Chapter 88 - 87: Pickles, Pickles, Pickles!

Ahead lay a small river, its banks teeming with various species of mutated plants.

Hayden Hanson pointed at several basin-sized rosette leaf clusters on the ground not far away. "Look, there are several mutated dandelions here!

"Their leaves are a bit bitter, but after blanching and sun-drying them, they’re not bad when boiled into a mush with Nutrition Blocks in the winter.

"The most crucial point is that the wild vegetables in Cindervale generally have low radiation levels. They can be foraged directly without needing to be tested."

Sev followed his gaze and indeed saw the fresh, vibrant green mutated dandelions.

Just as she was about to go over and harvest them, she looked up and spotted several tall, lush plants. They had thick stems and averaged over ten meters in height.

Sev tilted her head back and saw countless bright yellow, sunflower-like flower heads. They grew at the very top of the plants and branches, looking exceptionally dazzling.

Her first reaction was: "Could these be mutated sunflowers?"

However, upon closer inspection, she realized they were not. Sunflowers typically had a single main stem; even with branches, the main stem was always the most prominent. The plants before her grew in clusters, resembling trees more than anything else.

As she observed, she quickly searched her memories for a miniature version of this plant. Its stems were covered in coarse hairs, and its leaves were massive, oval, oppositely arranged, rough, and jagged at the edges.

She finally remembered—these were mutated Jerusalem artichokes!

"Hanson, didn’t you notice those are edible too?" she asked, pointing at the towering plants above the dandelions.

"Are you talking about the leaves of these mutated little sunflowers? They weren’t listed in the Botanical Encyclopedia before the war," Hayden said.

"Our Mercenary Guild only discovered them by accident. Since they were nameless and their flower heads looked like mutated sunflowers, we named them mutated little sunflowers.

"I harvested their leaves back then, only to find that not only were they rough and tough, but they also scratched the throat and tasted incredibly bitter.

"Most importantly, eating them easily leads to an upset stomach, so no one ever forages them anymore."

Sev rummaged through her original body’s memories and sure enough, there was no mention of Jerusalem artichokes as a vegetable. It seemed the people of this world had no prior knowledge of them.

"Then have you ever dug up their tubers?" Sev asked.

"Tubers? Do they bear fruit underground like mutated potatoes? But we had no idea!" Hayden was somewhat surprised.

There were countless species of mutated plants in the wild, and they couldn’t possibly dig three feet into the ground for every single one just to unearth its roots—unless they already recognized the species and knew the roots were edible.

Glancing at the sky, Sev didn’t want to waste time explaining. "Let’s hurry and dig!" she urged.

This time, she didn’t use the three-toothed rake. Unlike potatoes, it didn’t matter if Jerusalem artichokes were damaged during digging; they didn’t spoil easily.

Besides, she was digging them up to make pickles.

Pickled Jerusalem artichokes were sour, refreshing, and crisp—a delicacy one never got tired of eating! Moreover, they could be submerged in a pickle jar for a long time without softening.

It was her absolute favorite type of pickle, bar none.

The mere thought of soon eating pickles filled Sev with overwhelming joy. Pickles, pickles, pickles—her favorite!

Hayden now had a high degree of trust in Sev. Hearing her say they were edible, he buried his head in the task without another word. Since they didn’t have to worry about scratching the tubers, they dug without restraint, moving at a rapid pace.

From the three mutated Jerusalem artichokes, they unearthed a total of over three hundred pounds of tubers. Sev had to ask Hayden to throw away some of the toxic potatoes to make room for them. After all, this was an unexpected harvest, and it wouldn’t be good to let the other scavengers see it.

Finally, they cut some leaves off the mutated dandelions and stuffed them into the torn sacks as a cover.

Sev looked at the river, very tempted to try catching a few fish, but Hayden stopped her.

"The fish in the river have also mutated and are extremely vicious. If you aren’t careful, you can easily get bitten, and their teeth are venomous. You can’t fish without professional equipment."

Sev glanced at the river resentfully a few times before finally, reluctantly, dragging the torn sacks back to their original spot.

Checking the time, it was already a quarter to five. Most people had finished digging potatoes by now, and Sean Stark was busy inspecting the yields.

They found a clean patch of ground to sit and rest. The sunlight spilled onto their backs, dispelling the chill of the forest shade, and Sev couldn’t help but feel a little drowsy.

Suddenly, her heart palpitated. A hypersensitivity to danger, honed from years of hunting, immediately set off alarm bells in her mind.

A fierce beast was approaching! A large one!

Just as this thought arose, she saw her watch light up, its red light flashing incessantly. Turning her head to look at Hayden beside her, she saw his watch was also flashing with a blinding red light.

This was a unified danger alarm issued by the Mercenary Guild!

Hayden’s expression changed drastically. He grabbed her arm and began sprinting wildly in the opposite direction from which they had come.

Their seat numbers were 9 and 10, meaning they were seated near the front of the truck and their assigned area was closest to the edge. At this moment, most of the scavengers hadn’t yet reacted. Coupled with the fact that Hayden’s running speed far exceeded that of a normal person, they easily reached the front of the fleeing crowd.

Sev ran wildly alongside him in a daze, occasionally glancing back. She saw the mercenaries patrolling nearby collectively moving rapidly toward the Mutant Potato Forest.

However, her heart palpitations were growing increasingly severe.

"Why does it feel like I’m in more and more danger even though I’m running away?" she wondered.

The distance from the Mutant Potato Forest to where the heavy truck was parked was over eight hundred meters. At their current sprinting speed, they would need about four minutes to arrive.

Meanwhile, hurried footsteps gradually echoed from behind. The other scavengers must have realized what was happening and were fleeing toward the truck as well.

They finally reached the end of the small path. Sev looked up and saw the heavy truck just a few dozen meters ahead, but her heart palpitations reached their peak at that very moment!

Acting on instinct, she lunged at Hayden beside her, tackling him into a low, densely thorned bush.

Caught off guard, Hayden had his hands and face pricked by the fine thorns. Fortunately, he was an Ability user. Even though his genes had collapsed and he couldn’t use his Ability, his physique was still far superior to that of an ordinary person.

The thorns only stung him; they didn’t pierce his skin.

And Sev, having tackled him, was shielded from the vast majority of the damage as he acted as her human cushion. Even so, a few thin, bloody scratches were left on her cheek.

Hayden was bewildered, but a second later, he too sensed the danger. Hugging Sev close, he rolled several times deeper into the bushes.

Simultaneously, the ground behind them rapidly swelled up before violently exploding!

Dirt and gravel sprayed out like a fountain, followed by two claws gleaming with a dark metallic luster bursting from the earth. Right after, a cone-shaped, scale-covered head drilled its way out. Bizarrely, such a terrifying head actually sported a pair of rather cute, hare-like ears!

Catching this scene from the corner of her eye, Sev was utterly petrified!

Hayden’s face was deathly pale. "It’s a mutated armadillo!" he whispered into her ear.

Sev suddenly understood. She finally knew why her heart had been pounding so fiercely.

It turned out this massive creature had been hiding underground all along!

During the few seconds of their brief exchange, the mutated armadillo’s entire body emerged from the dirt. It was as large as a small rhinoceros, fully armored, and gleaming with a cold metallic luster under the setting sun.

At that moment, the scavenger closest to Sev and Hayden clearly hadn’t reacted in time and charged headlong right in front of the mutated armadillo.

A five-foot-long, coarse pink tongue suddenly shot out from the massive beast’s mouth, wrapping around the man’s waist. Accompanied by a terrified shriek, the man was swallowed whole into its maw!