Hearing the tentative voice, Chen Xi immediately stopped moving away, gripped her sword tightly, and turned toward the door.
The voice could speak—it must be someone inside. But she didn’t know if there were zombies inside, so she didn’t dare open the door lightly.
Worried that any noise she made would attract the first-floor zombies, Chen Xi decided to finish clearing the zombies downstairs before heading up. Just as she was about to go down, the door behind her opened, and a cautious voice came from inside:
“Excuse me… is someone there?”
It was a female voice, sounding older.
Seeing that Chen Xi didn’t respond, the woman added, “Could you give me some water? I can trade food for it.”
Chen Xi hesitated. She had plenty of water. Normally, exchanging a little wouldn’t matter, but this was the apocalypse—a single bottle could lead to brutal fights, bloodshed. What if this was a trap? The request might just be a test, or there could even be more people inside…
In the end, Chen Xi went back upstairs to her apartment, filled an empty water bottle, and returned to the second floor.
When she arrived, the apartment door was still tightly closed. Chen Xi paused, set the bottle at the door, gently knocked, and turned to leave.
The person inside must have been waiting, because the door opened soon after.
“Xiao Xi, come in quickly!”
Chen Xi turned and, flipping through the previous owner’s memories, realized this was Aunt Xu who lived on the second floor.
Aunt Xu was around fifty-five or sixty, just retired, living with her son, who worked in the city center.
Whenever the previous owner came back from part-time work, she often saw Aunt Xu exercising with the older residents of the community. Aunt Xu was always kind and would sometimes bring her food, worried about her living alone.
Chen Xi let out a sigh of relief and said, “Aunt Xu, I won’t come in for now. I’ll finish dealing with the zombies downstairs first and then come up.”
The system had already detected zombies climbing the stairs.
“Wait, I’ll go with you. You can’t let a young girl do this alone.”
As she spoke, Aunt Xu put on a hat and mask, zipped up her jacket, drew a machete from beside her, and approached Chen Xi. “Let’s go!” she said.
Chen Xi: “…”
“Aunt Xu, that machete…” Chen Xi started but stopped.
“This? It was left by Xu Yang’s grandfather. He even used it in a war back then. I kept it as a memento at home, and now it comes in handy. Don’t worry—I sharpened it these past few days. It can take down zombies easily.”
Chen Xi… was deeply impressed.
With Aunt Xu’s help, Chen Xi quickly cleared the zombies on the first floor.
Next, they began extracting the crystal cores. Aunt Xu followed Chen Xi’s lead, and together they managed to extract eight cores from fourteen zombies, splitting them evenly.
“What’s the use of these?” Aunt Xu asked curiously.
“Not sure yet,” Chen Xi replied, “but in the novels, they could be used as currency. Better to keep them for now—just in case.”
“Alright, then I won’t be polite.”
Before attracting more zombies, they quickly locked all first-floor doors and windows.
Chen Xi drank some water and asked, “Aunt Xu, did you practice combat before?”
“Yes, my dad was in the army. He taught me martial arts as a child, and I served a few years myself when I was younger. After having Xiao Yang, I switched to a desk job,” Aunt Xu replied, drinking some water.
“Impressive!” Chen Xi gave her a thumbs-up.
No wonder Aunt Xu took out half the zombies on the first floor by herself. Chen Xi had her weapon, but Aunt Xu handled hers with just a machete.
“Aunt Xu, are you alone at home? Where’s Yang?”
Xuyang was Aunt Xu’s son, working in the city center at a pretty big company.
“Ah, Xiao Yang was working late that night. The next day, before the network went out, he messaged me saying the office was safe but he couldn’t come out yet, so I stayed home waiting. That’s why I haven’t left,” Aunt Xu said.
Now that the zombies were cleared, the building was finally safe. Aunt Xu relaxed. “Luckily, I stocked up on food at home, so we haven’t had to worry about eating these past few days. It was just that I ran out of water today, which is why I came out when I heard noise outside.”
“At first, I didn’t know what these zombies were, but Xiao Yang sent me some info, and I realized hitting their heads would kill them.”
“The zombies even banged on the door a few days ago, which scared me. So I sharpened the knife my dad left behind.”
“Xiao Xi…”
After days of tension and no one to talk to, Aunt Xu finally opened up when Chen Xi was nearby, chatting and even inviting her to stay at her apartment.
Chen Xi was a bit overwhelmed by her enthusiasm.
“No, Aunt Xu, thanks, but I have a lot of things upstairs. Moving would be too much trouble,” Chen Xi said, pulling out the two walkie-talkies she found on the first floor and giving one to Aunt Xu. “Here, you can use this to communicate anytime something happens.”
“Okay, but be careful,” Aunt Xu said, still worried.
“I’m fine, Aunt Xu. We’ve cleared all the zombies in this building. Tonight we can finally sleep well.”
Both laughed happily.
Seeing that Aunt Xu was low on water, Chen Xi brought her a bucket from her apartment. Aunt Xu, in turn, insisted on giving Chen Xi a few cans of food, making her laugh and groan.
With no zombies banging on doors for now, Chen Xi slept soundly that night.
“Xiao Ba, check in!” Early the next morning, Chen Xi called the system again.
It was already the seventh day, and Xiao Ba said the seventh-day check-in would reward a special item card. Chen Xi was excited.
【Check-in complete!
Today’s reward: Sneakers *1
Total check-in days: 7
7-day check-in reward: Portable Space (upgradeable) *1】
Wow! Chen Xi jumped with excitement when she saw the reward!
A portable space—a must-have for the apocalypse!
Now she could store anything there, not just in her backpack, and it could be upgraded!
“Xiao Ba, what does upgradeable mean? Can it get bigger?”
【Yes. Currently, the space is 5×5×5 meters. When upgraded, the space can expand in length and width, height remains the same. Maximum dimensions: length 105 m, width 70 m—about the size of a soccer field.】
【Also, time inside the space is frozen. Anything you put in won’t spoil.】
Chen Xi was even more thrilled—another layer of security. The system really was amazing!
She resolved to give it a good rating later.
Finally, she could stockpile without worry!