Chapter 69 Retrieving Items Out of Thin Air

The floor was slick with a foul, black blood mingled with human gore, the sickening stench heavy enough to induce dizziness. Seven or eight twisted monster carcasses were piled near the doorway, the bodies of Scarface Qiang and his lackeys mixed among them, bearing gruesome marks of death.
Room 3001.
In the deathly silence, only heavy breathing and suppressed weeping could be heard.
The battle was over. Yet among the survivors, there was not the slightest sense of fortune at having cheated death.
Xie Youyou leaned against the wall, dry-heaving uncontrollably. Doctor Li cowered in a corner, anxiously inspecting his trampled medical kit.
As for Xiao Mu and Liu San—these two "outsiders"—they were curled up in the corner furthest from the pile of corpses, trembling like chaff in the wind.
Muchen stood in the very center of the room, his breathing steady, though his chest rose and fell slightly. He swept his gaze over each person, clearly reading their fear, exhaustion, desperation, and the irrepressible greed hidden in certain hearts.
Xiao Mu's Adam's apple bobbed, his gaze uncontrollably drifting toward the bottles of water in the corner.
Human nature was sometimes more troublesome than monsters.
Muchen remained silent.
With a flick of his wrist, a bottle of heavy-duty cleaner and several brand-new rags appeared out of thin air in his palm.
The movement was slight, yet it detonated like a thunderclap in the dead silence of the room!
The sudden ambition that had just risen in Xiao Mu's heart was instantly extinguished, a shudder traveling straight from his tailbone to his scalp! Liu San buried his head even deeper into the crook of his arm, trembling more violently than before.
Conjuring objects out of thin air?
What kind of power was this?
Was he a god, or a demon?
Fear, in that instant, transformed into awe.
"We survived." Muchen's voice broke the silence, very flat, yet loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. "But this place is not a garbage dump."
He held out the cleaner and the rags.
No one dared to move; no one dared to take them.
"I'll do it."
Chen Jiahe was the first to step forward. Without the slightest hesitation, she took the items directly from Muchen's hand. She glanced at the mess on the floor and said nothing, merely turning to Xie Youyou and Doctor Li.
"Doctor Li, tend to Big Mouth's wounds first. Youyou, come help me, let's clean this place up."
Her calm and decisive attitude provided a backbone for the bewildered Xie Youyou. The girl nodded vigorously, her face still deathly pale, yet she forced herself to stand tall.
Chen Jiahe's action silently drew a line among the survivors.
Muchen turned and walked toward Liu San in the corner. Ever since the battle ended, this man had done nothing but tremble and cast furtive glances toward the door.
"Liu San."
Muchen called his name.
Liu San stiffened all over, snapping his head up to force out a smile far uglier than crying: "Mu... Lord Mu... You... you called me?"
"What are you trembling for?" Muchen walked toward him step by step, each step sounding as though it fell upon Liu San's heartbeat. "Are you cold, or is there something weighing on your conscience?"
"N... no! I'm just... just cold! I'm s... scared out of my wits!" Liu San stammered incoherently, shaking his head frantically.
"Is that so?"
Muchen gave a noncommittal response and once again flicked his wrist.
This time, tools did not appear.
It was a vacuum-sealed pack of compressed biscuits.
"Gulp."
Someone swallowed hard.
Everyone's attention was instantly and firmly riveted to that package of biscuits.
That was not food.
That was life!
Hunger gripped everyone's stomach like an invisible hand. Even Chen Jiahe, who was busy scrubbing the floor, missed a beat in her breathing.
Muchen raised the package of biscuits, his voice low, yet every single word struck home in the hearts of everyone present.
"Whoever can prove their loyalty, this pack of biscuits belongs to them!"
Loyalty?
In the apocalypse, that notion was a joke.
Xiao Mu's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his breathing heavy as his eyes remained nailed to the food.
Liu San cowered in the corner, not daring to look, yet unable to keep his peripheral vision from straying toward it.
Hunger was the ultimate catalyst.
Muchen's gaze swept over the crowd, finally coming to rest on Liu San.
With a flick of his wrist, the biscuits traced an arc through the air.
"Thud."
A soft sound, landing precisely by Liu San's trembling feet.
The sound was not loud, but it struck every heart like a heavy hammer.
Everyone's attention instantly shifted from Muchen to the floor beneath Liu San's feet.
Liu San's body stiffened completely.
"You, distribute them." Muchen's voice carried no emotion whatsoever.
Distribute them?
Liu San snapped his head up, his face full of utter disbelief.
He looked at the biscuits at his feet, then at the pairs of eyes around him glowing with a feral green light. He had no doubt that if he dared to monopolize them, he would be torn to shreds by this pack of starving people in the next second.
Yet... if he distributed them, how much would he actually get?
"I... I..." Liu San's lips trembled, unable to utter a single word.
"My words," Muchen's voice dropped, turning cold, "will not be repeated."
That icy pressure was far more terrifying than the pile of monster corpses by the door.
A shudder ran through Liu San, and his instinct for survival overrode all other distractions. He bent down tremblingly and picked up the package of biscuits.
His fingers shook so badly that he failed to tear open the packaging several times.
"Rip—"
The sound of the vacuum seal tearing open was as shrill as a scream in the dead silence.
A cheap yet intensely overbearing aroma of food instantly invaded everyone's nostrils, violently churning their stomachs.
The very second the packaging was torn open—
"Mine!"
Xiao Mu was the first to react, launching his entire body forward!
He didn't lunge at Liu San; he went straight for the biscuits!
"Get lost!"
From another corner, a surviving soldier from Pan Guang's faction also turned red-eyed, roaring as he lunged in a fierce tackle.
Liu San was knocked off balance by the brute force, his grip loosening as the biscuits slipped from his hands.
"Crash!"
The package slammed against the wall, and the fragments scattered in all directions, spilling across the floor.
"Ah! They're mine!"
"Don't fucking grab them!"
The scene instantly spiraled out of control.
Xiao Mu and the surviving soldier threw themselves onto the ground like madmen, clawing at the biscuit crumbs stained with filth and blood, cramming them frantically into their mouths.
That ravenous devouring bore no resemblance to humanity.
Xie Youyou recoiled in horror, her face a mask of disgust and fear.
Doctor Li frowned deeply, instinctively dragging his medical kit further behind him.
Chen Jiahe clenched her fists, and just as she opened her mouth to reprimand them, an even colder, more oppressive voice exploded across the room.
"Stop this instant!"
Muchen's thunderous roar froze the air in the entire room!
The two men scrambling for food on the floor stiffened abruptly, as if gripped around the neck by an invisible force. With biscuit crumbs still wedged in their mouths, mixed with saliva and black gore, they lifted their heads in wretched disgrace.
Muchen did not look at them.
His gaze was like two ice-dipped daggers, piercing straight into Liu San, who sat paralyzed on the floor.
"I told you to distribute them." Muchen walked toward Liu San step by step. "Did you not understand, or do you not have hands?"
"N—no! Lord Mu! They snatched them! It was them..." Liu San defended himself in terror, scrambling backward on hands and knees, desperate to escape.