Chapter 466 Marshland, I… Am Back!
Doomsday Calendar Month 3, Day 24.
The twenty-sixth day since Su Mo began his sea voyage.
The eighty-fourth day since humans arrived on the Wasteland.
It was like any other regular day.
The weather in the Wasteland was not that great since it started pouring past midnight.
Without the administrative privileges of the game, the rain poured until the wee hours. Lightning flashed around them and thunder rumbled, the Wasteland survivors felt as though it was the end of the world.
Fortunately, as the morning sun rose, the rain tapered off and the drizzle was comforting. The villagers of Hope Village got up early in the drizzle.
Chen Shen, Qi Qin, Pei Shao, and the rest of them got up just after six o’clock and greeted everyone else with an umbrella each.
As it was predicted, when Chen Shen announced the return of the Shelter Leader, the Iron Rock Mountain erupted all of a sudden, causing the water at the tip of the mountain to shake uncontrollably.
After entering the radius of 1500 kilometers within the Hope Village, the radio phone that Su Mo had gotten earlier started working. Su Mo sent a simple message using radio communications the day before, “I…am back!” “Oh, Village Chief Chen, you’re up early today!” “F*ck, meat buns!”
“Hiss, what’s the joyous occasion? Why is it so grand?”
More than a hundred fifty people were stationed at the foot of the Iron Rock Mountain. These one hundred fifty people were made up of veterans who stayed behind since the beginning and there were about seventy to eighty lone wolves who were carefully selected by Chen Shen.
They were not ordinary lone wolves. These lone wolves who were accepted into the Hope Village were good at something.
Chen Shen convinced these lone wolves to stay behind by offering them excellent treatment.
The meat buns that were served today were not just an excellent treatment, they were grander than what they had for the New Year!
“Haha, Big Brother Hu, Chief Chen is definitely unable to approve these meat buns from being served using his authority. It’s all thanks to Shelter Leader that you get to eat these today!”
Qi Qin, who was distributing the buns to the survivors chimed in gleefully, “Li Hu”. He looked about forty-five years old with a square, battered-looking face.
He was lean and lanky, very different from the meaning behind his name. (TN, Hu in Li Hu means tiger, usually used to describe a burly man)
Even though he was five feet and nine inches tall, he looked like five feet six with a hunched back.
However, he was the leader of the veterans and was also the acting manager of all the survivors of Iron Rock Mountain.
“Shelter Leader? Our Shelter Leader is back? Are you for real?” Qi Qin curled his lips and replied, “Of course, I’m for real. Do you think we could afford to feed meat buns to all of you?”
“Hiss…”
Li Hu was not the only one to have gasped in surprise. All survivors who were handed the buns also had a look of surprise on their faces.
Hope Village belonged to the Shelter Leader.
All of them knew about this classified information the day they entered the village.
The villagers were required to memorize the rules of the Village upon entering on the first day. The first commandment was…they were to obey the Shelter Leader’s orders unconditionally under any circumstances!
However, since the Shelter Leader whom Chen Shen had often mentioned did not appear after many days, the survivors started having different thoughts about him.
Few of them even suspected the genuineness of this “Shelter Leader”.
After Chen Shen gave a nod of affirmation, all of the villagers instantly raised an outcry as they raised their hands while eating their meat buns!
“Everyone, please pack your things up today. We shall depart once the Shelter Leader returns!” “Depart?” “Where to?”
“To the Deep Sea? We can enjoy the 80% reduction in disasters at that place!”
“We have not built our ships. Are we able to fit into the Shelter Leader’s ship?”
“Chief Chen, Chief Chen! I can build ships! I was involved in the building of sand ships back in my shelter previously!”
“I heard wooden rafts are pretty sturdy, why don’t we build a big wooden raft to make our way there?”
The survivors started expressing doubts.
The information they had was very limited since the villagers kept mum about things.
The only reason that made them stay behind even though they did not know anything was the provision of food and accommodation!
This might sound like the worst treatment one had to endure in this age of civilization, but this could be something highly sought after in the Wasteland.
The advice became apparent after ten days. Those who experienced such treatment would no longer have the desire to leave.
The first step of the loyalty-harvesting plan succeeded.
As the pioneer of the entire plan, Chen Shen took a good look at the confused, excited, overwhelmed, and hopeful expressions of the survivors. He then stood up and spoke through a loud hailer speaker, “no!”
“Our destination is… The New World!”
Boom!
He dropped a bombshell.
Even though it was drizzling today, it felt as though a raging storm broke out in their hearts.
They started rubbing their ears as though they heard it wrong. They were stunned and had forgotten about the meat buns they were holding.
“Yes, you’ve not heard wrong. Our destination is indeed… The New World!”
Chen Shen repeated himself once more and walked away immediately, ignoring the reactions of the survivors.
Although he could see the inquisitive look Li Hu gave, he did not want to explain further since Su Mo had not returned.
He knew that when the ship with the name “Hope One” returned to its birthland, all questions and doubts would become past tense!
A new era was coming!
“Please join me in welcoming Chief Su to present a speech on his feelings about returning home!”
“Where’s the mic, the lights, and the audio system? Please bring them up!” “All the world’s a stage, come out if you dare, we’re going all out and this is how we’re doing it!”
After traveling for ten days, Su Mo had a sleepless night the night before just like Chen Shen, Qi Qin, and the rest of them.
The term “going home” meant more than extravagant promises on the Wasteland. For Su Mo, the Marshland was still his home, the place where was firmly rooted to.
People were waiting for him there!
“Brother, brother, what’s going on? Are you keeping your wife from us?”
Su Mo was lost in thought as he stood at the bow of the ship and stared into the distance.
Lu Kuan as well as the group of people who jeered at him earlier tilted their heads back and laughed. After living near each other for more than ten days, everyone changed their perception of Su Mo’s attitude dramatically.
In their eyes, Su Mo might not have been a successful and good leader in the modern world. However, he was one in a million the most respectable leader in the Wasteland!
It had nothing to do with the great accomplishments he had achieved in the past. It was thanks to his great personality and character!
Who could have imagined the person that all men on the Wasteland had hailed as Godlike would be so down-to-earth?
He ate and drank with everyone. He also never pressured anyone with his title when they were in discussions.
When he was corrected in public for his mistakes, he was not one bit angry and accepted it with a heart of humility.
Who would have expected that the happiest moment for a man with such power was to laze on a lounge chair at the bow of the ship and devour various books while enjoying the sea breeze?
In the eyes of all, Su Mo was nothing like the Almighty Su they had imagined him to be. His pleasant character gained the adoration of many.
“Haha, what are you guys talking about?”
Su Mo snapped back to reality after he was called.
Hope One had arrived at the Great Canyon that was previously discovered in the talisman paper.
It was exactly the same the whole time he was gone. It was still serene and filled with beautiful mountain landscapes and rivers.
This meant Hope One was only one hour away from the village.
“Don’t tell me…you’re keeping your wife from
us?”
Su Chan bellowed while using her hands to form the shape of a trumpet.
Alas, she received a knock on the head in return that made others burst out laughing!
“Ouch…hitting me now, aren’t you? I’ll complain to my sister-in-law!”
“Go, go, go!”
Looking at how ‘upset’ Su Chan was, Su Mo waved his hand and walked down the bow laughing
“Zhang Long!” “Present!”
“Go get everyone to prepare. We’re an hour away from home. Get ready, and we’ll disembark after we docked!”
Zhang Long nodded and replied elatedly, “yes! I’ll go right away!”
Hope One had not stopped sailing within those ten days.
Everyone was able to endure the mundaneness for the first few days.
In the last two to three days, the restless bunch who were tormented by boredom due to having no entertainment from the game panel, jumped into the sea for a swim.
As he quickly made his way down to the deck, the cabin crew started cheering after the announcement was made!
“Liu Neng, get a few men to join you on the Sun-chaser speedboat. I’ll slow down and you guys scout ahead to make sure the coast is clear!”
Liu Neng got up while tugging at his shirt and replied, “yes, Chief! I’ll bring Moore with me, or else I will have a hard time if we were to bump into our kind.”
Su Mo nodded.
Although they were nearing home and safety was almost at its full capacity, Su Mo never got carried away and still chose the safest option to proceed with.
Everyone on the deck started leaving after they were assigned their tasks except Lu Kuan who was still standing there.
“Su Mo, we’ve discussed the starch conversion technique you mentioned previously. If we skip the photosynthesis process and use carbon dioxide to create starch, it may work efficiently. It’ll be easy to achieve certain results from doing so.”
“However, this type of matter can be easily achieved in a lab and more difficult to achieve in real life. Just like what you said, since we’re at this stage, shouldn’t we place our focus on controlled nuclear fusion and find out how we can achieve unlimited energy sources?”
“With the energy source, we do not need to worry about anything else, including starch. We can even convert meat if we wanted to!”
For the past ten days or so, they had about twenty brainstorming meetings on the Hope One. Su Mo started as a passive host and gradually became an assertive leader during these meetings which proved his terrifyingly quick learning speed. Su Mo could still lend Lu Kuan and the rest a hand in their research at this moment.
“No rush, the controlled nuclear fusion has to be set aside for now. The stress we have is not just about where we can find this magical element, they are mostly from…”
Lu Kuan was astonished as Su Mo pointed to the sky and said, “let’s study the compounds of starch for now. I have a hunch that food will be our biggest hurdle and we must settle the food issue for further development!”
“Alright!”
Once the inside information was revealed to Lu Kuan, he remained silent and left the place.
Su Mo was left alone on the deck.
As Su Mo watched the Sun-chaser speedboat leaving Hope One swiftly from its right, he smiled while a burst of green light scanned his body.
Su Mo thought he had gained enough from this trip.
A second later, a much more glamorous-looking game properties panel gradually appeared!
Su Mo burst into a loud guffaw.
“Marshland!”
“I… have become stronger!”
“I, Su Mo…” “I’m finally back!”
