Xiao Dou dashed out, her beak clicking as she drooled all the way across the rocky soil, and started pecking wildly at the segmented corpses on the ground. She was cleaning up the battlefield with efficient, jerky movements. The earwigs were surprisingly tasty, their flavor far better than that of the Sulfuric Acid Ants with their acrid, chemical aftertaste.
Even the little Thai-spot Snake slithered around the debris, dropping the struggling bugs it caught at Snake Spirit's feet. Snake Spirit buried the earwigs in the reddish ash of a dead tree to roast, stretched his limbs lazily, and said, "Once they're cooked, we will have ourselves a nice meal."
Ah Huang followed suit, his tail wagging low as he sniffed the ground. After starving for two days, the dog wasn't picky anymore. He would eat anything now.
Xiao Hei skewered the fat earwigs on a few red-tinged branches and roasted them over the crackling fire. The thin soup they had consumed a few hours ago hadn't filled him up in the slightest, leaving his stomach growling in the silence.
The earwigs probably never imagined that after such a serious life-and-death battle between two insect armies, they would end up as grilled snacks, roasted over coals and devoured by chickens, dogs, and snakes. But the earwigs weren't the only ones surprised. Even Jing Shu's teammates didn't expect that these disgusting things would turn out to be their last edible meal in the mountains.
Morning in the apocalypse came as a dim, gray glow after a pitch-black night. The outlines of the endless mountains stood tall in the mist; the barren trees looked like lonely skeletons, and the cold air stung against exposed skin like needles. Xiao Hei hugged a piece of still-warm charcoal to his chest, shivering as he sat there naked from the waist down to dry his trousers.
A new day had arrived.
Xiao Dou tried to crow like a rooster, her chest puffed out, only to get smacked by a flying slipper that sailed from inside Jing Shu's tent. The hen clucked pitifully, holding the slipper in her beak as she waddled closer to the fabric, begging for a hug and a scrap of food.
After a night of fighting, Sulfuric Acid Ant corpses littered the ground outside their defensive ring, while every last earwig had been eaten. Snake Spirit was still licking her fingers, savoring the lingering taste of grilled earwig. Even Tank looked satisfied after a full meal.
But once again, Jing Shu's breakfast stunned the entire team. It wasn't just about the quantity this time; it was about the taste and the meticulous presentation.
She brushed golden oil on a flat pan, poured in a measured amount of batter, and flipped out twenty thin, steaming pancakes. The ten eggs Xiao Dou had laid overnight were turned into golden, crispy-edged omelets. She cut shallow slits into her sausages and fried them until they bloomed open like red flowers. Slices of pink ham from the pig leg were heated until they sizzled, freshly picked lettuce was torn into crisp pieces, and she wrapped everything up with a layer of melted cheese before taking a big, satisfied bite.
To top it off, she crushed the soaked soybeans with her bare hands into a pulp for fresh soy milk, added a sprinkle of sugar, and drank an entire pot in one go, the warmth visible in her expression.
Snake Spirit almost exploded with jealousy. He slammed his half-eaten earwig to the ground with a grunt of frustration. With a quick hiss, the little Thai-spot Snake darted forward and swallowed the discarded bug whole.
Soon after, the group set out again. This time, Jing Shu brought the Sulfuric Acid Ant nest with her. What shocked everyone even more was that in just one night, the ants had become completely obedient. They followed her at a steady distance like well-trained soldiers marching in formation. Nobody knew what she had done to make that happen, but they all kept quiet, too curious to ask. Still, with these Sulfuric Acid Ants by their side, their chances of making it out of the mountains were higher.
The weapons were heavy, and carrying so much weight slowed them down and wasted precious time. They couldn't just throw them away, so Jing Shu and Tank gathered pieces of deadwood and built a mountain crawler cart; it's a multi-wheel contraption that could grip even a sixty-degree slope. It took a huge load off their shoulders.
What freaked everyone out was that when some of the brittle deadwood broke, a thick red liquid oozed out like blood. They double-checked the wood and found nothing strange, so they kept using it despite the unsettling sight. Jing Shu couldn't recall ever hearing anything about trees like these in the old world.
From then on, Jing Shu's survival experience really came into play. She guided them with expert precision, identifying strange creatures none of them had ever seen before. They all had one thing in common: rotting bodies that were immune to bullets and completely inedible.
"Damn it, if we don't find real food soon, I won't be able to walk anymore. It's been two days since we found anything to eat!" Xiao Hei shouted his frustration into the empty forest. "Are we lost? Why can't we get out of this mountain? How big can it even be?"
The temperature dropped lower and lower as they ascended. They had entered the true depths of the mountains where the sun rarely reached. Everyone's clothes were too thin for the altitude, so they borrowed layers from Jing Shu. Thankfully, she had packed plenty of warm gear.
Xiao Hei didn't even care that he was wearing women's clothes anymore; his ass was completely frozen. The sight of the group was almost comical: someone in cropped pants, another in mid-sleeve coats, everyone mismatched and half-dressed in whatever they could find.
But the food problem still hadn't been solved. Even Monkey and Ah Huang couldn't find a single bug now. The mountains were deathly silent. After walking for a while longer, they didn't even encounter the rotting creatures anymore.
"Could we be stuck in one of those ghost maze things? Like, maybe we have been walking in circles this whole time? What if this is all an illusion?" Tank muttered, looking around at the repetitive landscape.
"You think this is some fantasy novel? I have been marking every area we pass using my own method," Snake Spirit said with a flick of his tongue. "We have been moving in a straight line. The mountain is just too damn big."
But Jing Shu couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. She kept sensing hidden eyes on her from the darkness, and the discomfort crawled down to every pore of her skin. She activated her god view, scanning the mountain as if it were broad daylight. There was nothing; there's only emptiness. There was no life at all in the gray stone.
"We need to move faster and get the hell out of this creepy place," she said. For the first time, she actually wanted to run.
Her mountain of stored meat finally came in handy. Even Ling Ling's chocolate, Tank's rations, and Snake Spirit's emergency food were all gone. Everyone was completely spent. A meal cost 100 contribution points, and at this point, that wasn't expensive. It wasn't expensive for food cooked by someone with Michelin-level skill. Jing Shu's meals restored their strength better than anything else. She had prepared everything so perfectly that even the mix of wolf meat, crocodile meat, and fresh vegetables felt like a feast.
When it mattered most, she didn't hold back. She made sure everyone ate until they were full. Tank, especially, couldn't be more grateful for the sustenance. The 100-point price tag saved everyone's pride. They were all once elite soldiers, too proud to take charity, but with contribution points as the cover, nobody felt humiliated. Right then, Jing Shu's image and authority in the group rose to a whole new level.
But after just a few days, her pig legs and shredded beef ribs were shrinking at a visible rate, and still, there was no end to the mountain trail.
"Please, Boss, let's rest for a few hours. I really regret not turning back when we had the chance. Why did we have to come into this damn mountain?"
"I regret it too," Tank sighed, scratching his head.
"We can't stop," Jing Shu said firmly, her voice echoing in the cold air. "It's not just the food running out. I can feel danger closing in."
She shoved a piece of dried beef into Xiao Hei's hand. "Ten contribution points. I will add it to your tab."