Chapter Two: Procurement

Pure water, the most precious thing, along with food to stave off hunger—these are what the human body needs most.

At this moment, Fang Xia had already arrived at the largest wholesale market in White City.

Though the natural disaster had lasted only six days, because of the rain, the vast majority of supplies were utterly destroyed.

Without sufficient food, no matter how formidable your fighting prowess or how powerful your cheats, you would starve to death, let alone take on zombies.

After paying for his hotel, Fang Xia still had over a hundred thousand left. He intended to exchange all this money for supplies during the final hours before the zombie outbreak.

He prioritized stocking up on enough water and food, gave the merchants an address, and had them deliver everything for him while he continued shopping.

“Canned luncheon meat?” That was a treasure indeed—one can could be traded for a night with a decent-looking woman.

“Instant noodles”—another excellent commodity. Not as valuable as canned meat, but perfect as a companion to it. In a world where food was scarce, eating instant noodles with luncheon meat was sheer luxury. In his previous life, Fang Xia had seen two men come to blows over a bag of expired instant noodles, ending in a bloody mess. In the end, neither got the noodles; both were devoured by zombies.

“Damn, chili sauce—beef chili sauce, pork chili sauce!”

He stopped by a specialty counter, where all kinds of chili sauces were displayed in dazzling array. Fang Xia was already swallowing hard.

You could never imagine the thrill of seeing something like this in a world where you might go a month without a few grams of salt.

It was more exhilarating than a whole night with a beautiful woman.

If not for his last shreds of reason, Fang Xia might have started tearing open jars to eat right then.

“We’ve struck gold—this stuff, in the apocalypse, a single jar could be traded for a campus belle.”

No need to hesitate—he packed it all up.

Next, Fang Xia bought a great many other essentials and instructed the sellers to send everything to his hotel, where he had already arranged for delivery.

“High-powered flashlights—these are a must. Get a thousand.”

After a day of torrential rain, the city’s entire electrical system collapsed; flashlights became hot commodities.

And with flashlights, you couldn't forget candles.

Normally, you couldn’t afford to keep a flashlight on all the time. Candles were the next best thing—cheap, durable, and space-saving.

At the wholesale market, candles cost only a dime each. Without hesitation, Fang Xia bought ten thousand.

“If only I had spatial storage equipment—I’d stuff all these things inside.”

A month into the apocalypse, the world would suddenly see the emergence of some advanced technological products, among them spatial storage devices.

In his past life, Fang Xia had only ever heard of them, never dared hope to own one.

Spatial storage! With that, you could live in Dawn City for a lifetime, never worrying about food or clothes, and marry ten wives if you wanted.

But now was not the time for wistfulness. As long as he made thorough preparations now, relying on his six-year lead in apocalyptic experience, he was certain he could reach such heights.

“Rice?”

Fang Xia hesitated.

Rice took up space and was hard to store; more importantly, it had to be cooked.

By tomorrow night, the power grid would collapse, and no appliances would work. Buying rice now would be pointless in the short term.

This reminded Fang Xia of another critical necessity—gas.

Natural gas would be useless; only bottled gas would work.

In White City, places still using bottled gas were rare, but Fang Xia happened to know of one.

But rice was a must. He’d already thought of a solution: self-heating rice packs.

They were expensive but convenient—just a little water would suffice.

Along with self-heating rice, he bought some self-heating hot pots to improve his meals.

After a busy afternoon at the market, Fang Xia had spent nearly all his money, leaving only a little over ten thousand for tomorrow.

By then, he was feeling hungry—he’d been too excited since being reborn and hadn’t eaten all day.

In the apocalypse, he had gone three or four days without food, even while maintaining high alertness.

But this wasn’t the apocalypse yet—no need to go hungry.

When Fang Xia left the restaurant after a hearty meal, the sky was already pitch-black.

Winter nights came early.

He decided to return to the hotel.

Taking the private elevator to the twenty-first floor, he saw the butler waiting for him at the door. As soon as Fang Xia approached, the man’s face broke into a broad smile.

“Mr. Fang, you’re finally back. I’ve arranged everything as you instructed—all your items are in the living room. Is there anything else you need?”

[What the hell is all this? Treating the luxury suite like a convenience store—are you planning to open a supermarket here?]

Fang Xia glanced coolly at the manager and didn’t bother to argue.

After tomorrow, whether he survived was an open question—no point bickering with someone as good as dead.

“That’s all. Thank you for your trouble. For the next two days, I don’t want any interruptions.”

[You said the same thing this morning, and then had me haul all this mess in here. I can’t wait to see what you do when you check out. I’ll be right there watching.]

The manager kept up his smile, cursing inwardly.

Fang Xia ignored him and closed the door.

Lying on the soft, comfortable bed, everything still felt unreal. Six years of inhuman existence had been like a dream.

For the first time in six years, Fang Xia drifted off to sleep so relaxed.

That night, he dreamed.

In his dream, he became the lord of Dawn City, commanding three thousand mutant warriors—seven-star mutants were nothing more than his subordinates. Thousands of beautiful women in the city were his for the choosing; every woman longed to share his bed, to bear his children.

When he opened his eyes again, his mind was still foggy. As he adjusted to the light, he found himself still lying on the bed in his luxury suite.

So, it wasn’t a dream after all.

With his reborn’s experience and his ability to read minds, last night’s dream could absolutely become reality.

Steeling himself, he reminded himself that today was the last day before the apocalypse. At exactly 11:11 p.m., the rain would come right on time, and an hour later, humanity would be plunged into endless terror.

After a luxurious buffet breakfast at the hotel, Fang Xia took a car to a place he remembered—if he was right, bottled gas could be bought there.

He didn’t need much—two canisters would last him a long time.

Once he’d taken care of the gas, he headed to the food market.

He bought some vegetables and fruit—just a little, since they couldn’t be stored long. Some fresh meat, too. In three days, when fire rain descended, none of it would be preservable anyway.

His last stop was a chain supermarket.

There, he purchased a full set of kitchenware: a pressure cooker, a wok, and two boning knives.

Only in this country—elsewhere, he would have found a way to get two guns instead; this felt too careless by comparison.