The Safe Zone map was enormous, so much so that even the geography teacher at «Jū'ān School» didn't have a detailed one.
Naturally, Qin Siyang didn't know the distribution of the Safe Zone exits.
He only knew the approximate location of Exit 114514 because it was relatively close to him.
Out of over a hundred thousand numbered Safe Zone exits, he only knew this one.
Why would an ordinary person pay attention to the locations of Safe Zone exits unless they aimed to latch onto a Sequence Ability user?
Not knowing the exit locations wasn't an insurmountable problem. He remembered there was a route map at the bus stops near the main road. The map likely showed the locations of the Safe Zone exits.
On previous weekends, Qin Siyang would have been lying idle at home to reduce energy expenditure and eat less. This weekend was destined to be different.
Now, he was full of fighting spirit.
His heart was filled with only one belief.
Get stronger.
As long as he got stronger, he could leave this godforsaken place!
Qin Siyang shouldered his backpack full of food and walked for over ten minutes to reach a bus stop.
This was his first time at a bus stop because he, who could barely afford food, certainly couldn't afford the bus fare.
In Qin Siyang's world, the poor traveled on foot, the rich by bus.
As for those with private cars? Gasoline was an even scarcer resource than electricity. No such formidable people existed on the Safe Zone's edge.
He stood at the bus stop's route map, studying it for a long time.
He discovered that many stops along the bus route were actually named after Safe Zone exits. The only bus line on the Safe Zone's edge passed by several Safe Zone exits, and their numbers were all smaller than 114514.
As for which exit to go to, Qin Siyang wasn't sure.
He would just have to play it by ear.
He had never taken a bus in this life, so he didn't know the distance between stops.
"Sigh, if only bus rides were free for orphans too."
Qin Siyang looked at the five-copper-coin fare and shook his head helplessly. His remaining ten copper coins had all been given to the internet cafe yesterday.
"Five coins for a one-way trip, ten for round trip. I might as well go back to the internet cafe and look up more information."
Qin Siyang pursed his lips and began the task of measuring the distance between bus stops on foot. He needed to know the approximate distance between stops to estimate which Safe Zone exits were within walking distance for him.
He walked along the bus route for twenty minutes and reached the next bus stop.
"The bus stops here seem much farther apart than in my previous life."
After eating the godly remnants yesterday, his strength had increased, and his walking speed was extremely fast, far surpassing ordinary pedestrians. Whenever the road was empty, he would quicken his pace, advancing at full speed.
Even so, he could only cover the distance of three stops in one hour.
Knowing the distance per stop, he roughly understood his range of activity.
"The seventh stop is called Safe Zone Exit 54320, the seventeenth is Exit 89757, and the twentieth is Exit 38324. Right now, it seems only these three stops are within reach for me to search for godly remnants."
"The farthest, Exit 38324, would allow me to get home before tomorrow. Any exit farther than that, I probably couldn't make it back by Monday, meaning I couldn't get to school on time."
On Monday, Qin Siyang absolutely had to go to school early to report to the librarian that he intended to continue the work-study position.
Otherwise, the work-study librarian position for next week would be taken by someone else, and he'd have no money for the internet cafe.
After some thought, Qin Siyang decided to first walk to Safe Zone Exit 54320 to check the situation.
The one-hour-and-forty-minute journey didn't make Qin Siyang feel the slightest bit tired. He even grew more cheerful as he walked.
Material wealth and spiritual fulfillment are often discussed separately. Once a person has hope, they feel energetic doing anything.
Even though the streetlights were very dim, casting a压抑 (oppressive) atmosphere.
By time, it was daytime, but the sun had vanished ten years ago. Although it was early morning, the sky was forever stuck at midnight.
The infrastructure on the Safe Zone's edge was very basic. The main road he was on only had a dim streetlight every few dozen meters, barely illuminating a few steps.
The side alleys were plunged into complete darkness, requiring one to feel their way through.
Looking up, he could vaguely see scattered starlight and the occasional passing figures of gods on the Safe Zone's defensive glass.
A cold wind blew, penetrating Qin Siyang's several layers of non-insulating coats, making intimate contact with his skin. Goosebumps rushed to emerge in response.
Qin Siyang turned up his collar, wrapping it around his face to stop the wind from directly blowing on it, and continued walking quickly.
After seven stops, he reached Safe Zone Exit 54320.
This exit's number was over fifty thousand smaller than 114514, meaning按理说 (in theory) more Sequence Ability users should be hunting gods here.
As soon as Qin Siyang arrived, he found a higher, dilapidated building to observe the situation.
Sure enough, he saw nearly a hundred Sequence Ability users in anti-freeze suits, far outnumbering those at Exit 114514.
The ordinary people dressed like him surrounding the exit were packed densely, probably close to ten thousand people.
He assessed the crowd and the Sequence Ability users conversing at its center. No one noticed him.
Qin Siyang pretended to wander aimlessly around the periphery, looking for garbage bins containing godly remains.
Finally, one block away from the Safe Zone exit, he saw the bins for godly remains.
And the scale of the bins at this exit far exceeded those at Exit 114514.
If the bin at Exit 114514 was a luxurious banquet, then the bin area at Exit 54320 was like a full-course Manchu-Han Imperial Feast!
Seven or eight bins lined up in a row, each filled with godly remains! The dazzling array of bizarrely shaped remnants made Qin Siyang's mouth water.
If he could empty these seven or eight bins, wouldn't he skyrocket in strength?!
Qin Siyang's heart raced as he contemplated how to clear out all the remnants here at the fastest speed.
However, he suddenly noticed two cleaners covered in bloodstains beside the trash station.
Qin Siyang originally planned to wait from a distance until the two cleaners left before approaching.
But when he appeared within their line of sight, both looked up at him simultaneously.
After a brief moment of eye contact, the two went back to cleaning the bins.
But Qin Siyang's heart tightened, and he changed his plan.
He didn't stop but continued forward, approaching the bins and the two cleaners.
Qin Siyang acted like a passing student, walking past the two nonchalantly without looking back.
The two cleaners glanced at Qin Siyang, noted his plain clothes and young face, and didn't pay him much mind.
Only after walking far away, completely leaving the block, did Qin Siyang let out a sigh of relief.
"What's going on?! Why are people guarding the garbage bins?! And they're plainclothes! Was it reported by that uniformed recorder yesterday?"
When Qin Siyang made eye contact with the two, his nerves were tense. Although his face was expressionless, he observed extremely carefully, his brain working rapidly.
He realized that those two definitely weren't ordinary cleaners!
Because the stains on their clothes were too deliberate.
The godly remains in the bins had long been separated from the gods' bodies; the blood had mostly drained out when they were hunted.
The cleaner he saw yesterday at Exit 114514 only had a little blood on him.
Even though there were more remnants at Exit 54320, there wasn't much blood on the bins themselves.
But those two were covered in bloodstains as if they had just killed someone, splattered all over. That wasn't how cleaners should look!
It was clearly deliberately smeared on!
They had overdone it.
Furthermore, when Qin Siyang appeared far from the bins, both men looked up at him in unison.
This indicated they were very vigilant.
Cleaners should just do their jobs properly. Why be vigilant and observe their surroundings?! And both of them were like that!
"It seems the disappearance of the godly remains from the bins last night has attracted someone's attention! Probably these remains are collected and have other uses after being recycled?"
His worry before coming wasn't an unfounded fear.
In just one night, the Unified Government had launched an investigation into the matter.
No need to guess; the bin at Exit 114514 definitely had more plainclothes waiting for him.
Qin Siyang sighed. "If I had only taken one remnant yesterday, would it be less troublesome?"
But taking only one remnant per day, while seemingly safer, would require going to the bin over thirty times to achieve his current strength.
Going that many times, the probability of exposure would be greater! He might even be caught on the spot!
Doing one big haul was more practical.
It was precisely based on this consideration that he decided to clear out the bin yesterday.
Qin Siyang knew his plan to obtain godly remains from bins might be破产 (bankrupt). But he hadn't completely given up.
Even though he felt quite favorable towards the Unified Government, he was skeptical of the efficiency of its lower levels.
Otherwise, why would «Jū'ān School» still not offer courses related to Sequence Ability users?
Perhaps the situation hadn't escalated enough to cut off all his opportunities.
"Fine, no chance at the bins here. I'll keep walking forward and try my luck! Even if there's no opportunity, I've gotten much stronger from yesterday's harvest. I still came out ahead!"
Qin Siyang left Safe Zone Exit 54320 and continued walking along the bus route into the distance.
The next Safe Zone exit was Exit 89757, ten stops away.
"Ten stops... Sigh, another three-plus hours of walking. Not sure if I can make it home today. I might end up sleeping outside."