As he listened to the system notifications that sounded in his ears from time to time,
Zeng Shen was overjoyed.
Why didn't I think of this last night?
I could take the bus that circles the city and quickly make a trip around town, triggering all the areas that give survival points for a first visit.
It's only been twenty minutes or so.
And I've already triggered two areas with tier three deities and another occupied by an intelligent race.
That's another three thousand survival points in one go. Enough for another ten-pull!
A smile tugged at Zeng Shen's lips, and his heart brimmed with delight as he planned to do a ten-pull when he got home that night.
After all, just ahead stood the Trade Tower, the largest building in Jinhai City.
The Trade Tower occupied an enormous footprint and rose over a hundred stories high.
The first three floors were shopping areas, the fourth and fifth housed restaurants, and the sixth through eighth were entertainment areas. Above those, aside from residential units, numerous businesses of every size, private organizations, and foreign companies had established offices or branch headquarters in the tower.
[Warning, warning. Host is about to enter the Trade Tower. Dozens of deities roam within this building, and deities as powerful as tier four have established long-term strongholds here with their followers. Given the host's strength, discovery by these deities could result in capture and enslavement. Host, please leave immediately.]
Zeng Shen had just driven toward the entrance to the tower's basement parking level when the urgent notification sounded in his ears.
As for the presence of dozens of deities in the building,
he was not surprised.
After all, the Trade Tower was huge, and those who ran businesses here were largely drawn from the city's exceptional elites and talented professionals.
With their intelligence and resourcefulness, their chances of surviving the catastrophe and living for another three years were indeed much higher than those of ordinary people.
After finding a space in the ground-level parking lot and parking the car,
Zeng Shen picked up the backpack containing the rough jade stones and slung it over his shoulders. Li Yuqing linked her arm through his, and they took the elevator straight to the twentieth floor of the Trade Tower.
With a ding,
the elevator doors opened.
The moment Zeng Shen and Li Yuqing stepped out, a familiar, urgent voice rang rapidly through his mind.
At the same time,
a virtual panel so red it was almost purple appeared before him, shaking wildly. Only he could see it.
[Warning, warning. A tier three water deity is currently on this floor. Given the host's current strength, discovery is highly likely to result in enslavement and the extraction of the divine energy within the host's body. Host, please flee immediately.]
A tier three deity is actually here? Which office are they in?
Zeng Shen silently wondered, stopping to scan the corridors on either side of the floor.
Ten different companies and organizations occupied the twentieth floor of the Trade Tower.
Zeng Shen knew finding that deity among these offices would not be easy.
So he soon decided to leave it to chance and headed down the left-hand corridor beside Li Yuqing, straight toward the office at the far end.
As they walked, Li Yuqing said, "My uncle's name is Shi Mingqiang. He made his start designing jewelry for people, and now he also trades in jade. Room 2020, right at the end, is his jewelry design company."
"So your uncle built his business from scratch," Zeng Shen said casually.
Li Yuqing nodded. "If you don't count the few million my dad invested in him early on, then I guess you could say that."
"Oh?" Zeng Shen chuckled. "Looks like my future father-in-law is even richer than I imagined."
At that, Li Yuqing stopped and looked at him. After a moment of silence, she asked, "Want to know, honey?"
"Nope."
Zeng Shen answered with a smile without giving it much thought. He slipped an arm around Li Yuqing's soft waist and walked toward Room 2020.
In truth, Zeng Shen did not care at all how rich his future father-in-law, whom he had never met, actually was.
That was not because he knew an apocalyptic catastrophe would strike in a year.
Rather, his attitude toward money was that, if he had enough to spend, he would stay home growing fruit and vegetables and raising animals, chickens, ducks, and geese, enjoying a leisurely pastoral life instead of indulging in extravagant pleasures.
And if he ran short of money, he would live frugally and work hard to make the best of the present.
Thus, Zeng Shen had always taken money as it came, without becoming too attached to it.
Of course, his plan to exchange jade for cash this time was not really about settling into a pastoral life of growing fruit and vegetables.
Instead, while money still had value, he wanted to use its power to obtain more survival points faster and thereby increase his strength.
At the reception desk of Room 2020,
a young woman who looked like a recent graduate, dressed in a smart work uniform, immediately stood when she saw Zeng Shen and Li Yuqing enter. "Hello, do you have..."
"I'm Li Yuqing."
"Oh, you're Miss Li Yuqing. Mr. Shi is waiting for you in the office at the very back. You can go straight in," the receptionist said.
"All right, thank you."
Li Yuqing replied politely, then took Zeng Shen's hand and led him inside.
There were quite a few offices within the jewelry design company.
Li Yuqing seemed to have visited often.
Each time they passed an office, she quietly introduced it to Zeng Shen. "This is the design department. They design all the jewelry my mom wears. This is accounting, and this is sales..."
Soon,
as Li Yuqing continued her introductions, Zeng Shen reached a door labeled "General Manager's Office." She knocked softly twice, and a middle-aged man's voice came from within.
"Come in."
Li Yuqing pushed the door open and entered. Zeng Shen was just about to follow her slowly inside when an urgent notification suddenly rang in his ears.
[Danger! Danger! Host is about to encounter a tier three water deity currently staying here. Host, please leave immediately.]
Huh? Could that tier three water deity be Li Yuqing's uncle?
The system's sudden notification left Zeng Shen momentarily stunned.
He immediately looked into the office.
Inside the office, which was slightly larger than his living room, sat a middle-aged man in a desk chair. There was also an attractive woman dressed in the style of a mature young wife.
The woman's face was alluring, her ample cleavage tightly encased in a white blouse beneath a sharp women's suit jacket. Below it, a fitted skirt hugged her thighs, and her long, beautiful legs were wrapped in seductive black stockings, giving her a distinctive appeal.
After only a brief glance at the attractive woman, Zeng Shen shifted his gaze to an exquisite box sitting in front of her.
Inside the box lay a fist-sized stone. One corner had been cut open, revealing a flash of jade green.
Li Yuqing entered the office and called to the middle-aged man seated behind the desk, "Uncle Shi, we're not interrupting, are we?"
"Not at all. Xiaoqing, sit on the sofa and have something to eat while I finish talking with this lady," the middle-aged man said, gesturing for Li Yuqing to take a seat on the sofa.
"Okay."
Li Yuqing nodded, pulled Zeng Shen in from the doorway, and sat with him on the sofa.
Quite a few packets of Li Yuqing's favorite cashews lay on the sofa, as though they had been prepared especially for her.
Once seated, Li Yuqing helped herself without hesitation. She picked up two packets of cashews, one for herself and one for Zeng Shen, and said softly to him,
"That's my uncle, Shi Mingqiang. He's really good to me."
Zeng Shen nodded. His gaze lingered briefly on Shi Mingqiang for a second before turning to the stone in the woman's box, and he listened curiously to their conversation.
The woman sitting across from Shi Mingqiang glanced briefly at Zeng Shen and Li Yuqing, then addressed Shi Mingqiang as though their presence did not concern her.
"Mr. Shi, if you still want to work together, your company can strip, process, design, and auction this rough stone containing imperial jade. But you must sign a thirty-million risk guarantee agreement with me. Otherwise, I'll go upstairs to your sworn rival."
"Ms. Liu, I know your company desperately needs cash flow to stay afloat. I'm willing to sign a risk guarantee agreement, but we must wait until your rough jade stone has been stripped and its value reassessed before we sign."
Shi Mingqiang's voice was steady and firm. After a pause, he continued,
"And you know perfectly well,
"without completely stripping this rough stone, judging how much imperial jade it contains from this tiny cut alone is unreliable.
"If there's only as much as the little bit exposed by that cut, the maximum profit from the entire process will be ten million, not thirty million. Wouldn't that leave me paying you the remaining twenty million out of my own pocket?"
Shi Mingqiang spoke slowly.
The attractive woman closed the box and stood. "In that case, let's talk another day."
"You're welcome to come back anytime," Shi Mingqiang said, rising to his feet.
At that, the woman turned and walked out of the office.
She strode straight up to the twenty-first floor.
[Host is blessed with extraordinary fortune, having shared a room with a tier three water deity and emerged unharmed. Survival points +1,000.]