Cave Refuge-Chapter 298 - 284: Humanity’s Exceptional Adaptive Capacity_2
Just by looking at the Data Layout showing no increase in the daily acquisition of Survival Points, Dong Tianyu knew that the appearance of the Bugs Clan was not considered a natural disaster by the System.
Furthermore, that very night, Dong Tianyu was pondering whether the emergence of these bugs was related to the frequent earthquakes.
The earthquakes were still occurring daily at a regular pace, but their amplitude was not steadily increasing; instead, it fluctuated, sometimes strong, sometimes weak.
The situation in the City Center did not need further explanation; nearly all the buildings in the city had collapsed, turning it into a wasteland.
However, many survivors who had moved to the outskirts would run to the ruins in the City Center after each earthquake to search for usable supplies.
Though the evacuation was orderly, it was still urgent, and many people had to painfully leave behind things that were not of the utmost importance. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
If the buildings in the city had not collapsed, the ownership of those things would have been very clear. But now that the city had become ruins, the items inside had become a case of first come, first served.
Even though the resettlement sites provided the essential food and water needed for survival every day, they only ensured that the survivors at the bottom wouldn’t starve to death. Due to the frequent earthquakes, many projects led by the Officials had virtually come to a halt, so for the survivors, eating well—let alone eating enough—had become a problem.
As a result, more and more survivors either became scavengers or joined teams hunting in the Bug Nests.
The Officials did not stop those willing to venture out to forage; they were actually happy to save on two meals’ worth of food supplies every day from those who were willing to work outside.
Dong Tianyu was not too familiar with the situation in the City Center at that moment because of the appearance of the Giant Scorpion, which meant that the convoy, initially scheduled to return on the same day, only came back to Moon Bay the next day to pick up the second group of relocating people.
Most of the second group of relocators were the families of the special forces members and some members of the elderly group, while the remaining special forces members were arranged in the third group.
Lao Zhao had hoped to take advantage one last time while Robinson William was away, but to his surprise, most of the last batch of relocators turned out to be Martial Artists from the special forces. After learning about this situation, Lao Zhao had to abandon his small scheming.
When the first group moved out, it was a departure among acquaintances, so Dong Tianyu’s notice that the four-person group could not leave with them went unnoticed. However, they were aware the convoy would return, so they did not pay it much mind.
When the convoy returned to Moon Bay the next day and saw the families of the special forces packing their luggage in the camp, they knew these people must have found a new campsite.
In the past few days, Lao Zhao had taken over the camp’s security and had acted somewhat ostentatiously, making the situation clear to the four-person group.
Dong Tianyu’s sudden departure, combined with the drastic change in the camp’s situation, had rendered all their previous plans ineffective.
Now, they were faced with only two choices. The first choice was to still aim for Dong Tianyu, which meant they needed to leave with the second group of relocators.
However, according to the information they gathered in the camp, the new campsite established by Dong Tianyu was relatively closed off and not as open as when they had come to Moon Bay. It was not a matter of simply following the convoy; anyone could set up camp there.
The newly established camp would only accept the families of the special forces members and invited survivors. Other survivors who did not receive an invitation would not be allowed into the camp.
And from what they heard from the special forces members returning from the first trip, Saxon County was not safe either. There were no Bug Nests, but Giant Scorpions roamed the area.
Unlike the bugs from the Bug Nests that actively avoided Martial Artists, these Giant Scorpions were incredibly aggressive and would initiate attacks on everyone.
Although the special forces members mentioned that Inner Breath Realm Martial Artists could kill them even with cold weapons, for most people, these creatures, which looked similar to Giant Scorpions, posed a greater threat than the Bug Nests.
So there was some internal debate among them about whether to continue making moves against Dong Tianyu.
The main argument was between the Spirit Dog and the Thorn Snake, because if the Spider explicitly stated its position, the matter would become much simpler.
And the Butterfly knew that it actually had little say in the team, so it simply abstained from making any statement.
The debate between the Spirit Dog and the Thorn Snake actually represented the two starkly different thoughts currently in the Spider’s mind.
Although Dong Tianyu had left, the appearance of Old Zhao presented them with a new target to strategize against.
Despite Old Zhao being an official and they being thieves, to them, his self-righteous character made the challenge of dealing with him much simpler than others might imagine.
The so-called second path was to shift the focus from Dong Tianyu to Old Zhao.
Even though in their minds, targeting Old Zhao was much harder than targeting Dong Tianyu, should they succeed, the benefits would be several times greater than that of targeting Dong Tianyu. In fact, if things went smoothly, they could shake off their previous identities, disguise themselves with a better background and stay in the camp.
As for the affairs of the quartet, Dong Tianyu had actually forgotten all about them. The contingency he had planted might gradually become ineffective over time.
At this moment, Dong Tianyu was constantly self-reflecting amid the endless nagging of his parents, assuring them that Violet Walker was now very safe, and they needn’t worry. As for the matter of having grandchildren, that would have to wait, especially since the natural disaster had heavily impacted fertility.
In the following days, the survivors had grown accustomed to the daily quaking of the earth. Sometimes, if an earthquake didn’t occur during the day, none of the survivors could sleep soundly through the night.
After the earthquake had toppled the buildings in the City Center, the amplitude seemed to have stabilized, which wasn’t characteristic behavior for a natural disaster.
Dong Tianyu, who had settled down and was planning to leave this place, inexplicably felt a sense of unease in his heart. Because of his concern for his parents, he would sometimes drive away during the day, pretending to be busy with other things, but he would always return at night.
Time slowly passed, and it had been a month since they first arrived. As the number of survivors in the camp continued to increase, the camp slowly began to construct some basic buildings.
Besides the well that needed repairs after each earthquake, all other infrastructure was built with earthquake resistance in mind. So, although they required frequent maintenance, they remained fundamentally intact regardless of how many quakes they endured.
After a month of testing, the bug meat was temporarily deemed safe. Whether it might carry latent toxins was no longer a concern for the survivors.
After all, latent toxins can sometimes lie dormant in the human body for decades without causing any harm, and ordinary survivors may not live long enough to see such a virus activate.
As for Martial Artists, as their Cultivation Level rose, their control over their bodies would also increase. So far, Inner Breath Realm Martial Artists who ate bug meat hadn’t felt any abnormalities in their bodies.
In fact, for them, the nutritional content of the bug meat was much higher than that of ordinary livestock, although it was less effective than nutrition pills made from processed Bugs Clan.
But at least in terms of taste, bug meat triumphed over nutrition supplements, since it could be cooked in any known way, whereas supplements, in pursuit of maximum medicinal effect, fell short on flavor.
It had to be said that human adaptability was indeed strong. The once-panic-inducing earthquakes, when they became a daily occurrence and part of the routine weather, no longer phased the survivors.
The panic that once accompanied the onset of an earthquake had now vanished from the survivors’ mindsets.
