The moment the bartender saw the old-world social security magazine, he wore the ravenous, thirsty expression of a man who had finally found water after a long drought.
He swallowed, then reached out with his cracked, dry hand, trembling with excitement. "E-enough... This book's enough to fill the rest of the half-full jug!"
But just as his hand was about to touch the badly battered magazine, Xia Leng suddenly pressed his hand down on it, keeping the bartender from picking it up.
"I don't think this magazine is worth just half a jug. Fill this water bottle too, and the magazine is yours."
Xia Leng pulled another empty one-liter water bottle out of his backpack and tossed it onto the bar. He spoke without expression.
At that, the bartender's face turned ashen, and his mouth twitched. "Don't push it. I can give you one more liter at most. You should know that pure drinking water in this era is worth as much as gold was in the old world. Besides, company rules say each person can get only a limited amount per week. That extra liter I'm giving you is already coming out of my own share."
"Is that so? Never mind, then. If I traded this magazine at your company's Fortress Market, I could probably get around five liters of purified water for it."
Xia Leng made as if to take the magazine back. Seeing this, the bartender immediately leaned half his body over it, his face contorted with the anguish of a man being forced to give up a piece of himself.
"Fine, I'll give it to you! Just don't tell anyone about this. It's a private deal between us!"
The bartender gritted his teeth as he spoke, then picked up the two empty water bottles and the magazine, preparing to head behind the bar to fill them.
"Give me that bag of crystals back, too. The magazine is more than enough to cover the water."
Xia Leng crooked a finger and watched with a smile as the bartender rolled his eyes and tossed the bag of crystals back to him. He decided not to make the bartender feel any worse.
But the delight the bartender couldn't hide proved that, in his eyes, this magazine was worth far more than the source of life—pure water.
So he was someone who valued "spiritual nourishment"...
Xia Leng watched the bartender go back to fill the bottles, then sat down to wait, idly watching the crowd of strange figures surging around the center of the dance floor.
Most of the people dancing reeked as if they hadn't bathed in years. After all, when there wasn't even enough water to drink, no one besides the higher-ups of the various mercenary companies had water to spare for bathing.
If you tried bathing with water polluted by Black Rain, your skin would probably end up rotting away in great patches...
Still, as filthy as these people were, at least their skin wasn't rotting like that of the other refugees. They didn't seem to be carrying every contagious disease under the sun, either. Otherwise, the security staff at the entrance wouldn't have let them in.
While Xia Leng waited for the bartender to fill his bottles, a sudden impact struck him from behind, scattering the low-grade crystals from the bag in his hand all over the table.
Under normal circumstances, Xia Leng could have sensed an impact from behind and dodged in time.
But in this frenzied, rowdy environment, combined with the way he'd deliberately dulled his senses, he was caught off guard.
Xia Leng turned around. It was one of the members of the doomsday biker gang he'd seen on the highway earlier!
His open leather jacket, bristling chest hair and beard, unusually plump beer belly, and the sunglasses he wore day and night all showed that he wasn't someone to mess with.
Seeing Xia Leng turn to look at him with cold indifference, the burly man grinned viciously. "What're you looking at? I was just drunk and bumped into you. Keep staring, and I'll pluck your eyeballs out!"
He glared viciously at the soft-skinned young man in front of him. At the same time, another gang member crept up behind Xia Leng. While his partner distracted him, he stealthily reached his thick right hand into the backpack on the table and started rummaging around.
The biker tasked with distracting Xia Leng saw that the skinny runt was still staring at him with cold indifference and was about to fly into a rage. But when he saw the young man's dark, icy eyes, he suddenly shivered, as if he'd been plunged into an abyss of ice!
For a moment, he found himself inexplicably afraid of the skinny young man!
As for the one doing the stealing, he was puzzled to see his companion trembling all over. But he'd found a smooth handgun in Xia Leng's backpack, and was just about to take it out with delight when—
Suddenly, his wrist tightened, as if trapped in a pair of iron tongs, and he couldn't pull it out of the backpack!
Then a searing, gut-wrenching pain shot through his wrist. He couldn't hold back a cry of agony, though the deafening music and cheers drowned it out.
His eyes went wide as he stared at Xia Leng's slender fingers, which were gripping his wrist through the backpack. No matter how hard he tugged, he couldn't free himself.
He couldn't understand how this skinny young man could be so strong. Was he a Baptized One with a strength-type ability?!
The three remaining gang members sat at another table, watching the situation closely. They, too, noticed something was wrong.
They saw one of their companions trembling uncontrollably under the young man's gaze, while another held his head up with his mouth wide open, apparently screaming.
Realizing something was wrong, the three of them hurried to their feet and rushed over.
As soon as they got close, they saw—
The biker under Xia Leng's gaze seemed to be in a trance, drenched in sweat from head to toe.
The other was clutching his trapped hand and letting out one agonized scream after another...
"You bastard!!!"
The three gang members who'd just arrived didn't bother trying to make sense of the bizarre scene. Enraged, they whipped sharp daggers from their waists and stabbed viciously at Xia Leng's right hand, which was gripping their companion's wrist!
Xia Leng had of course sensed the attack from behind. Even if he did nothing, the tendrils extending from various parts of his body would block it for him, then coil around the men behind him, crush them into bloody pulp, and absorb them into his body...
But Xia Leng was forcing the virus inside him to hold back its impending attack.
In a crowded place like this, if he revealed the terrifying ability no one had ever seen before, word could get out and turn him into prey—or a test subject—for the various mercenary companies!
So Xia Leng decided to handle the situation himself!
He released the wrist of the man who'd reached into his backpack and was about to strike back at the attacker behind him with his elbow when—
Suddenly, a much thicker hand reached around from behind and grabbed the biker's knife-wielding hand. With an almost casual twist,
Crack—
The unlucky biker's hand was twisted a full 360 degrees on the spot, then flopped limply against his wrist. After a brief moment of stunned silence, he let out an even more agonized scream than his companion had.
The two remaining gang members were shocked. They turned around, both furious and alarmed, and saw a man as tall as a mountain standing right behind them...
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