Shen Hanyin headed down from the 17th floor. The floodwaters hadn’t receded at all, and now the only way out seemed to be through the stairwell window on the third floor.
When she reached the fifth floor, she saw several people gathered in the fourth-floor stairwell.
Counting quickly, there were nine in total: an elderly man who was probably from the fourth floor, five men, two women, and one child. Everyone wore masks and hats. They’d only seen each other in passing before, and now nobody could recognize anyone.
The group was discussing why no rescue teams had arrived yet when their homes were practically underwater.
Shen Hanyin listened silently, carrying her inflatable boat as she walked forward.
One of the women approached her.
“Little brother, are you heading out?”
Hearing “little brother,” Shen Hanyin relaxed. It seemed her disguise was working.
“Yeah,” she answered in a male voice.
“Can you take me with you? The water’s blocking us from getting out. I’ll pay you.”
Her boat could carry at most four people.
She was only pretending to go out searching for supplies. With a spatial pocket full of resources, she didn’t even want to expend extra effort for herself, let alone ferry a stranger around.
Unless the stranger was useful.
“Do you know where we can get food?” she asked. “Can you row?”
The woman immediately fell silent.
Someone nearby couldn’t hold back a laugh.
Everyone turned toward him.
He quickly straightened his expression.
“I can row. Little brother, I’m from the tenth floor.”
Pointing at the man beside him, he continued:
“My buddy and I are about to remove the third-floor window. We’ll leave through there. Can you take the two of us?”
“Sure.”
Only one seat remained.
Immediately, others began volunteering.
“Take me. A woman won’t be useful, but I can help.”
“Bro, take me! I know where there’s food.”
At that moment, the stairwell window was finally removed.
Shen Hanyin pointed at the man who claimed to know where food could be found.
“You. Come on.”
The people left behind immediately began cursing, accusing them of having no sense of responsibility and abandoning the elderly and children.
Shen Hanyin pulled the remaining half of her baseball bat from her sleeve and pointed it directly at the loudest complainer.
“Shut up.”
The sudden appearance of the bat startled everyone.
Unsure how far she’d take things, they immediately fell silent.
The man from the tenth floor didn’t hesitate. He lowered the inflatable boat through the window and attached two life rings.
One by one, the four climbed aboard.
The tenth-floor resident took the oars.
Shen Hanyin sat at the rear.
The man accompanying the rower spoke first.
“You’re the kid from the seventeenth floor, right? I’m from the third floor. I’ve been staying with Tenth Floor here. We went out together last time.”
“Mm.”
Shen Hanyin had already guessed they knew each other.
“My name’s Luo Qi.”
He pointed at the rower.
“He’s Xu Chengyi.”
“I’m Shen Yan.”
A name she invented on the spot.
The remaining passenger hurried to introduce himself as well.
“I’m Li Yuan from the seventh floor. We can go to Tiansheng Building. The sixth floor has food, and it’s close.”
“I’m part of a livestreaming sales team. We sell snacks and food products. There’s a lot of inventory there.”
“Most supermarkets are in basements or on the first floor. They’re definitely flooded by now.”
“If you know somewhere better, I’ll follow your lead.”
No one objected.
The water surface was covered with floating garbage, and a foul smell drifted through the air.
After leaving the residential complex, they encountered two other groups traveling by inflatable boat.
Everyone silently steered away from one another.
All of them wanted food.
None wanted conflict.
…
They soon arrived at Tiansheng Building.
Xu Chengyi smashed a third-floor floor-to-ceiling window.
The group climbed inside and headed straight for the sixth floor.
Li Yuan had a key.
Inside the warehouse, shelves were packed with cosmetics, household goods, and large quantities of food.
Instant rice noodles.
Vermicelli.
Self-heating rice.
Self-heating hotpots.
Every variety of trendy snack imaginable.
There were even numerous ten-kilogram bags of rice.
No one wasted time talking.
They found cardboard boxes and immediately began packing.
Li Yuan suddenly asked:
“Do you have any toolkits here? These supplies are too heavy. The inflatable boat can’t handle everything.”
“We can dismantle these wooden shelves and use them as rafts.”
“I’ve got some!”
Li Yuan hurried off to search.
“No need.”
Shen Hanyin dropped her backpack and produced another inflatable boat.
“I brought a spare.”
Luo Qi gave her a thumbs-up.
“Nice one, brother.”
Xu Chengyi looked around thoughtfully.
“The two of you stay and pack.”
“Inflate the second boat too.”
“Shen Yan and I will search the upper floors.”
“If we find anything useful, we’ll bring it back.”
“The disaster’s gotten this bad, and there’s still no rescue in sight.”
“We need more than food. Tools, supplies, anything useful.”
“As for legality…” He shrugged.
“We’ll worry about that later.”
Nobody objected.
Deep down, everyone had reached the same conclusion.
Even if compensation became necessary later, they could afford it.
After all, modern society had ingrained respect for laws into everyone.
The rain had lasted over half a month.
Even without government assistance, people still worried about eventual accountability.
No one wanted to survive the floods only to end up in prison afterward.
Shen Hanyin found it strange as well.
During the early days of the disaster, rescue efforts had been aggressive and visible.
Now it was as though the government had vanished entirely.
Even with communications down, there should have been some kind of news.
…
Tiansheng Building had twenty floors.
Shen Hanyin headed downward while Xu Chengyi went up.
Since Tiansheng wasn’t located in the city center, most tenants were small businesses.
Carrying her baseball bat and a plastic bag, she entered the third floor.
Xinyi Technology.
She searched desk by desk.
There were actually quite a few snacks.
Bread.
Dried sweet potatoes.
Candy.
Instant coffee.
Lighters.
She took everything.
The boss’s office wasn’t impressive.
A little extra wine.
Nothing special.
The wine went into her bag.
Whatever didn’t fit disappeared into her space.
She even took the executive chair.
Moving casually from room to room, she glanced at her watch.
Four hours had already passed.
Pretending to scavenge was surprisingly exhausting.
The road of acting was long and difficult.
She definitely wasn’t a qualified space owner.
She didn’t seem interested in taking anything.
Other people complained that their storage spaces were too small.
She couldn’t even fill hers.
In modern society, that might be considered a virtue.
In an apocalypse, it felt like a waste.
…
Fourth floor.
Bosi Education Consulting.
Since she was already here, she searched anyway.
Dragging out two storage bins from a corner, she went room by room.
The result?
Two chocolate bars.
Nothing else.
Finally, in the janitor’s closet, she found six packs of toilet paper and two bottles of bleach.
…
Fifth floor.
Anxin Accounting Firm.
Two shriveled apples.
Three tins of tea.
Two bottles of liquor.
One watch.
Four spiked clubs.
…
Shen Hanyin felt exhausted.
Returning to the sixth floor, she found Xu Chengyi had already come back.
His haul was much better.
One of the upper floors housed a large real-estate company complete with a cafeteria.
Most ingredients had spoiled.
However, there were still:
Two large sacks of rice
Half a sack of flour
Two bags of eggs
Half a bag of potatoes
More than a dozen onions
Two bundles of vermicelli
Various long-lasting dried goods like seaweed and wood-ear mushrooms
Not bad at all.
Luo Qi and Li Yuan had also finished.
Eleven floors remained unsearched.
Assignments were quickly distributed:
Shen Yan: Floors 19–20
Xu Chengyi: Floors 16–18
Li Yuan: Floors 13–15
Luo Qi: Floors 10–12
The allocation was so “reasonable” that refusing would have been awkward.
Thus, Shen Hanyin was officially appointed Chief Stair-Climber.
…
Floors nineteen and twenty belonged to the same company.
Little Umbrella.
The office area contained no snacks beyond a few rotten fruits.
Pass.
Alcohol.
Bleach.
Toilet paper.
Coffee.
Take them all.
Shen Hanyin casually stuffed two bags full of Little Umbrellas into her sack before heading downstairs.
Then, halfway down the nineteenth floor, she suddenly stopped.
A thought flashed through her mind.
She immediately turned around and returned to the twentieth floor.
Every remaining cabinet of Little Umbrellas, plus all other inventory, vanished into her spatial storage.
A moment later, she quietly swept up the stock on the nineteenth floor as well.
Because she’d suddenly realized something.
These things…
might become surprisingly valuable in the future.
With that thought, she returned to the sixth floor to wait for the others.