Chapter 1159: The Game’s Final Checkpoint
Translator: Lordbluefire
Sun Mo immediately rushed in the direction of the gunshot.
In the forest, there was a young girl about 7 to 8 years old. She carried a shotgun and was hurriedly loading bullets. Not far from her, an injured radiation monster was lunging over with its maw wide open.
Sun Mo hurriedly aimed his rifle and fired in bursts.
Da! Da! Da!
The radiation monster’s head burst and its skull flew off.
Fresh blood splashed on the little girl’s face. However, not only was she not afraid, but she even aimed her shotgun that was loaded with bullets at Sun Mo.
How cautious!
“h.e.l.lo. I have no bad intentions!”
Sun Mo put his rifle down.
“Sun Mo, why did you run so quickly? Is your zodiac a rabbit?”
Yun Yao finally caught up as she panted heavily while holding on to a white birch tree for support.
“Where are the adults of your family?”
Sun Mo didn’t believe that a child could survive alone in the last phase of the world.
“I…”
The little girl’s voice was interrupted by a gunshot.
A bullet whistled past Sun Mo’s head and slammed into the trunk of the tree beside him. The part that split off slammed into his face, and it felt somewhat painful.
“Stay away from my granddaughter!”
An old man with full white hair aimed a gun at Sun Mo and walked out.
“Grandpa, he was the one who saved me!”
The little girl explained.
“You, come over!”
The old man shouted at his granddaughter. After that, he took out ten bullets and tossed them to Sun Mo. “This is my gift of thanks to you. From now onward, the two of us have nothing to do with each other.”
“You should keep them!”
Sun Mo shrugged and turned to leave.
He saved her purely because of the kindness from the bottom of his heart. He didn’t do so for the sake of getting a reward.
Yun Yao followed him. If the old man’s att.i.tude wasn’t this nasty, given her personality, she would have given the other party a box of bullets. After all, it was very difficult for an old man and a child to survive in this world.
This scene caused the hostility in the old man’s heart to fade away.
These two were good people.
One must know that in this era, bullets were considered hard currency. Those who were willing to give up such gifts were definitely people with principles.
“Sorry, my att.i.tude was too over-the-top. Do you guys want to stay behind and enjoy a meal with us?”
The old man invited them.
…
The old man’s prey were all wild animals and birds. His barbeque skills weren’t bad and caused Yun Yao to have a mouth full of grease as her cravings were satisfied. In fact, she even managed to drink a bottle of white wine.
“Delicious!”
Drinking white wine in winter, there was nothing more comfortable than this. Hence, the giddy Yun Yao began talking with no filter.
“We are looking for ‘spark’.”
Yun Yao accidentally exposed this detail. Just when she was thinking of how to mend the situation, the old man shook his head.
“Spark? In that case, you guys came too late. Three years ago, it was taken away by someone.”
Yun Yao immediately woke up from her stupor.
“Who?”
Sun Mo asked.
“Grandpa, you shouldn’t tease them!”
The little girl covered her mouth and secretly smiled. She used his dagger and cut a piece of barbecued meat for Sun Mo. “We don’t know what the spark is. But there’s a supply warehouse here. It’s just that the resources within are gone long ago. If you guys want to find that place, I’m afraid you might have to return in disappointment.”
“It can’t be, right?”
Yun Yao looked at Sun Mo and revealed a bitter expression. “If there’s no more spark, what should we do?”
Seeing that Yun Yao didn’t continue asking about the warehouse but was feeling conflicted due to the spark, the boss’s eyes flashed with a hint of astonishment.
“What is the spark?”
The little girl named Su Ji blinked her innocent eyes that were filled with curiosity as she looked at Yun Yao.
Yun Yao’s thinking was pure. Bluntly speaking, she was a little foolish. She felt that there was no need to keep something like a spark a secret. Besides, this grandparent and grandchild didn’t seem to be bad people. Hence, she simply said it.
“Uncle Zhang is an ambitious person!”
After Yun Yao finished hearing this, tears appeared in her eyes. “I hope nothing will happen to him.”
…
After dinner, Su Ji and Yun Yao went to bed. Yet, Sun Mo went to look for that old man for a talk.
“Are you not prepared to be honest with me?”
There was a handgun in Sun Mo’s hands. He wanted some insurance.
“This is why I hate interacting with intelligent people!”
The old man’s lips twitched. He drank a mouthful of wine. “Do you want some?”
“Nope!”
Sun Mo shook his head.
“Who are you exactly?” The old man was curious. “From you, I kept sensing an aura that is different from the rest of us.”
“I’m the messiah sent down by the heavens to save the world!”
Sun Mo bragged.
The old man felt strange. This was because everyone in the world might get into conflicts due to the sake of finding food and survival. Anyone could become enemies. However, Sun Mo’s att.i.tude toward food and strangers was simply too… friendly.
“Hehe!”
The old man smiled. After that, his expression turned solemn. “I don’t know where the spark you are looking for is. However, I know where Eden is!”
“Eden?”
Sun Mo frowned.
“The power of a country is something you have no way to imagine. The third world war occurred too abruptly, but the country has emergency measures. Eden is a type of paradise with various technologies preserved. The genes of various species, plant seeds, and even human embryos are in there.”
The old man explained.
“Since you know where Eden is, why don’t you go there?”
Sun Mo stared at the old man suspiciously.
“In the end-of-the-world phase, any type of resources are precious. Why would others make an exception for an old man like me?”
The old man spoke in a self-mocking manner.
“Actually, it’s because you don’t have to worry about food, right?”
Sun Mo ridiculed.
“In winter, resources are lacking. But the two of you, a grandparent and a kid, aren’t skinny at all. Moreover, the resources you guys are using are very generous too. If you tell me you don’t have a fixed source of getting resources, I won’t believe it.”
“So, that’s why I said that I hate interacting with intelligent people.”
The old man sighed before he revealed a fact. “That’s right, actually I owe a reserve warehouse.”
“What do you plan on getting me to do?”
Sun Mo asked.
“Indeed, speaking with intelligent people is truly time and effort-saving!”
The old man sighed ruefully. “My request is very simple. I will give you the true coordinates to Eden, but you guys have to bring Su Su there.”
“Why me?”
Sun Mo didn’t understand.
“I’m sick and will probably die within a year or two. At that time, no one will take care of Su Su.”
The old man had a depressed look on his face. The cycle of life, aging, sickness, and death was something he didn’t care about. However, he was worried about Su Su’s future.
“Are you not afraid that I’ll abandon Su Su after I obtained Eden’s coordinates? After all, a child like her is a burden in this current world.”
Sun Mo’s expression was cold. This was something he feigned because he wanted to find out what the true plan of this old man was.
“Firstly, from Yun Yao’s situation, I think you are a good person. Moreover, you guys have an abundance of equipment and I can tell that you have access to a supply warehouse. You won’t harm Su Su for the sake of my ‘savings’. After all, much food is needed to raise her. And lastly, I have no choice.”
The old man was dying soon and it was very rare for him to encounter someone. If he didn’t show all his cards now, it would be even more difficult for him to meet another traveler with a better condition.
“Are you a scholar?”
Sun Mo noticed several books in the old man’s baggage. The old man had been doing a few mathematical questions before this as well.
The mathematical questions belonged to the type where the degree of difficulty was very high. In any case, Sun Mo couldn’t understand them.
“Do you know this?”
Sun Mo pa.s.sed a piece of paper to the old man. On the paper was the coordinate that Elder Brother Zhang had deciphered.
“Yes!”
The old man nodded. “Back then when the nuclear warhead ‘bathed’ the ground, the country gave some encrypted coordinates to different people.”
Bluntly speaking, the more important their statuses were, the more valuable the coordinates they knew.
For this set of coordinates from Elder Brother Zhang, it would lead to a supply warehouse even bigger than the one they had found previously. It could provide and arm even more people.
However, the old man’s coordinate pointed to Eden. This was because his grandfather was a Fellow, a talent that the government couldn’t do without.
“Let’s go to Eden together?”
Sun Mo suggested.
“No. I have to remain here and continue to wait for people like you. If they are kind and worthy of my entrustment, I will tell them the location of Eden.”
The old man didn’t say that he had lived here for 30 years but the number of people that was worth telling the coordinates was only seven. They were all people who still shone with the light of humanity in this last phase of the world.
…
For the next week, the old man brought his granddaughter Su Ji around and played whatever she wanted to play, enjoying themselves tremendously. He even brought Su Ji over to the dangerous places that he had forbidden her to go previously.
After that, the time to bid farewell arrived.
“Grandpa, why don’t you go with us?”
Su Ji sobbed. She was an intelligent girl and had long since guessed at a certain possibility based on her grandpa’s change in att.i.tude.
“I still have to stay here and be the guide. This is a very n.o.ble job.”
The old man rubbed the little girl’s head.
“Don’t cry. You’ve grown up. You should be strong!”
“Grandpa!”
Su Ji hugged the old man tightly, reluctant to leave.
“Just go. Go and find Eden and change yourself into firewood. Do your utmost to allow the fire of civilization to blaze brilliantly again.”
The old man pushed his granddaughter away. “Sun Mo, bring her away!”
The jeep that was just pumped with gas got on its way. Staring at the vanis.h.i.+ng jeep, the old man had tears in his eyes.
He didn’t go along because he didn’t want to see Su Ji dying or let Su Ji see him dying. This was why he chose to part with her on a beautiful day like this instead. The two of them would always yearn in their hearts that the other party was living happily.
…
With supplies and the correct coordinate, Sun Mo drove a jeep and sped toward Eden.
They encountered a lot of trouble on their way there. Other than large numbers of radiation monsters, there were also aboriginals of this world wanting to block their way to plunder them.
After a month, when all the gas was used up, Sun Mo’s group had to proceed by foot and the environment grew even more dangerous. After all, they were bringing a 7-year-old girl along with them. They wouldn’t be able to run quickly.
“Big brother, why don’t you guys leave me behind?”
Seeing the radiation monsters chasing them from behind, Su Ji who was being piggybacked by Sun Mo started struggling.
Yun Yao smacked Su Ji’s head with some force. “What nonsense are you talking about? Are me and Sun Mo such cold-blooded people?”
“Stop moving around recklessly if you don’t want everyone to die!”
Ultimately, Sun Mo still managed to escape. However, his left arm was bitten by a radiation monster and was torn off by it.
Nine months later, Sun Mo and the other two finally arrived at a hilly region after they had traveled over land and water.
In the mountains, they found a cave. They entered it and after walking for half a day, they finally saw a golden door.
“Does this door lead to Eden?”
Sun Mo used the secret key given to him by the old man and opened the golden door.
The three of them continued on, but not long later, they were blocked by another door. There was a ma.s.s of various symbols engraved on it, and these symbols were all things that Sun Mo didn’t recognize.
“It’s over!”
Sun Mo felt a headache. He definitely wouldn’t be able to decipher these things. Hence, he looked toward Su Ji. “Did your grandfather tell you how to open this metallic door?”
Su Ji shook her head.
Ai!
Sun Mo sighed. Actually, he guessed it. Su Ji didn’t have a solution.
In the past, he felt that the old man would definitely give her an important chip that could be used in extreme situations to guarantee that she wouldn’t be abandoned by him. But on their way here, the three of them had built a deep and profound friends.h.i.+p. Su Ji had even wanted to give her life up for the sakes of Sun Mo and Yun Yao.
If there was a secret key, she would have told them about it.
“Something is wrong, I must have neglected something!”
Sun Mo pondered.. The old man must have hidden some information at a place he didn’t pay attention to. If not, what was the use of an Eden that they couldn’t enter?