Yao Tao avoided the two groups of survivors heading toward the settlement, setting her sights on a shopping mall instead.
There were no trees planted around the mall, and luckily it had stayed intact, neither flipped over nor knocked down by mutated plants.
But the pedestrian walkway outside the mall was lined with large flowerpots, all planted with ornamental flowers.
These herbaceous plants had mutated into a “grassland” several stories tall, wrapping the mall tightly within it.
Yao Tao stood at a high vantage point, map in hand, studying the area carefully.
She’d prepared the map before the apocalypse began. Once it hit, phones and the internet became useless, so she’d stocked up on plenty of maps and compasses.
Once plants mutated, the terrain and landscape of the entire city would change completely, the old maps could only serve as rough reference; otherwise it would be nearly impossible to tell where you even were.
After confirming the mall’s location, she tied her long hair into a ponytail, put on a baseball cap, threw on a hoodie, and began pushing through the “underbrush.”
These plants had looked small and cute sitting in their pots, but now that they’d grown as tall as towering trees, they looked downright creepy.
Yao Tao adjusted her direction with the compass as she walked, to avoid getting lost.
After a good deal of effort, she finally found the mall’s main entrance, but it was completely blocked by plants, packed too tight for anyone to get through.
She pulled a fire axe from her space and hacked away, finally clearing a path through.
The mall’s first floor housed cosmetics counters and jewelry stores.
In the apocalypse, gold and silver would lose their original value, sometimes worth less than a bag of instant noodles.
Yao Tao had no interest in any of that, though she didn’t mind taking a few nice-looking ornaments or pieces of jewelry, just to keep for herself to admire.
Her main targets here were the clothing, shoes, hats, and bedding.
The mall had five floors in total.
The second floor was the children’s section, selling children’s goods, kids’ clothes and shoes, baby products, toys, milk powder, diapers, that sort of thing.
None of this was much use to her, but it could be traded with others. Even in the apocalypse, children’s goods would still command the highest prices.
Adults could make do, but not children. Cut corners on a child and you’d be signing their death warrant.
Just as Yao Tao finished sweeping these goods into her space, she faintly heard men’s voices coming from the direction of the escalator.
She pulled her fire shovel from her space and crept quietly toward the escalator entrance.
The mall was still intact, and the power hadn’t gone out here yet.
To avoid being spotted, Yao Tao hid behind a billboard and peered down through the gap, following the sound.
The voices were coming from the first floor.
“Whoa, we’re rich! Nannan, look, quick, look! This gold, it’s all mine!”
Through the gap by the escalator, Yao Tao saw a young couple.
The man was running back and forth excitedly, while the woman followed behind, ill at ease. “Mingyang… this doesn’t feel right, does it…”
“What are you afraid of, hahaha, this much gold, we’ve struck it rich, struck it rich!”
“But none of this belongs to us, let’s just go, let’s head to the settlement.” The woman grabbed the man’s sleeve, pulling him hard toward the exit.
The man’s face turned grim. “Nannan, don’t be stupid, if I don’t take this, how am I ever going to have the money to marry you? Your dad’s asking for 500,000 yuan in betrothal gifts straight off the bat, and you know how bad my family’s finances are. Once we’re rich we’ll buy a big villa, and I’ll bring my dad to live with us so it’s easier for you to take care of him from now on…”
Yao Tao stood there eavesdropping for a while, understanding that the two of them were after the gold on the first floor.
She didn’t want them to notice her, so she quietly slipped up to the third floor.
Without a space of her own, there was no way they could carry off all that gold. The mall was surrounded by “grassland” outside, to get out, they’d have to walk through it on foot, and carrying all that heavy gold, they’d exhaust themselves half to death.
Money was a good thing, but you had to be alive to spend it, earning it without living to enjoy it was pointless.
The third floor sold all kinds of designer clothing brands.
Yao Tao rolled up her sleeves without a shred of hesitation. Come on, come on, everything’s headed straight into my space.
What did “famous trademark” even mean?
What did “international luxury brand” even mean?
To her, it was all the same as free merchandise, she swept it all into her space without mercy.
Oh? It was already free-for-all looting to begin with?
Well then, no problem at all.
After finishing with the clothes, Yao Tao went up to sweep the fourth floor.
The fourth floor sold all kinds of appliances, along with a household-goods supermarket.
Washing machines, refrigerators, TVs, she swept them all into her space.
Electricity would be scarce during the apocalypse, but people would never truly be able to live without entertainment, if anything, the apocalypse would make people need it even more, to keep their spirits up.
She grabbed several VR gaming setups and VR headsets. Before leaving, she even downloaded and packed up all the VR game data from the store.
Once the internet went down, single-player games would be all that was left to play.
Beyond that, she cleared out the mall’s electronic arcade too, large arcade machines doubled as both entertainment and exercise.
The fifth floor sold leather shoes and bags.
Yao Tao’s first target was athletic shoes.
Climbing up and down enormous trees all the time meant a reliable pair of running shoes was essential.
Otherwise, one slip on wet ground, a quick “whoosh,” and you’d be falling straight down from a dozen stories up, leaving behind only two sounds.
“Ahh…”
“Splat!”
Shopping done, Yao Tao headed back down to the second floor, wanting to see whether that young couple had left yet.
If they had, she planned to do her final sweep of the first floor.
To her surprise, the two of them were still there.
“Stop playing dumb, please, I can’t carry any more.” The woman begged pitifully.
The man had found a piece of cloth somewhere, meant to cover a display counter, and had spread it out on the floor, piling gold bars and ornaments onto it as fast as he could.
Once it was full, he tied the four corners of the cloth together, forming a bundle.
Yao Tao found it funny.
Truly willing to die for money, did he have no sense at all of how heavy gold was?
Sure enough, once the man finished tying up the bundle, he couldn’t lift the bag of gold even with everything he had.
The woman, seeing his face flushed red with effort, worried and kept urging him, “Maybe take a bit less.”
“No way!” The man angrily untied the bundle and found another piece of cloth, splitting the gold into two bundles. “You carry one, I’ll carry this one.”
“Me?” The woman looked at the heavy bundle before her with a pained expression. “I can’t carry that.”
“You can’t even carry this much? How are you going to take care of my dad in the future?” the man scolded, displeased. “My dad’s had such a hard life, he’s paralyzed in bed, needs help just to turn over. I used to do it for him, but once we’re married, that job falls to you. You’d better take good care of him, understand?”
The woman said naively, “My parents didn’t want me to marry you in the first place, said your family’s situation was too poor, but I knew you were a good man, filial to your parents… but this gold isn’t ours, I won’t feel right taking it, let’s just leave.”
“I’m only here stealing gold for your sake!” the man said, growing agitated. “It’s all your father’s fault, asking for a betrothal gift.”
“Then… let me go back and beg my dad, ask him to lower the betrothal price a little… we can’t take this gold.”
“Lowering it a little still means I have to pay out of my own pocket. Besides, no one will ever know we took this gold, there’s not even a ghost’s shadow around here.”
“I heard there are terrifying monsters in the city, that they’ve hurt a lot of people.”
“You’re just a coward. That’s all made up. Have you seen a single monster the whole way here?”
“…Never mind, let’s just go.”
“If you want to leave, go by yourself. I’m carrying this gold home.”
“Mingyang… boo hoo, don’t do this…” The woman began to cry, wronged.
Listening to the “young couple” bicker, Yao Tao gave a bored yawn.
Never seen a mutated animal, huh?
Fine, let’s give you two a proper introduction.
She got up and headed to the second-floor storeroom.
She’d already swept the goods there into her space, leaving only a few mutated rats she’d knocked unconscious but not yet killed.
She picked one that could still move, dragged it by the tail over to the escalator opening, swung her arm back, and tossed the mutated rat down…