“Could you tell the teams that go out gathering supplies that if they come across demon beast feces or anything like that, they should remember to bring them back?” Lu Li said.
Since human waste could be used as fertilizer, there was no reason Pokémon feces couldn’t be used as well.
Lu Li didn’t know exactly how to keep Berry trees from the Pokémon world alive, but perhaps using traditional cultivation methods combined with some characteristics unique to the Pokémon world might produce surprisingly good results.
Besides, if even his careful tending couldn’t keep a Berry tree alive, then the Berry trees growing in the wild would probably have an even harder time surviving.
Lu Li had always believed that the arrival of Pokémon was meant to change the world, not destroy humanity. Since they had brought Berry seeds with them, then those Berry seeds had to be capable of growing.
As for the impact on the environment…
In truth, that had always been what Lu Li feared most.
The Pokémon world contained eighteen different types of elemental energy. If one went by the settings of cultivation novels, then the arrival of Pokémon could very well cause the concentration of elemental energy throughout the entire world to rise sharply.
For now, Lu Li had no idea what effects those elemental energies might have on the human body.
He didn’t even know whether a world saturated with elemental energy would ultimately be a blessing or a curse for humanity.
Take oxygen, something humans depended on for survival. In nature, oxygen has always played the dual role of both creation and destruction.
The most classic example was the era of giants under a high-oxygen environment. Once insects were freed from the limits on their body size, wouldn’t that itself be a devastating blow to humanity?
Now that elemental energy had suddenly appeared, who knew what effects it might have on the human body?
Would it drive humanity to evolve, or simply eliminate humanity altogether?
For now, all of that remained unknown.
After saying goodbye to Jun Shutong, Lu Li returned to his room and began sorting through everything that had happened that day.
“That pleasant cry that came out of nowhere must have been Palpitoad’s Growl move,” Lu Li muttered to himself.
In the games, Growl worked by letting out a cute cry that lowered the opponent’s Attack.
But in the real world, the move actually had a hypnotic effect, and humans seemed to have absolutely no resistance to this kind of move.
Thinking about this brought another strange matter to Lu Li’s mind.
He had been hypnotized as well at the time, so why had he managed to wake up so quickly?
“Why was I able to wake up so fast? Is it because I’m special? And if I am, what exactly makes me special?” Lu Li began analyzing the possibilities in his mind.
His first guess was that because he had lived two lives, his soul, or perhaps his psychic power might be stronger than that of an ordinary person, which was why he had been able to wake up so quickly.
His second guess was that both he and Jun Shutong had previously been hit by a similar control-type move, so their bodies, or rather, their mind might have developed a certain degree of resistance.
His third guess was considerably bolder. He had been in close contact with Feebas all this time. If every Pokémon was essentially a source of radiation, then perhaps he had already been affected by that “radiation.”
For now, the first possibility couldn’t be ruled out, since it seemed the most likely.
The second possibility, however, could basically be dismissed. After all, Jun Shutong had only woken up because he had roused her, not because she had regained consciousness on her own. There was no reason why Jun Shutong, who had also been hit by Confuse Ray, would fail to develop resistance while he alone somehow did.
As for the third possibility, it fit best with Lu Li’s own subjective ideas about Pokémon.
Pokémon themselves were essentially aggregates of certain kinds of elemental energy. He had been living alongside Feebas all this time, so the amount of elemental-energy radiation he had been exposed to should have been the highest, perhaps even thousands or tens of thousands of times greater than that of an ordinary person.
If that theory was true, then it meant that the humans of this world might very well already be evolving in a certain direction.
Would humans infected by elemental energy turn into Pokémon? Or rather, would they become humans like those in the Pokémon world?
It was an extremely bold theory, and also the outcome Lu Li hoped for most.
But it was still only a theory. After all, what if the first explanation was the correct one?
Lu Li didn’t dare think too optimistically. Sometimes, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
With that thought, Lu Li subconsciously began feeding Feebas some fish food.
Feebas had finally started responding to him now. Although its responses were still somewhat sluggish, it was at least a good beginning.
After giving Feebas another round of grooming and care, Lu Li found several potted plants and transferred the soil from the pots into a plastic bucket.
Lu Li had kept potted plants before, so he roughly knew the universal formula for potting soil.
Nutrient soil : granules (perlite/coarse river sand) = 6 : 4. For succulents or plants with roots prone to waterlogging, the granule ratio should be increased to 50%–70%. Before potting, place a layer of ceramsite at the bottom of the pot as a “drainage layer.”
Afterward, Lu Li found Fatty Lei and asked whether there were any survivors in the camp who knew how to grow crops.
By dinnertime that evening, Fatty Lei brought him some good news.
There were quite a few people in the camp who knew how to grow things, though they were all elderly. When they were younger, these old people had farmed in the countryside. Only after growing old had their children brought them into the city to enjoy their retirement.
Lu Li deliberately sought advice from them and learned how to cultivate crops.
Compared to theorists, these old men were all men of practice. The moment they started talking about farming, it was as though they had become experts possessed, constantly rattling off all kinds of clever farming tricks and useful techniques.
There were no great secret techniques to farming in the first place, and the old men generously passed on all the experience they had accumulated over half their lives without holding anything back.
It wasn’t until eight in the evening that Lu Li reluctantly left the men’s dormitory.
“These old gentlemen who are genuine farmers are all incredible talents!” Lu Li sighed softly.
“You’re quite a talent yourself, making those old men so happy,” Fatty Lei teased.
In a good mood, Lu Li didn’t bother arguing with Fatty Lei over the teasing. Instead, he turned around and assigned him an even more “important mission.”
“Remember to make a statistics table tomorrow. It’d be best if you could figure out what everyone is good at.” After saying that, Lu Li headed back to his room without looking back.
Fatty Lei watched Lu Li’s retreating figure and shook his head helplessly before turning and entering the men’s dormitory.
He was actually quite envious that Lu Li could live alone, but that was all. He had no intention of following his example.
With the authority he currently held in the camp, it would be easy enough to have someone vacate a store for him to live in, but compared to living alone, staying with a group of people still felt safer.
After all, if something dangerous happened while he was living by himself, he might die without even knowing how.
That was also why he envied Lu Li but wasn’t jealous of him.
…
The eighth day after Pokémon descended.
As dawn was just beginning to break, once Jun Shutong confirmed that the rain had completely stopped, she quietly led a group of people toward Entrance No. 7.
By now, there was no one at Entrance No. 7. There wasn’t even any blood. Aside from the supplies scattered all over the ground and the water containers that had rolled everywhere, it didn’t look at all like the place had been attacked by demon beasts.
“Could those demon beasts have actually carried their prey back and stored them away?” Jun Shutong wondered in confusion.
After specifically assigning several sharp-eyed people to stand guard, Jun Shutong immediately set about organizing everyone to move the supplies.
Knowing how precious supplies were in the apocalypse, everyone worked quickly and efficiently. Not a single person dared slack off.
After all, these weren’t just supplies. They were their lives.
At that moment, Huang Jiafei, who was on guard duty, suddenly ran over to Jun Shutong and reported, “Sister Jun, it looks like some people are coming from Anke Residential Complex, and they don’t exactly look like good people.”
Hearing this, Jun Shutong frowned, wondering what Huang Jiafei meant by saying they didn’t look like good people.
“Come with me and take a look,” Jun Shutong said.
Jun Shutong wasn’t some naive young woman either. In the apocalypse, the line between good and evil often came down to a single thought. If there was a bad person hidden among a group and that person also gained the right to speak for everyone, then the whole group would soon be assimilated.
Conversely, if a good person held the right to speak for everyone, then the overall atmosphere of the camp would develop in a positive direction—provided that good person could continue keeping the bad elements among the crowd under control.
The moment Jun Shutong saw those people, she immediately understood why Huang Jiafei had said they didn’t look like good people.
Every one of them looked fierce and vicious, with an aura of hostility in their eyes that couldn’t be washed away. At a glance, it was obvious they were ruthless people who had seen blood before. They were also gripping gleaming watermelon knives and baseball bats.
Those weapons had limited effectiveness against Pokémon, but against fellow humans, they were deadly.
For this group to come out scavenging for supplies while carrying weapons like these, it was obvious that collecting supplies wasn’t their only purpose. If they ran into an isolated survivor, they would probably kill them and take their belongings.
Thinking of this, Jun Shutong’s expression turned cold as she quietly ordered Huang Jiafei, “Go call over a few young men who look fierce too.”
She was worried that the pistol in her hand might not be enough to intimidate this group. After all, she wasn’t wearing a police uniform. What if these desperate criminals mistook the gun in her hand for a toy?
If she had to fire a warning shot, that would waste another bullet, and there were only four rounds left in the magazine now.
A flat-topped young man with a sleazy appearance pointed at Jun Shutong and said, “Captain, is that a chick over there?”
The captain, who had been cautiously scanning the surroundings, immediately followed the direction the flat-topped youth was pointing and looked over curiously.
The moment he saw Jun Shutong, his eyes lit up.
“There really is! Looks like we don’t have to settle for the boss’s leftovers this time. We’ll get first taste ourselves, then bring this woman back to the camp.” The captain spoke excitedly with a lecherous look all over his face.
When the other four heard this, they immediately jogged toward Jun Shutong.
Seeing them approach, Jun Shutong quickly drew her pistol and aimed it at them.
“Stop right there! Take another step and I’ll shoot!”
The moment they saw the beautiful woman across from them suddenly pull out a “calming device,” the four men, who had been visibly excited a moment ago, instantly calmed down.
The captain at the front hurriedly stopped and reached out to block the three underlings behind him.
“Beauty, don’t misunderstand. My name is Zhao Zhu. We came out to search for supplies. We don’t mean any harm.”
Seeing that Jun Shutong remained unmoved, Zhao Zhu quickly pointed behind her.
“We’re trying to enter the mall to gather some supplies. There are a lot of elderly people and children in our camp right now. They’ve been hungry for a long time, and we really need to find food to bring back.”
A trace of worry flashed through Jun Shutong’s eyes when she heard this, clearly concerned about the elderly people and children Zhao Zhu had mentioned.
But that raised another question.
Would people who looked this much like criminals really take care of elderly people and children who had little value to exploit?
Jun Shutong ordered coldly, “Put down your weapons immediately. Raise both hands and slowly walk over here against the wall!”
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