Chapter 669: Chapter 419: The Autumn of the Scavenger (4500 words)_1

About ten minutes later, he returned to the building, dragging three giant wolves behind him.

Obtaining meat was the first step to addressing the food issue.

The second step was to start a fire and cook the meat.

Although his current digestive abilities allowed him to consume raw meat without much issue, he still couldn’t change his personal preference for cooked food, which was more easily digestible.

Harrison Clark jumped around the building for a while and gathered quite a few burnable items such as bedding and clothing not sealed for preservation.

These items were too brittle for any other use, so he decided to use them as fuel.

He also made a makeshift grill with metal bars and sharpened a retrieved fruit knife, which would suffice for his needs.

He was in luck, as he managed to find a kitchen in the building.

In the kitchen, he discovered a well-sealed bottle of table salt.

It seemed that the family who used to live here had a refined taste and did not entirely abandon traditional cooking even with the convenience of the Quark device. This stroke of luck practically saved Harrison’s life.

There were more surprises in store – the unopened salt bottle had a production date written on it: September 28th, 2519.

In the era when Quark devices were available, simple commodities like salt were produced on-the-spot through synthesis, not by manufacturers.

The production date was elegantly hand-written, indicating that the lady of the house was well-educated but now just a part of history.

Previously, Harrison tried many ways to determine the date of the apocalyptic disaster but had no luck. He never thought that valuable information would be found on a simple salt bottle.

The Solar Dome descended on January 1st, 2500, yet humans still existed on Earth in 2519.

That meant the possibility of a successful mass evacuation of human civilization had vanished.

Furthermore, the fact that the lady was still keen on producing her salt in late September of 2519 suggested that society at the time was stable and thriving, meaning the catastrophe must have happened after 2519.

Harrison was more than 70% confident in asserting one thing.

Humans were not so weak as to succumb to an internal conflict – they merely failed to withstand the assault from the Compound Eye Civilization through the Solar Dome.

The Compound Eye Civilization probably launched its attack around 2520.

Otherwise, the salt bottle’s date should not be accurate to 2519 – more likely being several decades or even centuries later.

Harrison’s chain of logic in deducing these facts was far from rigorous and full of holes.

Yet, being able to know many essential dates, combined with the small hand-written label gave him a wealth of vital information.

He felt slightly reassured; otherwise, he would have been very disappointed with the performance of future generations.

But doubts still remained.

Was it the Z Bacteria, which had gained a collective intelligence, that destroyed humanity?

Did the Z Bacteria mutate and wipe out the human race, then proceed to eradicate all traces of human civilization, step by step?

The more Harrison thought about it, the more likely this possibility seemed.

However, since advanced Quark devices were already widely used in every household by the beginning of the 26th century, that meant human technology in this timeline had reached the level of the 29th century in the Eighth Timeline by the year 2500.

The 500-Year Plan had been nearly successful.

How could humans have perished in a war against the mutated Z Bacteria?

Where did the fatal flaw lie?

And where did the mutated creatures that defeated humanity go?

Unable to find answers, Harrison temporarily set aside these questions, quickly adjusted his mood, and happily began cooking his wolf meat over a fire.

Starting a fire proved challenging for him, as he spent half an hour striking metal together until the sparks generated eventually ignited the easily flammable cotton materials.

The fire crackled, and the fat-laden meat sizzled as the wolf’s leg was roasted to a charred exterior and a tender interior.

He then pinched some salt with his fingers, sprinkling it onto the leg, bit by bit.

The 500-year-old authentic salt had a more luxurious taste than a bottle of ’82 Lafite.

It was a shame there was no red wine to go with the meal, and all he could drink was boiled rainwater.

Due to the absorption of dust particles in the air and the accumulation of toxic gases, such as sulfur dioxide, during the sedimentation process, 21st-century rainwater was undrinkable.

But Harrison no longer had that concern; rainwater from the 31st century, after being boiled, was as pure as dew and even had a refreshing taste similar to spring water.

After devouring the two legs, Harrison burped, feeling full and satisfied before drifting off into a deep sleep.

The next day, he began to traverse through the rooms of the town’s ruins, gathering information and collecting usable items.

By the end of the day, he had amassed quite a haul.

He found many labels that could verify time points, such as snack bags, condiment bottles, and holographic devices with a designated return date for factory maintenance.

He also discovered a well-crafted standard military training knife with self-mending material, measuring 130 cm long, 48 mm wide, and 21 kg heavy, which was still very sharp.

He then used this knife to butcher a gigantic python and found a fantastic surprise.

The python’s gallbladder contained both highly stable antimatter engine and biological battery properties.

His energy supply problem was solved.

Afterward, he followed the trail of the python’s slithering tracks on the ground, eventually coming across a massive underground warehouse that housed the snake’s nest.

After disposing of another huge python and more than ten smaller ones, Harrison collected a total of two large and thirteen smaller “biological batteries.”

In addition, he discovered a pile of small aircraft wreckage that had been deliberately targeted for destruction within the warehouse.