Volume One, Chapter 27: How Much Food Can the Fruit Buy?

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Using his [Destiny] ability, Lin Feng successfully located Nana’s room. She lay on the bed, life force extremely weak—she must have been starving for days. The room was decorated in a riot of colors, adorned with many strange outfits such as sailor uniforms, nurse costumes, and clown suits. Lin Feng suspected that Nana, whose true appearance few had seen, was a cosplayer. You know, I love saving beautiful women who know how to dress up!

Leaving home, Lin Feng began scavenging for supplies. After upgrading his [Dominion] skill to level two, he was now able to pry open security doors. Many apartments in Building A’s upper floors were vacant, their occupants unable to return for the time being. Fortunately, the refrigerators were still running—there was no power outage. He might find food inside, as well as medicine and other tools.

Standing before his neighbor’s door, Lin Feng clenched his right fist, took a deep breath, and then delivered a fierce blow. Bang! The door shattered with a loud crash.

“Good quality, it even numbed my hand,” Lin Feng muttered, shaking his right hand as he stepped inside. His effort was not in vain; he found a medical kit in the bedroom and unopened steaks and duck meat in the fridge.

“Not bad. If you guys come back later, it’ll probably be spoiled. I’ll hold onto it for you now.” Wherever Lin Feng went, nothing escaped his grasp. Furniture, appliances, tools, bedding, and coats—all were stored away in his super storage. Many items seemed useless now but could prove valuable in the future. These industrial products would be difficult to reproduce. Whether humanity could rebuild civilization was still uncertain. With the super storage’s infinite space, he took everything he could carry.

What Lin Feng really wanted was to scavenge the Wanda Mall across the neighborhood. It housed a large supermarket and cold storage, stocked with abundant supplies. But his strength did not yet allow it. He wasn’t confident enough to face hordes of mutated creatures. He had seen, in a live broadcast, a massive army of hundreds of insects. Such a scene could have been mistaken for a movie set. It was unclear whether the mutated flora and fauna were poisonous; best not to get injured.

Moreover, many residents still remained in the building. If Lin Feng ventured too far, the women at home might face danger. Zhang Xueqi and Li Bing were tools for unlocking new supplies. It was unknown whether their deaths would affect the growth of resources. Besides, they were excellent at extinguishing fires. They were his property, and he could dispose of them as he wished—but no one else could!

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Lin Feng pried open two more security doors in succession, finding many supplies. But when he opened the third apartment door, he was stunned. The living room was filled with boxes, all labeled as medicines. “Lianhua Qingwen, ibuprofen, 999 cold granules, loquat syrup… Could this be the home of a smuggler?”

He entered the nearest bedroom, finding no bed at all. Instead, it was filled with bottles and jars, resembling a laboratory. He immediately dismissed his earlier smuggler theory; this was more like a human experimentation lab! Fortunately, there were no formalin-preserved corpses in the bottles.

Turning to another bedroom, the scene was more normal. The room was simply furnished, with the only decoration a photo on the bedside table. It showed a beautiful woman in a doctor’s uniform; though her smile was sweet, her gaze was calm and indifferent.

“She’s quite pretty, maybe she meets the system’s standards. Too bad she’s not home.” Since the owner was absent, Lin Feng decided to keep these things safe for now.

On the 29th floor of Building A, Liu Nana curled up on the bed, her body weak. Her face was pale, and her lips dry. “So hungry…” Even her voice was listless. Liu Nana was a cosplayer, but she took on relatively conservative work. She despised the lecherous looks from otaku men. She’d rather have zombies devour her than be fantasized about by men.

Unfortunately, her figure was too good; even without special costumes, she attracted male attention wherever she went. So she usually wrapped up tightly when outside. Prolonged stares from men made her feel nauseous and disgusted. This was why she earned little money.

But she was just a student; a part-time income of two thousand yuan a month was already quite good. Then the White Mist disaster struck, utterly destroying her life. Her stomach ached continuously—she hadn’t eaten anything but water for four days. She usually watched her figure, so there were no snacks at home. Plus, she couldn’t cook and relied on takeout for meals. The fridge was just for show.

She couldn’t go on like this… starving any longer would kill her. In her mind, she recalled photos from the Shengshi Jiangnan neighborhood group chat—pictures of delicious roast chicken and a well-fed man who looked like a lecher. But that guy was a man!

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Liu Nana couldn’t accept trading her young body to a stranger in exchange for food. Yet she was even more unwilling to die unnoticed in this corner. She took out her phone and opened WeChat. The neighborhood group was discussing the trading market. Only she had nothing to trade for food—no medicine, cigarettes, or liquor.

Scrolling through the chat history, she saw pictures posted by the well-fed man, and a message about purchasing mutated plant fruits. She was stunned and looked toward the balcony. There stood a pot of golden pothos, growing lushly. The small leaves had grown to the size of a palm. But what caught Liu Nana’s attention most was a single red fruit nestled among the leaves. It looked like a ripe plum, its skin smooth.

“Why would the well-fed guy want to buy something like this?” she wondered. The fruit had been growing for days. She had thought about eating it, but mutated plants were terrifying. This fruit might be poisonous; what if eating it turned her into a zombie? But since the well-fed guy wanted it, it must have some special value!

Liu Nana forced herself to stand and walked to the balcony to pick the red fruit. It gave off an enticing fragrance. She licked her lips but still did not eat it. This was the apocalypse—rumors flew everywhere, and people’s hearts were unpredictable. Maybe the well-fed guy was trying to trick someone into eating this fruit?

She took out her phone and photographed the fruit for a reverse image search. Unfortunately, she found nothing. This only made her more reluctant to eat it casually. If she weren’t on the verge of fainting from hunger, she would have studied it carefully. But now she was too weak and dizzy.

Either she ate the fruit or traded it for delicious food! She recalled the photo of the table laden with steaming, mouthwatering dishes—especially the golden roast chicken that made her mouth water. She hoped this fruit could be exchanged for some food. A chicken drumstick? A chicken wing? Either would be better than eating an unknown mutated fruit.