abcnovels
Chapter 327: 325: One Day (Two-in-One)
Chapter 327: 325: One Day (Two-in-One)
Chapter 327: Chapter 325: One Day (Two-in-One)
“Ptooey, ptooey.”
“Finally got out, that wasn’t easy!”
Having finally seen the sunlight, Bi Fang spat out twice, clearing his mouth of all the dust, and took deep breaths of the fresh air.
To call it fresh was not entirely accurate, as it wasn’t a huge forest, and if you sniffed carefully, there was still a smell of gunpowder, but it was still far better than the elevator shaft full of dust and the smell of black oil.
Once inside the factory, Bi Fang looked around. The floor was spacious; at first glance, it seemed like there were just a few load-bearing walls. The ground and the walls were covered in dust that had turned yellowish, and many of the windows had been fully shattered.
The drone’s sweep showed the audience even bullet holes preserved on the walls, with patches charred black — truly horrifying.
[It’s like a scene from the end of the world!]
[It’s so frightening, if you didn’t tell me this is a real place, I would definitely think it’s a movie set.]
“A machinery factory?”
The empty floor told the story of a place long since emptied, leaving only a few broken lathes in the corners.
“They must have moved everything themselves; otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered locking the door after clearing out. But finding anything good now will be difficult.”
Bi Fang meticulously searched within the factory, not missing any room, even checking the kitchen, finding nothing but some bottles and jars and the ground covered with black granular matter.
“Rat droppings.”
Bi Fang picked one up and pinched it, easily recognizing what it was without needing much deliberation.
“There might be rats nearby, which is actually not bad for food. I’ve gone almost twenty-four hours without eating, and now I’m so hungry it hurts. We can try to find a rat hole, and if we do, we might be able to catch some, and then we’ll have something for lunch today.”
With that, he stood up and began to search, carefully examining along the corners of the walls.
[Damn, eating rats?]
[This place is so dirty, won’t the rats be poisonous?]
When the audience heard Bi Fang was going to catch rats to solve the food crisis, they all got a shock. Can rats even be eaten?
They’re filthy and disgusting, and what’s more, they might carry diseases.
Besides, when compared to the prey Bi Fang had caught before, rats seemed rather insignificant and hardly something to boast about.
“I don’t have a choice, but this is still a city, even if it’s fallen into disrepair. Neither stray cats nor dogs can survive here, only rats can thrive in such an environment.”
Bi Fang spread his hands, paused in thought for a moment, and then began to smile mischievously.
“I forgot to tell you something, don’t think rats aren’t worth mentioning. In fact, one of the major benefits of rat meat is its ability to strengthen the kidneys. It contains a large amount of protein as well as various minerals and vitamins. It enters directly into the kidney meridian, helping improve kidney function and enhance kidney energy. It’s quite effective in preventing and relieving men’s kidney deficiency and frequent urination.
Moreover, rat meat is a high-protein, low-fat food that contains various amino acids essential to the human body. It promotes metabolism, improves bodily functions, and is high in selenium, which after being absorbed by the body can slow aging and also enhance male vitality.”
[???]
“What the heck, if you’re talking about that, I’m not sleepy anymore!”]
[“That’s it, we’re having a mouse feast tonight!”]
[“Hurry, hurry, where are the mice? I’ve got my net all ready!”]
[“Let me go, I can keep eating, what? Kidney deficiency? Impossible, how could I possibly have kidney deficiency”]
The Shuiyou’s eyes lit up at the mention of other benefits, sparking with a green glow almost like the ferocious wolves Bi Fang had encountered.
“Hahaha, everyone can try it, but I still need to remind you that mice carry viruses and bacteria. Eating something bitten by a mouse can lead to the plague, so you must cook them thoroughly, sterilizing by fire. Eating them raw can easily cause illness, and it’s best to choose field mice.
City mice live amidst trash every day and might ingest chronic rat poison and harmful substances like heavy metals. Many unscrupulous sellers slaughter domestic mice and pass them off as field mice to their customers, who have trouble telling the real from the fake.”
After adding this advice, Bi Fang started looking for traces of mice.
“Mouse holes are usually close to walls because that’s where they prefer to be. Being by a wall lets them feel safe from predators. Also, pay extra attention to parts with water pipes. With water pipes, mice have an escape route in case of danger, allowing them to burrow right into the pipes—look, this is it!”
Based on the features Bi Fang described, he quickly found a natural mouse hole, with a fallen water pipe as an excellent escape route.
This path connects their nest to their foraging spots, making it an ideal spot to set traps. Here, setting traps would be twice as effective with half the effort.
“Last time in the Wilderness Arena, someone haphazardly placed traps without first finding animal paths, and failed to catch anything after several days—an bloody lesson.
To find food in the wilderness, you first have to identify the signs of animal presence, such as droppings and urine. Based on this, setting traps in their frequent spots increases your chances of catching them by more than sixty percent, unlike last time when numerous traps caught nothing.”
[“Contestants: Stop cursing, stop cursing.”]
[“Drag them out for a beating!”]
[“Nameless contestants quietly passing by.”]
[“Contestant: It’s only been a few days, and you’ve already forgotten my name? Love really does fade away, doesn’t it?”]
Having located the animal trail, Bi Fang got down to business, gathering materials to make traps. Hunting traps are not one-size-fits-all; you have to adapt to the size and type of the animal, and the materials at hand.
“Just like in the wild, the urban jungle provides all the materials you need. This old factory is full of discarded materials I can use to build a trap.”
Bi Fang pulled out a welding rod, took a few steel pipes, picked up several ropes, and returned to the mouse hole.
He tied one end of a rope to a thick steel bar, and after securing it, Bi Fang lifted it to test the weight. It was very heavy. He propped up a large steel plate at an angle using a welding rod as a support bar, explaining, “This part is the actual trap. It needs to provide enough weight to catch the mice. This is indeed heavy, and the weight of the heavy steel bar can provide enough force in the trap. Most people would struggle to carry it with one hand. Next, I will use the welding rod as a trigger…”
He bent the welding rod he found earlier, its coated layers of flux flaking off.
Made of soft metal, the rod bent easily and held its shape, perfect for seamless insertion. It was placed beneath the trap, and finally, he unraveled a wire, connecting one end to the support bar and hanging the other end on the bent hook.
“With this setup, a slight touch will trigger the mechanism. We’ll then use another welding rod to make a steel ring. This is the trap the mice will have to cross. If anything steps on it, it will fall down. With such heavy weight, the mouse might even be crushed to death, which could then attract others…”
He placed the steel ring right in the center of the trap. Just as Bi Fang was about to proceed, he suddenly thought, what if the mouse is crushed immediately, brains squished out, attracting other animals?
In the aftermath of the great disaster, all animals were struggling to survive. The scent of blood could bring them from afar. Shouldn’t he set another trap, killing two birds with one stone?
The Shuiyou hearing this were dumbfounded.
[Goodness, infinite nesting dolls, huh? Should I perhaps set up another trap to catch the animal that hunts the mouse?]
[Should I also set another trap to catch the trap that catches the animal that hunts the mouse?]
[Should I even set another trap to catch the trap that catches the trap that hunts the mouse?]
[Let me break this nightmare cycle!]
[The mantis stalks the cicada, I’m impressed with your tactics!]
[Getting something for nothing, I’ve learned nothing at all]
It would have been fine if Bi Fang hadn’t thought of it, but now that he had, his heart felt as if it were being scratched by a hundred claws. In the end, he sighed and still used the remaining wire and his own body to make a simple noose trap.
Noose traps could catch anything, from small squirrels and rabbits to large wild boars,
as long as he set the right height from the ground. Most importantly, he had to find the animals’ travel path.
“The trap is about seven or eight centimeters off the ground, tailored to the size of a wild cat. Moreover, to increase the chances of success, we could block the other side with something, so that animals can only come from one direction.”
Bi Fang brought over a large wooden box and placed it on the left side of the mouse trap, while the noose trap was on the right. Should any animals come by, they would inevitably approach from the right, greatly increasing the odds of a successful capture.
With the trap set, all that was left was to patiently wait.
“Mice won’t dare come near my trap if I’m around, so I need to leave quickly to increase the chances of success.”
Bi Fang moved away from the mouse hole and started searching for usable materials again, starting with water storage containers. This was simple, it didn’t need to be too elaborate, a plastic water bottle would do.
“Don’t just use any plastic bottle you find. You can’t be sure what was originally inside it, especially from a factory. So you must find a mineral water bottle for better safety. But even then, you can’t be sure it originally contained mineral water, so we have to first look, then smell, and finally wash it. Only after completing these three steps can we use it.
Actually, the best method would be to boil it in hot water to sterilize it, as you can’t be sure who used it first, but that’s too much bother. Besides, normal mineral water bottles are mostly made of PET plastic, and boiling might release toxins, so I only do the first three steps.”
[My goodness, this is way too cautious. I’d never think of all this.]
[I wouldn’t survive three days in the wilderness]
[You’re thinking too much, one day, and not a day more.]
[Prudent and strong survivor!]
Bi Fang picked up a mineral water bottle with quite a bit of transparent liquid inside that looked like clean water, but that wasn’t enough to guarantee it was safe. He opened the cap and smelled it; there was no strange odor.
Finally, with the bottle in hand, Bi Fang went to another tap. Unsurprisingly, there was water here too, but the rust water contained a large amount of iron oxide, which would be a heavy burden on the liver if drunk directly.
After waiting for all the rust to clear, Bi Fang carefully washed the bottle before confidently starting to fill it. Since he had drunk some water on the top floor earlier, he just filled the bottle this time before leaving.
The spring chill was biting, and since Abbascan’s latitude wasn’t low, the temperature these past few days had been pretty low. It was only yesterday that he had lost a lot of water. Except for the elevator incident, he hadn’t sweated much today and wasn’t that thirsty either.
“If you can, it’s still best to drink boiled water. Considering the current situation in Yemen, the water plant’s filtration system is probably out of service. Even if it’s groundwater, because of urban pollution, it’s not good to drink directly.”
Now that he had a water source, the most critical moment had passed. Ben heaved a sigh of relief and carefully searched the factory, but didn’t find anything particularly valuable.
“However, this factory is very big. Looking from the high-rise before, we could see there’s not just one building; maybe this is an industrial park. If we explore the other buildings, we might find something. It’s a very good base camp, so I plan to make a nest here to get through the remaining days.”
The factory had everything, and Ben didn’t want to miss this opportunity. If possible, he wanted to camp here, and if he could scavenge some useful items to work with over a couple of days, he wouldn’t even be afraid of the mobs.
Of course, if there were too many people, that would be a different story.
Exiting from the inside of the factory was much easier than entering, because there were plenty of materials to use.
Feeling the weight of the parts in his hand, Ben tossed one forcefully, breaking the glass high on the wall. Then he threw out a length of hemp rope with an iron stick tied to one end. The stick lodged in the window ledge, and with a pull, it was secure.
And so, Ben climbed from the inside of the factory to the window, a good four or five meters up. The descent was just a matter of the same process in reverse, perching on the wall top, turning the iron stick in the other direction to secure it before lowering himself down using the rope.
In a few hours, he might come back to check for trapped prey. People couldn’t get into the factory, but there were still small holes in many places, enough for a cat or even a dog to get through.
As soon as he left the factory, Ben spotted a great shelter on a weed-covered path in one glance.
An overturned car!
“Haha, look what I’ve found, an old car!”
Excited, Ben approached the car and tried to pull the shattered door open with a bit of effort, and it opened.
[Hold on, can this thing house a person?]
[There’s no shortage of scrapped cars by the roadside, why find an overturned one?]
[Yeah, yeah, couldn’t you just fend off with a building like last night?]
“No way, it’s too cold. I almost froze to death last night.”
Ben shook his head. Last night, that’s what he had thought, but the temperature dropped sharply overnight, and he had been freezing until the sun rose and warmed things a bit.
As for why he specifically sought an overturned one.
“Would you pay special attention to an overturned car?”
The Shuiyou paused, but then some seemed to understand Ben’s idea.
The terror attack from yesterday was a lesson for Ben. This city wasn’t just inhabited by him, a Wilderness Traveler; it was also home to all kinds of thugs.
If he didn’t take them seriously, he might not be so lucky next time.
An overturned car wouldn’t attract special attention from anyone; even giving it a second glance would seem unnecessary.
“Moreover, an old car is safer and warmer than an old building. With a little modification, it can be quite comfortable. But you have to be careful with overturned cars, making sure there’s no gasoline leakage around. However, after this much time, if there was any, it’s long gone.”
After a brief inspection of the surroundings, Ben began to dismantle the car seat from above his head.
Car seats are usually filled with foam, which is a great insulator. They can serve as temporary bed boards to lie on and they’re quite comfortable.
Maybe tonight he could get a good night’s sleep.