Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 277: Chapter 274: Small Grave Mound

From a distance, the thing looked like a monster, but up close, it appeared to be made of sand.

If not for its pair of bright red eyes and the fact that it moved, no one would have taken it for a monster.

The ”lab rats” who had run out seemed completely unaware of the quietly approaching danger, still shivering as they moved forward.

”Do you remember how to drive?” Chen Xing asked Lu Haoran.

After a moment of thought, Lu Haoran nodded.

Chen Xing had him get into the driver’s seat, while she got out and ran toward the monster.

But the distance was great, and the monster reached the lab rats before she did.

Finally, one of the lab rats spotted it. ”There’s... there’s a monster?”

All the lab rats stared at the monster in terror, but not a single one thought to attack or run away.

Seeing the monster was about to attack, Chen Xing could only shoot a current of electricity at it from a distance.

The monster instantly collapsed and scattered, just like loose sand.

Only then did the lab rats let out a collective sigh of relief.

But before they could fully exhale, the monster, like an unkillable cockroach, reformed from the scattered sand and stood up again.

Chen Xing immediately used her Gold Attribute Superpower to create a large iron wall, flinging it in front of the monster to separate it from the lab rats. ”Get in the van, now!”

At her shout, the lab rats turned to look at the van Lu Haoran was driving over.

After a second or two, they all rushed for the vehicle.

Since she couldn’t kill the sand monster, Chen Xing didn’t linger in the fight.

Seeing that everyone was in the van, she blasted the sand monster apart with another current of electricity and then jumped in herself.

In the desert, with so many people in the van, their speed was never very fast.

The sand monster may have seemed slow before, but after reforming, it quickly picked up speed as it chased the van.

”The monster’s catching up again!” shouted one of the lab rats in the back, growing nervous as they watched the sand monster get closer.

Chen Xing moved to the back and opened the rear doors of the van.

The bone-chilling wind rushed in, making the thinly clad lab rats shiver uncontrollably.

Chen Xing told them to squeeze toward the front, then pulled a large bucket out of her backpack.

It looked like water poured from a mineral water bottle, but it was actually potable water from her space.

When the monster was just a few meters behind the van, Chen Xing dumped the entire bucket of water on it. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Instantly, the monster froze in place as if it were a statue.

’This monster is way too easy to deal with!’

Chen Xing slammed the rear doors shut and gestured for Lu Haoran to keep accelerating.

The rest of the night passed without any further incidents.

Lu Haoran managed to stay quite alert the whole time.

「Early the next morning」 The van suddenly got a flat tire, spun around, and slowly came to a halt.

Chen Xing was the first to wake up, seeing Lu Haoran looking dazed and apologetic.

After getting out to check, she discovered the tire had been pierced by several thin spines, each over ten centimeters long.

’Cactus!’

That was the first thing that came to Chen Xing’s mind.

Sure enough, not far from where they had stopped, the top of a newly sprouted cactus was completely bare.

Fortunately, only one of the rear tires was punctured.

Chen Xing expertly took out the spare tire and changed it in no time.

When she looked back at the cactus, it had already grown to over ten centimeters above the sand.

It was now surrounded by a dense cluster of smaller cacti.

Chen Xing immediately told everyone to get in the van; she would drive this time.

By noon, the tallest cactus was already as high as a three-story building.

Moreover, their numbers had increased significantly since they first entered the desert.

’If this keeps up, it’ll be impossible to drive, and we’ll never get out of this desert.’

Chen Xing took out a satellite phone and called Song Yiguo. ”I’m trapped in the Western Desert. I’ve got fifteen people, two hundred pigs, five hundred chickens, and a ton of vegetables. Do you want to arrange a pickup?”

She also described the situation in the desert to Song Yiguo.

”Coordinates!” Although Song Yiguo wasn’t short on food and supplies, he had many people with him and a safe zone to maintain.

The offer Chen Xing made this time was enticing enough.

「A few hours later」 A civilian helicopter arrived above them.

After getting everyone onto the helicopter, Chen Xing stayed behind alone.

She wanted to study this desert some more.

’If the desert keeps expanding like this, the whole world could be desertified.’

A few hours after the helicopter left, Chen Xing received a call from Song Yiguo.

”The desert is expanding at an alarming rate! If we don’t find a solution, the entire world will become a desert in less than a year!” Song Yiguo had called Chen Xing the moment he saw the surveillance footage from the helicopter.

The desert was already not too far from the Capital City.

”The sand is afraid of water. Get some Water Ability Users to the edge of the desert to contain it. It should be possible to hold it back for a while!”

”Alright!” Song Yiguo immediately went to issue the order.

Then, he added to Chen Xing over the phone, ”I just received word that many foreign Superpower Users have appeared in our country, and they’re all heading for the desert. Be careful!” He felt they were heading there specifically for Chen Xing.

As for why, he hadn’t received any concrete information yet.

”Hm!?” Chen Xing was surprised. ’I can’t believe Xu Anguo moved so quickly.’

’How long has it been since we left that desert base?’

After hanging up, Chen Xing put everything away and entered her space.

It had been dark for a while, and she hadn’t gotten much rest since last night.

Entering the house space, she discovered that her three spaces had upgraded again.

This time, the upgrade had created small connections between the four spaces.

From the house space, she could not only see the cat’s grassy meadow space, but next to it was a small warehouse, which was the Jiezhi Space.

Her original space, however, was only connected to the Jiezhi Space; they didn’t feel fully merged yet.

’It needs another upgrade!’

She was completely exhausted, so Chen Xing just took out some frozen food, thawed and heated it for a simple meal, and then lay down to sleep.

The upgraded spaces needed organizing, but she was too tired right now.

She slept until noon. When Chen Xing peeked outside, she saw that the cacti had completely surrounded her.

So, she decided to just stay in her space.

She filled the newly expanded area of the house space with suitable furniture and placed several refrigerators and freezers in the kitchen.

The walk-in closet, which took up an entire floor, was filled with casual wear for all four seasons.

As for dresses, suits, and the like, she packed them away at the bottom of her trunks, since she had no occasion to wear them for the time being.

She even filled the water cooler with spring water for easy access.

By the time she finished her work in the space, had a meal, and came back out, it was already nighttime.

The desert was pitch-black, but there were no longer any obstructions.

This time, Chen Xing once again took out the van.

’Song Yiguo is so shrewd; I can’t let him have even a sliver of suspicion.’

She had only been driving for about three hours when obstructions suddenly began to appear in the pitch-blackness ahead.

They weren’t so much obstructions as they were small burial mounds.

It was only then that she noticed quite a few of these small mounds behind her as well.

Only... these small mounds weren’t stationary. They were moving, and quite fast at that.