The safe zone's map was extremely large—so large that even the geography teacher at [Safe Haven School] didn't have a detailed version.
Naturally, Liam had no idea about the distribution of the safe zone exits.
He only knew the approximate location of Exit 114514 because it was relatively close to him.
Among the over 100,000 numbered safe zone exits, he only knew this one.
Why would an ordinary person pay attention to the location of safe zone exits unless they planned to curry favor with a Sequence ability user?
Not knowing the locations of the safe zone exits wasn't a tricky problem. He remembered there was a route map at the bus stop near the main road. The map would likely mark the positions of the safe zone exits.
On previous weekends, Liam would just lie around at home—this way, he could reduce consumption and eat less. But this weekend was destined to be unusual.
Now, he was full of fighting spirit.
His mind was filled with only one belief.
Grow stronger.
Only by growing stronger could he leave this terrible place!
Liam slung his schoolbag filled with food over his shoulder and walked for more than ten minutes to reach the bus stop.
It was his first time coming to a bus stop—since he couldn't even afford to eat, he certainly couldn't afford to take the bus.
In Liam's memory, after the apocalypse, in the safe zones, the poor walked on foot, while the wealthy traveled by bus.
As for driving private cars? Gasoline was an even scarcer resource than electricity—there were no such powerful people in the edge of the safe zone.
He stood at the bus stop's route map and stared at it for a long time.
He noticed that many of the station names along the bus route were named after safe zone exits. The only bus route on the edge of the safe zone passed through several safe zone exits, and their numbers were all smaller than 114514.
As for which safe zone exit to go to, Liam had no idea.
He'd just have to play it by ear.
He had never taken a bus in this life, so he didn't know how far one bus stop was.
"Sigh, it would be great if orphans could ride the bus for free too."
Looking at the five-copper coin fare, Liam shook his head helplessly. The only ten copper coins he had left were spent at the internet café yesterday.
"Five copper coins one way, ten round trip—I might as well go to the internet café to look up information again."
Liam began the task of measuring the distance between bus stops on foot. He needed to know the approximate distance between stops to estimate which safe zone exits he could reach on two legs.
He walked along the bus route for twenty minutes and reached the next bus stop.
"The bus stops here seem much farther apart than in my previous life."
After eating the god remains yesterday, his strength had increased, and his walking speed was extremely fast—far surpassing that of ordinary passersby. Whenever there was no one on the road, he would walk even faster, moving at full speed.
Even so, he could only walk three stops in an hour.
Now that he knew the distance of one stop, he roughly understood his range of activity.
"The seventh stop is called Exit 54320, the seventeenth is Exit 89757, and the twentieth is Exit 38324. For now, it seems only these three stops are within my reach to find god remains."
"The farthest one, Exit 38324, I can get back home by tomorrow. Any farther exits, I'm afraid I won't be able to get back before Monday—and thus won't be able to go to school on time."
On Monday, Liam had to go to school early to report to the librarian that he planned to continue his part-time work-study position.
Otherwise, the part-time librarian position for next week would be taken by someone else, and he wouldn't have money to go to the internet café.
After thinking about it, Liam decided to first walk to Exit 54320 to check the situation.
The one-hour and forty-minute journey didn't make Liam feel the slightest bit tired. He even felt more and more cheerful as he walked.
Material abundance and spiritual abundance were often separate matters. Once a person had hope, they did everything with enthusiasm.
Even though the streetlights around were extremely dim, filling the air with an oppressive feeling.
According to the time, it was daytime, but the sun had disappeared ten years ago. Although it was early morning, the sky always remained at midnight.
The infrastructure on the edge of the safe zone was extremely shabby. The main road he was on only had a dim streetlight every tens of meters or so—and it could barely illuminate a few steps ahead.
The alleyways nearby were even darker, requiring one to feel their way around.
Looking up, he could faintly see the twinkling stars through the safe zone's air defense glass, as well as the figures of gods passing by from time to time.
The cold wind blew, piercing through Liam's several layers of not very warm coats, making intimate contact with his skin. Goosebumps popped up all over his body in response.
Liam turned up his collar, covering his face so that the cold wind no longer blew directly on him, then continued walking quickly.
After walking seven stops, he reached Exit 54320.
This exit's number was more than 50,000 smaller than 114514—logically, there should be more Sequence ability users hunting gods here.
As soon as he arrived, Liam found a dilapidated building a bit taller to check the situation.
Sure enough, he saw nearly a hundred Sequence ability users wearing cold-proof suits lingering at the exit—far more than at Exit 114514.
The ordinary people dressed like him around the area had completely surrounded the vicinity of the safe zone exit—probably nearly ten thousand people.
He glanced at the crowd and the Sequence ability users talking in the center of the crowd—no one noticed him.
So Liam pretended to wander around aimlessly, looking for the trash can containing god remains.
Finally, in a block next to the safe zone exit, he saw the trash can for god remains.
And the trash can at this exit was far larger than the one at Exit 114514.
If the trash can at Exit 114514 was a luxurious dinner party, then the trash can area at Exit 54320 was like a grand feast with a hundred dishes.
Seven or eight trash cans were lined up in a row, and each one was filled with god remains! The dazzling array of bizarre god remains made Liam's appetite soar.
If he could empty these seven or eight trash cans, wouldn't he take off?!
Liam's heart raced as he thought about how to sweep away all the god remains here as quickly as possible.
But suddenly, he noticed two cleaners covered in bloodstains next to the garbage station.
Liam originally planned to wait in the distance for the two cleaners to leave before approaching.
However, when he appeared in the field of vision of the two cleaners, both of them looked up at him at the same time.
After a brief eye contact, the two continued cleaning the trash cans.
But Liam's heart tightened, and he changed his plan.
He didn't stop—instead, he kept walking forward, approaching the trash cans and the two cleaners.
Liam pretended to be a passing student, walking past them casually without looking back.
The two cleaners glanced at Liam, looked at his simple attire and young face, and didn't pay much attention.
Once he was far away and had completely left the block, Liam finally let out a sigh of relief.
"What's going on?! Why are there people guarding the trash cans?!And they're in plain clothes! Could it be that the uniformed recorder reported it yesterday? Are the trash cans really being guarded?!"
When Liam made eye contact with the two men, his heartstrings were tense. Although his face was expressionless, he observed extremely carefully, and his brain was working rapidly.
He realized that the two men just now were definitely not ordinary cleaners.
The stains on their clothes were too deliberately dirty.
The god remains in the trash cans had long since left the gods' bodies, and the blood had already drained away during the hunt.
The cleaner he had seen at Exit 114514 yesterday only had a little dust on him.
Even if there were many more god remains at Exit 54320, there wouldn't be much blood on the trash cans.
But the two men were covered in bloodstains—as if they had just killed someone, splattered all over their bodies. What kind of cleaner looked like that!
It was clearly deliberately applied!
Too much was as bad as too little.
Moreover, when Liam appeared far away from the trash cans, the two men actually looked up at him in unison.
At the moment their eyes met, Liam thought they were extremely vigilant.
Cleaners only needed to do their own jobs well—why would they be vigilant and observe their surroundings?! And both of them were like this!
"Could it be that the disappearance of the god remains in the trash can last night attracted others' attention! Perhaps these god remains are being recycled for other uses?!"
His worries before coming were not unfounded.
In just one night, the united government's people had launched an investigation into this matter.
Needless to say, there must be more plainclothes officers waiting for him at the trash can of Exit 114514.
Liam sighed: "If I had only taken one god remains yesterday, would it not have been so troublesome?"
But taking only one god remains a day, although it seemed safe, would require going to the trash can more than thirty times to gain his current strength.
Going so many times, the probability of being exposed was even greater—he might even be caught red-handed.
It was better to take a big risk once.
It was precisely for this reason that he had decided to sweep away all the god remains in the trash can yesterday.
Liam knew that his plan to obtain god remains from the trash cans might be ruined. But he didn't give up completely.
Even though he had a good impression of the united government, he was also skeptical of the efficiency of the lower-level staff of the united government.
Otherwise, how could [Safe Haven School] still not offer courses related to Sequence ability users?
Perhaps the situation hadn't escalated to the point of cutting off all his opportunities.
"Forget it, there's no chance at the trash cans here. I'll keep walking forward and try my luck! Even if there's no chance, I've already grown much stronger thanks to yesterday's gains—this trip isn't a loss!"
Liam left Exit 54320 and continued walking along the bus route into the distance.
The next safe zone exit was Exit 89757, ten stops away.
"Ten stops—sigh, it will take another three hours to walk. I wonder if I can get home today. Maybe I'll have to sleep outside."
（下一章将继续跟进 Liam 前往下一个安全区出口的旅程,看看他能否找到未被看守的神骸垃圾桶～ 你需要我现在就继续更新第 6 章,还是稍作停顿?）Chapter 6: Sequence Advancement
On the way, Liam took out a portion of thousand-legged mushroom rice he had brought back from the cafeteria on Friday and ate it as lunch while walking.
In the cafeteria, mushrooms were considered a top delicacy. Thanks to their meat-like texture and unique fungal flavor, they tasted delicious even with simple stir-frying.
But Liam had no mood to savor it—his entire attention was focused on how to grow stronger in the future.
When Liam reached Exit 89757, it was already afternoon.
Fortunately, his body had been enhanced and improved yesterday, giving him incredible physical strength. He had been walking for nearly six hours since leaving home, yet he still didn't feel tired.
But he knew this state wouldn't last long—he could no longer maintain the initial fast pace.
This made him less optimistic about going to the farther Exit 38324 to try his luck.
"Walking two more hours round trip isn't a wise decision."
Seeing the sign for Exit 89757, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally here."
This time, he didn't go directly to the safe zone exit. After all, his target wasn't the Sequence ability users at the exit.
To avoid exposure, he directly chose to take a small path around and first check the situation of the trash cans.
Having searched for trash cans near two safe exits before, he already had a general idea of where they were located.
Sure enough, after walking through a block, he saw three trash cans filled with god remains.
Watching the dark purple tentacles slowly吸附ing and crawling along the edges of the trash cans, Liam's heart raced.
He carefully looked around—no one was there, not even cleaners.
Was this an opportunity, or a trap?
As he walked casually, he analyzed carefully.
The clutter in this trash can didn't seem to have been deliberately organized.
Liam glanced at the filth on the ground—there were only stripes of shoe prints trampling back and forth around the trash can, presumably from a single cleaner.
As for whether anyone was secretly monitoring?
It was highly unlikely.
Exit 89757 had far fewer Sequence ability users than Exit 54320. Relatively speaking, the trash cans here couldn't be more valued than those in the Exit 54320 area.
If the large garbage station at Exit 54320 only had two plainclothes officers, there was no doubt that Exit 89757 couldn't have more advanced surveillance methods!
No one nearby meant no one was monitoring!
In other words, the disappearance of the god remains in the trash can at Exit 114514 last night had only spread to Exit 54320—not to a wider range!
Originally, he had planned to go to the farther Exit 38324 to check, because there was definitely a feast of the century waiting for him there. But now his body had already shown signs of fatigue, and he didn't seem to have enough strength to go there to try his luck.
He decided—this time, it would be the trash cans at Exit 89757!
He knew his analysis wasn't foolproof.
But fortune favors the bold!
To grow stronger, one needs to take risks. Blindly seeking stability will only lead to missed opportunities.
Liam had been reborn—not to live the same miserable life as his previous one.
At the very least, he wanted to use his powerful Sequence ability to leave the edge of the safe zone and achieve financial freedom.
So he needed to grow stronger.
To grow stronger as quickly as possible.
Having made up his mind, Liam immediately decided to rush to the trash cans and binge eat while no one was around.
The god remains in the trash cans this time were three or four times what he had eaten yesterday.
He had to speed up and resolve this as soon as possible. If he ate slowly like yesterday, even needing water to help swallow, he didn't know how long it would take him to finish these three bins of delicacies—and he might get exposed!
But once he accelerated his eating speed, he couldn't carefully avoid getting his clothes dirty. He might accidentally get bloodstains on them, leading to big trouble.
So before eating, he carefully took off all his coats and hung them on a nearby street lamp. The metal shell of the street lamp was cast with several hooks—Liam didn't know what these hooks were for, but they were perfect for hanging his coats now.
Then he stood shirtless in front of the trash cans.
This area was near the safe zone exit, much colder than other places. The cold wind pouring in when the safe zone exit opened scurried along the streets, making Liam break out in goosebumps.
Safety first—he had to endure the cold to ensure his clothes didn't get stained with blood.
Looking at the dazzling array of god remains, Liam shivered with excitement.
He swallowed hard: "Let's eat!!!"
Whether it was because practice makes perfect, making his movements more skilled, or because his physical fitness had improved, enhancing his swallowing power—this time, he swallowed the god remains much faster than yesterday.
He had choked before, but today he could stuff the remains into his mouth with both hands and swal