My Dating Sim Just Got an Update - Chapter 76

Inside the base, Mu Ning and Qi Sheng were universally acknowledged as the most powerful ability users. Consequently, if a team led by either of them returned from the coast just as the Level 7 mutant octopus happened to vanish, it would inevitably spark wild speculation. People would naturally link the disappearance of the monster to such formidable teams.

Mu Ning had no intention of exposing the fact that Ren Chenxi possessed high-level crystal nuclei, nor did she want Ren Chenxi to attract any unnecessary trouble within the base. Therefore, while Chen Gu and the others were allowed to scavenge or fish for seafood, they had to wait until the beach was already being frequented by other survivors.

Mu Ning never intended to monopolize the beach. Besides, every once in a while, desperate survivors who couldn’t find food elsewhere would risk a trip to the coast. It was only a matter of time before the truth—that the primary threat in the ocean was temporarily gone became common knowledge. Such a fact couldn’t be hidden forever. Given how many people in the base struggled daily with hunger, she felt she had to leave them a path to survival.

Since the survivors were bound to notice the octopus’s absence eventually, it was better to wait quietly until the masses began moving toward the shore. Joining the crowd later was much safer than going early and risking suspicion.

By that time, no one would associate the octopus’s disappearance with Mu Ning’s team. People would simply be overjoyed to have a new food source and would come up with their own imaginative theories about why the monster had vanished.

After hearing Mu Ning’s explanation, the team immediately understood. No one clamored to go to the beach that afternoon; everyone, including Ren Chenxi, agreed with the arrangement without objection.

Ren Chenxi had to admit that when things got serious, Mu Ning’s mind was actually quite sharp and flexible.

That afternoon, Chen Gu and his group, fueled by the fifteen bottles of gasoline Ren Chenxi had provided, enthusiastically drove the bus further out. They traveled all the way to a neighboring town to hunt. Their harvest was quite good, and that evening, their barbecue stall opened as usual, selling out all 500 skewers once again.

They continued running the stall for four consecutive days. On the fifth day, a major customer arrived carrying their own ingredients.

“Boss, can you grill these razor clams and oysters for us? We’ll pay ten crystals per piece as a processing fee~”

Hearing this, Huo Keyu, the “head chef” in charge of the grill, quickly exchanged glances with Zhang Tongqi and the others helping nearby.

Finally, someone had gone to the beach to scavenge!

A dozen oversized shellfish were placed onto Huo Keyu’s stall. The other survivors waiting in line didn’t mind the interruption; instead, they began chatting curiously with the newcomers. The conversation, naturally, revolved around why they had dared to go to the beach and the harrowing details of their adventure.

This was a small team of about ten people, a mix of ordinary humans and ability users. Usually, such a group wouldn’t dare hunt too far from the base. Today, they had been forced into it after failing to find any mutant beasts all morning and being chased by a dozen zombies that seemed to pop out of nowhere. Tired and hungry, someone had grumbled in frustration that since everything was dangerous anyway, they might as well try their luck at the sea. At least at the beach, there was plenty to find, whereas here, they had to fight other teams just to catch a single wild chicken.

In their state of exhaustion and hunger, the group had collectively reached a point of desperation and agreed to the proposal. At the very least, if they risked the coast, there was a whole beach of seafood waiting to be picked up.

When people are starving, the lure of food is magnified infinitely. At that moment, their minds were so full of giant crabs crawling on the sand and shellfish buried in the dunes that they completely ignored the threat of the Level 7 octopus.

Fortunately, the monster that everyone dreaded never appeared.

They had stayed on the sands far from the water’s edge, cautiously luring mutant crabs and digging for shells. They spent the entire afternoon this way, and the octopus never showed its face. The abundance of the harvest almost made them lose their sense of danger entirely. They forgot about the octopus and the perils of the apocalypse; if one cautious member hadn’t reminded them that it was getting dark, they probably would have kept digging indefinitely.

Of course, by the time they safely left the shore, the legendary octopus rumored to be capable of wiping out multiple elite teams—was nowhere to be seen.

However, when these people bragged to others, they certainly didn’t tell it that way.

Everyone has a sense of pride. If they told people they had simply gotten lucky and spent a peaceful afternoon picking up shells without encountering any danger, there would be nothing to boast about. Amidst the lively atmosphere of the barbecue stall, surrounded by various teams and the intoxicating aroma of grilled meat, they exaggerated their trip to the coast quite a bit.

For instance, they claimed they had been attacked by a Level 6 crab.

They also mentioned being chased by several Level 5 mutant fish.

The most ridiculous claim was that they saw a shark in the water a high-level shark, by the looks of it.

According to their story, they started fleeing the moment they saw the shark, never giving it a chance to lunge onto the shore and attack them.

Listening to the gossip from the side, Ren Chenxi found it hilarious. However, she was glad they were making the situation sound as outrageous as possible. This way, no one would ever link the missing octopus to her or Mu Ning.

That night, the 500 skewers sold out as usual, and they also processed 100 “servings” of shellfish. Note that it was 100 servings, not 100 individual pieces. Paying ten Level 1 crystals to cook one massive razor clam or oyster was quite a optimistic deal for the customers.

The team had a huge harvest but returned to the base exhausted. Lacking the energy to cook for themselves but wanting a feast to celebrate, they naturally thought of the base’s most popular grill. Though they had earned many crystals that day, they were used to hardship and wanted to save as much as possible. They tried to pay the price of a single meat skewer as the labor fee for cooking their massive seafood.

While the meat skewers were generous, they only consisted of four chunks of meat. One of those giant oysters or clams was massive by comparison. Zhang Tongqi immediately mocked them, and under the pressure of the crowd, the customers had no choice but to agree to pay per serving.

Thus, one giant oyster or clam was split into ten portions. Huo Keyu, Du Tian, Yue Yue, and the others prepared ten massive pieces of seafood, charging for 100 portions.

The extra 1,000 Level 1 crystals earned that night didn’t excite Chen Gu and the others very much. What truly excited them was the pattern: whenever a team successfully returned from the coast, the rest of the base would grow restless the following day, and more teams would be tempted to try their luck.

They waited patiently for two more days. On the third night, the stall welcomed its second major “bring-your-own-food” customer. This time, the client was much more straightforward, offering 100 Level 1 crystals per piece of seafood processed. This was a powerful team of twenty ability users, and each of them enjoyed a beautifully grilled, delicious piece of seafood prepared by Huo Keyu.

With two consecutive reports of massive harvests, four teams formed an alliance to head to the beach on the fourth day. That evening, Huo Keyu’s stall was swamped. Besides the usual meat skewers, they brought in 10,000 Level 1 crystals just from processing seafood. That night, survivors crowded around the stall to hear all the latest gossip from the coast.

One particular rumor was becoming increasingly detailed, leading over a dozen teams to head to the beach on the fifth day. Chen Gu and the others didn’t want to miss this perfect opportunity to blend in with the crowd. Led by Mu Ning, they finally set out for the coast as well.

On the way there, many survivors were still anxiously discussing the rumors they’d heard the night before.

“Hey, is it true? Is the Level 7 octopus really dead? Did a higher-level shark eat it?”

“If that’s the case, aren’t people afraid of being attacked by the shark?”

“Please! The octopus was much faster! Its tentacles were so long and thick, it could wipe out a whole team with one swing. As for a shark, with that size and those obvious fins, we’ll see it coming a mile away. We can just run. By the time it lunges onto the beach, we’ll be long gone.”

With the rumor of the shark eating the octopus spreading, and the general belief that escaping a shark was easier than escaping an octopus, more and more survivors began stepping onto the beach that had previously been a forbidden zone.

As the number of scavengers on the beach grew, Mu Ning started getting impatient. Ren Chenxi also disliked competing with a crowd. Since she wasn’t short on fuel, she suggested to Mu Ning that they drive further along the coastline to find a more secluded, empty beach.

Currently, most survivors in the base were very stingy with fuel and rarely drove. For a trip like this—roughly an hour’s drive many teams had woken up at dawn to pedal modified tricycles. Even poorer teams without vehicles had started walking before the sun was even up.

Very few survivors would be “wasteful” enough to drive further away just to avoid a crowd, especially since Mu Ning was relying on Ren Chenxi’s Greasy Cards. However, “very few” didn’t mean none. When Mu Ning finally selected a promising-looking stretch of beach, she spotted a very familiar RV. It was an RV, though not as luxurious or massive as the one owned by the Fan family.

This RV belonged to Qi Sheng. It seemed that even a leader as cautious as Qi Sheng couldn’t resist the temptation of seafood and had come to scavenge in person.

“Never mind, let’s go even further!”

With Qi Sheng’s people around, and given how cunning he was, it would be too inconvenient for Ren Chenxi to use her space ability.

Consequently, Qi Sheng had only just spotted the bus belonging to Mu Ning’s team from a distance. Before he even had time to worry if this brutal team was going to fight his men for the Level 3 and 4 seafood, the bus had already driven away into the distance.

Fine then. It seemed they didn’t even care to compete with him.

It seems like the secret is safe for now!

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