The moment Lin Ran saw these things, his breathing quickened.
Lin Ran walked straight to the safe, picked up a gold bar, and saw "Bank Gold 500g!" written on it.
"500g, the gold price is about 700-plus, so one bar is over 300,000!
Plus the jewelry, that's a direct 400,000 in my account. Sweet!"
Lin Ran excitedly stuffed the gold bars and pure gold jewelry into his backpack.
As for the diamond and gemstone jewelry, he didn't touch them.
He had seen on Douyin before that gemstones are only valuable when you buy them; when you sell them, almost no one will take them.
Of course, this excludes exceptionally large or rare ones.
"I wonder if the neighbors are as rich!"
Lin Ran started to anticipate.
Lin Ran walked around the house again, looking for books or newspapers, hoping to learn more about this world indirectly.
But to his disappointment, there were no books or paper materials in the house. Although he found two new iPhone models, they were out of battery.
"The phone brand and model are the same as in the Main World, which means this world's technological level and situation are likely the same as the Main World! Is it a parallel world?"
Lin Ran muttered to himself, took out his power bank, and started charging the iPhone.
A minute later, when Lin Ran pressed the power button, the iPhone lit up.
"It can still turn on!"
Lin Ran was a little excited.
After the boot-up screen, Lin Ran swiped up and found it had a face lock.
Lin Ran went to the kitchen, aimed the phone at the male owner's face, and successfully unlocked it.
"WeChat, Douyin, QQ, Taobao, Pinduoduo—all of these are here! Is it really a parallel world?"
Lin Ran frowned and opened the phone's messages.
After scrolling through dozens of messages from 100086 (a mobile carrier) before and after, Lin Ran gained a general understanding of this world.
A month ago, space dust suddenly enveloped Blue Star, preventing direct solar radiation, and the planet entered an ice age overnight.
The blizzard lasted for half a month, global temperatures plummeted by fifty or sixty degrees, and Blue Star's water resources all turned from liquid to solid.
Even more terrifying, the dust contained an unknown virus, soluble in water, and drinking exposed water would lead to acute poisoning and death.
Lin Ran continued to scroll down, combining bank information with some location-tagged messages.
He had basically confirmed his location: Da Wu City!
"This is Da Wu City, the Main World is Da Zheng City! This means the Crossing location has no relation to the Main World."
"The messages were all sent two days before the blizzard. There were no messages afterward. Plus, these three people have been dead for so long with no one caring, so it's highly likely this world has lost its order and entered an apocalypse!"
"An apocalyptic world! Strength is king!"
Having figured this out, Lin Ran unplugged the phone from the power bank and left it in the room.
He didn't plan to take these phones to the Main World to sell for money; phones have serial numbers.
If discovered by someone with ulterior motives, it could very likely expose his secret.
He left the door and walked towards the next apartment.
In front of the neighbor's security door, he repeated his previous actions.
But to his surprise, after he pried it, although the lock area of the security door also bulged, it wasn't pried open!
Through the gap, Lin Ran saw dense metal rods inserted into the wall in the door seam, clearly indicating it was deadbolted!
"Forget it! There are so many apartments in this building. I'll save this one to open later with other tools!"
Thinking this, Lin Ran walked towards the stairwell. He glanced at the elevator as he passed, noticing the indicator light was off, meaning the elevator had no power.
Lin Ran understood that the power was out here.
He went upstairs, looked at the sign in the stairwell, and saw it was the 12th floor, giving him an understanding of his current location.
Exiting the stairwell, he noticed footprints on the corridor floor. The footprints were small, about size 38, like a woman's.
Looking at the dust on the footprints, they had been there for some time!
Following where the footprints disappeared, Lin Ran locked onto Room 1201.
After a moment of hesitation, he still actively knocked on the door of Room 1201.
If there was someone, it was likely a woman, with relatively low danger, and he could use food to exchange for useful information from her.
If he could develop her into his informant in this world, that would be even better.
Of course, if there was danger, he could also just run away.
"Thump thump thump!"
The entrenching tool gently tapped the door.
After a dozen breaths, seeing no movement, Lin Ran knocked again, still without result!
"No one here?"
Lin Ran muttered and started to pry the door. To his surprise, this security door was also deadbolted.
Seeing he couldn't open it, Lin Ran could only abandon his previous idea and walk towards another apartment.
When the shovel was inserted into the door crack and pried with force, he found that it was also deadbolted.
"So, deadbolting is the norm! My first successful door opening was just good luck!"
Having figured this out, Lin Ran decided to return to the Main World first, sell the gold, get a new set of equipment, and then come back!
He set up the VLOG camera in the corner, connected it to the power bank, and Lin Ran directly returned to the Main World.
Taking off his heavy clothes, changing into sportswear, and tucking the gold bars into his pocket, Lin Ran left the house... "Leader, Lin Ran was sent by us, but he is not our construction site worker. He trespassed on our site, trying to steal things. He was injured, and we are also very wronged!"
The Foreman stood bowing by the sofa, a fawning expression on his face.
On the sofa sat a middle-aged man in an administrative jacket and a beautiful woman.
"We'll talk about this later. Right now, I just want to know where Lin Ran is!"
The beautiful woman looked anxious.
"Isn't he at the hospital?"
The Foreman looked confused.
"If he were at the hospital, would I still come looking for you?"
"Leader, I really don't know. Oh, right, you can try Da Zheng College. I heard he's from that school!"
"We've already checked Da Zheng College; he's not at school! Never mind. This is my phone number. If you get any news about him, call me immediately!"
The beautiful woman shook her head, stood up, and walked out the door. The middle-aged man followed closely.
"Leader, take care!"
After the two left, the Foreman's face immediately fell. He returned to his desk, sat down, took out his phone, and made a call.
"Xiao Long! Go to People's Hospital and find out what happened with that kid Lin Ran!"
"Alright, Qiang Ge!"
After hanging up, the Foreman started to flirt with his secretary again... Lin Ran arrived at the gold street in Da Zheng City and casually walked into a small shop.
"Welcome! Sir, what would you like to buy?"
The middle-aged woman sitting at the counter immediately stood up and greeted him with a smile.
"I'm not buying anything. Do you buy gold?"
"Yes! How much do you have?"
"One jin (500g)!"
Lin Ran said, directly pulling out the gold bar from his pocket.
The middle-aged woman was somewhat surprised but said nothing.
Occasionally, a big client would come, and buying ten or more jin at once was normal. She just hadn't expected this ordinary-looking young man to pull out a jin right away.
"This is a bank gold bar, do you have a certificate?"
The middle-aged woman frowned slightly at the gold bar. Generally, people with such gold bars wouldn't come here because banks would buy them back, and at a higher price than what they offered.
"The certificate is lost!"
Lin Ran thought about it and indeed hadn't seen any certificate in the safe.
"Handsome, is this your own property?"
The middle-aged woman immediately became wary.
"Don't worry, absolutely no problem!"
"Do you have your ID card? Buying gold requires registration!"
Hearing the middle-aged woman's words, Lin Ran frowned. If he left his information, it would be troublesome if someone investigated him later.
"I didn't bring it!"
"Handsome, we can't buy it without an ID card!"
Hearing this, Lin Ran frowned:
"The price can be lower!"
"Forget about a lower price; we wouldn't even buy it for a hundred yuan! If we get caught, a fine is minor; we might even go to jail!"
"Alright, I'll look around!"
Seeing her say that, Lin Ran walked out of the shop to try another one.
To his surprise, he tried several shops, and they all said the same thing: no ID card, no buying!
"Damn it! This gold can't be sold!"
This was something Lin Ran hadn't expected!
"Hey! Sir, please show your ID card!"
Just as Lin Ran was standing by the roadside, pondering his next move, two uniformed police officers suddenly approached and stopped him.
"I didn't bring it!"
"Reporting your ID number is fine too!"
Lin Ran reluctantly reported his name and ID number.
However, to his surprise, as soon as he finished stating his ID number, he was pushed to the ground by the police, and silver handcuffs were immediately clamped on him.