Chapter 73: The Final Day, The Mist Draws Near

[Mysterious Element (SSS)]: A magical material that can substitute for any kind of material and is not limited in quantity.

He understood what it meant, but at the moment, with the resources he had, he could craft anything he needed. There was simply no situation where a substitute was required. Even if he didn’t have something, the trading center should have it. So, what was the point of this thing? Never mind, he’d leave it there for now—its existence must be justified somehow. Since it had appeared, he’d surely find a use for it sooner or later.

...

Quickly, the week dwindled down to its final day. Outside, nothing had changed—the same thick mist, the same endless forks in the road. The only difference was that Lin Mu now had too many resources, so many that their meals over the last two days had become ridiculously extravagant.

“Are we really going to eat this much meat for breakfast?” Shu Yi couldn’t help but twitch at the sight of the dishes piled high with meat. In the beginning, she had longed for a bit of meat every day. But now, she truly missed vegetables.

“We should be grateful to have enough to eat—no point being picky,” Lin Mu shot Shu Yi a helpless glance. Did he really want to eat this much meat? It was just that there was a surplus of meat and a shortage of everything else. If he had other options, he would have switched it up long ago.

“Ahem, how about you let me handle some of it? I could turn it into jerky,” Shu Xin suggested, also staring at the table in frustration. Eating so much meat wasn’t just about gaining weight—her digestion was suffering, and even she could barely stand the result.

Lin Mu glanced at the hundreds of pounds of meat in his backpack and agreed without a second thought. He handed a core to Shu Xin. “Take care of all this. After you’re done, I doubt much will be left.”

“That’s for sure—if there are ten or so pounds remaining, it’ll be a miracle.” But when Shu Xin saw just how much meat there was, she froze. “How is there this much?”

Lin Mu had put at least three hundred pounds of meat in there, and he still had plenty left in his backpack.

“Now do you see why we’re eating so much meat? There’s just too much of it. We’ve encountered so many wild beasts these past two days—each one yields at least fifty pounds of meat. How could we not have a surplus?”

Almost every time they found a resource box, they’d run into wild beasts in the mist. Recently, the number of casualties had begun to rise again, but it was still far better than the previous two times.

“Sister Wanqing, Jiang Ying, you’ve got to help me. And you, Little Fatty, come lend a hand in a bit.”

As for Wang Changjun, he just kept twitching in a corner, completely useless.

Lin Mu was helpless, too—he’d have switched him out long ago if he could, but he hadn’t come across another vehicle. The radar on the car could scan a five-kilometer radius, far beyond what the 001’s radar could do.

Still, even with that advantage, he hadn’t encountered another car. In such a labyrinthine network of roads, you’d expect to run into someone easily—unless, of course, the place was vast enough. So vast that even with over seven hundred million people, they might never cross paths. Unbelievable…but perhaps possible.

After breakfast, Lin Mu sat in the driver’s seat and opened the regional channel.

[Zone 62]—199,000 people remaining.

There were still quite a few survivors.

“I’m doomed—only 500 liters of gasoline left. It’s nowhere near enough!”

“Five hundred liters isn’t enough? That’s enough to drive five thousand kilometers.”

“And what good is five thousand kilometers? I haven’t found any gasoline for three days straight.”

“By the way, have any of you seen that green mist behind us?”

“...”

Green mist? Poison gas?

Lin Mu glanced in his rearview mirror—wasn’t the mist white?

“Shu Xin, do you know what’s up with this green mist?”

Shu Xin pulled out a notebook. “Some people mentioned it yesterday, but it was so rare I didn’t pay much attention. Most likely, it’s poisonous gas.”

Lin Mu stroked his chin—was it really that rare? But with the way this game went, he figured by tomorrow the green mist would be everywhere.

“Keep an eye on the channel, just in case.”

“But I’ve got all this jerky to make today.”

The stoves were ready; soon she’d be able to dry it all on the third floor.

Lin Mu took a deep breath and looked at the others.

“All right, focus on the jerky for now. We can catch up on messages later.”

This time, when getting out of the vehicle, Little Fatty and Shu Yi were both fully suited up in protective gear—who knew what might happen? Better to be safe than sorry.

“Let’s go!”

Far behind them, the green mist continued to creep forward, moving faster than before. From above, some vehicles were dangerously close to it, the nearest less than a hundred meters away.

On the third floor of Lin Mu’s vehicle, Shu Xin and the others were each wielding a knife, slicing up the meat. Then, using tools, they strung it up and hung it in an empty room, where four stoves were set up.

“I have to say, Lin Mu really has a ridiculous amount of resources.”

Though she was getting tired of meat, Jiang Ying couldn’t help but envy him. If only she’d had this much to work with from the start—how wonderful it would have been.

“But look at his vehicle—it’s so powerful he never even has to get out. Not everyone can manage to gather this much,” Gu Wanqing shook her head.

Everyone sighed together—there was just no comparison.

Lin Mu drove on, glancing sideways from time to time.

“001, doesn’t it feel like the mist outside is getting closer?” he asked.

001 looked out the window, blue light flickering in her eyes. “The mist is currently nineteen meters from the vehicle.”

Nineteen meters?

“Yes, Master.”

Lin Mu’s brow furrowed. If it was nineteen meters here…

“001, keep an eye on the channel—see if anyone mentions how close the mist is getting.”

He calculated silently. There had been seven days in total, and on the first day, the mist was twenty-five meters away. Today was the seventh day, so it had shrunk by a meter a day. If this trend continued into the next week…he’d still have just over ten meters left—enough.

Besides, turning on the lights would disperse the mist ahead, so it wouldn’t affect him much.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing to worry about. Still, he figured it was time to upgrade the vehicle again. He’d only made some minor improvements lately, nothing major.

Lin Mu opened the modification interface. He placed an antidote into the slot.

“Vehicle toxic gas purification ability.”

A spinning circle appeared, indicating it was possible.

After about three minutes, options appeared:

[Option 1]: Detoxification Filter Device. Requires: 20 Antidotes, 10 Mithril Ingots, 2 units of Plastic, 2 units of Universal Material.

[Option 2]: Full-Vehicle Purification Defense. Requires: 100 Antidotes, 50 Mithril Ingots, 20 units of Universal Material.

Was there even a choice? Of course it had to be the full-vehicle purification defense. Only an idiot would pick otherwise.

Er…he supposed he’d just called himself an idiot.