Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 291 Prejudice in People's Hearts
After jumping across the river and putting the car down, Lu Xi'an looked back and saw that the boy's body had already been swept a distance by the rushing water.

It's inevitable that the kid would struggle and thrash around in the river.

No matter how determined a person is to die, when on the edge of life and death, they will be driven by the instinct to survive and struggle.

He and Yao Wei ignored the boy.

Even if that boy hadn't jumped into the river, he was already on the verge of death. Their act of rescuing him might not have been a good deed; it could have caused the boy further suffering.

"Get in the car, let's go."

Lu Xian and Yao Wei said.

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Mm."

After getting in the car, I took another look at the resonance gene scanner.

The red dot was still on the edge of the map on the resonance gene scanner, but this time it did not wander back and forth, but remained fixed at the easternmost position.

Lu Xi'an asked, "You mean... is there only this one person here, or is he the only one visible on the map, and everyone else is outside the map?"

Yao Wei shook her head: "I don't know."

Lu Xi'an said, "In short, let's just be careful, just like before. Being careful is never a bad thing."

Seeing the person appear at the edge of the map on the resonance gene scanner, Lu Xi'an wasn't actually too nervous; he was just habitually on guard.

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded, agreeing with Lu Xi'an's words.

From north to south, both he and Yao Wei continued to grow. Through numerous battles, with the assistance of the Fungus Stone and the guidance of the manual, their strength had increased significantly compared to when they first started.

With such strength, they are capable of handling most crises.

Even when facing five new humans—two A, two C, and one D—they were able to win a battle despite having made prior preparations.

This was absolutely unimaginable before.

—You should know that when they first went to the 923 base, they were still struggling against a Type A new human who was supported by a Type C new human.

Therefore, both Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei are well aware of the extent to which their strength has grown.

But no matter how much their strength increases, they still habitually remain vigilant.

Just like when they were in Fengcheng County, even though they were new humans and had an overwhelming advantage over ordinary people, they still chose to be cautious in order to prevent accidents and damage to vehicles and other supplies.

When attacked by ordinary people, their first choice is not to fight back, but to run away.

Upon seeing a city and sensing that it is inhabited, people will choose to detour rather than relying on their own strength to rush in.

Of course, part of the reason was that they didn't have a resonance gene scanner at the time, so they couldn't determine whether there were any new humans among those people.

Even if they were certain that there were no new humans among the targets, Lu Xi'an felt that he and Yao Wei would still remain vigilant.

The only difference is whether you are vigilant or extremely vigilant.

Danger is always unknown. Even with a resonance gene scanner, they cannot be certain that everything they discover is the whole unknown.

Therefore, it is necessary to remain vigilant.

Staying vigilant is a good habit. In such a world, they may not be afraid, but they cannot be unvigilant.

They drove south and soon saw Liangshan Village, which was the "sick village" that the boy Gouzi had mentioned.

There were people living in the sick village. When the RV approached the village, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could hear a lot of noise.

There were sounds of panting, coughing, groaning, screaming, and desperate wails.

This village is indeed a sick village; you can feel the despair mixed in the sounds from afar.

Lu Xi'an thought to herself, no wonder the young dog jumped into the river so calmly. Living in such an environment, jumping into the river to die was probably a kind of relief...

Without a moment's hesitation, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei decided that they should avoid this sick village.

They weren't sure if any of the injuries or illnesses those people carried were infectious. If one of them had a contagious disease, and even as new humans they weren't immune to it, that would be terrible.

They drove around the village, and Lu Xi'an compared the resonance gene scanner with the "World Atlas I" and said, "We should have left Linhai City and entered Jiangdong City by now."

“I think Liangshan Village is located on the very edge of Linhai City, just across from Jiangdong City.”

"To the west, Jiangnan City is separated from Linhai City and Jiangdong City by the Dongyin Mountain. Biyun County, Daze County, and Tingxi County are all in Jiangnan."

"According to what that dog said, we need to be a little careful in these three counties. But once we pass Dongyin Pass, we don't need to worry too much. We'll have to wait until the southernmost part of Dongyin Mountain to reach Shannan Pass."

"Just be careful there. We won't go to Jiangnan, we'll just go straight down to Jiangdong and get to Jiannan."

"Ah."

Yao Wei got into the car and nodded when she heard Lu Xi'an's words.

But as Lu Xi'an was talking, he suddenly fell silent, jumped back from the center console, left the passenger seat, and went to the resonance gene scanner to take a closer look.

Yao Wei glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Lu Xi'an looking at her with a serious and focused expression. She asked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Xi'an frowned and said, "I just noticed... the location where that red dot has always been is the downstream of the Guanhai River."

"Huh?!" Yao Wei was slightly surprised.

The map on the resonance gene scanner did not mark the river channels, only simple divisions and directions, so Lu Xi'an had not noticed it before.

Then, after carefully examining the map from the resonance gene scanner and looking at the paginated maps in "World Atlas I", I finally made a discovery.

He opened the "World Atlas I" and held it up next to the map on the Resonance Gene Scanner. After carefully comparing and confirming it, he said, "No problem, the map's orientation does indeed point to the lower reaches of the Guanhai River."

"The Guanhai River has a very straight course. If the river course hasn't been altered in recent years, then this new human must be in the lower reaches of the Guanhai River."

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded as she drove.

Lu Xi'an asked again, "Do you think... this is a coincidence, or is there another reason?"

"This red dot isn't moving anymore, it's like it's guarding the lower reaches of the river. Could it be waiting specifically for that dog?"

"He... he wouldn't be thinking of catching that dog and eating it, would he?"

"do not know."

Yao Wei replied.

In this world, anything is possible, and eating corpses is perfectly normal.

But the new humans are all superior to others in this world, so how could they possibly hide downstream of the river leading to the sea and guard the corpses of some patients?
Forget it, don't want to...

Thinking about it from all angles, this actually makes sense. Can't New Humans eat corpses?

In this world, the new generation is incredibly diverse. There are people like myself, people like Yao Wei, people like Luo Ping, people like Lao Tang, and people like that guy from Mengxin City who died upon meeting him...

It's not unusual for some people to wait at the river mouth like brown bears waiting to return to the Mahana, waiting for the bodies of patients in the sick village.

"I just hope that dog doesn't fall into the hands of the new humans."

Lu Xian sighed and said.

That dog chose to jump into the river because it didn't want to become someone else's food. If it had mustered up the courage to jump, it would have inevitably ended up as someone else's food in the end, which would have been too tragic.

The red dot on the eastern edge of the Resonance Gene Scanner map finally disappeared. Lu Xi'an sat back in the passenger seat and continued to give Yao Wei directions.

They hadn't driven far when they heard rustling sounds coming from the surrounding woods outside the road. The sounds were hurried, restless, and a little tense, but they eventually quieted down.

Lu Xi'an heard someone say something like, "Don't move, don't move, wait for them to pass by," and then someone accidentally coughed.

These people must also be from the sick village. They came out of the village and into this forest to find something to eat.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei drove by in a campervan, which to them was like a dangerous and brutal beast, something to be feared and killed.

The car swayed and bumped as it passed through the road, the leaves on both sides rustling in the wind, seemingly drowning out any sounds from the woods.

Lu Xi'an assumed that the rustling sound had drowned out all other noises, and ignored the people hiding in the woods who dared not move, and told Yao Wei to continue driving forward.

He and Yao Wei laughed and said, "We've finally been treated like bad guys for once."

Although he was joking, he remained vigilant and picked up a pebble in his hand.

Yao Wei said, "If we didn't speak before, the dog would also think we were bad people."

"Too……"

Lu Xian said.

Moreover, he knew very well that no matter how much they communicated or how humbled they were, some people would not see them as good people.

—For example, the people I met when I first entered Pingchuan City.

However, Lu Xi'an didn't really care about this. He just needed Yao Wei to believe that he was a good person, and... well, there were also Chai Xin, Luo Ping, and those people from Institute 923.

Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain; to move it, one usually needs the spirit of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains.

But moving mountains is too tiring, and Lu Xi'an is unwilling to endure this hardship.

He peeked back and looked down; the forest behind him was quiet and seemingly lifeless.

They probably wouldn't dare to move an inch until the RV was far away.

Ordinary people are always like mice in front of a cat when they see the new humans.

—Among these people, there will certainly be no new humans.

Lu Xi'an even took a special look at the map on the resonance gene scanner to confirm it.

But this confirmation brought a slight surprise.

On the east side of the map, a red dot has reappeared.

The red dot was heading west, seemingly moving upstream along a river. While its speed wasn't as fast as a Type A new human running, it wasn't slow either, which suddenly reminded Lu Xi'an of the fish-riding man in Jianshan City.

That's why the red dot was able to re-enter the map of the resonance gene scanner.

—It should still be that red dot, at least judging from the location on the map and the movement path of that red dot, it should be.

(End of this chapter)