Scar Wolf couldn't answer, but deep in his eyes, a sliver of fear began to spread wildly.
Su Wan stopped looking at him, as if she were merely dealing with something insignificant.
She raised her hand and gave a light flick toward the arrow suspended in mid-air.
It was as if an invisible hand had gripped the shaft.
The arrow turned around, its sharp rebar tip pointing directly at the pupil of Scar Wolf's right eye, which had dilated slightly from shock.
Slowly, yet steadily, it moved forward.
Inch by inch.
Scar Wolf's eyeball became violently bloodshot from extreme terror, yet he couldn't even manage to close his eyes. He could only watch as the cold glint of death drew closer, bit by bit, enlarging until it occupied his entire field of vision...
“Squelch.”
A soft yet hair-raising sound echoed.
The arrow precisely and slowly buried itself into Scar Wolf's right eye, all the way until the tail was flush with the socket.
Dark red blood, mixed with some indescribable fluids, slowly seeped out along the shaft and the eye socket, drawing several hideous streaks across his stiff face.
Scar Wolf's body was still confined by the invisible force; he couldn't even manage a pre-death convulsion.
The signs of life were completely stripped from him.
With a thought from Su Wan, the confining force was withdrawn.
“Thud!”
Maintaining that bizarre lunging posture, Scar Wolf fell straight backward, slamming heavily onto the cold snow and kicking up a spray of white powder.
The arrow stuck in his eye socket was exceptionally jarring.
Su Wan stood on the steps, her gaze sweeping over the heavy darkness in the distance and the silhouettes of the ruins. Then, she calmly turned around and walked back inside the fire door.
The moment she entered the hallway, Su Wan leaned against the wall and began to retch violently.
But her stomach was empty; she vomited nothing but gastric acid.
The scene of Scar Wolf's death had been too impactful. She had only managed to hold herself together just now to avoid losing her composure.
She knew that she would definitely see more scenes like this in the future, and she had to learn to get used to them.
At the bottom of the steps, Ah-Hao lay paralyzed in the snow. Looking at the closed door and then at the corpse beside him that was rapidly being half-buried by falling snow, his stomach churned, yet he didn't even have the strength to vomit.
Endless fear and lingering dread finally completely overwhelmed all the calculation and greed in his heart.
For the first time, he realized with absolute clarity:
His sister was right; this seemingly “merciful” woman... was an existence in these ruins that absolutely must not be provoked!
Ah-Hao didn't dare to play any more tricks. Seeing the fire door left slightly ajar, he gritted his teeth and crawled inside.
The heavy fire door swung shut behind him, completely sealing out the wind, snow, and the coldness of death.
Ah-Hao collapsed onto the exceptionally clean concrete floor of the hallway, gasping for air, his eyes filled with lingering terror.
He no longer dared to have a single stray thought.
Su Wan had already composed herself. She stood at the entrance of Room 102, looking calmly at Ah-Hao.
In her mind, the system's notification sounded at the right time:
【Warning cleared.】
【Tenant-001 (Ah-Hao) current Malice Level has dropped to: 15 (Low; basic survival dependency and fear exist). Strong aggressive intent has vanished.】
The malice had dissipated.
Good.
“Come over here,” Su Wan said, her voice still flat and devoid of emotion.
Ah-Hao shuddered and quickly propped himself up with his arms, slowly moving toward Su Wan's position.
Su Wan walked to the opposite door, Room 104, and opened it.
Ah-Hao crawled to the doorway and looked inside.
With just one look, he froze.
Heaven!
The word instantly burst into Ah-Hao's impoverished mind.
Compared to the damp, cold, trash-filled corner of the ruins where he and his sister used to huddle among insects and rats, this place was simply a heaven that existed only in myths and legends!
It was warm, clean, and safe.
There was no longer the bone-chilling cold of the outside. Just being at the doorway, the warmth caused a tingling ache to spread through his frozen limbs—a sign that his blood was starting to flow again.
The floor was no longer pitted concrete; there were no stains, no mold, and certainly no scent of blood or decay.
A bare but sturdy wooden bed stood against the wall, with a matching set of a table and chair beside it.
The windows were tightly shut, and the dark curtains were drawn halfway, firmly blocking out the wind, snow, and darkness of the outside world.
Here, he didn't have to worry about someone silently sneaking up to slit his throat in his sleep, didn't have to worry about mutated rats or even more terrifying things crawling in, and didn't have to fear that he might never wake up again during a cold night...
More importantly, as long as he lived here, he would never have to worry about whether he would die when the Death Tide arrived!
If only he could live here forever...
Once this thought arose, it was like a wildfire, instantly consuming all his logic and restraint.
Any price would be worth it!
As long as... as long as he could stay!
“From now on, this is your room,” Su Wan's voice interrupted his shock and fantasies. “But as a tenant, you need to pay rent on time.”
Rent! Right!
Ah-Hao suddenly snapped out of it. Without any hesitation or the presence of mind to haggle, he reached a trembling hand into a hidden inner pocket of his tattered clothes and carefully pulled out a grimy little cloth bundle.
He unwrapped the cloth, revealing three crystals about the size of soybeans.
The crystals were irregularly shaped and faintly emitted an extremely weak, pale white fluorescence.
The crystals themselves weren't transparent; instead, they were somewhat cloudy, but there seemed to be extremely subtle energy slowly flowing within them.
“T-this...” Ah-Hao's voice stuttered from nervousness and excitement.
“These are Energy Crystal Cores I worked so hard to get. I originally wanted to keep them to trade for food, or... or to save my life at a critical moment.”
“These Energy Crystal Cores, though they're low-grade, each one can be traded for at least 100 Star Coins. They are the most valuable things I have...”
He held the three tiny crystals in both hands, offering them to Su Wan. “Can I use these... as rent?”
Almost the instant Ah-Hao took out the crystal cores, the system's notification sounded in Su Wan's mind:
【Pure energy carrier from this plane detected!】
【Item Identification: Incomplete Energy Crystal Core (Produced from Unranked Rot-Walker).】
【Energy Purity: Low.】
【System Evaluation: Can be directly absorbed and converted into System Points, or used to power specific functional modules.】
【Perform value assessment and conversion?】
Energy Crystal Cores! System Points!
As expected, this was the true “hard currency” of this apocalypse!
Su Wan understood in her heart, but her expression remained unchanged.
She reached out and took the three cool crystals from Ah-Hao's palm.
【Three Incomplete Energy Crystal Cores, totaling approximately 15 Standard Energy Units. Can be converted into System Points: 300!】
300 points!
Su Wan's heart skipped a beat.
According to the system's conversion ratio, 300 points was roughly equivalent to 300 Star Coins!
It seemed that in this world, these energy-laden crystal cores were the true strategic resources.
Rate on N.U.
