Zhuang Xiao twisted her neck, relieving some of the soreness, then got up and stepped outside.

“You’re awake? Wash up and eat,” Huo Xiao said as he heard her footsteps approaching. He gestured to the washbasin and bucket of water set aside.

Zhuang Xiao glanced at the clay pot bubbling with some kind of thick, green liquid. After a moment’s hesitation, she obediently went to wash her face first.

Once she’d finished, she casually smoothed her hair back with her hands and tied it up again, waiting for the moisture on her face to dry naturally.

The young man poured the contents of the pot into two bowls.

Apparently, one was for her.

Zhuang Xiao was starving at this point—no time for niceties. Eat first, ask questions later.

This bizarre porridge might just be a local delicacy. Back when she used to travel, tasting local cuisines was always her favorite part.

So she thanked him, picked up the bowl, and began to eat.

And then…

A bitter taste spread through her mouth—neither the sticky texture of rice nor the freshness of wild greens. It was indescribable. The porridge was hard to swallow, yet also hard not to swallow.

Watching the young man calmly finish his bowl across from her, Zhuang Xiao forced herself to choke it down.

In that moment, she silently vowed: Never again. I am never eating this stuff again in this life.

As it turned out, she made that vow way too soon.

Huo Xiao picked up their bowls and started washing them.

They had already slept in late, and there was only one nutrition pack left at home. If they didn’t go scavenging soon, they’d be going hungry. Then the next step would be selling off the few possessions they still had.

Zhuang Xiao rushed inside, grabbed her backpack, and started rummaging through her belongings on the table.

Where’s the candy, where’s the candy?

The moment the sweetness hit her tongue, she felt like she was coming back to life.

Having finished washing the dishes, Huo Xiao watched the girl wolfing down her food, feeling a pang of pity. He didn’t know much about her, but someone like her wouldn’t survive three days around here.

Noticing his intense gaze, Zhuang Xiao tore open a piece of bread and handed it to him. “Here.”

Huo Xiao sighed quietly and sat down. “Let’s talk.”

Zhuang Xiao munched on her food while listening. She now knew his name—Huo Xiao—and he was explaining the world she had landed in.

“Got it?”

Zhuang Xiao nodded numbly. The food in her hands suddenly didn’t seem so appetizing anymore. She began slowly dragging it back toward herself.

What kind of hellhole is this?

Wasteland. Intense radiation. Scarce food. Mutated plants and animals… Every meal could be your last.

And she’d already figured something else out yesterday—she wasn’t from here. She’d transmigrated.

“So… I’m off the grid?” she asked, setting aside all the unsolvable problems and focusing on what was immediately relevant.

In other words, if someone from here died, at least they’d have an official death certificate in the system.

If she died, not even that would remain.

Huo Xiao nodded.

Zhuang Xiao thought for a moment, then asked, “So all the stuff in my bag… it’s rare and valuable here?”

Another nod from Huo Xiao.

After a brief hesitation, she took out two packs of chocolate, then shoved the rest of her things toward him and began negotiating.

She now had a basic understanding of her situation.

She knew nothing about this world. Right now, Huo Xiao was the only person she could trust. After all, he had shared a very… unique bowl of porridge with her that morning.

Her request was simple: she wanted to live like an ordinary person in this place.

Huo Xiao gave the girl named Zhuang Xiao a few instructions, then repacked the contents of the backpack and left.

It was over an hour’s walk to the safe zone.

Since it was still early, he had to hurry—get there and back before radiation levels peaked. With luck, maybe he could scavenge something to eat nearby in the afternoon.

Zhuang Xiao locked the door and lay down on the straw in the yard, gazing up at the sky.

Her thoughts swirled, trying to digest everything Huo Xiao had said.

So… she’d been handed a hell-level difficulty script from the get-go.

Or was this a scam?

A battle of conflicting thoughts raged in her head, and before long, she fell asleep again.

When Huo Xiao returned, he found Zhuang Xiao sprawled across the straw pile, which now took up half the yard.

He placed the newly bought supplies on the table and called her awake.

Watching her gulp down a pack of nutrition fluid in one go, he realized this girl still didn’t fully grasp her current situation.

Zhuang Xiao, meanwhile, was thinking, Finally, I’m not hungry anymore.

It didn’t taste great, but it filled her up fast.

With the sun about to rise, Huo Xiao told her to go rest indoors—he was exhausted too.

There was only one bed in the house. He moved his workbench aside, cleared a one-meter-wide space, and motioned for her to lay straw on the floor.

Zhuang Xiao accepted her fate and layered the straw thickly.

When she’d finished setting up her makeshift doghouse, Huo Xiao handed her a wristband he’d calibrated, briefly explaining how to use its functions.

After selling her supplies on the black market, he earned a total of 1,200 points. Of those, 1,000 went toward registering her as a legal citizen, 120 were used to buy the wristband, and another 50 bought 13 packs of near-expiry nutrition fluid. Used sparingly, that should last two weeks.

Huo Xiao figured that in two weeks, she’d at least learn to survive on her own.

So now, Zhuang Xiao’s wristband balance was 30 points.

She had initially felt a bit disappointed by that—until she saw Huo Xiao’s own wristband.

Somehow, she suddenly felt better.

She hadn’t expected a local to be even poorer than she was. Seriously, broke.

After a bit more back-and-forth, Huo Xiao lay down to rest.

As for the whole “landlord and tenant” arrangement, Zhuang Xiao didn’t dare bring it up, and Huo Xiao showed no sign of kicking her out. So the matter was left vague and unresolved.

Around 3 p.m., Huo Xiao woke up and took the now-energetic Zhuang Xiao out with him.

Just before they left, he glanced at her pale, delicate-looking face.

He grabbed a handful of soot from the bottom of a pot and handed it to her, motioning for her to smear it on her face. Zhuang Xiao didn’t know why, but she followed his lead.

Right now, it was best to listen to the locals.

They walked slowly along the same path as the night before.

In the bright daylight, everything was much clearer to Zhuang Xiao, an outsider. Especially when they passed a fork in the road—stretching before her was an endless sprawl of shanty towns. The dwellings were far more dilapidated than she’d imagined: some made of straw, bamboo, planks, stones, or all kinds of materials mixed together.

At the outer edges, there were even straw huts like dog kennels, covered with nothing more than a few large leaves. Inside some of them lay gaunt, ash-faced people, barely clinging to life.

Zhuang Xiao quickly looked away and inched a little closer to Huo Xiao.

After walking another ten minutes or so, they saw a few emaciated children crouched in the grass, busy with something…