"Bastard, let go of me!"
"If you dare touch me, I'll kill you!"
"Let me go..."
Inside the Qingfeng Tea Shop, the female NPC's angry curses rang out as she struggled relentlessly, her body twisting and turning.
Lu Feng watched from the side, feeling a little awkward. He hadn't done anything to her.
'What's all the shouting about?'
'Doesn't she realize that struggling like this while tied up is even more provocative?'
'After all, he had a girlfriend.'
"Miss, I don't plan on doing anything to you," Lu Feng quickly said to the woman. "But if you keep shouting, I can't say whether those zombies will rush in to touch you. I'm sure their kisses are very passionate... and very exciting!"
Lin Jiao fell silent. After a moment, she had calmed down. "What exactly do you want?"
After surviving in this post-apocalyptic world for so long, she knew better. While the initial emotional outburst was instinctual, she understood that angry shouting was the most useless tactic. Sometimes, it only served to please the villains even more.
Lu Feng stated his purpose. "To put it simply, I'm from somewhere else and I don't know this area very well. I'm looking for a few things, so I want to hire some people. You're the first person I've run into, so I'd like to hire you."
"Hire me?" Lin Jiao hadn't quite understood the first part of what he said, but she caught the last sentence. She demanded, "Is this how you hire people?"
Lu Feng said apologetically, "I'm terribly sorry. Given your unfriendly behavior last time, I felt I had no other choice."
His words made Lin Jiao freeze, recalling how she had snatched a bottle of cola and some bread from him the last time they met.
She had been starving back then, trapped in this Department Store for ages with nothing to eat.
'It was all the fault of those bastards from the City East Alliance. The intel they'd given her turned out to be fake.'
'This time, she had been completely unable to find food and decided to try her luck here again.'
'After all, this was where she'd run into this man and managed to snatch bread from him before.'
Lu Feng spoke again. "Of course, this isn't a very friendly approach. As a show of good faith, I can untie you."
With that, he stepped forward and undid the ropes binding her. The moment he was done, he quickly backed away.
Sure enough, the moment she was free, she threw a punch at him, but he dodged it just in time.
'It seems survivors in this apocalypse can't be won over with just a few words.'
'That's why he had anticipated the female NPC's move.'
Lin Jiao was frustrated that her attack had missed. 'If I wasn't so weak from hunger,' she thought, 'there's no way he could've dodged that.'
With that thought, she planted a foot on the tea table and lunged at Lu Feng.
'Whatever his goal is, I'll subdue him first and figure it out later.'
Seeing this, Lu Feng sighed. He had no desire to fight this female NPC. With a single thought, he logged out of the game.
Lin Jiao's lunge hit nothing but air, leaving her completely stunned.
"Where... where did he go?"
She looked around in disbelief, a cold sweat prickling her back. The man had vanished into thin air.
Back in his apartment, Lu Feng clearly watched Lin Jiao's every move through the feed in his mind.
This was all part of his plan.
He didn't know much about the people of the 'Post-Apocalypse' world. If he wanted to hire someone, he needed to show them a power that commanded respect and made them wary. He had to make it clear that they couldn't get the better of him; only then would they stop scheming.
He went straight downstairs and bought a bag of cola and custard pies from a nearby store, then hurried back to his apartment.
After double-locking the door, he scraped the expiration date off the cans, took out one can of cola and one custard pie, and vanished with a single thought.
「Qingfeng Tea Headquarters」
Lin Jiao scanned her surroundings, utterly shocked. The man had truly vanished.
Just then, Lu Feng's voice sounded from behind her. "Responding to a gesture of goodwill with an attack is rather rude behavior."
Startled, Lin Jiao spun around to face Lu Feng. "You... What in the world are you?"
Lu Feng feigned an air of mystery. "I forgot to mention. The fact that I can come to this place means I naturally possess certain special abilities."
Lin Jiao's brow furrowed as if she was deep in thought. The next moment, she lunged, trying to launch a sneak attack on Lu Feng.
But Lu Feng raised his own hand at the same time, revealing the can of cola and the custard pie he was holding.
In that same instant, Lin Jiao froze, her eyes glued to the cola and the custard pie.
Lu Feng could even see her throat bobbing as she involuntarily swallowed.
He smiled and tossed the cola and pie to Lin Jiao.
Lin Jiao instinctively caught the cola and pie, her face a mask of disbelief.
'Could someone really be this kind, just giving away life-saving food so easily?'
But she was too hungry to care. The gnawing hunger made her crack open the cola and chug it down before tearing into the custard pie, devouring it without a shred of grace.
She didn't suspect he had tampered with the food. After all, if he wanted to do anything to her, he'd had his chance when she was tied up.
Lin Jiao devoured the custard pie in one go. When she looked up, the man had vanished again.
Lu Feng was already back in his apartment. He grabbed the rest of the cola and custard pies, and with another thought, vanished, reappearing in the Qingfeng Tea Shop inside the game world.
This time, Lin Jiao didn't attack. Instead, her eyes were immediately drawn to the bag in Lu Feng's hands.
She was now convinced that this mysterious man possessed special abilities. How else could someone just vanish and reappear out of thin air? Perhaps he was one of the legendary ability users.
'The crucial thing was, he seemed to have a lot of food.'
Lu Feng placed the bag in his hands on a nearby tea table and looked at Lin Jiao. "So, about my offer to hire you... shall we talk?"
"We'll talk!" Lin Jiao answered decisively, her eyes still locked on the bag of cola and custard pies. "But let me make one thing clear," she added just as decisively, "I don't provide any... 'unconventional' services."
Then she added, "But if you really need that, once we're out of this Department Store, I can arrange it for you. There are plenty of women like that in the City East Alliance. All you'd need is a piece of bread..."
"Miss, I think you've got the wrong idea!" Lu Feng interrupted, his face flushing with embarrassment.
Of course, he knew exactly what she was implying. He quickly clarified, "Like I said, I'm just looking for certain items. I don't have any... sordid intentions. If you can get me what I need, I'll trade you food for it."
Hearing the word "food," Lin Jiao instinctively asked, "What do you want?"
Lu Feng didn't hide his intentions. He smiled and said, "I need Gold. Of course, other jewels and the like would also be fine. More importantly, I'd also be interested in technology." He pointed to the sci-fi-esque billboards on the shops. "For example, the technology used to make these billboards!"
He was certain that this technology was far more advanced than anything in his own world. If he could get it out, it would be a sensation.
"What? You want to trade food for that stuff?" Lin Jiao was beyond incredulous. She stared at Lu Feng as if he were an idiot, or perhaps a fat sheep waiting to be fleeced.
'Was this some kind of joke?'
In this dark world, food was the most precious commodity. People would beat each other bloody just for a single piece of bread to survive.
In the most desperate situations, many had even resorted to stewing their own companions, becoming part of the Cannibal Race.
It was safe to say that with enough food, you could control everything.
And now, someone was telling her he wanted to trade that precious food for things that were utterly worthless?
She truly wondered if this ability user in front of her was brain-damaged, or just completely insane.