Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 359 - 145: Leaving the City! Wilderness! Marching Toward the Sea of Stars!
The sky was just beginning to brighten.
Cheng Ye had just gotten out of bed when Flame woke up too, chirping next to the pillow and demanding food.
He pulled out a lighter and lit it with a "click," but Flame continued to shake its head, its dark eyes shimmering with evident desire.
"Finally hungry, huh?"
Cheng Ye was immediately delighted, his sleepiness vanished completely.
Ever since he fed the little guy some dry wood, this was the first time it proactively asked for the fire from the Fire Bowl.
He pulled out the pendant from his chest and took out the Scorching Eagle Fire Bowl.
Without any prompting, Flame, now covered in a fine, dense fur, tilted its head and unexpectedly fluttered from the bed right into the Fire Bowl.
This time, it wasn’t consuming the usual dry wood but the bluish peat fire beside it, offering a balanced nourishment with every drop.
Strands of bluish flames were absorbed by Flame, its fur gradually emitting a faint glow, red with a hint of blue, resembling a flowing nebula, looking quite peculiar.
"Good!"
A vague syllable suddenly exploded in Cheng Ye’s mind, weak but clear.
Cheng Ye was momentarily stunned, thinking it was his imagination, but soon a second voice echoed again.
"Really good!"
"Eh?" Cheng Ye stared at the little guy in the Fire Bowl, his eyes brightened, "You can talk to me now?"
Flame was eating happily, its round body rolling around in the Fire Bowl, its fur trembling, emitting a soft "chirp," as if responding, or perhaps purely out of satisfaction.
Cheng Ye leaned in closer, observing carefully.
It was now the fifth day since Flame was born, having grown a size bigger since they first met, with denser fur.
But its wings were still soft and tender, unable to support flying.
"Was it you calling earlier?" Cheng Ye tentatively asked.
Flame didn’t react, just rubbed its head against the edge of the Fire Bowl, making a "purr-purr" sound, much like a begging cat.
"Alright, hurry up and eat, grow bigger and I’ll take you out to see the world,"
Cheng Ye poked its head, not pushing it further; he hadn’t forgotten to search the Survival Library for books on raising Extraordinary Creatures.
As expected, there was none.
This evidently involved the real secrets of the Extraordinary, impossible to be accessible to ordinary people. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
He could only wait for a chance to try his luck at the Inner City library in the future.
Once Flame finished eating, Cheng Ye put away the Fire Bowl and opened the door, intending to go outside to fetch water for washing up.
He had barely walked a few steps when he saw Jiang Chuan standing by the window at the end of the hallway, a wooden stick in his mouth, fingers tapping away on a Defense Communication device, intensively playing a built-in Tetris game.
"Hey, so focused?" Cheng Ye approached him.
Jiang Chuan didn’t lift his head, only reacting when Cheng Ye called him, looking up with a smile, "Inspector Cheng, it’s just past six, woke up pretty early, huh."
"Slept early last night, so woke up early," Cheng Ye raised the water basin in his hand, "What about you? When did you get here?"
"Just arrived a few minutes ago, Station Chief Ding asked me to accompany you for the second round of assessment."
Jiang Chuan put away the Defense Communication device and spat out the stick from his mouth, "The car’s parked downstairs, shall we head out after breakfast?"
"Second round?"
Cheng Ye was momentarily taken aback, "How do we complete the second round?"
"To... Dapo Town!"
...
Buzz.
Returning to his room under the pretext of preparing things after washing up, Cheng Ye still felt his head buzzing.
Going... out of the city?
Going... into the Wilderness?
He couldn’t deny, he had long awaited this day.
But now, as the moment finally arrived, all anticipation turned into confusion, mingling with an indescribable excitement, churning within his chest.
Countless thoughts exploded in his mind, with information piecing together automatically.
Setting off from the checkpoint, stepping onto the provincial road, passing through the county road, traversing the country road, directly reaching Dapo Town.
All routes had played out in his mind countless times last night, even dreaming of leaving Happiness City, stepping over the yellow line, venturing into the dangerous Wilderness, and step by step entering Dapo Town.
It seemed somewhat unbelievable, yet in the dream, he quickly became the mayor here.
The power station roaring, nets full of fish in the fishery, steam wafting from the canning factory at the town’s entrance, various handmade products being continuously shipped out... Dapo Town thrived in the dream.
So much so that a few minutes before the alarm went off in the morning, he was still busy in the dream, discussing with the subordinates about the town’s next transformation steps, and how to move beyond basic limitations to develop a more distinctive and competitive advantage.
Upon waking, he felt a bit of regret, thinking that if the dream lasted a bit longer, perhaps the subconscious could help clarify more details.
"Daytime thoughts, nighttime dreams."
"Although suddenly needing to go out of the city, I actually had an inkling yesterday when answering the questions."
Cheng Ye pulled out a Battle Armor case from under the bed, contemplating while spraying liquid on the armor pieces.
Don’t be fooled by how many ordinary people can survive in the Wilderness, moving back and forth boldly.
A grain of sand from the times, on each person’s shoulder is a mountain.
The infection source of the Wilderness doesn’t attack indiscriminately, but rather chooses lucky individuals from among humankind.
If unlucky enough to be chosen, one must have enough strength to survive.
Wearing the Battle Armor, covering from neck to ankle, the seams resembling flaming lines, looking quite formidable.
Even Flame ran out from the sight, chirping, seemingly cheering.
Cheng Ye didn’t stop, pulling out a custom-made raincoat from the wardrobe.
This was something he specifically had made after getting the Battle Armor, designed to cover the armor.
Just that in recent days there hadn’t been an opportunity to wear the Battle Armor, now it turned out to be just in time, the pure black raincoat was just right to cover the golden red armor pieces.
