True Apocalypse Game

The shopkeeper immediately nodded his head rapidly, sniffing constantly as if trying to catch the aroma of the cigarette.

"Go ahead, sir. What would you like to trade for? I’ll also tell you any information I know."

Shen Feng nodded and scanned the shop, noticing it was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous junk, most of it dug up by miners from the ruins of various towns.

There was even a dilapidated motorcycle hanging on the wall, apparently used as a decoration.

Shen Feng’s eyes lit up, and he asked:

"Can that motorcycle still run?"

The shopkeeper immediately put on the sleazy face of a profiteer and said:

"Sir, this is the most valuable item in my shop. Its worth far exceeds even a single, legendary cigarette..."

Firefly, who was standing beside him, immediately cut him off.

"Oh, come on. Isn’t that the piece of junk I hauled back last year? It’s completely useless. The wheels are busted."

The shopkeeper said, slightly embarrassed, "Even so, it’s a memento of the pre-Cataclysm civilization. That definitely counts as a treasure."

"Treasure, my ass. Go look in those half-mined ruins. This stuff is all over the place... Those were your words, originally," Firefly said with a huff.

Shen Feng chuckled and asked, "Do you have any gasoline in the shop? Gasoline is... the liquid that makes vehicles run. It has a pungent smell..."

Before he could finish, both Firefly and the shopkeeper were staring at him with strange expressions.

Then, the shopkeeper pulled a battered old cola bottle from under the worn-out counter. It was filled with a yellowish liquid that gave off a strong smell of gasoline.

’The purity isn’t great, and there are some impurities, but it should be usable.’

The shopkeeper tilted his head and asked:

"Outsider, are you from a really barren place? We have a decent amount of gasoline here. We trade for it from the Crow Tribe, which is dozens of miles away... Of course, we don’t have any vehicles in town. We just use this stuff for lighting."

’The Crow Tribe?’

Shen Feng’s interest was piqued. It seemed the remnants of civilization in this world were more robust than he had initially expected. At the very least, vehicles still existed, and people could even refine oil.

Only freshly refined fuel could have lasted this long.

"I’ll take this broken-down motorcycle."

"Three cigarettes," the shopkeeper said, his eyes narrowed.

"Three cigarettes? For a broken motorcycle that can’t even run? That’s robbery!" Firefly shouted indignantly from the side.

Shen Feng said, his expression unchanged, "Only one. After all, it’s useless. And you have to throw in that bottle of fuel."

The shopkeeper sneered, "Outsider, you can’t possibly be thinking of fixing this thing, can you? You should give up on that idea. The best mechanic in our town couldn’t fix it. We even had people from the Crow Tribe take a look before, but it was no use."

Shen Feng remained impassive. "One cigarette, plus this money. Otherwise, I’m leaving."

As he spoke, he tossed out the bottle caps he had taken from the Desert Bandits.

The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, one it is. What else do you want?"

Soon, Shen Feng and Firefly continued to haggle. For the price of half a pack of cigarettes, they bought a pile of things, including the junk motorcycle and a number of metal parts Shen Feng had spotted in the shop.

They also got two bottles of groundwater and some dried rat meat.

Firefly also sold the supermarket sale flyer she had found, getting a full eight hundred bottle caps for it, instantly becoming a little rich girl.

Loaded with their haul, the two returned, and Shen Feng found an abandoned house in a corner of Nameless Town to move into.

There were plenty of such houses. You just had to pay a tax to the mayor to live in one, and you would be protected by the town’s security team.

To Shen Feng’s slight disappointment, the shopkeeper knew nothing about the questions he wanted to ask.

On the subject of the nuclear warhead, the shopkeeper even tried to make up a story, claiming the warhead was an egg laid by the God of the East Wind, but Shen Feng easily saw through his attempt to fool him.

In the end, the shopkeeper had to admit that only the mayor might know about such things, since he was the oldest person in town.

After helping Shen Feng put away all the junk, Firefly said with an excited look on her face:

"Shen Feng, thank you so much for this! Even though you tied me up, you’re a good person! I’m rich now, so I’m treating you to a meal! Come on, let’s go to the restaurant!"

Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Shen Feng’s arm and started dragging him outside.

The two quickly arrived at a building in the center of Nameless Town, which had a sign that read "Nameless Restaurant."

Leading Shen Feng inside, Firefly plopped down on a chair that was nothing more than an iron frame and slapped the table, shouting:

"Boss! Two potatoes, four cockroach cakes, two roasted rats, and a plate of dried earthworms! Oh, and a bottle of freshly drawn well water!"

The restaurant’s owner and chef were the same person. He had a fire going nearby and started roasting the potatoes and rats, teasing her as he worked.

"Looks like you’ve struck it rich, Firefly. Did you dig up some treasure?"

Firefly said with a grin, "I dug up some paper with god-script on it, and it even had an image of a god. Aren’t a lot of the big tribes collecting those?"

A few other people eating nearby couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement:

"That’s some incredible luck! That’s enough to get you through three winters... if you can keep getting reborn, that is."

"Being a miner is still the best job. It’s way better than growing potatoes and raising cockroaches."

"Tsk, tsk. Why can’t I ever dig up anything good..."

The food was served quickly, as there wasn’t much to prepare.

The potatoes were simply coated in rat oil and roasted. The cockroach cakes seemed to be made from ground-up cockroaches, and the dried earthworms were just washed, dried, and sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt.

Firefly paid it no mind, grabbing a potato and starting to wolf it down. Between bites, she said:

"It’s not as tasty as the food you gave me, but it won’t kill you, so it’s pretty good. Go on, eat!"

Shen Feng picked up a cockroach cake, examined it, and took a bite. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad. After all, they were ground up so thoroughly that only the protein was left.

He had long been mentally prepared for wasteland food. To be honest, the current situation was already many times better than he had anticipated.

But it was incredibly bland. With no oil and hardly any salt, it couldn’t be called delicious.

Shen Feng fumbled in his backpack for a moment, took out a jar of Lao Gan Ma, twisted it open, and placed it on the table.

He picked up his chopsticks, which were made from twigs, scooped some out, and put it on a golden-brown roasted potato. He took a bite, and the flavor was instantly so much better.

The aroma of the chili oil wafted through the air, immediately drawing a chorus of gulping sounds.

"What in the world is that? It smells incredible!"

"Could it be... a legendary condiment?"

"It looks like the chili peppers from ancient myths! It must be, it must be that stuff!"

"There’s a face on that jar, and even some god-script! Is this a Sacred Artifact from the ancient era? Is the woman in the picture a goddess?"

The surrounding crowd started murmuring, drooling with envy. The way they looked at Shen Feng had already turned to reverence.

’Who is this outsider, really? To possess so many treasures.’

’Could he be one of the Peach Blossom People from Peach Blossom Spring?’

In a corner, Scar and his group, who were eating cockroach cakes, had eyes filled with a greed they could barely contain.

"Scar, aren’t we the guardians of Nameless Town? Why won’t the mayor let us rob that outsider?"

A burly man said viciously.

Scar snorted coldly and said:

"The mayor wants order, and he wants his taxes. He couldn’t care less if we live or die..."

A hunchbacked subordinate next to him said viciously:

"I think it’s about time we got a new mayor... If it weren’t for that Holy Spear he has..."

Scar raised his hand slightly, watching Shen Feng in the distance, and said in a low voice:

"Keep your voices down. Have you guys noticed? That outsider... he doesn’t seem to have any mutations at all... Do you think he could be a Seed Source? I heard the Crow Tribe is looking for clean, untainted Seed Sources..."