Chapter 602: Starting Tomorrow
Chen Ye wandered around the market for a while, feeling the sparse crowd around him, and the loneliness that had been gnawing at his heart eased considerably.
He noticed fish being sold by the roadside.
Obviously, these fish had been brought in from the sea.
With humans gone, resources both on land and at sea had gradually started to become more abundant.
Several kinds of fish were ones Chen Ye had never seen before.
After all, he was an inland kid, and his knowledge of marine fish was extremely limited.
Besides, the prices of these fish were very cheap.
One fish had a pointed snout, its body bright and colorful, very pretty to look at, weighing around fifty jin.
According to the survivor who caught it, he didn’t recognize the species either.
It was probably a large fish mutated by the apocalypse.
That survivor was asking for one Silent Gold Coin, or ten jin of flour and rice.
That price made many people shake their heads and walk away.
Even the Superhumans only glanced and didn’t bid.
Not far from there he saw someone selling fishing gear.
All sorts of familiar and unfamiliar tackle were neatly laid out on the stall.
Before the apocalypse, Chen Ye had enjoyed watching people fish on short video platforms, but he himself hadn’t done much fishing.
The last time he’d gone fishing was over at Fairy Lake.
There had been so many big fish in that lake, it had left a deep impression on him.
Unfortunately, ever since Fairy Lake, people rarely ate fish.
When he was a child, fishing had been primitive and there wasn’t money for lots of gear.
Back then he’d chop a bamboo pole in the grove, tie a section of cotton thread to it, bend a needle into a hook, and fish that way.
That method was primitive—whether you caught anything depended entirely on luck.
Or you’d find a glass jar or can, tie a rope to it, put some rice inside, then toss it into the water.
After some time you’d pull it up and there would be a few small fish inside.
The fishing gear he’d used at Fairy Lake had been damaged in countless battles.
Many of the tackle sold at this roadside stall had cost thousands before the apocalypse.
In the end Chen Ye traded seven flatbreads for the set.
Of course, that was somewhat expensive; in normal times one flatbread would’ve sufficed.
But this was the seaside now, and plenty of people wanted to fish for supplies, so the prices had skyrocketed.
He didn’t know whether some Superhuman angler had gathered the gear.
The seller had cut Chen Ye a break because he was a Superhuman; otherwise the price would have been higher.
According to the survivor selling them, that set would have cost at least five thousand before the apocalypse.
Chen Ye wasn’t a regular angler and didn’t know if the gear was truly worth that much, but the seller probably wouldn’t dare lie to a Superhuman.
Chen Ye carried the new tackle down to the shore.
There were already quite a few people at the seaside.
It was worth noting that the concealment barrier covering the base’s area was very large; according to Captain Chu’s estimate, at least a Sequence 4 pathfinder had released it.
Chen Ye arrived at the seaside with his new gear.
When he appeared, many survivors proactively left, giving Chen Ye a pretty decent spot.
When he watched videos before, anglers always went through so much trouble to find tricky angles.
Chen Ye didn’t fully understand that, but copying them couldn’t hurt.
Also, this side had the most people earlier, so he’d come here.
When he arrived, many survivors felt uneasy and eventually packed up their rods and left.
Now he was alone.
Many survivors wore displeased expressions, but none dared speak.
Some people envied Chen Ye’s tackle.
Chen Ye ignored their looks entirely.
He calmly set up his gear and began to fish.
Of course, Chen Ye was not obsessed with fishing—not at least as a hobby yet.
He just wanted a quiet place to think about his next moves.
He still had over forty thousand Slaughter Points.
Hundred-Ghost Eater was in his hands, and so was Hatred.
How could he make these things achieve their maximum combat potential?
Should he sacrifice Hatred to Hundred-Ghost Eater?
Based on Hundred-Ghost Eater’s ability description, it should be able to replace Hatred’s number ranking and inherit its abilities.
But it had never been attempted before, and if it failed he’d likely lose the very useful Wonder Hatred.
If he sacrificed something else, for example…
Ahem…
Chen Ye quickly dismissed the wild thoughts in his head.
Perhaps this Return to the City Plan would turn up the Anomalies Hundred-Ghost Eater needed.
A few minutes of idle speculation later, Chen Ye felt someone approaching from behind.
He turned his head.
A graceful figure in red was carrying a bucket, walking over.
He turned again and found his mortal enemy, Jiang Rou.
The woman seemed not to have expected to encounter Chen Ye here either.
Jiang Rou had come because she’d felt her temper had been too violent lately; she figured this wouldn’t solve anything and wanted a way to calm herself.
So she’d taken up fishing as a method to cultivate patience.
Who would have guessed she would run into Chen Ye here.
Chen Ye pretended not to see Jiang Rou.
When Jiang Rou saw Chen Ye, anger flared within her, and she had to work hard to calm herself.
The two sat apart from each other.
Jiang Rou’s presence left Chen Ye at a loss for words.
This woman was a walking troublemaker.
Whether intentional or not, each time she swung her rod it whistled through the air.
It seemed like the next second it might smack Chen Ye in the face.
He hadn’t even caught a fish yet, and her arrival completely ruined his mood.
A few minutes later, Chen Ye casually packed up his gear and left the rock.
Of course, this was not because he feared Jiang Rou.
She was hot-tempered and any fight would be unnecessary trouble.
He wasn’t afraid; he had many tricks up his sleeve.
But fighting her had no benefit.
Besides, Sun Xixi had wandered off somewhere and he didn’t know where she was.
Chen Ye began to walk faster and faster.
Soon Captain Chu returned to the Fair Convoy’s gathering place.
He repeated what had been discussed at the earlier meeting and recounted the recent anomaly encounter again.
They discussed it for a while but came up with nothing.
Time flew, and soon it was New Year’s Eve.
Tomorrow would be the first day of the new year, and also the day the Return to the City Plan would begin.
Lin Shu Tong’s convoy still hadn’t arrived.
Little Fish secretly wiped many tears.