Chapter 3 An Opportunity to Become Strong: A Gluttonous Feast

The edge of the safe zone was a very underdeveloped area.

It lagged behind in all aspects, not just in terms of the streets and the people living there.

For example, in education, which the United Government valued the most.

The daily curriculum for senior three students at "Ju'an School" consisted of dull accounts of the glorious history of the ancient human race and outdated scientific theories.

These kinds of knowledge, before the advent of the end - times, were the stepping - stones to further education and jobs.

But in the present, after the end - times, they had completely lost their significance.

There was only one way to turn things around.

Awaken sequence abilities.

Only by possessing sequence abilities could everything be changed.

However, the courses related to sequence abilities were not covered at all in this backward school on the edge of the safe zone.

In the poor edge area of the safe zone, it was almost impossible to find any sequence ability users.

The teachers were all ordinary people, having no opportunity to receive relevant education. So, how could they teach it to the students?

Although Qin Siyang didn't know much about it, he believed that since the safe zone had been established for ten years and sequence ability users had been awakening for five years.

The United Government must have set up courses related to sequence ability users, but it just hadn't reached "Ju'an School" yet.

The lack of knowledge about the current world system made Qin Siyang see no future here.

Courses related to sequence ability users were not only designed for those who wanted to awaken sequence abilities but also for ordinary people. Because the emergence of sequence ability users would surely give rise to many industries and create numerous job opportunities.

After learning these courses, ordinary people would have a much wider range of job options upon graduation.

The platform and resources of "Ju'an School" were at the bottom of the safe zone, and the paths available to students were extremely narrow.

They could either strive for those few pitiful college - entrance - examination places.

Or, by some stroke of luck, awaken sequence abilities and become sequence ability users.

However, in the past five years, the "ancestral tombs" of the students at "Ju'an School" had remained very "peaceful" (no one had awakened sequence abilities).

The only hope for the students sitting in the classroom was to be admitted to the college specially set up by the United Government for ordinary people, and then become a civilian staff member in the United Government after graduation.

But judging from the school's previous performance, Qin Siyang, who was currently around the 100th in the grade, was still far from being admitted to the college.

His previous life as a wage - earner had taught Qin Siyang a lesson: Don't make pointless efforts. Just go with the flow when necessary and don't push yourself too hard.

Qin Siyang was just waiting for lunch and dinner time to get more food from the cafeteria for his weekend meals.

He, who hadn't done any of his homework, was scolded by teachers of all subjects.

Li Jingwen and her girlfriends were also scolded.

Li Jingwen's girlfriends always copied her homework, and Li Jingwen's homework was done by Qin Siyang.

Qin Siyang's withdrawal from his "dog - licking" service directly disrupted an entire industrial chain.

Throughout the day, Li Jingwen would cast resentful glances at Qin Siyang from time to time, but Qin Siyang ignored her. And several of Li Jingwen's girlfriends were busy coming up with ideas for her.

Since Qin Siyang was Li Jingwen's "pursuer" who did everything for her, they could also get some benefits.

For example, asking Qin Siyang to help buy things, get food, etc., and Qin Siyang never refused.

Now that Qin Siyang had stopped, their interests were also affected.

"Jingwen, don't worry. Maybe Qin Siyang suddenly encountered something that put him in a bad mood."

"Yes. Look at him, he's been in a daze. Maybe he's been stimulated by something."

Li Jingwen was a bit worried. "What should I do then?"

"When I compared homework answers with Zhou Yang today, I said I was sick and didn't have time to do my homework, but he said he couldn't tell I was sick.

"You know my grades... It's so hard for me to do my homework by myself."

"Zhou Yang's uncle awakened sequence abilities a few days ago. If I can be with Zhou Yang, I can also help you all a lot!"

Li Jingwen's girlfriends' expressions changed. "For your happiness, we must think of a way!"

The attitude of her girlfriends made Li Jingwen feel a bit of satisfaction. She was the first to know about Zhou Yang's uncle awakening sequence abilities. This made her firmly believe that her relationship with Zhou Yang was already very close.

However, the variable brought by Qin Siyang now made her a bit annoyed.

With Li Jingwen's words, her girlfriends became even more enthusiastic about coming up with strategies.

They thought that if Li Jingwen climbed up the social ladder in the future, they could also get some benefits.

"Jingwen, here's what you do. When school is over, stop him and say to him..."

When school was over, Qin Siyang left his books on the desk.

Because his schoolbag was filled with food.

Today, he was especially shameless at the cafeteria and took a lot more food. Aunt Zhang in the cafeteria didn't scold him and gave him as much as he asked for.

He had secured his meals and snacks for the weekend.

He had already made a plan to carry a schoolbag full of food and sleep near the exit of the safe zone on the weekend.

As soon as a sequence ability user came back from hunting gods, he would go up and take a chance.

Become stronger secretly, develop slowly, and finally find an opportunity to leave this dreadful place at the edge of the safe zone!

Just as he was happily going home, Li Jingwen suddenly appeared and blocked his way.

Qin Siyang frowned and looked at her, full of confusion.

Li Jingwen put on a charming expression. "Qin Siyang, I reflected on myself again today and asked my heart. Actually, I do have feelings for you in my heart. It's just that we're still young..."

"Scram."

Before Li Jingwen could finish, Qin Siyang coldly dropped these words.

Then, he walked away in disgust as if he was avoiding a pile of dog shit.

Only Li Jingwen was left standing there in a daze.

She never expected that her act of "lowering herself" would end up like this!

Had Qin Siyang really changed?

She stood there for a long time, then left alone, feeling desolate.

Qin Siyang returned home, took a cold shower, and went to bed.

He originally wanted to go to the exit of the safe zone and wait there tonight.

But because he didn't rest well last night and his body was a bit tired, he changed his mind.

He would rest at home tonight to recharge his energy and then go out early tomorrow morning.

Sleep!

In the morning, the alarm clock woke Qin Siyang up.

Saturday had arrived.

He opened the curtains. Although it was still dark outside, it was indeed seven o'clock in the morning.

Qin Siyang had a quick breakfast and was ready to set off.

He glanced at the calendar.

[Blue Star Era, January 2, 2010]

[Gregorian calendar: Saturday]

[Lunar calendar: Year of Jichou, 18th day of the 11th lunar month. It is suitable for burial]

"Suitable for burial? It seems this lunar - calendar advice has nothing to do with me today."

Because there was no sun, the temperature outside the safe zone continued to drop, and it was extremely cold.

Qin Siyang put on several thick layers of clothes and went out with a schoolbag full of food.

There were many exits in the safe zone. The nearest one was only a ten - minute walk from Qin Siyang's home.

However, this exit of the safe zone was not large, and there were not many gods outside the exit. So, usually, no god - hunting team would set off from here for several days.

Fewer teams meant fewer opportunities for him.

Qin Siyang decided to go to the largest exit near his residence - Exit No. 114514 of the safe zone.

In the safe zone, only the larger exits had numbers, which were convenient for sequence ability users to communicate and locate for their joint hunting missions.

The smaller the number of the safe - zone exit, the more gods there were outside the exit.

So, more sequence - ability - user teams gathered at those exits.

Exit No. 114514 seemed to have a relatively large number.

But it was better than having no number at all.

There would be sequence ability users gathering here.

These things were not taught in school or in textbooks. Qin Siyang had learned them from the popular - science posts on the "God - slaying Camp" forum during his half - hour of Internet access yesterday.

He smiled with a bit of mockery. "The end - times are really different. Surfing the Internet is more useful than going to school."

"Alas, but Internet access is too expensive and doesn't provide food. Going to school is free and provides two meals."

"It would be great if the advantages of school and the Internet café could be combined."

Qin Siyang thought for a moment and then said, "Well, ultimately, I should be grateful to the United Government's policy of waiving tuition and meal fees."

It would take Qin Siyang more than two hours to reach Exit No. 114514, but he was full of energy.

He was full of anticipation for his future.

That exit of the safe zone held the hope for him to break free from his current fate.

As he walked along the road, all he saw were dilapidated houses, most of which had collapsed. The road was also full of gravel and dust due to lack of maintenance.

He often had to climb up and down to get through these collapsed buildings and stones, and he was soon out of breath.

The journey was long, but Qin Siyang didn't see many people. Occasionally, one or two passers - by were in a hurry and were not local residents.

Four years ago, for some unknown reason, several pieces of the air - defense glass here suddenly burst. The air - defense glass was the barrier that prevented gods from entering the safe zone. Once the glass burst, the residents here lost their only protection.

Many gods took the opportunity to rush in and attack the safe zone.

To prevent the situation from getting worse, the United Government urgently dispatched a team of sequence - ability - user troops to eliminate and drive away the invading gods, and then sent an engineering team to quickly repair the air - defense glass here.

Fortunately, the United Government's arrangements were timely. No large - sized gods entered the safe zone, otherwise, the consequences would have been disastrous.

However, this incident still caused a lot of losses. The original residents either died in that attack or moved away.

The United Government repaired the defensive works of the safe zone here, but did not rebuild the streets and houses.

Once an unsafe incident occurred, people would no longer trust the safety of this place.

Even if the infrastructure was built, no one would be willing to move in.

So, the United Government simply didn't waste any more effort.

The lack of people actually put Qin Siyang at ease. At least, he didn't have to worry about someone stealing the food in his schoolbag.

Most people who graduated from "Ju'an School" couldn't find a job to make a living, which made the local law - and - order rather poor.

For Qin Siyang, the absence of people was much more reassuring than their presence.

Finally, Qin Siyang saw a two - meter - high blue sign with the words "Exit No. 114514 of the Safe Zone" painted in white paint. "Finally, I'm here."

When he arrived at Exit No. 114514, he wanted to go over and check the situation, but for some reason, it was surrounded by so many people that it was impossible to get through.

To find out what was going on inside, he had to find a high mound and observe carefully.

The first thing he saw was the protective gate of the exit.

This was his first time coming to a numbered safe - zone exit and his first time seeing the gate of a numbered safe - zone exit.

The gate was about seven or eight meters wide and three or four meters high. It seemed to be made of a special alloy and looked very heavy.

There were many layers of protective glass on the gate, so many that he couldn't even see clearly outside the protective area through the glass.

In front of the protective gate, there were more than a dozen people wearing transparent helmets and orange - and - white - striped anti - freeze suits.

An anti - freeze suit was worth more than two silver coins, which was an astronomical figure in Qin Siyang's world. Only sequence ability users could afford it.

Since the establishment of the United Government, the currency was no longer issued by individual countries but was replaced by copper, silver, and gold coins uniformly issued by the United Government.

Although they were called copper, silver, and gold coins, in order to support the large - scale use in safe zones around the world, these coins were not made of pure precious metals. To be precise, they were various alloys.

Among them, copper coins were the least valuable because they not only had a low manufacturing cost but also contained many other impurity metals.

Generally, the price of ten thousand copper coins was equivalent to that of one silver coin. And the price of one thousand silver coins was equivalent to that of one gold coin.

However, due to the low manufacturing cost of copper coins and the different proportions of other metals added by minting houses in different places, usually, it might take twelve thousand copper coins to exchange for one silver coin.

Silver coins were like tens of millions of assets in his previous life to Qin Siyang now, far beyond his reach.

It seemed that these were the sequence ability users gathering at this exit.

Those wearing anti - freeze suits were in the minority. Besides these dozen or so people, there were also thousands of ordinary people, like Qin Siyang, wrapped up tightly, gathered here.

Qin Siyang was a bit puzzled. What were these people doing?

Wasn't it only sequence ability users who would gather at the exit?

At this time, two sequence ability users in anti - freeze suits took off their helmets. It seemed they had completed their hunting mission and were about to go back.

Hundreds of ordinary people around them immediately swarmed forward.

"Two sirs, would you like to go and have a rest! There are top - notch foot - baths!"

"Two sirs, I have excellent dishes here!"

"I have a high - end apartment for the two sirs to live in for free! As long as the two sirs are willing to take a few photos with me!"

"Sir, my daughter is still unmarried. The moment she saw your heroic appearance, she decided that she would only marry you!"

"Sir, do you want a wife? If you already have a wife, I can be your concubine. I don't need any名分 (status)!"

The crowd rushed forward frantically but tacitly kept a distance of more than one meter from the two sequence ability users.

The two sequence ability users seemed to be used to this kind of scene and didn't stay long. In the end, they just chose a high - end restaurant and a comfortable hotel and then left.

The two shop owners they chose had excited red glows on their faces.

Qin Siyang was stunned as he watched the reactions of the crowd.

He knew that sequence ability users were sought after in this world, but he never expected it to be like this.

Ordinary people hoped to get close to a sequence ability user to get rid of their miserable current situation and live in a more comfortable place.

They were all trying hard to achieve social mobility. Unfortunately, it was likely that they would never succeed in their lifetimes.

Thinking of this, Qin Siyang felt grateful to fate and once again strengthened his determination.

"God has given me a chance. I must seize it well."

He wanted to push through the crowd and get closer to the remaining dozen or so sequence ability users, but was immediately pushed aside.

"Kid, go to the back of the line! What are you squeezing forward for!"

Qin Siyang said, "I'm not here to look for sequence ability users. I won't compete with you for business."

He just wanted to see if there were any discarded god remains in front. He wasn't interested in sequence ability users.

But others didn't believe his words.

As soon as they heard Qin Siyang's words, the people around laughed.

"Who are you trying to fool? Everyone who wants to squeeze forward says the same thing."

Qin Siyang had no choice but to wait on the outermost edge.

The protective gate of the safe - zone exit opened again and again. More and more sequence ability users came in and out, and the number of ordinary people surrounding decreased. By evening, Qin Siyang finally got a position closer to the front.

However, unlike others, whenever a sequence ability user returned from outside the safe zone, what he paid attention to was not the sequence ability users but the whereabouts of the god remains in their hands.

They took out the remains for the inspectors to check. Qin Siyang didn't know why, but these remains were all round.

Finally, all the round god remains were taken away by the inspectors next to them, and he didn't get any.

Just when Qin Siyang thought he would get nothing today, another team came back from outside the safe zone. A sequence ability user checked his harvest and finally threw an ear with many worms growing on it aside on the ground.

"I guess it fell into my backpack during the battle. It dirtied my bag." He complained.

Qin Siyang's eyes lit up when he saw the ear with worms. He was about to pick it up when no one was looking.

However, a cleaner swept the ear into a dustpan and turned to leave.

What's going on?! The cleaner actually stole his chance?!!

He was unwilling and immediately followed the cleaner away from the safe - zone exit.

The cleaner didn't realize that someone would be so interested in the "garbage" in the dustpan. He walked to the corner and directly dumped the ear into a dirty trash can and then left.

Qin Siyang watched the cleaner leave from a hidden place. After the cleaner left, Qin Siyang went up to the trash can, planning to take out the ear.

But just as he was about to move closer, he saw a person in uniform approaching. The man took a look at the god remains in the trash bin, then took out a notebook and made a record.

Qin Siyang frowned. "They even record the god remains in the trash bin? Is this really trash?"

However, the staff member from the administrative bureau didn't pay much more attention. After finishing the record, he walked away.

As soon as he left, Qin Siyang immediately rushed over. He opened the lid of the trash bin, and a thick smell of blood assaulted his nostrils.

But when he saw the scene inside the trash bin, he was stunned.

There were actually a great many god remains inside!!

Qin Siyang's eyes widened, and his heart thumped wildly.

"Is this... a veritable glutton's feast?!!"