Chapter 8: Obstruction (1/2)

The map of the safe zone was extremely large, so large that even the geography teachers at Ju'an School didn't have a detailed version of it.

Naturally, Qin Siyang had no idea how the safe zone's exits were distributed.

He only knew about Exit No. 114514 because it was relatively close to him.

Among the more than a hundred thousand numbered safe zone exits, this was the only one he was aware of.

For an ordinary person, unless they planned to cling to the coattails of a Sequence Ability User, who would bother paying attention to the locations of the safe zone exits?

Not knowing the locations of the exits wasn't exactly a tricky problem either. He remembered that near the main road's bus stops, there were route maps. Those maps might just include the locations of the safe zone exits.

In past weekends, Qin Siyang had simply stayed at home like a corpse, believing that this would reduce his consumption and let him eat less. But this weekend was destined to be different.

Right now, he was brimming with determination.

Only one thought filled his mind.

Get stronger.

As long as he became stronger, he could leave this wretched place.

With a backpack full of food, Qin Siyang walked for over ten minutes and arrived at the bus stop.

This was his first time coming to a bus stop, as he could never afford bus fare in the first place.

In Qin Siyang's world, the poor walked everywhere, while the rich took buses.

As for private cars? Gasoline was an even rarer resource than electricity, and in the outskirts of the safe zone, there simply weren't people rich enough to afford such luxury.

He stood in front of the bus route map, studying it for a long time.

He noticed that along the bus route, several stops were named after safe zone exits. The only bus line that passed through the outskirts of the safe zone also happened to go by a few safe zone exits, all of which had numbers smaller than 114514.

As for which safe zone exit to pick, Qin Siyang wasn't sure yet.

Might as well walk and check them out.

Since he had never taken a bus in this life, he had no idea how far apart each stop was.

"Man, if only orphans could ride for free."

Looking at the five-copper fare, Qin Siyang shook his head helplessly. The last ten copper coins he had were all spent at the internet café.

"Five coppers one way, ten for a round trip… I might as well save that money for the internet café and do some research instead."

Clicking his tongue, Qin Siyang began measuring the bus stop distances with his own two feet. He needed to figure out the approximate distance between stops to estimate which safe zone exits he could reach on foot.

He followed the bus route for twenty minutes and arrived at the next stop.

"This bus stop seems… way farther than the ones in my past life."

After consuming the divine remains yesterday, his strength had increased dramatically, and his walking speed far surpassed that of ordinary pedestrians. Whenever there was no one around, he would pick up the pace, moving at full speed.

Even so, he could only cover three stops' worth of distance in an hour.

Now that he knew the general distance of one stop, he could gauge his range of activity.

"At Stop No. 7, there's Safe Zone Exit No. 54320. At Stop No. 17, there's Exit No. 89757. And at Stop No. 20, there's Exit No. 38324. For now, these three are the only ones I have a chance of reaching."

"The farthest, Exit No. 38324, means I'd have to return home by the day before. Any exit farther than that, and I wouldn't be able to make it back before Monday, which means I'd miss school."

On Monday, Qin Siyang needed to go to school and report to the library manager that he was continuing his work-study job.

If he didn't, someone else would take the library assistant position for the week, and he'd lose his only way of earning money for the internet café.

After some thought, Qin Siyang decided to check out Exit No. 54320 first.

The hour-and-forty-minute journey didn't tire him out in the slightest. In fact, he only grew more eager as he walked.

Material wealth and spiritual fulfillment were two separate matters. Once a person had hope, they could tackle anything with enthusiasm.

Even though the surrounding streetlights were dim, casting a heavy sense of oppression in the air.

Technically, it was daytime right now, but the sun had disappeared ten years ago. Though it was early morning, the sky remained as dark as midnight.

The infrastructure in the outskirts of the safe zone was incredibly basic. The main road he walked on only had a dim streetlight every few dozen meters, barely illuminating a few steps ahead.

As for the alleys nearby? Pure darkness. Anyone moving through them would have to feel their way forward blindly.

Looking up, he could faintly make out scattered stars reflected on the safe zone's aerial defense glass, along with the occasional silhouette of a deity passing by.

A cold wind blew through, piercing straight through Qin Siyang's thin, uninsulated coat and biting against his skin. Goosebumps erupted all over his body in response.

He raised his collar, wrapping it around his face to shield himself from the wind, then quickened his pace.

After walking seven stops, he arrived at Safe Zone Exit No. 54320.

This exit's number was over fifty thousand lower than 114514's, which logically meant there would be even more Sequence Ability Users hunting deities here.

As soon as he arrived, he found an old, abandoned building to climb, wanting to get a better look at the situation.

Sure enough, he saw nearly a hundred Sequence Ability Users clad in thermal gear—far more than there had been at Exit No. 114514.

And the number of ordinary people gathered around the exit was even more overwhelming.

The area was packed, completely surrounded by a crowd of nearly ten thousand.

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