The air in the Ruin Zone was much more turbid than inside the building.
The moment Su Wan stepped out of the building's range, a smell mixed with scorched rot and a strange chemical scent rushed at her.
Circulating her mental power to its full extent, her perception extended outward like invisible tentacles, covering the surrounding hundreds of meters.
Her Level 3 Early Stage mental power was exceptionally sharp in the ruins where the Death Tide had just receded.
Within the range of her mental power, there was nothing.
There were no signs of living people, no traces of Rot-Walkers, and even the mutated rats common in the ruins had vanished completely.
Su Wan felt slightly relieved and ran toward the direction where she remembered the light specks falling.
She bypassed several collapsed ruins and climbed over a pile of twisted rebar, finally reaching the approximate location.
This was a relatively flat open space, with a few half-collapsed broken walls scattered around.
Su Wan's gaze swept over the rubble and debris covering the ground.
However, she could not distinguish which were ordinary ruin trash and which were the spots where the light specks had landed.
“System, scan this area and find the specific locations where the light specks fell.”
【Command confirmed. Initiating area scan…】
【Scan requires 500 Points. Confirm?】
“Confirm.”
【Scanning…】
In Su Wan's vision, a faint blue halo spread out from her body like an invisible ripple, scanning every inch of space within a dozens-of-meters radius.
A few seconds later, a simple three-dimensional map appeared on the system panel.
On the map, four locations were marked with conspicuous red dots.
【Scan complete. Detected four locations with special energy fluctuations. Homology rate with Death Tide energy: 72%-85%.】
【Energy source locations have been marked.】
Su Wan followed the markings and walked to the first red dot.
It was a piece of rubble the size of a fist, covered in cracks, looking no different from the thousands of other stones around it.
But when she crouched down and leaned in for a closer look, she finally noticed something strange—
In the cracks on the surface of the rubble, an extremely faint dark red glow was vaguely visible.
She picked up the rubble and stored it in her system space.
【Detected Host storing a special item: Death Tide Relic: Rubble (Unidentified).】
【Note: This item contains trace amounts of Death Tide energy. It is recommended to perform in-depth analysis in a safe environment.】
The second red dot was a piece of rusty iron.
The third red dot was a section of rebar.
The fourth red dot was a piece of rotten wood.
Su Wan collected all four items into her system space, stood up, and scanned the surroundings with her mental power again.
After confirming nothing was missed, she prepared to return to the Terminal Station.
However, the moment she turned around—
A chill rose from her spine without any warning!
It was the intuition for danger unique to a Level 3 Ability User!
Su Wan did not hesitate and threw herself into a roll to the left!
“Ssh—!”
A sharp sound of breaking air brushed past her right shoulder, bringing up a spray of blood mist!
The clothes on her right shoulder were torn, revealing a wound deep enough to show bone underneath!
If she hadn't reacted fast enough, this strike would have pierced her heart instead of her shoulder!
Su Wan rolled to her feet, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder as she fully expanded her mental power, instantly covering a hundred-meter radius—
Someone was there!
Right behind her, thirty meters away!
A tall figure slowly stepped out from the shadows of the ruins.
He looked to be in his early thirties, over a hundred and ninety centimeters tall, with broad shoulders and thick muscles.
He wore a dark gray combat suit, with a sinister-looking alloy battle blade hanging from his waist.
Zhou Hu looked at Su Wan like a hunter looking at prey that had fallen into a trap.
Su Wan's pupils constricted slightly when she saw Zhou Hu.
She hadn't sensed this person's presence at all.
Her mental power coverage was eight hundred meters. She had been somewhat distracted while pathfinding and searching for the light specks, but even so, no one should have been able to quietly approach within thirty meters without being detected.
Unless—
He had some means of shielding perception.
Who was this man? From Panshi Company? The City Defense Force? Or some other faction?
Why would he appear here just as the Death Tide had receded?
The Death Tide had lasted for over eight hours. During this time, Zhou Hu had been silently observing from a ruined high ground about three kilometers away from the Terminal Station building.
He saw that when the Death Tide mist drifted near the Terminal Station building, it was blocked by some invisible barrier.
They lingered and crashed against that barrier but could never cross it.
What concerned Zhou Hu even more were the auras coming from inside the building.
Inside the Terminal Station building, there were a large number of living human auras, at least seven or eight hundred people.
During the Death Tide, those seven or eight hundred people hid in that building without suffering the slightest harm.
Zhou Hu realized that Zhao Mingyuan was right.
The value of this Terminal Station building was far too great.
After the mist receded, he saw the doors of the Terminal Station open, and Su Wan walked out.
From the first moment Zhou Hu saw her, he knew she wasn't a vagrant.
Because Su Wan possessed a temperament completely different from that of a vagrant.
Zhou Hu couldn't be certain of Su Wan's identity because she looked too young.
If someone said that the mysterious woman who killed the Panshi Company exploration team members was this little girl, Zhou Hu wouldn't believe it for a second.
Seeing Su Wan head toward the Non-Safe Zone, Zhou Hu wanted to know what she was going to do, so he followed her.
He witnessed Su Wan's series of actions.
Although he was confused by Su Wan's act of picking up several pieces of trash, his heart pounded violently when he saw those items vanish into thin air.
A Space Treasure!
This woman had a Space Treasure on her!
It was something he had only heard of in rumors!
Those were items created using top-tier technology left over from the Old Era combined with Space Abilities. It was said that to manufacture a Space Treasure, one also needed rare crystals condensed from the deaths of certain high-rank Ability Users.
As long as one had such a treasure, vast amounts of supplies could be carried and used at any time.
It was rumored that on the black market, even the lowest-quality space ring could sell for the astronomical price of ten million Star Coins, and even then, there was no supply for the demand.
Ten million Star Coins.
Zhou Hu had struggled in this apocalypse for over twenty years, fighting his way from Level 1 to Level 3 Late Stage. He had handled countless shady jobs for Panshi Company, and his entire net worth added up to less than a million.
Ten million was money he couldn't earn in a lifetime of effort.
And now, this treasure that could let him reach the heavens in a single step was right before him on this young woman.
The company's mission?
To hell with it.
Zhou Hu didn't even hesitate. The moment that thought arose, it swallowed his reason completely.
The Terminal Station building, the investigative value, the instructions from Panshi Company—
He threw it all to the back of his mind.
As long as he killed this woman and got that Space Treasure, his life would be worth it!
Rate on N.U.
