Apocalypse Mode: My Cheat Code Virtual Boyfriend - Chapter 32

Climbing down the wooden ladder, Bai Xun held a small hammer and a handful of nails, racking his brain to recall what scaffolding on a construction site actually looked like.

Wouldn’t it be enough to build a large platform at roughly the height of the wall?

Cheng Wei went to saw down another tree and nailed together a two-story-high frame, allowing them to keep cement and fish fins on the platform for easy access.

The frame was thick and wide. Cheng Wei leaned the ladder against it and joined Bai Xun in inserting fish fins along the top of the wall. Two people working together were much faster than one.

Thanks to the kitchen simulator, Bai Xun pulled out two metal cake spatulas, their shape was perfect for scooping cement.

He plunged the spatulas into the cement bucket, scooped up a lump like he was spreading frosting, slapped it onto the wall, and then used tweezers to densely insert the fish fins, tips pointing upward, into the cement blob.

Now, anyone who tried to climb their wall would be turned into a sieve!

The milky-white fish fins shimmered with a jade-like glow under the sunlight. The gray cement would dry completely in just a day. They spent the morning installing fish fins all around the perimeter of the wall, leaving them to dry in the wind.

The hand-drawn map could wait until later for Bai Yu. After lunch, they rested briefly before heading into the forest to explore the surrounding resources.

The exploration team consisted of Bai Xun, Cheng Wei, Bai Yu, and Lu Jiaoshuang. They planned to simply scout within a three-kilometer radius to see what they could find.

After packing a simple backpack, changing into lightweight clothes and hiking boots, the group set off.

Bai Xun flipped through a field plant guide he’d bought earlier, hoping to dig up some edible wild vegetables to bring back.

While studying the guide, he distractedly watched his step. Cheng Wei simply wrapped his tail around Bai Xun’s waist to prevent him from stumbling and falling.

Bai Yu and Lu Jiaoshuang walked arm in arm, occasionally whispering to each other. Ahead of them, Cheng Wei’s ear tips would subtly twitch backward whenever they made certain hushed sounds.

Bai Xun identified wild vegetables from the guide and soon found several clusters of purslane beneath the bushes. The leaves were oval, and the stems were pale red. Although purslane was a bit tough this late in the season, it was still edible.

He took out a small shovel, dug around the roots, and stored the purslane in the kitchen simulator.

A little further on, they discovered a large patch of shepherd’s purse on the ground. Now they could enjoy several meals of shepherd’s purse and pork dumplings.

The low-growing shepherd’s purse sprawled across the ground. Bai Xun used his small shovel to dig around the roots. These plants hadn’t flowered yet, so they were still tender. They were in for a treat tonight.

Judging by the temperature, it was late autumn. In the deep forest, mushrooms were more abundant than wild vegetables.

All sorts of oddly shaped mushrooms sprouted in every corner of the forest, under moss, in pine needle piles, and on decaying wood and fallen branches. They were everywhere.

Those who didn’t recognize them were better off not picking them casually.

The words “I am poisonous” weren’t stamped on the round, plump mushroom caps. Some delicious wild mushrooms could only be eaten once in a lifetime.

“Is this an autumn bonnet? It looks a bit like it in the picture. Hmm, a poisonous mushroom.” Bai Xun held the guidebook in one hand, carefully comparing it to the cluster of wild mushrooms on the ground with their slender stems and yellowish-white caps.

“Wow, it’s a neurotoxic mushroom. That’s really poisonous.” Lu Jiaoshuang leaned over for a look and kicked their caps off with a single swipe of her foot.

“This one definitely looks poisonous.” Bai Yu crouched down and pointed at a mushroom with a brown cap dotted with white spots.

“Leopard-spotted amanita, it’s poisonous.” Cheng Wei glanced at it and recognized the species.

Bai Yu split the leopard-spotted amanita in half with a single shovel strike.

“Boletus edulis, finally, something edible.” Bai Xun compared it to the guidebook, double-checking that the mushroom buried in the moss was indeed the delicious boletus.

Cheng Wei pressed down the soft moss around it, revealing the pale brown cap and the white stem beneath. It was quite large, only slightly smaller than a cultivated king oyster mushroom.

Pulling it out of the soil, Cheng Wei took out a small knife and cleaned off the dirt from its roots. The thick, cut stem of the boletus was pure white, with no signs of insect bites inside.

“It’s good.” Cheng Wei handed it to Bai Xun.

Bai Xun smiled as he took the boletus. “We can have an extra dish tonight. How about stir-fried boletus?”

Cheng Wei’s eyes crinkled slightly, and he wagged his tail happily. “Then we’ll need to pick a few more to make it enough.”

They continued deeper into the forest and indeed found more boletus mushrooms. Aside from one that was half-eaten by insects, they gathered enough to make a full plate of stir-fry.

In addition to the boletus, Bai Xun also discovered a large cluster of chanterelles hidden under a pile of dried leaves.

The chanterelles were a vibrant golden yellow, perfect for stir-frying with cured pork tomorrow. The thought of frying the semi-fatty cured pork to release its oil and then stir-frying the chanterelles with it already made his mouth water.

The thick trunks of the forest trees were covered in a thick layer of moss. Once plucked and dried, it made excellent fire starters.

Currently, Bai Xun and the others cooked with firewood every day, using solid alcohol blocks stored in the kitchen simulator as fire starters. With two blocks used daily, they would eventually run out.

Before the extreme cold arrived, they needed to stock up on firewood and fire starters as soon as possible.

Using a knife, they scraped the thick moss off the tree trunks, packed it tightly into plastic bags, and then stored it in their backpacks. While the sun was still shining, they planned to spread it out in an open area to dry thoroughly over the next few days.

After packing the moss, there was still plenty of time. Looking at the pine needles scattered on the ground, Bai Xun suggested gathering some pinecones, hoping to find ones with pine nuts still inside.

Even if they didn’t, dried pinecones could still be used as firewood.

No sooner said than done.

The group ventured deeper into the pine forest. The ground was carpeted with a thick layer of pine needles, making it feel soft underfoot.

The pinecones that had fallen to the ground had already burst open, their scales spread wide, and not a single pine nut remained inside. They felt prickly to the touch.

But since they had already picked them up, they decided not to discard them. As long as they felt dry, they would take them back to use as firewood.

Pinecones with pine nuts inside were likely the oval-shaped ones still hanging on the branches. Bai Xun walked over to a relatively shorter pine tree, jumped up, and hooked a branch laden with pinecones.

A single pine branch bore three pine cones. Aside from one that was still green and not fully ripe, the other two were completely mature, displaying a light brown color.

Cheng Wei lent a hand to pick those two pine cones. The thick scales of the cones were tightly closed, and because they had just been picked, their surfaces were oily and their shells quite hard, so they would need to be roasted over fire to extract the pine nuts.

Better to store them in the kitchen simulator and deal with them later.

The pine cones grew on branches at varying heights. They picked the ones from the lower branches and left the higher ones untouched. Eating too many pine nuts can cause internal heat, and stockpiling too many would mean they couldn’t finish them all.

Currently, the lumber mill hadn’t been fully repaired yet. The only power sources they had available were solar panels and a diesel generator.

The solar panels could be used to charge phones, power banks, and desk lamps, while the diesel generator could supply electricity for the entire house. However, their remaining diesel fuel was far from enough for long-term use.

While picking pine cones, Bai Xun accidentally scratched a pine branch, and resin immediately seeped out from the cut. He immediately thought of using the resin to make some candles.

In the future, when the polar night arrives and the solar panels can’t store enough electricity to power the desk lamps, they could still use pine resin candles.

The resin flowed slowly. If they carved a triangular cut into a pine tree today, it would take several days to fill a bag.

They randomly selected a few pine trees, made cuts, and hung plastic bags to collect the resin, planning to return in a few days to gather it.

Time was almost up. Bai Xun checked the forest map and realized they had walked nearly five kilometers, two kilometers more than originally planned. They needed to hurry back to wash the shepherd’s purse and make dumplings.

Before 6 p.m., they returned to the lumber mill and laid out the harvested moss and pine cones in an open area to dry. They would collect them before going to bed and continue drying them the next day.

Bai Xun brought out the picked shepherd’s purse and porcini mushrooms to show Grandma Bai and Bai Guifang. Grandma Bai touched the shepherd’s purse and praised them for picking such good vegetables, all tender and fresh.

Bai Guifang also nodded repeatedly while pinching the shepherd’s purse leaves, saying it was time to make dumplings.

In the rough, unfinished house at the lumber mill, only the kitchen stood out as bright and beautiful, completely out of place. That morning, before heading out, Bai Xun had a sudden idea and remembered the eight appearance options in the kitchen simulator.

So, the kitchen area was fitted with a large, rustic European-style kitchen setup. However, without electricity, it was practically useless, only good for chopping vegetables and kneading dough.

A hook was stuck to the kitchen ceiling, from which two rechargeable desk lamps hung. Whenever someone entered the kitchen, they would climb onto the central counter to turn on the lights.

This was a compromise for having light without electricity. Thankfully, they had bought twenty of these rechargeable desk lamps earlier, so they weren’t completely in the dark at night.

In the kitchen, Bai Xun cleaned the shepherd’s purse leaves while his younger sister, Bai Yu, waited nearby to wash the vegetables.

He took out pork with a ratio of seventy percent fat to thirty percent lean meat and asked Cheng Wei to mince it for the filling.

Bai Guifang kneaded the dough and divided it into small portions, while Grandma Bai skillfully rolled out five dumpling wrappers at once with a rolling pin.

Lu Jiaoshuang and Yu Feibai, as idle bystanders for now, watched from the side, planning to join in later to help wrap the dumplings.

Once the shepherd’s purse was finely chopped, Grandma Bai temporarily set aside her rolling pin to prepare the filling. She first mixed the shepherd’s purse with sesame oil, then combined it with the minced pork, adding a bit of soy sauce and salt. The resulting filling was exceptionally delicious.

Bai Xun and Bai Yu had learned to cook from a young age. While their dough-rolling skills were a bit lacking, they were absolutely proficient at wrapping dumplings.

Cheng Wei was making dumplings for the first time. He stuffed too much filling into one, causing it to burst open the moment it hit the boiling water, scattering like “flowers from the heavens.”

Feeling guilty, he tried to hide his dumplings behind the neatly wrapped ones Bai Xun had just made, hoping no one would notice.

Bai Xun couldn’t help but feel amused. It was unexpected that there was something Cheng Wei wasn’t good at, this snow leopard’s paws turned out to be clumsy when wrapping dumplings.

“Let me teach you,” Bai Xun said, picking up a dumpling wrapper to demonstrate.

Cheng Wei’s tail began to swish restlessly.

“First, pinch this side of the wrapper, like this,” Bai Xun explained, folding the edge over and sealing the dumpling with ease.

Cheng Wei tried to mimic the motion but ended up ruining another one.

“It broke again,” he mumbled, lowering his head in frustration.

“One more time,” Bai Xun said, taking Cheng Wei’s hands in his own to guide him through the process.

Fingers touching fingers, a faint blush crept onto Cheng Wei’s cheeks. The warmth of their touch seemed to spread, making even the dumpling wrapper feel hot.

“Done!”

Bai Xun smiled with satisfaction.