Chen Yuan closed the door to the room and walked over to the Apocalypse Store. He searched through the blueprints and selected "Thermostatic Sleeping Bag (Portable Edition)."
He tossed in the cloth, foam, and aluminum metal according to the instructions. After pressing the red button in the middle, the Apocalypse Store's robotic arm began to spark with blue arcs of electricity. After a short while, a cylindrical, silvery-gray metal object appeared before him.
Chen Yuan picked it up. It was about the size of a canister of spaghetti, but much lighter. There was a button on each end of the cylinder: one was the deployment button, the other was the fuel insertion port. As a thermostatic sleeping bag, its internal temperature naturally required fuel for heating.
After inserting a combustion pellet, he pressed the deployment button.
With a muffled thump, a series of perfectly regular seams appeared on the metal cylinder's surface. In the next moment, a black, single-person sleeping bag materialized before him. He looked it over and felt that the design capabilities of the store were simply incredible. The bottom of the sleeping bag was made of metal, allowing a person to sleep on uneven ground without feeling uncomfortable. He stuck his hand inside; it was toasty warm.
However, Chen Yuan didn't just grab the sleeping bag and head out. Instead, his gaze returned to the Apocalypse Store.
If there were no zombies, he could have settled down here and quietly waited for the Ice Age to end. But things were different now. To kill zombies, he would have to be constantly searching outside. He was ten-thousand-percent not at ease with leaving the Apocalypse Store at home.
His fingers swiped rapidly through the blueprints, searching for a solution.
"If only I could carry it with me..."
Countless products flashed before his eyes. Finally, as he flipped to the very last page, his eyes lit up.
"Hyperspace Portable Tent. This is it!"
Chen Yuan looked at the product, a thrill of excitement running through him. This was no ordinary tent. According to the description, when packed up, it was only the size of a AA battery and could be worn around his neck. But that wasn't what excited him.
What excited him was that items placed inside the tent would shrink down along with it.
That was astounding!
If he could place the entire Apocalypse Store inside the tent, he could carry it with him wherever he went. Not only that, but while on the surface the tent looked like a normal camping tent, its interior boasted over twenty square meters of living space.
Hyperspace... so that's what it means. It alters space itself.
It reminded him of the compression capsules from the Dragon Ball anime.
However, an item this incredible couldn't be made from ordinary materials. Looking at the dense list of required ingredients, Chen Yuan felt a headache coming on.
"Iron, copper, aluminum, plastic, glass, graphite, wood, liquid nitrogen, ceramic tiles, lithium batteries, computer chips, fabric, nylon materials..."
It was an endless list of assorted materials. The one that gave him the biggest headache was the liquid nitrogen; he would have to make a trip to a hospital to get that. As for the computer chip, he first had to find a computer tower. Nylon materials... that would require a trip to a hardware store. And lithium batteries... he didn't know what the store needed them for, but he could probably find some small electric scooters buried in the snow in the alleys.
With a plan in mind, Chen Yuan carried the sleeping bag outside. After closing the door behind him, he found Jiang Nan sitting quietly on the sofa.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
Jiang Nan shook her head, her expression weary. "I can't seem to fall asleep."
"You'll be seeing a lot more scenes like today's in the future," Chen Yuan said, then placed the sleeping bag on the floor outside the warehouse door.
Jiang Nan's mind felt chaotic. She took a compressed biscuit and a bottle of water from her backpack. "Do you want something to eat? Are you hungry?"
Chen Yuan waved his hand dismissively and slid into the sleeping bag.
...
A man and a woman, alone in a single room. The stove radiated a gentle warmth. Neither of them had any other thoughts.
The night passed in silence. When the first light of dawn broke the next day, Jiang Nan began to pack her bag. She had run away in secret, so her supplies were limited. At most, she had enough food and water for two days. But the next encampment was over twenty kilometers away. In normal times, it would be a day's walk. But now, with the roads blocked by snow that came up past her waist, every few steps left her gasping for breath.
She sighed softly. In this apocalypse, no one had it easy. But no matter how far it was, she had to go and try her luck.
Chen Yuan slid out of his sleeping bag and looked at her. "Your supplies probably aren't enough to get you there, are they?"
Jiang Nan bit her lip. "It's fine. I can't just stay here and leech off your food."
"Heh, you're quite considerate of others. That personality won't get you far in the apocalypse," Chen Yuan said, half-joking.
Jiang Nan's hands paused. She said, annoyed, "If you say that again, believe me, I'll take over your house and throw you out."
"Haha, you wouldn't," Chen Yuan said with a smiling wave of his hand.
Although they hadn't known each other long, had only met a few times and spoken a few words, the fact that she had run away from the Fenghuo Squad was proof that she had a kind heart. It was just one teammate who had been killed; it had no other impact on her. Most people would have just turned a blind eye.
"Hmph," Jiang Nan pouted, tacitly agreeing with him. She really couldn't do such a thing.
"Alright. It's a long way for you to go. I'll give you some supplies."
As he spoke, Chen Yuan turned and walked into the other room. He looked at the several neat rows of compressed biscuits on the storage shelf, took five of them down, and then grabbed three bottles of Mineral Life Water.
Returning to the living room, he placed the items in front of her. "These compressed biscuits are very filling. One a day should be enough. And this water is good, much cleaner than eating snow."
Jiang Nan looked at the supplies before her. It was just a few biscuits and bottles of water, but in this apocalypse, they were incredibly precious.
She looked at him, uncertain. "Are you... really giving all of this to me?"
Chen Yuan laughed freely. "Would I lie to you? Take them. It's a long way to go. Without supplies, you'll die on the road."
Jiang Nan thought for a moment. He was right. "Okay. I'll owe you one," she said, stuffing everything into her backpack.
"You're not coming with me? It's very difficult to survive alone."
Looking into the woman's clear eyes, Chen Yuan smiled. "Maybe one day, if I change my mind, I'll come find you."
"Uh, you might not be able to find me, you know?" Jiang Nan said with a strange expression. If you're going to make an excuse, at least make it a believable one.
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow. "Who says? Just you wait."
He quickly ran to the warehouse, swiped through the Apocalypse Store's blueprints for a moment, and found a tracker.
Copper, rubber, plastic. He threw the three items in and pressed the red button.
Soon, a coin-sized circular disc appeared on the production platform. He picked it up and looked at it. It looked a bit like a temporary subway token. He tossed it in his hand, then walked back out.
"Here. Keep this on you, and I'll be able to find you."
Jiang Nan looked at the object in his hand, her face full of doubt. "Isn't this a subway token?"
"You're overthinking it. It's a miniature tracker," Chen Yuan said, a little exasperated.
"This... okay. I'll keep it on me."
Half-believing, Jiang Nan took the object and put it in her pocket. This man was full of too many secrets: the highly intelligent robot dog, the unusually powerful heating stove, the compressed biscuits and bottled water that he gave away so casually.
She didn't ask. Everyone has their own secrets.