Seeing the bizarre reaction, Fu Qingdai’s face drained of color. She opened her mouth to scream.
“Cou—urk!”
Before the shout could leave her lips, Su Jin reached out with a trembling hand to cover her mouth.
But he was in such bad shape he could barely control his hand. One finger went straight into her throat.
She shoved him away instantly, doubling over in a fit of violent dry heaving.
When she looked up, Su Jin was waving frantically. Catching on, she clamped her mouth shut and pulled him toward the bed.
Su Jin stumbled and fell onto her bed.
His face was contorted. His eyes were wide, and veins stood out across his forehead.
He thrashed and convulsed against the bedding, twisting like a maggot sprinkled with salt.
Poison! The chocolate was poisonous!
“Ugh… hurk!” Panicking, Su Jin dug his fingers into his throat, trying to make himself vomit.
Fu Qingdai scrambled to snatch the trash can off the floor, ready in case he threw up.
After more than ten minutes of struggling, Su Jin lay flat on his back. He gasped for air as the vicious symptoms finally ebbed like a receding tide.
“Cousin… are you alright? What just happened?” Fu Qingdai asked anxiously.
“I’m… heh… I almost died.” Su Jin waved a limp hand, his racing heart finally slowing down.
Food poisoning. He had been careful about food ever since arriving in this world.
Yet he had slipped up anyway.
Fortunately, the local chocolate’s effects had come on fast and faded quickly.
He rested a few more minutes. Once he felt able to move again, Su Jin forced himself up.
Fu Qingdai quickly asked, “Cousin, are you allergic to chocolate? Have you ever eaten it before?”
“Yeah… I’ve had it. Just not chocolate from your world.” Su Jin’s voice was a gravelly rasp. He got off the bed and picked up his briefcase from the table.
He fished out a chocolate bar he had bought at a supermarket back home.
He scraped off a pinch of brown powder with his fingernail. “Give me your hand.”
Without hesitation, Fu Qingdai extended her pale, delicate hand. He smeared the Earth-brand chocolate dust directly onto the back of her hand.
“Hss!” A burning sensation spread across the back of her hand, which then began to redden. She pulled her hand back and held it protectively. “Cousin, what are you doing? What is that?”
“Just a simple experiment… wipe it off.” Su Jin tossed her a pack of wet wipes.
So it worked both ways. Chocolate from either world seemed highly poisonous to people from the other.
A severe allergic reaction, swelling airways, and a burning digestive tract—eating more than one piece might be fatal.
After tidying up, Su Jin headed for the door. “I’m leaving,” he said. “Get some rest. And remember, come out the night after tomorrow.”
“I’ll remember!” Fu Qingdai nodded vigorously.
After exchanging a few words with Fu Hu and his wife outside, Su Jin hurried back to his own apartment.
As soon as he got home, he mixed two glasses of salt water and chugged them.
He kept making himself vomit until, utterly spent, he finally stopped.
Slumped against the bathroom doorframe, he tried to stand. His foot slipped, and he fell awkwardly back to the floor.
He wiped away the tears his vomiting had forced out, feeling miserable.
A piece of chocolate had almost killed him. How had his life devolved into this?
Fuck this. This wasn’t a life fit for a human being.
Every day felt as though someone held a knife to his throat.
But time was running out. He didn’t have the luxury of resting yet…
After watching his condition for an hour, a physically and mentally drained Su Jin dragged himself downstairs.
The delivery time he had arranged with the grain shop was approaching. A truckload of grain and cooking oil was en route.
He waited at the entrance to the residential complex for a little over ten minutes until a box truck slowly pulled up to the curb.
Su Jin flagged them down, guiding the truck to the entrance of his building.
The truck stopped. Two men climbed out and began unloading.
The rice, flour, and oil had all been packed in cardboard boxes, concealing what was inside.
Lugging a heavy crate, one of the deliverymen grunted, “Boss, gotta say, never seen anyone buy stock like this. Sealed up tight, delivery late at night… why the secrecy?”
Su Jin managed a faint smile and improvised an answer. “Nothing special. Our organization does charity work, and our warehouse recently flooded. This grain is for children in need. We boxed it so we can put our logo on the packages. I work during the day, so I can only handle this at night.”
“Ah, say no more! You’ve got a tough gig too. Tell you what, we’ll waive the delivery fee this time. Consider it a donation from the two of us.”
The two men looked at him with new respect and began working faster. Barely ten minutes later…
“Alright boss, everything’s unloaded. We’re heading out!”
“Hold up!”
“Something wrong, boss?” They paused, turning back.
After hesitating for a moment, Su Jin lowered his voice. “It’s nothing serious. I heard there was a chemical leak at a factory in the city. The pollution is high up in the air, so normally it won’t affect you. But if it rains, don’t touch the rainwater. Avoid the tap water too. It could cause cancer.”
“Shit… seriously? It’s not even on the news yet, first we’re hearing of it… Thanks for the tip, boss!”
Only two days remained until the apocalypse!
After a night spent half asleep, Su Jin woke up with red eyes.
He grabbed the notebook by his bed. Without washing his face or brushing his teeth, he got dressed and went out to buy more supplies.
He didn’t stop moving, not even when he finally dragged himself back to his apartment at dusk.
He sealed every gap in the fourth-floor windows with tape and drew the curtains.
He built a small makeshift awning over the fifth-floor window to keep rain away.
He covered the edge of the windowsill with thin iron sheets and coated them heavily with lubricating oil.
The first and second floors had security grilles. A zombie might try to climb the wall.
But it wouldn’t matter. Even with claws, anything that climbed this high would slide right back down.
With that done, Su Jin walked over and knocked on the Fu family’s door.
Fu Hu answered the door, sporting the same warm smile as before.
“Director Li…”
“Is everything ready?” Su Jin’s voice was low and thick with exhaustion.
He tried to smile, but his face was too stiff. He could not manage it.
Sensing something was wrong, Fu Hu nervously licked his lips. “Y-yes, sir, it’s all here. Please, come in and inspect it.”
Inside, Su Jin looked over the items on the floor. Three compound bows, more than a hundred arrows and assorted colorful accessories lay on the floor.
There were also solar panels, batteries, and inverters.
Seeing everything in place, Su Jin relaxed slightly and nodded. “Very good. Leave these things here. I’ll go out the day after tomorrow and settle our business.”
“Director… has something happened?” Fu Hu probed cautiously, clearly spooked by Su Jin’s haggard appearance.
Su Jin shook his head. “No. I just heard that a comrade of mine died on an assignment away from here… I apologize, but I won’t be able to treat Qingdai for the next two days. I’ll come again the day after tomorrow.”
The following night.
All supplies were meticulously inventoried and categorized. Every water container had been filled.
Su Jin sat alone at his dining table. Large patches of his skin stung from how hard he had scrubbed himself in the shower.
But right now, he was simply staring blankly at the wire cage sitting on the table.
He could not hide the fatigue, worry, and fear in his eyes. Despite the sweltering heat, an uncontrollable chill gripped him, leaving his hands and feet trembling.
Inside the cage, more than twenty rats kept trying to escape. Looking at them, he realized he wasn’t much different—just another rat trapped in a cage, struggling to survive this twisted world.
Are my preps enough? Will I make it through this?
Slowly, Su Jin shifted his gaze to the wall clock. It was exactly eleven o’clock.
After tonight, the apocalypse would begin…