Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 235: Chapter 216: Mutant Cow

Actually, there’s one more point that Xu Xin didn’t mention: the untransplanted treehouse of Li Wenxi has a real protection zone extending six kilometers in radius, demarcated by the spread of the treehouse’s roots.

As the treehouse continues to grow and upgrade, it’s certain that the real protection zone will continue to expand.

However, a parasitic treehouse has no protection zone whatsoever. Although the original treehouse site left in place still retains a protection zone, it’s merely a deterrent type. It might be useful in relatively safe conditions now, but once a real crisis hits, this protection zone could just be decoration.

Most importantly, this deterrent type of protection zone will not expand any further.

He is counting on the protection zones of the treehouses around them to continue expanding in the future, fully covering and connecting this area, forming a genuine, fully connected, safe domain belonging to them.

Therefore, from the perspective of team interests, he can’t let Li Wenxi transplant the treehouse to his side.

”Alright, then I’ll just keep trying myself, but you need to quickly build the coordinates and then come and help me!” Li Wenxi abandoned her previous idea but still lacked confidence in managing other survivors.

”Okay, I’ll keep an eye on those parasitic producers for you. Actually, don’t worry; once the coordinates are established, not just me, everyone can mutually assist each other.”

”Then I’m relieved. Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore, let me show you around. I’m really confident about the interior design of my treehouse!” Li Wenxi stopped thinking about it, pulled Xu Xin, and headed upstairs.

”Behold, the second floor - where I usually sleep and live. How is it? My design’s pretty good, right?” Li Wenxi gestured invitingly, grinning.

”We do video calls every day, so I’m already familiar with it.” Xu Xin immediately spotted the sofa he knew well. Li Wenxi always video chatted with him there, either sitting or lying.

Her interior design is more refined than Xu Xin’s side. One bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, and a small study room - just like a cozy small apartment for one person.

”Where? You only ever see the sofa!” Li Wenxi pointed to the small sofa in the middle of the living room, ”Right there. You haven’t seen the rest, even if you have, it looks different now.”

”Boing!” Keke saw a sofa similar to the one in their treehouse and immediately jumped off Xu Xin’s shoulder, diving onto the sofa and started rolling around.

”Haha, looks like Keke likes the sofa too!” Li Wenxi quickly joined Keke on the sofa, rubbing her little belly.

”Boing~” Keke called out comfortably.

Xu Xin was examining the treehouse’s interior decorations.

The living room was filled with items bought from the points mall, but the two little statues he gifted Li Wenxi were nowhere to be seen; they must be in another room.

Xu Xin planned to carve more statues for Li Wenxi whenever he had time. Anyway, his carving speed is faster now, so he could help increase the enhancement of her melting room, boosting her chance of obtaining purple-level resources.

Once Li Wenxi can stably acquire purple-level resources, he won’t have to use the treehouse core to upgrade those that can be melted in the furnace, focusing instead on upgrading basic resources like wood, stone, and herbs, making better use of the core.

”Where’s your Aniu?” Xu Xin didn’t see Li Wenxi’s mutated ox and asked.

He was very interested in that ox. It was the first creature mutated using a mutation potion and bound by a mutated beast contract.

Xu Xin’s contract beasts, except for Silver King, were already mutated creatures. Silver King was also mutated using a mutation potion, but its contract was a mount contract.

Xu Xin intends to mass-produce contracted mutated beasts using mutation potion-mutated beast contracts, so he wanted to see how the ox was doing now.

”Aniu is on the third floor, want to go up and see?” Li Wenxi pointed upward.

”You put it on the third floor? Won’t it affect downstairs?”

”Of course not, the treehouse floor has great sound insulation, plus Aniu doesn’t roam around. Come, I’ll show you.” Li Wenxi got up from the sofa and pulled Xu Xin towards the third floor, Silver King following.

Most of the third floor was a cold storage, naturally filled with the mutated beast meat scavenged last time. Besides that, there were several pots growing some blue-level fruits.

Of course, the most noticeable thing was the brown-yellow Blood Patterned Ox curled up on the ground in the corner. The ground was covered with grass and leaves, serving as its nest.

This Blood Patterned Ox looks to have over a thousand kilograms, much bigger than Silver King, but its blood patterns are much fainter and fewer than Silver King’s, obviously a low-level mutated creature.

It’s normal for herbivores to have larger bodies.

When the Blood Patterned Ox saw Silver King, it instinctively stood up and stepped back, letting out a ”moo” as if alert and afraid.

Although it’s bigger, Silver King is a mid-level mutated beast, naturally intimidating lower-level mutated beasts.

”Aniu, don’t be afraid, they’re all friends!” Li Wenxi stepped forward, stroked Aniu’s back, then turned to Xu Xin and boasted, ”What do you think? Aniu is big, isn’t it? It can carry very heavy loads. Before I had Aniu, it was really tough. Every time I mined, I had to carry it back myself. Now with Aniu, it can carry ten times my amount!”

”This ox’s horns are so small, it’s a cow, right? I remember you saying you wanted it to produce milk. Did it succeed?” Xu Xin asked curiously.

He grew up drinking milk on Earth, even into his twenties, never missing a daily carton. The thought of milk suddenly made him crave it.

”No way, a cow has to have a baby before it can produce milk. Aniu has just reached adulthood, and has never had a baby before, so how could it produce milk?” Li Wenxi patted Aniu’s small horns on its head. ”There’s not even a rabbit nearby, let alone a bull. There’s simply no way to find a bull for Aniu.”

”...That’s true.”

”Besides, Aniu is a mutated cow, much larger than normal bulls. Regular bulls might not even cut it. Why not raise a mutated bull when the time comes, let it pair with Aniu... then Aniu will have milk!”

”Uh... that could work, but we still have to wait for the beasts to return.”

Ever since the rainy season ended, those beasts haven’t been seen. Now the weather has become cold again, and it’s hard to say when they’ll reappear.

Xu Xin has been eagerly waiting for them to return, as he plans to raise a group of animals under the treehouse. When that happens, they’ll have plenty of milk and eggs, won’t they?

Moreover, he has mutation potions and mutated beast contracts ready to use on them.

There’s also the white-headed sea eagle he’s seen before. He really wants to contract with a mutated white-headed sea eagle. Although Afu can also fly, it’s ultimately a mammal relying on sonic attacks and doesn’t quite fit the image of a raptor.

If he were to contract with a mutated raptor and raise it bigger and bigger until it reaches a certain size, it might be able to carry him and take off. Wouldn’t he then have a flying tool of sorts?

This is something Afu can’t achieve; only the white-headed sea eagle might.

At this moment, Silver King seemed to have already bonded with Aniu, as the two mutated beasts were mooing and roaring in what appeared to be a conversation.

Keke, originally rolling on the sofa, also came running up, joining the conversation with ”ying ying ying” sounds.

”Hey? Are they chatting?” Li Wenxi had never seen animals conversing before and widened her eyes in amazement.

”They really can talk amongst themselves.” Xu Xin shrugged his shoulders. ”They understand me when I speak, but I can’t understand them. Sometimes I even wonder if their IQs are higher than mine.”

”They’re actually chatting!” Li Wenxi was also shocked. ”Are all the animals in this world so smart now? Aren’t animals supposed to lack a language system?”

”Who knows?” Xu Xin found this aspect curious as well. The animals here seemed quite intelligent. Aside from Cocoa Silver King Mimi and the others, even the fish stranded after the rainy season could understand his words.

It’s strange why these animals became so intelligent. Perhaps it’s due to the special mutations brought about by the calamity fifty years ago.

”Hm?” Xu Xin suddenly realized a small discrepancy.

That’s strange; mutated beasts altered by mutation potions generally lose their consciousness and become obedient tools, right? So why is this cow conversing with Mimi and Silver King?

It’s not like Silver King, the largest in its group, so why does its consciousness remain?

Xu Xin suddenly recalled that Afu also, at some point, developed its own consciousness.

”Is your Aniu usually this smart?” Xu Xin asked Li Wenxi.

”No,” Li Wenxi said, looking confused. ”Most of the time, it just does what I say. If I don’t say, it won’t act. Maybe it’s just talking more today because it saw other mutated creatures?”

Xu Xin rubbed his chin.

Is it because of Silver King?

Hard to say, it seems like more experiments will be needed in the future. A mutated beast with self-awareness is indeed much stronger than a tool beast that requires complete voice command from its owner.

Xu Xin, no longer looking at Aniu, walked to the window and gazed southward.

Sure enough, he saw a very distinct patch of green in the southern direction.

He moved to the east window and looked eastward. There was some greenery too, but compared to the south, it was much shorter.

Judging by this, the treehouse to the south is indeed quite tall, very likely a three-story treehouse.

”Told you I wasn’t lying. That treehouse to the south really could be a three-story treehouse,” Li Wenxi said, looking towards the green patch in the south as she followed Xu Xin.

”Hmm. It’s about time to go. Ji Chaoyang is probably handling things in the east by now, and we haven’t even left this treehouse yet.”

Thinking of Ji Chaoyang helping clear the treehouses in other areas while he and Li Wenxi were casually chatting here made Xu Xin feel a bit embarrassed.

”Eh hey, it really isn’t ideal, so let’s head out. Anything else we need to bring?”

”...Nothing really, let’s just check it out first. If it’s an ordinary treehouse, we can proceed directly. If it’s a three-story treehouse...” Xu Xin squinted his eyes, ”if it’s a three-story treehouse, then we might need to plan long-term.”