A Choice He Had No Other Option But to Make
"Tsk... this has really given me a big problem..." The three scavengers, who had clearly misunderstood, left, leaving the pressure on Feng Xue. Although it was just a simple case of mistaken identity, there were two pieces of information in their message that Feng Xue could not ignore.
First, what he had always thought was a struggle for management turned out to be just a short period of time before the high walls were raised. Although he didn't know how long it would take, judging from the three of them, it probably wouldn't be too long.
If the first piece of news merely diminished Feng Xue's interest in competing for the management position, then the second piece of information struck him like Raigeki from the blue—
The appointment of Landfill Area managers is surprisingly related to Residential Area!
He had always assumed that the administrators were the most powerful figures in the local Landfill Area, but now, it seems they should be preceded by "approved by the Residential Area."
But thinking about it, it makes sense. The administrators monopolize access to the Residential Area; how could they dare to do this without reaching an agreement with the Residential Area?
Looking back now, it seems that most of the supplies collected by those managers each Garbage Day were probably distributed to Residential Area.
This may seem like there's not much difference, but upon closer inspection, a major problem arises: the manager of the Cross Sword Guild has met Feng Xue before. Could he leak her information to the higher-ups?
Thinking of this, Feng Xue felt a cold sweat break out. She was extremely grateful that she had come to this destroyed Landfill Area first, instead of just randomly choosing any Landfill Area and stumbling into it like before.
"Wait a minute, Old Li is so sensitive to the authorities' searches, could it be that he's been registered in the Residential Area?"
A look of realization dawned on Feng Xue's face, followed by an even greater headache.
Because Old Li has a huge advantage over him, and that guy has the [hermit] element!
In other words, as long as it's not a place where wanted posters are plastered everywhere, Old Li can still make a living by working odd jobs and scavenging garbage. But Feng Xue doesn't have such convenient resources, and she wouldn't dare go to the Garbage Dump wearing the Phantom Object, as she would easily be exposed to the management.
Feng Xue pondered the abilities she had previously revealed and couldn't help but frown.
He possesses far too many Phantom Object.
This is at least a quantity that no scavenger could possess.
If the Cross Sword Guild's leaders were after their own interests and didn't report his situation, that would be one thing. But considering that a normal person wouldn't gamble on the odds of encountering just one person among thousands of Landfill Area, the probability of him reporting his information to get the reward is probably quite high.
As for not taking himself seriously...
Feng Xue felt that anyone with a sound mind wouldn't mistake someone who had been hiding with outsiders for over ten days, who could actively create Omen in the Landfill Area, and who was also carrying a bunch of Phantom Object, for a stranger.
"I was too careless!" Feng Xue tapped her head in frustration. In the end, if each manager was just a local tyrant in the Landfill Area, then all his actions were correct. But once these managers became a community of interest, or even had an upper-level organization, then her idea of "walking away" seemed very naive and foolish.
Feng Xue paced back and forth in the room. After figuring things out, his mindset shifted from "considering whether or not to go out and see" to "having to go to the Real World."
Although he can currently obtain the necessary [knowledge] for daily survival from Chen Xiyao, ultimately, humans are best at forgetting. No one knows when Chen Xiyao's memory of him will fade, and when the [knowledge] Chen Xiyao provides falls below the survival threshold, he will be in serious trouble.
Ultimately, all the [consciousness] that can be absorbed comes from the Administrator Gang. Whether it's collecting corpses or other jobs, you can't directly obtain [consciousness]. Even if the corpse collector Tag is still there, Feng Xue can only receive Tower Coins based on this Tag. If she wants to spend them, she still has to find the local gang to exchange them.
If he had only offended one Landfill Area, that would be fine, but if he were hunted down by all the Landfill Area, he would completely lose his normal means of acquiring [Knowledge]. Apart from the supply from Chen Xiyao, which might be cut off at any time, he would have to consider attacking farmland in the wild if he wanted to survive.
This will obviously intensify the pursuit and killing of him.
Feng Xue admitted that he had a bit of a persecution complex, but he still didn't dare to gamble on something that involved his life.
Ultimately, he's not the kind of fool who won't go back to work until he's spent all his savings. He still has enough [knowledge] right now, so he might still have a chance to try his luck. But once he's completely out of resources, even if there's a door in front of him, he won't have enough [knowledge] to sustain his existence in the outside world.
"Fortunately, there's Chen Xiyao. She gave me her address beforehand. The spoken language in Yan Country is very similar to the Chinese Language I speak. If we can go to Yan Country, the language barrier should be resolved."
With this in mind, Feng Xue immediately began to organize the Phantom Object in her hands.
"Nobody knows what the outside world is like. There's a 24-hour cooldown period for each time you enter or exit through the door. While hiding in a cardboard box is useful, it's not true invisibility, and you can't move if you're locked on by someone's gaze. We have to consider all sorts of extreme solutions."
Feng Xue muttered to herself, starting to choose her trump card for survival. If things went smoothly, she wouldn't need to think too much, but if she really encountered trouble, she would still have to grasp at any straw to save herself.
After some initial thought, Feng Xue divided the potential crisis she might face into three distinct stages—
The first stage is "unable to defeat," which is actually the simplest situation. It means encountering an enemy you can't handle after traveling through time, such as accidentally traveling into a war zone and being targeted by a tank's main gun. In this case, you just need to improve your escape ability, so you don't need to worry too much.
The second level of danger is "unable to escape," which corresponds to situations where there is no way to escape. For example, being trapped in a water prison spell at the start of the game, or being directly transported to a prison cell. In this situation, in addition to considering survival, one must also consider minimizing losses. Whether it's the Disassembly Madonna, the Gynomorphic Filter, or the Storage Bag, they are all important components of his combat power. Once they are seized by the enemy, even if he manages to escape, the final loss will be significant. Therefore, when faced with an unavoidable situation, he must prevent the possibility of his items being seized by the enemy.
As for the highest level of crisis, it's "not surviving," which is undoubtedly the most dangerous situation. For example, opening the door and being hit by a giant Tsar Bomba would leave no way out. If he encounters this kind of problem, he'll have to think about how to revive...
Well, luckily, he did have a resurrection item, but it was a bit of a pain to use...