"Young man, how did you find me?" the mayor asked grimly, brandishing the double-barreled shotgun in his hands.

Shen Feng said, "I just happened to hear someone breathing back here."

After injecting that pile of Genetic Enhancement Potions, his own senses had become much sharper. He had faintly heard the mayor’s breathing just now, which was why he had sent Firefly away to check things out himself.

He hadn’t expected the person hiding back here to be the mayor.

"You... aren’t you afraid of the Holy Spear in my hands? I just have to point it, and the Holy Spear will take your life!" The mayor’s eyes narrowed. He could sense that this young man showed not a single trace of fear.

Shen Feng grinned and said, "Afraid? Of course I’m afraid. I may have had some lucky breaks, but getting my head blown off by a Remington would still kill me for sure. But I’m not afraid of one with the safety still on."

The moment he finished speaking, he shot his hand out, grabbed the barrel of the mayor’s shotgun, and yanked it to the side.

The mayor felt a surge of immense force. Before he could even react, Shen Feng had snatched the shotgun from his hands!

The outsider expertly opened the loading chamber, checked it, and grinned. "Just as I thought. No bullets."

After a month of fighting for his life in the Stone Statue Apocalypse, Shen Feng was extremely familiar with shotguns.

The mayor’s posture when holding the gun had been all wrong, with no bracing for the recoil at all.

"You..." Seeing the gun taken from his hands by Shen Feng, the mayor opened his mouth, then suddenly burst out laughing. "Does it make a difference whether it has bullets or not?"

Shen Feng now completely understood. The gun in the Nameless Town mayor’s hands had long been out of bullets.

All this time, he had been using people’s deep-seated fear of guns to intimidate everyone and maintain stability here.

Now that Shen Feng had exposed him, the mayor, contrary to what one might expect, seemed to take it in stride. He took back the double-barreled shotgun, waved Shen Feng over, and led him out of the Temple to the small building where he lived alone.

Upon entering the house, Shen Feng was taken aback.

Although the room was also somewhat dilapidated, it had a table, chairs, a bed, and even a coffee table. The furnishings were quite similar to those in an ordinary home.

To see such furnishings in the apocalypse was a truly rare sight.

The mayor flopped onto the sofa, crossed his legs, propped his feet up on the table, and asked:

"From Peach Blossom Spring? Which Shelter are you from? How are things?"

From the way the mayor referred to the Shelters, Shen Feng immediately understood that this mayor was clearly not a simple man. He likely knew a great deal about pre-war civilization and the current state of humanity.

Instead of answering the mayor, he asked his own questions directly: "Where can I still find a missile launch base? The command system after the nuclear war broke out should have been moved underground. Is it inside a Shelter? Also, have you heard anything about nuclear warheads?"

The mayor was taken aback, clearly a bit stunned by Shen Feng’s rapid-fire questions. However, Shen Feng’s words also solidified his earlier judgment. He said slowly:

"So you really are from a Shelter... Which one? No. 7? No. 13? Only those large Shelters would still have good stuff like cigarettes... You must be from the newest generation of shelter dwellers, right? This missile launch base you’re talking about... I don’t know what that is. It’s been too long..."

The mayor seemed to recall something. His gaze grew distant, and the look he gave Shen Feng became much more amicable.

Shen Feng chuckled, pulled the remaining half-pack of cigarettes from his pocket along with a cheap plastic lighter, and tossed them to the mayor.

The mayor hastily caught the cigarettes. He pulled one out and sniffed it greedily, then picked up the lighter and examined it for a long moment. Only then did he light the cigarette, take a deep, greedy drag, and let out a sigh of satisfaction.

Naturally, he pocketed the rest of the cigarettes and the lighter.

Shen Feng found a chair and sat down as well, asking again:

"The final command system? The location of the strategic missile launch base? News about the nuclear warheads?"

Having accepted the gift, the mayor felt indebted and put on a thoughtful expression. He said:

"Let me think... If you’re talking about Shelter No. 0, then rumor has it that it’s to the northwest... That base... I think I heard a similar name when I was a kid, though it wasn’t called that. It was called the Dead Hand Base. That should also be to the northwest, supposedly in the desert... Nuclear warheads... you mean the emissaries of the God of the East Wind? His emissaries come and go like ghosts. I’ve only seen them twice in my entire life. I have no idea where to find them."

Shen Feng nodded.

’This mayor is a crafty old fox. If I’m not mistaken, he must have been a member of a Shelter at some point, which is why he received some basic education.’

And the mayor, in turn, had mistaken Shen Feng for a shelter dweller.

Seeing that Shen Feng didn’t say anything, the mayor continued:

"What are you looking for all this stuff for? If you want to kill yourself, you should really pick a quicker way... Do you know a little girl from Shelter No. 6 named Georgie? If you have any news of her, please tell me... Haha, she must be all grown up by now..."

"To be honest, I’ve had my regrets over the years, but this freedom thing... it’s still more comfortable... It couldn’t have been easy for you to make it here alive from a Shelter... Haha, welcome to the real Hell. We don’t have much else here, but we’ve got no shortage of death and freedom..."

Shen Feng couldn’t help but ask:

"Since the Shelters still preserve the embers of civilization, why don’t they band together to rebuild order and civilization across the land?"

’Are those people just going to hide in the Shelters, barely surviving, and let the outside world’s civilization be completely lost?’

"Rebuild civilization?" The mayor sounded as if he had heard something utterly ridiculous. "You didn’t just come out of a Shelter, did you? Hasn’t anyone told you? Forget it. Let’s talk after Rebirth Day... Go on, I need some peace and quiet."

Taking a long drag on his cigarette, the mayor exhaled clouds of smoke, his expression blissful as he lost himself in the swirling haze.

Shen Feng said no more and turned to leave.

After returning to the place he had just rented, Shen Feng took out another pack of cigarettes. He used two cigarettes to trade for several necessities, including a set of tattered clothes and a large barrel of water.

After resting for a while, night quickly fell. Nameless Town grew even livelier as many people returned from the outside, and it seemed that people from other settlements had arrived as well.

Everyone seemed to be flush with cash, and they began spending lavishly, eating and drinking boisterously.

The dilapidated buildings on both sides of the street were studded with torches made from scrap wood and broken plastic. The town, which usually looked like a ruin, was now actually looking quite festive.

The Temple was packed with people, all of them praying with pious expressions, their eyes closed as they made virtual tapping motions.

Almost everyone was very amicable, as if they weren’t people struggling to survive in the apocalyptic wasteland, but a congregation of devout believers.

The night quickly deepened. Midnight was approaching, yet no one went to sleep.

"Shen Feng, Shen Feng!" Firefly’s voice called out from outside. The little girl ran in, wearing a faded old t-shirt, no longer dressed in her original outfit of bark and plastic strips.

Her hair looked like it had been washed clean, and her face was much brighter.

She even wore a small hair clip, its plastic casing so worn that the original pattern was no longer visible.

"Let’s celebrate the holiday together," Firefly said with a giggle. "Come on, let’s go to the roof."

Without another word, she grabbed Shen Feng’s hand, climbed onto the roof, and lay down flat.

Shen Feng lay down beside her. Gazing up at the vast, boundless starry sky, he felt himself becoming mesmerized.

A gentle breeze drifted by, carrying a faint, pleasant scent. Shen Feng couldn’t help but sniff the air.

Beside him, Firefly blushed slightly and said with a laugh, "I took a bath! Hehe, it cost a hundred coins. I even used that bar of soap you gave me. So? Does it smell nice?"

At that moment, the residents of Nameless Town, including the mayor, had all gathered on the rooftops of the buildings. Some were lying down, others were sitting, but all were gazing at the sky, seemingly waiting for something.

Shen Feng was puzzled. He asked, "Why is everyone on the roofs? Is this a tradition for Rebirth Day?"

’It feels a bit like waiting up for a New Year’s Eve countdown,’ he thought.

"Shh..." Firefly whispered. "The rebirth is about to begin... I hope we can be reborn this time."

The moment she finished speaking, a bright light like a shooting star streaked across the distant sky, slowly approaching from the west!

The exhaust from an intercontinental strategic missile’s propulsion system flared like a comet’s tail, waking the slumbering earth.

"It’s the trident! Poseidon’s trident is here!"