Damn it! Let's smash the darkness together!

This Gold rectangle covered with ancient and simplistic small characters was the strangest material left behind by Black Widow after her death.

As for the other items, even though Xu Shu had not had them officially appraised through official channels, it was easy to guess that they were nothing more than "Widow Spider's Teeth," "Widow Spider Claw," and the "Widow Spider's Stomach."

Such items, if brought back to the Safe Zone, could be directly exchanged for rewards at the local Guardian Army logistics, sold to field procurement personnel at research institutes, or various other departments that would have channels for recovery.

In short, under the management of the Supervision Bureau, every official department had always been collecting monster materials.

Not only parts, but entire monster corpses could also be exchanged for money with them.

Moreover, if you had the right connections, you could even go to the black market.

By taking a slight risk, selling the materials to unofficial Transcendent forces could potentially yield higher returns.

In essence, monster materials—although pertaining to Transcendents—are a very common and frequently encountered category, intimately connected to human life, with the general populace having some basic understanding.

But this one—this palm-sized Gold rectangle—was very special.

Its material was neither metal nor wood, with a touch resembling animal skin, and it even burned the skin.

Those tiny characters on it seemed like runes, and they oozed like liquid, slowly flowing in a bizarre and mysterious manner.

Xu Shu speculated that this object must be related to the secret of how to become a Transcendent!

Yes, the existence of Transcendents themselves was not a secret, but the method of becoming a Transcendent was.

The authorities always controlled it tightly, wanting on one hand a steady stream of powerful humans to fight, yet on the other hand, they were unwilling to reveal the Transcendent methods.

This was quite contradictory; it seemed they wished to keep the path to advancing to Transcendent firmly in their own hands.

Without the corresponding qualifications and authorization, ordinary people would remain ordinary for life—the only official paths were through examinations and selection tests.

And Xu Shu had already failed both paths in this life, neither passing the college entrance exams nor being selected as a reserve member of the garrison.

"Could it be the 'Erosion Crystal,' the most valuable material inside a monster's body mentioned in the books?"

The high school textbooks referred to the "Erosion Crystal" inside monster bodies as the core the Transcendents needed.

In the perspective of Xu Shu's previous life, it could be called 'Demon Core,' something like that, probably?

Regardless, one thing was certain; the more the Transcendents needed it, the more valuable it was!

Xu Shu really needed money so that his family could have a better standard of living within the Safe Zone, and not have to face the precarious situation outside.

However, living in the Safe Zone was truly expensive.

The Safe Zone had a mandatory "Safe Residence Fee," commonly known as taxes, which were collected per capita.

Each person had to prepay forty thousand dollars once a year. There was a small subsidy upon having a child, but if they reached five years old without qualifications, they must also pay taxes, with those under eighteen paying half, collected by parents. If payments fell short, there would be a collection period for at most a couple of weeks.

If one still couldn't pay after the deadline, they would be uniformly sent out of the city.

For Xu Shu's family of four, two adults and two children, just the taxes alone amounted to 120 thousand a year, making life very tight.

Now that Xu Shu had come of age, that figure had risen to 140 thousand.

His foster father had been the pillar of the family, but since falling ill, the exorbitant medical expenses had quickly depleted their savings.

In a few months, the beginning of the year's payment term would arrive—if they still had no money by then, within a couple of weeks, Xu Shu and his family would be driven out of the city.

But the problem was, ordinary people like them, who lacked any special skills and were easily killed by monsters, could only hide within the cities of the Safe Zone.

The weaker they were, the less money they could earn, and the less money they had, the less they could afford the taxes.

Damn it, a vicious cycle!

"But! If this thing really is an Erosion Crystal..."

Xu Shu stared intently at the small Gold block before him, his eyes filled with hope.

After all, it had exploded out from the body of Black Widow, and it was so unique; the likelihood that it was an Erosion Crystal was quite high!

Erosion Crystals, like Gold, were one of the only two "hard currencies" of this era.

Even an Erosion Crystal of the lowest quality could be exchanged for more than 100 grams of standard Gold, which was worth at least 40 thousand dollars in the Safe Zone—enough to cover the taxes needed by an adult for a year.

But in the end, Xu Shu dismissed this guess.

Although he had never seen an Erosion Crystal in reality, the books all had diagrams and annotations.

All monster Erosion Crystals would turn into polyhedral Crystal shapes, just like well-cut diamonds.

There could be slight differences in color and shape due to different monsters, but they would not differ too wildly.

That was why they were named Erosion Crystals, not Erosion Cores or Erosion Pituitaries or any other odd names.

It was because they had a very high degree of identification, instantly recognizable as a "crystal"!

Therefore, this rectangular item before him, which looked like a well-cut "Gold bar," with mystical runes crawling over its surface, was not a crystal.

But what exactly was it? Perhaps it was even more valuable than a Crystal?

Hence, Xu Shu wanted to ask around first to avoid ending up 'like a child carrying gold through a bustling market, being dissected and robbed on the spot.'

These two brutes, just over thirty years old, had seen more of the world than he had, and perhaps knew more about the Transcendent realm. Since they were locked up and posed no threat, he felt safe asking them.

However, their reaction quickly left Xu Shu disappointed.

"Ah, this is... this is..."

"Gold bar?"

"It can't be an Erosion Crystal, can it? It doesn't quite look like one?"

"Could this be some kind of special tracker?"

The two men leaned on the window, staring at the object on the ground, their eyes wide as they examined it from every angle, uttering hesitant guesses for a long while without coming to any conclusion.

"Forget it, I'll figure it out on my own."

Xu Shu tucked away the golden rod with disappointment, still wrapping it layers upon layers and stuffing it inside his high heels to prevent burns. Then, with an expressionless face, he said, "You talk too much. First, each of you will be cut off from food and water for a day to cool off."

"Ah?"

"No, let me think it over again, hey!"

Once these words were spoken, the two bald brutes' eyes bulged in shock.

However, before they had a chance to argue, they saw Xu Shu open the side door and head towards the back warehouse.

"I swear your..."

They gritted their teeth, but ultimately held back the urge to curse.

It's just one day of hunger, after all. Endure it! It's almost night; just go to sleep early!

They couldn't offend this kid right now. They were still depending on him to provide food and water for survival. All the hatred—they'd wait until he let his guard down, until he released them, and then they'd settle the score!

Separated by the corridor, they exchanged glances, each seeing the hidden intent to kill in the other's eyes.

*

*

This warehouse was neatly filled with many boxes of instant noodles, dried meat from unknown animals, various canned foods, and so on. On one side of the floor, there were over a dozen buckets of sealed water.

Resources were abundant.

On the adjacent open space, sleeping bags and bedding were set up, and there were a few short wooden tables with stoves and pots and pans, all showing signs of use.

On the ground lay some children's books with drawings and scribbles, with skewed phrases like "I love Daddy" and "I love Mommy." Judging from the freshness of the handwriting, they couldn't be more than a month old.

Xu Shu had discovered this place while patrolling before, so he wasn't surprised now.

Clearly, this place had previously been used as a temporary refuge by a group of people with families.

It was highly likely that not long ago, the Black Widow had invaded and killed everyone here, making this her own nest.

"I'll just settle down here for now. I have enough food and water to last me a long while."

Xu Shu lay sprawled on the bed in a "big character" posture, much more comfortable than the hard iron bed in the cell earlier.

The claws and blood-stained fur of the Spider Demons were placed on the short wooden table. The strange golden thick rod was also set aside.

During this time, Xu Shu had tried many methods, including but not limited to: spitting on it, praying to it earnestly, rubbing it with spider fur and claws, and so forth—all to no effect.

He had even tried the most traditional 'blood drop' test, to no avail; the object showed no reaction to blood.

"Well, I'll deal with it later. Perhaps only a Transcendent can use it!"

"If all else fails, when I return, I'll contribute it to the Judgement Department to exchange for reward money!"

"After all, even if it's really valuable, in the city, nobody dares to brazenly snatch the reward money given to me by the Judgement Department!"

The Judgement Department was the most powerful judicial institution under the Supervision Bureau, undertaking the roles of trial, judgement, and punishment, and it was the highest authority in the safety zones, equivalent to the combination of the Supreme Court and the highest law enforcement agency from Xu Shu's previous life.

Not only did they judge mortals, but even the Transcendents, if they did much evil and were sentenced, would be tried and judged by the Judgement Department, and they could even carry out capital punishment.

Atop the walls of the safety zones, the heads of Transcendents who had been sentenced to capital punishment had been hung more than just a few times!

From the warehouse window facing east, looking up at the rising full moon, Xu Shu couldn't help but reminisce about his parents who had passed away early when he was in elementary school. He had a childhood that, despite sitting on the backseat of a motorcycle, could still be called happy.

Unfortunately, his blond-haired father had driven recklessly with Ghost Fire and collided head-on with a dump truck, dying without a body left intact;

And his mother, once a sassy young woman who suddenly became homekeeping and dutiful after giving birth, protected her child by wrapping her body around him to shield him from further harm, ultimately succumbing to severe injuries that couldn't be saved.

Of the family of three, only Xu Shu survived, growing up as an orphan, and in the end, he too was struck down by a dump truck.

Each sip and each peck, it was all seemingly destined.

Ah, hometown...

Ah, dump truck...

Mm, foster parents...

After reminiscing about his past life, Xu Shu fell into a sweet sleep amidst the faint warmth of longing for his family in this life.

The Tai Chu Scroll was summoned out, placed on his forehead, facing the window, quietly awaiting the break of dawn.

The night on the Wasteland was unlike what he imagined; there were no ghosts wailing or wolves howling. Instead, there was an extraordinary peace.

Only the flawless, brightly shining full moon outside the window remained, along with the countless strange creatures that emerged from the ground at night, sitting still under the moon, their presence an eerie calm.

...

The night passed without incident.

The next morning, the sky was overcast, as though it was about to rain at any moment.

But even so, the sun stubbornly rose as if nothing—thunder, rain, or wind—could stop it from ascending over the horizon.

As the first rays of the sun pierced the darkness before dawn,

Xu Shu opened his eyes, awakening from his deep sleep.

His mind was filled with information transmitted from the Tai Chu Scroll:

[The sun rises in the east, all things are revived, welcome back to the Tai Chu Scroll, great master.]

[Today's remaining number of openings: 3/3]

[You can freely choose between the following two modes:]

[Legend Mode]

[Conquest Mode]

——