CH 25

Chapter 25: The Cause of His Parents’ Death

Gu Changjin was a level-5 radiation warrior. He could easily adapt to the radiation outside the city. He didn’t require much from the radiation protection armor, so he chose one that had ease of movement. As for Shi Qingyang, Gu Changjin intended to buy one for him, but he didn’t expect that Shi Qingyang had already made a purchase.

It was a very common radiation protection suit that cost less than 10000 credit points, but was easy to move around in.

The safety zone near the city was very large, and this was also the city’s monitoring range for the surrounding area. The larger the city, the larger the safety zone.

Of course, the safety zone was not necessarily safe. There were many mutated creatures here, but if there were beasts with higher danger levels, they would be destroyed immediately once found.

The area near the safety zone to the city was divided into large and small plots. Most of these plots were rented out. Some people bred harmless animals or planted medicinal herbs. Some built training sites in these plots, so that people who had just left the city could fight with low-strength animals there.

Shi Qingyang looked at everything outside through the window of the tank. Spark City was where he grew up, but he was not familiar with it. Now he felt that everything outside was very strange.

“Grandpa Gu, do you know where my parents rented land?” He finally asked after they had driven a while. Mr. Gu had just come to Spark City, but it was obvious that he knew the dean of Spark Academy. Otherwise, they would not be able to get the Spark Academy.teacher and student cards.

As such, Gu Changjin probably knew more than he did.

“It should be right ahead.” Gu Changjin pointed to the left front, and then began to concentrate on driving. In the city, the car could drive automatically, and it would stop automatically when encountering pedestrians. However, it was different outside the city. Vehicles had to be manually driven, and the surrounding conditions were difficult to detect.

The asteroid that struck the earth not only brought radiation that almost destroyed human beings, but also changed the earth’s magnetic field. Nowadays, outside the city, many high-tech products couldn’t be used. The area that human beings could detect now was much smaller than that of a thousand years ago, and the living range was much smaller as well.

The tank followed along the road crushed by other tanks, and shuttled between the mutant plants that morphed much larger than those in ancient times. Shi Qingyang took a deep breath and made himself to focus on the outside of the tank.

He saw many small creatures shuttling between the mutant plants, such as ant beasts. These were the most common black ant beasts. Their bodies were only the size of adult thighs. They often acted alone. They were very common creatures in the safety zone and were also the favorite prey of many radiation warriors who had just left the city. His father often hunted these little beasts.

Although this kind of ant beast didn’t have much meat, its shell could be used as a building material for radiation protection as well as medicine. His father once attracted a dozen ant beasts with the meat of another mutated beast. After catching them all, he bought Shi Qingyang a set of toys.

“These black ant beasts are rated as level-1 monsters. However, some ant beasts are rated very high. Do you know the marching ant beasts? The strength of those monsters aren’t very high by themselves, but grows when in groups. Where they pass, they often leave no food. After meeting the marching ant beasts, even ferocious monsters will only become their food if they don’t escape quickly.” Gu Changjin followed Cheng Ran alone for more than ten years. Although he was not forbidden to go out like Cheng Ran, he had no chance to go out of the city. Seeing all the outside surroundings, he felt some emotion and explained the environment around to Shi Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang nodded, but could not concentrate on listening. He just took the map to compare with everything around him. As the car moved forward, he saw a large aphid farm and a cart of plants loaded in. The plants in this area were not enough for large-scale aphid cultivation, so they naturally needed to be supplemented.

When the car passed the farm, another river and a gravel belt, Shi Qingyang saw a piece of land in the distance.

Even if Gu Changjin didn’t speak now, he knew that that was where his parents died.

He had listened to his parents’ descriptions and seen their photos. These memories had been sealed by him, but now they suddenly became very clear.

As soon as Gu Changjin stopped the car, Shi Qingyang left the vehicle. His whole body seemed to be in a dreamlike state. It was clear that his body was not adapted to running in the wild, but his movements were extremely dexterous. He ran to a tree as fast as humanly possible and suddenly stopped.

There was about ten mu of land in front of him, surrounded by rubble and debris cleared from the land, and some not fully grown trees were planted to separate from the surrounding area. In the middle was a large open space. Now it was in a mess, leaving only some rare medicinal herbs.

Shi Qingyang carefully looked at the remaining herbs and picked up a handful of soil. His expression became more and more ugly.

His parents had been dead for nearly five months. It should have been overgrown with weeds and mutant beasts. But now, there were no weeds here!

All the medicinal herbs left behind had not fully grown. The soil here had been turned over not long ago. Obviously, someone planted something here not long ago.

It was normal for people to plant medicinal herbs in the barren land in the wild. If they were planted, they were planted. But now the soil had been turned over, and the medicinal herbs that could be picked and taken away, were taken away. Why?

Shi Qingyang’s eyes darkened when he thought of Yin Tiancheng, whom he had met many times these days.

Even if someone occupied his land to plant herbs, the maximum amount of compensation was enough. There was no need to take it away in such a hurry. Therefore, was someone guilty of being a thief?

“Someone came here not long ago.” Gu Changjin also reached the same conclusion as Shi Qingyang.

“Grandpa Gu, will you walk around with me?” Shi Qingyang suddenly said.

Gu Changjin naturally had no reason not to agree.

Shi Qingyang paused. The gloom on his face under the anti-radiation helmet had almost disappeared. Instead, he smiled: “Boss, let me show you around!”

Shi Qingyang took the excuse that Gu Changjin, the boss, wanted to rent a piece of land around him. He went to the workers of the nearby aphid and animal farm to ask about the situation nearby and about his parents’ land.

Over the past few months, people had been planting herbs on that land. However, these days, for some reason, those herbs suddenly disappeared.

The workers in the farm didn’t know much, and Shi Qingyang couldn’t just ask about the land. Therefore, he received very little information, but only that little information made him feel more and more cold.

There was always a smile on his face, but it was just a mask.

Shi Qingyang walked along the edge of the farm and suddenly saw a familiar two-wheeled tank. A middle-aged man wearing some old anti-radiation clothes leaned against that tank.

“Uncle Gao!” Seeing the other side, Shi Qingyang immediately shouted with a smile on his face. Uncle Gao in front of him used to wash his vehicle at Tao Rubao’s every time. Gao also recognized him.

“Are you the child who washed my car?”

“Yes, uncle Gao. I didn’t expect you to remember me.” Shi Qingyang was full of admiration: “Uncle Gao, you work in this farm? It’s so big!”

Gu Chang looked at Shi Qingyang and said nothing.

“Yes, I work here. Why aren’t you working at Tao Rubao’s place?” Gao asked.

“I found another job! Uncle Gao, my boss wants to rent a piece of land nearby. Do you know the situation here?”

“Well, you’re right to ask, I know all about this place.” Gao was a talkative person. He immediately went to the road.

Shi Qingyang asked about the surrounding area, and finally asked about the land nearby: “I think the land is empty. Is no one renting it? It’s just a small place…”

“That piece of land?” Gao lowered his voice: “Don’t try to go for that land. I think it’s fishy.”

“Uncle Gao, what happened?” Shi Qingyang asked curiously.

“I don’t know exactly what happened. I know that the land was originally rented by a couple. Later, who knows how, they were killed by mutant beasts. When they died, the land was surrounded by people and the inspection team was patrolling the area. A few nights ago, my apprentice saw the patrol team tossing about there in the middle of the night. There must be something wrong with the land,” Gao said.

Shi Qingyang captured one of the key words – inspection team.

The inspection team, wasn’t it in the hands of the Yin family?1

It was true that his parents were killed by mutant beasts, but the inspection team should have been around. Even if his parents were unlucky enough to meet mutant beasts, as long as they sent a distress signal, the inspection team should have been quick to arrive…

When he was in the city, Shi Qingyang was not sure about anything, but after seeing the land and hearing this news, he was sure that his parents were not killed by accident.

“Uncle Gao, thank you. Then we won’t think about that piece of land.” Shi Qingyang smiled and said goodbye to the other party. When he got to a place with no one around, he suddenly took off his anti-radiation helmet.

He shook his hands and wiped his face. It was really wet. He touched the corners of his mouth and rubbed the smile off his face. Shi Qingyang gave himself a hard slap.

He used up all his strength in the blow, and after, his face burned with pain, and there was a salty taste in his mouth.

“Let’s go back,” Gu Changjin whispered. He had also experienced the pain of losing one’s family.

“Grandpa Gu, I’m fine.” Shi Qingyang dried his face and put on his anti-radiation helmet again: “Grandpa Gu, can we walk around? I want to find some herbs.”

He had planned to stay in Spark City for two years and strive to become a level-3 radiation warrior, then look for an opportunity, but he didn’t expect to encounter such a thing.

The death of his parents was no accident!

Shi Qingyang hated himself very much. In his last life, he was busy cultivating and killing mutant beasts. He didn’t even think about his parents’ affairs, or even help his parents take revenge!

He must find out the whole story and avenge his parents!

After cleaning up, Shi Qingyang bit his teeth and forced himself to focus on the surrounding plants.

1 – MTL returns the family name as both Yin and Yan, but going with previous translator and sticking with Yin family. (return)