Luo Fan silently pulled his arm free and looked at Rose with a hint of coldness in his eyes. "If you simply wanted to follow us, you could stay behind our bus like the survivors on foot. But you insist on riding with us. What exactly are you after?"
Luo Fan's words brought Niu Dagang to his senses as well.
That was true. If she really only wanted safety, wouldn't following their bus like the survivors on foot do just as well? She even had a van.
Yet she insisted on boarding their bus and coming with them. There really was something off about that.
Niu Dagang, who had been about to put in a few words on her behalf, fell silent too.
"You're truly hard-hearted, Luo~"
Looking at Luo Fan's cold expression, Rose shook her head helplessly and said, "All right, I'll be honest. I didn't come into Jiangxin Town to gather supplies. I came to hunt for treasure."
Treasure hunting? Hearing Rose's words, Luo Fan felt a slight stir and thought of her Money Rat.
Her Money Rat only went where there was treasure.
"What kind of treasure?" Luo Fan asked.
"I don't know exactly what it is either, but my Little Gold is reacting very strongly. It should be something valuable." Rose took out the Money Rat hidden beneath her cloak.
Sure enough, the Money Rat seemed extremely excited.
"What do you think?" Seeing the Money Rat's reaction, Luo Fan more or less believed Rose and turned to Zhao Chunfeng and the others.
"Decide for yourselves. I can't help with any of this, so even if there's treasure, I won't take a share," Zhao Chunfeng said with a wave of his hand.
"Then, Brother Zhao, could you use Divination to see what the reading says about going treasure hunting?" Luo Fan asked.
"Well, I can try..."
At Luo Fan's words, Zhao Chunfeng nodded, then took out three coins. He cupped them in his hands, shook them a few times, and tossed them onto the floor of the bus.
To Luo Fan and the others, they were merely three coins.
But Zhao Chunfeng could interpret a great deal of information from their positions and which sides faced up.
"What does it say, Brother Zhao?" Luo Fan asked.
"Judging by the reading, there's a little good fortune amid the danger. If I want to interpret more information, I'll need at least an hour or two to work through it carefully," Zhao Chunfeng answered after studying it closely.
Indeed, every Divination reading took time to interpret. The longer he spent, the more detailed the interpretation became.
That was why Zhao Chunfeng had spent so much time interpreting readings to choose the convoy's route and determine how long they should stop to gather supplies.
With this impromptu reading, he could only glean a few surface details.
"We only have an hour to gather supplies in town. There's no time to interpret the reading. Besides, it'll be dark in two hours," Luo Fan said, shaking his head.
So, were they going treasure hunting or not? Everyone looked at Luo Fan, waiting for his answer.
Without anyone realizing it, Luo Fan had gained considerable say within this small group of Sequence Users.
After all, of the four Sequence Users, An Xiaoran went without saying, while Niu Dagang was a rather simple-minded brute. Only Luo Fan and Zhao Chunfeng had much of a head for things.
And Zhao Chunfeng wouldn't be joining them in town to hunt for treasure, so if they actually took action, Luo Fan would clearly be in command.
"Stay on the bus with us. As for whether we'll go, we'll see how things look when the time comes."
There was valuable treasure, but there was danger too. Unable to make up his mind right away, Luo Fan could only settle on this and take things one step at a time.
"Right. Our main goal is to collect gasoline. As for anything else, we'll talk about it when the time comes." Niu Dagang nodded in agreement with Luo Fan.
Although Luo Fan hadn't agreed outright, Rose felt she could accept having at least a little hope, so she said nothing more.
There was no time to waste. Once they had cleared up everything that needed discussing, Xiao Wang started the bus and drove straight into Jiangxin Town.
Seeing the bus set off, the survivors who had decided to enter followed as well.
Judging by the map, Jiangxin Town was quite large.
In fact, there was a gas station beside the road on the outskirts of town.
But several months had passed since the apocalypse began. Most roadside gas stations like that had been emptied by people fleeing, so if they wanted gasoline, they could only risk venturing deeper into town to find some.
After sticking the map onto the bus's dashboard, Xiao Wang memorized the marked location and route, then drove straight toward the spot Zhao Chunfeng had found through Divination.
Of the survivors following the bus, only a tiny minority went off to search for supplies themselves after entering Jiangxin Town. Most carried their own containers, or simply picked up suitable ones they spotted along the road, and followed the bus to help collect gasoline.
It really was as dangerous as Zhao Chunfeng had said. They had barely entered Jiangxin Town before Fierce Beasts attacked.
Niu Dagang got straight off the bus, fire axe in hand, and cut them down with practically one swing apiece.
For a Lv9 Melee Sequence user, almost no Fierce Beast that hadn't advanced to a tier could withstand a single swing of his axe. If one could, a second swing would do.
The farther they went, the more Fierce Beasts appeared. Fortunately, this was only a town. Even though Xiao Wang drove the bus at only around twenty kilometers per hour, they reached their destination in just a few minutes.
"This doesn't look like a gas station."
After the bus stopped, Luo Fan flicked the Beast-Fang Short Blade in his hand and looked at the run-down factory building before them, its large iron gates shut, as he spoke in puzzlement.
He looked around the factory as well. There wasn't a gas station anywhere within at least a hundred meters.
"Never mind. Let's go in and take a look. Since Old Zhao gave us the map, it shouldn't be wrong," Niu Dagang said.
Luo Fan nodded at that. He had quite a bit of faith in Zhao Chunfeng's Divination abilities.
Besides, they were already here.
"Ah!"
Just then, however, a startled cry suddenly rang out behind them.
"What are you shouting for?" Luo Fan frowned and snapped at the person who had cried out.
"Just now... I just saw a woman's face..." the man said in terror, pointing at a second-floor window of the factory.
"That can't be right. You must have been seeing things. Could there really be other survivors still living in this town?"
Seeing that the factory's iron gates were locked, another survivor beside him questioned his claim.
"Well..." The objection made sense, and the man who had cried out didn't know how to answer.
"A-actually, I saw it too. Half a woman's face at the window. She peeked at us from behind it, then pulled back."
A short man among the group of survivors spoke up as well.
One person might have been seeing things, but surely not two? After all, the second-floor window was only about twenty meters away in a straight line.
But there couldn't possibly be anyone still alive inside this dilapidated factory, with its large iron gates locked from the outside.
For a moment, everyone felt a little creeped out.
"Brother Niu, break the lock. We've come all this way. We can't just turn back." After a moment of silence, Luo Fan spoke to Niu Dagang.
Niu Dagang acted promptly. With a bang, his fire axe smashed the lock open.
Then he slowly pushed open the factory's rust-covered iron gates...
Before you continue