Transaction

The sun was already slanting westward by the time Zhou You stepped out of the orphanage.

Although he lacked any sort of timepiece, judging by the sun's shifting position, it was likely a little past two in the afternoon.

Based on his previous experience, this scenario would enter its nighttime state around five o'clock, at which point it would forcibly drag him into the security office.

However, faced with this somewhat pressing time limit, Zhou You didn't appear overly anxious; in fact, he seemed rather leisurely.

Before leaving the orphanage, he had already scouted out a well-preserved, sturdy hemp rope. If he failed to find any clues to clear the stage and saw signs of nightfall, he would immediately find a prime spot to hang himself.

Once the scenario reset, it would start back at 12 o'clock, and wouldn't his time suddenly become abundant again?

Passing through the alley, he arrived once more at that intersection.

Just like before, every path at this junction remained shrouded in bottomless, thick fog; it seemed that as soon as one stepped inside, they would immediately lose their sense of direction.

Zhou You now understood that the area explorable during the day was directly proportional to the area explored at night. The more paths he walked at night, the more places he could pass through during the day; conversely, thick fog would block his way, signaling that the path was impassable.

"...This is actually a good thing. At least it tells me the scope of exploration, so I don't end up bumping around like a headless fly in a bunch of places."

Muttering this to himself, Zhou You turned around cleanly and headed toward other areas.

Unlike the nighttime scenario where only one main road was accessible, the daytime streets contained many intricate, winding alleys. Most of these would only lead back to the starting point after much twisting and turning, and only a few led to somewhat special buildings—though these were basically all locked and impossible to open.

Zhou You didn't have the spare time to try them one by one, so after thinking carefully for a moment, he chose a more efficient method.

On the first day, he had already memorized the route map at the entrance, so all he needed to do now was simple: eliminate all routes that were likely irrelevant to this intersection—such as the XX Treatment Center, the Proctology Hospital, and the like—and focus his efforts on finding paths that might be relevant, or those that hadn't been marked at all.

This way, the time required would be shortened significantly.

But at the end of the day, this was still a shot in the dark; everything depended on luck.

.

After stumbling around for a full hour, Zhou You finally encountered an anomaly that hadn't appeared before.

—It was a pitch-black door.

There was nothing marked on the door, nor was there a shop sign common to such establishments; there was only a line of small text on the doorplate.

"Zhao Po's Trading Hut."

Below that was a line of notes.

"We do not welcome visits from any Taoist priests or monks, nor do we welcome any penniless wretches. If such people trespass, they shall bear the consequences."

As an aside, that "bear the consequences" was written in bright red dye, with the edges specifically crafted to look like dripping trails, making it look at first glance as if it had been written in blood.

Zhou You looked himself over.

"First of all, I am not a member of any religion, so that's fine."

Then he checked his pockets—unsurprisingly, they were empty.

However, there was no hint of embarrassment on his face.

"Although I don't have any money on me right now, I did have a large sum of funds earlier. It has merely been temporarily transferred into someone else's hands. In a broad sense, I am still a wealthy person, so I don't count as a penniless wretch."

Having reached this perfect two-part conclusion, Zhou You confidently pushed open the black door.

—But the very next moment, his confident demeanor was shattered, and he was forced out, coughing and streaming with tears.

The reason was simple: the smell inside... was just too heavy!

It felt as if a piece of pork had been left in a warm, damp environment for a week, then soaked in a septic tank for three days, and finally subjected to some special "culinary" treatment—in short, the stench was simply beyond the range of human tolerance.

After spending several full minutes catching his breath outside the door, Zhou You finally managed to recover, but soon enough, he walked back inside with the expression of someone heading to their death.

Perhaps because it had aired out a bit—or perhaps because his sense of smell had become slightly dulled—Zhou You wasn't immediately repelled this time. He pinched his nose and looked around, finding that the furnishings in the room were quite normal. Rows of shelves were arranged throughout the room, holding all sorts of old bottles and jars, making it look just like an ordinary second-hand shop.

An elderly woman of seventy or eighty was sitting in the innermost corner. Her head was half-bowed, and she seemed to be dozing; occasionally, one could hear heavy snoring. She didn't seem to have noticed the person who had walked in at all.

Everything seemed fine, but Zhou You didn't let his guard down.

After all, he hadn't forgotten that even in the "safer" daytime, monsters still existed. If he made any mistakes, even the seemingly harmless female cleaner could mutate at any moment.

Therefore, Zhou You cautiously approached and called out softly to the old woman.

"Ma'am..."

No response.

"Ma'am."

He raised his voice slightly, but the other party remained motionless.

"Ma'am!"

There was a slight reaction, but she remained the same.

In the end, Zhou You had no choice but to take a deep breath and roar with all his might.

"Ma'am!!!!"

This time, it finally startled her awake.

The old woman finally raised her head, revealing a face covered in wrinkles.

"Ni Shi She?"

"...I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?"

The old woman didn't answer. Instead, she opened her shriveled mouth and tried to make a few sounds, but after failing, she shook her head and reached under the table.

Zhou You had originally thought she was going to pull out a set of dentures or something, since many elderly people couldn't speak clearly after losing their teeth, but he hadn't expected her to pull out a jar.

A jar filled with formalin, with a human head soaking inside.

He watched as the old woman opened the lid, and accompanied by a wailing sound, she fished the head out of the pungent liquid—the thing was actually still alive—and then forcibly tore off its mouth, swapped it with her own, and tried opening and closing it a few times before she was satisfied and put the jar back.

"Oh my, I apologize. I've been using this mouth for over a decade, and it seems to have been malfunctioning a bit lately. Fortunately, I still have plenty of spare parts to swap in. By the way, you're here to buy something, aren't you?"

She... no, it should be called it now, said with such overflowing enthusiasm.

"So, what do you intend to pay with? Money, an equivalent, your limbs, your internal organs, or perhaps... your own life?"