Emergency Rations

"Hey!"

Su Wu's shout stopped the girl as she walked toward the other side of the street with her head down.

Half startled and half nervous, the girl turned to look, only to see a dark figure dart out from beside a sedan and lunge at her.

The neon lights had gone out, leaving everything pitch-black.

She could only make out that the figure was fairly tall and well proportioned. She could not see his expression at all.

The girl froze.

In that brief moment, Su Wu rushed up to her and reached out to grab her!

"I'll take that!"

Hearing the barely contained tension and excitement in Su Wu's voice, the girl almost thought she could see a brazen, lecherous grin on the man's face through the darkness.

Her heart sank. She screamed and stumbled backward. "What are you doing?!"

The hand reaching toward her chest did not stop. It shot forward and seized her-the brightly feathered rooster in her arms!

Gripping its neck, he yanked the seven- or eight-pound rooster out of her arms!

The rooster flapped frantically and kicked its powerful legs, scattering feathers all over the ground!

"Finally got you!"

Su Wu let out a long breath.

He had a vague suspicion that the reason the Lantern Fiend did not kill the girl was very likely the rooster she carried in her arms.

But even with that suspicion, testing it was difficult.

He had tried several more times before this. Either his overly forceful words put the girl on guard, making her keep backing away until he could not reach her before the red lanterns rose,

or he spent too much time talking to her, and the red lanterns rose anyway, taking Su Wu's life just the same.

To encounter this girl, he had to be at this intersection at around 10:55 p.m.

And during that window, the Lantern Fiend would inevitably rise once!

If he missed his chance, all his efforts would come to nothing!

Fortunately, Su Wu had seized his chance this time.

Holding the rooster by the neck felt like holding the steering wheel of his own fate!

"Cock-a-doodle-!"

The rooster's crow came in breathless gasps.

Holding it up, Su Wu looked at the girl opposite him.

In the darkness, tears covered the girl's pretty face. She stood trembling seven or eight paces away from Su Wu, afraid to approach yet unwilling to retreat.

She softly called the rooster's name. "Emergency Can, Emergency Can..."

She did not dare fight him for it, but she did not want to give up, either.

It was clear that she genuinely cared for this rooster as a pet.

But if she cared for it so much, why had she named it Emergency Can?

Su Wu opened his mouth and said, "I'm not trying to steal your chicken. It's just that this chicken might be really useful in a moment. Come over here first. I'll give it back in a bit."

Everything about this man felt wrong. There was no way the girl would go near him.

Instead, she backed away another two steps.

Just then, the red lanterns rose.

Crimson light dispelled the darkness in the street, revealing the helpless expression on Su Wu's face. He still held a rooster in his left hand.

The chicken flapped its wings again and again.

Long hair concealed the girl's face.

Their shadows crossed to form an X.

The next instant, the girl's shadow suddenly split in two. The shadow from her neck down stood motionless where it was, while the shadow cast by her head drifted gently about.

The girl's head floated through the sky.

It approached Su Wu, looking at him pleadingly.

She was dead.

Su Wu had snatched away the pet that could protect her life, ultimately causing her death.

In many of his previous simulations, Su Wu had seen people die before his eyes, but none had shaken him as deeply as this.

This time, his mistake had caused someone else's death!

"Next time. I'll do better next time!"

Su Wu made that promise to the beautiful head in the sky, filled with guilt.

He cradled the dying rooster and hurried toward the end of the street under the beautiful head's gaze.

If Su Wu did not want the scenes in the game to become reality, he could only suppress his emotions for now and make the fullest possible use of every simulation!

"Cluck, cluck!"

The rooster in his arms cried shrilly.

It did not struggle. After just a few cries, its head tilted to one side, and its neck drooped limply.

Dead?

Su Wu, who had reached the end of the street and turned right, was stunned by the sight.

Although he had held the chicken by its neck for a while and left it unable to breathe, it had recovered afterward. How had it died just like that?

Was it that fragile?

Su Wu turned to look behind him. He could no longer see the girl's head suspended in midair, and the red lanterns filling the sky had vanished as well.

The street had returned to its neon-lit appearance of "prosperity."

Or had it died of grief because its owner was dead?

Anyone who had raised poultry or birds would know that these animals often died without warning or any apparent cause.

They might be lively and energetic one day, only for their owner to wake up the next morning and find their bodies already stiff.

Su Wu still remembered an elderly neighbor from his childhood in the countryside who liked raising quail and pitting them against one another.

He had even given Su Wu a quail.

That old man had once said that many birds had fierce tempers and could easily drop dead when they became angry.

Was this rooster a similar case, then?

It couldn't be separated from its owner.

Once they were separated, there was a good chance it would get so upset that it died?!

Holding Emergency Can, Su Wu felt utterly deflated.

He shook his head, dropped the dead rooster as its body gradually grew cold, and hurried some distance down the road before finding another car.

Its owner lay face down in front of it, keys in hand and head missing from his neck.

Su Wu took the keys, started the car, and continued driving.

The farther he traveled now, the higher his final score would be, and the more Origin Jade he would receive as a reward.

Of course, Su Wu was not driving aimlessly.

With the navigation on, he kept heading toward the outskirts of the city.

All of Mingzhou might be under the red lanterns' reach. The only way to escape alive was to leave the city!

This time, Su Wu drove for a full twenty minutes before the red lanterns rose into the sky again.

Although the Lantern Fiend killed at random, Su Wu could not see a single person anywhere around him.

With him the only one still alive, he was certain to be killed.

His head floated aimlessly inside the car. The moving vehicle veered out of control and crashed into a roadside planting strip, sending up billowing smoke.

"You died."

"This simulation has ended."

"Rating: C, middle tier.

Remarks: Treasure each step of your journey.

Rewards: Base reward for a middle-tier C rating: 30 Origin Jade;

Safe house discovered: +10 Origin Jade;

Successfully evaded pursuit by the 'Eye Fiend' once: +30 Origin Jade.

Wallet balance: 746 + 70 = 816 Origin Jade."

Su Wu had already run several simulations and accumulated 746 Origin Jade. With the earnings from this simulation, he quickly passed the eight-hundred mark.

He planned to run a simulation of the Gang Cave owner's past life once his wallet balance exceeded one thousand Origin Jade.