American homeless people, surviving in the city

The newly grown tender flesh was exposed to the air, and a cool breeze made it ticklish.

Lin Qi couldn't help but laugh.

Improving one's physical condition can also heal wounds at the same time, which is a truly unexpected delight!

Although this incidental healing power wasn't particularly strong—after all, it couldn't even completely heal the several blood holes caused by frostbite, only allowing some tender flesh to grow back—it still provided a new influencing factor for Lin Qi's future decisions when choosing mission rewards.

This unexpected joy allowed Lynch to regain his mobility faster than he had anticipated.

Originally, my feet were temporarily unable to walk after the debridement surgery, but now they can put their feet down earlier than expected.

This may give value to a day that was wasted.

Now that today's task was completed, Lin Qi decisively set his sights on the scanning opportunity that the "Newbie Gold Digger" had taken that day.

Perhaps we should use this extra time to properly explore Seattle?

Perhaps we can find an unexpectedly good place that allows homeless people to enter and where we might even find treasure?

Lin Qi pondered to himself.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

Even though the United States has a small population, Seattle is still a metropolis with about 400 million people, and more than 75 people live in the main urban area alone.

Although this population size is comparable to that of a second or third-tier city in Tokyo, it is still within the scope of a typical city.

But for Lynch, who was traveling alone, exploring the city on foot without any navigation was too difficult.

After a brief moment of thought, Lynch decided to proceed according to his previous plan.

Try the "Beginner Gold Miner" skill once to see how it works, and then make other plans based on its effectiveness later.

Thinking of this, Lin Qi suddenly remembered that when he had just woken up this morning, he had seen Raul dragging a dead homeless man into the bushes not far away.

And the tent of the dead homeless man is still standing not far from Lynch and Raul's tent!

In other words, everything in that tent now must be considered "unclaimed property" in the literal sense.

Although Lin Qi figured that there wouldn't be anything valuable left in the tent of a homeless man who had died of illness.

But compared to using this skill to gamble on whether someone has left something behind in a trash can or bushes on the street,

This tent is perfect for an experiment.

Having made up his mind, Lin Qi immediately walked to a spot not far from the tent.

[Aspiring Gold Miners] Get Started!

The next second, in his vision, an invisible pale purple halo rapidly spread out from him.

In the blink of an eye, just as Lin Qi had predicted, the pale purple halo spread across the tent of the homeless man who had died of illness.

To his surprise, he did not see any indication of "high-value items" in his field of vision.

What's going on? Can't this skill scan items inside buildings? Isn't that a bit useless...?

As Lin Qi was thinking, he saw the pale purple halo pass over the tent and spread into the grass not far away.

The next second, a system notification popped up in front of him:

[High-value unclaimed item discovered: Late-stage Homo sapiens corpse. Market value: Approximately $1200.]

[Detailed Information: Tom Handel, a late-stage Homo sapiens who died from pneumonia and multiple complications. His body is in good condition with only slight decomposition. His nerves and some internal organs were damaged due to long-term use of enhancement agents, hence the lower price.]

Lin Qi was stunned.

The system will mark the body, indicating that it is identified as the most valuable unclaimed item within a 15m radius.

In a sense, that is indeed the case.

A deceased person with no relatives or friends is indeed unclaimed.

How could there be items worth more than $1200 in the tent of an elderly homeless man who died of illness?

Confusion, astonishment, and shock, mixed with an indescribable sense of absurd irony, instantly filled Lin Qi's mind.

He bent over and began to dry heave.

The system wasn't lying to him; this ability could indeed scan for the most valuable items nearby.

But this result was not only unexpected by Lynch, but perhaps even by the system itself. What was scanned was not gold dust in the riverbed, but human corpses.

The system's annotations describe the condition of the corpse in detail, and even the reasons for market price fluctuations are clearly stated.

Lynch was momentarily at a loss, unsure whether to marvel at how valuable a human corpse could be, or to lament that in America, that price wouldn't even buy a cow.

The market price for a whole cow is $3000.

Lin Qi stood there stunned for a long time.

The pain he had just experienced hadn't broken his spirit, but now he felt genuinely lost.

Upon opening the system panel, the current SAN value has dropped to [37/100].

Seeing the sudden drop in numbers, Lin Qi shuddered and forced himself to come back to his senses.

No, we can't do that.

As a student of Dongda University, his education from childhood and his conscience as a human being both told him that although the system had clearly marked the corpse as a high-value item, he should not actually treat it as an object, much less try to sell it.

Even if the person lying on the ground is just a stranger from a foreign land with whom he has no connection, he shouldn't have done that.

But whenever Lin Qi turned his head to look at that patch of grass, he could always see the system notification that marked the high-value item clearly displayed in front of him.

Lin Qi felt nauseous just looking at it.

He took a moment to suppress his body's instinctive reaction, and reason told him to let the matter rest and not waste any more time on a dead person.

But Lin Qi had only recently transmigrated and still possessed a conscience.

It was already noon, the sun was high in the sky, and Lin Qi's stomach, which had been through so much that morning, started to rumble again.

But he had no intention of queuing up for the relief meal; he simply stuffed the excessively sweet sandwich cookies into his stomach.

After much deliberation, he decided to follow the universal custom of burying the body.

Firstly, to ease my conscience; secondly, to bury the body so that the system notifications wouldn't keep flashing before my eyes and annoy me.

Without hesitation, Lin Qi immediately got to work.

However, digging a pit to bury a body is impossible with just your hands; you need a tool like a shovel.

Fortunately, this greenbelt garden is located on the edge of downtown Seattle, close to more residential areas, which provides Lynch with a lot of convenience.

He walked along the street toward the residential area, examining the residents and shops along the way.

Soon, he found a small church with a particularly beautiful flowerbed in front of it.

Lynch wasn't quite sure how to tell which denomination a church belonged to from its decorations and architectural style; he only noticed a cross hanging above the church entrance.

Perhaps we can borrow a suitable tool like a shovel here? After all, this flowerbed looks like it needs a lot of careful maintenance over a long period of time...

Besides, since this is a church, we should be able to find kind people here.

Lynch knocked on the church door, and soon a kind-looking white priest, who appeared to be in his sixties, opened the door from the inside.

As the door opened, the old priest's kind voice came from behind it: "Hello, child, may the Lord bless you..."

But when the door was fully opened and he finally saw Lin Qi's attire, half of the old priest's kind expression vanished.

"What is it?" he asked coldly.

Lin Qi hadn't figured out what excuse to make up, so he could only tell the truth:

"Excuse me, could I borrow a shovel..."

Before he finished speaking, the old priest's expression had turned completely gloomy, and he closed the church door without saying a word.

Lynch remained unmoved. His recent experience had left him almost numb, and being treated coldly and ruthlessly by a priest could no longer affect his mood.

He continued walking forward.

After crossing two more blocks, Lynch had found nothing.

Unbeknownst to him, he had arrived at the small shop where he had bought secondhand clothes yesterday.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he pushed open the door of the small shop.

The interior of this small shop selling secondhand clothes remains dimly lit. Only a single brownish-yellow lamp is on, barely illuminating the room cluttered with piles of clothes.

Inside the store, the white woman who had kindly given him the sleeping bag yesterday was wearing reading glasses, knitting while watching the president's speech on TV.

Whenever the president's speech drew cheers from the audience, she would mutter a few curses under her breath.

Hearing the door open, the white woman slowly looked up. When she saw Lynch enter the store, she quickly put down her sweater and came to greet him.

"Child, what are you still lacking?"

The white woman clearly remembered Lynch.

Lin Qi spoke softly, "I... just want to borrow a shovel. Do you have one here?"

"Yes, of course."

To Lynch's surprise, the white woman readily agreed. Then, she swayed her plump body, squeezed through a narrow door at the back of the shop, and disappeared into the dark warehouse behind it.

Not long after, she came out with a large iron shovel and handed it to Lin Qi without hesitation:

"Here, for you, child."

"Use it slowly, no need to rush to return it to me!"