Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 105

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SPECIAL THANKS TO JESSIE FOR KOFI
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Mass update dedicated to them
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The relentless heatwave was accompanied by occasional bouts of black acid rain. Even when it wasn’t raining, the air was perpetually filled with a yellow acidic haze.
The supply system in the villa district was gradually reaching its limits. The first issue arose with the water supply. No one could determine whether a certain section of the pipeline was damaged or if the purification machines in the utility room had malfunctioned.
Under the current circumstances, residents could barely manage routine maintenance of the equipment. However, if something major went wrong, no one had the expertise to fix it.
The first person to discover the water had turned acidic was a homeowner in the villa district. Two families shared the same villa due to restrictions on water and electricity usage, and they often monitored each other’s consumption.
The oppressive heat made going without a shower for days unbearable. Most residents had once been affluent, and the drastic decline in living standards left some teetering on the edge of emotional breakdowns.
Early one morning, before dawn, a man snuck into the bathroom, hoping to quickly and discreetly take a shower. However, within minutes of turning on the water, he let out a bloodcurdling scream and stumbled out of the bathroom.
His exposed skin rapidly turned red, and the intense pain caused him to writhe and scream on the floor. But with the taps also compromised, there was no clean water available to wash away the acidic liquid on his body.
His housemates could only use dry cloths to absorb the acid from his skin, but the damage was done—his burned skin had already turned red and black. Someone tested the water quality: a pH value of 1.2, equivalent to that of regular sulfuric acid.
A sulfuric acid shower—it was no wonder the man had screamed so desperately.
Upon hearing the news, Yu Xi immediately tested the water in her own villa. The pH had dropped to 3.0—not yet corrosive to the skin, but it was close.
The news of the acidic water spread quickly. Alarmed, homeowners and refugees in the villa district scrambled to check their water sources. The results varied, but almost everyone faced some level of contamination.
The utility room contained multiple purification machines, and the water pipelines were extensive and interconnected. No one could pinpoint the root cause of the problem. After much discussion, they decided to add large amounts of alkali to the purification machines to neutralize the acidity. Although the neutralized water would no longer be drinkable, it could still be used for daily needs.
After adding substantial quantities of alkali, the pH levels of some water sources in the district rose to around 5.2-5.5, making them safe for regular use. However, a few unlucky villas saw no improvement in their water quality and had to rely on neighboring villas for daily water needs.
While the issue of daily water use was somewhat resolved, the drinking water crisis remained.
During a community meeting, Yu Xi discreetly placed a case of metal ice in the backup supply room of the utility system building. This room also contained the last batch of undistributed long-lasting food and a small amount of drinking water, which had been reserved as wartime supplies for the villa district, to be distributed only as a last resort.
Yu Xi entrusted Lin Wu with handling the metal ice. The case contained 100 bottles, with two bottles allocated to each of the 50 villas. One bottle of metal ice could release 500 units of directly drinkable purified water. If used sparingly, it could last a considerable amount of time.
After distributing the metal ice, Lin Wu returned to Yu Xi’s villa with the two bottles allocated to him, intending to have her store them. Metal ice was incredibly useful in mission worlds, and saving even one bottle could make a difference.
However, not only did Yu Xi refuse to keep the two bottles, but she also gave him an additional 30 bottles.
“Take these with you,” she said. “They don’t take up much space, and in case you end up in a high-temperature or drought-based apocalypse, they could save your life.”
Yu Xi had stockpiled 50 cases of metal ice. Her original world had a reliable water source in the Star House bathroom, so she didn’t need them there.
Whenever she entered apocalyptic mission worlds, she would still stock up on water if conditions allowed. These reserves were meant for missions in extremely harsh environments, so giving away one or two cases didn’t make much of a difference to her.
Lin Wu, of course, couldn’t have known about her massive stockpile. To him, the 32 bottles of metal ice she had given him were already a significant and reassuring addition to his future survival in apocalyptic missions.
Not wanting to take advantage of Yu Xi, Lin Wu took out a box of nutrient solutions he had stockpiled in a previous world. Each box contained 100 units, and a single unit could sustain a human’s nutritional needs for three days.
Yu Xi, understanding his intent, accepted it with a smile.
The world capable of producing such nutrient solutions intrigued her. That day, Lin Wu briefly explained the apocalyptic world where the nutrient solutions originated. As she suspected, it was an interstellar world with a Zerg invasion as the apocalyptic scenario. Unlike parasitic worlds, these Zerg were advanced, intelligent beings with their own technology. It was also classified as an S-tier world, equivalent to a mid-level difficulty in her system.
Yu Xi didn’t mind letting Lin Wu know she had never visited an interstellar world. According to Lin Wu, the System Tower cataloged hundreds of known apocalyptic world types. Not having been to an interstellar world wasn’t unusual.
…
The temporary peace in the villa district lasted less than three days before the air filtration system began to fail. The omnipresent acidic haze was corroding the internal components of the system. While the exteriors of buildings and machines were protected by nano-ceramic alloys, the interiors of the filtration systems were gradually being eroded.
As the filtration function faltered, the acidity levels of indoor air began to drop dangerously low. Everyone was on edge, turning their filtration settings to maximum.
Meanwhile, daytime temperatures soared to 45–50°C, causing air conditioners to run at full capacity daily. Eventually, the power system couldn’t handle the strain and completely collapsed.
That night, Yu Xi woke up drenched in sweat. Realizing the air conditioning had stopped, she tried to turn on the lights but found there was no power.
Her heart sank as her first thought went to the air filtration system. If it stopped functioning, the acidic gases would soon invade indoors. She assessed the air quality and felt no discomfort. Using a flashlight, she located her measuring equipment to check the indoor air’s acidity. The levels had indeed risen, but her unique constitution made it tolerable, though it could irritate an ordinary person’s throat.
Since she felt fine, she decided against using her face mask for now. After all, each mask cost eight star coins and lasted only 24 hours. Though she occasionally earned star coins from random tasks, she preferred to save wherever possible.
When Yu Xi opened her door, Lin Wu stepped out from the neighboring room as well. Power outages posed significant issues, especially for ordinary people.
Normal humans were fragile: intolerant to heat and vulnerable to acid.
The rest of the villa district quickly woke in the oppressive heat. Lin Wu gathered those who had accompanied him to retrieve medicine from the laboratory earlier, and they decided that part of the group would head to the supply system building to attempt repairs and restore power. The remaining group instructed everyone else to wear protective suits and await further instructions.
In the stifling heat, everyone donned heavy protective suits and masks, their discomfort palpable.
Fortunately, a few residents with basic knowledge of electricity managed to restore power after some makeshift repairs. However, the group issued a strict warning: electricity use was now restricted to the air filtration system only. Air conditioning, in particular, was prohibited due to the excessive load it placed on the system.
After all, heat could be endured. If the filtration system completely failed, the indoors would no longer be safe.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu and his group began discussing their next steps.
It was clear to everyone: the villa district was no longer viable. Water, food, and power were critically insufficient. The remaining supplies were reserved as a last-ditch effort for survival. Once they were gone, there would be no fallback—nothing left but to waste away.
The oppressive heat and growing despair weighed on everyone. Tensions flared again between the original villa owners and the refugee newcomers.
The owners argued that the final batch of life-saving food was reserved for the villa district’s original residents who had purchased their homes. Refugees had already taken over their accommodations and received supplies multiple times, and the owners believed they had shown enough generosity.
In desperate times, even a single can of food or a pack of military rations could mean the difference between life and death. The refugees, unwilling to concede, began arguing vehemently.
The shouting escalated, but Lin Wu didn’t intervene. He simply sat back and watched.
The stifling heat left everyone parched, and it wasn’t long before the argument fizzled out. Some were ready to fight, but with Lin Wu sitting there like an immovable Buddha, no one dared to make a move.
For Lin Wu, the distribution of resources wasn’t the real issue—the critical question was where these people would evacuate to.
Yu Xi had already discussed this with Lin Wu earlier. The situation was deteriorating too quickly, and she had started planning ahead.
The villa district was overcrowded. They had already assessed the state of the shelters during previous supply deliveries—most were near capacity. It was impossible for the official shelters to take in all the villa district residents at once. They needed to distribute the people among different shelters.
As for Yu Xi and Lin Wu themselves, they had already decided: once they could no longer hold out in the villa district, they would first head to the laboratory to assess the situation.
Though some of the sealed doors at the lab had been breached, leaving chaos inside, they might be able to clean it up and make it livable. If that didn’t work, they weren’t worried. With their ample food and water supplies, they could drive their armored vehicle to a distant city in search of a suitable refuge.
Of course, they couldn’t handle clearing the lab alone, so they needed temporary partners. These individuals had to be physically strong and possess good character.
When Lin Wu proposed the lab refuge plan, he presented it as a worst-case scenario:
The lab was currently filled with corpses.
Unlike the stable official shelters, this was an unknown and risky venture.
If the lab proved uninhabitable, they would need to hit the road to find the next shelter.
They lacked essential supplies like fuel, food, water, and protective gear.
They might encounter anti-social groups, like Cheng Yuan’s band of raiders, along the way.
After laying out these challenges, about ten people still volunteered for the mission—exactly the group Yu Xi and Lin Wu had previously identified as candidates.
Next, they allocated the remaining villa district residents to official shelters and planned their evacuation.
With only two armored vehicles, there wasn’t enough room for everyone. The elderly, weak, sick, and injured would take the vehicles, while the others, equipped with protective gear, would form five groups to walk to five different shelters. Each team had two strong, reliable, and sharp leaders, who, coincidentally, were also part of the group heading to the lab with Yu Xi and Lin Wu.
Yu Xi and Lin Wu each drove an armored vehicle, ferrying the vulnerable to the shelters.
The city of Fancheng had become a wasteland—a dead city. The ground was littered with the remains of buildings, devoid of life, with no trace of animals or humans.
At the second shelter, Yu Xi unexpectedly encountered Bai Yu, someone she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Yu Xi was surprised. After being driven out of the villa district, she hadn’t seen Bai Yu again and didn’t even know when she had arrived at the shelter.
Bai Yu was dressed in the standard-issue clothing distributed at the shelter, holding a lunchbox containing a steamed bun, a piece of canned meat, a spoonful of fruit preserves, and half a bottle of water.
Yu Xi thought Bai Yu would turn and leave, as she had last time, but instead, she walked straight up to her.
Standing before Yu Xi, Bai Yu, slightly shorter, tilted her head up to study Yu Xi’s face carefully. Finally, she spoke:
“Where is Yu Xi? Where did she go?”
Yu Xi frowned slightly, her hackles rising. She thought she had misheard.
But Bai Yu quickly spoke again:
“Don’t lie to me. I know you’re not Yu Xi. Not just you—Feng Xu isn’t Feng Xu either. Who are you?”
Yu Xi realized then that Bai Yu wasn’t testing her—she was certain.
Yu Xi didn’t know when or how Bai Yu had come to this conclusion, but it was most likely during the battle against the invaders.
“I am Yu Xi,” Yu Xi replied. “I am also Yu Xi.”
“Reincarnation? Or a parallel universe?” Bai Yu shook her head, realizing she wouldn’t get a straight answer. “Forget it. It’s better this way. She was so arrogant and domineering—how could she ever endure a life like this?”
But if Bai Yu had known the world would turn out like this, she wouldn’t have wasted her time trying to steal someone else’s lover. She should have been braver, should have confessed her feelings earlier. Even if it had led to ridicule, rejection, or being driven away, at least she wouldn’t have regretted it.
In the end, it was her own lack of courage—wanting to possess while fearing loss.
After speaking, Bai Yu gave a pale, self-mocking smile and turned away.
Watching her retreating figure, Yu Xi finally understood why Bai Yu had grown cold toward them and hadn’t sought their help earlier.
She had already known back then.
A day later, all the escort missions were completed. Yu Xi and Lin Wu drove one armored vehicle, while the other ten people squeezed into the second one. In a convoy, they headed for the industrial zone.
Awaiting them was an even greater challenge.