Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 49

“What’s wrong?” Lin Wu noticed her expression.
Yu Xi didn’t respond, her gaze sweeping over the dimly lit hall.
To avoid attracting others or parasites with light, they had locked the doors and pulled the curtains over the hall’s windows after coming upstairs, only using two flashlights.
Later, someone found a lot of scented candles in a glass cabinet against the wall, lighting about seven or eight and placing them on the counter and round tables in the waiting area.
This beauty salon wasn’t large and hadn’t been visited before since it wasn’t a place for food and water supplies. After the water was cut off on the day of the hailstorm, the owner had locked the door and hurried home.
The second floor of the beauty salon was rectangular, with short north-south distances and long east-west distances. The hall area was about 20 square meters. To save space, the staircase was a delicate and beautiful iron spiral staircase in the northeast corner.
The entire south and west sides of the second floor were lined with small rooms, six in total, arranged in an L-shape. Each room had windows that, because they were not large and were protected by large waterproof eaves, had survived the hailstorm intact.
The hall had a reception counter, several waiting sofas, and small round tables. There was a single window on the north wall, which was also intact.
At this moment, their deworming efforts had drawn all the worms from the entire second floor, including the six small rooms and the ones that might have clung to them, to the spiral staircase and the base of the north wall. This left the central hall area and the six rooms at the back clean.
Most of the group had gathered around the reception counter and the sofas near Room 6, a bit away from Room 1, where Yu Xi was.
Because there were many students and most were huddled together, she couldn’t immediately identify who among them was emanating that faint, almost indiscernible fishy stench.
In the dim candlelight, everyone was enveloped in a soft, flickering glow. Even though they were happy about finding the instant noodles, their smiles appeared somewhat distorted under the flickering light.
Her sense of smell and sight both failed her momentarily. Out of everyone present, apart from Lin Wu and the girl called Zhou Yun, anyone could be the one already parasitized.
Yu Xi stepped forward, handing the solid alcohol blocks and stove to Zhou Yun, who had invited her to join them for noodles, saying she wasn’t hungry and planned to rest in her room.
Seeing that Lin Wu knew her and recognizing her strength, they all hoped she would join their group. They had no objection to her using a small room by herself for such a small matter.
“Are you okay?” Lin Wu asked again as she passed by.
“I’m fine, just a bit tired.” Without elaborating, she greeted him and went into the room.
She didn’t want to alarm anyone prematurely. Finding the parasitized person among the dozen or so people wouldn’t be difficult. But what then? Letting the person know they were discovered could result in a situation similar to the parasitized individual in the hotel kitchen.
Her goal was to investigate, not to exterminate. Investigation was best conducted without the other party’s awareness.
From what she had seen, this group had been through a lot. Their white clothes and pants were inevitably dusty, but overall, they were quite clean—clean compared to the parasitized individual in the hotel’s fifth-floor kitchen.
Three-quarters of the group were students, the remaining quarter were some of the students’ relatives. Everyone knew each other well.
The fact that a parasitized individual could hide perfectly among them without anyone, not even Lin Wu, noticing, indicated that this parasite had much higher intelligence than the one in the hotel. Or, it had far superior mimicking and lurking abilities.
Could it mean that the degree of evolution had taken a significant step forward?
So, if they were all parasitized, why did some evolve? What did they intend to do after evolving? Why stay with normal humans?
These were the questions she wanted to figure out.
A few days ago, Yu Xi wouldn’t have imagined she would one day share a roof with parasitized people and sleep quite well. At least, better than the first night after leaving the hotel.
She woke up before dawn. Lying there, she sensed the breathing of those on the second floor—seventeen in total. The parasitized also breathe, indistinguishably from normal people.
Two of the breaths were heavier, indicating the people on watch who hadn’t slept. Another breath was steady and deep, coming from the sofa near her room, presumably Lin Wu.
As she had observed the previous night, his physical fitness had also improved, with his speed being twice that of a normal person, only slightly slower than hers.
So far, she had encountered two taskers, Lou Rui and Lin Wu, both giving her a sense of discrepancy.
She remembered Lou Xiang saying her brother Lou Rui had changed his behavior one month before the apocalypse, urging everyone to intensify their martial arts practice and secretly stockpiling supplies.
But if Lou Rui had a Star House storage like hers, why store such important supplies in a rented warehouse? And the “refuge card” he activated—she had never seen anything like it in the Star House mall, more like a feature card from a game.
Then there was Lin Wu. In the tsunami world, she never saw him use any tools she was familiar with. When searching for supplies in the underwater supermarket, if he had a Star House storage, why hide important supplies on a boat?
She had a vague, rather wild guess.
Yu Xi got up and walked to the window, checking the situation outside. The street where the beauty salon was located didn’t have many buildings. Across the street was a park, with one parasitized person walking around, occasionally hitting the wall with a stick.
She pulled the curtains tightly, took out a durable candle from the Star House storage, lit it, and placed it in the corner. Using this dim light, she put away the mattress on the two spa beds—something she had taken from her hotel room before leaving.
In addition to the mattress, she had also taken the pillows and thin quilt she had used over the past few days. This made sleeping indoors very convenient, saving time from finding a bed or using a sleeping bag and tent, and avoiding the discomfort of sleeping on a sofa. She could just set up her bed in a second.
After putting away the mattress, she noticed there were no “black lines” on the floor. The spa beds were “cleaned,” and the result was the same.
Using a certain amount of blood to attract the bugs, the makeshift insect repellent circle worked better than she had expected. Yu Xi began considering getting some blood bags from the hospital to ensure her safety when spending nights alone outdoors in the future.
She took out a large basin of hot water, brushed her teeth, and washed her face. Then, she put away all her clothes in the Star House storage and used the “Instant Cleanser” to ensure no bugs were on her, giving her peace of mind.
After using the “Instant Cleanser,” her face was once again oily, so she skipped the moisturizer.
For someone with her obsessive tendencies, if she had to complete tasks in different worlds without the Star House storage, she would probably give up before the mission even failed.
She poured the used water into a nearby potted plant and then took out another very practical item—a portable toilet.
Yu Xi: …
Every time she took this thing out, she found it absurd, but it was indeed very useful in certain situations.
For example, since the entire city of Hai Ru had been without water, she used the portable toilet in the hotel because her room was far from others, so she could take out water from the Star House storage to flush it clean.
But here, with over ten people sharing a bathroom, she couldn’t expose the water in the Star House storage. She could either hold it in or use it after others…
That scenario was unthinkable. She’d rather fight a group of parasitized people and find a new bathroom.
But with the portable toilet, everything became simple.
The portable toilet had an inner bucket that could be cleaned after several uses. The inner bucket had a lid, and the toilet itself had an outer cover, preventing any odor from escaping or spilling. Plus, with the time in the Star House storage being static, there would be no “accidents.”
Even so, she placed the used portable toilet in a slightly larger and taller cardboard box in the Star House storage as its exclusive spot. This “magical item” was something she found later in the zombie apocalypse while taking on tasks outside, in a warehouse of a creative home goods store.
Among all the creative home goods, it was the portable toilet that attracted her the most. According to the packaging, it was designed for people with mobility issues. She found it extremely practical and took three brand-new portable toilets along with a large number of replacement inner buckets.
After this series of operations, Yu Xi felt refreshed. She washed her hands and took out a folding chair and a small folding table. On the table, she placed a bowl of red soup shrimp wonton and a freshly fried dough stick.
This type of shrimp wonton was a specialty snack from her original world’s S City. The meat filling of the wonton had a lot of dried shrimp, making it very flavorful and slightly saltier than ordinary wontons. The red soup was a mildly spicy bone broth, with chopped seaweed and egg skin added, and finally sprinkled with green onions, making it irresistible.
Not long after she finished her breakfast, the breathing outside on the sofa suddenly changed. Someone got up and walked, finally stopping at her door.
Lin Wu knocked gently and asked if she was awake. Yu Xi put away the folding table and chair and went to open the door. Outside, besides the people on watch, everyone else was still asleep.
She knew Lin Wu wanted to talk to her alone, and she had things she wanted to know too. But his first question left her stunned.
“Why don’t you use an identity mask?”
Identity mask? What was that? Yu Xi tried to keep her expression neutral.
Lin Wu, seeing her silence, thought she had her reasons. He sighed, “Just changing your age won’t prevent you from being recognized. Aren’t you afraid of being targeted when you return to the System Tower?”
System Tower? What was that?
Yu Xi tried to maintain her composure.
“I know you’re very capable, but I suggest you use an identity mask next time.”
Because of her silence, Lin Wu interpreted it differently. “My mission, like last time, is to escort a few people out of Hai Ru City. If your mission doesn’t conflict with mine, maybe we can travel together.”
“Don’t you trust me too much?” Yu Xi looked at him.
Lin Wu didn’t dodge and met her gaze. “Because I want to earn your trust, I have to offer mine first.”
Meeting Yu Xi was Lin Wu’s first task. The face was fake, but the name was real.
What was supposed to be a low-difficulty beginner’s task suddenly had problems. It was initially just a tsunami disaster, but unexpectedly, there was also a cold wave. When he asked the system, it didn’t respond to his questions.
He had two choices: complete the task or disappear forever.
Fortunately, he met someone.
Because it was his first mission, he remembered it vividly. The person seemed aloof and indifferent but was actually warm-hearted beneath the cold exterior. She spoke little but did a lot.
After that mission, he never used the name Lin Wu again. After numerous tasks and facing countless dangers, reliable teammates could suddenly turn into enemies, and innocent-looking children might not even be human. He had traveled with good companions for a while, but eventually, he always found himself alone.
Each mission took him to a new, unfamiliar world with unfamiliar people. He knew that no matter who he met in the current world, they would never meet again once the mission ended. In such circumstances, emotions became superfluous. He grew more taciturn, as there was no need for conversation, which seemed like a waste of time.
In the apocalyptic world of tsunamis, he suspected Yu Xi might also be a tasker, and a more experienced one at that. For safety reasons, he didn’t say anything. After all, once everyone left the apocalyptic world and returned to the System Tower, they would change their faces to avoid vendettas or troubles.
But he didn’t expect that on the first day of entering this mission world, he would see a familiar person on the subway.
It was the same face, just a few years older, with different clothing and styling. But he recognized her. Seeing someone he knew felt like a return to the peaceful world of the past, a serene life, and a casual encounter.
It felt like he was still…alive.
Yu Xi’s crazy speculation was confirmed after Lin Wu finished speaking. There were two systems—or rather, two different types of systems.
In the system Lin Wu was bound to, taskers would return to a place called the “System Tower” after completing each mission. She didn’t know what that place was like, but it seemed there were many people—or many taskers—there.
When taskers entered an apocalyptic world to complete a mission, they sometimes had a background identity, and their appearance would change accordingly. In such cases, there was no need to use an “identity mask.”
But most of the time, taskers had no background identity and entered with their real appearance. In such cases, most people used identity masks to hide their looks. For example, in the two times Lin Wu and Yu Xi met, he used identity masks because he had no background identity.
In contrast, Yu Xi’s system always gave her a complete background identity each time. But each background character always had her face. Before she arrived, they lived mechanically according to the world background information. After she left, they continued to live mechanically according to the new trajectory she set.
It was as if her identity in the apocalyptic world was not random but specially tailored just for her as a tasker. The biggest difference between them and her was that she was still alive and would return to her original world freely.
But they were already dead. The dead couldn’t return to their original world, so even if they completed their tasks, they could only stay in the System Tower day after day.
The System Tower seemed like a concentration camp, but it was vast, like a city. Even a fool could tell the difference between the two systems: it was like the difference between a super VIP card and a regular membership card.
Yu Xi instinctively understood that it was best not to let anyone know about the difference between her system and theirs. So next, she wanted to test something.
“It’s a bit cold in the morning. Do you have hot water?” Yu Xi took out an empty stainless steel cup from her backpack and shook it at him.
“Yes.” Without any hesitation, he produced a large glass bottle of stored water out of thin air and poured her some, “Be careful; it’s a bit hot.”
His actions and expressions were smooth and natural, seemingly unafraid of her knowing about his space ability, indicating that space storage was common for them. Just because they hadn’t used it didn’t mean they didn’t have it.
The warmth from the hot water spread through the stainless steel cup into her palm. Yu Xi found it reassuring, suggesting that the time flow in his space was also static.
Lin Wu put the glass bottle back and then took out a bunch of bread, sandwiches, oden, and tea eggs. “Have something for breakfast. These things are hard to take outside.” Except for the bread and sandwiches, the other items were unpackaged.
Yu Xi, who had already eaten a good breakfast: …
“You don’t have to be so polite with me.” He had clearly misinterpreted her silence again.
“It’s not about politeness; I have something to tell you.” Yu Xi checked the situation outside the room again. To be safe, she took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote: There seems to be a parasite in the team.
Lin Wu paused, took the pen, and wrote: I know.