Chapter 1479: Rebirth Through Fire 3

The interior of the tin house fell into a long silence.

Seeing the boy who said he would drive him away but still brought his companions to his side, Lin An was not surprised.

When a person loses hope, even if they know that struggling further is meaningless, they still repeatedly make futile efforts.

Just like a broken gear, even if it gets stuck, it will keep turning until it breaks.

The one who fell from midair is, in their eyes, the only Awakened One who can help them.

Therefore, even if he honestly said he could not "drive away" the bad people, to Anduyin and the others he still represented that slim hope.

In Anduyin's mind, perhaps he thought Lin An simply didn't want to help.

"So, you need an Awakened One to protect you."

"As long as Lao Ha doesn't dare collect protection money, you can survive?"

"No, just collect less."

"Lao Ha Ke is strong; he's a Second Level Awakened One. But as long as we have an Awakened One speak for us, he won't go too far."

"This way, we can hold out a few more days. After a while, I too can become an Awakened One! I know where there's an abandoned spiritual energy node!"

He seemed not good at expressing himself; Anduyin looked at Lin An with a serious expression, fists clenched.

In his world, he didn't know how to help others, but he knew that if Lin An truly feared trouble and didn't want to help, the only thing he could do was lower his standards and increase his own value.

Bringing Ha Na might perhaps make this man feel some compassion.

He only hoped that this suspected Awakened One man would show up, just show up.

Looking at the boy before him, Lin An's eyes flashed with an unusual hue.

A very clever little kid.

Anduyin mistakenly thought he had spoken up to let him explain the situation, assuming he had weighed the pros and cons and decisively chosen to make the minimal request for help.

Become an Awakened One after a while? Abandoned spiritual energy node..

That thing's mortality rate shouldn't be too high...

This means telling him that as long as Lin An helps once, it's enough; afterward Anduyin won't ask him to act again.

Although he understood the subtext Anduyin struggled to convey, Lin An still secretly sighed in his heart.

He wasn't unwilling to help; he also needed to blend in with these kids and hold out for a month.

The problem is, even if he pretended to be an Awakened One, he would be seen through at a glance.

Anduyin and the others had hardly ever encountered Awakened Ones, and they didn't know that Awakened Ones could instantly tell each other's identity with just a slight spiritual sense.

If he pretended to be an Awakened One and got exposed, the consequences would only be worse.

"Hiring an Awakened One would actually work too, right?"

Before Anduyin could even react in surprise, Lin An briefly thought and then spoke again:

"Get me a black robe, and take me to look around the street."

"You lot should have a place for trading supplies, right?"

The noise of people was loud.

Walking down the street called the Black Gold Gathering Place, Lin An, supported by Anduyin and the others, carefully observed a corner of the gathering place.

Looking around at the chaotic architectural style, Lin An continually searched for his target.

Tents, tin houses, buildings constructed before the Apocalypse, and scaffolding.

All that could be seen on the avenue named the Gathering Place Commercial Street, which was actually a garbage dump, were survivors swarming everywhere.

The scaffolding under construction protruded from the windows of the only two office buildings on the street, appearing as if it were fixed foundations, floating above the vast expanse of tin houses.

Looking up, one to three layers made of a large amount of metal or wood, or simply plastic boards pieced together, directly blocked the sky.

Haphazardly connected wires and pipes, twisted like braids, wrapped around them.

At a glance, it seemed as if one were in a jungle of steel-reinforced trees, with assorted signs and light bulbs illuminating the treehouses.

On the ground, inside the dense tents or simple shacks that stretched out of sight, every household was calling out to buy the supplies they had found.

In the shop nearest to Lin An, a big man wearing a hat and with a full beard was desperately patting his handheld radio, trying to play some music to lure customers into buying his handmade crossbow.

But compared to the shop next to his, his business was obviously no match.

Only seen at the doorway of the shop beside him, two women wearing only a three-point outfit, blond, swayed their bodies seductively, holding arrows as thick and long as a rod.

Whenever a dust-covered traveler with a backpack passed by, they would exaggeratedly stick out their tongues and seductively lick the arrow shafts.

Once the person stopped to look, the shop owner would grab a megaphone and shout loudly:

"Don't miss out, passersby! My dear warriors, take a look at our goods!"

"The crossbow bolts specially developed by the Houston Rocket Power Research Lab! They conform to aerodynamics!"

"One shot to the head! Just like your little brother down there, it blows up!"

While speaking, the shop owner, like a madman, snatched the arrow from the greeter's hand and without hesitation plunged it all the way into the other person's **.

Taking the screams as background music, the owner pulled the arrow out again and, with an exaggerated expression, handed the bloodied arrow to the customer.

"Hey! Brother! Check out our blond cuties! They love this thing just like they love your **, it's fucking awesome!"

"Believe me! Shoulder this giant crossbow and go hunt monsters; those mutants will make you climax!"

Meanwhile, a burly man selling swords and spears, unwilling to be outdone, let out a roar and chopped toward the half corpse on his chopping board.

"Bang!"

Flesh and bone separated; the lump of meat, whether human or corpse, instantly flew onto the ground and rolled with a gurgling into the sewage full of feces.

As if by prior agreement, the meat lump put on display was immediately swarmed by the survivors crouching nearby.

Without bothering about the feces and urine‑soaked rotten meat, the few fastest survivors frenziedly tore into it, desperately stuffing it into their mouths.

Eyeballs bulging; even if the filthy meat almost choked them, the men and women who grabbed the lump couldn't help but show happy smiles. But the next second, seeing the crowd finish the meat, the sword‑shop owner lifted his chin and sent his thugs out to round up more people.

"Bang!"

As several strong men grabbed several Survivors who had failed to get meat, they heaved them aside and chopped them to death.

It seemed like a cycle.

The shopkeeper skillfully chopped off the hands and feet of the corpses that had been chopped to death, threw them into a box, and then placed the naked corpses back on the cutting board.

「Selling knives, selling knives! All are blood‑seeing knives! What damn second‑rate, I'll chop you down with one swing! 」

After sneering disdainfully at the crossbow‑seller beside him, such a shocking scene seemed to provoke no reaction from anyone, as if such a scene had already occurred many times.

Even those who had been chopped to death while fighting over meat merely numbly squatted back onto the street, waiting for the next round to begin.

He didn't look again.

The deeper he went, the more the people here seemed to go mad.

Avoiding the public copulation, the crowd that resembled a human centipede doing * at the tavern door, Lin An heard hurried panting from above.

Only seen above his head, a woman with her buttocks raised was trembling, enjoying the impact from behind. She gripped an iron bar with one hand, the other hand free, continually scratching downward, as if trying to grab Lin An to join the fight.

Their eyes met.

She lasciviously moaned at Lin An in a sickly way, mouth full of black teeth wide open, as if wanting to eat people, gesturing for Lin An to do her mouth.

Seeing such chaos before him, Lin An struggled to dodge, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

He had originally planned to go to the commercial street to have a look, to check the situation here, so he could get some supplies to get through this period.

But he hadn't expected that, having grown accustomed to the apocalypse's chaos, he now also felt some shock.

The former amoeba‑worm world seemed to overlap with reality at this moment.

However, compared to the amoeba‑worm, the chaos here was even greater.