Wei Chengdong invited Xia Qing to the living room and taught her how to disassemble, maintain, and use the pistol. "This is a fully automatic pistol specifically designed for special forces. Only core members of our team can use it. Its shooting stability and accuracy are top-notch among pistols. This is a detachable stock; once attached, it can fire in bursts from the shoulder..."
An hour later, Xia Qing left the village carrying a heavy basket on her back and another heavy basket. To avoid being secretly watched, she first wandered around the deserted village in the southeast corner, carrying a large bundle of firewood before returning home.
After closing the door tightly, Xia Qing quickly took off her protective suit, played with the cool-looking submachine gun she had just acquired for a while, and then began to examine the three sets of protective suits she had received.
The heaviest set was a fully enclosed, airtight protective suit with a face mask, including clothing, gloves, boots, and an isolated breathing apparatus. It was suitable for high-risk, unknown environments where both respiratory and skin hazards existed. It was standard equipment for researchers with very weak self-defense capabilities when leaving the safe zone, and it wasn't publicly sold; even with points, it couldn't be bought. Wearing a fully enclosed, airtight protective suit, while limiting vision and hearing, is a genuine lifesaver in unknown and dangerous environments.
The second set is a two-piece protective suit, also including boots, gloves, a face mask, and night vision goggles. This suit is the same style and color as the one Tang Huai gave her, but a quick touch reveals a clear difference. Xia Qing is certain this suit offers at least three times the protection of those on the market.
Xia Qing puts on this fitted camouflage suit, stretches her arms and legs to test it out, confirming that the suit Tang Huai gave her was rubbish compared to this one.
Of course, the patched-up onesie she had just taken off is even worse than this.
She puts her pistol in the front pocket of the protective vest, only to discover that this pocket isn't for rations, but specifically for a gun—the design couldn't be more thoughtful.
She'll wear this suit when she goes back to the Evolution Forest.
Xia Qing happily puts away the protective suit, then checks on Boss Yang's protective suit one last time. Besides night vision goggles, protective glasses, bulletproof vests, and gas masks, Boss Sheep even had an infrared camera, a camera that could operate in natural light, and a walkie-talkie.
Setting out all this equipment, Xia Qing was a little reluctant to give such good gear to her rough-and-tumble sheep. She really wanted to catch an evolved dog to help her.
Just as she was thinking about Boss Sheep, Xia Qing heard rapid, rhythmic footsteps coming from the yard.
She had just hidden her gun when Boss Sheep turned the doorknob on the front door with his hoof.
"Bang!" The door was flung open, and Boss Sheep stormed in, glaring at Xia Qing.
Having spent over a month together, Xia Qing had figured out his temperament—he only responded to gentle persuasion. She asked in a high-pitched voice, "I went to chop wood and just got back. Boss, you must be tired from patrolling the territory."
Boss Sheep pawed at the ground, lowered his head slightly, and revealed his large spiral horns.
Well, the sweet talk didn't work. Xia Qing changed the menu to something more substantial. "Want some rations?"
"Baa."
The eldest sheep immediately put its hooves back, raised its head, and bleated softly.
Xia Qing nimbly went into the kitchen, chopped some toon sprouts and grass, then opened the tin cabinet, took out two pieces of compressed rations, crushed a small half of each piece, mixed it into the hay, and placed it on the eldest sheep's table.
The eldest sheep started eating in silence. Xia Qing sat cross-legged beside it, eating its rations with spring water while sharing its joy with the sheep. "Eldest sheep, we made a profit on this deal. We have a gun now, and three sets of top-tier protective suits—the kind you can't even buy with points. These three suits mean we have three more lives. Of course, I get two, you get one, and only I can use the gun, hehe..."
Xia Qing gulped down a mouthful of spring water to swallow the compressed rations that had been choking him, grinning like a fool.
After quickly finishing its food in the bowl, the eldest sheep eyed the rations in Xia Qing's hand.
Xia Qing immediately stuffed all the rations into her mouth and swallowed them. She got up, cleaned and put away the sheep's food bowl, then secured the pistol strap to her thigh. Turning back to the sheep, she said, "You rest, I'm going to check the vegetable garden."
After she left, the sheep trotted into the kitchen, poked at the metal cabinet containing the rations a few times with its hooves, and only returned to the living room after confirming it couldn't be opened. It pried open the wardrobe, sniffed the protective suit Xia Qing had brought back, and finding it wasn't food, kicked the cabinet door shut and went back to the tatami mat, continuing to gnaw on the metal cabinet in the kitchen.
Xia Qing, in the vegetable garden, heard the commotion inside and grinned.
The vegetable seeds she had planted in the garden half a month ago had already sprouted. Because she had soaked the seeds in spring water, the germination rate was 20% higher than that of the four lords (numbers four, five, and six).
The seeds from plots one, two, and seven? They hadn't said, so Xia Qing didn't know.
The garlic and ginger sprouts in the adjacent vegetable patch were already palm-length. As long as there wasn't a severe downpour during the next two months of their seedling stage, she would be able to harvest them. Especially the ginger; she only had six plants in her territory, and she had to protect them. Later, she found over thirty more garlic sprouts, bringing the total to forty-four. Optimistically, she estimated she could eat garlic scapes by May.
The aroma of braised pork with garlic scapes and garlic scape dumplings flashed through her mind; she needed meat. Following Wei Chengdong's instructions, Xia Qing aimed at the large elm tree 150 meters away. The four-pound submachine gun, in the hands of a power-evolved individual, looked like a toy gun.
Her excellent visual evolution allowed Xia Qing to clearly see that the magpie perched on the elm branch had its eyes closed. After aiming at the magpie's plump body for five minutes, she put the gun away.
Firstly, she was afraid the sound would attract the attention of neighboring territories; secondly, she only had three hundred bullets, and she couldn't bear to waste a single one. She'd have to practice shooting with Luo Pei first, since the bullets used for practice didn't count towards the 300 rounds.
That evening, Xia Qing and Boss Yang were eating dinner while listening to the radio.
The news broadcast, which usually only reported good news, surprisingly spent five minutes today discussing the dire situation facing the Guicheng base in the south after the evolution of marine life, making Xia Qing's nerves tense again.
The great evolution of terrestrial life on Blue Star was mainly influenced by the two elements of serotonin and serotonin, while the great evolution of marine life was caused by the combined effects of nuclear-contaminated water and serotonin. Therefore, the danger and unbelievability of marine life evolution far exceeded that of terrestrial life. This is also the main reason why several major coastal cities in China have become ghost towns and abandoned by humanity.
Who could have imagined that ten years after the natural disaster, marine evolved creatures would actually come ashore and continue to expand their territory, posing a threat to the Guicheng base?
The news didn't mention a word about these crucial questions: how did they come ashore? What species did they come ashore? What were their main methods of attack? It was truly frustrating. After listening to the news, Xia Qing immediately turned on the walkie-talkie and switched to the Lord's frequency. He heard Kuang Qingwei discussing the issue of marine life coming ashore.
"There are only six bases in Guicheng in the south, and three of them are under threat. If the safe zones of these three bases fall, a large number of refugees will definitely flee north. Do you think they'll come here?"
This was precisely Xia Qing's biggest worry.