Tieqiong scouted ahead while Tiedan stayed close by Chen Yuan's side, providing personal protection. Its two sharp, offensive mechanical arms were poised for action, one aimed forward, the other pointed back at Jiang Nan and Wang Hao.
The deep snow made travel extremely difficult, and their pace was slow.
"Tch, what's he so proud of? It's just two robot dogs..." Wang Hao muttered under his breath from the back of the group.
In his view, these kinds of mechanical things were most likely powered by electricity. In this extreme cold, recharging was incredibly difficult. Even if one had a generator, diesel fuel was a scarce resource. So, while Chen Yuan's robot dog could intimidate him for now, he wasn't too concerned. Once the robot dog ran out of power, a man of his physique could easily take care of things.
Jiang Nan, walking beside him, frowned slightly. In her eyes, there was something special about Chen Yuan. Putting aside his refusal to join their team, the mere fact that he could wear such thin clothing and still have a rosy complexion was enough to attract her attention. Moreover, from her perspective as an AI engineer, she could tell these two robot dogs were anything but simple. From receiving a command to executing it, their movements were fluid and coherent, their response time immediate. They were far superior to any AI products she had ever come into contact with.
Chen Yuan, however, was oblivious to their thoughts. He was using his memory to navigate to the location of the incident.
Due to the snow that had fallen overnight, the ground was once again covered in a thick layer. To find even the slightest clue, they would have to dig.
"Here, this is the spot. Within a radius of three meters," Chen Yuan said, pointing ahead and drawing a simple circle in the air with his finger.
"This is it?!" Wang Hao looked at the vast expanse of white, clearly dissatisfied.
Chen Yuan's eyes swept over him. "What did you expect?" he asked coldly.
Sensing the friction between them, Jiang Nan quickly intervened. "Alright, alright, let's hurry. We need to clear the snow first."
With that, she took a combat shovel from the side of her backpack and began to dig.
Wang Hao snorted but joined in. Chen Yuan, however, made no move. He took two steps back and simply stood there, watching.
Time ticked by, second by second. After a great deal of effort, Jiang Nan and Wang Hao finally cleared out a two-square-meter area, revealing the black asphalt of the road beneath.
"This is..." Jiang Nan picked up a black, mangled object from the ground. A few broken parts were still attached to it.
"It's Xiao Han's walkie-talkie!!!"
Wang Hao froze for a moment, then took it from her hand. After a careful inspection, his face grew grim. "It really is hers..."
Jiang Nan covered her mouth with one hand, tears streaming down her face. But because the temperature was so low, by the time the tears hit the ground, they had already frozen into tiny pearls of ice.
"Stop crying. Xiao Han is probably dead," Wang Hao said, his brow furrowed with irritation. He was the captain of this small squad. With a team member dead, he wasn't in a good mood either—not because of any deep emotional attachment, but because he was now short one person who could do work.
He turned his head and glanced at the silent man standing nearby, and the menacing robot dog at his side, and suppressed the urge to question him further.
"Let's go. The others are waiting for us at the camp. We'll talk more when we get back."
Jiang Nan nodded, then turned to Chen Yuan and bowed slightly. "Thank you." She took a compressed biscuit from her pocket and offered it to him. "This is for you, as payment."
Wang Hao, seeing this, frowned. "What are you giving that to him for? You think we have too many supplies?"
Jiang Nan ignored him, her clear eyes fixed on Chen Yuan.
"Heh, you're quite polite," Chen Yuan couldn't help but smile. To offer a compressed biscuit to a stranger in this environment was no small gesture of goodwill. However, he was not short on food.
He shook his head. "You keep it for yourself. I don't need it."
With that, he turned and walked away.
Watching his retreating back, Jiang Nan felt a mix of complicated emotions. If not for him, she would never have gotten confirmation of Xiao Han's death. Without it, the team would have been obligated to go out and search, wasting time and precious supplies. By leading her directly to the site, Chen Yuan had saved her team a great deal.
But what she hadn't expected was that this man wouldn't even spare a second glance for a compressed biscuit. Could it be… that he had a lot of supplies? The thought had barely formed before she pushed it away. What his supply situation was had nothing to do with her.
Wang Hao, however, now wore a pensive expression. Well now, kid. You have robot dogs, and you don't even want a compressed biscuit. You must have a lot, don't you? A small seed of an idea began to sprout in his mind. But now was not the time. It wouldn't be too late to act after gathering more information. The apocalypse had just begun, and people were still clinging to the old order. In his view, that was an incredibly foolish thing to do.
After a day of scavenging, Chen Yuan looked at his once-again-full warehouse and smiled.
There was no need to even mention the wood; he had Tiedan chop down three trees today. In addition, he had removed the tires from two cars and retrieved two of their onboard computers. He didn't bother to count the other miscellaneous items. He had discovered that a single car contained over twenty thousand parts. They were practically mobile material stations. It was just a pity that his own ability was limited; he couldn't dismantle an entire car and bring it back.
After some simple organization, he went to the Apocalypse Store. Swiping his finger across the blueprint screen, he selected the upgrade for Tieqiong. With industrial mechanical arms, he could process materials right here at home.
「Material insertion successful. Upgrade duration: 1 hour.」
Just one hour. Not a problem.
Chen Yuan returned to the living room window and pulled aside a corner of the curtain. He remembered there were two people on the third floor of the opposite building. Two days had passed; he wondered how they were doing. He didn't know them, but that didn't stop his curiosity.
"Tiedan, scan the third floor of the opposite building."
Tiedan received the command. Its two red optical sensors stared across the way for a moment, then it spoke.
「Report, Master. Two active objects detected on the third floor.」
"What are their body temperatures?"
「One is 37.8. One is 38.5.」
Chen Yuan frowned. It seemed they had fevers. In this extreme cold, human resistance would drop. If there were any viruses or bacteria, it could easily lead to a fever. He glanced at the half-empty bottle of Mineral Life Water on the table, then shook his head. Although drinking it would cure them, why should he save them?
It was now eight o'clock in the evening. The street below was pitch black.
He re-drew the curtains and went back to the sofa. His rear end had barely touched the cushion when a loud BANG, BANG echoed from the front door.
"Fuck! Are you kidding me?!"
Chen Yuan shot up from the sofa like a coiled spring, snatching the Flame Dagger from the coffee table.
"Tiedan, prepare for attack!"
「Roger.」
Shing, shing!
Two offensive mechanical arms extended from its body. Tiedan assumed a combat stance.
BANG! BANG! BANG!