Salt Well Town.
It lay at the foot of the mountains north of Four Mountains, backed by a well-salt mine and defended by simple stone walls.
Because the town produced salt, human settlements of all sizes in the surrounding area regularly traded supplies with Salt Well Town. Merchants from Colossus City also made special monthly trips there to buy salt, bringing high-end goods from Colossus City with them.
With production and trade came food and weapons.
This had made Salt Well Town the largest settlement in the Four Mountains region, and it had been renamed from a small village to a "town."
The town had a population of just over five hundred and was fairly prosperous.
It also had quite a few guns. Raiders did not dare come to Salt Well Town looking for easy pickings, making it relatively safe.
Early in the morning, the hunters headed out with hunting rifles and traps. Their targets were the Mutated Species in Four Mountains.
The harm caused by nuclear radiation showed itself in every aspect of the world.
There were now very few normal pre-war animals left. New species emerged so quickly that even humanity's greatest biologists could only cry that they could not handle it.
So they were collectively called Mutated Species.
"Uncle, Uncle! Can I really go hunting with you today?"
"Of course. You're already fourteen this year, a grown young man. It's time you learned real wasteland survival skills. The men of our Wang family are born to be hunters! Come on, Uncle will take you to hunt a blood deer today. We'll stew bone soup for you tonight—very nourishing! Hahaha!"
Two burly men in animal-hide clothing were organizing their gear at Salt Well Town's gate with a boy not even 1.6 meters tall.
In Salt Well Town, a fourteen-year-old was expected to stand on his own.
The boy blinked his inexperienced eyes. "Uncle, if we catch something today, can we save some meat? I want to eat meat."
"Don't be ridiculous! One pound of meat can trade for three pounds of beans. Why eat meat? Boil the beans in bone soup and they'll taste like meat anyway."
The other square-faced man spoke with a frown.
"But meat tastes so, so good when you chew it..."
"Say that again and I'll beat you!" The square-faced man darkened.
"Hey, hey, hey! Brother, why are you being so harsh with Xiao Hao? The kid's eaten beans for a whole month. What's wrong with wanting a bite of meat? Uncle says so—if we catch prey, we'll cut Xiao Hao a big piece of meat!"
Delight lit up Xiao Hao's eyes.
"Stop spoiling him. In the wasteland, carefully budgeting food is a required lesson. If he eats a bite of meat today, he might go hungry tomorrow. Meat is for the Town Chief and the important people from Colossus City. My mother told me from childhood that poor children have to grow up early..."
But as he watched the light in the child's eyes slowly fade, the square-faced man's remaining words caught in his throat. Turning away, he said gruffly, "Just this once. Don't make a habit of it."
"Yay! Dad is the best! Uncle is the best!"
Xiao Hao jumped up happily.
Seeing the carefree look on the child's face, Wang Qian's deliberately stern expression softened into a faint smile.
In the wasteland... hope was the most valuable thing.
He believed that someday, his child would become a better hunter than him, catching so much prey that he would not have to trade it all for beans just to survive. Maybe he could even go to Colossus City and become a soldier, becoming a city person.
"Dad, are blood deer dangerous? What if it attacks me?"
Wang Qian put his cleaned hunting rifle into the slot on his back and took a homemade crossbow from his pocket.
"Haohao, blood deer are a relatively low-threat kind of mutated animal. After mutating, their blood-producing function becomes extremely vigorous. Sometimes the blood bursts through their skin and seeps out, so their bodies are often covered in a layer of red blood scabs. That's why they're called blood deer, and we hunters can easily track them."
"They are one of the few purely herbivorous mutated animals. They have no desire to prey on humans, so they generally will not attack on their own. They only fight back when threatened. They are fast, and their antlers are incredibly sharp. If one hits an adult head-on, that person will lose combat power on the spot, or even die."
"So we need to hide behind obstacles and attack it from a distance. Take this crossbow and aim it the way I taught you before."
Wang Qian patiently explained the knowledge to the young hunter. These were essential survival lessons for hunters.
After listening, Xiao Hao nodded. Then he saw a young man coming in from outside, and his eyes lit up.
"Brother Feng!"
"You're back? That's great!"
"My uncle said last night that you might have died out there. I even argued with him. I knew you'd come back alive!"
The other man, Wang Wan, looked slightly embarrassed. "Xiaofeng... you were gone for quite a while this time. I thought... ah, forget it. It's good that you came back alive. Once we catch something tonight, bring your beans to our place for bone soup!"
Wang Qian patted Cheng Shaofeng on the shoulder. "What held you up for so long? Did you run into that thing?"
Cheng Shaofeng shook his head. "No. I ran into Raiders on the way back. Barely escaped with my life."
"Raiders... deformed monsters! They've been getting bolder again lately. They came outside our town last night, shouting and making a racket. We had to turn on the lights and fire a few shots before they ran off. The Town Chief should take people and clear out several of their camps!"
"Yeah, exactly! Brother Qian, Brother Wan, are you taking Xiao Hao hunting today?"
"Yes. It's time he learned how to survive on his own. Otherwise, one day we might suddenly be gone, just like your Brother Bai and Brother Shi."
Cheng Shaofeng nodded. "I understand... Oh, Brother Qian, Brother Wan, don't sell whatever you catch to the town today. I'll buy it. I have a use for it."
"You? All right. I'll bring it to your shack when we get back."
Xiao Hao asked pitifully, "What about my meat..."
"We'll save you a piece, all right, you little glutton!"
Wang Qian and Wang Wan led Xiao Hao out of town.
Xiao Hao's voice could still be faintly heard.
"Dad, can I go scavenging with Brother Feng? He has lots of fun toys."
"Scavengers? Their work is much more dangerous than hunting. If this were several decades ago, in your grandfather's generation, it would have been fine. But now, the supplies between Salt Well Town and Colossus City have been picked over by Scavengers again and again until not even a scrap is left. If you want to scavenge anything useful, you have to go into the Red City Ruins, right under that thing's nose..."
"Hunting is what you should learn."
Their voices faded into the wind, yet they still reached Cheng Shaofeng's ears.
"Scavengers... that's right. My predecessor was a Scavenger. The last thing he found was a watch..."
His predecessor's final memories were muddled, but Cheng Shaofeng vaguely recalled finding a watch in a city.
After that, he had collapsed in the wilderness of Four Mountains.
And that watch... he looked at his wrist.
Calamity Nano Base, why... did it say that in its first sentence?
This question had always lingered in Cheng Shaofeng's mind, but he had nearly died yesterday and had not looked into it further.
While lying down last night, he had asked Zero about it. Zero said that it had been pre-programmed by the base.
Who had programmed it?
No idea.
Shaking his head, Cheng Shaofeng decided to first do what he needed to do now.
After entering Salt Well Town, he felt a slight chill run through his body, like stepping from beneath the sun into the shade.
"This eerie wind... no wonder people are always telling ghost stories. Still, it's pretty cool in summer."
On the way, Cheng Shaofeng greeted several people he knew, then entered the shack his predecessor had built.
There was nothing left inside.
Even the sleeping mat had been rolled up and taken away.
Cheng Shaofeng was not surprised. Scavengers often spent several days away from home on a single trip; their homes were never safe places.
He turned and entered the shack beside it.
All his supplies were sitting conspicuously in the corner!
The new book was being written very, very slowly. The second chapter was only half finished. It would be posted later, probably before one o'clock.
Before you continue