Lin Qi strode to the entrance of the tobacco and liquor shop.
A little sunlight spilled through the doorway. His gaze swept past the collapsed shelves before settling on the shadows inside the shop.
There, an old woman lay crouched over a survivor pinned beneath her, chewing on them bite by bite.
The survivor's chest and abdomen had been ripped open. The old woman's rough hands were exceptionally sharp, tearing away great chunks of flesh with every movement and stuffing them into her mouth whole.
This was not the first time Lin Qi had seen such a scene, yet he still could not suppress his body's instinctive nausea.
She seemed to sense Lin Qi's arrival.
The old woman slowly raised her blood-smeared mouth and head. After just one glance at Lin Qi standing in the sunlight, she lowered her head again and continued gnawing on her spoils.
Clearly, the corpse in her hands held more appeal for her.
Lin Qi scanned the tobacco and liquor shop.
Aside from the cigarettes scattered across the floor beside the dead survivor, there were practically no supplies anywhere else.
"A sting operation?"
Lin Qi immediately understood.
Anomalies came in all shapes and forms. Some had no intelligence, but others possessed intelligence on par with humans.
The cigarettes scattered beside the old woman anomaly said it all.
This thing was running a sting operation.
And the unlucky survivor had clearly let greed go to their head.
Cigarettes were hard currency, even in the apocalypse.
"Crunch, crunch."
The grating sound of chewing echoed through the small shop.
Yet Lin Qi seemed not to notice and simply stepped inside.
The old woman paused mid-meal. She slowly raised her cloudy eyes, which were actually filled with humanlike bewilderment.
It seemed she had not expected Lin Qi to dare step into her territory.
The old woman did not get up. She merely stared fixedly at Lin Qi as he entered the shop, wanting to see just what he intended to do.
Wearing what he considered a friendly smile, Lin Qi stood at the very edge of the shop's sunlit area. Their eyes met, and his lips spread into a grin. "Bro, Give Me Some Face?"
His ability activated!
Regardless of gender, the old woman briefly froze, waiting for Lin Qi's payoff.
Unfortunately...
Lin Qi had no intention of giving this old woman a single cent.
While she was frozen, he crouched down as fast as he could and pulled five cartons of soft-pack Chunghwa from the cigarettes scattered across the floor.
At the same time, since he had not given her any Ghost Cash, the freezing effect wore off. As she watched Lin Qi retreat into the sunlight with five cartons of cigarettes, fury began to churn in her eyes.
"Roar!"
Unable to speak, she could only express her fury with a roar!
Clearly, the old woman was definitely more intelligent than the chef anomaly!
"What are you yelling for!"
Lin Qi glared viciously at the old woman. "I Fine You 800 Yuan!"
"Aah!!!"
As the old woman felt her Ghost Cash disappear, her boundless fury was stoked further.
She had still been lying on the floor, but the instant her Ghost Cash vanished, she sprang up like a rabbit and lunged to kill Lin Qi.
Yet when she looked up, Lin Qi had already darted out of the shop with his five cartons of cigarettes and was waving at her from the street!
From beginning to end, he had kept a friendly smile on his face.
"Die!!! Die!!!!"
The old woman screamed that single syllable almost as though tearing her heart and lungs apart.
A flicker of surprise crossed Lin Qi's eyes as he heard that hate-filled cry. "Did I push her so far she forced herself to speak?"
He ignored the old woman's flustered, impotent rage.
After all, the convoy generally stayed at each supply stop for only half a day, so he felt not the slightest guilt about robbing the anomalies there of their Ghost Cash.
Anomalies at supply stops generally had their own territories and rarely left them.
This encounter might well be their last.
So he had nothing to fear!
After harvesting the old woman's Ghost Cash and subtracting the two hundred Ghost Cash spent activating his abilities, he now had a full fourteen hundred!
"Li Xing, oh, Li Xing. You didn't see this coming, did you? Not only am I alive, I'm doing better than ever..." Lin Qi continued down the street. His words were flippant, but killing intent churned in his eyes.
Along the way, he picked up a hiking backpack from one of the shops to hold the cigarettes.
Lin Qi kept going. The surrounding shops, already cleared out by survivors, held nothing worth scavenging, and no anomalies appeared.
A large proportion of anomalies would not appear outright.
Only when you stepped into the darkness would they emerge from it and turn you into ingredients.
Even with two abilities, Lin Qi would never use his own life as bait.
After all, his supernatural abilities had absolutely no offensive power...
Speaking of supernatural abilities, something else occurred to him. "System, play me another ad!"
Lin Qi now had over a thousand in Ghost Cash, more than enough to buy another supernatural ability.
The system soon responded.
A virtual screen appeared, and a line of blood-red text quickly emerged on it.
[Ads refresh daily at midnight.] [Stay tuned...]
Lin Qi: ...
Even the ads had limits?
Whatever. He needed to hurry and save up some Ghost Cash before the ads refreshed.
When Lin Qi reached the entrance of the large supermarket, quite a few survivors' vehicles were already parked haphazardly outside.
Almost every vehicle had a survivor keeping watch in the driver's seat. They did not communicate with one another; each warily scrutinized every survivor who appeared.
A week into the apocalypse, many survivors had formed small teams. In a convoy of over a hundred people, there were at least twenty little groups...
Lin Qi had no intention of approaching those vehicles either.
With the apocalypse as it was, everyone's nerves were stretched taut. The slightest disturbance could cause unnecessary trouble.
Lin Qi quickly scanned the vehicles, his gaze soon settling on a black SUV.
That SUV was the vehicle he and Li Xing used.
When scavenging for supplies, Li Xing generally kept watch while he did the searching.
As for his dear girlfriend, she did not participate in scavenging.
To look after the elderly and weak, the convoy leader assigned them work within the convoy.
For that very reason, almost everyone who went out scavenging was young and able-bodied.
Since Li Xing had turned on him, there was now no one guarding the vehicle. From time to time, survivors would even approach the SUV, peer around inside, and finally leave disappointed.
Li Xing apparently had some brains after all. He had left the SUV's trunk wide open, and the sight of its completely empty interior was enough to quash many people's greed.
As for stealing the SUV...
Without the keys, they would be better off finding some random vehicle by the roadside and saving themselves another enemy.
None of those who came out to scavenge were fools. They would not make enemies for no reason. Every survivor had just one goal-to live longer.
Lin Qi drew his gaze away from the SUV and turned it toward the sprawling supermarket before him. "Looks like you do have some brains..."
Before you continue