RHWHEG – Chapter 5 Parrot

Yu Qunqing gripped his weapon tightly, pressing it against an exposed electric wire, then gave it a little force.

With a sharp bang, sparks burst from the wire.

“The voltage is too high… this ability is still hard to control. At just LV1, it’s very dangerous.” Yu Qunqing muttered to himself, warning against getting too cocky just because he had a game system. He tried again, lowering the output voltage and adjusting the frequency, converting it into alternating current instead of direct current.

Before long, the machines in the supermarket gave a humming sound, and the lights flickered on one after another, stretching from near to far.

Some small animals scurried out. No traces of calamity—safe.

Yu Qunqing let go of his weapon, feeling a bit drained, but it was still better than being left powerless in the middle of an attack.

Now was his hunting time!

But when he passed through the daily goods section, he knocked down a calendar. His eyes swept over it—three days later was the Shuāngjiàng solar term.

Level I Calamity, Eight-legged Frostfall!

In his past life, it was on that exact day of Shuāngjiàng when Jiangbei City experienced a week of unprecedented torrential rain, with a single day’s rainfall reaching 1600 millimeters. Breathing in the downpour was nearly impossible. Sinkholes kept opening in the city center, almost turning it into a vast ocean. The suburban shelters were forced to evacuate to higher ground. People, carrying their luggage, held tightly onto one another in the mud and water, terrified of being swept away by the floods.

Those three days of rain seemed to pour out an entire year’s worth of rainfall. Afterwards, not a single drop of water fell again. The exploration teams that ventured out searched desperately, only to discover that a super-giant calamity had monopolized all water resources. It had incubated and grown elsewhere, arriving in the city precisely on Shuāngjiàng. Its massive body was hidden among the dark clouds—people only saw its eight thick tentacles, and so it was named “Eight-legged Frostfall.”

Yu Qunqing’s earlier excitement cooled by half. Humanity’s growth rate was nowhere near that of the calamities. He had to become stronger, faster, and make far more preparations.

He suddenly felt the urgency of time. Hoisting two sacks of rice, he dashed off. His bicycle was parked outside, looking flimsy and unreliable. Nearby, he found a modified courier tricycle. There were still a few unclaimed parcels inside, but he didn’t care—he tossed the rice into the cargo hold.

The vegetables had all rotted, and the meat section reeked of decay—worthless. Yu Qunqing gathered some dried goods instead: dried mushrooms, dried tofu sticks, vegetable chips—at least they were vegetarian, so he packed them up. The cured meat still looked edible, so he took it. A tub of dried shrimp seemed fine too—into the pile it went. Soon, the little courier trike was more than half full. The staple foods section was nearly wiped clean.

Next came the snack aisle. Before the apocalypse, people had gone on frenzied buying sprees, so there wasn’t much left to scavenge. The only thing in abundance was the black truffle-flavored instant noodles—the flavor everyone had despised before the world fell apart. Yu Qunqing hesitated. In his past life, he had eaten so many of those that he nearly lost his sense of taste. This time, he decided to check for other options. Space in his cart was limited, so he had to be selective. If things went smoothly later, he could always come back for them.

He dug out the remaining boxes of biscuits, powdered drink mixes, and a few high-calorie canned foods. That just about filled the rest of the cargo hold.

With a swift motion, Yu Qunqing opened his mountaineering backpack and kept stuffing more. First, paper and pens—things often overlooked, but invaluable when groups needed to communicate, especially in a society with no internet or cell service anymore. Then came condiments: three large bags each of salt and sugar, followed by cooking oil. Into the corners he crammed handfuls of candy—any brand, it didn’t matter.

Yu Qunqing’s gaze shifted to the roof of the trike.

Up there he stacked raincoats, knives, nylon rope, batteries, water bottles, protective gear…

What he still needed was a music player—something he could modify into a radio transmitter.

The electronics section was located on the suspended half of the supermarket. Cracks ran all over the floor, and the whole area looked like it could collapse at any moment.

To reduce the pressure, Yu Qunqing fetched a wooden board and slid it across. These were hard-earned lessons from his past life. In the apocalypse, half of humanity perished to calamities—the other half to countless “ordinary” accidents. A cave-in, a gas tank explosion, carbon monoxide poisoning from burning charcoal… any of them could be fatal.

He found some children’s toy phones and stuffed them all into his bag.

Then his eyes turned to the cashier’s counter. Thinking about how he had only tens of thousands of game coins left, he realized that he could hardly buy anything with them. If there was actual paper money in that register… even just a little, it would still count as meat in the pot!

The cashier was at the corner. Only after carefully edging over did he see the full view. Next to it was an employee passageway, its door left ajar. Hanging on the door was a birdcage, and inside was a bald parrot.

Yu Qunqing: “Still alive?”

Turns out, there was an automatic feeder attached, still stocked with plenty of grain. The water hadn’t evaporated yet either. That was why the parrot had managed to keep clinging to life. Its back feathers were gray, its belly a patchy blue, looking thoroughly unhealthy.

“Not sure if being alive is a blessing or a curse for you…” Yu Qunqing took down the birdcage and poked the parrot’s beak with his finger. The parrot tilted its head and rubbed against his finger, almost human-like.

That reminded Yu Qunqing of a certain teammate from before. Thinking that if that person were here, they’d surely love it, he decided to keep the bird around for company. With no one else around, and no knowing when he could break out of the Fourth Ring’s encirclement, having a living creature for comfort wasn’t bad at all.

He slowly lifted down the cage. But in doing so, he tugged the feeder as well—this thing was welded onto the iron door? The door itself had long since been badly corroded. The moment it was moved, the entire door collapsed. With a loud clang, the iron door crashed to the ground, leaving only the birdcage in his hand. The echo shook through the cramped space, stirring instability throughout.

“Krrr—tchhh—”

It was the sound of rebars slowly snapping.

He bolted toward the other, still-solid side of the supermarket. Rolling on the ground, he just barely dodged as fluorescent tubes crashed down from the ceiling. But the fissure splitting the supermarket was widening, the entire floor slanting to one side, dust shaking loose like rain. Now it was a pure test of survival by physical strength!

He tightened his waist and leapt forward, landing right on the edge of a crack. A whole slab of ceiling scraped past his back as it came crashing down with a thunderous boom, dust puffing upward like smoke.

Yu Qunqing first shoved the birdcage up onto stable ground, his fingers clutching the floor so tightly they turned white. Only after struggling his way back up did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking up now, the sky was a dim, murky gray. Looking down, he saw a pit dozens of meters deep, cluttered with concrete and rebar. A pre-apocalypse giant celebrity billboard hung limply on the pipes, fluttering in the wind.

Sighing at how death lurked everywhere, Yu Qunqing slung the supply-filled backpack from the shelf over one shoulder, grabbed the birdcage in the other hand, and finally concluded his supermarket looting trip.

“Should I give you a name? Wait a sec—what’s that under your belly?” Yu Qunqing flicked the parrot’s downy stomach, and beneath it was a ring, dazzling under the sunlight, scattering enchanting rays of light.

He remembered hearing that before the apocalypse, there had been cases of inside theft in this area… So this was where the stolen goods were hidden?

Either way, this ring should at least be enough for a first-time top-up of 6 diamonds, right?

“Ding-dong! Top-up request detected. Although the system is under upgrade maintenance, the recharge channel remains open. First-time top-up benefits will be credited to your account once the game reopens!”

Yu Qunqing: “Fine, fine, take it, take it. I’ll just go rob some gold shops later and make myself a proud Monthly Card player…”

“Ding-dong! Your recharge has been successfully processed. Data processing in progress. We look forward to your next visit!”

Yu Qunqing then drove the delivery tricycle back toward the residential complex. Since there was a barrier gate blocking the way, he only dumped all the supplies at the entrance before running off again. In three days there would be a torrential storm, severely restricting travel. Right now, with both temperature and humidity at just the right levels, was the golden time for exploration.

As he walked, he sketched out a map: To the east was the painted-over supermarket, surrounded by office buildings. There might be convenience stores or cafés inside, but going in was far too dangerous. To the south was a huge plaza, with a bustling underground mall beneath it that connected to the subway, but all entrances had caved in. On the surface, only decorative sculptures remained, where people used to love feeding birds.

To the west, Yu Qunqing encountered his first natural disaster cluster.

What used to be a commercial tower was now crammed with trees. Branches jutted out of windows, and the road was choked full of greenery—at first glance, it looked like an emerald forest. But on closer inspection, two blood-red eyes could be seen nestled in the canopy. If disturbed, a giant fruit-fly-like insect would emerge. Its elongated mouthparts were fused with the branches, its tree-like body immobile, but its insect body could move within limits—at lightning speed. Typically, the insect part would snatch prey, pin it to the trunk, and let the bark ooze corrosive fluids to dissolve the victim.

Tree Prison Fly, an F-class natural disaster. They lived in groups and would eventually evolve into G-class disasters.

Yu Qunqing marked the area in a different color on his map, then circled around them. Practically an entire street was their territory. Surveying the terrain further, he realized this was a low-lying area.

So when the storm came, he could wipe them all out with a single lightning strike?

Minimal effort, maximum result!

He even set up roadblocks on the street to warn others of the danger ahead.

“Ding-dong, system upgrade complete. Please proceed to the game homepage to claim your compensation.”

His stamina points!

He had to bike back within half an hour, otherwise it’d be a huge loss!

Yu Qunqing dashed back like the wind, rigged up a basket, and hauled all the supplies up to the second floor. Then he rushed home.

The screen was still lit. A system prompt popped up:

“Mini Casual Game System Version 2.0 successfully installed. New function: Game Entity Realization. Unlockable upon completing the mission ‘Repair the Fountain.’”