“This is your smartwatch. Your information has been registered to it, which cost 20 credits. Testing your body cost 150 credits. As for us driving you back, counting the gasoline plus your food and drink, that’s 200 credits. All of this has already been deducted from your account.”
Yinxing stood there in a daze, accepting the silver smartwatch with both hands. Listening to the big bearded man lay out the breakdown, she gave a slow, absentminded nod.
Not long after she woke up, she had run into the Bearded Man and his squad. They said they could bring her along back to the safe zone, and if she turned out to be an ability user who had awakened an order, they could let her join their squad and officially become one of them.
The end result was that the testing machine didn’t react at all. She hadn’t awakened any order.
She was designated as “trash.”
Not only because she had no order, but also because of her physical condition—she looked barely better than a skeleton.
She was assigned directly into the Class D demographic.
The population rank classification started from ability users with orders: Class S, Class A, Class B, Class C, with Class D being the absolute worst. Class C consisted of ordinary people, while awakened individuals basically started at Class B.
As for Class D—just like Yinxing—it consisted of the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled: people who wouldn’t live long and were just waiting to die.
Naturally, the treatment enjoyed by each class differed vastly.
Take her, for example. Right now, she was allocated a two-jin bag of soybeans, three sweet potatoes, and two pouches of nutrient fluid.
“Pinch pennies with this food. It should be enough to last you a week. Your residence has been assigned to Sector D-98. Take your smartwatch and go there; the community staff will arrange your housing.”
Yinxing let out an “Mm” and gave a earnest nod. Her overly emaciated cheeks made her pair of eyes look excessively large; when she stared at someone attentively, it felt inexplicably unnerving.
Although she hadn’t originally planned on joining the Bearded Man’s squad anyway, it didn’t change the fact that he was still a good person in her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Get yourself settled, and you’d better find a job as soon as possible to earn credits. Otherwise, the community will forcibly assign you work—and those jobs can claim your life at any moment.”
The Bearded Man spoke in a heavy tone with furrowed brows, which, paired with the beard covering most of his face, made him look even more fierce and intimidating.
However, Yinxing didn’t feel scared at all. “You’re a good person. I still want to thank you.”
That rock-hard heart of his was touched just a tiny bit. He wondered if he had been a bit too harsh on a frail young girl.
“Captain, why are you still wasting your breath on that trash? We still need to sell our haul! If we get there late, we won’t get a good price!”
A voice belonging to one of the Bearded Man’s teammates called out from outside. It was a short-haired girl whose words carried thorns sharper than a sea buckthorn.
Her malice was far too obvious. Yinxing didn’t like it, so she gave the Bearded Man a wave and boarded the train bound for Sector D.
This train was filled entirely with the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Sitting opposite her was a limping man whose dark, sullen stare made people feel extremely uncomfortable.
The first thing to take care of upon arriving at Sector D-98 was housing. The middle-aged woman working for the community conscientiously gave her introduction.
“There are still quite a few vacant places in Sector 98. It depends on what you want to choose: apartment buildings are 200 credits a month, old residential buildings are 150 credits a month, basic single-story houses are 80 credits a month, and container units are 40 a month. However, if your finances allow it, I recommend choosing a residential building or a single-story house. They’re all grouped together, regularly patrolled by the defense forces, so safety is guaranteed. The surrounding facilities are complete, making everything a bit more convenient.”
Suddenly, someone let out a cold sneer. It was that limping man.
“What facilities could there possibly be? Isn’t it just waiting to die no matter where you go!”
The middle-aged woman could barely hold her expression together, but she smoothed things over with a smile. “As the old saying goes, a close neighbor is better than a distant relative. It’s great to have neighbors on both sides, isn’t it? If any household runs into trouble, everyone can lend a hand.”
Regardless, people still needed a place to sleep. Even though they were categorized as the group most likely to die, it didn’t mean they actually wanted to die.
Most people chose the single-story houses, though some rented the container units. In the end, only that skeleton of a girl remained, holding her belongings and standing in place like a fool.
The middle-aged woman had noticed the girl long ago; her appearance was truly frighteningly skinny.
“Young lady, what kind of housing are you looking to rent?”
Her?
With her account sitting at negative 372 credits?
Yinxing gave an awkward laugh and pulled her lips back into a smile, causing the middle-aged woman’s pupils to shrink.
Even uglier.
“Auntie, are there any houses that don’t cost credits?”
“What did you say?”
For a second, the middle-aged woman thought she had misheard and couldn’t help asking again.
Yinxing felt helpless too. She raised the smartwatch hanging on her thin wrist and pursed her lips. “Auntie, I don’t have any money. So, are there any houses that don’t cost credits?”
“Little girl, even though your body is weak, you still have to try hard to survive. Times aren’t easy right now…”
“Auntie, I owe a lot, a lot of credits.”
The middle-aged woman’s words came to an abrupt halt. She let out a long sigh. “If that’s the case for you, there really is no other way. The free houses are on the edge of the safe zone, too close to the forest. They’re right next to mutated plants, and mutated animals might wander through. That place is really no place for a human to live!”
Yinxing’s eyes lit up. Free meant it was the best option!
“I want to live in that free house!”
Among a row of broken walls and ruins, she barely managed to locate half a building. A single corner still stood firm amidst the rubble, capable of sheltering her from the wind and rain for free.
Gurgle—
After bustling about for nearly a whole day, the small amount of food she had eaten in the morning had long been digested. The top priority now was to solve her hunger.
Yinxing pinched the pouch of milky-white, slightly greenish nutrient fluid and poured it into her mouth, almost vomiting it back out.
It was a bit sour, somewhat astringent, and had a slimy texture. It was truly disgusting.
“Ugh, tastes awful.”
After waiting a moment, her stomach felt slightly better, but she was still very hungry. Her eyes fell upon the soybeans and sweet potatoes distributed by the safe zone, and her mouth couldn’t help watering.
She scooped up a handful of soybeans and held them to her nose to smell, her face immediately twisting in disgust.
Stinky, so stinky.
She threw them back into the bag with repulsion and pulled out a sweet potato.
It was stinky too!
The stuff given out by the safe zone smelled so bad.
Her fingertips brushed across the sweet potato, and tiny specks of faint glow seeped into it. Yinxing’s entire body grew visibly weaker; a layer of sweat broke out on her forehead as she panted heavily in gasps, her vision spinning in waves.
Her body was too weak; thankfully, she had swallowed that pouch of nutrient fluid earlier.
Holding the sweet potato, she took a small bite and chewed it over. The clean sweetness of the sweet potato melted in her mouth.
It didn’t smell stinky anymore. It was edible.
However, she was far too tired right now and needed to sleep a little to recover…
Hugging her knees and leaning against the wall, Yinxing closed her eyes tightly and fell into a deep sleep.
A thin vine extended out from the ruins, winding and swiftly crawling in Yinxing’s direction. Like a small snake, it coiled upward, sprouting branches and spreading leaves. Almost in the blink of an eye, Yinxing was wrapped inside the leaves like a green cocoon. Despite such a terrifying scene, her sleeping face remained tranquil and serene…