37: Chapter 37 Looting the Abandoned Apartment

The hallway was filled with damp trash and peeling wall paint.

Fortunately, his soles were wrapped in strips of cloth, making his footsteps silent.

Lin Ye gripped his dagger, carefully avoiding obstacles on the floor.

There were broken window openings at both ends of the hallway, and the dim light filtering in from the skylight outside was barely sufficient.

This building was a typical Japanese-style studio apartment structure.

A long corridor ran through the entire floor, open-air on one side and lined with security doors on the other.

Most of the doors had been broken open by force.

Some door panels were completely dented, while others had fallen off their hinges and leaned crookedly against the corners.

The entire hallway exuded a sense of dilapidated ruin from being looted.

Lin Ye slipped into the nearest door on the fifth floor.

The interior was about thirty square meters.

One room and one bathroom—a standard "corporate slave" cubbyhole.

The wooden furniture had long since become brittle and crumbled to dust, and the fabric sofa was nothing but a spring frame.

But on the mottled walls and floor, large patches of dark brown, aged bloodstains were splattered!

On the floor, there were even glaring blood trails from something being dragged, extending all the way out the door.

Lin Ye squatted down and used his dagger to pick up a small piece of bloodstained wall paint.

He rubbed it between his fingertips.

The shriveled blood scab was ground into dark red powder.

"This 'Endgame Simulation' really spared no expense on the set design; even the texture of oxidized and decomposed blood is exactly the same."

Lin Ye complained silently to himself.

In the Great Xia Live Stream, the image of Lin Ye squatting next to the bloodstains and rubbing wall paint made the viewers' scalps tingle with dread.

[Help! This isn't a survival livestream; it's a horror movie premiere!]

[They were dragged out, right? What on earth did that?]

[Brother Eye, please don't mess up! If you meet 'love' around the corner, it's game over!]

[Protect him! Quick, protect him! Spam the bullet chat and cover the screen!]

[I don't care, I choose to believe that's ketchup.]

Lin Ye rummaged through the drawers, cabinets, and under the bed.

Empty.

Not even a single hair.

He wasn't discouraged, backing out and moving into the second and third rooms.

For a whole hour, he searched five rooms in a row.

The result was nothing but a mess paired with dried "ketchup"; forget useful supplies, he didn't even see a single coin.

The hearts of the Great Xia viewers felt cold and heavy.

[A wasted trip, brothers. High risk, zero reward. Brother Eye took a massive loss this time!]

[This crappy building has been picked cleaner than my year-end bonus.]

[This trip down the hole was for nothing.]

[I feel bad for Brother Eye. All that effort for nothing.]

[Forget it, forget it. As long as he's okay. Safety first.]

Meanwhile, the lurking Japanese viewers finally caught an opportunity.

[Japan: Yoshi! The Great Xia guy is picking through trash in our ruins and can't even get a warm meal!]

[Japan: This is the so-called global first map reveal? Hilarious!]

[Japan: Amaterasu is protecting our city. Don't even think about taking anything!]

The Great Xia netizens were gnashing their teeth in frustration, but since Lin Ye really hadn't found anything substantial, they could only stare helplessly for the time being.

Lin Ye remained patient, slipping into the last apartment on the fifth floor.

His dagger pried open various drawers, wardrobes, and wall cabinets.

Finally, in a wall cabinet, he pulled out a dusty cardboard box.

The cardboard box had become brittle; with a pinch of his fingers, the outer shell crumbled directly into powder.

But the item inside made Lin Ye's eyes light up.

A brand-new stainless steel thermos!

The sealing lid was intact, and there wasn't even a scratch on the body.

In the wilderness, a portable container that ensured the water source wouldn't be secondary-polluted was definitely a high-level item.

He unscrewed the lid and leaned in to sniff it.

There was a bit of a musty smell, but it would be usable after a wash.

"Good stuff!"

He stuffed the thermos into his backpack.

Finding something boosted Lin Ye's spirits as he continued searching.

When he pried open the kitchen cabinet under the induction cooker, his eyes lit up again.

Several stainless steel knives lay quietly inside.

A slicing knife, two fruit knives, and a spoon.

The blades were slightly oxidized, but the steel was high quality, and the edges were still sharp.

He happily stuffed all these spoils into his backpack.

The Great Xia Live Stream became active again.

[Holy crap! He found something! He found something!]

[A thermos plus knives and a spoon! He's fully geared up now!]

[Thanks for the heartfelt sponsorship, Little Bagas!]

[What do you call this? This is called NTR-ing them in front of the whole world!]

After finishing the fifth floor, Lin Ye crept down to the fourth floor.

The bloodstains here were still shocking.

He repeated his tactics in the first two apartments but still found nothing.

Until the third room, where he opened a kitchen cabinet and a dusty glass jar came into view.

Lin Ye tilted his head slightly.

Eye of Destiny, activate.

A faint green light glowed on the jar.

No gray spots.

He carefully pulled out the jar and unscrewed it; inside were white crystals that had hardened into clumps.

He used his dagger to scrape off a pinch of powder.

He hesitated for a second.

He touched his tongue to it and took a lick.

Salty.

A strange brilliance erupted in Lin Ye's eyes, and he immediately tightened the lid.

Salt!

A whole large jar of salt!

His breathing hitched for a moment.

In this hellhole, this was a strategic resource even scarcer than meat.

Maintaining electrolyte balance, preventing muscle cramps, and delaying dehydration—it all depended on this.

More importantly, as long as this stuff was sealed well, it would never expire.

This jar had at least three to four hundred grams, enough to last him a long time.

He tightened the glass jar and placed it in the inner layer of his backpack.

In the Great Xia Live Stream, countless knowledgeable viewers were spamming the chat.

[Holy crap! It's actually salt!]

[A trump card! This is a hard currency that can literally save lives!]

[Salt is more expensive than gold in the wild! Brother Eye hit the jackpot this time!]

[The starting contestants from a few neighboring countries are stumbling just because they lack salt!]

[This scavenging run is absolutely lucrative!]

Once the good luck started, it simply wouldn't stop.

In another apartment's storage cabinet, Lin Ye found several rolls of unopened nylon fishing line.

This was a sharp tool for setting up hidden traps.

Then, in a fire hydrant box at the end of the corridor, he found a rusty fire axe.

He weighed it in his hand, feeling its weight.

He put away his dagger and carried the axe in one hand, suddenly feeling much more confident.

But just as he was walking back, his footsteps suddenly stopped.

Lin Ye squatted down, his fingers slowly tracing the dark brown, dried bloodstains on the ground.

Something wasn't right.

A strong sense of incongruity rose in his mind.

He had run through two floors and pried open over a dozen apartments.

The floor was covered in aged bloodstains from splashing, flowing, and dragging.

But... surprisingly, he hadn't seen a single bone fragment or corpse!

Logically, since the ruins' set design was so realistic that even the texture of blood scabs was recreated, where were the bones of the people those bloodstains belonged to?

Had they all just evaporated into thin air?

...

Disaster Prevention Administration, Third Research Group.

Lu Chen watched the entire process of Lin Ye's search without missing a single frame.

"Sure enough, Lin Ye noticed it too!"

"The scene is too realistic, so the fact that not even a single bone fragment was left behind makes it extremely conspicuous."

"Could it be... they were all eaten clean by those Pale Species outside?"

Lu Chen pushed up his glasses, his brow furrowing deeper.

No, if they were just being eaten, with those monsters' teeth, it would be impossible for them not to leave even the hardest bones.

...

Underground ruins, fourth-floor corridor.

Lin Ye didn't intend to dwell on this problem.

In this hellhole, one couldn't stay in the same place for too long.

He glanced at the stairwell below.

Further down was the third floor, and two Pale Species were still wandering around the first-floor entrance.

If he continued downward, the risk of alerting the monsters would skyrocket.

"Quit while I'm ahead."

Lin Ye turned around decisively, retracing his steps and retreating to the relatively safe rooftop terrace on the fifth floor.

He found a corner and sat down.

He unzipped his backpack, pulled out some smoked meat strips, and then took out that precious jar of salt.

He drew his dagger, scraped off a small pinch of salt powder from the salt block, and sprinkled it evenly over the smoked meat.

Lin Ye opened his mouth and took a large bite.

The firm texture of the meat combined with the long-lost saltiness melted in his mouth.

Delicious!

[The way Brother Eye is eating makes the instant noodles in my hand lose their flavor.]

[Replenishing salt, revived with full health!]

[Watching this makes me hungry.]

However, just as Lin Ye was replenishing his energy and the Great Xia viewers were watching with relish...

On Blue Star, a large number of USA IDs suddenly flooded into the livestream.

[USA: Our Navy SEAL ace, Scott Miller, has also found a Lost Land!]

[USA: It's ten times bigger than your crappy hole! That's the difference!]

[USA: Scott will find the treasure soon, while your one-eyed guy is still gnawing on jerky!]

[USA: Proving once again that America is the world's beacon! USA! USA!]}],