Rogers looked up at the inn, which still had its lights on, then turned to Yuxuan. "This is one of the top three inns in the Ruin Exchange.
It's also very safe. It's run by the authorities."
"All right. Let's go in."
Yuxuan nodded without saying anything else. After all, she was a stranger here.
The three of them booked three rooms at three dollars each. Yuxuan dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the counter, then,
under the stunned gaze of the clerk,
the three of them went straight upstairs.
After wishing Rogers and Isabelle good night, Yuxuan entered her room. It looked much like a room from before the apocalypse.
"Finally, a good night's sleep."
Currying Favor
Whether by coincidence or not, after leaving the underground laboratory in Antarctica, Yuxuan had made her way through several places before reaching this remote
Ruin Exchange. With everything that had happened,
she had forgotten something.
But when she woke the next morning, Yuxuan glanced instinctively at the calendar hanging on the wall.
This was a high-end inn, so it had a calendar. The paper, though... it was much like the kind used in old almanacs,
each sheet as thin as a cicada's wing.
She could even see the writing on the next page through it.
Which meant... well, it meant nothing.
But the date did.
On Little New Year, Yuxuan had come up from beneath the ice sheet to the sea. She had then headed for land and rescued Rogers and
Isabelle. Two days later,
she had arrived at the Ruin Exchange.
Counting Little New Year and all the time those events had taken, today was... New Year's Eve!
Yuxuan's eyes lit up. She sprang out of bed, her waist strong enough to launch her from
lying flat on her back
to standing