The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

Su Mu took the booklet and flipped through a couple of pages. It didn't contain the profound martial arts manuals he'd expected, but rather the simplest... how to stand, how to walk, how to exert force, how to breathe. Each stroke was written in extreme detail, like a teacher instructing a complete novice.

"Thanks." Su Mu put the booklet into his backpack.

Bai Liuxi nodded, then glanced at the old digital watch on her wrist. A string of numbers that Su Mu couldn't understand were flashing on the dial, as if it were counting down.

"The military sent a message," she said, "that everyone must evacuate the Dark Zone and assemble at the power plant in the northern suburbs by this afternoon. This city... won't last much longer."

Su Mu frowned slightly: "How long?"

"At most tonight," Bai Liuxi said. "After one day, this place will become a dead city. Not the kind of dead city where many people have died, but the kind of..." She paused, as if searching for the right word, "...the kind of place where even monsters don't want to stay."

Su Mu was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Understood."

Bai Liuxi didn't say anything more. She turned around and walked towards Lao Wei and Zhao Cheng. Halfway there, she stopped, without looking back, and simply said, "Come to the North if you have the chance in the future. The door to the North is always open for you."

Then she left.

Old Wei carried the exhausted Xiao Jiu on his back, while Zhao Cheng held the plant he had rescued from the broken flowerpot... Its petals had closed, its leaves were curled and wilted, but it was still alive. A Qi walked at the very back, carrying the flat metal box on his back, head down, following the group step by step.

The five people disappeared into the darkness at the end of the street.

Su Mu stood in the open space, watching their backs as they walked away, remaining silent for a long time.

He knew that Bai Liuxi's words, "Always open to you," weren't just polite talk. The Great Wind Organization needed strong individuals, and he happened to be one. This was a transaction, not charity. But at least, the organization's ideology wasn't plunder or enslavement, but rather "to fight together against an unknown threat." In the apocalypse, this was already a luxury.

He turned his gaze back to the hunter's corpse.

Lin Yuwei emerged from the shadows not far behind him.

She was wearing a dark coat with the hood pulled low, but the coat was different from before... thicker and more fitted, as if she had gotten it from somewhere new. She walked to Su Mu's side, looked at the hunter's corpse, remained silent for a few seconds, and then spoke: "It seems the Black Kill Squad has accepted you."

Su Mu glanced at her.

Lin Yuwei's gaze fell on the hunter's corpse, her tone as calm as if she were talking about something unrelated to herself: "The intelligence I got from Zhou Zhenguo is that after confirming the enemy's death, the military will retrieve their equipment and belongings as spoils of war and samples for research." She paused, a slight smile playing on her lips, "They didn't search. They left everything to you."

Su Mu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized.

No wonder Bai Liuxi left so decisively, without even glancing at the hunter's corpse. It wasn't that she forgot, nor that she disdained it; she deliberately left it for him. This was also a form of goodwill... no, more accurately, a way of winning him over. The Great Wind Organization needed strong individuals, and he had already proven himself worthy of being recruited.

Su Mu crouched down and began searching the killer's corpse.

Lin Yuwei also squatted down, but didn't reach out; she just watched.

"What?" Su Mu asked without looking up. "You want to share these things with me?"

Lin Yuwei remained silent for a moment. She raised her head and looked in the direction where the Black Kill Squad had disappeared, a subtle, complex emotion flashing in her shrewd eyes.

"That plant," she said, "the one Xiao Jiu was holding. I've seen it before."

Su Mu paused for a moment.

"In a ruin." Lin Yuwei's voice lowered, as if recalling something. "When I found that strange object, there was an empty petri dish next to it. There was a label on the petri dish that read 'Project Code: Violet.' The plant was exactly the same as the picture on the label."

Su Mu turned his head and looked at her.

Lin Yuwei met his gaze, and there was no trace of lying in his eyes.

"It wasn't by chance that the hunter attacked me. He was also after that ruin. I got there first and took the artifact and some other things. When he arrived, there wasn't much left, so he chased me all the way here."

Su Mu was silent for a moment. "If that Blue Silver Grass is properly nurtured, it might grow to the same effect as the one Xiao Jiu has." Then he lowered his head and continued searching for the killer's corpse.

Lin Yuwei snorted, squatted down on the other side of the hunter's corpse, crossed her arms, and gave him a "I knew you were going to say this" look.

"Don't think I don't know. Blue Silver Grass isn't a good thing. Do you really think I don't watch anime? Let me tell you, girls watch even more of that anime."

Su Mu did not respond.

He lowered his head and continued searching the killer's body.

The body was already cold, and there wasn't much in the trench coat pockets.

Su Mu first touched a bracelet... made of teeth, of different sizes and colors, some yellowed and cracked, others with a faint ivory white hue.

A small hole was drilled at the root of each tooth, and a thin thread of unknown material was threaded through it and tied in a knot.

The bracelet had no system prompts, no attribute bonuses, and was just an ordinary string of teeth.

Su Mu glanced at it and put it aside.

It's not spoils of war, it's a hobby. Does the hunter pull out a tooth and string it together after every kill? Or after every monster he kills? Whatever it is, it has no value to him.

Then his fingers touched two things.

The first item was a palm-sized human-shaped wooden puppet, entirely black with a smooth surface, without any patterns or carvings, only roughly carved outlines of the head and limbs.

The puppet has a long, thin crack on its chest, extending from its collarbone to its abdomen, as if something has burst open from the inside.

The system notification popped up the moment Su Mu picked it up.

[Substitute Puppet (Blue)]

[Type: Curiosity/Consumable]

[Effect: Blocks one fatal attack and teleports the holder to a random safe location within a 500-meter radius.]

[Current Status: Triggered (3/3), Energy depleted, requires 7 days to recharge.]

[Note: This technique originates from the ancient craftsmanship of the Seventh World; each crack represents a life.]