Chapter 222: "Better Miss Than Let Go"

It must have been the wrong approach over the past few days, which is why Jing Shu couldn’t find more blood mushrooms.

This time, after observing and chatting for the past ten days, Jing Shu had become familiar with half of the salvage team. No surprise there—she had night vision and could see everything clearly. After watching these people every day, even if she hadn’t wanted to, she’d have gotten to know them, even to the extent of knowing how long each person stayed underwater before coming up.

In the past few days, while searching for supplies, they’d only passively waited for the missing people to reappear. By the time someone surfaced and mentioned a location, it was often too late—those people had vanished long ago, and by the time they went down to search, there was no trace left.

“Hey, sis, you’re back again?” Liu Xing held his head, clearly exasperated.

Jing Shu nimbly climbed aboard the salvage ship. The deck was piled high with various items, and the workers had begun organizing the supplies.

Oh, right, about a week ago, the salvage team had raided residential buildings, removing every last bed, toilet, sofa, wardrobe, door, and window they could pry off.

They even plucked a feather from a passing goose, rushing to install the items in the still-bare housing. At the very least, they needed to ensure everyone had a bed to sleep on and windows with intact glass to block the wind.

Although most of these items were water-damaged and on the verge of falling apart, they were still somewhat usable. Sleeping on the cold ground with damp clothes in subzero temperatures had already caused some people to get sick.

Oh, and there had to be a toilet in each unit—water wasn’t in short supply, but if it were... well, let’s not even mention it. The government really needed to fix this problem; otherwise, the entire hallway and surroundings would become a literal golden mess.

“Brother Liu, what’s on the list today? Any new bounties?” Jing Shu smiled.

Liu Xing had mixed feelings about Jing Shu—both love and frustration—but he still smiled as he handed her a detailed record sheet.

After all, she was their lucky charm, someone not to be offended. Just in these past ten days, she’d started off inexperienced and often came back empty-handed, but as she gained a rhythm, she managed to find any item with a known location. This “lucky charm” had a 100% success rate in completing tasks, to the point where many people specifically requested her assistance.

Over these days, the bounties completed by her alone had earned hundreds of virtual coins. Liu Xing’s business volume had increased several times over, so no matter what she asked, Liu Xing was always eager to oblige. Even if her demands were excessive, he’d still applaud her and be more than willing to help.

However, this lucky charm had one quirk: she was always eager to dive in and rescue people. To make matters worse, she had saved four or five half-dead people already. He couldn’t just leave them to die—if he did, the other salvagers would likely kick him around like a soccer ball.

Not only could he not show any reluctance to help, but he had to express endless gratitude to this troublemaker, adding significant stress to his already challenging job. Even the doctors...

Jing Shu had heard rumors from those who had obtained blood mushrooms. They said that they found the fabled mushrooms in areas infested with leeches, but several people had vanished before they could retrieve them. They sent people down to search, but found nothing.

This suggested that the blood mushrooms might indeed grow in leech-infested areas, but it wasn’t guaranteed.

The waters were unpredictable. Some people got trapped by water plants, while others faced different types of accidents.

Liu Xing: “Seriously, stop rescuing people!”

Jing Shu: “No, I will.”

Liu Xing, changing tactics, began assigning people to different areas, expanding their search. This way, the troublemaker wouldn’t be fixated on just one spot. Surprisingly, this method worked—Jing Shu couldn’t keep track of everyone’s location or who had disappeared where. There were simply too many people for her to remember.

However, Liu Xing had a bad feeling today.

Jing Shu was busy looking over the assignment list, checking which groups were responsible for which areas, who had surfaced with what items, and what bounties were available. Some were offering 100 virtual coins for moving furniture out of an apartment, while others offered several hundred coins for retrieving supplies from a basement.

Jing Shu usually ignored bounties worth only a few hundred virtual coins, only considering those over a thousand. After all, she didn’t have the time to complete all the bounties. She only took them on when they aligned with her personal search for materials.

“Uncle Wang is assigned to the 7 o’clock direction today, huh? And how long has Xiao Li been underwater? Why hasn’t he come up yet? Oh, right, Hong Hong is at 12 o’clock—that area’s pretty dangerous, isn’t it?”

“Hey, A Bao, you’re up! How did it go today? You’re in the same group as Wang Mazi and Dog Left, right? How long ago did they dive?”

Jing Shu warmly greeted the salvagers, who in turn deeply respected and adored her. They knew this person with the “shark submarine” came every day and often dived in to rescue them.

Jing Shu was normally a woman of few words, only rushing into the water when someone mentioned a missing person. But lately, she had become much more outgoing, and the salvagers eagerly responded to her.

They were, in fact, quite astonished—Jing Shu was even more capable than their supervisor, matching names to faces with ease. The supervisor could never do that, always having to call out names one by one, as to him, everyone looked the same.

Liu Xing was still trying to figure out what Jing Shu was up to when she suddenly exclaimed, “What? Wang Mazi has been down for two minutes already? Give me his location—I’ll go get him.”

Before Liu Xing could react, Jing Shu had already jumped into the shark submarine, cranked the engine to full throttle, and zoomed off.

“She’s really wasting fuel,” Liu Xing muttered, only to see Jing Shu resurface moments later. “Wang Mazi is fine; he’ll be up soon. What? Dog Left has been down for two minutes in another area?”

And off she went again in a blur of motion.

Yes, Jing Shu was executing her plan perfectly today, driven by the motto: “Better to miss than to let go.” She refused to let anyone go unchecked. If someone hadn’t surfaced, she was diving in, ensuring no one slipped through her grasp.

This area was a commercial zone. The government had already salvaged most of the residential and office buildings, and now it was time to tackle the bustling commercial district. Before the apocalypse, the clothes and other items had likely been cleared out, but larger equipment and many hidden supplies still remained in the warehouses.

If Jing Shu were to search all this alone, it would take her days, but with hundreds of salvagers working together, the area could be scoured in a day or two. To find blood mushrooms, she would have to rely on the power of the masses.

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