Jiang Ling followed the patrol sentries' instructions and walked along the straight circular edge for more than half an hour before arriving at a heavy alloy door. Through the door's observation window, she was dazzled by the light from inside, revealing a shaft-like spiral staircase.

Jiang Ling opened the well-maintained door and, as if passing through a barrier, entered this illuminated space from the dim third floor below. She looked at the circular staircase that spiraled up the shaft, and at the end was a floodlight that illuminated the entire stairwell. On the left wall of the staircase, small, dim yellow emergency lights were placed every few meters, but they were not emitting light.

Her feelings grew strange. First, she experienced a period of cooling, then, after a while, she felt the temperature and humidity rising. As she drew closer to the dazzling searchlight, she felt as if she were nowhere to hide. This was the strangest feeling: ordinary people stayed under the light, while the true heroes blended into the darkness.

At the end of the stairs was a barrier door, which opened to a sentry post. A sentry was on duty there. Jiang Ling nodded as she passed him, and the sentry immediately saluted. She didn't know how to salute, so she couldn't return the gesture and could only smile awkwardly. The sentry didn't seem to care, as if he was completing a mission. After saluting, he continued his guard duty without a word.

The ground floor resembled an airport or passenger terminal, with a sign hanging from the ceiling at each fork in the road. This foolproof guide naturally required no tour guide, and Jiang Ling easily reached the distribution center. It looked much the same as it had been two weeks ago, except there were more cargo boxes stacked here, and more well-equipped personnel coming and going. Jiang Ling pulled the terminal out of her pocket again. The ambient radiation value on the initial interface was already flashing a yellow "warning." She was prepared for this; she just wanted to check the time.

"Five twenty in the afternoon, which turned out to be dinner time. My watch is fifteen seconds fast. 0.5 microsieverts, at least it's still safe. It's snowing heavily. I remember experts saying nuclear winter wasn't that exaggerated, right? It's already July, and time is flying by. You can't feel it underground." The only thing that struck Jiang Ling about the information was the weather. If it was snowing heavily outside, how low would the temperature be? And if the ground was covered in snow, how would she find the pre-war bridge tunnel? Li Wenjia had given her a real problem!

After putting away the terminal, she slowly crossed the driveway and approached the "Wasteland Bar" in the center of the distribution center, where a few people who looked like search team members were having dinner.

Before she could even get close, the sound of their chatter reached her ears: "Have you heard? Those shit-eating cannon crabs actually migrate! Several caravans have already encountered them, huge swarms!"

"Ma Dazui! Can't you stop talking about shit and piss? You're full, but we're not!"

"Hey~ I'm here to tell you some news, don't you want to hear it?"

"Didn't you say you encountered several convoys? The news should be all over the internet, right? Could it be that you have some special news?"

"Eh? I thought you didn't want to listen? Twenty points for each answer, listen if you want or not!"

"Two meals here? Let me tell you straight up, those cannon crabs are moving north along the lakeshore. I'd say these crabs are incredibly lucky; the entire water system wasn't hit by the nuclear bomb."

"What's that to the north? What's attracting them?"

"I told you all, they eat shit!"

"Oh my god, Ma Dazui, if you keep talking about shit and piss, don't eat here anymore!"

"Boss, let's try the same tricks as them!" Jiang Ling had been listening in for a while. She noticed that the food here wasn't listed on the menu. It looked like a food stall, catering only to those who knew each other. Perhaps these vendors weren't as bad as she had initially imagined. In other words, if they were too rip-offs, they wouldn't last long.

Jiang Ling randomly found a seat not far from the group. The reason he didn't move closer was simply because these rough guys were so foul-smelling. Speaking of which, it seemed like they were paid by the minute when they went to the surface. A typical person would spend months underground after a single trip, and these "desperadoes" didn't seem to care much about the threat of radiation. In Jiang Ling's opinion, these people were either brave or reckless, and at the very least, they couldn't be persuaded by soft words.

The "bar" owner quickly prepared the food and stood by the window, beckoning Jiang Ling to come get it herself. The contents of the plate looked quite good, at least much better than the hard, compressed synthetic food, though a little too fresh. Jiang Ling used a serving chopstick to pick out one of the strange, long, white objects. It was still twisting and twitching around the chopstick.

Seeing Jiang Ling's troubled expression, the boss casually said, "Protein! How do you say that? How many times more than meat?"

"Hey~ It's a newcomer! And she's a beauty!"

Amidst the clamor, a relatively steady voice rang out, "Is this your first time? If you don't want to eat monster meat, then bugs are the only ones you can eat!"

The boss then boasted, "Our shop's cold-mixed fly maggots are amazing! They're all grown on mushrooms, so they're clean and hygienic! Come try it!"

As the rough-hewn men watched, Jiang Ling gritted her teeth and stuffed the thing into her mouth. As she chewed it carefully, she could definitely smell the aroma of rotten wood and mushrooms. The insect, with its resilient mouthparts, attempted to bite Jiang Ling's tongue. Everyone watched her chew the worm and swallow it, cheering. One person even shouted excitedly, saying it was the first time he'd seen someone dare to savor something they'd just eaten for the first time.

"It tastes great!" Jiang Ling forced a smile after finishing her meal. She'd tried fried silkworm pupae and stir-fried fruit fly maggots before, but never this explosive insect sashimi. She thought the group looked fine, but the long hours of exposure to radiation on the surface had affected their spirits. "Carnival" was synonymous with "madness."

This bird-favorite dinner cost ten points, but the boss gave every newcomer a 40% discount. Jiang Ling figured most of the newcomers wouldn't be able to finish it, so even giving it away for free would be a win, since they'd be having fun. After returning their clean plates, the boss thoughtfully offered them a beer, and Jiang Ling continued to eavesdrop on their bragging and gossip.