Through the armor, she could faintly smell the honey's sweet fragrance.
If only it were edible.
Thinking this, Sang Luoluo used her wristwatch to test the chunk of honey she had just dug out.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 57. Moderate radiation. Recommended for consumption!"
It was actually edible!!!
Sang Luoluo dabbed a little into her mouth and found it sweet, but somewhat astringent. Compared with honey from before, it tasted a little worse.
Since it's edible, I might as well put it in my space.
Sang Luoluo cut it out chunk by chunk like this. By eight that evening, she had cut out nearly three hundred chunks.
But as the honey level dropped, the armor sank along with it.
Sang Luoluo was a little tired and decided to get a good night's rest first and leave the rest for tomorrow.
She entered her space, took a serving of grilled cold noodles from the warehouse, ate it, drank some Spirit Spring water, and fed Chuanchuan before finally falling asleep.
Perhaps she had been too tired during the day, because she slept until eight the next morning. She flashed out of her space and inexplicably sensed an exceptionally powerful pull.
It was a Crystal Core!!
Before Sang Luoluo could celebrate, she operated the armor to keep digging through the honey and clear a path. Unfortunately, after a few movements, the armor malfunctioned.
Red warnings filled her entire field of vision.
[Warning! Unknown substance has seeped into the armor. Please contact the repair team.] [Warning! Electric drill connection failed!] [Warning! Armor out of balance. Please recalibrate!]
Despair covered Sang Luoluo's face. The armor was broken. She couldn't just go straight outside, could she?
But there was no other way if she didn't go out. The armor couldn't even move its limbs anymore, whereas she could at least move around outside without it.
Taking the armor into her space with her, Sang Luoluo climbed out of it, then flashed out of her space again, standing inside the hive on her own two feet.
She tested the honey here.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 145. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
Whoa, why did the radiation suddenly get so high here?
The Crystal Core drawing her in was over on the high-radiation side.
After some thought, she took a shovel from her space and shoveled the honey into the Stasis Zone, clearing out room.
She had no use for this honey. She only needed to dig a passage she could crawl through.
After digging like this for an hour, she cleared a five-meter passage.
There was an enormous Crystal Core ahead, right inside the honey in front of her.
It was a huge Crystal Core, about a meter and a half to a meter sixty tall.
Sang Luoluo stared, dumbfounded.
She had never seen such a large Crystal Core. Even the base's news had never reported a Crystal Core this big.
From Sang Luoluo's observations, the Crystal Core was similar in color to the honey.
She tested the nearby honey while she was at it.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 378. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
With radiation this high, she even wondered whether it was an energy body formed over time from high-radiation honey piling up together.
Sang Luoluo dug a few more shovelfuls to clear the honey in front of her. No longer caring that her clothes were covered in honey, she reached out and touched the Crystal Core. The amber-colored Crystal Core felt like stone in her hand. The moment she tossed it into her space, the entire vast Stasis Zone unlocked. All the warehouses within the Stasis Zone, along with the expansive stasis space that occupied a quarter of her space, were unlocked.
This trip had been so worth it.
Before she could celebrate, the Crystal Core suddenly disappeared, and the honey above abruptly collapsed. Liquid came pouring down, nearly submerging Sang Luoluo.
She forced her way out of the honey. Without the armor on, she didn't sink quite so quickly when she stepped on it.
Now, with her handheld light on, she could see her surroundings clearly. There were corpses of other mutant animals here too, encased in honey. They had probably suffocated.
Sang Luoluo couldn't tell which way to go now. There was honey above, below, left, and right.
After thinking it over, she decided she absolutely couldn't sit around waiting to die. She might as well head toward lower radiation and collect some honey along the way.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 217. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 167. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 109. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
The farther forward she dug, the lower the radiation became.
Sang Luoluo realized now that these mutant bees were quite smart. They could actually distinguish between high- and low-radiation honey.
Even through her radiation suit, she could smell that the high-radiation honey no longer had honey's sweet fragrance. Instead, it smelled more sour and bitter. Only as the radiation level dropped did the scent gradually approach that of normal honey.
Sang Luoluo kept her head down and continued digging.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 92. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 80. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 78. High radiation. Not recommended for consumption!"
A day passed, and Sang Luoluo decided to return to her space to rest. After swinging a shovel all day, she was utterly exhausted.
She ate a bowl of noodles, washed up, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
At eight the next morning, she got up and came back out to keep swinging her shovel.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 55. Moderate radiation. Recommended for consumption!"
She had found edible honey.
Sang Luoluo swung her shovel with renewed strength.
She put the moderately irradiated honey together in a separate pile.
She dug all day, until evening came.
"Beep, beep, beep! Radiation level: 22. Low radiation. Recommended for consumption!"
Low-radiation honey!!!
Sang Luoluo took a short break and ate something to recover her strength before continuing to swing her shovel.
Unfortunately, she couldn't use an excavator here. Otherwise, she would have driven one and scooped up all the honey.
After a night's rest, she continued digging at daybreak.
She had already spent three nights here, and her wristwatch still had no signal. She couldn't contact anyone.
Although the hive was enclosed, it was much safer than outside. She didn't have to worry about attacks from other mutant animals or mutant plants.
There was plenty of low-radiation honey here. Sang Luoluo kept digging and digging until she broke through the hive. By then, it was already evening.
She glanced outside and discovered that this was actually a cliff. She could faintly see the sunset clouds on the horizon.
Frightened, she hurriedly backed up a few steps.
There were still several of the Guard's boxes in her space, but she couldn't open them without the passwords. The hive was in an unusual location, and there wasn't any signal here.
She couldn't possibly jump down from here.
She carefully poked her head out to check her current position.
Against the enormous hive, she was barely noticeable, and she was probably near the top.
A green expanse of leaves and vines blocked the view below, making it impossible to see how deep it was.
She took out a stone and dropped it from here, but couldn't hear a thing. All right, jumping down wasn't an option.
But staying trapped here was no solution either.
She took a pair of binoculars from the warehouse and looked toward the other parts of the hive. After searching around, she finally spotted a familiar armored figure, embedded in the honey and unable to move.
She just didn't know who was inside.
Sang Luoluo wanted to call out to him, but unfortunately, he was too far away. If she made a sound, she might attract the bees instead.
But she couldn't crawl over there either. Digging her way over with a shovel wasn't realistic. At that distance, it would take her a month.
Unable to think of a solution for the moment, she sat at the opening, gazed at the sky above, and took out a few grilled skewers to eat.
As she ate, she immersed her consciousness in the warehouses in her space, checking whether she could find anything to signal for help.
Suddenly, some fireworks in the corner of a warehouse caught her attention.
Before transmigrating, she had stockpiled loads and loads of fireworks and firecrackers ahead of the New Year, mainly because buying in bulk was cheaper. Whenever she wanted to set off fireworks, she could just take some out without having to go out and buy them.
There was still a huge pile there now, enough to open a fireworks shop.
Sang Luoluo took out a bottle rocket, then took a lit incense stick in her other hand and lit the fuse. The bottle rocket shot out of her hand with a whoosh, soaring straight into the sky.
It exploded with a bang.
This was her only way to signal for help right now.
The noise startled the mutant bees inside the hive. A swarm flew out to investigate, circled around, and returned after finding nothing unusual.
Five minutes later, she lit another bottle rocket.
Another explosion rang out in the air.
At that moment, an S17 Squad member trapped in another part of the hive heard the noise in the sky and grew a little excited. That wasn't a sound made by a mutant animal.
He struggled to move the armored body and looked outside, discovering that it had been launched from a distant part of the hive. Though it wasn't very powerful, it made plenty of noise.
It should undoubtedly be his teammate.
But what was that thing?
Sang Luoluo lit ten bottle rockets in succession, but there was no response.
She wasn't anxious, though. The sky had just darkened, and the mutant bees had all returned to the hive. She switched to a handheld firework with thirty-two shots.
After lighting it, she extended half of the firework outside.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Fireworks burst at regular intervals in midair, green and red, looking especially beautiful against the darkening sky.
Sang Luoluo watched eagerly.
After noticing the strange noises, the mutant animals flying in the air were frightened into hiding. As for the mutant bees, once they discovered that the noise posed little threat to the hive, they ignored it.
Sang Luoluo counted the shots. She had reached thirty when she suddenly heard gunfire.
She couldn't help looking outside.
The sound of helicopter rotors came from the air.
Chapter 22: Mobile supply depot: your ability is strong, but your constitution is weak...
The final two shots burst in the air. Two more helicopters followed behind the first, and the people inside looked surprised as they saw the fireworks in the sky through the windows.
"So pretty."
"What's that? What an ancient way to send a signal."
"That must be someone from the S17 Squad."