A Step Too Late?

Half asleep, Lin Hao felt a tickle on the tip of his nose and slowly opened his eyes. Zhao Xiaowen's pretty face came into view, a few strands of her slightly tousled hair draped across his face.

Her steady breaths fell rhythmically against Lin Hao's chest, bringing a gentle warmth.

Zhao Xiaowen had given him a stress-relieving massage last night, and Lin Hao had drifted off during it. They had slept together without doing anything else. Huddling together for warmth in this apocalypse really did give him a sense of security, easing his exhaustion.

But now that he had woken up, refreshed after a night's rest, the sight before him began to stir a heat inside him.

Looking at her slightly parted red lips, her even breathing, and the beautiful collarbones and deep cleavage farther down, Lin Hao felt an urge to lower his head and press his lips against her.

The pressure of the apocalypse left him wanting to let it all out, too.

But just as he shifted his head, he felt a numbness in his calf.

He turned to look and saw several tufts of white hair.

At some point, Nie Yi had wrapped herself around his calf and fallen sound asleep. Drool had run onto his foot, and she wore a silly smile, smacking her lips as though she were dreaming of eating something.

"I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have taken her in..."

"Hmm?"

Lin Hao's movements woke Zhao Xiaowen as well. She rubbed her eyes, and her open tracksuit slipped off her rounded shoulder, revealing another snug Yoga Outfit underneath.

"You're awake. I'll go get you something to eat."

Zhao Xiaowen gave him a radiant smile and leaned in to kiss his cheek. The warm touch made Lin Hao blink.

What's going on? Did she just cop a feel? Being a woman means she can do that? Isn't that illegal?

Then Zhao Xiaowen noticed Nie Yi at the foot of the bed. After a brief pause of surprise, she fell silent for a moment and sighed.

"She probably feels unsafe and can't sleep, just like me."

"I know. It's not like I'm blaming her."

Lin Hao nudged Nie Yi's cheek with his other foot, squashing her baby-fat cheeks inward.

"Get up. Come on, get up."

"Huh? Is food ready...?"

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, Nie Yi sat up in a daze, drool still clinging to the corner of her mouth.

But she soon realized what had happened and hurriedly jumped off the bed, apologizing over and over.

"Sorry! Sorry! I'll go cook right now."

"Oh, give it a rest."

Lin Hao rubbed his numb calf helplessly, then got out of bed.

They had no open flame available. They could burn the wood from the furniture, but that would be too much trouble for now. They simply lacked the means.

"Listen to the radio first. See if there's any news."

Lin Hao ate a few biscuits and drank a carton of milk.

"I can come help carry things. I can keep watch, too."

Nie Yi puffed out her chest and mustered the courage to speak.

"I'll scout it out first, then come back. Wouldn't want you getting eaten and wasting my food."

Lin Hao gave her a peeved glance as she tried to put on a brave face.

He had no intention of feeding her for nothing, but he had never planned to send anyone out as cannon fodder either. Everyone just needed to do their part.

He could move quietly, while she might not be practiced enough and could attract the Madmen's attention. Better to clear the dangers himself first and let her safely serve as his porter.

She was tiny, but she was quite strong...

Previously, he had room cards for the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth floors, so he had needed to search room by room while staying on guard against Madmen. That had taken extra time.

Heading down to the seventeenth floor was much simpler. He opened the fire door on each floor along the way and took a look. If there were Madmen, he killed them. If there weren't, he knocked on doors as he went, killed any Madmen that came out of the rooms, then did a quick sweep for supplies.

After acquiring the [Ghostfire Helmet (white)] and [Mink Coat (white)], Lin Hao discovered that their greatest help wasn't their defensive strength!

So far, he hadn't put their protection to the test at all. Their greatest benefit was psychological-the confidence that he could clear everything without a scratch!

"It's like an ordinary adult man versus a medium-sized dog. Only thinking about getting through without a scratch makes you timid, but with bite-proof gloves, you usually won't get bitten in the first place. Just like a safety rope when crossing a cliffside walkway..."

After smashing another Madman to death, Lin Hao pulled a silver bracelet off the corpse and stuffed it into the backpack behind him.

The silver bracelet had no attributes. It was as ordinary as an item could be, with no wish power bestowed upon it.

A silver pendant he had found earlier had been a little trinket worth twenty wish power, but this bracelet was completely blank...

Lin Hao shook his head, but collected it anyway.

That was mainly because of the earlier radio announcement. Although most silver on Earth had no wish power attributes, it could circulate as currency in Great Qi in World 1, and was more readily accepted than gold. Meanwhile, most silver pieces and ingots in the Great Qi World were green items worth around a hundred wish power per tael.

He could save gold to exchange for wish power. That made using silver collected from residential areas as his starting funds the most economical option.

"Money can sway even the gods. If I use silver properly, I can get an identity, food, resources, and martial arts. Can't do without it."

By the time Lin Hao reached the seventeenth-floor Fire Escape, his backpack was already stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends.

The most valuable was a blue 4090 graphics card, worth over two thousand wish power, though it was rather bulky. The i7 CPU from the same computer was worth only five hundred, but took up far less space. The green solid-state drive and memory were also worth over a hundred.

Still, carrying those electronic components on his back, Lin Hao couldn't help feeling a little wistful.

Who knew how many years would pass before these things could be manufactured again? Perhaps these were already their swan song...

Creak~

Lin Hao pushed open the fire door.

Unlike the easy going on the previous floors, however, the moment he opened the seventeenth-floor door, he saw four or five men smoking in the corridor.

Each held a weapon-either a steel pipe or a Fire Axe, with a few machetes they had gotten from who knew where.

The opening door immediately drew their attention. Their lazy postures turned alert, and one of them stubbed out his cigarette.

But when they saw Lin Hao with a white aluminum-sheet shield in his left hand, a ruler in his right, and a backpack on his back, the smokers visibly relaxed.

"Doesn't look like a Madman."

"Hey, you haven't gone mad, have you?"

"Haha, who asks someone like that?"

They all seemed relaxed, chatting and laughing.

Even though they saw the loaded backpack on Lin Hao's back, they showed none of the intent to rob him that the earlier three had. All they displayed was absolute confidence that they controlled the situation!

One of the men wore a workout tank top, with bulging muscles and tattoos on his arms. A cigarette hung from his lips as he looked Lin Hao up and down, lingering on his handsome face before nodding.

"Not bad, kid. You look quiet and mild-mannered, but you've got the guts to come outside. Pretty brave."

Once he spoke, the others beside him chimed in.

"Brother Ji's right. If you made me walk through these stairs alone, even I'd get the creeps. Those things are completely deranged. They fight without caring whether they live or die. Two of them would put me on my knees."

Looking at the logo on Brother Ji's tank top, Lin Hao raised an eyebrow.

"You're from the Night Jasmine Fitness Center downstairs? What brings you up here?"

The fitness center on the second floor had made its presence quite strongly felt over the past few days. Its people had monopolized the Teleportation Point and had compound bows. Anyone coming from the mall or the residential complex had to hand over food or gold before being allowed through.

Presumably, people from the apartment building received the same treatment.

He hadn't expected them to have already extended their tentacles from the second floor all the way to the seventeenth!

But thinking it over, it made sense. The fitness center already had a group of strong, fit personal trainers, plenty of men who regularly went there to pump iron, and some thugs who often hung around pool halls.

They had also publicly announced over a loudspeaker that they were recruiting healthy adult men and had food.

By now, they might well have gathered a sizable force.

Compound bows alone probably weren't enough to make both the residential complex and the mall obediently pay their tolls.

These men made that clear. They were all armed and physically strong. With five of them moving together, they could handle any Madmen they encountered on the way up.

After all, the stairwell entrance was only so wide. There were enough of them to cover every direction at once.

He just hadn't expected them to have worked their way this high already.

Then a thought stirred in Lin Hao's mind.

He had come here for the locksmith. Could they have headed straight here for the same reason?

Security doors were genuinely difficult to break down by force, after all. They were probably eyeing the supplies inside the apartment building's hundreds of units, too!

Even if those from the gym who had gone to the Teleportation Point hadn't necessarily returned yet, the others would surely be happy to collect gold, equipment, food, and supplies.

At a time like this, a locksmith would be an enormous help.

If he could find out that the man lived here, others certainly could as well. Running into them here probably wasn't a coincidence!

"Am I a step too late...?"

Lin Hao studied where the men stood, thinking to himself. He had no idea what state the locksmith was in now...