Ch99 Help, There's A Large Spider
"Where's the meat? Where's the meat..."
"I want meat! I want meat..."
Meng Ci suddenly heard voices outside.
Immediately, several people rushed in like a whirlwind, shoving him aside as they pounced like ravenous beasts on the dead rats scattered on the floor.
Leaning against the wall, Meng Ci watched these people fighting tooth and nail over a piece of rat meat, utterly baffled.
"Meng Cil Meng Ci!" Shen Que's anxious voice called from outside.
Hearing Shen Que's voice, Meng Ci hurriedly pushed his way out of the room.
"Shen Que, I'm here."
Spotting Meng Ci, Shen Que rushed over, pulled him close to make sure he was unharmed, and only then relaxed.
Shen Que, who had been searching for supplies in the supermarket moments earlier, had heard the loud shouts outside and feared something had happened to Meng Ci.
"What happened inside?" Shen Que noticed the shop Meng Ci had just emerged from, where several people were still fighting, and asked with confusion.
Meng Ci recounted the events that had just unfolded to Shen Que.
"Those rats must have mutated. Their blood is green. Is it safe for them to eat them?"
Before his life changed, Meng Ci couldn't even bear to look at fried silkworm pupae or scorpions, let alone eat them.
Much less these mutated creatures.
Shen Que shook his head. "It won't cause problems yet."
These rats had endured torrential rains, acid rain, and now blizzards. Months had passed, and their food supplies were long depleted.
Those that survived most likely fed on human flesh.
Then these rats were drenched in acid rain.
Being small, rats mutate much faster.
Humans, due to their larger size, only began mutating slowly two years after the acid rain.
However, these rats only exhibit abnormal physical changes and carry no toxicity.
Meng Ci nodded.
Even if non-toxic, Meng Ci made it clear he wouldn't eat it.
Seeing people still fighting fiercely over the rat meat inside, Meng Ci didn't get involved and left with Shen Que.
Even if the rat meat were poisonous, they probably wouldn't listen to Meng Ci anyway.
On the way back, Shen Que and Meng Ci discussed other mutated animals.
"Besides rats, cockroaches and spiders are mutating too. Their sizes are definitely much larger than usual."
"Soon it'll be cats and dogs."
"Then crocodiles and tigers."
"And who knows, maybe even white wolves will mutate."
Meng Ci had read about these things in novels.
That's why during the blizzard, Meng Ci mixed the last bag of cement and sand at home, then poured it into the house's sewer to prevent cockroaches and such from entering.
On their way back, Meng Ci and Shen Que encountered Lu Chen.
Lu Chen was accompanied by six soldiers carrying rifles, each holding a stack of papers.
"Lieutenant Lu, what are you doing?" Meng Ci asked curiously.
Lu Chen took a leaflet from a nearby soldier and handed it to Meng Cl.
"The government is organizing a market at Riverside Park downtown. People can trade goods there."
"If you're interested, you can give it a try."
Meng Ci examined the flyer in his hand. The market would officially open in three days.
"Alright, I'll definitely come support it then," Meng Ci agreed.
Lu Chen and his men still needed to distribute more flyers, so they quickly took their leave.
Meng Ci recalled that this bartering system had only begun during the zombie apocalypse.
But with Shen Que's reminder, he understood why they were starting it now.
Still, the items listed on the flyer were utterly baffling.
Ten pounds of live rats for one pound of rice. Ten pounds of dead rats for half a pound of rice.
Eight pounds of live cockroaches could be traded for one pound of rice.
Mice, Meng Ci could understand -after all, Shen Que had mentioned they ate such things In their previous lives.
But cockroaches and spiders? Were those edible too?
Meng Ci mentally conjured images of those creatures and felt nothing but revulsion.
Shen Que glanced at the flyer and shook his head. "No clue."
In his previous life, Shen Que only knew rats were edible; he'd never heard of the others.
Moreover, rats were initially non-toxic. But when temperatures rose and viruses ran rampant, these rodents became the primary carriers.
A single rat bite would cause relentless high fever, leading to untreatable death.
Perhaps because Shen Que had relayed information about the apocalypse to the government, it triggered a butterfly effect.
Perhaps the government had researched spiders and cockroaches in advance, discovered they were non-toxic, and collected them to make
canned food.
When edible supplies ran out later, these canned goods would
become lifesaving provisions.
But these were all speculations. To uncover the truth, they'd have to visit the market.
Returning to Jinshang Jiayuan,
Residents who had returned earlier had all moved to the 15th or 14th floors, fearing the blizzard would flood their homes.
As Meng Ci and Shen Que neared the 15th floor, they suddenly heard a woman's shriek.
"Ah!"
"Bang!"
A woman's voice echoed out, followed immediately by the sound of a door opening.
Thud thud thud!
Footsteps grew closer.
Meng Ci and Shen Que ignored them, continuing upward.
Unexpectedly, the woman moved swiftly, darting behind Meng Ci and clutching his clothes tightly.
Meng Ci frowned, trying to free his shirt from her grasp.
"Let go!"
She didn't listen, her sobs growing louder before she stammered out...
"Waaah, please... save me."
"Spiders! Huge spiders!"
Meng Ci roughly understood: two spiders had suddenly appeared in her home, terrifying her.
Recalling the flyer stating spider meat could be exchanged for food,
Meng Ci offered, "Let go. I'll help you catch the spiders."
Only then did the woman release him.
"Thank you, thank you!"
"My place is 1505."
The woman followed behind Meng Ci and Shen Que, clutching her mouth tightly, desperately trying to control her fear.
Meng Ci drew his long knife and approached cautiously.
Though the woman's state didn't seem staged, what if she was deceiving them? What if there were people lying in wait here?
Shen Que, likely thinking the same, stepped forward in two strides.
"Where..."
"Where's the spider!"
The woman hadn't closed the door when she came out, and the two spiders crawled out through the open doorway. Shen Que gripped his butcher's knife tightly, not giving Meng Ci a chance to act. With two swift swings, he chopped the spiders dead.
The blood flowing from both spiders was still green.
The woman's eyes widened in shock. Pointing at the spiders, she stammered, "H-how... how can it bleed green blood!"
Moreover, the spiders were unnaturally large, bigger than the woman's fist.
Shen Que held the spiders by their antennae, their blood dripping onto the ground.
"Let's go."
Without explaining to the woman, the two men left, carrying the spiders with them.