THE STOCKPILING FRENZY

I didn't waste a single second.

Leaving my apartment building, I pulled up my online banking apps on my phone while riding in an taxi. Between my personal savings, my mother Vera Coleman's allowance transfers, and the inheritance my father had left me, I had roughly 150,000 yuan in liquid cash.

It was a decent sum for a college student, but nowhere near enough to buy the sheer volume of supplies I needed.

Useful for an ordinary student, but pocket change for an apocalyptic stockpile.

"Paper money is going to be trash in sixty-one hours anyway," I muttered, staring out the window at the bustling afternoon traffic.

Sitting in the back of the cab, my fingers flew across my screen. I rapidly applied for every high-limit credit line, quick-loan app, and cash advance service available online. Thanks to my clean student record and high credit score, automated approvals flooded my inbox. Within two hours, my working cash jumped to 6 million yuan.

Then I pulled out a black credit card I kept tucked in the hidden pocket of my wallet—a high-limit card issued by my stepfather, Daniel Hale. Though my relationship with him and his son Reid was cold and distant, Daniel was a wealthy logistics tycoon in Guangdong who had given me the card for "emergency university expenses."

Checking the balance, I saw a clean 4,000,000 yuan available limit.

"10.7 million yuan," I said, a ruthless smile playing on my lips. "Time to go shopping."

My destination was the outskirts of Guangzhou—specifically, a suburban district known for its industrial warehouses and old, sturdy residential properties.

The old house had belonged to my maternal grandmother. It was a sturdy, red-brick property sitting on a large plot of land surrounded by high walls, situated in a sparsely populated area. In my past life, the military had established one of the first safe zones there because of its low population density and solid terrain.

It was the absolute perfect location for a survival base.

Before heading to the house, I made my first stop at a commercial vehicle dealership. I walked past the flashy sports cars and went straight to the heavy-duty commercial section, pointing directly at a massive, silver, military-grade SUV built with reinforced steel and acid-resistant coating.

"Miss, this model is built for extreme off-road conditions," the eager young salesman rattled on, holding a calculator. "It features reinforced chassis protection, bullet-resistant glass, and high-ground clearance. If you set up an installment plan today, I can get you a huge corporate discount, plus a ton of free promotional items!"

"I want this one," I told the dealer, slapping Daniel Hale's card on the desk. "Full cash payment. I'm driving it out today."

The salesman's jaw nearly hit the shiny floor. "P-paying in full? Right away! I'll expedite the registration paperwork immediately!"

While the paperwork was being processed, the salesman happily loaded the spacious trunk with the promised freebies: a dozen heavy wool blankets, portable cooking stoves, sets of durable stainless-steel dinnerware, and several large bags of rice and cooking oil.

"Thank you so much, Miss! You just saved my monthly sales quota!" The salesman handed me a hot cup of coffee with a beaming smile. "Here, please take this as a small personal gift."

By 4:00 PM, I was behind the wheel of a heavy armored beast, the engine roaring with power beneath the hood.

I drove straight to Guangzhou's largest agricultural wholesale hub—the Jiangnan Wholesale Market. The air inside the sprawling complex was thick with the scent of raw earth, toasted grains, and dried burlap sacks. As I pulled through the massive iron gates, the blue system screen flashed brilliantly before my eyes.

Ding!

[System Task Activated: Seed and Grain Collection.]

[Task Objective: Collect 100 distinct varieties of agricultural and botanical seeds.]

[Requirements: No limit on quantity per variety.]

[Task Reward: System Storage Expansion + 1 Dedicated Agricultural Plot Slot.]

My eyes lit up. Seeds! Grains!

In the apocalypse, once the acid rain contaminated the soil, fresh crops would die worldwide. Planted Vegetables, Dry grains and legumes were the absolute foundation of human survival—they lasted for years and provided essential carbohydrates and proteins.

I walked into the market and moved from seed merchant to grain merchant, ordering massive bulk sacks of every variety available. I bought short-grain rice, long-grain jasmine rice, sorghum, buckwheat, black beans, red beans, chickpeas, dried corn kernels, millet, and dozens of specialty agricultural seeds.

Collect Seeds: (37/100)

Collect Grains: (72/100)

Collect Seeds: (105/100)

In under two hours, I had purchased 105 distinct varieties of seeds and grains, paying cash for the merchants to load the heavy sacks straight into the back cargo bay of my heavy SUV.

Ding!

[System Quest Completed: Seed and Grain Collection!]

[Rewards Issued: System Storage Space Expanded by 20 Square Meters! Agricultural plot slot Unlocked!]

I pulled the SUV into a dark, deserted alley behind a warehouse, cut the engine, and mentally willed all the grain sacks in the back into my storage vault.

Swish!

All forty-odd bags of heavy seeds stacked in the trunk vanished instantly into my system storage space, leaving the vehicle completely empty.

"Incredible," I whispered, feeling the effortless shift of weight.

With 30 cubic meters of spatial storage now available, I began my true stockpiling spree.

My next destination was Guangzhou's wholesale medical distribution district near the river. In the wasteland, a single blister pack of broad-spectrum antibiotics was worth more than an ingot of gold.

I moved between four different medical supply companies, wearing a high-visibility coordinator vest I had grabbed from the vehicle depot and presenting fake corporate credentials on my phone.

Using my credit lines, I bought out entire cases of broad-spectrum antibiotics, pain relievers, anti-inflammatories, fever reducers, surgical bandages, medical iodine, burn ointments, sterile scalpels, suture kits, and tactical tourniquets. I split the orders across the vendors so as not to trigger red flags with local pharmaceutical regulators.

Every time I filled the SUV, I drove to a quiet spot, transferred everything into my dimensional storage, and kept going.

By evening, the vibrant, glowing neon lights of the street food district came alive. The air was thick with the mouth-watering scents of dim sum, roast goose, seafood hot pot, spiced barbecue, and the laughter of clueless pedestrians.

In three days, none of this would exist. Hot meals would become a distant memory.

My stomach let out a loud rumble. In my past life, I hadn't eaten a hot, freshly cooked meal in over five years. We had lived off stale crackers, bitter nutrient pastes, and half-rotten canned goods.

"Food," I whispered, my eyes burning with determination. "I am never going to starve again."

I pulled up to a famous local night market known for its street food. I sat down at an inconspicuous corner stall and ordered ten skewers of sizzled lamb, five plates of spicy beef, and a cold bottle of soda.

The moment the hot, seasoned meat hit my tongue, the burst of rich flavor almost brought tears to my eyes. After five years of chewing on dry leather, moldy bread, and boiled tree bark, real food tasted like heaven.

"Boss!" I called out, pulling out my phone. "I want to place a massive order to go. Five twelve-person family combos of barbecue, thirty orders of spicy grilled fish, and fifty portions of fried rice."

The stall owner stared at me, wiping his greasy apron. "Little girl, are you serious? That's a lot of food!"

"Here's a deposit," I said, scanning his payment QR code and sending five thousand yuan instantly. "I'll sit right here and wait."

"Right away! I'll get the grills firing!" The owner shouted excitedly.

While the kitchen went into overdrive, I opened food delivery apps on my phone, ordering hundreds of family-sized meal sets from high-end Cantonese restaurants, Sichuan hot pot chains, and bakeries across the city, setting my SUV as the pickup point along a planned loop.

As I sat there waiting, enjoying the crisp night air, a shadows stretched across my table. An abrupt, uncomfortably familiar voice sounded from directly behind me.

"Ivy Collins? Well, well... long time no see."