Chapter 1 Chen Luo

Chen Luo returned to the yard and called out, "Yu-jie, make some appetizers for tonight."

Ma Yu was cooking for the puppies and responded.

Chen Luo's face darkened. Yu-jie, are you cooking poop? It smells so bad?

Why is it even worse than before?

The more you experiment, the worse it smells?

It seems that the meat of mutated creatures is truly unsolvable.

Ma Yu put a few black-leaved plants in the large iron pot, but unexpectedly, the shark meat smelled even worse.

Ma Yu was on the verge of tears.

The puppies, however, were even more excited, guarding the iron pot, thinking it smelled even better.

"That's about it," Ma Yu said, scooping it into a large bowl for the puppies to eat.

The puppies took a bite, barked a few times. It smelled bad, but it didn't taste as good as before.

But Ma Yu was preparing the dishes for the evening and didn't pay attention to the puppies' barking.

The puppies could only reluctantly eat, knowing that being picky would result in a beating.

The next day, Chen Luo had to go out again.

The three branch bases had collected a lot of high-level crystals. A small part was harvested by themselves, but the vast majority were high-level crystals that other freelancers had found by luck.

They had reached the level cap and couldn't use them themselves, so they had to come to Dawn City to exchange them.

An eighth-level crystal could be exchanged for three hundred *jin* of rice and some vegetables.

Too cheap.

Although other bases had scarce supplies, they could still scrape together three hundred *jin* of rice. They also had nature-types who could grow crops.

These freelancers were very hostile to Dawn City. Why were they still doing business with Dawn City instead of choosing other bases?

Although Dawn City was a bit domineering, it had to be said that it was very trustworthy.

One is one, two is two, and they wouldn't secretly play tricks.

Other bases were unreliable. They might take your crystal and give you no grain, then kill you in secret. Who would know?

Freelancers could only exchange with Dawn City.

Moreover, Chen Luo had warned them, "Only I can do this business. You dare try and see what happens."

Each branch base collected a lot of high-level crystals, but they couldn't ensure foolproof transportation, and it would waste a lot of time.

There was no choice. Chen Luo had to take Hai Ji out to bring these crystals back, and then distribute them to core members who performed well as soon as possible.

Chen Luo's first stop was the farthest, Xia Haoran's place. Jin Yuanjiang had been transferred back and was taking care of the baby at the base.

She had given birth to a big, fat boy, making Jin Yuanjiang dance with joy.

At noon, the puppies were dissatisfied with Ma Yu's declining cooking skills. For three meals in a row, the meat hadn't tasted as good as before.

But they couldn't speak, so they found Meng Yinmeng to translate.

Meng Yin covered her nose and said, "Yu-jie, the puppies said that this shark meat doesn't taste as good as before. They want to know what's going on?"

Ma Yu was stunned. That couldn't be. She had only added a few black leaves. She saw that the puppies were sniffing happily, thinking it smelled better. Why were they complaining now?

Not as fragrant as before?

Ma Yu pinched her nose, closed her eyes, and forced herself to taste a piece of shark meat.

This meat was a nightmare for Ma Yu, it smelled terrible, but for the sake of the puppies, she had to taste it.

To Ma Yu's surprise, the meat didn't taste as bad as before.

Ma Yu immediately opened her eyes, very excited.

After countless experiments, she had finally made the meat taste a little better.

Although it was still hard to swallow, it was progress, wasn't it?

It could be considered finding a direction.

Was it thanks to the black leaves?

If she made further improvements, could she drastically improve the taste?

These black leaves also smelled terrible. It wasn't that Ma Yu wanted to fight odor with odor, but she wanted to try every mutated plant with flavoring properties.

Even though it tasted a little better, the puppies were still protesting.

Ma Yu could only conclude that the stinkier it was, the more the puppies liked it. Their tastes were different from humans.

Ma Yu's eyes lit up. The black leaves became even blacker after cooking, as if they absorbed some substances from the meat.

Having a direction, Ma Yu naturally wanted to conduct more experiments.

But there was only one black leaf left. Ma Yu immediately issued a task, asking the members to bring back as many black leaves as possible.

Ma Yu had the authority to issue point-based tasks.

Su Dazhu was nearby and smiled, "I saw this stuff on the mountain a while ago. I know where it is. There's a lot of it there."

Ma Yu said in surprise, "Really? Can you take me to see it?"

Ma Yu wanted to observe the growing environment of the black leaves, which might help with improvement. It would be better to see it in person.

Su Dazhu said with difficulty, "It's dangerous for you to go out."

Ma Yu smiled and said, "With Chen Luo feeding them a lot of crystals, even a pig can become an expert. I was already level seven two days ago."

"Besides, if there's danger, isn't that what you're here for?"

Su Dazhu thought for a while and said, "Okay."

Mi Fan was in the room and looked at Su Dazhu, sensing something.

"Silly big guy is in danger," she thought.

Mi Fan calculated with her fingers and saw that there was no danger, but instead good things would come in pairs.

Mi Fan had absorbed Bai Ou's king-level psychic crystal and was already level nine.

In fact, even changing the fate of others, especially those lower in level than her, wouldn't have much backlash. She could handle it.

After thinking about it, Mi Fan didn't say anything, letting things take their course.

For safety's sake, Su Dazhu brought two teams of members with them.

Firstly, they could protect Ma Yu in all directions, and secondly, they could transport the black leaves that Ma Yu needed back.

Su Dazhu drove, taking Ma Yu out.

This was Ma Yu's first time leaving Dawn City.

Ma Yu curiously looked at the scenery outside. The area near Dawn City was fine, but once they left Dawn City's territory, everything wasn't so good.

Ma Yu looked at Su Dazhu again.

Since Chen Luo had arranged for her and Su Dazhu to live in the same villa, Ma Yu understood Chen Luo's intentions.

Ma Yu was a bit resistant to this arrangement, as if her fate was being arranged by others.

But in the apocalypse, were there so many choices?

Ma Yu knew that she was Chen Luo's personal chef, which could be considered high-ranking and powerful. Were others approaching her because of her position?

In the early days of the apocalypse, Ma Yu deeply understood how terrible human nature could be.

Although Su Dazhu wasn't sweet-talking and was a bit dull, he was honest and kind, and Ma Yu didn't dislike him.

Maybe finding someone she didn't dislike to spend her life with was a good choice.

But what frustrated Ma Yu was that Su Dazhu's brain didn't seem to know what to do and wasn't proactive.

Ma Yu didn't know what Su Dazhu was thinking. She couldn't be the one to take the initiative, could she?

So she dragged it on until now.

After a period of wild thoughts, they arrived at the foot of a mountain after a two-hour drive.

Su Dazhu said, "The other day, when I came to look around, I saw the black leaves you mentioned. I even brought some of them back."

Su Dazhu walked in front, and a line of members surrounded Ma Yu, paying attention to the surrounding movements at all times.

If anything happened to Ma Yu, being kicked out of Dawn City would be the least of their worries.

These were all old members who knew Ma Yu's status. She was Chen Luo's absolute confidante.

Soon, Ma Yu saw the familiar black leaves. There really was a large patch of them.

Ma Yu squatted down, carefully observing the black leaves. After a few minutes, a vigilant member said, "Warning, a zombie is coming."