Chapter 30 - 29: Terrifying High-Radiation Rainstorm

With newfound respect for him, Sev Steele now truly considered him a companion.

"Hanson, I wanted to ask," Sev said, "is it better to awaken an Ability as young as possible, or is it better to build up a solid foundation first for a stronger breakthrough?"

"If a child attempts to awaken an Ability without any preparation, they’ll likely fail and might even damage their foundation.

"So, my advice is to first nurture their physical health, then prepare a Crystal Core that matches their elemental affinity. That way, even if the awakening fails, their body won’t suffer severe damage."

Hayden Hanson assumed she was trying to force the children in her family to awaken their Abilities, so his tone was incredibly serious.

Sev felt a wave of guilt upon hearing this. Although she hadn’t intentionally caused Rose to awaken her Ability early, she definitely shouldn’t have casually given the child mutant milk.

It was pure luck that she had a Wood Element Crystal Core on hand at the time. Otherwise, Rose could have easily failed her awakening and ruined her foundation.

As they spoke, the two approached Virenswood.

A fierce battle had taken place here just two days ago, and the signs of the struggle were still fresh on the ground. The remains of the Mutant Snake left behind had long been picked clean, leaving nothing but dark brown bloodstains in the dirt.

When Sev had hurriedly buried the mother rat, she had specially sprinkled Beast Repelling Powder around it to prevent other Mutant Beasts from devouring its corpse. Yet now, she saw a large pit dug out where she had buried it. There were fresh signs of a fight, and the mother rat’s body was gone.

It seemed the rat couldn’t escape the fate of being eaten after all.

The sheer cruelty of The Wasteland made Sev shudder. She had to earn enough money and train the children to be strong as quickly as possible. That was the only way their family could survive in The Wasteland.

Noticing her pale face, Hayden comforted her. "Don’t be afraid. By the looks of it, this place just experienced a battle between Mutant Beasts a couple of days ago.

"But now that there’s nothing left, it’s actually safer than usual."

"Yeah, I’m not afraid," Sev nodded.

They began selecting bamboo. Hayden chose tall, thick stalks with smooth surfaces. Sev also picked two thick ones, but then she selected several thinner ones, about the thickness of an adult’s arm.

Hayden was puzzled. "What are you going to use such thin bamboo for?"

"I’m planning to make a few teacups and food containers. I’ll also slice some thin strips to weave a few boxes," Sev explained.

"You know how to weave boxes?" Hayden asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I learned from a janitor back in the orphanage. We spent all day hiding in the air raid shelters, and both the adults and kids were bored out of their minds. He saw that I was good with my hands, so he taught me." Sev casually spun a new lie.

Previously, she had tricked her own little brats by claiming she read about bamboo weaving in a book. But a lie like that wouldn’t fool the man standing in front of her. He was a former member of the Mercenary Guild, after all. He was well-traveled and experienced. If he asked to borrow the book, her lie would fall apart instantly.

Hearing this, Hayden didn’t suspect a thing. After all, the government had established many underground orphanages following the great war.

They chopped down their chosen bamboo. Sev helped Hayden bundle it up and load it onto the handcart, ready to head back to the city.

The variety of edible wild greens around Virenswood was extremely sparse, so Scavengers rarely came here to forage. If not for this bamboo forest, the area would have been completely abandoned.

The sky had been clear and cloudless when they arrived, but dark clouds suddenly gathered on their way back. A torrential downpour was imminent.

Sev couldn’t help but panic. The radiation levels in the air of The Wasteland already exceeded safety standards, and rain was formed from condensed water vapor. The rain would concentrate radioactive materials from a large volume of air—from the clouds down to the ground—into a relatively small volume of rainwater, creating an enrichment effect. It was the equivalent of "sweeping" pollutants from a massive expanse of air and concentrating them into single points on the ground. Therefore, the radioactivity per unit volume of rainwater was far higher than that of the air.

In layman’s terms, rainwater in The Wasteland was exponentially more radioactive than the air. The ambient radiation level was usually around 40, but in the rain, it would spike to 70 or even 80.

"We’re leaving the bamboo. We have to find a place to take cover!" Hayden stated decisively.

Sev felt a twinge of heartache over abandoning the bamboo they had worked so hard to harvest and drag halfway back. But she knew very well that compared to their lives, such things were insignificant.

"Okay!" she nodded without a second’s hesitation.

Hayden’s impression of her improved once again. This woman was decisive; she didn’t dawdle or obsess over petty gains when trouble struck, unlike the other slum dwellers in the Safe Zone.

Tossing aside any thoughts of propriety between men and women at a time like this, he grabbed her arm and sprinted toward the edge of the forest.

Upon reaching a thicket of bushes, he pulled a pointed shovel from his backpack and viciously dug into a patch of flattened weeds. Soon, the weeds were cleared away, revealing a hole about fifty centimeters in diameter.

"Stay close. I’m not sure if there are any Mutant Rabbits hiding in here," Hayden said rapidly, bracing himself against the walls of the hole and sliding down.

Sev didn’t have time to say anything. She quickly followed him, sliding down the hole.

It was pitch black inside. Sev tried to brace her hands against the uneven walls to slow her descent. Fortunately, Hayden’s feet soon hit solid ground. He made room for her to land, then pulled her a few steps forward to ensure that even if rain poured through the opening, the splashes wouldn’t reach them.

About a minute after they ducked into the burrow, they heard the rapid PATTER of heavy raindrops smashing against the leaves above. They stood silently in the dark as the rain poured relentlessly outside. From the sound alone, it was clear how massive and dense the raindrops were.

Sev felt a wave of delayed fear. Thank goodness they had taken cover in time, or they would have been drenched like drowned rats.

Being soaked wasn’t the scary part, though. What terrified her was the highly radioactive rainwater touching her skin—it would cause severe radiation sickness or even genetic collapse. Even an Ability user like Hayden wouldn’t be spared, let alone an ordinary person like Sev.

The result of genetic collapse was catastrophic: the destruction of the stem cell reservoirs (bone marrow and intestines) responsible for renewing life. This would lead to the loss of cellular regeneration necessary to sustain life, ultimately resulting in death from infection, hemorrhage, and multiple organ failure.

These were the cruel realities that humans who hadn’t made it underground during the great war had experienced firsthand. When the original owner of Sev’s body was a child in the orphanage, she had witnessed those tragic scenes more than once.

The torrential rain came and went quickly. Once the sound of the rain stopped, complete silence fell over their surroundings.

In the dark, Hayden blindly pulled a pair of tall boots and a waterproof poncho from his backpack.

"Put these on," he whispered in her ear.