Capturing Mutated Leech Larvae

Strength increased by ten percent.

What kind of black technology is this?

But then again, is this thing considered candy or a stimulant?

Chu Guang didn't know its ingredients, and there was no production date or ingredient list on the packaging.

"The duration is actually 10 hours."

A 10% boost effect seemed pretty good. At a critical moment, even a tenth of strength could be enough to turn the tide of battle.

But eating a lollipop right before a fight...

It didn't quite fit his image as a tough, iron-blooded man like Wu Yizu.

And when it would take effect was also an unknown.

After thinking it over, Chu Guang decided to keep it for now.

Having an extra trump card was never a bad thing.

The next morning.

The players logged in as scheduled.

Although they were exhausted from their real-life work during the day, once they came online, their fatigue vanished, and they were all full of energy, lively and vigorous.

Old Bai's cement kiln had completely dried.

He and Gale went to a construction site on the map, pulled back dozens of kilograms of limestone with a flat cart, then went to the river to get several large buckets of clay and sand, and started the first trial firing of silicate cement with grunts and groans.

In fact, the formula for ordinary silicate cement could be found publicly online.

Simply put, it was made by crushing limestone and mixing it with clay and iron filings in a specific ratio, then heating it to 1450 degrees Celsius in a special kiln for calcination.

The cement clinker prepared by this method only needed to be mixed with sand and water to form cement mortar that could be used for construction.

With the help of some professional websites, one could even find the specific material ratios for different cements based on construction requirements.

As long as they did their homework before logging into the game, the difficulty was much lower than starting from scratch in ancient times.

Considering this was his first time making this stuff, Old Bai chose the simplest formula. This formula wasn't too demanding on materials, and it could barely be completed with the current conditions of the Shelter Outpost.

Relying on his "natural divine strength," he swung his hammer to break the stones picked up at the construction site as finely as possible, then mixed them with clay and iron filings reduced from charcoal, and sent them all into the newly completed kiln.

The charcoal was lit.

Smoke drifted slowly.

Fang Chang enthusiastically helped out on the side, rubbing the branch tied to a clay plate—this was a simple bellows, made of water pipes, bark, and cotton threads, which could send a large amount of air into the kiln, making the charcoal inside burn more fiercely.

"How do we determine the temperature inside the kiln?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know???"

"Otherwise? Do you have an industrial thermometer? Anyway, stop talking nonsense, just rub the bellows and push harder! Sigh... I wish I could get a generator."

"..."

Old Bai sighed while stroking his chin, while Fang Chang was somewhat speechless on the side.

This guy.

Ever since he became the "Building Captain," he was really starting to sound like a foreman.

While rubbing the branch, he was also zoning out, wondering where those two brutes, Gale and Night Ten, had run off to...

In fact, not only did they not know, but Chu Guang, as the Manager, also didn't know.

Although he could confirm whether players were online or offline through the System, and their general direction and distance, he couldn't fully grasp their exact coordinates.

At least not yet.

But just as Chu Guang was wondering what those two players had gone to do, he saw the two players walking towards him with buckets.

"Where did you go?"

Facing the Manager's question, Gale answered truthfully.

"Near the Mutated Leech Lair."

Chu Guang frowned.

"Didn't I tell you not to go there?"

"We didn't go in, we just set up traps near the lair... Look, these are Mutated Leech larvae."

Before Gale could speak, Night Ten, seeing the Manager's displeased expression, quickly placed the plastic bucket he was holding on the ground and explained, fearing that delaying would lower his favorability.

Chu Guang glanced into the bucket and saw that it contained some glass bottles, and the bottles were filled with palm-sized larvae.

Their postures were twisted, and they were extending their deformed mouthparts, tangled together and wriggling around with their companions, looking exactly like tentacles from certain "books."

"Interesting... How did you do it?"

When he was in Bett Street before, he had never heard of anyone catching these things.

While mutated insects are rich in protein, they also have a high parasite content, and that stuff can't be killed by just boiling it in a pot for a while.

Furthermore, these creatures live in a special environment and rarely act alone. Their combat effectiveness is difficult to assess, and very few survivors are interested in them.

"Blood! We used animal blood to lure them into glass bottles with bait inside. The large leeches couldn't get in, but the small ones squeezed in and couldn't get out!"

Night Ten said excitedly, and Gale added a couple of sentences next to him.

"These Mutated Leeches probably forage at night and retreat to their lair during the day. Except for some bottles that were crushed, these little guys are still in the bottles. I only intended to try it, but I didn't expect the effect to be surprisingly good."

Chu Guang rubbed his chin and nodded.

"I see... That's indeed a good idea."

No wonder Gale asked him for some hunter's meat yesterday. It turns out he planned to use it as bait to catch Mutated Leech larvae?

It's just...

"...What do you plan to do with these things once you catch them?"

Chu Guang looked at Gale and continued to ask.

"I'm not sure about leeches, but Mutated Leeches are definitely inedible."

"I'm not planning to research how to eat it, I'm planning to use it for fishing."

"Fishing?"

"Yes," Gale nodded, a hint of excitement on his face. "When I explored the lakeshore before, I found some large black birds catching fish on the lake! Since there are fish in the lake, we can definitely get food by fishing!"

This is a brilliant idea!

After hearing Gale's words, Chu Guang's eyes immediately lit up.

Actually, it wasn't that he hadn't tried fishing before. After all, compared to hunting, the risk of fishing is much smaller.

However, his fishing skills were truly hard to describe. It was difficult to catch anything even with professional fishing gear and bait, let alone without those things.

In fact, it wasn't entirely his problem. If fish were so easy to catch, why wouldn't survivors settle by the lake?

The fish in Ling Lake are also mutants themselves, which are what survivors call Mutants.

After trying a few times without success and even losing the fishing gear he had spent a lot of time making, Chu Guang gave up.

"Can you fish?"

Facing the Manager's question, Gale was stunned for a moment and said.

"No... but I checked online, there are fishing traps, and I plan to try making a few."

Although he wasn't sure if the NPC could understand what "checked online" meant, the NPCs had shown no reaction when they had discussed things from reality several times before. He figured it was probably programmed to automatically ignore such content, so Gale just spoke frankly.

Chu Guang was overjoyed in his heart, but his face remained calm as he nodded.

"Alright, since you know how to catch fish, I'll leave this matter to you!"

Upon receiving the order, Gale and Night Ten immediately ran off to make traps.

Catching fish was much more interesting than moving bricks or cutting trees!

Chu Guang watched them collect some branches and plastic ropes they had picked up from somewhere, squatting near the corner of the wall and tinkering.

Ignoring them, Chu Guang now needed to figure out how to smoke meat using the tobacco leaves he had bought.

Yesterday, following the method of the survivors in Bett Street, he had crushed the tobacco leaves and wrapped them around the meat, then slowly roasted it over a fire, allowing the tar rich in ketone alcohol compounds from the leaves to seep into the fat layer of the meat, killing parasites and microorganisms...

But he wondered if it was his imagination, why did it smell a little off?

"That shouldn't be..."

Picking up a piece of hind leg meat and bringing it closer to smell, Chu Guang frowned.

Under normal circumstances, meat smoked using this method should have a nicotine smell and a yellowish-brown oily sheen on the surface.

However, the piece of hind leg meat in his hand was clearly dark red in color, cooked on the outside but raw on the inside, and faintly carried a hint of decay.

"Could it be that the method was wrong?"