[Wang Dazhao, No. 1]: "The way you describe it makes me crave it. I went to queue at the supermarket last night, but all the seasonings were sold out. Now when I cook at home, I only use salt, and everything tastes bland."
Wang Cuihua sent a voice message: "The wholesale seasoning market is closed. Next time you go to the supermarket, buy some oil, otherwise you won't even be able to stir-fry in the future."
[Feng, No. 3]: "The meat in my fridge has maggots in it, but they've all frozen into ice. Can it still be eaten? Damn it, there's only electricity for three hours a day. The meat in my fridge has become like this, and I have no idea what to do!"
[Wang Xuemei, No. 2]: "Meat is meat, what can't be eaten? All the snacks and frozen foods in the supermarkets are gone. You're lucky you still have meat."
[Feng, No. 3]: "I'm not worried. I stored over ten bags of rice. I don't believe there won't be supplies by then."
See, in the early days of the apocalypse, people still hoped that light would return.
Jing Shu shook her head, ignoring the chatter in the group. She quickly finished roasting the quails and stored them all in the Cube Space. Then she swapped out a few barrels of ice from the ice maker and left them in the yard. After equipping herself fully, she set out with Chicken Number 1.
A wave of heat rushed into her lungs, and sweat immediately began to pour down her body. In the dimness of the community, only the plump silhouette of her chicken flapping its wings could be seen, completely unaffected by the heat. Not far away, faint lights flickered from within luxurious glass domes.
Jing Shu realized that although the villa district was secluded, it was still part of the community. With the flood of new residents expected next year, her family's situation—electricity, water, food—would need to be hidden. One had to stay low-key.
For example, with a telescope from No. 25's upper floors, one could clearly see the apple trees in her villa yard, branches heavy with fruit. So Jing Shu decided not to clean the dust off the tempered glass dome of the villa.
Let the dust accumulate. The thicker, the better. That way, even with lights on inside, the fish pond and vegetables in the yard would be concealed. No one would be able to see what condition the villa was really in.
By now, most residents no longer turned on their lights. They used flashlights or candles instead. Life was slowly reverting to something primitive. Without gasoline, cars were abandoned for bicycles and electric tricycles. At rush hours, the streets were filled with the jingling of bells and the honking of buses. The traffic police were once again kept busy.
Those still commuting to work were mostly civil servants or public sector employees. Almost all private businesses had shut down. Reports said that over half a million migrant workers had left Wu City to return home, while hundreds of thousands who used to work outside had returned. Another few hundred thousand were idle at home. Idle hands bred trouble. The government's move to slaughter poultry and hire the unemployed was also a way of keeping them occupied.
Planes had already stopped flying due to the weather. Maintaining railways under such conditions required massive manpower, so train schedules were halved. Fortunately, her family no longer needed to travel out of town. Su Lanzhi heard from her eldest brother that some distant relatives were planning to come. This had not happened in Jing Shu's previous life. Her heart thumped nervously. Could she have triggered another butterfly effect?
Chicken Number 1 wriggled its tail and pecked at all kinds of bugs without needing to flap its wings to fly. Soon, new species of corpse-eating bugs would arrive, likely connected to the current insect outbreak.
The black fungus beetle species had now been completely wiped out, though during its brief two-week rampage, it had caused over ten thousand deaths in Wu City. How many had died nationwide from viral fevers, Jing Shu did not know. Before the apocalypse, the news had been about arresting corrupt officials. The first month after, about catching celebrities. This month, it was all about confiscating goods from food factories, with occasional reports on how chaotic foreign countries had become.
In her remote community of just over a hundred residents, five had already died. A 4 percent death rate was relatively low for the apocalypse.
Jing Shu once again came to the back mountain, where weeds grew wildly and granite littered the ground.
After long thought, she decided her trump card for survival had to involve granite.
Jing Shu stored large granite boulders in her Cube Space, then used a pendulum saw, swinging it back and forth to cut the rock. It left curved grooves in the massive stones, a technique said to date back to Greece's Mycenaean civilization. In the real world it was nearly impossible, but within the Cube Space, her spiritual power reigned supreme.
Even so, it cost her dozens of tools and twenty full days to complete thirty ultimate weapons, filling fifteen cubic meters of storage.
She cut the granite into tall cone-shaped pillars, each thicker than a person's arms could encircle, and taller than a person. The sharp tip could kill enemies, or—if dropped in crisis—embed into the ground to form four rows of stone barricades. In dire need, they could even be arranged into a makeshift stone shelter.
Each granite cone weighed over two tons. Jing Shu planned to use the Cube Space as a launching point, hurling them like arrows. Inside the space, she could lift them with spiritual force and slam them down. The instant she released them, she would drop them out of the space, letting inertia complete the attack.
In her practice with other rocks, the best result was launching them more than twenty meters away, creating a crater on impact. With the help of the Spirit Spring, her power and distance would only increase.
If Jing Shu's life were ever truly in danger, she could instantly drop seven or eight cones at once. They would smash her enemies to pieces. If one round didn't kill them, she could pick the cones back into the Cube Space and throw again.
But if she used this technique, there could be no survivors. She would never allow the secret of the Cube Space to be exposed. The only ones who could know were the dead. This was her ultimate trump card, a last resort. A gun could be explained. But how could she explain conjuring giant rocks out of thin air?
So, in addition to tending her chickens, handling manure, fetching water, and cooking, Jing Shu now added cutting granite to her daily tasks. Since her space was nearly full, she buried excess cones in the ground to hide them, planning to retrieve them later when needed.
The weapon was powerful, but also enormous, heavy, and limited in range. After several impacts, the cones would shatter. Once the sharp tips were gone, their destructive power would plummet.
The idea had come to Jing Shu when testing a repeating crossbow in the Cube Space. She realized she could use the same method: fire bolts, then release them from the space at the same instant.
The advantage was overwhelming firepower, ideal for many enemies. The disadvantage was poor accuracy and weaker damage compared to stones. Arrows could not kill as decisively.
These past days, Jing Shu also practiced with her handgun, just raising and aiming, not firing. She dared not waste bullets or risk drawing attention.
She also tried out the crossbows. Simple and convenient, but inaccurate. In the worst case, she could operate several crossbows in the Cube Space at once, unleashing a storm of arrows to kill her target. She was no novel protagonist who could magically hit bullseyes after a little practice. Better to stick to methods that were simple and brutal.