From the outside, the RV looked no different, but the toilet compartment could open a hidden extra-dimensional space from either inside or outside the vehicle.
The space was 1 square meter in floor area but 5 meters tall, giving it a large volume that could easily store many small, stackable items.
Once the mission was completed, the notification board in Xin Xiaoru’s mind immediately updated with the next stage of the upgrade task: obtain 40 five-star ratings.
The upgrade reward offered two options: one was to gain 15 square meters of additional space, and the other was an internal hotel with beds, capable of densely housing nine people.
The diagram of the internal hotel looked somewhat like a train with upper, middle, and lower bunks. The vertical space between beds was only 60 centimeters, making it impossible for a person to stand upright inside.
Xin Xiaoru thought briefly and chose the 15-square-meter space.
The apocalypse wouldn’t officially begin for another two months. By then, zombies would be everywhere, and disasters, both natural and human-made, would abound. Only by developing the hotel then and providing shelter to fleeing survivors could she earn five-star ratings. Otherwise, like the people at the previous camp, rescuing them would be futile and only generate popularity points.
The 40-person five-star rating task could be completed by He Guying and Zhao Changyue in 20 days. With 15 square meters added to the current 1 square meter, He Guying’s RV could store all the supplies inside without worrying about them being discovered outside.
After roughly planning the upgrade route for the next 20 days, the RV drove itself, taking the three of them to Jiangcheng to pick up Qian Duoying and her boyfriend.
The process went smoothly. By 10 p.m., the RV had traveled 800 kilometers round-trip, returned to the camp, and picked up Qian Zhengli, the worker Zhou Fengyun, and Qian Zhengli’s trucks and RVs from the valley. The mother and daughter from the Qian family were finally reunited.
Xin Xiaoru didn’t linger. She turned on the RV’s high beams and began moving half of her own supplies under the lights.
Qian Duoying frowned, wanting to say something, but ultimately fell silent, quietly counting how much she was taking.
Small daily items like food, toilet paper, tampons, matches, and lighters were taken in roughly half quantities, but weapons like Tang knives and various repair tools were all taken by Xin Xiaoru.
Qian Duoying’s eyes widened: “Put that down! Those are ours! You can’t take them!”
The three people moving supplies looked up at her coldly, freezing her in place. Xin Xiaoru then said, “Tang knives are worthless on the market right now. Even with money, you can’t buy them. If you want to buy one, it’s 100,000 yuan per knife.”
Qian Duoying was furious, but seeing the two men opposite her and realizing she only had a useless boyfriend, she dared not speak, only glared angrily.
Qian Zhengli quickly pulled her daughter back and politely faced Xin Xiaoru, though without the warmth of before. Her expression betrayed an unavoidable distance: “Money is external. We’re willing to pay, can you leave us two knives?”
Xin Xiaoru nodded and sold them two knives.
She didn’t leave much of the repair tools, vehicle parts, circuit boards, or solar panels, everything she could take, she took. She did leave plenty of vegetable seeds. If they actually farmed and had Zhou Fengyun helping, they wouldn’t starve.
Once everything was packed, before leaving, Xin Xiaoru looked seriously at Qian Zhengli: “Aunt, we probably won’t meet again. Here’s a piece of advice: times have changed. Respect people who actually work. You are no longer the boss. If you treat those around you like you used to, neither you nor your daughter will have a good outcome.”
“You—” Qian Duoying was angry and wanted to argue, but Xin Xiaoru turned and got into the RV.
“That’s all I have to say. We won’t meet again.”
She could almost imagine what kind of conflicts would erupt among the four people isolated at the camp. Zhou Fengyun, the farm-savvy worker, would feel that he’d have to rely mainly on himself going forward. Qian Zhengli and Qian Duoying would think that all the supplies belonged to them and that both the boyfriend and the worker should obey them. The boyfriend would feel that, as a man, he should protect so many women, so he deserved better food, better clothes, and better lodging, but when it came to actually doing work, he would shrink back, just like when facing Xin Xiaoru and the other two.
“Interesting,” Xin Xiaoru thought with a mix of melancholy and relief. “But it’s none of my business now.”
On July 30, a large shipment of cash arrived in Yicheng. Long lines formed at every bank as people waited to withdraw money.
Xin Xiaoru and her companions loaded all the supplies onto the off-road RV, then hid the RV deep in the forest and drove the now-empty mutant RV back to the city.
They didn’t do much else, just exchanged cash and digital currency at a 1:3 ratio while acting as transporters, flying back and forth across the city.
The off-white flying RV had already gone viral during the hospital incident. Later, when the city descended into chaos and the police and military were busy clearing zombies, nobody paid attention to this RV. Many passersby had caught glimpses of it and assumed it hadn’t done anything evil; otherwise, it wouldn’t have been able to slip past so many authorities without being pursued.
So when Xin Xiaoru registered an account for the “RV Hotel” and posted her travel info on various platforms, many people immediately followed and became interested.
Even without anything else, the facts that “you can’t fight inside the RV and won’t get hurt” and “it can fly” were enough to make anyone tempted!
After posting the city-entry and exit routes for the day, people along the route left messages indicating their locations, asking Xin Xiaoru to set prices and give them a ride.
Xin Xiaoru, feeling lazy, let the system take over her phone, calculate the optimal route from the data, and started the RV “bus” service.
Many passengers got on and off along the way. Xin Xiaoru and He Guying sat in the driver and co-driver seats, while the tall and strong Zhao Changyue, awakened with jump-type powers, sat at the RV’s door, acting as the ticketing “gatekeeper,” allowing electronic payments for boarding.
Some passengers had luggage, so Xin Xiaoru and the others opened the back door. Under the bed at the back was a large storage space where people could easily place and retrieve their bags.
After one route, digital currency earnings increased by over a thousand, and popularity points rose by 23.
They started the first route at 9 a.m., the second at 11 a.m., rested briefly at noon, then began the third at 2 p.m., and the fourth at 4 p.m., each route taking 2–3 trips depending on distance. By 6 p.m., all passengers headed to the suburbs were delivered, and work ended at 9 p.m.
In one day, they earned over 15,000, gained 292 popularity points, and exchanged a good portion of cash.
The next day, the RV “bus” service continued.
This time, Xin Xiaoru learned through official channels which banks still had cash and published routes from various locations around Yicheng to those banks. Passenger numbers surged; at the peak, 37 people squeezed inside at once, and the extra-dimensional space almost had to be split into two layers to accommodate everyone.
The RV was cramped, but the air quality was good, and the AC was strong. Aside from brushing shoulders, no one felt suffocated.
Midway, someone tried to grope another passenger, but Xin Xiaoru dragged him out and beat him publicly. After that, everyone behaved themselves.
No one cared about anything else, they just wanted to withdraw money and find places to buy things.
Thus, Xin Xiaoru and her team shuttled passengers repeatedly; in one day, they earned 23,000 and gained 486 popularity points.
However, the cash at the remaining major banks was quickly depleted. The Z/F authority promised to register those still in line and provide some compensation later, but everyone knew it would be negligible.
Under these circumstances, He Guying’s remaining 450,000 yuan was quickly exchanged for 1,350,000 digital currency. Adding the 38,000 earned from the RV bus service and the 200,000 earned from selling knives to the Qian mother and daughter, they had a total of 1,588,000 digital currency, which Xin Xiaoru used as prepaid RV fees, extending the lease by four years and five months.
On July 27, after exchanging cash for digital currency, the RV had already been rented for four years and nine months. Combined with the previous term, that added up to a full nine years and two months!
Xin Xiaoru looked at the guest prepayment records on her registration board and let out a long breath.
Perfect! No matter how the RV would be upgraded in the future, she now had guaranteed tenants for a full nine years.
But now, with He Guying transferring all his money to her, she had a total of 3,328,000 digital currency. Not using it would be a real waste.
She scanned the map and saw that, aside from the 62 cities that had decided to cut power, the other cities hadn’t yet experienced cash withdrawal surges. She might still be able to withdraw money, or even use digital currency to buy supplies.
Sliding her finger across the screen, she discussed routes with He Guying and Zhao Changyue, deciding to simultaneously exchange cash while running long-distance intercity and even interprovincial RV “bus” routes to accumulate popularity points.
Zhao Changyue volunteered to stay behind to watch the supplies on the off-road RV. After all, Xin Xiaoru’s personal storage space was still too small; most of the supplies were stacked in layers on the RV, and she couldn’t leave them unattended.
Xin Xiaoru, however, disagreed: “If you don’t come along, the RV upgrade speed will be cut in half. It would have reached Level 2 on August 18, but now it’ll be delayed until September 7.”
Zhao Changyue couldn’t help but nod.
That was indeed a problem.
“The off-road RV is hidden,” He Guying explained. “We parked it abruptly in a deep forest clearing after descending from the air. Unless someone deliberately uses a drone to scout it, they won’t find it. For now, we’ll leave it there and focus on upgrading Xiao Ru’s RV first. Once we have more space, everything else will be easier.”
With the plan settled, the three of them set off, operating their long-distance RV bus service between Yicheng and other provinces that still had power.
However, the apocalypse didn’t allow anyone to go entirely smoothly. Just as they had exchanged over 600,000 in cash, a solar magnetic storm erupted early. Cosmic radiation interfered with all of Earth’s equipment, plunging the world into a 53-minute blackout and complete system shutdown.
When the power was finally restored, citizens from all cities, regardless of whether their city would officially cut power on August 4, rushed en masse to banks to withdraw cash.
Xin Xiaoru and her team took the newly acquired 650,000 and rushed to gather supplies, including various seeds, grains, and vegetables and fruits that hadn’t spoiled yet but were piled up and blocked on the roads, unable to sell.
Xin Xiaoru’s extra-dimensional space could keep vegetables and fruits fresh, which meant that while most people were afraid to hoard too much, she could buy them in bulk without worry.
So, even though the remaining 2 million-plus digital currency couldn’t be converted into cash, Xin Xiaoru used the cash she already had to stockpile a huge amount of fruits and vegetables, filling the extra-dimensional space to the brim.
Then she contacted farmers and fruit growers, arranging to buy from them again after August 18. If they still had unsold produce, she would purchase it.
Xin Xiaoru and her team were constantly busy, while across Yicheng, the nation, and even the world, chaos reigned due to the blackout caused by the magnetic storm.
A few optimists believed that once the storm passed, the world would return to normal. But radiation readings everywhere showed that Earth’s environment was undergoing drastic, invisible changes.
And soon, these invisible changes would become visible.
Governments everywhere were taking all sorts of measures: preserving clean land and water sources, constructing radiation-proof buildings, and prioritizing the protection of scientists and other key personnel.
Where possible, they built the largest possible shelters to ensure public safety.
Rumors and false information spread wildly among civilians. Authorities didn’t have the capacity to debunk every single one, so they only exposed the most ridiculous claims, like “banana leaves can block radiation, stop hoarding food, just stock banana leaves”, while countless other chaotic stories went unaddressed.
Sixty-two cities announced that they would soon cut power completely. Those unwilling to stay in these cities would flee desperately, while those who believed that these cities would survive better used the opportunity to flock there.
Planes could not fly due to radiation, so travel relied entirely on vehicles and trains.
Trains were overcrowded, and two zombie incidents had already occurred, causing many deaths. Many people dared not travel, yet even more risked the journey, trying to move to places they believed were safer.
Everyone was terrified. Everyone watched the sky as if a knife were hanging above, poised to fall but not yet landing.