The map of the Safe Zone was vast, so vast that even the geography teacher at Ju'an School didn't have a detailed map.
Naturally, Qin Siyang didn't know the distribution of the Safe Zone exits.
He only knew the approximate location of exit 114514 because it was relatively close to him.
Out of over a hundred thousand numbered Safe Zone exits, this was the only one he knew.
For an ordinary person, unless they planned to climb the social ladder by associating with Sequence Ability Users, who would care about the location of the Safe Zone exits?
Not knowing the locations of the Safe Zone exits wasn't a pressing issue. He remembered that near the main road, at the bus stop, there was a route map. The map likely showed the locations of the Safe Zone exits.
In the past, Qin Siyang spent his weekends lying around at home to conserve energy and eat less. This weekend, however, was destined to be different.
Now, he was filled with determination.
His mind was consumed with a single belief.
To become stronger.
As long as he became stronger, he could leave this wretched place!
With a backpack full of food, Qin Siyang walked for over ten minutes to reach the bus stop.
It was his first time at the bus stop because he couldn't afford to eat, let alone take the bus.
In Qin Siyang's memory, after the apocalypse, the poor walked on foot in the Safe Zone, while the rich traveled by bus.
As for driving private cars? Gasoline was an even scarcer resource than electricity, and there weren't such affluent people on the outskirts of the Safe Zone.
He studied the bus route map for a long time.
He discovered that many of the bus stops along the route were named after Safe Zone exits. The only bus line on the outskirts of the Safe Zone passed by several Safe Zone exits, all with numbers smaller than 114514.
As for which Safe Zone exit to go to, Qin Siyang wasn't sure.
He decided to figure it out as he went along.
Having never taken a bus in this world, he didn't know how far one bus stop was from another.
"Ah, if only orphans could ride the bus for free."
Qin Siyang looked at the five copper coin fare and shook his head helplessly. He had only ten copper coins left, all of which he spent at the Internet Cafe yesterday.
"Five copper coins for a trip, ten for a round trip. I might as well go back to the Internet Cafe to look up more information."
Qin Siyang began the task of measuring the distance between bus stops on foot. He needed to know the approximate distance between bus stops to estimate which Safe Zone exits he could reach on foot.
He walked along the bus route for twenty minutes to reach the next bus stop.
"The bus stops here seem much farther apart than in my previous life."
After consuming the godly remains yesterday, his strength had increased, and he walked at a speed far surpassing ordinary pedestrians. Whenever the road was empty, he would quicken his pace and move forward with all his might.
Even so, he could only cover the distance of three stops in an hour.
Knowing the distance of one stop, he roughly understood his range of activity.
"The seventh stop is called Safe Zone Exit No. 54320, the seventeenth stop is Safe Zone Exit No. 89757, and the twentieth stop is Safe Zone Exit No. 38324. It seems that only these three stops give me a chance to find godly remains."
"The farthest, Safe Zone Exit No. 38324, I can return home before tomorrow. Any farther, and I might not make it back before Monday, which means I can't attend school on time."
On Monday, Qin Siyang had to go to school early to report to the library administrator about his intention to continue his work-study program.
Otherwise, his work-study position at the library would be taken by someone else, and he wouldn't have money to go to the Internet Cafe.
After some thought, Qin Siyang decided to head to Safe Zone Exit No. 54320 first to check out the situation.
The journey of an hour and forty minutes didn't tire Qin Siyang in the slightest. He even became more and more cheerful as he walked.
Material abundance and spiritual abundance are often discussed separately. Once a person has hope, they do everything with enthusiasm.
Even though the streetlights around him were dim, casting a sense of oppression in the air.
According to the time, it was daytime, but the sun had disappeared ten years ago. Although it was early morning, the sky remained perpetually at midnight.
The basic infrastructure on the outskirts of the Safe Zone was very rudimentary. The main road he was on only had a dim streetlight every few dozen meters, barely illuminating a few steps ahead.
The alleys beside it were even darker, forcing people to grope their way through.
Looking up, he could vaguely see the faint starlight and the occasional silhouette of gods passing by through the Safe Zone's anti-aircraft glass.
The cold wind blew through, penetrating Qin Siyang's several layers of not-so-warm coats, making intimate contact with his skin, causing goosebumps to rise all over his body.
Qin Siyang raised his collar to cover his face, shielding it from the direct assault of the cold wind, and continued to stride forward.
After walking seven stops, he arrived at Safe Zone Exit No. 54320.
This exit's number was over fifty thousand less than 114514, so logically, there would be more Sequence Ability Users hunting gods here.
As soon as Qin Siyang arrived, he found a taller, dilapidated building to get a better view of the situation.
Sure enough, he saw nearly a hundred Sequence Ability Users in thermal suits stationed at the exit, far more than at exit 114514.
Ordinary people dressed like him surrounded the Safe Zone exit, nearly ten thousand strong.
He observed the crowd and the Sequence Ability Users conversing in the center, and no one noticed him.
Qin Siyang pretended to wander aimlessly around the area, searching for the trash bins containing godly remains.
Finally, in a block adjacent to the Safe Zone exit, he saw the trash bins filled with godly remains.
The scale of this exit's trash bins far exceeded those at exit 114514.
If the trash bins at Safe Zone Exit No. 114514 were a lavish banquet, then the trash bin area at Safe Zone Exit No. 54320 was like a grand feast.
Seven or eight trash bins lined up, each filled with godly remains of various bizarre shapes, making Qin Siyang's mouth water.
If he could empty these seven or eight trash bins, wouldn't he be set for life?!
Qin Siyang's heart raced as he pondered how to quickly sweep away all the godly remains here.
But then he noticed two cleaners, their bodies covered in bloodstains, standing by the trash bins.
Initially, Qin Siyang planned to wait at a distance until the two cleaners left before approaching.
However, when he appeared in the line of sight of the two cleaners, they both looked up at him simultaneously.
After a brief exchange of glances, they resumed cleaning the trash bins.
Qin Siyang felt a tightness in his chest and changed his plan.
He didn't stop but continued walking forward, approaching the trash bins and the two cleaners.
Feigning the demeanor of a passing student, Qin Siyang walked past them nonchalantly without looking back.
The two cleaners glanced at Qin Siyang, noting his simple attire and youthful appearance, and paid him no mind.
Once he had walked far enough away, leaving the block entirely, Qin Siyang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's going on?! Why are there people guarding the trash bins?! And they're in plain clothes! Did that uniformed recorder report it yesterday? Are the trash bins really being watched?"
During the brief eye contact with those two, Qin Siyang's nerves were taut. Although he remained expressionless, he observed carefully, his mind racing.
He realized that those two were definitely not ordinary cleaners.
The stains on their clothes were too deliberately dirty.
The godly remains in the trash bins had long been separated from the gods' bodies, and the blood had been drained dry during the hunt.
The cleaners he saw at Safe Zone Exit No. 114514 yesterday only had a bit of dust on them.
Even if there were many godly remains at Safe Zone Exit No. 54320, there wasn't much blood on the trash bins.
Yet those two were covered in bloodstains, as if they had just killed someone, splattered all over them, which was not how cleaners should look!
It was clearly deliberately smeared!
Too much of a good thing can be bad.
Moreover, when Qin Siyang appeared far from the trash bins, the two of them simultaneously looked up at him.
At the moment their eyes met, Qin Siyang thought they were extremely vigilant.
Cleaners should just do their job, so why were they so alert and observant of their surroundings?! And both of them, no less!
"Perhaps the disappearance of godly remains from the trash bins last night caught someone's attention! Maybe these godly remains have other uses once retrieved?"
His earlier concerns weren't unfounded.
In just one night, the United Government had launched an investigation into this matter.
It's not hard to imagine that at Safe Zone Exit No. 114514, there were probably even more plainclothes agents waiting for him.
Qin Siyang sighed, "If I had only taken one godly remain yesterday, would it have been less troublesome?"
However, taking just one godly remain each day seemed safe, but it would require visiting the trash bins over thirty times to gain his current strength.
Going that many times increased the risk of exposure and getting caught on the spot.
It was better to do one big job.
It was precisely for this reason that he decided to clear out the trash bins of godly remains yesterday.
Qin Siyang knew that his plan to obtain godly remains from the trash bins might be ruined. But he hadn't completely given up.
Even though he had a favorable impression of the United Government, he doubted the efficiency of its lower levels.
Otherwise, why hadn't Ju'an School offered any courses related to Sequence Ability Users yet?
Perhaps the situation hadn't escalated to the point of cutting off all his opportunities.
"Forget it, there's no chance with these trash bins. I'll keep moving forward and see if I get lucky! Even if there's no chance, I've already grown much stronger from yesterday's haul, so it's not a loss!"
Qin Siyang left Safe Zone Exit No. 54320 and continued along the bus route, heading further away.
The next Safe Zone exit was ten stops away at Safe Zone Exit No. 89757.
"Ten stops, ah, it'll take over three more hours. I wonder if I can make it home today. I might end up sleeping outside."