentence summarized the entirety of the talent, leaving Lu Shen momentarily bewildered.
But after careful consideration, Lu Shen understood one thing: the injuries caused by the black stick worms might indeed be solvable with this talent.
Trying to control the talent, he placed his hands on the wounds, and a strange power was activated.
Then, the toxic blood near the wound was indeed drawn out by this force, spraying out dark red blood and forming a pool on the ground.
Lu Shen clearly felt that his swollen ankle felt much better, and the itching and burning pain had also decreased significantly.
"It really works!" Lu Shen's face lit up with joy. What could be more exciting than surviving a desperate situation?
Five minutes after the toxic blood was expelled, the swelling in his foot subsided. Apart from still feeling somewhat weak, he had no other problems, and his spirits had recovered considerably.
After letting out a long sigh, Lu Shen lay down on the ground to continue resting and recovering his strength.
At the same time, he became extremely interested in his own talent.
Solidification! Drawing and gathering?
What exactly does it do?
After a brief moment of thought, Lu Shen vaguely sensed that the ability of this talent might be more powerful than he had imagined.
For example, could he gather the soil of the shelter and use his talent to compact it, thus building a more solid and defensive shelter?
Alternatively, he could use his talent on hard branches. The already extremely hard branches, after solidification, should become even stronger, perhaps even usable as weapons.
Besides this, there are many other applications, which might all have surprising effects.
However, as of now, he hasn't thought of any more uses, and even if he did, it would be difficult to implement.
He could feel that his control over his talent was very low; simply forcing out the poisonous blood had already consumed most of his strength, requiring a slow recovery before he could use it again.
The appearance of his talent reassured Lu Shen a lot; at least in the perilous post-apocalyptic world, it could help him survive better.
Of course, the talent was only an aid; to obtain food, combat radiation, and live in the freezing cold, talent alone was insufficient.
"The most important thing now is to obtain food. I'll go out again tomorrow, hopefully with some success… and the shelter also needs rest; it's too cold now,"
Lu Shen muttered to himself, throwing the hard branches into the fire. After ensuring the fire continued to burn, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
…
Lu Shen had expended too much energy, so he slept soundly until the next day.
When he opened his eyes, apart from the firelight, it was still pitch black outside, making his sense of time even more blurred.
He could only roughly estimate the time based on the weather.
Generally, the highest temperature, the weakest wind and snow, and the lowest radiation levels are around noon.
Conversely, the worst time is midnight, when it's almost completely dark, with no light visible, howling winds and snow, and temperatures plummeting.
Judging from the current environment, it was probably around seven or eight in the morning. Although the external environment had eased somewhat, it wasn't yet suitable to go out.
Lu Shen stayed safely in the shelter, boiled himself a cup of water, and ate another small piece of compressed biscuit, about 30g, barely enough to restore his strength.
In nearly two days, he had only eaten a total of 50g of compressed biscuits, which was completely insufficient to replenish the energy his body had expended.
He was already starving; if he still couldn't find food, he feared he would truly starve to death in the freezing cold.
With nothing else to do, Lu Shen took out his [Survival Radio], opened the communication page, and continued searching for information within a 50km radius.
Unexpectedly, within minutes, he received several messages.
Lu Shen's eyes lit up, and he quickly clicked to check.
"Hey, is anyone around here? Are you all Earthlings? What's going on?" A
middle-aged man's voice, mixed with electronic sounds, came from the [Survival Radio], echoing in the narrow shelter.
"If there are no surprises, I should indeed be an Earthling. But judging from your accent, are you from Sichuan?"
"Uh, brother, let's not worry about accents for now. How are you guys doing? I'm about to freeze to death. This shelter is completely unprotected; the temperature has dropped to below minus ten degrees Celsius."
It wasn't hard to tell from the voices that these were messages from different survivors; the slightly trembling tones indicated that their situation wasn't good either.
Then, a female voice rang out: "When everyone chooses survival tools, they should all pick winter clothes and a flint and steel, right? Keeping warm for a short time shouldn't be a problem, and after that, as long as the shelter is modified, we can barely survive."
"Indeed, those should be essential survival tools! It's just a pity... food is a big problem. I went out for a walk today, and it's all snow and ice everywhere; I couldn't find anything."
"Stop talking! You should be happy you didn't find anything! I was just going to sleep when I heard a noise outside the door. When I looked, there was a zombie wandering around outside. It was impossible to even get out!"
Zombies?!
Lu Shen frowned upon hearing the information. The zombies this person was talking about should be the rotting corpses mentioned in the previous "Survival Radio." He hadn't expected them to actually exist.
"It's probably a rotting corpse. I saw a few when I went out earlier..."
"Urgent inquiry! How are you feeling after drinking the water? Why does my throat feel burning and painful, and my physical condition is getting worse? I'm even starting to have a fever. What's going on?"
A middle-aged man's voice responded: "If I'm not mistaken, did you directly melt the ice and snow without purifying it with a water purification tablet and drink a lot of water?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Apart from the shelters, there is radiation in other places in this world to varying degrees, and ice and snow are no exception. If you drink it directly, it could cause problems." "
Damn, I didn't even choose a water purification tablet."
"Me neither... I chose a mini first-aid kit."
"It's okay, just drink a little every day. A small amount of radiation should be fine. At most, you'll mutate later."
"..."
"Fellow survivors, is anyone nearby? We can cooperate to survive."
"If anyone finds food or survival resources, please share them..."
"..."
There weren't many communications, but after playing them, Lu Shen got a lot of the information he wanted.
It seems the other survivors aren't in much better shape either. Everyone starts at the same point, and unless they're extremely lucky, their living conditions won't differ much.
For all survivors, the short-term goals are only three: food, water, and warmth.
This translates to finding food and wood, and repairing their shelters.
As for talents, he hadn't heard any survivors mention them. Perhaps for everyone, collecting 20 survival coins in a short time is a difficult task.
With basic needs like food and shelter scarce, spending 20 survival coins on a "talent awakening" with unknown uses is hardly a rational choice.
If he hadn't been desperate, Lu Shen probably wouldn't have made this choice, but now it seems the talent is indeed quite useful, making the 20 survival coins well spent.
...
Check the weather.
[Weather]
Temperature: -13.6℃.
Climate: Light snow, wind speed 7.
Radiation: Mild (After being outdoors for more than 72 minutes, radiation will invade the human body, and the radiation level will continue to rise as night falls.)
Today's weather seems better than yesterday; the temperature is warmer, the wind is weaker, and the radiation level has dropped to mild.
Even more surprising is that he was allowed 72 minutes of outdoor time.
This means he can explore further and find more resources for survival.
Opening the shelter door, a cold wind rushed in, but the wind was much weaker than at night. Looking outside, the sky was gloomy, filled with thick clouds, making the view extremely dark and oppressive.
Whenever he saw the gloomy environment outside the shelter, Lu Shen felt immense pressure—the oppressive feeling brought by the apocalyptic world.
Rubbing his face and preparing himself mentally, Lu Shen stepped out of the shelter.
Scanning his surroundings, he considered whether, given the extended exploration time today, there would be an opportunity to explore the town ruins he had discovered yesterday.
He roughly estimated that the shelter was about 500 meters from the withered forest.
The distance from the withered forest to the town ruins is about 2km, totaling 2.5km,
which would take half an hour to walk. Walking in the snow would be much slower, so the round trip would definitely take more than an hour. Adding the time spent exploring the town ruins, 72 minutes wouldn't be enough.
After careful consideration, Lu Shen decided against the risk and continued to the withered forest to collect more hard branches
. The shelter needed to keep the fire burning for a long time, requiring a huge amount of wood; he needed to stockpile more hard branches.
Hard branches had many advantages. They were likely a mutated plant, extremely hard and heat-resistant, providing a lot of heat.
Moreover, they also harbored dormant black stick insects, each worth three survival coins—a considerable fortune!
Even if he couldn't find food, he could use the survival coins to buy black bread in the shop, ensuring he wouldn't have to worry about food for the day.
Following the familiar route, and with the snow lessening, he quickly reached the withered forest in about 10 minutes.
Because of the dim light, Lu Shen could only lie on the ground, searching for buried hard branches in the snow.
There weren't many hard branches; he'd already collected a batch yesterday, and finding them today was even more difficult, requiring him to dig deeper into the snow.
Moreover, without tools, he could only use hard branches to dig, which slowed his progress considerably.
But it wasn't entirely without advantage. The hard branches buried deeper were thicker than those on the surface, about the thickness of a baby's arm. Given the fire-resistance of this type of wood, it could burn for at least several hours.
Collecting about 20 branches would solve his heating problem for most of the day. If he conserved his firewood during the day, reducing the amount of firewood when the temperature wasn't too low, he should consume even less wood per day.
He had to be careful with his wood, as the timber in the dead forest was limited and a non-renewable resource.
Furthermore, collecting hard branches was quite difficult; the snow layer was over 1 meter thick, making digging with only hard branches quite challenging.
Especially at the bottom, where the year-round snow had formed a very hard ice layer, impossible to dig through with hard branches.
Therefore, Lu Shen could only collect the hard branches from the surface.
After working continuously for 40 minutes, Lu Shen was drenched in sweat, and had collected two bundles of hard branches, more than double the amount from yesterday, and of generally better quality.
He used strips of cloth to tie the two bundles together and carried them on his back, intending to take them back.
These strips of cloth were specially prepared before he left, torn from his original shirt to create long strips.
With winter clothing, his thin autumn clothes were no longer of much value, making them perfect for use as survival tools and also facilitating transportation.
Just as he was carrying the two bundles of hard branches, preparing to return to the shelter, an unexpected event occurred!
"Roar!"
A low, hoarse roar came, a sound that seemed to come from a throat, extremely unpleasant.
Lu Shen quickly turned his head and saw several figures approaching in the snowstorm not far away. Their movements were stiff, their steps heavy, and they were constantly roaring.
Although he couldn't make out the exact shape, in this icy, post-apocalyptic wasteland, he didn't believe it was a human survivor.
A closer look revealed a vaguely human figure—a emaciated body covered in festering, rotting flesh, with pale bones exposed, like someone who had been dead for days.
"A corpse?!"
Lu Shen's pupils contracted sharply, his heart pounding. He quickly lowered his profile.
Watching the approaching, rotting corpse, he dared not be careless. He had only heard of such creatures before and hadn't felt much unease. Now, seeing
it with
his own eyes, he felt a chilling horror; the severely decayed flesh and the grotesque face were extremely unsettling. What was
even more troublesome was that, despite his best efforts to hide, the corpse seemed to have sensed him and had changed direction, wandering towards the withered forest.
"Such keen senses! Does this thing rely on hearing? Or smell? It can detect me from this distance!" Lu Shen's face darkened, and he hurriedly ran towards the shelter.
Staying in the wild? That was clearly unreliable. After all, the time one could spend in radiation was limited, and no one knew what the consequences of staying too long would be.
In his current situation, he could only hope that once he was out of the corpses' sight, they would stop pursuing him.
He rushed back to the shelter almost at top speed.
The corpses moved slowly and quickly disappeared from sight, but Lu Shen couldn't guarantee they wouldn't follow him to the shelter.
Only after hiding inside and blocking the entrance with the door did Lu Shen's tense nerves ease slightly, though he still cautiously peered out through the cracks.
Finally, after five minutes, Lu Shen's heart sank completely.
Two mangled corpses slowly approached from a distance, and through the swirling snow, he seemed to hear a low growl.
"Damn it, why did they follow us?" Sweat beaded on Lu Shen's forehead as he cursed under his breath. He was encountering all sorts of strange things.
First it was the black stick worm, and now two corpses had followed him—his luck was truly terrible. In this
critical moment, Lu Shen tried his best to calm himself down, and pulled out the longest and thickest branch from the nearby hardwood tree.
About the thickness of a baby's arm and 1.2 meters long, it took him a great deal of effort to dig it out of the frozen ground.
The moment he saw the wood, he decided to use his talent to make it into a tool.
His initial idea was to make it into an axe for later use in chopping down dead trees.
After all, digging hard branches from the frozen ground was far too troublesome and inefficient; chopping directly was much easier.
However, given the current situation, making an axe wasn't suitable. It would be better to make a spear that could be extended from the shelter for combat.
"I'll think about the axe later; let's deal with the immediate problem first."
Lu Shen gritted his teeth and began using his talent, "Condensation," attaching its power to the tip of the hard branch. Considering the limitations of his talent, he only compressed the tip for now, making it harder and sharper.
In just a few minutes, the tip of the hard branch was compressed to half its original thickness, like a sharp needle about 10 centimeters long, embedded in the branch tip, while the other end remained the original thickness.
The overall hardness had also doubled compared to before, producing a clanging sound similar to steel when lightly tapped on the ground.
The hardwood branches were already hard, but after being improved by the "Condensation" talent, their strength had increased another level.
Holding the weapon, Lu Shen felt somewhat at ease, his gaze fixed intently on the approaching corpses outside the shelter, his eyes hardening.
He was now certain that the corpses were heading straight for the shelter, their target clear and without taking any detours.
In the few minutes Lu Shen had used his talent, the corpses were only about 300 meters away from the shelter, and would definitely reach it in at most 10 minutes.
To facilitate a counterattack, Lu Shen disregarded everything else and directly cut a hole in the door panel to extend his spear.
The shelter entrance was already narrow, and the door panel provided cover, greatly increasing his safety.
Seeing the corpses approaching, only 2 meters from the shelter entrance, Lu Shen no longer harbored any illusions and extended his spear through the door panel.
Feeling the drawn-out roar emanating from Po Feng's throat, the stench of decay filling his nostrils… the instant it drew near, Lu Shen didn't hesitate, thrusting out fiercely.
"Awooo… ooh… splatter…"
As expected, the "spear" pierced straight through the mangled corpse!
But… it seemed to be of little use!
The rotting corpse, completely disregarding its injuries, continued to lunge towards the shelter, the stark white bones scraping against the door, producing an extremely piercing sound.
Lu Shen suddenly realized that the rotting corpse was probably similar to the zombies in movies, already dead from radiation, and simply attacking its body wouldn't be effective. Perhaps… he needed to attack its head?
In this critical moment, there was no time for further consideration. Lu Shen quickly pulled out the spear and thrust it upwards at a 75-degree angle, repeatedly attacking the rotting corpse's head.
The next moment, a shrill roar exploded in his ears, the scraping of bones against the door becoming increasingly rapid.
"It's working!"
The more miserable the rotting corpse's cries, the more excited Lu Shen became! A smile played on his lips as his hands moved faster and faster.
At the same time, the damage the rotting corpse inflicted on the door increased, as if it were unleashing all its remaining strength in its final moments, frantically tearing at the door.
Lu Shen clearly felt that he and the corpse were only separated by the door, a straight-line distance of no more than 30cm, and he could even faintly hear the sound of phlegm escaping the corpse's throat.
But he could understand; wandering outside in this cold weather, it was no wonder it caught a cold.
Lu Shen's gaze remained calm, his hands moving without pause, continuously thrusting outwards, the rotting corpses outside relentlessly attacking the door.
The already flimsy door had developed huge cracks, the gaps widening, almost completely collapsing.
Lu Shen rationally changed his target, aiming his spear at the head of another rotting corpse, launching another attack.
In the fierce battle, seeing the door about to be completely destroyed, Lu Shen's adrenaline surged, and without hesitation, he kicked it, sending the door and the rotting corpse flying out of the shelter.
As the corpse fell backward, he charged forward, catching it off guard with a series of thrusts, plunging deep into its skull and ending its life.
The two corpses lay motionless on the ground. Lu Shen stopped, panting heavily, his strength severely depleted.
However, seeing the damaged door panel, he was enraged again, stabbing the skull several more times: "You bastards, you've ruined my door!"
Retreating to the shelter, Lu Shen tried to reassemble the door panel, but it crumbled as soon as he placed it at the entrance.
Lu Shen's lips twitched, and he shivered in the biting wind, feeling a headache coming on.
Helpless, he used strips of cloth and hard branches to tie horizontally and vertically to the door panel, trying to reassemble it.
But the reassembled door panel was extremely drafty, its insulation greatly reduced, and snowflakes kept blowing in, making him shiver uncontrollably.
"Sigh...looks like I'll have to replace the door..."
Lu Shen looked utterly helpless. Two days had passed, and not only had he gained nothing, but things had gotten even worse. If this continued, he'd die in the shelter…
His only hope now was that the shop would refresh with some useful tools to improve his quality of life.
For other survivors, obtaining survival coins was difficult, making it hard to buy items in the shop.
But for him, survival coins were his biggest advantage! After all, the black stick insects were quite valuable, practically his personal stash.
At the shelter entrance, he pried open all the hard branches, took out the still-dormant black stick insects, and exchanged them for survival coins in the shop.
It's worth noting that the value of the black stick insects remained the same, regardless of whether they were dead or alive—all were exchanged for 3 survival coins.
Ten minutes later,
Lu Shen looked at the survival coins in his hand, feeling both excited and somewhat regretful.
Logically, with the number of hard branches doubling, the number of black stick insects should have increased, but he had only found ten.
Lu Shen roughly guessed the reason: only hard branches in the surface snow harbor the black stick insects; hard branches in the deeper ice layers, buried underground for years, are difficult for the insects to burrow into.
Lu Shen could only console himself that he shouldn't ask for too much from such a freebie.
Besides, 10 black stick insects for 30 survival coins was definitely a considerable fortune.
Now, with a total of 34 survival coins, he could easily exchange them for some supplies.
Lu Shen lit a fire with the hard branches, returned to the depths of the shelter, and lay down. Excitedly, he opened the [Shop]; he still had one refresh opportunity left for the day.
At the same time, he was considering whether it was necessary to buy the two black bread loaves!
Eight survival coins for two black bread loaves!
No one knew if this was a worthwhile deal.
But after careful consideration, Lu Shen gritted his teeth and bought them!
He had already eaten half of the 100g compressed biscuits; the rest would only last for another day. Without new food, the situation would become very dire!
Regardless of the cost-effectiveness of the black bread, it was enough to sustain his food needs for a day, so it was definitely a profit.
Besides, he couldn't be sure if refreshing the shop would reveal even better value options; he didn't dare gamble, nor did he want to!
With the purchase button, eight survival coins disappeared, replaced by two rough loaves of black bread.
Seeing the size of the bread, Lu Shen's face showed relief.
"Phew, looks like I made the right choice."
The two semi-circular loaves were each the size of an adult's palm, hard as a rock, and very substantial.
If he ate only the bare minimum, one loaf would be enough for a day!
Lu Shen couldn't help but sigh: he could live two more days!
As for the last item in the shop, the 20-survival-coin snow boots, Lu Shen decided to pass, partly because they were expensive, and partly because he didn't need them.
He already wore hiking boots, which were excellent in both quality and warmth.
Refreshing the shop again, three new items appeared:
[Beer x2, 10 survival coins]
[Portable fireplace, 25 survival coins]
[Shop refresh card, 5 survival coins]
Looking at the three items, Lu Shen frowned in thought. One of them was a must-buy—a portable fireplace.
In the cramped environment of the shelter, this small, portable fireplace would provide better heat and reduce wood consumption. Currently, Lu
Shen dared not keep the fire burning for long periods, only using it for warmth during the coldest times, because the fire consumed far too much wood, which he simply couldn't afford.
Most of the time, he huddled in a corner in the dark, relying on the principle that as long as he didn't move, the heat wouldn't dissipate.
But with a portable fireplace, the situation would improve.
Moreover, safety would be greatly improved, eliminating worries about starting a fire—this was an essential survival tool!
As for the "beer" and the "shop refresh card," they were dispensable. Beer was self-explanatory; in this weather, if you were going to drink, you'd drink baijiu (Chinese liquor), not beer—it would give you a headache!
As for the shop refresh card, it was simply exchanging five survival coins for an unknown possibility; nobody knew if the refreshed item would be valuable, and there was a high probability it would be a waste.
Now, the focus isn't on refreshing the shop a few times, but on survival coins!
Lu Shen immediately made a purchase, acquiring the portable fireplace.
The survival coins disappeared, replaced by a small fireplace. Only the size of a laptop, encased in sheet metal, its design looked somewhat old-fashioned, but it was sturdy overall, with a retractable exhaust pipe over 3 meters long.
Lu Shen placed the portable fireplace in a suitable location—near the depths of the shelter, where he usually slept.
He then took out his spear and vigorously chiseled through the roof of the shelter, carving out a passage to extend the exhaust pipe out of the shelter.
Afterward, he moved the fire into the portable fireplace.
Lu Shen checked it; the heat hadn't changed much, but the wood consumption was significantly reduced, improving his quality of life.
...
Leaning against the earthen wall of the shelter, the fireplace crackled and popped, while on the iron plate above, the snow water in the rusty iron cup boiled and bubbled continuously.
Holding the hot water in his hand, Lu Shen turned on the communication function of the [Survival Radio], listening to the conversations of nearby survivors.
"Can anyone give me some food? I'm starving! There's absolutely nothing to eat in this freezing weather!" The voice was weak and feeble, as if the survivor was on the verge of death.
"Brother, I do have some food. I can bring some over. What landmarks are around your shelter? I'll come find you!"
"Food? Where did you find food? Brother, share your experience!" "
I brought some from my shelter. I have over a dozen packs of uneaten compressed biscuits and several packs of sugar. That should last a while."
"Damn, what kind of luck do you have? My shelter is ridiculously small, drafty, and I only have a few empty cans of meat. Nothing else." "
Sigh, my shelter isn't small, it's over 20 square meters, but unfortunately, I don't have any food stored either."
"..."
Lu Shen's eyes narrowed slightly. Based on the snippets of conversation, he roughly guessed that each survivor's shelter was not exactly the same.
The size, style, and supplies of the shelters were vastly different.
But regardless, his five-square-meter shelter was pitifully small, making him one of the more unfortunate ones.
What's more, he heard that some survivors' shelters were actually underground garages, with top-notch insulation, no drafts, and plenty of food stored inside.
Turning to look at his shelter, snowflakes were practically blowing into his face—it was heartbreaking.
"Ahem, brother short of food, tell me about the surroundings of your shelter. If we're close, I can provide you with some food. After all, we're all human; every little bit helps. I happen to be fairly well-off."
A hoarse, middle-aged man's voice came through the [Survival Radio], causing Lu Shen to frown.
Even in modern societies with higher moral standards and civilized norms, there wasn't this kind of awareness. How come everyone in this apocalyptic world had become so friendly and helpful?
Then, a righteous voice rang out, full of vigor.
"Dear survivors, I am an anti-fraud police officer from Chongling City, Ninghai Province, badge number 32***. In this apocalyptic environment, fraudsters are on the rise. Please be vigilant against scammers, safeguard your personal finances, and refuse to disclose personal information! Scams may change, but vigilance remains constant. Protect your assets and fight fraud, starting with me!" "
Fuck you #**％￥"
Lu Shen's lips twitched. The national anti-fraud app, always ensuring your financial security, truly fulfills its mission.
He also glanced at the officer's name, Zhao Zhongyang, whose voice sounded righteous.
In the apocalyptic environment, the cunning of people is beyond imagination. When life is threatened, where are there so many kind-hearted people? The vast majority are like wolves in sheep's clothing, ready to devour you alive if you're not careful.
Lu Shen didn't ask for help; he only hoped to stay safely in the shelter, where no one would bother him.
Continuing to listen to the various messages on the [Survival Radio], a voice suddenly caught his attention.
A deliberately lowered, deep voice, accompanied by an electronic mic, rang out.
"Hey everyone, does anyone know anything about the zombies? I went out today, and a zombie followed me back. I can't shake it off, and it's already close to the shelter!"
The voice was tinged with panic, the breathing heavy and rapid, clearly genuine, indicating a real danger.
Lu Shen pondered for a moment, clicked "add friend," and simultaneously sent a communication message.
"My information might not be entirely accurate, but you can use it as a reference! Zombies most likely don't track prey with sight or hearing, but rather use a temperature-sensing system to lock onto them, so getting rid of them is almost impossible."
"If the zombie is already close to the shelter, it's best to kill it directly, to avoid any unforeseen complications."
The friend request was accepted shortly after the message was sent. A new friend named [Shi Lei] appeared in the friend list.
"Brother, thanks for the advice! But I'm afraid to fight this thing. What if I get scratched and turn into a zombie too?"
The hoarse male voice, clearly terrified, made the [Survival Radio] buzz loudly.
Lu Shen raised an eyebrow and said, "Who told you that getting scratched by a rotting corpse will turn you into one?" "
...That's what they say in novels and movies."
"Anyway, you have no way out. Whether you turn into a rotting corpse or not is another matter. Let me tell you a trick: don't attack other parts of your body, just attack the rotting corpse's head. With an adult's strength, it shouldn't be too difficult." "
Really? Thanks for the guidance, brother. I'll try it!"
The muffled voice finished speaking, and then no more messages came in.
Lu Shen had thought about the habits of rotting corpses for a long time. In extremely windy and snowy conditions, it would be very difficult for rotting corpses to locate their prey using sight and hearing.
Heavy snow makes it difficult to see clearly, the howling wind affects hearing, and more importantly, the organs of a rotting corpse are already decayed—how can they see or hear clearly?
Therefore, sensing temperature is likely a hunting method used by rotting corpses.
As for whether being scratched by a rotting corpse would lead to infection, Lu Shen didn't know.
One thing is undeniable: being scratched by a decaying corpse allows various bacteria and viruses to invade the body. Even if one doesn't turn into a corpse, the wound will most likely be extremely difficult to heal!
In an environment without medical facilities, it's practically a death sentence.
Out of goodwill, he offered guidance and help to other survivors; as for the outcome, that was beyond his control.
...
Lying by the fireplace to rest, Lu Shen drifted off to sleep.
He only had about an hour a day to explore, and the rest of the time he had nothing to do and no sense of time, so he was mostly drowsy.
Suddenly, the vibration of the [Survival Radio] woke Lu Shen.
A deep male voice sounded: "Brother, I dealt with this zombie, but... I think I was scratched too. Anyway, thanks for the reminder."
"As expected, I was injured..." Lu Shen frowned slightly. For any survivor, this was not good news.
However, this matter was none of his concern, so he didn't feel much emotional fluctuation.
"By the way, bro, do you know what the stone in a corpse's skull is for? I think it can be exchanged for a lot of survival coins!"
A deep voice sounded, and Lu Shen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
A stone in a corpse's skull?
He was speechless for a moment. Who would bother digging out a corpse's brain? Wasn't that just being a busybody?
But... it's worth a lot of survival coins?!
Ignoring everything else, Lu Shen was immediately drawn in by the last sentence. He hurriedly got up from the ground and rushed out of the shelter.
Outside the shelter, two corpses were still lying quietly at the entrance, but they were completely frozen and almost blended into the wind and snow.
Lu Shen picked up his spear and thrust it in, slicing open the fragile skull. Inside were weathered fibers and stiffened brain tissue. Just one look made his stomach churn, and a wave of discomfort washed over him.
But for the sake of survival coins, Lu Shen still searched thoroughly and finally found a relatively fresh area of muscle at the core of the skull. From there, he picked out a black stone that looked like a gallstone.
The black stones looked unremarkable, their irregular shapes likely to go unnoticed even if left lying on the ground.
However, when he placed them on the [Shop] page, the information that appeared immediately filled him with delight.
[Name: Corpse Radiation Core]
[Description: Humans exposed to radiation transform into corpses, forming a radiation core in their skull, which is the source of the corpse's energy and consciousness. Can be exchanged for 5 Survival Coins.]
Lu Shen didn't hesitate, immediately exchanging them for Survival Coins, his depleted wallet finally bulging again.
As for why he didn't keep them?
These things were, after all, sources of radiation; keeping them in the shelter wasn't appropriate. If he accidentally contaminated himself, he'd have nowhere to turn. Exchanging them for Survival Coins was much safer.
Weighing the Survival Coins in his hand, Lu Shen couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that doing good deeds did indeed bring good results; here came the benefit!
Out of politeness, Lu Shen replied perfunctorily, "Ahem, this thing emits radiation. Never mind what it's for, just exchange it for survival coins."