freenovelworld Chapter 404 - 389: Naive
Chapter 404 - 389: Naive
But Mr. Zhou shook his head.
’No?’
Gu Xi was a little surprised and raised an eyebrow. ’Could I have been wrong?’
Then she heard Mr. Zhou say, "It was in a small village east of the NX1984 Area..." Before the apocalypse, the NX1984 Area was a fairly developed commercial town, and the surrounding villages were also relatively prosperous.
Finding some old supplies there now made sense.
Gu Xi nodded, signaling for Mr. Zhou to continue.
"We followed the directions the other party gave us and quickly found that small village..."
Mr. Zhou recalled, "But the village had already been looted by a previous team. We didn’t find anything useful there, but Shanzi did find a pre-apocalypse map..."
It was just an ordinary town map from before the apocalypse. It was poorly preserved, so it was already a bit tattered and blurry, but the location of the commercial town was marked quite clearly.
Since they hadn’t found anything, the group discussed it and decided to head toward the town to try their luck.
After all, the tattered map also showed several factories... Even though they knew these places had been scoured by the military and officials at the very beginning of the apocalypse, the situation was chaotic back then. Maybe something had been missed.
Back when the apocalypse first broke out, supplies were actually abundant—nothing like it has been in recent years.
Even after being abandoned in the ruins for decades, many of those items were still usable today.
And so, Mr. Zhou’s group went to the NX1984 Area, and that’s where they found Gu Xi.
After recounting this story, Mr. Zhou saw that Gu Xi remained silent and deep in thought. He considered for a moment before speaking again. "Gu, I can’t speak for other things, but our trip to the NX1984 Area really had nothing to do with Wei Heng. To be honest, I was the one who dragged him along at the last minute..."
He sounded very sincere. Gu Xi knew Mr. Zhou had probably misunderstood something, but she didn’t explain. Instead, she raised her hand, opened her personal terminal, and sent a file to him.
"This is...?" Mr. Zhou paused after receiving it. Then he heard Gu Xi say, "It’s a collection of my insights on using abilities..."
Gu Xi wasn’t worried about recruiting ability users.
After all, while Tang You was a bit of a fence-sitter, he was still capable. With official backing from a base leader like him, plus the Crystal Cores she was offering, Gu Xi had no doubt she could attract ability users.
But once they were recruited, the real challenge was making them stay willingly.
Constantly feeding them Crystal Cores was definitely not a sustainable solution.
Gu Xi had no intention of supporting them with mountains of gold and silver. After all, no matter how many Crystal Cores she had, they didn’t just grow on trees.
Besides, Crystal Cores were scarce these days and had become a substitute for many energy sources. If too many flowed out from her, it could easily attract trouble.
While she didn’t fear trouble, she hated the endless hassle.
So, she took Qi Xiang’s advice and compiled some of her insights on using abilities.
—For low-level ability users, especially those who were ambitious and eager to advance, the insights of a high-level or even max-level ability user were far more valuable than any Crystal Core.
What Gu Xi had produced now was only a portion of it.
Mr. Zhou quickly flipped through the file, his face flushing red with excitement. Even the delicious food in front of him could no longer hold his attention.
"Th-th-this..."
Mr. Zhou was truly overwhelmed with excitement.
He was an ability user himself. Once, he too had harbored grand ambitions of becoming a top-tier ability user.
But leveling up one’s abilities was no easy feat.
To put it this way, almost all of the current high-level ability users were controlled by the military, base authorities, and the major factions.
There were virtually no high-level ability users among the general populace, because all of them had been poached by those major factions!
As for the insights of high-level ability users, while not everyone hoarded them like a priceless treasure, they were certainly kept in the hands of a few major factions. After all, no faction wanted to see a rival gain another expert.
This led to a situation where, strictly speaking, the number of ability users among the human survivors wasn’t small, but high-level ones were few and far between.
Mr. Zhou’s abilities had stagnated for many years. He had originally thought this was as far as he would ever go, which was why he had reluctantly chosen to become a scavenger back when his hopes of advancing were dashed.
He’d had no other choice.
He never expected that Gu Xi would now present him with something like this...
"Gu, with this document, the recruited ability users will definitely stay. But this is too valuable..." Despite his flushed, excited face, Mr. Zhou, ever the man of experience, quickly calmed down and asked hesitantly, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Gu Xi nodded. Li Ming had taught her that if you want a horse to run, you have to feed it grass.
She had always remembered that principle.
Seeing this, Mr. Zhou’s expression shifted several times. In the end, he didn’t try to persuade her further. He just stood up and gave her a solemn promise, "Gu, you can rest assured. I’ll keep this document safe, and I will strictly screen the people Mr. Tang sends over..."
’I have to guard this file well for Gu. Only those who pass my test and prove their loyalty will get to see it!’
But Gu Xi said, "Mr. Zhou, you’ve misunderstood me."
Mr. Zhou paused, then seemed to realize something and said, "Of course, the final list of who gets to see it will be up to you..." He hadn’t mentioned it before, only because he was afraid Gu Xi would find it troublesome.
But Gu Xi said, "This document can be made public."
Mr. Zhou was stunned. "You mean... anyone can read it?" ’She’s not going to turn anyone away?’
"Yes," Gu Xi confirmed with a nod. ’Whether an ability user can level up depends more on their potential, opportunities, and comprehension. The experiences of others are just a reference; they aren’t actually that important.’
’Of course, getting my insights for free is out of the question.’
Gu Xi said, "As long as they settle on our farm, anyone—whether they’re an ability user or an ordinary person—can consult this document."
’Ordinary people can see it too?’
Mr. Zhou was confused. "But if you do that, this document will surely spread quickly... Won’t that just be giving it away to others for free?"
Besides, once the document spreads, the ability users might not be willing to stay and help on the farm anymore.
Over the years since the apocalypse, the ability user community had grown arrogant. Most of them looked down on ordinary people. Without some absolute benefit tying them down, they wouldn’t necessarily be willing to stay on a farm and help common folk grow crops.
Mr. Zhou couldn’t help but worry. He felt that this young woman, Gu Xi, was being a little too generous.
Or rather... so generous it was naive.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say this directly.
For one, if the document was made public, he would be one of the beneficiaries.
For another, to be frank, he and Gu Xi weren’t actually that close. It wasn’t his place as an outsider to lecture her like an elder.
Mr. Zhou was self-aware enough to know that.
He glanced at Gu Xi hesitantly.
Gu Xi knew what Mr. Zhou was hesitant about, but she didn’t explain her reasoning.
After Mr. Zhou left, Wei Heng appeared from out of nowhere, holding an earthenware pot. He sat down across from Gu Xi, glanced at the messy table, and pushed the pot toward her. "I made you some more soup. Have a little more?"
Gu Xi looked down at the steaming turtle soup in front of her. After a long moment, she looked up through the vapor at the young man across from her and said, "Okay."