“Alright!”
The clerk beamed, enthusiastically bringing out the stock item.
“This is our newly released 66 Pro Max. After the discount, it’s 13,000. We have a promotion going on, so I’ll throw in a 3C power bank as a gift.”
“I’ll take it,” Wen Xi said without hesitation. “Charge me.”
“Understood. Everything is packed for you, and the remaining cash is inside as well.”
“Thank you.”
Wen Xi took the phone, finally feeling a bit relieved. Looking around at the other customers, she felt strangely out of place.
After the apocalypse, this place had turned into ruins. Aside from survival bases and swarms of contaminated humans, it was rare to see so many living beings gathered together again.
“Gurgle…”
Her body sensed the emotional relaxation, and hunger surged forth.
Wen Xi finally chuckled and headed straight to the luxury restaurant on the top floor of the MixC Mall.
In the apocalypse, money is just a pile of waste paper.
Spending it all is the right way to go!
She had never had the heart to visit these high-end places where you couldn’t order takeout or use coupons!
…
“Buddha Jumps over the Wall, East Star Grouper, baby melon abalone, tea-smoked pork ribs, and for the sweet dish, the fruit-flavored shrimp balls… give me one of everything expensive on the menu.”
Wen Xi finished ordering in one breath, feeling the satisfaction of an honest person who wouldn’t be alive tomorrow:
“Money is no object, just get it done as quickly as possible.”
“Very well, please wait a moment.” The waiter smiled politely, thinking to themselves that it was hard to understand rich people these days.
Ordering tens of thousands of yuan worth of food while wearing cheap clothes from a street stall!
Wen Xi didn’t care what others thought. In the apocalypse, even salt was extremely scarce. Human dignity would become a joke because of food, and people would even kill for a cracker.
She remembered a time when she had only eaten one bag of instant noodles in four days and had almost fainted from hunger!
As for meat and fresh vegetables, that went without saying; she hadn’t tasted them in two years.
Today, she was determined to have a proper meal!
After eating, she would go to the supermarket downstairs to hoard some supplies, just in case!
…
“Hey, Dad, look, is that Sister Wen Xi? She actually ordered so many dishes! This is a high-end restaurant.”
At a table not far away, a girl pulled on the middle-aged man’s arm in surprise.
“It really is her!” The man frowned and immediately stood up to walk over. “This spendthrift, even I haven’t ordered this much stuff!”
Wen Xi was patting her round belly, satisfied and about to leave.
Suddenly, a familiar scolding rang in her ears: “Wen Xi!”
The rage in her heart burned faster than her reason. Wen Xi slowly looked up, staring intently at the man and woman walking toward her.
Fu Ruoyao!
And that brainless scumbag father of hers, Fu Zhishan.
“If I hadn’t brought your sister here for a college entrance exam celebration, I wouldn’t have known you were such a spendthrift!”
Seeing the table full of leftovers, Fu Zhishan became even angrier. “You have so much money but don’t know how to be filial to your father, wasting it here! Do you have no shame?”
Wen Xi took a deep breath, her eyes icy, revealing an undisguised murderous intent.
Should she kill these two animals?
“Sister, what is that look in your eyes?” Fu Ruoyao froze, a sudden chill running down her spine.
…No.
Killing them now would only ruin her plans.
When the apocalypse arrived, she would make these people wish they were dead!
Wen Xi sneered, picked up the bag containing her phone, and turned to leave.
Fu Ruoyao’s eyes lit up, and she reached out to grab it: “Sister Wen Xi! Is that the latest phone? Is it a gift for my college entrance ex… Ah!”
Wen Xi slapped her hand away, her disgust unconcealed: “Waiter, there are two people here harassing me. Call the police immediately!”
“Call the police? I’m your father!” Fu Zhishan was humiliated and furious. “How dare you hit your sister!”
“Dad, look at Sister Wen Xi!” Fu Ruoyao said, acting aggrieved. “I thought she felt bad for how hard you work and saved up money to buy you a phone, but it turns out she’s just indulging herself!”
What a high-and-mighty accusation.
What a greedy, filthy heart!
She must have been insane in the past, thinking that blood ties meant she should help whenever she could, only to end up with good deeds met with evil!
“Give the phone to your sister immediately as an apology, or I won’t acknowledge you as my daughter, and don’t think about stepping into my house ever again!”
“Then thank you very much,” Wen Xi twitched the corner of her mouth and sneered, “No need to send me off; I find it unlucky.”
“You—” Watching Wen Xi leave without a moment’s hesitation, Fu Zhishan gritted his teeth in anger.
“Dad, look at how Sister has become like this,” Fu Ruoyao pouted. “She used to be so sensible just to make you praise her.”
“Sensible, my ass! Born to a mother but raised by none; as expected of a little mongrel, bah!”
Fu Zhishan shouted: “Let’s go, Dad will take you to the mall to buy some food!”
…
“Unlucky.”
Wen Xi returned to her rented apartment with two bags of supplies. She took out a can of cola, gulped it down to quell her anger.
Only then did she take out the new phone.
Power on.
Register an ID.
Immediately after, she opened the app store.
Chat apps: WeChat, QQ, DingTalk, Alipay.
Download!
Food delivery apps: Meituan, Ele.me, JD.com.
Download!
Shopping apps: Taobao, Pinduoduo, Douyin, Zhuanzhuan…
Download everything!
Along with several popular games, reading apps, drawing apps, and educational apps… all downloaded in a dense list!
Several terabytes of storage were half-filled within half an hour!
Only then did Wen Xi let out a sigh of relief. She unpacked a self-heating hot pot and looked out the window to the sound of it bubbling.
It was just at the end of the workday; people were coming and going, busy and harmonious.
They had no idea that tomorrow, when they opened their eyes, they would face disaster, families would be torn apart, and they would be faced with an unknown world where order had collapsed…
“Tch.”
Wen Xi squeezed her eyes shut, turned around, and took out her computer. She used a VPN to change her IP and then contacted an agent anonymously, requiring the agent to also remain anonymous and hide their IP, to post threads on various forums to build hype:
【A super rainfall starts tomorrow, everyone remember to hoard supplies!】
Wen Xi was cautious.
Before everything was settled, she didn’t want any more complications.
This was already the limit of her kindness; she had absolutely none left.
In this life, she only wanted to be selfish and cold enough, to be an “exquisite egoist” whom everyone envied, hated, or despised, but who lived well enough. No high morals, only survival.
Yes, let morals and a good reputation stay with the good people! Let the benefits and joy stay with her!
Operation finished, Wen Xi glanced at the time in the bottom right corner—
【17:59】
One minute until the apocalypse!
Wen Xi took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and gripped her phone tightly, suppressing her panic.
From silent countdown to vocalizing:
“Five, four, three, two…”
“One!”
Crash—!
Exactly at six o’clock, a loud thunderclap roared, and a blood-red bolt of lightning slashed across the sky outside the window.
The force was so great that it even lit up the inside of her rented room!
At the same time.
A cold, mechanical voice sounded in everyone’s ears:
【Ding! Welcome, players, to the Apocalypse Survival Game! Please confirm your location anchor: Xia Country, Area 04, Partition C1!】
【The first natural disaster is about to begin: Black Rain Ice River!】
Patter, patter, patter-patter!
A fierce wind swept past the window, black raindrops hitting the glass, slowly flowing down and leaving hideous rain streaks!
“What the hell, why did it start raining all of a sudden?”
“Did you guys hear a broadcast just now? What natural disaster apocalypse? Who’s pulling a prank?”
“Why is the rain black? And why does it smell so bad!”
The whole building became noisy.
A strange, icy coldness climbed up Wen Xi’s spine from the palms of her hands, permeating her whole body.
Wen Xi snapped her eyes open, only to see that the phone she was holding had vanished, and a fluorescent screen had lit up half a meter in front of her face!
【Ding! Congratulations on binding the supernatural item: “Infinite Phone System”】