The First Order

For some reason, Luo Xinyu suddenly felt that the calm-looking Qing Zhen standing outside of the cage was even more vicious than the Experimental inside of it.

And… what did this have anything to do with the Pyro Company?

“Shine a bright light at it,” said Qing Zhen.

Someone shone the spotlight onto the Experimental’s face. The Experimental feared the light so much it instinctively tried to block its eyes with its arms.

Qing Zhen wondered, “They are clearly afraid of light, so why were they active during the day today? Have they evolved even further… or was it because there was something special that attracted them and made them want to come out even in the light!”

Someone beside him said calmly, “There are two possibilities why they’re afraid of the light. One would be that their former human personalities can’t face their current selves, and the other would be that their DNA was inserted with animal behavior like nocturnality.”

“This isn’t urgent.” Qing Zhen nodded and said, “Ask Xu Man over the radio whether he’s located those three people yet. I’m guessing they must’ve sneaked into our area of operations during the time you all were busy capturing the Experimental.”

Qing Zhen had managed to guess when Ren Xiaosu and the others had sneaked past the perimeter they had locked down. Qing Zhen was very eager to find the trio because he wanted to know if the Experimentals had suddenly come out in the daytime because one of the three had attracted them.

…

Ren Xiaosu was wandering around a huge shopping mall. Perhaps due to the incredible construction quality of the building, this huge mall did not collapse from earthquakes.

But even so, while the façade of the building was still intact, the interior furnishings were damaged beyond recognition. Many of the dropped ceiling tiles had crashed to the floor, and the messy counters below were gray and dusty. The layer of dust that had gathered on them looked like it was at least ten centimeters thick. The items that could not stand the passage of time had all deteriorated and been damaged.

And it was in this shopping mall that Ren Xiaosu finally saw a jewelry shop.

The jewelry had oxidized, and the silver ornaments on the counter had all tarnished black. Only by snapping them apart could a trace of its original silvery color be seen in the break lines.

As for gold jewelry, they would oxidize as well. The gold in this shopping mall had apparently come in contact for a long time with some iron that was contained in the collapsed dropped ceilings, resulting in red spots forming on the surface. But of course, that wouldn’t affect the intrinsic value of the gold itself.

He definitely did not want the items made of silver. Silver was not particularly valuable in these times.

Ren Xiaosu could only take a limited amount of items with him by himself. He had to go for the items that were the highest in value.

It was at this time that the benefit of the storage space was amplified. How much gold could be loaded into a space of one cubic meter? Ren Xiaosu had been worried about how he could continue upgrading his storage space. But now there wasn’t a need to worry. The gold that was here would probably be enough for him, Yan Liuyuan, and Sister Xiaoyu to live comfortably for many decades to come!

Most of the gold in the shopping mall was in the form of jewelry. So to save space, Ren Xiaosu squeezed the gold bracelets and gold necklaces into a clump before storing them in the palace. After all, he could do anything he wanted with his strong hands.

But even so, there was still a lot of empty space in the storage area after he had stuffed it full with the gold, which Ren Xiaosu felt was tragic.

In the end, he took off his jacket and used it to wrap some of the gold up.

Ren Xiaosu even saw diamonds in the shopping mall, but diamonds were no longer considered valuable in these times. Mr. Zhang from the school had once said that a long time ago, diamonds were extremely expensive, even though there was a large quantity of them in the world. It was only priced highly because supply was controlled and prices were inflated.

As such, in the current day, no one was advocating owning diamonds anymore. Or perhaps, in times when everyone was more willing to purchase food and not diamonds, the value of diamonds would naturally depreciate.

Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of footsteps neatly marching outside the shopping mall. He frowned when he realized the Qing Consortium’s people had arrived.

Ren Xiaosu knew well that the Qing Consortium would find out about the existence of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and him. Since Liu Bu had been captured, he would surely tell the Qing Consortium about them.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was in the shopping mall carrying gold inside his jacket as the storage space in his palace was full.

He didn’t care if Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin had achieved their purpose for the expedition. He had everything he needed.

Perhaps Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were here to find out about the secret of the supernatural beings and the evolution that was happening in the world, but Ren Xiaosu was not interested in that at all. If there were a reflexology spa still operating in this city, he might be interested in that….

Ren Xiaosu was just thinking of making off with the gold he had gotten his hands on.

But just as he was about to leave the place, he heard the neat marching of the Qing Consortium’s troops as they arrived outside the mall. Ren Xiaosu frowned and stepped back into the jewelry shop.

It looked like Liu Bu had already revealed their existence after getting captured by the Qing Consortium. However, Ren Xiaosu was not panicking yet. This shopping mall was gigantic, so Ren Xiaosu did not think the troops would easily find him even if they came in and searched.

Moreover, this ruined city was colossal, and there were a lot of buildings too. Even if the Qing Consortium had thousands of troops, and they were all mobilized to conduct a search of the entire city, it would still take them at least ten days to a fortnight to sweep through it.

The Qing Consortium’s Xu Man was leading the platoons through the dusty streets. They were ready to engage in combat at any time, because based on Liu Bu’s description, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were both relatively dangerous people. This was especially so for Xu Xianchu since he had a danger rating of C.

As for someone like Ren Xiaosu, everyone’s judgment of him was more or less the same: A typical refugee who had slightly greater than normal strength and knew how to kill people but was otherwise not considered much of a threat. It wasn’t because Xu Man and Qing Zhen were blindly arrogant, but because Liu Bu didn’t know what Ren Xiaosu’s ace in the hole was.

Xu Man was a professional soldier with an abundance of combat experience. He also understood that if Ren Xiaosu only had greater strength than normal, he wouldn’t stand a chance against their firearms.

Ren Xiaosu hid behind a dilapidated steel shelf in the shopping mall. He made sure he was completely hidden in the shadows so he would not be discovered by anyone who happened to pass by outside.

When he saw a platoon of soldiers being led by Xu Man slowly passing by in front of the broken entrance, Ren Xiaosu felt a slight relief.

When Xu Man led the platoon past the next building’s corner, he halted in his tracks. He turned around and said to the soldier behind him, “I don’t remember some of the things in that building being placed that way. Someone’s been here, and he could still be inside!”

Ren Xiaosu had probably not expected there would be such a fearsome combatant within the ranks of the Qing Consortium. He was very detailed about things and had an amazing memory too.

Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not really touch the items on the counters facing the outside. At most, he had handled one or two of them. But even so, that did not escape Xu Man’s eyes.