106: Chapter 106 An unexpected encounter with a female celebrity from District 068?

"Can you see the people inside the vehicle clearly?" Chen Chen asked.

Qin Hongye's voice came down from the second floor: "One man and one woman. The man is in his early twenties, dressed in expensive clothes, like a playboy. The woman... her makeup is very heavy, but her features are quite good."

Shen Wanbing interjected: "That vehicle's license plate code isn't from District 069's standard issuance sequence."

Chen Chen turned his head to look at her.

"System-issued vehicle nameplates all have a regional prefix."

Shen Wanbing enlarged the holographic panel. "This vehicle's prefix is 068."

"District 068?"

"It's highly likely they are survivors from another war zone. Either they teleported across districts or were forced over by the Black Fog."

Chen Chen leaned back into his seat, his fingers rotating once around the hilt of his void-rending ship-slaying blade.

District 068.

Other war zones.

From the day he first opened his eyes until now, everyone he had met, every faction, and all leaderboard information had been confined to District 069.

The system had never disclosed how the districts were connected.

But out of the one million people in the novice period, over eight hundred thousand had died, and the remaining less than two hundred thousand were scattered across various districts.

What exactly was the relationship between these districts? After the next map was unlocked, would it merge with other war zones?

The system wouldn't volunteer these answers to him.

But a living person who had run over from District 068 would.

"Are we saving them or not?" Jiang Yanxue gripped the control stick without turning her head.

"Let's take a look first."

The Ghost Fortress approached at a speed of sixty.

When the distance shortened to two hundred meters, that Aberrant Beetle sensed something, abruptly lifted its head, and its compound eyes turned toward their side.

Its mandibles were still clamping a steel car door panel, and metal fragments hanging from its fangs dripped with viscous fluid.

"Qin Hongye."

"Speak."

"The gap between the third and fourth carapace segments on its right abdomen, do you see it?"

"I see it. That's its heat vent, the thinnest part of the carapace."

"One shot."

The gauss rifle gave a muffled sound from the second-floor firing window.

The electromagnetic projectile traveled the two-hundred-meter distance at supersonic speed, drilling into the heat vent on the beetle's right abdomen.

The projectile pierced through the body cavity, exploding a mass of green bodily fluid out from the other side.

A system notification popped up in Chen Chen's mind—the purple trait Fatal Lock had triggered, and a scarlet cross mark flashed on the beetle's abdomen.

But this shot didn't kill it.

The beetle let out a shrill screech, dropped the off-road vehicle wreckage, and charged toward the Ghost Fortress, its six articulated limbs digging into the ground and kicking up large clouds of sand and dust.

"Xiaoqi."

"Coming!"

The armored door popped open. Su Xiaoqi bounded out of the vehicle, her twin tails whipping two arcs in the air.

The two pieces of mammoth tenderloin she had just stuffed down were converting frantically inside her body, energy halos seeping out from the surface of her skin, making her look like a glowing little lightbulb.

At 1.6 meters tall, she charged head-on toward the beetle that was the size of a van.

Su Xiaoqi gathered strength in her right fist, the gravel beneath her feet shattered by the residual energy waves of her Gluttony Evolution talent.

Aiming at that scarlet weak point mark on the beetle's abdomen, she smashed her fist into it.

The moment her fist made contact with the carapace, Chen Chen could hear the explosive sound of bones compressing the air.

Fifty-four points of constitution plus the short-term burst from Gluttony Evolution—the beetle's abdominal carapace caved in directly, cracking into seven or eight pieces.

Green bodily fluid sprayed all over Su Xiaoqi's face.

The beetle shrieked in agony and retreated, its six articulated limbs convulsing.

Chen Chen didn't let it retreat.

He rose from the passenger seat, and the void-rending ship-slaying blade was unsheathed.

Purple patterns lit up on the blade for an instant, the micro-gravity module responding to his Mental Power—he slashed down with one hand, a visible layer of gravity pulse superimposed on the blade's edge.

The blade cleaved into the center of the beetle's head, slicing all the way through to its tail.

The Tier 2 Aberrant Beetle was split clean in two.

Internal organs and bodily fluids covered the ground.

System notification: Killed Tier 2 Aberrant Beetle, gained experience points... Loot + 3 (Abyssal Plunderer trait activated).

Su Xiaoqi wiped the green slime off her face and shook her hands in disgust: "So stinky!"

Chen Chen turned to look at the overturned Cadillac.

The two people inside the vehicle had already crawled out through the shattered side window.

The man was indeed young, looking to be twenty-three or twenty-four, wearing a well-crafted dark blue bulletproof jacket with a black turtleneck embroidered with silver thread at the collar underneath.

His hair was a mess like a bird's nest, and there were a few shallow abrasions on his face, but his skin was fair and delicate, clearly that of someone who had been pampered since childhood.

His right hand was still tightly gripping a woman's wrist.

The woman was in her early twenties, and her looks were indeed outstanding.

High nose bridge, pointed chin, upward-tilting eyes, and full makeup—to be able to maintain full makeup on the tenth day of the apocalypse, she was either extremely fastidious or it was a professional habit.

She was wearing a white tight-fitting sweater, a light gray miniskirt, and high-heeled boots covered in mud.

Her body proportions were good, but compared to the ones in the vehicle—

Chen Chen took one glance and then withdrew his gaze.

"Help!!"

The man shouted in Chinese with a heavy accent, his voice trembling:

"Thank you! Thank you! That, that bug has been chasing us for over twenty kilometers—"

As he spoke, he was about to run toward the Ghost Fortress.

Chen Chen stood in front of the vehicle door, unmoving.

"Stand there."

The man stopped as if braking suddenly.

"Which district are you from?"

The man took two breaths, trying hard to calm himself down.

He let go of the woman's wrist, waved his hands in front of him, and spoke with a deliberately slowed pace:

"District 068. My name is Park Jae-hyun, the... uh, heir to the Park Group."

He looked back at the beetle carcass that had been split in two, his Adam's apple bobbing once.

"This is... this is Lee Soo-yeon. Before the apocalypse, she was a... star in District 068. The very famous kind. She had over twenty million fans."

The woman called Lee Soo-yeon shrank behind Park Jae-hyun, her large eyes scanning back and forth between Chen Chen and the Ghost Fortress.

Chen Chen didn't respond.

"Our vehicle was ejected near here three days ago during a cross-district teleportation, and we've been looking for a safe zone ever since."

Park Jae-hyun spoke very quickly, "That bug just now suddenly burst out from the ground, and the car was flipped over directly—"

"What is the situation in District 068 now?"

Park Jae-hyun was stunned for a moment, not expecting that to be the other party's first question.

"District 068... is very bad. The Black Fog's advance speed is much faster than in your District 069. By the time I left, the effective survival zone had already been compressed to a diameter of less than one hundred kilometers."

He raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"And the number one on the District 068 leaderboard is a lunatic, someone called 'Bishop of Ashes'... He controls the only safe city, and everyone he takes in has to become his follower—those who aren't willing are thrown out of the city directly to feed the monsters."

Upon hearing this name, Chen Chen stored it away in his mind.

"How was the cross-district teleportation triggered?"

"I spent thirty intermediate vehicle cores to buy a single-use teleportation scroll from a wandering merchant in District 068."

Park Jae-hyun smiled bitterly, "As a result, the teleportation landing point was off, and I was thrown onto this wasteland—"

"That's enough." Chen Chen interrupted him. "Do you still have any vehicle cores?"

Park Jae-hyun hesitated for half a second.

"Yes. I still have twelve intermediate ones, all on me."

Chen Chen turned around, preparing to get back into the vehicle.

"Wait!" Park Jae-hyun rushed forward two steps, "Can you... I mean, can you take us with you? Even if you just drop us off at the nearest safe zone, that's fine! I can pay—"

"Not taking you."

Park Jae-hyun's face turned pale instantly.

"I'll pay double! Triple! I'll give you all the cores!"

Chen Chen didn't look back.

Park Jae-hyun grew anxious, his voice rising by an octave.

He suddenly grabbed Lee Soo-yeon from behind him and pushed her half a step forward.

"This—Soo-yeon, look at her, she's very beautiful! The hottest female star in District 068! I can... give her to you!"

Lee Soo-yeon was pushed and stumbled, the heel of her high-heeled boot getting stuck in the gravel.

She didn't resist, and didn't even show an expression of surprise.

She lifted her head to look at Chen Chen.

Then, the woman adjusted her expression.

Her lips curled up, revealing a carefully trained smile that carried three parts reserve and seven parts ambiguity.

She stepped forward in her high-heeled boots, actively approaching Chen Chen, and placed one hand lightly on his forearm.

"Oppa..."

Her voice was cloyingly sweet, the ending note trailing upward, her breath deliberately blowing onto Chen Chen's arm.

"You saved my life, Soo-yeon can do anything for you..."