16: Starry Safe Zone

"What! An S-rank Talent!" Tang Ping was dumbfounded, frozen in place.

It was, it was an S-rank Talent!

Following closely behind was excitement. Damn it, this was the highest-level Talent a descendant could awaken, besides the First Generation Players!

Damn it, why didn't his own body have such luck? Was he actually a good-for-nothing?

Tang Ping calmed his excited mood and quickly checked his personal panel.

Those who became Players by picking up other people's Shelters only had a personal information panel; they didn't have other functions like chat channels or trading areas. Only the First Generation Players had those.

"Player: Tang Ping

ID: 0079351681

Physique: 3

Spirit: 7

Strength: 3

Speed: 4

Talent: Extreme Ice (S)

Talent Level: 1 (0 / 100)"

"It really is an S-rank Talent," Tang Ping sighed. A chilling aura suddenly appeared in his hand. When he pressed his hand against the wall, a layer of ice crystals immediately began to spread!

It spread out to a diameter of three or four meters! Tang Ping still didn't feel any exhaustion!

He withdrew his palm, and a two-foot-long ice spike immediately appeared before his eyes!

He thrust it towards the wall five or six meters away!

The ice spike instantly fully embedded itself into the wall, even unleashing an extremely cold aura that froze the surrounding half-meter of the wall with ice crystals!

"Too strong!"

Tang Ping cheered. This was what awakening a Talent and gaining extraordinary power felt like!

What were his Candle Fire and Weak Fire abilities? What kind of garbage were those!

"I can't carry this shelter item on me." Tang Ping looked at the glowing pebble in his hand, knowing that this item would not only offer him no help now, but if discovered by others, it would bring him immense disaster!

As for the benefits of carrying it, they were merely an extra mobile house and the ability to see doomsday treasure chests.

But a Level 1 Shelter, in the Wasteland a hundred years later, might risk being destroyed by a casual encounter with a Pollution Beast;

As for doomsday treasure chests, it was also very difficult to open good things from them. Most were uncontaminated food and water, which were not worth the risk of him carrying the Shelter.

He still needed to return to the Safe Zone, and even enter the inner ring, to the historical library, to consult more secret information.

Therefore, carrying the shelter item was even more out of the question.

He knew clearly that there were many ways to detect shelter items nowadays!

Most of the patriarchs of those extraordinary families established by Shelters within the Safe Zones never left them.

Moreover, these individuals had at least raised their Talent to Level 4.

Although he now possessed an S-rank Talent, it was only Level 1, and he didn't have the strength to protect a Shelter.

So, he must, and definitely would, discard it.

Even if others discovered he had awakened a Talent, they would only assume it was a post-natal awakening.

Although the probability of awakening a panel greatly decreased after the age of sixteen, among the more than a million people in the Safe Zone, several lucky individuals still appeared each year who awakened after sixteen, especially the closer they were to sixteen, the higher the probability of awakening.

Although his current body looked more weathered than his twenty-four-year-old original body, he was actually only eighteen years old.

After careful consideration, Tang Ping made a decision. He immediately unbound the Shelter and reburied it in its original location.

Then he returned towards the Safe Zone. He wanted to find an internet cafe to see what this somewhat familiar "Star Glory" was all about.

He returned to the Safe Zone safely, without any major incidents.

The Safe Zone was surrounded by twenty-meter-high city walls, and the eighty-one districts inside were also separated by ten-meter-high walls.

While they claimed to protect the people in each district, Tang Ping knew that they were merely using the layers outside as human shields.

Even if a beast tide broke through the city walls and rushed into the Safe Zone, after they were full, these beast tides would retreat.

As for the lives of the Gray Citizens, Tang Ping shook his head with a slight self-deprecating smile. Those White Citizens and Upper Citizens didn't even consider Gray Citizens as people. To put it harshly, they were just a group of Infected with humanity... By the time he returned to District 66, the six-hour countdown had less than three hours remaining.

Tang Ping found an internet cafe.

In an era where most Gray Citizens earned less than two sheng tian coins, or two yuan, a day, an internet cafe charged three yuan per hour.

Perhaps Tang Ping's soul came from a hundred years ago and had seen all sorts of high prices, or perhaps he had awakened an S-rank Talent; in any case, spending three yuan didn't feel like anything at all. He looked as if he was throwing three iron pieces, which made the internet cafe manager can't help but take a second look.

After all, District 66 was only the outer district of the fifth ring of the Safe Zone. Many game addicts who came to play looked like they were cutting off a piece of their own flesh.

However, the internet cafe manager was an experienced person and stopped paying attention after a second glance.

Moreover, he understood that it was better to avoid trouble. In this world, there were many people a small internet cafe manager couldn't afford to offend. Some people's status could be roughly discerned from their appearance and demeanor.

The young internet cafe manager wasn't particularly capable, but the internet cafe saw people coming and going all day, including Upper Citizen Wasteland Hunters returning from outside, so he was very confident in his ability to judge people.

Just by his fair skin, the internet cafe manager knew he was definitely someone from within the third ring.

Tang Ping himself hadn't even noticed these changes.

After awakening his S-rank Extreme Ice Talent, his skin was no longer dry, dark, and thin as before.

This appearance, in the eyes of ordinary Gray Citizens, clearly marked him as a big shot from the inner three rings.

After all, Gray Citizens couldn't maintain such fair skin.

Tang Ping found a seat, sat down directly, and prepared to search for "Star Glory" first.

The internet speed was surprisingly good, and soon, pieces of information about "Star Glory" popped up.

Upon seeing the topmost entry, Tang Ping was shaken!

"So, fifteen years ago, this Safe Zone was called the Xingyao Safe Zone!"

Tang Ping couldn't help but think of the connection between this Star Glory and the Starlight Club established by those older brothers and sisters in the company group chat.

Although the leaders at the company where he had worked for a year were worse than the last, his colleagues were all excellent. Everyone stuck together and got along very well.

When it was time, everyone left together, and no one was allowed to stay. Those who arrived early for work even sat on the first floor of the company until everyone else arrived before starting work.

As long as the tasks were completed, they wouldn't do anything extra.

Therefore, those managers and bosses who wanted to skin people alive could only rage ineffectually.

Even the last time he was made a scapegoat, if it weren't for Sister Wang and his colleagues, he wouldn't have received seven days of paid leave but would have been packing his bags and leaving.

Thinking of these things, although Tang Ping didn't want to join any faction and had no intention of doing so, he still didn't want the Safe Zone, which was very likely established by this group of older brothers and sisters, to fall into someone else's hands.

But how could he change it?

Tang Ping's gaze fell into thought. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head: what if he recruited more talented people for Sister Wang and Brother Niu, especially Players with high-level Talents!

He immediately thought of that group of high school students!