Chapter 10: 010 There is also a one-key instant return function
Hua Mi glanced at her ringing phone and thought that Gong Yi must be the chosen one from the apocalypse legends.
The people who survive the apocalypse and live well usually have a strong sense of crisis, which made them stock up on supplies just as the calamity struck.
Eventually, these supplies sustained them until they mutated and became Superpower Users.
Without wasting time, Hua Mi drove the truck towards the temporary rescue center.
Despite three housing complexes collapsing and Xiang City being in chaos, Hua Mi was lucky; she encountered no roadblocks and arrived smoothly at the rescue center.
The number of survivors here had doubled since her last visit, and cries of despair filled the place.
Bored while waiting for Gong Yi's people to arrive for negotiations, Hua Mi climbed into the truck bed and stocked the recently loaded 30,000 bottles of mineral water.
She upgraded her storage to level 3 (space 3X1).
Then she took them back out.
By the time the rescue team's people came to buy the 30,000 bottles of mineral water from Hua Mi, it counted towards her sales.
It was the same lifeguard who received Hua Mi.
Seeing Hua Mi get down from the truck, Cao Feng approached her with a sorrowful face,
"Boss really had the foresight to directly order 30,000 bottles from you. I thought we wouldn't use them all, but look, the survivors have increased so much."
He pointed to the surrounding wailing survivors, each battered and bloodied, all recently dug out from the ruins.
And such survivors were still being continuously rescued and sent to the rescue center.
Hua Mi was used to such scenes; she finished her transaction, received her sales revenue, and looked emotionlessly at the temporary rescue center.
So, 30,000 bottles of mineral water were supposed to be enough? Too naive. Water resources will become more precious as time passes; a bottle of mineral water will be worth its weight in gold.
After seeing off Cao Feng, Hua Mi returned to the truck, counting the string of zeros in the Cashier System, exhilarated.
She immediately upgraded her level 1 factory to a level 2 factory.
[Level 2 Factory: Mineral Water Bottles (capacity of 550ML and 1.5L), Limited Production: Self-suction Filtering Particulate Respirators (child size) x10,000]
She squinted at the level 2 factory, having spent 20,000 in sales revenue to gain the ability to produce 1.5L mineral water bottles; Hua Mi didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
Well, she was optimistic, at least. Instead of only being able to hold small bottles of water, now she could handle large ones.
And she could also produce 10,000 child-sized Self-suction Filtering Particulate Respirators...
Without hesitation, Hua Mi clicked on the screen and started the production of the 10,000 child-sized respirators.
What puzzled her was that the green bar above the factory icon, which had filled up due to the upgrade, started decreasing bit by bit as it produced the respirators.
What exactly was this?
Hua Mi couldn't figure it out; it seemed like something from a video game, like a health bar.
But aren't health bars supposed to be red? The level 2 factory's bar was green.
If it was a health bar, how would she replenish it?
This strange "apocalypse supermarket" didn't come with a manual or something to let her check first?
Hesitating, Hua Mi still drove around a bit before she managed to deliver 100,000 empty 550ML mineral water bottles to the water factory in several trips.
After all that, Hua Mi was exhausted and slumped in the driver's seat.
Now, she should return to her own supermarket; it had been several days since she had left Lotus Shengxing Supermarket.
"If only I could instantly return to my own supermarket at this time, I'm really tired and don't want to keep running around."
No sooner had this thought crossed her mind than Hua Mi felt the scenery whirl around her, and she ended up sitting behind the cashier counter at the Lotus Shengxing Supermarket.
It turned out that this supermarket had an instant return function.
This completely delighted Hua Mi.
From then on, could she go anywhere she wished?
Wasn't it just like Doraemon's Anywhere Door?
Thinking this, Hua Mi wanted to first return instantly to the emergency center to retrieve her truck from the Level 3 storage.
But... sadly, she couldn't go back.
Ah, what was going on?
She needed her big truck.
Hua Mi looked around her small supermarket, which stood lonely amidst the ruins, surrounded by miscellaneous things.
This area had obviously been searched by the rescue team already; there were no survivors left underground, all the survivors had been moved to the temporary emergency center.
But the City Clearance Team hadn't come, and the reconstruction plan wasn't scheduled yet.
So, it seemed this place would just remain abandoned like this.
At that moment, Hua Mi received a phone call,
"Hello, this is Post Boss from Xiang City. Since your nearest courier station was destroyed in the Xiang City earthquake, would you like your package returned, or would you prefer it to be dropped off nearby?"
The strong, respectable couriers—still delivering packages despite all odds.
Hua Mi sighed softly,
"Don't send it back, just drop it off nearby."
"Alright, we will leave it at the courier station closest to you. You can pick it up yourself, or after the disaster passes, we, Post Boss, can deliver it to your door. Post Boss, mission accomplished!"
"Thank you, thank you so much, Post Boss."
After hanging up, Hua Mi immediately went online and checked for the instant noodles she bought on Singles' Day which had been delivered to a courier station outside Xiang City.
From any perspective, she needed a big truck.
Otherwise, delivering water bottles to the water treatment facility and going out of town to pick up packages would both be troublesome.
Hua Mi took a deep breath, rummaged through her luggage, and put on a pair of running shoes, preparing to once again trek through the ruins toward the temporary emergency center.
A man walked over to her.
"Hey, why are you here alone?"
A man with a backpack looked at Hua Mi, sizing her up without any courtesy.
Hua Mi stopped in place, tilted her head, and blinked her fox-like eyes—with a touch of natural befuddlement,
"How many people should be here?"
The man gulped and glanced behind Hua Mi again,
"Isn't there anyone inside? I know the owner, I saw you come out of there, did you take something from inside?"
Undoubtedly, Hua Mi was the kind of girl who was quite charming.
Her looks were slyly foxy—innocence laced with contradictory allure; such a fox-like beauty appearing in such desolation was bound to stir thoughts in anyone.