Chapter 115: Take the Money Freely

The night color changed the high and low ridges. A series of highways seemed to reach their terminal stations, merging into a patch of darkness.

Finally, the city’s cloud corridor appeared in front of him. Countless skyscrapers stood tall, and some characteristic buildings came into view. However, this international metropolis, hailed as the City That Never Sleeps, was dead silent at this moment, like a lurking monster swallowing up all light. There was not a single ray of light in the entire city.

Just like countless other cities occupied by Fierce Beasts, terrifying roars occasionally echoed from the dark streets, alleys, and corners.

Hovering in the mid-air, Zhou Liming looked at this city, which resembled Zhejiang B City, a place he had never visited. Although it was night, his eyes, after being modified, could almost ignore the darkness. He could still see everything in the city, from the skyscrapers to the streets, from the green trees on the streets to the abandoned cars, and even clearly read the words on the billboards in the shops.

The streets, once bustling with traffic, were empty, with nothing except many traffic-jammed and abandoned cars.

When the evening wind blew, he could see many pieces of broken paper being rolled up, flying on the streets, then flying farther and higher until they disappeared. Some billboards, which had experienced months of wind, rain, and sun, rustled loudly in the evening wind, making a “swish-swish” sound.

Zhou Liming was completely unfamiliar with this place. It was a totally strange city.

Zhou Liming’s senses were very sharp, but they were far from covering the entire city. That was a sensory ability possessed only by Fierce Beasts, a beast instinct for sensing crisis. Some leveled Fierce Beasts could emit their aura to deter enemies. But Zhou Liming had not learned these skills.

After circling above the city, it seemed that some Fierce Beasts below sensed Zhou Liming’s presence and let out a series of roars.

Zhou Liming ignored these Fierce Beasts. After confirming his target, he dove from the sky and instantly landed on the street. After retracting his wings, Zhou Liming looked just like an ordinary person.

Walking on the street, it was very quiet around. Even his footsteps on the street created echoes. If ordinary people were here, their eyes could not see in the dark. In the pitch-blackness, these echoes would surely scare them silly? After all, the whole city was too silent.

Cities occupied by Fierce Beasts were not as terrifying as the zombies in Resident Evil, but they were certainly not far off. Many Fierce Beasts had the ability to ambush and launch a lightning-fast strike. With their speed, they could kill people instantly and then have a delicious meal. The appearance of some Fierce Beasts was extremely terrifying and ferocious, forming demons from hell.

Because Hu City faced the sea, just like Zhejiang B City, it was also a landing point for Fierce Beasts. In an instant, half of the people fell under the beasts’ mouths. The only people who truly escaped were in the western urban area. Amidst the great chaos, everyone was just fleeing. Signs of car accidents could be seen everywhere on the streets at that time. Later, it caused a massive traffic jam, so people could only flee the city on foot. For those who did not react in time, their chance of survival under the Fierce Beasts’ sweep was very slim.

In fact, Zhou Liming did not know the exact location of the gold storage center established in Hu City, so he could only look for it.

As a city where Fierce Beasts landed, the number of beasts was extremely large. Moreover, Level Six Fierce Beasts were still remaining in these cities. Generally, they would advance towards the inland only when a new batch of Fierce Beasts landed. But there were exceptions. Some Level Six Fierce Beasts liked to wander around randomly, and there were even cases of Flying Fierce Beasts appearing in the rear areas.

Level Six Fierce Beasts were currently the highest-grade Fierce Beasts. Facing Fierce Beasts of the Fourth and Fifth Stage, humans were already powerless. Once facing a Level Six Fierce Beast, it would definitely be a massive slaughter.

Like the Flame Bird in Yue B City, the King-level of Level Six Fierce Beasts, if it really appeared over the human army, a single Form Attack could destroy one-third of the city. Just three or four Form Attacks could level the entire city. How powerful was that? It was an existence that current humans could not match at all.

With thousands of thoughts, he unknowingly walked onto a bustling pedestrian street.

Countless brand stores appeared here, and one after another, familiar brands came into view. But this was not the point. Because Zhou Liming saw several gold shops that were not small in area, established here. Like many gold shops, their target audience was ordinary consumers. Their figures could almost be seen on every bustling and lively commercial street.

Of course, for these gold shops, the gold they owned itself had some problems.

In such cases, although the country repeatedly regulated them, the actual effect was not very great. Mainly, how many consumers were truly knowledgeable? How could they know how to identify gold? Although gold shops repeatedly claimed they had brand guarantees and could take the items to certain departments for appraisal, how many people actually did that?

But Zhou Liming did not know any of these tricks at all. Like some so-called 18K gold, platinum, etc., they were not too valuable. In Zhou Liming’s eyes, they were the same as real gold.

“If I can’t find the gold storage center, I’ll have to return empty-handed, right?”

Holding this thought, Zhou Liming turned around and went straight into a gold shop. The situation here was similar to what he encountered in Zhejiang B City. Due to the hasty escape, it was a mess inside. But what made Zhou Liming nearly vomit blood was that on every counter, it was obvious that someone had been faster, with more than half taken away by others. Only some scattered items remained.

One could imagine that when the initial chaos occurred, the employees here, or other passersby, disregarded their lives and forcibly snatched some gold here.

“What bad luck, bad luck!” Zhou Liming’s troubled mood can be imagined, but he still found some paper bags in the shop and picked up these scattered gold jewelry and diamond ornaments to pack into the bags. After all, even a mosquito is meat. Although Zhou Liming wanted to plunder the gold storage center, that had to wait until he found the materials. It was better to grasp what was in front of him now.

Such a large gold shop, even if picking up leftovers, totaled almost more than one jin (about 0.5 kg). At the current price of tens of thousands of yuan per gram, this translated to several million.

Several million, given the current prices, was enough for a family to live comfortably for a year. The harvest was only a very small part of this gold shop, but Zhou Liming was still exceptionally satisfied. You know, there were several other such gold shops next door. Getting a few jin of gold did not seem difficult.

“Ten thousand yuan a month, fuck ten thousand yuan a month,” Zhou Liming became smug. “Just coming out for two or three hours earns more than others’ entire lifetime salary, and it’s a business with no capital cost. In these chaotic times, it’s easy to make money.” Zhou Liming suddenly thought, the current currency was still in normal circulation. He wondered how much money he could get if he smashed open the banks in the entire Hu City and moved them out?

Relying on Hu City, this eastern economic and financial center, with its huge population, getting billions in cash was as easy as playing.

“Uh,” Zhou Liming couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. This idea was too damn crazy. If he brought back billions to the rear later, he could live whatever corrupt life he wanted?

Zhou Liming didn’t think well about it, but once he started thinking, his entire mind was filled with money, money, money, money, money, money.

Once his thinking opened up, he suddenly discovered that with his abilities, money was just a pile of numbers. He could have as much as he wanted. How could a single Hu City only have a few billion? In the banks, private ones, spending one or two months to plunder, hundreds of billions would be a small problem. If one Hu City wasn’t enough, what about other cities? As long as he was willing to spend time, a thousand billion seemed not to be a problem.

A thousand billion, what concept was that? With the currency currently in use, how tall and how large would a mountain of money be?

“Damn, floating clouds, floating clouds. As long as there is enough money to spend, more is just a burden.” Zhou Liming decisively stopped the crazy thoughts in his head. But the more he didn’t want to think about it, the more he thought about it. In the end, it wasn’t just money. Like some important equipment, important materials, etc., if brought back to the rear, how could they be measured by money?

He carried the bag containing gold and diamond ornaments and turned to another store. The result was naturally the same. The counters were very empty, with only some scattered on the floor.

After sweeping through several gold shops, one bag was finally full. He weighed it, and it was a little over three kilograms, that is, nearly seven jin. Converting it back, this was three or five thousand six hundred grams. Calculated with the crazy gold price under the Fierce Beast Era’s inflated prices, at ten thousand yuan per gram, my stuff, over thirty million, this was over thirty million.

Zhou Liming, whose pockets had never contained more than one hundred yuan, was also startled by thirty million. What hundreds of billions, what tens of billions, were not as real as the thirty million he was holding in his hand.

“I’ve become rich, I’ve become rich, hahaha!” Zhou Liming became arrogant and forgot himself. In Zhou Liming’s mind, the cities occupied by Fierce Beasts along the coast would be his ATMs in the future. If he had no money, he could just stroll around and bring back some valuable items. He could have as much money as he wanted?

Of course, the volume of paper money was far less substantial than gold and diamonds. Moreover, in the massively fallen cities, too much currency remained in these cities. If people transported it back to the rear in large quantities, the impact on the current economic and financial system would be fatal. Do not exclude this thing; anything is possible. Therefore, currency reform would definitely take place, and the country absolutely would not allow such a situation to happen.

That is to say, the currency in dozens of coastal cities was useful now, but in the near future, it would certainly be a pile of wasted paper, with not a single bit of value.