After such a long period of water and food shortages, people with an energetic appearance like Wen Ruchu had become rare. Especially since she was dragging an assault boat behind her. An assault boat was a very valuable thing now—if someone had one, they could go out and search for food.
Quite a few people watched Wen Ruchu openly and secretly, their intentions stirring.
When Wen Ruchu reached the eighth floor, two people blocked her path.
They were two men living in the stairwell. Their beards were unkempt, but they were not extremely thin. It could only mean that since the apocalypse began, these two men had not gone hungry—or they had stolen other people’s rations.
“Stop.”
Wen Ruchu raised her eyes and looked at them.
“Hand over that assault boat as a toll.”
?
If they wanted to rob her, then rob her. Why bother making it sound so nice?
“I’ll give you three seconds. Move aside. Otherwise, bear the consequences yourselves.”
The two men looked at each other and laughed.
“Well well, listen to her acting tough. You little woman, don’t be ignorant of what’s good for you. Otherwise, you won’t just be leaving the boat behind.”
As he spoke, the man looked Wen Ruchu up and down. When his gaze fell on certain parts of her body, he even grinned lewdly.
“One.”
“Two.”
“You think in front of me—”
Before the man could finish his sentence, Wen Ruchu suddenly raised her hand and gouged out his eyes.
“AHHH!”
The man’s eye sockets instantly turned into two bloody holes. Blood flowed down from them, making the sight extremely horrifying.
The other man saw how viciously Wen Ruchu had acted and immediately felt his legs go weak.
“Y-you can go. I was wrong. I was wrong!”
As he spoke, he raised his hands to cover his own eyes, afraid they might also be dug out.
But Wen Ruchu had always been fair and impartial. How could she possibly treat people differently?
His eyes were protected, huh? Then…
Wen Ruchu used all her strength and kicked the man. He was instantly sent flying into the wall. When he fell down again, he clutched himself and howled in pain as blood began to flow.
The stairwell had already filled with onlookers.
Originally, they had all come to watch how Wen Ruchu would be blocked and bullied. Everyone knew that the households living on the top floor were not easy to deal with and had plenty of supplies. Especially the young woman in apartment 2901—she even kept a big, well-fed dog.
But when they saw Wen Ruchu cripple the two men without hesitation, they immediately realized she was not someone to provoke.
Ever since the floodwaters had risen and people could no longer leave the building, those two men had begun doing whatever they pleased throughout the building. The women living in the stairwells had all been victimized by them.
Seeing them finally disabled filled many people with secret satisfaction—but also fear.
For a moment, everyone hurried back into their homes, afraid Wen Ruchu might set her sights on them next.
At last, the path downstairs became clear.
Although she still encountered people along the way, they all avoided her like the plague, terrified of drawing her attention.
This made Wen Ruchu quite satisfied.
She had always followed a simple rule: if people did not provoke her, she would not provoke them. But if someone did cross her, she would make sure they never had the chance to regret it.
After reaching the fourth floor, Wen Ruchu put on a raincoat and drove the assault boat out onto the water.
She tried to determine the direction.
Wen Ruchu could handle almost anything—except her sense of direction. That was best left unmentioned.
Fortunately, she had prepared in advance. Before the apocalypse, she had downloaded electronic versions of the world map and the city map, and she had also bought paper copies.
Her first destination was the largest library in Hua City.
By now the water had already risen to the third floor. The library had six floors in total, and its terrain was relatively high, so only the second floor had been flooded so far.
Books were proof of humanity’s existence. They were records of humanity’s step-by-step exploration of the world.
She hoped to preserve them. Perhaps one day, when humanity rebuilt civilization, these records would still be useful.
In any case, her Dimensional Space had no capacity limit. Collecting them was only a simple task for her. Besides, many of those books would also be useful to her personally.
After clearing out the library, Wen Ruchu went to the largest shopping mall in Hua City.
The mall’s floors were not built like residential buildings, so the flood had only reached the second floor.
Wen Ruchu remembered that this mall was enormous—two underground floors and eight floors above ground.
The second underground floor was a supermarket.
The first and second floors above ground were filled with cosmetics stores and jewelry shops.
The third and fourth floors sold clothing, shoes, and hats.
Above those were restaurants, trendy toy shops, and a cinema.
Wen Ruchu stood on the third floor of the mall.
The second floor had not been completely submerged yet. She decided to sweep the upper floors first and then dive down to the first floor later.
Her goal was the jewelry shops.
There certainly would not be a shortage of gold. Several major jewelry brands had stores on the first floor. One trip there would yield quite a harvest.
The third floor was full of branded clothing stores. Any shop that could afford to open here was certainly not some small brand—it was all high-end labels.
Wen Ruchu did not care about the brand.
As long as it could be worn, she collected everything.
Women’s shoes, women’s clothes, men’s clothes—even a store selling adult products.
Whatever. She took it all.
Her approach was simple: leave nothing behind.
She also collected items from children’s clothing stores and maternity shops.
There were dozens of shops on a single floor, and after clearing just that one level, Wen Ruchu’s hands already felt sore from collecting everything.
But she did not stop.
She continued upward.
This was zero-cost shopping after all—it was all free.
The milk tea shop did not have much, but Wen Ruchu still took all the equipment. She could make milk tea herself in the future.
The restaurants did not have much either, so she collected all the tables and chairs, as well as pots, pans, bowls, and utensils.
She even took the coffee machines from the coffee shops and the popcorn machines from the cinema.
After all that work, by the time Wen Ruchu finished clearing the upper floors, night had already fallen.
She decided not to continue.
Although the flooding outside meant the chance of encountering people was small, it was still unsafe. Besides, the air was extremely stuffy and hot.
At the moment, there were no snakes in the water yet.
But after some time, when the water level rose to about the height of the tenth floor, countless water snakes would appear.
The terrifying thing was that these snakes were not ordinary water snakes. No one knew what they had eaten to grow so large—each one was as thick as a python.
Many survivors who ventured out without knowing the danger were dragged into the water by them.
They had not appeared yet, but Wen Ruchu preferred to be cautious. Once night fell, she would not enter the water.
Instead, she entered her Dimensional Space, took a shower, then brought out her RV and slept on the sixth floor.
Wen Ruchu was not worried about surveillance cameras at all.
First, the electrical lines had already been damaged. The power had been out for so long that the cameras could no longer function.
Second, even if a few still worked, the water would soon rise and flood the entire mall. Who would be able to investigate anything then?
…
The next morning, Wen Ruchu woke up early.
She took out a jianbing wrap and a cup of soy milk from her Dimensional Space for breakfast. After eating, she put on a diving suit and her diving gear, stored the RV back into the space, and jumped into the water.
The water inside the mall was relatively clean, without much garbage.
Outside, however, the water contained not only trash but also the occasional bloated corpse floating around.
The water outside was filthy and disgusting.
Wen Ruchu swam around the second floor, collecting every cosmetic product she could into her Dimensional Space.
Once she felt there was nothing left worth taking, she dove down to the first floor…