Huo Xiao smiled and continued searching for the next target.

Finally, he had a harvest that could match the little girl’s… He still had to work harder.

After adjusting her mindset, Zhuang Xiao made a final push before the last ray of light disappeared from the world.

By nightfall, Huo Xiao had caught six medium-radiation mutated frogs, while Zhuang Xiao caught one with low radiation and two with medium radiation. On top of that, she also scooped up a whole nest of mutated frog eggs from a puddle.

The quantity was quite impressive.

Thinking that these creatures had almost no offensive capabilities, she figured it was better to raise them at home and see how many turned out edible.

Who knew—maybe one day she could even start a massive mutated frog farm and make a fortune from it.

People should have dreams, after all.

But this dream was quickly shattered into pieces by just a few words from Huo Xiao.

First of all, you needed a place to raise the mutated frogs—and it had to have water. Their current home was small and lacked any water source.

Second, frogs needed food. They couldn’t survive on air alone. Their staple diet consisted of insects—mutated grasshoppers, mutated crickets, mutated mosquitoes, even mutated small fish or shrimp. All of that had to be caught. And near where they lived, none of those could be found.

With such poor conditions, raising a batch of froglets? They’d probably all die of starvation before they even grew out of their tadpole phase.

In short, if frog farming were actually feasible, the residents of the shantytown would’ve been doing it already. There was no way she’d be the first one to “bite into the crab.”

Zhuang Xiao: …

Huo Xiao really knew how to hit a person where it hurt.

But Zhuang Xiao quickly bounced back.

In the wasteland, the skill she had mastered best was learning how to talk herself out of disappointment.

It was summer, after all—rain wasn’t rare. Every few days there was a shower. She wasn’t expecting an extravagant bounty. As long as things stayed like this, she wouldn’t be short on meat all summer.

However… this hope didn’t last until the end of summer.

That evening, Zhuang Xiao got her wish and enjoyed her frog meat hot pot.

A hot pot made entirely of bullfrog meat.

All the vegetable leaves at home had been picked clean the day before. The only ones left were a few pieces of mutated fish mint, whose smell was so pungent it shot straight to her brain. She really couldn’t bring herself to eat them.

So she needed to head out as soon as possible to find edible wild greens.

Comparing meat reserves to vegetable reserves, meat had clearly won by a landslide.

And then there was the fridge. Her poor fridge… After the heavy rain, the temperature had skyrocketed—by tomorrow, the forecast said the high would reach 42°C.

And from then on, it would only get hotter and hotter.

The rainwater from the storm had drained quickly. By early the next morning, the deafening chorus of frogs was gone.

Yet it wasn’t until the third day that Zhuang Xiao was finally able to go out foraging.

On the first day, she traded seven medium-radiation mutated frogs at the exchange center, and only got 320 points for them. Far less than she expected.

According to Huo Xiao, it was because there were too many people bringing them in, and most of them didn’t have any way to preserve meat in the summer. Rather than let it rot at home, they’d rather sell it. Naturally, the buyers used that as leverage to suppress prices.

They kept the low-radiation ones and dried them with the help of Old Yu. Then they used some points to buy two second-hand electric fans.

Also, they were running low on nutrient solution, so they bought a box—60 vials.

Huo Xiao also purchased some venom extraction tools. The water hemlock at home had only been ornamental so far. It was about time it proved useful.

By the end of the day, not only had they spent all the points they earned, they also went 360 points into the red.

Back home, Huo Xiao immediately got busy—installing the fans, extracting the poison from the water hemlock, and rushing to finish the crossbow he was making for her. He was as busy as a bee.

Zhuang Xiao didn’t idle either—she practiced target shooting at home. She had just received a new weapon: a crossbow. So she spent her break weaving straw mats, while the rest of her time went into training with her new gear.

On the second day, a notification came through her wristwatch: a large mutated animal had appeared near the foraging zone, and mercenaries were out hunting it. Residents were advised to stay home.

Given how weak and helpless they were, Zhuang Xiao and Huo Xiao sensibly stayed indoors all day. Huo Xiao took the opportunity to teach her more about large mutated creatures.

That evening, the alert for the foraging zone was lifted.

Everyone resumed their usual routine of collecting and scavenging—but thanks to yesterday’s incident, there was still a clear sense of vigilance on everyone’s face.

The temperature that day soared to 43°C, so Huo Xiao and Zhuang Xiao both wore anti-radiation suits.

Huo Xiao carried one of their only two energy stones, and the pearl necklace embedded with energy stone had finally been completed. Before they left, he hung it around Zhuang Xiao’s neck.

Their destination this time was the stream.

But they hadn’t even arrived when something went wrong.

Seven or eight mutated squirrels suddenly leapt down from the trees. One of them grabbed the bag from Zhuang Xiao’s back—and bolted.

Zhuang Xiao was stunned on the spot. What the hell?! Were they just robbed…?

That bag had nearly thirty pearls in it!

That was her entire fortune! She always carried it with her because the security in the shantytown was terrible—leaving valuables at home made her extremely uneasy.

Her legs moved faster than her brain, and she sprinted after the mutated squirrel.

Huo Xiao didn’t even have time to react before she was off. All he could do was chase after her, worried she’d get herself into danger.

Zhuang Xiao ran through the woods, chasing the mutated squirrel overhead. But of course she couldn’t keep up. The group of squirrels soon vanished into the forest.

“Alert! Alert! You have entered a blind zone! Please return to a safe area immediately!”

The warning voice from her wristwatch echoed through the woods over and over again.

Zhuang Xiao’s heavy footsteps began to retreat slowly…

Her pearls… her little fortune…

After two steps back, something in her snapped—and she started moving forward again.

Huo Xiao grabbed her. “You can’t go any further. That’s a blind zone ahead.”

Zhuang Xiao turned around, her face full of regret. “But… but… all our pearls were in that bag.”

Huo Xiao hesitated a moment, then said, “Still. We can’t go any further.”

“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve just traded them all for a fridge or an oven… and now… all of it’s gone to those mutated squirrels,” Zhuang Xiao muttered. Tears began to well in her eyes.

It wasn’t easy for her to save up anything.

At home, she worried about thieves. Now outside, she got robbed by a bunch of mutated squirrels.

If it were people robbing her, she could at least exchange the loss for points or something. But what was a mutated squirrel going to do with her stuff?

The more she thought about it, the sadder she felt. Since there was no one else around besides Huo Xiao, she gave up and burst into tears.

She really had it rough…

Just then, above her, the barking-like cries of the mutated squirrels—“ah-woo, ah-woo”—rang out.

And then—a bag fell from above, crashing to the ground about three meters from Zhuang Xiao.

Huo Xiao quickly grabbed it and helped her up with his other hand, keeping a wary eye on the squirrels above as he began to retreat with her and the bag.

Even though mutated squirrels were vegetarians and didn’t eat meat, there had still been reports of them attacking people…