Apocalypse Chapter 68: Battle For the Oil Fields – Part 1

Chapter 68: Battle For the Oil Fields – Part 1

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

When everyone realized it was Jiang Hao who had killed the rooster with an iron nail, they all froze in shock. Jiang Rong rushed forward to check the two boys. After confirming that neither of them was hurt, he reached out and gently patted Jiang Hao’s head.

The moment his pale-blue energy touched Jiang Hao’s skin, he felt it—beneath the boy’s skin flowed a faint but unmistakable trace of metallic energy. Jiang Rong’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Xiao Hao… how did he suddenly awaken an ability?”

He had always believed that only those weakened by the Great Crisis could develop powers. The black rain in July had only reinforced that belief—those who had abilities became weak for days afterward. He still remembered that during those days, Sister Chunlan and Leilei had been especially frail.

And it was on that very night of the black rain that Guan Shao had brought Jiang Hao to their doorstep. If Jiang Rong remembered correctly, Jiang Hao had woken up the very next day. He’d been a little silly at first, but perfectly healthy. Jiang Rong had always assumed that, like Xiaoheng, he was just an ordinary child.

Concern etched into his face, Jiang Rong asked softly, “Xiao Hao, do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”

Jiang Hao shook his head with utter seriousness. “No.”

Could it be… that even ordinary people could awaken powers later in life? Jiang Rong had never seen this happen in his past life. After a moment of thought, he said gently, “We’ll have Sister Chunlan check you over later.”

As for the aggressive rooster that had tried to attack Xiaoheng—its fate was sealed. It would be going straight into the pot. After leaving the farm, Jiang Rong drove directly to Chu Qiang’s house. The moment they stepped into the courtyard, Chu Qiang immediately noticed something unusual about Jiang Hao. He lit up with delight.

“Ha! I knew it! No wonder my door lock broke out of nowhere—it was you, wasn’t it, little guy?”

Laughing, Chu Qiang scooped Jiang Hao up. “Good boy! And it’s even a metal-type ability! Xiao Jiang, our squad has officially collected every elemental esper now!”

Jiang Rong’s squad had thirteen members, each with a different ability. They already had wood, water, fire, and earth among the elemental espers. Metal had been the only missing piece. Jiang Rong had even gone through the entire list of espers in the base multiple times, searching for the strongest possible metal-type esper. If Xu Kaitai hadn’t betrayed them, he would have filled that role.

Chu Qiang chuckled happily. “I told you our luck is good! Whatever we’re missing, it just shows up!”

But before he could finish celebrating, he caught sight of Jiang Rong’s disapproving look. “What? What’s wrong?”

Jiang Rong’s voice was calm but firm. “Xiao Hao is only five years old.”

Chu Qiang froze, then laughed awkwardly. “Right… five years old. We’ve got at least another ten years before he can even think about joining us.”

The youngest member of their team was Leilei, and even she was only there because her ability was purely supportive—she didn’t have to fight on the front lines.

Jiang Rong took Jiang Hao from Chu Qiang’s arms. “Stop plotting to recruit my son. He’s still a child. Both of them are. No matter how powerful they turn out to be, they’re still going to kindergarten.”

Later, Wang Chunlan gave Jiang Hao a thorough check-up and finally confirmed, “Xiao Hao is perfectly healthy. He really has awakened a metal-type ability.”

Then she smiled warmly. “I didn’t think anyone could still awaken powers after the Great Crisis.”

Pan Pan, who was lounging nearby, said casually, “It’s definitely because the Spark Base has good food. Everyone’s healthier, stronger. And since we only eat carefully selected produce, it probably strengthens people from the inside out. I bet we’re going to see a lot more espers appear in the base.”

Pan Pan’s mother hadn’t been much of a cook, so they’d mostly relied on the base cafeteria since it opened. Even though there were more vegetables than meat, every meal was filling.

Pan Pan added proudly, “My mom used to have back pain. After eating at the cafeteria for a while, she doesn’t hurt anymore! And some folks in our village even say their old ailments disappeared. Oh! Uncle from the second village used to have glaucoma—now his eyesight is sharp as ever!”

Jiang Rong couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re saying it’s all because of food?”

But he didn’t dismiss it. If more people in the base could awaken powers, it would only benefit them all. He’d never been one to suppress new espers—he firmly believed that the more people with abilities they had, the stronger the base would be.

Pan Pan grinned and gave a thumbs up. “Of course! The Spark Base is the best!”

Jiang Rong nodded slowly, deep in thought. “In that case, we’ll open a new registration window at the records office and start re-registering espers across the base.”

Ruan Hanyu immediately volunteered. “I’ll handle it!”

That evening, Chu Qiang butchered the rooster and turned it into a rich, savory braised chicken dish. As they ate, spirits were high. In just a few months, there would be countless chicks in the base, and meat would no longer be a luxury.

Eating chicken was joyous, but raising chickens was another matter entirely. Jiang Rong said quietly, “The farm manager told me today that the grain allocated to the chicken farm isn’t enough. In another month, they might run out.”

Everyone froze. “What? But didn’t we find a whole stockpile of grain at that old private depot? Even if the mutant rats damaged a lot of it, there was still plenty left!”

Guan Shao’s voice was calm. “We also brought back tens of thousands of mouths to feed.”

Even with the base’s vegetables supplementing their diet, the daily consumption of grain for the chickens, ducks, and geese was astronomical.

Chu Qiang, however, stayed optimistic. “We’ll be fine. We still have other squads. We’ll just send them farther out next time and bring back more supplies.”

At that, Chiang Jinhu frowned. “About that… there’s another issue. Our fuel supply is running low. If our espers start venturing farther out, we won’t have enough fuel to last until spring.”

Cars needed to “eat” too. Between the growing number of vehicles and farm equipment at the Spark Base, the demand for gasoline and diesel was relentless. Their teams had already scoured every gas station for hundreds of miles around, even siphoning fuel from abandoned vehicles, but it still wasn’t enough. Zheng Zhanqing let out a frustrated sigh. “Without fuel, how far can we even go?”

After a moment of thought, Jiang Rong looked up. “I heard there’s an oil field across the river, but I’m not sure of its exact location.”

That immediately caught everyone’s attention.

“An oil field?” Chiang Jinhu’s eyes lit up. “Captain Jiang, are you serious?”

Jiang Rong nodded. “Yes. I had a client who worked there before the Crisis. He even told me the general location. I just… don’t remember exactly where.”

Even a struggling oil field was better than nothing. If they could reclaim it, it could keep Spark Base running for a while.

All eyes turned toward Meng Weixian—their human map.

Meng Weixian broke into a nervous sweat. “Alright, alright… I’ll figure it out. Give me some time to look it up when I get back.”

He didn’t always remember landmarks, but he still had access to pre-Crisis satellite maps. With those, he could find it.

*

Meng Weixian worked fast. In less than two hours, he pinpointed the location of an oil field on the Jiangbei Plain.

The Spark Base’s position was ideal. The Jiangbei Plain had over twenty oil fields, large and small, and the nearest one was less than two hundred li away. Since they had already cleared the bridge across the river, all they needed to do was cross it and drive less than a hundred li to reach the oil field.

The news electrified everyone. They were so excited they wanted to form a convoy and set out immediately. But first, they had to inventory their tankers and fuel containers, which meant they could only depart the next morning. As night fell, Jiang Rong quietly closed the door to Xiaoheng and Xiao Hao’s room.

“Asleep?” Guan Shao asked softly. Jiang Rong nodded. “Out cold. I just hope they don’t have nightmares tonight.” After all, being chased by that massive rooster would probably leave an impression. Jiang Rong remembered that when he’d been chased by a chicken as a child, he’d dreamt about it for days.

Guan Shao chuckled. “That’s part of growing up.”

Just as the two were about to enter their bedroom, Jiang Rong suddenly froze. A voice had sounded in his mind—Little Guaiguai’s voice.

“Master Jiang… it hurts…”

Jiang Rong’s body went rigid. Guan Shao immediately noticed and asked with concern, “What’s wrong?”

“Little Guaiguai says it’s hurt,” Jiang Rong murmured, closing his eyes and sinking into his spiritual sea.

Inside, Little Guaiguai was pitifully swaying its vines. The moment it saw Jiang Rong, it wrapped itself around him, whimpering.

“It hurts…”

Jiang Rong rarely entered Little Guaiguai’s consciousness directly—there were simply too many vines, and the sight always left him dizzy. But now, without hesitation, he dove in.

The instant he arrived, a massive blaze of brilliant yellow fire came surging toward him. As soon as the fire touched Little Guaiguai’s vines, they ignited. Jiang Rong couldn’t feel the pain himself, but the creature’s cries were enough to make his heart twist.

He quickly saw the source of the attack: a convoy of vehicles parked on the northern riverbank, each one marked with a huge circle and the word “Peace.”

The Peace Base espers. The sky was too dark; they probably hadn’t seen the sign near Little Guaiguai. They had simply attacked. Fortunately, Little Guaiguai had reacted quickly. When it couldn’t extinguish the flames, it detached the burning vines and dropped into the river below.

But even underwater, the strange fire didn’t die out. In the end, it had been forced to sever its own burning vines completely, barely avoiding total destruction.

Even then, the attackers didn’t stop. They leaned over the railing, staring down at the rippling water. From above came their faint voices:

“Damn it. What the hell was that thing? I can’t believe it got away.”

Poor Little Guaiguai curled itself up and buried deep in the riverbed’s silt, trembling until the men finally left. When Jiang Rong appeared in its consciousness, it weakly swayed its remaining vines. “Hurts…”

Jiang Rong poured his energy into it, soothing it until it perked up again.

“It’s alright,” he murmured. “They didn’t see the sign. They didn’t know you belong to me. You’ve been through a lot.”

Little Guaiguai wriggled its vines and gave a couple of cheerful rustling sounds, then playfully wrapped itself around Little Fairy. Losing a few vines didn’t really hurt—it had just wanted an excuse to get more attention from Master Jiang. When Jiang Rong opened his eyes, he sighed helplessly. “The Peace Base’s people probably didn’t see the sign on the bridge. They attacked Little Guaiguai.”

Guan Shao frowned. “How bad is it?”

“Just lost a few vines,” Jiang Rong replied softly. “Nothing serious. The one leading them was a fire-type esper though… and a strong one.”

Guan Shao’s expression darkened. “Strong or not, their eyesight is terrible. The sign was huge.”

Jiang Rong shook his head. “You can’t really blame them. Aside from our base, no one else sees mutant plants or animals and stays calm. They attack first and ask questions later. Back when I was at Peace Base, I even got jumpy whenever I saw one of those things on missions. No one has the patience to figure out which ones are safe.”

“Tomorrow,” Guan Shao said in a low, cold voice, “we’ll change the sign to glowing letters. And we’ll add warning signs along the approach to the bridge.” His eyes were sharp. “If they can’t read it then, they’re just blind.”

Jiang Rong gave a small nod. “And one more thing—we’ll add a line to the sign: ‘Attack the Bloodthirsty Vine at your own risk.’”

Some people only respected force. If they knew Little Guaiguai had an owner and still attacked it, then they’d deserve whatever came next. And this time, Jiang Rong was ready to tell Little Guaiguai: if anyone dared attack it after seeing the sign… it didn’t need to hold back.

 

 

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