Chapter Seventeen: Encountering a Robbery

"Did you come from the other side?" A group of about a dozen men and women stared at Shen Lie in astonishment, their eyes filled with suspicion. Although Shen Lie's leg was injured, he didn't consider these ordinary people a threat. Each of them looked sickly and thin, staggering as they walked. Although they clutched axes, metal pipes, and other makeshift weapons, they posed no danger to him. Without hesitation, he nodded in response.

In truth, even if he wanted to deny it, he couldn't. Given his current state—and with the spider monsters still lingering across the river—anyone could piece together what had happened. These people merely wanted confirmation.

The group was led by a young man with a scorpion tattooed on his arm, who had also spoken first. When he saw Shen Lie admit he’d come from the other side, his expression changed. He pressed on, "How did you get across? The river water didn't attack you?"

Shen Lie immediately understood that the river's unusual nature was no recent phenomenon; the survivors here must all know about it. He nodded again, pointing at the signal tower on the opposite bank. "I was being chased by those spider monsters and had nowhere else to run. I jumped down from there. Are you all survivors from this side? Are there monsters like that here?"

He tried to appear as ordinary as possible to coax information from them.

Hearing this, the tattooed man glanced up at the signal tower, then at Shen Lie, his gaze finally settling on Shen Lie’s bandaged leg.

“What’s in your backpack? Hand it over and let us see!” The tattooed youth stopped questioning Shen Lie’s origins and directly demanded his backpack.

Shen Lie noticed that when the tattooed youth made this demand, the others all looked at him expectantly. He understood: although only a river separated them, supplies here must be desperately scarce.

Having just stashed several bags of supplies, Shen Lie wasn't concerned about the contents of his backpack, but he couldn't let that show. Besides, those things were his—if they wanted to take them by force, they'd have to see if he agreed.

“Why should I show you?” Shen Lie shifted his backpack, looking at the group with a faint, mocking smile.

The tattooed youth was taken aback, clearly not expecting Shen Lie to refuse. His face twisted with malice, and he sneered, “Looks like you’ve been hiding out all this time and still don’t understand the rules in this apocalypse. Since you want to know why, I’ll make sure you find out!”

With that, he waved his hand, signaling his followers to teach Shen Lie a lesson, while he himself folded his arms and stepped aside, his expression openly mocking.

“Heh, kid, you refuse to drink the toast and insist on the penalty wine. Brother Cheng asked for your backpack and you dare argue? Suits us fine—it’s been ages since we’ve found a lone survivor like you. Today we’ll have some fun!”

At the tattooed youth’s gesture, two men in their thirties stepped forward—a middle-aged man in casual clothing, and another with glasses who looked scholarly, like a teacher. Yet both had cold, indifferent eyes as they advanced on Shen Lie.

Shen Lie frowned. When the apocalypse descended, he had fled to another world and knew little about how twisted human nature had become. But he dared not hope for any remaining order. In extreme circumstances, people could do anything—who knew if these people would kill him? He decided to strike first, without mercy.

Ignoring the pain in his leg, Shen Lie leapt forward to meet the two men. He did not use his black spear, but instead clenched his fist and delivered a blow to each, knocking them to the ground in a matter of moments.

After dealing with the two, Shen Lie did not pause. Under the terrified gazes of the rest, he charged like a tiger into a flock of sheep. With a flurry of blows, none were left standing; all lay on the ground, groaning in pain—including the tattooed youth, who, being the leader, received some special attention.

“Name?” Shen Lie tapped the black spear on the tattooed youth, who was feigning death on the ground, and spoke coolly.

“Hmph, if you have the guts, kill me! Otherwise, I won’t let you off!” The tattooed youth shuddered as the spear prodded him, but still shouted defiantly at Shen Lie.

“Oh? Well, even if you refuse to let me off, you won’t be able to do anything about it.” Shen Lie tore a piece of clothing to tie the youth’s hands behind his back, stuffed a rag into his mouth, and, with a jerk, drove the spearhead into the man’s palm, making him howl and writhe in agony.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” Before the tattooed youth could finish wailing, another woman lying on the ground broke down first, her face pale as she raised her head.

“Mmmph!” The tattooed youth struggled again, hearing the woman’s words, but with his mouth stuffed, he could say nothing.

“All right, speak. What’s your name? Why are you here? How many survivors are left in this town?” Shen Lie was not needlessly cruel; seeing someone cooperate, he stopped tormenting the tattooed youth.

“My name is Zhang Jing, owner of Jingjing’s Salon. Maybe I even cut your hair once?” The woman, not badly hurt, rubbed the spot where Shen Lie had struck her and tried to be friendly.

Shen Lie’s expression remained unchanged. Clearly, she took him for a fellow survivor from the town—perhaps her salon was well-known here—but that was irrelevant. He only wanted information.

Just as he was about to continue questioning, a sudden sense of danger struck him. He instantly channeled his energy into his right hand, swung his black spear behind him in a sweeping motion, and rolled to the side.

Then he heard a gunshot.

“Ah! You… you’re… you’re an Awakened?”

The shot missed. The tattooed youth stared in horror at Shen Lie's golden right hand as if seeing something unimaginable. The others, meanwhile, reacted with varying expressions.

“Give me one reason not to kill you.” Shen Lie’s eyes narrowed slightly at hearing the term "Awakened," but he didn’t pursue it immediately. Instead, he fixed the tattooed youth with a chilling stare.

They had a gun—he’d been careless. If not for his vigilance, he might have made a fatal mistake. A surge of murderous intent rose within him.

"Brother—no, no, big brother! I didn’t recognize greatness when I saw it! If I’d known you were an Awakened, I wouldn’t have dared touch you even if you gave me a hundred lives! Please, have mercy and let us go—we’re just ordinary people, starving for days, only out here to scavenge for food. We’ve never killed anyone!"

Completely cowed by Shen Lie’s golden hand, the tattooed youth dropped the gun, raised both hands in surrender, and began to plead piteously. The others huddled on the ground, hands on their heads, as if this wasn’t the first time they’d done so.

"Awakened? Where did that term come from? Have you seen others like me before?" Shen Lie felt exasperated at their behavior—it was the ultimate display of bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Still, it was effective; it made one hesitate to strike.

“Big brother, you don’t know what an Awakened is? You must have just awakened, then?” The tattooed youth looked at him with surprise and envy, glancing up, but shrank back under Shen Lie’s cold glare.

“Enough. I don’t want to hear nonsense. If you can’t prove your worth to me, you’ll soon learn the consequences of shooting at me.” Shen Lie’s voice was cold, making the tattooed youth shudder involuntarily.

“Cough, cough… Big brother, I really wasn’t targeting you on purpose. In times like this, who doesn’t rob a lone wanderer? We only banded together because we were robbed so many times ourselves. If you’ll spare us, we’ll obey your every word from now on. Oh, and I just found a Phantom Mushroom. For the sake of this one mushroom, the ten of us nearly died. Now I offer it to you as a token of our respect!”

As he spoke, the tattooed youth took out a small paper box from his pocket and opened it to reveal an egg-sized mushroom. Shen Lie’s eyes widened—the mushroom inside shimmered intermittently. Normally, it was a dull, gray-white entity, but every three or four seconds it would turn almost transparent for a brief moment, marking it as something extraordinary.

The apocalypse had truly changed so much. Shen Lie glanced from the mushroom to the people on the ground. All of them looked reluctant to part with it, especially the woman who claimed to own Jingjing’s Salon, who even tried to object but ultimately said nothing.

Before Shen Lie could ask, the tattooed youth continued, “This mushroom is unique to a medicinal field to the north. Originally, it was a medicinal fungus, but after the apocalypse, it mutated into this. It’s useless to us ordinary people, but the superhumans in town who awakened abilities love it. They say eating it increases their strength—one of these mushrooms can be traded for two cases of instant noodles or twenty pounds of rice!”

“Oh? If it’s so valuable to these Awakened, why don’t they go pick it themselves? If it grows in a fixed field, it shouldn’t be hard to find.” Shen Lie was tempted—if it could strengthen other Awakened, perhaps it would work for him as well.