The Mission Board published the specific details of the tasks.
The details listed the scope of information and reward principles, with the C4 robot specifically responsible for contact and evaluation.
Some quick-witted tenants or those with unique experiences immediately saw an opportunity.
Seemingly useless anecdotes, stories passed down from ancestors, or terrain details remembered after escaping a place by the skin of one’s teeth—all could be turned into cold, hard Star Coins.
After finishing all this, Su Wan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Checking the time, there was less than an hour left before returning to Blue Star.
She checked the Star Coin Exchange Machine’s backend data and found that in just this past day, the total amount of gold turned in by new and old tenants had reached 2,157.6 grams!
In the apocalyptic ruins where order had collapsed, although gold wasn’t a direct survival resource like food or medicine, as a precious metal recognized from the old era, it still held value among vagrants, small settlements, and even in certain gray-market trades.
To be able to gather this much in one day showed the activity of the Terminal Station’s current tenants and the effectiveness of the reward system she had established.
After storing all the gold into the system’s built-in space, Su Wan returned to Room 102.
She closed her eyes and carefully spread her newly stabilized Level 2 Early Stage mental power outward, familiarizing herself with the Terminal Station and the surrounding ruins under her new perception.
In her perception, which had been enhanced several times over, everything inside the building was crystal clear:
The heartbeats and breathing of the tenants, whether whispering excitedly or sleeping exhaustedly;
The subtle friction of the butler robots’ joints as they moved at a constant speed;
The pulsation of water and air in the pipes...
The world had never been so clear and multi-layered.
However, just as she tried to probe the deeper foundations and the surrounding soil, a faint sense of “dissonance” brushed against the edge of her consciousness.
That feeling was fleeting, so fast it was impossible to grasp.
Against the background of the ruins—full of dust, radiation residue, and chaotic, drifting energy—this anomaly was so weak it could be ignored.
Had Su Wan not just advanced, her mental power being at an unprecedented peak of sensitivity, she would have never noticed it.
She frowned slightly, focused her mind, and cast her perception back toward that general direction underground.
This time, the information coming back from that area was completely normal.
The density and temperature of the soil, the faint activity of microorganisms, the solid feel of the building’s foundation...
Everything looked exactly as it should for a strata that had been repeatedly shaken by artillery fire and then stabilized by the Terminal Station’s domain.
“How strange. That feeling just now...”
She tried to scan the area again with finer mental power, but she never captured that momentary anomaly again.
Everything was as steady as usual.
“Was it really an illusion?” Su Wan slowly retracted most of her perception, murmuring to herself.
In the apocalypse, any abnormality was worth noting, but since there were no further clues, excessive suspicion was useless.
However, deep within the rock and soil layers beneath the building’s foundation—where she hadn't noticed—something that almost merged with the rocks contracted slightly.
...
Jiangcheng Central Hospital.
The scent of disinfectant permeated the corridor outside the high-end ward, yet it couldn’t suppress the surging rage and chill in Bai Ruochu’s heart.
When she first received the news, she almost thought she had misheard—
Li Bao, along with two fierce thugs, went to deal with a desperate Su Wan and a defenseless Liu Xin. As a result, all three were unconscious and had been rushed to the hospital by their panicked underlings?!
How was this possible?!
She immediately drove to the hospital, her exquisite makeup unable to hide the gloom on her face.
Outside the ward, the two lackeys who had been standing guard downstairs at the time stammered out the events to Bai Ruochu.
“...B-Brother Leopard told us to wait downstairs. Su Wan came alone,”
“She was c-carrying a canvas bag. We didn’t think much of it... She just went up...”
“After a long time without any noise, later... later Su Wan came down with Liu Xin and her son. She even... even said Brother Leopard told us to go up...”
“We thought things were finished and Su Wan had paid the money, so we went up...”
“But as soon as we opened the door, we saw Brother Leopard and the others lying on the floor. No matter how we called, they wouldn’t wake up! And... and there was no money bag in the room...”
The lackeys’ words were jumbled, filled with lingering fear and confusion.
They hadn’t seen the conflict happen and couldn’t explain how those three men—who were quite capable fighters in their eyes—had been taken down silently.
“Su Wan... Liu Xin...” Bai Ruochu chewed on these two names, her fingernails nearly digging into her palms.
A fallen socialite whose family was ruined, and a gentle, weak noble housewife. Even if they resisted with all their might, how could they have made Li Bao and the others unconscious without even a cry for help or a warning?
It didn’t make sense!
Something was definitely wrong!
“Where’s the doctor? Where is the attending physician?!” Bai Ruochu suppressed her anger, her voice as cold as ice.
She had to know exactly what had happened to Li Bao and the others.
Soon, a middle-aged male doctor wearing glasses and looking a bit tired was invited over.
Facing Bai Ruochu’s obviously intimidating presence and questioning, he pushed his glasses up and organized his words.
“Miss Bai, the situation of the three patients... is a bit strange.”
“We’ve done a comprehensive examination. They do have some soft tissue contusions and minor bone fractures, but these injuries are not enough to cause them to fall into such a deep, persistent coma.”
The doctor weighed his words, his brow furrowed.
“What’s even stranger are their vital signs. Every indicator, from the EEG to blood flow and metabolism, shows that they...”
“...are in a very deep physiological dormant state, similar to extreme fatigue or a protective coma caused by some reason, but also different.”
“We tried conventional arousal stimulation and even used some safe neuro-excitatory drugs, but the effect... was negligible.”
He glanced toward the ward and lowered his voice further, speaking with the confusion of a professional,
“Their coma doesn’t resemble a typical concussion or intracranial injury pattern caused by a heavy blow to the head.”
“We have also ruled out common poisoning, metabolic disorders, or acute diseases. It’s as if... their cerebral cortex activity was forcibly suppressed or set to a dormant level by some means.”
“This state is exceptionally stable, and their bodily functions are running at a minimum level.”
“This... doesn’t quite fit our common clinical pathology.”
Not a heavy injury, not poisoning, yet unconscious and hard to wake even with drug stimulation?
Brain activity suppressed?
Bai Ruochu’s heart sank abruptly.
The doctor’s words subtly pointed to a possibility that exceeded the scope of ordinary brawl injuries.
What kind of power could suppress a person’s consciousness so precisely, causing such a bizarre coma?
Rate on N.U.
