Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 369: Chapter 359: Making Bait

It was already afternoon when Tang Mo joined the group. After walking for several hours, the sky had grown dark by the time they stopped to rest. Zhao Huan led the party to an abandoned office building.

The elevators were out of service, but they could still take the stairs.

Their group was simply too large, so whenever he could choose a higher location, Zhao Huan would avoid staying on the ground floor.

At least, they hadn’t yet seen any Meat Dragons that could climb stairs or knock on doors, so a higher location was relatively safer.

Tang Mo had observed the Meat Dragons long ago. Aside from their voracious appetites, they were actually not much of a threat in other respects.

’After all, in her eyes, those creatures were just a bunch of big idiots. Their sense of smell was poor, as was their eyesight. They could hardly find a living person unless someone was right next to them.’

’So, avoiding them was easy enough, but if you wanted to pass by them, you had no choice but to feed them.’

’Perhaps this simple attribute was why the people of this world hadn’t yet thought to fight back. If you could ensure your safety with just a small price, who would want to risk their life?’

This world was different from Tang Mo’s. Although attribute users existed, they were exceedingly rare, and most people’s ability to protect themselves was very weak.

’If I think about it from the perspective of this world’s people, maybe feeding them and hiding really is the best option.’

Tang Mo felt she had been a bit presumptuous. After all, not everyone could disregard the Meat Dragons the way she did.

’In the end, this world is mostly filled with ordinary people.’

Most of them had only one thought in their minds: survive.

As the sky darkened, everyone had no choice but to spend the night here.

Although the building had many empty rooms, everyone unanimously decided to stay together in the second-floor hall. After all, there was a sense of security in numbers.

Another reason was that they didn’t feel at ease unless they were keeping an eye on Zhao Huan and his brothers. They had all paid such a high team fee; if the Zhao brothers ran off, all the food they’d handed over would have been for nothing.

The people here weren’t rich. Rich people wouldn’t join a team like this. Most were like Aunt Hua, people who had given up all their possessions just to pay the fee.

So it was easy to understand why, after a long day of walking, hardly anyone took out food to eat now that they finally had a chance to rest.

They were truly out of supplies. How they would survive the rest of the journey was a complete unknown.

People could only live one day at a time. No one could afford to think about tomorrow.

Tang Mo leaned against a corner with Da Bao in her arms. Da Bao was resting quietly with his eyes closed.

The little boy hadn’t eaten much and had walked for half the day. It was incredibly difficult for him.

Especially since Aunt Hua also had to carry Er Bao, Da Bao received even less attention. When he could no longer walk, all he could do was tug on Tang Mo’s hand, which was his greatest comfort.

Now that they had arrived, the child couldn’t hold on any longer. Exhausted, he closed his eyes and instantly fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Aunt Hua had taken Xiao Bao to an empty room to nurse him. Xiao Bao hadn’t had any milk all afternoon. It was too inconvenient on the road, so Aunt Hua could only let poor Xiao Bao go hungry for a while.

Aunt Hua quickly finished nursing and returned to Tang Mo’s side with Xiao Bao in her arms, sitting down. She freed one hand to stroke Da Bao’s back.

Tang Mo, on the other hand, was observing everything around her, trying to gather the most effective information in the shortest amount of time.

The refugees were clearly exhausted and resting. The few who still had reserves and wanted to eat wouldn’t do so blatantly in front of everyone; they would find an empty room for themselves.

Besides Tang Mo, the only ones in the room who still seemed energetic were the three Zhao brothers.

At that moment, the three brothers were setting up a stove in the center of the hall, busying themselves with something.

It obviously wasn’t to cook a meal. Cooking in front of so many people would be the ultimate display of wealth, an act that would only earn them contempt.

Curious, Tang Mo walked over to see what they were doing. Since they chose to do this in the middle of the hall, they probably weren’t afraid of being watched.

”What are you guys doing?”

After interacting with them for the afternoon, Tang Mo found the three brothers to be quite approachable.

Zhao Huan was clear-headed and, for now, seemed rather upright and enthusiastic.

Zhao Tian and Zhao Yu were a pair of simpletons, guileless and doing whatever Zhao Huan told them to. They practically worshiped their younger brother.

”Making feed.”

’Feed? In times like these, no one would be keeping small pets.’

Since it was feed, Tang Mo understood it must be for the Meat Dragons.

She squatted down to watch the three brothers’ process.

It was actually very simple. They took a large pot, threw in all the miscellaneous food they had collected, added some water, and boiled it all down into a paste.

Fortunately, the Meat Dragons only ate food and didn’t drink water, so water was still plentiful in this world for now. The water in supermarket warehouses was more than enough for passersby to take.

After all, water was heavy, and one person couldn’t carry much.

After the food had been boiled into a paste, Zhao Huan sprinkled a bag of something into the pot.

”What are you adding?”

Tang Mo saw that it didn’t look like food.

”It’s wall plaster. Adding it bulks up the food, and those damn things can’t tell the difference anyway.”

’So that’s how it is.’

Tang Mo nodded. Since the mutant beasts weren’t picky eaters, there were naturally many ways to cheat. No one could afford to give them real food all the time.

’So there were clever tricks like this. The ingenuity of the common folk truly knew no bounds.’

After adding the wall plaster, the contents of the pot clearly turned into a paste more quickly and solidified better.

Zhao Huan and his brothers extinguished the fire. After the mixture in the pot had cooled a bit, they reached in and began to process it.

The ”processing” was actually quite simple: they just rolled the mixture into balls of various sizes.

And the sizes were quite deliberate. Feeding the smallest one to a Red-eyed Mutant Beast would keep it quiet for three to five minutes.

A slightly larger one could last for 10 to 15 minutes.

Zhao Huan had determined these sizes through repeated practical experience. The different sizes served different purposes.

The three brothers quickly finished processing the entire pot, making about a hundred balls. They then arranged them neatly to one side to dry.

This would make it much more convenient to feed the beasts whenever they encountered danger. Tang Mo couldn’t help but applaud them.