Chapter 98 Nuclear Radiation 1

Chapter 98 Nuclear Radiation, Part 1

Whether it was an illusion or not, Su Han's skin prickled with a burning heat after just five minutes of listening to the system explain the rules and pondering them briefly.

She glanced around and noticed the sunlight wasn’t scorching.

"Is this radiation?" Though unsure of the specifics, Su Han keenly sensed she was in danger. The most obvious indicator was her stamina bar inching downward.

Not daring to linger, she grabbed her backpack, tossed in bread and milk, and hurried down the street, pounding on every house door. Unfortunately, no one answered.

Undeterred, Su Han moved on to the next house. Her knuckles ached from knocking.

Ten minutes later, after -10 stamina, someone finally opened the door.

An elderly woman peered through the crack, covering her nose and mouth with a damp cloth (likely radiation protection). She frowned and asked, "What do you want?"

"I’d like to rent a bedroom. Name your price," Su Han quickly stated, afraid that beating around the bush would make the woman shut the door.

The old woman snapped, "Money’s useless here." She then tried to slam the door shut.

Su Han hastily added, "I can pay rent with food or daily necessities!"

The fact that no shops along the street were open suggested the situation in this instance wasn’t great. Even though this woman’s tone was harsh, the mere act of opening the door in such circumstances could be considered a damn miracle. Su Han didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

The woman paused before asking, "Do you have clean drinking water?"

Su Han immediately took off her backpack and thrust a sealed UHT milk carton forward.

She swallowed hard before snapping, "Two milks a day as rent. Can’t pay? Get out now."

"No problem," Su Han agreed readily.

Only then did the old woman fully open the door and let her in.

The moment Su Han stepped inside, the woman slammed the door shut.

Su Han wanted to ask about the situation, but the old woman merely pointed to the guest room and barked, "You stay put unless it’s life-or-death." Then she ignored her new tenant entirely.

Su Han, *...*

*Whatever makes you happy.*

She entered the guest room and closed the door, finally getting a chance to examine her surroundings properly.

The guest room was a 15-square-meter box. The windows were X-crossed with electrical tape, making the lighting dim. However, the environment felt noticeably better. The most obvious change was that her stamina now decreased by 1 point every ten minutes instead of every minute.

Su Han quickly did the math: A decrease of 1 point every ten minutes meant 6 points per hour, and 144 points per day. The calculation sent a jolt through her. Forget surviving 20 days to clear the instance—even lasting until the 10th day would be extremely difficult!

After all, she had accumulated 860 stamina points through consecutive victories and numerous bonus rewards. At this rate, six days max.

And that was while hiding indoors. If she were outside on the streets, her stamina would drop even faster…

Su Han immediately realized—this was the moment to rely on her stockpile.

At 9 a.m., the system’s mechanical voice announced, "DAY 1."

As soon as the words faded, a piece of black bread, a bottle of UHT milk, and two bars of handmade soap materialized in her lap.

The countdown had begun.

Su Han took the backpack and intended to pack the newly obtained supplies inside. But as she glanced at them, she froze.

Slightly Contaminated Black Bread: Restores 15 satiety points when consumed. Contains radioactive substances that may harm human health.

Su Han dumped the new supplies into her Portable Storage and started thinking hard. She was absolutely certain that before this, the black bread had been completely normal, without the "slightly contaminated" label.

In other words, the contamination occurred after she entered the game.

But why? She had opened the backpack, placed the bread and milk inside, and hadn’t taken them out since. How could they have been contaminated?

Moreover, checking the bottled milk’s status showed it was unchanged from before.

Huh? Wait...

Su Han suddenly realized the black bread was wrapped in a transparent plastic bag—not vacuum-sealed—while the milk was completely sealed. Recalling how she had felt uneasy standing on the street earlier, how the landlady had covered her nose and mouth while talking, and how the guest room’s windows were sealed shut, she finally understood what was wrong—the air contained radioactive substances!

In other words, people would naturally breathe in radioactive particles just by standing there.

"This is serious," Su Han murmured to herself.

The contaminated bread couldn’t be eaten anymore, so she left it in the backpack for appearances. Fortunately, she had only placed three pieces of bread in there initially, so the loss wasn’t huge.

For three straight days, Su Han kept to the guest room, not venturing out at all.

The landlady finally began to think the new tenant had some upsides. At the very least, she paid the rent on time, no haggling, which pleased the landlady greatly.

Su Han, in turn, noticed that the landlady was always in a good mood when collecting rent, making her easier to talk to. Seizing the opportunity, she cautiously fished for useful information.

"Radiation comes in two forms: external and internal exposure. External exposure refers to ionizing radiation from sources outside the body affecting you. Internal exposure means radioactive elements enter the body and act directly from within."

"The main protective measures are simple: avoid inhaling contaminated air, avoid eating contaminated food, avoid direct contact with contaminated objects, and avoid exposing wounds to contamination. If possible, place shielding materials to reduce external exposure. If you have the means, you could also wear protective gear."

"Get rid of it completely? Impossible! The air contains radioactive elements, the drinking water contains radioactive elements—they’re everywhere, in everything. From what I know, some people, starving and parched, have already started consuming slightly contaminated supplies."

Su Han wasn’t entirely clear on the principles of nuclear radiation, but she understood that right now, she didn’t need to grasp the details—she just had to remember the conclusions and know how to respond.

However, it dawned on her after piecing together all the information she’d gathered that radiation couldn’t be completely avoided. All players could do was minimize radioactive intake during the game. If they couldn’t reduce it, they’d have to rely on their stockpile to tough it out...

On the fourth day of the game, after paying the rent, Su Han deliberately mentioned, "I’m running low on supplies. I’ll leave here tomorrow, or at the latest, the day after."

In truth, her Portable Storage was still nowhere near empty, and she received new supplies daily, leaving her with leftovers even after consumption. She only said this because she wanted to move elsewhere.

After all, from the landlady’s perspective, Su Han carried only a backpack and never went out, so her resources should have dwindled quickly. If she never seemed to run out, it’d look suspicious.

Hearing that the tenant planned to leave, the landlady fell silent for a moment. After a long pause, she said slowly, "You seem unfamiliar. Why did you come to this town?"

Su Han almost blurted out that she was backpacking, but the words died in her throat—who’d be crazy enough to travel to a nuclear-contaminated town for sightseeing?

After some thought, she changed her answer. "I came to find relatives, but I couldn’t locate them."

That made sense. The landlady thought to herself that many people had disappeared from town after the nuclear leak. Collecting herself, she said, "Rest for now. At noon, accompany me on an errand."

Su Han was puzzled but agreed obediently. "Alright."

Their interactions over the past few days had been pleasant, so she didn’t mind accompanying the landlady—there might even be unexpected rewards. Besides, the numerous grenades in her Portable Storage gave her immense confidence.

With such strong backing, she feared nothing!

At noon, Su Han made sure to eat lunch early and then began popping meds.

Four days into the game, her energy level had successfully dropped below 400. Staying indoors normally wasn’t an issue, but now that she was about to go out, she had no choice but to restore her energy.

After taking medication and boosting her energy all at once to 654, her status read 76% energy, and Su Han finally stopped, satisfied.

Just then, the landlady reminded her, "Time to go."

Su Han grabbed her backpack and left the room.

She had originally assumed they would be going outside and had even prepared a mask to reduce inhalation. To her surprise, the landlady led her to the master bedroom and opened a hidden floor panel.

The next moment, a pitch-black staircase appeared before them, seemingly bottomless.

Su Han, "..."

What fresh hell was this?

"Follow me," the landlady said, picking up a flashlight and taking point.

Su Han hurried after her.

The staircase was long, with numerous branching paths and frequent turns. It took a full five minutes before her feet finally touched the bottom.

Su Han looked around and realized they were in an underground marketplace. Many shops were open for business, making the place buzzing with activity.

The landlady warned sternly, "We’ll split up and meet back here in two hours. If you’re late, I’ll give you five extra minutes max—after that, I’m leaving."

"Understood," Su Han agreed readily, though inwardly she noted that since entering the underground, her energy drain had noticeably slowed. She needed to find a way to stay here.

The landlady probably hoped the tenant would find suitable items in the underground marketplace and continue staying in the guest room, but Su Han was going to disappoint her.

"Remember, don’t cause trouble. All shops in the underground marketplace are protected—they have serious connections." Unable to resist, the landlady added a few more warnings out of concern.

"I understand," Su Han replied with a smile.

Only then did the two part ways to explore separately.

Although her inventory was stocked with plenty of medicine, the moment Su Han calculated that it would take 20 days to beat the level, she felt the supplies still weren’t quite enough.

She even began to wonder—was it really worth wasting so much medicine just to clear the level? Or would it be a better strategy to bail on this run immediately on the 10th day?

After much deliberation without reaching an answer, Su Han let out a frustrated sigh and decided to focus on browsing the marketplace.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a shop selling a "Nuclear Radiation Protection Manual"! Exactly what she desperately needed!

Eagerly, Su Han entered the shop, ready to bone up on emergency prep.

But the shopkeeper said, "The manual has twenty pages. You can only read the first seven before paying. If you want to buy it, one copy costs 150g of uncontaminated food. For lightly contaminated food, it’s 300g. Moderately or heavily contaminated food isn’t accepted."

After skimming the first seven pages, Su Han found that the precautions listed were similar to what the landlady had already told her. Without hesitation, she slid across a piece of uncontaminated black bread as payment.

The shopkeeper carefully tested it with a device. Once confirming the bread was indeed uncontaminated, his face broke into a grin, and he quickly said, "Alright, take the manual."

The words were barely out when he began wolfing down the bread.

Su Han was equally pleased. Even as a prepper, she couldn’t possibly memorize every precaution for every disaster. So scoring a chance to bone up on survival skills in this instance was a total score.

Finding a chair in the shop, she sat down and began reading the manual carefully. Soon, she noticed that the precautions recorded here were far more detailed than what the landlady had mentioned.

"Key ways to protect against external radiation: Reduce exposure time; stay away from the radiation source; use shielding materials."

"After a nuclear leak, iodine supplements can help with symptoms. (Note: Overdosing is harmful to health.)"

"Avoid going outside if possible. If you must go out, use a wet towel over your face and keep your skin covered."

Dev Note: Some disasters can only have their symptoms mitigated—their arrival and spread cannot be stopped, such as nuclear radiation.

References: Baidu Encyclopedia and books.