Returning to the freight ramp once again, they discovered that the accumulated water had indeed risen a bit higher, completely submerging the first floor of the warehouse.
No wonder the underground cold storage was heavily flooded. The water poured in through the ventilation ducts on the first floor and then flowed along the stairs down to the basement level. Currently, the basement was filled with chest-deep water floating with various ingredients, making it completely impossible for anyone to enter.
It wasn’t that Lin Xia and Chi Zheng hadn’t tried to block the ventilation ducts, but the force of the water outside was simply too massive. Anything they stuffed into the vents would be blown right back out instantly. Moreover, as time ticked on, the seams around the ventilation ducts began to gurgle with water. It was highly probable that before long, more leaks would develop, and the entire basement level would be filled to the brim.
After a great deal of tossing back and forth, both of them gave up. They went to the second floor ahead of time to pick out an assault boat, preparing to flee the moment they saw things take a turn for the worse.
During this period, they ran into Chen Mei again and learned that Chen Song and the other two had already successfully broken their fevers, which made Lin Xia quite happy.
However, the interactions were limited to just that. Strangers still needed to maintain their distance.
It wasn’t that he was cold-blooded. Anyone struggling to survive in the Fourth District understood that between people—especially when faced with immense and tempting benefits—it was best to remain guarded against one another. There was no telling who might harbor malicious intent over a single loaf of bread or a bottle of strong liquor, and no shortage of people met unexpected disasters because of it. Do not find it strange; human life in the Fourth District was sometimes just that cheap.
“That new thing is coming over,” Chi Zheng prompted.
Standing below the ramp, Lin Xia immediately focused his concentration.
He saw the gray shadow as well.
In just the span of a meal, the accumulated water beneath the ramp had transformed into a completely different world. The piranhas and water snakes that had previously lined up to deliver experience points were nowhere to be seen. In their place were larger, more powerful aquatic mutated beasts. They blended into the filthy waves like cloaked assassins, waiting with absolute patience for a chance to draw close to their prey, seeking a one-hit kill.
Lin Xia first encountered a mutated sea crab.
There was no sea in the Fourth District’s Greenbay City where he lived. The closest sea to the urban area was at Canary City, which was also the only seaport in the Fourth District.
However, due to pollution, the seafood yield exported from Canary Port was not abundant, though sea crabs were counted among them. If this thing had truly been washed over from that direction, it likely meant the highway from Greenbay to Canary was already a vast ocean.
But who could care about that right now? Faced with a giant crab that was roughly the same height as himself, Lin Xia exerted all his strength.
He entered a combat state almost instantly. Every single nerve in his body perceived the changes around him, including but not limited to his vision, water currents, wind, odors, and sounds. Even though his cunning opponent hid within the water, he could still synthesize the other factors to deduce its tracks. Unfortunately, the mutated crab’s shell was far too hard. The claw blades of the Sac-Gland Tiger could not pierce its hard carapace, locking the two sides into a prolonged war of attrition.
Chi Zheng stood to the side with his arms crossed, still making no move to step forward and help.
He felt the issue wasn’t a large one. Lin Xia had been a bit in a frantic rush at the start, but after growing accustomed to the sea crab’s behavioral patterns, the battle began to be handled with room to spare.
In the end, his physical strength was still somewhat lacking, preventing him from achieving a one-hit kill and turning what should have been an annihilation battle into a war of attrition.
However, the sea crab’s depletion was noticeably faster than Lin Xia’s.
The simple tester indicated that the rank of the mutated sea crab sat around N5, which was higher than the mutated water snake but still fell short of R2. Therefore, if he were to face an R2 opponent immediately, Lin Xia would find it exceptionally difficult.
Chi Zheng felt he should help Lin Xia locate a handy weapon.
It needed to be sufficiently hard, sharp, and preferably carry a certain degree of corrosiveness, which could compensate for Xiaxia’s shortcoming of insufficient physical strength.
However, such items were not easy to find, at least not readily visible within Greenbay City.
Just as he was thinking, Lin Xia finally wore down the mutated sea crab over there. Panting heavily, he dragged the crab corpse back, calling out to Chi Zheng to help him along the way.
This thing was truly too heavy. Especially the moment it emerged from the water, it felt exactly like pulling a solid block of lead, nearly throwing out Lin Xia’s lower back.
Yet he was unwilling to throw it away, thinking he should at least drag it up to the ramp to let Chi Xiaozheng have a look. In case there were usable parts, it would be a waste to just let the one-click collection feature turn it all into energy for the energy tank.
The new upgrade quest required discovering four new ingredients never used before in this world. Lin Xia didn’t know if the giant sea crab counted. This thing was very common before it mutated, but surely no one had eaten it after it mutated.
“It’s edible,” Chi Zheng said, circling the crab corpse while rubbing his chin. “But the only tasty parts are the muscle in the crab’s abdomen and the crab roe. Mmh… the one you killed is a male crab. The milt of a male crab carries a rank, foul odor. You must be exceptionally careful when separating it. If it contaminates the crab meat, it won’t be fit for consumption.”
“No fear,” Lin Xia said proudly. “There’s one-click collection.”
Independent kills were just that convenient. Pressing a button allowed him to collect all the abdominal crab meat without getting a single speck of the foul-smelling milt on it.
He fully trusted Chi Zheng’s judgment. Back when the two of them were vagrants, it had always been Chi Zheng foraging for food everywhere. No matter how bizarre or strange the food he brought back was, it actually tasted quite decent, and they hadn’t suffered a single instance of food poisoning.
Now that Chi Zheng said the abdominal meat and crab roe were edible, Lin Xia would only preserve those two parts, converting the rest entirely into energy values.
“Wait, leave one crab claw behind as well.”
“Mmh?”
“To fashion a triangular awl knife for you. Although the Sac-Gland Tiger’s nails are sharp, their hardness is insufficient, and they can’t match the shell skin of the crab claw.”
“Oh.” Lin Xia nodded, deleting the crab claw from the one-click collection directory.
He had also been distressed regarding the hardness of the tiger-claw blade. Even up to the final moment of the battle, he hadn’t dared use the knife in his hand to clash head-on against the mutated crab, terrified of destroying this only usable weapon.
This time it was resolved, getting a new weapon and utilizing local materials at that.
“Then I’ll go kill two more!” Lin Xia was about to rush into the water excitedly when Chi Zheng grabbed him firmly by the collar.
He turned his head back in bewilderment.
He possessed a purely Eastern appearance—a fair, delicate face and large eyes that carried a sort of naive innocence when looking at someone.
Chi Zheng’s heart skipped a few beats.
“Rest first.” He composed himself and pulled the person back to the rooftop.
This time he didn’t let Lin Xia summon the food stall cart. Instead, he opened the premium rental vehicle they had hired and stuffed the person inside.
The back seat of the premium vehicle featured a massage chair. Brushing Alliance credit points allowed one to enjoy a full-body relaxation service, highly suitable for a short nap after a major battle.
Lin Xia was not very willing; his mind was still keyed up with excitement. However, Chi Zheng pinned him into the cabin with a single hand. Moreover, the cabin was indeed exceptionally comfortable, so he lay back with half-hearted compliance, sharing his post-battle insights with Chi Zheng while receiving the massage.
“Once a crab dies, it really spoils incredibly fast! If I had relied on manually scraping it myself, the meat would have gone foul long ago!”
“I wonder if this mutated crab counts as an unused ingredient in this world. Hehe, it would be great if it did. The dishes that can be made with crab meat are simply too numerous—pan-frying, stir-frying, braising, or deep-frying all taste delicious… Right, Xiaozheng, do you think we can eat this stuff?”
He abruptly poked his head out from the massage chair, asking Chi Zheng loudly if they should eat crab cakes tonight.
Chi Zheng, who was manually rubbing down the crab claw outside the vehicle, was startled by him and subconsciously used his body to shield his movements.
“It’s probably best not to,” he said with some reservation. “Didn’t the system say it has to be an unused ingredient in this world? If we eat it for dinner, it won’t count as unused anymore, right?”
Mmh, he had almost forgotten. Lin Xia lay back down again.
He heard Chi Zheng continue, “When I said it’s edible, I was referring to the gar… the diners in the hole-in-the-wall dining district. We should still be cautious about what we put into our own mouths.”
As he spoke, he snapped open a crab claw. The hard carapace, which the Sac-Gland Tiger’s claw piece couldn’t even leave a scratch on, was casually manipulated in Chi Zheng’s hands like cardboard. Even so, he still had to carefully restrain his force; otherwise, this thing lacked resilience and could easily shatter into pieces.
Mmh, it’s not entirely ideal either. The man offered an evaluation while rubbing it down. The outer shell is too brittle, and the hardness is only average. No wonder it can’t make it to Rank R.
Lin Xia couldn’t see the look of disdain on his companion’s face. By now, he had already sunk into the massage chair and entered a state of deep sleep.
In his dream was a highly fragmented scene. He sat in a sealed corner, and not far away were three children. They were all wearing uniform white long robes, with a strange mark and a string of digits stamped on their chests. His number was 001253.
When did I ever wear clothes like this? The Lin Xia in the dream looked utterly bewildered.
There was even a serial number on his chest… no matter how he looked at it, it resembled being inside a legendary secret church!
He had heard that such communities existed in the Third District. The church gathered believers together for closed enslavement, and no small number of deaths had broken out because of it.
However, cultists wouldn’t come to the Fourth District because the living environment here was wretched, the pollution and radiation were severe, and the residents generally had no money. Even if they squeezed them dry with all their might, it was far less lucrative than the Third District.
“Do not think that just because your synchronization rate is high, the lords will select you!” One of the three children across from him suddenly stood up and shoved him. “How could a base lineage and filthy body like yours possibly be favored by ％＠￥＃? Lord Aquifex said it himself—you are nothing more than a consumable meant for feeding!”
Lin Xia: ?
No, why did he seem to hear a string of corrupted code just now?
Knowing clearly that he was dreaming, Lin Xia nonetheless scratched his ear. “Feeding to whom? And who is Aquifex?” He looked completely puzzled. “What did you just say? I didn’t hear clearly.”
His words appeared to enrage the other party. The three children suddenly swarmed over together and began kicking and punching him, inflicting violence upon him.
Lin Xia’s original intention was not to bicker with children, but the strength of these three was exceptionally large. Furthermore, it was clearly not their first time committing such an act; they specifically targeted his vital points but kicked hard in places where marks wouldn’t easily be left.
At this point, Lin Xia had no choice but to fight back. Facing three opponents alone, he became locked in a scuffle with them.
During the struggle, the children shouted several more sentences containing corrupted code. However, Lin Xia felt that perhaps his subconscious couldn’t fabricate a complete plot, so parts of the dialogue were replaced with garbled text.
Otherwise, how else could it be explained? He wasn’t a cultist, nor had he ever worn any numbered white robe. Do not think he couldn’t recognize quality goods—although this robe was simple in style, it felt soft and smooth to the touch, likely a natural cotton product that would only be sold in the Second District!
As a child who grew up in an orphanage in the Fourth District, how could he possibly come into contact with such precious materials…
It was fake, all just a dream!
The author has something to say: