Chapter One Hundred and One: The Battle Ends

As for the matter of equipment, Yang Fan could not truly take everything for himself. Out of the more than a hundred insect monsters, they had brought back over twenty bronze weapons and forty or fifty white-grade pieces of gear. Yang Fan did not waste words; he kept three bronze defensive items and two bronze weapons, leaving the rest for others to manage.

The defensive gear consisted of armor. Among all equipment, armor was exceedingly rare to drop; the odds alone made that clear, with the ratio of twenty to three. And this was not counting the many bonuses to his own attributes. Glancing at the time, he saw that evening was nearly upon them. In the apocalypse, night was the most terrifying time of all.

Before the sky darkened completely, Yang Fan ordered them to clean up the battlefield at full speed, while sending part of the group to scout and see whether any insect monsters remained nearby. If there were, then things would become troublesome.

Fortunately, no insect monsters appeared within a radius of more than a thousand meters. True Eagle Eye covered five hundred meters, and Yang Fan had sent others to check beyond that range. If none could be found within a thousand meters, then at least for the moment they could relax.

After distributing the defensive gear to Wang Cheng and Fu Gaobin, the cleanup had progressed much further. Aside from the corrupted beetles, all the steel beetles were hauled before him. Yang Fan dragged out one dead steel beetle and said, “Even after death, a steel beetle’s body remains extremely hard. But we can start disassembling it from the mouth, or rather from the small area above the abdomen. Watch closely.”

Yang Fan then taught everyone how to deal with a dead insect monster.

With a flash of the Thunder Essence Blade, he easily pierced the steel beetle’s abdomen and split it open. Green blood spilled out. Such waste was inevitable, but Li Qiang and the others winced at the sight. After Li Qiang and several others who had been treated with life potion learned that blood could be refined into life potion, they were unwilling to waste even a drop. They hurriedly fetched cups, buckets, and whatever else they could use to collect it.

Yang Fan looked over and gave a quiet laugh in his heart. It was not mockery, merely the feeling that it was somewhat amusing. Yet when he thought about it, he had once been the same.

He remembered that month in his previous life, when he had been nothing more than another person’s appendage, trailing behind others, running errands, serving tea and water, with not a shred of dignity. He had watched people being humiliated, burning with anger yet unable to speak, keeping his head down and saying nothing.

Now, were these people not the same as his former self? For the sake of survival, they were willing to give up everything. Dignity, face, all of it would be nothing but floating clouds.

He sighed. There was no time to dwell on that now. Yang Fan began dismembering the creature with practiced ease, extracting the tender insect meat from its forelimbs and abdomen. The meat had a salty flavor, so it needed no seasoning at all; even roasted plain, it tasted excellent.

“In a steel beetle’s body, there may be something called an insect core. It’s about the size of a thumb, crystal-colored, and it’s a kind of energy crystal. If we absorb it, it can directly increase our experience. But insect cores are rare. Only one in a hundred insects will produce one. If you find one, it belongs to whoever finds it. All right, now hurry and follow my method to take out the insect meat. We’ll have a good meal tonight. As for the insect carapaces, about three of them can be made into a decent bronze-grade defensive armor. These hundred insects should yield around twenty sets. Commander Li Qiang and I will distribute them evenly according to your strength!”

With those words, everyone’s eyes lit up at once, and they all began dismembering the bodies. More than a hundred steel beetles were worth quite a lot.

After everyone had finished dealing with the insect corpses, the surrounding area was still safe. By then, everyone finally let out a breath of relief.

“All right, now we’ll head to the place we planned earlier, start cooking, eat, and get a proper rest!”

Once the corpses had been handled, Yang Fan shouted an order. In the midst of wind and snow, trying to make a fire was like dreaming, but earlier they had dug out a cave. Once most of the wind and snow were blocked there, they could light a fire inside.

Insect meat was incredibly easy to prepare; a single boil in water was enough to eat it, much like lamb. It was very convenient. Even eaten raw, it was possible, though the taste was poor and a little fishy. But once boiled, it became a true delicacy.

“All right!”

“Let’s go, time to eat.”

“I’m starving to death.”

Hearing that there would be food, everyone’s mood eased a little. Chunks of broken meat were carried into the cave. Yang Fan, Li Qiang, and several others busied themselves inside, while the rest carefully scouted the surroundings. The corpses killed by the insect monsters had only just been buried, and no one could forget the terror of it all. No one dared to be careless here.

Li Qiang instructed his men to bring over several large cauldrons, and they began cooking. A fair amount of firewood had been piled up, though it was of little use. Yang Fan cleverly smeared some of the corrosive beetles’ saliva onto the wood, and in an instant a great blaze roared to life.

“So one insect monster has so many uses,” Li Qiang exclaimed at the sight of the fierce flames, deeply admiring Yang Fan’s skill and keen sense of timing.

Yang Fan said nothing. He began pouring water over the pots. Most of it was purified water, mixed with a large amount of snow turned into icy water. Once the flames heated it, the reaction of expansion and contraction immediately became apparent, crackling and popping in everyone’s ears. Many people watched in alarm, fearing the pot might explode.

But in an instant, Yang Fan covered the cauldrons with his astral force, buffering the incompatibility between the two properties. These methods had all been learned in his previous life, and he had paid a heavy price for them. In a new environment, one had to overcome every difficulty. The price of that survival was brutal.

Yang Fan did this in front of everyone precisely so they would learn how to make use of every resource in the apocalypse.

Once the fire was ready, Yang Fan had to supervise the cooking personally. Otherwise, if someone added the wrong thing, they would all die without a doubt. Even with a save-and-reload ability, one could not place one’s life aside and treat it lightly.

“How many casualties do we have?” Yang Fan suddenly asked as he cooked.

“Thirty-six dead, one hundred and seven wounded, four critically injured, and they’ve already gone cold,” Li Qiang said, his mood growing heavy.

“Thirty-six dead, one hundred and seven wounded, four critically injured, already gone cold...” Yang Fan murmured while cooking. Then he said, “Do they have any family members? If they do, give them special protection.”

Li Qiang nodded. That was exactly what he meant as well.

In the apocalypse, death was actually very simple. This small measure of help was a form of protection for the soldiers too. Fighting for glory, fighting for the nation—those were all empty words. What people truly fought for was themselves, and for their families...

(Thanks to the friend with the username Flashing Light for the starting-point coin tip. Thank you. Also thanks to everyone else for their support! Eighteen more days, and this book will be put on sale. I hope everyone will continue to support it.)