Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 30

At this moment, Yu Xi was completely unaware of what had previously transpired here or at the nearby intersections. She wiped the liquid off her Tang knife on the clothes of the zombies and cautiously entered the vegetable and fruit shop. Inside, it was clear that the vegetables and fruits had been grabbed in a chaotic rush. What remained was scattered all over the floor, and those left on the shelves were mostly wilted or rotten.
From a small side door, there were hoarse noises and banging sounds, indicating something was inside. Yu Xi turned the doorknob, finding it locked from the inside. She adjusted her stance and kicked the door open. A female zombie was knocked back by the door but quickly lunged at her. Without dodging, Yu Xi planted her foot on the zombie’s chest and thrust the Tang knife into its eye socket.
Inside the small door was a cold storage room. Along one wall were large stacks of foam boxes filled with transparent bags of vegetables. On the opposite wall were numerous crates of fruits. There were apples, pears, oranges, tangerines, bananas, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and grapes—about thirty or forty crates in total. Since the power hadn’t been cut, the cold storage was still running, keeping everything fresh.
Yu Xi went out to disable the store’s surveillance cameras before storing twenty crates of assorted fruits into her Star House storage. The vegetables had some crates contaminated with black-red blood stains, likely from the female zombie she just killed. It seemed the store owner was bitten during the chaos, retreated into the storage, locked the door, but couldn’t escape the fate of turning into a zombie.
There was a variety of vegetables: cabbage, spinach, lettuce, leeks, potatoes, onions, carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, corn, bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, green onions, ginger, garlic, and tofu products. After removing the contaminated ones, there were still over thirty clean crates. She checked the remaining space in her Star House storage and decided to store twenty crates of vegetables, taking up the space initially reserved for the car.
She also found several boxes of eggs in the corner, each containing a hundred eggs, around eight or nine boxes in total. She stored four of these boxes in her Star House storage.
Next to the vegetable and fruit shop was a store selling beef and lamb, with a similar situation inside. The back had a cold storage room with thick doors. Yu Xi disabled the surveillance and used the [High Temperature Perfume] to melt the lock. Inside were racks filled with various frozen beef and lamb cuts. She stored half of them in her Star House storage and also took the unlocked cold storage door.
Yu Xi didn’t like to clean out everything. She, her father, and her mother couldn’t possibly eat beef and lamb every day. The stored amount was already enough for one or two years. She left the rest in the cold storage for anyone who came later.
As she was about to leave, she noticed a shop across the street selling snail noodles. She couldn’t resist and went in. When she came out, her Star House storage was stocked with ten boxes of snail noodles (20 packs per box) and ten boxes of various self-heating hot pots.
Then, she found herself veering into a nearby sports apparel store. The zombie apocalypse wasn’t just about survival; it was also hard on clothes. Water was precious, and changing clothes daily was easier than washing them daily. She already had plenty of clothes in her Star House storage, but she wanted to stock up more for her parents.
After leaving the sports store, her gaze fell upon a jewelry store.
【……】
Yu Xi: You should know what I’m thinking, right?
【Yes, gold is not considered currency in the apocalypse world but is a rare metal. It falls under the category of items and can be brought back to the host’s world when stored in the Star House.】
Yu Xi: Can I sell this gold in my world without any issues?
【Host, does the rice from the apocalypse world taste different from the rice in your world?】
Yu Xi: Hmph, you sure know a lot.
【……】
Yu Xi sensed some things but knew the Star House system could read her thoughts now, so she stopped pondering further and turned directly into the jewelry store.
This trip outside lasted only three to four hours, but Yu Xi returned fully loaded. Chen Ya was surprised that she had changed cars and acquired a Tang knife. However, knowing that she had the capability to go out alone, he didn’t ask too many questions. Then, he shared some news with her.
Shortly after she left the community at noon, Gao Yun, Wu Di, Brother Long, and some other young men from the community also went out. Their goal was to find a large vehicle, like a bus or a coach, that could carry many people. The water outage seemed to signal a worsening situation, and with food supplies running low, they decided to prepare for an eventual evacuation.
Of course, they were not planning to leave immediately. After finding a suitable vehicle, they still needed to reinforce it, gather fuel, and discuss their destination after leaving. Many households in the community didn’t have a car, so one bus wouldn’t be enough. Gao Yun had already announced that only those who went out to find the vehicle would be eligible to bring their families on board during the evacuation. Otherwise, they would have to solve their transportation issues on their own, either by carpooling with those who had cars or by finding car keys from houses where the owners had turned into zombies.
Chen Ya’s family had a car, a Volkswagen sedan, which was almost new since he rarely drove it, given his close work proximity and his wife being a housewife. Because he had a car and had promised Yu Xi to wait for her return, he didn’t join the outing. Now, he told her about it to ask about her plans. He knew she was preparing for an evacuation, understood that Gao Yun had been a bit overbearing earlier, but believed traveling alone wasn’t as safe as moving with a larger group. Having more people meant more eyes to keep watch and the ability to take turns on night shifts.
“I’ll go my way, and they can do what they want,” Yu Xi said, not explaining further. She had left early to avoid the people in the community, so she definitely wasn’t planning to travel with them. But she asked Chen Ya, “What about your family?”
Chen Ya understood she was asking whether he planned to go with Gao Yun’s group or her. Although he had a car, he also had a wife and a five-year-old child. Despite not agreeing with all of Gao Yun’s decisions, traveling with the larger group did seem safer.
Yu Xi wasn’t necessarily trying to persuade him to go with her. Despite her improved physical abilities and having a weapon like the [Air Hair Dryer], she couldn’t possibly take care of everyone while also looking after her parents. Overcommitting without the necessary capabilities would be irresponsible.
Regardless of his choice, she would treat him as a teammate and look out for him as much as possible while prioritizing her parents. If he chose to stay with Gao Yun’s group, she wouldn’t try to stop him.
“Just be careful, whatever you decide.”
That evening, some of the people who had gone out returned. They had left by car, splitting into two groups. Gao Yun, Bian An, the young security guard, and most of the young men went south from the main road in front of the community to a bus company. Since it wasn’t a passenger boarding area, they guessed there wouldn’t be many zombies inside, hoping to take a chance.
Brother Long, Wu Di, and a few other young men took three cars to nearby areas to find food and water, focusing mainly on water. The water outage seemed to signal to those who had been hiding at home since the apocalypse began that hiding wasn’t a viable long-term solution. Without water and food, and without signals or networks, they would eventually be trapped and starve to death.
In the evening, Brother Long’s group returned, but only two of the three cars made it back, covered in blood and reeking of a foul stench, looking rather battered. The two cars entered through the east gate of the community, and once parked, some residents came downstairs to check on their returning relatives and to see if they had brought back water and food.
To their dismay, only a third of the people had returned, and most of them were from Brother Long’s group. Brother Long’s people weren’t as accommodating as others. When approached for questions or to look at their supplies, they simply waved people away, telling them to wait for Gao Yun’s return.
The anxious crowd dispersed, and one of Brother Long’s underlings approached him, uneasily whispering, “Boss, about Wu Di…”
Brother Long frowned deeply. “We’ll discuss it when Gao Yun and the others return. As for those—” He glanced at the few young men from the community in their group, “keep a close watch on them.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve given them a good scare. They’re still hoping for water and supplies, and definitely won’t dare to speak out when they return home. Boss, do you think Gao Yun and the others… Actually, it wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t come back.”
Brother Long nodded and continued smoking in silence. It was their first time doing something like this. Although the situation forced them to act to save others, stabbing a zombie was different from stabbing a person. People scream, their blood is warm when it sprays on your face, and those blood-red eyes filled with disbelief, despair, and intense hatred…
He frowned, took a deep drag on his cigarette, and stopped thinking about it.
That night, the group that went out to find a vehicle didn’t return. The residents of the community assumed the worst, especially those whose young family members had gone out with the group, crying in sorrow and despair.
That evening, Yu Xi turned off the water heater’s inlet valve and used a hose to fill it with the warm water they had previously stored, allowing her parents to take a bath and change into clean clothes. She knew that after tomorrow, it would be difficult to find another opportunity to bathe.
Mother Yu was no longer surprised by the strange occurrences of items appearing and disappearing in their home, never asking questions. However, she was still reluctant to use the water. After Yu Xi’s persuasion, both parents quickly washed up.
Later, Mother Yu went to bed early while Yu Xi and her father packed up the household items. Thanks to their efforts over the past few days, aside from the rice and flour Yu Xi had initially stored in the warehouse, all the rice and flour at home had been turned into prepared food, all packed in boxes and neatly stored in the warehouse.
Chive and egg dumplings: 30 boxes x 10 pieces each
Cabbage and pork dumplings: 30 boxes x 10 pieces each
Pure pork dumplings: 20 boxes x 10 pieces each
Three-flavor dumplings: 20 boxes x 10 pieces each
Plain steamed buns: 10 pieces x 20 bags
Flower rolls: 10 pieces x 15 bags
Meat buns: 10 pieces x 30 bags
Egg pancakes: 5 pieces x 20 boxes
Plain pancakes: 10 pieces x 20 boxes
Potato pancakes: 5 pieces x 20 boxes
Rice balls (various flavors): around 200 pieces
Vegetable and ham fried rice: 30 boxes
Curry chicken and potato fried rice: 30 boxes
Plain rice: over 100 boxes
Various homemade dishes like braised pork with eggs, fried pork chops, grilled lamb chops, braised chicken wings, grilled chicken wings, pan-fried beef steaks, braised crucian carp, steamed sea bass, soy sauce shrimp, salt and pepper shrimp, potato stewed with beef, vegetable and mushroom stir-fry, stir-fried greens, scrambled eggs with chives, shredded cabbage, cabbage with shredded meat, pepper beef stir-fry, scrambled eggs with peppers, cucumber salad, bean sprout vermicelli, potato and rib soup, fresh chicken soup, winter melon and shrimp soup, seaweed egg soup, tomato and egg soup, and tofu mushroom soup, all stored neatly in the warehouse.
In total, there were over 400 boxes of prepared food.
Yu Xi was impressed with their achievements over the past few days. Not only would they not go hungry on the road, but even after arriving at the wetland park shelter, they would have plenty of food for quite some time.
The listed food items were all prepared after the apocalypse began. Apart from occasionally indulging in some milk tea and cake with her parents, she hadn’t touched the various prepared foods and takeout she had brought from her original world.
Most of what they consumed over the past few days were fresh vegetables, fish, meat, and eggs. Today, on the way back, they stopped by a few stores and replenished these supplies several times over.
In addition to these delicious prepared foods, her storage was stocked with a large number of convenience foods: instant noodles, instant vermicelli, self-heating hot pots, canned food, sausages, various vacuum-packed meats, dehydrated vegetables, compressed biscuits, bread… and today’s additions of self-heating pots and snail noodles.
She often felt that her trips weren’t really about surviving the apocalypse but rather about embarking on a culinary journey.
They planned to leave the next morning, and she knew she had to load some items into the Jeep to avoid arousing suspicion. These would mostly be daily necessities, with an appropriate amount of food that could be seen as common and easy-to-store items like instant noodles, bread, compressed biscuits, sausages, dehydrated vegetables, and some non-perishable pancakes and plain buns. She would also include a 5-liter container of mineral water and a 12-pack of 550ml bottled water.
The visible supplies would look enough for the three of them for a few days but wouldn’t attract too much attention. In case of emergencies, it wouldn’t be a big loss to abandon these supplies.
Additionally, she planned to take a tent, a moisture-proof mat, a few thin blankets, some spare clothes, and stainless steel pots and pans.
Yu Xi and her father packed two large travel bags with items and a moderately sized box of food and water.
Moreover, Yu Xi prepared her multifunctional survival backpack, leaving only an N95 mask, a first aid kit, a rope, and a flashlight inside for appearances. Other items like a multifunctional knife, a collapsible water bottle, a compass, a whistle, a lighter, durable candles, a rubber raincoat, and a moisture-proof mat were placed on the shelves in the warehouse. She also added some small packages of jerky, chocolate, nuts, Snickers, spicy snacks, and two 550ml bottles of water.
She then prepared two waist bags for her parents, each containing a fully charged stun baton, a whistle, some emergency medications, and some jerky and chocolate. In addition to the stun baton, Yu Xi gave her father the remaining half bottle of “high-temperature perfume.”
The “high-temperature perfume” didn’t have fingerprint lock functionality, so her father could use it. She taught him how to unlock it and adjust the flame size, warning him to be careful as the flame was more intense than expected—usually, level 2 was sufficient for dealing with zombies. She had him practice several times with a small wooden stool in the bathroom until he was proficient.
With this, their preparations were complete.
As for the remaining clothes, bedding, mats, daily necessities, food, water, and kitchen condiments at home… Yu Xi packed everything useful and organized them neatly in the warehouse.
Her parents were vulnerable and would need constant protection once they left the safety of their home. Any contact or bite from a zombie would be fatal for them, and if anything happened to either of them, she would also be doomed. Therefore, starting the next day, she had to be extremely cautious.
That night, even after her father fell asleep, Yu Xi continued studying the route on her phone. She needed to familiarize herself with the entire route from their home to the wetland park. If one path became problematic, she had to know immediately which alternative route to take instead of checking the navigation again.
Although navigation was necessary, she also needed to know the main roads, landmarks, and suitable rest stops along the way.
The next morning, she knocked on Chen Ya’s door and, hearing footsteps approaching, left a large bag outside his door before heading downstairs with her parents. The bag contained just enough to avoid suspicion.
Inside the bag were a few loaves of long-lasting bread, three cans of luncheon meat, ten packets of instant noodles, ten meat buns in takeout boxes, five apples, a bag of dehydrated vegetables, two bottles of juice, and six bottles of water.
Seeing the food in the bag, Chen Ya quickly brought it inside and closed the door, worried that someone might see it. He knew who had given him the food and why.
A couple of days ago, during the incident about the food, he was the only one who spoke up for her. It was just a few words, and he hadn’t really done much—deep down, he wasn’t truly willing to break off with Gao Yun and the others. But evidently, the girl remembered it. She would repay any kindness, even those that didn’t really count as such.
He looked at his son, who was walking towards him after he opened the door, and felt a pang of emotion. Handing the bag to his wife, he hugged her with one arm and picked up his young son with the other. “Don’t worry, baby. Daddy will take good care of Mommy and you. Our family will definitely stay safe and sound!”
No matter the cost, he was willing to do anything to protect his wife and son.
xxx
Mother Yu and Father Yu placed the luggage bags and the box into the Jeep’s trunk, covering everything with an opaque waterproof cloth before sitting in the back seat. Yu Xi put her backpack on the passenger seat and was about to get in the car when she heard voices coming from the small park nearby. She walked towards the sound and saw a large bus parked on the road by the park.
Gao Yun and his team, who were presumed lost yesterday, were now getting off the bus, all smiling and happy. People from the community gathered around them. Families with young men in the team were crying tears of joy, while those without were there to watch the excitement.
Yu Xi had good hearing and could hear the conversation from a distance. Gao Yun’s group had bad luck. They were trapped by zombies in the bus company’s building and spent the night listening to zombie howls, thinking they were doomed.
But this morning, another group arrived, well-armed and skilled. They cleared out all the zombies in the company and the surrounding area. This group took four good buses, leaving one old one behind. Gao Yun’s group managed to take that one back. Though the bus was old, with blown tires and broken windows, the body was still intact. They spent time changing the tires and planned to fix the windows later.
Moreover, they discovered a cafeteria in the bus company. Although the dining area and kitchen were a mess, and the food was rotten, they found a cold storage room in the kitchen. It stored vegetables, eggs, rice, oil, and frozen meat. Although the food wasn’t much, it was an unexpected bonus since the group that cleared the zombies hadn’t searched for supplies. Gao Yun’s team brought back all the food.
Seeing Yu Xi across the road, Gao Yun, despite their joyous return, felt a pang of regret. She was a young, delicate-looking high school girl, but he knew she had left the community alone and returned with a large jeep. He realized that he had lost her trust over the food incident. Now, seeing her family packing up to leave, he wanted to talk to her, hoping to use their newly acquired supplies to convince her to stay with the group.
However, he also received another from the person he left in the community. This new information left him feeling deeply uneasy, and he couldn’t wait any longer to address it.
He turned around and saw Brother Long and his group walking towards him. Immediately, he quickened his pace to meet them.
As Yu Xi finished inspecting the car and drove the Jeep towards the community’s east gate, she saw in her rearview mirror that Gao Yun and Brother Long had gotten into a fight. Nearby, some people were trying to break it up, some were pushing and shoving, and others were angrily shouting. Eventually, the young men from both sides joined the fray, and the originally united group was now falling apart over some unknown matter.
Despite her curiosity, Yu Xi didn’t hesitate. She took the key she had obtained from Chen Ya yesterday, unlocked the gate, instructed her father to drive out, locked the gate behind them, and finally got back into the driver’s seat, driving away.
She had no idea what transpired after she left.
In the chaos, some residents took advantage of the situation to sneak onto the bus to look for supplies. Their eyes widened at the sight of the vegetables, meat, eggs, rice, and grains, and they began quietly taking the supplies from the bus. What started with one person soon became a group, and by the time the fight ended, the supplies Gao Yun and his team had brought back were reduced to trampled leaves and broken eggs scattered on the ground.
The people who had risked their lives for a day and night turned around to find that the supplies had been taken by those they had protected. They hadn’t even considered leaving some for the returning group. No matter how angry they were, they couldn’t go door to door reclaiming the supplies. Food wasn’t marked, and even if they found it, others could claim it was their own. Moreover, they would need the other party to open their doors to let them search.
The young men who had followed Gao Yun returned home to find their families had taken supplies and quickly advised them to keep quiet and hide what they had taken. Those who hadn’t gotten any supplies returned home and cursed Gao Yun for being useless.
That night, Gao Yun stared blankly at the empty, chaotic bus, feeling lost. When he and his men had stormed Yu’s house for supplies, had the Yu family felt the same as he did now?
As for Wu Di, he had sent him with Brother Long’s team, partly to ensure someone from his side was there to prevent hoarding of supplies. He never expected it to indirectly cause his best friend’s death. Gao Yun tried to find a balance in this apocalypse, but it seemed that such a balance was nonexistent.
Late that night, Gao Yun, his steps unsteady, came to the east gate. Using the excuse that the night watchman needed a break, he took over the watch himself. Half an hour later, he drove out of the community in an unknown car, carrying only a metal rod. He didn’t bother to close the gate, which had previously been secure against zombies. The electricity had also gone out that evening, and the street was now pitch dark. Gradually, wandering zombies, attracted by the open gate, began to shuffle inside, drawn by the scent of flesh…deep in the darkness.
Several kilometers away from the S City urban area was a medium-sized camping base. The base, backed by mountains and facing a lake, was inside a botanical garden. Because it was far from the city and surrounded by a three-meter-high iron fence, the situation inside wasn’t too bad when the zombie outbreak occurred.
Initially, some survivors hid in a few RVs in the RV area, relying on the limited food and water they had with them and in the RVs to survive for a few days. Eventually, they couldn’t hold out any longer. After seeing various zombie-clearing videos online before the internet went down, they wrote messages on paper, posted them on windows to communicate, and made a plan to work together to clear out the zombies.
Just as they were deciding whether to return to the city, a group fleeing the city arrived, bringing news of the situation inside. Except for a few guests with missing family members in the city, most people abandoned the idea of returning. They started scavenging for food and water in the botanical garden and found places to stay in the RVs. During this time, several conflicts arose over limited resources and RV accommodations.
The worst incident occurred when several groups fought over the few usable RVs in the camping area, accidentally damaging the decorative wooden wall of the adjacent outdoor hot spring area. The hot spring area, which had the most guests during that season, was the most heavily affected part of the botanical garden. The dense wooden wall had kept the zombies inside hidden, but now they surged out, wet and horrifying, causing carnage. Many survivors were bitten and infected. Those who managed to escape quickly sealed off the RV area. Fortunately, the botanical garden was large, and the RV area and hot spring area were separated by a river. Blocking the bridge temporarily eased the crisis.
Due to this incident, the luxurious tent area near the RV area became deserted. Although only separated by a narrow river, the constant howls of zombies made sleeping in the tents difficult. Despite this, as more survivors discovered the place, even the tents became occupied.
Zhao Zheng’s group was among these late arrivals.