Chapter 55: Spicy Hand-Torn Roasted Rabbit

The motorcade quickly vanished into the dedicated passageway.

The area outside the base perimeter fell back into a heavy silence. Awakened beings were ultimately a minority, and the limelight and prestige were privileges reserved only for the absolute top tier. The majority of people still had to queue in silence, waiting for a chance to enter the city and live.

Qu Wen pulled back her gaze and looked at Su Su with concern. "What are you going to do?"

Awakened beings were only permitted to bring one ordinary person inside. If she brought Ji Junzhi, what would happen to Su Su?

"It's fine, you go on ahead," Su Su said with an easy smile. "I'll go line up at the ordinary people's gate. Besides, once I get into the city, I need to look for my relatives anyway."

Qu Wen wanted to say more, but Ji Junzhi caught her hand. "Let's go. If we don't move now, it will be dark soon."

Su Su chimed in to persuade her. "Get in early, and you might be able to pick a better living quarter."

"Alright then."

Qu Wen sighed and led Ji Junzhi into the special lane designated for Awakened beings.

Their departure did not stir even a ripple in Su Su's calm state of mind.

She was already well-used to farewells and chance encounters. The appearance of Qu Wen and Ji Junzhi could only be counted as two vibrant figures among the myriad facets of the apocalyptic world.

...And they had caused Little Black to witness things it shouldn't have seen.

Su Su shifted her backpack to the front, puffed out her cheeks, and gave it a firm pat.

The black snake nestled inside immediately opened its eyes.

Earlier, inside the van on the highway, if she so much as accidentally squeezed it, it would struggle with dissatisfaction for a while.

Now that Su Su took the initiative to pat it, it merely opened its eyes, then sluggishly closed them again.

After finishing the pat, Su Su waited without receiving any response, feeling instead a twinge of disappointment.

It felt like punching a pile of cotton.

Hmph.

"Line up here to enter the city! Everyone, prepare the supplies you need to hand over. If you can't produce them, your qualification to enter the city is revoked immediately!"

The personnel at the ordinary people's checkpoint were almost all First-Order Awakened. With them standing guard, no one dared to cut the line or cause trouble.

Yet, these Awakened ones could not alter human nature.

Those who had managed to survive the initial zombie wave of the apocalypse, endured the snowstorms, and finally stood right here were either physically robust or possessed hidden trump cards they had yet to reveal.

Su Su's appearance was akin to throwing a meat bun into a pack of hyenas.

Powerless, entirely alone, frail, and strikingly beautiful... With all these traits concentrated in a single person, she would inevitably attract countless maggots lurking in the gutters.

Enduring the many measuring gazes, Su Su calmly walked to the very end of the queue.

Truth be told, she could have taken the special lane as well, but had she done so, she wouldn't have been assigned to the urban village, nor would she have been able to meet the person who had helped her the most in her past life.

"Little Black, shrink down a bit."

"And pull out a carton of cigarettes."

A lowered voice traveled into the backpack, and moments later, the weight inside plummeted drastically.

The queue inched forward at a snail's pace.

When only the final few dozen people remained ahead, an official stood up and announced, "The entry quota for today is full. Those still in line can wait until tomorrow."

Everyone in the queue consisted of ordinary people; even with anxiety and dissatisfaction bubbling up inside them, none dared to cause a disturbance in front of the Awakened.

All the base gates closed simultaneously.

The situation unfolded precisely as it had in her past life.

Even so, very few people left the line. Most simply sat down right where they were, preparing to tough out the night.

Clutching her backpack, Su Su also seated herself directly on the ground.

*Zip.*

The backpack zipper was pulled open, and the large black python lying within had already transformed back into a slender little snake, roughly the length of an arm and the width of a thumb.

That form felt far too distant now. She vaguely remembered when they first met, Little Black had even dangled from a tree branch to frighten her.

A trace of a smile flickered in Su Su's eyes as she slipped her finger into the backpack and poked the little snake's body. "Little skinny snake."

"Hisss!"

Realizing she was teasing it, the black snake lightly bit her finger and grinded its teeth in dissatisfaction several times.

"Yo, what kind of good stuff do you have hidden in that bag?"

A harsh, grating voice shattered the gentle tranquility of the moment. A man with a buzz cut standing toward the back of the queue pushed through the crowd, marching straight toward her with precise intent.

He squatted down brazenly in front of Su Su and snatched the backpack without a word.

"Hand it over and let big brother take a look!"

As the backpack was violently snatched away, the buzz-cut man reached his hand inside to rummer.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

The anticipated scream of agony pierced the air. The buzz-cut man jerked his arm back violently, two distinct tooth marks clearly embedded in the webbing between his thumb and index finger.

*Thump!*

The backpack was dropped onto the ground, and the thumb-thick black snake swaggered out, slithering up Su Su's trouser leg all the way back to her palm.

"A snake! You're actually keeping a snake!"

The buzz-cut man collapsed backward onto the ground. Upon hearing the word "snake," the people queuing nearby instantly scrambled back five or six meters in sheer terror.

Cradling Little Black, Su Su cast a cold glance at the buzz-cut man as he struggled and rolled on the ground. "I forgot to warn you—the snake I keep is highly venomous."

The sea of onlookers shifted from indifferent to fearful.

Those dark, shadowy thoughts hidden within the crowd instantly dissipated after witnessing the miserable fate of the early bird.

*Hisss~*

Having revealed its true form, the black snake coiled round and round the female's wrist, refusing to return inside the backpack.

Su Su did not force it either.

Little Black took the initiative to stand guard for the night. Su Su half-closed her eyes, her steady and composed demeanor bluffing the vast majority of onlookers into keeping their distance.

The corpse of the buzz-cut man remained sprawled nearby, yet through the entire night, not a single blind fool dared to come and provoke them.

*Creak.*

Early the next morning, the base gates opened once more.

Passing staff members casually ignored the corpse that had met an untimely end; their responsibilities were confined to daylight hours. As for what transpired during the night, it was nothing more than the law of the jungle, a common occurrence in the apocalypse.

Su Su understood this principle thoroughly, which was why she felt zero apprehension about having killed a man right outside the base gates.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, the line finally reached Su Su.

"Hand over your supplies."

Su Su produced a full carton of cigarettes from her backpack. The staff member, a man, instantly lit up at the sight.

"Not bad. The value is sufficient."

Handing over three packs of cigarettes or more allowed one to successfully enter the city, but this was a whole carton containing ten packs!

The staff member's eyes flickered for a few seconds before Su Su lowered her voice. "Consider the remaining packs my gift to you."

Outside the base, it was rare to encounter an ordinary person who was so socially adept.

The staff member swept a glance over Su Su's pretty face and said with a meaningful smile, "Don't worry, I'll arrange a good place for you, close to the apartments for Awakened beings."

Su Su's appearance possessed zero aggressiveness.

Virtually everyone upon first sight of her would form the stereotype that "she must be looking to latch onto a powerful Awakened being."

Su Su shook her head. "I want to go to Urban Village No. 44 in the South District."

A flash of surprise crossed the staff member's eyes.

Even from the name alone, Urban Village No. 44 was clearly no desirable destination. Initially, people avoided it simply because they disliked the inauspicious number. Over time, it evolved into a settlement for the lowest tier of survivors and became a synonym for a place where all sorts of shady characters mingled.

"Are you sure?"

Su Su nodded. "I have relatives there."

Well, that explained it.

The staff member cast a jaded glance at the black snake coiled around the woman's wrist. Although he understood that this woman undoubtedly possessed some hidden trump card, he still offered a warning: "Given your looks, you'd really be better off finding a protector. Urban Village No. 44 is terribly chaotic."

It wasn't out of colored-lens prejudice; with the collapse of societal order in the apocalypse, the base could only maintain basic survival needs and lacked the spare capacity to police other matters. Anyone with decent looks was essentially walking around like a child carrying a nugget of gold through the marketplace.

What was more... the staff member took another glance, sighing inwardly—such exceptional beauty, yet rather than following his advice to pick a residence close to the Awakened to easily secure a protector along the way...

Su Su acknowledged his kind intentions with a nod. "I understand."

Following fingerprint and facial recognition, she was issued a new base identity card, with her residence registered as Urban Village No. 44.

Compared to the pre-apocalyptic era, the urban zone of the Southern Base had shrunk to nearly a quarter of its former size.

Part of the reason was a lower population, while the other part... the greater eastern half was blocked off by tens of millions of dense zombies, requiring Awakened forces to launch continuous encirclement sweeps every day to prevent them from advancing toward the base.

The shuttle bus heading toward Urban Villages No. 40 through No. 50 arrived promptly.

Su Su's train of thought was forced to a halt. With her backpack on, she stepped into Urban Village No. 44. Dilapidated, tightly packed hand-shake buildings crowded every narrow street; laundry was hung out to dry everywhere, and the cement ground was so stained its original color was entirely lost.

In front of the ground-floor storefronts, groups of idle men and women sat about. Some were bare-chested, others had their feet propped up on stools, and some sported tattoos covering their entire backs. They carried the vulgarity of the lowest stratum along with the sharpest of gazes.

Whenever anyone walked past, regardless of what they were doing—whether picking their teeth, playing mahjong, doing chores, or shooting the breeze—they would raise their heads in unison, their eyes trailing relentlessly after the passerby until the figure vanished around the alley bend.

"Hisss!"

The black snake coiled around the female's wrist bared its fangs, terrifying a middle-aged man who had been staring fixedly at Su Su into backing away.

"A newcomer... how did she end up in our territory?"

"She's seriously pretty... Is she an ordinary person or an Awakened?"

"Keeping a snake... Is it poisonous?"

"Who knows..."

People living within the base lacked the life-or-death urgency of those outside, leaving them with slightly more patience than outsiders. Quite a few were observing, watching to see what the ultimate purpose of this pretty girl—so glaringly out of place in Urban Village No. 44—might be.

Su Su had long since grown accustomed to these stares.

In her past life, they had scrutinized her with similar intensity, though the subject of their discussion had been the twin fleshy scars running across her entire face.

"Hisss!"

The one unaccustomed to it was the black snake. It tensed its serpentine body, its slit pupils sweeping with icy malice over every human looking their way. Judging by its irritable demeanor, it looked ready to bite and burn every last one of them to death!

"Hush now, don't be angry." Su Su gently kissed the top of Little Black's head. "There are too many people living here, these gazes are entirely normal."

The black snake did not like it.

Yet it was reluctantly placated, nesting back against the female's wrist while its slit pupils remained chillingly cold as they surveyed the other humans, waiting only for some fool to step out of line so it could randomly bite one to establish its dominance.

To the snake's disappointment, no one made a move for the time being.