Night of the Apocalypse

Ten minutes later, Shen Qiu spent 6,000 Alliance Coins to buy a set of casual clothes and a brand new color Mi phone.
Shen Qiu turned on the phone, and a prompt immediately popped up.

“Please insert the service card.”

Shen Qiu dismissed the prompt and opened the phone’s built-in offline map to look for the nearest communication service center.

To his dismay, the nearest location was at least 5 kilometers away, and he couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

Ding~

Suddenly, the phone emitted a crisp alert tone, followed by a charging screen popping up.

Shen Qiu stood frozen in place, staring at the scene.

“What’s going on?”

He looked puzzled; was his newly bought phone malfunctioning so soon?

As he examined the color Mi phone closely, he suddenly felt something was off with his body, as if something had been added to his mind.

He instinctively focused his thoughts to sense this unknown thing.

Zizz~

Shen Qiu’s hand instantly flickered with electric arcs.

Boom~

The entire phone was suddenly pierced, and the internal lithium battery caught fire.

“Ah!”

Shen Qiu immediately let go.

The burning phone fell directly to the ground, and Shen Qiu quickly lifted his foot to stomp on it.

As some pedestrians passing by stopped to watch the scene unfold, they began to whisper among themselves.

“What brand of phone is this? It just self-ignited.”

“That phone looks new, doesn’t it?”

“It seems like a new phone; it’s really unfortunate for it.”

Shen Qiu felt increasingly embarrassed as he listened to the discussions around him. He hurriedly stomped a few more times to put out the fire.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for him to successfully extinguish the burning phone.

He quickly picked up the charred remains of the phone and tossed them into a nearby trash bin, then lowered his head and hurriedly left.

As Shen Qiu walked away, the onlookers dispersed.

While walking, he kept glancing at his hand, his expression constantly changing.

In his shock, he had already started to guess something. If nothing unexpected had happened, he should have undergone a physical transformation and become what was referred to as an “awakened one.”

From what had just happened with the phone charging and catching fire, it seemed likely that his newfound ability was related to electricity.

Shen Qiu didn’t know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

Just then, a rumbling sound echoed through the street.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out as heavy tanks and troop transport vehicles filled with soldiers emerged in the distance.

Pedestrians on the street stopped to observe the unfolding scene.

“What on earth is happening? Why are so many troops coming in?”

“I’m not sure; I heard that many places in the Sky City were attacked the night before last, and a lot of people died.”

“Sigh, it’s impossible to live like this.”

“Who knows when things will calm down.”

As Shen Qiu watched the passing troops, he felt increasingly uneasy, sensing that the situation was spiraling further out of control.

He couldn’t just sit here and wait for things to happen; he needed to take action.

With that thought, Shen Qiu immediately headed toward a nearby service center.

An hour later, Shen Qiu walked out of the service center. He had replaced his card and spent another 2,000 Alliance Coins to buy a basic phone to make do with.

It wasn’t that Shen Qiu didn’t want to buy a better phone; he was mainly worried it would catch fire again after a short period of use.

As for the phone that had caught fire, he didn’t go back to demand compensation. He knew very well that the fire was caused by his own actions, and he wasn’t the type to swindle others.

He carefully took out the new phone, gently touched the screen, and tested to see if it would catch fire again.

After several trials, Shen Qiu discovered that as long as he remained calm and didn’t experience any significant emotional fluctuations, everything would be fine.

So, he inserted the card, opened the dialer, and manually input the phone number of the unscrupulous merchant.

In fact, Shen Qiu only remembered the merchant’s phone number; he didn’t really remember anyone else’s.

He remembered this merchant’s number partly because he had called him often, and also because he had blocked this guy multiple times.

Beep, beep…

“Shen Qiu?”

Once the call connected, he heard the merchant’s cautious inquiry from the other end.

It seemed that the previous investigation by the KPI department had made him more vigilant.

“It’s me; no one else.”

Shen Qiu replied.

“Oh, a busy man! What brings you to call me?”

The merchant responded with a chuckle.

“Bring cash; we need to meet.”

Shen Qiu said plainly and directly.

Hearing Shen Qiu’s words, the merchant’s tone became excited, and he immediately replied,

“Okay, are we meeting at your place?”

“No need; in three hours, let’s meet at the Black Card Café next to our neighborhood. I’ll book a private room.”

“Just wait for me; I’ll be there soon.”

“Mm.”

Shen Qiu then hung up the phone and walked toward a nearby taxi stand.

Three hours later, Shen Qiu walked into the neighborhood with his hands in his pockets, acting nonchalant.

The entire neighborhood was very quiet, and there were hardly any residents loitering around.

Occasionally, he would see a few residents, but they were also hurriedly passing by.

Shen Qiu quickened his pace toward Building 4.

In just a few minutes, he arrived at his doorstep and noticed a black plastic bag hanging on the tightly closed door.

Curiously, Shen Qiu took it down and opened it.

Inside the plastic bag were some sausages, dried noodles, and a note.

Shen Qiu picked up the note and glanced at it.

“Shen Qiu, this bag contains some extra food we bought during our shopping. Since you weren’t here, I hung it on your door. Please remember to bring it in when you see it. It’s not safe outside lately, so try to go out as little as possible.”

Looking at the neat handwriting, Shen Qiu immediately recognized it was left by Sister Wang from next door.

He picked up the items and opened the door to enter the house.

After scanning the room to confirm that no one had been inside, he dumped the contents of the bag onto the table.

Then he took the black bag into the room and pulled out all the jewelry and ornaments, stuffing them into the bag and then into his pockets.

After finishing these tasks, Shen Qiu walked to his storage room and found a black trench coat to wear, along with black leather gloves.

Since he couldn’t effectively control the abnormalities in his body, wearing insulated leather gloves was beneficial for both himself and others.

Once he completed everything, Shen Qiu left.

Moments later, he pushed open the door to the Black Card Café. The entire café was very quiet; aside from a few servers, there were no customers to be seen.

“Hello, sir.”

A female server saw Shen Qiu and quickly approached him, her expression a bit excited, as he was the first customer of the day.

“Please find me a quiet private room.”

Shen Qiu said to the server.

“Of course, sir. Please follow me.”

The waitress immediately led Shen Qiu to the inner private room area.

In the end, Shen Qiu chose a room deep inside the café. He ordered two cups of hot coffee and some snacks, quietly waiting for the merchant to arrive.

After just a few minutes, he heard hurried footsteps outside, and the door to the private room was pushed open.

Huang Lang rushed in.

“I’m here!”

“You arrived pretty quickly.”

Shen Qiu glanced at Huang Lang and said.

“Ha ha, that’s for sure! If someone else called me, I’d probably take my time. But you are different!”

Huang Lang started to flatter Shen Qiu again.

“Enough with the small talk. Take a look at these items and see how much they’re worth.”

Shen Qiu pulled out the black plastic bag and pushed it toward Huang Lang.

Huang Lang’s eyes lit up as he hurriedly opened the black plastic bag, but his smile instantly froze on his face.

“Jewelry?”

“Yeah, what’s the problem? These were all brought back from there; they’re all top-notch items.”

Shen Qiu said to Huang Lang in a deep voice.

Huang Lang took out the gemstone necklace and two gemstone rings from the bag, playing with them continuously, his expression a bit conflicted.

“What’s wrong? Is there an issue with the items? These were taken out of a bank vault.”

“There’s no problem; these gems are quite special, and the materials are ones I’ve never seen before. But… forget it, I’ll take them.”

“How much can you give me?”

Shen Qiu looked at Huang Lang and asked.

“Flat rate, 140,000 Union Coins for the lot.”

Huang Lang said after a moment of contemplation.

“What? That’s so little?”

Shen Qiu immediately frowned.

“That’s not little! You know how chaotic the situation is right now; the luxury goods market has collapsed. Who wants these things? The price I’m offering is already very high, and these gems have never been seen before—others might not even recognize them. Let me tell you, you shouldn’t have brought these items back; they’re practically worthless. Even if you brought back a random book or document from those worlds, it would be worth thousands more than these jewels.”

Huang Lang said with great regret.

Upon hearing Huang Lang’s words, Shen Qiu’s expression changed slightly.

Huang Lang keenly noticed the subtle change in Shen Qiu’s demeanor; his eyes lit up as he quickly leaned in and asked,

“Shen Qiu, you didn’t actually bring back any documents or books, did you?”

“No.”

Shen Qiu directly denied it.

“Don’t lie to me; I may not know others, but I know you well enough. I’m telling you, those books and such are worth their weight in gold right now.”

Huang Lang said with sparkling eyes.