Survival in the Ruins: I can make everything evolve infinitely - Chapter 4

004: Taming the Second Animal.

The next day, it was still early morning.

Mino woke up and stared blankly at the roof of the wooden hut.

She had been thinking last night about whether she should leave with Mu Liang. She had insomnia and only fell asleep after a few hours without realizing it.

“Sniff sniff…”

Mino scrunched her nose, catching a scent of meat.

The girl turned her head to look, seeing a bit of charcoal still burning in the fire pit. Above it, an iron pot hung on the rack, and the fragrance came from inside.

“You’re awake, get up and have something to eat,” Mu Liang said, holding a spoon and gently stirring the contents of the pot.

Mino was a little distracted for a moment. It was usually her who prepared breakfast.

She hesitated and asked, “Is your body all better?”

“Mm, it’s fine now,” Mu Liang said lightly.

For breakfast, it was compressed biscuits boiled with small lizards—something like dark cuisine, but it could fill their stomachs.

The compressed biscuits were one of the few things Mu Liang had brought from Earth during the Great Rift.

“Oh,” Mino quietly sat by the fire pit.

“Once you’re full, we’ll go hunting together,” Mu Liang said, scooping some of the lizard porridge into a tin lunchbox and handing it to Mino.

They needed to prepare some food for the journey, as there were only a few biscuits left.

“Okay,” Mino obediently took the lunchbox.

She recognized the tin lunchbox—it was the same one from the backpack.

Five days ago, she had wanted to use it to pay the tax but ended up not being able to part with it.

Mu Liang noticed that Mino seemed down but didn’t offer comfort.

He ate his breakfast quietly, scooping some of the lizard meat porridge into the tin.

“Ssshh~~”

They ate their breakfast in silence.

Mino pursed her lips, glancing at Mu Liang’s profile.

She didn’t know why, but she suddenly couldn’t find a topic to talk about and couldn’t chat like before.

“Crack…”

The armored turtle scratched the ground and stared at Mu Liang with its green eyes.

Seeing the turtle, Mino immediately found something to say, “What are we going to do with this turtle?”

“It’s coming with us,” Mu Liang said. He wasn’t comfortable leaving the armored turtle alone at the camp.

The Level 1 armored turtle wasn’t very strong, and if it was spotted, it would likely be killed for food.

Besides, the armored turtle also needed food, and it could hunt for itself out here.

“Ah, I see,” Mino nodded slightly.

The atmosphere fell into silence again, with no more topics to discuss.

After finishing breakfast, the two of them gathered up the important belongings from the wooden hut to prevent thieves from sneaking in.

Mino’s house was just a simple wooden hut made of animal skins and dry wood.

It was situated at the edge of the camp, a perfect spot for the two of them and the turtle to leave quietly.

The turtle’s crawling speed wasn’t fast—just about the same as a human walking speed—but its shell, which resembled brown rock, made for excellent camouflage.

Once they left the camp, they headed north.

According to Mino, there was a hilly rocky area in the north where many small lizards lived.

On the way, Mu Liang saw some figures in the distance, but they all avoided them.

He guessed the reason was that people were probably afraid of being robbed for food or other things.

After all, in a post-apocalyptic world like this, one could get stabbed in the back at any moment to survive.

The rocky hills weren’t far from the camp, and soon the two of them, along with the turtle, arrived at the foot of the nearest hill.

“Little Xuanwu, go find some food for yourself,” Mu Liang crouched down and patted the turtle’s head.

He had named the turtle Xuanwu, hoping it would grow stronger.

“Rawr~~”

The armored turtle nudged Mu Liang’s palm, then chose a direction and slowly crawled off.

“Will it get lost?” Mino asked worriedly.

“No, I can communicate with Little Xuanwu mentally,” Mu Liang smiled.

Tamed animals could communicate with him through his thoughts.

Mino sighed in relief and pointed ahead, “The traps I made are at the foot of the next few hills.”

“You go check the traps; I’ll look for prey nearby,” Mu Liang decided to split up.

He wasn’t interested in catching small lizards, as their meat was too little to fill them up.

“Okay,” Mino said softly, “If anything happens, just shout for me.”

“Got it,” Mu Liang nodded and chose a direction opposite to the turtle’s, walking off.

“Ugh~~ Why do I feel so irritable today?”

Mino sighed with worry, slapping her cheeks to psyche herself up.

“…”

Mu Liang paused for a moment, then walked off quickly.

Thanks to the strengthening from the turtle, his senses were a bit sharper now, and he could hear Mino’s sigh.

The girl was sentimental, especially when someone had been alone for so long, suddenly finding someone to stay with made them want to hold on tightly.

Mu Liang didn’t intend to comfort Mino. If she hadn’t left with him, offering her tenderness now would only cause her more harm.

“It’s really desolate here, just like the Great Gobi,”

Mu Liang thought as he tread lightly, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings.

He sighed faintly, “I wonder how the people here have survived for so long.”

“Shhh~~”

The sound of sand sliding caught Mu Liang’s attention.

He focused on a nearby rock wall, scanning the area carefully until he spotted the creature that caused the sand to fall.

A small lizard was climbing the wall.

“Once I see you, you’re not getting away.”

Mu Liang drew his military knife from his waist and swiftly aimed for the small lizard’s head.

Pfftt…

The small lizard was dead.

“Shhh~~”

Suddenly, another small lizard appeared on the rock wall, quickly climbing upwards.

“A color-changing lizard?”

Mu Liang froze for less than a second before reacting, lifting his hand to aim for the color-changing lizard.

The first strike missed, but on the second attempt, he caught it.

“I didn’t expect the small lizards here to be different species.”

Mu Liang observed the struggling color-changing lizard in his hand. Its size was about twice as large as the other small lizards.

What amazed him most was that the color-changing lizard had red, green, and blue patterns on its skin.

“Ding! Detectable tameable animal, do you want to tame it?”