Chapter 50: Wicked Beanstalk
"Bai Yi, you can communicate with them?" Not just Woolf, but even Heloise and Mavis were both extremely shocked.
"Remember our guess just now? Living things that assimilated with activated cells will become 'smarter'. In the clash just now, these hummingbirds judged that 'they can't defeat us'. So when I released them, they didn't continue attacking us either. This can only prove one thing… These hummingbirds are really intelligent!" Bai Yi looked at the hummingbirds flying off with a slightly heavy expression on his face.
Evolved lifeforms becoming more intelligent… they just didn't know how intelligent would they become.
"Let's continue searching for other useful animals." Bai Yi said, and the group of them continued their task.
A huge ant 3 centimeters longA 20 centimeter long centipedeA palm-sized spider with patterns on it.These were the considerably useful animals that they'd found in the end. The others were either not too useful or had already become food for other animals. During the Binging Stage, probably more than half of the animals here were already eaten.
However, what gave the few of them a pleasant surprise was that they found a small garden. Although it was small, many of the plants inside was edible.
Actually, ever since the activated cells proliferated, they hadn't really starved yet. Food had always been sufficient, although they hadn't had vegetables in a long time.
"This is a Chinese toon, it's edible, but you can only eat the sprouts." Bai Yi pointed at small tree more than 3 meters tall nearby.
"Can the leaves also be eaten?" Woolf was quite surprised.
"Of course!" Bai Yi said and continued walking inside.
"This is a dwarf lilyturf. Its stem tuber can be eaten, though it's normally used in medicine." Bai Yi pointed at a small plant on the floor. Although this was a small garden, there weren't many types of vegetables that could be consumed in great quantities. Many of the plants were edible, but the volume was too small. Things like sprouts and stuff, other than changing up the taste, couldn't be used to allay one's hunger.
"This isn't bad, sweet potatoes! Woolf, help me to dig them up!" Sweet potatoes were high in starch, so it was definitely much better than sprouts at relieving hunger. Bai Yi said this to Woolf, but found that he had already headed farther inside. Bai Yi didn't have a choice but to do it himself. Luckily, Heloise and Mavis weren't so carefree like Woolf was and followed close by. They immediately helped dig up the potatoes, they had to treasure every bit of food they could find now.
"Bai Yi, this can be eaten, right?" Woolf ran back, carrying two giant green beans in his hands.
"Green beans, everybody knows that they can be eaten!" Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then I'll go and pluck more!" Woolf said and ran back. Bai Yi watched Woolf's actions and in that moment, he could only smile helplessly.
Bai Yi was quite far away so he didn't realize that the beanstalk was shockingly huge, and the vines curled around each other like a nest of snakes. Woolf had always been eating meat these few days and he was growing tired of it, he immediately headed to the giant beanstalk after seeing the green beans.
Woolf was completely oblivious to how the vines were slowly closing, surrounding him as he walked past them.
The few of them were digging the sweet potatoes out when suddenly they heard a loud cry of help from Woolf. The three of them immediately looked over in Woolf's direction and sprinted over.
From far away the three of them saw that a few vines had wrapped themselves around Woolf's body, pulling him towards their center. Woolf's arms and legs were all bound, and even his greatsword couldn't be drawn. Seeing the three of them run over, Woolf immediately shouted for them to be careful.
That should be said to you, you idiot!
The three of them immediately drew their swords and fiercely hacked away at the thick vines. These vines were as thick as a person's forearm. Small and thin barbs grew on their surfaces, and they were extremely tough. Luckily, the swords they'd gotten from Old Harvey were sharp, and very quickly they hacked apart many vines. After these vines fell on the floor, they still wriggled as if they had life left in them.
Not long after, Woolf was rescued successfully, and he immediately wanted to draw his greatsword to vent his anger.
"Wait, let me check you first!" Mavis stopped Woolf from acting.
"Why? I'm fine! I just got pricked a few times."
"Just a few pricks can cost your life. Let me check if you don't want your organs to become a puddle of liquid." Mavis said angrily. Her tone alarmed Woolf greatly. It can't be... This can kill me too?
"If I didn't guess wrongly, this beanstalk has already become a carnivorous plant. There should be some hemolytic poison inside those barbs, which can cause its prey to dissolve from the inside and absorb its nutrients." Bai Yi looked at Mavis' worried actions and immediately deduced this based on a normal carnivorous plant.
"That's precisely the case!" Mavis nodded.
"No! Save me, please save me Doctor Mavis!" Woolf instantly started to act pitifully.
"Stop acting, this poison isn't too severe. After all, it's only been 10 odd days since New Zealand changed. However, if you still dare to be so reckless in the future, then I may not be able to save you in the future!" Mavis said, and injected Woolf with a shot. Bai Yi looked at the first aid kit; there weren't many medical supplies left inside of it.
Bai Yi picked up a green bean on the floor and plucked out a pea. It was extraordinarily plump, and as big as a thumb. Bai Yi put it into his mouth and slowly chewed.
"Bai Yi, didn't you say that it was poisonous?" Woolf instantly said in shock.
"Keep quiet you idiot, I know more about food than you." Bai Yi was really helpless in dealing with Woolf.
"Perhaps due to becoming a carnivorous plant, the nutrients in this green bean is much more abundant than in normal green beans, so it's a decent source of nourishment." Bai Yi swallowed the pea and concluded.
"Ok then, didn't you want to vent? Come, pluck more green beans in addition to the sweet potatoes and Chinese toons. We can make quite a few dishes when we go back." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
"Leave it to me!" Woolf nodded. At this time, Mavis also gestured that Woolf's body was fine. Woolf immediately grabbed his greatsword and started going crazy. The vines that the three of them took effort to chop broke like pieces of paper in front of Woolf's overwhelming strength.
Inside the beanstalk, Woolf saw a big pile of yet-to-be completely dissolved animal bones, and he suddenly felt another wave of fear.
This beanstalk was extremely huge, and they plucked about half of its green beans. Woolf had initially wanted to kill this beanstalk, but Bai Yi stopped him.
"There's no need to destroy it completely. Overall, this beanstalk is a decent source of food. Now that all lifeforms in New Zealand have entered the Binging Phase, there definitely isn't enough meat to go around. We need these fast-growing plants to support the entire New Zealand food chain. Just leave it here. If anybody else comes here after us they can get some food as well." Bai Yi explained.
"If you say so, but I think the probability of people getting eaten by this beanstalk is greater!" Woolf jibed.
"Are you talking about yourself?" Heloise laughed and said.
"I was just careless, careless!" Woolf retorted meekly. Everyone immediately burst out laughing again, and started to look for containers to put the foodstuff in. During this period, the group of hummingbirds flew over again, but this time they only circled nearby for a while, then flew away.
……
When night fell, Bai Yi's group finally returned back the school building. Seeing Bai Yi's return, Momo and Sharpei both ran over excitedly.
Hong Qi Hua and the rest also came to help carry the foodstuff that Bai Yi's group found, and everyone was surprised at the harvest they got. Such a big bag of green beans and sweet potatoes! Even if they were in the Binging Phase, it was enough to eat for two meals.
"Plants are also evolving. This beanstalk evolved into a carnivorous plant, so everyone needs to be even more careful. The New Zealand in the future will be even more dangerous." Bai Yi reminded everyone.
Bai Yi only reminded them briefly, as by now everyone had already come to understand the danger they faced. Repeated reminders would just seem like nagging.
While Bai Yi's group was gone, Hong Qi Hua and the rest didn't laze around either. They found the school's canteen, though the place was in a mess and there weren't any foodstuff left to be found. However, cookware could still be found, and there was still some gas left as well. Overall, it would be quite a convenient place for them once they tidied it up a bit.
Everyone got in the cars and changed their location to the left side of the school, right beside the canteen.
Bai Yi, Heloise, and Sara started to cook a meal using the simple ingredients they'd found, while the rest of them tidied up their things and relaxed. Woolf was just as he always was, chattering noisily and bragging about his 'battle accomplishments'. This included the great battle against the evil hummingbirds, and how he slayed the wicked beanstalk.
The two kids Little Warner and Momo let out gasps of shock from time to time listening to him, making Woolf feel very pleased with himself.
The rest of them saw Woolf showing off in front of the kids and did not expose him either. With the change in New Zealand, everyone had a lot of stress piled up in their hearts. If there wasn't anything to relieve this stress, then it would crush them sooner or later. Fortunately, everyone was glad that the people in the team were all good people. No matter what the world turned into, they would definitely be able to stay strong and pull through!
Definitely!
"Food's ready!" Bai Yi shouted at the bunch of people.
"En!" Momo and Sharpei reacted first, even at home these two were absolute gluttons. The two of them ran towards Bai Yi while the others smiled and followed behind them.
The lights were switched on, which was still all thanks to Otorohanga Middle School's independent power generator and the aroma of the food wafted through the canteen. Although the facilities and tools were basic, Bai Yi was still a chef. Doing his best to let people eat delicious food was the job of a chef.
The group of them gathered around, eating delicious food and chatting with each other, carrying relaxed smiles on their faces.
People who could sit together and enjoy delicious food had always been true friends!
Chapter 51: Tidying Up Records
After finishing their meal, everyone gathered around a table with the animals that Bai Yi's group had found earlier in the day on it. An ant, hummingbird, centipede, spider… and a cat. The cat was something that Hong Qi Hua's group found in the school building, and it had quite a few characteristics of a mouse on it. A mouse-cat? Anyway, it looked extremely fierce.
Although all of them agreed on the active gene fusion plan, at this moment they all remained silent. Bai Yi wanted to take the lead, but he couldn't fuse with genes from other organisms now, so it was useless even if he tried.
"I'll go first!" Hong Qi Hua spoke.
"I'll fuse with the genes first and we can wait for two days. We can officially execute our plan after we've confirmed that it's workable."
"What are you talking about? Active fusion of genes is something everybody agreed to, how can we only let you take the risk? If we want to fuse with the genes, we will do it together." Woolf said. Although Woolf was quite dense normally, he was quite forthright at this time.
"Woolf is right, how can we let you take the risk alone? Let's do it together." Heloise nodded as well.
"Ok let's just do it this way then, everybody will fuse with the genes. The first gene that we recommended is the ant gene, so everybody will fuse with this. As for the other genes, you can make your own choices." Bai Yi said as well.
"How do we do this?" Sara asked, and everyone turned to look at Martin.
"Very simple, you just need to be in contact with its fluids." Martin said.
Fluid contact was really quite simple. In the end, Mavis used a few syringes to extract fluids from the animals. She then poked a small hole on each person's arm and dripped a drop of the fluid from the animal they'd chosen onto it.
Everyone fused with the genes of an ant, and Hong Qi Hua chose the genes of the hummingbird and cat in addition to it. Sara and Heloise also chose the genes of a cat because they saw how Ning Xue looked like. Although they were still fusing with genes from other organisms, looking like a cat-girl was still easier for them to accept.
Martin chose the spider genes to fuse with in addition to the ant genes. This guy, was he looking for novelty?
Little Warner looked at Hong Qi Hua and also followed her decision of an ant, hummingbird and cat. Khina only wanted him to follow Hong Qi Hua on the journey, but unexpectedly he even followed her on the choices of genes to fuse with.
Bai Yi and Momo decided to try as well. Bai Yi wanted to see if he and Momo were really unable to fuse with genes from other lifeforms.
After everyone completed their procedures, they looked at each other for a while and started to laugh. It would definitely not be like this if it were only Hong Qi Hua who took the initiative to fuse with genes. This was the so-called 'enjoying fortune and going through difficulty together' (TN: Chinese idiom as well!). No matter what the end result was after gene fusion, everybody was in this together and developed a sense of camaraderie.
"Now, let's summarize everything so far and record it down on the laptop and a notebook. However, I hope that everyone will still remember everything in your heart. Who's willing to do this and copy everything down in the notebook?" Bai Yi said to everybody after they had finished laughing.
"I'll do it, I'm already used to writing medical notes back at the hospital." Mavis said. Bai Yi nodded. This place was a school, so they very quickly found a thick notebook and a few pens.
"Why do we still need a notebook?"
"Electronics are too fragile considering what we have to face in the future, so it's better to have a physical notebook to record things down." Bai Yi explained.
"No one knows what New Zealand will change into in the future, other than those researchers who specialized in this… Or rather I should say, even those researchers who developed the activated cells wouldn't know what New Zealand will be like in the future." Bai Yi said.
"Although the future has always been unknown, opportunities will always be left to those who are prepared. Now that all of us are in a team now, we must all work hard together. Hong Qi Hua, you use the laptop to organise the notes first before passing it to Mavis for copying." Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua and Mavis. Although Mavis always had an aura of a strong and independent woman and Bai Yi would normally be quite timid around her, he didn't show any apprehension this time.
This was the attitude of a real leader!
"I won't repeat the things we discovered in the past. What I want to talk about is the thing we found out today. This is just a guess, so I'm not sure if it's correct."
"1) Due to binge eating and gene fusion, the food chain in New Zealand is completely destroyed. Various organisms are dying quickly en masse due to them preying on each other for food, and a big portion is already gone. Under the same reasoning, the organisms that are still alive would probably be the more powerful ones. 2) Plants that got infected by activated cells are also rapidly growing and mutating. This may be the cornerstone that will sustain the food chain of New Zealand. 3) Organisms that got infected by activated cells would have a great increase in its intelligence even if they are not humans. They can already begin to understand simple instructions and meanings. 4) After fusing with genes from other organisms, the host body will undergo great changes, but due to the 'common sense' developed throughout their lives, they would not be able to completely make use of their abilities. It would take time to familiarize with and control these abilities." Bai Yi listed out the four things that they found today.
"Anybody who has questions can speak." Bai Yi looked at everyone.
"These four things…" Although everyone was shocked, they still raised the questions that they had. Bai Yi replied based on his own understanding on things, and at the same time let everyone think about them for themselves, discovering and deducing even finer details.
"What I mean by 'common sense' that we developed throughout our lives, ah…" Bai Yi explained to Woolf again at the end. This idiot, he just couldn't remember.
"To put it simply, you don't have any wings now. If the bald eagle genes that you fused with really let you grow wings, do you think you can start flying immediately? Even for a normal person it takes a period of time for them to learn how to drive a car, what more an ability that you did not have in the first place? Do you understand what I mean now?" Bai Yi looked at Woolf, but only saw a pair of wide, innocent, and watery eyes.
"Idiot, if you don't understand then forget about it." Bai Yi gave up.
"Heloise, can you explain to me?" Woolf suddenly said.
Heloise was surprised for a moment after hearing Woolf and then smiled while sitting beside him. Bai Yi just felt like laughing looking at him. This idiot, his acting was so obvious. He clearly understood everything in the afternoon, only he could use this kind of method to try and woo a girl. However, looking at Heloise, she didn't seem to reject him.
"After that, everyone take out your swords!" After he finished laughing, Bai Yi suddenly said to everybody.
Everyone was quite taken aback but took out and held the swords that they chose from Old Harvey's storeroom in their hands. Momo was only four years old, but Bai Yi did not try to help her at this moment but let her clumsily take down the half meter long blade from her back.
"I guess all of you should be curious. Why did I make everybody pick a sword?" Bai Yi said.
"Although you guys should have more or less guessed the reason already, I still want to talk about it."
"The first reason is that bullets are limited. Unless we manage to find a military weapon store, it would be difficult to replenish our bullets in New Zealand now."
"The second reason is that the propelling force behind guns is from machinery and gunpowder, so the power of these weapons is fixed. If it were before, these guns would definitely be lethal weapons to all lifeforms on Earth, but now as humans and evolved lifeforms grow more powerful, the threat of these weapons would only become smaller and smaller. However, cold weapons are different. How much power cold weapons can display is dependent on their users. If it were before, cold weapons would definitely be incomparable to hot weapons, but now as our basic abilities grow, cold weapons will be able to display unimaginable power." Bai Yi said and drew his broadsword.
Everyone looked at Bai Yi, and at this moment he measured the distance between him and the table in front of him with his broadsword. Everyone could see that his broadsword was about 20 centimeters away from the table.
Gradually, they saw Bai Yi raise his sword, the muscles on his arm tensed and the blade abruptly shot out, with a hum it cut through the air and stopped.
With a soft 'kacha!', a 10+ centimeter long scratch instantly appeared on the surface of the table. The scratch wasn't deep at all and it wouldn't even be noticeable normally. However, everyone saw with their own eyes the scene of Bai Yi swinging his sword.
It didn't touch!
The closest point on Bai Yi's broadsword was at least 20 centimeters away from the surface of the table.
After swinging the sword, Bai Yi's face changed colour and his body trembled. Sara immediately wanted to go over and support him.
"It's fine, it just affected my old injuries. I'll be more careful." Bai Yi declined Sara's support.
"Chinese Kung Fu!!" Woolf instantly opened his eyes wide.
"This isn't some Chinese Kung Fu, but a way of using the body's physical strength after it reaches a certain point. Vacuum strike. (TN: the author used 斩击, which means slash strike, but it isn't exactly just a slash so I'm going to call it vacuum strike. Open to suggestions too if anybody has better ideas for names!) In ancient times when heavy emphasis was put on cold weapons, this wasn't much of a secret. Using the high-speed swing of a sword to move the air in front of it, it could form a vacuum-like strike. I thought the old man was just joking in the past, but unexpectedly I really managed to grasp the border of this technique now." Bai Yi slowly explained and waved his hand.
"Everyone saw that in my movements just now, my broadsword didn't touch the surface of the table at all, but it still managed to create a scratch on the table. The scratch I made is quite small now. A child casually running a knife through the table could make a deeper scratch, but it proves a great possibility. Cold weapons to people like us who assimilated with activated cells will soon produce previously unimaginable power."
"Next, what I want to tell you guys is…"
"The skill of knife!" (TN: Woolf literally just said 'the skill of knife' in English here)
"Ah…" Woolf kept interrupting Bai Yi in his excitement. Bai Yi couldn't help but to be dejected and droop his head.
"Shut up, you." Although Bai Yi sounded like he was scolding him, his face was actually quite helpless. In reality Bai Yi wasn't really angry either.
Chapter 50: Wicked Beanstalk
"Bai Yi, you can communicate with them?" Not just Woolf, but even Heloise and Mavis were both extremely shocked.
"Remember our guess just now? Living things that assimilated with activated cells will become 'smarter'. In the clash just now, these hummingbirds judged that 'they can't defeat us'. So when I released them, they didn't continue attacking us either. This can only prove one thing… These hummingbirds are really intelligent!" Bai Yi looked at the hummingbirds flying off with a slightly heavy expression on his face.
Evolved lifeforms becoming more intelligent… they just didn't know how intelligent would they become.
"Let's continue searching for other useful animals." Bai Yi said, and the group of them continued their task.
A huge ant 3 centimeters longA 20 centimeter long centipedeA palm-sized spider with patterns on it.These were the considerably useful animals that they'd found in the end. The others were either not too useful or had already become food for other animals. During the Binging Stage, probably more than half of the animals here were already eaten.
However, what gave the few of them a pleasant surprise was that they found a small garden. Although it was small, many of the plants inside was edible.
Actually, ever since the activated cells proliferated, they hadn't really starved yet. Food had always been sufficient, although they hadn't had vegetables in a long time.
"This is a Chinese toon, it's edible, but you can only eat the sprouts." Bai Yi pointed at small tree more than 3 meters tall nearby.
"Can the leaves also be eaten?" Woolf was quite surprised.
"Of course!" Bai Yi said and continued walking inside.
"This is a dwarf lilyturf. Its stem tuber can be eaten, though it's normally used in medicine." Bai Yi pointed at a small plant on the floor. Although this was a small garden, there weren't many types of vegetables that could be consumed in great quantities. Many of the plants were edible, but the volume was too small. Things like sprouts and stuff, other than changing up the taste, couldn't be used to allay one's hunger.
"This isn't bad, sweet potatoes! Woolf, help me to dig them up!" Sweet potatoes were high in starch, so it was definitely much better than sprouts at relieving hunger. Bai Yi said this to Woolf, but found that he had already headed farther inside. Bai Yi didn't have a choice but to do it himself. Luckily, Heloise and Mavis weren't so carefree like Woolf was and followed close by. They immediately helped dig up the potatoes, they had to treasure every bit of food they could find now.
"Bai Yi, this can be eaten, right?" Woolf ran back, carrying two giant green beans in his hands.
"Green beans, everybody knows that they can be eaten!" Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then I'll go and pluck more!" Woolf said and ran back. Bai Yi watched Woolf's actions and in that moment, he could only smile helplessly.
Bai Yi was quite far away so he didn't realize that the beanstalk was shockingly huge, and the vines curled around each other like a nest of snakes. Woolf had always been eating meat these few days and he was growing tired of it, he immediately headed to the giant beanstalk after seeing the green beans.
Woolf was completely oblivious to how the vines were slowly closing, surrounding him as he walked past them.
The few of them were digging the sweet potatoes out when suddenly they heard a loud cry of help from Woolf. The three of them immediately looked over in Woolf's direction and sprinted over.
From far away the three of them saw that a few vines had wrapped themselves around Woolf's body, pulling him towards their center. Woolf's arms and legs were all bound, and even his greatsword couldn't be drawn. Seeing the three of them run over, Woolf immediately shouted for them to be careful.
That should be said to you, you idiot!
The three of them immediately drew their swords and fiercely hacked away at the thick vines. These vines were as thick as a person's forearm. Small and thin barbs grew on their surfaces, and they were extremely tough. Luckily, the swords they'd gotten from Old Harvey were sharp, and very quickly they hacked apart many vines. After these vines fell on the floor, they still wriggled as if they had life left in them.
Not long after, Woolf was rescued successfully, and he immediately wanted to draw his greatsword to vent his anger.
"Wait, let me check you first!" Mavis stopped Woolf from acting.
"Why? I'm fine! I just got pricked a few times."
"Just a few pricks can cost your life. Let me check if you don't want your organs to become a puddle of liquid." Mavis said angrily. Her tone alarmed Woolf greatly. It can't be... This can kill me too?
"If I didn't guess wrongly, this beanstalk has already become a carnivorous plant. There should be some hemolytic poison inside those barbs, which can cause its prey to dissolve from the inside and absorb its nutrients." Bai Yi looked at Mavis' worried actions and immediately deduced this based on a normal carnivorous plant.
"That's precisely the case!" Mavis nodded.
"No! Save me, please save me Doctor Mavis!" Woolf instantly started to act pitifully.
"Stop acting, this poison isn't too severe. After all, it's only been 10 odd days since New Zealand changed. However, if you still dare to be so reckless in the future, then I may not be able to save you in the future!" Mavis said, and injected Woolf with a shot. Bai Yi looked at the first aid kit; there weren't many medical supplies left inside of it.
Bai Yi picked up a green bean on the floor and plucked out a pea. It was extraordinarily plump, and as big as a thumb. Bai Yi put it into his mouth and slowly chewed.
"Bai Yi, didn't you say that it was poisonous?" Woolf instantly said in shock.
"Keep quiet you idiot, I know more about food than you." Bai Yi was really helpless in dealing with Woolf.
"Perhaps due to becoming a carnivorous plant, the nutrients in this green bean is much more abundant than in normal green beans, so it's a decent source of nourishment." Bai Yi swallowed the pea and concluded.
"Ok then, didn't you want to vent? Come, pluck more green beans in addition to the sweet potatoes and Chinese toons. We can make quite a few dishes when we go back." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
"Leave it to me!" Woolf nodded. At this time, Mavis also gestured that Woolf's body was fine. Woolf immediately grabbed his greatsword and started going crazy. The vines that the three of them took effort to chop broke like pieces of paper in front of Woolf's overwhelming strength.
Inside the beanstalk, Woolf saw a big pile of yet-to-be completely dissolved animal bones, and he suddenly felt another wave of fear.
This beanstalk was extremely huge, and they plucked about half of its green beans. Woolf had initially wanted to kill this beanstalk, but Bai Yi stopped him.
"There's no need to destroy it completely. Overall, this beanstalk is a decent source of food. Now that all lifeforms in New Zealand have entered the Binging Phase, there definitely isn't enough meat to go around. We need these fast-growing plants to support the entire New Zealand food chain. Just leave it here. If anybody else comes here after us they can get some food as well." Bai Yi explained.
"If you say so, but I think the probability of people getting eaten by this beanstalk is greater!" Woolf jibed.
"Are you talking about yourself?" Heloise laughed and said.
"I was just careless, careless!" Woolf retorted meekly. Everyone immediately burst out laughing again, and started to look for containers to put the foodstuff in. During this period, the group of hummingbirds flew over again, but this time they only circled nearby for a while, then flew away.
……
When night fell, Bai Yi's group finally returned back the school building. Seeing Bai Yi's return, Momo and Sharpei both ran over excitedly.
Hong Qi Hua and the rest also came to help carry the foodstuff that Bai Yi's group found, and everyone was surprised at the harvest they got. Such a big bag of green beans and sweet potatoes! Even if they were in the Binging Phase, it was enough to eat for two meals.
"Plants are also evolving. This beanstalk evolved into a carnivorous plant, so everyone needs to be even more careful. The New Zealand in the future will be even more dangerous." Bai Yi reminded everyone.
Bai Yi only reminded them briefly, as by now everyone had already come to understand the danger they faced. Repeated reminders would just seem like nagging.
While Bai Yi's group was gone, Hong Qi Hua and the rest didn't laze around either. They found the school's canteen, though the place was in a mess and there weren't any foodstuff left to be found. However, cookware could still be found, and there was still some gas left as well. Overall, it would be quite a convenient place for them once they tidied it up a bit.
Everyone got in the cars and changed their location to the left side of the school, right beside the canteen.
Bai Yi, Heloise, and Sara started to cook a meal using the simple ingredients they'd found, while the rest of them tidied up their things and relaxed. Woolf was just as he always was, chattering noisily and bragging about his 'battle accomplishments'. This included the great battle against the evil hummingbirds, and how he slayed the wicked beanstalk.
The two kids Little Warner and Momo let out gasps of shock from time to time listening to him, making Woolf feel very pleased with himself.
The rest of them saw Woolf showing off in front of the kids and did not expose him either. With the change in New Zealand, everyone had a lot of stress piled up in their hearts. If there wasn't anything to relieve this stress, then it would crush them sooner or later. Fortunately, everyone was glad that the people in the team were all good people. No matter what the world turned into, they would definitely be able to stay strong and pull through!
Definitely!
"Food's ready!" Bai Yi shouted at the bunch of people.
"En!" Momo and Sharpei reacted first, even at home these two were absolute gluttons. The two of them ran towards Bai Yi while the others smiled and followed behind them.
The lights were switched on, which was still all thanks to Otorohanga Middle School's independent power generator and the aroma of the food wafted through the canteen. Although the facilities and tools were basic, Bai Yi was still a chef. Doing his best to let people eat delicious food was the job of a chef.
The group of them gathered around, eating delicious food and chatting with each other, carrying relaxed smiles on their faces.
People who could sit together and enjoy delicious food had always been true friends!
Chapter 50: Wicked Beanstalk
"Bai Yi, you can communicate with them?" Not just Woolf, but even Heloise and Mavis were both extremely shocked.
"Remember our guess just now? Living things that assimilated with activated cells will become 'smarter'. In the clash just now, these hummingbirds judged that 'they can't defeat us'. So when I released them, they didn't continue attacking us either. This can only prove one thing… These hummingbirds are really intelligent!" Bai Yi looked at the hummingbirds flying off with a slightly heavy expression on his face.
Evolved lifeforms becoming more intelligent… they just didn't know how intelligent would they become.
"Let's continue searching for other useful animals." Bai Yi said, and the group of them continued their task.
A huge ant 3 centimeters longA 20 centimeter long centipedeA palm-sized spider with patterns on it.These were the considerably useful animals that they'd found in the end. The others were either not too useful or had already become food for other animals. During the Binging Stage, probably more than half of the animals here were already eaten.
However, what gave the few of them a pleasant surprise was that they found a small garden. Although it was small, many of the plants inside was edible.
Actually, ever since the activated cells proliferated, they hadn't really starved yet. Food had always been sufficient, although they hadn't had vegetables in a long time.
"This is a Chinese toon, it's edible, but you can only eat the sprouts." Bai Yi pointed at small tree more than 3 meters tall nearby.
"Can the leaves also be eaten?" Woolf was quite surprised.
"Of course!" Bai Yi said and continued walking inside.
"This is a dwarf lilyturf. Its stem tuber can be eaten, though it's normally used in medicine." Bai Yi pointed at a small plant on the floor. Although this was a small garden, there weren't many types of vegetables that could be consumed in great quantities. Many of the plants were edible, but the volume was too small. Things like sprouts and stuff, other than changing up the taste, couldn't be used to allay one's hunger.
"This isn't bad, sweet potatoes! Woolf, help me to dig them up!" Sweet potatoes were high in starch, so it was definitely much better than sprouts at relieving hunger. Bai Yi said this to Woolf, but found that he had already headed farther inside. Bai Yi didn't have a choice but to do it himself. Luckily, Heloise and Mavis weren't so carefree like Woolf was and followed close by. They immediately helped dig up the potatoes, they had to treasure every bit of food they could find now.
"Bai Yi, this can be eaten, right?" Woolf ran back, carrying two giant green beans in his hands.
"Green beans, everybody knows that they can be eaten!" Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then I'll go and pluck more!" Woolf said and ran back. Bai Yi watched Woolf's actions and in that moment, he could only smile helplessly.
Bai Yi was quite far away so he didn't realize that the beanstalk was shockingly huge, and the vines curled around each other like a nest of snakes. Woolf had always been eating meat these few days and he was growing tired of it, he immediately headed to the giant beanstalk after seeing the green beans.
Woolf was completely oblivious to how the vines were slowly closing, surrounding him as he walked past them.
The few of them were digging the sweet potatoes out when suddenly they heard a loud cry of help from Woolf. The three of them immediately looked over in Woolf's direction and sprinted over.
From far away the three of them saw that a few vines had wrapped themselves around Woolf's body, pulling him towards their center. Woolf's arms and legs were all bound, and even his greatsword couldn't be drawn. Seeing the three of them run over, Woolf immediately shouted for them to be careful.
That should be said to you, you idiot!
The three of them immediately drew their swords and fiercely hacked away at the thick vines. These vines were as thick as a person's forearm. Small and thin barbs grew on their surfaces, and they were extremely tough. Luckily, the swords they'd gotten from Old Harvey were sharp, and very quickly they hacked apart many vines. After these vines fell on the floor, they still wriggled as if they had life left in them.
Not long after, Woolf was rescued successfully, and he immediately wanted to draw his greatsword to vent his anger.
"Wait, let me check you first!" Mavis stopped Woolf from acting.
"Why? I'm fine! I just got pricked a few times."
"Just a few pricks can cost your life. Let me check if you don't want your organs to become a puddle of liquid." Mavis said angrily. Her tone alarmed Woolf greatly. It can't be... This can kill me too?
"If I didn't guess wrongly, this beanstalk has already become a carnivorous plant. There should be some hemolytic poison inside those barbs, which can cause its prey to dissolve from the inside and absorb its nutrients." Bai Yi looked at Mavis' worried actions and immediately deduced this based on a normal carnivorous plant.
"That's precisely the case!" Mavis nodded.
"No! Save me, please save me Doctor Mavis!" Woolf instantly started to act pitifully.
"Stop acting, this poison isn't too severe. After all, it's only been 10 odd days since New Zealand changed. However, if you still dare to be so reckless in the future, then I may not be able to save you in the future!" Mavis said, and injected Woolf with a shot. Bai Yi looked at the first aid kit; there weren't many medical supplies left inside of it.
Bai Yi picked up a green bean on the floor and plucked out a pea. It was extraordinarily plump, and as big as a thumb. Bai Yi put it into his mouth and slowly chewed.
"Bai Yi, didn't you say that it was poisonous?" Woolf instantly said in shock.
"Keep quiet you idiot, I know more about food than you." Bai Yi was really helpless in dealing with Woolf.
"Perhaps due to becoming a carnivorous plant, the nutrients in this green bean is much more abundant than in normal green beans, so it's a decent source of nourishment." Bai Yi swallowed the pea and concluded.
"Ok then, didn't you want to vent? Come, pluck more green beans in addition to the sweet potatoes and Chinese toons. We can make quite a few dishes when we go back." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
"Leave it to me!" Woolf nodded. At this time, Mavis also gestured that Woolf's body was fine. Woolf immediately grabbed his greatsword and started going crazy. The vines that the three of them took effort to chop broke like pieces of paper in front of Woolf's overwhelming strength.
Inside the beanstalk, Woolf saw a big pile of yet-to-be completely dissolved animal bones, and he suddenly felt another wave of fear.
This beanstalk was extremely huge, and they plucked about half of its green beans. Woolf had initially wanted to kill this beanstalk, but Bai Yi stopped him.
"There's no need to destroy it completely. Overall, this beanstalk is a decent source of food. Now that all lifeforms in New Zealand have entered the Binging Phase, there definitely isn't enough meat to go around. We need these fast-growing plants to support the entire New Zealand food chain. Just leave it here. If anybody else comes here after us they can get some food as well." Bai Yi explained.
"If you say so, but I think the probability of people getting eaten by this beanstalk is greater!" Woolf jibed.
"Are you talking about yourself?" Heloise laughed and said.
"I was just careless, careless!" Woolf retorted meekly. Everyone immediately burst out laughing again, and started to look for containers to put the foodstuff in. During this period, the group of hummingbirds flew over again, but this time they only circled nearby for a while, then flew away.
……
When night fell, Bai Yi's group finally returned back the school building. Seeing Bai Yi's return, Momo and Sharpei both ran over excitedly.
Hong Qi Hua and the rest also came to help carry the foodstuff that Bai Yi's group found, and everyone was surprised at the harvest they got. Such a big bag of green beans and sweet potatoes! Even if they were in the Binging Phase, it was enough to eat for two meals.
"Plants are also evolving. This beanstalk evolved into a carnivorous plant, so everyone needs to be even more careful. The New Zealand in the future will be even more dangerous." Bai Yi reminded everyone.
Bai Yi only reminded them briefly, as by now everyone had already come to understand the danger they faced. Repeated reminders would just seem like nagging.
While Bai Yi's group was gone, Hong Qi Hua and the rest didn't laze around either. They found the school's canteen, though the place was in a mess and there weren't any foodstuff left to be found. However, cookware could still be found, and there was still some gas left as well. Overall, it would be quite a convenient place for them once they tidied it up a bit.
Everyone got in the cars and changed their location to the left side of the school, right beside the canteen.
Bai Yi, Heloise, and Sara started to cook a meal using the simple ingredients they'd found, while the rest of them tidied up their things and relaxed. Woolf was just as he always was, chattering noisily and bragging about his 'battle accomplishments'. This included the great battle against the evil hummingbirds, and how he slayed the wicked beanstalk.
The two kids Little Warner and Momo let out gasps of shock from time to time listening to him, making Woolf feel very pleased with himself.
The rest of them saw Woolf showing off in front of the kids and did not expose him either. With the change in New Zealand, everyone had a lot of stress piled up in their hearts. If there wasn't anything to relieve this stress, then it would crush them sooner or later. Fortunately, everyone was glad that the people in the team were all good people. No matter what the world turned into, they would definitely be able to stay strong and pull through!
Definitely!
"Food's ready!" Bai Yi shouted at the bunch of people.
"En!" Momo and Sharpei reacted first, even at home these two were absolute gluttons. The two of them ran towards Bai Yi while the others smiled and followed behind them.
The lights were switched on, which was still all thanks to Otorohanga Middle School's independent power generator and the aroma of the food wafted through the canteen. Although the facilities and tools were basic, Bai Yi was still a chef. Doing his best to let people eat delicious food was the job of a chef.
The group of them gathered around, eating delicious food and chatting with each other, carrying relaxed smiles on their faces.
People who could sit together and enjoy delicious food had always been true friends!
Chapter 51: Tidying Up Records
After finishing their meal, everyone gathered around a table with the animals that Bai Yi's group had found earlier in the day on it. An ant, hummingbird, centipede, spider… and a cat. The cat was something that Hong Qi Hua's group found in the school building, and it had quite a few characteristics of a mouse on it. A mouse-cat? Anyway, it looked extremely fierce.
Although all of them agreed on the active gene fusion plan, at this moment they all remained silent. Bai Yi wanted to take the lead, but he couldn't fuse with genes from other organisms now, so it was useless even if he tried.
"I'll go first!" Hong Qi Hua spoke.
"I'll fuse with the genes first and we can wait for two days. We can officially execute our plan after we've confirmed that it's workable."
"What are you talking about? Active fusion of genes is something everybody agreed to, how can we only let you take the risk? If we want to fuse with the genes, we will do it together." Woolf said. Although Woolf was quite dense normally, he was quite forthright at this time.
"Woolf is right, how can we let you take the risk alone? Let's do it together." Heloise nodded as well.
"Ok let's just do it this way then, everybody will fuse with the genes. The first gene that we recommended is the ant gene, so everybody will fuse with this. As for the other genes, you can make your own choices." Bai Yi said as well.
"How do we do this?" Sara asked, and everyone turned to look at Martin.
"Very simple, you just need to be in contact with its fluids." Martin said.
Fluid contact was really quite simple. In the end, Mavis used a few syringes to extract fluids from the animals. She then poked a small hole on each person's arm and dripped a drop of the fluid from the animal they'd chosen onto it.
Everyone fused with the genes of an ant, and Hong Qi Hua chose the genes of the hummingbird and cat in addition to it. Sara and Heloise also chose the genes of a cat because they saw how Ning Xue looked like. Although they were still fusing with genes from other organisms, looking like a cat-girl was still easier for them to accept.
Martin chose the spider genes to fuse with in addition to the ant genes. This guy, was he looking for novelty?
Little Warner looked at Hong Qi Hua and also followed her decision of an ant, hummingbird and cat. Khina only wanted him to follow Hong Qi Hua on the journey, but unexpectedly he even followed her on the choices of genes to fuse with.
Bai Yi and Momo decided to try as well. Bai Yi wanted to see if he and Momo were really unable to fuse with genes from other lifeforms.
After everyone completed their procedures, they looked at each other for a while and started to laugh. It would definitely not be like this if it were only Hong Qi Hua who took the initiative to fuse with genes. This was the so-called 'enjoying fortune and going through difficulty together' (TN: Chinese idiom as well!). No matter what the end result was after gene fusion, everybody was in this together and developed a sense of camaraderie.
"Now, let's summarize everything so far and record it down on the laptop and a notebook. However, I hope that everyone will still remember everything in your heart. Who's willing to do this and copy everything down in the notebook?" Bai Yi said to everybody after they had finished laughing.
"I'll do it, I'm already used to writing medical notes back at the hospital." Mavis said. Bai Yi nodded. This place was a school, so they very quickly found a thick notebook and a few pens.
"Why do we still need a notebook?"
"Electronics are too fragile considering what we have to face in the future, so it's better to have a physical notebook to record things down." Bai Yi explained.
"No one knows what New Zealand will change into in the future, other than those researchers who specialized in this… Or rather I should say, even those researchers who developed the activated cells wouldn't know what New Zealand will be like in the future." Bai Yi said.
"Although the future has always been unknown, opportunities will always be left to those who are prepared. Now that all of us are in a team now, we must all work hard together. Hong Qi Hua, you use the laptop to organise the notes first before passing it to Mavis for copying." Bai Yi said to Hong Qi Hua and Mavis. Although Mavis always had an aura of a strong and independent woman and Bai Yi would normally be quite timid around her, he didn't show any apprehension this time.
This was the attitude of a real leader!
"I won't repeat the things we discovered in the past. What I want to talk about is the thing we found out today. This is just a guess, so I'm not sure if it's correct."
"1) Due to binge eating and gene fusion, the food chain in New Zealand is completely destroyed. Various organisms are dying quickly en masse due to them preying on each other for food, and a big portion is already gone. Under the same reasoning, the organisms that are still alive would probably be the more powerful ones. 2) Plants that got infected by activated cells are also rapidly growing and mutating. This may be the cornerstone that will sustain the food chain of New Zealand. 3) Organisms that got infected by activated cells would have a great increase in its intelligence even if they are not humans. They can already begin to understand simple instructions and meanings. 4) After fusing with genes from other organisms, the host body will undergo great changes, but due to the 'common sense' developed throughout their lives, they would not be able to completely make use of their abilities. It would take time to familiarize with and control these abilities." Bai Yi listed out the four things that they found today.
"Anybody who has questions can speak." Bai Yi looked at everyone.
"These four things…" Although everyone was shocked, they still raised the questions that they had. Bai Yi replied based on his own understanding on things, and at the same time let everyone think about them for themselves, discovering and deducing even finer details.
"What I mean by 'common sense' that we developed throughout our lives, ah…" Bai Yi explained to Woolf again at the end. This idiot, he just couldn't remember.
"To put it simply, you don't have any wings now. If the bald eagle genes that you fused with really let you grow wings, do you think you can start flying immediately? Even for a normal person it takes a period of time for them to learn how to drive a car, what more an ability that you did not have in the first place? Do you understand what I mean now?" Bai Yi looked at Woolf, but only saw a pair of wide, innocent, and watery eyes.
"Idiot, if you don't understand then forget about it." Bai Yi gave up.
"Heloise, can you explain to me?" Woolf suddenly said.
Heloise was surprised for a moment after hearing Woolf and then smiled while sitting beside him. Bai Yi just felt like laughing looking at him. This idiot, his acting was so obvious. He clearly understood everything in the afternoon, only he could use this kind of method to try and woo a girl. However, looking at Heloise, she didn't seem to reject him.
"After that, everyone take out your swords!" After he finished laughing, Bai Yi suddenly said to everybody.
Everyone was quite taken aback but took out and held the swords that they chose from Old Harvey's storeroom in their hands. Momo was only four years old, but Bai Yi did not try to help her at this moment but let her clumsily take down the half meter long blade from her back.
"I guess all of you should be curious. Why did I make everybody pick a sword?" Bai Yi said.
"Although you guys should have more or less guessed the reason already, I still want to talk about it."
"The first reason is that bullets are limited. Unless we manage to find a military weapon store, it would be difficult to replenish our bullets in New Zealand now."
"The second reason is that the propelling force behind guns is from machinery and gunpowder, so the power of these weapons is fixed. If it were before, these guns would definitely be lethal weapons to all lifeforms on Earth, but now as humans and evolved lifeforms grow more powerful, the threat of these weapons would only become smaller and smaller. However, cold weapons are different. How much power cold weapons can display is dependent on their users. If it were before, cold weapons would definitely be incomparable to hot weapons, but now as our basic abilities grow, cold weapons will be able to display unimaginable power." Bai Yi said and drew his broadsword.
Everyone looked at Bai Yi, and at this moment he measured the distance between him and the table in front of him with his broadsword. Everyone could see that his broadsword was about 20 centimeters away from the table.
Gradually, they saw Bai Yi raise his sword, the muscles on his arm tensed and the blade abruptly shot out, with a hum it cut through the air and stopped.
With a soft 'kacha!', a 10+ centimeter long scratch instantly appeared on the surface of the table. The scratch wasn't deep at all and it wouldn't even be noticeable normally. However, everyone saw with their own eyes the scene of Bai Yi swinging his sword.
It didn't touch!
The closest point on Bai Yi's broadsword was at least 20 centimeters away from the surface of the table.
After swinging the sword, Bai Yi's face changed colour and his body trembled. Sara immediately wanted to go over and support him.
"It's fine, it just affected my old injuries. I'll be more careful." Bai Yi declined Sara's support.
"Chinese Kung Fu!!" Woolf instantly opened his eyes wide.
"This isn't some Chinese Kung Fu, but a way of using the body's physical strength after it reaches a certain point. Vacuum strike. (TN: the author used 斩击, which means slash strike, but it isn't exactly just a slash so I'm going to call it vacuum strike. Open to suggestions too if anybody has better ideas for names!) In ancient times when heavy emphasis was put on cold weapons, this wasn't much of a secret. Using the high-speed swing of a sword to move the air in front of it, it could form a vacuum-like strike. I thought the old man was just joking in the past, but unexpectedly I really managed to grasp the border of this technique now." Bai Yi slowly explained and waved his hand.
"Everyone saw that in my movements just now, my broadsword didn't touch the surface of the table at all, but it still managed to create a scratch on the table. The scratch I made is quite small now. A child casually running a knife through the table could make a deeper scratch, but it proves a great possibility. Cold weapons to people like us who assimilated with activated cells will soon produce previously unimaginable power."
"Next, what I want to tell you guys is…"
"The skill of knife!" (TN: Woolf literally just said 'the skill of knife' in English here)
"Ah…" Woolf kept interrupting Bai Yi in his excitement. Bai Yi couldn't help but to be dejected and droop his head.
"Shut up, you." Although Bai Yi sounded like he was scolding him, his face was actually quite helpless. In reality Bai Yi wasn't really angry either.
Chapter 50: Wicked Beanstalk
"Bai Yi, you can communicate with them?" Not just Woolf, but even Heloise and Mavis were both extremely shocked.
"Remember our guess just now? Living things that assimilated with activated cells will become 'smarter'. In the clash just now, these hummingbirds judged that 'they can't defeat us'. So when I released them, they didn't continue attacking us either. This can only prove one thing… These hummingbirds are really intelligent!" Bai Yi looked at the hummingbirds flying off with a slightly heavy expression on his face.
Evolved lifeforms becoming more intelligent… they just didn't know how intelligent would they become.
"Let's continue searching for other useful animals." Bai Yi said, and the group of them continued their task.
A huge ant 3 centimeters longA 20 centimeter long centipedeA palm-sized spider with patterns on it.These were the considerably useful animals that they'd found in the end. The others were either not too useful or had already become food for other animals. During the Binging Stage, probably more than half of the animals here were already eaten.
However, what gave the few of them a pleasant surprise was that they found a small garden. Although it was small, many of the plants inside was edible.
Actually, ever since the activated cells proliferated, they hadn't really starved yet. Food had always been sufficient, although they hadn't had vegetables in a long time.
"This is a Chinese toon, it's edible, but you can only eat the sprouts." Bai Yi pointed at small tree more than 3 meters tall nearby.
"Can the leaves also be eaten?" Woolf was quite surprised.
"Of course!" Bai Yi said and continued walking inside.
"This is a dwarf lilyturf. Its stem tuber can be eaten, though it's normally used in medicine." Bai Yi pointed at a small plant on the floor. Although this was a small garden, there weren't many types of vegetables that could be consumed in great quantities. Many of the plants were edible, but the volume was too small. Things like sprouts and stuff, other than changing up the taste, couldn't be used to allay one's hunger.
"This isn't bad, sweet potatoes! Woolf, help me to dig them up!" Sweet potatoes were high in starch, so it was definitely much better than sprouts at relieving hunger. Bai Yi said this to Woolf, but found that he had already headed farther inside. Bai Yi didn't have a choice but to do it himself. Luckily, Heloise and Mavis weren't so carefree like Woolf was and followed close by. They immediately helped dig up the potatoes, they had to treasure every bit of food they could find now.
"Bai Yi, this can be eaten, right?" Woolf ran back, carrying two giant green beans in his hands.
"Green beans, everybody knows that they can be eaten!" Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then I'll go and pluck more!" Woolf said and ran back. Bai Yi watched Woolf's actions and in that moment, he could only smile helplessly.
Bai Yi was quite far away so he didn't realize that the beanstalk was shockingly huge, and the vines curled around each other like a nest of snakes. Woolf had always been eating meat these few days and he was growing tired of it, he immediately headed to the giant beanstalk after seeing the green beans.
Woolf was completely oblivious to how the vines were slowly closing, surrounding him as he walked past them.
The few of them were digging the sweet potatoes out when suddenly they heard a loud cry of help from Woolf. The three of them immediately looked over in Woolf's direction and sprinted over.
From far away the three of them saw that a few vines had wrapped themselves around Woolf's body, pulling him towards their center. Woolf's arms and legs were all bound, and even his greatsword couldn't be drawn. Seeing the three of them run over, Woolf immediately shouted for them to be careful.
That should be said to you, you idiot!
The three of them immediately drew their swords and fiercely hacked away at the thick vines. These vines were as thick as a person's forearm. Small and thin barbs grew on their surfaces, and they were extremely tough. Luckily, the swords they'd gotten from Old Harvey were sharp, and very quickly they hacked apart many vines. After these vines fell on the floor, they still wriggled as if they had life left in them.
Not long after, Woolf was rescued successfully, and he immediately wanted to draw his greatsword to vent his anger.
"Wait, let me check you first!" Mavis stopped Woolf from acting.
"Why? I'm fine! I just got pricked a few times."
"Just a few pricks can cost your life. Let me check if you don't want your organs to become a puddle of liquid." Mavis said angrily. Her tone alarmed Woolf greatly. It can't be... This can kill me too?
"If I didn't guess wrongly, this beanstalk has already become a carnivorous plant. There should be some hemolytic poison inside those barbs, which can cause its prey to dissolve from the inside and absorb its nutrients." Bai Yi looked at Mavis' worried actions and immediately deduced this based on a normal carnivorous plant.
"That's precisely the case!" Mavis nodded.
"No! Save me, please save me Doctor Mavis!" Woolf instantly started to act pitifully.
"Stop acting, this poison isn't too severe. After all, it's only been 10 odd days since New Zealand changed. However, if you still dare to be so reckless in the future, then I may not be able to save you in the future!" Mavis said, and injected Woolf with a shot. Bai Yi looked at the first aid kit; there weren't many medical supplies left inside of it.
Bai Yi picked up a green bean on the floor and plucked out a pea. It was extraordinarily plump, and as big as a thumb. Bai Yi put it into his mouth and slowly chewed.
"Bai Yi, didn't you say that it was poisonous?" Woolf instantly said in shock.
"Keep quiet you idiot, I know more about food than you." Bai Yi was really helpless in dealing with Woolf.
"Perhaps due to becoming a carnivorous plant, the nutrients in this green bean is much more abundant than in normal green beans, so it's a decent source of nourishment." Bai Yi swallowed the pea and concluded.
"Ok then, didn't you want to vent? Come, pluck more green beans in addition to the sweet potatoes and Chinese toons. We can make quite a few dishes when we go back." Bai Yi said to Woolf.
"Leave it to me!" Woolf nodded. At this time, Mavis also gestured that Woolf's body was fine. Woolf immediately grabbed his greatsword and started going crazy. The vines that the three of them took effort to chop broke like pieces of paper in front of Woolf's overwhelming strength.
Inside the beanstalk, Woolf saw a big pile of yet-to-be completely dissolved animal bones, and he suddenly felt another wave of fear.
This beanstalk was extremely huge, and they plucked about half of its green beans. Woolf had initially wanted to kill this beanstalk, but Bai Yi stopped him.
"There's no need to destroy it completely. Overall, this beanstalk is a decent source of food. Now that all lifeforms in New Zealand have entered the Binging Phase, there definitely isn't enough meat to go around. We need these fast-growing plants to support the entire New Zealand food chain. Just leave it here. If anybody else comes here after us they can get some food as well." Bai Yi explained.
"If you say so, but I think the probability of people getting eaten by this beanstalk is greater!" Woolf jibed.
"Are you talking about yourself?" Heloise laughed and said.
"I was just careless, careless!" Woolf retorted meekly. Everyone immediately burst out laughing again, and started to look for containers to put the foodstuff in. During this period, the group of hummingbirds flew over again, but this time they only circled nearby for a while, then flew away.
……
When night fell, Bai Yi's group finally returned back the school building. Seeing Bai Yi's return, Momo and Sharpei both ran over excitedly.
Hong Qi Hua and the rest also came to help carry the foodstuff that Bai Yi's group found, and everyone was surprised at the harvest they got. Such a big bag of green beans and sweet potatoes! Even if they were in the Binging Phase, it was enough to eat for two meals.
"Plants are also evolving. This beanstalk evolved into a carnivorous plant, so everyone needs to be even more careful. The New Zealand in the future will be even more dangerous." Bai Yi reminded everyone.
Bai Yi only reminded them briefly, as by now everyone had already come to understand the danger they faced. Repeated reminders would just seem like nagging.
While Bai Yi's group was gone, Hong Qi Hua and the rest didn't laze around either. They found the school's canteen, though the place was in a mess and there weren't any foodstuff left to be found. However, cookware could still be found, and there was still some gas left as well. Overall, it would be quite a convenient place for them once they tidied it up a bit.
Everyone got in the cars and changed their location to the left side of the school, right beside the canteen.
Bai Yi, Heloise, and Sara started to cook a meal using the simple ingredients they'd found, while the rest of them tidied up their things and relaxed. Woolf was just as he always was, chattering noisily and bragging about his 'battle accomplishments'. This included the great battle against the evil hummingbirds, and how he slayed the wicked beanstalk.
The two kids Little Warner and Momo let out gasps of shock from time to time listening to him, making Woolf feel very pleased with himself.
The rest of them saw Woolf showing off in front of the kids and did not expose him either. With the change in New Zealand, everyone had a lot of stress piled up in their hearts. If there wasn't anything to relieve this stress, then it would crush them sooner or later. Fortunately, everyone was glad that the people in the team were all good people. No matter what the world turned into, they would definitely be able to stay strong and pull through!
Definitely!
"Food's ready!" Bai Yi shouted at the bunch of people.
"En!" Momo and Sharpei reacted first, even at home these two were absolute gluttons. The two of them ran towards Bai Yi while the others smiled and followed behind them.
The lights were switched on, which was still all thanks to Otorohanga Middle School's independent power generator and the aroma of the food wafted through the canteen. Although the facilities and tools were basic, Bai Yi was still a chef. Doing his best to let people eat delicious food was the job of a chef.
The group of them gathered around, eating delicious food and chatting with each other, carrying relaxed smiles on their faces.
People who could sit together and enjoy delicious food had always been true friends!
