Chapter 441: Chapter 441
The Fat Chicken clucked at her feet, and Gou Tuizi fully agreed with Jing Shu’s statement.
Speaking of this, when Jing Shu first boarded the 808 cargo ship, she saw a peculiar sight: Tan Ke’s dense hair had been methodically pecked, strand by strand, into a chicken’s nest. The Fat Chicken was comfortably nestled there, two black chicks perched on her back.
It was hard to imagine that a 2-meter-tall, muscular man, who had exuded such a powerful aura when Jing Shu first met him, now had chickens nesting on his head.
The Fat Chicken was large, and Tan Ke was strong. This combination made it look as if Tan Ke were wearing a brownish-yellow, feathery chicken hat. And what a hat it was—an old hen that actually moved, weighed over forty kilograms, and was so plump it fanned out like a giant parasol, completely obscuring Tan Ke’s vision.
"Get down from there, quickly..." When Jing Shu had gone to the Underwater World with Yang Yang and Hao Yunlai, she had only left the Fat Chicken with Tan Ke for a moment. How had it come to this?
Tan Ke smiled sheepishly. "I was about to move some supplies and was afraid of losing your chicken, so I put her on my shoulder. Unexpectedly, she made a nest on my head and refused to come down. But she did lay quite a few eggs for me, as if it were a trade."
A chicken bartering eggs for comfort!
With that, Tan Ke carefully took out eight eggs from his pocket and handed them to Jing Shu. After all, at 50 Contribution Value each, these eggs were treasured by the entire team. A chicken that laid only one egg a day wasn’t particularly precious, but one that could lay more than twenty, or even thirty eggs a day—providing essential nutrition for the whole team—was invaluable. Although Jing Shu herself consumed most of the eggs.
Not to mention, the eggs laid by the Fat Chicken were exceptionally delicious. Anyone who tasted them once craved them again, even at the exorbitant price of 50 Contribution Value.
"Since the Fat Chicken gave them to you, you should keep them," Jing Shu said. She knew that whenever team members used Contribution Value to exchange for eggs, the others would immediately ask Jing Shu to make them fried eggs, egg custard, or scrambled eggs. Only Tan Ke carefully hoarded his, saying they were for his little sister. (Jing Shu, to her credit, didn’t charge an extra processing fee for these dishes; she was quite merciful.)
Jing Shu shot the Fat Chicken a look, letting it know it should behave.
So, the Fat Chicken neatly arranged Tan Ke’s hair with its beak, even using its saliva to give him a new "hairstyle." Then, with its chicks in tow, it flew down and, like a loyal lackey, followed at Jing Shu’s feet, behaving with exceptional docility.
Tan Ke grumbled, "Oh, I *really* have you to thank for the new hairstyle."
The Fat Chicken clucked smugly, "You’re welcome, you’re welcome."
The teammates looked on with envy at the Fat Chicken. When they first encountered it on the plane, many had laughed at Jing Shu for bringing a chicken along. Yet, how many times over the past few months had they relied on its eggs to survive? This was true even though everyone also paid a handsome sum in Contribution Value for them.
Even dogs reputed to be among the world’s ten fiercest breeds, whose owners had boasted they loved eating chicken, were now mere underlings to the Fat Chicken. Furthermore, in the Underground Black Market fights, the Fat Chicken showcased its combat prowess. It won ten bouts for Jing Shu, earning hundreds of thousands of Black Market Coins. These victories also enabled everyone else to win money and exchange for supplies.
The Fat Chicken’s contributions were plain for all to see. Consequently, people were inevitably more indulgent towards it, even pampering it, which had made the chicken quite arrogant.
...But back to the previous topic.
Lingling’s hand, which had been cleaning her gun, paused. She lowered her head and said softly, "I’m afraid we might never be able to return to the United States again."
"Why?" Jing Shu asked in surprise. If there were many wealthy Qian Duoduos in the country with a demand for foreign goods, it would still be possible for them to venture out once a year, provided there was ’sponsorship.’ The United States was like a fatted sheep, ripe for harvesting at intervals. Although conditions grew increasingly dire over time, the truly ’fat sheep,’ in the end, were like salted duck eggs—rich and practically oozing oil!
Truth be told, Jing Shu was quite envious of those tycoons with private planes. Although the fuel cost for a single flight was exorbitant, in the apocalypse, if one could make such a trip to plunder resources, fuel costs would be negligible compared to the sure profit, rich as oil.
If the Magic Cube Space reached Tier 13 or higher, it could definitely hold a small airplane, Jing Shu mused. Then, even if I came out alone to other countries, I could gather more supplies. After all, resources will only become scarcer.
She couldn’t help thinking that acquiring airplanes or attack helicopters wouldn’t actually be too difficult; she could even steal them if necessary. However, the lack of a place for storage and maintenance posed a significant problem, making them inconvenient. Otherwise, during the Underground Black Market supply runs, she might have risked smuggling an attack helicopter into her Magic Cube Space, taking it out when needed and stowing it away when not.
Ultimately, the space was just too small. It was hard to imagine how she had managed to raise chickens, farm, and store apocalypse supplies when the Magic Cube Space was initially only 4x4x4 meters—a mere 64 cubic meters.
"The Magic Cube Space is only at Tier 8. There’s still a long way to go," Jing Shu sighed. Although she had been practicing with the Magic Cube lately, advancing to Tier 9 would still take some time. Firstly, with her teammates around, constantly pulling such a large cube out from her pants wasn’t exactly proper. Secondly, she was simply too busy and couldn’t find enough time.
After returning home this time, Jing Shu planned to dedicate herself to practicing with the Magic Cube Space. She aimed to upgrade it to a sufficient size before the fifth-year migration, which was crucial for her upcoming plans.
Lingling explained reservedly, after pulling out her smartphone and opening the official website to translate for Jing Shu and the others—who, being unable to read English, never paid attention to United States Government news and were thus unaware of recent major events.
"We’ve been put on the United States’ blacklist," Lingling began. "Now, not only have our appearances been exposed, but the fingerprints, facial scans, and iris scans we registered back in Austin have all been disseminated through a Government-issued wanted notice. We’re globally wanted, with substantial rewards posted. Any information leading to us is worth 50,000 pounds of food. If someone manages to capture one of us—for instance, Bo—and turns them over to the United States Government, the reward is 300,000 pounds of food!"
Tan Ke’s eyes widened. "We’ve been exposed? Impossible! Didn’t we just make off with millions of pounds worth of stuff? The thing is, we only took a third of the rare minerals. The bulk of it was taken by that despicable fraudster, Dr. B."
Snake Spirit raised an eyebrow. "Surely we wouldn’t be on the Government’s blacklist for just that small amount of material?"
"You probably don’t know that recently, in Austin, hundreds of thousands of people in the entire castle have contracted a fatal disease! The amount of blood they cough up each day could circle the Earth three times. Concurrently, a large number of high-ranking officials and farm owners have died. Read full story at 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩
Every day, bodies are stacked as high as mountains. This has incited greed in many, who have subsequently looted resources, leading to numerous bloody incidents. Simultaneously, on the outskirts, many people have suffered from mild radiation exposure and fallen ill. Austin is now in total chaos and has become a veritable ghost town, which is having a profoundly negative impact on the United States."