Jiang Mian had only spent a few days in the hospital before she'd basically "recovered" her ability to move and was discharged.
There was no other reason. The hospital lunches in this world were... truly unbelievable.
Never mind the strangely presented vegetables. Why did the meal also come with a glob of paste of unknown ingredients?
For the past few days, she'd either relied on Lin Yun to bring her food or slipped out to fend for herself.
Jiang Mian had good reason to think that if she stayed a few more days, she'd probably starve to death there. That would be mortifying.
So she'd made a run for it.
The battle-scarred phone in her hand still worked, but it was an eyesore and might let her down at a crucial moment,
so on her way back, she'd stopped by a secondhand market and spent a few hundred on a phone that looked decent enough. She'd also picked up a few new pairs of glasses.
This time, though, the frames were much lighter and looked better than the old ones.
Back in her somewhat empty rented apartment, Jiang Mian didn't rush to wash up. Instead, she switched on the new phone and logged into a discreet little website.
It was the encrypted messaging channel she'd gotten from that Scalper last time, meant for contacting him again.
Jiang Mian gathered her thoughts, then sent him a message:
[Got any stock left? Also, you sell information, right? I've got a question I'm willing to pay to have answered.]
After she sent it, there was no response from the other end. Only the cursor in the text box kept blinking.
Jiang Mian waited patiently. Patience was the bare minimum when dealing with people like these.
A few minutes later, two messages finally came through:
[Got stock, but prices have gone up. 18,000 per dose. They've been cracking down lately, so there's less on the market.]
[What information do you want? Send it over and I'll give you a price.]
Jiang Mian was prepared. She sent the string of numbers straight away.
This time, the reply came with unusual speed.
[Where did you see this?]
Jiang Mian narrowed her eyes slightly. That reaction... Why did he sound so reluctant?
[I heard about it from someone. Don't worry about the details; tell me how much you're charging. Also, that dose of Suppressor I bought last time stopped working after just over a week. Could it be...]
She wanted to test him a little. The stuff was expensive, and its effects had fallen far short of expectations. She couldn't bring herself to pay without question.
The other party seemed to think Jiang Mian was trying to haggle and hurriedly replied:
[Impossible! My stock is always reliable. It must be a tolerance issue, or your Sequence is too high!]
[How about this? I'll give you a discount: 17,000 for a dose, and 22,000 with the information.]
Jiang Mian gave a cold snort. Who did he think he was fooling? He wanted more than 20,000 without telling her anything?
[Money isn't the issue. But you have to give me some idea what this code refers to first, don't you? Otherwise, how am I supposed to know if it's worth the price?]
After she sent the message, the other party went quiet longer than ever before.
The information wasn't priced all that high, yet the answer was hesitant. Jiang Mian suspected it was either worthless or would cut into his profits.
She'd already guessed it might be an address or contact information, but she hadn't been able to verify it with anyone.
Quite some time passed before a reply finally arrived:
[Fine, if you're serious about buying. All I can say is that it's a communication address. If you're looking for "your kind," you can go check it out.]
Just as she'd thought!
If that was true, then for Aberrants in hiding, this information was worth as much as a Suppressor—or even more.
But Jiang Mian had to think it over.
After all, she'd successfully disguised herself as an Awakened now. Going to a place like that could very well expose her.
Jiang Mian soon made up her mind.
She could choose not to go, but she couldn't afford not to know.
She'd buy it!
That price, though... She could still cut it down a couple more times.
Seeing that she wasn't replying, the other party seemed to grow anxious and sent another message:
[Well? The information's worth the price, right? I'll give you the exact location and how to get in when we trade.]
Jiang Mian steadied herself. She couldn't let him see what she was really thinking, or she'd lose her leverage.
She could just trade with another dealer instead of going through this Scalper who resold goods.
[It's just an address. You make it sound so mysterious. Who knows if you just made it up?]
[Come on, ma'am, I run an honest business. If you bought it from someone else, it'd cost you at least 5,000...]
He was getting desperate. He was getting desperate!
Jiang Mian's lips curled slightly as she continued typing:
[13,000 for the Suppressor. The address is worth 2,000. That's 15,000 total. Take it or leave it. I'll find someone else.]
The other party seemed worn down by her relentless haggling. Or perhaps there was still a profit in it at that price. Either way, he gave in:
[Fine, fine, 15,000 it is. Tomorrow night at ten, the old industrial district in North City, beside Warehouse No. 4 of Huan Dun Construction Materials Co., Ltd. Same arrangement as before.
I'll send the address and precautions together.]
[Got it.]
After closing the chat, Jiang Mian lay back on the bed and set her phone aside, instinctively calculating her meager savings.
Most of the money she'd gotten from selling her family's old house had gone into that faintly promising Awakening Potion.
The rest had dwindled away over the past month as she ran around buying Suppressors and covering basic living expenses.
Including what she'd saved from her part-time jobs, she had about 20,000 left, mostly in cash.
Black Market deals were all done in cash, after all. Jiang Mian had gotten into the habit of withdrawing her wages as soon as she was paid.
Once she completed the deal tomorrow, she'd have less than 5,000 in savings.
That looked like enough to get by for a while, but... how long would the next dose of Suppressor last?
Half a month? Or a week?
If it still didn't work well, she'd soon be facing the predicament of Spiritual Erosion again.
Money wasn't too hard to deal with. As an "Awakened," Jiang Mian could apply for a trainee position with the Public Security Bureau or City Defense and get some subsidies on the side. It wouldn't be a small amount.
It was that Training Program... that was a bit of a problem.
She hadn't heard a word about it before. It seemed to have been decided in a hurry, and for now only the leadership of the Base City knew about it.
For a normal Awakened, this was a ladder to success they'd be desperate to climb.
But Jiang Mian's first reaction when she heard about the program was wariness.
The authorities had the strongest control there, and it was packed with experts. She might bump into a high-tier Awakened just walking down the street.
She was a "Calamity" with a [Doom] core buried inside her, mingling with a group of genuine paragons. Just imagining it was a nightmare.
If all five of the Awakened's Apex Sequences were there, would she get carved into minced meat in a one-on-five fight?
Here in Base City No. 144, a relatively out-of-the-way place, she could still tread carefully.
But once she went there, without a reliable source of Suppressors, she'd expose herself sooner or later.
"The risk's too high. I can't go. Absolutely not..."
But how could she refuse—or stall for time—without raising suspicion?
According to the documents, the training camp would probably start not long after the college entrance exams. There was less than a month left.
She had to figure something out in that time.
Before you continue