Chapter 161: The Isolated City

Chapter 161 Isolated City

"Something on your mind?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone." Liu Chang nodded while eating and talking at the same time. "Some friends of mine might pass through here, so I want to know which factions have the most influence around here. After all, when you're looking for people, the more help you have, the easier it gets."

"So that's how it is." The woman smiled, took another bite of the purple sweet potato, and said, "Well, in that case, considering this food, I'll help you out."

"Thanks a lot," Liu Chang said. "I haven't asked your name yet."

"Ah, I'm Milan. I used to be a psychologist, but now..." Milan gave a wry smile as she chewed on the sweet potato, "...I sell my body."

"Oh." Hearing her resignation, Liu Chang gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "I understand."

"Thanks for understanding. It was because I understood too late that my little brother died." Milan finished the sweet potato in a few bites and began pacing around Liu Chang's room.

"How did he die?"

"Starved to death." A fleeting, unnatural look crossed the young woman's face as she spoke. "He wasn't very old. For a child, surviving the initial bacterial outbreak was already a huge hurdle. He was lucky back then and made it through, but just a few days later, he swelled up all over from lack of food and finally died."

"I heard people say before that being burned to death is the most painful way to die. But after seeing how my brother died, I don't think so anymore. Burning is still somewhat better than starving," Milan said, her lips twitching slightly. "Especially that kind of slow starvation—it's truly agonizing."

"So, from that moment on, you had an awakening?"

"Yeah, I don't want to die, and I certainly don't want to starve to death." The woman strolled over to stand in front of Liu Chang. "But in this world, I don't have hunting skills, no firearms, no connections, and no mutated abilities. I'm all by myself. The only things I have to sell are just these."

"I see." Hearing Milan's words, Liu Chang felt a trace of sympathy, but annoyance outweighed it. In the apocalypse, he had already heard far too many stories like this. The end of the world was a massive crucible, and everyone living inside it had their own story—mostly tragic ones.

Liu Chang's own life was filled with tragedy. Parents, friends, brothers, relatives—who hadn't lost one after another? Who wanted to listen to anyone else's miserable tale?

"Let's go, walk around with me." Broaching the subject of misery made Liu Chang stand up. "Let me take a look at this city and figure out how the factions are distributed here."

"Alright, follow me." Hearing Liu Chang's words, Milan turned and left the room.

Following behind her, Liu Chang placed his heavy weapon on the table—without any combat anticipated, dragging those two beasts onto the street wasn't a good idea; it drew too much attention. However, he still needed his dagger and handguns. Tucking a large and a small pistol into his waistband and getting properly equipped, Liu Chang left the room.

Walking out of the building behind the woman, Liu Chang didn't catch sight of Li Feng. He did see quite a few other personnel, though none of them were familiar. Those people didn't pay any attention to him when they saw him; it seemed to be a very loose organization, and he simply followed Milan all the way out onto the main street.

"You look like you're visiting this place for the first time?" Milan asked once they stepped out of the building.

"Yeah, first time here. I don't know much about anything." Liu Chang looked back at the building, which had been converted from a hot pot restaurant, and asked, "What goes on inside there?"

"Oh, it's a transit station for food supplies. The station chief is Li Feng," Milan said, looking at Liu Chang in confusion. "You didn't know?"

"How would I know? I only got here yesterday."

"Well, he seemed pretty familiar with you. That guy isn't poor, but nobody is very wealthy these days. Why else would he feed someone for free and even hire the likes of me?" Milan muttered, then added, "Anyway, it's none of my business, and asking too much would probably annoy you. You've been pretty nice to me, so I'll tell you everything I know."

"That's more like it." Liu Chang followed her onto the street.

The hot pot restaurant was located in the city center, which logically should have been a bustling area, but there weren't many people on the streets. Post-apocalyptic cities were all like this: amidst the desolation and decay, vitality constantly sprouted forth. This vitality wasn't human prosperity, but rather the rampant growth of plants and other creatures.

Therefore, ignoring the thatch grass growing on the roofs and the bugs crawling beneath their feet, this city could truly only be described as ruined and desolate.

"How much population is left in the city now?" Liu Chang asked, gazing at the empty street.

"Around a hundred thousand, I suppose," Milan said. "Most of them are dead."

"No wonder." Liu Chang looked at the deserted buildings on both sides. "More people died here than on the outside."

"What outside?"

"The outside world, the world beyond this Hide-and-Seek Forest," Liu Chang said. "I came from the outside."

"Really or joking?" Milan was shocked by this news. "That shouldn't be possible. Who could get through that Prison Forest? Everyone who goes in gets lost and dies inside."

"Believe it or not, the mortality rate in here really is higher than outside. Probably because the blockade is too tight," Liu Chang said, watching a listless person shuffle past him on the street. "Do you guys call the Hide-and-Seek Forest the Prison Forest? Is it really that hard to hunt in those woods?"

"Yeah, extremely hard. Even if there's prey, it's just too difficult to spot." Milan shook off her shock and said, "That's why food is so precious in here. Most of it comes from plants scavenged from the outside, and then the government research labs modify them and tell everyone to plant them. But the results have never been very good..."

"Because the plants mutate after a few generations, right?" Liu Chang knew this was a global problem. If Li Qingshui couldn't solve it back then, these people had even less chance of fixing it.

"Exactly. Not only is growing them slow, but they're hard to preserve, and we constantly have to search for fresh seeds outside," Milan said. "That's the root of the food shortage."

"So, in here, food is a harder currency than weapons?" Liu Chang pondered. "Does that mean if you want to hire someone for help, you need a large quantity of food as a bargaining chip?"

"Of course. Without friendship or food, who's going to work for you?" Milan pointed at herself as she spoke. "Take me for instance: if I hadn't had my eye on that pound of food and that purple sweet potato, do you think I'd be chatting with you this much?"

"That's fair enough." Liu Chang rubbed his chin. "In that case, take me to the biggest underworld syndicate around here first."