Search, Trainee Collector!

The night was dark, gradually shrouding the wasteland.

Cheng Ye returned to the Staff Residential Area, climbed the stairs to the fifth floor of the Apartment Blocks, and used his key to open the Security Door at the end of the corridor.

A single room of just over ten square meters, furnished only with a small bed measuring one and a half meters and a small desk.

All the other useless clutter, after he had crossed over and assessed the situation, he had cleared out in one go to the Scrapyard, including the token of love between his Previous Body and some woman in the Inner City—half a box of love letters.

The wasteland had no room for romance; when even survival was a question, it was clearly no time for other thoughts.

Embedding the Pendant into the power socket to start charging, Cheng Ye went to the fifth floor's Public Restroom, inserted his card to draw water.

The young man in the mirror had a thin build and a somewhat pale face. With sharp features, by modern standards, he could be considered decent-looking.

But in the wasteland, someone like Liu Bi, with his burly frame and rough appearance, was the real meta.

Gushing fresh water sprayed from the pipe, its color slightly yellowed due to the Mountain Flood upstream.

Still, with Free Electricity, a Limited Supply of water, and a job that kept his belly full, Xingfu City's external broadcasts weren't lying—it really was more fortunate here than in many Sanctuary Cities.

Of course, that was only as long as there wasn't a large-scale Infected Tide.

The thirty-meter Giant Wall could block all attacks, protecting the safety of Xingfu City's Core Residents, but the Ordinary Residents living in the Buffer Zone would suffer.

Now, entering the Inner City required 1000 Contribution Points. As an Inspector, Cheng Ye had worked for two months and only saved up 19 points.

For an ordinary person to save up that many points, unless they hit the jackpot and found some rare resource, even working hard for a lifetime would still leave a massive gap.

Moreover, once an Inspector, even if he saved enough Contribution Points, he couldn't enter the Inner City. This kept a faint sense of crisis lingering in Cheng Ye's heart.

If the Infected Tide came, the Buffer Zone couldn't hold.

He would have to flee. How? Where to?

Those Veteran Inspectors might have secret shelters outside the Quarantine Zone, but he was a Newcomer, with neither resources nor ability. Where could he find a place to build a shelter?

Brother B might have one, but when that time came, he'd have to take his family into hiding. Would he still bring Cheng Ye along?

After washing up, Cheng Ye returned to his room, his thoughts a tangled mess. He lay in bed, unable to sleep for a long time.

It wasn't until the sky began to lighten, and a Fish Belly White appeared beyond the curtains, that he suddenly snapped to attention, leaping up to the Power Strip.

Touching the Pendant, the panel appeared.

[Current Activation Progress: 99.8%]

Only the last 0.2% remained. Cheng Ye simply sat on the floor, touching the Pendant every now and then to check if the progress had changed.

The progress before had taken a full two months to accumulate, and he hadn't found it long. But now, at this very moment, he was burning with impatience.

Fortunately, 0.2% was just 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Before the sky was fully bright, the charging was complete.

"Finally enough!"

As this thought surged, Cheng Ye's eyes suddenly widened, a look of disbelief on his face.

The Pendant had vanished?

The moment the charging ended, the Pendant in the Power Strip seemed to turn invisible, instantly disappearing from sight.

But then, before Cheng Ye could even form a second thought, a Dazzling Blue Light flashed before his eyes.

The panel he had seen countless times finally changed, displaying lines of text.

[Civilization Collector fully charged, automatically activated and bound]

[Welcome, Civilization Collector: Cheng Ye. Your current level is: Level 1 Intern]

[Civilization Collector has entered Induction Mode. Collector, silently recite "Collector" to open or close this panel]

[Civilization Collector has unlocked Corresponding Level functions. Use mental intent to browse on the panel]

[Enjoy your use!]

"An Intern as an Inspector, and an Intern as a Civilization Collector..."

"That means the Civilization Collector has the potential to level up and unlock more functions."

His eyes skimmed over the text. After more than two months, Cheng Ye had long since mentally prepared himself, so he wasn't surprised now.

Including using mental intent to control the panel—after repeatedly summoning and closing it, he quickly got the hang of it.

"At the moment, this Level 1 Collector only has one function. Fits my Current Job pretty well, doesn't it?"

Cheng Ye's gaze swept over the sole function on the panel.

[Search (lv.1)]

[Current Charge Value: 2/2 (Replenish Energy after use)]

[Searchable Targets: Organisms]

[Search Condition: Requires consent from the organism. Searchable range determined by Cooperation Degree]

[Current Searchable Range: Intelligence (10% Cooperation Degree, lv.1), Items (30% Cooperation Degree, lv.1), Skills (50% Cooperation Degree, lv.1), Skills (100% Cooperation Degree, lv.2)]

[Search Success Rate: Same Level Search 50% success rate. Each level above reduces success rate by half. Failed searches refund Action Points.]

[Note: This search is an exact replication; success or failure does not affect the searched party.]

"Search can yield... intel, items, skills?"

Cheng Ye's thoughts immediately grew lively as he suppressed his inner excitement.

Obtaining the subject's consent wasn't difficult—any Survivor willing to step into the Isolation Cage had at least some degree of Cooperation. With proper guidance, reaching 100% might be tough, but Cheng Ye was confident he could hit 50%.

Intel and items were easy enough to understand, but skills—what kind of ability would be called a skill?

Did Brother B's marksmanship count as a skill?

What about the rumored superhumans who hadn't been eroded by an Infection Source but accidentally awakened extraordinary powers—did their abilities qualify as skills?

Cheng Ye couldn't help but fantasize.

If such abilities could be searched for, his chances of surviving the upcoming Field Mission would skyrocket.

"Too bad the search success rate isn't high—even at the same level, it's only fifty percent."

"And at my current rank, one charge only gives me two search attempts. I need to choose my targets carefully."

"As for this Action Point I get from a failed search, I have no idea what it does."

"And the Charge Value—how do I restore that?"

Countless questions flooded in. Cheng Ye's eyes lit up, but he decided not to dwell on the meaning of these terms for now. Whether he succeeded or failed, a few rounds of searching should reveal what they represented.

Also.

"I can't rush. The more critical the moment, the more cautious I need to be."

"Brother B already helped me request leave. If I hurried off to work now, others would definitely find it strange. If I used the Collector and exposed something unusual on top of that, the chances of drawing attention would skyrocket."

Cheng Ye repeated this to himself silently, only suppressing his impulse after a long while. He continued studying the Civilization Collector.

And in doing so, he discovered a function hidden behind the search feature.

No, it wasn't really a function.

[Collector: Cheng Ye]

[Current Rank: lv.1 Trainee (Search the current civilization, gather more information to advance)]

[Life Level: 0 (Has not yet reached the Minimum Standard)]

[Skills: Empty, Empty, Empty (Current Life Level allows equipping up to three skills simultaneously)]

[Not yet unlocked.]

[Evaluation: Fragile Trainee Collector, what you should do now isn't gather civilization data, but avoid being hunted by the civilization's natives!]

A Life Level that hadn't met the Minimum Standard, empty Skill Slots, and an evaluation warning about being hunted by natives.

The panel was extremely bare, but it accurately reflected Cheng Ye's current situation.

"With my current abilities, running into an Infected in melee would definitely spell disaster."

Confirming no other functions were unlocked, Cheng Ye closed the Collector and began carefully planning his next moves.

Xingfu City was a standard industrial Sanctuary City. The Firearms and ammunition it produced were often sold thousands of kilometers away, exchanged for countless precious resources like food and technical data.

Living in this city, buying a decent gun wasn't hard for an Inspector like Cheng Ye.

For example, Liu Bi's go-to Buffalo 9mm Combat Pistol cost only 20 Contribution Points—a real bargain.

However, while Firearms were devastating, their use cases were very specific. They only reached their full potential in scenarios like clearing Infected Tides, large-scale team battles, guarding city walls, or fighting other humans.

Checkpoint Field Missions mostly involved deliveries, reconnaissance, and information gathering. Teams of two to four people handled these tasks, with direct combat missions being rare.

If you fired a gun in the city, the Infected hiding in the ruins would swarm you like sharks drawn to blood.

Getting surrounded and failing the mission was one thing; losing your life was another.

"If I'm lucky enough to get a delivery mission, I might not even encounter an Infected along the way."

"If I get a reconnaissance mission, the best choice is still to use Melee Weapons to deal with any Infected blocking the path—sneak in, sneak out."

"So... for my next search skill, I need to prioritize something that boosts my melee capabilities."

Averaging seven rings on the twenty-five-meter rapid-fire range barely met the Minimum Standard for field work.

But he was far from adequate in melee—not just in technique, but also in courage, experience, and adaptability.

If he could find a skill to compensate for this weakness, his survival odds would increase significantly.

Cheng Ye made up his mind and turned his head to look Outside the Window.

A curtain of rain, carried by leaden clouds, was slowly rolling in from the horizon. As the rainfall line shifted south, Xingfu City was already feeling the effects.

Following past patterns, before the real downpour hit, Survivors on the move would definitely pick up the pace.

Reflected at the Checkpoint, a wave of peak traffic was surely coming!

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