Chapter 82: 82, Cigarettes and alcohol

Ren Xiaosu had seen suits before; the important figures from the barriers had to pass through the settlements when leaving the barriers, so Ren Xiaosu had once seen from afar a car with an important figure in a suit sitting upright in a dignified manner.

At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought, the important figures inside the barriers really are impressive.

But if someone were to wear a suit, even a white one, to venture into the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu would surely mutter a curse under his breath—idiot!

Suits like that would hinder combat too much; raising arms and legs would be restricted by the clothing, and if one encountered a beast too powerful to defeat, they might not even be able to run away.

Yet at this moment, when Ren Xiaosu saw the young man standing on the rooftop, he did not feel that the other's attire was particularly out of place or incongruous with the wilderness, because the other did not need to fight.

This was probably the leader of the Qingshi Consortium's operation this time, Ren Xiaosu thought such a consortium's important figure really did look a bit different.

He ducked his head, afraid of being discovered by the Qingshi Consortium's combat forces; after all, there were over a thousand combat personnel alone responsible for the blockade near this construction site, and Ren Xiaosu felt he and Xu Xianchu had underestimated the Qingshi Consortium's determination to seal off this place.

Ren Xiaosu curiously scanned his surroundings, wondering where Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding.

Though he couldn't see them, Ren Xiaosu knew they were there.

"Prepare to leave," Ren Xiaosu had no intention of concerning himself with others' plans; when he realized he couldn't seize the secret of Jingshan, he felt a desire to retreat.

Otherwise, staying here was pointless; as for Jingshan's secret, perhaps Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu were more interested in it.

Ren Xiaosu felt he really had no need to risk himself for this secret; if there were someone here with all high-level skills, and he held dozens of basic and master-level skill maps, perhaps Ren Xiaosu would be willing to try...

Such a person was the real treasure to Ren Xiaosu.

Actually, the most important thing was that Ren Xiaosu noticed the number of underground buildings being excavated was increasing, and some buildings collapsed with just a gentle touch from an excavator.

Before, they had stood firm only because no one had "touched" them.

Some buildings that were originally exposed on the surface still retained relatively intact shop signs, which he could barely recognize, such as beauty salons, blind massage parlors, and so on...

Ren Xiaosu was almost unable to believe there could be anything particularly precious here!

This was the main reason he wanted to leave, right?

When Ren Xiaosu saw those signs, he felt his trust had been betrayed, his intelligence insulted. Now, thinking back to those QR codes, Xiao Longkan, and plastic dolls, they were obviously not anything particularly rare!

He didn't know what Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin thought upon seeing this scene; in any case, Ren Xiaosu was thoroughly fed up.

He had run so far, endured so many dangers, and the result was just this?

Ren Xiaosu retracted his head and quietly slipped around the mountain side; at this moment, he could still hear gunshots from the woods behind him, indicating that the Qingshi Consortium's combat forces had not yet successfully dealt with that monster.

The gunfire reassured Ren Xiaosu; at least for now, the Qingshi Consortium certainly had no time to deal with him.

Although there were more soldiers guarding below the hillside, the problem was that these people were all concentrated near the active construction site, and the other abandoned places seemed to have lost their value, they didn't even glance at them.

Yet those places abandoned by the consortium were exactly the loopholes Ren Xiaosu could exploit to break through.

The Qingshi Consortium had cut down all the trees along the road to use as a base for the path; Ren Xiaosu had to admit he had witnessed the consortium's capabilities.

In this desolate place, they could open a path just by saying so, without needing to negotiate with the beasts in the mountains.

This made Ren Xiaosu reassess the consortium's strength; after all, this was only the combat forces of a single barrier, and according to Yang Xiaojin, a consortium might control twenty or so refuge barriers!

So if Ren Xiaosu fled toward Barrier 112, the creatures like beasts along the way would surely have been scared away.

Although this route would make it a bit difficult to return to Refuge Barrier 113, requiring a long detour, there was no choice—this was Ren Xiaosu's best option.

Ren Xiaosu silently moved toward another direction of this "city"; the natural ravines and dilapidated buildings on the surface were his best cover.

He saw the ruins of a collapsed high-rise, its tall structure split into two sections, and Ren Xiaosu had no doubt that before the catastrophe, people could have stood atop this building to overlook the entire city.

When Ren Xiaosu lived in the settlements, he often chatted with Yan Liuyuan about what the barriers were like inside; now, it seemed the area of the barriers might be broader than this city, but the level of refinement and prosperity was far behind.

Of course, refinement and prosperity were all things of the past; now, there were only ruins and desolation.

Ren Xiaosu slid down the hillside along the shadows of the trees, and he muttered at the grayish signs scattered in the ruins: "Why are there so many foot bath wellness signs in this city... Did people used to like washing their feet?"

Walking between this abandoned city and the dirt, Ren Xiaosu carefully avoided everyone's sight; he was about five hundred meters away from the Qingshi Consortium's combat forces, and as long as he was careful and used the blind spots and building cover effectively, he would surely not be discovered.

But as he walked, Ren Xiaosu found himself unable to move forward; there was a well-preserved tobacco and liquor shop on his left...

Most of the buildings had been crushed into powder due to tectonic movements and earthquakes, but thirty percent of the city's buildings still remained.

A tobacco and liquor shop, Ren Xiaosu's eyes lit up.

After all, tobacco and liquor were scarce resources in the settlements; otherwise, Zhang Jinglin, as the schoolmaster, wouldn't have gone days without smoking...

The goods in this tobacco and liquor shop were probably more than all the items in Lao Wang and Lao Li's shop combined; if he brought them back, he could become the wealthiest man in the settlements in minutes!

Ren Xiaosu secretly glanced at the Qingshi Consortium's side, and when he confirmed no one was paying attention to this area, he eagerly entered the shop.

He reached for the cigarettes on the counter, which were wrapped in transparent plastic, and Ren Xiaosu thought that with the plastic protection, they might be preserved better.

But the moment he touched the cigarette box, the plastic-wrapped cigarettes also crumbled into paper dust.

Ren Xiaosu felt a pang of pain; how long had these things been stored here?

In fact, Ren Xiaosu didn't know that tobacco also had a shelf life; although the tobacco factory never mentioned how long their cigarettes could last, in reality, tobacco stored for over three years would change flavor.

After all, the sealing of those plastic packages was quite mediocre.