Chapter 7

Two days!

Only two days have passed since the Progenitor’s activated cells started proliferating on the 23rd and more than half of the people in New Zealand were struck with frightening hunger and appetite. People feared this appetite. It was just like a black hole, no matter how much they ate they could not be full. The number of fights that started over food in New Zealand were innumerable.

This was still just the human world, in the natural world the battles between animals were even more cruel and bloody.

Very quickly on the dawn of the 25th, the government of New Zealand announced the release of emergency war rations. At the same time, they reassured the citizens and asked them not to panic as it was only hunger, an easily solvable issue. We are living in modern society right now, it was not like in ancient times where people starved to death in droves during famines. Moreover, the world already knew of the circumstances in New Zealand and have started offering aid and donating resources.

Once people received this news the situation in New Zealand became better, but only by a bit. This is because the kind of hunger they are experiencing now is completely different the hunger they feel normally, it was really too unbearable. Moreover, there were recently a few cases of animals attacking and eating humans. Humans aren’t the only ones hungry but animals too and these animals aren’t constrained by things like rationality and morals.

Even though it has only been two days, the economy came to a halt as everyone stopped working except chefs. During normal times, nobody expected ‘eating’ to be so powerful. Extreme hunger could make people drop everything they are working on and focus solely on filling their stomach.

……

“Damn it, just what is going on? Why am I getting hungry so quickly?” Woolf cursed at the side.

Other than the few people here initially, there was the addition of Santos’ wife and eight-year-old son. As for the other employee Ballant, he was single. These people had consumed all the food in their homes and then contacted Woolf. They found out that there was still quite some food left in the food market and rushed here early in the morning.

A few of them surrounded the computer looking at the news on the screen. All of them let out a breath of relief when they knew that the government is giving out emergency war rations. Only Bai Yi was taking stock of the remaining ingredients and calculating how long it could last them.

Although the emergency war rations got released, but in a short period of time it would not be able to be delivered to their location. However, the hunger was something that was unceasing. More importantly, with things being this abnormal there was definitely some cause behind it.

Bai Yi also contacted Mavis and Sara and they checked-in with each other if they were safe. Mavis was the female doctor that Bai Yi brought Momo to in the ER, while Sara is the nurse that criticised him. After Bai Yi decided to adopt Momo, they helped him greatly in the process. Otherwise as a tourist, how could he adopt a baby? Bai Yi’s job at Waikato University was also introduced to him by Mavis.

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At this point in time, a group of students in Waikato University were discussing on where to go to look for food. There were a total of eleven people and nine of them were international students from China. They were all friends who were quite familiar with each other.

“The food market that is closest to here is Vorster Food Market, if we want to find food then that is our best bet. Although there were a lot of looting incidents recently, there would definitely still be food leftover there. There is no need to do things like stealing, as long as the price is not too ridiculous I can fork out the money to buy food.” Qin Kai Rui stood on stage, smiling confidently.

“If any schoolmates below have any thoughts, you can voice it out and we can discuss about it.”

Yu Han looked at Qin Kai Rui on stage, feeling a slight jealously in his heart. This guy is part of the student union and also the chairperson of the Chinese Hometown Association. He was handsome, capable and had a good background. That was why he could stand on top of the stage. Yu Han felt indignant in his heart but that was all he could do. With his status now, he was just an extremely ordinary member of the group.

“I have some thoughts!” Yu Han said raising his hand.

“Yu Han schoolmate, what thoughts do you have?”

“We need to have an additional member in our group…a chef! I believe nobody here is skilled in cooking, we may be able to find ingredients but who here have the confidence to turn the ingredients into delicious food? As for who to be our chef, I already have a person in mind! I believe everyone should be familiar with him, he is one of the head chefs in our canteen, Uncle Bai!” Yu Han said.

“Accepted, this is a good suggestion, a chef is extremely important.” Qin Kai Rui agreed without hesitation.

Bai Yi was also Chinese and had an amiable character. Moreover, most of the people here were quite familiar with him so he was agreeable to Yu Han’s recommendation.

“Anybody else have any opinions to voice out? Speak out first and then we will handle them all at once. Once we finish this, begin making your own preparations and we will head out to Vorster Food Market.” Qin Kai Rui continued.

“Since I mentioned the matter about Bai Yi, let me go look for him with another person.” Yu Han said as the meeting was being dismissed.

“No problem, who do you want to go with you?”

“Khina, come along with me.”

Khina Bailey, Yu Han’s girlfriend. A local New Zealand girl, she was not considered pretty, a bit plump and even had a few pimples on her face.

Of course, every guy likes beautiful girls. However, the real world is not so idealistic, those scenarios where a beautiful girl falls in love with a loser only happens in fantasies or dreams. With Yu Han’s status, having a girlfriend is already considered good. What more to dream of the faculty belle or school belle? Moreover, although Khina Bailey was not considered pretty but she really loved Yu Han.

As for Yu Han’s choice to pick Khina, the rest did not question it either as everybody knew that they were a couple. After deciding on this, the group discussed a few more issues, set their next meeting time and dispersed to do their own preparations.

……

Yu Han and Khina went to Bai Yi’s place to knock on his door, however after a long while there was no answer.

“He doesn’t seem to be around.”

“He probably went out to find food. Uncle Bai dotes on Momo a lot, he definitely won’t let Momo starve.” Khina understood Bai Yi quite well. He would feed Momo so well normally that she became quite plump, he wouldn’t let her starve now.

“That makes things troublesome, let’s just wait for a while more then.” Yu Han creased his eyebrows.

“I have Momo’s number.” Khina took out her phone and said to Yu Han. Yu Han didn’t expect Khina to have the little chubby girl’s number. So they had a good relationship?

“Momo, is your dad with you?” Khina asked.

“Yep he’s here!”

“Can you pass the phone to Uncle Bai? I want to talk to him a bit.” Khina said.

In Waikato University, those Chinese international students usually called Bai Yi Uncle Bai. In reality, Bai Yi was only 26 years old now, not much older than those university students. However, Bai Yi had a daughter, making him feel like he is an entire generation older than them and hence addressing him as Uncle Bai. Of course, that’s just a respectful way of addressing him, other than a few girls like Khina the rest usually called him by his name.

“Ok!” Momo nodded.

“Oh, it’s Khina, calling me at this time, it can’t be that you want me to cook for you?” Bai Yi laughed. He immediately thought of the reason why Khina would call him.

“Uncle Bai is really smart, we have temporarily formed a team to search for food but we realised that none of us can cook, so we thought of Uncle Bai.” Khina did not beat around the bush. Khina did not ask Bai Yi where he was but it wasn’t too late to ask if Bai Yi was willing to join the team.

“You guys have food?”

“No, now we do not. We intend to go to Vorster Food Market and purchase from there.”

“How many people are there in your team and who are they?” Bai Yi asked. There was quite a lot of food here, but he did not know how many people are there in the team. If the numbers are too large, then the food left would not be enough to go around as well. Bai Yi wasn’t the type to do things that didn’t help others yet harmed himself at the same time.

“Eleven of us, we’re all from Waikato University, there’s Yu Han, Qin Kai Rui, Hong Qi Hua, …” Khina briefly went over the people in the team.

“Got it, let me ask my friend.” Bai Yi nodded. If it was others then he wouldn’t bother, but if it’s those youngsters from the Chinese Hometown Association then he should give them a hand.

“Ok.” Khina nodded.

Very quickly, Bai Yi told Woolf about the team. However, even Woolf who held much admiration for Waikato University felt hesitant at this time. Food was limited, adding in new members to the group now didn’t seem like a wise choice.

“Woolf, do you feel that the situation now is normal?” Bai Yi asked.

“How can it be normal?” Although he was a bit slow, Woolf was not an idiot. If somebody were to say that there was no reason behind New Zealand’s changes, even ghosts would not believe it. If not, why is it that only New Zealand experienced these changes but other countries did not?

“I feel the same way Woolf. Even if it was just the few of us, the remaining rations can only last for four or five days. At that time, we will still have to go out and look for more food. Honestly, I do have the intention to help those youngsters but I also feel that a team formed by a group of mature students is safer than teaming up with strangers. What do you think?” Bai Yi still wanted to carry on explaining but Woolf patted Bai Yi’s shoulders.

“Okok, I can’t understand all this, Bai you can decide, I trust you.”

Bai Yi smiled. This guy, isn’t he afraid of getting sold away? Since Woolf already said so, Bai Yi gave Khina a call and told her that he was already at Vorster Food Market.

“Vorster Food Market!” Khina told Yu Han.

“He did go there! The foodstuff around here basically all came from Vorster Food Market. Bai Yi as a chef from the University would be more familiar with the people there and headed there to look for food.” Yu Han pressed his index finger to his forehead, a look of intelligence on his face. Although he only knew the answer after Khina told him, but love blinds people so Yu Han’s appearance now was still quite attractive to Khina.

The two of them returned and made their own preparations. The eleven of them soon gathered and in three cars and headed towards Wurst Food Market. None of them brought much things as they only saw it as a trip to purchase food. Yu Han was also like this, but when leaving his room, he saw this bag hanging from his wall. Thinking for a moment, he decided to grab it as well. Inside the bag was a sword, it was known as a Japanese sword, or a katana. It was a treasure that Yu Han acquired by chance.