City of Time: Falling into the kill zone at the start

Chapter 027 A Long and Silent Road

As the car drove across the scorched earth under the cover of night, Yu couldn't help but feel a bit tense.

After driving for a while, turn off the headlights briefly to enter a 'silent' state.

Then, I briefly turned on the lights to take a quick look ahead before turning them off again.

Every ten minutes or so, they would even venture into the sandstorm to carry away a section of their trail in order to conceal their presence.

As the headlights repeatedly turned on and off, and the car bounced back and forth along the edge of the sandstorm, the atmosphere inside the car became somewhat tense.

Caught up in the tense atmosphere, Lu Chen also inexplicably felt a little nervous.

Subconsciously, he started chatting with Yu about random things to distract her and try to ease the tension.

"And you?"

"Never teamed up with anyone before?"

Her face was tense, her lips were slightly pursed, and she shook her head slightly.

"No one to trust."

"Neither my cautious 'kin' nor those who hide in the city and lie low, can I trust."

"The need to form a team means there is an extremely large expected profit outside the city."

"Just like that 'hibernation silo area'."

"And profits are often accompanied by greed."

...

"For example, in order to bring back a few more hibernation pods from that area, I would team up with other scavengers."

"After successfully finding the hibernation pod, on the way back to the city, he only needs to kill me to keep the hibernation pod for himself."

"Conversely, if I kill him, I can also keep all the profits for myself."

"So on the way back to the city, neither of us could trust each other at all."

"Even if neither of the two people intends to keep the profits for themselves, they will choose to strike first in order to avoid being killed by the other."

After saying these words, Yu's tense expression relaxed slightly.

He then asked, "What was that saying again?"

"Hmm, money can be very tempting."

Human nature is inherently susceptible to testing.

"Especially in the City of Time—and especially outside the city."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen nodded in approval.

He then joked, "So, you brought me along."

"A resurrected being whom you personally rescued, who poses no threat to you."

These words caused Yu to blush inexplicably.

A faint blush crept onto her almost deathly pale cheeks.

She simply turned her head away unnaturally, avoiding Lu Chen's amused gaze.

He admitted verbally, "I did."

"Wealth can move people's hearts."

"The hibernation pod is very valuable."

"Even if the private debts of those [2 years] cannot be recovered, the survivors will still be able to receive a share after the bank dismembers and auctions them off."

"It will take approximately 100 to 150 days."

...

"If the recovering individual has no debt, they can receive [2 years] directly."

"Most scavengers have never had more than a year."

"Then there are those who, as you said, are resurrected while in a state of dormancy with wealth."

"After they recover, they may use some of their wealth as a reward for the scavengers."

"Although it's only a 'possibility,' it's still a considerable sum of money."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen couldn't help but be surprised.

He immediately shifted his body to face the jade in the driver's seat.

"What kind of wealth could it be?"

"diamond?"

"Or gold?"

Her jade-like lips parted slightly: "Gold."

"In the City of Time, gold is extremely valuable."

"Almost all electronic components, such as circuit boards, connectors, and chip contacts, rely on gold."

"—And the healing agent that was injected into your body during your recovery."

"Cancer treatments also contain trace amounts of gold nanoparticles, which help to precisely deliver the drug."

His suspicions were confirmed once again, and Lu Chen nodded repeatedly.

No wonder a single healing agent is worth 10 years.

It seems that the total value of these [10 years] is largely comprised of the trace amounts of gold nanoparticles alone.

Then I thought of the swarms of drones that could be seen everywhere in the city, as well as various unmanned jobs—such as banks and security checkpoints;

It is not difficult to see that the City of Time must also have a high demand for precision electronic products, as well as gold, which is indispensable for electronic products.

"Gold must be a scarce resource on the black market, right?"

When Lu Chen asked again, Yu nodded without hesitation.

"The rarest type."

"On the black market, gold can be exchanged for anything."

"Weapons, medicines, mechanical bodies, even fixed assets—all can be traded."

"But other things may not be able to be exchanged for gold."

...

"As soon as gold appears, it will immediately attract everyone in the black market, who will offer their most valuable possessions in exchange."

"What gold holders need will appear on the black market within hours at most."

"Conversely, those who need gold, no matter how scarce the item they offer, often have to wait several months before the gold appears."

"—Just appearing."

"It's not certain that they can produce what the person holding the gold needs, and thus exchange it for the gold as they wish."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen nodded again and secretly memorized this information.

A moment later, he asked the question again.

"Where's the cigarette?"

"The miner told me that cigarettes are also in high demand on the black market and cannot be directly exchanged for [time]."

This time, Yu smiled faintly.

Cigarettes aren't exactly scarce.

"The metal collected from outside the city will eventually be sold to the military's arsenal."

"As long as the amount isn't too small—more than a ton—you can get a few extra packs of cigarettes."

...

"The reason why you can't exchange time for cigarettes on the black market is not because cigarettes are scarce, but because the channels for obtaining cigarettes are scarce."

"For scavengers, cigarettes are not hard to obtain."

"Those who truly desire cigarettes but lack the means to obtain them are mostly parasites."

"And the parasites don't have much time to buy cigarettes."

"—He has the time, and he's not short of cigarettes."

"Therefore, cigarettes cannot be directly exchanged for [time] on the black market, but it is also difficult to exchange them for other scarce items."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen nodded again, no longer feeling as indebted to Yu for offering him a cigarette.

—Once we return to the city, we can sell the metal to the military camp, get our own cigarettes, and then return the jade.

After this conversation, Lu Chen sensed that Yu had relaxed considerably, so he didn't ask any more questions.

It's not that I don't want to ask.

Lu Chen had many questions about the City of Time, and he needed Yu to answer them for him.

But Lu Chen vaguely sensed that although Yu answered all his questions, she seemed somewhat resistant.

It's not that they're unwilling to answer, or perhaps they're being defensive.

Instead, the preference is to let Lu Chen figure things out and summarize on his own.

Lu Chen didn't know if this was just his imagination.

It's not entirely certain whether this counts as a hidden test from the jade—a test of Lu Chen's insight and information-gathering abilities.

Lu Chen certainly wouldn't, and wouldn't, give up jade as an important source of information because of this concern.

However, under Yu's intentional or unintentional guidance, she deliberately controlled the frequency of her questions.

—Try to express your own findings and conclusions, and let the jade verify and supplement them, rather than letting the jade provide all the answers directly.

Right now, we're traveling at night again.

The tense atmosphere had eased, so Lu Chen naturally didn't ask any more questions, which would distract Yu from answering.

"I'll drive."

"It's nearly 200 kilometers, and it will take at least five hours."

Lu Chen volunteered, and Yu did not insist.

They found a suitable place to park, quickly switched places with Lu Chen, and agreed to switch every hour.

The next few hours were long and silent.