Qiao Yu returned to S City that afternoon and had just arrived home when she received the alert about the impending power and communication outage in S City.
Exactly the same as her previous life.
She should have known. Qiao Yu suppressed the unease in her heart. What was meant to come would come eventually, but at least this life wouldn’t be like the last one. It definitely wouldn’t be!
Qiao Yu hadn’t rested since yesterday, and her body was already feeling fatigued, but she couldn’t sleep—there was still one thing she had to do.
When the clock on the wall struck nine, Qiao Yu went upstairs and changed into a black hooded sweatshirt, putting on black sunglasses and a mask. Although the entire city had lost power now, as long as there was no backup power source, most surveillance cameras should be useless. But better safe than sorry—to be cautious, Qiao Yu chose to go fully equipped, making sure she could be completely concealed in the darkness of the night before driving out toward the northern district.
Half an hour later, the car silently came to a stop in the darkness across from an outdoor supplies store called “Night Road” on Minghe Road.
This street was usually deserted, and with the city-wide power outage today, the surroundings were completely silent with not a single light.
Qiao Yu adjusted her hood and mask before getting out of the car, walking straight toward the “Night Road Outdoor Supplies Store.” The front door used a smart lock, and forcing it open would trigger an alarm, so Qiao Yu had no choice but to quietly pry off the protective railing on the right side of the store and climb in through the window.
Qiao Yu took a flashlight out of her Spatial Dimension, keeping close to the wall as she felt her way inside. She wasn’t familiar with the store’s internal layout, only vaguely knowing that there was a warehouse in the back, and what she was looking for was inside that warehouse.
The store owner was a middle-aged man in his thirties with an unremarkable appearance. At first glance, there was nothing particularly special about him, but Qiao Yu knew that this man had connections to the black market.
When the Apocalypse first began in her previous life, she had once traveled with a convoy for a stretch of the journey, and the convoy’s leader was the owner of this store. Everyone in that convoy was an ordinary person. Qiao Yu had initially wondered why everyone else obeyed this man so readily—until he used a Beretta 92F pistol to kill two women who refused to be violated by him. Only then did she understand.
She had overheard him bragging to his subordinates and learned that his store was called “Night Road,” located on Minghe Road in the northern district, and that the warehouse held many convenient weapons. Weapons were another form of protection for people in the Apocalypse—even for those with Supernatural Abilities, one could never have too many weapons.
Qiao Yu carefully felt her way around for quite a while before finding the hidden door to the warehouse on the wall. Just as she was thinking about how to open it, she heard footsteps coming from inside. Startled, Qiao Yu immediately turned off her flashlight and pressed herself motionless against the corner of the wall.
Bad luck on the first attempt.
Qiao Yu quietly retreated, about to pull back, when the warehouse door suddenly swung open.
Qiao Yu’s heart instantly leaped to her throat. Holding her breath, she instinctively pulled a steel pipe from her Spatial Dimension and, as the person inside walked out, swung it viciously at his head.
The man collapsed to the ground on the spot—indeed, it was the same man Qiao Yu had seen in her previous life.
Qiao Yu kicked the man lying on the ground. After confirming he wasn’t responding, she didn’t dare waste a single moment—she slipped into the warehouse and immediately began collecting everything. The room, about sixty square meters, was filled with boxes except for a bed and a desk. On the desk sat an open box.
Qiao Yu walked over and examined it closely. Inside was a tranquilizer gun and dozens of tranquilizer syringes. She closed the lid and placed the box into her spatial dimension. The other boxes were unopened, and Qiao Yu had no time to inspect them, so she took them all without exception, stowing every single one into the Yushu Space.
After exiting the warehouse, she didn’t overlook the merchandise outside either. Outdoor supplies held great value in the Apocalypse—she had no reason not to take them.
Qiao Yu cleared out the store in the shortest possible time, then climbed back out through the window.
She felt as though she had been gone for a long time. But when she returned to the car and checked the clock, only twenty minutes had passed.
Qiao Yu lay low in the vehicle, quickly scanning the boxes she had just placed into her spatial dimension with her consciousness.
In total, there were one hundred and twenty-five black boxes and twelve silver-gray boxes.
Among the silver-gray boxes, six contained four Beretta 92F handguns each, three held two UZI submachine guns each, and the remaining three contained two silver tranquilizer guns each. As for the black boxes, aside from twenty-five boxes of tranquilizer syringes, the rest were all boxes of 9mm ammunition.
Truly worthy of the name “Night Road.”
After inspecting the boxes, Qiao Yu instinctively glanced out the car window twice.
The surroundings were silent and dim, with only faint moonlight spilling across the earth. Qiao Yu wasn’t afraid of the dark by nature, but having lived through the Apocalypse, she instinctively harbored some resistance toward the night. So after sitting quietly in the car for a while, she quickly started the engine and sped off toward Yunming Mountain.
Yunming Mountain was at the easternmost edge of S City, and the villa district on the mountain was the most famous wealthy enclave in the city.
Unlike the darkness elsewhere, the Yunming Mountain villa district was still brightly lit at this hour—they must have activated their backup power supply.
Qiao Yu had never set foot here before, yet the electronic barrier at the main gate let her car through without hesitation.
She drove unimpeded all the way to the summit—to the front of the Jiang family mansion.
“Screech—”
The sound of emergency braking cut sharply through the silent night.
Qiao Yu arrived at the gate. Under the moonlight, the faint silver gleam of the steel-plate door reflected off her shocked face, making her heartbeat turn chaotic.
She had seen doors like this many times before.
In her past life, to prevent attacks from Heteromorphs, this had been the standard configuration for Survivor Base gates after the Apocalypse.
But why… was it appearing at the Jiang family mansion at this moment!
Qiao Yu’s pupils contracted sharply—could it be that Jiang Zhan… had also come back, just like her?
Then why hadn’t he come to find her?
Had he… abandoned her?
The entire way here, she had been imagining the scene of meeting Jiang Zhan. She had envisioned every possible scenario—except the possibility that Jiang Zhan might also be someone reborn, just like her…
Qiao Yu’s face paled slightly. Her feet seemed to take root in the ground, rendering her unable to move.
She stood there frozen before the gate, like a lost child, bewildered and at a loss.
Just as Qiao Yu didn’t know whether to advance or retreat, the gate before her suddenly began to slowly open.
Jiang Zhan’s features gradually came into focus, his eyes locked intently on her.
All around was silent, and Qiao Yu could clearly hear his voice—
“Ah Yu, have you come to find me?”
The look in his eyes as he gazed at her was fervent, obsessed, and greedy, making no attempt to conceal his longing for her, just as before.
Qiao Yu could not describe how she felt at this moment.
How long had it been… since she had last seen him so full of life…
Joy, guilt, longing, unease… as if every emotion she had ever felt in her life was converging at this very moment, stirring her mind to endlessly replay the memories of her time with Jiang Zhan.