Apocalypse Mode: My Cheat Code Virtual Boyfriend - Chapter 22

“That’s how it all happened. I swear I didn’t mean to, and I’m really sorry for scaring Little Yu.” Lu Jiaoshuang apologized sincerely.

Two hours later, when Bai Xun and Cheng Wei returned from collecting trash, they discovered an extra person on the ark, a woman over 1.7 meters tall who appeared to be in excellent physical and mental health.

She was neatly dressed in clothes that looked familiar, they belonged to Bai Yu. As soon as she saw them return, she warmly greeted them.

Bai Xun felt a headache coming on. They had only been gone for a few hours, so how had a living person, and a mutant at that, ended up on board?

Although several hours had passed since she boarded, and she could have done something to Bai Yu and the others earlier if she had wanted to, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t engage in unpredictable behavior if she stayed.

Moreover, she remained on the ark because Madam Bai Guifang had personally given her permission.

Bai Xun asked Cheng Wei to stay on deck to keep an eye on her while he went inside to question his mother.

Bai Guifang was busy preparing dinner in the kitchen. Without turning around, she asked, “Have you met Xiao Shuang?”

Bai Xun nodded. “Yes, I have. Mom, why did you let her stay? She’s a stranger and a mutant. If she had done something to you while we were away, I wouldn’t even know where to cry.”

Bai Guifang stopped what she was doing and turned around, letting out a rare sigh. “She’s your cousin, the daughter of your deadbeat father’s sister.”

Bai Xun was stunned. “Huh?”

Bai Guifang continued, “When we divorced over a decade ago, I cut ties with all the relatives on that side except your aunt. You remember, none of them were good people, except for your aunt, but good people don’t live long.”

Bai Xun began to recall. “So she’s Aunt’s daughter? But a cousin… Wait, is she that kid who stayed with us for a week during summer vacation when she was in sixth grade?!”

He had been forced to endure her for a week back then. Later, when he gritted his teeth and started running every day to get revenge during the next holiday, she never came to their house again.

Bai Guifang said, “After your aunt passed away, your uncle was transferred, and Xiao Shuang never visited again. I went to see her when she started college, she’s a good kid.”

Bai Xun interrupted, “Wait, hold on. Mom, so you just let her stay?”

Bai Guifang reassured him, “Don’t worry. I watched Xiao Shuang grow up. She’s hot-tempered but straightforward, she wouldn’t do anything bad. If you really don’t trust her, go test her. Ask her to return to the sea.”

Bai Xun thought for a moment. “Alright.”

Returning to the deck, Bai Xun put on a stern face and addressed Lu Jiaoshuang, who was sitting obediently in a chair. “I’m sorry, but we can’t let you stay here. For the safety of my family, you should return to wherever you came from.”

Lu Jiaoshuang scratched her head, looking dejected. “Alright, I understand. Please don’t argue with Auntie, it was my insistence on staying. I’m really sorry for bothering you all. I’ll leave now.”

With that, she took off her jacket, walked toward the railing, flipped over it with one hand, and plunged into the sea with a splash.

Bai Xun hurriedly chased after her to the railing, but Lu Jiaoshuang had already swum dozens of meters away with a flick of her fish tail.

“Wait! I’ve changed my mind! I think there’s still room for discussion!”

“Seriously, why didn’t you say so earlier? Do you know how cold the water is today? Maintaining my strong and unyielding posture nearly froze me to death!”

Lu Jiaoshuang climbed back onto the deck using the rope ladder that had been lowered, and when she emerged, she really did look like a water ghost.

After tidying up, they sat down facing each other again.

Bai Xun said, “We can let you stay for now, but during this time, you’ll be under evaluation. If anything seems inappropriate, we’ll ask you to leave immediately. Can you accept that?”

Lu Jiaoshuang agreed readily, “No problem!”

She could understand Bai Xun’s concerns. Although they were somewhat related, they hadn’t seen each other in years, so it was only natural for him to be cautious.

Bai Xun continued, “I have a question for you. Besides your mutated abilities, what else can you do?”

Lu Jiaoshuang looked somewhat sorrowful. “I’m a medical student, studying clinical medicine. I ranked first in my major for four consecutive years, and I’m in my fifth year now.”

Bai Xun immediately regarded her with newfound respect. “Your hair looks pretty thick, though!”

Lu Jiaoshuang grew even more sorrowful at his words. “I’ve lost more than half of it! I worked hard for four years, finally secured a spot for graduate studies, and before I could even touch the admission letter, the apocalypse happened.”

Bai Yu, as a current university student, was on the verge of tears listening to her. “Sister Shuang, that’s just too tragic!”

It was the aroma of food that finally interrupted this increasingly sorrowful conversation.

Bai Guifang opened a can of yellow peaches and placed a metal spoon inside. “Here, Xiao Shuang, eat up. Don’t be shy with your aunt. You must have suffered a lot these past few days in the sea. Tonight, I’ll cook a proper meal, and you must eat plenty.”

Lu Jiaoshuang accepted it with both hands, moved to tears. “Thank you, Auntie! You’re so kind! It’s real human food, finally, I get to eat it, wuwu!”

Bai Guifang looked at Lu Jiaoshuang, who was devouring the yellow peaches, with eyes full of affection. “Tonight, you’ll share a room with your cousin.”

Lu Jiaoshuang grinned. “Thank you so much! Don’t worry, Cousin Xiao Yu, I sleep very soundly at night, I don’t hog the blankets or snore.”

And so, Lu Jiaoshuang stayed for the time being.

After Bai Xun and Cheng Wei showered and changed clothes, they went down to the first basement level to compress the garbage.

Lu Jiaoshuang, having finished the can of yellow peaches, followed them down. She felt a bit awkward. “They’re cooking upstairs, and all I can do is wash vegetables, so I came down to see if there’s anything I can help with. I’d feel bad eating and drinking without contributing.”

Bai Xun was understanding. “We’re about to compress the garbage now. Let me ask you something, how’s your luck?”

Lu Jiaoshuang was a bit confused but answered honestly, “I’ve never lost money buying lottery tickets.”

Bai Xun’s eyes lit up. “That’s perfect! Later, you’ll be in charge of recycling materials using that resource recovery machine over there. We need iron blocks.”

Lu Jiaoshuang accepted the important task, still somewhat bewildered. “Okay, iron blocks it is.”

Of course, the garbage they had just salvaged from the sea couldn’t be taken out soaking wet. The Star game system had made a small, user-friendly improvement, they only needed to stand in front of the garbage compactor and click the panel to deposit the garbage.

1 broken table could be compressed into 1 resource cube.

One ornate crystal chandelier can be compressed into 2 resource cubes.

Ten broken plates can be compressed into 1 resource cube.

…

The trash salvaged from the sunken cruise ship was synthesized into a total of 124 resource cubes. This trip was quite fruitful.

Lu Jiaoshuang, who had great luck, successfully obtained 45 iron blocks, 20 pieces of synthetic plastic, 25 steel bars, 14 bottles of natural resin, and 20 iron nails. The hull of the sea ark was now ready for an upgrade.

The hull upgrade wasn’t done at the workbench but on the ark control panel in the cockpit.

Bai Xun went to the cockpit, opened the control panel, and proceeded to upgrade the hull.

Unlocking the control panel with his palm print, Bai Xun accessed the ark upgrade option, clicked to upgrade, and a prompt popped up on the panel: [Proceed with upgrade?]

He selected [Yes]. The next moment, a series of clanging sounds echoed from the ark’s hull as the metal exterior was upgraded.

After finishing the hull upgrade and leaving the cockpit, he saw Lu Jiaoshuang clinging to the wall like a gecko.

“What are you doing?”

Lu Jiaoshuang was peering out through the porthole of the workshop. “This, this, this, is this your ability? I heard the sounds. It’s amazing! How exactly did you do it? Weren’t the materials in the cabinet? Is this ship your ability?”

Bai Xun was stumped for the first time. “Yes, it’s my ability. How it works… I don’t know either. As long as it works, that’s what matters.”

He didn’t explain the Star game system and simply glossed over it vaguely.

Lu Jiaoshuang looked a bit envious. “If I had this ability, I wouldn’t have had to eat seafood for over ten days straight in the sea. Eating raw seafood every day was truly miserable.”

Bai Xun said, “The ability you mutated into is pretty impressive too. The hull is at least 3 meters above the sea level, and you climbed up barehanded. Would you mind sharing your combat capabilities? What’s the difference between your human form and your mermaid form?”

Lu Jiaoshuang stroked her chin thoughtfully. “Well, I knew how to grapple even before I mutated. After mutating, the toughness of my skin and the strength of my bones increased several times over. Taking my human form as an example, using you as a reference, it’s probably about three to seven.”

Bai Xun pondered briefly. “You throw three punches, and I get a funeral on the seventh day?”

Lu Jiaoshuang snapped her fingers. “Bingo!”

Bai Xun pointed at Cheng Wei behind him. “What about with him?”

Lu Jiaoshuang sized up Cheng Wei from head to toe. “On land, he’d win. I definitely couldn’t beat a land animal with sharp teeth and claws. But in the sea, it’s a different story. In my mermaid form underwater, I can almost ignore resistance. Over the past half month, while catching seafood, I also discovered that my mermaid form’s nails secrete a substance similar to an anesthetic. As long as I scratch someone, it seeps into their bloodstream, and they’ll faint within 5 seconds.”

Bai Xun glanced at her neatly trimmed nails. “If you need to treat an injured person without an anesthetic, could you scratch them and use that as an anesthetic?”

Lu Jiaoshuang exclaimed in amazement, “You’re a genius! But I’d need to test it on a larger live fish first. I’m not sure if this substance is an anesthetic or a neuroparalytic toxin. After all, a snake’s venom doesn’t poison the snake itself.”

After finishing their conversation in the cockpit, Bai Xun went to the adjacent workshop to continue crafting some additional defensive equipment.

Defensive electric fence: 2 iron blocks, 1 copper ingot, 2 steel bars, 3 synthetic plastics, and 3 bottles of natural resin can be used to make one. Currently, there are enough materials to produce 15 electric fences.

These 15 fences can enclose one-third of the Ark. Once electrified, they can block a large portion of mutated creatures from climbing over the railings and onto the deck.

Since the part of the fence that leans against the railing is insulated, people on the deck don’t have to worry about being electrocuted if they lean against it.

After making these 15 electric fences, the remaining materials can still be used to produce barbed wire. Barbed wire consists of coiled, spiked wire loops, requiring only 1 iron block and 2 nails to make one. The remaining materials can produce 8 more barbed wire coils.

In the blink of an eye, the Ark’s material reserves are nearly depleted again. Iron blocks, steel bars, synthetic plastics, natural resin, and nails, these five materials are all running low.

The assembled electric fences and barbed wire are installed via the control panel in the cockpit, so they don’t need to do it manually.

To fully arm the entire ship, they’ll have to diligently scavenge for debris from the ocean floor.

Bai Xun recorded the remaining materials in the ledger and casually tidied up the storage cabinets before Bai Yu came down to call them for dinner.

Considering that Lu Jiaoshuang, who had been eating seafood for half a month, might not want to see any more seafood on the table for a while, tonight’s dinner mainly features ingredients from land animals.

Venison found in the Ark’s storage cabinets was taken out to make a clay pot stewed venison dish for a change of taste. Even before the apocalypse, there were farms specializing in venison production, but due to limited farming and narrow sales channels, venison wasn’t commonly eaten in daily life.

Today’s temperature is around 11 to 13 degrees Celsius. Venison is warm in nature and has nourishing properties, making it particularly suitable for the three people who swam in the sea several times today.

In addition to the clay pot stewed venison, the dinner table also features scrambled eggs with beef and honey-glazed char siu. For vegetables, there’s spinach and egg soup made from thawed frozen spinach, along with a stir-fried lotus root slices, five dishes in total.

In the past, Bai Guifang would have arranged at least nine dishes with a wave of her hand, but now, in the apocalypse, with limited food supplies and no production, they usually have no more than three dishes per meal. Today’s five dishes are an exception to welcome Lu Jiaoshuang.

“Dig in! It’s been a while since I’ve cooked such a hearty meal. Try and see if the venison is flavorful enough,” Bai Guifang said, passing the chopsticks to Lu Jiaoshuang and urging everyone to start eating.

“Auntie, your venison is really delicious!” Lu Jiaoshuang picked up a piece of venison, chewing it with a full mouth.

It’s so good, mmm! It’s normal human food!

Bai Xun also picked up a piece. The texture of venison is closer to beef, but more tender and slightly sweet. Stewed in the clay pot, it has a unique savory flavor that becomes more fragrant the longer you chew it.

Cheng Wei hasn’t finished his bowl of spinach and egg soup before the meal. Like a cat’s tongue, he’s afraid of hot food, and even a big cat is no exception. He’s still blowing on it and taking small sips.

Bai Yu and Grandma Bai surprisingly share the same taste. Their first bite went to the scrambled eggs with beef. The beef and eggs are so tender they hardly require chewing, sliding down the throat with just a few bites.

The dinner lasted nearly an hour. Chatting at the dinner table is a must for the Bai family, and Lu Jiaoshuang, being a talkative and enthusiastic participant, made the atmosphere livelier than usual.

With no internet in the evenings and few entertainment options, they had brought the projector down from the 33rd floor earlier. Now, they crowded together on the sofa, watching movies as their evening pastime.

After the movie, they followed along with a fitness video on a tape, doing a few sets of exercises to stay in shape. Then, everyone took turns showering in the bathroom before heading to bed early.

Going to bed early meant waking up early. By 6 a.m. the next morning, everyone was up and about.

Although the ark’s defense systems still required many materials, they didn’t plan to go diving this morning, there was something else to do.

Today, they were going to try fishing.