Trembling At A High Altitude

After leaving the kitchen, Li Teng took Bunny Girl to her bedroom.

The furnishings inside were not much different from those in Li Teng's bedroom.

The two stepped out of the bedroom, and Li Teng went to check the bathroom.

The oppressive decor was the same, even the toilet was in dark tones.

The bathroom next to it was the same with the bathtub also in dark hues.

All the ceilings and floors in the rooms were dark toned. The lights in the rooms were quite dim, living here for a long time could easily result in psychological problems.

After leaving the bathroom, Li Teng walked to the main door of the room.

It was a security iron door with a peephole.

Li Teng peered outside through the peephole.

"Is, is there something?" Bunny Girl asked Li Teng, her voice trembling with fear.

Although Li Teng had promised not to run off suddenly, she still insisted on clutching the edge of his clothes.

"It's pitch black outside, I can't see anything," Li Teng shook his head.

Opening the curtains to look outside, it was equally pitch black.

Li Teng walked towards the last room on the first floor that they hadn't explored yet.

This room was by the staircase. After exploring this room, they could either go upstairs or downstairs.

The staircase going down led to a door, which seemed to be the basement door.

They decided to explore this room first.

After entering the room, the same dark decor and countdown timers as well as the male and female Time Index displays on the wall were present.

There was no furniture in the room.

Only two… treadmills.

Li Teng stepped onto one of the treadmills and started to run on it.

Bunny Girl stood beside him, very nervous, constantly looking around as if she was worried that a monster might suddenly burst out of the house.

After running for a while, Li Teng finally made a new discovery.

The six zeros behind the male symbol finally moved!

It changed to 000001!

Running could earn Time Index points!

This discovery was very important for Li Teng.

Because he could use this method to obtain food now.

After running for a while more, it changed to 000002, then 000003.

Li Teng stopped running for the time being. He left the treadmill room with Bunny Girl and came to the staircase, preparing to go downstairs to the basement.

"Can we not go?" Bunny Girl asked with a look of fear on her face.

"You stay up here for now, I'll go down alone," Li Teng replied to Bunny Girl.

"No! I…I…" Bunny Girl was afraid to stay alone upstairs, she quickly caught up a few steps and grasped the hem of Li Teng's shirt again.

"There won't be any danger. You can't keep being afraid to leave me, do you plan to also sleep in my room at night?" Li Teng teased Bunny Girl a few times, then walked over to the basement door.

The door was locked, an alloy door, which looked difficult to open by brute force; they had to find the key first.

Subsequently, Li Teng took Bunny Girl upstairs.

The second floor was completely dark, the space where the staircase met the hallway was blocked by an iron gate, and the gate was locked with an alloy chain.

It looked like an area not yet opened to them.

After returning to the first floor, Li Teng walked over to the security door, ready to try opening it to see what the outside world looked like.

"Don't open it! I feel it will be very dangerous! A monster might rush in!" Bunny Girl tugged at the hem of Li Teng's clothes.

"I'll just crack the door and take a peek outside," Li Teng felt it was better to check things out.

Bunny Girl pouted, seemingly displeased with Li Teng's rashness.

Li Teng unlocked the security door, which opened outward. As he pushed open the door, darkness so thick that one couldn't see beyond a few feet greeted them, the dim light from the room only illuminating a tiny area outside.

From the darkness in the distance came strange whimpering sounds, similar to the roar of a wounded beast.

Li Teng hastily closed the door.

Standing behind Li Teng, Bunny Girl finally sighed deeply.

"Let's go earn some Time Index points to exchange for food," Li Teng told Bunny Girl before heading to the treadmill room.

"Is this number the Time Index?" Bunny Girl pointed to the numbers following the characters for 'male' and 'female' on the wall.

"The number after 'male' is mine, and the one after 'female' is yours. We both need to work hard to earn more Time Index points. The person with the least points in the last-placed couple will be sealed in wax, and the first place gets a bonus—double salary! So let's do our best!" After speaking, Li Teng stepped onto one of the treadmills and started running vigorously.

Bunny Girl also started running on another treadmill.

Ten minutes later, Li Teng, ravenous, got off the treadmill. It wasn't that he couldn't run anymore; he was simply too hungry.

In ten minutes, he had earned over ninety Time Index points, and Bunny Girl had earned over eighty.

With a total of over one hundred seventy points, Li Teng decided to check what food he could buy from the fridge.

He had just randomly clicked earlier without studying the details.

After running for ten minutes and earning over one hundred seventy Time Index points, Li Teng finally got some idea of the prices of the ingredients.

After checking thoroughly, Li Teng almost vomited blood on the spot.

The prices of the ingredients were nearly the same as those in the real world.

A single Time Index point was equivalent to one cent in the real world.

Thus, the current wealth that Li Teng and Bunny Girl possessed was one dollar and seventy cents.

The cheapest ingredient, a kilogram of potatoes, required one hundred fifty Time Index points.

Li Teng bought a kilogram of potatoes. Upon opening the fridge door, sure enough, there were three moderately-sized potatoes inside.

Li Teng decided to first cook and eat these three potatoes, then continue running; otherwise, he wouldn't have the strength to earn more Time Index points.

When he tried to turn on the gas stove, Li Teng was stunned again.

The gas meter needed to be topped off before it could be used.

Buying gas cost three hundred fifty Time Index points per word.

In a fit of anger, Li Teng decided to eat the potatoes raw.

When he turned on the tap to wash the potatoes, Li Teng discovered there was no water.

The water meter needed a top-up.

It seemed that except for electricity, everything else required a top-up

Li Teng guessed that the part of the electric bill provided to them was only pre-paid, and it wouldn't be long before the power went off.

So he skipped washing them. After all, the potatoes appeared clean and were free of dirt.

"Here, you eat one too," Li Teng handed a potato to Bunny Girl.

"Eat it raw?"

"No fire, we can only eat them raw."

"You can't eat raw potatoes! They're poisonous," Bunny Girl stopped Li Teng.

"Unsprouted raw potatoes won't kill anyone." Li Teng ignored her and crunched into the potato.

"Potatoes must be cooked! Our family's nutritionist once said that eating raw potatoes means the starch granules remain intact and the body can't digest them. Moreover, they might contain a toxic protein called lectin which causes the red blood cells in the human body to clump together, leading to poisoning!" Bunny Girl looked very anxious.

"There's nothing my stomach can't digest," Li Teng said indifferently.

Being this hungry, who could care about such things?