Shen Jinwen

Chapter 11: Shen Jinwen

The woman with the high ponytail quickly changed her clothes. When she came out, her gaze fell on the glass. She was not surprised to find that Xu Zhi had not drunk any water. After all, she would not have drunk from that glass either, even though she truly had not put anything in it.

There was quite a bit of blood in her hair as well, but there was certainly no time for a shower now. She merely let her hair down, casually wiped it with a towel, then sat across from Xu Zhi. After forcing herself not to look at the python, she asked Xu Zhi somewhat stiffly, "What information did you want to exchange with me?"

Rather than answer her question first, Xu Zhi eased the atmosphere a little. "Sister, why don't we exchange some basic information about ourselves first and get to know each other? We'll be living in the same building from now on. We might run into each other often."

The woman had no objections. She nodded. "My name is Shen Jinwen. I'm from Cloud City. I just graduated from university and came back, but for certain reasons, I didn't have time to leave. I've been interested in cold weapons since I was young and learned a few moves. I never expected they would actually come in handy one day."

Shen Jinwen's explanation was vague, but for two people who had just met, this much was enough.

After speaking, she looked at Xu Zhi. "What about you?"

Xu Zhi gave her name first, then said calmly, "I didn't study much, and my health isn't very good, so I was left here."

A trace of surprise appeared in Shen Jinwen's eyes. When she first saw Xu Zhi, she had already guessed that the reason this girl was still in the city might have been her health. What surprised her now was not that, but Xu Zhi's overly calm attitude.

Xu Zhi did not care about her gaze. Looking at the black snake by her feet, she said, "This is my pet. You could also call it my Supernatural Ability. It awakened not long ago. What about you, Sister? Do you have a Supernatural Ability? When did it awaken?"

Since Xu Zhi had openly revealed her Supernatural Ability first, Shen Jinwen naturally could not hide hers. She nodded. "Yes. My ability awakened about two days after the city was sealed off. You could say my ability is related to my sword as well."

"Oh? What a coincidence."

Xu Zhi said it was a coincidence, but she did not believe it was such a simple coincidence.

That concluded their brief introduction. Xu Zhi intended to get to the point. Taking turns asking questions was too inefficient. It had not even been half a month since the disaster began, and people who were alone could not possibly possess much information. So she said directly, "Let's exchange information. One piece each. We can question the value of what the other person says, but it must be reasonable. The exchange ends when either side feels there's no need to continue."

"Oh, and forget any information that's too low in value. I'm not very interested. I won't offer anything cheap or useless either. If that's acceptable, Sister, you can start."

Her tone sounded negotiable, but her words were somewhat domineering. After all, she was the one who held the power now. Strictly speaking, this was not excessive.

Sitting across from Xu Zhi with her hair down, Shen Jinwen looked somewhat gentler than she had in the corridor. Observing her from up close, Xu Zhi noticed that she wore a short-sleeved shirt casually, and the exposed muscles of her arms had smooth lines. They were not particularly exaggerated, but they looked powerful.

Thinking of her own frail arms, which seemed as though they could snap with a squeeze, Xu Zhi could not help feeling sorrowful. She did not like overly muscular looks, but she truly had complaints about her own body.

Shen Jinwen's face could only be considered delicate. Her eyebrows were neat, their shape somewhat sharp, and her jawline clearer than that of most girls. Even sitting quietly, she seemed to carry an innate edge.

Her voice was equally crisp and decisive when she answered Xu Zhi's question. "I don't know much, but the information I consider valuable is this."

"Among the people still in the city, only a small number can resist the mist and remain rational. Of those who cannot resist, some died immediately, while others became lunatics. The lunatics are extremely aggressive toward humans who still retain their sanity. They are searching for normal humans to hunt, especially humans who have awakened Supernatural Abilities. Most of those who go mad have very low intelligence, but their bodies gradually become like monsters. A very small number retain some intelligence, but their values are completely different from those of humans. Their bodies do not grow stronger, but they gain certain Supernatural Abilities."

"In short, the people who went mad seem to have split into two branches. The rare intelligent ones are more dangerous in my opinion. They command those lunatics who have lost their intelligence, and their awakened Supernatural Abilities are extremely strange. So far, I haven't found any weaknesses."

As she spoke, Shen Jinwen's tone carried a slight sense of defeat. After finishing, she looked at Xu Zhi, indicating that this was all the information she had for this round of exchange.

Very useful information. It seemed Shen Jinwen often went out, so she indeed knew more than someone like Xu Zhi, who had stayed at home the entire time.

However, Xu Zhi also possessed information that others would find difficult to learn right now.

She sorted through what she knew in her mind and selected a portion. "All Supernatural Abilities have attributes, whether they belong to humans, Aberration monsters, or animals that are currently mutating. Perhaps the way to counter those lunatics lies within those attributes."

Xu Zhi said only that much. She felt it was enough.

Before this, even though Supernatural Abilities had appeared for around a year, no one had ever proposed the concept of attributes. This was a truly earth-shattering piece of news. In Xu Zhi's view, she was practically giving Shen Jinwen a bargain.

Cloud City had now become a Dead City completely cut off from the outside world. The outside world might already have realized the existence of attributes, but that was not necessarily the case within Cloud City.

Xu Zhi did not intend to cling to this bit of information and stagnate.

"You're saying that's true?"

Shen Jinwen frowned slightly and could not help questioning her. Xu Zhi understood her doubts and merely nodded. "Just because it didn't exist before doesn't mean it doesn't exist now. There was no mist before either. I have no reason to make up nonsense like this to deceive you."

In fact, based on the Game Narrator's vague descriptions, Xu Zhi even suspected that attributes might be related to the arrival of the mist.

But she certainly would not tell Shen Jinwen that.

Shen Jinwen already believed Xu Zhi's words by seventy percent, and there was a reason she had believed so quickly.

She took something from her pocket and held it in her hand, looking at Xu Zhi. "Do you recognize this?"

Her palm slowly opened, revealing something Shen Jinwen held that was both very familiar and somewhat unfamiliar to Xu Zhi.

A pale blue Attribute Core.