Su Wan stood in the empty Room 103, feeling the stark contrast in temperature between inside and outside the door, a strange sense of accomplishment welling up in her chest.
【Ding! System Quest Released!】
【Beginner Quest: Obtain Your First Tenant】
【Quest Content: Recruit and successfully accept the first legitimate tenant into your shelter. The tenant must voluntarily sign a rental contract and pay rent (any form acceptable, subject to mutual agreement).】
【Time Limit: Before returning to the original world (4 hours 13 minutes remaining).】
【Quest Reward: Points +50; 1x Beginner Starter Pack; minor increase in System Feature Exploration.】
【Failure Penalty: None. (However, key early-development resources will be forfeited.)】
"First tenant?"
Su Wan froze. With only four hours left, how was she supposed to find a tenant in a place like this?
……
The young girl Ah-Lan's figure darted swiftly through the rubble and ruins, finally slipping into a narrow gap formed by a half-buried concrete pipe and a collapsed wall.
The space had been cleverly concealed with torn canvas and debris, forming a hidden nook that could barely shelter two people.
"Sis!" a voice called out, barely containing its excitement.
Curled up in the corner was a boy who looked about ten years old.
His complexion was pallid, his lips cracked and dry. The exposed skin of his lower legs was mottled with alarming bruises and swelling, and his left shin bore a crude splint fashioned from rags and branches—clearly a serious injury that left him barely able to move.
Seeing his sister return safely, the dull light in the boy's eyes instantly reignited.
Ah-Lan walked quickly to her brother's side, alertly listening for sounds outside. Satisfied it was safe, she reached into her inner pocket, pulled out the plastic bag, and held it out.
"Eat up! This bread—it's completely clean!" Her voice remained hoarse and terse.
The boy's eyes went wide with disbelief.
Ah-Hao's hands trembled—not just from hunger, but from the pure, unadulterated grain aroma rising from the bag. It was a scent too clean to belong to this ruined world.
He took a careful small bite. The dry, coarse texture was, at this moment, better than any delicacy he could remember. More importantly, there was none of that faint metallic tang, none of that sour, acrid taste of rot.
No contamination.
Not even a trace.
In this broken, fallen world, radiation, smog, and dust silently corrupted every inch of land and every water source.
Any food that had grown outdoors or been exposed to the open air—whether the fruit of some mutated plant clinging to survival, or an expired tin dug out of the ruins—was tainted with toxins to some degree.
Long-term consumption of these rot-tainted foods caused toxins to slowly accumulate within the body.
Mild cases led to weakness and chronic organ failure—a slow, agonizing decay from within, ending in death.
Severe cases triggered a terrifying Genetic Collapse—the body twisting and mutating, transforming the afflicted into mindless, ravenous Aberrants.
Only within the high walls—in that sealed-off place known as the Inner City—could the powerful and the wealthy enjoy truly clean food.
Within their heavily fortified Eco Domes and Sterile Factories, they used cutting-edge technology to cultivate crops, synthesize nutrients, and produce uncontaminated food and purified water.
It was a symbol of status—and the purest guarantee of survival.
The means to counteract toxins were priced at levels that drove the destitute outside the walls to despair: Anti-Toxin Serum to neutralize the poison, Tissue Repair Agents to salvage bodies on the brink of collapse.
These life-saving substances were tightly controlled by the major Companies, circulating only through specific channels, traded at astronomical costs in Credit Points or rare resources.
For the refugees struggling to survive in the ruins, such things were the stuff of legend.
A single piece of completely clean bread, therefore, held extraordinary value.
It was hope for health—a luxury that could delay death.
Ah-Hao couldn't help swallowing, then wolfed it down without restraint.
Every bite was taken with such force, such reverence. Across his filthy little face spread an expression that was almost blissful.
As he ate, he instinctively adjusted his position, peering through a gap in the rubble—a natural observation port—toward the distant unfinished building where Su Wan was.
Against a backdrop of pitch-black, lifeless ruins, the dim yellow light seeping from that window was impossibly conspicuous. Impossibly… enticing.
The boy's eyesight was extraordinary—unnaturally so.
He could not only make out that faint light, but see through the glass to the items inside the room. Clearly, plainly, he could see that on the table sat two more pieces of the same bread.
This realization, mixed with the satisfaction of the food in his mouth, ignited a dark flame in the boy's heart.
He swallowed the last bite all at once, licking every crumb from his fingers, then turned to look at his sister, who was wiping the grime from her blade.
"Sis,"
"This woman can produce uncontaminated food—is she some big shot from the Inner City? Or an exploration team from one of the Companies?"
At the mention of the Companies and the Inner City, the boy's voice instinctively carried a trace of fear and hatred.
"Doesn't seem like it." Ah-Lan shook her head, brow deeply furrowed, recalling the building and the woman.
"That building appeared out of nowhere—completely bizarre. And that woman doesn't look like anyone from around here, because she was too clean…"
"When the Rot-Walkers charged at her, the fear in that woman's eyes and her body's reaction were genuine…"
"The Inner City Companies' exploration teams would never send someone like that into the ruins!"
"During the trade, she didn't hesitate at all—she seemed completely unaware that uncontaminated food is worth far, far more than a little gold…"
"She seems… completely unfamiliar with everything here!"
Rot-Walkers were the most common and lowest-ranking Aberrants. Uncontaminated food was worth far more than gold.
Gold still held value in this world—a material used in certain high-end equipment and energy nodes, one of the hard currencies circulating within the Inner City.
But for the refugees clinging to life outside the walls, a single piece of clean food was worth infinitely more than any amount of gold.
Anyone born into this world, even a child of two or three, knew these basic facts.
Ah-Hao lowered his gaze, thought for a moment, then raised his head again. In his eyes now flickered a cold ruthlessness and calculation far beyond his years.
"Sis, I saw it clearly—there are still two pieces of the same bread on the table in that room. I'd bet she has plenty more food in there."
Ah-Hao licked his lips, where the aftertaste of bread still lingered.
He lowered his voice, but his tone was laden with dark temptation: "Sis, we kill that woman, and we get a shelter—plus clean food."
Ah-Lan's hand stilled for a moment. She looked up at her brother and said nothing at first, only creasing her brow deeply.
She set down the blade, her sharp gaze fixed on him, voice carrying an unmistakable warning: "Ah-Hao. Drop it."
"That woman may not be an exploration team from one of the Inner City Companies—but she is absolutely not someone to underestimate."
"When I got close, I could see it clearly—those Rot-Walkers, at roughly an arm's length from that door, slammed into something like an invisible wall and were stopped cold in their tracks."
She watched her brother's pupils contract sharply and continued: "I have never seen an ability like that."
"It may be some kind of powerful Defensive Ability—fixed in range, but absolute in effect. We have no idea what she's truly capable of."
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