Ashen God
Chapter 44: Silver Frost Flower

Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Silver Frost Flower

"""Should I order takeout using the mobile app?"""

"""Option One: Yes (After opening the app, you checked the various promotions on the homepage and claimed a special category discount voucher for 20-12 as well as a fried chicken burger category discount voucher for 25-13.

When you excitedly wanted to take advantage of a great deal by using them on your dumpling order, you discovered that neither voucher could be used. Still, you desperately wanted to eat dumplings, so you opted to buy them at the full price.)"""

"""Option Two: No (After opening the app, you found that, as expected, the dumplings were much more expensive than at the physical store, where a basket of dumplings only cost 8 yuan, it was sold for 12 yuan a basket in the app.

Unable to tolerate the price, you chose to spend a minute and a half running to the store to eat the dumplings in person. On the way back, you accidentally bumped into an innocent female college student Awakener, albeit one that really smelled bad, because you were running while playing on your phone.)"""

"""Option Three: Easygoing Daily Life (Even though the dumpling store was just a minute and a half’s run away, you wanted to stroll there leisurely, taking in the comfort and peace you hadn’t felt in eight hours, the warmth of the Main World’s autumn sun contrasting sharply with the gloomy, oppressive and cloud-covered Ashen World.

Later, you found a Silver Frost Flower, a mutation from the Golden Chrysanthemum, in a conspicuous flower bed fifty meters from the dumpling shop. Drinking the water infused with it could improve your vision and your resistance to toxins.)"""

"Huh? The Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures for today have come so soon?"

Zhang Yanhang had initially thought he would encounter today’s Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures around noon or evening due to some inexplicable reason, but surprisingly, they popped up early in the morning, which was indeed quite rare. He had been an Awakener with his superpower for a month, and it had only been triggered twice during this period.

"Sigh, I was thinking of ordering takeout, but the options tempt me to leave home and buy breakfast myself..." Zhang Yanhang felt helpless about the situation, but there was really no alternative. Sometimes, for the sake of benefits, one indeed must give up their resolve to make certain compromises with the world.

Of course, if the compromise was just about choosing between takeout and dining in, Zhang Yanhang preferred as much as possible. More, the better, after all, you could never have too many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

"So, I choose Option Three, walk to the store, and eat the freshly steamed dumplings. Eating in the store indeed provides a slightly better experience than delivery."

Even though the dumplings delivered by takeout often had minor flaws due to steam, compared to the convenience of takeout, these flaws were bearable. Yes, that too was a compromise, so essentially Zhang Yanhang was just exchanging one compromise for another.

Time resumed flowing, but Zhang Yanhang started contemplating a new problem, that being what clothes to wear or whether he should change his pants. He was bare-chested at the moment because he couldn’t take the old clothes from Ashen World with him, but for the lower body, he wore the standard-issue police trousers that had come out of the Treasure box as white quality Equipment, and thus, he had managed to bring them with him.

"Swapping pants always feels like such a hassle, so forget it. As for the top, just grabbing any T-shirt will do." Zhang Yanhang checked the temperature on his phone. The high was 22 degrees and the low was 19 degrees, basically the same as summer, so wearing a T-shirt was nothing out of the ordinary in this weather.

As for pants, although he was wearing official police trousers, they were actually just ordinary black pants, except maybe with more pockets and knee guards strapped around the knees. Aside from that, they were pretty normal.

Even though he had cleaned the bloodstains from his body with alchemy earlier, Zhang Yanhang still washed his face and brushed his teeth before going out, mainly out of habit.

...

October 1, 2020, the first day of the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, morning, 6:07 a.m.

As usual, Zhang Yanhang walked alone on his way to buy breakfast in the haunting loneliness. Probably because of the holiday, everyone wanted to sleep in, so Zhang Yanhang, who went out to buy breakfast early in the morning, barely saw anyone on the main road. If he did encounter someone, it was just elderly men and women up early to shop for groceries.

There were no young people Zhang Yanhang’s age, truly not a single one. After all, staying up late and sleeping in is indeed a very joyful thing, and the strong temptation it brings is simply irresistible to the modern youth.

Breathing the tasteless air, Zhang Yanhang felt as if his sense of smell had been purified. Back in Raccoon City, every breath he took reeked of a strong odor of decay, which is to say, the so-called stench of death, a scent like mixing toilet urine scales (ammonia), rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide), and feces (methane and skatole) together and simmering in sweltering heat—truly not something the average person could endure.

After breathing such air in Raccoon City for a long time, Zhang Yanhang’s nose might have seemed accustomed, but it was more like it had become desensitized.

But now, having resumed breathing the air of the Main World, Zhang Yanhang felt his sense of smell returning. Although the air in the Main World was odorless, odorless air was the best kind of air. It’s like plain white rice; it never wearies the palate because of its lack of taste, allowing one to eat it every day without ever growing tired of it.

Other things like hamburgers and fried chicken fast food might smell enticing for the first meal, and still tasty for the second, but what if you eat them for three meals straight? If that’s not a problem, then how about for a whole week? In reality, most people can only endure it for three to five days before they start to feel nauseated just at the smell.

But plain white rice doesn’t have this issue. The vast majority of people can eat it for half a month or even a month without any problems, because it has no taste, allowing humans to switch up a variety of side dishes with different flavors as a form of adjustment.

After walking a bit further, Zhang Yanhang spotted the Silver Frost Flower mentioned in the options, amidst a swath of Golden Chrysanthemums. It was the only one gleaming silver, creating a stark contrast against the surrounding gold, "Well, this sure stands out, but it hasn’t been plucked by anyone? Should I be glad that Imperial People have such high quality? Or maybe, everyone is actually an interstellar player?"

Honestly, having collected Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures for a month, this was the first time Zhang Yanhang encountered something so conspicuous. A silver piece amidst a sea of gold and shining with radiance, it was truly a textbook example of a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure with that striking sense of déjà vu.

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