Lin Ye lay on the soft bed in the hotel and returned to the Shelter.

Earlier, Xiao Bai had answered Lin Ye’s question very clearly—as long as he followed the rules, he could go out to explore.

Lin Ye sorted through the equipment on his body and walked over to the Shelter’s front door.

Since arriving here, he had never once opened this door. After all, he could get fresh air through simulation missions and Nighttime Activities, so not being able to go outside didn’t really matter. But now, it was time to take a look out there.

Lin Ye twisted the door lock and pushed open the Shelter’s door. A faint scent of blood wafted through the corridor. If one tried to trace the source of the smell, they would find that the entire hallway carried this odor.

Before stepping out of the room, Lin Ye used the flesh mass to Alienate a parasitic Red Frog. The Red Frog hopped out of the room and bounced around the corridor a few times.

The Red Frog, drained of its blood, collapsed in the hallway, turning into a shriveled corpse.

‘Blood extraction?’

Lin Ye created a few more parasitic Red Frogs. They happily jumped into the corridor, but this time, they weren’t drained of blood. It seemed that blood-drawing effect had disappeared.

‘It probably doesn’t just drain one frog’s blood at a time, but rather drains an individual’s entire blood supply. The question now is whether the blood-drawing effect is related to the species, and what the frequency of extraction is?’

Lin Ye Alienated a body identical to his own in size. The Alienated body stepped into the corridor, and the blood-drawing phenomenon didn’t occur.

After that, Lin Ye had the Red Frog and the Alienated body repeatedly enter and exit the Shelter. Throughout the process, none of them triggered the blood-drawing phenomenon.

‘It has nothing to do with entering or leaving the Shelter. It might extract blood at set intervals.’

Lin Ye stepped out of the Shelter into the corridor. The surroundings were very quiet, and the blood-drawing phenomenon didn’t appear.

He opened the Group Chat in the corridor and sent the verification information and images from the hallway into the group.

(466777/1000000)

“Holy shit, Brother Lin’s here!”

“Huh? Brother Lin figured out the corridor’s rules that fast? Isn’t his efficiency way too high?”

“Yeah! I’m in the same apartment building as Brother Lin, so I don’t have to test the outdoor rules myself!”

“Lucky. The rules elsewhere should be different.”

“As expected of a big shot. Even the Alienated creatures he makes are so lively.”

“Huh? That’s an Alienated creature? I thought it was a pet the big shot raised.”

“Obviously just Alienated. It still has traces from the Alienation process.”

“So does this mean we all have to test the rules of our own residences?”

“Exactly. I suggest Survivors from each location band together to test the rules, since everyone has to go out eventually.”

“Agreed. We could even go out and explore this city together.”

Lin Ye: The rules for each floor aren’t necessarily the same. I suggest you start by working together within your own floors first.

Lin Ye thought back to the information he had heard on the radio earlier.

“The third floor of the Doomsday Apartment is Bloodstain’s territory. Every Shelter’s door has bloodstains placed outside it, waiting for those poor, ignorant Survivors to step out of their rooms.”

This meant the rules on other floors were likely different from those on the third floor.

“That’s definitely possible.”

“Then it’s over for me. I’m not on the same floor as the big shot.”

“So could the stairwells have different rules too?”

“Probably.”

Lin Ye closed the Group Chat and walked toward the stairwell. Glimpses of eyes flickered through the peepholes on the doors lining both sides of the corridor. These Survivors watched Lin Ye pass through the hallway, but they didn’t open their doors or greet him.

They dared to chat casually with Lin Ye in the group chat, even crack harmless jokes, but they didn’t dare to stand before him face-to-face.

Because in front of Lin Ye, their lives were no longer their own—they belonged to Lin Ye.

Facing a powerhouse, they ought to feel fear.

Lin Ye ignored the gazes from either side of the corridor. This apartment building had only one staircase leading downstairs—no emergency stairwell, no elevator.

The Red Frog hopped to the stairwell first, then jumped onto the descending steps.

The stairwell was eerily quiet. The Red Frog hopped up and down several times without triggering any rules on the stairs.

The Alienated body also stepped onto the stairs. Together with the Red Frog, it descended to the second floor without causing any issues.

Seeing this, Lin Ye began to head downstairs as well. The Alienated body and the Red Frog walked ahead, with Lin Ye following behind them. They didn’t trigger any rules until they reached the first floor of the apartment building.

Beside the apartment building’s main entrance, Lin Ye spotted a coin-operated machine. As he approached, a number appeared on the machine’s screen.

Fifteen.

Lin Ye thought for a moment, and while he was thinking, the number changed to eighteen.

‘Increased by three?’

Lin Ye stowed the Alienated body and the Red Frog into the loot space. After a short while, the number on the coin machine became nineteen.

‘Damn, so going downstairs costs money? The more people, the higher the fee?’

The coin machine didn’t seem to accept transactions through the system interface. Lin Ye first obtained a handful of red coins through the system interface before inserting nineteen red coins into the machine. As he inserted the coins, the number turned to twenty.

‘It’s rising pretty fast.’

Lin Ye wasn’t in a hurry at all. He brought out the Red Frog and the Alienated body again, then controlled them to walk out of the apartment building.

At this point, red coins were just a number to him. At this rate, his savings were enough to keep him standing here until his legs went numb without running out.

Lin Ye sent this information to the group chat. The Red Frog and the Alienated body had already moved some distance away. Outside the apartment building, they didn’t trigger any rules.

“Going out actually requires paying coins?”

“Damn! The red coins I listed in the trading area got swept up by someone!”

“I knew red coins would be useful eventually. Otherwise, the system wouldn’t have made them the universal currency.”

“There can’t be that many facilities in the city that require red coins to pay, right? After the last death war, I don’t have many red coins left.”

“Sigh, I shouldn’t have bought those spiritual energy items back then. The situation was urgent, and the premium was way too high.”

“Surviving is already good enough. Red coins aren’t exactly a rare commodity. If you run out, you can just earn more.”

“But Nighttime Activities are gone now. Where are you going to get red coins? The Game Room?”

“Don’t even mention it. I just lost a bunch earlier. If I’d known red coins would be needed, I wouldn’t have played for such high stakes back then.”

“That classic gambling addict regret.”

“I only dare to play games that cost one coin for ten-plus minutes in the Game Room. Win or lose, it’s fine. Mainly, I’m just leeching off the spiritual energy for spiritual energy circulation.”

“Same here.”

“I’ll just scrape by.”

“Someone actually dares to play big there?”

“Brother Lin does. He even won a relic there once.”

“What else did Brother Lin say?”

...

After inserting the corresponding number of red coins, Lin Ye closed the Group Chat and stepped out of the apartment building’s main entrance.

White mist drifted outside the apartment building. Lin Ye left the relatively safe building behind and walked into the mist.