She had a striking, oval face without a trace of makeup, and a distinctive beauty mark at the corner of her eye. She was pleasant to look at overall; after all, she had yet to be weathered by the apocalypse.
"Captain Su, hello. Could I have a word with you?"
Su Nian opened one eye and glanced at her, then was about to close it again. "You look kind of familiar..."
"You've probably seen my work, Captain Su." Xiao Shengge smiled.
If he was a fan, that would make things even easier.
"You were pretty good as the sister-in-law." Su Nian remembered her quite well.
"Thank you!" Xiao Shengge forced a smile. "I'd like to ask a few questions."
"Some other time. I want to sleep."
Honestly, all he wanted right now was a nap. Eating had made him drowsy.
"Just three minutes. Please accept this little gift, Captain Su." Xiao Shengge took out a gold bar and offered it to him.
Su Nian glanced at it and accepted it without betraying a thing.
"Just three minutes."
"Could I sit in the car while we talk?" Xiao Shengge asked.
This was her real purpose in coming over. Once she got into his car, everyone else would assume she had connections with him. Anyone who wanted to lay a hand on her would have to think twice.
As for buying protection with all her gold or using her body to secure a connection, she felt neither was realistic. He was a Transcendent Sequence member, while she was just an ordinary person. There was no equality in such a bargain, so she had never considered it.
But if he forced himself on her, she would have no way to resist...
She was quite resigned to that.
"Whatever!"
Xiao Shengge walked around to the passenger seat, sat down, and asked a few questions, mostly about how to awaken. From what she had learned, Su Nian had awakened in just a week and even become captain.
She got out in under three minutes, without pushing her luck.
"System, how many Survival Points would it cost to restore the side windows and windshield?"
Su Nian felt insecure sleeping like this, as though his belly button weren't covered. Something just felt off.
There was no privacy.
"Ding. Repairing the side windows and windshield requires 150 Survival Points. Proceed with repairs?"
"Repair them!"
[Survival Points: 1,690]
"Shengge, how did it go?" Jiang Ying asked.
"Pretty well." Xiao Shengge smiled.
The bodyguards she had hired earlier instinctively moved closer to Xiao Shengge.
Before, Xiao Shengge had nothing to offer them. Even her supplies were limited; once those ran out, they would part ways. Now things were different. She had made a connection with the convoy's captain.
If she prospered later, they could benefit too.
"Xiao Shengge, what did you talk about?" a young woman asked coldly.
"Get some rest! We still have to travel tonight." Xiao Shengge smiled and casually lay down on the ground, using her bag as a pillow and pulling her hat brim down to block the light.
For now, everything was under control. That gold bar had been well spent.
"You!" The young woman gritted her teeth... The four bodyguards fixed her with sharp stares.
She immediately lost the nerve to say anything else.
A blood moon hung high in the sky, and white mist shrouded both sides of the road.
"There's a convoy ahead. Stay alert. Anyone sleeping, wake up," Hao Ren's voice sounded from the Morning Glory.
"Pull up alongside them! What's there to be scared of?" Wen Kele's cocky voice came through the Morning Glory, accompanied by the sounds of The King of Fighters.
"Aw, I died again! It's all your fault! I almost cleared the whole thing."
"Let's see what's going on. They might be people we know," Gong Qing said.
The rumble of engines drew closer. The other convoy's lead vehicle was a blue refrigerated truck, with warm light spilling through several windows cut into its cargo compartment.
Su Nian rubbed his chin. They must have converted the cargo compartment into a room.
Suddenly, the Raptor didn't seem so appealing anymore. He should have gotten an RV and gone all out on comfort.
A voice came from the loudspeaker mounted atop the refrigerated truck.
"Friends up ahead, we'd like to trade Curios for some supplies. Would that be all right?"
"We've used up quite a few of our Curios, and we still have plenty of supplies. We could discuss it... Su Nian, what do you think?" Hao Ren had momentarily forgotten that Su Nian was the captain.
It was genuinely hard to remember with a hands-off leader like him. Hao Ren had stepped down, but it felt no different from before.
"Hey... why are you asking him? I'm the captain," Wen Kele's disgruntled voice came through the Morning Glory.
"Then, Captain Wen, what do you think?" Hao Ren asked helplessly.
"You're absolutely right. Let's do that." Wen Kele's voice came through the Morning Glory with feigned authority.
"Settled, then. Let's get out and have a look," Su Nian said.
When the convoy encountered other survivor groups at night, they would usually risk stopping briefly while maintaining their traveling formation.
Their convoy stopped to rest during the day, so encounters were rare then. They generally only met other groups when everyone was traveling at night, at which point they would usually choose to trade supplies and information.
The Guard Team stood ready.
"We won't end up fighting this time, will we?" Su Zhou gripped an axe nervously.
"Hard to say." Su Chen held a machete, expression calm. "If a fight breaks out, stay close to me and protect yourself."
When convoys met, the odds of a fight breaking out were over fifty percent. Everyone coveted what others had.
Why scavenge when stealing was so much better?
Wen Kele stood at the very front with both hands in her pockets, a lollipop bulging out one cheek. Her twin ponytails hung straight down alongside her arms.
Gong Qing, Hao Ren, and Su Yue stood behind her, while Su Nian stood alone farther back.
"This doesn't seem appropriate," Hao Ren said with a very strained smile.
"It's perfectly appropriate. We'll use this formation from now on. Stop talking; you're distracting me." Su Nian punched Hao Ren in the small of his back.
This was his first time seeing another convoy.
The light of Blood Eye looked even more sinister in the darkness.
Su Yue stood with her swollen belly jutting out, clutching a knife, her face full of tension.
"They have five Awakened! If we hadn't gained two more people, I'd say there was a good chance they'd devour us tonight," Gong Qing said gravely.
"Cola, be careful. Don't get too close," Gong Qing warned her.
"Me, back down from them? What a joke." Wen Kele bared her teeth, then angrily raised a hand and pointed at them in exasperation.
"Look at you men, hiding behind a girl! Do you have any idea how much I have to worry about? I tell you to step forward, and you won't! How am I supposed to be careful?"
Gong Qing: "..."
Hao Ren: "..."
As for Su Nian, embarrassment? It couldn't touch him. He was all about tactics.
It wasn't that he was afraid to stand at the front.
A black bull jumped down from the rear of the refrigerated truck. A long-haired young man sat on its back, wearing a faint smile.
"Six Awakened!" Hao Ren and Gong Qing exchanged glances, inwardly startled.
Had this been a week ago, they would have immediately turned around and fled.
With twice as many Awakened, why would the other side bother trading with them? The apocalypse wasn't just full of eerie horrors; people's hearts were terrifying too.
Hao Ren took out a cigar and drew the "gun" tucked at his waist. With a click, the cigar was lit.
Hao Ren twisted his mouth into a vicious grimace, as though his face were twitching. Puffing smoke, he reached up and rubbed the blood-red copper coin hanging around his neck.
"Well? How's my vibe?"
"Pretty good. You're getting there." Wen Kele rubbed her chin.
Anyone who wasn't evil had no place on her team. She turned her gaze toward Su Yue.
"Twist your mouth and scrape your belly with the back of your knife. Got it?"
"Got it!" Mortified, Su Yue twisted her mouth, then awkwardly scraped her belly with the back of her knife.
Being Awakened was so hard!
Before you continue