Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 101

An hour later, Lin Wu, who had come to Yu Xi’s villa for a meeting, roughly sorted out the current situation.
For some reason, the system had automatically detected Yu Xi as his teammate and automatically enabled team mode, with Yu Xi as the leader and him as the team member. If either of them completed their mission, the other would achieve a “free win,” with the mission automatically marked as successful.
However, if neither completed the mission, Yu Xi would not have immunity and would die, whereas Lin Wu would have immunity and could survive.
But here was the main issue: if Yu Xi, the team leader, died, Lin Wu, the team member, would also die—without immunity.
This created a loop where Lin Wu had to ensure Yu Xi’s survival for his own safety. To ensure her survival, they had to avoid failing both their missions. In other words, one of them had to complete their mission.
Upon learning Yu Xi’s mission, Lin Wu quickly identified the shortcut to their team mission: he needed to assist Yu Xi in completing her task, no matter the cost.
Yu Xi’s mission was to survive in this high-difficulty SS-level world for three months. If she could make it through the three months, either of their tasks would count as complete, allowing Lin Wu’s mission to be deemed successful, even if he did nothing.
In other words, from this point on, with about 80 days remaining, his sole goal was to ensure Yu Xi stayed alive.
As long as Yu Xi lived, he wouldn’t die.
As long as Yu Xi lived, he would pass the SS-level mission automatically.
If, by some unfortunate chance, he didn’t make it through the remaining 80 days, he would have to hope that Yu Xi was strong enough to complete the mission on her own, thus carrying him to victory.
While this might sound like a risky deal, Lin Wu, on deeper consideration, felt it wasn’t necessarily a bad one.
Firstly, he didn’t think Yu Xi would fail her mission on her own—although he would do everything possible to protect her as long as he had the strength and was even prepared to take a hit for her if needed. Secondly, his original mission was far more complex and challenging than simply ensuring Yu Xi survived 80 days; he had no clear approach for it.
When he first received this SS-level mission, he never actually expected to complete it, mentally prepared to accept a downgrade.
But now, this team setup had brought a surprising twist and new opportunity.
Lin Wu speculated that the automatic team formation might be due to their previous encounters in two other mission worlds, where their tasks had overlapped. As for Yu Xi becoming the team leader, the reason was simple: she was the stronger player.
Yu Xi smiled politely, though somewhat awkwardly, and asked, “What’s your mission?”
“To find the main cause of the acid rain and assemble a team to develop a neutralizing agent.” Such a mission, especially starting in a wasteland of strong acid rain, left him with no direction.
By contrast, he preferred clear, specific goals. Surviving for three months in a world this challenging wouldn’t be easy, but at least he knew what he had to do.
At this point, his own mission no longer mattered.
“Surviving for three months is my main task. During this time, I might have a few side missions, though they probably won’t be too difficult, just a bit tedious.” Looking back, Yu Xi felt she might have understood her previous random tasks a bit better.
That 80-star coin mission, for instance, was likely to ensure Feng Xu’s survival. Knowing Feng Xu’s character, if she hadn’t kept an eye on him that day, he would likely have run back onto the glass bridge to help others, and his fate would have been uncertain.
Ultimately, however, it wasn’t Feng Xu the system was interested in protecting but rather Feng Xu’s body.
So, was Lin Wu’s appearance part of the Star House system’s plan, or was it unexpected?
Or rather, was Lin Wu even the person the Star House system had calculated for? She remembered that when she recognized Lin Wu, the Star House system had shown a surprising reaction, almost as if its calculations had gone off course.
But if the person it calculated wasn’t Lin Wu, then who would it be?
There was also the mention of “disguise” when the Star House system activated the team mode, which seemed suspiciously like bait meant to trigger the other system’s team formation.
What was the real relationship between the Star House and the System Tower?
Against the backdrop of the Star House, the System Tower seemed especially rigid and clumsy. For such an important team mission, it was easily tricked into activating the mode, directly putting its own host at risk.
Yu Xi couldn’t shake the feeling that her system had essentially assigned her a personal bodyguard in Lin Wu—one who would even take fatal hits for her. Once this thought took root, her gaze at Lin Wu became a bit… peculiar.
“What’s up?” Lin Wu noticed her change in expression.
“Nothing,” Yu Xi replied with a polite smile. “I was just wondering if you’d like to stay for lunch. I still have an entire party’s worth of food I haven’t had the chance to enjoy.”
Lin Wu, expecting to survive on nutrient solutions and convenience foods, found himself facing over a dozen plates filled with stir-fries, sushi, barbecue, desserts, and more. He insisted he had more than enough, but Yu Xi kept bringing out more, enough to feed a small crowd.
In reality, she’d barely touched the selection. For a yacht party catering to hundreds, there were thirty to forty types of prepared dishes alone, including Western and Chinese cuisine, sashimi, barbecue, desserts, and ice cream.
Each dish was stored in a large, rectangular serving tray about ten centimeters deep, wrapped in foil. There were three trays per dish to keep the buffet stocked. Since the trays were huge, her dining table could hold only three at once. So Yu Xi brought out clean plates from the kitchen, plated one serving from each tray, then re-wrapped the trays and stored them back in her Star House.
After doing this six or seven times, Lin Wu began to feel sorry for her. “This is plenty; six or seven dishes are more than enough for two people.”
“It’s fine. This is my first time hosting you here, and since you’re a guy, you probably have a big appetite. Eat up!” Yu Xi said, bringing out a large tray of steamed garlic vermicelli seafood, filled with scallops, abalone, razor clams, and lobster.
The moment she unwrapped the foil, an intense seafood aroma wafted out, making Lin Wu, who was just about to retrieve some grilled fish and salmon rice from his storage, abandon that idea.
His identity in this world was also wealthy—according to his memories, far wealthier than Yu Xi’s. But he had arrived too late to prepare ample supplies.
After the meal, Yu Xi handed him two brand-new moisture-breath face masks, explaining their function and use.
Feng Xu had prepared plenty of protective gear, but his face masks couldn’t withstand acidic gases for long unless they included an oxygen tank and respirator. However, those were cumbersome compared to the lightweight, long-lasting face mask.
Yu Xi also gave him a bottle of restorative foundation, similarly explaining its use.
With these new tools, Lin Wu felt not only as though he was being “carried” in the game but also that he was being fattened up, not so much to work but to brace for whatever was to come.
For now, though, as long as the villa district could hold its ground, they were safe.
That day, black acid rain fell twice—once in the morning for ten minutes, with no warning. But by now, most people stayed inside their shelters unless absolutely necessary, so casualties were minimal.
The second time was in the evening, lasting about five minutes.
Over the following two weeks, black acid rain continued to fall on Fan City every two to three days. Although each downpour was short, the acidity was high, and no normal rain came afterward to dilute it, worsening conditions.
The thick droplets continued to corrode everything around them, releasing toxic gases from the reaction between the black acid rain and metal surfaces.
A thin yellow haze began to linger in the air—a highly concentrated acidic gas. This haze didn’t dissipate, and eventually, even on clear days, Fan City’s air became permanently toxic and corrosive.
This meant that even when it wasn’t raining, people needed full protective gear to go outside, and if they stayed out long, they needed to bring oxygen equipment as well.
At this point, protective gear wasn’t just for acid rain but also to shield the skin from acidic gas erosion. Now carrying the weight of two lives, Yu Xi rarely left the villa. When the air filtration system became overburdened, she even wore her moisture-breath mask indoors.
Fortunately, her physical resilience had been upgraded three times, making her skin stronger. For now, the acidic air inside hadn’t started affecting her skin.
Over these two weeks, more and more refugees had arrived at the villa district. The villas previously vacated by the original owners were now fully occupied. With further arrivals, not only was space running out, but food was also becoming critically low.
The acid rain had spread to every corner of the planet, causing a global disaster that shattered social order. Apart from the survivors in shelters, there were hardly any people left outside.
Lin Wu had moved into Yu Xi’s villa, and the Feng family assumed they were together, deciding to let things be considering the state of the world. Before leaving the Feng family villa, Lin Wu had left a significant amount of long-lasting, convenient food in the basement storage. Thankfully, the nanoceramic alloy was excellent at acid protection, keeping the villa district’s supply system operational. For now, they still had water and electricity.
However, as conditions outside worsened, the load on the supply system increased, leading to water and power restrictions in the villa district, sparking renewed conflicts between the refugees and the villa owners.
Yu Xi’s system issued several random tasks, such as resolving conflicts in the villa district and protecting the supply system. With Lin Wu’s help, she accepted these tasks after assessing the situation and completed them successfully.
At the end of the first month, her star coin balance, after earnings and expenses, stood at 612.
Late that night, Yu Xi was startled awake by the sound of an explosion. She jumped up from bed, opened the alloy panel, and listened closely.
The explosions were distant, likely coming from the villa district’s main gate on the hillside. The gate had been patched with leftover nanoceramic alloy—unsightly but resistant to acid rain—serving as the first line of defense for the district.
Lin Wu, who had also woken, knocked on her door and came in. “It seems someone’s trying to break in.”
Yu Xi nodded, hearing not only explosions but also gunfire and vehicle noises. In the dead of night, the intruders’ guns and cars signaled hostile intent.
She put on her water-breathing mask and tossed a bottle of high-temperature perfume to Lin Wu. “Put on your protective gear. Let’s go check it out.”