There weren’t many people in the supermarket at this hour—just two or three scattered customers, two of whom were wearing bathrobes.
With no one checking out at the moment, the cashier, Tang Su, was flipping through a thick book.
Su Cheng didn’t grab a shopping basket. With a clear target, she walked straight to the food section’s yellow-tag shelf, her gaze locking onto the red and green nutrient solutions.
[Nutrient Solution: Concentrates the effective components of food according to a standard ratio. Extremely high nutritional value and provides a feeling of fullness. On sale! Only 30 points.]
Su Cheng selected a strawberry-flavored nutrient solution, then walked over to the weapon section to see if there were any discounted weapons she could pick up.
She had an ample stock of ordinary physical weapons, so she only needed to look at the supermarket-exclusive weapons on the yellow-tag shelf.
Su Cheng only looked at discounted items. The original prices were completely unaffordable, but discounted items still offered a sliver of possibility.
The storage card that had been on discount earlier had now returned to its original price of 300 points.
After rummaging around, she finally settled on an item resembling a compass.
[Soul-Guiding Needle: When supernatural entities approach, the long needle will point in the direction where the supernatural entity appears. However, there is a probability of error. On sale! Only 150 points.]
Su Cheng took the Soul-Guiding Needle. That’s right, she intended to choose a special instance for her next dungeon.
During her near-death experience in the tsunami instance, Su Cheng’s mindset had shifted. The dangers and rewards of ordinary dungeons were completely disproportionate; she had almost lost her life in a 300-point dungeon.
If she was going to face extreme danger either way, why not choose a high-reward special instance and take a gamble?
She had rested enough in the tsunami instance, her physical condition was far better than when she left the zombie instance, and she had already unlocked the first-order genetic lock… so why not give it a try?
The abundant points earned from completing a special instance would allow Su Cheng to quickly shake off her current hand-to-mouth predicament in the early stages and grow stronger much faster.
Su Cheng slightly tightened her grip on the Soul-Guiding Needle’s packaging box and gave a self-deprecating smile.
She had always thought she was someone who liked to take things slow and was content as long as she could scrape by and survive. Little did she know, she actually had ambition…
An ambition willing to take risks for high rewards.
Su Cheng brought the nutrient solution and the Soul-Guiding Needle to the front counter to check out.
Tang Su put down her book and picked up the items to scan them.
With sharp eyes, Su Cheng caught a glimpse of the open page of that book—it featured dim, dark-colored illustrations, and at the corner of a hexagram star was a bizarre composite animal…
“Please let me scan your wristband.”
Su Cheng looked away and raised her arm to let Tang Su scan her wristband. Her gaze fell on Tang Su’s heart-shaped hairclip—a shy, sweet girl reading a gloomy, bizarre book made for quite the stark contrast.
Tang Su smiled gently, dimples faintly appearing at the corners of her lips. “All set, please take your merchandise.”
“Thank you.”
Wristband balance updated: 120.
Su Cheng carried her items outside the supermarket, took out the dagger from her bag, pulled it out of its sheath, and without batting an eye, slashed a 3cm wound on the back of her left hand.
The dagger was extremely sharp; Su Cheng used just a bit of force to break the skin, and blood seeped from the wound. Yet, as if she couldn’t feel any pain, she didn’t even frown.
Human pain thresholds really could be improved through acquired experiences.
Su Cheng glanced at the time on her wristband, wiped the dagger twice on her clothes, slid it back into its sheath, and put it away. With her right hand, she popped open the cap of the nutrient solution and drank it all in one go.
The sweet and sour flavor closely resembled strawberries, tasting a bit like the strawberry milk she used to drink. Even though there was only 10ml, after drinking it, her stomach felt heavy, just like after a big meal, and she genuinely felt about 90% full.
1 minute later, the bleeding on the back of her hand stopped at a speed visible to the naked eye.
2 minutes later, the wound began to itch and scab over.
At 5 minutes, only a scar mark remained on the back of her hand.
“It’s several times faster than before. It’s definitely related to energy intake. At the previous rate, a wound like this would take at least a few hours to completely disappear…”
This also showed that the supermarket-exclusive nutrient solution was truly high-energy, high-nutrition food.
With her hypothesis confirmed, Su Cheng curved her lips in a pleased smile.
She turned back into the supermarket and selected two bottles of strawberry-flavored and two bottles of watermelon-flavored nutrient solutions, using up her exact remaining balance of 120 points.
If her points weren’t limited, Su Cheng would have loved to buy a few more bottles of nutrient solution.
As Su Cheng was checking out with her four tubes of nutrient solution, she was spotted by a man who was also planning to check out.
Seeing her buy so many, he walked over to the food section with a puzzled look on his face, likely thinking the nutrient solution had some hidden benefit he didn’t know about…
Other people might buy nutrient solutions to supplement missing nutrients or just for the convenience of filling their stomachs.
But for Su Cheng, since her healing speed was tied to energy intake, the nutrient solution was quite an important item—it was essentially rocket fuel for her self-healing ability.
When Su Cheng returned to her room, the scar on the back of her hand had faded.
At the same time, her state changed from 90% full to 70% full; her complete lack of appetite turned back into being able to eat food again.
Su Cheng tore open a piece of bread, turned on her phone, and still didn’t receive a reply from Yan Yu, but she did receive a message from Hai Shuang.
[Hai Shuang]: Sister Cheng, do you need supplies? The group leader’s buyout price is way too low, so I plan to sell them to someone else in the apartment building.
Su Cheng raised an eyebrow. Before the question mark she typed could be sent, she received the other person’s explanation.
[Hai Shuang]: Trading isn’t allowed inside the apartment, so just go outside! Experiments have already been done; trading outside the apartment is fine as long as you buy an access card and rent a car to go out.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, after all.
Doing it this way truly didn’t violate the apartment’s rules.
However, Su Cheng no longer had the points to buy an access card and rent a car, so she could only decline Hai Shuang’s kind offer.
[Hai Shuang]: Alright then, I won’t disturb you anymore.
Although Su Cheng couldn’t say she had a surplus of supplies right now, her necessities were well-stocked. Even if she had the points for an access card and a car rental, she wasn’t in any urgent need to trade with others.
Su Cheng lay down on the sofa and turned on the television.
The program at this hour was a wilderness survival documentary. The environment was a forest, the camera shook slightly, and the host introduced the mushrooms under the trees with a passionate, rhythmic voice…
Accompanied by the host’s voice, Su Cheng took a nap…
When Su Cheng woke up, it was already 3:00 PM.
The TV was still playing a program, but it had switched to a horror movie. Unlike the horror movies Su Cheng usually watched, the female protagonist was very calmly searching for clues to banish ghosts…
The programs broadcast on the TV were either wilderness survival, popular science, or horror movies… It felt like they were imparting obscure knowledge that might come in handy inside the dungeons.
Su Cheng was in great condition when she returned to the apartment this time, and after a nap, she felt even more spirited. Deciding to strike while the iron was hot, she got ready to enter a special instance.
The old routine: the three slots of the smart backpack remained food, medicine, and weapons.
The food slot could only fit 4 tubes of nutrient solution, 5 bottles of water, and a bundle of 10 loaves of bread. The medicine slot contained half a strip of every type, which still didn’t reach the weight limit. For weapons, she brought the iron shovel, the chainsaw, and the Soul-Guiding Needle.
When the nutrient solution was put into the smart backpack, she could actually view the details in the storage slot.
[Special High-Grade Nutrient Solution (4): Food category. Effect: Rich in concentrated nutrients, replenishes energy, provides a feeling of fullness. Weight: 0.04kg]
“The smart backpack only displays item details when you put special items into it… Is this considered a hidden feature of the smart backpack?”
Su Cheng patted the smart backpack—it was definitely worth the purchase!
She took out the dagger she always carried with her, soaked in cinnabar, and placed it into the smart backpack:
[Enchanted Dagger: Supernatural weapon category. Effect: Has a weak ghost-repelling effect. Weight: 0.06kg]
This had originally been an ordinary dagger. She hadn’t expected that monk not to have lied to her—the vermillion cinnabar was actually effective!
Thinking of the price of the cinnabar, Su Cheng no longer felt it was expensive; she only felt it was worth every penny.
This time, Su Cheng wore short sleeves and long pants, draped with a trench coat. Both her clothes and pants had pockets, allowing her to fit 4 more bars of chocolate.
She could also tuck a dagger close to her body inside the trench coat for any unexpected emergencies.
Su Cheng turned off the TV, checked her phone once more—no unread messages.
She opened Yan Yu’s private message and sent another one: Have you ever heard of a genetic lock? I’m planning to go to a special instance this time. We’ll talk in detail when I get back.
To be honest, Yan Yu had left a very good impression on Su Cheng.
Su Cheng treated Yan Yu with the mindset of building a long-term partnership. Aside from exchanging information with each other, she hoped that someday when she needed teammates, there would be a reliable presence in her contacts list.
With everything ready, Su Cheng put down her phone, put on her newly bought black sunglasses, opened her door, and walked out to the elevator lobby.
Elevators No. 1 and No. 2 had just closed and were heading down. A young man was waiting nearby.
The elevator Su Cheng was going to take today was the ignored special elevator. The moment she pressed the elevator button, the doors, which had been waiting for a long time, opened.
Su Cheng heard the young man’s surprised mutterings.
The elevator doors closed.
Su Cheng decisively pressed her lucky number: 6.
With only her inside, the elevator descended in a straight line to the 6th floor.
“Ding~”
The elevator doors opened.
Su Cheng’s fingertips twitched slightly, and with a calm expression, she stepped into the darkness.
Author’s Note: Off to a special instance!