A Heart-Wrenching Cry Was Not Necessarily Grievance

A man about Cheng Shaofeng's age sat inside the shack, eating beans.

Cheng Shaofeng's beans.

"Crunch~ crunch~ They taste awful. Crunch~"

The yellowish-brown beans, tinged with scorched black, had clearly been stir-fried too hard.

Cheng Shaofeng sighed in relief at the sight.

"Ajie, I'm back."

The young man in the shack glanced at the newcomer, set down the knife in his right hand, and looked excited.

He ran over and slapped Cheng Shaofeng on the body.

"You're fucking alive?"

"Damn! If it weren't for all the beans you saved up before, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to hold onto this little bit of property of yours. I've eaten so many beans these past few days I'm about to puke! Hurry, hurry, hurry—how was the haul this time? Let's trade for some vegetable leaves and flatbread!"

The young man stopped midway through speaking, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Where's your bag?"

Cheng Shaofeng said, "I ran into Raiders."

The man looked over Cheng Shaofeng's disheveled state and the faint radiation marks on his hands.

"Fuck! You're damn lucky to have escaped those green-skinned Big Muscle Men. No wonder you came back two days later than expected. What a shame. We'll have to buy another bag from the Town Chief's black-hearted shop, and the money's coming out of your supplies."

"Fine."

The man before him was named Wu Jie, a Scavenger.

Hunters were not the only ones who traveled in groups. Scavengers also looked out for one another.

In the wasteland, helping each other was the key to humanity's survival.

There was an unspoken rule among Scavenger partners: they never formed teams when heading out to scavenge, but they had to remain inseparable in town.

Scavengers took all their belongings with them whenever they went out.

But Cheng Shaofeng and Wu Jie were different, because Wu Jie had good luck.

Before Cheng Shaofeng partnered with Wu Jie after his parents died, his life had actually been extremely difficult. If some of his parents' old friends had not offered him a little help, he might have starved to death.

But after partnering with Wu Jie once, he found that his luck had improved!

Every time they went out, they came back with something.

Maybe their luck had turned, or maybe it was just coincidence, but the two had continued working together ever since.

Gradually, they accumulated more and more belongings. One person going out scavenging was enough to feed both of them, so they took turns heading out while the other stayed behind in town.

That was safer.

This time, Cheng Shaofeng had gone out scavenging, so Wu Jie had moved all of his supplies into his own home for safekeeping.

Cheng Shaofeng counted through his supplies and picked out several relatively well-preserved Circuit Boards.

He had stockpiled these goods, intending to trade them for something good when the Colossus City caravan arrived.

Colossus City needed these valuable items that could only be produced before the war, while they were useless in Salt Well Town.

If he sold them directly in town, their value would be reduced.

In any case, they had enough resources to eat, so he would wait for the Colossus City caravan and sell them for a good price.

Other Scavengers had to sell whatever they found immediately, or they would starve to death.

'Zero, can you use what I'm holding?' Cheng Shaofeng asked in his mind.

Zero said, "Scanning."

A deep-blue AR display appeared over the shack before Cheng Shaofeng's eyes, showing the scanning progress as it rapidly climbed.

A few seconds later.

Zero said, "Scan complete! The Circuit Boards in your possession can yield a total of four sets of electronic components."

'Good! Then it's settled.'

With the electronic components secured, he only needed to purchase some prey from the base as Biological Raw Materials before he could create Clones.

'It would be best if the players stopped dying in the future. Gathering resources is already troublesome enough.'

The materials required to create one Clone, converted into beans, were enough to feed him for over a month.

Besides these Circuit Boards, his collection also contained twenty-eight jin of beans, 343 dollars, and all sorts of miscellaneous goods.

The money was issued by Colossus City: shiny Iron Coins that could be used throughout the vast regions surrounding Colossus City.

In all Cheng Shaofeng's years of experience, he had never heard of a place that did not recognize Colossus City's currency.

Of course, that might have been because he had never traveled far from home.

"This money should be enough to buy three larger prey animals."

Seeing Cheng Shaofeng carefully count his supplies, Wu Jie revealed a surprised expression. "Brother Feng, you've changed. You've become a stranger."

Cheng Shaofeng was suddenly startled.

Had his habits, which differed from the original owner's, been noticed?

That was right!

Wu Jie and Cheng Shaofeng had scavenged together for two years. They surely knew each other very well. If there was now a different person inside this body, Wu Jie would definitely be the first to know!

Cheng Shaofeng said cautiously, "No... right? I don't think so. Maybe I'm just too tired after these past few days."

Wu Jie looked outside the shack. "You never used to count your supplies in front of me when you came back."

Cheng Shaofeng said, "..."

Wu Jie said, "You've become distrustful of me. You don't even go back to your own place to count them."

"That's all? Don't misunderstand. I just wanted to take stock of my assets and buy some things."

"Hm? You lost the bag I bought last year. Remember to buy a bag first."

"Uh, okay."

"Oh, right! Draw me the route you took this time. I'm heading out scavenging this afternoon. I'm bored out of my mind from staying in town these past few days. Keep my supplies safe for me, especially that Silicone Doll that can make noises. That's my lifeline. Until I find a woman, I'm relying entirely on it!"

"..."

Cheng Shaofeng watched Wu Jie, who was already packing his things, and felt somewhat awkward.

If he had not arrived, perhaps the two of them would still be happily scavenging together.

But... he was no longer the old Cheng Shaofeng.

"Ajie, I'm leaving."

Wu Jie said, "Leaving? Leaving where? Hurry up and wash yourself, then get some rest. In a while, I'll buy two flatbreads and wrap them with vegetables. Once I'm done eating, I'll set off. You came back empty-handed. According to the law of conservation of luck, I'm bound to strike it rich this time. I might even find a gun, considering that's Red City."

Red City was the ruins of a pre-war city that had largely yet to be explored by Scavengers.

If one had the courage to go there, it was possible to bring back quite a lot of supplies.

Of course, most Scavengers who went there with wishful thinking never returned.

If not for the consistently good luck he had enjoyed after partnering with Wu Jie, Cheng Shaofeng would not have dared to go there.

"Ajie, I'm leaving Salt Well Town for a while. I met some friends outside, and we're going to do something together."

Wu Jie's hand trembled slightly.

"You want to split up?"

"Yeah."

"Scavengers live together and die apart. Have you forgotten?"

"That was from the tomb-robbing stories we heard from the old people in town, wasn't it?"

"Oh, you're really leaving? Four Mountains has no safer place than Salt Well Town. Your future partner may not be as lucky as I am. The old folks said that those who live the longest are not the strongest Hunters, the most capable tailors, or the shrewdest merchants, but the luckiest people."

"When the time is right, I'll come get you."

"I hope you live until then."

Wu Jie pursed his lips and walked out of the shack, heading to the town's general store to buy flatbread.

From Cheng Shaofeng's memories, Wu Jie was a very reliable partner. But Cheng Shaofeng had too many secrets now, and he was too weak. The matter of summoning players could not be exposed. Once he grew stronger and could reasonably explain everything, he could give Wu Jie a hand then.

"Can good luck really give other people buffs? That's a little mysterious."

He felt Wu Jie's so-called good luck could not possibly last forever. They had merely happened to be luckier before. Treating it as an actual beneficial status effect was simply too disrespectful to science.

The Hunters had not yet returned, so Cheng Shaofeng carried his supplies around town and disposed of the miscellaneous goods in his possession.

He could not stay here and wait for the Colossus City caravan.

Most of those who remained in town during the day were women and a few old people who had been lucky all their lives.

Those with work did some work, while those without gathered together to chat.

"Lately, it feels like our place is getting colder and colder. I've been feeling uncomfortable all over and keep wanting to bask in the sun."

"Places that stay in the shade year-round are all like this. You're lucky just to be alive. Why don't you go find a Raider Camp outside? Their camps are out in the open, so you can get all the sun you want."

"Did you hear strange sounds coming from the Town Chief's house last night? I think I heard a woman screaming."

"Haven't you heard the old saying? What you carry on your shoulders isn't necessarily responsibility. What stabs you in the back isn't necessarily a knife. Falling to your knees doesn't necessarily mean begging for mercy. And a heart-wrenching cry isn't necessarily grievance."

"Ew~ So that's what it was. I thought it was... Ah, the Town Chief really knows how to have a good time."

Cheng Shaofeng smiled knowingly as he passed them and headed toward the store.

There was only one store in town. It sold everything and bought anything of value.

The owner was named Zheng Juan, the Town Chief's fifth wife. She was in her early thirties and still charming, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses made in Colossus City. Her hair was tied into a bun behind her head, and two plump big pineapples rested on the counter, making her look beautiful.

She was prettier than most women in Salt Well Town.

Second only to the Town Chief's sixth and seventh wives.

"Shaofeng, selling again?"

"Yeah. Take a look at how much these things are worth."

After all the miscellaneous goods were placed down, Zheng Juan glanced over them a few times and named a price.

"Twenty dollars. I'll take the lot."

"Deal. Trade it directly for twenty jin of beans."

"Oh~ You can't get twenty jin. Beans have gone up two mao per jin. I can give you at most sixteen and a half jin, but..."

Zheng Juan leaned close to Cheng Shaofeng, sniffed him, then said with a coquettish laugh, "But if little brother can sell something else, I can give you the old price."

Cheng Shaofeng looked at the counter trembling along with Zheng Juan's big pineapples, his expression unchanged.

"My brother bought a bag last year and lost it. Please get me another of the same model. Thank you."

Zheng Juan said, "?"

After placing the bag in Wu Jie's shack, Cheng Shaofeng boiled some beans. He ate while waiting for the Hunters to return.

"This really does taste terrible. In the future, I need to have the players hunt more prey for me to eat."

Cheng Shaofeng did not notice that while both of them had left the shack.

A Pink Flower had appeared beneath his bed.

It was releasing a faint gas.