Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 236 The Strange Apple

The fruit trees have been growing for decades, and each trunk is very thick and tall. The branches that grow from the trees are as thick as Yao Wei's waist. If they continue to grow, they may even be as tall as Lu Xi'an himself.

Its lushness and vitality gave Lu Xi'an a glimmer of hope.

Even if all you see is emerald green and no other colors.

"Dog, send the drone up to check if there's any fruit on the trees up there?"

Lu Xi'an gave the dog direct commands. With the dog and the drone around, searching for things was becoming more and more convenient.

In the past, they would have had to go in themselves, checking each tree one by one to confirm the condition of the forest. It was never as easy as it is now.
Of course, he could also jump up to see it. After all, as Type A new humans, he and Yao Wei's jumping ability far exceeded that of ordinary people. If they jumped up, they could probably overlook the entire orchard.

Even if you can't finish watching it, watching most of it or half of it is fine. You can just skip around a few more times.

But no matter what, it's never as easy as having a dog with a drone.

The dog was already being held by Yao Wei. Its four metal paws were no longer of any use. In any case, it was already integrated with the RV in the vehicle. Once it got out of the vehicle, Yao Wei carried it, so it didn't need to walk on its own.

After leaving the RV, it lost its ability to speak independently. Fortunately, it doesn't need to say anything now; it only needs to follow Lu Xi'an's instructions and control the drone to fly high.

The drone flew to a high vantage point to take in the entire forest.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei stood by Chen Shulin and waited.

Lu Xi'an said, "Don't you think we came down too early? If we were still in the car, we could have seen what the situation was like in the woods through the screen."

Yao Wei shook her head and said, "No need, the dog can see it."

Hmm... this woman really trusts her dog enough.

"Right."

Lu Xian said.

Before RVs existed, didn't they rely entirely on dogs? If the drone makes a discovery, they only need to rely on the dog's two eyes to confirm the situation; they don't need to look for it themselves at all.

Unless there are special circumstances, the dog needs to explain.

"Om-"

The drone hovered at high altitude for a while, then suddenly descended, and the sound of the propellers spinning became clearer.

The dog's eyes suddenly lit up.

“Really?!”

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised. If the fruit trees here could grow apples, why was no one occupying and guarding them? If the trees had fruit, wouldn't anyone covet them?

"lead the way."

He gave the dog new instructions, thought for a moment, and then said, "You take charge and keep the drone up there to keep watch."

The dog was still being carried by Yao Wei. Unable to lead Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei on foot, it could only rely on the light shining from its eyes.

Wherever the light shone, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei followed.

You have to push aside the thinner branches, but when you encounter the thicker ones, you have to either crawl or step over them.

The trees in the orchard have grown for so long, and perhaps they have undergone some kind of mutation, that many of their branches are incredibly thick and growing wildly, some even fighting each other.

Some even collided, became entangled, and coiled together, forming a bizarre and twisted giant spider web.

Lu Xi'an thought it was a pity that this was a post-disaster world. If it were before, this place could be developed and maybe become a tourist attraction for thrill-seeking horror activities.

If he were to enter this place at night, he would probably need to mentally prepare himself.

After venturing far into the woods, Lu Xi'an saw only trees growing wildly and providing ample shade, but not a single fruit tree. This made him wonder if Gouzi had lied to him.

Could it be that Mechanical Dog 02 harbored a vengeful attitude because it had always called it "dog"?
Just as these random and inexplicable thoughts flashed through his mind, the dog's eyes suddenly swept downwards and landed on a small tree in front of him.

Yes, a small tree.

That tree was clearly a fruit tree, but it looked so malnourished. Both its trunk and branches were much shorter and thinner than those of other trees.

It's as if the past few decades haven't touched this tree at all; the tree rings in the trunk have probably stopped growing long ago.

The leaves on this tree are withered and yellow, as if all the other big trees are in the height of summer, while it alone remains in late autumn.

Scattered among the withered trees hung tiny fruits, small and yellowish-green, not like apples, more like unripe grapes.

But what grapes look like this?!

"Is this an apple?"

Yao Wei asked Lu Xi'an.

But how could Lu Xi'an dare to give a definite answer? He could only ask Mechanical Dog 02, "Dog, is this an apple?"

Yao Wei looked at Lu Xi'an with a strange expression, as if to say, "Lu Xi'an, don't you know about apples? How come you don't recognize them now that you've seen them?"

Lu Xi'an ignored Yao Wei's gaze. He couldn't quite define his feelings—disappointment or something else—but his emotions had certainly fluctuated. Regardless of whether the fruit on the tree was an apple or not. Then the dog provided the answer; its eyes shone brightly. Lu Xi'an wasn't sure if it knew the exact answer. If they went back to the RV and let the dog explain through the stereo, perhaps it would provide a more accurate and detailed answer.

However, Lu Xi'an was not in a hurry. He hadn't finished looking around the woods yet. Since he was already in, why not finish looking around before leaving?
As for the RV, it's always parked outside, so they can go out anytime and put the dog in it then. It's not too late to listen to the dog talk.

Lu Xi'an asked the mechanical dog two more questions: one was whether the apple was edible, and the other was whether there were any other apple trees bearing fruit besides this one.

Just in case, he even broadened his question, not mentioning apple trees but only the tree, and not apples but the fruit.

When the first question was asked, the dog's eyes lit up, indicating that it could eat. When the second question was asked, the dog's eyes blinked, indicating that there was no more food.

Lu Xi'an then asked if these apples were safe for ordinary people to eat, and the answer was still yes.

He picked two apples—these apples could no longer be called "pieces," but rather "grains"—wiped them with his sleeve, gave one to Yao Wei, and tasted one himself. They were a bit sour and astringent, and not very juicy, but fortunately, they were still edible and could be swallowed.

Turning her head to look, she saw that Yao Wei, like herself, frowned. But adhering to the principle of not wasting food, she still finished the entire "apple".

"How about it?"

Lu Xian asked with a smile.

"good."

Yao Wei replied, "It's better than grass cakes."

Isn't that obvious? What isn't better than a cake made purely of grass?
Lu Xi'an sighed, a sudden pang of nostalgia creeping into his heart: "Apples from long ago were huge, as big as my fist, or even bigger, bigger than my fist."

"And some are very sweet, while others are sour, but they are also sweet and sour, and they are juicy when you take a bite, which is completely different from this."

Listening to Lu Xi'an's words, Yao Wei looked at the remaining fruit on the tree and could hardly believe it.

Lu Xi'an said, "These apples are different now. If it weren't for Gouzi, I wouldn't be able to tell they are apples."

"No wonder the fruit has remained here unharmed and hasn't been taken by anyone. It's so small, others probably wouldn't find it easily."

"We were really fortunate to have the dog and the drone; otherwise, we probably would have just looked around aimlessly and left."

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded, looked down at the dog she was carrying, and said, "The dog is amazing."

The dog's eyes blinked twice, and Lu Xi'an guessed that it was saying something like "Mechanical Dog 02 is at your service and can provide all the necessary functions" again.

He thought for a moment and said, "Yao Wei, tell me, in such a large orchard, why is it that only this small tree has grown fruit, and it looks out of place among the other trees?"

"Do you think it was man-made, or naturally formed?"

Yao Wei shook her head, indicating that she couldn't guess.

Lu Xi'an didn't wait for Yao Wei's answer; in his heart, he was more inclined to believe that it was "man-made."

Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought it up with Yao Wei.

What happened to these apple trees back then? Why did they grow like this?

"Doggy, take another good look around here and see if you find anything else?"

Lu Xi'an continued.

He took the dog from Yao Wei, stretched out his arm, and carried the dog around to examine it, as if the dog in his hand was a detector.

However, the dog really did treat itself as a probe. When Lu Xi'an held it like this, it looked around seriously with its two dog eyes, and while looking, it turned its head and made a "buzzing" sound.

After looking around the area and seeing that the dog's eyes still didn't light up, Lu Xi'an already had a guess in mind, but still asked, "Is there anything wrong here?"

The dog's eyes blinked twice.

"Then mark this fruit tree, and let's go look at other places first."

As Lu Xi'an spoke, he picked up the dog and looked at other places.

And then other things... and other things...

After most of the day had passed and they had searched the entire orchard, they still found nothing.

After leaving the orchard, Lu Xi'an was still not convinced. He wondered if he had missed something and whether he should go from one end of the orchard to the other and take another look.
Perhaps we can find something by conducting a thorough search, rather than starting from the middle and working outwards?
However, just as he was about to look again, he suddenly saw ruins everywhere outside the woods.

"Yes, and this too!"

Lu Xi'an slapped his forehead and sighed, "I was so confused. I was so focused on looking around in the woods that I forgot there was a large area of ​​building ruins here."

He immediately gave the dog a new command: "Dog, take another look inside the ruins."

After he finished speaking, he went to one end of the ruins, swept the area with his dog, and then stepped onto the ruins to search forward in a carpet-like manner.

When they reached the middle of the ruins, the dog's eyes suddenly lit up, shining into the ruins.

(End of this chapter)