Chapter 567: The Giant Beast
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Heavy clouds covered up the entire sky like a dark shroud. It was still during the middle of the day but the light remained obscured. Even the sun looked like a slightly illuminated ball with a dim halo.
The nuclear winter's lasted longer than what was initially anticipated. A huge amount of dust permeating through Earth's atmosphere had caused the natural cleansing process to be greatly inhibited.
Ling Zhong-an had a glimpse at the halo's position and understood that nightfall was approaching. He quickly picked up his pace and began rushing towards the cave's entrance.
The distance from his current location to the cave was about twenty to thirty kilometers. If he did not hurry now, he would only reach his home after nightfall.
After daylight ran out, the night would come. This place would then instantly transform into a living hell. Not only was the temperature bone-chilling, the dark was like an endless abyss formed by a completely impassable terrain. Those who were buried underground were there only because they were out hunting and forgot the time.
Even if it was him, he had to be extra careful when nightfall arrives to prevent himself from getting lost.
After a gust of cold freezing wind blew by, the originally warm carcass had gradually become cold. The body completely froze up within moments, and the hide he wore was frozen solid. It would be warmer if he was not wearing a pelt rather than the one he currently had on. Fortunately, as the most elite of the super-evolved humans of mankind, this coldness was not enough to affect him.
Ling Zhong-an carried the mutated beast and proceeded to stride forward. Just before the horizon had completely swallowed up the sun's halo, he had finally reached his destination.
He opened the broken metal cover stuck at the cave's entrance, revealing an underground stairway.
This stairway was crafted from a huge block of ice. There were twists and turns within it, going a straight five hundred meters in the ground. Not only did it pierce through the icy layer, it had also gone through the permafrost.
Compared to a few decades ago, the people that had gathered were few in numbers. In the past years, the old had passed, the sick had succumbed to their illnesses, and the missing were never found. Initially, there were approximately a hundred men, now it had come down to just a few dozens of them left.
It was not that there were no women. The fact of the matter was that even though the number of women here was incomparable to the number of men, it was at least a third of the number of men. Yet after four to five decades, not even a single female was born.
Those who were able to survive up until now had to have been an evolved human. Each of them had their genetic differences. From a certain perspective, every one of them should become reproductively isolated if there were no accidents. Perhaps after another few dozens of years, humans would completely disappear.
…
Today there was a slightly depressive atmosphere. Almost all the hunters had returned empty-handed and it been three days since the people around here had tasted any meat.
Meat aside, there were plenty of other types of food within the food reserve. At least they would not starve to death, but for the most part, the tender grass roots and tubers found from digging through the permafrost near the cave area were consumed. Not only was the taste bitter, making it hard to swallow, it also did not contain many calories. Even if one were to fill their stomach with these, it would be a type of torment under these cold conditions during the night.
When Ling Zhong-an returned with his prey, the mood began to lighten up by quite a bit.
Ling Zhong-an dropped the food while smiling, "Today's luck was not bad at all. Xiao Hu, you're up. It's your job to handle this."
The strong young lad called Xiao Hu stood up quickly. His face beaming with joy as he replied, "Yes, Boss!"
Handling the prey was a cushy job. There's a saying — no chef ever died from starvation. Although Xiao Hu who was in charge of handling the prey was not a chef, he had numerous opportunities to prove his preparation skills throughout the entire process. Only a few scattered pieces of frozen, bloody chunks could easily fill up an individual.
He then picked up the mutated beast's carcass and a dirty woman who was sitting at a corner quickly stood up to follow him.
This was not mankind's Garden of Eden. The basic rule that they all followed was the law of the jungle. In here, when one had a fixed mate, it completely symbolized his status. Fortunately, as Ling Zhong-an's henchman, he managed to have a woman assigned as his fixed mate.
The woman's face was slightly disfigured. Half of her face had been torn off by a mutated beast in a battle of life and death. There was a permanent look of sheer terror on her face.
However, no matter how pretty a woman was, it would not matter much here. This was a perfectly normal phenomenon after a few years of not bathing. Their faces would be filled with dirt and their original looks would no longer be visible.
…
The flames burned bright — a few logs of wooden charcoal glowed a bright red color, resulting in a dim, red colored flame. From time to time, sparks would shoot out from the charcoal.
Anyone with the slightest glimpse at the huge metal wok could easily figure out that this wok was hand-built by a layman. The wok had been placed on top of a stone and the meat soup that filled up the metal wok was bubbling vigorously. Hot steam had simultaneously spread across the cold cave while emitting a fragrant and rich smell.
A woman, who looked much better than the others, put in a few tablets of black mineral salt and used a spoon to stir the rich, milky meat broth. She then took a spoonful of the broth and placed the spoon in front of her lips, gently blew on it and then took a big sip of the broth. The scene of her tasting the broth had made everyone drool.
"Big Brother Ling, the soup is done." She told Ling Zhong-an while smiling.
Ling Zhong-an smiled while nodding. He then assumed his authority and said, "Old rule, the one who hunted the prey gets half of it. The rest of the group gets the other half."
As the boss, when the other hunters managed to hunt some prey, they would set aside a portion for him as a sign of respect.
His left hand then picked up a big wooden bowl and his picked up a spoon. He selected the best and the fattest meat, spooning it into his bowl. He then filled his bowl to the brim with broth.
When he had finished grabbing his serving, the rest of the men then excitedly brought their bowls and rushed towards the wok.
Although the scene seemed chaotic, when looked at closely, there was some sort of order to it.
Since Ling Zhong-an had gotten half of the meat previously, the cooked meat was not much. The rest of the people could only manage to get 2 pieces of meat each. Luckily the broth was enough for everyone.
Piping hot meat slices accompanied with a smooth broth slid down everyone's growling stomach. A warm feeling slightly spread from their bellies, causing their bodies to begin sweating.
Ling Zhong-an shared his portion of the meat with his two women. It was only after they had their fill would he have the rest of the meat to be consumed. Pounds of meat filled up his stomach. That type of fulfillment gave him an immense sense of satisfaction.
…
A good night's sleep through the twilight.
Ling Zhong-an, while hugging onto his two women, was not ready to wake up early.
Today, the rest of the people would not have much of a desire to go out hunting. Ling Zhong-an had brought back nearly half a ton of meat which could potentially feed them for up to a month. Even though everyone could only get a few slices of meat, when paired with the grassroots and tubers, it would still be enough to survive.
"Why are there sudden tremors?" This was coming from an evolved human with an extreme sensitivity towards tremors and quakes, who was just awoken from his sleep. He opened his eyes extremely alerted.
The rest of the people suddenly were not able to sleep, they began to gradually open up their pelts and stand up. A person without a sense of alertness would not survive in an apocalyptic world. Not to mention, a few hundreds of kilometers away, a volcano had recently begun to show signs of revitalization, alerting everyone.
"Boss, I'll go and have a look!" Xiao Hu said diligently.
"No, we go together!" Ling Zhong-an left the cave first followed by a group of men. If an earthquake happened, it would be suicidal to be staying underground for any longer.
The tremor had become ever more evident, almost as if it came from afar and near simultaneously. It carried a sort of rhythm as if there's was mountain walking towards their direction.
Halfway through the walk, everyone had guessed what's the cause of these tremors.
"Screw it, let's go back. It must've been that level-8 giant beast. Just wait for it to leave, then it'll be alright." Said Ling Zhong-an with a sort of frailness and slump in his voice.
"This damned beast again!" The group of men started cursing.
This was a type of ape-like, terrifying, giant creature. No one knew why but during the past decade, the beast would roam around this area for some time almost every one or two years. At first, it's body size was only a dozen meters high, equivalent to a level-7 beast. Ling Zhong-an still thought of it as prey during that time and was eager to try hunting it. However, he gave up because the distance was either too far away, or he was worried about getting injured almost every time.
When he had finally made the decision to hunt it, the beast had already become a level-8 creature.
Its height towered up to fifty meters high, while its hair exuded a bright golden hue from within the dark. Such characteristics were enough for anyone to lose any sense of grandeur around it. This type of creature was at the pinnacle of the food chain on Earth.