Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Tang Qiu was somewhat surprised that, even after leaving the harsh environment of the apocalypse, there were still people who would harm their own blood relatives.

It seemed that the reasons humans turned into beasts sometimes had little to do with how difficult their living conditions were.

Fearing that her single basic attribute point might disappear, Tang Qiu had no other thoughts. She immediately dashed out from the dark corner, ran at top speed, and in a few strides reached the rolling shutter door that was only pulled down but not locked, and forcefully lifted it.

While Tang Qiu was straining to lift the rolling door, a terrifying scream came from inside through the gap she had raised, followed by the dull sound of a sharp blade cutting into a body.

Tang Qiu understood that the life-or-death crisis the target was about to face tonight had already begun. She felt as if the easily obtainable basic attribute point was slipping away, and she was frantic with desperation.

Fortunately, when she sensed something was wrong, Tang Qiu hadn't wasted a moment. By the time she lifted the door high enough for a person to stoop through and looked inside, she was relieved to find that her worst fear had not yet come true.

Behind the rolling door, the target had a shoulder wound, lying face down with a foot firmly pressing on her. One strap of her backpack was broken, and the bag tilted to the other side.

The target's uncle was stepping hard on her, his right hand raised high holding a cleaver already stained with blood. Even the lifting of the rolling door didn't distract him; from the bulging muscles of his right arm, it was clear he was determined to kill her.

As the cleaver was about to swing down, Tang Qiu realized she couldn't rush over to stop it in time. She grabbed a square stool nearby and threw it with all her strength.

A flying object moves faster than a person starting to run, and Tang Qiu threw it accurately. A dull thud sounded as the stool hit the back of the middle-aged man's head.

Although Tang Qiu's strength wasn't great yet, the man was still dazed from the blow. His sparse hair couldn't cover the wound, and startling blood began to flow down.

The man's body wobbled, and with one foot still on the target, he quickly lost balance and fell flat on his back.

Seeing that the target's life-or-death crisis was temporarily resolved, Tang Qiu hesitated for a second, turned around, pulled the half-raised rolling door back down, and quickly walked to the middle-aged man.

The man was still dizzy and disoriented, but instinctively reached for the cleaver that had fallen aside.

Tang Qiu kicked the cleaver away, then reached out with her gloved hand, grabbed the man by the hair, and forcefully slammed his head against the ground repeatedly until blood splattered and he lost consciousness, completely unable to resist. She then let go, leaving him unconscious in a pool of his own blood.

The next second, the system interface appeared.

You provided assistance to Su Ying at 01:18 on March 20. You had a significant impact on Su Ying's fate. You obtained 1 basic attribute point. You successfully unlocked the special prize pool.

You drew from the special prize pool and successfully obtained an item (common): Fate's Prophetic Eye (one-time use).

You saw He Mingxu. Item: Fate's Prophetic Eye in use. Use failed.

You had a moderate impact on He Mingxu's fate. You advanced He Mingxu's imprisonment. You reduced He Mingxu's sentence. You obtained 1 general attribute point.

Tang Qiu raised an eyebrow. The system had a new change. General attribute points—regardless of how they differed from basic attribute points, in Tang Qiu's view, anything that could make her stronger was good.

Having obtained what she wanted, Tang Qiu intended to leave. But to her surprise, the system interface didn't disappear; instead, the text flashed and a few more lines appeared.

You had a minor impact on He Mingjia's fate. You obtained 0.5 general attribute points.

You had a minor impact on Su Hongliang's fate. You obtained 0.5 general attribute points.

Tang Qiu paused. She hadn't expected that besides the target and the prey, there would be an unexpected bonus.

Tang Qiu's mood became jubilant. The slight irritation caused by the sudden change of plans was well soothed, so much so that she spared a bit of attention to look at the target's condition.

The target was clearly scared stiff. Holding her injured shoulder, she had crawled to a corner at some point, huddling against the wall, trying to hide herself behind tables and chairs.

She had obviously been secretly watching Tang Qiu. Feeling Tang Qiu's gaze, she trembled in fear, reflexively covered her eyes, and shouted loudly and firmly as if swearing, "Don't kill me, I didn't see anything."

What a clever kid, but still a bit naive, Tang Qiu thought coldly. She withdrew her gaze, inspected the scene, and seeing that no biological traces of herself were left, she walked straight to the door, lifted the rolling door again, and went out.

She had just taken one step when the target, for some reason, shouted again, "Sister!"

Tang Qiu stopped but did not turn back. She heard the target continue, "Thank you, thank you for saving me."

Tang Qiu's mood was undisturbed. She politely listened to what the target wanted to say, then without looking back, merged into the darkness and quickly disappeared.

Taking a detour to retrieve the hidden items, Tang Qiu spent much more time getting home this time.

She had just severely injured a person. To avoid leaving any traces, even far from the scene, she dared not take a taxi and could only walk through small paths and alleys in surveillance blind spots.

Although physically exhausted, Tang Qiu's heart was satisfied. This time's gains had also exceeded expectations, making her a bit stronger than yesterday.

The first thing upon returning home, Tang Qiu still debriefed all of today's actions.

Although it was sudden and she only made a plan on the fly, fortunately for safety she had not only brought gloves but also the permanent item Confusion Mask, which she had drawn only yesterday at dawn. In addition, she changed clothes during the action, walked entirely in surveillance blind spots, and returned without using any transportation, walking all the way. This maximized her safety.

After confirming she had left no clues, Tang Qiu relaxed and began studying the new gains from tonight that differed from previous rewards.

General attribute points—Tang Qiu actually had some speculation when she saw that term. When she mentally called up the system interface and allocated the attribute points, her guess was confirmed.

It indeed directly affected physical stats, rather than raising the upper limit.

Again, without thinking for even a second, Tang Qiu added the total of two general attribute points she had obtained all to Physique.

The system interface flashed, and the new data representing her physical stats changed.

Binder: Tang Qiu

Physical Stats

Strength: 27.2/100 (You are too weak to kill a chicken.)

Agility: 21.2/100 (In the animal kingdom, you can only race a turtle.)

Physique: 34/103 (Barely healthy, but a light rain is very likely to give you a cold.)

Tang Qiu looked with satisfaction at the two decimal points after the Strength and Agility values. Her speculation was correct: as Physique increased, Strength and Agility also increased. But what surprised her was that the increase was so small, only one-tenth of the Physique increase. It seemed that once Physique was raised to a certain level, she would need to allocate some points directly to the other two stats to increase her overall strength as quickly as possible.

After completing everything that had to be done, Tang Qiu took out her phone, turned off airplane mode, and confirmed that no one had contacted her during her actions, so she didn't need to act as the original owner. Then she hid the items that needed hiding, took her pajamas from the bedroom, and went to take a shower.

A short and peaceful night—Tang Qiu only slept two hours before getting up prompted by the alarm.

Today's weather was still sunny. Tang Qiu went out for her usual morning run. To her surprise, she unexpectedly encountered Ji Shulan in the neighborhood.

The moment she saw Ji Shulan, Tang Qiu thought she had woken up late. It was only when she saw the pink-and-white gradient sportswear on Ji Shulan that she realized she was also out for a morning run.

Although Tang Qiu had met her once and had secretly saved her life, to Tang Qiu she was still a stranger. So Tang Qiu pretended not to see her, maintaining a steady pace and passing by Ji Shulan without looking sideways.

But Ji Shulan clearly remembered Tang Qiu well. She greeted her with great surprise, "Tang Qiu, I did run into you! I was just thinking this morning whether my impromptu run would let me meet you."

Ji Shulan was very happy, but Tang Qiu felt a bit creeped out. She didn't want to respond, so she continued pretending not to hear and sped up, trying to leave the other behind.

But Ji Shulan pursued relentlessly. Even though she was a bit out of breath, she stubbornly stayed by Tang Qiu's side and greeted her again, "Tang Qiu, Tang Qiu, it's me. Don't be scared. I'm not a bad person. I just want to run with you. I'm too lazy; if I run alone, I definitely won't persist."

Tang Qiu thought to herself: I'm not afraid of you, I just find you annoying.

To avoid appearing too strange, Tang Qiu reluctantly responded, "Oh, it's you. I didn't recognize you just now."

Ji Shulan was happy again. She raised a smiling face and said, "Different from a couple of days ago, right? Because I didn't wear makeup then, but today I did. Ah, people really are much happier when they don't have to work."

Tang Qiu didn't want to engage, just felt that Ji Shulan talked too much. She was about to speed up again when she heard Ji Shulan say mysteriously, "Do you want to know why I'm not at work today? I took leave because I was scared by something that happened the night before last."

Tang Qiu knew what event Ji Shulan was referring to, so she slowed down a bit.

Ji Shulan keenly sensed Tang Qiu's cooperation and continued with satisfaction, "Let me tell you, Tang Qiu, the night before last I almost died. I only found out yesterday when the police came to my work. It turns out that in an alley I passed when I went home that night, a man had his lower body smashed and one leg broken. The time the police mentioned was exactly the time I walked through that alley. That means when I passed through, both the murderer and the victim were there, maybe hiding in some corner. If I hadn't been blessed, maybe I would have been the second victim."

Tang Qiu tried hard to squeeze out a scared and sympathetic expression, but thought coldly in her heart: When you walked through that alley, both I and the prey were indeed there. But you were lucky, he was not. You were blessed to survive, but he turned from a hunter into my prey. If I didn't want to be a law-abiding citizen, he would be dead, not just injured.