Su Cheng nodded. "You don't look so good. Still haven't recovered from that last special instance?"
Yan Yu sighed deeply. "Yeah, it scared me so badly I've had nightmares three nights in a row. Even medication doesn't help..."
"Speaking of which, you're seriously brave, choosing a special instance for only your third run..."
Su Cheng smiled. "The apartment drove me to it."
"Sigh... that's true enough."
They chatted on and off, finally reaching their destination about thirty minutes later.
Birch trees no longer surrounded them. A scattering of buildings of varying heights appeared along the road, and the tallest caught Su Cheng's eye immediately.
The building had a pointed triangular roof, with a round clock showing ten o'clock mounted near the top of its facade. Its glass face reflected a faint, cold gleam.
Compared with the other, shorter buildings, this one was more than two or three times as luxurious.
"Do you know what that building is for?"
Without Su Cheng needing to describe it in detail, Yan Yu knew which one she meant. "Oh, that's the auction building. It only opens after ten on Saturdays and Sundays."
"And only members can participate in the auctions. To become a member, you have to sell the auction house an item they approve of."
Why does everything require a membership...?
Su Cheng could barely muster a complaint. "Have you been?"
"No. I don't have anything they'd approve of yet. Besides, Xu Shaowei said only two kinds of people dare attend the auctions: powerful individuals, or people in teams."
Su Cheng paused. "Because they're afraid of getting robbed after leaving the auction?"
Yan Yu snapped her fingers. "Smart."
There weren't many vehicles on the road, and Yan Yu casually parked in an empty spot.
Su Cheng glanced at the unremarkable little tavern. "An Tavern" was scrawled casually in marker on its wooden sign.
"We're here. Let's go."
Yan Yu pushed open the door, setting the wind chimes hanging from it jingling crisply.
The tavern had a retro decor. A black record turned slowly on a record player, playing elegant classical music...
The tavern had two floors, with booth seating in the main room downstairs and private rooms upstairs.
Aside from two people in a corner, there were no other customers in the main room.
The tavern's owner was a slightly plump woman with wavy red hair and a black mole below the corner of her mouth. She was shaking a cocktail shaker and smiled when she spotted Yan Yu. "Shaowei's waiting for you in 201."
"Okay."
It seemed Yan Yu and Xu Shaowei were regulars here.
The owner's gaze landed on Su Cheng, and she raised her eyebrows slightly. "Oh, a new face."
Su Cheng smiled. "Hello."
The owner blinked her foxlike eyes. "Hello, nice to meet you. You're welcome to come by often~"
Yan Yu led Su Cheng upstairs into private room 201, where a young woman was already waiting.
She wore a teal qipao, her hair pinned up with a jade hairpin, and toyed with a folding fan.
Her outfit caught the eye.
It wasn't that it was particularly beautiful. Rather, in a world filled with death and danger, most people prioritized practical clothing... qipaos were truly rare.
Unlike Su Cheng's mild surprise, Yan Yu was clearly used to it. "This is Xu Shaowei, and this is Su Cheng."
"Hello."
"Hi there."
Su Cheng and Xu Shaowei spoke at the same time. They exchanged a look and both smiled.
The three sat around on the sofas. Yan Yu picked up the juice on the table. "You've both unlocked your Gene Locks, so this is a good chance to compare notes. I'll listen."
Author's note:
None
Chapter 28
Xu Shaowei glanced at Su Cheng in surprise. "You've unlocked Gene Stage One too? My ability greatly enhances my perception."
Since Xu Shaowei had been sincere enough to share her information first, Su Cheng didn't hide hers either. "My skill lets me heal my wounds."
Xu Shaowei nodded. Both their skills had their own uses. She continued, "What were the circumstances when you triggered your Gene Lock? Were you near death too?"
Yan Yu also looked at Su Cheng. As the only person present without a Gene Lock, she was very interested in the question.
"Yes. Later, I asked the apartment's doctor..."
Su Cheng simply repeated what Lin Deng had told her.
After listening, Yan Yu slumped back on the sofa, looking rather helpless. "So it's a matter of chance..."
Since it was a matter of chance, she couldn't casually put herself in danger to take that risk.
"Don't worry. It'll happen sooner or later."
Xu Shaowei patted Yan Yu reassuringly, then added Su Cheng as a friend on vx.
Xu Shaowei lived in Zone C. As it happened, all three of them lived in different zones.
After spending this time with her, Su Cheng felt that although Xu Shaowei looked classically elegant, she was actually very straightforward.
Yan Yu was also outgoing. There was some truth to birds of a feather flocking together.
Yan Yu finished her juice. "Su Cheng hasn't been to the Central Circle before. We can all have a look around together..."
Xu Shaowei nodded and handed Su Cheng a glass of juice from the table. "Between you and me, all the cocktails the owner here makes taste awful. Only this juice is decent..."
Su Cheng couldn't help laughing as she took it. She had a sip. It tasted very fresh, not sour at all, and just sweet enough.
After leaving the tavern, Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu took Su Cheng out onto the street.
There weren't many shops lining the street, and foot traffic was moderate.
Yan Yu said, "There's a gym here... but not many people use it. Everyone gets enough life-or-death exercise in the instances..."
Xu Shaowei said, "There's a milk tea shop here. I'm craving pearl milk tea. Do you two want a cup too...?"
"Oh, there are restaurants over there too, both Chinese and Western. We can have a meal there later."
Yan Yu added, "There's also a warehouse over there. People often trade supplies there... but it's hard to get an equal exchange..."
Su Cheng interrupted their back-and-forth. "Wait, what currency do you use for trading?"
They probably don't accept cash here.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Points are the common currency. Just like the supermarket, these shops scan your apartment wristband."
Su Cheng glanced at her black wristband. "You really do need points for everything, everywhere..."
Each holding a cup of pearl milk tea, the three walked along, sharing their experiences in the instances.
Xu Shaowei had been through the most instances: five normal ones and one special one.
Yan Yu had been through three normal ones and one special one.
Su Cheng had the fewest, with only three instances in total: two normal and one special.
After learning about Su Cheng's instance experience, Xu Shaowei looked just as astonished as Yan Yu had and gave her a thumbs-up. "Newbies these days have some serious guts!"
Then she changed tack. "But it's good to experience supernatural stuff early. I'm really scared of ghosts and things like that, so I kept putting it off. After going once, I felt I'd rather do several more normal instances..."
"Never mind nearly dying in there. After I came back, all I saw when I closed my eyes were horrifying scenes... the torment practically left me a nervous wreck."
The way Xu Shaowei poured out her complaints clashed with her qipao, but it felt particularly genuine and easily brought her closer to others.
Yan Yu and Su Cheng nodded repeatedly in agreement. Fear of Chinese-style supernatural horrors was etched into the genes of Blue Star's people.
Su Cheng asked, "You both got competition tickets, right?"
Both nodded.
Xu Shaowei knew something about the tickets. "You get a street-level competition ticket the first time you complete a special instance."
She continued, "Last week, I was given the choice of whether to compete, but I hadn't unlocked my Gene Lock yet, so I didn't go."
"Besides street-level competitions, there are district-level ones too."
Su Cheng nodded, then suddenly noticed three or four men and women dragging a teenage boy into an alley...
Yan Yu followed Su Cheng's gaze and frowned. "Those Toward the Moon Society people again!"
The Toward the Moon Society?
Contempt and disgust flashed in Xu Shaowei's eyes as she explained to Su Cheng, "It's a gang formed by a bunch of sleazy scumbags. They often team up to rob people in instances and outside the apartment."
Just as Xu Shaowei finished speaking, the Toward the Moon Society members fled the alley in a panic. One of them even had blood on him...
Xu Shaowei chuckled with schadenfreude. "Looks like they met someone tough."
Su Cheng watched the boy stroll unhurriedly out of the alley, his hands in his pockets and a baseball cap covering most of his face.
As though sensing Su Cheng's gaze, the boy glanced their way. Before Su Cheng could make out his face, he turned and left.
He's formidable.
The three of them arrived at the warehouse, where people had brought tables to set up stalls.
Around a dozen stalls were scattered throughout the warehouse, with relatively few people coming and going.
Every stall sold much the same things: instant foods and clothing brought back from instances, or common items such as ordinary kitchen knives and fruit knives.
There wasn't a single remotely special item in sight. People didn't even have enough of those for their own use, let alone to sell.
The warehouse was large enough that the three split up to browse, each looking for things they wanted to buy.
Su Cheng stopped in front of a stall farther inside the warehouse.
The stallholder was a tall, thin, bald man. Seeing Su Cheng look over, he pointed at his goods and introduced them:
"I brought all of this back from a hospital in an instance. Brand-new protective suits and masks. There's rubbing alcohol and 84 disinfectant here too..."
Su Cheng nodded. "Your instance was related to an epidemic, wasn't it?"
These items were very familiar to Su Cheng. They were all related to epidemic prevention.
"Yeah! Take a look. Want any? I don't want to keep running this stall either. If you take more, I'll give you a discount."
Su Cheng nodded with little reaction. Showing how much you wanted something was the greatest taboo when trading. Unless there was a clearly marked price, the more you wanted something, the more expensive it tended to be...
"What kind of discount? What do you want?"
"Food or drinks, either is fine."