He looked up at the sun. It was already tilting westward, the light and heat both fading. The Gobi Desert was getting a bit cold, and the wind was picking up. Only when he stopped did he realize he was starting to feel a chill.

So he turned up his collar to ward off the cold wind.

But in the next moment, he suddenly jumped up high. “Wait… did I bring my clothes in here?”

This discovery made him incredibly excited. Outside the phone, in Zhengyang City, it was early autumn. Jason Ford was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and long pants—the standard summer uniform for Hongjie Club.

He reached into his pants pocket, and sure enough, he found cigarettes and a lighter.

The lighter wasn’t windproof, and Jason Ford had to work hard to finally light a cigarette. He took a deep, satisfying drag and couldn’t help but grin. “I’ve struck it rich, I’ve struck it rich. This ability to turn things into cash… is just too powerful.”

With this kind of storage space, all his expectations for a lucky encounter were already fulfilled.

Thinking it over, he decided to quietly approach those rows of houses—not for any other reason, but because entering the phone’s space consumed too much battery. Before he could get his hands on some cash, he needed to save as much of his limited funds as possible.

Two more hours passed before he finally, sneakily, got within about a mile of the houses.

By now, the sun was even further west, and the wind had grown even more biting.

Jason Ford stared at the houses in shock. “So it’s… ruins?”

It was clearly some kind of village, not many houses—seventy or eighty in all. All the roofs had been destroyed, and the walls were mostly ruined, leaving only broken walls and rubble.

But the houses were laid out in a neat pattern, so from a distance, it still looked like an orderly settlement.

On the west side of the village, there was even a large threshing ground, and even a stone mill.

The wooden axle on the mill was still there, but the mill frame was nowhere to be seen. The whole village looked even more dilapidated and desolate.

Jason Ford frowned deeply, calculating to himself: This village… could there still be people here?

His gut told him that no one had lived here for a long time, but… in the world of adventurers, you always had to be wary of others killing for treasure.

Oh, wait, killing for a lucky encounter.

But if he just left now, who knew when he’d have enough energy to come back in again?

Jason Ford hesitated for a long time, but finally steeled himself. Fine, worst case, he’d just buy some more battery later.

The key was… it was just way, way, way too cold here right now!

In the next instant, he was back in the Hongjie staff locker room.

Right after that, there was a bang not far away. Jason Ford turned his head and saw David Miller slamming his locker shut.

Looks like this guy didn’t notice anything strange about me! Jason Ford let out a quiet sigh of relief, but then immediately raised his hand and smacked his own thigh hard—Damn, I really am a pig.

Only now did he realize that since time outside stopped when he entered the phone, no matter what happened to his body outside, it would only last for a split second and could basically be ignored.

In fact, even if his whole body entered the phone, others might not even notice… time was frozen in that moment.

If only he’d known, why bother with a bike… no, why bother borrowing a phone at all.

He put away his phone, locked his clothes in the locker, and pushed open the shower room door to go in—just in that short time, his body had already built up another layer of grease.

He turned the hot water up all the way, feeling the scalding stream hit his cold skin. He let out a long, contented sigh—so good, I almost froze to death just now.

As he showered, he started studying the mark on his arm again. The color had faded so much, he figured he could probably only enter the space one more time at most.

After coming out of the shower and changing clothes, he left the locker room and found Little Smith had already arrived. Not only had he finished breakfast, he was standing at the front desk, enthusiastically explaining something to two young people.

Jason Ford thought about it and realized there was probably no need to borrow a phone anymore—when time stopped in that instant, who would notice what state he was in?

The main thing was to get properly prepared before heading back to that wilderness again. First, to confirm the storage ability of the space, and second… hopefully to figure out what exactly was going on with that wilderness.

Of course, he still needed to carefully plan out the details—he couldn’t afford to waste energy carelessly.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. At noon, he still didn’t go to the cafeteria for lunch, but instead went to the hole-in-the-wall eatery for the third day in a row.

This time he didn’t eat as much as before, but the owner didn’t mind. When it came time to pay, he suddenly spoke up, “Have you gotten taller lately?”

“Taller?” Jason Ford glanced at him and nodded with a smile. “Twenty-three, maybe I’ll shoot up a bit… who knows.”

In fact, he’d had a similar feeling himself, like he really had grown a little.

“You’ve definitely gotten taller,” the owner nodded, speaking with certainty. “You used to be about the same height as me, but now… you’re a little taller than I am.”