Chapter 9: Progress bar

Going down a small path, Lin Feng and Dong Wu arrived at the tent they stayed in the night before. Lin Feng was determined to find a place to stay in the living area, and Dong Wu wanted to come along, so Lin Feng approved his request. This apocalyptic world was extremely dangerous, so having a partner wasn’t so bad.

After what just happened, Dong Wu’s determination to stay by Lin Feng’s side became even firmer. Lin Feng’s kind-heartedness was something rare in this apocalyptic world; this proved enough about Lin Feng’s morals.

Returning to the tent, Dong Wu didn’t have much; he only had some daily necessities.

“What is this?”

While cleaning up the place, Lin Feng found a small black ball about the size of a coin underneath the bed. The material was similar to that of iron.

“Don’t bring it up, continue bringing it up and you will be disappointed.”

Seeing the small black ball in Lin Feng’s hand, Dong Wu didn’t lift up his head, and took no mind of it.

Looks like the story behind it was very depressing. Dong Wu found the black ball in the head of a cla.s.s one zombie when he went out on a hunt.

Normally a cla.s.s one zombie should have a white crystal in its head, however, this one didn’t; it only had this black thing. Also, this zombie was even stronger than a normal cla.s.s one zombie. Dong Wu and his friend spent tremendous effort and strength before they finally killed it.

Bringing back this small black ball, which obviously couldn’t be used as a white crystal, Dong Wu just threw it underneath the bed, and didn’t bother with it anymore.

Dong Wu had killed several hundred cla.s.s one zombies, but then appeared a unique cla.s.s one zombie whose head didn’t have a white crystal. That’s why the impression was particularly deep.

In the hand holding the small black ball, Lin Feng suddenly felt a burning sensation at the place where the supermarket slogan was, causing a surprising thing to happen. The black ball vanished from his hand in the blink of an eye.

“Could it be that it entered the supermarket?”

Feeling that it was odd, Lin Feng quickly ran into the supermarket to check. In this apocalyptic world, the only thing Lin Feng could depend on was the possession of this supermarket with a large supply of goods.  He couldn’t think of what might’ve happened to the supermarket.

Upon entering the supermarket, Lin Feng was dumbfounded. The items in the supermarket didn’t decrease. In fact, there was even a new item.

There was a large screen, which was suspended in the middle of the supermarket’s ceiling.

The screen was switched on, however there was nothing written on it, and only showed a progress bar. Displayed on the progress bar was 10%. It let off a yellow glow, and was very eye-catching.

Could it be that?

 Staring at the screen suspended from the ceiling, Lin Feng sank into thought.

“Could it be that the black ball was absorbed by the supermarket? The black ball came from a zombie. As such, it should also have the energy from a white crystal. However, it couldn’t be given to anyone to use. Now it disappeared, and this thing suddenly appeared in the supermarket. Seems like it was utilised by the supermarket.

After a simple a.n.a.lysis, Lin Feng reached that conclusion.(If you aren’t reading this on fakeftranslations.com then it was most likely stolen!)

However, what was the purpose of this progress bar? Now displayed on the bar was 10%, so, in other words, after absorbing another 9 of these black b.a.l.l.s, the progress bar will reach 100%.

What other thing could appear after reaching 100%? Lin Feng had hope in his heart, along with a tinge of uneasiness.

After sorting out the daily appliances, Lin Feng and Dong Wu left the tent. They greeted everyone on the way, and together the two left the slums.

Entering the living area, Dong Wu turned to look at the slums, and was slightly teary-eyed.

It had already been three years. Even if he lived in poverty, Dong Wu was slightly reluctant to leave this place. Friends, familial love, friendship… all the things that were related to Dong Wu, each one resided here. Thinking of the difficulties he experienced living here, two hot tears flowed down from Dong Wu’s eyes.

“Let’s go, everything here will become the past. A new life is about to start.”

Seeing how Dong Wu was, Lin Feng was slightly saddened about leaving his own 　world. Though he didn’t have anything to worry about, having lived there for over twenty years, there was nothing easy about giving up on it for good.

However, Lin Feng knew that he was a man, and  being a man meant that he had to live like a man. Not only to live, but also to live properly, live wonderfully, live in his own world.

That’s right, there was still a new life.

Hearing Lin Feng’s words, Dong Wu dried the tears from his eyes. He looked out to a far away place, and looked at the white clouds in the blue sky with eyes full of confidence.

The two came to the living area, and first headed to someplace similar to a housing agency to find a place to sleep.

The agency was owned by the base itself. After taking over the base, all housing properties in the base were distributed out together. Necessary occupations like teachers, doctors, and soldiers were able to get a house for free. However, for people like foreigners that wanted to stay in the base, apart from the tents in the slums, other buildings require money to lodge in.

Since the outbreak of zombies, the majority of the buildings were destroyed. Now there were not many buildings, so the prices were not cheap,

Spending a price of 5 white crystals a month, Lin Feng rented a two room apartment that was more than 50 square metres. When he was paying, Dong Wu was secretly smacking his lips in disapproval. The expensive price for the rent was really a luxury. Five white crystals was enough to pay for entry to the base for five months. Now, they could only stand for a month. This, to Dong Wu, was astronomical. If it was him, he would rather buy some rice to eat. He wouldn’t even spend this much money just to stay here.

However, Lin Feng wasn’t squandering money. In this apocalyptic world, the thing Lin Feng cared most about was safety. Lin Feng didn’t understand the circ.u.mstances in the base at all, so it was important to find a place that was both quiet and safe to stay in. Luckily for him, he still had a lot of white crystals on hand. Not counting those he gave to Dong Wu and that pair of mother and daughter, after paying for rent, Lin Feng still had 335 white crystals. In this apocalyptic world, it was not a small fortune. Besides, there were still so many goods in the supermarket. Even though there was a limitation, it was enough to maintain a good life.

However, Lin Feng didn’t think of taking out many goods from the supermarket to exchange, even though he had a warehouse with a countless amount of supplies. There was a shortage of goods in the apocalyptic world. Any amount of goods could attract the attention of resolute people. Lin Feng’s current strength wasn’t that formidable, and he didn’t want to attract the attention of others at this period of time.

After settling down, Lin Feng and Dong Wu went downstairs to a simple restaurant. Even though it was a restaurant, there wasn’t much food, only some basic life-sustaining food. The restaurant couldn’t possibly have those luxurious foods. Even if they did, then they could only exist in the centre of the base. Normal people being able to eat till they were full was not bad, even if they were those “white collars” that earned a salary.

Using two white crystals to order two plates of shredded pork noodles hurt Dong Wu’s heart greatly. He knew that a single white crystal could let normal people live for three days, but now it was being exchanged for a plate of noodles. In Dong Wu’s opinion, even if it were some shredded pork, it would still not be worth it.

However, now there was no other way. Lin Feng’s three chances for today were completely used up, so there was no way he could use it again. In addition, if he bought some rice back to cook for himself, he still needed a lot of pots and pans. He couldn’t acquire so many things in such a short amount of time, so it was better to just eat here.

Eating a mouth of the noodles, Lin Feng was on the verge of spitting it out. It was too hard to eat, and it couldn’t compare at all to those from Lin Feng’s own world. Not mentioning the noodles’ quality, there was still a moldy smell. Even the so-called shredded pork was dryer than beef. One look, and you could tell it was stored for a long time. Now Lin Feng was clear. No wonder Dong Wu was like that when eating the luncheon meat. The foods from the two worlds were polar opposites.

Even though it was like this, Lin Feng still finished the noodles. Having entered the apocalyptic world, he had to accept reality. Lin Feng reminded himself. He needed to adapt to life in this world as quickly as possible. If he couldn’t adapt to this lifestyle, then what was there to say about living in this world.

When Lin Feng paid the bill, and left the restaurant together with Dong Wu, Lin Feng suddenly realised that there was a familiar figure in the distance.