The white light quickly dissipated. When Zhao Yin saw what he'd drawn, he froze.

A pair of black fishnet stockings.

Zhao Yin never imagined he'd pull something like this.

He was currently lacking lower-body equipment. Was he supposed to wear these?

"I'm a real man. Even if I die-even if zombies tear me apart out there-I will never wear women's stockings!"

He made up his mind, raised his hand, and flung the fishnets over ten meters away.

The motion was utterly carefree, radiating boundless masculine pride.

Then Zhao Yin strode off into the night, his silhouette heroic and fearless.

A real man, even without pants, would never wear something like that!

Even though those fishnet stockings looked to be above F-rank. Even though having them would add another layer of protection...

"I'll just try them on once."

Zhao Yin 'accidentally' found himself back in front of the discarded fishnets. Frowning, he bent down and picked them up, his face full of disgust.

Then he quickly tore off his pants and pulled the stockings over his hairy legs.

He'd never seen this kind of fishnet stocking in his past life. Without his former B-rank ability, True Sight Eye, he could only test them to know their effect.

Zhao Yin pushed off lightly with his feet. His entire body shot forward at high speed. In three or four seconds, he'd covered nearly a hundred meters.

Wind whistled past his ears. His speed had already surpassed human limits. Even the fastest sprinters from before the apocalypse would be left eating his dust.

Zhao Yin stopped, took a deep breath, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.

"Actually, if I wear them underneath, as long as I don't take off my pants, no one will know."

Feels pretty good, he thought.

This was definitely E-rank equipment.

With his current physical condition, he couldn't even bring out its full potential.

Soon, Zhao Yin calmed down. He pulled his pants back on and lit a Huazi.

He took a deep drag and silently tallied his gains. So far, he'd obtained three pieces of equipment: an F-rank military jacket and butterfly knife, plus E-rank fishnet stockings.

Beyond that, he had three bottles of Nongfu Spring, one sandwich, and one pack of instant noodles.

Blindly searching for Star Crystals was no longer wise. There were more important things to do.

His past life's B-rank ability, True Sight Eye-it was time to reclaim it.

The location was an old zoo. He still remembered the exact spot, roughly a dozen kilometers from here.

He also remembered that the Star Crystal containing True Sight Eye sat on the surface. The reason it remained untouched even three months into the apocalypse was because a mutated monkey lived there.

This trip had two objectives: retrieve True Sight Eye, and see if he could tame that mutated monkey.

Zhao Yin grabbed his bone cleaver and set off.

Thanks to the speed boost from the fishnets, he arrived at the old zoo twenty minutes later.

The buildings had long been destroyed by meteorites. The vegetation had burned to ash. Corpses of humans and animals lay everywhere, most of them mangled beyond recognition.

The monkey hadn't mutated yet and was hiding somewhere unknown.

Zhao Yin extended his senses but detected no movement. The zoo was deathly silent.

That monkey was unimaginably cunning-probably hiding deep underground.

In his past life, Zhao Yin had exhausted himself helping Lin Tianfeng catch it. He'd failed several times. In the end, he'd spent a fortune on an A-rank beast-catching net to capture the monkey, which had already reached C-rank by then.

Its growth potential was astonishing-one of the most promising mutant beasts Zhao Yin had ever seen.

A pity, then, that it died in the second year of the apocalypse trying to save Lin Tianfeng. By then, it had already grown to B-rank.

First priority: secure True Sight Eye.

Zhao Yin headed straight for the spot where he'd found that Star Crystal. He remembered it clearly-an inconspicuous meteorite crater.

When he arrived, he jumped down without hesitation.

But the next moment, his expression froze.

The place where the Star Crystal should have been...

Was completely empty.

Only broken stones and dirt lay exposed on the surface.

This wasn't how it looked in his past life. He remembered clearly-the Star Crystal should have been sitting right there on the surface, easy to spot.

Zhao Yin couldn't believe it. He grabbed his bone cleaver and started digging frantically.

He dug until he was panting and gasping for air.

Three feet down. No sign of the Star Crystal.

He finally confirmed it: his True Sight Eye had vanished.

"How is this possible?" Zhao Yin's eyes went wide. He stood there dumbfounded for a long moment.

The reason he'd waited until now was that in his past life, when he arrived three months later, the Star Crystal was still there.

At this point in the apocalypse, most survivors were still cowering in hiding.

Who could have taken a Star Crystal that was supposed to remain untouched for three months?

But it had happened.

Zhao Yin was furious. He regretted not coming sooner. True Sight Eye was his.

From the very beginning, it had been part of his plan. He'd never imagined someone else would take it.

He absolutely could not let anyone have it.

"Whoever you are-anyone who dares take what belongs to Zhao Yin must die." He ground his teeth.

Soon, he calmed down. The thief might not have gone far. He focused all his energy, listening intently.

A few seconds later, Zhao Yin's eyes snapped open. Rage twisted his face, and his body shot forward.

About fifteen hundred meters away-human footsteps. Extremely faint, but the enraged Zhao Yin caught them.

Murderous intent flooded through him. In less than a minute, he appeared about a hundred meters behind the figure.

But when he saw who it was, his gaze froze.

"Food Supply?"

Staring at that thin, frail silhouette, Zhao Yin finally understood.

No wonder someone had taken his prize. It was her.

This woman-who should have died at Lin Tianfeng's hands in his past life-had survived because of Zhao Yin. She'd deviated from the timeline he knew and taken something she shouldn't have.

Food Supply's body was trembling. Her steps were unsteady as she limped along the crater-pocked road.

Her dirty face was full of terror. Every time she stepped on a mangled corpse by the roadside, she let out a small scream.

"Wouldn't it have been better to just stay alive? Why didn't you find somewhere to hide? Why did you have to take my ability crystal?"

"I already gave you a chance. You're the one who insisted on seeking death."

The killing intent in Zhao Yin's eyes thickened. She looked pitiful, but... she still had to die.

He tightened his grip on the bone cleaver and strode forward.

Food Supply seemed to hear his footsteps. She slowly turned her head.

"It's you?"

Her expression wasn't the expected panic. Instead, surprise flickered across her face, and she tried to speak gently. "It really is you! I was just looking for you!"

"Looking for me?" Zhao Yin relaxed his grip on the cleaver he'd been about to swing.

"I knew you were searching for this." Food Supply slowly reached into her bra.

She pulled something out and held it in front of Zhao Yin, slowly opening her dirty palm.

Three thumb-sized, blood-red crystals.

"I saw you searching everywhere for these. They must be very important to you, right?" she asked earnestly.

Zhao Yin was momentarily stunned. His eyes shifted several times. "Do you know what these are?"

"No. I just saw you looking for them earlier. Since I didn't have anything to thank you with, I searched around for you." Food Supply smiled.

Her face was filthy, but her teeth were delicate and white. She seemed genuinely excited.

"I didn't expect to actually run into you again. I'm sorry-I wasn't capable enough to find more. Just these three."

Zhao Yin looked at her in silence.

She spoke lightly, but he knew the truth. With her physical condition, reaching this place meant she'd exhausted every ounce of strength searching for Star Crystals since they'd parted.

"What do you want from me?" Zhao Yin asked coldly.

"You saved my life. Didn't you already give me food and water? I know these things can't repay a life debt, but I thought... it would count as a small token of gratitude." Her voice was hoarse and dry. She coughed after speaking.

Zhao Yin studied her with deep, penetrating eyes. He suddenly couldn't understand this woman.

This was the apocalypse. Even if she didn't know the true value of Star Crystals, unless she had a screw loose, she should know that anything valuable was precious beyond measure.

Especially with the precedent of Lin Tianfeng trading a Star Crystal for a drink.

She couldn't have guessed nothing. Yet she asked for nothing in return.

Was this woman playing hard to get?

Just then, Food Supply grabbed Zhao Yin's hand and pressed the Star Crystals into his palm.

Zhao Yin stared blankly at the crystals. They were stained with blood from her hands.

Blood from digging through concrete with her bare fingers.

"Please don't despise them," Food Supply said softly.

Zhao Yin's eyes flickered. Of course he wouldn't despise them. Even if she hadn't offered them, he'd planned to kill her and take them anyway.

But now-should he kill her or not?

His heart was caught in a struggle.

He hadn't considered that this woman could affect the timeline.

If he didn't kill her now, he might never encounter her again. And the timeline he knew could be thrown completely off course because of her.

"Thank you," Food Supply said hoarsely. "For letting me meet someone as good as you in this world. For letting me do something meaningful."

"I'm leaving now. From here on... we probably won't meet again, right?"

She smiled at Zhao Yin once more.

"A woman like me-how many days can I survive in the apocalypse? So... we probably won't meet again."

She slowly turned and limped forward, barefoot. Her shoes had been lost somewhere along the way.

Zhao Yin watched her retreating back.

In the end, he didn't raise his blade.

"Seven years in the apocalypse, and I still didn't become a beast." He laughed bitterly.

He couldn't bring himself to kill a defenseless woman.

Especially one who'd found three Star Crystals for him.

Food Supply walked far away. Zhao Yin didn't warn her about tonight's zombie outbreak.

Life or death-that was up to her own fate.

He stopped thinking about Food Supply and prepared to crack open the three Star Crystals...