CH 3

Chapter 3: Super cool process of hoarding supplies

The bowl on the table suddenly disappeared before everyone’s eyes. Shen Mingxuan’s face was stiff, Cheng Rui and Xiao Yang were surprised, Liang Zhiyu and Fu Chen kept their expressions indifferent, and Bai Tiantian bit her lips, her emotions hard to describe.

Announcing her space ability at this time was throwing a bargaining chip at the Thunder Squad, so they could redefine her value. Even if they hated her deeply, at least for the moment, she had instantly become much more useful to them.

Fu Chen asked in a deep voice: “When did you get your power?”

He had been reborn right after Bai Qingqing had drugged him. In his past life, Bai Qingqing had not had any memory loss nor had she awakened any ability. Could it be that his rebirth had a butterfly effect and was the reason Bai Qingqing had gotten her power?

Bai Qingqing looked at him eagerly: “At the villa, but I don’t know how. Brother, I have a power now, I promise I won’t hold you back. Don’t leave me behind, okay?”

The other people were silent, all looking at Fu Chen. Whether Bai Qingqing could stay or not all depended on him.

Fu Chen wasn’t planning to abandon Bai Qingqing immediately, even if she was faking her amnesia. She would be of use for a period of time and now that she had a portable space, leaving her behind was even more unlikely.

Fu Chen got up and told her: “Follow me.”

Bai Qingqing went after him to the second floor, only to find out that this level of the RV was divided into three small spaces with beds.

“Brother, what’s wrong?” Bai Qingqing clung to this poor and amnesiac sister character and looked at him with trusting and dependent eyes.

Fu Chen’s temperament was hard to grasp, both cold and cruel, and among all the male protagonists, he was the most difficult to deal with. Even Bai Tiantian had failed to win over him in the late stage of the original novel.

“Come here.” Fu Chen said.

Bai Qingqing ran to him like a small animal, a bright smile on her face. Fu Chen stared at her innocent eyes and asked: “How big is your space? Can you put living beings in it? Can people go in?”

Bai Qingqing answered honestly: “I can go in but I don’t know if others can.”

“You have seen many zombies outside, you know there are dangers everywhere. Humans are having a hard time surviving and everyone in the team must do its part and get food.”

Bai Qingqing lowered her eyes and said in a small voice: “Brother, I have a space so I can collect supplies for you.” She pulled at the corner of the man’s clothes and added: “I will be very obedient…”

Fu Chen patted her head, just like a brother.

“Then you have to listen to me in the future and use your ability when I tell you to.”

Bai Qingqing nodded and hesitated for half a second before asking: “Brother… Have I done something wrong before? Is that why the team hates me?”

Fu Chen’s dark eyes were particularly cold; Bai Qingqing had indeed tried to seduce the men in his team before and aroused their disgust, but she had not harmed anyone just yet. Unlike Bai Tiantian who caused trouble everywhere she went with her Virgin Mary aura, Bai Qingqing was at most, just low on emotional intelligence.

“It’s in the past now.” He answered faintly, “You shouldn’t provoke them but your brother will protect you.”

Bai Qingqing followed him back downstairs, playing the part of the sister who relied on her brother, and attracted everyone’s surprised gazes. The most baffling wasn’t Bai Qingqing’s behavior but Fu Chen agreeing to this fake sister, treating her as if they really were siblings, and letting her approach him.

Fu Chen sat down and said: “Bai Qingqing does have a portable space and she is a member of our team. Please pay attention to her in the future and stop targeting her.”

Everybody looked at Bai Qingqing, re-examining her in their head and defining her new value. Only Shen Mingxuan watched her with the usual hatred, thinking she was playing tricks to get Fu Chen to protect her.

***

After eating, nobody rested and they started the car again.

The car was driving on the highway and the day was passing by, the orange light of the setting sun on the distant fields painting the world in blood.

Shen Mingxuan was not happy to stay in the same space as Bai Qingqing and went to the roof of the car to scout and clean the zombies on the way. Xiao Yang and Cheng Rui went to rest and Liang Zhiyu and Fu Chen had taken their shifts driving and piloting. Bai Tiantian went to the little kitchen to cook and Bai Qingqing was left alone in the common room 1 .

Every day was hard in this new world. When people weren’t fighting zombies, they were either collecting supplies or fleeing for their lives. Earlier at the villa, to avoid making Fu Chen impatient, Bai Qingqing had not really studied her space. She closed her eyes and entered it. She knew Bai Tiantian’s power could not store living things but could refrigerate food to keep it fresh. She was really curious about what kind of surprises her space would give her.

[Host, welcome to the system space.]

Bai Qingqing stood in the middle and looked at the emptiness around her before asking: “Am I entering the space with my mind or my body?”

[Host, currently only your mind can enter it and the maximum stay is one hour.]

Bai Qingqing, with the fantasy knowledge from her previous life, tried to improve the environment of her space; she imagined a blue sky, lush green grass, and a clear spring. All of this was an illusion, what she really needed was to eat crystal cores to upgrade. She had to quickly collect materials so she could turn her space into the ideal home.

Bai Qingqing slowly opened her eyes and heard Fu Chen’s voice in her ears: “Wake up.”

She sat upright and looked through the window of the RV only to find out they had parked near a deserted gas station.

Gas stations had been abandoned ever since the end had come. Seeing it was almost nighttime and there were only a few zombies around, the Thunder Squad had decided to rest outside the city for a night before entering the urban area tomorrow.

Fu Chen got up and told Bai Qingqing: “Go down for dinner and put the materials outside into your space.”

“Okay, Brother.” She followed him out of the car. Once off, she looked around; the sky was about to go dark, dyed in gorgeous shades of crimson and dark blue. There were several barrels near the abandoned gas station and Xiao Yang and Cheng Rui were storing gasoline.

Shen Mingxuan was on guard duty while Liang Zhiyu and Bai Tiantian were walking towards the small market to collect food. Bai Qingqing also wanted to grab supplies but there were a bunch of stinky fuel barrels waiting to be put in her space. Realizing what she was thinking, Fu Chen said: “Put those away first, then go to the market to get whatever you want.”

Bai Qingqing smiled at him and quickly did what he said before heading to the store. Seeing her coming, Liang Zhiyu and Bai Tiantian nodded to her and went back to their own jobs.

The shelves in the store were a mess, most likely because of people who had rushed there when the outbreak had started. Bai Qingqing first walked to the food section, grabbing instant noodles, ham, bread, and small pastries. Bai Tiantian had already gone first and there wasn’t much left.

After getting some food, Bai Qingqing went to grab women’s essentials. When she reached the shelf with the sanitary products, no matter the brand, whether it was aunt’s towels or paper towels, she put all of it away in her space. Those were rare and important, and she would have to collect more in the future, but fortunately, it looked like this section had been forgotten by raiders as there were many left.

The small supermarket’s fridge had long been out of power and the frozen yogurt had expired. She headed to the snack areas and picked spicy strips, dried fish, tofu, and beef jerky before throwing all of it in her space. Soon enough, the small store was swept away by the three people and there was almost nothing left.

Back in the car, Bai Tiantian went to cook. She took out tomatoes and green vegetables from her own space and began to chop them for a soup.

Bai Qingqing went to sit down on the sofa, lost in thoughts. After the outbreak, both vegetables and meat were extremely scarce; only people in large bases with farms could eat them or people with abilities like Bai Tiantian. Fortunately, people with powers had strong physics and relied on absorbing crystal cores to survive; unlike them, if ordinary people weren’t bitten by zombies, they were still likely to starve to death. Those dry noodles, ham, biscuits, and bread, in the last days, many people were not even able to get some and various teams had to collect food and supplies outside the bases.

The members of the Thunder Squad were not of low status; Fu Chen was the son of a high-ranked official of the Beijing base and Xiao Yang’s family were military leaders. Later, those two were said to call the wind and summon the rain 2 in the Beijing base ; Cheng Rui would become the first to reach level 9 with his power and would be promoted to the head of the Yaoyang base; Shen Mingxuan and Liang Zhiyu would become Xueyuan base’s overlord and good-for-nothing adviser.

According to the original novel, the group had to head to the Yaoyang base first, one of the five major ones, rush through the Zhongzhou base to finally reach the Beijing base. The task given by the system was to seduce the five male protagonists 3 , Bai Qingqing had to figure who to target first. The most difficult to deal with were Liang Zhiyu and Shen Mingxuan, who loathed her the most. Her first victims should probably be Xiao Yang, the youngest, and the taciturn Cheng Rui. As for Fu Chen, he was not on her list for the time being. After all, she was playing the role of the dependent sister right now, how could she have weird thoughts about her brother.

As Bai Qingqing was thinking about who to choose as her first target, Shen Mingxuan’s annoying voice was heard.

“Someone may have lost her memories, but she is still happy to partake but not prepared to do any work 4 .”

She looked at the man, who had returned to the RV at some point. He had probably grown up witnessing a twisted love story, which had made him full of prejudice against women and made his mouth particularly poisonous.

Shen Mingxuan stared at her and raised his eyebrows: “What? Did I say something wrong?”

Bai Qingqing smiled: “No, it’s not that I don’t want to cook it’s just that…” She showed an embarrassed expression and added: “If you guys don’t mind, I can try.”

“That’s so nice of you.” Shen Mingxuan sneered.

Bai Tiantian walked over with the soup: “Qingqing has never cooked before, she doesn’t know how. Mingxuan, it’s not arduous, don’t embarrass her.”

“Can’t she learn?” The man looked indifferent.

The men, who were already gathered at the table, did not make any sound. While Bai Qingqing and Bai Tiantian had portable spaces, they were still squeamish. They were all desperately fighting zombies and grabbing supplies, they of course expected the two women could do the housework.

Bai Qingqing turned a deaf ear to Shen Mingxuan’s ridicule. If she wanted to seduce those dog men, it was impossible for her to do the cleaning and the cooking; she did not believe doing all the housework would be the way to their hearts.

The soup Bai Tiantian had cooked was quite insipid and Bai Qingqing looked at Xiao Yang, who was gorging himself, before pushing her bowl to him.

“You can have mine.”

Xiao Yang looked at the bowl in front of him and stared at her in surprise. In the past, Bai Qingqing had mostly been trying to flirt with Fu Chen, Shen Mingxuan, and Cheng Rui. She had looked down on Xiao Yang and had never been pleasant to him. The others raised their eyebrows, apparently taking Bai Qingqing’s behavior as a new sort of tantrum. Fu Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly and he pursued his lips, a little unhappy.

Bai Qingqing showed an innocent smile and said: “I don’t like tomatoes very much and I have a small appetite. I am not very hungry but you are still growing, you should eat more.” She pushed the bowl to Xiao Yang a little bit further.

Xiao Yang looked at Bai Qingqing’s clear gaze and his face flushed a little, both nervous and embarrassed by the whole team watching them.

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat more?” Xiao Yang asked with some hesitation.

Bai Qingqing nodded: “Yes, 100% sure. Eat quickly.”

Food at the end of days could not be wasted; every time someone cooked, it would never be too much. Occasionally, Xiao Yang would not eat fully but would get some snacks afterward. Seeing Bai Qingqing’s sincere expression, he picked up the bowl and started to eat. And while the atmosphere at the table had become weird, he didn’t feel it at all.

***

After dinner, Fu Chen and Xiao Yang went out on duty, Liang Zhiyu and Bai Tiantian went to clean up the kitchen and Shen Mingxuan and Cheng Rui went to rest, as they would take the next shift.

Bai Qingqing was obviously hungry as she had not eaten dinner. She did not go upstairs to rest; Shen Mingxuan was there and she wanted to avoid him as much as possible for now.

The moon was high in the sky, illuminating the scenery in a silver glow. A cool breeze was blowing and the air of the wilderness was clearer and lighter than the rotten smell of the city. Bai Qingqing took a bag of biscuits from her space and ate it in small bites as she stood at the rear of the car. Halfway through her snack. She took out a grape-flavored drink and drank it happily.

“Is it delicious?”

When Bai Qingqing heard the question, her actions paused and looked around to see where it came from.

“We are on the roof of the car.” A smile could be heard in Xiao Yang’s voice.

Bai Qingqing stepped forward and turned around. Her mouth was full of crumbs and she looked at the two people on the roof in a daze, clearly embarrassed.

Fu Chen raised his eyebrows and said: “Looks like we caught a little mouse.”

Xiao Yang finally gave a real smile. “Sister Qingqing, didn’t you say you weren’t hungry?”

Bai Qingqing wiped her mouth, her attitude exactly like a kid who had just been caught by her big brother.

“Brother, I was really not hungry earlier but now I am.”

Seeing the trace of fear in her eyes, Fu Chen told her: “No one is blaming you.”

Bai Qingqing breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the two of them once more.

“Can I come up?” she asked.

When Bai Qingqing had first joined the Thunder Squad, she had been very pretentious. But now that she had lost her memories, her domineering behavior had disappeared, her eyes were bright and as clear as water, her smile was irresistible and her whole person made people somehow happier. Xiao Yang could not help but keep staring at her and Fu Chen felt a little compassionate towards this poor amnesiac sister.

“Come on up.”