After leaving the shop, his Contribution Points had been wiped out, and he was even seven points in the red.
Fine sunlight filtered through gaps in the clouds, dancing across Cheng Ye's shoulders. He touched the Pickup Ticket he had just slipped into his pocket, excitement still surging through him.
In the perilous Wasteland, a suitable weapon was the foundation of survival.
Its importance was no less than buying a car or a house in the modern world.
"I've only been here two months, and I can already buy a Transcendent Weapon of my own?"
It felt almost unreal.
Even if he'd first borrowed 100 points from Song Yongfeng and then ended up owing the shop another seven.
Compared with the thirty-year mortgages that were practically standard in the modern world, Cheng Ye could only marvel to himself: he really had come to a "good" era!
If he'd ended up in a Wasteland with a post-apocalyptic radioactive backdrop, or one where people couldn't even get enough to eat and had to fight Zombies for scraps—
Forget weapons. Given the original body's condition, it was hard to say if he'd have survived this long.
"Thank you, Xingfu City. At least right now, I really am happy."
Cheng Ye was easily satisfied.
With his Contribution Points wiped out, he abandoned the idea of checking out the firearms again.
The standard-issue pistol carried by Inspectors was perfectly usable. Since he wouldn't be going on field assignments, he didn't urgently need the Buffalo Combat Pistol.
Besides, he'd have a chance to contain an Infection Source at the North South Stations. If he was lucky, he could earn new Contribution Points after two or three days on duty and save up enough to buy a firearm.
Of course, it would be better not to be that "lucky."
The more he learned about Special Infected with unusual abilities, the more he understood how hard it was for humans to survive in the Wasteland.
One of the cases Luo Xiaoxue had mentioned last night involved a Special Infected that had successfully infiltrated the city. It had gone undetected all the way until it accumulated enough Contribution Points to enter the Inner City through the Happiness Gate.
Fortunately, the Inner City's monitoring system was extremely thorough. Before the Infected could build up enough strength to trigger a second wave of infection, it fell into a test trap and was forced to reveal itself.
If it hadn't been found, Xingfu City would likely have lost at least half its population by now.
After boarding the bus to the Library Station, Cheng Ye found a seat near the back and summoned the Collector.
The blue panel was simple, but its functions were quite comprehensive.
In the upper-right corner, it showed the current Charge Value, much like a phone's battery indicator.
[lv1.32%]
"I charged it for 26 kilowatt-hours at home the night before last, then another 23 at the library yesterday. I charged less at Brother B's place last night, only 18."
Cheng Ye added it up in his head, unable to hide his delight.
Once he accumulated 50%, he could perform a search. Even though he hadn't made use of every minute yesterday, his Charge Value had still built up much faster than he'd expected.
At this rate, he might have enough for another search by tomorrow morning.
He switched to the Collector's profile page.
To Cheng Ye's surprise, the data hadn't changed at all after he'd stayed up hungry the night before last.
But after a normal night's sleep, the page had updated right along with him.
"Does the data only update after I sleep?"
He committed that rule to memory and looked up.
[Collector: Cheng Ye]
[Current Rank: lv.1 Intern (0.7/100, keep collecting more "Information Degree" to rank up)]
[Life Level: 0]
[Skills: Basic Strength, Beast Intuition, Empty]
[Not yet unlocked.]
[Evaluation: You have escaped the bottom of the food chain, where the natives of civilization could kill you at will. However, you are still far below the minimum standard for a Civilization Collector. Focus on searching for information that can be passed down to quickly make progress and raise your rank.]
"Okay, so I'm finally not just some nobody who can get kicked to death by the natives."
Aside from the evaluation, Cheng Ye noticed that the first rank entry now showed the specific requirements for promotion.
The 0.7 at the beginning probably came from the Information Degree feedback he'd received after finding two skills. The rest was what he needed to get out of the Intern period.
"If each search gives me 0.3, then I'll need more than 300 searches to reach 100."
"That would take nearly 16,000 kilowatt-hours. That's way too much. Even if I don't count on the Hydroelectric Station cutting off supply or raising prices during the dry season, charging 50 kilowatt-hours a day would still take me more than half a year."
After calculating it carefully, Cheng Ye felt the road ahead stretch endlessly. Ranking up seemed much harder than getting promoted from Trainee Inspector.
Still, he had a vague feeling the Collector had other ways to charge. Electricity probably wasn't its only energy source.
Unfortunately, in the current environment, electricity was the only energy he could find that the device could absorb.
Only after he'd secured a foothold in the Buffer Zone could he look for other energy sources the Collector might be able to absorb.
"To rank up faster, I need to focus on searching for information that can be passed down, like the evaluation says."
"But what kind of information counts as something that can be passed down?"
Cheng Ye pondered the question to himself.
By the time the Station Announcer called out "Library Station," he had a few ideas, though he'd need to do more searches to see if they held up.
"Mr. Cheng, you're here!"
When Cheng Ye opened the door, Gwen looked up from the small bed and greeted him.
"I've already organized the books you didn't finish yesterday. They're on the second desk."
"Sorry for the trouble, Miss Gwen."
Cheng Ye nodded and pulled a ten-Happiness Coin from his pocket.
He'd paid 20 coins the day before and left the remaining 10 behind when he went out. He was now paying that 10 as a deposit.
But Gwen shook her head. "You don't need to. The deposit is just for screening customers. You've already shown how much you care for books and respect knowledge. There's no need to prove it with a deposit."
"Oh?"
Cheng Ye chuckled, but didn't take back the coin. "Then could you exchange this ten for Nutrient Paste? That way, I won't have to go out and buy lunch and lose time reading."
"Of course. I'll heat it up and bring it over at lunchtime."
He'd only been there for one day, yet the library already felt more familiar than home.
As he walked past the bookshelves and into the reading area, he was surprised.
No wonder Gwen had put the unfinished books on the second desk. Someone was already sitting at the first.
The person looked like a woman, but her clothes were strange.
A huge black headscarf covered her head, and a mask concealed her face completely. Her clothes were the sort of Scavenger outfit rarely seen in the Buffer Zone these days: worn animal hides paired with flat-soled walking shoes.
Cheng Ye glanced at the books she was reading and the few stacked beside her. They were the same volumes Gwen had introduced yesterday, the ones about Special Infected.
"Another bounty hunter hoping to strike it rich?"
Cheng Ye was briefly surprised, then looked away. Without drawing attention to it, he slipped the Pendant into the socket and sat down at the second desk, quickly flipping through the books.
Soon, the pages began to rustle.
The woman frowned and looked over. After confirming that Cheng Ye wasn't making noise to get her attention and was instead completely absorbed in reading, she could only shake her head helplessly.
One Hundred Ways to Deal with Infected
Kill Infected: Just Follow These Eight Rules!
<A Detailed Analysis of the Sources of Earth-, Air-, Water-, Fire-, Migration-, and Reproduction-Element Infected>
<Every Real Man Should Read This: Learn These Tips to Save Ten Years in the Wasteland>
There were a thousand Hamlets in a thousand readers.
Different people naturally dealt with Infected in wildly different ways.
Some were good at waiting for prey to come to them; others preferred to take the initiative.
Some believed, "If you can solve it from a distance, never fight up close." Others insisted, "Close combat is more efficient. Otherwise, relying on ranged attacks will make you lose your ability to adapt."
Everyone had their own opinion, and the survival books they wrote offered a perfect glimpse into their beliefs.
Cheng Ye welcomed all of it, absorbing the core ideas from every book.
When it came to diversity of opinion, how could the Wasteland compare to the modern world?
What had modern people been through?
Open a short-video app, and within minutes, it would recommend a hundred different ways to do something new and strange, all doing whatever they could to evade censorship.
Talk about a hot-blooded anime, and even the reputation of Boruto could be flipped again and again—from something utterly unwatchable to a show whose audience had simply lost the Will of Fire.
So when Cheng Ye came across some of the books' black-and-white opinions, he found their stubbornness almost endearing.
Why did ranged and close combat have to be at odds? Waiting for prey and taking the initiative weren't mutually exclusive.
Different situations called for different ways to break through. His job was to sift through all the possible solutions and find the best one.
Before long, the sky had darkened.
When Cheng Ye finished the last book on the first bookshelf, the clock on the wall had just struck eight.
Outside the window, a light rain had begun to fall again.
At some point, the woman at the first desk had left. Gwen had wiped the tabletop until it gleamed with a clean, cool shine.
"It's raining again."
Cheng Ye stood up, his gaze drifting as he returned all the books he'd finished to their places on the shelf.
Two days spent in this quiet little library had calmed his restless mind.
But this was still the Wasteland.
According to some of the books, Infected Tides were classified into six levels, from smallest to largest: Group, Tide, Plague, Calamity, Destruction, and Annihilation.
Since the New Era began, no Annihilation-Level Infected Tide had appeared. It existed only as a theoretical classification.
But four Destruction-Level Infected Tides had emerged, each sweeping along with millions of Infected. Earthbound Spirits and Transcendents from the Old Era had also been said to mingle among them.
Once, a Sanctuary City several times larger than Xingfu City had stood directly in the path of a Destruction-Level Infected Tide and decided to meet it head-on.
The result was predictable. The Sanctuary City had used every means at its disposal, but still failed to stop the tide.
In less than half a day, the city had fallen and its people had perished. Millions had been contaminated and turned into new Infected, nearly bringing an Annihilation-Level disaster into being.
Fortunately, just as the disaster was about to reach the brink of Annihilation, the Transcendents among the Infected suddenly reached their maximum range and began to return.
That gave humanity a chance to catch its breath. They gradually split the massive Infected Tide into smaller surges, directing them in different directions and barely managing to contain the disaster.
"With Xingfu City's current strength, stopping an Annihilation-Level Tide is out of the question. Even a Destruction-Level Tide would be like a mantis trying to stop a cart."
"Before a real disaster arrives, I have to build up enough strength."
"At the very least, enough to escape!"
P.S. Things are finally looking up—the numbers are rising at last. Thanks for all your support! Please vote, add this to your collection, and keep reading. Your support really means a lot to me!!!
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