Chapter 24: Taking a Risk

Street lamps lit up the streets, and abandoned cars were left standing there.

Occasionally, one or two weird-shaped Fierce Beasts were seen passing through the streets, then disappearing into some residential buildings or alleys. Besides the sounds coming from the Fierce Beasts from time to time, the entire city was deathly silent. Walking on the city streets, a very dangerous aura always surrounded you.

Zhou Liming had already adapted to the changes in his body. With a basic understanding of his new form, he ran and jumped across the rooftops like a nimble monkey. When buildings were separated by streets, Zhou Liming didn’t care at all. He sprinted and leaped high into the air, jumping twenty or thirty meters away, and with a “bang,” landed on the roof of the building across the street.

Zhou Liming, who had lived in Haishi District for over ten years, was naturally familiar with this area. At this speed, he soon returned to the location of the Orphanage.

Standing on a nearby rooftop and looking far away, the Orphanage looked a mess. Near the small woods he liked best, several Fierce Beasts, the size of leopards, were playing by the lake. Looking at their lightning-fast speed, darting east one moment and west the next, especially their rebounding leaps among the trees, even Zhou Liming shuddered. It was almost impossible to track their movement.

Witnessing this scene, Zhou Liming, who had originally wanted to go back and pack some items with sentimental value, could only give up the idea.

On the street separated from the Orphanage, there was a Walmart supermarket, stocked with everything you could need. But Zhou Liming’s current target was not the supermarket, but the Tianhong Mall next to it. Apart from conflicting with Walmart in the supermarket business, Tianhong Mall’s other business concepts were different. The two places together would not form a fierce competitive relationship.

Zhou Liming’s thoughts were simple: food was light and took up a lot of space, so he could save it for later. For now, he needed to solve the problem of money first.

Zhou Liming had been inside Tianhong Mall before. The first floor was decorated luxuriously, and high-end brands had counters here. Especially in the jewelry section, all the well-known jewelry brands had set up counters. Whenever Zhou Liming looked into the jewelry section through the glass window, he would always see dazzling yellow gold that was breathtaking.

Now Zhou Liming somewhat understood why someone wanted the land around the Orphanage. Just based on the gradually forming commercial circle, the future prospects were already visible.

Zhou Liming agilely descended from the tall buildings to the street. He arrived outside Tianhong Mall, and the street lamps stretched his shadow long. The supermarket section of Tianhong Mall opened at 6:30 AM, but the counter sections didn’t open until 9:00 AM. When the Fierce Beasts descended, it was around 7:00 AM, and the sales clerks for the counter sections had not yet arrived at the mall.

Looking at the closed rolling shutter doors of the first-floor counter section, Zhou Liming’s heart beat fiercely.

Zhou Liming couldn’t understand what his feelings were at this moment. It was a bit thrilling, a bit guilty, but mostly it was a guilty conscience like a thief’s.

“Haha, what am I afraid of? Will the police catch me now? Everything in the whole city has been abandoned by people. I’m just picking up what’s left.” Zhou Liming suddenly felt like laughing at his own stupidity. What time was this? Why was he still so timid?

The mall doors were wide open. It was a bit messy inside, and one could imagine the scene of employees fleeing out in terror.

Standing in front of the rolling shutter door, Zhou Liming looked at the iron bar lock, took a deep breath, and swung his Bone Spur. The iron door was cut open by the hard Bone Spur, making a piercing metallic friction sound.

When Zhou Liming cut the iron door, the “wuu wuu” alarm sound suddenly blared. This heart-stopping alarm sound pierced the quiet night sky of the city, causing Zhou Liming to freeze and stare in dumbfounded shock.

“What the hell!”

Zhou Liming let out a curse, flustered and frantic. He hadn’t expected an alarm system here, and one that sounded like an air raid siren. The whole city was quiet now, and Zhou Liming couldn’t imagine how far this alarm sound would spread, or how many Fierce Beasts heard it.

Panicked, Zhou Liming originally wanted to run away directly. But borrowing the light from the street lamps, he could see the many glittering rings, necklaces, and other jewelry on the counters inside.

Having lived for so long, Zhou Liming, who had at most a few hundred yuan on him, could not withstand such temptation. He swallowed hard, roared, “Birds die for food, men die for wealth. Let’s do this!” Without any hesitation, he raised his foot and kicked the iron rolling shutter door violently.

Terrifying power tore the whole iron rolling shutter door open and sent it flying. It crashed into the glass counters inside, and the sound of shattering glass rang out in pieces.

Zhou Liming rushed inside, searched behind the counter, and found a sturdy woven bag. With a sweep of his Bone Spur, the glass on the counter shattered like tofu dregs.

As the woven bag was stretched out, his hand, which had turned into a claw, swept the glass shards and the rings and jewelry inside into the bag. Jewelry and accessories aimed at common people were not that expensive. A regular ring ranged from hundreds to thousands of yuan. But there were so many items. Just the Luk Fook Jewelry store had over a thousand rings, hundreds of necklaces, and some other accessories.

After sweeping five or six counters, the woven bag was almost full.

Estimating the value of the woven bag by market standards, it was probably worth between several million. But Zhou Liming understood one thing deeply: in times of peace, antiques are valuable; in times of chaos, gold is valuable. The more the world falls into turmoil, the larger the room for gold’s value to rise. In the end, several million worth of gold might become tens of millions.

Zhou Liming’s movements were fast. As soon as the woven bag was full, he ignored the scattered items left behind, picked it up, and hurriedly left the mall.

Actually, the truly valuable jewelry was located in a few jewelry cities in the city center. The value of each item started at ten thousand yuan. Like the Zhang’s Jewelry Store broadcast on local TV, their signature necklace was worth 7.88 million, a value far greater than the whole woven bag in his hand.

But the city center was exactly where the Fierce Beasts were most rampant. It’s true that people die for wealth, but going there when you know you’ll die without gaining anything is not just stupid; it’s suicide. Zhou Liming didn’t think he could escape the place unscathed. Some things were not things he could get his hands on right now.

Outside the mall, dozens of Multi-legged Insect Beasts, the most numerous species spread across every corner of the city, heard the strange noise appearing in front of the mall and made a series of “ji ji” sounds.

These Multi-legged Insect Beasts could only threaten ordinary people. For Zhou Liming, killing them was only slightly more difficult than killing a cockroach.

However… Zhou Liming didn’t feel anything about just the Multi-legged Insect Beasts. Not far away on the street, six Fierce Beasts with tails like scorpions were crawling towards the mall. Their bodies were similar to pangolins, but their tails were long, thin, sharp, and held high, like an antenna.

What was unsettling was that rhythmic purple arcs of electricity were flashing at the tips of the raised tails, making a “crackling” sound.