Revived as a Mutant in the Apocalypse

Old Master Zhang's Pawnshop

*5 HOURS AGO*

With her sheathed spear strapped across her back, Xie Yi arrived at a seemingly ordinary two-storey pawnshop located at the furthest corner of the streets, where the traffic was the most minimal.

'Is this the right place?'

She peered at the dusty nearly-dilapidated wooden sign placed on top of the double-door entrance that stated 'Old Master Zhang's Pawnshop,' making sure that she hadn't got the wrong shop before she decided to enter the building.

After visiting the trade center and making her request, Zhang Mo and Xiao Jun led Xie Yi around the city, bringing her to interesting places and introducing her to a lot of local cuisines.

Zhang Mo was mature and informative while Xiao Jun was like a ball of sunshine, bouncing around radiating positive vibes wherever he went. With the two working together, Xie Yi had to admit that she had a good time.

In these mere few hours, her views and knowledge of the world had been broadened greatly, and she was left thirsting for more. By now, her normally indifferent eyes had long turned into a pair of lightbulbs, shining so brightly as she eyed the streets with interest.

"Brother Mo, Brother Jun. Where are we going next?" She asked the two, not noticing them sending each other meaningful glances.

Zhang Mo and Xiao Jun smiled. They were glad that the girl had finally lowered her guard against them to the point of calling them brothers so naturally. In fact, she wasn't as difficult to approach as she looked, that was what they thought.

"Hmm?" Xie Yi paused and raised her eyebrows when she heard no answer from them.

Faced with her enthusiasm, Zhang Mo laughed whilst pointing at the gradually darkening sky, "It's getting late, Mother told us not to roam around for too long. It just so happens that dinner will be served at this time. Let's hurry back before the food runs out."

Xiao Jun hummed in agreement as he playfully stuck out his tongue, "That's right. Why don't we make a bet to mark the start of our friendship? The one who arrives last... will be paying for our bills for the whole week. Hahaha~"

Saying this, he quickly ran off with the wind. Zhang Mo and Xie Yi stayed on their spots as their eyes blankly stared at Xiao Jun's fading figure.

"Moron, the way back home is on the other way." Zhang Mo said as he pointed at the direction opposite of Xiao Jun. "Let's go, then?"

"En." Xie Yi nodded, following behind the man's footsteps with no intentions of quickening her pace.

Xie Yi wasn't in a hurry. She had a lot of money to spare and she genuinely believed that her ending up paying their bills would improve their relationship by a lot.

As she jogged past numerous streets and low-rise buildings, moving around in a relaxed manner, her eyes suddenly caught sight of something familiar. Her feet unknowingly slowed down, before she stopped in front of an old-looking store, her eyes landing on the store's wooden sign that stated, 'Old Master Zhang's Pawnshop.'

It was then that she realized she seemed to have forgotten something exceedingly important. And this made her whole figure stiff.

Before coming to the Sun City, her Captain had told her numerous times to call him and report her wellbeing once she arrived safely at her destination.

Unfortunately, she lost her phone somewhere on her trip and had somehow forgotten that she was supposed to have a phone, therefore forgetting to call that Captain of hers. As if that wasn't bad enough, she had completely forgotten about their appointment in this said pawnshop that was supposed to take place the day before!

Xie Yi almost bit her fingers in panic. As she pushed the door to the pawnshop open, the crisp melody of chiming bells rang out, cheerfully announcing her arrival.

She swept the whole room a glance before her eyes settled on the man dozing off behind the counter. Other than the dark circles under his eyes, nothing stood out from the clerk who seemed to be in his mid 20s.

Xie Yi knocked twice at the counter, waking the man out of his sleep.

"What is it? Don't you see that we are closed?" The sleep-deprived clerk, annoyed that his rest had been cut short, snapped at her in anger.

Being the subject of his rage, Xie Yi ignored him and had instead handed the man a gleaming batch across the counter.

"I am here to pawn an item." She emotionlessly said.

"Are you deaf? I told you that we are close– Wait, where do you get this from?"

The clerk's rude tone, upon landing his sight on the gleaming item, switched to that of shock and disbelief. It was only then that he bothered to look carefully at the teenager before him.

"It's mine," Xie Yi met his eyes and calmly said.

"Hah, as if I would fall for that." The clerk scoffed with disdain, "Kid, do you know what you have here in your hands? You might even get yourself executed if you're to be found misusing this military badge!"

The clerk tried to scare her with his harsh words, but was instead met with dissatisfaction from the teenager. In the first place, Xie Yi was already in an exceedingly bad mood.

'This is infuriating,' Xie Yi thought with a frown. Her hand itched to pin this insolent man to the wall however, she didn't want to cause a scene and end up attracting unnecessary attention to this undercover base.

"Like I said, this thing here belongs to me." She patiently insisted, "I am here to meet someone. If you know nothing of this matter, call your manager or someone else. I don't plan on wasting more time with you here."

"Quite a stubborn one, aren't you? You– Ouch!" The clerk painfully winced when he was suddenly hit on the back of his head.

"Who is it?" He angrily turned around, only to be met with another pair of eyes that were outright spitting out flames as if intending to roast him into human skewers in that instant.