The private message from the Cao County citizen had just ended when Isabelle's private message arrived.
Courier Isabelle: I saw the weather forecast, there's a big flood where you are, are you okay?
Jiang Ye: I'm sleeping soundly, thank you for your concern. When the flood recedes, I'm going to buy a fishing boat.
Courier Isabelle: Alright.
Isabelle's private message had just ended when the message from "Can't Twist Bottle Caps" arrived again.
Can't Twist Bottle Caps: Brother Jiang, how are you doing?
Jiang Ye: Everything is as usual. How about you?
Can't Twist Bottle Caps: I'm in trouble. All my hens drowned, my base is flooded, and the water is waist-deep now.
Jiang Ye: If you're short on food or drink, just tell me, and I'll send it to you. Those few hens are not a big loss; I'll replace them with a new batch after the flood recedes.
Can't Twist Bottle Caps: Wuwuwu, Brother Jiang, you're so kind.
Finally, there were no more private messages.
Jiang Ye closed the chat channel, feeling a wave of sleepiness. He went upstairs and lay down on the bed to sleep.
He woke up, and it was already afternoon.
He sat up and looked out the window.
The flood had not yet receded.
Moreover, on the coal sacks outside the perimeter wall, a large number of animal carcasses were piled up!
Some of the carcasses he recognized, such as the Blood Kangaroo, the Herman Wolf, and the White Wolf he had seen a couple of days ago.
Others were unheard of: small beasts like the Cha, fish like the dark green dolphin, apes with extremely long tails, and black cranes.
A sinister aura of death and a corrosive stench emanated from these animal corpses, as if they had surged forth from hell.
Each carcass was covered with fist-sized red balloons, pulsating ominously.
There were easily over a thousand of them!
Jiang Ye, carrying his assault rifle, exited the base and climbed onto the perimeter wall.
As he got closer to the corpses, he finally saw clearly. Those so-called red balloons were actually a type of black insect. The insects were impaled on the carcasses, sucking blood, their bellies constantly expanding from slender bodies to horrifying spherical shapes.
These insects were insatiably greedy; their distended bellies were stretched so thin they were like paper. Several of them had absorbed so much blood that their bellies actually burst, and bright red blood gushed out, flowing into the murky floodwaters.
Jiang Ye felt a wave of nausea. So many dead bodies piled up around him, not only stinking but also likely to spread diseases.
They had to be burned!
He returned to the base and ordered fifty barrels of aviation fuel.
Carrying the fuel to the wall, he opened the caps and poured them onto the piles of corpses, then immediately ignited them!
Jiang Ye continued to pour fuel, and the fire grew larger and larger.
The animal carcasses were burned to a charred, greasy state, the aroma and stench rising to the sky. In the dazzling flames, the blood-sucking insects' bellies burst, like vast patches of red balloons being collectively popped, their blood splattering down, mixing with the burning fuel with a sizzling sound.
Jiang Ye felt a surge of revulsion. He persevered, adding several dozen more barrels of fuel, burning everything around the perimeter wall clean.
High-temperature sterilization, simple and brutal.
The flood lasted for two days and two nights before slowly receding.
On the third day, the temperature had risen to over ten degrees Celsius.
He could no longer wear his padded jacket. Jiang Ye, draped in the uniform of the colony's officer, climbed out of the perimeter wall.
The first thing he did was head to the cowshed.
The moment he pushed open the cowshed door, he was stunned.
The once plump dairy cows had all turned into mummified corpses!
They were so thin their ribs were visible, each cow shriveled and lying sprawled on the ground.
Unfinished piles of fodder lay beside them like small mountains.
And on the walls of the cowshed, hundreds of red balloons were densely clustered.
It was evident that those blood-sucking insects had attacked the dairy cows, each insect consuming a cupful of blood and sucking the cows dry into mummies.
Jiang Ye sighed, returned to the base, and bought several barrels of fuel and a few bags of coal.
He dumped them all into the cowshed and set them ablaze!
Flames soared into the sky, and waves of heat filled the entire cowshed. The blood-sucking insects clinging to the walls fell off in large swathes as if swept by a broom, exploding in the inferno, their blood and burning oil mixing and sizzling.
Jiang Ye stood calmly outside the shed, watching all the blood-sucking insects burn to ashes.
Burn, burn, everything here is over. There's nothing worth clinging to.
He turned and walked back to the base.
A moment later, the sound of engines roared to life.
The base vehicle rumbled forward, shaking off dust from its body, accelerating to smash through the earthen wall, crushing coal sacks and piles of corpses, and driving towards the boundless plains.
Soon, a mound of earth appeared.
On the mound, a rotorcraft, a mining truck, and an excavator were parked.
Jiang Ye opened the panel on the dashboard, clicked on Bluetooth, and connected with the large machines on the mound.
The excavator and the mining truck began to move, and the rotorcraft's propellers whirred to life.
Jiang Ye stepped on the accelerator, and the base vehicle sped forward like lightning.
Behind the base vehicle, the excavator, mining truck, and rotorcraft followed in succession. A rumbling convoy.
Shadows of some wild beasts peeked out from the distance, glanced at the convoy, and quickly retreated.
The water had just receded, and the ground was still wet. Mud and sand splashed onto the body of each vehicle, leaving clear tire tracks on the earth.
They sped along.
Around noon, Jiang Ye released the accelerator and slowed down.
The base vehicle slowly came to a halt.
The excavator, mining truck, and rotorcraft behind it also shut down their engines one by one.
In front of the car window was the boundless sea!
Dark blue waves surged, and white foam churned across the entire surface of the sea. Sunlight glinted off the crests of the waves, shimmering with golden light. Occasionally, fish leaped out of the water, disappearing again half a second later.
He opened the car window, and the damp, cold sea breeze blew in his face.
The convoy stopped on a beach covered with pebbles. The beach was mainly black and blue, with some white stones.
This was the new camp. Jiang Ye decided to settle here and try to earn money by fishing.
After all, the earning speed of a fishing boat could easily surpass that of a mining truck.
Mining resources would eventually be depleted, but the fish in the sea were virtually inexhaustible. As long as the fishing efficiency was good, it was equivalent to living next to a money-printing factory!
In Jiang Ye's eyes, the fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs swimming in the sea were not just aquatic creatures, but real gold and silver, colorful banknotes!
Jiang Ye stood up and went to the base panel, opening the [Galactic Mall].
He selected [Fishing Boat] and purchased it!
Five million was spent in an instant.
Account balance: 4,876,000 yuan.
Jiang Ye waited for two seconds, and as expected, a private message popped up.
Courier Isabelle: Dear VIP, please confirm your order. One fishing boat, to be delivered to your base, correct?
Jiang Ye: That's right. When will it arrive?
Courier Isabelle: Do you have a dock? That is, a place to park the fishing boat?
Jiang Ye: No, but I can repair one soon.
Courier Isabelle: We will deliver the goods to you tomorrow afternoon at 4 PM. Will your dock be ready by then?
Jiang Ye thought for a moment. With the excavator, it shouldn't be too difficult.
So he typed:
No problem! Come and deliver it tomorrow at 4 PM!