Lin Ya responded with a sound, then casually found a windproof and safe corner to sit down. In this world, zombies had long been eradicated, and other dangers only consisted of occasionally harmful mutated plants and sandstorms.
[Dong dong dong dong dong!]
With the cheerful voice of 123, a round spinning wheel suddenly appeared in front of him, but it was completely empty with nothing written on it.
[Host! It’s time to draw a prize!]
Lin Ya pressed the button in the center, and the pointer began to spin rapidly, eventually slowing down and stopping, revealing a bubble.
Inside the bubble, something seemed to be wrapped.
[Host, you need to reach out and touch it to find out what it is. I don’t even know what that is right now.] 123 was also a bit curious; it transformed into a fluffy ball and nestled on Lin Ya’s shoulder.
Lin Ya extended his hand to touch the bubble and immediately felt a moist sensation. In the next second, the bubble vanished.
[Congratulations! You have won: Gathering Skill (This skill can be used in both game and real life.)]
“Gathering Skill?” Lin Ya had never played online games, but upon seeing the note and the name, he understood immediately, “Is this a game skill?”
[To think it’s Gathering Skill! The host is quite lucky!] 123 expressed its admiration, explaining: [Gathering Skill is generally the favorite of hosts in the cultivation world because it comes with a map that can locate the positions of rare treasures. Cultivation hosts usually use it to treasure hunt.]
“Rare treasures?” Lin Ya stood up, pointed at the surrounding sand, and smiled slightly: “The map shows there’s not even a single hair here, let alone any grass.”
[Uh…] 123 went silent.
It mostly thought that the host was just too unlucky. Even though it thought this, it was afraid to say it out loud.
After walking in the desert for a day, apart from concrete and steel, there was nothing, not even a blade of grass. Lin Ya took off his temperature-regulating protective suit, and just as he unzipped it, sand splattered all over his face.
“……” Lin Ya smacked his head, feeling dazed, and quickly found a wind-blocking spot to remove his protective suit, shaking off the sand that had gotten inside. In less than a moment, he felt the scorching heat of ultraviolet rays.
123 quickly recorded the host’s embarrassed appearance, kindly avoiding the ugly mosquito perspective, then nonchalantly stored it in the database.
Lin Ya put on the protective suit again, took out the food and water he had stored from the previous world from 123’s system space, and after satisfying his hunger and thirst, he continued deeper into the ruins.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to find the location of the base now; the original owner simply had no memory of the map. He relied entirely on the navigation map on his radio watch and his teammates’ guidance when he went out.
He had to look for old maps in the collapsed city to find the location of the base.
But looking at the towering ruins, he felt a headache; it would take an eternity to find anything—
Theoretically, they wouldn’t have strayed too far in the storm, so if he could find his teammates, that would work.
Lin Ya nimbly climbed up the ruins, avoiding the steel bars, iron nails, and sharp concrete shards along the way. He crossed through a narrow opening and successfully entered the interior of the ruins.
This place seemed to have once been an office building, with abandoned work desks and chairs piled together, trapped beneath some boards. Nearby, there were shattered computer remains scattered about.
Numerous broken cups and scattered documents lay on the cracked floor, and a money tree was also withered and curled up, resembling a twisted branch.
“……” Wait, a branch—
Lin Ya suddenly realized that branches in this world could also form mutated plants.
At that moment, a chime sounded, and a virtual hand appeared in front of him, displaying words indicating it was collectible.
He instinctively tapped it, and instantly the dry branch, resembling seaweed, was grabbed by the virtual hand.
[Collection successful, please put it away.]
Lin Ya: “……” Huh? Huh?
He rarely felt confused, so what use did he have for this thing?
Chapter 21: Desert Wasteland Apocalypse (Part 2)
Lin Ya shook the withered branch in his hand, revealing a hint of disdain on his usually calm face. He glanced at the sunlight piercing through the gaps and confirmed that this was just a dried money tree branch, not some mutated plant. He casually placed it into his loose backpack.
The vegetation on the ground was minimal; apart from mutated plants that could survive in such harsh conditions, there was likely nothing else that could live. This shriveled branch was better than nothing; perhaps it might hold some research value in the eyes of those at the research institute.
Passing through the top layer of debris, Lin Ya took out a small flashlight from his backpack, holding it in one hand as he turned it on, instantly illuminating the area below as bright as day.
He gently leaped down from the broken layer, finding a relatively spacious crack to squeeze through, and, as expected, he once again saw some familiar office supplies.
Picking up a black pen trapped in a corner, Lin Ya pondered; it seemed this area had not been searched by anyone.
But that was understandable. After the apocalypse, many buildings collapsed and sank due to land issues, becoming buried. Some others were revealed again because of sandstorms.
Moreover, given the original size of the country, it was reasonable that many unmapped cities existed, especially with zombies forcing people to confine themselves to small territories.
Now that zombies had almost gone extinct, yet the ground was still inhospitable to humans, they had no choice but to delving deeper underground, which was a helpless situation.
He dragged the pen across the white paper beneath his feet, expecting it to be dry—and it was. The ink had long been gone.
Though it couldn’t be used, Lin Ya still put it away.
Passing under the collapsed concrete pieces, Lin Ya continued to descend, the dark and silent space only filled with the echo of his footsteps and the light from the flashlight.
“Tap, tap.”
His shoes rubbed against the sandy floor, and the further he went down, the more sand he encountered, but with it came a progressively complete space.
This building had about ten floors and was likely one of those that had sunk underground.
Besides the glass having shattered due to pressure, sand had entered every level through the broken windows, while the rest of the items remained relatively intact.
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