Chapter 2: Wild Yams and Big Mushrooms

Flipping through the original owner’s memories, Sev realized that nowadays, only the official Agricultural Research Institute could barely purify small areas of land through various methods. Then, using exorbitant radiation-proof greenhouses, they could grow edible, low-radiation plants. However, the meager harvest was only enough for the higher-ups of the security zone to enjoy. Ordinary civilians had to rely on scavenging in the wilderness to survive.

But the vast majority of plants in the wild were highly contaminated with radiation. Consuming such contaminants would accelerate the worsening of radiation sickness and drastically shorten one’s lifespan. Survivors could only rely on official-issued testing equipment to pick out a few plants with low to medium radiation levels from the vast forest to eat.

As for meat? Don’t even think about it. All surviving animals had mutated, and ordinary people would go mad if they ate the meat of a Mutant Beast.

Today, the original owner had come out to scavenge with the slum dwellers of the security zone. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her children to come out and do this work, but the authorities had set up checkpoints prohibiting children under eight from scavenging outside. And of the four children she had adopted, the oldest was only seven and a half.

Nor did she genuinely want to adopt children. She was just afraid that older children would be hard to control, so she had planned to suppress them from a young age, molding them into submissive characters. That way, even when they grew older, they wouldn’t dare rebel against her.

Having sorted out these memories, Sev Steele immediately ran back to the scene of the earlier tragedy and found the section of mutant wild yam the original owner had dropped.

At that time, the original owner had finally managed to dig up a section of mutant wild yam, only to be discovered by Marcus Wyatt, a neighbor who had been trailing her with malicious intent. Marcus had originally planned to just kill her and steal the goods, but he coveted her body and intended to rape her first.

Before he could commit the crime, they encountered that Mutant Pine Marten.

Marcus immediately pushed the original owner forward as a human shield. Believing she was going to be eaten alive by the Mutant Beast, the original owner was literally scared to death. And then, Sev Steele, a modern-day corporate slave from Azure, transmigrated into her body.

Relying on the agility she had honed since childhood while hunting in the mountains with her grandfather, she instinctively rolled on the ground, dodging the Mutant Pine Marten’s fatal bite. After that, the Mutant Pine Marten gave up on its difficult prey, locked onto Marcus Wyatt instead, and ate him right then and there.

At this thought, Sev couldn’t help but curse bitterly, "Animal! You deserved to be fed to the beasts! Talk about instant karma!"

After venting, she looked down at the several sections of wild yam on the ground. Each was as thick as a bowl, and together they added up to over ten meters in length. Sev picked them up, weighed them in her arms, and thought, "Good heavens! This must be at least a hundred pounds!"

Thinking of the four hungry children waiting at home, Sev hurriedly took out her cutting knife and sliced the wild yam into small sections, each about a hand’s span long. Then, she took off the Tactical Backpack she carried and pressed the green storage button. A pitch-black, basin-sized opening appeared before her eyes.

She stuffed the wild yam pieces in one by one, watching as the Tactical Backpack maintained the size of a regular school bag. Even after she stuffed all ninety-eight pieces inside, the backpack’s shape didn’t change at all. After pressing the yellow close button, she slung the backpack over her shoulders and tested the weight; it still felt as light as an empty bag.

She couldn’t help but marvel, "High tech is truly magical!"

The Tactical Backpack was developed on Planet Veridia fifty years ago, acting as an expandable storage space. Every wasteland resident would prepare one when they came out to scavenge. The one the original owner carried was the basic model with the smallest capacity—one cubic meter. Even so, it was enough to leave Sev in awe. She wondered, "Isn’t this the legendary portable space?"

Unfortunately, this basic Tactical Backpack didn’t belong to the original owner; she had rented it from the officials of the Ninth Security Zone, where she lived. Renting a Tactical Backpack required the tenant to pay twenty percent of their harvest as a fee, and any damage had to be compensated at full price. This full-price compensation meant paying the price of a brand-new backpack, which cost 500,000 Contribution Points!

Almost no civilian in the Ninth Security Zone had savings exceeding fifty thousand points, so no one could afford even a basic Tactical Backpack. However, not renting one wasn’t an option. The nearby areas no longer had any low- or medium-radiation plants left to harvest, meaning scavengers had to travel at least ten kilometers away to forage.

Without a Tactical Backpack, they could only use tattered gunny sacks to carry their supplies. Aside from the sheer weight, the main issue was the risk of being robbed outright by other scavengers. With a Tactical Backpack, supplies could be stored directly inside while the bag remained as light as an empty one. If they ran into highwaymen, it would be much easier to escape.

Having dealt with the mutant wild yam pieces, Sev didn’t plan to continue foraging. Following the path in her memory, she weaved through the jungle, intending to head straight back to the settlement. As Sev walked, she pondered how to cook the wild yam in her backpack. Steaming, roasting, boiling, or frying? The more she thought about it, the hungrier she got, her mouth practically watering.

Suddenly, her foot slipped, and she took a tumble. Fortunately, she caught herself with her palms in time, preventing a worse fall. Sev sat on the ground and rubbed her stinging palms. Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a black, umbrella-shaped object. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a giant mushroom!

From the original owner’s memories, she knew that fungi were now universally recognized as poisonous plants and were on the inedible list. During the long, ten-year nuclear winter, fungi had been completely unable to survive the freezing temperatures. Over time, the survivors gradually forgot how to distinguish whether they were poisonous or not.

Later, when the nuclear winter passed and survivors returned to the surface, they harvested the first batch of fungi. Some were poisoned to death on the spot, while others contracted severe radiation sickness due to the high radiation levels. This created the misconception that all fungi were toxic, and the authorities naturally placed them on the strictly forbidden list.

Now, having discovered this giant mushroom, Sev carefully examined it and recognized it as a black bolete. She pricked up her ears to listen for any movement nearby before carefully taking out her radiation detector from the Tactical Backpack.

This was a large, scissor-like tool commonly known as a Detection Knife. By cutting into a plant, the Detection Knife could automatically detect its radiation level from the wound. The radiation scale ranged from zero to one hundred. Zero to thirty was low radiation, thirty to sixty was medium, sixty to ninety was high, and ninety to one hundred was lethal.

Sev picked up the Detection Knife, aimed it at a corner of the large mushroom, and pressed the red button on the handle. With a faint CLICK, a voice broadcast began a few seconds later:

"BEEP! Detected a plant not on the edible list. Radiation level is thirty-eight, classified as medium radiation. Please do not place it in the Tactical Backpack to prevent contaminating other edible supplies."

Sev searched the surrounding area carefully and found a total of thirteen large mushrooms, all of the same variety. She used the Detection Knife to test them one by one. The radiation levels ranged from thirty-three to fifty-six, but to her surprise, one of them had a radiation level of only twenty-seven—it was a low-radiation plant!

Sev was so thrilled she almost cried.

The probability of finding low-radiation plants in the wild was microscopic. It was something the civilians of the Ninth Security Zone wouldn’t even dare dream of. Rumor had it that if sold in the trading hall, such an item could fetch an astronomical price—ten times that of medium-radiation supplies.

Sev hurriedly pulled a vacuum-sealed freshness bag from her inner pocket, stuffed the low-radiation giant mushroom inside, and sealed it tight.

Vacuum-sealed freshness bags were expensive for the slum dwellers here; one Contribution Point could only buy two. Moreover, they were single-use consumables and couldn’t be reused, so no one was willing to buy many of them. Typically, scavengers would keep a couple in their inner pockets just in case they struck it lucky and found a low-radiation plant. By sealing it immediately, they ensured it could be sold for a high price.

After handling the only low-radiation mushroom, she took a tattered gunny sack out of her Tactical Backpack and stuffed the remaining twelve medium-radiation mushrooms into it. Scavengers who rented a Tactical Backpack usually also carried one or two tattered sacks. This was so they could conveniently gather some high-radiation dry grass or branches to take back as firewood.

However, if high-radiation materials were mixed with low- and medium-radiation supplies, prolonged exposure would contaminate the low-radiation items and raise their radiation levels. Therefore, there was a strict rule when renting a Tactical Backpack: high-radiation materials were not allowed inside. To prevent scavengers from ignoring this, all Detection Knife voice broadcasts included a reminder.

Once Sev had sealed up the lone low-radiation mushroom, she hid it within the pile of other mushrooms in the tattered sack. She grabbed a handful of dirt-covered dry grass from nearby and stuffed it into the sack as well, before finally dragging it along as she continued her journey back.

The bag of giant mushrooms weighed roughly twenty pounds in total. Even though she was dragging it, it was no light burden. However, since she was only a little over a kilometer away from the security zone, Sev didn’t dare stuff the sack into her backpack. She didn’t want outsiders to see her and attract unnecessary trouble.