19: The second fragment is in hand.

Qin Lin slowly poked his head out, looking down through the gap in the stairs.

In the second-floor stairwell, there were three figures.

They were all wearing thick clothes and holding clubs in their hands.

They were rummaging through a backpack.

They must have found it in some office, as they poured out its contents:

A few packs of biscuits and a bottle of water.

"Just this?" one of them said.

"Damn it, a wasted trip."

Another man cursed.

"Let's go upstairs and check."

Qin Lin quietly retreated, moving back into the third-floor corridor and hiding behind an office door.

The sound of footsteps drew closer.

The three men came up.

"Split up and search," one man said. "Regroup here in ten minutes. Finding food is the priority, but take anything else useful too."

The three of them scattered.

One of them walked toward the office where Qin Lin was hiding.

Qin Lin gripped his dagger tightly.

The door was pushed open.

A man wrapped in a scarf walked in, scanning the room with a flashlight.

His back was to Qin Lin.

Qin Lin approached soundlessly.

The moment the man bent over to rummage through something, Qin Lin covered his mouth from behind and pressed the dagger against his neck.

"Don't move," Qin Lin whispered.

The man's body stiffened.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions. Nod or shake your head," Qin Lin said. "How many of you are there?"

The man hesitated for a moment before nodding—he didn't dare resist, as the blade of the dagger was already burning hot, its high temperature pressed against his skin.

"Three?" Qin Lin asked.

A nod.

"How long have you been here?"

The man held up two fingers—two days.

"Have you found any glowing blue crystals?"

A shake of the head.

Qin Lin loosened his grip, but the dagger didn't leave the man's neck:

"Turn around, walk slowly, and get out. Don't make a sound."

The man did as he was told, slowly backing out of the office.

Qin Lin followed him out into the corridor.

The other two heard the movement and came out of other rooms.

"Old Zhang, what happened—"

Mid-sentence, they saw the dagger in Qin Lin's hand and froze.

Qin Lin glanced over them.

All three were emaciated and sallow-faced, their eyes weary but alert.

They weren't the vicious thug type; they looked more like desperate survivors forced into this.

"I mean no harm," Qin Lin said. "I'm just here looking for something. You keep looking for yours, and I'll look for mine. We won't interfere with each other."

The three men exchanged glances.

Finally, the man Qin Lin had restrained spoke up:

"What... are you looking for?"

"Blue crystals that glow," Qin Lin said. "Seen any?"

The three shook their heads.

"Then is there anywhere in this building that's particularly cold? Much colder than outside?"

One of the younger men thought for a moment and said:

"The underground garage... it's incredibly cold. We went down yesterday, but we couldn't stand it for even a minute, so we came back up."

The underground garage.

Qin Lin noted it down.

"Thanks."

He put away the dagger, but kept his hand on the hilt.

"I'm going down to check. Do as you please."

He turned and walked toward the stairwell with steady, unhurried steps.

The three men didn't chase him, nor did they speak.

Qin Lin heard them whispering:

"That guy has a knife..."

"Don't mess with him, finding food is more important."

In the Apocalypse, the safest distance between strangers was mutual non-interference.

The food in supermarkets and grocery stores had long since been cleared out.

Now, one had to go to places like this where few people came to perhaps find something.

Qin Lin went downstairs and found the entrance to the underground garage.

The door was closed but not locked.

He pushed it open, and a blast of bone-chilling air hit him in the face.

The thermometer showed: -52°C.

Eight degrees lower than upstairs.

This was it.

Qin Lin turned on his flashlight and walked inside.

The garage was large, with dozens of cars parked there.

Most were the private cars of employees, covered in a thick layer of dust.

He did a circuit inside; the temperature stayed constant at around -52°C, with no obvious center of low temperature.

But when he reached the deepest part of the garage, he saw a ventilation duct.

Thick blue ice crystals were formed on the iron grate of the duct.

They were identical to the ice he had seen yesterday in the special Materials laboratory.

Qin Lin approached.

The thermometer plummeted:

-55°C, -58°C, -61°C... it stopped at -63°C.

Just like that laboratory yesterday.

And deep inside the ventilation duct, a faint glimmer of eerie blue light could be seen.

The second fragment.

It was right here.

The cold in the underground garage was like a physical blade, slicing into every inch of Qin Lin's exposed skin.

The -63°C temperature turned his every breath into fine ice crystals that clattered onto the floor.

The eerie blue light deep in the ventilation duct pulsed steadily, like a frozen heart.

Qin Lin didn't waste any time.

He walked quickly to the duct opening and took out the thick cotton cloth he had prepared in advance from his backpack.

This was an oil rag salvaged from the Auto Repair Shop; it was dirty, but thick enough.

He wrapped his hand in the cloth and reached into the duct.

It was different from the first time.

This time, the moment his fingertips touched the crystal, the bone-chilling cold pierced through the cotton cloth, almost freezing his blood.

Fortunately, the RV System suppressed it.

[eternal frozen marrow fragment detected]

[Purity: 90%]

The System force field expanded instantly.

Qin Lin felt the cold in his hand rapidly recede. The crystal lay quietly in his palm, its blue light flowing submissively.

From the time he entered the garage to getting the fragment, it had only taken two minutes and seventeen seconds.

Fast enough.

Qin Lin turned to leave without sparing a second glance at anything else in the garage.

The abandoned vehicles, the scattered junk, or perhaps supplies hidden by other survivors.

He didn't need those.

The fragment was the only goal.

When he returned to the first floor, the three men were still rummaging through the offices.

Hearing footsteps, they poked their heads out warily and saw Qin Lin hurrying past, holding a glowing blue crystal in his hand.

The younger one's eyes lit up, and he seemed to want to say something, but his companion held him back.

"Don't look for trouble."

The older man whispered.

Qin Lin glanced at them but didn't stop, walking straight out of the building and rushing toward the RV parked on the roadside.

He pulled the door open, dove inside, and closed it.

Warmth instantly enveloped his whole body.

"Did you find it?"

Su Yuran asked immediately.

Qin Lin nodded and placed the second fragment on the dashboard.

It was almost identical to the first one, only the patterns of flowing light inside were slightly different.

[Obtained eternal frozen marrow fragment × 1]

[Purity 90%, Convertible Energy: 900]

[Current Fragments: 2/5]

[Convert now?]

Qin Lin chose to store it.

There was no rush to convert it this time; he would wait until he had all five pieces.

He checked the time: 10:42 AM.

From setting out to getting the second fragment, it had taken less than three hours.

Highly efficient.

"Where to now?" Su Yuran asked.

"Back to the Auto Repair Shop."

Qin Lin buckled his seatbelt.

"We'll go back to organize our supplies and plan the next step. There should be more fragments in the Science and Technology Park."

The vehicle started and drove away from the research and development center.

The three men came out of the building and stood at the entrance, watching the RV drive into the distance.

The younger one murmured to himself:

"What kind of vehicle is that... it can still run..."

"Don't worry about it."

The older man patted his shoulder.

"Finding food is what matters. In this world now, we just live one day at a time."