Webnovel Author In The Apocalypse World

"Hey, haven't you heard?" someone exclaimed in surprise. "A few days ago, a person came to the safe zone, and the safe zone commander treated him as an honored guest, even sending his most trusted deputy to accompany him around Beonyeong Street. If I'm not mistaken, that should be this person."

Instantly, the bored crowd waiting in line gathered around.

"What's going on? Tell us the details."

"Quick, don't keep us in suspense. When did he arrive? Our squad has been out hunting zombies during this time."

"Yeah, hurry up and spill the beans."

The person surrounded by the crowd, clearly enjoying the attention, pulled out a grayish root from his pocket. "Guess what this is?"

The people around stared at it for a long time, even trying to poke at it cautiously, only to receive a glare from the man who dodged away.

"What is that? Is it the root of some newly mutated plant? But it looks so small and isn't solid at all; this mutated plant doesn't seem impressive at all."

"It does have a fragrant smell; could it be something edible?"

"Even if it's a powerful mutated plant, what does that have to do with the person you're talking about? Did he single-handedly wipe out this mutated plant?"

"What's the combat level of this mutated plant? It can't be impressive enough for the safe zone commander to personally host him, right?"

"Alright, alright, stop guessing. You're all off track." The person speaking carefully put away the root before marveling at the crowd around him. "This isn't some impressive mutated plant; on the contrary, it's a plant that hasn't mutated at all."

"And it's edible too!"

In an instant, the crowd was all astonished!

"This is the root of a cabbage. A completely unmutated, fully edible cabbage." The man beamed with pride. "Fortunately, I ran fast and managed to get this little root through a connection I have in the Fourth District. I took a small bite but couldn't bring myself to eat more."

At this point, he felt a twinge of envy and jealousy toward the person he knew.

God knows how badly he wanted to snatch a large handful of cabbage leaves when he saw them in that person's bowl. Luckily, his rationality stopped him from doing something so reckless.

"Most people know that the logistics department has been renovating houses in the Second District recently, right? I heard that house belongs to this person, and there are rumors that he plans to sell these normal ingredients there!"

As soon as this news broke, everyone got excited.

Forget the gossip; they hurried to line up to enter the safe zone, eager to head to the Second District to take a look. That person had already used a special passage to enter, probably to get the new ingredients, and if they arrived too late, they might miss out on everything.

The safe zone gate quickly became lively.

Kim Haru had no idea what was happening at the safe zone gate. He took out the special research institute badge that Jang Dojang had given him when he left last time. After confirming everything was in order, he was quickly welcomed into the safe zone.

Rejecting the offer of someone to accompany him, Kim Haru walked to his small villa in the Second District.

His shop had already been renovated.

Jang Dojang received the news after Kim Haru entered the safe zone. When Kim Hary arrived at his small villa in the Second District, Jang Dojang coincidentally showed up as well.

"Welcome, Mr. Kim! Just yesterday, the renovations were finished, and I was wondering how to notify you," Jang Dojang said, handing Kim a box. "Take this with you."

"What is this?" Kim Haru asked as he took the box and opened it, revealing a living snail inside.

"This is a type of mutated creature we call a sound-transmitting snail. You can probably guess from its name; it functions similarly to a telephone. Right now, none of the major safe zones can restore their signals, and communication tools like mobile phones are unusable. Luckily, we discovered this mutated creature."

From Jang Dojang's introduction, Kim finally understood what the sound-transmitting snail was.

The snail didn't possess particularly strong combat capabilities; it had two skills: one was to play dead, and the other was to transmit sound to its companions. When faced with danger, if playing dead didn't allow it to escape, it would call for friends in an attempt to evade danger through sheer numbers.

If too many of these creatures gathered, they could create a sound wave attack, which could become quite troublesome.

However, humans soon discovered the practical uses of this creature.

"The number of spiral turns on each snail shell corresponds to the number of companions it can contact. Those that are bound together will change color, while unbounded ones remain white." Jang Dojang pointed to the snail in Kim's hand. "I've taken the liberty of binding this one to the sound-transmitting snial from the safe zone commander's office, as well as to mine.

If you ever need anything, you can long-press the corresponding spiral to contact us."

The safe zone commander had sent a snail over after realizing that once Kim Hary left the safe zone, it was difficult for them to contact each other.

Such useful sound-transmitting snail were not easily obtained. The Pyeongseong Safe Zone only had a few by chance, and there were even dedicated teams in the research institute working on breeding them, but they had not achieved much success yet.

Upon hearing that these creatures weren't available to everyone, Kim Hary could guess that they were not very common and thanked Jang Dojang.

Having something to communicate with the safe zone was certainly convenient.

"This is what we should do," he said with a smile. "Did you come to the safe zone this time because new ingredients have matured?"

Kim Haru nodded.

Jang Dojang's eyes instantly brightened as he eagerly led Kim Haru on a tour of the first floor of the small villa.