Value Investment, Loan Secured!

That he might not have traveled to another world, but rather traversed the timeline, was good news for Cheng Ye. It meant his roots were still on this planet. Perhaps one day, when he possessed enough strength, he might return to the ruins of Yangcheng where he once lived, find the rental apartment he used to stay in, dig out the spare change tucked into the crevices of his mattress, and see the motivational slogans he had scribbled on the wall for the graduate school entrance exam... Of course, eighty years had passed, accompanied by the rise and fall of transhuman powers; no one knew what those ruins had morphed into by now. Perhaps everything had turned completely unrecognizable, but wasn't living all about holding onto a sliver of hope? "If events had unfolded along the normal timeline, even if I managed to land a stable job right after graduation, I most likely wouldn't have survived the S-1 virus seven years later. "Still, the end of the world... Did the Mayans even foresee extraterrestrial life visiting Earth?!" Cheng Ye silently complained to himself, preferring to believe it was just a strange coincidence. Placing Origin of Infection back onto the shelf, he pulled out a second book and began reading. Transhuman Diary. A firsthand account written by a transhuman, it thoroughly documented the psychological journey of an ordinary person abruptly obtaining a transhuman object and rising to the pinnacle of life. Although text lacked the visceral impact of video, Cheng Ye could still read two words between the lines: Devour men! To become a transhuman, one had to climb over the bones of others. One had to vie and pillage, or else spend an entire lifetime with no chance of getting ahead. Precisely because of this, a portion of transhumans with deep-seated obsessions and unique abilities transformed into entities akin to earthbound spirits after losing their sanity to the S-4 virus. Their traces were nearly impossible to track; even when they did appear, they couldn't be killed, and mere contact would spread the infection. Humanity had simply erased these regions entirely from maps and history, cutting off human exploration at the source. Opening the third book, Distribution of Primal Infection Sources, he saw that it was indeed not the distribution map of shelter cities provided by the checkpoint, but rather the world map Cheng Ye was familiar with—except that many landmasses were missing. Such as Wa Island, or the entire Antarctic plate. Turning his attention to the domestic map, Cheng Ye's gaze sharpened as he spotted a pitch-black zone and four orange-red zones. "Does pitch-black signify an off-limits forbidden zone, while orange-red indicates extreme hazard?" Like a parched sponge suddenly dropped into water, Cheng Ye voraciously absorbed this hard-to-find information about the wasteland. The patter of rain outside the window became the perfect white noise, completely walling off the chaos of the Buffer Zone. He lost all track of time. The rain subsided, and the heavy dark clouds gradually parted, revealing a thin sliver of sunlight. The defense comm sitting on the desk suddenly vibrated with an incoming message, abruptly snapping Cheng Ye back to reality. "It's already six-thirty?" He had entered the library at nine o'clock. In the blink of an eye, nearly nine hours had slipped by. On the wooden desk stood three stacks of books, half as tall as a person. Gwen had allowed this because Cheng Ye read at an astonishing speed and was deeply engrossed. After quizzing Cheng Ye on two random questions and confirming he wasn't merely skimming through them, Gwen had gladly agreed to let him fetch multiple volumes at once to save time walking back and forth. "Mr. Cheng, are you hungry? We sell nutrient paste here, at the same price as outside." Gwen poked her head out from behind a bookshelf and waved. "Or if you have any other needs, please don't hesitate to ask. The Survival Library extends every possible courtesy to wise and studious patrons like yourself." "Mm..." Glancing at his defense comm, Cheng Ye smiled and shook his head. "Excuse me, but my work has called. Thank you for your hospitality. I'll be back tomorrow to read again." "Very well. The rain stopped at four o'clock. I've already dried the raincoat you hung by the window and packed it in a bag by the door. Just bring the bag back when you return tomorrow." "Also..." Gwen hobbled over. Only then did Cheng Ye notice that she had an impairment in her left leg, walking with a limp. No wonder she had stayed huddled on the cot all this time. "You may go ahead. I'll shelve these books for you, and I'll keep track of the ones you haven't finished reading yet." "Thank you so much!" Cheng Ye nodded, knowing full well that this was Gwen's way of investing in him, much like Uncle Dong giving him nutrient paste that morning. The reality of the wasteland... As long as you demonstrated value the other party cared about, you would receive the finest treatment. Perhaps at some point, those investments would be repaid tenfold or a hundredfold, altering the trajectory of their lives. Stepping out of the library, the sky had indeed turned from leaden gray to clear and bright. The dense, dark clouds had mostly receded, and the remaining overcast patches resembled crumpled wads of cotton, drifting lazily along the horizon. A few shafts of sunlight poured down through the gaps in the clouds, one beam landing squarely on the bluestone paving in front of the library, mingling with the crisp, clean scent unique to the aftermath of rain. Cheng Ye took a deep breath, feeling the heaviness in his chest completely swept away. "So refreshing!" Compared to his body before transmigrating, which had been battered through several rounds of academic torment, his current physique was frighteningly robust. His sore neck, slightly stiff back, and numb calves returned to normal after just a few light stretches. Yet looking at the rolling dark clouds on the horizon, Cheng Ye knew that the downpour had only temporarily let up. As long as no new cyclone formed to drive the warm, moist air currents forward, the rainband would linger persistently along the Chuancheng line. Beep, beep, beep... The defense comm vibrated again. Since Cheng Ye had already turned off Do Not Disturb, it jumped directly from messages to an incoming call screen. It was Luo Xiaoxue. "Hey, Sister Luo, I was just at the library... All right, got it, I'm heading over right now!" Hanging up, Cheng Ye waited less than two minutes before easily squeezing onto the bus heading back to the Main Urban District. With the storm abating, the lockdown in the Main Urban District had also been lifted. Quite a few laborers in work clothes sat inside the bus, chattering about the unusual plants they had encountered while clearing wasteland today. Cheng Ye instinctively assumed they meant the transhuman plants capable of granting powers to humans, but after listening closely for a while, he shook his head with a quiet chuckle, thinking he must have read himself silly. After the outbreak of the S-4 virus, transhuman plants had not been spared; most perished, and only a tiny fraction achieved symbiosis with the infected. Namely, the 'special infected variants' Gwen had mentioned earlier. These special infected variants retained their botanical characteristics. Though capable of movement, they did not proactively attack humans, and were widely distributed across the various continental plates of Blue Star. Rumor had it that their plant portions could still bestow transhuman abilities upon humans without any risk of infection. Consequently, there was always a faction of scavengers in the wasteland scouring the ground high and low for them. Sadly, after searching for all these years, no one had ever heard of anyone actually finding one and striking it rich. The laborers currently discussing mutated plants were somewhat like people in modern times talking about the lottery: deep down, everyone knew these were not those miraculous special infected variants, yet they clung to an idle fantasy, hoping to strike gold. "It's transhuman power, after all—who wouldn't be tempted?" Truth be told, having learned how formidable transhumans were, Cheng Ye felt an intense yearning stir within him as well. After all, in comparison, ordinary wastelanders had at most heard stories of how incredible transhumans were, whereas he had "witnessed" such powers with his own eyes. In movies and anime, of course. Screeech— Tires worn almost bald screeched sharply against the slick road, and the stop announcer mechanically chimed right on cue: "Arriving at Happiness Bank." Cheng Ye stepped down from the bus. This was his second time coming here. The previous time went back to his second day after transmigrating to the wasteland, when he had come to sign documents to inherit Cheng Long's estate. "Xiao Cheng?" Cheng Ye was squinting at the bank building not far off when a gentle female voice suddenly sounded from beside him. He turned his head. Luo Xiaoxue was walking over accompanied by a middle-aged man with slicked-back hair, looking at him in astonishment. "We haven't seen each other in two months. How did you get so built?" "Ah? Did I?" Cheng Ye scratched his head, promptly passing the buck. "It's all thanks to Brother B. He keeps a close eye on my training every day. Even if I slacked off, there was bound to be some progress." "Really?" Luo Xiaoxue looked him up and down with slight suspicion. When Cheng Ye first left the High Wall, she had accompanied Liu Bi to pick him up. In her memory, Cheng Ye had been a gaunt, pale youth who always kept his head down, quiet as a clam. Unexpectedly, two months later, the young man before her had shoulders broad enough to nearly fill the collar of his shirt, distinct muscle definition along his forearms, and a vigorous vitality radiating from his entire frame. When he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled naturally, exuding a crisp, sharp vitality from deep within his bones. "Sister Luo, if I were still the way I used to be, Brother B wouldn't feel comfortable letting me guard the south and north checkpoints on my own, would he?" Liu Bi was thirty-five, and Luo Xiaoxue was thirty-four. Given that the original host was only nineteen, calling her 'Sister' might feel a bit awkward, but before transmigrating Cheng Ye had already been twenty-six, so they weren't far apart in age. "True enough..." Luo Xiaoxue studied him a while longer before suppressing her bewilderment. Turning around, she made introductions. "This is your Uncle Song, one of the administrators at the Works Bureau. He was very close with your father and Liu Bi. We'll have him front some contribution points for you first. No need to rush to pay it back later; I'll have Brother B cover it for you in the meantime." "Thank you, Uncle Song!" Cheng Ye immediately greeted him. The slicked-back middle-aged man offered a genial smile. "No need to stand on ceremony with me. Cheng Long and I were comrades-in-arms. Cheng Ye, if you ever run into trouble in the future, just come find me at the Works Bureau." "How could I trouble you like that, Uncle Song? Being able to borrow contribution points today is already a tremendous help!" Exchanging pleasantries, the three of them stepped inside the Buffer Zone Branch of Happiness Bank. With an interior layout reminiscent of a modern rural credit cooperative, it had four service counters, none of which had any patrons at this hour. Hardly surprising. Unlike Happiness Coins, which circulated freely, contribution points were strictly regulated throughout Happiness City's domain. Every single point spent had to be recorded and fully traceable, so ordinary people rarely had reason to visit. For an apprentice inspector like Cheng Ye, the borrowing quota was only one hundred contribution points every half year. And that was the primary reason Liu Bi had specified one hundred points. "Inspector Cheng, please note: borrowing contribution points from others requires a legitimate and proper purpose, and they may only be used by you personally. If an audit later discovers that the borrowed points were circulated through other means, you will be fined two to ten times the amount depending on the severity of the violation." While Cheng Ye was signing the paperwork, the staff member seated behind the counter spoke up to remind him.