Life-Buying Money, Lithium Deposit!

As for his sewing skills, Cheng Ye was clear about them.

Back in the day, before PDD made it easy to buy cheap goods, he often mended ripped jeans. Later, when a pair of jeans sold for 20 yuan, why bother sewing?

He could throw worn-out jeans at the Rookie Station for recycling and get 4 yuan back. Then, he could wait for coupons and buy a new pair, costing no more than ten yuan to sort it out.

After doing this back and forth, he had long forgotten most of his skills, basically only knowing how to use them.

"Looking at it this way, the Action Points retrieval should be based on my highest level."

Cheng Ye pondered for a moment, then sighed inwardly, wondering why he was worrying about this.

In fact, there was no need to dwell on the standard for Action Points retrieval. Future complex operations would inevitably require corresponding skills to execute, and the requirements for simple tasks would certainly not be too high.

Even if he really couldn't execute them, learning on the fly wouldn't take too much time.

The Wasteland was not the Apocalypse, and Xingfu City was not City Ruins overrun with Zombies.

Human civilization was still passed down here. With his status as an Inspector, obtaining high-tech data might be difficult, but it wouldn't be hard to get widely circulated common knowledge.

Also.

Cheng Ye reached out and opened the desk drawer, tucking his backpack inside.

Although the Collector could conceal Biological Sense during operations, the finished product couldn't continue to conceal it.

He would need to be mindful of this in the future and try to use his abilities when no one was around.

Stuck in the Quarantine Zone, he couldn't go anywhere. The four-plus hours of the morning flew by in a flash.

As the saying goes, a sudden downpour doesn't last long, but a drizzle can linger.

Last night's heavy rain had come too suddenly, turning into a light rain by morning, and now it had cleared up completely.

The temperature was climbing rapidly, and the sun was so hot it made one dizzy.

At first, Cheng Ye was a little worried about encountering Infected, and he kept his eyes glued to the corridor outside, occasionally getting up to move his body and stay warmed up.

But for the entire morning, over a hundred people had been sent through Quarantine Zone B next door, yet not a single person had appeared in Zone A where he was.

"Could it be that last night's heavy rain caused the road outside to collapse?"

"That shouldn't be the case. Wouldn't those who drove out anticipate the rain?"

Cheng Ye was very surprised.

If the first day could pass by so peacefully, it would be a good thing for him.

However, Murphy's Law was just that magical.

Coincidentally, just as this thought crossed his mind, the shadow of a vehicle finally appeared in the distance.

They're here!

Cheng Ye's spirits lifted, and he subconsciously opened the Collector Panel first to glance at the top right corner.

Nearly five hours, and the Charge Value had recovered from 0% to 18%, a pleasing efficiency.

At this rate, if it charged until the end of his shift, he could gather enough for another Search tomorrow.

Moreover, he had been worried about failing the Search before. Now, it was fine; even if he failed, he would get Action Points, so he couldn't lose either way.

The vehicle gradually approached, and as expected, it was the Dajinbei, the most common sight in the Buffer Zone.

Cheng Ye noticed that as the vehicle drove onto the paved road and passed through Passage One, the two front tires were abnormally flat, clearly indicating it was carrying a considerable amount of cargo.

"Halt, await instructions!"

Cheng Ye sprang to his feet, grabbed a megaphone from the desk frame, and shouted towards the approaching Dajinbei.

Although this was his first time on duty at a Quick Checkpoint, he had watched the procedures in the adjacent Zone B for a whole morning, so he had a pretty good grasp of how things worked.

It was roughly a set routine:

First, divert traffic, then inspect, exchange information, and verify results.

The Inspector in Zone B, Xiren, seemed particularly resistant to using instruments. Often, if a Scavenger couldn't provide satisfactory answers, they would be arbitrarily labeled as "Infected" and shoved into an isolation chamber, starting with a seven-day sentence.

Whether this approach was right or wrong aside, it was certainly inefficient.

As a standard Academic, Cheng Ye had developed his own methodology over the past two months. Combined with the tips taught by Luo Xiaoxue, he was confident he wouldn't be any worse than that dullard next door.

The Dajinbei drove through the passage and slowly came to a halt before the isolation iron gate.

Noticing an Inspector, Dongren, sitting inside, the Xiren driver in the front passenger seat paused.

"Get out, count off, don't you understand?"

Cheng Ye shouted. The people in the car finally snapped back to reality and quickly opened the doors to get out.

There were four of them in total.

Two sat in the front, and two sat in the back cargo area, all Xiren.

"Do you have the exit permits? Hand them over to me through the window."

"Yes, yes!"

The Xiren driver nodded quickly, turned around, and took out an envelope from the storage compartment next to the seat.

"Please examine this, sir."

The outer isolation iron gate had a palm-sized window, specifically for those being inspected to hand over documents.

Cheng Ye took it and returned to the alloy table to open and examine it.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened it, six coins fell out. The obverse was engraved with the pattern of Xingfu City's great wall, and the reverse was engraved with the number '100'.

600?

That's it?

You brat, are you trying to destroy Xingfu City's economic system?

Cheng Ye was stunned for a moment. Although inspectors had many ways to make money, earning a thousand Happiness Coins a month wasn't difficult.

But their stated monthly salary wasn't much. He, a Trainee Inspector, got 500 Coins, and a senior Fourth-Stage Inspector like Liu Bi only got 950.

Now, someone could casually offer 600 Happiness Coins as a bribe? Was this a joke?

Sweeping the coins aside, Cheng Ye looked up slightly, sizing up the four people standing outside the isolation gate.

As soon as he looked, he noticed something.

The driver and the front passenger were fine, but the two who got out of the Dajinbei's trunk seemed to be injured.

The person on the left had an injury on his arm, which was bending involuntarily. The person on the right had injured his leg and had to lean on the tailgate to stand steadily.

"No wonder they offered such a generous gift."

"If these injuries were in the neighboring Zone B, they probably wouldn't even ask questions. They'd be thrown directly into an isolation cell for ten days to half a month. By the time the quarantine period ended, the one with the arm injury might still be able to manage, but the one with the leg injury would likely not survive."

Cheng Ye suddenly understood.

According to what Raven had said earlier, these four-seater Dajinbei usually didn't offer much in bribes, mostly local specialties from the surrounding settlements and Sanctuary City. They were rare, but their value was generally around 50 Happiness Coins.

After all, they had already paid a portion of the "toll" at the checkpoint before leaving the city.

Only large transport convoys would stuff one or two hundred Coins during the inspection upon entering the city to ensure smooth passage.

"Six hundred Coins to buy a life. That's a significant gesture."

Cheng Ye opened the exit permit and flipped through it.

There was nothing special recorded on it, just normal transaction approval. The goods were nothing more than tools like wrenches, screwdrivers, and hammers, as well as small industrial items like radios, tape, and wires, all within the scope of goods permitted for export by Xingfu City.

No, these people had brought back a full load on their vehicle.

Suddenly remembering the flat tires of the Dajinbei when it entered the station, Cheng Ye immediately realized the problem lay with the cargo.

"Who's in charge?"

"Sir, it's me!" The driver raised his hand.

"Name?"

"Ke Er Waters."

"I'll open the isolation gate. You drive the vehicle in alone. I need to inspect the cargo. Everyone else waits outside the gate, understand?"

Cheng Ye's tone was crisp.

Ke Er's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected this Dongren Inspector to guess there was a problem with the cargo without asking anything.

But at the same time, he realized Cheng Ye hadn't directly refused, which meant there was still room for negotiation.

The isolation gate slowly slid upwards.

The isolation gate of Quarantine Zone A was much wider than Zone B, more than enough to accommodate the Dajinbei.

The supports for the cargo bay were removed. The man with the leg injury immediately stumbled, revealing his abnormality. Before his teammates could help him, he fell to the ground.

Ke Er caught a glimpse of this scene in the rearview mirror. His expression changed slightly, but he could only slowly drive the vehicle into the inspection area and obediently turn off the engine and get out.

In front of Cheng Ye, he didn't say a word and directly took off his shirt and pants, standing in the marked inspection area in just his underwear.

This was the standard procedure for a Quick Checkpoint, intended to show no obvious signs of infection or hidden weapons.

"Report your numbers first."

Cheng Ye glanced over. Although Ke Er had several scabbed abrasions all over his body and his calf was swollen, these were not infection-related injuries.

Only scratches, bites, or stab wounds larger than 10x10cm qualified as characteristics of an Infected attack.

"37.1 (Temperature) / 66 (Heart Rate) / 18 (Respiratory Rate)."

"You seem quite relaxed?"

Cheng Ye let out a smile, which made Ke Er shiver and quickly reply:

"Sir, I've always had a Big Heart since I was young. Even when fighting the Infected, my heart rate never exceeded 130."

"You think I'm referring to that?"

Cheng Ye tapped the tabletop, causing six coins to tremble on the Alloy Table.

"I'll give you three sentences. Say something I want to hear."

"Yes, yes, sir!"

Ke Er's throat bobbed. He was facing a Young Man more than ten years his junior, yet he felt immense pressure.

It wasn't just because of the power the other held, but more so from the unquestionable confidence and dominance in his eyes.

"We finished delivering our goods to the Qingshi Gathering Place. On our way back, we encountered a Wandering Scavenger who wanted to trade. He offered information for two weeks' worth of food, and I agreed."

"The information was the location of an undeveloped Mineral deposit."

"We found the deposit, but we didn't expect the scavenger to have set a trap. Fortunately, we won and even dug up quite a few samples to bring back."

Ke Er spoke extremely quickly, afraid that Cheng Ye would interrupt him if any of his words weren't concise enough.

"Mineral deposit?"

Cheng Ye raised an eyebrow slightly. "Is it an Extraordinary Ore?"

"You jest, sir. How could we possibly dig up such a rare commodity? It's a small Lithium Deposit in the form of Pegmatite."

"What, Lithium?"

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