Upon seeing the ‘Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company’ signboard, Shang Jianyao exclaimed.
His clothes changed as he wore a yellow monk robe and a red kasaya. His face also turned iron-black as if it were cast from metal. The red light in his eyes lit up, illuminating the area ahead as though a bloody veil had draped over it.
This was one of the Five Great Holy Lands in Buddhism, so he naturally had to treat it with respect!
After changing his ‘identity,’ Shang Jianyao placed one hand in front of his chest and spun the Six Senses Beads with the other. He sighed with emotion and said in a deep voice. “Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti. Fate brought us here.”
The Six Senses Beads in his hand were only an accessory. It was useless because the actual item wasn’t with him—it was kept by a special organization under the Security Department.
After chanting the Buddhist proclamation, Shang Jianyao strode forward and walked to Iron Mountain City’s Second Food Company.
The entrance to the first floor was a revolving door, but it had long lost its ability to move and was static.
Shang Jianyao chose the small door by the side instead of forcing the use of the revolving door.
The room owner had clearly done the same back then. This resulted in the various details and abnormalities along the way being surprisingly complete.
After entering the lobby, Shang Jianyao saw transparent plastic boxes on the ground or on the table. He also saw wrappers scattered everywhere.
It wasn’t difficult for him to guess that the first floor had been turned into a retail store by the Second Food Company based on his experience with Old World entertainment. This could be seen from the relatively neat rows of counters.
He slowly walked forward, sweeping his gaze across the packaging on the ground. The corresponding names—tangerine peel candy, fruit gummy candy, Sachima, cream melon seeds, soda biscuits, sandwich biscuits, steamed cakes—were reflected in the eyes of the cyborg monk Shang Jianyao.
His face suddenly returned to normal as he subconsciously raised his left hand and wiped the corners of his mouth.
Gulp.
Shang Jianyao gulped. He then hurriedly retracted his gaze, turning his face iron-black again and his eyes red.
In the blink of an eye, Shang Jianyao had the bearing of an accomplished monk once again. He then muttered to himself, “The food here has either been moved away or only has packaging left. The Heartless don’t seem to dare to enter this area. So...”
This wasn’t Inference Clowning, but Shang Jianyao replied to himself: “So, this was man-made. After the Old World was destroyed, the survivors of Iron Mountain City did it.”
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Shang Jianyao applauded himself.
“Food companies are indeed very suitable as a survivor base in the apocalypse,” he emphasized.
He then retorted himself, “Not necessarily. I can only say that the survivor base will be built around it to facilitate the acquisition of food.”
“We’ll know if it’s true by looking around.” Another Shang Jianyao stopped this meaningless argument.
The cyborg monk Shang Jianyao took a few more steps forward and raised a very serious question. “As a monk, what’s my Dharma name?”
A certain Shang Jianyao immediately suggested, “Redemption, redeem all living beings.”
“Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti. From today onward, I’m Zen Master Redemption.” The cyborg monk Shang Jianyao raised his palm vertically again and chanted a Buddhist proclamation.
He walked around the first floor of the Second Food Company at an adequate speed and confirmed that the lobby was a retail store. There was a warehouse behind and on both sides.
Apart from the trash on the ground, there were no creatures here. There were no insects either.
Shang Jianyao nodded slightly and said to himself, “It seems like the room owner also examined the first floor carefully.”
If not for this, there was a high chance that mosquitoes, cockroaches, and other bugs would appear in places he had yet to examine due to the extraction of details from other experiences.
The fruitless Shang Jianyao took the stairs that led to the second floor.
It was already late. A dim light shone through the cramped glass around the corner, preventing the area from being pitch-black.
But even so, Shang Jianyao had no choice but to produce a flashlight. Otherwise, he could barely see the stairs under his feet.
As he walked, he—as a cyborg monk—suddenly stopped and looked around. He kept having the feeling that someone was watching him in the darkness around him.
As the flashlight beam swept across the area, the situation around him was reflected in his eyes.
The weathered mottled walls, the rusted iron railings, and the ceiling with lamps but no power were all clear in Shang Jianyao’s mind.
Almost nobody could hide in such an environment. Therefore, the gaze either came from beneath the stairs or from the second floor.
Shang Jianyao didn’t cower in fear. He swung the flashlight and walked up to the second floor of the building step by step.
There was a dark corridor and rooms here—it seemed to be the Second Food Company’s office.
Shang Jianyao slowed down a little as he swept the flashlight across the door number of the room beside him. “203”
Above the 203 door number was a label with the words: “Sales Department.”
Shang Jianyao was just about to continue forward when he suddenly turned around and aimed the flashlight at Room 203.
He felt that gaze again—a silent gaze that was hidden in the darkness!
The yellowish beam of light illuminated many messy tables and the chairs on the ground. It also illuminated the dust-covered desk computers and the corresponding LCD screens, but it didn’t illuminate any humans or other creatures.
“Was this how the room owner felt back then?” Shang Jianyao stroked his steel chin.
The red light in his eyes flickered violently a few times. “That’s not right...”
“Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti, what’s wrong?” asked Zen Master Redemption.
As Shang Jianyao felt the different texture of the steel chin, he smiled and said, “There are no human corpses or large amounts of feces here. It doesn’t look like people have gathered here en masse.”
Shang Jianyao immediately retorted, “Didn’t we already come up with an explanation? The survivors’ base is nearby, not here. They will only do regular supply runs to replenish their food supplies. Besides, even if this really is a survivor base, they can bury their companions’ corpses elsewhere and head far away to relieve themselves in groups.”
Shang Jianyao stroked his steel chin. “That’s not the point. The point is that there are no traces of humans living here.”
“Therefore, it’s the first explanation.” The honest Shang Jianyao shrugged.