Ye Shu had already searched the surrounding area several times, but there was not a hint of the so-called National No. 10 Shelter to be found. Frustration gnawed at her heart.
“Shelter?”
“There are no shelters in Jin City!”
Pang Pangzi spat out a duck clavicle bone, his brooding face brimming with resentment. “Heroine Ye, are you talking about the National No. 10 Shelter? That was nothing more than Scarface’s ruse. I fell for it back then...
“I saw everyone was local, so I thought I could trade food for information. Who could have guessed—they were all bandits. They stole everything I had and even locked me up like livestock.”
“If it weren’t for you, Heroine Ye, I’d have lost my life.”
Speaking of this, a savage gleam glinted in Pang Pangzi’s perpetually squinting eyes. Ye Shu had no doubt that, had Scarface still been alive, this hefty man would have cheerfully dealt with him himself.
“There is no No. 10 Shelter.”
A sense of relief swept over Ye Shu. She had thought her directionless wandering was to blame, spending an entire day unable to find even the threshold of the shelter.
“Zzz... Zzz... Now announcing the locations of all survivor shelters in Longguo. Eastern Sanctuary: Great Thumb Mountain, newcomers must bring their own food supplies... Northwestern Shelter: Kunlun Mountains... Central Shelter: Tan Chuan Basin, Qixia Mountain... If you hear this, share the information with family and friends to ensure their safety! Longguo won’t abandon anyone—the rescue teams are expanding their search. Stay alive and await rescue... Torrential rains scour the globe, but Longguo endures...”
Changing course with little hope left, Ye Shu unexpectedly received exact shelter coordinates: Tan Chuan Basin, Qixia Mountain.
Qixia Mountain was the only towering peak in the central basin, rising roughly 3,000 meters—an incontrovertible safe haven, at least for now.
Ye Shu decided she needed to reach the shelter. The open water around her was barren and unsafe. If mountain floods came again, she’d have nowhere to hide. Even if she didn’t go to the shelter, she’d still need a high mountain as a refuge.
“Pang Pangzi, we’re heading to Qixia Mountain.”
Pang Tong froze, duck bone still gripped tightly in his teeth before it clattered onto the deck.
“Heroine Ye, you’re asking me? I don’t mind—I’m happy as long as you are. Wherever you go, I’ll follow.”
Scooping up the fallen duck bone, Pang Pangzi dusted it off and kept on munching as though nothing had happened. A bit of dirt was worth ignoring if the food was still edible.
That night, Pang Pangzi stood guard for the first half while Ye Shu took the second. The night passed uneventfully, though they both sensed the water was even higher come morning.
————
Dawn of the next day brought a heavy gloom and unceasing torrential rain.
Ye Shu held a bowl in her arms, slurping noodles and occasionally sipping the icy, sweet green bean soup. It hardly resembled a grim survival game; she looked more like someone on vacation.
Pang Pangzi grumbled inwardly—sure enough, traveling with the boss made life sweet!
Content, he tore open a box of instant noodles and rewarded himself with two packets of spicy roasted broad beans.
The fishing boat glided across the water, tossing up waves, sometimes colliding with bloated corpses. Having seen his share of death in Jin City, Pang Tong dealt with them calmly, shoving them aside with a stick.
They were just over two hundred li from Qixia Mountain.
Suddenly, the boat sputtered to a halt.
Ye Shu investigated, only to find—the fuel tank was near empty. Her optimization could upgrade and repair objects, but it couldn’t conjure unlimited fuel.
The last dregs of gasoline in her spatial storage would barely get them a few more kilometers. Ye Shu decided she had no choice but to try the nearest petrol station. With the sudden downpour, ground-level gas stations would’ve flooded first and likely hadn’t been touched by looters.
In the cabin, Ye Shu pulled out two wetsuits from her spatial storage—these were spoils she’d bargained from the Fu siblings in the past.
“Heroine, I’ll go with you.”
Pang Pangzi, abandoning his snack, immediately reached for the second wetsuit, but the attempt proved futile—he simply couldn’t squeeze into it.
Pang Pangzi fell silent, his earnest loyalty defeated by his own girth. For the first time, a wave of helplessness struck him.
The government had always urged him to lose weight, but he’d stubbornly resisted. Now, perhaps, the time had come to make slimming down a top priority.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Ye Shu said. With so many supplies still stashed here, and the fishing boat her own, even if she were to abandon Pang Tong, she’d never abandon her resources.
Ye Shu trusted Pang Pangzi somewhat, but just enough; her vigilance never faded.
She emptied the rest of her gasoline into the boat’s tank. The lumbering vessel chugged to life, and just as that last drop of fuel sputtered out, they made it to an enormous gas station.
With a deep breath, Ye Shu plunged into the water, dog-paddling downstream.
The gas station was thoroughly submerged, but with her headlamp shining from above, she easily spotted countless fish weaving to and fro—a normal sight, not like those mutated abominations.
The gas station’s tanks, long soaked by rain, had stopped working ages ago.
Ye Shu circled around to the warehouse and, fortune smiling on her, actually discovered an entire storeroom packed with sealed barrels of gasoline. Grabbing one in each hand, she hoisted the half-person-tall barrels onto her slight shoulders without effort.
Rain cascaded over Pang Pangzi as he stared at the water without blinking.
Suddenly, a wave surged from below, and a dark head broke the surface.
Pang Tong had grown used to the sight of floating corpses, yet even he staggered back at the sudden, uncanny scene.
A moment later, Ye Shu’s face emerged, dragging the steel barrels from the depths and slinging them easily onto the deck.
“Heroine Ye, what strength!” Pang Pangzi exclaimed in awe.
She moved like a Saiyan—a true powerhouse.
He’d seen other mutants and strength-augmented survivors, but none rivaled Ye Shu's prowess.
She paid his flattery no mind, tossing him a barrel. “Fill ‘er up. I’ll go back for more. There’s enough in the warehouse to last a lifetime—would be a shame to leave it.”
Practicing the thrift of Huaxia, Ye Shu didn’t stop until she’d emptied the warehouse, hauling up over a dozen full barrels. Before departure, she even skimmed what was left in the outer tanks.
She’d made a point of freeing up a whole cubic meter of storage for this very purpose—who knew spatial powers could be so practical?
Ye Shu used her will to divide off a section for the black liquid.
Once the tanks were full and the fishing boat set out once more toward Qixia Mountain, they drifted past countless drowned cities. In all their journey, no signs of life or vessels were to be seen—the water stretched on to every horizon, and long-ago towns had vanished beneath the waves.
By midday, they reached the outskirts of Qixia Mountain.
Now, boats began to cluster, and human silhouettes flickered on the water. Most were small fishing vessels, their occupants hiding in the cabins, never daring to turn on a lamp. Ye Shu’s boat, in stark contrast, blazed with light among the darkness—almost brazenly so.
The other survivors watched covetously at the vast pile of barrels on her deck. Each was nearly half a person tall—just a single barrel would have been a treasure trove. But no one dared to voice their desires, knowing well that anyone who could claim so much in the flood was not a foe to provoke.
“Heroine Ye, I’ll go scout the area,” Pang Pangzi offered, sensing how conspicuous they’d become. He extinguished a few lights at once. While he admired Ye Shu’s overwhelming strength, he understood that even the mightiest could fall prey to a swarm—better not to tempt trouble.