Meng Shiwan searched the area thoroughly and found seven crystal cores, a fairly good haul.
Each core was diamond-shaped, about the size of a thumb, translucent white, and looked like a beautiful gemstone in the hand.
She took off the disposable poncho, untied the garbage bags around her bloodstained feet, and returned to the RV.
She couldn’t wait to see what the expanded storage would be like.
With a thought, the holographic cutaway of the RV appeared again, showing every storage compartment at a glance.
The main problem now was how to allocate the seven cores.
As the weather gradually turned to extreme heat, food and water would become the most important resources.
Medicine was indispensable too.
She needed to stockpile more of all of them.
There was also gasoline.
In the extreme heat, the RV’s air conditioner would almost certainly have to run nonstop, so the gasoline for the generator couldn’t be neglected.
The diesel that powered the RV itself was something she could never have too much of either.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized she was short on everything.
After careful consideration, she decided to expand the medicine cabinet above the fridge by one cubic meter.
Once filled, the medicine stored there would last her for years.
She tapped the “Expand” option on the compartment above the fridge in the RV interface, and a page for selecting the amount popped up.
One core expanded storage by one cubic meter.
Without hesitation, Meng Shiwan selected 1.
After she confirmed, a small numeral 1 appeared over the medicine cabinet in the holographic diagram, showing it had been expanded by one cubic meter.
At that moment, the mechanical voice sounded again.
“Congratulations on expanding your storage space by one cubic meter. All storage spaces now have permanent preservation. Keep up the good work!”
Meng Shiwan’s eyes widened until they shone like two light bulbs.
Permanent preservation.
Permanent preservation!!!
Didn’t that mean that no matter what she stored inside, or how long she kept it there, it would never spoil?
This… this was unbelievably powerful.
Only someone who had struggled through the apocalypse could truly grasp how incredible this was.
She turned to look at the medicine cabinet.
It didn’t seem any different.
She walked over and opened the door. Still packed full of medicine, nothing visibly changed.
“Where’s the extra space? And the permanent preservation?”
The moment the thought crossed her mind, the wall at the back of the cabinet suddenly vanished, replaced by a vast expanse of pure white space.
It was like a blank white patch had abruptly appeared in the middle of the real world, looking strangely out of place.
It was completely unlike the cool, futuristic storage space Meng Shiwan had imagined.
If anything, it looked…
Rather plain.
She reached in and pushed all the medicine from the cabinet into the white space.
She found that once items entered the space, she could arrange them freely with a mere thought.
Meng Shiwan then tried to take out a single adhesive bandage.
The bandage reappeared inside the cabinet, not in her hand.
Well…
How to put it?
Advanced technology that somehow didn’t feel all that advanced.
Items could only be stored and retrieved through the cabinet itself.
She couldn’t put them into the space directly from her hand, nor have them appear directly in her hand when taking them out.
In other words, there was no remote access.
Whenever she wanted to store or retrieve something, she had to come to the cabinet, open its door, and operate the space from there.
“This is already a hundred times better than my previous life. A storage space, not something just anyone can have.”
Meng Shiwan was thrilled.
Anything that let her stockpile more supplies excited her.
Not to mention that everything stored inside stayed permanently fresh.
As for the remaining six cores, she used two to expand the purified-water tank and all four others to expand the fridge.
One cubic meter could hold one metric ton of water, so two cubic meters meant two tons, enough drinking water to last a good while.
The extra four cubic meters of fridge space would let her stockpile far more food.
Humming a tune, Meng Shiwan climbed into the driver’s seat, started the RV, and headed for a pharmacy.
She’d nearly emptied the last one, so this time she’d try another.
At this point, any shop still open was basically devoid of living people.
When the outbreak began, most people’s first instinct had been to run outside.
Later they found outside was even more dangerous. Those who reacted quickly enough had rushed back in and locked the doors, giving themselves a chance to live.
Meng Shiwan parked the RV right in front of the pharmacy, pressing it against the entrance and sealing it completely.
She didn’t get out right away. Instead, carrying the multifunctional trowel, she went to the side door and banged on the RV’s outer wall through the window, making loud noises.
She was using the sound to check whether there were zombies inside the pharmacy.
After knocking several times with no response from within, she instead drew zombies from nearby shops.
They gathered around the RV, clawing at it repeatedly.
Unluckily for them, the RV was pressed tight against the pharmacy entrance, forming a sealed space. The zombies couldn’t squeeze through and could only let out hoarse, rasping growls in frustration.
Trowel in hand, Meng Shiwan opened the RV’s side door.
She stayed on full alert as she slowly stepped into the pharmacy.
After carefully inspecting the whole store and confirming no zombies, she finally relaxed.
She first collected medicines for preventing heatstroke and treating frostbite, then various ones for sprains, bruises, colds, fevers, and similar ailments.
These would all be commonly used in the future.
After piling all the medicine on the floor, she sat down right there and began stripping the packaging.
Nowadays almost every product came over-packaged, wasting a tremendous amount of space.
Taxue poked its head out of the RV. Seeing Meng Shiwan busy at work, it jumped down beside her and happily pounced on the discarded boxes, biting and tearing at them.
Meng Shiwan couldn’t help reaching out to stroke its swaying tail.
“Baby, how can you be so adorable?”
Taxue was a long-haired tuxedo cat, chubby and round, like Sergeant Black Cat [1] a beloved Chinese cartoon cat jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2841326_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2841326_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Its big round eyes were irresistibly cute.
It blinked innocently, rubbed against Meng Shiwan’s arm, then went back to playing with the cardboard boxes.
After stripping all the packaging, Meng Shiwan carried two shopping baskets full of medicine back to the RV.
“Taxue, come back. It’s dangerous outside. Stay close to me.”
Taxue tilted its head as if it understood. Then it happily trotted after her and jumped back into the RV.
Meng Shiwan stored the medicine in the expanded space.
Combined with what she’d already put there, it filled only about half the available room.
One cubic meter wasn’t small at all.
Packed to the brim, it could hold quite a lot of supplies.
She made several trips back and forth before finally filling both the expanded one-cubic-meter space and the cabinet itself.
The cabinet held gauze, long-shelf-life disinfectants, medicated wine, medicated plasters, and the like.
All medicines meant to be taken internally went into the preservation space.
She glanced at the time.
She’d been busy for a full two hours.
Yet she hadn’t found the process tedious in the slightest.
On the contrary, she’d been exceptionally motivated.
Next to the pharmacy was a high-end outdoor-equipment store.
It specialized in gear for hiking and wilderness exploration.
Meng Shiwan got back in and drove over the zombies gathered around, crushing every last one.
The RV stopped in front of the outdoor store. Meng Shiwan noticed the rolling shutter was locked from inside, which meant someone was very likely still alive in there.
Not wanting to miss any chance to collect gear, she got out, walked to the shutter, and pounded on it several times.
No response from inside.
Which meant someone was there.
Meng Shiwan spoke up.
“Open the door. I’m here to take some supplies. In return, I’ll give you a few pieces of advice that might keep you alive.”
References[+]