novelraw Chapter 21: Born as a human being, only seeking to understand
Chapter 21: Born as a human being, only seeking to understand
Because the city's power system had failed, Canchino Street was shrouded in complete darkness without a single glimmer of light.
Yu Yuan arrived at the entrance of house number 68, finding the door tightly shut with no sound coming from inside.
But in the wasteland world, a tightly locked door itself was suspicious.
After listening carefully multiple times and confirming there were absolutely no sounds inside the room.
He took out his lock picking tools.
In just three seconds, the already not very high-quality door was easily opened.
The effects of his Excellent level Lock Picking skill were already beginning to show.
Carefully closing the door behind him and gripping his Kukri, Yu Yuan searched the room for any possible scavengers left behind.
The [Neighborhood Rat] title, after being enhanced once, now gave him Dim Light Vision that could roughly distinguish object outlines even in complete darkness. While still not perfectly clear, it was significantly better than the previous blurry vision.
But after searching the entire area, not only were there no possible remaining scavengers, he couldn't even find the woman with the teardrop mole."Did I guess wrong? Was that woman not captured here?" Yu Yuan frowned slightly. If that were the case, it would be troublesome.
But looking at the furniture and household items scattered chaotically across the floor, he instinctively felt something was off.
Tap..
His ears twitched slightly as an extremely faint sound reached them.
This sound was so subtle that without his enhanced hearing, he definitely wouldn't have detected it.
He slowly advanced in the direction the sound was coming from.
Tap tap tap...
The sound grew increasingly clear.
When Yu Yuan opened another locked door, he discovered he had actually reached the garage, and the sound was coming from the basement on the other side of the garage.
"Hehe, Monkey and the others haven't returned yet—they must have run into tough opponents. Now all these supplies belong to me alone. Damn woman, I've been craving you for so long. Now you and all these supplies belong to me alone."
Tap...
Pushing open the basement door, light streamed through the crack. Yu Yuan saw a man with his back turned, shirtless, swinging a long whip in his hand, indulging his desires.
"Not wrong after all, she's definitely here!" Yu Yuan felt a surge of joy in his heart.
He raised his folding hand crossbow and aimed at the man's back.
Thwip—
The crossbow bolt struck the man's back, sinking halfway in.
Ahhh....
The man looked behind him in disbelief, only to be met by the cold gleam of the Kukri.
After quickly checking all areas of the basement to confirm there were no other enemies, Yu Yuan was about to turn his gaze toward the woman when his movements suddenly froze.
Even though he had long experienced the evil and distortion of human nature in the wasteland world, he couldn't help but feel his hair stand on end.
He raised the Kukri and delivered another fierce chop to the man.
The reason was simple.
He saw the family of three from the pink wallet's family photo, all present in the basement.
The only difference was.
The handsome male head of household was hanging by a rope around his neck, already dead, but his body was covered with cuts and slash marks, a horrific sight.
The child had been stuffed into a paint bucket, submerged in paint, body floating and already swollen.
The woman with the teardrop mole was the only survivor among the family of three.
But she was also hanging in the air with ropes binding her hands, her body covered with scratches, bite marks, and whip wounds of various sizes. Not a single inch of her skin remained intact, so tortured that she was barely recognizable as human.
If not for the faint rising and falling of her chest, one would think she had already been tortured to death.
Even so, Yu Yuan guessed she was probably at death's door.
The Kukri sliced through the ropes, and he laid the woman on the ground. She was already unconscious.
Looking at the numerous wounds covering her body, some already peeling back.
Afterward, he also took down the man—this was all he could do for them.
A man's wallet lay on the floor containing this man's identification. Yu Yuan checked it—his name was Fedemon.
The woman's identification was also found on the floor—her name was Mona.
The good news was he had found the woman.
The bad news was Yu Yuan had absolutely no desire to complete the [Indulgence Card] mission. If forced to choose, he'd rather go catch sheep.
Taking a deep breath.
Yu Yuan began moving around the room. With the threat eliminated, this residence was temporarily safe for him.
Conveniently, he spotted many scarce supplies here that he needed to collect quickly.
First was a complete set of toolboxes placed on the basement shelves, containing not only various types of screwdrivers, wrenches, hex keys, needle-nose pliers, slip-joint pliers, pipe wrenches, etc., but surprisingly also a complete electric drill set.
All packed up and listed for sale.
Then he found the stainless steel pipes and faucets needed to build the Water Collector, plus two PVC pipes, enough to build Level 1 ventilation.
Afterward, he also found electrical wires, copper wire, butane gas canisters, portable stoves, metal polishers, cleaning agents, electrician's pliers, pipe sealant tape, sealant—common household items that were hard to find outside.
Yu Yuan treated these items like precious treasures, packing smaller or lighter objects into his backpack, while listing larger, heavier, hard-to-carry items for sale.
Soon, the Taotao Hole's 25 listing limit was full, and his backpack was stuffed with various tools and parts.
He planned to make another trip. For now, he had only taken the urgently needed supplies from the basement—the supplies in the garage above and throughout the residence still needed collecting.
By the time Yu Yuan returned here again, an hour had passed.
The garage was sealed with a roll-up door, so he didn't need to worry about the light being discovered.
He just needed to stuff a few towels into the gaps between the roll-up door and the ground, then he could safely turn on his flashlight and search.
The car in the garage had already been dismantled into parts, with various tools scattered everywhere.
He successfully obtained the vehicle air conditioning exhaust fan needed for building [Ventilation]. The remaining items, including vehicle batteries, audio speakers, air conditioning compressors, spark plugs, vehicle computers, engines, turbochargers, and other potentially useful supplies, were all listed for sale.
It didn't matter if they didn't fit in his shelter—the air raid tunnel had plenty of space.
What satisfied Yu Yuan most was finding two truck tarpaulins in the garage.
These two truck tarpaulins were quite sturdy and came with waterproof features. Although Yu Yuan's shelter didn't need them currently, they would definitely be highly popular if sold to players surviving in wilderness areas.
All listed for sale.
There was no way he could take all the supplies from this residence, even with several more trips. Just the building materials and tools alone were too much to carry.
Especially since the homeowners seemed to have been preparing to build something previously, with several bags of quick-dry cement and similar materials piled in the basement.
Yu Yuan could only take the important and urgently needed supplies, leaving the rest to collect later when needed.
When he returned to the basement again, he noticed the woman with the teardrop mole had woken up at some point.
Though awake, she was practically no different from dead.
Her gaze was numb, soulless, thoughtless, just staring blankly at the male corpse not far away.
Only an empty shell remained.
Seeing this, Yu Yuan let out a long sigh.
He stepped forward and placed the pink wallet before her eyes. The smiling family photo of the three was painfully sharp.
At that moment, the woman's eyes moved.
Her gaze, still somewhat dazed, looked at the photo, staring blankly as a line of bloody tears slowly streamed down.
Then she looked at Yu Yuan, her lips moving slightly.
"Kill, kill me!" Her voice was hoarse and desperate.
Yu Yuan looked into her eyes and exhaled heavily.
He placed the dagger he had found on the scavenger's body and two packs of food in front of the woman.
"I've killed the scavengers for you, including the three who went out. This is all I can do. I've taken some of your supplies—consider it payment for killing them. I don't recommend you die. Only by living can you send all those you believe deserve death to hell."
Without waiting for the woman's response, Yu Yuan turned and left.
Although he told the woman with the teardrop mole to live, surviving would be incredibly difficult.
Without antibiotic treatment and medical care, given the woman's injuries, she probably wouldn't last through the night.
—She was dying.
Yu Yuan didn't know that as he turned to leave, the woman with the teardrop mole engraved his retreating figure deeply in her mind.
Leaving the residential area and returning to his shelter, it was already 2 AM. After five hours of back-and-forth exertion, Yu Yuan felt somewhat exhausted, but his tasks for the night weren't finished yet.
He had followed his inner convictions, but this had also pushed him into a desperate situation.
He didn't regret his choice, because as a human being, one only seeks mental clarity and peace.
But the [Indulgence Card] still needed to be eliminated—he didn't want to die so inexplicably.
Therefore, he had to do something...