Chapter 832 - 5: A Place to Settle

Compared to bustling cities or major towns, Prescott is undoubtedly a rather unique place.

Or rather, the sparsely populated Nevada County has always been like this.

Most of the county's population is scattered across various farms, while hospitals, schools, police stations, and other public facilities are concentrated in Prescott.

Apart from buying necessary supplies or taking care of medical and personal matters, farmers rarely come into town. Even those wealthy enough to buy houses in town do not settle in Prescott.

Life in the countryside is busy yet free, and they have grown accustomed to it.

…

After hitching a ride into town, Chen Zhou picked the right moment to jump off the pickup, then wrapped his coat tightly around him and quietly left the residence.

He urgently needed a place to rest, to safely endure the gene modification period—

Once his physical condition returned to its peak, he would feel secure enough to seek out Ambrose and investigate information about the murderer.

Bending his waist and keeping his head low to make himself look shorter, Chen Zhou carefully walked along the storefronts, avoiding the gaze of passersby.

Fortunately, it was still early morning, and most residents of the town did not have the habit of waking up early. Even the shops on both sides of the street were closed, so Chen Zhou, this foreigner with a coat and a Long Saber at his waist, did not attract unnecessary attention.

Having arrived in town, Chen Zhou planned to stay here for a few days.

But he couldn't stay at an inn, so he had to look for abandoned houses. After understanding the situation in town or finding someone to help him obtain a fake identity, he would then get himself weapons and a vehicle.

…

It didn't take long before Chen Zhou reached the edge of the town.

The houses here were much more sparsely distributed than inside the town, and there were hardly any shops.

Sneakily observing each household's entrance, Chen Zhou looked for traces of activity, like whether the curtains inside were drawn or not.

The side effects of gene modification severely impaired his sight and hearing. Information he used to discern just by sound from a hundred meters away now required regular methods like any other person.

He inspected house by house, walking to the town's outskirts, when suddenly Chen Zhou spotted an abandoned house—

A two-story building constructed with brick and wood, there were two large doors from left to right, resembling an inn or a tavern. The two floors added up to around twenty rooms.

The right second-story window had clearly suffered fire damage, the walls were charred black, the entire right side of the building was affected, with the door burnt and the window glass shattered.

Following its abandonment, the house clearly hadn't been maintained or repaired. The entrance was overgrown with weeds, and there were a few broken pieces of wood and window frames fallen from the second floor.

The building stood isolated outside the town, surrounded by emptiness, with the nearest residents more than two hundred meters away, effectively shielding it from most unnecessary prying eyes.

"It's just a bit rundown."

Thinking to himself, Chen Zhou tightened his coat, gripped the handle of his saber, scanned around to ensure no one was watching, then slowly approached the abandoned house.

Compared to the fire-ravaged right side, the left half was relatively intact, at least it still had a door.

Chen Zhou decided to use the left half of the house as a refuge, so he moved away the debris blocking the entrance and pushed open the door to go inside.

It was unclear when the fire happened, but as Chen Zhou entered, there was no trace of ash or smoke, only a hint of musty smell lingering.

The interior wasn't spacious, with a wooden bar at the entrance and a wine rack behind it.

Two plump mice were fearless, and the presence of someone didn't send them scurrying away. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the bar, curiously watching the unexpected visitor.

The floor was tiled with stones, but years of accumulated dust obscured its original color.

As for other filth, dust, and even insects, they were numerous.

After all, it was an abandoned house, and cleanliness was out of the question.

A regular person definitely couldn't accept such living conditions, but for the battle-hardened Chen Zhou, who had lived in shacks on deserted islands and braved the elements in the Prehistoric World, this was nothing.

…

After driving the heedless mice away, he first examined the bar, hoping to find something useful, like old newspapers.

However, the bar was empty, and he only found two shattered glass cups from top to bottom.

"Looks like I'll mostly have to ask the locals to find out where Ambrose is."

Shaking his head, feeling that staying on the ground floor was still too conspicuous, Chen Zhou bypassed the bar and ascended the stairs to the second floor.

The layout of the second floor was similar to that of a cheap inn, with a narrow corridor in the middle and individual rooms on either side.

Since the doors to the rooms were removed and the window glass was shattered, the rooms were quite bright during this time when the sun was rising, even though they were dirty inside.

Choosing a room that offered a view of both the town and highway, Chen Zhou found a wooden board, swept up some broken glass that had fallen inside, and rearranged the broken wooden bed left in the room, altering the layout to make the window area more open.

Crouching down, he leaned his head out the window to simulate peering outside, sensing that it could easily be noticed, Chen Zhou dismantled the window frame from the adjacent room and "installed" it in his own.