Chapter 48: Can Convert Internal Toxins into Energy?
Turner froze as well, staring in the direction of the voice with eyes wide in utter disbelief.
“Awoo—!”
The mutated wolf that had tumbled to the ground let out a ferocious snarl, instantly dragging everyone’s focus back to the fight.
Zhou Xue moved. Her long blade flashed with a cold, gleaming arc, slashing down viciously toward the beast—
Their squad’s strengths and weaknesses were plainly evident.
Counting Hall, the six of them possessed a diverse array of awakened abilities.
Offense, crowd control, and support.
Zhou Xue’s awakening granted superhuman strength, Shelley commanded entangling boughs, Turner wielded a concussive screech, Quick utilized petrified stone armor, and Luo Xianghuai provided pathfinding reconnaissance.
Whether tracking quarry or setting ambushes, they had a power for every scenario—a remarkably well-rounded unit.
Their glaring weakness, however, was that in the face of numerous foes, several squad members lacked counterattack or self-defense capabilities.
Not every ability was tailored for combat.
Currently, their primary combat heavy-hitter remained Zhou Xue.
Seeing that Turner was out of harm’s way, she dispatched the wolf that had tried to pounce on him in a few sharp strokes before darting over to assist Quick.
“Ice Blade!”
Hall sprinted up beside Turner, remotely conjuring an ice dagger that drove deep into the wolf’s spine.
The mutated beast howled in agony, leaving its guard wide open. With a brutal horizontal swipe, Zhou Xue’s blade traced a vicious arc, cleanly lopping off the wolf’s head.
Just as the third mutated wolf collapsed, Shelley used her woody vines to throttle the final beast to death.
Using a creeping shoot, she dug out the creature’s core—a dull, bluish-green hue.
The pale white vines were stained dark with beast blood.
“An E-rank mutant.”
Shelley turned her head as she finished, and only then did she notice the extra figure standing with the squad.
“Hall?!”
“Hall! You’re alive!”
Luo Xianghuai and Quick hurried over as well.
Every face was a mix of shock and overwhelmed joy.
From agonizing grief to pure euphoria in the span of minutes.
The moment they found that torn scrap of fabric in the cavern, all five of them had assumed Hall was a dead man.
Seeing him standing before them in one piece, how could they not be ecstatic?!
“How are you holding up?”
Luo Xianghuai looked Hall up and down, catching sight of the dried blood smeared across his chest: “You’re hurt? Where’s the C-rank mutant?”
As he spoke, he glanced warily back in the direction Hall had come from.
“I’m fine! This blood is from yesterday!”
Reunited with his comrades, Hall chirped with irrepressible cheer: “That C-rank mutant is already dead!”
Circling around from the Chinese Restaurant had cost him a tremendous amount of effort!
Hall had figured their captain would head north again today. Knowing Zhou Xue’s relentless temperament, letting that C-rank chimera slip away yesterday meant she would definitely trace its trail to hunt it down today.
So, hugging the outer wall, he had made his way north, found the spot where they had been scattered the day before, and then—relying on his hazy memory of being dragged off combined with the faint tracks on the ground—he had tracked them all the way here.
It had worn him out completely.
“Already dead?! Hall, you killed a C-rank beast all on your own?!”
Quick was flabbergasted.
First learning Hall wasn’t dead, and then hearing this kid had soloed that mutated chimera—the shock was almost too much to process.
“Damn, kid, you’ve got some serious moves!”
“Judging by the control over that ice blade just now, your ability has indeed grown significantly stronger. Transitioning from melee constructs to remote telekinesis, and the manifestation speed was far faster than before.” Zhou Xue nodded in firm approval.
“Guess dancing on the edge of life and death really does unlock a person’s latent potential, huh?” Luo Xianghuai chuckled.
“No, wait! Aiya, I wasn’t the one who killed the C-rank mutant, Boss Ling did!” Hall waved his hands frantically. “And my ability growing stronger… that’s probably because I ate the Malatang from Boss Ling’s shop!”
“?”
“??”
“What in the world are you talking about?” Shelley asked.
Why were these words complete gibberish to them?
Who was Boss Ling? What was Malatang? Eating? What on earth was there to eat out in these barren wastes?!
“Listen! Yesterday, when that C-rank mutant dragged me off, right before it tried to bite my head off, I stabbed an ice blade into its eye and ran for my life. You guys know my ability just awakened, so it wasn’t very reliable. I ran blindly and ended up completely lost!”
Hall’s face lit up with animated excitement as he recounted the tale: “After getting lost, I was exhausted and in so much pain that I just blacked out. When I woke up, I was outside the West Wall, collapsed right in front of someone’s Chinese Restaurant!”
“…What is he blabbering about?”
Quick turned to Luo Xianghuai, his face a complete blank.
“Beats me. A restaurant? A restaurant existing nowadays? Outside the city walls, no less?” Luo Xianghuai couldn’t make heads or tails of it either. Turning to Zhou Xue for guidance, he asked, “Captain, do you have any idea what he’s talking about?”
“Explain yourself,” Zhou Xue commanded.
“Aiya! It’s the Chinese Restaurant! A restaurant! You know what that is, right? A place where you eat food!”
“Of course we know what a restaurant is.” Shelley eyed him with a bizarre, pitying look. “We all lived through the pre-cataclysm world…”
She paused, then leaned toward Zhou Xue to whisper: “Captain, did this kid accidentally eat some hallucinogenic berries or toxic mushrooms?”
If an ordinary human consumed any wild plant or berry out in the wasteland, the toxins would corrode them in minutes.
Awakeners, however, developed a natural “resistance” upon awakening, drastically curbing the poison’s lethal effects.
In fact, they actively absorbed energy crystals to fuel their internal power and channel their abilities.
Shelley genuinely suspected that Hall had been driven mad with hunger the night before, scavenged some random mutant fruit, and was now suffering a psychotic break, rambling about whatever delusions crossed his mind.
“Sister Shelley! Your ‘whisper’ is way too loud! I heard every single word!” Hall protested loudly. “I didn’t eat any poisoned mushrooms! Everything I’m saying is the absolute truth!”
“Oh… so it was hallucinogenic berries, then.”
“It wasn’t!” Seeing that words were utterly useless, Hall simply reached inside his coat.
Thank goodness he had planned ahead! He had brought proof.
“Look! This is a roasted potato sold at Boss Ling’s Chinese Restaurant! Zero toxins! Incredibly delicious! Eating it even purges poison from your body!”
Hall opened his palm, revealing a golden-brown, charred, and fragrant roasted potato.
The others crowded around immediately, staring intently at the object resting in his hand.
“Hiss… Why does this thing actually look like a roasted potato?” Quick muttered, scratching his head. “Don’t tell me I’ve been caught in a hallucination without realizing it?”
“No, I think so too. It truly smells just like a potato.”
“Not a single speck of green on it. Really no toxins? How is that even possible?” Shelley wasn’t so sure anymore.
Zhou Xue reached out, took the roasted potato, and inspected it with meticulous care.
She broke off a small piece, gave it a sniff, and placed it on her tongue to taste.
Her eyes snapped wide. Splitting the roasted potato into pieces, she distributed them among the rest of the squad: “Try this.”
“! This flavor… it really is a roasted potato.”
“No poison at all. It’s so fragrant.”
“See, see?! I told you I wasn’t making it up!” Hall puffed up with pride. “There really is a Chinese Restaurant! And they don’t just sell roasted potatoes! They have roasted sweet potatoes, pork cracklings, and Malatang! I literally ate a feast of Malatang before running over here this morning! Every single food item in her shop grants a buff! The sign said the Malatang I ate can convert internal toxins into raw energy! And it’s dirt cheap—one City Coin gets you two whole skewers!”
At this, he let out a sheepish little chuckle: “If I hadn’t stuffed my face and spent almost all my money, leaving myself with just a few coins, I would’ve brought back a whole haul of food for you guys.”
Zhou Xue paused mid-chew, her sharp instincts instantly locking onto the most critical piece of information.
“It can convert internal toxins into energy?”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm!” Hall nodded like a woodpecker.
Zhou Xue fixed him with an intense gaze. “This Chinese Restaurant you speak of—where is it?”
