Chapter 4: Chapter 4

It took only a second, before Jiang Chen stepped onto the dusty hardwood floor.

He checked the energy bar on his wrist. To his surprise, it only cost him 40% this time to complete the travel. Maybe the energy storage upgraded with the number of the times charged?

Jiang Chen shook his head. It was great news for him, but he couldn’t why it happened.

As he sat on the luxurious sofa, he enjoyed the comfortable life not common in the modern world. He lit a cigarette and watched time pass.

From the mold-filled window, Jiang Chen saw a glimpse of Sun Jiao’s shadow in the distance. He took out his binoculars to confirm before he opened the door to let her in.

“This is the gold you wanted.” He caught the bag and both of his hands suddenly dropped. Happiness overflowed his heart, as the bag was hefty. The bag weighed at least a couple of kilograms, but the girl threw it like a volleyball. The amount of power she possessed was daunting.

Jiang Chen glanced at her arms. Her slim arms didn’t contain any signs of muscle.

“That was so tiring. The bank had zombies everywhere. It took me almost two batteries of ammo to completely get rid of those gross creatures. The vault was also sealed by a heavy layer of steel boards that I couldn’t open. I got these gold bars from the VIP room.”

Sun Jiao wiped the sweat off of her forehead and threw her backpack onto the ground. Even if the gold bars only weighed a couple of kilograms, combined with her equipment and supply, she almost encumbered 20 kilograms while traversing the long distance.

“Catch!”

“Hmm? This is …” Sun Jiao caught the coke as she gazed at him.

“You seemed to have liked it.” He was a bit embarrassed after Sun Jiao stared at him for so long.

Her lips moved without a word. After moments of silence, she resumed her usual boldness. She opened the can and took a big sip out of the coke.

“Gulp, Gulp… Haha, this is awesome. This weather is so ridiculously hot. Hmm, this is cold?” Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen suspiciously.

“The fridge in the kitchen is still usable. The photocell and solar panel is working in this place.” He did not lie about this. Even though most of the electronics were destroyed, the power system somehow remained intact.

Maybe someone lived here and fixed some of the electronics. But from the layers of dust on the ground, that was a long time ago.

“That’s fine. You wouldn’t tell me where this Coke came from even if I asked.” Sun Jiao waved her hand to dismiss the thought. “Ok, what’s next? If we were to blow open the vault and move the gold here, it would take some professional help. At least, we need powerful explosives, or skilled hackers to break the electronic lock.”

“Where can we find them?” The explosives were a problem. It was almost impossible to buy them in large quantities in the modern world because of its restrictive nature, especially given Jiang Chen’s social status.

“A lot of survivor bases have them, like Liuding Town.” Envy flowed out of her eyes, as she gazed into the distance. “That’s a place people consider fun, even on wasteland…”

“Is it far from here?”

“Not too far, but a bit expensive. Except for the resident who owns the property and the labor who lost their freedom, visitors must pay one energy unit worth of crystals, or equivalently priced items to enter.”

“One energy unit of crystals?” Jiang Chen was confused.

“It’s this thing.” Sun Jiao searched in her pocket before grabbing a piece of darkened green crystal. “This piece of crystal has about 37 energy units left. You can use EP to check. These are quite difficult to find because only powerful mutants possess them on the back of their heads. If possible, I never want to meet those things again…”

Creatures that made this girl afraid? The thought of it sent a shiver down Jiang Chen’s spine.

He took the crystal and a faint attractive force pulled at his right arm. He was shocked. This thing could be used to charge the tattoo.

Jiang Chen’s facial expression remained calm. He played with it for a moment before returning it to Sun Jiao.

“What is one energy unit of crystals worth?”

“One-tenth of a can of meat or half of a normal can of food, ten nutrient supplies, one c-type battery, or three battery ammo. You can exchange so many things with it. This type of energy source is considered currency by many survival bases. You could even find a woman to sleep with you there.” Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen mockingly. She enjoyed teasing this little guy.

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“Hmm…37 energy units of crystal. I’ll use four cans of food in exchange?”

“Deal.” Without hesitation, Sun Jiao threw the crystal into Jiang Chen’s hands. However, as if she just thought of something, she hesitantly explained, “Even if you have quite a lot of food, you lost out on the deal. If you ever trade like this in the future, people are going to take advantage of you…”

“Oh?” Jiang Chen shrugged. He didn’t care too much about the three energy unit difference.

“Although ten energy units is worth a can of food. It also depends on what kind it is. The majority of canned food contain mutant fish meat, or a lot of them are also filled with sand. Which are the best case scenarios. Some of the canned foods even include human meat…”

The voice was full of despair and numbness. Jiang Chen had difficulty breathing; he was out of words.

“Curry chicken, fried pork… This is the first time I have ever had these delicacies in my life.” Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen full of awe. “Merchants use mutant cows to transport goods. I had the pleasure of having a meal with the beef from the mutant cows. Even the dry taste made me extremely satisfied.”

“I trust you,” Jiang Chen voice was quiet.

He felt a sudden fear overwhelm him. To Sun Jiao, he was powerless. If she desired his food, it would only take a blink of an eye to finish him.

Trust? Jiang Chen felt a deafening fear overwhelm him. He almost wanted to grab the gold, travel back to the modern world, and forget everything that happened here. With the gold bars, he could live like a millionaire.

He only realized now that this world was more complicated than he thought.

Maybe it was because of greed, or because of a strong sense of arrogance. After a hard internal battle in his head, he calmed down and resisted the temptation to flee.

His face was emotionless as he tried to disguise his fear.

“Trust?” Sun Jiao laughed. However, within her eyes, there was a flicker of emotions that she couldn’t hide. This distant word had long been extinct in this landscape; long buried by starvation and death. Although Jiang Chen said this valuable word to her, Sun Jiao unconsciously reacted with a disdained look.

With a sigh, Sun Jiao walked into the kitchen.

“Your naïveness is becoming very worrisome. However, I am not bothered by it.”

“…” Jiang Chen was more relaxed as he heard her words. This time he made the right bet, Sun Jiao had no ill-intentions.

Otherwise, she would have had plenty of time to kill him and wouldn’t have waited this long. Jiang Chen finally felt relieved, from this thought that has been bothering him for the longest time.

As Sun Jiao was about to reach the door, she turned around. “Since you are my employer, not only do I need to ensure your safety, I have the responsibility of preventing you from being tricked. If someone is after your wealth, that is also a problem for me. If you ever trade in the future, you should bring me.”

[She cares?]

“Don’t look at me like that! You are giving me goosebumps.” Sun Jiao fled frantically from Jiang Chen’s sight. She ducked into the kitchen, and screamed in shock, “what! How is this possible? A fridge!”

Deception, and stories, the majority of Jiang Chen’s responses were lies. It was to avoid the imminent trouble and danger.

But the glimpse of emotion from her eyes was real.

At that one glimpse, to his surprise, the bold girl was not so annoying. She was … cute?

“Stop eating canned food; tonight let’s eat a fresh meal! For celebrating my first employee.” Jiang Chen laughed and dashed into the kitchen, filled with an overwhelming amount of joy.

Sun Jiao was stunned in front of the fridge, as she did not bother to dispute her employee status. She stared at the tomatoes and eggs in the refrigerator.

Jiang Chen put these fresh ingredients in before Sun Jiao came back.

“You…” Sun Jiao turned her head around slow, with a dumbfounded voice.

“Don’t ask. I know you have a lot of questions. We can discuss this while we eat dinner. Now, do you know how to cut tomatoes?”

Jiang Chen left the dazed Sun Jiao in place, as a proud smile stretched across his face.

He took out a couple of tomatoes and eggs. “Tonight, we will make tomato fried eggs!”