Survive, such a simple demand.

“Yes, people always need to survive…”

In Zhang Su’s perspective, if it were him, would he risk his life for revenge for a companion he met just two days ago? The answer is no. Even without a life threat, it would still depend on whether it aligns with his interests…

People are this realistic, and survival in the apocalypse only gets more realistic.

“I can give you an opportunity!”

Zhang Su said slowly, “You can see our safe camp is under construction, we are quite understaffed, you can stay and work, in exchange for food, but you cannot carry weapons, and there will be some restrictions on your movements. Is there any problem with that?”

“Work? Fine, as long as we have food to eat, we’ll work!”

Guo Dachao did not object. After more than a month on the run, he was really tired. Now, as long as there is a stable environment, and they can live like humans, that’s enough. Some restrictions on actions are nothing; losing some freedom before gaining trust in someone else’s base is quite normal.

Yang Wenjie also had no objections and was very eager to learn from Zhang Su about the specific work.

Zhang Su was very satisfied with their attitude. Stealing cars was indeed bad, but it was a matter of stance and didn’t necessarily mean Guo Dachao and Yang Wenjie were bad people. On the contrary, he felt they were quite pragmatic, hoping they could integrate into the camp.

The next day, Guo Dachao and Yang Wenjie officially joined the construction of the safe camp at Celestial Horse Island. Guo Dachao was assigned to mix cement and build walls, while Yang Wenjie took on tasks like cutting wood to make obstacles.

Zhang Su’s tasks had slightly changed. There was about half of Niuquanzi Town left to be moved, but the urgent task now was to find the traces of the people from Beita Camp.

However, unexpectedly, it was as if the people from Beita Camp vanished. Five days passed without a trace, and even the people from United Village hadn’t heard any news about Beita Camp.

It was as if those people suddenly disappeared from this land, unnaturally and abruptly.

Just as everyone thought Beita Camp had retreated in the face of difficulties, something happened.

That morning, Zhang Su was getting ready for his usual resource scavenging when he saw Zhao Dezhu and Yu Qing walking towards him with beaming smiles.

“Hey brother, good morning! Haha!”

“Zhuzi, what’s up with you guys? What’s made you so happy?”

“Look, my wife made it, Great Grenade!”

As he spoke, Zhao Dezhu magically pulled out a clod with a foot-long braid on top from behind him.

“Great Grenade?”

Zhang Su’s mouth twitched as he carefully took the roundish clod, two times the size of his fist, like a small watermelon, and somewhat heavy, weighing around two pounds.

“It’s a bomb. Zhuzi gave it a weird name. With limited conditions, we couldn’t make a stable triggered bomb, so we had to make this kind of primitive fuse-delayed bomb. Brother Su, do you want to test its power?”

Yu Qing pointed towards the direction of the mountain stream.

“Haha, having one is good enough. The fuse is nice, safety first… It won’t blow up the mountain, right?”

Zhang Su suddenly became interested, speaking as he walked towards the mountain stream.

“Brother, you’re dreaming if you think making all the materials you brought back into bombs would be more than just scraping. No, not even scraping, at most tickling.”

Zhao Dezhu talked on and on.

“You have no faith in your wife’s skills. By the way, this fuse is quite long, what’s the safety distance?”

Zhang Su weighed the Great Grenade and asked.

“About a hundred meters; it’s best to place it at a fixed point. I’ve calibrated the fuse burn, basically one centimeter per second; this fuse is forty centimeters long.”

“A hundred meters safety distance, okay, got it!”

Zhang Su did a quick calculation and immediately came to the conclusion: even at a relaxed pace, one hundred meters were covered in fifteen seconds at most, so the fuse’s safety was sufficient.

“Hey, Brother Su, what are you guys doing?”

“Brother Su, what’s that in your hand?”

“Damn, are you going to test the bomb?”

It wasn’t long before their actions attracted the attention of others, and soon seven or eight curious people followed.

“Brother, let me, let me light it.”

Upon arrival, Zhang Su found a more open area with scattered rocks, placed the Great Grenade down, and Zhao Dezhu eagerly volunteered to light the first fuse.

“Is your damn leg even healed? Lighting it, falling flat, isn’t that courting death?”

Zhang Su looked skeptically at Zhao Dezhu’s injured leg.

“I’m as good as new, see, jumping…running, all fine!”

Zhao Dezhu demonstrated on the spot.

Seeing he was indeed fully recovered, Zhang Su didn’t insist and said to everyone while walking, “Step back, step back, it’s mighty powerful, and injuries from shards won’t count as work injuries.”

“Really? Brother Su, how powerful can that clod be?”

“I believe it, Brother Su, I really do.”

From everyone’s reaction, it seemed they didn’t have much faith in the mud grenade on the ground, but out of respect for Yu Qing standing by, they refrained from making fun.

Leading everyone to a distance of about one hundred eighty meters, Zhang Su waved Zhao Dezhu on.

“Watch closely now!”

Zhao Dezhu, long anticipating, bent down, lit the fuse, and turned to run, quickly blending with the crowd, visibly recovered from his wounds.

While others couldn’t see the fuse burning, Zhang Su could, and he timed it silently, matching exactly what Yu Qing had said.

Waiting in silence.

When the fuse burned out, the expected explosion did not occur, and just as someone was about to joke…

Boom!

A huge sound echoed in the mountain stream, stones flew, and dust filled the air.

Some already-relaxed people were startled, and even those working in the camp were shocked.

“Not good.”

Yu Qing was the first to speak, rubbing her head, “The power is much smaller than expected; the damage radius just now was at most ten meters…”

The sound was loud, but the actual explosive effect was unsatisfactory.

“Uh…” Zhang Su encouraged, “Actually, it’s still okay; the damage radius of a grenade is about that size, just that as a delayed blast bomb, its power indeed could be larger.”

“See, I told you it’d tickle the mountain, haha… It’s okay, dear, keep it up.”

Zhao Dezhu awkwardly eased the situation for Yu Qing.

“With a blast for reference, it’ll be easier to calibrate for the next time.” Yu Qing was confident, unbothered by the failure; such things are rarely a success on the first try.

The first blast test, successful, yet the power was slightly lacking.

This is progress from zero to one; once there is one, improvements can be more easily made.

Zhang Su took his people and drove away from the camp, ready to clean up Niuquanzi Town.

“Brother, to celebrate my return to the field today, I’ll surely come back fully loaded!”

In the van, Zhao Dezhu enthusiastically announced over the radio.

Considering his prior exuberant jumping around in the woods, Zhang Su finally agreed to let him go out again.

“Uncle, this shows we have low fuel, we need to find a place to refuel the car.”

Pang Dakun, sitting in the passenger seat of the Prado, both he and Zhang Su chose to ignore Zhao Dezhu’s smugness.

Zhang Su glanced at the gas gauge, nodding, “There are abandoned cars in Niuquanzi Town; we can just siphon the gas.”

As they spoke, the two vehicles traveled along the self-made path through fields.

However, just as they were about to enter the main road, an unexpected event occurred.

Driving in the front, Zhang Su looked towards the distance, habitually gathering road information, when suddenly he saw out of the corner of his eye some inappropriate clods. Upon closer examination, there seemed to be traces of disturbance beside the self-made path.

If it wasn’t for his daily commute on this road, Zhang Su wouldn’t have noticed such a slight change. Yet, before he could ponder why the soil layer here appeared overturned, the vehicle passed over the disturbed soil area.

A subtle sound reached Zhang Su’s ears—a strange noise, but its hinting at unusualness!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep