SAVING LIVES FOR SYSTEM REWARD

On the morning of November 1st, with less than thirty-six hours remaining before the acid rain, I left the red-brick house to handle my largest logistics purchases.

I drove to the Lyrdon Industrial Electronics Market on the outskirts of the city. Food was crucial, but power and tools were the lifeblood of long-term apocalyptic survival.

I walked into a massive industrial supplier and met with the owner.

"I need fifteen heavy-duty solar generator units, ten high-capacity diesel generators, twenty portable power banks, and five thousand liters of refined diesel," I said, placing my corporate credit card on the counter. "I need it all packed in unmarked wooden crates and delivered to Guangzhou by this evening."

The owner's eyes went wide. "Miss, that's a massive order! It'll cost nearly six hundred thousand yuan!"

"Process the card," I replied calmly.

While the owner eagerly processed the transaction, his wife walked out from the back office holding a cute, chubby three-year-old girl with bright, twinkling eyes. The little girl looked at me, smiled, and offered me a small plastic toy.

"Bye-bye, pretty lady!" the toddler chirped happily.

I looked at the innocent child, my heart softening. In thirty-six hours, this city would turn into a bloodbath.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out a small, imported box of chocolates I had bought earlier, and handed it to the child. "Here you go, little one. Tell your parents to stay indoors starting tomorrow night, okay?"

The mother smiled warmly. "Thank you, miss! You're so sweet."

As I turned to walk out of the store, the blue screen flashed abruptly before my eyes.

Ding!

[System Perception Triggered!]

[Host's action and warning will alter the destiny of a human child, allowing her to survive the initial wave of the outbreak in 15 days.]

[Title Acquired: "Selfless Savior"!]

[Reward Issued: 1x High-Grade Healing Potion (Restores physical damage, purifies low-level viral infections instantly).]

I stopped dead in my tracks, my eyes widening in absolute shock.

A High-Grade Healing Potion?!

In the system shop, a single bottle of Healing Potion cost 10,000 Experience Points—points earned only by killing thousands of zombies! And I had just received one simply for giving a child chocolates and a warning that saved her life?!

"So... changing people's tragic fates yields high-tier system rewards?" I whispered to myself, my mind racing at lightspeed.

If that was how the system worked, I knew exactly who I needed to save next.

I immediately pulled out my phone and dialed the number of my dorm roommate, Joanna.

In my past life, Joanna and our other roommate, Chloe, had gone out to a nightclub on the night the acid rain started. They were caught in the open, infected by the rain, and turned into zombies before I could ever see them again.

The phone rang twice before Joanna answered, her voice bubbly. "Ivy! Where are you? Did you really break up with Ethan? Chloe told me all about it. The whole campus is talking about it!"

"Joanna, listen to me carefully," I said, my voice urgent and serious. "I'm staying at my family's old house in Guangzhou. I'm feeling really down about the breakup, and I need you and Chloe here with me tomorrow night. Please."

Joanna hesitated. "Tomorrow night? But Mandy invited us to a party downtown—"

"Please, Joanna," I pleaded, executing a flawless performance of a heartbroken girl. "I don't want to be alone. Come to the old house tomorrow afternoon. I bought tons of food, and we can just stay inside and watch movies all night."

On the other end of the line, I heard Joanna sigh softly. "Alright, alright! You don't have to beg. Chloe and I will skip the party and head over to your place tomorrow afternoon. We'll bring ice cream!"

"Thank you, Joanna. Don't be late."

The moment I hung up the phone, the blue system screen flared intensely.

Ding!

[System Perception Triggered!]

[Host's intervention has successfully prevented 2 humans from entering the acid rain exposure zone!]

[Title "Selfless Savior" Effect Triggered!]

[Reward Issued: 2x High-Grade Healing Potions!]

I gasped. Three bottles of High-Grade Healing Potion were now sitting securely inside my system space! My theory was completely correct!

Elated, I spent the rest of the day finalizing my hardware purchases.

I went to a wholesale machinery market and bought fifty heavy-duty steel axes, twenty chainsaws, hundreds of tactical hunting knives, acid-proof hazardous material suits, industrial climbing ropes, and dozens of solar-powered floodlights.

By late afternoon, I had drained my remaining funds down to a few thousand yuan.

"Money really doesn't last," I chuckled softly, looking at my bank balance. But I didn't care. I had converted every single cent of useless paper into ultimate survival power.

My final stop of the day was a large gas station on the highway leading back to Guangzhou.

I pulled up to the pump, filled the SUV's tank to the brim, and then parked near the side of the station structure where the massive underground fuel storage tanks were located.

I touched the concrete ground above the storage tanks, focusing my mind, and activated the system's collection function.

Ding!

[Refined Fuel Detected! Collecting...]

[Collected: 10,000 Liters of 92-Octane Gasoline!]

[Collected: 10,000 Liters of Premium Diesel!]

Ding!

[Achievement Unlocked: "Energy Collector"!]

[Reward Issued: Unlocks Dedicated Energy Storage Vault (Hazard-free, unlimited fuel containment).]

In my past life, acid rain had corroded underground storage tanks across the country, causing catastrophic gas station explosions during the first week. By collecting the fuel now, I wasn't just hoarding energy—I was preventing a massive explosion in Guangzhou.

I drove back to the red-brick house just as the sun began to set, casting a deep, ominous crimson glow across the horizon. The sky looked unusually heavy, choked with thick, dark clouds that hung low over the city.

The generator crates and hardware supplies I had ordered earlier were stacked neatly inside the courtyard. With a single wave of my hand, I swept everything into my expanded dimensional storage.

I walked into the living room, locked the reinforced steel door, and looked out the bulletproof window at the darkening sky.

The air outside had grown eerily still. The temperature was dropping rapidly.

Tomorrow, the acid rain would fall.

Tomorrow, the world would burn, and the weak would perish.

I pulled a hot, steaming plate of lamb skewers and a cold beverage from my Doomsday Gourmet Vault, taking a bite as a cold, terrifying smile spread across my face.

"Ethan... Clara... Damon... Jude..." I whispered into the quiet room. "Welcome to the end of the world. I'll be waiting for you."

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Suddenly, a heavy, urgent knocking echoed from the front door of the house.