12: Chapter 12 Ultimate Luxury! Cabbage Stew with Wolf Meat

The Extreme Cold Ice Storm raged for a full forty-eight hours.

The sky over the Pale Shoals was completely obscured.

There was no alternation between day and night, only eternal darkness and the roaring of the wild winds.

The Polaris stood like a black reef rooted beneath the ice, remaining motionless despite the raging wind and waves.

Over these two days, Lu Chen and Lin Wan had even established a strange, post-apocalyptic routine.

The blizzard outside buried more than half of the vehicle's body, forming a natural snow mound that further blocked the biting cold wind.

Inside the vehicle, the constant temperature of twenty degrees remained unchanged.

Lu Chen leaned against the head of the bed, toying with that delicate skinning knife in his hand.

He occasionally peered through the gap in the bulletproof glass, using binoculars to observe the outside world.

His view was severely obstructed, but he could still vaguely make out some nauseating scenes.

A few kilometers away, near the canyon shelter where a firefight had occurred earlier, some strange ice sculptures were scattered haphazardly beside the wreckage of several blown-up snowmobiles.

Those were the scavengers who hadn't managed to seize the shelter.

In the sub-zero temperatures of over a hundred degrees below zero, even their struggling movements were instantly frozen in time.

Lu Chen even saw a gust of wind sweep by; the arm of one ice sculpture had become dry and brittle, snapping off at the root with a click, being swept up into mid-air and shattering into a pile of ice shards.

Life here was more fragile than a stone.

"Beep! Crackle!"

The hand-cranked radio on the table occasionally emitted static; those were desperate distress signals from some micro-vehicles trapped in the ice storm.

"Help... our boiler went out... the chassis is frozen solid..."

"Can someone give me a piece of coal... I can't feel my legs... please..."

These faint wails drifted through the airwaves, only to be ruthlessly swallowed by the wind and snow.

Every time Lin Wan heard these sounds, she would unconsciously hug her arms, her body trembling slightly.

She felt lingering fear.

If she hadn't met Lu Chen, if this vehicle hadn't possessed that miraculous insulation layer, her fate would have been the same as those people.

Desperately watching her own body turn into an ice cube, little by little.

Lu Chen turned a deaf ear to those calls for help.

He was an egoist; opening the door to save people in this extreme environment?

That was something only a fool would do.

The risk of heat loss outweighed everything else.

He turned off the radio with a snap, completely cutting off the connection to the despair outside.

Just then.

"Ding dong!"

A crisp electronic prompt sounded abruptly in the quiet cabin.

The source of this sound was the [Simple Hydroponics Box] at the foot of the bed!

Lin Wan sprang up from the floor and scrambled to the planting box.

Her eyes were fixed on the small display screen on the side of the box.

The number that had originally displayed the [Maturity Countdown] had changed into three blood-pumping characters.

[Mature]!

"City Lord! City Lord!" Lin Wan's voice became sharp and cracked due to extreme excitement, and she pointed at the box, her fingers trembling, "Cabbage... the cabbage is mature!"

Lu Chen rose abruptly and strode to the planting box in a few steps.

Through the purple ultraviolet light, he saw a scene that could be called a miracle in this wasteland world.

On the grayish-brown nutrient substrate, a head of Chinese cabbage stood quietly there!

It was the size of a bowl, its leaves thick and upright, presenting a healthy, emerald green color.

There were even a few crystal-clear water droplets hanging on the leaves, exuding a fragrance unique to plants—the smell of soil and fresh juice!

There was no yellowing caused by radiation, and no shriveling from malnutrition.

This was a top-tier Chinese cabbage that would have been fought over by aunties in supermarkets back in the old days!

Gulp.

Lu Chen clearly heard the sound of Lin Wan swallowing her saliva frantically.

It wasn't just her.

Even Lu Chen himself, a rational fanatic who had been accustomed to delicacies in his past life, began to secrete saliva frantically in his mouth as he looked at this emerald green.

They had been eating dry, fishy mutant wolf meat and bear meat for several days.

This crisp, succulent Chinese cabbage was even more tempting to them than the top-tier A-grade Wagyu beef!

Vitamins!

Dietary fiber!

Sweet, refreshing juice!

This was the most instinctive craving for plants carved into human genes!

"Seventy-two hours, not a minute more, not a minute less." Lu Chen suppressed the excitement in his heart, his eyes full of appreciation.

The system's Ecological Logistics not only fulfilled its promise on time but, because of the perfect temperature and water quality, produced a quality far exceeding expectations.

"Be careful, pick it," Lu Chen instructed.

Lin Wan first wiped her hands hard on her clothes, then reached into the planting box with trembling hands, gently grasping the base of the cabbage.

Snap.

A crisp breaking sound rang out.

The cabbage was pulled out completely.

When this emerald green was completely exposed to the light of the cabin, the visual impact made both of them hold their breath.

Outside was a dark purgatory of minus one hundred degrees, filled with corpses and ice sculptures.

In such an environment, this cabbage radiating vitality was simply a sacred work of art.

Lu Chen took the short knife he had used to process the bear meat earlier from the side and carefully wiped it clean on his clothes.

His movements were focused.

"Cut a quarter, seal the rest in a vacuum bag, and put it in the cold storage. Leave the cabbage root in the substrate; it can grow a second crop." Lu Chen gave instructions methodically.

Even when eating a good meal, one must be calculating and never waste a single resource.

"Tonight, we're having cabbage stewed with wolf meat." Lu Chen's tone became light.

Above the Polaris's Primary Efficiency Boiler sat a thick-bottomed iron pot.

The pot had been polished bright by the pure water from the [Snow Melting Purifier].

In the pot, pure water was boiling and churning, surging with milky white foam.

The humid, hot steam mixed with the fresh scent of plants, permeating the cabin.

The twenty-degree constant temperature air was thus made a bit more reassuringly humid.

Lu Chen stood in front of the iron pot, his expression even more focused than when he was sniping Snow Bears with his steam crossbow.

For an infrastructure fanatic, cooking was also a rigorous project that required extreme precision.

He first took a piece of the most tender Icefield Wolf hind leg meat from the natural cold storage. That cold storage was pressed tightly against the iron sheet exposed to the extreme cold outside.

He used a short knife to cut the meat into uniform cubes, each cut following the muscle texture to ensure the texture could achieve ultimate tenderness.

Boiling in cold water could force out the residual blood and gamey smell.

Lu Chen poured the meat cubes into the pot.

With a hiss, gray-white foam quickly rose to the surface of the water.

He skimmed the foam clean with a skimmer, his wrist remaining steady throughout, and the soup in the pot returned to clarity.

Subsequently, he pinched a few precious spices from an old iron can.

That was something left behind by the Old City Lord—a few shriveled Sichuan peppercorns and a pinch of coarse salt.

Crude, but in the wasteland, this was enough to make the nobles of small and medium-sized settlements jealous.

It stewed for half an hour.

The fibers of the wolf meat began to soften under high heat.

The fat dissolved into the pure water, and the soup took on an enticing milky white color.

The rich aroma of meat overflowed, stirring in the small cabin.

Lin Wan, who had been squatting nearby, looked like her eyes were turning green.

She stared fixedly at the iron pot, the sound of her swallowing saliva exceptionally loud in the quiet cabin.

The heat was right.

Lu Chen glanced at the time, not a second off.

He took the quarter of the succulent Chinese cabbage from the cutting board.

The cabbage stalks were crisp and tender, and the leaves were emerald green.

Lu Chen didn't use a knife; he tore it into bite-sized pieces by hand along the fiber texture.

He firmly believed that this was the only way to retain the fresh sweetness of vegetables forgotten by the frozen world.

Plop, plop.

The cabbage was thrown into the rolling meat soup.

Into the originally rich and overbearing meat aroma, a fresh, soul-striking vegetable fragrance instantly darted in!

The cabbage stalks quickly became translucent in the hot soup, greedily absorbing the rich fat of the wolf meat.

The emerald green leaves rolled on the surface of the soup, turning into melted jade, extremely tempting.

After boiling for only three minutes, Lu Chen decisively extinguished the auxiliary fire.

One more second would ruin the crisp texture of the cabbage.

"Dinner's ready."

Hearing these two words, Lin Wan lunged forward, her hands trembling as she picked up her chipped aluminum bowl.

Lu Chen served her a full bowl.

Half a bowl of melt-in-your-mouth wolf meat, half a bowl of cabbage soaked in soup.

Finally, he poured a large spoonful of golden, piping hot meat soup over it.

Outside, the Extreme Cold Ice Storm was still raging across the Pale Shoals.

The roaring wind was like thousands of evil spirits demanding lives outside the vehicle.

Frost had frozen the Polaris's bulletproof glass into a completely opaque block of thick ice.

Inside the vehicle, however, it was a twenty-degree constant-temperature paradise, with warm yellow lighting.

Lin Wan's hands trembled as she used chopsticks to pick up an emerald green leaf stained with oil, devoutly putting it into her mouth.

Crunch, a crisp chewing sound.

She couldn't taste a hint of bitterness, nor could she chew any woody fibers!

The unique fresh sweetness of the cabbage mixed with the richness of the wolf meat fat, bursting in her mouth!

That vivid taste, containing vitality, turned into a bolt of lightning.

It struck her taste buds, which had been numbed by the apocalypse, directly.

She closed her eyes, and tears burst forth silently.

These tears had nothing to do with fear; only this ultimate taste, belonging to the golden age of human civilization, had finally returned to her life.

"It's so delicious... City Lord... I swear, this is the most perfect meal I've ever had in my life."

Lin Wan cried silently while frantically shoveling vegetables and meat into her mouth, wishing she could swallow her own tongue along with it.

Lu Chen also picked up his stainless steel lunch box.

He was far less composed than Lin Wan.

But when the cabbage stalk soaked in meat juice was bitten through and the sweet juice slid down his throat into his stomach, his cold, iron-like face finally relaxed completely.

Every inch of muscle was stretching, and every nerve was transmitting signals of pleasure.

In the midst of extreme destruction and deep cold, enjoying a hot bowl of vegetable stewed meat alone.

The sense of control from transforming the living environment into a completely safe domain.

This feeling was more intoxicating than any addictive substance.

He glanced at Lin Wan, who was eating with oil all over her mouth, and then at the grade a seed vault that was quietly nurturing hope.

The Extreme Cold Ice Storm failed to crush him; instead, it allowed his system to complete the perfect closed loop of the first stage.

In this cruel apocalypse, he finally had his first foothold that could be called home.

A top-tier meal of cabbage stewed with wolf meat was eaten with the highest level of luxury amidst the blizzard of the apocalypse.

The Polaris, under the rage of this ice storm, was silently accumulating strength, preparing to light up the tech tree for the next time, slowly moving toward Lv.2.