It was not only its emerald-green color that made the puzzle piece stand out. Its material was also extremely unusual, resembling jade.
Although she had no idea where Lu You had gotten it, seeing how much Lu You treasured it made Cen Wu inexplicably decide that she had to obtain this puzzle piece.
There was still some cured meat left in the truck, but the vehicle was still being held up at the security checkpoint.
The young man waited with her for a while, pacing back and forth impatiently.
“Do you have contraband in your vehicle or something? Why are they taking so long to let you through?”
Cen Wu calmly sized him up.
“You’re in a hurry? Don’t tell me you’re a middleman who resells meat.”
It was as though she had struck a nerve. His expression darkened.
“I don’t steal or rob. I make a living with my own skills. Besides, being a reseller isn’t as easy as you think.”
Cen Wu reached into the backpack she carried with her and pulled out a vial of Regeneration Factor, waving it in front of him.
“Do you know what this is?”
At first, the young man merely gave it a dismissive glance. But once he recognized what she was holding, his eyes widened instinctively, and he immediately reached out to grab it.
Cen Wu pulled it back and adopted the posture of someone bargaining.
“The puzzle piece is only pretty. It doesn’t have any practical use. If you want to trade it for Regeneration Factor, you’ll have to throw in something extra.”
The young man could hardly believe that a little girl possessed the Regeneration Factor that was exclusive to Base No. 9.
This was something that was priceless on the secondhand market. After all, it was life-saving medicine. Even if someone wanted to stockpile it, they simply couldn’t.
However, the young man was not so easily fooled.
She was just a little girl. He had spent years working as a scalper and had never suffered a loss.
“I honestly don’t know what it’s used for, but you obviously like it. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be willing to trade something as valuable as Regeneration Factor for it.”
After a brief pause, he continued coaxingly,
“How about you tell me what this puzzle piece actually does?”
Cen Wu felt like something was seriously wrong with his brain.
She resorted to the ultimate bargaining technique.
“Forget it if you don’t want to trade.”
She immediately put the Regeneration Factor back into her backpack in one smooth motion.
Watching her act so decisively without the slightest hesitation made the young man anxious.
But in business, showing anxiety was a fatal mistake.
“Fine. I’ll trade it with someone else.”
He stepped to the side while secretly glancing at Cen Wu from the corner of his eye.
He took another step.
Then another.
And another.
“You’re really not going to buy it?”
Cen Wu remained silent.
Almost showing off, she opened her backpack again, took out an entire box of Regeneration Factor, and said calmly,
“Is it really that valuable? I have plenty of it.”
The young man’s jealousy nearly exploded.
Just who was this little girl?
She actually had so many vials of Regeneration Factor.
If he sold those on the secondhand market, he wouldn’t have to work for the next six months.
He immediately gave in.
“I was wrong! Fine, let’s trade.”
He took out another item from his backpack—a map of Base No. 18.
“I’ll add this too. I drew it myself. It includes a lot of routes that even the Guard Squad doesn’t know about. If you ever want to sneak out of the city, I guarantee you won’t be discovered.”
The map had been beautifully drawn, and Cen Wu quite liked it.
She stretched out her fair little hand.
Chuckling, the young man placed the emerald-green puzzle piece into her palm.
She was a major customer.
He had to build a good relationship with her. If he came across other valuable items in the future, he could exchange them for more of her Regeneration Factor.
The young man glanced toward the people near the entrance who appeared to be the girl’s parents.
They were dressed quite ordinarily and didn’t look like influential figures within the base, making him uncertain again.
While he was wrestling with his thoughts, Cen Wu was inwardly astonished.
Because her Character Status Panel had suddenly appeared.
【Cen Wu】
【Age: 6】
【Talents: Plunder, Absolute Strength】
【Halo Points: 25】
Her Halo Points had jumped straight to 25!
Until now, Cen Wu had never figured out what Halo Points actually were.
Yet she had found a clue through a single puzzle piece.
And the source of that clue was connected to Lu You.
Unable to figure it out, Cen Wu simply stopped thinking about it.
Just then, the young man handed her a card with a mysterious grin.
“If you ever want to buy or sell anything in the future, come find me here.”
Cen Wu glanced at it before slipping it into her backpack.
Seeing the girl’s family approaching, the young man quickly said goodbye and ran off.
What if they caught him and realized that their daughter had casually traded away a vial of Regeneration Factor for a practically useless puzzle piece?
What if they demanded the trade back?
Just thinking about it made him feel like he had made an incredible profit.
Cen Wu also felt that she had come out ahead.
She had even gotten a free map.
Holding the map, she found Luke and enthusiastically shared it with him.
“Older Brother, look! I got a new map. They said the marketplace is the liveliest place in the base. Let’s go there together sometime.”
Luke deliberately acted mature.
“That’s so childish. But if you really want to go, I can go with you.”
Cen Wu automatically ignored the part she didn’t want to hear and happily wrapped her arm around Luke’s.
“Are we going to our new home first, or are we going to see Big Sister first?”
At some point, Xie Yuanchuan had walked over to the two children.
Hearing her question, he raised an eyebrow.
“You want to see Big Sister? She probably won’t like you.”
A trace of defiance flashed through Cen Wu’s eyes.
“I know. But what if she does?”
For some reason, Xie Yuanchuan found it amusing.
Now that the child had joined a new family, did she really hope to receive everyone’s love?
Was love really something so valuable?
Instead of wasting time on things like that, wouldn’t it be better to train her abilities properly and survive longer in the apocalypse?
Just as Cen Wu had said, the Year of Dense Fog had already begun.
The coming natural disasters would only become more brutal, and resources would become even scarcer.
Could love fill an empty stomach?
How naïve.
Once again, Xie Yuanchuan silently added another label to Cen Wu in his mind.
At long last, the truck was cleared to pass.
With his hands in his pockets, Cen Yi walked over, grumbling,
“It was only a bag of Crystal Cores. Did they really need to inspect us for that long?”
During the early days of the apocalypse, after the initial large-scale extermination, not many Zombies remained.
The land was vast, and Zombies were sparsely scattered. It wasn’t as though they could be found everywhere.
But Cen Wu knew that after humanity endured the Year of Extreme Heat and the Year of Extreme Cold, the number of Zombies would multiply explosively, eventually forming massive zombie tides.
By then, even if Crystal Cores covered the ground, no one would dare risk their lives to collect them.
…
The family of four drove from Area D on the outermost edge of the base all the way to Area B.
In her previous life, Cen Wu had only ever lived in the shelter in Area D and the privileged residential district in Area A.
Area B was the commercial and entertainment district.
Their new home was actually located here?
The pickup truck wound through countless turns before finally stopping outside an abandoned factory.
Cen Wu and Luke stared at the decayed, dilapidated, foul-smelling scene before them, completely dumbfounded.
Even the usually carefree Cen Yi waved away the stench in front of his nose, looking utterly bewildered.
“Husband, even if our eldest daughter doesn’t care about us anymore, we don’t have to live in a garbage dump, do we?”
Xie Yuanchuan pressed the accelerator again, and the pickup truck drove straight into the abandoned factory.
After passing piles upon piles of scrap materials, they arrived before a massive steel gate at the very back.
Xie Yuanchuan leaned his head out of the window and scanned his face on the intelligent security panel.
After the system announced,
“Verification successful.”
Hiss—
The futuristic steel gate slowly opened, revealing another mysterious door inside, made of an unidentifiable material.