Yu Zhiye turned back and watched the door swing shut. Creeeak—Click.
The door faded away…
Yu Zhiye held out his palm.
A purple cube shot out from the tiled wall and flew back to his palm, hovering there like a gyroscope for a few heartbeats then sunk back into his palm.
“Cool. Cool. Very portable. Don’t have to worry about anybody stealing my home while I’m away.”
Yu Zhiye flexed his fingers a few times and looked around the stall.
“Not much around, but since storage is pretty much unlimited now...”
Yu Zhiye crept up to the toiler paper holder mounted to the tiled wall.
Less than a minute of tinkering and he dug out two toilet paper rolls.
“Hehe. Toilet paper—people will go crazy to hoard these. Their value will definitely hike in this survival game. Better stock up while I can!”
A thought later, two slots in his inventory hotbar got occupied by
.
“Guess they don’t stack. Whatever, can drop them off at my hideout later.”
With his mind set, Yu Zhiye went from his cubicle to the next. There, he looted another roll.
“Ey. Leaving em’ one roll should be enough! See how kind I am? Haha.”
After stepping out from the cubicle, Yu Zhiye went over to check the sink.
Squeak. Squeak! He turned the faucet back and forth, but…
“Huh? No water. Bleh. These sinks are just decoration? That means the toilets… Ugh. Not cool.”
Understandable though. It wasn’t realistic for a survival game to have a source of infinite water.
“Guess I should secure myself some drinking water before I do anything else.”
It’ll be laughable if he owned a heavenly fish farm cheat, only to die of thirst...
Yu Zhiye left the restroom and returned to the back-exit hallway.
The back exit invited him for an adventure, but he ignored it and headed back into the store.
“Search the aisles, see if I can find any drinks…”
He did what he thought and after shopping around a few mostly-empty aisles, he added a few consumables to his inventory bar.
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“That’s seven out of nine slots occupied. Leave two spare slots just in case.”
Yu Zhiye didn’t want to hoard it all anyways.
It’s fine to be sneaky and pocket a little, but gotta leave some for the other survivors or there will be a problem.
With survival supplies secured, Yu Zhiye was ready to head out to explore.
“Join the rest? Should be safer that way.”
Who knows what’s waiting out there. An apocalyptic world? A fantasy land? Best to hide behind other cannon fodder.
Just when Yu Zhiye exited from an aisle, he noticed a pair of teens facing off nearby.
It was the young man who was last to awaken and the Miss High Schooler who looked like a curious baby.
There’s nothing particularly special about that young lady.
What shocked Yu Zhiye was the knife that young man was holding behind his back!
It’s been less than an hour! Where and how did he get a weapon so fast?!
No, more importantly, what the heck is he going to do with that knife out?!
Yu Zhiye very much wanted to just pretend he saw nothing and walk away…
But when he glanced at that naive girl obliviously standing there, he can’t help but steel himself and call out, “Hey, you—!”
His voice barely left his lips when that young man’s cold gaze snapped over!
In that instant, bloodlust exploded out from the man, freezing Yu Zhiye’s heart and dyeing his entire world red!
An inexplicable pressure crushed down upon him, making him feel like he’ll get forced onto his knees in the next heartbeat!
But just as fast as it came, all that disappeared, like everything was just his imagination. Even the knife went poof.
Still, Yu Zhiye broke out in cold sweat. He stood there frozen and didn’t even dare twitch a finger.
Fortunately, after that one look, he got treated like air.
The young man shot the lady one last glance, then bowed his head enough to shroud his face in darkness and soundlessly bowed out.
Yu Zhiye felt the tension leave his body and finally relaxed.
Uwah… how fierce. WTF was that? His imagination? The legendary killing intent?
Yu Zhiye didn’t know, but he already marked that dangerous character as Anomaly A in his mind. Must avoid whenever possible!
“...Humph! What’s his problem? Just came up and kept staring at me… doesn’t feel like he’s hitting on me though?”
Yu Zhiye dully stared at the naive lady tapping her lips with a face full of confusion.
Young lady, it’ll be an even bigger problem if he is actually hitting on you!
“Eih! Whatever!”
The young lady tossed what just happened to the back of her mind and skipped over.
She stuck out one of her snow white hand. “Hai! Nice to meet you! I’m Xiao Shuling! Shu as in book, ling as in spirit! You can call me Ling’er!”
Yu Zhiye cordially shook her hand. “Steve.”
“Eh? An English name?” Xiao Shuling blinked cutely. “You look like you’re of Asian descent though?”
Yu Zhiye: “…” Yeah, can you not mention the obvious?
“Oh!” Xiao Shuling bopped herself on the head. “What am I saying?”
“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to judge a book by it’s cover. I just got overly excited when I thought I saw a fellow countrymen. Ehe.”
Ehe te nandayo! Don’t act cute with me! We’re not familiar!
If it weren’t for his legs that still felt a bit wobbly, Yu Zhiye would’ve long ditched this trouble magnet!
“Eih! Anyways, let’s look out for each other, hmm? Bai, bye~ See you around~”
After giving a little goodbye wave, Xiao Shuling skippidy-skipped away, leaving behind Yu Zhiye who looked like he just ate a fly.
Such a bubbly girl... but by the looks of it, she already entered that Anomaly A’s hunting list!
Was that young man some nasty serial killer targeting young women? Was he some monster disguised in human skin?
Who knows! But he knew associating with her was just asking for it!
Best to watch it and not let the fire burn himself...
“Ugh.” Yu Zhiye shook off the numbness in his legs. “Young people are so terrifying these days.”
Wished he could kick them away at the speed of light…
Eh. No devil fruits here… well, it’s still too early to say…
“Okay, stop wasting time.”
Yu Zhiye tossed out those stray thoughts and headed for the front of the market.
Past the checkout counters, the glaring sunlight filtered in from the storefront double doors.
Yu Zhiye shielded his eyes and squinted to make out what was outside the glass, only to see… a sea of sand. Endless sand.
“Damn. A desert?! Are you serious?”