Chapter 10 The Night Watchman and the Sinister Slumber [Please Add to Favorites and Request Recommendation Tickets]

"Hehehe..."

"Hehe..."

"Heh..."

"Damn it, I can't sleep."

"No, no, I need to hypnotize myself. One sheep, two sheep...one dumpling, two dumplings..."

"Oh crap! I still can't control myself! Cancer cells have mutated and replicated in the body to this extent! Who would have thought, after leaving that wretched place, I'd still manage to get this stuff."

"Look at what luck I have, tsk tsk, I've hit the jackpot!"

"Damn, nope. I still need to sleep."

"One bowl of dumplings, two bowls..."

Ren Zhong did not know that after he left, Sun Miao's sleep pod echoed with the eerie laughter for a long, long time.

...

In the reception hall on the ground floor of the town government building, Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian met the mayor of Starfire Town.

The mayor, named Ma Dafu, was short and chubby with a wrinkled face, his medium-length silver-black hair slicked back neatly.

At this moment, Ma Dafu was looking at Ren Zhong with a serious expression, his face written with impatience.

"Name?"

"Ren Zhong."

"Age?"

"23 years old."

"What brings you to Starfire Town?"

Ren Zhong thought for a moment, "Employment."

Ma Dafu's frown deepened, "Forgive me for being blunt, but you're not an official citizen. If you're just here for a short visit or a stopover, I personally have nothing more to say. But if you plan on working and even staying here long-term, then I advise you to give up that notion."

Ren Zhong glanced at Zheng Tian beside him and asked Ma Dafu tentatively, "Is it because of the Pu Cha?"

"Of course. The temporary wild resident quota in the town is already overfilled. You won't be able to obtain official citizen status within three months, so out of a responsibility to you, I suggest you plan ahead and leave early to avoid bad luck when the time comes and don't say I didn't warn you."

Ren Zhong nodded, "I understand."

"That's good. Your identity is now registered. You now have the status of a temporary resident of Starfire Town, but your rank is last place, you should understand what this means."

"Thank you, Mayor."

...

Ren Zhong and Zheng Tian walked side by side out of the town office.

Zheng Tian glanced at the wrist watch, saying, "It's almost legal sleep time. We need to hurry to the communal sleep pods. You're new here and unfamiliar with the place, so I'll take you there. I've already reserved a sleep pod for you, but I haven't applied for a formal wrist watch lease for you. If you want to rent one, you'll have to handle it yourself tomorrow."

Ren Zhong nodded, "Thank you."

Zheng Tian moved closer and blinked playfully, looking innocently charming, and said, "No need for thanks. We're friends, helping you with small favors is expected."

You have to admit, her cute doll face coupled with such an endearing expression is highly deceptive.

Ren Zhong nodded with an even more naive and sweet expression than hers, "Mm, you're thoughtful. We are friends."

"Alright, let's hurry up and go."

Zheng Tian grabbed Ren Zhong's arm and quickly pushed him forward, heading exactly in the direction that the lower-class wild residents had gone earlier.

With their bodies touching, Ren Zhong's movements appeared a bit stiff.

Zheng Tian acted carefree yet was quietly observing Ren Zhong's state.

Heh, still shy, seems like a beginner.

The somewhat awkward Ren Zhong remained internally calm.

He was quietly thinking, if given a choice, he actually didn't want to continue engaging with Zheng Tian's group.

They had just met for less than half a day and were still far from being friends. Being overly attentive without any reason can either mean treachery or manipulation.

Especially having seen Zheng Tian's cold-blooded side, he increasingly felt that she was dangerous.

To continue entangling with her felt like courting disaster.

Unfortunately, being new and without anyone else to rely on,

Comparing it to relying on others even more unfamiliar and unknown, it seemed better to maintain contact with Zheng Tian's group for now to thoroughly understand the environment before making other plans.

The communal sleep pods were located at the corner of the high wall at the town's outskirts, a flat square.

Twenty-five large rectangular shapes, resembling giant coffins, were stacked neatly in the center of the square.

Z-shaped steel ladders folded up the sides of the rectangular shapes.

Each shape was twenty meters high, divided evenly into ten layers, each two meters high.

Each layer contained ten long, narrow rooms.

Ren Zhong followed Zheng Tian onto the fifth layer of one rectangle, then took two steps onto a balcony to enter the room next to the steel ladder.

Inside, ten iron-framed beds were lined up along each side with a very narrow gap of only one meter down the center. There were five beds, each 1.2 meters wide, connected head-to-tail on one side.

"This is my bed. Hanyu and the others are down my bed, already asleep." Zheng Tian tapped the flatbed on the left side of the room and pointed across, "That's yours. We wash up in our own houses you don't have a house yet, make do for tonight. Think of a plan tomorrow, go to bed early."

"Mm."

Zheng Tian called out once more, then lay on her bed and slapped the wall.

A square opening clicked open on the wall, resembling a hidden compartment.

She raised her hand to reach in, took out a wrist watch, put it on her right hand, then lay flat without acknowledging Ren Zhong further.

The wrist watch she just took out had an alloy cord, one end secured to the watch face, the other inside the opened compartment, resembling an anti-theft chain in phone stores.

Ren Zhong carefully observed the wrist watch on Zheng Tian's right hand, noting it resembled Sun Miao's in style, with a round face.

He looked around, finding everyone else in the room also wearing such a wrist watch on their right hands while sleeping.

This must be the rental wrist watch Zheng Tian and the mother-son duo mentioned earlier. He wondered how its functions differed from his own.

He would seize an opportunity to test it tomorrow.

Ren Zhong stopped pondering, lay down, and pulled the thin blanket over.

But he immediately threw the blanket aside.

It smelled strong, no idea what kind of monsters might have used it before.

Ren Zhong tossed and turned for a while, unable to sleep.

The room had no door.

The dual moons' light streamed through the doorway onto the alloy floor, reflecting like frost.

By the moonlight, Ren Zhong glanced at Zheng Tian opposite.

Her eyes were slightly closed, seemingly in a deep sleep.

Ren Zhong sighed, noting how well she slept. If he recalled correctly, within thirty seconds of lying down, her breathing was already even and steady.

Taking advantage of this rare tranquility, unable to sleep anyway, Ren Zhong instinctively analyzed the situation again.

From the start of contact with Zheng Tian's group in the evening to now, after hours of effort, his understanding of this new world was deepening rapidly.

Yet he still couldn't understand why everyone except those with personal sleep pods had to gather here to sleep.

He felt a vague unease.

What's the reason behind this?

Don't they find it inconvenient?

Do the poor deserve no privacy?

Don't they have their own homes?

If it's to bond emotionally, that reason seems far-fetched.

Is there really danger?

Dangerous enough that no one dares sleep at home, requiring everyone to gather in this one place?

Also, earlier while climbing the ladder, he saw guards with guns at each end of the balcony on every floor, looking around nervously, clearly on high alert.

Ren Zhong was utterly baffled by this.

Time continued to pass by.

Unwittingly, it was already one in the morning.

He still hadn't fallen asleep.

Suddenly, blinding light shone through the door opening.

Followed closely by thunderous explosions, one after another.

"They've come! Prepare to engage!"

Ren Zhong heard a voice call out tensely from outside.

His room was close to the staircase.

The shout from the gun-toting guard on this floor seemed close at hand.

"Report to the Night Watchman Captain! Three First Level Ruined Beast night wolves have appeared under Cabin Thirteen! Requesting support from the mobile team! Requesting support!"

Subsequently, dense kinetic gunfire rang out like thousands of firecrackers.

Ren Zhong's heartbeat quickened, his complexion changed, and he sat up straight from the bed.

He had speculated about this with Sun Miao earlier, and now his conclusion was confirmed.

In this world, sleeping was indeed fraught with events.

He wanted to go out and see the situation.

But he suddenly noticed that Zheng Tian, Chen Han, Wen Lei, and others all remained utterly still in their beds.

These people's eyes remained shut, breathing steady, seemingly oblivious to the commotion outside, like they were dead.

Outside was a lively battle, danger seemingly close, yet the room without a door exuded a strange peace and calm.

Could they really not be woken?

Ren Zhong was perplexed.

[Please save to favorites and vote for recommendation tickets]