Free Web NovelChapter 185: Chapter 185: You Really Have Quite the Appetite...
The safe was huge. When Jiang Che hauled it out, he used his power over the earth to completely clean off all the mud caked on top.
It had rained these past two days, and the safe still carried a fresh, earthy scent.
Xiong Jie went to tidy up the room, sweeping all the shards of broken glass into a pile and dumping them out at the entrance to the Dark Forest.
The moment the glass fragments landed on that black, fertile soil, they were instantly swallowed by the earth.
"This forest really does eat everything." He remembered the city he’d seen before, where rebar and concrete had been messily pierced by trunks and twisting branches; the city looked desolate and empty, the tables, chairs, even the streetlights all disappeared — except for the gigantic high-rises, which the forest couldn’t fully consume.
Everything was vanishing, making way for the forest’s advance.
The others only glanced at the doorway in mild surprise, then looked away again.
Even the trash gets devoured—sounds strange, but remembering how there was absolutely nothing left inside the forest, it started to make sense.
Jiang Che set the safe down with its opening side facing up.
The group gathered around, curious what Jiang Che had stashed inside the box.
The safe was huge. It was originally owned by the local tycoon, specifically for storing valuables. Jiang Che wasn’t picky; he just shoved everything inside, all at once.
At a glance, item after item was haphazardly crammed together, a literal jumble—like a storeroom junk pile left untouched for years.
The stacking was rough, but when Jiang Che fished items out, he handled them with extra care.
He’d already moved the safe back indoors, this spot was the former exhibition hall.
Under the displays were special exhibit lights, designed to show each piece to viewers at its best.
Layered on top of the safe were some boxed scrolls. He picked off the surface scrolls first, and Xiong Jie skillfully took them, unrolling and hanging them in their original places.
Looking into the box, Flying Tiger’s face darkened with frustration.
She already knew she’d been made a scapegoat, and had prepared herself for Jiang Che’s group taking part of the loot. But watching Jiang Che take out item after item, with Xiong Jie steadily putting each one back onto the old displays...
The frustration on Flying Tiger’s brow only deepened.
Xiong Jie was very familiar with this place. During his stay at the mental hospital, he seemed to come here often for visits.
He wasn’t alone—other wealthy mental hospital residents also visited this hall frequently.
Nowadays, there wasn’t much entertainment left on their phones. Opening any video app, all you’d find was guides and walkthroughs for various survival dungeons.
In this era, entertainment became a sin. No blogger dared produce entertainment videos, and nobody would dare watch them.
Sure, fun was once essential, but now, in this bizarre new world, spending any spare time on rest or amusement left people with the guilt of a high school senior—taking out your phone to secretly play the whole day and skipping out on studying.
That guilt and self-reproach wrapped around people, smothering them to the point of suffocation.
Even for folks as rich as them, most of their time was spent learning: reading guides and tutorials.
In their remaining hours, unspoken agreement drew everyone here, pacing the exhibition hall and letting their minds unwind a little.
The displayed items were all relatively small, expensive objects people could actually carry with them on the run.
He admitted it—they really couldn’t let go of their wealth; it was almost written into their DNA.
Bit by bit, from memory, he put each thing back onto the stands. Even though the dust-proof glasses had all been shattered and cleared away...
Somehow, the items still looked beautiful arranged under those lights—like treasures in a museum, shining under spotlights. Just looking at them was soothing.
Every time Jiang Che handed something over, Xiong Jie would set it right, carefully organizing it on display.
One piece after another, until the whole hall was filled again.
Everything was returned to its rightful place.
"So all of this—you guys really took it all?" Flying Tiger pressed her temples.
She had truly believed that Jiang Che’s group had only taken a small portion of the exhibit.
She’d thought the people who showed up at her door complaining just hadn’t gotten their share, so they came to cause trouble.
She’d thought—for sure—Jiang Che would at least leave them something.
"That’s right," Jiang Che replied, blunt and unashamed.
"Fucking impressive," Flying Tiger ground out through clenched teeth.
Now she finally understood why those people had the guts to trouble her. Turns out they hadn’t gotten a single thing.
"You guys have a hell of an appetite..."
"Of course. Uncle Xiong told me—these pieces are all unique, in almost every case, one of a kind."
"And now, with the world destroyed, these are destined to become the last of their kind. Once you give them up, there’s almost no way to get them back."
"If these things all vanished, that would be a real shame." At this point, Jiang Che felt more and more justified about what he’d done.
Now the Dark Forest devoured everything. Who knows—maybe the rest was already buried in some nameless soil, rotting away with corpses and other debris, broken down and gone for good.
Flying Tiger was momentarily stunned. She hadn’t expected Jiang Che’s motivation to be the preservation of artifacts and treasures.
"Are there still a few museums left standing? Once things calm down, we could raid them too and store whatever we find." Her eyes lit up, assessing Jiang Che—this dungeon probably didn’t have as many people as the others.
And even if there were, it’d just be a handful for the sake of sanity—like Zhou Ang’s mother, or a few hand-picked folks with life skills, to make things easier for everyone.
The rooms on both sides of the challenge corridor were all old wards. Usually, competitors didn’t even go near them, so if they grabbed things, they could stash them there for safer storage.
This whole question of preserving civilization had never once crossed her mind before—how would humanity continue?
Back then, it was hard enough for humanity just to survive; staying alive was already hope, already the future, already an act of civilization.
But now, with Jiang Che’s strength, she realized she had to consider more.
For example, most cities had already been devoured by the Dark Forest—vanishing entirely, their foundations swallowed up.
If they could save remnants of history, these things would be symbols of humanity’s former brilliance.
"Are there a lot of things like these?" Jiang Che pointed behind him, at the row after row of items on display.
"Absolutely! You can still look up museum collections on your phone—I’ll show you their treasures."
"It’s just a shame a lot of cities are already gone, and the artifacts in them too." Flying Tiger sighed with regret.
"I didn’t expect you to have this kind of passion for preservation." She looked at Jiang Che, unexpectedly moved.
Xiong Jie froze for a moment, an item in his hand. He was pretty sure Flying Tiger had no clue what Jiang Che was really thinking.
