Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 214: Chapter 211: Dangerous Forest

By the time Chen Xing caught up to Meng Hu, she found him beside a chaotic mess of traps.

If it weren’t for Meng Hu’s speed, he would have surely been killed by these traps.

This was also why Meng Hu was roaring in fury, venting his anger.

The traps all looked like they had been recently set.

Logically, when someone triggered a trap, its owner should have appeared.

But after a long while, no one showed up.

Wen Yan and Xiao Long, who had caught up, broke out in a cold sweat as they looked at the traps.

Why would anyone set up traps deep in these old woods?

Could there be wild beasts on the prowl?

Meng Hu, who was pacing around, let out two roars to get Chen Xing’s attention.

It was a relatively flat area next to the traps where several large tents stood, though they were all collapsed and damaged.

Soldiers’ bodies were scattered all around. The gruesome state they were in was similar to what they had seen before, their facial features unrecognizable.

”At the absolute most, these people have only been here for two days. How did this happen?” Xiao Long realized this mission was not going to be easy. ’There’s a good chance we might not make it out alive.’

”Why would they set all these traps? And if they did, why did they all end up dead here? Who killed them?” ’Or *what* killed them?’

Wen Yan asked the very questions on all of their minds.

Xiao Long, who was crouching to examine the bodies, suddenly looked up and said in disbelief, ”It looks like these people have been dead for less than half an hour?”

Even as he said it, he found it hard to believe.

While a lot could happen in half an hour, you couldn’t get very far in the mountains where there were no paths.

Besides... any sound in the mountains would carry a long way.

But... they hadn’t heard any sounds of a fight on their way here.

’There’s only one possibility: these people didn’t even have a chance to cry for help.’

’There were at least a hundred people here. Is it possible that not a single one had a chance to scream?’

”Unless they were all paralyzed, it’s impossible that they wouldn’t fight back or call for help!” Xiao Long offered a reason that at least made some sense.

”Who could paralyze so many people at once? By putting drugs in their food?” Wen Yan found it unlikely.

”We’d better be careful!” Xiao Long’s outlook was grim.

’They had already discovered two massacred teams. Who knew if there were more dead in some other unknown location?’

’Or... maybe they were being watched right now.’

Chen Xing silently walked over, gathered all the metal items from under the tents, organized them, and strapped them to the top of her backpack.

”Sister Xing, what’s the use of this stuff?” Wen Yan didn’t understand.

’It’s heavy to carry, and you can’t use it as a weapon.’

”You’ll know tonight!” Chen Xing said, keeping him in suspense.

The three of them wandered for the rest of the afternoon before finding a flat piece of ground as evening approached.

They built a fire, boiled a large pot of egg noodles, and enjoyed a delicious meal, each with three marinated eggs and a side of pickled mustard stems.

After eating, Chen Xing had Wen Yan and Xiao Long stick the metal rods they had collected into the ground around their camp.

Then she took out two rolls of thin iron wire from her pack and wound it around the rods, creating a protective fence in concentric circles.

As he helped, Wen Yan said, ”Sister Xing, I get what you’re doing. You’re making a protective fence, but we don’t have a power source!”

’In this world full of superpowers and monsters, a simple wire fence won’t stop anything.’

”My superpower can generate electricity,” Chen Xing said without elaborating.

’The electric current in her body worked much like a superpower.’

She held one of the wires in her hand and released the current from her body. The wire fence was instantly electrified.

’It might not work, but it was better than doing nothing.’

The two young men didn’t doubt her. A lightning-type superpower was basically a form of stored electricity, after all.

Not long after everyone had settled down to sleep, a sharp ZZZT came from the wire fence, and Meng Hu leaped forward with a roar.

Chen Xing and the others woke up as well, but they found nothing unusual in the empty mountain forest.

’Something had clearly just touched the electric fence...’

Looking at the ground where the fence had been touched, they saw another small mark had appeared.

’What... is this creature?’

’It could get close to them without making a single sound.’

They opened a path through the fence to investigate and found that the row of small marks vanished again after a few dozen meters.

’Can it burrow underground?’

’Or fly?’

With no answers, they could only close up the electric fence and go back to sleep.

They hadn’t been lying down for long when a clamor of chaotic footsteps approached from the distance.

Meng Hu paced back and forth restlessly.

There was a large tree right next to Chen Xing’s sleeping bag.

She leaped up and quickly climbed the tree to assess the situation.

Peering through the dense cluster of trees, she could faintly make out human figures moving about.

By the time Chen Xing climbed down from the tree, the group had also spotted them.

Their tense expressions instantly relaxed when they saw other living people.

However, upon seeing there were only three of them, they tensed up again. ”You were attacked too? Are you the only three left?” the leading officer asked, his eyes filled with a hint of sympathy.

’Oh well.’

’Seeing three survivors is still better than none.’

”How about our two teams camp together tonight?” he asked, as if bestowing a great honor upon them, given his group’s larger numbers.

”Sure,” Chen Xing replied nonchalantly.

’They all looked terrified; they didn’t seem like they would attack anyone.’

The leading officer was extremely envious when he saw the electric fence surrounding their camp.

’Why didn’t they think to bring this kind of equipment?’

”You guys are the ones with foresight, thinking to bring something like this!” Officer Harle pointed at the electric fence. ”With this, I think our casualties could be reduced!”

’How could they have known it would be like this? They had only thought about traveling light, cutting corners wherever possible. They hadn’t even brought much food.’

”What kind of trouble did you run into?” Chen Xing asked. With her translator, communication was easy.

Officer Harle was surprised that the young woman could speak his language. He immediately lowered his guard, his attitude becoming much friendlier. ”We ran into trouble, yes, but we’re not sure what it was. We never even saw what attacked us!”

”How is that possible? There are so many of you...”

”It’s strange! It’s as if our memories were wiped, or maybe we fell asleep. We have no idea what happened in the interim. When we woke up, most of our people were dead. The way they died was terrifying.” He was still shaken by the memory.

’Out of a team of over three hundred, only a few dozen of them had survived the last two days.’

The more Chen Xing listened, the more bizarre it sounded. ”So you were attacked in your sleep?” That was the only explanation that made any sense.

But to her surprise, he replied, ”No!”

They were attacked in broad daylight, while they were eating.

Chen Xing: ”...” ’Even more bizarre!’

With no more useful clues, they each went to get some rest.

When they woke up the next morning, their surroundings were just as quiet as when they had been alone.

’Harle had brought at least sixty or seventy people last night. How could it possibly be this quiet?’

After taking down the electric fence, Chen Xing went to find them.